Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I really don't have anything to say. I just felt like having an author's note on the beginning of every chapter is a staple. Haha. I hope you enjoy this chapter! (I do NOT own the Thundermans.)

Don't Even Say It

Chapter Ten: I Suggest You Break an Arm

MAX

I love being useless. Don't get me wrong, the pain on my foot still bothers me to an extent but the fact that I'm visibly on crutches is divine. Every person in school seems to take pity on me and, of course, I take advantage of their fragile emotions.

Take for instance the events just this morning. Dad dropped us off in front of the school because, obviously, I can't ride my motorcycle. I had to endure the embarrassment of boarding off the family car. Anyway, I expected people to just ignore me when I entered, as they usually do, or at least give a glance on my cast and forget me entirely. Instead, five cheerleaders made their way to me, pompoms still in their hands, and squealed with delight.

"Oh my gosh, Max! It's so good to see you again!"

"We heard you had your foot all messed up."

"Oh, you poor thing. Those crutches must be horrible."

"Do you want me to carry your stuff, Max, darling?"

They acted as if I was a roadkill survivor or something. One of the cheerleaders did carry my stuff all the way to my locker. But the fun doesn't stop there. While we were walking down the hall, more and more people crowded towards me. All of them were curious about how I broke my foot. Most of them offered some kind of help like carrying my stuff, treating me for lunch, doing the homework I missed. There was no doubt I said yes to all of their offers. When I finally reached my locker, where Oyster stood with a smile on his face, my cast was decorated with signatures and 'get well soon' written in colorful markers. Oyster shooed the people away so we could have a bit of a chat.

"You're enjoying this are you?" he asked with an eyebrow raised. Judging by the smirk on my face and lit up eyes, I'm sure he knows my answer already.

"Of course I am!" I said as I threw my hands on the air. "Man, breaking my foot was the best thing that ever happened to me. I suggest you break an arm sometime so you could feel how I feel."

Oyster shook his head, but his smile wasn't faltering. He filled me in on some stuff that happened over the course of my absence. According to him, not much happened. Most of the classes were still boring. I have a pile of homework to do. Luckily, I found a solution to get through that. The cafeteria is serving chocolate pudding, though, which I am looking forward to trying.

"Believe me, something that looks too good to be true from the cafeteria isn't worth your trust," he said after I told him about my plans on checking it out. I agree with him on some level. The cafeteria doesn't serve good meals, anyway. The canned lemonades are the only decent ones in there.

"How about biology?" I asked. "You scraping through?"

"Oh, yeah. I started tutoring sessions with Vanessa." Right, the Golden girl.

Speaking of the devil, Golden approached us along with Phoebe and Cherry. Oyster's grin was even wider and he was unconsciously balancing awkwardly on his feet. I ignored his gesture and turned to the three girls.

"Feeling better?" The pink-haired girl asked. I nodded my head, not saying anything. "Good, 'cause Mr. Beamton wanted you to have these." She handed me a small pile of paper held by a blue paper clip.

"What are these?" I asked.

"Those are application forms for the upcoming science fair," Phoebe joined in on informing me. "Mr. Beamton and some other science teachers are giving these out to selected students."

"Can I see that?" I handed the papers to Oyster. He skimmed through the pile before turning to me. "Right. I heard about this. Mr. Beamton was talking to the principal the other day about this. I heard international scientists and inventors are looking for new concepts from students all around America."

"They are," beamed in Cherry. "Besides a scholarship, the chosen students will receive a cash prize."

My brows furrowed at how engaged the two blondes were in the conversation. "Did the two of you receive application forms from them as well?"

They laughed and said, "No," in unison. "But Phoebe and Vanessa did," Cherry added. I wasn't very surprised at that. Cherry and Oyster aren't the best in academics, to be honest. They are nice but definitely not the brightest. "You're lucky, though," Cherry continued. "You almost didn't get in."

"You owe your thanks to this girl," Phoebe nudged Vanessa on the side which made her smile. "If it weren't for her, Mr. Beamton wouldn't have been convinced that they you were an inventor."

I frowned at the four of them, skimmed through the paper once again, and then lazily threw the pile inside my locker. "Even if I could beat every kid in this school merely by my brains, I haven't the slightest of interest in it."

