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Ralph gazed absentmindedly at the ceiling, watching as the shadows from the television screen danced an awkward waltz across the surface. He had his arms tucked behind his head as a makeshift pillow, while his right leg rested over his left, a position that he felt made him look cool. But tonight, Ralph felt anything but. He couldn’t shake off the frustrating fact that it was spring break; his parents were gone for the whole week on a business trip, meaning he had the whole place to himself (besides his butler) for the entire break. On which he was planning to spend most of his time with Henry.
Oh, yes. He had a whole mental list of games to play and fun things to do. But, detrimentally to all his plans, Henry had acquired another mate to hang with. A new kid who had been dubbed the name Awesome Andrew.
Awesome Andrew, who, to Ralph, was more of a Stupid Andrew or a not-Awesome Andrew (he was much too upset to think of anything clever), had moved to Ashton not long before spring break. The kid was a huge blabbermouth, so many of the students of Ashton Middle School had practically learned Andrew's entire life story in under an hour. When prompted by the teacher to introduce himself, it was explained that Andrew and his family had moved to Ashton on account of Andrew’s dad being handed a “new job opportunity,” as Andrew had so artfully explained. According to Andrew, his dad worked as an agent. Not a secret agent as so many of the kids had originally been led to believe, though Ralph would have to admit that that would have been wicked. No, his dad was the type of agent who worked with actors, meaning he guided them and assisted them in getting roles in movies and television shows.
Well, Ralph was hardly impressed; after all, Ralph lived in a wealthy neighborhood with residents who earned their cash in a multitude of ways, ways much cooler than Andrew's dad. In fact, Ralph was almost a hundred percent sure that one of the older ladies who lived a few blocks down was a retired Broadway performer. Which was totally cooler than some stupid agent, who wasn’t even a secret agent.
It seemed that the other kids did not share Ralph's disinterest, as soon many of them began to wave their arms in the air excitedly, wide-eyed, and making disruptive noises of intrigue, which sounded more like a bunch of chimpanzees to Ralph. “Pick me, pick me!” “I have a question!” “Did your dad work with this actor?” “Or this actor?” Students threw question after question, hollering over each other as if they were in a rally.
While the teacher attempted to calm the students. Ralph glanced over at Henry, who was sitting directly across from him. He had hoped that Henry would be as unimpressed as he was, but much to his chagrin, Henry’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, leaning far onto his desk with his chin placed on an open palm. Ralph's brow furrowed. “Andrew,” the teacher began, placing her hands on his shoulders, “Why don’t you take a seat next to…” Her voice trailed off as she scanned the classroom, eyes finally landing on an open seat. “Henry,” she pointed directly at him with a single, poised finger.
Andrew walked briskly to the empty seat, lugging his backpack over the arm of the chair and plopping carelessly down. He thrust a hand toward Henry and greeted him with a confident smile. “You must be Henry,” he said. Henry returned the smile with a mischievous grin. “Yeah? And what's it to you?” he teased, grasping Andrew's hand in a rather firm grip and shaking it harshly. Andrew's face reddened slightly, a delicate shade of pink, which had Ralph scowling. “Oh...Uh,” Andrew stuttered like a helpless fool.
Margaret leaned over from where she sat behind Andrew and whispered, not so subtly, “You might want to be cautious with him; Henry can be quite horrid!” She snickered to herself, and Henry glowered, “Shut it, slime!” he hissed. “Ahem!” the teacher cleared her throat impatiently, causing all three students to cower apologetically. “Right!” the teacher began again. But Ralph couldn’t force himself to pay attention; in fact, almost against his will, all he could focus on was how Andrew seemed rather reluctant to release Henry’s hand, and that made his stomach churn. Though he couldn’t exactly figure out why.
As the school day marched on slowly, Ralph quickly became more and more fed up with this Andrew kid. Everywhere Henry was, Andrew was tagging along like a lost duckling, and because everywhere Henry was, Ralph was, that meant that Ralph had to be around Andrew as well, which he was not excited about.
