I don't remember if I ever thanked all of you for writing reviews? Because if I didn't, well, thank you so much to everyone that's reviewed, favorited, followed… I'm so amazed at the support you all have given me.

This one continues from where the last chapter left off.

Disclaimer: Again, I do not own the show Wordgirl.

Excuses, Excuses

Becky and Violet had a wonderful time at their sleepover, staying up as late as they could keep their eyes open to keep on playing games and chatting. Finally, they unrolled their sleeping bags and changed into pajamas.

It was about half an hour past midnight when Becky, who had one thought bouncing around her head now that she had a chance to slow down and think, tentatively asked "Violet? Are you and Scoops…"

Becky saw the silhouette of her friend squirm and turn so they were facing each other. "Together? I dunno. We hang out a lot…" Violet said. She paused to yawn. "I'd like us to be, someday."

Becky sighed. "Just wondering."

A few seconds passed in silence, and then Violet began to speak, words rushing out like water from a broken dam. "Becky, we're best friends and I don't want Scoops to come between us and I know you used to like him a lot and I'm sorry if what we have makes you feel bad but I don't know what to –"

"It's okay, Violet!" Becky said quickly. "You're right, I used to like him, but I don't anymore." Maybe that last part was a little bit of a lie. Sure, she didn't like him as much as she had in fifth grade, but feelings don't go away overnight.

Violet let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that." Then in a more mischievous tone she continued, "Do you like anyone?"

"What? No!" Becky said, laughing nervously. For some reason, an image of Tobey – not Scoops – flashed through her mind. Why would she think of him? Weird. She must really need sleep.

"Okay," Violet said, sounding as if she didn't quite believe her. Becky was glad to drop the subject.

A few minutes later Violet suddenly asked "Becky, have you ever thought about telling your parents that you're Wordgirl?"

"I - what?" Becky answered sleepily. "Yeah, I've tried a few times. They actually did find out once."

"Once?"

"A couple years ago, Two Brains somehow found out, and came over for dinner to tell my family - long story short, they all got hit with an amnesia ray in the end."

"Oh, well, I think you should tell them, for real this time."

"Violet, I told them 'for real' once too and they didn't believe me. My dad caught me in my costume one day and thought I was dressing up for fun. Trust me, it's fine."

Violet sounded conflicted. "But don't they always wonder where you go when you run off? I'm sure they'll be understanding…"

"TJ wouldn't. I learned that the hard way. And my parents wouldn't be able to keep it a secret! They'd be so proud that they couldn't resist telling someone - and news travels fast. I don't want villains showing up at my house all day and night, and it puts all of you in danger, too."

"Well… I see your point, but I still think they should know. Good night, Becky."

"'Night, Violet."

The next Monday, at school…

The blaring of a far-off alarm startled Becky. She sat back in her chair and stifled a yawn. Why was she already tired on a Monday?

She raised her hand and waited for her teacher to notice. "Miss Davis? May I please go to the restroom?"

Her teacher glanced at the clock. "Becky, there's only fifteen minutes of school left. Can you hold it?"

Ugh, maybe she should've gone with the 'feeling sick' excuse. "Uh… not really?"

"Well, all right then…" Becky muttered a quick thank-you as she dashed out of the room. Bob got down from his chair in the corner and followed.

"Now hand over all the money in the bank, or I'll spray you with –"

"Stop right there, Chuck!" Wordgirl said as she burst in and assumed her battle stance.

Chuck turned around. "Wordgirl! You're not going to stop me this time, I have a secret weapon you'll never see coming!"

"… Is it that giant condiment ray in the corner?"

"Maybe… "

Wordgirl sighed. "Look, Chuck, can we wrap this up quickly? I have someplace to be, and –"

"You always have somewhere else to be! Why can't you ever take the time to battle me?" he complained.

"Well, maybe if you didn't always commit crimes during the school day – hey!" she shouted as he pressed a button on a remote he'd been holding. She fell to the ground, covered in ketchup.

"Okay, fine. I can spare a few minutes," she grumbled. "Why the giant ray? It looks like one of Two Brain's inventions."

