PLS DONT READ THIS IT ONLY FOR ME THANK YOU

THE LOVE

It was a normal day on Kinkow. I woke up early and did my morning patrol, then grabbed some breakfast from the kitchen. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the island breeze blew warm and sweet-smelling. I was thinking about waking up the kings.

That's when the screaming started.

"Close the gates! Shut down the castle! No one gets in or out!" Boomer yelled, running down the stairs, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

"My king, calm down. I only took one bite of your cinnamon roll!" My dad told him.

Boomer frowned at him.

My dad sighed. "Okay, I ate the whole thing. Stop sleeping still noon!"
"No! It's not that!" Boomer exclaimed. Then he narrowed his eyes. "We'll talk about my cinnamon roll later. But look at this! Brady's gone!"

My heart skipped a beat. What? Gone?

My dad frowned. "What do you mean, gone?"

"Gone as in gone, Mason! What other kind of gone is there?"

I exchanged looks with my dad. I could see in his eyes that he was feeling just as shocked as I was.

"Can I see that?" My dad asked, holding out his hand for the paper still in Boomer's hand.

Boomer nodded, handed it over, and plopped down onto the throne. "Read it aloud to me again, Mason. I'm too distressed to do any reading right now."

I rolled my eyes, but inside I was totally freaking out. Brady was gone? Was Boomer serious? Where had he gone… and why? It didn't make any sense, he never went anywhere without Boomer…

"Boomer, I'm sure King Brady wouldn't leave without you," I said. "I mean, you two don't even go to the bathroom without each other." I wrinkled my nose, thinking about how gross that was.

"Which is exactly why I need him back! I really gotta go!" Boomer cried.

"I'm going to read the letter now," my dad said. His tone said shut up.

So we did.
"Dear Boomer," my dad read aloud. "I've decided I need to leave. If I want to be the man I have to be, I have some growing up to do and I can't do it here."

I felt like I'd been hit over the head like a sledgehammer. Suddenly, something I'd been wondering about since last night made sense.

"That was Brady in the jungle last night," I said slowly, comprehension dawning on me. "He heard me tell Candis he'd never mature as long as he's king of this island…"

"Mikayla please, be quiet. We are trying to figure out why Brady left!" Boomer scolded.

I crossed my arms and gave him a look.

"Then he talks about skinny calves making a comeback…" my dad said, scanning the rest of the letter. "And then he says: "You are the stronger king, Boomer, you always have been. I love you, bro. Brady""

"Wow. So King Brady really is gone…" My dad said slowly.

"Yes!" Lanny cried joyfully, running in from the kitchen. Unfortunately, he was running so fast he apparently couldn't see where he was going and crashed into the door.

"My family's just dropping like flies," Boomer said.

Mahumma came running in, leaned over, and whispered something in my dad's ear.

He frowned. "One of the balloons is gone."

"WHAT?! So he's really… really… gone?" Boomer asked, his face ashen.