During school dinner, the students were extra rowdy today as the old and quite mean dinner lady had begun to snooze at her desk. Ralph and Henry sat side by side, as usual, and while Andrew had invited himself to the table, noticeably only greeting Henry, Ralph chose to ignore him, just for his sanity. All the while, Henry had taken the cheese out of his sandwich and tossed it onto the ceiling, waiting to see how long it would stick and how long before a teacher would notice. Ralph began throwing his carrots to see if he could land one of them on the top of the cabinets, both he and Henry cheering gleefully when he finally made one despite his many other misses.
Andrew looked back and forth from Ralph to Henry, and slowly, a smile grew on his lips. “Hey, Henry,” he began, holding up a muffin. Henry and Ralph stopped their celebration to observe as Andrew looked around suspiciously before taking aim and chucking the muffin over Henry’s and Ralph’s heads and straight to the mean dinner lady, hitting her right in the middle of the forehead. She startled awake, and with an angry howl, jumped to her feet and stormed across the room shouting, “Which one of you brats threw that muffin!” storming all of the room, wild like a tornado. Kids muffled their giggles behind their hands, and no one dared to speak up. Henry leaned over to Andrew and whispered, “That was awesome!” in a hushed voice full of awe. Andrew quite visibly glowed at the statement, and his smile widened rather goofily. Ralph barely swallowed down a growl.
As the end of the school day finally arrived, and the whole mess of the school dinner fiasco was swept under the rug as the mean dinner lady gave up on finding the culprit, things had calmed down greatly. Ralph waited giddily for Henry, hands shoved into his jacket pocket as he rocked back and forth on his heels. He was let out much earlier than Henry, who was asked to stay behind by the teacher to discuss his behavioral issues in class, not that Ralph minded waiting for Henry at all. His eyes jumped from student to student as he assessed their clothes and hair for Henry's classic yellow and blue jumper and messy brown locks.
He had finally spotted Henry behind two girls’ heads and began to jog toward him, only faltering a little when he saw him chatting up with Andrew. “Hey, Henry!” He cried gleefully, stopping abruptly in front of him, “Wanna come over to my house tonight? My granddad got me some brand new video games that we can play together!” he said. Henry lit up. “Yeah!” he shouted before his exhilarated smile dropped into a sheepish frown; he turned towards Andrew, Ralph followed his gaze, and suppressed a mocking huff at Andrew's pathetic look. “But I already told Andrew I’d go over to his house today,” he shrugged. Ralph twitched, ‘But you just met him!’ He had wanted to scream but instead could only croak out a “What?”.
Henry grinned devilishly, “He’s got a super soaker!” his fists clenched in front of him as he bore down the thrills traveling through his body. “Two, actually,” Andrew corrected, and Henry scoffed. “Whatever,” he rolled his eyes. Ralph crossed his arms petulantly. “I could get a super soaker. I could get, like, five,” he insisted. “But do you have any right now?” Henry raised a single brow, and his eyes flooded with mirth. Ralph didn’t respond, but the way his head drooped and his shoulders sagged was enough for Henry and Andrew to gather that he most likely did not.
Andrew tugged at Henry’s arm, cocking his head and gesturing to a red car that probably belonged to his mom or dad. “See you around, Ralphie,” Henry chuckled before skipping off with Andrew. Leaving Ralph red in the face at that stupid nickname that left butterflies fluttering in his stomach every time Henry called him that and cursing Andrews name with a plethora of insults.
That’s how it had been all week. “Sorry Ralph, I promised Andrew this.” “I can’t; I’m hanging with Andrew today.”. With every dismissal, the more the Henry-filled hole in his heart drained and drained, the lonelier Ralph began to feel, and while he did have other friends, none of them were his best friends, and none of them were Henry, and the lonelier Ralph got, the angrier he began to be, and like an unceremonious chain, the angrier Ralph became, the ruder he got.
It all came to a head on the final day of school before spring break and the day before this very night. The whole incident began when the school had gotten out. Students tripped over each other and some over their own feet as they all rushed to get home and officially start spring break. Ralph had caught up to Henry and, of course, as of lately and rather unfortunately, Andrew.
