Harper was the first to sit down at a table in the school cafeteria after waiting in the lunch line. She ate in peace while waiting for Adam and Chase to join her.

She sat back in her chair, taking a bite of her sandwich as Adam and Chase made their way over to the table. Chase groaned as he pulled out the wobbly chair next to Harper.

"Man, I always get stuck with the wobbly chair." Chase complained.

"Here, let me fix it. Hold my tray." Adam offered, passing his lunch tray to his brother.

Adam grabbed the back of the chair and lifted it, causing it to instantly rip off. Harper's eyes widened in shock as she noticed everyone in the cafeteria looking at them.

"Adam!" Chase scolded, gritting his teeth. He then turned to the cafeteria, chuckling nervously. "Budget cuts, am I right? The evidence is all around us, people." His smile dropped as he turned back to Adam. "You maxed out your super-strength, didn't you?"

Adam chuckled. "Of course, I did. Look who you're talking to."

Harper rose from her seat and stood between the bionic brothers. "What is going on?"

"As we get older, our chips have to be re-calibrated to adjust for our growth." Chase explained.

"Let me guess, by you modifying Adam's strength, it showed him that he can adjust his bionics. So, when you weren't looking, he turned his strength up to the highest power." Harper deduced.

Chase nodded. "Yeah, pretty much sounds about right."

"Chase, you know he's not supposed to be alone around anything with buttons." She reminded.

Chase sighed and refocused on Adam. "This is so dangerous. You can't control your strength, and it could cause a ton of glitches. We have to change you back, now!"

"Calm down, you're over-reacting." Adam said simply.

Adam took the tray from Chase and set it on the table. With a gentle touch, the table shattered and crashed to the floor, startling everyone in the cafeteria.

Chase and Harper stared at Adam in shock.

"Adam...." Harper trailed off.

"Okay, you can dial me down to a nine." Adam said.

••••

During the rest of their lunch break, Adam, Chase and Harper hurried back to the Davenport Mansion and went down to the lab to repair Adam's super strength.

Chase stood by the control panel as Adam repaired his capsule door, which had been torn off its hinges when he maxed out his super strength earlier in the day, while Harper sat at her mission specialist desk on the swivel chair.

"I can't believe you maxed out your strength after I specifically told you not to." Chase said in frustration.

"In my defense, you telling me what to do is like a monkey telling a hedgehog what to do- it's ridiculous." Adam replied before a wide smile appeared on his face. "But it would make an awesome buddy cop movie."

"Can we just please get this over with?" Harper questioned, rising from her chair. "We gotta get back to school."

"Yeah. It's Karaoke Day in Latin class and I'm singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Chase added. Adam gave him a look. "Scintillat scintillat paulo stella..."

Harper couldn't help but smile. She walked over to Chase, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Bellus es cum latine loqueris. (You are cute when you speak Latin)" She praised with a small smirk.

Chase turned to face his girlfriend and leaned down, pressing a kiss against her lips. Harper leaned up and smiled into it, their lips puckered as they pulled away.

"Non nimium malus es te ipsum. (You are not too bad yourself)" He responded, biting down on his bottom lip as he tried to suppress his wide smile.

Chase wanted to tell her that she was the most essential thing in his life. That when he gets up in the morning, he felt so grateful for every second he has with her on Earth. She gave his life meaning and his days such joy; she was why he smiled.

Harper's heart warmed at the feeling. She found herself falling more and more for Chase Davenport every day. It kept growing deeper, higher, and stronger.

"You do know that Harper is way too good for you, right?" Adam told his brother.

"I know. And yours is gonna have to cut your food, so were even." Chase responded. Adam pursed his lips and shrugged his shoulders. "Get in your capsule!"

When Adam walked into his capsule and closed the door, Harper couldn't help but chuckle as her hand traveled down and grabbed onto Chase's hand, intertwining their fingers.

"Why were you so defensive about Adam's comment?" Harper asked curiously.

"Because he's right." Chase replied simply before he typed on the control panel. "All right, reducing super strength in three, two, one..."

