Chapter Fifty Nine

...

"Did you see Adam's video?" Wendy asked Ethan, grinning.

"I haven't had a chance to watch it yet," he replied, typing up the last of his statistics for his article; with Mr. Bowie being sick, he now had a large enough sample size to add a whole section just for staff.

"Do you have it in your schedule, or should I force you to have a break so you can watch it?" Wendy offered.

"It's on my schedule. In about three minutes," Ethan replied. "Robin should be here soon; the chess club starts in fifteen minutes," he said, continuing to type and - to Wendy's amazement - not typing what he was saying.

"Speaking of, why didn't you join?"

Ethan saved his work and then spun around on his chair to face Wendy. "I beat Mr. Medulla in the state championship last year," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"What?"

"He couldn't believe it either," Ethan said, grinning. "I don't play often, but when I do, I play against my mother. She wins six times out of ten."

"Whoa. Why didn't she go in the state championship then? How far did you get?"

Ethan shrugged. "Work commitments. I competed against the winners from two other states before I lost. It was mentally exhausting, so I decided not to compete again this year."

"So Mr. Medulla has a shot at the championship title?" Wendy asked with a grin.

Ethan laughed and shook his head. "Not a chance; my mother decided to compete instead."

"Awesome. When's it start?"

"Mid-May. Are you interested in competing?"

"I've got to concentrate on assignments and finals; I'll probably be brain-dead by May. But I'd love to watch. It's a great strategy game, and for that kind of insight, I can handle watching people stare at a chess board for a few hours," Wendy said with a grin.

There was a knock at the door and Robin opened it when Ethan called out. "Hey, Wendy. I brought a few friends, is that okay?" they asked, several freshmen standing behind them awkwardly.

At his desk, Ethan plugged his earbuds into his phone to watch Adam's video of Layla's display of her powers and Ben and Craig's argument.

"Sure. Do you all need help with English?" Wendy asked, heading over to a table that was relatively clear.

"Yeah. This is Rita, Justina, Todd, and Terry," Robin introduced.

"Nice to meet you. What are your powers?" Wendy asked curiously.

"I can breathe underwater," Todd said.

"Flight manipulation," Rita said. "I can make other people fly," she added in explanation when Wendy frowned.

"Telepathy with animals," Justina said.

"Technopath," Terry said, waving over at Ethan who grinned and waved back.

"Yeah. It's an argumentative essay, which is understandable for the most part, but we're unsure about the actual topic," Robin said, setting their bag down and taking out a folder, flipping through several sheets before pulling one out and handing it to Wendy.

Reading the topic for herself, Wendy could understand their confusion.

Do supervillains who commit heinous crimes deserve a harsher penalty than citizens who commit similar crimes?

"Geez, this should be a senior's topic," Wendy muttered. "All right, what are you thinking so far?"

"I think the wording of the citizens' crimes is vague; similar doesn't mean the same crimes as the supervillains," Robin said.

"They're just referring to the citizens' crimes as similar because there's no way they can do the exact same thing as supervillains, otherwise they'd be supers," Todd argued.

"That doesn't mean they can't do the same crimes," Terry said.

"But then it would say the same, not similar," Justina retorted.

"You guys should start a debate team," Wendy said, grinning. "All right, how about we start off by finding crimes that both supers and citizens have committed that are the same, then look at the similar ones, and you can start from there?"

"What are you doing in here?"

Wendy looked over at Lisa and Ben. "Hello to you too, Lisa. Robin asked for help with their English assignment and brought some friends along who were also having difficulties. We're not in your way, are we?" she asked.

Wendy knew that Ben and Lisa's desks were both on the other side of the office and this table wasn't used until they were actually publishing and determining the school paper's layout.

"We were actually going to have a meeting and use that table," Lisa replied.

"Our meeting isn't scheduled until next week. Has the time changed?" Ethan asked.

Lisa's jaw clenched. "I must have got the time mixed up. Why are you here, and not in a classroom?" she asked Wendy.

"I wanted to talk to Ethan about tomorrow's weather report," Wendy said.

Ben frowned. "What about it?"

