Chapter Two

'Hey look.' Devon pulled his sister's attention from the green apple she had been contemplating. 'Leo's new friends are back.'

At the entrance to the cafeteria the girl had dropped her books, causing Mr. Baker to slip and fall.

Evelyn nodded, taking a large bite out of the apple. 'Looks like they're here as actual students this time.'

'And they're sitting at the Athlete's table.' Devon drank the last of his little orange juice carton and crunched it in his fist. 'Poor Leo.'

'I feel like we should try to help him. He gets picked on enough when he's by himself.' Evelyn moved to stand.

At the discussed table the Quarterback and his fellow players had surrounded the shorter new boy and were making some threat about a napkin.

As the Quarterback dumped a cup of water on the table, Devon grabbed his sister's arm. 'Wait.' Before Evelyn could even think of a rebuttal the short boy completely reversed the situation and had pinned the Quarterback with his face in the puddle he had made. 'They might not actually need help.'

"Huh," said Evelyn as she relaxed back into her seat and took another bite of her apple. 'Well I wasn't expecting that.'

Devon nodded and tossed the crunched up carton into a trashcan on the far side of the room. 'Me either.'

The Quarterback shouting, "Pudding cup," interrupted their thoughts. Two pudding cups were placed in his outstretched hands, but before he could do anything, they had been snatched away by the boy he'd been attempting to bully.

"Ooh," said the boy in a deep voice that didn't match his body at all, "I'll take those." He then squished the stolen cups, squirting chocolate pudding all over the gathered football players.

At their table in the corner Evelyn gasped as her brother started to chuckle in amusement.

'That was pure awesome.' Devon continued to chuckle quietly to himself. 'What's got you all knotted up?' He felt her muted horror leaking through her shields.

'He-He wasted pudding!'

Catching his sister's horrified thoughts, Devon couldn't contain himself anymore and his soft chuckles erupted into full-blown laughter.

The loud and sudden noise caused the students at the surrounding tables to jump and look at the twins uneasily. Evelyn's sudden indignant shout of "It was chocolate!" and Devon's increase in laughter had the tables empty in seconds.

Getting his laughter under control and ignoring the fleeing students with practiced ease, Devon grinned at his pouting sister. 'We had better start heading towards class.'

Evelyn made sure he heard and felt her internal grumbles, but followed him out of the now practically empty lunchroom. They exited into the main hall and saw Leo and the new kids. The boy who'd scared off the football team was clearly upset with the others about something.

'Wonder what happened.'

Bewildered, the twins just watched as Leo tried to intimidate and lift the boy. He failed completely at both.

'That's just a bit sad.' Devon shook his head, ignoring the giggles that his sister was inadvertently sending him.

Evelyn smiled and dragged him over to the odd group. 'This is the perfect time to introduce ourselves.'

Devon grumbled inaudibly. 'Oh alright.'

"Hi Leo," said Evelyn, coming up beside the group and catching their attention.

Leo looked surprised and happy that she had actually spoken to him. "Hi Evelyn, you're looking nice today." Devon growled low in his throat and Leo hastily added, "Demo- uh, I mean Devon!" Leo laughed nervously at his slip as Devon's glare morphed into a smirk.

"So Leo," began Evelyn, bringing his attention away from her currently scheming brother, who she thwacked in the back of the head with a paper ball from the top of the lockers behind them. "We heard that your mom got married. Congratulations."

"Oh yeah, thanks." Leo glanced nervously at the still slightly smirking Devon.

Flicking his sister between the eyes, Devon adjusted his hold on his book bag. "You're new stepfather is Donald Davenport, a friend of our dad's."

Picking up where her brother had left off, Evelyn continued, "Dad says we might be staying at your house if he has to leave the country on short notice again, so we thought we'd try to get to know you better." She glanced at her brother from the corner of her eye and he matched her gaze. 'Truce.'

'Truce.' Turning his attention back to Leo and the new kids, Devon asked, "So who are your friends? We haven't seen them around before."