Once Chase had pressed a button, the lights in the capsule began flashing as Adam stood still. After a moment, the lights stopped, and Adam walked out of his capsule.

"Okay before we go back to school, we should probably test it out to make sure that you're back to normal." Harper suggested.

"Come here." Chase called as he walked over to the trash with Adam following him. "This is made out of ultra strength titanium. Think you can break it?"

"Sure, stand still while I smash it over your head." Adam joked.

Chase glared at his brother. "No, with your hand."

"Not as fun, but okay." Adam said. He let out an exhale before punching the trash, not leaving a scratch. He threw his fist at it again before letting out a groan. "Ah, I'm back to normal. Now I'm only a hundred times stronger than you. I guess I'm gonna have to hit you more often to make up for it."

Chase shook his head. "You really don't have to."

"Oh, that's sweet. But I really do." Adam insisted, placing a hand on Chase's shoulder.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

Harper rolled her eyes as she watched Chase begin to walk away only for Adam to follow him. He started to sprint until he fell forward when Adam pushed him down to the ground.

••••

Harper hurried back to school and arrived just as the lunch bell rang. She quickly went to her locker, grabbed her books, put them in her backpack, zipped it up and slung it over her shoulder before rushing to her next class.

Today, she was learning about energy in Physics.

At its foundation, energy is a simple concept. The term was first coined by Thomas Young in 1807 after the Greek word energeia, which roughly translates to 'activity.' Energy is the ability of an object to perform work on another object. This is a simple definition at its core, but it can manifest itself in many ways.

Harper was intrigued to learn that lightning, created by electrical imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, is one of nature's most powerful forces. The phenomenon occurs when the two regions equalize themselves to create an electrical discharge that lights up the sky in the form of a sheet or bolt.

When bolts are released, they superheat the air to almost 30,000°C, which is five times hotter than the sun. Another explosive energy statistic? The power unleashed by lightning bolts is equivalent to detonating a ton of TNT.

When the bell rang, Harper walked out of the classroom, checked her phone for the first time and walked down the hall, where she looked up and noticed Chase looking frightened near the drinking fountain.

"Harper!" Chase called out frantically.

"Hey, what's up?" Harper asked.

"I need your help. I accidentally shrunk Adam and he is gone! He was in my pocket, but he fell out. I lost him." He explained anxiously.

Harper's eyes widened in shock. "You did what?!"

"I don't know where he is. He could be anywhere!" Chase exclaimed nervously.

Harper sighed as she and Chase began searching the halls to find a shrunken Adam.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Harper spotted a tiny figure in a purple ninja outfit dropping into a girls pink book bag at the circular bench in the middle of the hallway.

Harper quickly grabbed Chase's arm. "Chase, I think I just saw a little, purple ninja dive into that book bag. And there's something I'll never say again."

"Let's go." Chase insisted.

The couple hurried towards the book bag, but the girl grabbed it, slung it over her shoulder and walked towards the cafeteria.

Harper and Chase followed her into the cafeteria. Without hesitation, Chase forcibly took the bag from the girl, placed it on a table and searched through it.

Confused, the girl looked at Chase and then at Harper for an explanation.

"Sorry. Random bag search." Harper explained, saying the first thing that popped into her mind. "There's been a rash of crouton theft at the salad bar. We're not saying it's you, but we're all thinkin' it."

"A-ha!" Chase exclaimed brightly as he grabbed something out of the bag. "I got him."

"Are you sure?" Harper questioned.

Chase nodded and gestured to his clasped hands as they walked out of the cafeteria. Suddenly, he bumped into Principal Perry who was wearing a backwards cap and a denim jacket.

Throughout the day, Bree grew frustrated with Perry's authoritarian attitude and believed she could handle the job more effectively. Consequently, she was tasked with running the school for the day when Perry transformed into a misbehaving student.

"Dude! You almost spilled my third lunch." Perry whined.

"Right. Sorry." Chase apologized before he and Harper ran to the corner of the cafeteria.

When they were alone, Chase opened his hands to reveal nothing. Harper's eyes widened when she saw a shrunken Adam wearing a purple ninja outfit sitting on top of Perry's food.