"The citizens' weather report is very different from the one provided by the Weather and Environmental Trends," she replied.

"How did you get the one from WET? They don't send it to just anyone," Ben said.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "No shit, Benny-boy. Do you actually think before you speak, or do you like the taste of your foot in your own mouth?"

Snickering from the freshmen had Ben reddening, realising far too late that Wendy was a weather super and fit the WET requirements to receive their updates and reports.

"Why don't you get started on that article we talked about, Ben? I'd like to talk to Wendy about this weather report," Lisa said, gently pushing her boyfriend towards his desk.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "I said I wanted to talk to Ethan, not you."

"Ethan's busy with other work," Lisa said.

"I've finished, actually. Wendy, we've got our extra curricular session starting soon. Chess club's almost started too," Ethan said, nodding to the freshmen.

They looked torn between staying to watch the two older supers fight - verbally or with their powers, it didn't matter - but then Robin nodded and ushered their friends outside.

Lisa took the assignment paper from Wendy and headed into the corridor. "Uh, Miss? You left your assignment behind," she called.

Robin stopped short and turned. "I prefer they/them pronouns. Thanks for your help, Wendy," they called, taking the paper from Lisa before hurrying after their friends.

"What the hell are pronouns?" Ben asked Lisa, frowning after the freshmen.

"I'll explain it later," Lisa said, heading back into the office, looking around with all three eyes to determine if any more of her pens had been stolen. All of her highlighters were still sitting on her desk and the ten pens she had in the mug on her desk were still there as well.

"I've emailed my report to you, Lisa. There's also a printed copy on your desk, and I've got three backups if anything happens to the original file. Let me know if I need to change anything," Ethan said, leaving with Wendy. "Was there a report from WET?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, they've got heavy rainfall scheduled for tomorrow; citizens are only saying light showers," Wendy said with a grin.

Ethan shook his head. "Lisa and Ben are going to drive themselves up the wall trying to find out WET's weather report, and it's just a different type of rain."

Wendy waited until they were in the gym to start laughing - checking that Nurse Spex was asleep first - and beside her, Ethan shook his head.

"I hope you had a productive afternoon?" Layla asked with a smile.

"Yep. I stole every blue and yellow post-it pad I could find," Wendy said, opening her bag to show the evidence.

"Why not all of them?" Zach asked curiously.

"Too obvious. This is subtle enough to not be noticed for a while, but when it is noticed, it'll drive Lisa insane," Wendy replied. "So, what's tonight's training?" she asked, looking around the gym to find everyone powered up but not really doing anything.

"Stamina," Adam replied, dripping acid onto the large truck beneath him.

"Are we going to get into trouble for that?" Ethan asked, nodding to the large pools of acid that were forming on the truck.

The acid had yet to sink through, but Adam's acid was stronger than anything that citizens could produce. It was only a matter of time before the truck's aluminium, nickel, and copper acid-resistive materials were destroyed by his super acid.

"Coach Boomer's okayed it; he's going to get another truck from the scrapyard," Adam replied.

"I heard him talking to Will; I think he's planning on getting a heavier truck to help with his reps," Craig said, turning into Will and flexing his muscles, accidentally flexing too hard and tearing his shirt. "Aw, shit."

"That was your own fault, dude," Warren said, his snort of amusement heard over the crackling of flames around his body.

Craig pulled several faces at him, then turned into Warren and lit his body as well.

Warren shook his head. "You need better control over the flames; you're going to burn out too fast like that."

Figuring that Warren would have more experience, Craig nodded and focused on lessening the flames. "Better?"

"Not bad. Change the flames to red rather than yellow. It's got enough heat to intimidate, but you'll last longer," Warren said, changing his own flames to demonstrate.

"Yours were blue," Craig pointed out.

"That's because I've got full control over my powers; you don't," he replied.

"How do I get full control then?"

"It's different for everyone," Donny called out.

"That's a shitty answer, Donny, and you know it. Do you know how I get full control?" Craig asked. "How come Warren's already got full control and we don't?"

Donny rolled his eyes as he walked over to Craig. "You're asking too many questions and trust me, you're so not prepared for the answer."

