Review Response

Ryan Harper - Wow, you reviewed fast! Thank you, thank you! You'll find out exactly what he did in this chapter. We all make idiot moves at times, and in Nicky's case, the idiot move was his phone passcode.

Malou Nelson went in through the front door of her family's villa. She had just ran there from the nearby park, where she had been choreographing a dance for the junior's group she taught on weekends. From nowhere it had began raining, and Malou, who was severely underdressed to be on the wet grass outside, had been forced to run home. As she kicked her drenched trainers off, she made an attempt to brush some rain water off her choreographing notebook. All she managed to do was smear it out and blur some of the notes on the formation.

"Back already?" shouted a deep voice from deeper in the house.

"It started raining!" Malou answered.

A long 'ooooh' came from her older brother. A few seconds later, he appeared through the double door to the living room.

"S'the choreo coming together?" he asked, gesturing to Malou's wet notebook.

"It is!" Malou said, lighting up. "I've got the finale left to do, but it seems that will have to wait." She lifted her arms to show the spots of rain which made her light pink hoodie seem like a dark pink one with light splotches.

"Great," her brother gave a thumbs up, then ruffled his hand through her hair. He wiped the water off on his shirt before he went back into the living room.

Malou grabbed her bag off the floor and ran up the stairs in front of her. She turned to the immediate door on the left, and went into her bedroom. She dumped the bag in the corner and thought to herself that she would empty it later, though she knew that this was a lie. The second she crashed on her queen size bed, the bag was out of her mind, and she was entirely focused on her phone. What she needed to and what she actually did differed a lot.

Many minutes of memes, celebrity pictures and videos of cats later, the thought of what she actually was meant to be doing at the moment came back. She thrust herself off the bed, and was just about to pull off her shirt to go take a shower when the faint sound of the doorbell reached her ears.

"Doug!" she yelled. When she got no reply, she opened her door and shouted down the stairs, "Doug, would you get it?!"

"I'm making dinner; you gotta open!"

'This'll have to be quick,' Malou thought while she hurried down the stairs. She could hear the rain outside, and wondered what anyone would be doing outside this late in this weather. She unlocked and opened the door.

Outside stood Nicky. His eyes were red and puffy, his entire face was shining wet, and his clothes were soaked from the rain. He looked completely destroyed. The sight of Nicky in this state almost drove Malou to tears as well.

"Nicky? What- what's wrong?"

"Can we talk in private?" he said very sharply.

Without hesitation, Malou stepped aside and Nicky went in. They quickly went upstairs and into Malou's bedroom. Malou sat down on her bed. Nicky followed and they both leaned back against the headboard. At the moment, Malou couldn't care less about how wet and cold Nicky was. The second they were sitting still, she pulled him into a tight hug.

"What's going on?" she said softly. She tightened her hold of him a bit more.

"Was the switch my fault?" Nicky asked.

The question was unexpected. Nicky had told her everything about what had happened after she left that night. She knew about the argument, what had been said, the wave of energy, and the switch. But not had she once considered that it was Nicky's fault.

"Who's saying it is?" she said irritably, feeling that she never wanted to look whoever did in the eye again.

"Ricky and Dicky," Nicky said.

Yet again, Malou's feelings switched. Another thing that she had never imagined was happening.

"I thought it was Dawn," she said quietly, more to herself than to Nicky.

"So did I," he responded. "She teleported the book, I tore it. Then we switched."

"And that wouldn't have happened if they didn't try to control your life," Malou said decisively. "They've taken so much from you, now they're paying the price."

"And so am I," Nicky sighed.

"Unfortunately so," Malou said. "But no, I don't think it was your fault."

They both sat up straighter in the bed, and embraced each other even closer.

"Thank you." Nicky found the driest spot on his shirt, and wiped his face dry on it. He instantly looked ten times happier.

"No problem," Malou said calmly. She watched him do wipe his face on his sleeve with a fond smile on her face.

