Incognito.

I managed to keep down what I ate for lunch, and I started to feel better as the day went on. I was less tired as I pushed Nate on the swingset out back. Lola ran around the yard occasionally chasing bugs or birds or anything else while barking loudly. Hana, Ryan, Pete, Bill, and Brendon (surprisingly) were inside along with Greta. Sam was about to fall asleep in his baby swing and Patrick was watching amused as his eyelids slowly drooped further and further.

Greta came out the sliding glass doors with a can of diet coke, Grace following behind.

“Greta,” Patrick said pausing to look pointedly at the can in her hand.

“It’s for you!” she defended holding the can out, “I thought that you would be thirsty.” Why does it matter if Greta drinks Diet Coke?

“Thank you,” Patrick mumbled as she came over and handed to him. He leaned in to wrap an arm around her waist, and I looked back to Nate on the swing in front of me.

“Higher,” He said trying to turn and look at me. I sighed before pushing him higher. When I glanced back over to my right Patrick was behind Greta with his right hand on her stomach. I continued pushing Nate on the swings, and it was silent except for the sound of Sam’s swing creaking, and I was glad when the doors slid open again and Brendon came out holding his own can of soda. Yes, I was glad, even if it was Brendon.

He reached a hand down to pet Lola as he bound over to him.

“B!” Nate said before stating, “Want B to push me.”

I pushed him one more time, wincing when I moved my bad arm too fast before glancing over at Brendon.

“Do you want to push him?” I asked, stepping back.

“Sure.” He shrugged taking my place behind Nate as I moved to the side. Grace climbed into the fort connected to the swingset and slid down the dark green slide on her stomach before running around to the ladder and repeated the action.

“Nate’s good at swinging,” Grace told me, “But you got to make sure he holds on real tight. He’s still little.”

“Yeah,” I smiled, “He’s still little.”

“When I was little, I fell off the swing once.”

“Really?” I asked wide eyed.

“Yeah,” She nodded, lowering her voice, “And you know what? Daddy got really scared, but he said that he wasn’t, but then he gave me ice cream!”

“Whoa,” I was amused as the toddler’s face lit up.

“So, make sure he hangs on real tight.” She repeated before venturing up the ladder of the fort.

I glanced back to Brendon who raised his eyebrows as he continued pushing Nate. I just shook my head, glancing back as the little girl slid down the slide again.

…

It was about the time that I walked into the living room to see Patrick cooing at Greta’s stomach that I started getting a little worried.

I continued through the room as Greta laughed and made fun of Patrick before going upstairs. Pete’s door was closed, and Hana wasn’t in her room so I bypassed their rooms. Ryan’s was next, and he was sitting next to Brendon on his bed looking at something on the computer screen and laughing.

“Hey,” I entered the room leaning against the wall inside the door.

“Come here,” Ryan replied, “Look at this.”

I walked over to stand beside the bed, and I glanced at the computer screen. A 4 second youtube video was up, and Brendon pressed play. It was of a baby waddling past a bush, and right when it passed it a cat pounced out of the bush and onto the baby. I let a laugh slip, but Ryan cut me off.

“Wait, it gets better the more you watch it.”

Brendon pressed play again, and by the fourth or fifth time we were all red in the face and clutching our stomachs.

“So, what are you guys doing?”

“This?” Ryan raised an eyebrow.

“Have you noticed Greta and Patrick acting a little weird?”

“How so?”

“Just…I don’t know,” I paused, “Weird…”

“Descriptive.” Brendon nodded.

“Why is Patrick talking to her stomach?” I asked quietly.

Ryan and Brendon stared at me with blank faces.

“What?” I defended.

“She’s pregnant.”

“She is not!” I said wide eyed.

“Dude, they told us they were pregnant the night that, wait, I think you were asleep.”

“Apparently.” I muttered, “That makes a bit more sense.”

“How’s your stomach?” Ryan changed the subject.

“Fine,” I shrugged sitting on the edge of the bed, “I-” I stopped short as my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out glancing at the name, “Hold on,” I muttered exiting the room and flipping it open.

“Hey,” I smiled.

“Hey, what’s up?” Adam returned.

“Nothing, it’s boring around here today.”

“Yeah, here, too.” He coughed minutely.

…

It wasn’t until later that night that I was sure there was something wrong with Brendon.

“Hey, we’re watching Get Smart, do you want to?” He offered as I exited Nate’s room.

“Maybe in a minute,” I muttered.

“Alright,” he shrugged, “We’re going to go ahead and start it.” With that he headed down the hallway. No awkward flirting. No hinting…Should I be worried?

