From the moment that Henry was woken up by an alert (after midnight on a Thursday), he had a feeling that whatever it was would be a disaster. In spite of this, his intuition didn't exactly prepare him for Ray's news.
Henry knew that there was something wrong with Ray from the moment that he watched Ray sway out of the tube. Ray was a lot of things, but he wasn't a goofy smiling and swaying dude. A part of Henry wondered if Ray was drunk, as Ray introduced Gwen to the trio. Henry quickly pulled Ray over to the side to investigate and hopefully talk some sense into him. After Ray told Henry that he'd known Gwen for three hours, Henry quickly eliminated drunk as a possible explanation.
There was no way that Ray, the guy who didn't call the news reporter back, would tell someone his greatest secret after three hours, even if he was completely wasted. As Henry was trying his best to get over the shock and panic coursing through his system, Ray had decided to tell his honey, Gwen about the fact that he was Kid Danger. A multitude of curse words rang around in Henry's head as he tried his best to get Ray to shut up, but it was no use, as Ray seemed to be in the mood to spill secrets. Henry was convinced that it couldn't possibly get any worse than this when Ray announced that they were going to get married. Henry could barely fathom the idea of Ray, the bachelor, getting married, let alone to a woman he just met. Henry felt almost numb with shock as Schwoz came into the room.
Not even ten minutes after Ray's big announcement, and Ray had dismissed everyone to go home. As soon as the elevator doors shut on Henry, Charlotte, and Jasper, Henry felt himself snap.
"He's getting married?! What the hell?" Henry said putting his hands through his hair. Charlotte looked just as concerned.
"I know. Don't forget the fact that Ray told Gwen who you guys are." Charlotte mumbled sarcastically. Jasper's eyebrows wrinkled in frustration.
"I can't believe he gave me grief, but he lets some woman he met three hours ago know his secret." Jasper complained.
"Exactly! Ray would never do this. Something must have happened." Charlotte said crossing her arms. Henry watched her pace around the elevator. Despite everything, he couldn't help admiring her. Char looks so cute in those RAD pajamas, and her hair up, with that cute bow in it… FOCUS. You need to pay attention to the problem, Ray. Not how Charlotte's bangs really bring out her eyes, and how her butt looks in those pants… DANG IT! He cleared his throat and tore his eyes away from Charlotte. He hoped that if she was out of his sight, then she would get out of his mind.
"Well, I don't think that we can do anything about it now. It's late, and we have school tomorrow." Charlotte said. Jasper and Henry agreed quickly before Jasper pressed the up button on the elevator. They all got off after a few seconds to start walking back home. Jasper opened the front door to Junk-N-Stuff and held it as his two best friends followed him out of the shop.
"Goodnight, guys. I'll see you at school tomorrow." Jasper said before heading towards his house. Henry and Charlotte waved before walking in the opposite direction. They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes until they walked past the street that leads to Henry's house.
"Henry, wasn't that the street to your house?" Charlotte said, stopping their walk. Henry's gaze which was previously on the ground, looked towards Charlotte.
"Oh… yeah. It doesn't matter though. I was going to walk you back home first anyway."
"Why are you walking me home?"
"Because it's the middle of the night, and it's dangerous for you to walk by yourself." Henry said looking at her like she had two heads.
"You didn't walk Jasper home." Charlotte said while raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Can we not argue about this, right now? We have bigger issues like the fact that Ray is babbling out secrets to random women." Henry said while he resumed their walk to Charlotte's house with Charlotte right behind him. She rolled her eyes at his subject change but sighed in agreement. Charlotte knew that Henry was right; there were bigger things to worry about. She wasn't going to tell him that he was right though.
"What can we actually do? We can try to erase her memory, but then Ray will be upset. He really seems to be in love with her." Charlotte asked slightly frustrated. She was in just as much shock as Henry was. Ray wasn't usually this careless when it came to his secret identity, and she'd never even heard of him having a relationship that lasted more than a week.
"Yeah, he does. He's acting really weird." Henry said as they arrived at Charlotte's house. Charlotte turned towards Henry and wrapped her arms around his chest. Henry immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly toward him.