"What are you doing?" Craig asked warily.

"I'm practising my powers," Donny replied simply, then splayed his hand just shy of Craig's flames and focused.

The flames around Craig disappeared and as he shifted back to his own form, Craig blinked and shook his head in confusion. "What were we talking out?"

"Dude, that was harsh," Adam said to Donny as he headed back to Nurse Spex.

"It could have been worse," Donny said with a shrug.

"You going to do your show and tell now, Popsicle?" Warren called, grateful for the change in conversation.

"What show and tell?" Zach asked curiously, looking between his boyfriend and Warren.

Ethan nodded with a grin, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "You'll need to see it up close," he said.

Warren immediately powered down and walked over, the others curious enough to follow his lead, all of them creating a semi-circle around Ethan and waiting.

"You'll need to be closer than that," Ethan said, motioning them forward before starting to roll up his shirt sleeves. "All right, ready?"

"Hell yes," Donny said, grinning as he realised what Ethan was about to do.

Ethan concentrated for a moment and, ever so slowly, water drops began to form on his revealed forearm.

"Wait for it," Donny murmured when the others simply looked confused.

The water droplets slid from Ethan's arm down onto the gym floor and he knelt by them, touching the individual droplets. As he did so, they reformed into their original items: a spare set of glasses, three USBs, a water bottle, a blender, and two ties.

"Anita was looking for the blender on the weekend. How long've you been carrying that around?" Zach asked incredulously.

"About a week," Ethan said with a shrug.

"Why a blender?" Layla asked.

"Why any of this?" Craig asked.

"They're mostly innocent items that won't be noticed if I was suddenly carrying them around. The blender was a mistake, but then I decided to test how long I could carry it."

"How did you keep them inside of yourself while we were in Principal Powers' office?" Warren asked curiously.

"The power repressing beams stopped me from melting down, but these were already inside of my body and changed by my powers, so I couldn't change them back from water droplets," Ethan said.

"I don't get it?" Zach said.

"The water droplets were already changed by my power before I went into Principal Powers' office. The power repressing beams mean I can't melt down or melt other objects, but things that are already inside me can still be drawn out. The only drawback is they'll stay as water droplets, not their original form."

"So... you can leave water drops in Principal Powers' office?" Adam clarified, Ethan nodding in response.

"How though? The power repressing beams repress powers, and drawing them back out is still part of your power, isn't it?" Craig asked with a frown.

"It took a lot of effort, but I've managed to work out how to draw them back out forcefully through sweat."

"Eww."

Ethan shrugged. "I have a water-based power; it's either that or crying. I could probably do that, but then it would result in tissues soaking the items up. I can produce sweat in my palms and wipe it on the underside of her desk."

"Still eww," Craig said, scrunching his nose up.

"That's amazing, Eth. Did you leave anything behind today?" Zach asked with a grin.

Ethan grinned back at him. "Yes, I definitely did," he said, drawing out some more water droplets and reforming a receiver radio and the accompanying batteries.

Clicking the batteries into place, Ethan switched the radio on and tuned it, adjusting the two antennas carefully.

"Can I do it?" Donny asked, already reaching for his phone.

Ethan nodded. Donny laughed as he unlocked his phone and pressed a few buttons to dial a number. Donny moved closer to Nurse Spex as the phone rang to lessen the radio's feedback.

"Good afternoon, Sky High, this is Principal Powers," they heard through Ethan's radio.

Donny pressed his hand over his phone's speaker so his friends' sounds of disbelief wouldn't be heard.

"Hello?" Principal Powers asked. Sighing heavily when there was no answer, she ended the call, her voice coming through the radio as she muttered about prank callers.

"It's a little distorted because the microphone's still technically a drop of water, but it's clear enough to understand," Ethan said, grinning.

"Super Jesus, Ethan. I can't believe you did that!" Wendy said, her eyes wide.

"I can't believe it worked," Craig said, laughing incredulously.

"Do you have any idea what you've done, Ethan?" Layla exclaimed, hugging him firmly.

"I've got some idea," he said with a grin, adjusting his crooked glasses.

