Disclaimer: Let's play a game: find all the things that don't belong to me!

Bored

He wants to be in school.

Every high school student in America must think he's nuts, but it's true. At least in school, there's something to do. At the Cave, with everyone gone, there's nothing. Striking up a conversation with Red Tornado is not something he really plans on ever doing; playing with Wolf is difficult, as "fetch" goes unlearned and tricks are seemingly deemed too silly for a beast as great as he; training by himself buys him an hour, maybe two, but that still leaves far too much time. Overall, he spends most of his time studying, but today, he can't quite manage to do it. He's returned from a work out and has the books spread on his bed only to realize he doesn't want to read them. It's become monotonous, repeating the process day in and day out; even school isn't this bad, because there are other people and it's not just reading, not every single say, at least.

Itching for something to do—patience may be a virtue, but it's not one he possesses—he settles on watching television. It's mind-numbing, so it should help keep his inner thoughts from escaping.

Moving from his room to the living room, he jumps onto the couch and grabs the remote. Hitting power, he immediately starts flipping through channels, getting only bits and pieces of random shows. Nothing catches his eyes until Wolf plops next to him, distracting him long enough so he actually pays attention to what's on screen. A little girl with a Spanish accent and a weird-looking monkey are talking to the audience, asking about "Swiper." Cam has no idea what that's suppose to be until he sees a fox in the background, tiptoeing towards them.

"Do you see Swiper?"

"He's right behind you," he says out loud, not even caring that he's talking to a cartoon.

The fox gets closer, but neither the girl nor the monkey is aware of this. "Is he here?"

"He's right behind you," he repeats.

"Oh, no. It's Swiper!"

"I've been telling you that!"

"We have to stop him from taking our basket of goodies for Abuela. Help us stop him: Say, 'Swiper, no swiping!'"

"This is a joke, right?"

Apparently not. Holding out their hands, they scream, "Swiper, no swiping." Each time he takes a step closer, they repeat this phrase. The third time, he snaps his fingers, says, "Aw, man," and hightails it out of there.

"Are you kidding me?" Cam demands, throwing his arms out to his side. Wolf raises his head, then lowers it again. "That's not how it works! No thief stops just because you ask him to! You can't teach children this!"

Disgusted, he changes the channel and lands on Cartoon Network. Pokémon is on, and he smiles because he remembers this show and kids at recess playing the card game. All too soon, however, he's staring at the screen in disbelief because who the heck are these people? His memory isn't top-notch when it comes to the show, but he knows there was some girl with a bunch of water Pokémon and some guy who always walked around with his eyes closed. Either they were killed off or disappeared because these are definitely new people. And Jesus Christ, these aren't even real Pokémon! Maybe he's just really, really rusty, but there are no way these things are originals, not when they all look like warped stuffed animals. With an angry snap, he moves on to ABC Family.

"Our all day Secret Life of the American Teenager marathon starts right now!" the commercial announces.

The title intrigues him, so he decides to watch. Soon, he's pulled into a train wreck of lives that are not typical of any teenager in America. As far as he can tell, the main girl had sex with some guy and had a baby with him. There's this hot Latina chick who's pregnant with this rich kid's baby but doesn't want to tell him that she's pregnant. The main girl may or may not be in love with the rich kid, though she does seem to like her baby daddy as well. There's some football player and a blonde girl whose roles are hard to understand, and a black girl and a redhead who seem to have no purpose whatsoever. The main girl's sister only talks in monotone and, although only, like, thirteen, wants to have sex. There are a lot of adults who somehow know one another, but it's hard to keep track of who's who.

It's so insane that he can't bring himself to turn it off. There is no plot—if there is, it's well hidden—and no one can really act. Everyone basically repeats a central point throughout every episode, enough so that a drinking game based off one word would leave everyone wasted. It jumps around so much that when he goes to make himself lunch, something completely unrelated to what was just happening is now playing out on screen. This is the single most messed-up thing he has ever witnessed, and how it has lasted long enough for a fourth season, which, according to the commercials, premieres at eight, is beyond him.

"Oh my God, the marathon! I totally forgot about it!"

Looking over his shoulder, Cam watches Megan literally fly into the room, tossing her book bag onto the floor before landing next to him.

"All the girls on the squad love this show! What have I missed?"

He tries to reiterate all that's happened in the past seven hours—how the Hell has he watched this since ten a.m?—but he's not sure if he has any of it right. Megan doesn't seem to mind the mangled interpretation, though, only hugging him for the information and gluing her eyes to the screen.

"Why, exactly, are you watching this?" Connor questions.

With a shrug, he replies, "Nothing else on. And nothing else to do."

Accepting that, Connor says, "At least you don't have to go to school. I can't stand it."

"Really?"

"Cadmus already programmed me with everything I need to know. Not to mention there are just so many kids there and…" He lets his sentence end, as though that's a good enough place to leave it.

"Yeah. I guess that does suck." Standing up, he heads for his room, Wolf trailing behind him. Turning on the light, he opens on of the books and dedicates himself to learning.

Connor might hate school, but Cam doesn't. As strange as it might sound, he misses it, and what he misses most are the other kids. Yeah, the lessons were sometimes boring, but never the kids. High school and elementary school are completely different, but the one constant between them are the students. Before his dad yanked him out, he'd had friends. It was the only time of the day when he felt normal. Now, he has the Team. And it's great, it really is, but that's only eight people. He's a social person, and he wants the opportunity to meet other people. At his age, the only place where that can happen is school.

Burying his head into a book, he tells himself if he just stays focused, he'll pass the next stupid placement test. He'll get to go to school again.

He'll get to feel normal again.