“Henry, come over to my house tonight for a super awesome sleepover! My mom and dad are going to be away for the whole week! We’ve got the entire place to ourselves.” Ralph declared like a triumphant king. Henry’s interest was piqued if the way his whole body was facing Ralph had anything to say about it. “I’ve got those new games I told you about, the best snacks and loads of sweets, and brand new super soakers,” he paused and stared directly into Andrew's eyes. “3000,” he finished, hands placed onto his hips as he continued to stare sharply into Andrew's quivering eyes, daring him to beat that.
“Super Soaker 3000?” Henry bellowed eagerly. “But those just came out yesterday! I’ve heard that they’ve already been sold out in the shops and that it’ll take them loads of weeks to stock up again!” His eyes were wild and frenzied. “Exactly. That’s why I need someone to help me test those babies out,” he said, and the fish was caught. Hook, line, and sinker. “Heck yeah!” Henry shouted madly, raising a hand and high-fiving Ralph. “Um. Ahem,” Andrew suddenly made himself known, shuffling back and forth awkwardly. “Henry, you said you were sleeping over at my place tonight,” he blinked.
Henry winced. “Oh, yeah,” he said, not unkindly but rather embarrassed of his forgetfulness. Ralph shook his head and quirked his lips. “Well, he’s changed his mind, so, uh, run along then,” Ralph shooed him with the whip of his hand. Henry frowned. “Come on, Ralph, I already said yes,” he said impatiently, already done with the conversation. “So?” Ralph doubled down, crossing his arms again, as he did only weeks before. He and Henry glared at each other coldly, and Andrew, having at least some sense, informed Henry that he’d be waiting by his mom's car. “I’m going over to Andrews, and that’s that.” Henry stomped his foot like a toddler not getting their way. Ralph could barely choke down the words before he vomited them up. “But you’re my best friend!” At least he had enough control to stop his hands from jerking up to clamp over his mouth.
Henry’s face morphed into a mixture of anger, confusion, and surprise. Not that Ralph could blame him, seeing as he was just as confused and surprised at himself. Henry scoffed and pulled the straps on his backpack tighter to himself. “Come off it, Ralph,” he hissed, turning away from Ralph and making his way toward Andrew. Ralph, already too out of control with his rushing thoughts and loose lips, spat, “Fine! Not that I wanted to, anyway,” before storming off in the opposite direction to his own ride home.
He was not fortunate enough to have missed the hurt expression on Henry’s face, which Henry had attempted to cover with irritation.
Ralph was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by the unexpected trill of the doorbell. He sprang from his spot on the sofa and dismissed his butler, insisting that he could open the door himself, and with the butler having gone back to whatever it is that he does, he tore open the door to reveal a rugged-looking Henry.
“Henry?” he said in surprise, eyebrows shooting up to the line of his forehead. “What are you doing here?” Henry smirked nonchalantly, “Andrew fell ill. Did you know that he lived in your neighborhood?” he attempted to joke. Ralph had yet to shake the surprise at his sudden appearance at his door. “Can I come in?” he asked, shuffling slightly close to the entrance of the door expectantly.
“Oh! Yeah,” Ralph threw the door open wider and stepped inside for Henry to toggle in as he balanced his luggage filled with clothes and other sleepover necessities. With the question of how Henry had convinced Andrew's mom to let him leave, and if his mom or dad knew if he was now at Ralph's house at the tip of his tongue, he was beaten to the punch by Henry.
“I’m really sorry for how I’ve been this week, Ralph,” he said, and to his credit, he did really look ashamed. “I guess I got too excited,” he shrugged with one shoulder as if he acknowledged that that was a poor excuse. Ralph shook his head, eyes rising from where they had been downcast to his shoes. “No, I’m sorry,” he looked earnestly into Henry’s eyes. “You’re allowed to have other friends, Henry. It's not as if I don't”.
While the boys contemplated each other’s apologies, Henry snickered, disrupting the silence that had formed a fog over the boys. “I don’t think I mind being your favorite,” and well, Ralph couldn’t object to that, because it’s not as if it were untrue.
“Hey, Henry?” He called the boy with a questioning tone; Henry hummed and then was suddenly soaked to the bone by the Super Soaker 3000 that Ralph had pulled from seemingly nowhere and was thankful to have filled beforehand.
Finally, everything was right again, and Henry was still his best friend.