Michelle was mad. Almost too mad to rationalise, but nonetheless mad.
"I'm going to kill that brother of mine today." she muttered through gritted teeth.
"Being late doesn't mean the world will end," said Mike.
"I could accept this if it were just ten minutes.but it wasn't."
"Shell, someone's gonna turn your clocks and everything backward at least once in your life."
"That's not helping."
"It's a harmless prank that everyone does!" Mike panted a little to keep up with Michelle's speed walking.
"But a whole half-hour behind?!" Michelle nearly screamed. She stopped walking and glared at Mike.
"Being late won't destroy your life, Michelle!" Mike's voice was rising.
"Why're you taking his side.ok. I could take this if we hadn't missed the 8:20 bus, but we missed that too, and now it's 8:35 and we aren't even halfway to school! And we're walking because the next bus comes at 8:40, which is when school starts!" Michelle resumed walking, picking up the pace a little.
"Are you blaming me for this?"
"No, I'm." Michelle shook her head, "Sorry. It's just that I'm angry at myself for telling him about that prank last week, it's Monday morning, I wasn't able to sleep in Saturday because of the sleepover, I have a test first period and Ms. Wren may not give me any time to make up for what I missed.I'm dead!" Suddenly panicked, Michelle started running towards school.
"Of course it's your fault that Nat set the clocks backward," said Mike, running right beside her, "It's always your fault whatever he does."
"Heh?" Michelle slowed back down to speed walking.
"He still copy-cats you. He reads a lot, hogs the computer when you're not around, talks to his birds, his facial expressions are very similar, he drools when he sleeps." Michelle kicked Mike in the shins, who in turn tried to punch her shoulder. Michelle stepped out of the way and tried poking Mike on the right side with her left hand. He in turn grabbed her hand and stomped where her right foot was supposed to be. Michelle hopped out of the way, circled around Mike's right as he switched the hand keeping hers from poking to his right hand. She nearly punched him in the stomach but he was able to catch that hand too.
"Hello, stranger." teased Mike.
"Hi," said Michelle, "Fancy falling into your arms here."
Mike let Michelle go and both of them resumed walking.
"I guess it's just a good thing that Ivy told us that it was 7:30, not 7 o'clock."
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when we walk into class late?" asked Mike.
Michelle suddenly burst out laughing, and Mike looked at her strangely.
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when they remind us that we can morph?" she exclaimed.
Mike blinked then smiled.
"D@^# it, you're right!" he looked around at the windows of the surrounding houses, "I don't think anyone's watching."
In a moment, there were two sparrows in the air. Their backpacks were substituted for small twigs that they each carried in their beaks.
{We are such idiots!} Mike laughed as he flipped in the air, dodging tree branches.
{How could we forget one of the best things that's ever happened to us?} Michelle wondered.
{It's also partly a curse, don't forget,} reminded Mike.
{The bill for mutant registration hasn't been passed yet at Parliament Hill. Yes, the people for the bill seem strong. But that doesn't give us an excuse to start packing now,} said Michelle.
Mike flew up ahead.
{Race ya to school!}
{You're on!}
Both the morphed teens ducked and wove through branches, fences, and powerlines.
{Dontcha just love flying!!} yelled Michelle as she twirled to miss a slow- flying crow.
{Beats running, any day!} agreed Mike, zigzagging crazily through a young tree's branches.
Within two minutes, they'd arrived at the school. Both demorphed in a corner that they knew very few students passed.
"I win!" cheered Mike.
"Sh! Come on! It's 8:39! We're not late yet," hurried Michelle breathlessly. Morphing did not restore energy, and she was very competitive in races.
Melissa, Phil, Adam and Kevin were already where the group had clustered their lockers.
"You two seem winded," commented Melissa, after barely glancing up from her Tad Williams novel.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," saluted Michelle, still walking down the hallway.
"What vigorous activity were ou two involved in?" asked Phil suggestively.
"Well?" prompted Kevin.
Adam put on his best shocked face.
"Good God, you weren't having-"
Michelle cut Adam off by throwing her backpack onto him, knocking him over.
"No," she said firmly, then added, "Move over a bit Melissa."
Michelle opened up her locker, hung up her jacket, took her backpack from Adam, and began to get out all the books she'd need before lunch. Adam wasn't finished though.