"Do you have any idea what people would pay to have this information?" Adam asked.

"That, I don't know," Ethan admitted as Layla pulled away. "You two okay?" he asked Zach and Warren, who had yet to say anything.

"I'm just waiting for everyone to finish so I can make out with you," Zach said, grinning and winking at him.

Ethan coughed slightly, feeling his cheeks darken. "Okay. What about you, Warren?"

Warren shook his head. "I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of it myself; I thought I was already thinking a step ahead, but you? You're thinking three steps ahead, aren't you?"

"Well, yes. It's like chess; you need to outmanoeuvre your opponent by thinking about what they're going to do before they even know what they're going to do. This way, we don't need to think, we can just find out. Of course, that's not to say Principal Powers is technically our enemy or opponent, but it works to our advantage for the moment," Ethan said with a shrug.

"You guys discuss how we're getting Ethan into the Stronghold's secret sanctum during Will's birthday party; I'm gonna make out with my super-smart boyfriend," Zach said, practically pulling Ethan away with him.

"Wait, what?" Craig said, looking from Zach and Ethan to the rest of their group. "We have one test and now we're going straight for the Strongholds? That's a helluva jump, guys."

"Will's birthday is next week; that doesn't allow for a lot of time to get into their Secret Sanctum," Wendy added.

"Besides, they did a full security upgrade after that party last year," Adam said. "I could get past it, but it'll take time and that means Eth'll have to do my assignments again."

"All right, calm down everyone," Layla said, seeing that they were starting to freak out. "We don't need to get into their Sanctum, just the house itself."

"The water pipes?" Warren guessed.

"I was thinking their citizen clothes and getting them to fight a villain that same day. They'll have to change into their super outfits, and Ethan could leave the water drops behind," Layla said.

"What if they start wearing their super suit under their clothes like Will does?" Donny asked.

"The Commander won't; his suit chafes if he wears it for too long," Layla said.

Donny shook his head at the childhood memory of the Commander complaining loudly to Jetstream as they arrived home before realising that Layla was in the lounge room, wild-eyed and somewhat traumatised.

"How are we meant to see either the Commander or Jetstream, especially on the night of Will's birthday? We can't crash his party if we're meant to be nice, right?" Wendy pointed out.

Zach and Ethan returned to the group, both looking thoroughly kissed with swollen lips and mussed hair and their clothes wrinkled. Neither one looked ashamed about it either.

Craig coughed loudly. "Good evening, everyone; I'd like to propose the latest revolutionary problem solver: me," he said, shifting to the Commander's form. "The latest model bypasses DNA security, biometrics, and voice security," he said in Jetstream's voice. "Hell, I can walk in there with Ethan and a giant-sized Slurpee cup and we can steal all their shit."

Wendy laughed loud enough that Nurse Spex mumbled in her sleep. When she was sure the nurse was asleep once more, Wendy grinned at Craig. "You've gotta steal something subtle. Like... one of their socks, y'know, so they can never find a matching pair."

Adam rolled his eyes and looked up to the gym ceiling. "I'm so damn glad I'm working with professional evil masterminds," he muttered, then went back to the truck to continue destroying it with his acid.

"You can't call me immature anymore, Wendy. That was my level of immaturity, right there," Zach said. He sniffled and wiped away an imaginary tear. "I'm so proud."

"You're kidding me, right? If stealing a few pens and post-its is going to drive Lisa nuts, imagine what it's going to do to Jetstream, Mrs. I need to be perfect?"

"Can we determine what security measures they actually have before we start making plans to steal their shit?" Warren asked.

"I can check the Council's contract work for anything that might've been installed professionally. If Jetstream or the Commander installed anything personally, it won't be listed though," Layla added.

"I'll work out security; you guys work out what we're actually going to do besides leave a microphone and steal some socks," Adam called out from the truck. "Fucking socks."

His mutter set them off laughing, and Warren snickered against Layla's neck, his breath warm against her skin. By the time they finally settled down, Nurse Spex's alarm went off and she woke up with a start, calling out for them to finish for the night.