"It'll be fine. We'll work it out after school tomorrow-today." She said before chuckling. Henry felt a smile tug on his lips as he listened to Charlotte laugh. After a few minutes, Henry reluctantly let go of Charlotte. He loved holding onto her, but they had school tomorrow. It was almost four o' clock in the morning, and Henry wanted to get some sleep. Charlotte let go too and waved goodbye before trying to sneak back into her house.
"Goodnight, Charlotte." He said to her retreating form. Henry turned around and headed back towards his house, still worried about Ray. Even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it until later, the whole situation with Ray continued to fester in his mind all throughout night. There just seemed to be something weird going on. Henry wasn't sure what, but he was sure that he didn't trust Gwen.
When Henry's alarm went off that morning to wake him up for school, he felt like he had been run over by a truck. His mind was throbbing from lack of sleep, and he couldn't seem to stop thinking about how someone, that he didn't trust, knew his biggest secret. His eyes burned when he opened them, but he hurriedly threw his clothes on for the day. After getting ready, Henry had managed to have minutes to spare before he had to start walking to school. Against his better judgement, he decided to rest his eyes for a few minutes.
Henry woke up for the third time that day to his phone going off like crazy. He groggily picked up his phone and answered the call that he was apparently getting.
"Henry, where are you? Are you okay? I've called you like five times." Charlotte said worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Henry said while resting his head back on his soft pillow.
"It's lunch, and you're not here?" Charlotte deadpanned. Henry sat up in shock. He ran down the stairs to see that his family was gone. His stomach growled loudly as he saw the leftover pastries from this morning's breakfast. He was starving, but he was already four hours late to school. Henry groaned as he rushed out the door to get to class.
By the time that he ran into the high school panting, lunch was already over, and everyone was walking to their next class. As soon as she saw him, Charlotte rushed over to Henry with a chocolate granola bar and copy of her notes in her hand.
"What happened to you?" Charlotte said as she took in Henry's disheveled appearance. His hair was all over the place, and his flannel shirt was slightly unbuttoned and crooked.
"I got ready, and I ended up falling asleep. Is that for me?" Henry said eying the granola bar with strong desire. Charlotte handed him both the granola bar and the notes. Henry murmured a quick thanks before inhaling the granola bar in two bites.
"I know I shouldn't have let you walk me home. What time did you go to bed last night?" Charlotte said as they both walked towards Henry's locker to grab his stuff.
"That wasn't it. I couldn't stop thinking about Gwen and Ray. We have to confront her when we get there. Maybe she'll admit something." Henry said while grabbing his Chemistry textbook out of his locker.
"Yeah, maybe. We'll talk about this later. I have to get to class, and so do you. Try not to fall asleep." Charlotte said before smiling at Henry and walking towards her next class. Henry smiled to himself as he watched Charlotte confidently walk through the school hallways in her black sneakers and purple patterned sweatshirt. He loved how smart, sassy, and sarcastic Charlotte was, but he really missed being in the same classes as her. Henry sighed before heading to his Chemistry class.
Henry felt himself doze off again as his teacher droned on about balancing chemical equations and how to use that for their experiment next week. He was daydreaming about Charlotte feeding him a muffin when his teacher slapped a worksheet on his lab table. Henry awoke with a start, and the whole class snickered at him. His teacher squinted her eyes menacingly and gave him a glare that could rival Charlotte's.
"Because Mr. Hart here, thinks this class is naptime, we'll be having a Quiz tomorrow." The teacher said said venomously. Henry felt the glares of his classmates on his back for the rest of the class period. Unfortunately, his day didn't get any better, and the granola bar didn't last him very long. By the time that the Charlotte and Jasper met him by his locker to head to Junk-N-Stuff, Henry was in a foul mood, tense, and above all, hungry. (He was a growing boy after all.) Charlotte and Jasper seemed to have gotten the message because they chatted quietly among themselves during the walk to the store. As Henry trudged behind Jasper and Charlotte, he couldn't help but to think of the fresh, homemade, and warm banana nut muffins with sugar sprinkled on the top that he hadn't eaten this morning. The image of steaming muffins seemed to anger Henry's stomach greatly as it growled loudly in response. Henry moaned vehemently while clutching his stomach. It felt like it was eating itself. Charlotte turned her head to look back at Henry with concern and worry all over her face. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. Jasper, who was apparently waiting for Charlotte to respond to something that he said, turned around to look at Henry too.