"Have either of you no modesty?" he continued, oblivious to the glare Mike was giving him, "Especially so early in the mo-"
He was cut off this time by Mike's backpack.
"You don't need to act like Geordie, just because he isn't here," said Mike, an edge in his voice.
Michelle caught his eye, and her expression told him to calm down.
"Aren't we late? Isn't it 8:49 by now?" asked Michelle.
"You kidding? It's 8:19!" corrected Kevin.
Michelle looked at Mike. Mike looked at Michelle.
"I am so gonna kill Nat and Ivy when I get home," they both said together.
"Who's Ivy, and why're you both gonna kill her and Michelle's little brother?" asked Kevin, voicing the question that was on all the others' minds.
"Ivy is my cousin from the Philippines, who's sort of acting as I and Nat's nanny so that my parents can leave us at home to work a few more hours," answered Michelle.
"And we want to kill them because the both set all the clocks in the house, but ours, a half-hour ahead," added Mike.
"And we thought we were late," said Michelle, then added with a sly smile, "Well.what we did a few minutes ago made up for it, eh Mike?"
Mike caught on and laughed a bit.
"OooOOooh yeah!" he agreed, putting on a goofy grin.
Michelle giggled but the others looked confused.
"No, seriously, what were you doing?" asked Adam.
"Oh, just fooling around," said Mike suggestively.
"We were.kinda high, too, huh?" asked Michelle to Mike.
"Good God, what were you doing?" asked Phil.
"High!" Mike exclaimed, then started laughing, Michelle joining him.
"High?" Adam, Kevin and Phil raised their eyebrows.
"Whoo!" Michelle made a wavy motion with her hand then began giggling again.
"High?" Melissa thought to herself, then understood. "Oh! High!"
"Uh-huh!" Mike nodded then continued laughing.
"Hi.OH! High!" Phil nodded, understanding.
"I still don't get this," Adam thought to himself, thought a moment, then reached out with his mutation into Michelle's mind. A wave of bottled up emotions and thought hit him hard instantaneously, as soon as he got in. Adam let go of her mind and fell back, catching himself.
"Whoa, Adam, you ok?" asked Michelle, who had finally stopped giggling.
"I.yeah. Good." Adam nodded, but looked at Michelle oddly.
"What the hell do you guys mean by 'high'?!?" exclaimed Kevin, who hadn't noticed Adam yet.
"You know," Mike pointed up, "High!"
Kevin blinked then said, "You doped up?"
"No! We were up high!"
"I'm not getting this!!!" exclaimed Kevin, "First I thought you were fooling around with each other-"
"We were," interrupted Mike.
"Aaaaaaagh!"
After the last bell that day, Adam, Phil, Melissa, Michelle and Mike were clustered around their lockers, getting their stuff for home.
"How was the French test?" asked Adam, stuffing his math notebook into his backpack.
"Evil," answered Phil.
"Fine," answered Melissa.
"Fun," answered Michelle.
"Only Michelle Gilpo would call a French Unit test fun," muttered Phil, returning a French anthology to his locker.
"That's 'cuz she actually likes French," said Adam.
"Melissa does too," whined Michelle, reaching for her geography text on the top shelf of her locker.
"Well, I like Music more," said Melissa, yanking her backpack out of her locker.
"Where's O'neill?" asked Michelle.
"You mean Kevin?" asked Mike, "He had a chiropractor appointment."
"So he's not coming to the lockers?" asked Phil.
"No."
"Good," said Melissa, grabbing her lunch bag.
"Aight," said Michelle, punching her lunch box into her backpack.
"Could we call a meeting?" asked Mike and Adam at the same time.
Phil looked up and down the hallway. It was empty until the part of the hallways that were out of earshot.
"Ok, when?" asked Melissa.
"Now?" suggested Mike, "Or we can leave to go there now, anyway?"
"Don't see why not," answered Phil.
"Would my place be ok?" asked Michelle.
"Sure," said Adam, then privately, in Michelle's head, {Could I talk to you later? Cough if yes.}
Michelle coughed before putting her backpack on.
"You ok?" asked Mike.
"Mm-hm," nodded Michelle. She slammed her locker shut and waited by the doors to the stairwell for the others to catch up.