Leo brightened considerably. "They're staring school today and they're actually my stepsiblings. Evelyn, Devon this is Adam…"

The tall boy gave them a big grin and waved. "That's me!"

"Bree…"

"Hi," said the girl with a smile.

"And Chase."

"Nice to meet you," said the short boy, whose voice was nothing like it had been in the cafeteria.

Evelyn nodded at him. "Nice to meet you too."

"Ditto," said Devon. "What classes you guys in?"

Two of the Davenport kids moved to find their class schedules; Bree shuffled the books she was carrying around in her arms looking for it, while Adam just started digging around in his different pockets.

Chase just recited his from memory. "I've got AP Physics, Gym, AP Calculus, and Honors English."

"Oh cool," said Evelyn happily, "we've got a bunch of classes together.

"We can show you to the Physics room if you want," added Devon.

Chase glanced at Leo who just shrugged before nodding. "Sure, thanks."

"Aha!" Bree had found her schedule and moved it to the top of her books. "I've got Geometry, Gym, English, and Chemistry."

Holding his crumpled schedule up, Adam read, "I have Art, Gym, English, and Cooking."

Leo moved to stand beside Adam so that he could read the schedule himself. "No way, you actually got into Art and Cooking. Those are always full."

"They're really fun, I'm sure you'll love it," Evelyn told him.

Bree looked at him surprise. "You decided to take a 'cooking' class?"

"What?" he asked looking around at everybody staring at him. "The course summary looked yummy!"

The sound of the first period bell ringing stopped anybody from commenting. Chase flinched at the noise and clapped his hands over his ears, but he didn't fall to the floor like he did the last time the twins had seen him.

As the bell cut off, Evelyn put a concerned hand on his arm. "Chase, are you all right?"

Chase dropped his hands back to his sides and assured her that he was fine. But Evelyn was listening with a mere fraction of her brain. Instead she was focused on the sudden influx of thoughts that were streaming in from an outside source. From his place on the edge of her mind, Devon listened with her.

'Painhurtwonderstupid joyexcitementhurtangericantbelievetheydidntstopmeHURtHurthurt….'

Evelyn hurriedly let her arm drop from Chase's, ending the wave of thoughts and emotions that were multiplying far too quickly and moving at such speed that she could barely pick anything out of the steadily increasing hum.

'With thoughts that fast he's got to be a genius.' Devon quickly analyzed everything that he'd managed to pick up. 'He's got super hearing at the minimum.'

From her own place on the edge of her brother's thoughts, Evelyn nodded. 'But it hurts him. He can't control it's setting.'

Completely oblivious to the twins' silent and practically instantaneous analysis and conversation, Leo clapped his hands together. "Okay, so I'm going to show Adam where the Art room is. We'll see you in Gym Chase." Grabbing Adam and Bree, he pulled them off down the hallway.

Turning to face the twins, Chase gave them a small smile, a little nervous to be away from his siblings. "So which way to Physics?" To his surprise, both of the twins gave him a friendly smile.

Evelyn took Chase's hand and pulled him along after Devon. "You'll love Physics. The teacher, Mr. Soven, is awesome. He has us do all kinds of hands-on experiments."

Chase's thoughts were a steady indecipherable hum playing at the edge of her mind. "You guys like science then?" asked Chase as he allowed himself to be pulled along.

Devon held the door to the classroom open for them. "Yeah, it's fun to learn about the rules of how the world works." 'All the better to break them.'

Evelyn rolled her eyes, but didn't add anything as she pulled Chase inside and over to the where the teacher was sitting at his desk. "Mr. Soven, this is Chase Davenport."

Mr. Soven was a tall, skinny, older man in his late fifties, with hair that was more white than brown and sharp blue-grey eyes. After checking something in his grade book he looked up. "Ah yes, Mr. Davenport. We're happy to have you join us. As you can see, we are currently starting a new project."

Chase just nodded since he could see that. The whole back of the room had been divided up into sections, with each section hidden from view via a system of ropes and sheets. Each temporary cubicle was labeled with a number ranging from one to five. At the front of the room, beside Mr. Soven's desk, there was a small model of a rollercoaster, and the whiteboard was covered in different equations and diagrams.

