Rule #8: Keep your best friend posted on what's going on. It helps more than it hurts. This rule can apply to every important relationship in your life, actually (except for your parents, we've already discussed this). Telling your close friends and (sometimes) family can be very helpful because it keeps you from having to lie to them and it means you have more people to support you. Keeping a secret from the people you love (even if you don't always tell them you love them), tears your soul apart. Trust me, I know.

Dan and I were only a few days into our continued training but you could already tell that it was going to be an upward battle. Everything he tried to teach me, no matter how simple, just didn't work. I was too clumsy, too slow, too slick, too fast. No matter what I tried to do I messed it up. I couldn't even blame everything on Dan, which was my favorite past time (and why wouldn't it be? It was hilarious and time wasting, my two favorite things). Nope, this was all my fault. And everyone could tell. Everyone, sadly, including Dan. Let me tell you, nothing is worse than Dan Smalls trying to be extra nice. The guy is already sickingly nice and kind and all that so when he's actually trying to be nice it's awful. Just one long guilt trip and he doesn't even realize it.

The one good thing about Dan being nice to me, and I do mean the only good thing (yes, I do realize that this is sad to be annoyed at someone being nice to me, I am a horrible person, but it's Dan so I get to be horrible), is that I can totally milk it. Seriously, once I get him feeling bad for me I can basically get him to do anything. Which is how, at this point in the story, I was able to sit for an hour and a half doing nothing. Well, technically I was "resting" and "preparing for the next stage of our training" but all I was really doing was playing on my phone. I probably could have stalled for a little longer, most likely a lot longer, but I was actually getting bored (no one was texting me, which is sad for them because they were missing out on my genius) so I decided to actually get back to training. So I don't die on the job or something. But just because I was willingly going back to work doesn't mean that I didn't complain about it constantly to Rachel, who clearly was through with me (what else was new?).

"He's just... ridiculous, all right? I can't handle this anymore."

"You say that every day," Rachel said, without looking up from her book.

"I do not."

"Fine." She turned a page. "You may not say that every day but you say some kind of variation of it most days, if not every day. But you're still a complainer and that's what's important."

"You're so sweet to me."

"That's what I'm here for." Another page turn. "Most people think that sidekicks are here for emotional support but really we're here to keep you from becoming slimy whiny idiots."

"Too late," I said.

"Don't I know it."

"Come on, Rachel, can you please just help me out?"

Now she looks up from the book. "And how, my dear Matthew, do you expect me to do that?"

"I don't know. I figured you would come up with something."

Rachel sighed, obviously trying to decide if she was going to cause me some kind of bodily harm or not, and put her book on the coffee table as she got up.

"Can you give me some money?" she asked.

"What?"

"Can you give me some money?"

"What the hell do you need money for?"

"To go get lunch..."

"I don't have any money," I said.

"I know for a fact that you have money."

"Fine," I sighed. "Give me my wallet."

"No need." She crossed the room and grabbed my wallet without skipping a beat. "I'll take good care of your money."

"Rachel..."

"Have fun training!" she said as she headed up the stairs.

"At least get me a turkey sandwich! If you're going to spend all my money at least get me a turkey sandwich!" I yelled at her back.

"No promises!"

With my phone dying and Rachel gone, I had no choice but to go back to training. Dan, who apparently never needed any rest or lunch, was already waiting for me with a smile on his face. If I hadn't been so tired I probably would have punched the jerk in the face. Then again, maybe I wouldn't have because apparently my form was just that bad. I'd probably punch him, break a finger while doing it, and then have to listen to him comfort me while explaining why that was warranted but a bad idea. It wouldn't even have been worth it. So instead of punching him like I wanted to, I tried to quit. Several times.

"Matt, for the last time, you're not allowed to quit," Dan said, finally starting to sound annoyed.

"Says who?"

"Says me?"

"Yeah, that doesn't convince me at all. That literally just makes me want to quit more," I said.

"I'm sorry to hear that." See what I mean? Infuriating.

"Come on, Dan, just let me quit."

"No."

"At least let me quit for the day? I'm sure you want a break from me too."

"Matt..."

"Please? Just a little break for the day."

"But we've barely gotten anything done!" he said.

"I know but are we really going to get anything else done today? I think we're too tired to be productive."

"We're too tired to be productive because you keep whining!"

"So you admit that we're too tired?"

"Yes!"

"Then let's go home!" I said, moving to grab my stuff.

"Oh no you don't." Dan blocked my path. "You're not giving up that easily."

"Oh yes I am."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"Just sit down for a second, okay?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if I want to."

He sighed, possibly struggling with his own desire to punch someone (me) in the face. "Please just sit down. If you're still 'too tired' or whatever after I finish talking then you can go. But just for today."

I knew I could wear him down. "All right."

Doing as I was told, I sat down on the couch and prepared myself for what was sure to be a completely horrible pep talk. Dan seemed to compose himself, he had gone from annoyingly happy to even more annoyingly put out, and he sat down opposite me in one of his chairs. It took all I had to keep from bursting out laughing watching him do that (he was the spitting age of a father about to tell his son about the birds and the bees). The guy was a lame white dad and he didn't even have kids yet.

