Chapter 15

"Are you sure that this is going to work Katie?" asked Gustavo as he looked at her worriedly.

"Hopefully," she said, turning to address him with a quick smile.

While turned around, she could see Kelly trying to comfort her mother who had now gone into shock, staring straight ahead at the wall.

Katie walked over to the window and peered out the window to the ground below where the boys had gathered. They each held a picket sign in their hands, screaming as loud as they could how they were being "abused".

"Yea, I can do this," said Katie out loud to herself to cement that fact in her head.

She had all of her weapons ready. From browsing through their lockers, (which Gustavo had helped her to unlock), she had found everything that she would need.

Before she could doubt herself or her abilities again, Katie left the room and went down the elevator to the ground level. It was time for her to confront Kendall, James, Logan, and Carlos.

She had to do this. She was ready.

They were still her family after all, no matter how weirdly they were acting at the present moment.

When Katie arrived outside moments later, she saw that the boys had given picketing a break. Logan and Carlos were missing. They must have gone off to get supplies of some sort. She took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"Hey guys," said Katie with a big smile on her face.

Kendall and James turned to look at Katie, wondering what she was doing. They noticed that she had a black backpack on her back.

"What's in the backpack, Ciara?" asked Kendall with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought you guys might be in need of some supplies with you being on the war front and all," said Katie.

Before she could change her mind, she took her backpack off and laid it on the ground. With fumbling fingers, she unzipped the backpack and reached inside it.

"James," said Katie. "Catch."

Before James had time to think, Katie threw a bottle from the backpack at James. James threw his hand up in self-defense and managed to clumsily catch the bottle. Once the bottle was in his hands, he looked at it.

"Cuda spray?" asked James.

"Yea," said Katie," This heat can't be good for your hair and all."

"Cuda spray doesn't exist, Ciara," said James. "This is just some kind of cheap prop."

"Open the bottle and use some James," said Katie. "Humor me...please."

Katie gave him her puppy dog look and James let out a long drawn out sigh.

"How do you do it, Ciara? Your puppy dog eyes work for me on the show and in real life too," said James. "Fine. I'll humor you."

James uncapped the bottle of Cuda spray and sprayed some on his arms. The smell of the spray filled the air and James got a good whiff of it. Suddenly, he was blinking his eyes rapidly, as if coming out of a long sleep, and looked at Katie in confusion.

"Katie, I thought I told you to bring us sandwiches. These soldiers are hungry," said James as he put the can of Cuda spray aside.

"James! You're back to being you!" said Katie overjoyed.

"James, what is wrong with you man? Something is screwy in your brain," said Kendall.

"Big Brother," said Katie, "I have something that will help you out too."

She reached into the backpack again and brought out a picture frame. She tossed it at Kendall and he caught it. The picture was of her, his mother and himself, all dressed in hockey jerseys, clearly at one of the boy's hockey events back in Minnesota.

Kendall stared at the photo for a moment, obviously bouncing back and forth between the Kendall he actually was, and the Kendall he was at the moment. Finally, he too blinked his eyes like James had and looked at Katie.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. You're fine now." She ran over and hugged him, tears of relief leaping to her eyes.

He immediately hugged her back.

"I've got my brother back," she remarked, sighing in relief.

"Katie, what did happen?"

"You two were hypnotized, thinking that you were your alternate self."

Kendall pulled back a bit from the hug to give Katie a look.

"And you managed to break the hypnosis?"

She nodded, smiling.

"All I did was introduce a piece of home to you; a piece that the other half of you would recognize."

"We have to do this for Logan and Carlos then," stated Kendall immediately, James nodding beside him in agreement.

"Lets get going then."

Katie held her brother's hand and the three of them rose to their feet.

"So, where are Logan and Carlos anyway?"

James and Kendall both exchanged a look.

"Where are Logan and Carlos?" repeated Katie, starting to realize that she probably wouldn't like the answer.

In response, James and Kendall both pointed across the street at the same time. Katie looked in the direction that they were pointing and saw that Logan and Carlos were both talking to a news reporter.

The situation had just gone from bad to worse.