Chapter Text
"Henry, it's time for breakfast!"
The boy groaned, rolling over in his bed. Reddish-brown curls flopped over his barely open eyes, though he hardly had the energy to brush them away. "Five more minutes," he slurred.
"No Henry, now!" the voice replied, raising its voice. Henry already knew that she was standing at the bottom of the staircase, looking towards his bedroom door with a mix of impatience and disappointment as if it would somehow pierce through the door and reach him. He knew his mother too well. Another groan was let out as he swung his feet off the side of the bed.
"Coming!" he yelled back with what strength he could muster, resulting in a rather croaky tone of voice.
A faint mutter was heard in response. "That horrid boy..."
Henry stumbled towards his door, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As he exited his room, a tuft of blonde hair came into view. "Sup, worm?"
"Morning, Henry!" his younger brother replied with an enthusiastic smile before making his way into his own bedroom to get dressed. Although Henry and Peter's relationship had been extremely rocky when they were younger, Peter had matured over the last year or two and began telling on Henry for silly little things less often. In response, Henry had become more tolerant of Peter's goody two-shoes behaviour. The word 'worm' was more of an affectionate nickname than an insult nowadays.
"Come on Henry, or you're going to be late for school," Henry's father remarked as Henry's foot hit the bottom step of the staircase.
"I am coming!" Henry responded in a whiny tone, earning him his usual 'Don't be horrid, Henry!'. He hated that sentence.
He sat down at the kitchen table and, as if on cue, his mother placed a bowl of cereal in front of him. He did consider saying thank you, but frustration kept the words from leaving his tongue.
"Why can't you be more like your brother, Henry?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked, his mouth full of cereal. He could've sworn he knew his mother's response off by heart at this point, but if he didn't respond he'd get yelled at, and he didn't exactly have the patience to talk back.
"Peter always uses his manners, wakes up early, and never misbehaves. Why can't you be like that? Why do you have to be so horrid?!"
Henry shrugged in response, although deep down a part of him was aching to tell her the truth. That he knew no matter how hard he tried to be good, he would always be 'that horrid boy'. So, why bother trying? Peter was the favoured child, and any attempt to be good would only earn Henry a glance his way at most. He would never be good enough for them, and even if he was, it wasn't like they would care about him anyway. Even if he wasn't so horrid, he would always be horrid in their eyes.
Henry finished his cereal as quickly as he could before running upstairs to get dressed.
"Henry, clean up after yourself!"
He rolled his eyes, ignoring the yell from downstairs. He knew that his mother would clean it anyway; it was practically a rhetorical question. Well, a rhetorical command. Were those a real thing? Henry finished getting changed and picked up his bag before making his way to Peter's bedroom door.
"Are you ready yet, worm?" he asked, leaning against the wall with folded arms. He wasn't left waiting long, as the door quickly swung open.
"Yes Henry!" Peter responded with a smile. The two made their way downstairs, and Peter was quick to bid his parents goodbye with a hug. Henry simply stood back and watched, not speaking a word until the front door was shut behind them. Ashton Secondary School was only down the street from Ashton Primary, since the two schools were partnered, meaning Henry and Peter often walked to school together.
"So, what happened to Best Boys?" Henry asked Peter, remembering something his brother had mentioned briefly the day before. Their conversation had been cut short by Henry getting scolded, as per usual.
"Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, didn't I? Well, me and Ted started arguing. He said that I'm too bossy to run the club! So then it just kind of... broke apart." Peter looked up at Henry once he had finished his story, as if waiting for a reaction. Henry smirked slightly.
"I didn't know that smelly nappy babies knew how to argue."
"Oh, shut up!" Peter responded, although his laughter said otherwise. Henry was about to reply when he heard a shout from behind.
"Hey Henry, wait up!"
Henry turned to see his best friend running towards them. "Ralph!" he exclaimed, sharing a high-five with him as they met.
"I told you to wait for me!" Ralph said, scowling.
