Artemis sat on his bed, bored. Nothing to challenge is "superior intellect," as he would say and nobody else was home, and so he was bored out of his mind.
He looked at the rows of suits in his slightly open closet. Sometimes it gave him comfort to know he had once been in control of his way of dress. He looked down at what he was wearing. A red DC shirt and dark blue straight-leg jeans. His mother had also forced him to buy a pair of shoes so he now wore a pair of black converse.
His fairy communicator beeped. Not urgently, thank god, but just normal. He slid the communicator off his finger like a ring and held it in the middle of his hand. He extended his pinky and thumb. For all the world, he looked like a boy of about 15 talking on a fake cellphone.
"Hello?" Artemis asked, not sure who would be calling. Artemis would have thought Holly was calling him, but she never did anymore. She was apparently too busy for him anymore. It hurt the most when he had Atlantis Complex, and she never came to visit him.
"Oh, hey Artemis," Holly spluttered. She turned red. Wrong number.
"Oh, Holly. You never call anymore. I wasn't sure if it was Foaly or if you dialed the wrong number or something."
Holly turned an even brighter shade of red. "Um, actually, this is a wrong number."
"Oh," said Artemis a little dejectedly. "Uh, whatever."
"Yeah," said Holly. "Uh, bye." And she hung up.
Artemis flopped down on his bed. What was so important she had to call right then and there? It hurt that she wouldn't call her best friend in over 7 months, too, a lot more than he would expected.
Artemis heard the sound of someone coming in the house. Butler, probably, as the twins and his parents would make a lot more noise and Juliet would screech at the top of her lungs; "I'm HERE! Where on earth is everybody?"
Artemis sighed and sat up on his bed. He tried to straighten his suit before realizing he wasn't wear one. That still was taking some getting use to.
The heavy sounds of Butler's footfalls told him he was right outside the door. Butler paused before breaking in. "Artemis?"
"Yes, old friend?" as Butler practically broke down the door. "What is it that you are in need of?"
"Just wanted to make sure you were here," Butler replyed, though he looked fidgety. "Do you, uh, want to get out of the house? I know you were talking about going to a gym one of these days."
"If you'll tell me what's wrong first," replyed Artemis. He looked Butler in the eye and said, "What's wrong?"
"So he doesn't know," Butler muttered to himself. "This is going to be fun."
To his young charge, he said, "Why don't we go out and get some coffee? I'll tell you about it then."
Artemis felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. What was wrong this time? He didn't want to know, so he went with Butler to prolong the discovery. What was so wrong that Butler was freaking out?