Chapter 4: You've Got Yourself a Deal
Even though Kyo and Zeke now knew each other, Kyo still had no idea that Zeke was her so-called twin. Oh she had remembered Charlie's comment from her first day at school but she had assumed that it was some other kid, preferably Derek, captain of the football team. Because the hair-do seemed like that of a biker's, she assumed that he must have been the "twin." Whatever, better to avoid him since she didn't feel like talking to a "twin."
Charlie had, in the mean time, had pulled together his idea of time travel. No one else but Virgil, Kyo, and Charlie knew about the device. While he may have had the all the equations and plans in hand, Charlie was missing one element: a talented mechanic to make their machine. Virgil had taken the responsibility upon himself to scout out the perfect guy for the situation in return for choosing their first mission. He had hemmed and hawed over the person until he saw Zeke shoot by on his motorcycle after school. It was perfect.
Virgil and Charlie invited Zeke over to Virgil's house in order to get him to consider the idea of helping them. He dared not invite Kyo in case of Zeke going completely off track and further annoying her.
Zeke's brow furrowed as he studied the plans and chewed on his pen cap. Virgil tensed up as he watched this super-tall freak do so. He wondered if anyone had ever gotten rabies from Zeke in the case that he was ticked off and bit someone in retaliation. Charlie's cat, Albert Felinestein eyed Zeke suspiciously as Zeke looked up from the plans.
"Your cat," began Zeke as he looked back fiercely, "Is freaking me out." Virgil had been so nervous as to what they would do if Zeke said no, that he nearly jumped out of his seat after Zeke had spoke.
"Uh yeah," mumbled Virgil, "He's not my cat-he's Charlie's." Charlie happily piped up that he named his cat Albert Felinestein.
"That has to be the dumbest name that I have ever heard," Zeke flatly replied. Charlie's happy expression deflated and Virgil tried to save the group from awkward silence by calling Zeke, Zekester. Bad move. Zeke threw him a vicious glare and Virgil stuttered to make up for his error. Charlie sank back into his chair-he felt so lucky to have not been in Virgil's shoes at the moment.
Zeke pushed the plans away from the table and sat up straighter. "I'll do it," he announced solemnly, "It's a challenge but I'm willing to conquer it." Charlie and Virgil exchanged identical looks before performing their secret handshake.
"Scratch!" hooted Charlie. Virgil corrected him and told him that it was 'Scorch.' Why did he just not get it? Zeke gave them a funny look and folded his arms. The two best friends settled back into their seats and Zeke dug into the bean dip. Charlie attempted to clean up a tiny smear on Zeke's lower lip but the older boy grabbed his wrist and threatened to hurt him. Charlie whimpered as Zeke let go and he shook his sore wrist. Man, did that kid have a strong grip or what?
"Another thing," Zeke spoke up as he reached for another chip, "Your friend, the Asian girl?" Virgil froze and paled slightly as Zeke uttered those words. For a few seconds, he considered playing dumb but that would fail in an instance.
Charlie took over for Virgil as he silently had a meltdown. "Yeah, what about her?" Charlie replied, tried to sound as if it were no big deal, "Why are we bringing her into the conversation?"
Zeke's face reddened slightly and he tried to play it cool without making himself seem vulnerable. "Do you happen to know if she's taken or not?" Charlie sat there dumbstruck. He thought that Zeke was perhaps going to say that he wanted to pick a fight with her after school one day. He shook his head no and Zeke sat up straighter.
Virgil couldn't take it anymore. He finally blurted out, "She's still mad at you." Zeke turned to face Virgil at those words and his shoulders slumped. Damn it! Zeke cursed in his mind, I just want to-ah man. She probably thinks that I have issues and need a shrink of sorts! As he contemplated with his conscience, Charlie and Virgil watched helplessly as Zeke pounded his fist on his leg and hid his head in his leather gloved hands. Charlie cleared his throat and Zeke snapped back to attention.
He tried to formulate what he wanted to say carefully, without letting the two boys on. "Could you…let me sit with you guys at lunch? Or introduce me to her?" Virgil opened his mouth then shut it. No way would Kyo put up with him at the same table, let alone even converse or interact with him.
"I'm afraid that's-" Virgil began to say but Charlie cut him off briskly, "It's a deal. And you can start sitting with us after we test the first successful mission with the machine." Zeke's face lit up and Virgil looked at Charlie like he was crazy.
"You guys won't regret this," Zeke assured the boys as he boarded his motorcycle out in the driveway. As soon as he was out of earshot, Virgil turned on Charlie.
"Are you insane?" Virgil yelled at Charlie as he threw his hands in the air, "Kyo is not going to like this. She might even kill us for allowing this to happen!"
"He's the only one that can do it!" Charlie shot back, "I wasn't planning on handing over time with Kyo quickly. We'll stall for a bit until we can think of a better plan."
"She isn't property," cried out Virgil, "She's our friend you know."
"I'm well aware of that!" snapped Charlie, "If we said no, he could have just walked right out and refused to help us. Think about it Virgil."
Virgil opened his mouth to protest then closed it. He knew Charlie was right. Zeke would take on this project solely based on his own time and matters instead of being paid to do so. Not mention that mechanics were expensive to hire. "You better know what you've got us into," warned Virgil.
Charlie shook him off and reassured him that it was all going to be good. What could possibly go wrong?