"You better hurry up and get changed or your Uncle will come looking for us, and you know how good your Uncle is with ladders."
"Oh, I wish I could stay here forever," sulked Stephanie hiding under the bed covers.
"So do I," said Sportacus pulling off the bed covers and kissing Stephanie, "but it's not like we're not going to see each other again."
Stephanie clambered out of bed and pulled her dress over her head, not speaking.
"Sportacus?" Stephanie said thoughtfully.
"Yes Stephanie? "Replied Sportacus, he loved the way she said his name.
"What do you think about everyone else knowing about, y'know, us?
"I dunno, I've never really thought about it," he pulled into a bear hug,"it doesn't matter to me, as long as I'm with you." Stephanie smiled but wriggled out of is grip to pull on her tights, "why what's wrong?"
"Well," said Stephanie thinking carefully," I think Pixel's always had a thing for me but I think he's moved on but I'm not sure.
Uncle Milford's with Bessie so I don't think he will mind.
I doubt Stingy and Trixie would have a problem with us but I'm worried about Ziggy, I hang out with him the most. And not to mention Robbie…"
"What about Robbie?" said Sportacus concerned, "he hasn't done anything to you?"
"No, no, nothing like that and especially not with me," said Stephanie quickly.
"Oh, what then?" Sportacus said calmer.
"Well, he's not that kind of guy," Stephanie said nervously.
"Meaning?" replied confused.
"Erm, Robbie isn't into people of the opposite sex." Stephanie said to the floor.
"What!" he said alarmed.
"Haven't you noticed? The way he dresses, the tight pants, they way he walks, the disguises he dresses in, both male and female." She tailed off.
"What? I thought those were for disguises only, and what about tight pants?" He said striking a superhero pose. Stephanie interrupted.
"The way he jumps into your arms all the time, can't you see Sportacus? Robbie clearly likes you."
"OK, I didn't notice it like that, I just thought he was a wuss."
"No, Sportacus, Robbie's gay." Stephanie replied firmly.
"Well now you put it like that…" said a shocked Sportacus.
There was a pause.
"Well what should we do?"
"Well for now we won't do anything, we have to get you home, look at the time it's nearly midday! I'll get you home and we can talk about what to do with our situation later, OK?"
"Yeah sure, "Stephanie kissed him, "I do love you." Sportacus grinned despite what they had been discussing.
"I love you too, come on let's get you home."
It had been a few days since Stephanie's party; Sportacus had seen Stephanie everyday they couldn't do anything closer than hug, after the party everything had gone relatively back to normal.
Ziggy had been stuffing himself full of sweets and managed to glue his teeth together again, after another rendition of Twenty Times Time with the help of Stephanie's New Dance Machine the gang shared good memories of Ziggy's first birthday with Stephanie there.
Unknown to Stephanie, Stingy had attempted to recover his 'heartily' given present, which had been locked in the security of Stephanie's wardrobe along with a lll her other presents, and had needed a few tricks of Trixie to distract everyone from Stingy getting stuck in Stephanie's window. Unfortunately Stingy didn't find his presents.
Pixel had managed to cause another computer meltdown, he hadn't been doing that as often as he had hot a new computer system but it appeared that his storage clips of the town was overflowing so unfortunately he had to delete some.
The one difference that seemed to go unnoticed was that Robbie hadn't been seen periscope, normal or disguise.
This had bothered Sportacus for the past few days, not just because Robbie hadn't been seen bit it didn't give him an excuse to see Stephanie, when Robbie was up to his tricks it gave him more time to hang out with the gang. In danger or not.
He wandered whether his crystal was broken but he had saved Mayor Meanswell from yet another ladder accident that morning or whether Robbie's hoe was out of the crystals range.