"What's the meeting about?" asked Melissa. She stumbled suddenly, then frowned, turning. Who pushed her?
"Melissa, what year?" Phil called, being the last of the others on the stairs, next to Melissa.
"Coming," replied Melissa. She pushed whatever thoughts were in her mind out of it, and hurried down the stairs to the group.
"Wouldn't your parents mind?" asked Adam to Michelle.
"Nah. How can they mind if they're not here? Both are busy until 8 o'clock tonight, Até Ivy won't mind, and Nat usually knows when to stay out of the way," said Michelle.
Phil sat by a table, staring at the birds as if mesmerised. Melissa was in the hallway, looking at the Gilpo family's message board. Adam and Michelle were both sitting on opposite sides of the family's green leather couch, Phil across the room from them and Melissa to their right. Mike was in the kitchen, looking for some chips and pop to take to the main living room for the group.
"Were you looking for this?" Ate Ivy walking into the kitchen and held up a large bag of regular Lays, and a large bottle of Pepsi for Mike to see.
"Um.oh! Yeah! Thanks Até Ivy," Mike took the things from her, "Where're the."
Nat showed up behind Ivy holding up a bag of Styrofoam cups and a bowl.
"Thanks, kid," Michelle called down the hall, "And thanks, Até."
"You're welcome," Ivy smiled then went downstairs. Michelle's little brother went into his room and locked the door.
"Your brother and 'cuz ain't so bad sometimes," said Mike, putting all the things he was carrying onto the small coffee table by the couch.
"Uh." Michelle started.
Mike opened up the Pepsi bottle, which promptly exploded onto him.
"Aagh!" went Mike.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, jumping between Michelle and the Pepsi bottle so that it wouldn't get to her.
"Close it!" exclaimed Michelle, jumping up and snatching the blanket that covered the couch so that it wouldn't get stained, "The couch won't stain, just the blanket," thought Michelle.
"Red alert!" cried Melissa, who had heard the commotion and run into the living room.
"I can't see! There's pop in my eyes!" exclaimed Mike.
"Ok then," Adam pushed him out of the way, grabbed the cap, and screwed the bottle tight. Michelle began barking out orders.
"Melissa, take Mike to the washroom and help him out if there's any damage. Mike, you go wash the pop out with cold water. Adam, help me get some paper towels for the table. How did the carpet stay dry? Phil, you."
Adam and Michelle, who were both left in the room, looked at Phil. Oblivious to the Pepsi incident, he was still mesmerised by the birds. Both Michelle and Adam noticed that Michelle's blue budgie was bobbing its head at a steady pace. They glanced at each other, then shook their heads.
"Hypnotic budgie?" Adam said as they went to the kitchen for paper towels.
"No way," answered Michelle. She grabbed a handful of brown paper towels, and handed half of them to Adam.
"Hey, these are like the school's paper towels," said Adam.
"I know. I said that when my parents brought them back from the store."
Michelle carefully put her towels one by one around the table, so that the pop wouldn't drip onto the floor while they were wiping it. Adam did the same on the other side.
"THAT'S COLD!" exclaimed Mike from down the hall.
"That's the point!" said Melissa, in an annoyed tone.
"Maybe we should help Melissa out?" asked Adam as he wiped the table.
"I think she's ok. Nothing she can't deal with," answered Michelle. She paused, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Later," said Adam.
"And why not now?"
"You might start yelling, and I don't need public embarrassment right now."
"Ok." Michelle glanced at Phil, "What do you think happened to him?"
Adam chuckled.
"Well.here, I'll show you. I'll try to get my thought into your mind. You ok with that?"
"I don't know. Will it work?"
"Yeah. I tried it with my little brother, Sam. I was trying to get him to go to dinner, and it didn't work just talking to him, so I planted the idea that maybe he should go downstairs, and he got up and did that."
"Well.all right."
Adam hesitated, then reached out to her mind, just in case. This time the emotions and thoughts didn't hit him like it did that morning. She was trusting him entirely, though hoping that his thought sharing would work. Adam shared with her a mental picture of Michelle's budgie in her cage, surrounded by old birdseed shells that were giving off visible incense smoke. The bird was bobbing its head up and down, with one of Michelle's watches in her beak. Somehow, the budgie could speak perfectly fine around the watchband. She was saying in a parrot's kind of voice, "You will feed me seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.many seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.you will destroy the other biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirds.they must all diiiiiiiiiiieeeeee.you shall set me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee.me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!."