"Matt," Dan said, sounding tired. "I don't want you to waste your potential."

"I'm-"

"Yes, you are. And please just let me talk. Afterwards you can say whatever but for now just let me talk."

"Okay..."

"As I was saying, I don't want you to waste your potential. I know it sounds lame and everything but you have so much potential. So much I don't even understand it yet and you definitely don't. Why would you? This is still so new. But if you give up now, we'll never discover how much you can actually achieve. And not only will that be detrimental to our city, and possibly the world, but also highly detrimental to you."

With this, Dan stood up and started pacing around the room, like this potential he saw in me kept him from being able to sit still.

"I know that right now you're young and you don't have to think about your legacy, or if you'll even have one. You probably shouldn't think about it, actually. But I see so many people who have the potential to make a true difference and waste it. And I don't mean just large differences, like Ghandi or something. Smaller differences. But they're all still important."

He turned to look at me. "Believe me, I know that I'm not going to have statues made in my honor or anything. I'm just a guy who happens to have superpowers. But you, Matt, you have the potential to do so much more. I would kill for this type of opportunity, so many of us would. You may not think you want something like that, which I understand, but don't rob yourself of this opportunity so soon. If we train and you're ready to save the world but somehow don't want to, then you don't have to. But don't give up and then regret it later. For my sake, at least."

With that, he sat down again. If he had looked tired before, now he looked completely exhausted. The poor guy had worn himself out.

"Is that you all have to say?" I asked.

"Yes, that is all I have to say."

Here, everyone, is when I had to make a decision. Dan was giving me the opportunity to walk away from all of this, which is all I had ever asked for. But he was also putting a bunch of responsibility on my shoulders. Sure, I had known that the city (and the world) would be in trouble if I didn't train and everything, but I hadn't thought that Dan would want to be in my shoes. Being a hero, in any sense of the world, had never been my plan but for some people that's exactly what they wanted. And who wouldn't want to be a hero? You got to make a difference and you got at least some sort of glory. It was a sweet gig. But did I want that gig? Was it really that bad if I didn't? After all, I had agreed to join this cause to get girls (more or less), I had never believed in the cause. No one could really blame me for stepping back. There were plenty of heroes in the city, that whole "savior" bit was a little much.

But something about Dan's speech, or pep talk I guess, stuck with me. When he had started talking, I had planned to nod a little bit and then get the hell out of there (remember, I had only asked for the day off). But his speech was actually pretty convincing. He had taken my laziness and actually made me question myself. Not in a bad way, but in a "am I making the right call?" sort of way. I was the sort of person, as I'm sure you've noticed, that made a decision and stuck with it, whether I was right or not. It took a lot for me to question those decisions and Dan was able to make me do that. Hell, I was actually agreeing with the guy.

Once I realized that (the whole "I was agreeing with Dan" thing), I couldn't just ignore that feeling. This feeling would only come around once in a blue moon (if ever), so I had to recognize it when it happened. There was no getting around it: I had to tell Dan I agreed with him and keep training. Life just sort of sucks that way sometimes.

"You know what, Dan?" I said, after a moment.

"Yeah..." he replied, seeming nervous.

"Sometimes, you're actually right."

"I am?"

"Not all the time, only sometimes."

"But right now I am?" He was getting excited now.

"Right now you are."

He jumped up, a huge smile on his face. "That's great!"

"I guess it is." I tried to keep my calm, cool, and collected thing going (which I totally rock, by the way) but his happiness was almost, I hate saying this, infectious. So I couldn't help but smile.

"This is so exciting," he said. "We should get back to training right away. Now that we're on the same page we can work even harder and you'll be in fighting shape in no time. This is so great."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I started to make my way back to the training room but Dan stopped me.

"Wait-" he said, scooping me into a hug. "We can't agree like this without marking it with a hug."

It was, of course, at this moment that Rachel walked in with our lunches. I gave her a look like "get this crazy guy off of me" but she just smirked. My sister, everyone.

"You guys are so weird," she said, walking into the other room.

"Come on, Rachel!" Dan called after her. "This is the perfect opportunity for a group hug!"

She ignored him, which didn't surprise anyone (if you happen to be surprised maybe you haven't been paying attention like you should, just saying).

Once I had finally pulled myself away from Dan (God I hate huggers), I started pushing him back into the training room. Just because I had agreed to not quit yet didn't mean that I wanted to be stuck here all damn day. The easiest way to get Dan to do anything is compliment him because he's so flattered he doesn't notice that you're pushing him into a room or stealing his lunch. Luckily, I was in the mood to be nice so it wasn't that hard.

"You know, Dan, you're not that bad of a pep talker."

"You think so?" he said, as I started moving him towards the door.

"I do. In fact, you might be better at pep talks about saving people than you are at actually saving people."

"You're making fun of me, aren't you."