"We only started yesterday, so it shouldn't be too disruptive for you to join a group now," said Mr. Soven as he pulled out a list of names.

"He can join our group," offered Devon from where he was still leaning in the doorway to the classroom.

Beside Chase, Evelyn nodded in agreement.

Mr. Soven blinked at the proposal and turned to Chase. "Would you be willing to work with the May twins?"

"Sure," said Chase with a shrug.

Smiling, Mr. Soven handed Chase a copy of the project assignment. "Good, good. Now the group numbers won't be quite so skewed." He waved his hand to shoo them off. "Evelyn, Devon go show Chase how far you've gotten on your project and divide the remaining work up equally. Chase if you have any questions I am available after school."

"Yes sir," nodded Chase before he found himself dragged off towards the back of the room. They stopped at the edge of the tiny sheet city and he asked, "What did he mean about the group numbers being skewed?"

"All of the other teams have four or five members," began Devon.

"Before you joined, our team only had two members," finished Evelyn.

Chase frowned. "That doesn't seem fair."

Devon shrugged and pushed his way into the cubicle labeled number five. "It isn't but everyone refused to work with us."

Seeing Chase's confusion, Evelyn tried to explain a little. "My brother and I are really, really smart. We intimidate people and sometimes they get jealous." She then gave him a mischievous grin and added. "Plus Devon's been learning to be a ninja and he likes to scare people."

Chase looked at her incredulously. "A ninja?"

She laughed. "Yep, you can probably get Leo to tell you about it. Come in and see our progress on the design."

Chase followed her inside and stopped short as he caught sight of their model. "Whoa."

Scene Change

"I still hate gym class," announced Leo as he stripped out of his sweaty gym uniform.

'Are you talking to Bree?' Devon undressed completely and shoved his dirty uniform into his gym bag. 'Is that why you're ignoring me?' Evelyn let him access her hearing, but didn't say anything to him. He started sending her funny visualizations to go along with the different voices he could hear.

Adam removed his own shirt and tossed it over his shoulder where it smacked Chase in the face. "Oh come on Leo, its really not that bad."

Leo stared at him for a moment before he burst out, "I'm athletically challenged!"

"You barely have to participate to get a passing grade." Devon spoke up from where he was sitting on the far side of Chase, now fully dressed and staring at the three of them like he was looking through them.

"Really?" asked Chase turning around to face him fully.

Devon's eyes cleared as he heard Chase speak and his attention returned more fully to his surroundings, but he left the link fully open. His brain took in the images that his eyes were seeing and sent it as the next visualization for his sister.

Leo opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as a loud shriek emitted from the girl's locker room.

Blinking Adam asked, "What was that?"

"Maybe one of them saw a spider?" suggested Leo with a shrug.

"DEVON!" screamed Evelyn's voice, echoing off the walls and through Devon's brain.

Devon winced, grabbed his bag, and stood. "I sincerely doubt that I'm going to get to eat lunch today. I'll see you guys in class later. I need to try to find somewhere to hide." Then he was out the door and they could hear his footsteps as he sprinted down the hallway and out of earshot.

"You know you can't hide from me Devon!" They heard Evelyn shout, as she ran out of the girl's locker room and after her fleeing brother.

The three remaining boys looked at each other.

"Well that was odd," stated Chase as he pulled his shirt on.

"Yeah," agreed Adam absentmindedly as he searched the area for his regular shirt.

Leo shrugged and began to dress himself. "The twins started coming to school last year and they've kept to themselves. They aren't a part of the Populars but they aren't Nobodies either. Before today I don't think I'd heard either of them say anything that wasn't necessary to answer a teacher or question." He pulled his shoes on and stuffed his dirty uniform into his backpack. "Evelyn's generally been pretty nice, she's always smiling and she's stopped some footballers from stuffing me in a trashcan a few times."

"What about her brother, Devon?" asked Chase, having found his brother's shirt and thrown it at his head.

"Devon's a bit weird." Leo shook his head, "Okay they're both a bit weird, but Devon's been learning to be a ninja."