Michelle laughed.
"How would my budgie get its little claws onto my watch?"
Adam shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe Mike gave it to her."
"Mike." Michelle called down the hall.
"No." Adam clapped his hand over Michelle's mouth.
"What?" called Mike.
"Nothing," answered Adam.
"Mi moo mam mebmelmm." Michelle tried speaking around Adam's hand then gave up and crossed her arms, as if giving up.
"You giving up?" asked Adam, his eyes dancing with mischief, then stopped. Michelle had the same look.
"What.?"
Michelle swiftly poked, then tickled Adam on his stomach, where years of experience knew he was extra ticklish.
"No! Help! Michelle!" Adam was laughing too hard to say any more. Michelle laughed as well.
"You giving up?"
Suddenly, to her surprise, Adam grabbed Michelle around the waist, picked her up, and dropped her onto the couch. Years of experience told him not just where she was especially ticklish herself, but that she was more ticklish than he was.
"No!" Michelle gasped for air between giggles. She tried tickling him back, but her arms weren't long enough to get to him. "Stop! No! Agh! Can't breathe!" Finally she gave up. She let her arms drop and let him tickle her. Adam with her and stopped.
"You giving up?" he asked, smiling, but panting for air.
"Mm-hm," Michelle nodded, breathing in precious oxygen.
"Well, well," came Mike's voice.
Adam turned to the sound and Michelle propped herself up on her elbows.
"What vigorous activity were you two involved in?" asked Melissa.
Adam and Michelle looked at each other. Adam's shirt was rumpled and Michelle's hair looked like she had been rolling around. What's more, Michelle's legs were a bit spread apart when Adam dropped her, and Adam was partly leaning on Michelle.
"Oh, you know," said Adam, ducking his head so they would see him blush.
"Just fooling around," said Michelle, who could feel her ears burning.
Everyone turned to the sound of Phil getting up from his chair.
"Could I let the bird out?" asked Phil.
Adam and Michelle burst out laughing.
"I'm going to kill that brother of mine today." she muttered through gritted teeth.
"Being late doesn't mean the world will end," said Mike.
"I could accept this if it were just ten minutes.but it wasn't."
"Shell, someone's gonna turn your clocks and everything backward at least once in your life."
"That's not helping."
"It's a harmless prank that everyone does!" Mike panted a little to keep up with Michelle's speed walking.
"But a whole half-hour behind?!" Michelle nearly screamed. She stopped walking and glared at Mike.
"Being late won't destroy your life, Michelle!" Mike's voice was rising.
"Why're you taking his side.ok. I could take this if we hadn't missed the 8:20 bus, but we missed that too, and now it's 8:35 and we aren't even halfway to school! And we're walking because the next bus comes at 8:40, which is when school starts!" Michelle resumed walking, picking up the pace a little.
"Are you blaming me for this?"
"No, I'm." Michelle shook her head, "Sorry. It's just that I'm angry at myself for telling him about that prank last week, it's Monday morning, I wasn't able to sleep in Saturday because of the sleepover, I have a test first period and Ms. Wren may not give me any time to make up for what I missed.I'm dead!" Suddenly panicked, Michelle started running towards school.
"Of course it's your fault that Nat set the clocks backward," said Mike, running right beside her, "It's always your fault whatever he does."
"Heh?" Michelle slowed back down to speed walking.
"He still copy-cats you. He reads a lot, hogs the computer when you're not around, talks to his birds, his facial expressions are very similar, he drools when he sleeps." Michelle kicked Mike in the shins, who in turn tried to punch her shoulder. Michelle stepped out of the way and tried poking Mike on the right side with her left hand. He in turn grabbed her hand and stomped where her right foot was supposed to be. Michelle hopped out of the way, circled around Mike's right as he switched the hand keeping hers from poking to his right hand. She nearly punched him in the stomach but he was able to catch that hand too.
"Hello, stranger." teased Mike.
"Hi," said Michelle, "Fancy falling into your arms here."
Mike let Michelle go and both of them resumed walking.