"But why?" Phoebe's eyes grew wide. "We were both in science fairs when we were younger. Surely, you don't want to back down against me, at least."

"Ah, Phoebe. This isn't always about you," I countered with a smirk. "I just want to dedicate most of my time to other things besides that stupid fair. Good luck to all of you, though. And congratulations because you didn't have to compete against me." I pushed my locker door close just in time for the school bell to ring, signaling for the first class. "Well, I'm off," I said while I handed my bag to one of the cheerleaders on my class who didn't hesitate to catch it.

At lunch, our usual table almost doubled in people. Most of the new seaters were girls who fed me as if my arms were broken and not my foot. My friends, of course, saw this opportunity to interact with them and maybe score a date. Some guys from the lower year acted like my servants and gave me massages. Oh, I wish I could break every limb on body and have this kind of high school life every single day.

The only one who didn't like this much attention, though, was Oyster, who was seating on the farthest side of the table with books spread out in front of him, blocking the party out of his mind. He seemed really focused on what he was reading. I had to scoot closer to him to see that he was memorizing something for biology. Then, I tapped him on the shoulder to bring him back to reality.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "There's lots of people here, man. Come on, have fun for a while." I handed him a can of lemonade which he took with a smile but he didn't scoot any closer to the fun side of the table. When I sensed that he wasn't going to give up what he was doing, I pulled him close to where I was seated and introduced someone to him. "Oyster, this is Denice, she's from my English class, she's a cheerleader and she would love to get to know you. Denice, this is Oyster, my friend and bandmate."

"Hi," said Denice as she made her way beside Oyster. Her bright green eyes contrasted against her olive skin and black hair. "You're so cute. Do you sing in your band?"

Oyster, who looked uncomfortable for whatever reason, stuttered a 'hello' and said, "I play the guitar and sometimes I sing, too."

I almost left the two of them to get to know each other better until Oyster stood up suddenly to approach a certain four-eyed cotton candy-haired girl walking past our table with my twin sister right beside her. "Vanessa," he called out. I turned to Denice just in time to see a look of disappointment and offense on her face. I mouthed a 'sorry' at her before following my friend.

"Oyster, what's wrong with you?" I grabbed his shoulder to turn him around. "Denice looked really in to you and you just ignored her."

"Denice? The cheerleader?" Vanessa interrupted. She turned to Oyster with a straight face and said, "Well, I guess I wouldn't ask my parents after all?"

"No!" Oyster countered. "Denice is barely an acquaintance. Don't mind Max. We could continue with our plan if you like." Plan? What plan?

"Oh, okay. Say hi to Denice for me then." She gave a sincere smile to Oyster before walking out of the cafeteria with Phoebe.

VANESSA

Everyone seemed interested at Max's return so the cafeteria was twice as loud than most days. I told Phoebe that I'd much prefer to eat in a less clamorous place so she agreed to have lunch with me out on the fields. Cherry was also there with some of their other friends.

Before we could exit the cafeteria, Oyster called for me and asked if I asked permission from my parents yet about Sunday. I was going to tell him that I haven't yet but will surely do it tonight when Max turned him around and said something about Denice, the pretty cheerleader that everyone knows. In an instant, I felt some kind of twitchy feeling in stomach.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't ask my parents after all?" I said with a straight face. The twitchy feeling still not stopping.

"No! Denice is barely an acquaintance. Don't mind Max. We could continue with our plan if you like." I felt myself sigh internally. Although, I don't know why I would.

"Oh, okay. Say hi to Denice for me then." I gave a small smile to Oyster then walked out of the cafeteria.

As soon as we set foot on the hall, Phoebe literally squealed and jumped. "Oh my gosh, you're going out with Oyster, aren't you?" I rolled my eyes at her.

"It's not what you think. It's just lunch and he's just a friend. Please don't look into it more," I said. But she didn't stop being all jumpy.

"Oh, come on. Oyster is cute and he's really nice. I'm sure it's not just a friendly lunch affair."

"Pheebs," I said as I refrained from walking. "He is a nice person but you know that I don't like him that way. And besides, maybe you're acting like this because you're a wee bit jealous. You used to like him, remember?"

"I'm sooo over him, Vanessa," she assured. We continued walking past the students scattered around the main hall and made our way towards the exit that leads to the field. "And you'll have my full support if you two ended up being together."