Chase looked up from putting on his shoes. "Evelyn said something about that before Physics. And something about scaring people for fun."

"He's doing that on purpose?" burst Leo, clearly aggravated. "The guy freaking disappears in the middle of class when nobody's looking and then reappears as soon as the teacher goes to ask him a question. He randomly shows up when you think that no one's around and then just stares at you."

Adam chuckled, his shirt now on correctly. "He do that to you?"

Coming down from his brief rant, Leo said, "Actually he only seems to do that to the football team. Especially when they're ganging up on someone."

"That doesn't seem that bad," said Chase, standing and swinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"He seems pretty cool," agreed Adam, following his brother towards the door. "I'm hungry, let's go see if the cheerleaders will talk to us some more."

Grabbing his bag, Leo scrambled to follow them. "Hey wait for me!"

Scene Change

Devon skidded around a corner and slammed his body through the door to the basement.

'Devon, I can not believe you did that!'

He didn't slow in his mad rush down the stairs, jumping every five steps and bursting out the door when he reached the bottom. His steps barely faltered as he took in the entrance to the Band Room. 'I'm sorry! It was an accident!'

'I know, but we had an agreement! No nudity, real or imagined!' He felt his sister hijack his sight. 'You're in the basement.'

"Damn it," muttered Devon. Closing the link down even farther, he backtracked out of the room and ran further down the hall. Passing the Art room and an assortment of offices as he headed towards the secondary staircase.

'You know you can't hide.' Evelyn reminded him with a memory of their one and only attempt at playing hide-and-seek. 'So why are you running?'

Devon reached the stairs in moments and started up, taking them four at a time. 'Just because I can't hide doesn't mean you can catch me before the break is over.' The aggravated sense of frustration that came barreling down the link made him pick up the pace. It was going to be a long lunch.

Scene Change

"Donald," greeted May as he sat in the seat across from Davenport. "Congratulations on your marriage. I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it."

Davenport just waved his apology off. "Don't worry about it Jeffery, that storm in Antarctica blew up from nowhere. There was no way you could've predicted getting delayed like that." He scanned his menu as he added, "You've got to come over for dinner some time though."

Looking at his own menu, May chuckled, "Tasha not believe you when you said you had a friend who wasn't a computer?"

Davenport pouted, "Yeah."

May just smiled as their waitress came to take their order.

"I'd like the Shrimp Alfredo," said May.

"I'll have the Three Cheese lasagna," ordered Davenport.

After their waitress had left with their menus May said, "I'd love to meet Tasha." He took a sip of his water and added, "We should do a large family meal. My kids are starting to think I'm hiding them."

Davenport blinked and then shook his head. "I always forget that you've got kids."

May nodded. "Everybody seems to. Probably since I've never been married."

Davenport opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as their server reappeared with their food. After they had been eating for a few minutes, Davenport asked, "When did you adopt them again?"

"My kids?" clarified May startled. At Davenport's nod he chuckled and said, "I didn't."

Davenport just gave him a confused look.

May laughed at his friend's expression and stabbed a shrimp with his fork. "Donald, I'm a crazy mad genius. Unlike most of the world, I can make a baby in my basement by myself." Pointing his shrimp covered fork at his friend he added, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You did the same thing."

Davenport gapped at him for a moment before managing to ask, "How do you know that? That's super top secret."

May ate the shrimp and laughed. "Mine are top secret too." Shaking his head he smiled. "My kids go to your stepson's school and told me about the three new kids who were following him around and doing strange things."

Davenport poked at his lasagna and sighed, "I was hoping nobody would really connect that with me."

"Is that why you paid the school thirty thousand dollars?" asked May as he took a drink.

Davenport just nodded and they both returned their attention to eating. Finishing off his plate Davenport sat back. "I just can't believe that someone else had the same idea as me."

Moving his empty plate to the side, May smiled. "Well you know what they say about great minds."

Smiling back Davenport nodded. "Yeah, and we do have some awesome minds."