When I walked downstairs I was even more surprised to see that the only open seat was next to Bill, and Brendon was sitting between Ryan and Hana. He didn’t do anything when I came in either.

…

I managed to keep food down the next couple of days, and I got back into my routine of waking up at a normal time.

Brendon was still acting different.

…

Bill and Pete returned to school Monday morning, and I was glad that I was awake to make fun of their uniforms, much to their protest. Pete looked hilarious though he looked exhausted, and it showed as he took a big gulp of the dish soap laying next to his glass of orange juice. He made a show of spitting in the sink and gagging.

Greta took all the kids to the Mother’s Day Out at the school, and it felt weird being up early and having nothing to do. I called Adam’s cell phone and talked to him for about fifteen minutes before he had his morning treatments. After that I worked on school work until about an hour later, then I picked out a movie to watch. Funny thing about Greta and Patrick’s movie collection is that it’s not all in one place. I found a stack of movies on top of the TV stand, some stuck behind the DVD player, and a couple more on the coffee table. A lot of them weren’t in the cases either. I finally found a decent looking movie that was actually in the case, and I put it in.

It was almost halfway through, and I was oddly confused as Brendon came down the stairs.

“Hey,” He nodded, sitting down on the other couch and glancing at the screen.

“Hey,” I returned squinting at the screen.

“Is this Super Mario Brothers?” He asked after a second.

“What? No. It’s supposed to be a romance from the 50’s, but it was I a homemade case, so I’m starting to think I put in the wrong DVD.”

“Yeah, this is totally Super Mario Brothers.”

“There’s a movie about that?”

“Haven’t you been watching?” Brendon motioned towards the screen.

“Yeah, but, I’m confused.” I sighed.

“Alright, Mario and Luigi are plumbers, and they meet this archeologist named Daisy-”

“What about Peach?” I cut him off.

“Peach came after Daisy.” He shook his head, “I can’t believe you don’t know this.” He sighed disapprovingly, “Anyway, so Mario and Luigi came across this Archeologist named Daisy who finds these bones in these tunnels where dinosaur bones are. And the bones are like, of an unknown dinosaur. So, the Mario Bros’ rival businessman, Scapelli, hires his men to break some underground pipes. Then there’s this hidden world –that’s where they are now- called Dino-world where King Koopa is, and he’s running out of water and has all these issues so he sends Spike and Iggy,” Brendon paused pointing to the figures on screen, “Those guys, to kidnap Daisy. So, the Brothers go to Dino World to save Daisy and challenge Koopa so that he won’t invade the world.”

I managed to nod and keep a straight face before breaking into a smile, “You are such a dork.”

“I loved this movie when I was a kid!” He defended. I laughed a little shaking my head.

“Did they know it was going to be this bad when they made it?” I asked, glancing at the bad props and costumes.

“I mean, it’s not supposed to be taken seriously, obviously.” He shrugged, “It’s funny that they have this.” He spoke again.

We watched the rest of the movie in silence, and Ryan came down the stairs next.

“Ry, they have the Super Mario Brothers movie.”

“What?” Ryan mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“Nevermind,” Brendon mumbled as Ryan entered the kitchen.

Ryan came back a few minutes later with a granola bar and a waterbottle.

“Hey,” He said sounding more awake, “Bren, this is Super Mario Brothers!”

Brendon glanced at him out of the corner of his eye muttering a quick, “I noticed.”

Ryan wasn’t phased by Brendon’s tone as he sat down on the couch and took another bite of his granola bar.

We finished the movie, and Ryan and Brendon were debating picking out another movie.

“Let’s go get lunch.” I spoke up, standing up and stretching.

“Where?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know, we’ll drive around and choose.” I shrugged turning off the TV and starting towards the stairs. I headed into Hana’s room and glanced around, pulling back the bedsheets just to make sure the bed hadn’t swallowed her whole. I headed down the hall towards the bathroom and knocked on the door once before pushing open the door to find the room empty as well. I glanced around the hallway before stopping in front of Pete’s room. I smirked a bit as I pushed open the door to see a figure curled up under the blankets.

“Hana.” I spoke quietly.

“What?” She mumbled.

“What are you doing in here?” I laughed.

She sat up slowly, and I laughed a little more as she pushed her hair out of her face.

“Wait,” I spoke wide eyed, “This is why Pete was tired this morning!”

“No,” Hana spoke, shaking her head and yawning, “You’re reading too much into this.”

“What?” I continued laughing.

“Two insomniacs living under the same roof are going to hang out.” She shrugged.

“Uh-huh.” I pursed my lips.

“Seriously,” She defended.

“Kay, we’re going out to lunch. Get ready.”