"I guess it's just a good thing that Ivy told us that it was 7:30, not 7 o'clock."
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when we walk into class late?" asked Mike.
Michelle suddenly burst out laughing, and Mike looked at her strangely.
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when they remind us that we can morph?" she exclaimed.
Mike blinked then smiled.
"D@^# it, you're right!" he looked around at the windows of the surrounding houses, "I don't think anyone's watching."
In a moment, there were two sparrows in the air. Their backpacks were substituted for small twigs that they each carried in their beaks.
{We are such idiots!} Mike laughed as he flipped in the air, dodging tree branches.
{How could we forget one of the best things that's ever happened to us?} Michelle wondered.
{It's also partly a curse, don't forget,} reminded Mike.
{The bill for mutant registration hasn't been passed yet at Parliament Hill. Yes, the people for the bill seem strong. But that doesn't give us an excuse to start packing now,} said Michelle.
Mike flew up ahead.
{Race ya to school!}
{You're on!}
Both the morphed teens ducked and wove through branches, fences, and powerlines.
{Dontcha just love flying!!} yelled Michelle as she twirled to miss a slow- flying crow.
{Beats running, any day!} agreed Mike, zigzagging crazily through a young tree's branches.
Within two minutes, they'd arrived at the school. Both demorphed in a corner that they knew very few students passed.
"I win!" cheered Mike.
"Sh! Come on! It's 8:39! We're not late yet," hurried Michelle breathlessly. Morphing did not restore energy, and she was very competitive in races.
Melissa, Phil, Adam and Kevin were already where the group had clustered their lockers.
"You two seem winded," commented Melissa, after barely glancing up from her Tad Williams novel.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," saluted Michelle, still walking down the hallway.
"What vigorous activity were ou two involved in?" asked Phil suggestively.
"Well?" prompted Kevin.
Adam put on his best shocked face.
"Good God, you weren't having-"
Michelle cut Adam off by throwing her backpack onto him, knocking him over.
"No," she said firmly, then added, "Move over a bit Melissa."
Michelle opened up her locker, hung up her jacket, took her backpack from Adam, and began to get out all the books she'd need before lunch. Adam wasn't finished though.
"Have either of you no modesty?" he continued, oblivious to the glare Mike was giving him, "Especially so early in the mo-"
He was cut off this time by Mike's backpack.
"You don't need to act like Geordie, just because he isn't here," said Mike, an edge in his voice.
Michelle caught his eye, and her expression told him to calm down.
"Aren't we late? Isn't it 8:49 by now?" asked Michelle.
"You kidding? It's 8:19!" corrected Kevin.
Michelle looked at Mike. Mike looked at Michelle.
"I am so gonna kill Nat and Ivy when I get home," they both said together.
"Who's Ivy, and why're you both gonna kill her and Michelle's little brother?" asked Kevin, voicing the question that was on all the others' minds.
"Ivy is my cousin from the Philippines, who's sort of acting as I and Nat's nanny so that my parents can leave us at home to work a few more hours," answered Michelle.
"And we want to kill them because the both set all the clocks in the house, but ours, a half-hour ahead," added Mike.
"And we thought we were late," said Michelle, then added with a sly smile, "Well.what we did a few minutes ago made up for it, eh Mike?"
Mike caught on and laughed a bit.
"OooOOooh yeah!" he agreed, putting on a goofy grin.
Michelle giggled but the others looked confused.
"No, seriously, what were you doing?" asked Adam.
"Oh, just fooling around," said Mike suggestively.
"We were.kinda high, too, huh?" asked Michelle to Mike.
"Good God, what were you doing?" asked Phil.
"High!" Mike exclaimed, then started laughing, Michelle joining him.
"High?" Adam, Kevin and Phil raised their eyebrows.
"Whoo!" Michelle made a wavy motion with her hand then began giggling again.
"High?" Melissa thought to herself, then understood. "Oh! High!"
"Uh-huh!" Mike nodded then continued laughing.
"Hi.OH! High!" Phil nodded, understanding.
"I still don't get this," Adam thought to himself, thought a moment, then reached out with his mutation into Michelle's mind. A wave of bottled up emotions and thought hit him hard instantaneously, as soon as he got in. Adam let go of her mind and fell back, catching himself.
"Whoa, Adam, you ok?" asked Michelle, who had finally stopped giggling.