"Adam, get out of there!" Harper whispered urgently.

Perry then placed a bun on top of Adam, engulfing him into the burger. Just as she was about to eat Adam, Chase lunged forward and snatched the burger.

Perry grunted and glared sternly at him. "Braver men than you have tried to take my food before. They ain't men now."

"I won't let you eat my brother!" Chase declared, grabbing the burger from her hands.

Perry scoffed. "You vegetarians make me sick. It's a turkey, not your brother. Now give me back that bird, hippie!"

"No!" Chase shouted.

Harper stood off to the side, watching as Perry and Chase argued over the burger, each trying to make sure the other person didn't get the burger.

"Drop the burger, Terry!" Bree demanded as she entered the cafeteria, pointing directly at the older woman.

"How about I drop you, girlie?" Perry challenged.

Bree hummed and crossed her arms over her stomach. "Hmm, I had a feeling you might say that. Which is why I brought in the big guns."

"THERESA!" an elderly woman called out furiously as she barged through the cafeteria doors.

Perry gulped nervously. "Mother? What are you doing here?"

"This lovely young lady called me and said you were causing trouble." The elderly woman explained, gesturing to Bree. "What did I tell you about wrestling for food?"

"Oh! That if you're gonna do it, you better win?"

"Don't you sass your momma!"

"Sorry, mother." Perry apologized, avoiding eye contact.

The elderly woman stormed over to Perry, snatched the burger out of her daughter's hands and placed it back on the table.

Chase went to grab it when Perry's mother slapped his hand away. "Hands off, troll!" She grumbled before turning to face Bree. "I apologize for her causing so much trouble."

"She's not really the principal!" Perry clarified.

"And you're not really a child, so stop acting like one!" Perry's mother exclaimed. Perry grunted and stomped her foot on the ground. "Theresa, what do you say to Principal Bree?"

Perry let out whine and hunched over the back of a chair. She stood up straight and sighed. "Sorry."

"Big girl voice!"

"SORRY!"

Perry's mother turned back to face Bree. "I'm going to take her home and give her a good talking to."

"Mm, I think that's a great idea." Bree said in agreement with a victorious smile.

Harper stifled a smile as she watched Perry being dragged out of the cafeteria by her mother.

Suddenly, Perry's mother grabbed the burger, unknowingly containing Adam, and tossed it into the trash. Chase and Harper gasped and rushed towards the bin.

Just as they were about to retrieve Adam, Ruthie, the lunch lady, poured spaghetti scraps over him.

"Thanks a lot, Ruthie." Chase said sarcastically.

Harper and Chase each grabbed a handle of the garbage bin and walked out of the cafeteria.

••••

In the lab, Harper struggled to contain her nausea as she and Chase had rolled up their sleeves and dug their way through the bin, rummaging through the waste of garbage people had thrown out at school.

"Got him!" Harper exclaimed when she felt something small. She lifted it up and sighed. "Oh, wait, no, that's a celery stick."

"Ooh, I found him!" Chase announced, pulling Adam out of the garbage and placing him in his capsule. "He was curled up inside a burrito."

"I'm not surprised." Harper admitted.

Harper retrieved hand wipes from her bag and started cleaning her hands, which were covered in bin juice. She handed one to Chase.

After cleaning his hands, Chase walked over to the control panel and began typing. "Uh, Adam size parameters, six-one, hundred and seventy-five pounds. Strength level, six. Clothing- yes, please."

Chase pressed the final button, and the lights in Adam's capsule started flashing. Within seconds, Adam returned to his normal height. When the lights stopped, he stepped out of the capsule, looking shocked.

"Whoa! Chase, I just had the most awesome dream. I was a tiny ninja in a land of butt giants." Adam said in amazement.

"No, Adam, that wasn't a dream. I made a mistake and shrunk you." Chase informed him.

"Alright, I'm gonna go home and take a shower. I have a feeling this smell isn't going to go away until I scrub every cell off my body." Harper told the brothers with a grimace. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Without another word, Harper turned and walked out of the lab.

______________
PUBLISHED: 10/12/23
DEDICATIONS: Peters_suit_lady