"Did you?" Henry asked, trying to think back to their last conversation.
"Err yeah, didn't you check your phone?" Ralph replied. Henry reached into his pocket, only to find that it was empty.
"Damn it, I think I left my phone at home," he mumbled. "Better hope Mum doesn't call, or she'll kill me..."
"What, for forgetting your phone?" Ralph asked, raising a brow.
"Yeah, you know what she's like. If I don't answer a text or a phone call off her she gets really angry - and then she takes my phone off me anyway! It's not fair," The last part came out as a quiet mumble, just audible enough for Ralph and Peter to hear.
"Mum and Dad are quite harsh on Henry," Peter spoke quietly, fidgeting with his hands. "They're always shouting at him, even when it's not his fault." Ralph nodded in agreement.
A small smile grew on Henry's face as a memory came to the front of his mind. "Hey, worm, remember that time you decided to turn horrid for a day?"
Peter nodded with a small giggle.
"You even replaced Great Aunt Greta's chocolates with slugs! I was kind of impressed, actually..."
"No, there's no way you did that!" Ralph exclaimed, looking at Peter in disbelief. The younger boy simply nodded in confirmation; even he was still a little surprised that he'd managed to pull such a horrid prank. Ralph laughed, holding out his hand for a high-five which Peter soon reciprocated.
Soon enough, the group reached Ashton Primary. "Do you want to walk home together Henry?" Peter asked.
Henry thought for a moment before responding with a smirk. "Can't promise anything, I might get a detention today." Peter giggled.
"Well I'll wait for a while, and if you don't show up I'll go home," he decided. Henry nodded, patting him on the shoulder.
"Sounds good. See you later, worm!"
Henry and Ralph continued walking, and it wasn't long before Ralph pulled a pack of chewing gum out from his blazer pocket. "Want some?" he asked, offering the pack to Henry after taking a piece for himself.
"Yeah!" Henry exclaimed, grinning as he took the pack and helped himself to a piece. "See, this is why you're my best mate."
"What, because I share my gum?" Ralph asked. "And after everything we've been through, Henry. I can't believe you're just using me for my chewing gum!"
Ralph tried his best to feign a hurt look, though Henry's contagious laughter made that an impossible feat. Although it was masked under joking insults, Ralph was Henry's closest friend, and one of the only people who Henry was genuinely nice to. Peter was starting to become one of those people, and of course there was always the Purple Hand Gang, but no one could ever top the true feeling of happiness that Ralph gave Henry.
The pair soon reached the gates of Ashton Secondary School, but before they could come any closer to the school, Henry was knocked to the ground.
"Oops, sorry!" Clumsy Cassidy said, pulling herself up and dusting off her clothes.
"Oh yuck, a girl!" Henry exclaimed, jumping up and vigorously brushing himself off. Cassidy rolled her eyes and attempted to walk into the school, but instead walked straight into the glass door.
"Ow!"
Henry laughed at the girl's misfortune, but he quickly stopped when he noticed Ralph wasn't laughing like he usually would. In fact, he seemed to be staring off into space. "Err, Ralph, are you okay?" he asked.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Henry. I was just thinking."
"Hey, daydreaming is my thing!" He lightly shoved Ralph's shoulder, making the other laugh. "Thinking about what, anyway?"
"Err, well..." Ralph hesitated, "it's just that, you haven't changed at all. I mean, the rest of the gang stopped thinking that girls were gross ages ago. Al even had a crush on Margaret!" The pair made disgusted faces at the thought of anyone liking Margaret.
"Well, girls are gross," Henry replied. "Why are you thinking about that, anyway? Don't tell me you've started liking girls too!"
"No! I was just thinking about it," Ralph answered, looking towards the ground awkwardly.
"Err, okay then," Henry brushed off the conversation with a shrug. "Well, we should probably go inside. If I'm gonna get a detention I want it to be for something cool, not because I was late to class!"
"Good point," Ralph replied, chuckling. "We'd better head off, then!"