As they left the gym, there was a large crashing sound as Adam's acid ate through the last of the truck and it collapsed in a mess of metal, plastic, and bits of rubber.

...

"Happy birthday, Warren," Dave said brightly as soon as he walked in that night.

"Thanks," Warren replied. He wondered who had told Dave that it was his birthday: his mother or Layla. "How's your evening been so far?"

"Nothing interesting, but there's a game on tonight, so that's fine by me," Dave replied with a grin.

"Right," Warren said, not sure what sport he was referring to and not caring enough to ask. He almost sighed in relief when Layla came out of the elevators. "Well, have a good night, Dave. Enjoy the game," he said over his shoulder, guiding Layla outside and hardly waiting for her to call out goodbye to Dave.

"Hello to you too, Warren. What was all that about?" Layla asked curiously, adjusting her bag.

"I think he wanted me to discuss sports with him. I don't do sports, hippie."

Layla laughed and pressed a kiss to his lips. "If you get stuck again, just ask who's playing and who his favourite team is; that'll give you at least five minutes to think of an excuse to get away."

Warren shook his head and took her hand as they headed to the bus stop. The bus arrived within a minute of their own arrival and they boarded, sitting together halfway down the bus.

"When would you like to celebrate your birthday with me at the Hive this weekend?" Layla asked, turning slightly to sign the words in ASL as well.

"I've got a double shift on Sunday, but I'm free Saturday morning after our ASL and study group," Warren replied with both his voice and hands.

"It's a date," Layla replied, smiling brightly.

Warren frowned. "We haven't done that, have we?"

"Hmm?"

"We haven't exactly gone on a date. Y'know, a proper one. Dinner and a movie, that sort of thing," Warren said. "The Paper Lantern doesn't count."

Layla tilted her head slightly. "Well, I count it as a date. Besides, I'm happy with the dates we have at the Hive, or going shopping for plates," she teased with a smile. "Do you want to go on a proper date?" Layla asked, her smile slipping.

"Not unless you want to, or you feel like I'm failing you as a boyfriend or something," Warren said with a shrug.

"If I felt that you were... failing me in any way, shape, or form, I'd tell you. You're not failing me, by the way," Layla reassured, kissing him firmly. She pulled away with a slight frown. "Am I failing you?"

Warren shook his head adamantly. "Never."

"Never say never," Layla said, a slight smile tugging at her lips. "You would tell me, wouldn't you? I'd hate that we stopped communicating over of some trivial thing or because we felt like we couldn't bring it up with each other."

"I'd tell you, hippie. Promise," he added, kissing her. "Now, are you going to tell me what my third birthday present is? The anticipation's killing me."

Layla perked up at his question, her eyes bright as she leaned in close, her lips brushing against his. "Good."

"You're evil, you know that, hippie? Evil," Warren groaned.

Layla simply smiled and pressed the button for the bus to stop.

"Why's my mum's car here? And Honey's van, too?" Warren asked with a frown as they walked up to Frieda's home.

"I don't know," Layla lied sweetly. She opened the front door and turned on the foyer light.

"Surprise!"

Warren stopped at the doorway, stunned to see their friends and family there, all wearing ridiculous party hats with streamers on them and blowing party blowers like their lives depended on it. "What the hell is this?"

"Language, dear," Frieda said, though she was smiling too broadly to really be taken seriously.

"Welcome to your surprise birthday party. Come on in; we've got cake," Honey said with a grin.

Warren stepped through the doorway cautiously, as though expecting them all to attack him. "Mum? What... I don't get it," he admitted to her.

Nina smiled a little sadly, then forced herself to smile brightly again, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Your friends wanted to surprise you. It's been twelve years, so I thought it was time you had an actual birthday party and celebrated you again. Happy birthday, baby boy."

Still feeling confused and overwhelmed - he understood the what and the why, could guess the how, but that didn't mean Warren truly understood this - he nodded and stepped back. He let his friends and their families gather around him to congratulate him and hug him and pat him on the back, all of them seeming ridiculously happy with him for no other reason than he had survived another year and was now seventeen years old.

"All right, everyone. Time to give the birthday boy some space. Head into the lounge room for cake and presents, and let Warren put the school bags down," Honey called out.

