Odd Squad: Otis Substitute

Chapter 18: Sweet Dreams

Everything was on fire. Literally. The whole place was burning, and nobody came to help in the first minutes.

Almost three hours later, Otis, Olympia, Oliver and Ohany arrived to the Odd Squad, except for some things... where was the Odd Squad place? All they were seeing were bricks on the ground, smoke, sparks and dust. The whole thing was burned down. They barely could talk.

"What happened in here?" - Olympia asked, scared - "And why nobody came to help?"

"It seems like... this whole place was burned down." - Otis replied

"Wait... there were people here! Where are they? We need to call someone, the firefighters, the cops, just...anyone!" - Oliver was desesperated, he started walking in circles trying to think of something, and none of this was helping his anxiety.

"Oliver, what is happening?" - Ohany tried to get close to him.

"I... don't...know... well, I can't tell, not right now, it's too...weird"

Otis called the firemen, and they arrived some minutes after. They let the firemen take care of everything, so they all gathered at Otis's house. His parents were not home. He turned on the lights and they all sat down at the living room table, worried, and did not know how to start talking about everything they had seen. They were just 14. It was all ... new, and too much for them to understand.

"Did you see anyone or anything nearby? I just need answers ... what happened there? Where is the squad? No one answers the phone, and everything is burned. I don't want to think they died" - Ohany was clearly so scared about everything she saw. And seemed like everything was getting worse in their lifes.

"I don't know...but I can't keep my smile, it's just...too much for me." - Olympia was sad, and the smile she always had on her face, was fading out. 

"Otis, I'm kind of uncomfortable asking this, but... can we sleep here, on your house, maybe?" -Oliver did not look directly into Otis's eyes, to disguise he was looking at the sleeve of his plaid blue coat, while his heart was pounding, and his insecurity rising.

"Yeah, you all can, my parents will arrive probably in some hours" - he answered, trying to put a smile on his face.

"I wanna sleep now... I need to forget everything that's happening right now" - Oliver got up from his chair and headed for the stairs, up to the second floor of Otis's house.

"Okay... goodnight..." - Otis replied.

"Sleep well" - Ohany said.

Minutes later, Oliver was already sleeping. Otis, Olympia and Ohany kept around the table, talking.

"Guys...I don't know if it's just me, but I think Oliver is dealing with some really serious problems, I don't know why I think it, but I just feel it, you know? Has he ever talked about something bad happening to him?" - Ohany started tapping her fingers on the table as she spoke, nervously waiting for an answer.

Otis remembered about Oliver saying about his real name and started thinking... but he couldn't talk about it. He promised. And real friends keep secrets, right? Also, he couldn't believe that he was refering to Oliver as a friend.

"No, we never had a very serious conversation" - he lied, but it was necessary. And if revealing Oliver's real name could result in problems?! He didn''t need to figure it out.

"Ours conversations are usually jokes or anything related to music. We need to ask him what's going on" -

Olympia thought nothing could get worse. But never think it. It can always get worse. Otis' cellphone started vibrating. "New message". He unlocked the phone and read what was written: 

~     "What a lovely guy you are. But I think you know something more about the person who's sleeping on the second floor of your house. Sweet dreams.      --- O       ~

"Okay, what is going on?!" He thought. Otis showed the message to Olympia and Ohany.

"Wait, what is this, and who is O?" - Olympia asked

"I don't know, why this message seems so...scary?" - Ohany got closer to Otis - "And what means the part that says that you know something more about Oliver?"

"I... I... I don't know, we just started to be friends and who sent this message?"

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Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading this chapter!

I'm thinking about exploring more the characters now. Their lifes, the problems, their emotions. And also, introducing the characters to real life topics.

I also want to ask... what do you want to see on this story? Also, who is your favorite character until now? And would you be okay with me writing about more mature contents here? Please, answer in the comments below.

Wait for the next chapter, I'll try to write more often!

And I changed the cover and the sinopsis of the story. It's getting misterious.