Ray and Schwoz's plan may have gotten Piper away from Junk N' Stuff, but she stuck like glue to Henry and Charlotte afterwards. They both knew they wouldn't be able to shake her off, so the best hope they had was to just take a day off and let her drag along. They also thought about having Charlotte just claim to need to go home because she was tired, or something, but Piper decided to mention at some point that if they tried to separate before she could "collect any valuable information that will be useful in my helping you," she would tell Jasper about them.

Ironic.

They didn't want to drag Jasper into the lie (more than he was, anyway), mostly because they were sure he would mess it up somehow (they loved their friend, but he's pretty bad at keeping secrets), so Henry and Charlotte figured they might as well spend the day wisely. The stopped by Nacho Ball, the House of Tramps, and then an ice cream place. (Henry had a weird feeling about going to Becky's Ice Cream Palace, so Charlotte suggested another place. Not that they mentioned this to Piper.) Even though Henry was nervous about missing a mission, and Charlotte was worried for him, they actually found themselves having fun. Even Piper did, too.

In fact, they were having so much fun, they didn't notice when anyone walked in or out of the ice cream store while they were eating. Specifically, they didn't notice when a certain person walked in because Piper gave herself a brain freeze, and Henry and Charlotte were laughing.

The person glanced over and saw them, but they didn't pay much attention once they figured out the younger girl at the table had eaten too fast. They didn't pay much attention to anyone else in the store, just walked up to the counter, ordered their ice cream, got it, and walked out.

As they left, though, they couldn't help but have a feeling in their gut that they should stay. The person peered into the window and looked around, then over at the table where the girl had gotten a brain freeze, only to discover it was empty.

The person looked around. The kids who had sat at that table- a boy, a girl, and the younger girl with the brain freeze, were walking towards a car. They climbed in and drove off.

Something in their gut said to follow them.

Eating their cup of ice cream, the person speed-walked in the direction the car has driven and found it parked around the corner, in front of the House of Tramps, as the three had decided to go back and jump some more.

The person finished their ice cream and threw the cup away before going inside.

There were screens where people- mostly parents- could watch others bounce and play Dodge-A-Leen. On one of them, the person could see the kids, about their own age. One of them- the boy- looked vaguely familiar to them, but they couldn't place him.

They watched him bounce on the trampoline, dodge and throw balls. They couldn't figure out why he was bothering them so much.

Wait… there was something familiar about the way he jokingly tackled the younger girl on the trampoline. I've seen him do that before… but where? They watched him fight with the girls, but it was obviously play-fighting. It was the clumsiness that gave it away, how it appeared he lacked practice in combat, wrestling looked like a thirteen-year old-

The person gasped and covered their mouth. No way, it can't be… can it? They gripped onto the nearby table. Is it possible? The person swallowed, looking back up at the screen- They're gone.

They looked around, trying not to look to frantic. They could hear the younger girl speaking as they asked towards the exit: "Yeah, I think that's enough, I can tell that-" Whatever came after that was lost because the door closed after them.

Henry, Charlotte and Piper climbed into the car, unaware that they were being watched from inside. "Anyway, I have to say, you guys seem stable."

Henry and Charlotte quickly rolled their eyes. Piper hadn't brought up their "relationship" all day, probably so they'd forget the real purpose of their spending time with her. But Piper seemed to believe that their "romance" didn't need any work.

As they drove away, Piper giving them of a few words of general advice ("Communication is key," for instance), the person who had been watching them left the House Of Tramps and, as subtlety as they could manage, followed the car, keeping an eye on the license plate. They watched the older girl get dropped of at a house, then the younger girl and the boy pull into a garage at another. Feeling like a stalker, the person creeped around the house and spotted the boy through a window. I must be crazy… but I have to try.

Henry left his room long enough for the person to whip off their string backpack that they were wearing, take out and tear out a page from the sketch pad that they always had with them, find a pencil, scribble a note, and open the window enough to slip the folded piece of paper so it was inside, but still trapped in the window, and climbed down the tree just as he entered the room.

If I'm wrong… the person swallowed and crouched under a section of the house that was hollowed out.

The paper was the first thing Henry noticed when he got back to what the person figured was his bedroom. Cautiously, he walked over and slid it in all the way. He unfolded it. He read it.

He almost passed out.

Henry's first instinct was to call Charlotte. His second instinct was to call Ray.

He picked up his phone, but something in his own gut told him to not. Don't tell anyone, a voice in his head said. Just do it. Look at what it says.

Henry stared at the note for a long time, long enough for the sky to finally turn orange, long enough for his parents to come home, long enough that the person who left the note had long since disappeared. As time wore on, it seemed more and more stupid to do as the note said, but something told Henry to go trough with it.

Night fell. Henry went through his evening as if nothing was wrong, but when the time he would normally go to bed (unless he was working late) rolled around, he sat on the bed, awake. Eventually, he quietly slipped out the window, reading the short note one more time first.

Kid Danger,

Meet me under the Swellview sign at midnight.

I'm not going to hurt you.

Who do you guys think it is?

Ciao, and Happy Reading!