Henry tried his best to sleep, but it's hard for him to get enough rest when an alarm is set to wake him up for school. Not to mention how late he tends to stay out because of Kid Danger stuff.
Somehow, Henry dragged himself out of bed, dragged himself to the bathroom, dragged himself back to his room, and dragged himself through the first half of his morning routine. Normally, he'd have a bit more Friday Morning Energy, because, you know, weekend approaching, but he was drained.
As Henry walked downstairs, he could hear Piper's voice.
"Next, you want to make sure that he doesn't get too comfortable."
"Comfortable?" Henry recognized Charlotte's voice. He could see that they were sitting at the bar, with Piper's laptop.
"Make sure he doesn't feel like the relationship is going too well- he needs to know that other guys are going to be after you, so he becomes more devoted."
"That," said Henry, causing Piper and Charlotte to look over at him, "is the worst advice I have ever heard."
"Agreed," said Charlotte. She turned back to Piper. "Pipes, I really don't think I need this."
"Um, yes you do. I made a whole slideshow for you, so pay attention."
"Yeah, no. Let's go before we're late." Charlotte picked up her backpack, tossed a Pop-Tart package at Henry, who managed to catch it without his super fast reflexes, and they left.
"Your sister is insane," said Charlotte as they walked to school.
"Believe me, I know," said Henry as he adjusted his backpack. A dragonfly flew around his face, and he smacked it. Hearing footsteps, he turned around. "Hey, Jasper!"
"Hey Hen! Hey, Char. What happened last night?"
Of course he asked.
Henry gave him most of the story- he didn't mention Piper thinking that they were dating. He didn't need to think that again.
The three teens finally arrived at school. The day proceeded, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Nothing that they knew about, anyway.
"Okay, how about 'Wall Dogs and Friends'?"
"Um, no way."
"Why?"
"First of all, we are not friends. Second, you people aren't leading this thing, Minyak is."
While Henry and then were still at school, somehow, the team of villains (minus Minyak) has congregated and we're trying to come up with a team name, like they were at summer camp, or something. They had been at it for awhile and had already ruled out:
"The Evils"
"Evil Crew"
"L.O.V.E. M.U.F.F.I.N."
Etc.
Spray Z was the one who suggested "Wall Dogs and Friends." Maddy was the first to reject it.
Nurse Cohort spoke up. "'Doctors and Nurses'?"
"That doesn't sound bad enough."
"'Evil Doctors and Nurses'?"
Obviously, they were not making very much progress. Beyonspray was offering up "The Bad Guys" when Dr. Minyak entered.
"First of all," he said loudly, announcing himself. The room went quiet, "you people come up with absolutely horrid names."
"So did your momma!" Someone called out, causing laughter to erupt throughout the room.
Dr. Minyak managed to ignore that comment… although he made a mental note to figure out who said it later. "Secondly, we are going out again tonight."
There were mixed reactions- some people groaned, whining that they were still too tired from last night, and others were elated.
"Before you get to excited," added Dr. Minyak, holding up a hand to silence the room, "we won't be attacking tonight."
Again, there were mixed reactions. Some people were glad for what sounded like an easy mission, and others were pouting that they wanted to cause permanent damage. "Or, at the very least, spray paint in his face" was what Two Canz said.
"Why," said Maddy finally, "are we not attacking?"
"Because," said Nurse Cohort in a duh kind of tone, "we need them to let their guard down."
"They need to think something's wrong, but we can't push it," added Dr. Minyak.
"Yeah, you've said that before, but you won't tell us why!" Two Canz yelled from the crowd. "You won't tell us s-"
"Do I need to give another speech?" Minyak gave Two Canz a threatening look, and she backed off. "Everyone go to the same place we meant yesterday, but first, eat something. I don't want any grumbling stomachs to distract from my plan."
Henry was running a few feet ahead of Charlotte and Jasper during gym class. Not even because of his superpower- he's always been faster than them.
Charlotte was only a few feet behind her best friend, but Jasper was already exhausted and they were only on the first of four laps; he was covered in sweat.
The track at their school was oval-shaped; generally, the process was to run the straight sections and walk the curved sections. Henry was the first one to reach the curve, Charlotte was close behind, and Jasper finally caught up to them.
"Look alive, Dunlop!" Their gym teacher yelled from the other side of the track. Jasper groaned as Mitch Bilkey and his, er, friends laughed and pointed from the other side of the track.
"Buttheads," said Henry, trying to make his friend feel better.
Jasper kind of nodded, breathing heavily. "Yeah."
They let a few other kids pass them before continuing on the curve. "So then what happened?"
"I told you, we went home," said Henry. "Nothing else happened."
Henry and Charlotte had told Jasper what went down after he had to leave work approximately 8,324 times. Well, okay, maybe not that many. But he was definitely asking about it a lot- 8,346 times.
Or so.
Mercifully, Charlotte changed the subject. "Henry, don't forget you're getting another injection today."
"Fun." Henry's blood tests looked good, but Schwoz insisted on a continuous treatment plan to make sure it didn't come back. "Can't wait to lose use of my arm again."
"You didn't lose use of it, you lost control," said Charlotte, mostly teasing him.
"Yeah, but I'm the one donating blood for you," said Jasper, "So you're welcome." He looked at his friend. "Henry?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry, spaced out for a second." It wasn't a lie- Henry kept losing his train of thought. In fact, so did Charlotte. And Ray. And Schwoz, and even Jasper.
They were worried.
And they didn't even know the whole truth.
Ciao, and Happy Reading!