May laughed at his friend's immodesty. "So about dinner, when will work best for you?"

"Let me talk to Tasha about it and I'll give you a call," said Davenport as he stood up and put his money for the meal on the table. "How do you think our kids will get along? Mine had never even been outside of the lab till this week." He shook his head at himself. "And somehow I was convinced to let them go to school."

May nodded in understanding as he followed Davenport away from the table after dropping a tip. "I know how you feel. I remember when I first let Devon and Evelyn go to school. I spent the whole first day worried that I was going to get a call from the police saying that the school had been disintegrated."

"Disintegrated?" repeated Davenport unbelievingly. "What kind of special features did you give your kids?"

"Ah, ah, ah," said May, wagging his finger back and forth with a patronizing smile. "That would be telling and I can't do that. They are, after all, top secret."

Davenport huffed, "Fine, then I won't tell you all the cool features I gave my kids."

May laughed, "Alright how about we make a bet?"

"What kind of bet?" asked Davenport, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Nothing like that business in college," reassured May. "I bet you that my twins can figure out what your kids can do, before yours figure out what the twins can do."

"And we're not allowed to help them," added Davenport.

"Agreed." May nodded. "That way, when we both break down in a week and swap notes, the bet will still be on."

"You really think we'll last a week?" asked Davenport as he pushed the door to the restaurant open with his shoulder and exited.

May shook his head as he followed him out. "I doubt we'll even make it till Friday."

Scene Change

'Okay, something is definitely up with Chase.' Devon rocked his chair onto its back legs as the English teacher, Mr. Baker, explained what he wanted them to do for homework. 'You can get me back later, he has been acting even less normal than usual.'

Evelyn glared at him for a moment. 'Fine. I'll get you back when you're least expecting it.'

Devon hid the wince that her threat invoked and turned most of his attention to his sister's view of Chase, since he was sitting right in front of her.

Chase had his feet crossed on top of his desk and was leaning backwards in his chair with his arms folded behind his head. In the short time that the twins had known him, they had managed to figure out most of Chase's base personality. He was generally cheerful, enjoyed learning, and liked to help others. Yet now he was exuding so much anger that Evelyn didn't need to touch him to feel it, he was paying no attention to the teacher, and he was scowling at everything. Additionally, his voice had gone back to being deep like they had heard it during the confrontation at breakfast.

'All right,' began Evelyn as she accepted the homework handout, 'something probably happened during lunch. Let me see what I can get from Chase.'

Devon frowned. 'You sure that'll work? His thoughts move so fast they're nothing more than a hum.'

'I know, but I should be able to at least pick up his general mood.' Evelyn subtly brushed her fingers against the back of Chase's hand as she moved her pencil to the edge of her desk.

As predicted, Chase's thoughts were nothing more than a low hum that settled easily at the edge of her awareness. Completely separate from his normal indecipherable thoughts, she picked up '…DEFEND COMMANDO MODE ACTIVATED DEFEND PROTECT COMMANDO MODE ACTIVATED PROTECT DEFEND COMMANDO MODE…'

'Well that was decidedly different.' Evelyn blinked and leaned back in her chair. 'I've never run into a separate secondary thought stream before. Let alone any thought process so repetitious and loud. It was like an alarm blaring over and over again.'

'It is weird.' Devon glanced at where his sister was sitting out of the corner of his eye. 'Maybe it's something like his hearing.'

'Hmm, maybe.' Evelyn tapped her pencil against the side of her leg. 'Earlier I picked up a number of thoughts about a grudge match between the Alpha Dogs and the football team after school. You sit behind Leo, see what you can get from him.'

Devon nodded, scribbled a quick note and tapped Leo on the shoulder. As he handed the note over, he made sure that their hands made contact, if only for a second.

'worry I can't believe we're going to play against the football team! worry Those guys are giants! worry Spike has gotten way out of hand. worry This is going to hurt so much I just know it. worry'

Sitting back in his seat Devon pretended to pay attention to the teacher's final words as Leo quickly read the note and then nodded at him. 'Did you catch that?'