"It is. He made it for my birthday last week –"

"Oh, happy birthday!" Wordgirl said, trying not to let her annoyance slip through as she gave him a smile.

"Thanks! Anyway, he said my ray needed an… oh, what's the word. When you make something better? Up…"

"Upgrade? It means to improve something. Usually it refers to equipment, like in your case."

"Yeah, upgrade. I didn't like the design at first but I'm kinda warming up to it."

"That's great, Chuck," Wordgirl said with a hint of sarcasm. "It's been nice chatting, but I really need to get going, so…" She struggled to burst free for a few seconds. "Wow. Did he redo your ketchup formula, too?"

"Uh, maybe? I don't really know."

"Huh." She struggled for a bit longer and finally broke herself and her monkey free. Chuck moved to press another button but she quickly snatched the remote from his hand.

"Wait!" he cried out. "Don't crush it! It'll take me forever to make a new one."

She paused, her fist about to clench and reduce the remote to scrap metal. "Uh… okay? I can't give it back to you, though."

Chuck nodded as police officers (wow, they got here fast) began handcuffing him. "There's a little compartment for it on the side of the ray. Please don't destroy the ray either! Two Brains will be so mad…"

"I'm not going to destroy it," she assured him. He was led into the police car and mouthed a thank-you from behind the glass.

"Well, now that's finished, so I'll just take this back to my spaceship…." She heard her school's bell ring in the distance. "Oh no, school's out already!" she exclaimed. "Miss Davis is going to wonder where I went."

She had almost reached the edge of the downtown area when something knocked her and Captain Huggyface out of the air. They tumbled into a nearby tree. "What – Whammer?"

The Whammer looked up at her, clearly surprised that she was there. "Hey Wordgirl! Just out for a little whammin' wham."

She pulled herself and her monkey out of the branches and brushed off some stray leaves. "Well, can't you do that somewhere away from the city? Or at least more quietly? You've already destroyed a few park benches."

He paused. "Nope!" She ducked to avoid one of his blasts.

"Come on, please?" she said as she hovered a few feet above the ground, ready to dodge again. "I really need to be somewhere."

"What if I don't feel like it?" the Whammer replied with a taunting grin. Wordgirl let out a groan of frustration and flew straight towards the villain, taking him by surprise. He stumbled backwards and tripped over a rock, sending his wham towards the sky. She grabbed one of his wrists, handcuffed him with part of a former park bench, and dropped him off by a nearby police car.

"Huggyface, what time is it?" she asked once they were in the air again. He paused to check his watch, then let out a short squeak. "Almost four pm?! The teachers are probably gone by now! I hope Violet or Scoops got my stuff from the room…".

When she reached her school she hovered in front of her classroom's window and peered in. Miss Davis was gone, and… no blue backpack. Good. She could get it back later, but right now she needed to get home.

The roof of her house was in sight when she heard the ground start to rumble. Wordgirl turned around and saw a red-haired giant in the distance stomping through the streets. She sighed and took off again, wondering which emergency plan they should use for Eileen this time.

Getting Eileen to calm down today was a much more complicated ordeal than she'd anticipated. Once the child had resumed normal size and Becky was certain she wouldn't transform back into her larger, greener self, Becky headed home again.

She transformed in a flash as she landed at her house's front steps, then entered through the front door. Her family was seated on the couch, watching the tv. "Hi, I'm home!" she said over the noise from the game show.

"Becky, where have you been?" her dad said. "We got another call from Miss Davis. That's the fifth time you've left class and never came back to school this year, and you missed debate club too. You never miss debate club. What's gotten into you?"

"I – I…" Was Violet right? "I… was helping Wordgirl defeat some villains. You know, Chuck, the Whammer… she really needed my help."

Her father sighed. "What have I told you about helping Wordgirl?"

"Uh…." Did he ever say anything about that? She didn't recall -

"It's too dangerous!" Oh. Right. "Those villains are tough, and I'd hate to see you get hurt. And besides, you need to be focusing on your schoolwork –"

"… or I'll turn all the money into goop!" Uh oh, that sounded like it was from the bank.

