The California Adventure

Chapter 1: We're...we're moving?

Author's Note: I do not own any copyright, all rights belong to their respective owners.

Nate made his way home after a very brutal day at school. The boy took some serious payback on a bully named Randy Betancourt by taking shots at him in a school newspaper, with disastrous results. It caused an ugly fight between the two and the punishment was peer counseling for both boys. This punishment caused Nate to miss the Mud Bowl practice (which the real game will come any day now).

But anyway, Nate arrived at his house and entered it. There, he finds dad preparing to make dinner when Nate pulls out his permission slip for the field trip (which is coming in a week) and asks:

"Dad, will you sign this so I can go to the museum?

"Sure," Martin took the slip and signed it and handed it back to Nate saying, "here you go."

Nate took it and after a few moments, asks his dad, "um...what about your phone number for work?"

"I wrote down our home phone," he says.

" Well, the field trip is on Wednesday and you go to the office on Wednesdays so..."

Suddenly, Nate stops his sentence. The reason, you ask? Martin suddenly feels... well... um... depressed? Sad? It was hard to tell.

"Um...dad?...dad?...dad," Nate asks in confusion. Several minutes pass, no response from his dad.

"Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"

Still no response. Suddenly, another Nate pops out of nowhere and says the exact same line.

"Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"

Several more minutes pass, and still no response from his dad. And before you knew it, a bunch of clones representing Nate was surrounding Martin and saying: "Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"

Until finally-

"Nate, go get your sister. Family meeting." As Martin finally responded, all the other clones of Nate suddenly disappear from sight.

"Um...okay," Nate replied back then went to get Ellen. He did that, and before you knew it, the siblings appear before their father in the living room for a meeting.

"I've been trying to figure out how to say this, but I'll go ahead and try to tell you the best I can," Martin says to his kids. Suddenly, he hesitates, unclear on how to deliver the news to his kids. Nate and Ellen started to worry.

"...d...dad?" Ellen asks, starting to freak out a bit. Even Nate was scared.

"Come on, dad. You're scaring me," Nate says to his father.

After a few moments, Martin finally speaks up. "I...I lost my job. The company laid me off last month."

This greatly shocks the siblings. " Wait... last month?" Ellen asks in confusion. "Didn't we see you go the office a few weeks ago?"

Nate jumped into the conversation. "Yeah, remember you were all dressed up and everything?"

It was true. About a few weeks ago, Nate returned home from school to find his dad getting ready to go to work (or what it seemed to be, let alone the truth was going to be revealed in the present day). Nate didn't mind this since he thought his dad had a job to go to.

"Actually, kids...I wasn't going to the office," Martin explains. "I had a job interview. I've been going to lots of job interviews lately, trying to apply for work, but unfortunately, it hasn't been going so well. My first choice would be staying here."