"No, no," I said with much concern on my voice. "We're not going to end up together so don't start planning my future in your head, Pheebs. Besides, I haven't asked permission from my parents for Sunday yet. For all I know, they will most likely disagree."

"That's great, what time will he pick you up?"

Oh, wow. I never expected any of this to happen. My parents are great, by the way. They are loving, supportive, and just all-around amazing. They are my childhood heroes and I aspire to be just as great as they are someday. But besides all that, they are, or were, very strict. Back in Beetlepen, in order for the neighborhood kids to befriend me, Dad had to practically see their family history at least five generations back. No criminal records, dire diseases, stuff like that. And Mom invites them over to our home and makes stupid tests and obstacles that they need to pass in order to have me as their friend. It was annoying, really, that's why I only had a handful of people I was really close to.

When we moved to Hiddenville, they significantly dropped the strict rules. My curfew changes indefinitely. I could hang out with anyone I like, hence my closeness to the Thundermans and Cherry. I still have to do my chores, of course. And I must never break that one and only rule they have or else we'll be returning to Beetlepen before I could say 'sweet cheese'.

However, I never expected them to be this okay with me hanging out with a guy who I mentioned likes me likes me.

I almost dropped my fork when Dad asked me that question. "Are you serious, Dad? I mean, aren't you going to ask me what he is like? Aren't you going to scan through the history of his ancestors or something?"

"Nope," that replied bluntly as he returned to his mashed potatoes.

"And Mom, you're okay with this as well? Aren't you going to make him lift, I don't know, boulders from the neighboring town to our house?" I asked in a more frantic manner than I intended to.

"Oh, darling, why would I do that?" she countered with a sweet smile at me. I just stared at her with wide eyes and slightly gaping mouth. "You told me you're helping him in biology, which is nice of you, by the way. He's in a band, which is better than importing illegal stuff to the country. He seems cute, judging by the way you described his perfect set of pearly white teeth. And most importantly, he asked you nicely on a date and waited for us to give our go signal."

I blinked at least three times before answering her. "Okay, first of all," I said while raising a forefinger up in the air. "It's not a date. It's just friendly lunch." Dad snorted at this but never looked up at me. "And second, this is so unlike you to agree to this. I'm not even sure if you're still the same people who raised me."

"You seem like you don't want to hang out with this kid," Dad said.

"It's not like that. He is nice but… I don't know. You guys aren't acting like yourselves." There was silence on the table. "Besides, Dad, you told me no dating until after high school, remember?"

This time, he turned to me with something mischievous behind his eyes. "But you said this wasn't a date, right?" I was taken aback. Alright, fine. So maybe it was still, in some way, sort of a date. "Look, I only said that when we were in Beetlepen and you know how it was back there. Things change, love. We're now in Hiddenville which is, so far, relatively a safer place. I trust the people here and I trust your judgment. This, Clam kid."

"Oyster," I corrected him.

"Same thing," he countered immediately. "You're not going to marry him. It's just lunch."

"Your dad's right, Vanessa," Mom joined in while holding Dad's hand. "We all like it here in Hiddenville." I nodded my head at that statement, agreeing. "And well, your dad and I decided that we were too strict with our rules back at our old home. We wanted to make up for it and this kind of opportunity might be the best. You never dated guys, anyway. You're sixteen and we've been there," she said, referring to her and dad. "We just don't want to rob you of your youth. We trust you because you are a smart girl."

I sighed deeply, closed my eyes, and massaged my temples. I don't know why but a part of me kind of expected to text Oyster tonight and apologize because I couldn't hang out with him this coming Sunday. But now that I know that things are going to change, I'm not entirely sure how I would feel about it. Shouldn't I be happy that my parents understand what's it like to be a teenager? Finally, after all these years, I get to be a little freer to do what I want.

While I was in deep thought, Mom collected the plates and instructed me to go to my room and do my homework. But I still couldn't focus. I really don't like Oyster in that way and I'm afraid I would lead him on. Should I just… I don't know… Maybe I'm overthinking it. I picked up my phone, dialed Oyster's number, and waited for him to pick up.

"Vanessa, hi."

"Hi, Oyster. About Sunday…"

Author's Note: So, what do you guys think? Please leave a review as it serves as my motivation to continue writing haha. Thanks!