"Hey, Dad? Mom? I'll be right back, I… forgot my backpack at school. Sorry." She ran back out of the house before her parents could stop her.

Meanwhile, at the bank…

Doctor Two Brains slammed his hands on the counter in frustration. "No, for the third time, I'm not here to steal money. I just need to pick up that ray in the corner."

The blonde bank teller looked at Two Brains with a bored expression. "Well, do you have a way of proving it's yours?" she drawled.

"What? It has my emblem on the side! Of course it's mine."

"I saw the sandwich guy using it earlier. Is it his or yours?"

Two Brains let out a groan of frustration. "I built it, he used it! Can I just take it and go now?"

She began filing her nails. "Sorry. Come back when you have proof of ownership."

"Ugh. I can't believe I have to steal my own ray." He motioned to his henchmen, who were standing back by the front doors, and then pulled a ray out of a pocket in his lab coat. "Give me the ray or I'll turn all the money into goop," he said, less enthusiastically than usual.

Wordgirl burst through the doors. "Two Brains! Stop right there!"

"Hold up," he said, raising his hands defensively. "I don't want to commit any crimes, it's just that this lady won't let me take my ray back."

"Uh… didn't you give it to Chuck?"

The doctor rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I built it, and I want it back until he gets out of jail."

"But… I defeated Chuck, and it was his, and I was going to move it somewhere else but –"

"Look, kid, are you gonna make this easy or not? I'm on a tight schedule."

"So am I, doc." Captain Huggyface tackled the doctor from behind and wrestled the ray out of his hands. The monkey tossed it up to Wordgirl. "Good work, Huggy!"

Two Brains and his henchmen were already leaving the bank. Wordgirl hesitated, trying to decide whether to let them go this time. They didn't actually do anything wrong… and okay, fine, it was his ray, but she didn't want a villain in possession of it.

It didn't feel fair to get them arrested, and she didn't have the time to chase after them. She scooped up her sidekick and the ray, still sitting in the corner, and headed for her hideout.

Becky was about to call out that she was back when she entered the house, but her family was already seated at the dinner table. She jogged over to her seat, trying not to meet their stern glares.

Her father was the first to speak. "If you had waited a minute longer you would have found out that Violet dropped off your backpack after debate club, and you didn't need to go searching for it for so long."

"I'm sorry, dad, I really am! I just got caught up in things, and I got stuck downtown, but I'm back now, and at least I didn't miss dinner, and -"

"That doesn't explain why you had to leave while we were talking to you."

I'm Wordgirl. "I'm sorry. I… is there anything I can do to make up for this?"

"Yeah," TJ said with a smirk. "Be mega-grounded again."

"Now, TJ, we don't need to go that far," their mother said. "But when you leave school and we don't know where you are for hours, well, that worries us. If you're in trouble -"

"I'm not, mom, don't worry about me," Becky pleaded. "I'm just really busy."

Her parents looked at each other and sighed. "You're still regular-grounded," her dad said.

"Fair enough."

Becky couldn't fall asleep. Her parents' worried faces kept popping up in her mind, accompanied by Violet's voice. See, Becky? They think you're in trouble. Everything would be easier if you just told the truth… your best friends know but your own family doesn't?

"But if they know they could get hurt," she muttered aloud to herself, then "fine, I'll tell them, but not now. Someday, though, I will."

She pulled the sheets over her head and tried to shut out any more thoughts for the night.

Haha yeah the title wasn't my best. I literally spent two days trying to think of something better, but I guess my brain was fried from my physics midterm. *shrugs*

When I asked people for ideas for this fic, the most common one I got was about someone finding out her secret identity – which I would love to write about, and I will someday, but anyone besides Scoops and Violet (okay, and Tobey) finding out would really change up the dynamics of the characters. So... I'm trying to wait to actually write that until much later.

Next chapter is already 60% done so that one should be out soon! Get ready for Thanksgiving dinner at casa McCallister!