Becky returned home after school later that same day, proceeding to lay back on her bed with a sigh of happiness.
"What's got you so happy?" Bob squeaked, having been snacking on some bananas in her room.
"Oh, lotsa stuff…" Becky said happily. Becky sat up and faced Bob to explain her wondrous day.
"Well, first of all, Tobey and I are officially dating," Becky paused. One announcement at a time, she thought, was enough.
"Yeah, I saw that coming." Bob squeaked.
"What? How?" Becky asked, surprised by his response.
"Because I know you. I can tell when you really care about somebody. And quite frankly, I'm happy for you guys. I always knew that someday you'd be together." Bob squeaked.
"Oh…wow." Becky said quietly. "Thanks, I guess. But anyways, there's one more pretty big thing…"
"I've decided to return to Lexicon to find my parents. Not stay permanently, I'm just going to find them, get to know them and leave." Becky explained. Bob was still unmoved. This was foreseeable to the monkey solely because he had caught her many a time staring out at the stars, sighing miserably.
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me either." He squeaked.
"What? How could you possibly have guessed that that was going to happen?" Becky asked, even more surprised than before.
"Because, I knew this day would come sooner or later. I mean, think about it. You came to earth as a one-year-old, with almost no knowledge of Lexicon, the place you were born. And up until recently, you seem to have ignored that part of your life. But I know that you can't ignore that part forever, no matter how hard you try. It's natural to be curious about your origins. Besides, when you spend almost every night outside stargazing and wanting to be alone, it gets kinda obvious." Bob explained. Becky was quiet. Bob was absolutely right, she knew that.
"I guess I just wanted to ignore that part of my life so I could spare myself the pain of knowing that until I find out for myself, there's always a large chance that my parents don't care about me." Becky said quietly.
"Becky, I know that's not true. I didn't know your parents at all really, but the morning of our crash on Earth, I saw the three of you walking down the street, and I could tell just by looking that they definitely cared a lot about you." Bob squeaked.
"Really?" Becky asked. Bob nodded. Becky smiled and gave Bob a quick hug.
"You're the best friend ever, you know that right?" Becky said happily.
"Of course I do!" Bob squeaked with a smile. "I'll get working on the spaceship's repairs ASAP."
The two were silent for a while.
"Should I tell mom dad and TJ?" Becky asked suddenly.
"I think you should, but that's just me. If you don't want to, don't." Bob responded, having returned to his large stack of banana snacks.
"But what if I tell them and they resent me for it?" Becky asked.
"They won't. They're your family, Becky, they'll love you no matter what. I think they deserve to know." Bob squeaked. Becky sighed and thought about her dilemma in silence.
~…~
Later that night, after hours of thinking, Becky came to the decision that if she was going to return to Lexicon, her family deserved to know about it. They'd given her their love, respect and trust her whole life, she figured she should be that way in return.
Becky headed downstairs, where all three were watching TV.
"Mom, Dad, TJ? I have something to tell you." Becky said, hanging her head. She watched nervously as Tim turned off the TV, after which all three turned to her and gave her their undivided attention.
"What's up?" Tim asked.
"Ok, well, here goes…but before I tell you, I have to tell you that I've been holding back this secret for a very long time, and it's taken me a lot of thinking time and courage to decide to tell you. So please, please, don't get mad, and don't hate me." Becky began. She sighed. Her family nodded in understanding. Here goes…
"I'm…I'm Wordgirl." Becky said nervously. She looked back to all the other times this had happened, and remembered their refusal to believe it was true, and their laughter.
"Becky, dear, we've been through this before." Sally said. "You're not Wordgirl, honey, that's ridiculous. You're nothing like her."
"But I am! How many times does everyone have to tell you in order for you to believe me? Not only have I told you multiple times before, but even Dr. Two Brains said I was, even though your memories were wiped of that. Even Bampy has called Wordgirl Becky! Multiple times!" Becky spat angrily. She was so sick of everyone thinking she wasn't capable of anything close to what Wordgirl did. Becky cleared her throat and spoke more calmly.
"Look, can't you see all the hints? First off, I'm always disappearing when Wordgirl shows up. I've never been in the same room as Wordgirl before in my life. We both have dark brown hair, both of us have monkey sidekicks," Becky explained as Bob walked in with a large sandwich he'd been making. "We both have an extensive knowledge of the English language, we're the same age…" Becky paused.
"Plus the fact that every time a villain like Mr. Big or Granny May pretended to be good and innocent, and tried to win over the trust of the city, everyone began trusting them except me and Wordgirl. The signs are all there, you guys just never picked up on them." Becky finished. She watched as her family thought all of it over. They all simultaneously realized that Becky was absolutely right.