'He called Chase Spike.' Evelyn's eyes remained focused on the subject of their speculation. 'And they're going to play football for the right to sit at the athlete's table.'

'Leo seems to be under the impression that it's actually the cool table.' The teacher's last few words were shouted at the class as the final bell rang and the students began to stampede out the door.

Evelyn rolled her eyes and stood from her desk watching as the crowd of students split to let Chase out of the classroom first. 'Our table is much more fun.'

'Well if we'd been at lunch we could've invited them to it and then they wouldn't be fighting for a place to sit.' Devon followed Leo out into the hall to talk like his note had asked. "So," said Devon as they came to an empty spot in the hallway, " what's up with Chase?"

Leo laughed nervously and started to rock from foot to foot. "There's nothing up with Chase. He's being perfectly, uh, Chase-y! Perfectly normal, just ate something bad at lunch."

Devon just stared at him for a moment, making Leo shift even more. "Leo, I spent over an hour with Chase in a small confined space. The guy sitting in English was not the same one that I worked with in Physics."

Eyes wide, Leo quickly said, "Of course he's the same! Just a bit grumpy, that's all."

Sighing, Devon placed his hand on Leo's shoulder. "Leo, does Chase have a split personality?"

Leo fidgeted and stuttered, "M-maybe, something like that."

"Is his alternate personality dangerous?" asked Devon not letting Leo shift away from his gaze.

"Uh, only to someone threatening him," said Leo reluctantly.

Devon patted him on the shoulder. "Thank you for telling me. Now Evey and I can help you and your siblings make sure his alternate personality doesn't show up too often."

Leo blinked at him. "Wait, really? You'll help?"

"Of course we'll help." Devon grinned at him. "Evey and I think Chase is pretty cool. Adam and Bree seem all right too. We'd like you guys to be our friends, so of course we'll help you with stuff like this."

"I can't speak for Adam, Bree, or Chase," said Leo as a smile began to stretch across his face, "but I'd be glad to be your friend."

Devon thumped him on the shoulder and, still grinning, asked, "So how can we help with this grudge match thing you've gotten yourselves into?"

Leo's smile took on a relieved look as he began to explain exactly what had happened at lunch.

Scene Change

The sidewalk beside the dog park was full of a mix of cheering and booing students all watching the football game for the 'popular' lunch table.

From their spot at the edge of the crowd, the May twins winced in unison as Leo got tackled yet again.

'Poor Leo, it's too bad Principal Perry wouldn't let us play with the Alpha Dogs.' "Come on Leo! You just need two more touch downs!" encouraged Evelyn as they watched Leo slowly drag himself upright.

Leo gave them a half-hearted wave and moved back into position for another play.

'We weren't part of the original deal, so it is completely within her rights to refuse to let us play.' Devon clapped along with his sister as Adam hiked the ball back to Leo. Leo then tossed it to Chase, or Spike as he apparently was called while in Commando Mode. 'They're not doing too bad considering they have no real clue as to how to play.'

Evelyn snorted, but continued cheering as 'Spike' barreled through the opposition to score another touch down. 'The only reason they're doing so well is because they aren't normal. If Chase was himself and Bree didn't run so inhumanly fast, they'd have lost already.'

Devon shrugged. 'Hey at least we learned something new from this game.' The twins watched as Leo called for a time-out. 'Bree's got super speed.' He frowned suddenly. 'Something's different.'

They watched the huddle for a minute before Evelyn blinked. 'The anger's gone. I'm not picking up Spike's output anymore. Chase must be back.'

'Huh,' Devon ran a hand through his hair. 'I'm not sure whether to be relieved or worried.'

Evelyn rolled her eyes and smacked her brother in the ribs. 'Relieved you dikut. Chase should be in control of his own body. Who cares if they win or lose a game over a table.'

Devon rubbed his side and chuckled. 'I bet they'll care. They really wanted to sit at the Popular table.'

'Popular with who, jerks and bullies? They can sit with us at lunch.'

