Chapter Seven

Once they climbed to the top of the wall, Henry easily flung himself onto the landing. Maggie had a bit of trouble, but he reached down and helped her pull herself up. As she dusted herself off and looked around, Henry began fiddling with the wire hanger, stretching it out to make a makeshift hook to pull the latch on the window. She looked around to make sure no one could see them outside the office. She heard Jasper as he tried getting a firm grip to pull himself up, "Don't worry about me, I got this."

As Jasper panted his way up the wall, Henry continued to fiddle with the hanger, "He might need a little help," he said without even looking up from what he was doing. Maggie turned towards Jasper, but was somewhat surprised he had already nearly jumped over the wall. Subconsciously she knew why she did what she did, but she would never admit it to herself. Even though he was already over the wall, and nearly standing strait again, she put her hand on his arm and grabbed hold. She felt his biceps flex under the strain of excursion he was putting on them. She felt herself flush, but also noticed that he didn't even seem fazed that she was touching him completely unnecessarily. Then again why would he, he always did the same thing to her, almost like he was itching for an excuse to touch her. No, she was reading too much into this. She felt her face flush even redder and removed her hand once he got his bearings.

"That was easier than my thighs remembered," he said as he hopped down and stood strait again. Maggie quickly made her way to the window so that she could cool herself down, away from him.

"That's because you're the kind of guy who gives it all he's got." Henry seemed to almost not even pay attention to Jasper as he told him this.

Maggie began to look at one of the longer windows as Henry put the straightened wire hanger through another window, trying to unlatch it. But Jasper stood there, looking devastated, "oh no, my dad did not say that to you."

"How'd you know?" Henry didn't even take his eyes off what he was doing as he responded to Jasper, completely oblivious that he was probably doing more damage than good.

"Because I heard it at every little league game. 'You really gave it all you got, Jas." He mocked his father's voice. Maggie knew he thought it meant his father wasn't proud of him, but Maggie knew otherwise. She'd seen Mr. Bartlett when Jasper played a game, she could see in his eyes that he was proud of his son. Not only that, but her own father told her every time he could that he was proud of her. Well not in so many words, but he had his way. She trusted in the fact that her father was proud of her. Something Jasper hadn't been able to do, it seemed.

She tried to convince Jasper of that, "that's sweet, he was proud of you." She said, finally able to look at him again without a blush.

"Clearly you don't speak parent. That's code for 'my kid is the biggest dork on the field.'" He looked at her very demeaningly, as though she were the stupid one for not understanding. But right at that moment, he was making a pretty decent fool of himself.

She didn't let it bother her like it normally did when he talked to her like that, since she knew what his mood was stemming from: hurt that his father had told Henry something that Jasper deemed a horrible description of himself. "I think you're overreacting."

His watch beeped before he could reply, "I think I'm muscle building. No more dorkdom. I am getting stronger every 42 minutes." Maggie watched him tear into one of his protein bars.

"True power lies not within strength, but in knowledge." Henry was hanging half in the window, trying to unlatch the door. Finally, Maggie felt the latch lift and was able to open the window to walk into the office.

With his mouth full of protein bar, Jasper sarcastically said, "let me guess, Buddha?" Before walking into the office after her. Henry, thankfully, knew better than to respond.


A/N: Hey everyone, I'm so sorry this took so long. Classes started last week, which means I started work the week before, (I work at an info center on my campus and with orientation they needed more of us to work) but I've been so busy that the only thing I've had time to do is sleep. It doesn't really help that I have zero discipline... So I'm really sorry, but here's chapter seven, please forgive me! It's a lot shorter than normal, but I wanted to give ya'll something.

Also, thank all of ya'll for being so awesome and supportive, and adding me to alerts and favorites lists even though I haven't updated in a long while.

I appreciate constructive criticism, so even if you didn't like it, PLEASE respond and tell me what you didn't like. I really appreciate it, and it helps make the story better for ya'll.