"You know what?" said Nicky. A whole new light shone in his eyes, and finally, he was smiling again. He leaned in closer to her, and Malou went along without a second thought. Right before their lips met, Nicky whispered, "I love you."

Malou immediately felt warm inside. Their lips touched, and she was immediately able to say that this was the best kiss they had ever shared.

"I love you too," she said the second they were apart. Barely a moment passed before they were kissing again. No matter how wet their shirts were, how sorrowful the circumstances were and how cold they were, they never wanted to separate.

Nicky spent the following hour at Malou's place. They ate dinner with Douglas and Malou's other siblings, played a bunch of stupid quizzes on Fuzzfeed, and were in the middle of a conversation when Malou's phone suddenly started ringing. They were currently on Malou's bed when a song started playing on Malou's phone. Malou jumped off the bed and picked up the ringing phone from her desk. When she saw who was calling, a crease appeared on her forehead.

"The call's coming from your phone," she told Nicky confusedly.

"Oh. Yeah, I left it in the backyard," Nicky said, and Malou could see he regret his decision.

"Should I answer?"

Nicky nodded and mumbled something about it being his siblings. Malou pressed the green button and held the phone up; the loudspeaker on.

"Hey!" she said, using the tone of voice she would have done if it was Nicky calling. She turned to Nicky to see his reaction. He laughed under his breath.

"Hi Malou, it's Dawn, Ricky and Dicky," Dawn's voice said on the other side of the phone.

"Oh," Malou intentionally changed her tone. "Why are you calling me from Nicky's phone?"

"Long story short; Nicky's gone," they could hear Ricky explaining. "Do you know where he is?"

Nicky immediately shook his head vigorously to Malou. She was one quick reflex away from giggling, before she quickly caught control over herself to respond to the other quads.

"I'm sorry, but no," she said. Then she put on her best worried tone. "Why's he gone? What's happened?"

The worry in her voice was not only to sell the act, but also to make the other quads feel guilty. She couldn't believe them.

"Nothing serious," Ricky answered very quickly. Malou could faintly hear Dicky mumble, "We think."

"So do you have any idea where he's gone?" Dawn's voice said loudly. Malou had to move the phone away from her ear in order to not hurt it.

"Absolutely not," she said.

"So he's not with you?" Ricky said.

"He isn't," Malou smirked to Nicky, who gave her two encouraging thumbs up.

"Okay, bye," said Dawn quickly. She hung up the phone before Malou could even say another word.

Malou and Nicky waited a second, looked at each other, and then burst out laughing. All the giggles they had held back while talking to the other quads were now flowing out in the form of laughter. Malou walked over and threw herself onto the bed next to Nicky again, where they lay laughing, and discussing how bad the other quads fell for Malou's act. After a few minutes, Nicky started playing with Dicky's powers, doing his best to turn his hair into that of his siblings, and mimicking them. First when they started discussing where the quads's sudden concern came from, and Nicky suggested that it was because he missed meatloaf night did they realize that it was very late in the evening. Nicky gave Malou a quick goodbye kiss, and hurried down into the hall. Then he was out, scurrying home.

It was like walking down a fully different street than the one he walked on when he was on his way away from the quads. Granted, it was still raining, but inside of him it was now light again. A small smile was still left on his lips from his time spent with Malou. He certainly enjoyed that more than hanging out with the people who blamed him for everything that happened to them.

The walk home also felt a lot shorter than the walk to Malou's. A few hours ago, time had seemed to go slower with all the doubts and depressing thoughts he was bearing. Now he was light as a feather, and time felt like it sped up.

In no time at all was he was walking up the stone path to the porch. He hurried up the steps and put the key in the lock. Then, his mind distracted with thoughts of Malou, he stepped inside. The three other quads sitting on the couch went completely unnoticed by him until he looked up from his wet sneakers. They all sat on the couch, their heads turned to him, shocked expressions on their faces, and an episode of The Raincoat Academy playing on the TV.

All the happiness from a minute ago was gone.