"I.yeah. Good." Adam nodded, but looked at Michelle oddly.
"What the hell do you guys mean by 'high'?!?" exclaimed Kevin, who hadn't noticed Adam yet.
"You know," Mike pointed up, "High!"
Kevin blinked then said, "You doped up?"
"No! We were up high!"
"I'm not getting this!!!" exclaimed Kevin, "First I thought you were fooling around with each other-"
"We were," interrupted Mike.
"Aaaaaaagh!"
After the last bell that day, Adam, Phil, Melissa, Michelle and Mike were clustered around their lockers, getting their stuff for home.
"How was the French test?" asked Adam, stuffing his math notebook into his backpack.
"Evil," answered Phil.
"Fine," answered Melissa.
"Fun," answered Michelle.
"Only Michelle Gilpo would call a French Unit test fun," muttered Phil, returning a French anthology to his locker.
"That's 'cuz she actually likes French," said Adam.
"Melissa does too," whined Michelle, reaching for her geography text on the top shelf of her locker.
"Well, I like Music more," said Melissa, yanking her backpack out of her locker.
"Where's O'neill?" asked Michelle.
"You mean Kevin?" asked Mike, "He had a chiropractor appointment."
"So he's not coming to the lockers?" asked Phil.
"No."
"Good," said Melissa, grabbing her lunch bag.
"Aight," said Michelle, punching her lunch box into her backpack.
"Could we call a meeting?" asked Mike and Adam at the same time.
Phil looked up and down the hallway. It was empty until the part of the hallways that were out of earshot.
"Ok, when?" asked Melissa.
"Now?" suggested Mike, "Or we can leave to go there now, anyway?"
"Don't see why not," answered Phil.
"Would my place be ok?" asked Michelle.
"Sure," said Adam, then privately, in Michelle's head, {Could I talk to you later? Cough if yes.}
Michelle coughed before putting her backpack on.
"You ok?" asked Mike.
"Mm-hm," nodded Michelle. She slammed her locker shut and waited by the doors to the stairwell for the others to catch up.
"What's the meeting about?" asked Melissa. She stumbled suddenly, then frowned, turning. Who pushed her?
"Melissa, what year?" Phil called, being the last of the others on the stairs, next to Melissa.
"Coming," replied Melissa. She pushed whatever thoughts were in her mind out of it, and hurried down the stairs to the group.
"Wouldn't your parents mind?" asked Adam to Michelle.
"Nah. How can they mind if they're not here? Both are busy until 8 o'clock tonight, Até Ivy won't mind, and Nat usually knows when to stay out of the way," said Michelle.
Phil sat by a table, staring at the birds as if mesmerised. Melissa was in the hallway, looking at the Gilpo family's message board. Adam and Michelle were both sitting on opposite sides of the family's green leather couch, Phil across the room from them and Melissa to their right. Mike was in the kitchen, looking for some chips and pop to take to the main living room for the group.
"Were you looking for this?" Ate Ivy walking into the kitchen and held up a large bag of regular Lays, and a large bottle of Pepsi for Mike to see.
"Um.oh! Yeah! Thanks Até Ivy," Mike took the things from her, "Where're the."
Nat showed up behind Ivy holding up a bag of Styrofoam cups and a bowl.
"Thanks, kid," Michelle called down the hall, "And thanks, Até."
"You're welcome," Ivy smiled then went downstairs. Michelle's little brother went into his room and locked the door.
"Your brother and 'cuz ain't so bad sometimes," said Mike, putting all the things he was carrying onto the small coffee table by the couch.
"Uh." Michelle started.
Mike opened up the Pepsi bottle, which promptly exploded onto him.
"Aagh!" went Mike.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, jumping between Michelle and the Pepsi bottle so that it wouldn't get to her.
"Close it!" exclaimed Michelle, jumping up and snatching the blanket that covered the couch so that it wouldn't get stained, "The couch won't stain, just the blanket," thought Michelle.
"Red alert!" cried Melissa, who had heard the commotion and run into the living room.
"I can't see! There's pop in my eyes!" exclaimed Mike.
"Ok then," Adam pushed him out of the way, grabbed the cap, and screwed the bottle tight. Michelle began barking out orders.