After the suffocating feeling and overwhelming noise, it was gone within a minute, and Warren rocked on his feet at the sudden loss. "What the hell was that?" he asked, looking between Layla and Honey, the last two remaining.

"Love," Honey replied with a simple shrug. "We'll expect you down in three minutes. Breathe, relax, and be prepared to be amazed by your cake and presents. Actually... Hmm, no, I won't spoil it. Go on, now."

Layla smiled and held out a hand. Warren took it like a lifeline and followed her upstairs to put their bags away. Layla changed into a nice shirt and braided her hair as Warren rummaged in his duffel bag for something without a sauce stain on the front.

"I don't like surprises, hippie," Warren said, smoothing out the fabric of his new shirt.

Layla sighed and played with the hem of her skirt. "I know. Ethan and Zach were so excited about the idea, and then Craig and Adam heard about it. I had to stop them from renting out a jumping castle."

"Seriously?"

She nodded. "I had to promise them we'd get one for the barbecue instead."

Warren sighed, then he tugged Layla up from her seat on the bed and kissed her lightly. "Thank you for this, hippie."

"You don't mind?"

"It's a surprise party; telling me would kind of defeat the purpose," he said with a slight shrug. "Besides, that means we don't have to celebrate with everyone else on the weekend. It can just be the two of us," Warren said, kissing her again, deeper this time.

Layla licked her lips as they pulled away, sighing contently. "Sounds good to me. Now, let's go downstairs so everyone can spoil you. You'll get your last present later tonight," she promised, patting his chest.

Warren let Layla lead him back down to the lounge room where everyone was waiting. He was handed present after present after present and soon lost track of whom had given him what. There were several book vouchers, a utility belt, a USB filled with "totally legal downloads of his favourite movies", a glass coffee drip that used a bunsen burner to heat the coffee, a bag of coffee grounds for said drip, a photo album of photos from his childhood to the present day (the latter taken far more reluctantly than Nina would had liked), yellow and blue post-its, and a pair of hand-knitted socks from Frieda.

By the time everything was unwrapped and Warren had thanked everyone for their kind and thoughtful gifts, a three-tier cake was set up on the coffee table, complete with seventeen candles. Everyone sang happy birthday to him, Craig and Zach finishing with an awfully off-key rendition of 'he's a jolly good fellow' and forgetting half of the words, Heidi laughing as they both ended up trailing off in the darkness.

Frieda turned the lights back in time for everyone to see Warren wiping at his tears.

"Are you crying? The singing wasn't that bad, was it?" Zach asked.

"Is it because there's no jumping castle? We can totally go and hire one right now," Craig offered.

"Dudes, shut up," Adam said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm... well, not fine. It's..." Warren trailed off and shook his head. "This is the best birthday party I've ever had," he admitted with a watery smile.

"Well, I don't know how we're going to top this next year, then," Frieda said, Heidi giggling on the lounge beside her.

"We'll definitely need the jumping castle," Zach said to Craig, who agreed with a serious nod.

"If you'll cut the cake, I'll start handing it around. You don't want it to get too late or people will be inclined to stay the night," Honey warned Warren with a slight grin and wink.

Taking the offered cake knife, Warren started cutting the cake carefully, one tier at a time.

"I call dibs on the top tier to myself," Craig called out.

"You'll get what you're given," Honey replied.

"Aww, but I was..."

"I know what you were going to do, Craig. It would not have ended well," she said.

"I don't want to know," Sarah said, wincing. "Can you cut a piece for me to take home for Jared, please? He got food poisoning and when he got home he said, and I quote: I would rather die than talk to people tonight. So, y'know, he's a total Prince Charming."

Honey grinned and headed to the kitchen to box up the last of the cake.

"The very construct of Prince Charming is demeaning to both men and women," Layla said firmly. "It tells men that 'charm' is the only requirement for women to fall in love with them, and it practically tells women that there's one perfect man out there for them, which destroys any sense of humanity a person can have. If they have to be perfect all the time, then they're no longer human and might as well be a robot.