The twins winced as they saw Chase get tackled to the ground and then buried under what had to be the entire football team. Principal Perry wasted no time in declaring her Fighting Dingoes the winners. The Alpha Dogs were left alone on the field as the rest of the students dispersed. As the twins approached them, Leo collapsed to the ground with a groan.

"Is he all right?" asked Evelyn in concern.

"He's fine," said Adam. He picked Leo up and slung him over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing at all.

Devon blinked. 'Can we just say that Adam having super strength is confirmed?'

'Leo weighs next to nothing. Being able to pick him up does not require super strength.' Evelyn moved to stand beside Chase and laid her hand on his shoulder. "Chase are you okay now that Spike's gone?"

Chase's thoughts were back to being a single stream of consciousness that was impossible to understand as anything other than a low hum. Though they had a bit of a panicked edge to them. "Uh, what?" asked Chase uneasily. "Who's Spike? I don't know anyone named Spike."

Evelyn squeezed his shoulder as much as she could through the football padding and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's okay Chase. Leo told us that you basically have a split personality that comes out when someone's threatening you."

Devon gave him a friendly slap on the opposite shoulder. "We like you guys, so we'll help you work on staying just Chase."

Chase gave them a weak smile. "Thanks."

"We should go change so we can head home," said Bree. She'd already removed her helmet and was making her way back towards the school.

Giving Chase a final pat on the shoulder, Devon said, "We've got to head home so our dad doesn't worry." Moving in the opposite direction of Bree, he added, "Chase, if you have any questions about the project in Physics you can call me or Evey. We can also help with English since you weren't really yourself for that period."

"Thanks Devon." Chase's smile was considerably more self-assured this time.

"Chase, hurry up," yelled Leo from where he was hanging upside down over Adam's shoulder. "We smell and I can hear Adam's stomach."

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," said Chase as he ran to catch up to his siblings.

Evelyn waved. "Bye Chase, Adam, Bree, Leo." She got four waves in return, Leo's upside down with the rest of him.

'Come on Evey, Dad really will worry if he gets home before us.' Devon turned away from the retreating backs of the Davenport kids and started walking towards the student parking lot.

Evelyn stretched her arms above her head and popped her back with a yawn. 'I'm not too hungry, what about you?'

Devon shrugged. 'Same here, I'll just make some Mac'n'Cheese and heat up some peas or corn.'

'Peas, corn would just be too much yellow.'

'Peas it is.'

Scene Change

Dr. May yawned as he closed the door to the garage behind him. He could see the twins sitting at the kitchen counter working on what was probably homework. "I'm home," he announced, catching their attention.

"Hey Dad," called both twins in sync.

"Dev made Mac'n'Cheese with peas," added Evelyn, waving to the pots sitting on the stove still.

Dr. May hung his coat up and toed his shoes off. "That sounds wonderful."

"I'll heat you up a plate," offered Devon.

"Thank you Devon." Dr. May set his briefcase down next to his shoes and sat down beside Evelyn. "So what are you two working on?"

Evelyn moved the paper that they had been writing on over so that he could read it. "We've been compiling a list of the things that we've noticed about the Davenports."

"Really," mumbled Dr. May as he quickly read over what they'd discovered. "Fascinating."

"They're actually really nice," said Devon, putting the plate he'd made into the microwave. "Chase is crazy smart. He joined our Physics group for the rollercoaster model project. We were probably going to be the best in our class, now we're definitely going to be the best in the district." He pulled the plate out and set it in front of his dad along with a fork.

"Yeah Chase seems really nice," agreed Evelyn. "It's also nice that we can touch him without accidentally prying into his thoughts."

Dr. May looked up from his food in surprise. "He can block your telepathy?"

Devon shook his head. "Nah, we can hear his thoughts fine. They just move so fast that all we hear is a hum or whir."

"It's sort of like the sound a computer makes when it's running," added Evelyn thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm glad that you two are finally making friends." Dr. May smiled. "I talked to Donald today and we agreed to have a family get together whenever our schedules allow."

"Cool," said the twins together.

"Yes, I'm sure it will be fun and informative," chuckled Dr. May as he took another bite of his Mac'n'Cheese.