"You…you really are Wordgirl, aren't you?" Sally asked quietly, very stunned.
"Yes, I am." Becky said confidently. They were quiet a little bit longer.
"And all this time…we've been telling you that there's no way you're Wordgirl? All this time we've been saying all these things to you about what you're not, when in fact you were all those things?" Tim said. Becky nodded.
"I don't care about that anymore, I've realized that it's my own fault for setting you guys up to say those things." Becky explained. She looked to TJ, who had been very silent this whole time. He looked very pale, and his eyes were very wide.
"TJ, are you okay?" Becky asked, worried.
"This whole time, I've been looking up to Wordgirl, idolizing her, when it was just you this whole time?" He asked angrily.
"Yes. I'm sorry for that." Becky said. She knew he was going to freak out on her now; she'd imagined this moment many times in her head. But instead, he was just silent again.
"Everyone thinks you're so nice and so innocent, and that you're such a good person. But you know what I think you are?" TJ asked, looking at her with disdain. Becky swallowed nervously, waiting for an answer.
"I think you're just a cold-hearted liar." He said as he turned to go to his room. Becky froze in shock. He hates me…
Becky grabbed his arm.
"TJ, you can't tell anyone about this, okay? Promise me none of you will tell another living soul about my secret identity." Becky said, now addressing the whole family. They all nodded.
"We promise." Her parents assured.
"Why would I want to? That would ruin all your chances to lie to everyone that cares about you." TJ spat miserably, shaking his arm free and storming off to his room.
Becky sat on the couch, shocked by TJ's reaction.
"I knew this was going to happen," She said with wide eyes. Bob climbed onto the couch and sat next to his long-time friend, rubbing her back with his hand. Her parents were quick to do the same.
"Oh, he'll come around. Look, Becky, this came as a surprise to all of us. TJ just didn't know how to handle it." Sally assured her daughter.
"No, he's right. I'm a liar, I'm cold-hearted and careless. I've lied to everyone I care about for so long. I deserved that reaction from him." Becky said sadly.
"Becky, that's not true. We don't blame you for not telling us, we understand. TJ will too, just give him time." Tim said. Becky sighed.
"I guess you're right…" Becky said, standing up again. "But there's one last thing I have to tell you."
Becky paused nervously.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I've decided that it's time to meet my real parents…" She began.
"I'm going to Lexicon." She finished. She watched their eyes widen.
"You guys were exactly right about it all, everything you told me the other night was true. I've been pretending to be happy for too long. I can't stand to sit around here and watch everyone with their real families, and see how happy they are to know each other. I just can't do it anymore. I just need to find out if I had that once in my life too. I'm not staying there, that's for sure. I'm just going long enough to find my parents, meet them and get to know them. There are too many things on earth that I couldn't bear to part with forever…" Becky explained, a certain blonde-haired boy genius suddenly coming to mind.
"We completely understand. Do whatever you need to do, we'll support you all the way." Tim explained, followed by a nod from Sally. They were uneasy about sending their only daughter off to space, but if that's what it was going to take to make her happy, they were willing to let her go.
Becky, elated by their approval, suddenly hugged them.
"Thank you, guys, so much for understanding! I couldn't ask for anything more than your approval of what I'm doing. I love you guys so much." She said happily.
"That's great, dear…" Sally wheezed. "But air would be nice too."
Becky released her parents with a blush.
"Sorry." She said.
"So, are we the first to know about your secret?" Sally asked.
"Well, no. Bampy figured it out on his own, I told Violet about a year ago, and I told Tobey a couple days ago." Becky explained. Her parents nodded. They were well aware of her daughter's situation with Tobey. She'd informed them about their friendship when it had first happened, and ever since they'd been picking up on hints of her feelings for him and his for her. Although Becky had forgotten to mention to her parents the fact that she had a new boyfriend, Becky's parents didn't really need her telling them in order to find out. They noticed Becky grab his hand as she closed the front door behind them. They noticed it in the way they looked at each other. It really wasn't hard to find out. But they had recently gotten to know the good Tobey, and had begun to like him. They knew he was a good kid, and they approved one hundred percent of their relationship. After all, he hadn't attacked anything with giant robots for at least a year, maybe more. They were happy to let their daughter fall in love with the boy.
Well, there's that chapter! Have to say, I'm particularly happy with this chapter. I've thought about Becky telling her family her secret for a while and I'm glad my thoughts transferred well…XD but anyways, review!
Edit: realized a mistake in the last paragraph & fixed it...working on the next chapter as we speak!