"Only a little. But I do mean it, you could be a life coach."

"Then thanks, I guess."

By this point I was able to get Dan through the door and into the training room. He was so flattered by my (kinda lame) compliments that were able to work in almost silence for a while. Shockingly, when that silence was broken it was me who broke it. I had just found my groove, which I had been searching for all day, and had the sudden urge to talk to see if I could multi-task a little. I was more motivated now, which gave me the chance to let my mind wander, and I had thought of something.

"Hey, Dan?"

"Yeah?" he said.

"Didn't you or someone else mention that the villains have some kind of super villain school or whatever?"

"I think so. I don't know if it was me that mentioned it but there is a villain school. Why?"

"Well I was just thinking about how if the heroes were smart, they would create their own school to compete with the villains'. And about how you were such a good motivator."

"Okay..."

"I just mean, if the heroes did open a school, you'd probably be a pretty good teacher there. Besides, if the heroes did have a school like that they might be able to get rid of the villains once and for all."

"You think so?"

"Yes," I said. "That's why I'm saying it."

Dan stopped training for a second, narrowly missing one of the tennis balls that was being thrown at us by a robot, to smile at me. "Thanks, Matt, that means a lot."

"No problem."

We went back to training but after a minute Dan spoke again. "You know, that might be a project I might want to take on myself. Not alone, I mean, I would need the other heroes' help of course, but I could help lead the project."

"That'd be cool," I said. "But make sure to have a lot of teachers. If it's just you then the students will only get one perspective, which wouldn't help much."

Not to mention Dan was (and is) sort of an idiot. I didn't tell him that, of course, because were having a bonding moment but I was definitely thinking it.

"Good point. I'll have to think about who I'd want to bring in," he said. "Want to take a quick break?"

"Sure. I know there's still those sandwiches Rachel brought."

As we made our way once again into Dan's living room space (I should probably call it something different but it's a room with couches and stuff so what else can I call it?) I decided to check my phone. I didn't expect to see anything because people hadn't seemed to want to talk to me all day but there was one single notification: a missed call from Ike. For a split second I considered calling him back but then I realized I would have to start lying as soon as I picked up. His first question was sure to be what was I up to and I couldn't tell him the truth. So instead I just tossed my phone aside and grabbed my sandwich. Dan wasted no time on calling me out on it.

"Why don't you just call him back?" he asked. "He's your best friend."

"Yeah and that's why I don't want to lie to him."

"Then tell him the truth."

I snorted. "Sure, that would go well,"

"Matt, in my experience it's always better to tell the people we care about the truth."

"It's not that I don't want to tell him, I feel terrible about lying. But I can never find the right moment."

"That's because there is no right moment to reveal to your best friend that you're living a double life."

"Dude, that's so not helpful."

"Sorry," he said, shrugging.

"Besides, even if I wanted to lie to him I couldn't. He can always tell when I'm lying."

"Until you decide what you're willing to risk, nothing is going to get better."

"I know, I know," I said. "Just eat your sandwich."

"I can eat and talk at the same time."

"Not without being completely gross you can't."

"Fine," he said, putting the sandwich down. "Let me just say one more thing. I think the sooner you tell Ike and your parents what's going on the better you will feel."

"I get the Ike thing but there is no way in hell I'm telling my parents."

"Very well."

We ate for a while longer, Dan giving me disappointed looks and me trying to ignore him, and around the time we were finishing up Rachel came back into the room. She apparently had eaten in her own little space of the lair, not caring if we starved to death or anything, and shot us a bored look before heading into the bathroom. When she came out Dan called to her before she could disappear again.

"Could you come here for a second, Rachel?" he said.

"Sure, what's up?" she said, not looking interested at all.

"I just needed to tell you guys something. Just sit down for a second."

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No, nothing like that. I just needed to tell you guys that you need to come to the superhero council meeting tonight."

"Why?" Rachel and I said in unison, both of us equally annoyed.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't get mad at me," Dan said. "We just need to go so I can show everyone how Matt is progressing. Hopefully that will make them warm up to him a little more."

"They don't like me? But I'm so lovable," I said. (Let's face it, I'm totally lovable and you guys know it.)

"They... like you. They're just not super fond of outsiders. You coming to the meeting again will help them see you as one of us. It's hard for them to see a new kid as the savior of the city."

"It's hard for me to see it too," Rachel muttered. I elbowed her right in between her ribs.

"So I'm guessing there's no way to get out of this?" I asked.

"Not unless you want them to hate you."

I sighed. "Okay, I guess we'll be there then."

---

And... we're back! I'd like to apologize once again for the lack of updates but I can say that we will be having consistent updates from now on. I have three more updates saved and am writing another one this week so we're on track.

I hope you all enjoy this update, I wrote it a while ago so I don't really remember much about it lol, and please comment and vote!

P.S. I don't know if you guys have noticed but Showmance is nominated for TheFictionAwards in the "Best of the Undiscovered" category. To vote, you just post an in-line comment saying "+1" next to the title. So please go out and vote!