"Dude, are you okay?" Jasper said raising an eyebrow.
"I'll be fine once we get to the Man Cave, and I get something food." Jasper nodded his head and started walking again. Charlotte hung back to walk back to the Man Cave by Henry's side.
Henry could feel her watching him as they walked. Henry knew that Charlotte would worry about him if he didn't perk up soon.
"So, do we have a plan for Gwen?" Henry said as they got closer to the store. Charlotte played with a piece of her curly hair, twirling it around her finger as she thought about it.
"Not really. We could split up Ray and Gwen and try to interrogate her or something?" Charlotte said. Henry shrugged. Despite all the time he spent thinking about Ray's declaration, he still had absolutely no clue what to do about it.
"I mean that could work unless she's not already there." Henry said as they finally arrived at Junk-N-Stuff.
"Only one way to find out." Charlotte said opening the front door for Henry and walking into the universe of weird that was their job. Jasper, who had arrived a few seconds earlier, was already busy doing some inventory. Henry and Charlotte were about to walk past him towards the elevator when Jasper grabbed Henry's sleeve.
"Henry, can I talk to you?" Jasper said while signaling for Charlotte to leave with his head. Charlotte frowned and mumbled a dry 'whatever' under her breath before going in the back.
"What is it, Jasper?" Henry said irritated. There was food in the Man Cave. Jasper knew that he was beyond hungry, but he was purposely keeping Henry from his body's one true love, food. Specifically, a nice double chocolate chip muffin. He felt himself drool a little bit thinking about those warm, gooey, chocolate chips melting in his mouth as he bit into the muffin. He bit his lip thinking about it.
"Henry, are you listening?" Jasper said looking at him strangely.
"Uh, were you talking?" Henry said confused and disappointed that his food fantasy was being interrupted.
"I asked you if you would stay up here with me while I feed the plant." Jasper said putting his hands through his (unnaturally) curly hair nervously. Henry sighed.
"Yeah, fine. Once that's done, I'm getting a muffin." Henry said. He tried to walk around the store to distract him from his ever present hunger.
As he was pacing, his mind went back to Ray. His thoughts went all over the place from wondering about his family's safety to Charlotte and Jasper's.
"Henry, this plant is intimating me…" Jasper whined. There were times where Henry loved and appreciated Jasper's Jasperness, but this was not when of those times. Henry loved Jasper, he really did. He was his oldest friend after all, but there were times where he just wanted to shake some sense into him. (However, he wouldn't be Jasper then.) It didn't help when he added that it might be because Gwen has a trampoline. Henry was dealing with Jasper and his crisis when Gwen walked through the door with a container on her arm. His mind automatically perked up.
He signaled for Jasper to get out of the room (unsuccessfully the first time) before Gwen approached him. She walked around casually and innocently, but Henry suspected that that was an act. She stated the obvious: he didn't want her to marry Ray.
"Well, I'm glad you got that feeling 'cause that feeling is exactly what I want your feeling to be. You feeling me?" Henry responded. Gwen asked him to repeat himself, but he was basically done with today already.
"No! I'm sorry 'cause I don't repeat stuff!" He said passionately. His inner Charlotte was cringing painfully and shaking her head, but Henry ignored it. He was starving, and he had to figure out what Gwen's angle was.
Henry was fully prepared to keep arguing and getting some information out of her, but then she did it. She opened the container, and inside of the container, were the objects that he desperately craved.
"Muffins?" Henry scoffed, but his stomach was screaming at him. Take the freaking muffin! You've wanted them all day! The rationale part of him remembered that the last time that he had taken a baked good, it had almost killed his sister. That this was Gwen for Christ's sake, and he did not trust her. For crying out loud, his parents had told him to never take food from strangers…
But. They. Were. Muffins. The arguments were lost on Henry, and before he could think twice about it, he was already taking a bite out of the delicious banana nut muffin.
Author's Note: Hey guys! It's Lizlen! This is a collab because wstrnplsr105 was nice enough to work with me! (I'm fangirling right now honestly.) Hope you liked the chapter!