"Besides, the actual fairy tales they're based on were meant to be instructional stories for children about morals and right and wrong, not about romance. And don't even get me started on women needing to be saved by Prince Charming," she said, rolling her eyes.

A few people blinked at Layla's passionate rant, but her friends just grinned.

"There's, what, twenty princesses, but only one Prince Charming. So that means he's either being unfaithful or has nineteen brothers," Ethan pointed out.

"What about a family lineage; it could've been grandfather, father, son, that sort of thing?" Craig suggested.

"Time travel; there's nothing to say that they're all princesses at the same time. They could be spread out across the years and Prince Charming could be under a curse to rescue them all. In fact, isn't one of the princesses in the future?" Zach asked, signing to Heidi, who nodded in response.

"Everyone knows time travel isn't real," Craig said.

"You have superpowers, Craig," Cara said, rolling her eyes at her brother.

"What are your powers, Craig? I haven't seen them," Anita said with a slight frown. "If you don't mind - wow," she stopped abruptly as Craig turned into her exact twin. "That's... interesting," Anita said, still stunned.

Craig changed back to his own body, then grinned at Heidi and switched to her body. Heidi laughed at the sight, signing at Zach.

"Double trouble? Oh, no. Craig, turn back before Heids gets you involved in one of her schemes," Zach said, poking Craig with his foot.

Craig turned back to himself and looked between the siblings. "What kind of schemes would those be?" he asked, grinning broadly.

Heidi started to sign in response.

"Wait, too fast. Was that a plunger? And a stapler?" Craig asked, completely confused.

Zach groaned and buried his head in his hands, even as Donny laughed across from him.

"I really don't want to know," Sarah said, shaking her head. "I'd better go home so I can check on Jared. He says happy birthday, by the way. Oh, and don't forget the foreign language class tomorrow."

"Thanks, Sarah. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm pretty sure Craig and Ethan wouldn't let me forget," Warren said with a grin.

"Depending on the weather, one of my reporters will be visiting Sky High tomorrow," Honey added as she headed to the foyer with Sarah, prompting others to start getting ready to leave as well.

"Why?" Adam asked.

"Protest over the UN's treatment of supers. Sign the petition," Honey replied.

"Oh, Jared's going to love that," Sarah said with a bright grin, tugging her coat on.

"Yes, he will," Honey said.

"You sound very certain about that," Anita said as she offered Zach and Heidi their jackets.

"Just a lucky guess," Honey replied. "Yes, Richard, there's enough for everyone. One each," she added with smiling.

Richard promptly grabbed five containers of leftover cake that Honey had set aside for them all.

"Curtis will be here shortly, Adam. Take some cake for your parents," Honey added, nodding to him.

"Thanks, Honey," Adam said, grabbing three.

Within a matter of seconds, all of the containers of cake were gone.

"See you tomorrow, Warren. Have a nice night," Nina said with a smile, kissing her son's cheek.

"Thanks, Mum. Enjoy the house to yourself," he said, grinning at her.

"Oh, I won't be alone. Ready, Frieda?" she asked.

"Almost, dear," Frieda replied, buttoning the last button of her coat. "There, all done. Now, you two be good," she said sternly, then smiled brightly and kissed Warren's cheek and hugged Layla firmly.

"What's going on?" Warren asked, confused.

"I thought you'd like to have the house to yourselves. Consider it another birthday present," Frieda said with a smile.

Somewhere in the background, Craig wolf-whistled.

"I'm going to burn everything you love," Warren hissed at him.

Craig snorted. "Dude, that's way too many people, and you'd have to go through me first. Aw, don't cry, Elijah. Warren's just being a big ol' meanie," he cooed, settling his nephew and rubbing his back gently.

"Come on, it's way past their bedtime," Cara said, nudging Craig with her hip and nodding to the car, Elliot asleep in her arms.

"See you tomorrow," Craig called as loudly as he dared, waving before getting in his sister's car.

Curtis arrived a few moments later, calling out hello to everyone and happy birthday to Warren before he left with Adam.

Ten minutes later, Warren and Layla were alone.

...

End of the fifty-ninth chapter.