"Melissa, take Mike to the washroom and help him out if there's any damage. Mike, you go wash the pop out with cold water. Adam, help me get some paper towels for the table. How did the carpet stay dry? Phil, you."
Adam and Michelle, who were both left in the room, looked at Phil. Oblivious to the Pepsi incident, he was still mesmerised by the birds. Both Michelle and Adam noticed that Michelle's blue budgie was bobbing its head at a steady pace. They glanced at each other, then shook their heads.
"Hypnotic budgie?" Adam said as they went to the kitchen for paper towels.
"No way," answered Michelle. She grabbed a handful of brown paper towels, and handed half of them to Adam.
"Hey, these are like the school's paper towels," said Adam.
"I know. I said that when my parents brought them back from the store."
Michelle carefully put her towels one by one around the table, so that the pop wouldn't drip onto the floor while they were wiping it. Adam did the same on the other side.
"THAT'S COLD!" exclaimed Mike from down the hall.
"That's the point!" said Melissa, in an annoyed tone.
"Maybe we should help Melissa out?" asked Adam as he wiped the table.
"I think she's ok. Nothing she can't deal with," answered Michelle. She paused, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Later," said Adam.
"And why not now?"
"You might start yelling, and I don't need public embarrassment right now."
"Ok." Michelle glanced at Phil, "What do you think happened to him?"
Adam chuckled.
"Well.here, I'll show you. I'll try to get my thought into your mind. You ok with that?"
"I don't know. Will it work?"
"Yeah. I tried it with my little brother, Sam. I was trying to get him to go to dinner, and it didn't work just talking to him, so I planted the idea that maybe he should go downstairs, and he got up and did that."
"Well.all right."
Adam hesitated, then reached out to her mind, just in case. This time the emotions and thoughts didn't hit him like it did that morning. She was trusting him entirely, though hoping that his thought sharing would work. Adam shared with her a mental picture of Michelle's budgie in her cage, surrounded by old birdseed shells that were giving off visible incense smoke. The bird was bobbing its head up and down, with one of Michelle's watches in her beak. Somehow, the budgie could speak perfectly fine around the watchband. She was saying in a parrot's kind of voice, "You will feed me seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.many seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.you will destroy the other biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirds.they must all diiiiiiiiiiieeeeee.you shall set me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee.me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!."
Michelle laughed.
"How would my budgie get its little claws onto my watch?"
Adam shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe Mike gave it to her."
"Mike." Michelle called down the hall.
"No." Adam clapped his hand over Michelle's mouth.
"What?" called Mike.
"Nothing," answered Adam.
"Mi moo mam mebmelmm." Michelle tried speaking around Adam's hand then gave up and crossed her arms, as if giving up.
"You giving up?" asked Adam, his eyes dancing with mischief, then stopped. Michelle had the same look.
"What.?"
Michelle swiftly poked, then tickled Adam on his stomach, where years of experience knew he was extra ticklish.
"No! Help! Michelle!" Adam was laughing too hard to say any more. Michelle laughed as well.
"You giving up?"
Suddenly, to her surprise, Adam grabbed Michelle around the waist, picked her up, and dropped her onto the couch. Years of experience told him not just where she was especially ticklish herself, but that she was more ticklish than he was.
"No!" Michelle gasped for air between giggles. She tried tickling him back, but her arms weren't long enough to get to him. "Stop! No! Agh! Can't breathe!" Finally she gave up. She let her arms drop and let him tickle her. Adam with her and stopped.
"You giving up?" he asked, smiling, but panting for air.
"Mm-hm," Michelle nodded, breathing in precious oxygen.
"Well, well," came Mike's voice.
Adam turned to the sound and Michelle propped herself up on her elbows.
"What vigorous activity were you two involved in?" asked Melissa.
Adam and Michelle looked at each other. Adam's shirt was rumpled and Michelle's hair looked like she had been rolling around. What's more, Michelle's legs were a bit spread apart when Adam dropped her, and Adam was partly leaning on Michelle.
"Oh, you know," said Adam, ducking his head so they would see him blush.
"Just fooling around," said Michelle, who could feel her ears burning.
Everyone turned to the sound of Phil getting up from his chair.
"Could I let the bird out?" asked Phil.
Adam and Michelle burst out laughing.