Henry has asked Piper many, many times to not honk her horn, especially when she can see them (in a no-honking zone, no less) but, naturally, she did so anyway.

"Come on, Piper, you're going to get us in trouble," said Henry as he climbed into the back seat. Jasper followed him, and Charlotte, being her favorite of the three, sat up front with Piper.

"Oh well," said Piper from the driver's seat, as she backed out. Henry saw Charlotte clutching her seat as they accelerated. Piper was a much better driver than she used to be, at least. Still, the fact that she is somehow legally allowed to drive is- how to put this nicely?- horrifying.

In fact, Henry still couldn't help rolling his eyes at the fact that his sister got a license- by mistake- and he hadn't even gotten around to getting a permit yet. Being Kid Danger left him awfully busy, so he never really had time to learn. Maybe he could get Ray to teach him how to drive the Man Van. Although given what happened when he learned to fly the Mancopter, that wasn't very likely.

Anyway, as they pulled up to Jasper' s house, Piper kicked him out of the car and into the rain pretty quickly, but drove right past Charlotte's house.

"Uh, Piper, I sort of live there," said Charlotte as they drove by it without slowing down.

"I know," said Piper cheerfully, as she turned the corner, "but I have you right where I want you."

Henry and Charlotte exchanged a look in the rearview mirror. Those words meant trouble when coming from super villains, but coming from Piper, they weren't sure what to expect.

About a block away from Charlotte's house, Piper parked about turned to face her friend. "You know, this may sound weird, but here in America, couples tend to sit next to each other in the car."

"Fine, then I'll drive," said Henry from the backseat.

Piper scoffed. "Please, you don't even have a permit yet. What I meant is, Charlotte, get in the back seat."

Rolling her eyes, Charlotte climbed over and almost kicked Piper in the face (on accident, of course) as she climbed into the back of the car. "Happy now?" Charlotte asked as she put on her seatbelt.

"Mmm, not quite," said Piper as she drove again. "Now, when did you guys start dating?"

"What?" Henry and Charlotte said at the same time, exchanging a look.

"Generally, when someone asked a question, it's considered polite to answer." Henry's first thought was What does Piper know about being polite? "When did you guys start dating?" Piper repeated.

Henry and Charlotte glanced at each other again.

See, this is the part where keeping the secret gets tricky. They lied to keep her from getting suspicious, and now they have to lie more to cover things up. Not to mention the fact that they have to keep their lies straight.

And they have to agree on the lies. AND the lies need to work in their favor.

"Uh… I dunno," said Charlotte, an idea forming in her head. "Actually, being me, I put it on my calendar. Let's see…." Charlotte pulled out her phone and opened it to her notes, typing a note to Henry.

Recent or longer?

Idk

I think longer than recently is better, because it provides a better story. But shorter means fewer details we need to make up.

Yeah

"Are you guys going to tell me when you guys started dating or not?" Piper called from the front seat.

"Not, because that's not your business," said Charlotte. Or, rather, that's what she was about to say, but Henry panicked and threw out an answer: "Last week."

Charlotte didn't want Piper to see her giving Henry a dirty look, so she pinched him instead.

"Yeah, actually," added Henry, rubbing the sore spot where he got pinched, "today is our one-week anniversary. We were hoping to spend it alone."

Charlotte was about to pinch him again when she realized what he was doing.

"Yeah," she said, building on his lie, "we wanted to go somewhere by ourselves."

"Yeah." Henry said, more details to the lie coming to him. "We were thinking about Fred Lobster."

Another thing about lying: sometimes, it gets you into deeper trouble.

"Oh, I'll take you!" Piper said cheerfully.

Shoot. "Uh, Piper, you don't have to-"

"No, really!" Piper looked at them in the rearview mirror. "I get free food there now, because of the commercial I did."

"The one nobody has seen?" Henry said under his breath.

"We saw it that one time, it was just in Spanish! But no, really, let's go, my treat. More or less."

A few minutes later, Henry and Charlotte were sitting next to each other in a booth at one of Swellview's many Fred Lobsters. Piper was up at the counter ordering their food.

"I can't believe we got ourselves into this," said Charlotte, holding her head in her hand.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have suggested this place." Henry has to admit it was partially his fault. Of course, even if he hadn't mentioned it, this whole scenario could've happened anyway.

Really, they wouldn't be in this mess if they didn't make Piper think they were dating. There were a lot of "If this had/hadn't happened"s in this lie. There were a lot of those in being Kid Danger, too.

Not to mention life in general.

At any rate, they were sitting in a Fred Lobster booth, waiting on the girl who happened to be Henry's little sister, who thought they were dating.

Living a lie is hard.

"Okay," said Piper when she got back. "One week ago, you two started dating. How and when did you realize you were in love?"

And now they couldn't even use phones to silently communicate. Great!

Charlotte was the first to come up with something… more or less. "It just kind of happened," she said with a casual shrug. "We spend a lot of time together, at school and work and stuff, so… you know." Charlotte spread her hands out, like "Yeah, you know what I mean."

Piper actually looked… seriously? Disappointed. "Seriously? Come on, people, I need details! Henry," she said, making her brother jump, "anything to add?"

"Uh…" Henry glanced at Charlotte, who lightly shrugged.

A thought crossed his mind. Sometimes, much to his annoyance, Piper would leave some of her tween romance books lying around. On occasion, Henry would be sitting at home and get bored enough he would pick one of them up. Most of this was before he became Kid Danger, but he racked his brains enough to remember a couple things.

"Well… I started getting nervous when I was around her. Like, I was worried that if I did something stupid she would think I was an idiot."

Piper looked at her brother like he was an idiot. "Dude, you two have known each other for years. Why would you just now worry?"

"Because… because as I fell in love with her, I started becoming unnecessarily worried about losing her." Thank you, tween romance books.

"Interesting," said Piper, "but not enough."

"Enough for what?" Charlotte asked. "What's with all the questions?"

Piper gave an exasperated sigh, like it should have been obvious. "Well, if you'll recall, this morning I was giving you relationship advice that you seemed reluctant to take."

"Uh… yeah."

"After you guys left," Piper folded her hands on the table, "I realized what I was doing wrong."

"Prying into our business?" Henry said as a waiter came by with glasses of water.

"Shut up, Henry. What I realized is I was being too broad."

Henry and Charlotte looked at each other. What?

"If I was going to give accurate relationship advice, I need to know more about the relationship." Piper spread her hands out again throughout her explanation. "Seeing as how you two don't like questions, I'm just going to hand or with you guys at Junk N' Stuff tomorrow."

Charlotte almost choked on the water she was drinking. "What?!"

"Don't worry, I won't bother you too much, you'll hardly know I'm there. I figure might even buy something while I'm- oh, food's ready, be right back!" Piper slid out of the booth and toward the counter.

Henry and Charlotte looked at each other. How are we going to get out of this one?

Me right before school let out: "Alright! Once school's over, I'll be able to get a few chapters ahead of the story!"

Me at one A.M. this morning: "142 words into Chapter 20. Crud."

Yeah.

Ciao, and Happy Reading!