Major Malfunction (Sequel to American Heroes)

Our Agreement

The morning of Christmas Eve, Will, El, and the Wheelers sat at the kitchen table eating pancakes. Beside Will, Mike took a bite of his pancake, his chin resting on his hand and his eyelids drooping like he was about to drift off to sleep. Will watched him carefully, his mind on the previous night.

El leaned over to Will, whispering in his ear, "Is he okay?"

Looking away from Mike, Will gave her a shrug and mouthed, "I don't know."

"Hey, Mom," Nancy said, getting up to put her dishes in the sink. "I was thinking about going to the library to do research for that article I told you about. Is that okay?"

"That sounds like a great idea, Nance. Afterwards, can you drop by the store and get sugar? I'm almost out, and we still have Christmas cookies to make." Karen took a sip of orange juice and gestured to Will, El, and Mike. "Why don't you take Mike and his friends with you, so they don't have to bike anywhere in the snow?"

Mike scrunched his nose. "To the library?"

"Or wherever you want to go. Didn't you have plans?"

He exchanged looks with Will and El before shrugging. "I guess we can go to Family Video."

"Well, I'm leaving in fifteen minutes," Nancy said, "so go get ready."

Once they finished their pancakes, the three of them bustled up the stairs, El slipping into Nancy's room while Will and Mike went to theirs. As Mike opened his closet and sifted through his clothes, Will took a seat on the bed. "Are we getting together with the rest of the Party today? You had a campaign planned, right?"

"Uh..." After grabbing a sweater and a pair of jeans from under a pile of clothes, Mike shut the closet door. "I haven't really talked to anyone about that yet."

"About playing D&D?"

"Well, that, and I haven't really talked to anyone from the Party in a while."

"Didn't you say you were with Lucas yesterday?"

"Yeah, but I don't think he cares much about D&D anymore."

"Oh." Will watched Mike pull his shirt off over his head making his hair stick up in the air. "What about Dustin?"

"He's going through a rough patch with Suzie, so he's been obsessing over her. And he's busy with Hellfire Club."

Will narrowed his eyes. "With what?"

"Hellfire Club. Some D&D club at school."

"Oh, cool. I didn't know there was a D&D club."

"Yeah, I didn't either until Dustin joined. They seem weird."

"Did you join?"

Putting his sweater on, Mike made a face. "No way. I'm not joining another party."

"I don't know. It sounds interesting." Will's gaze followed Mike as he sat down beside him and changed into his jeans. "How are your classes going? Are you still skipping gym?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "My parents got mad at me when they found out, and I have to go or else I'll get, like, two weeks of detention. It still sucks though." He nodded to Will. "What about you? Have you... made any new friends?"

"Not really."

There was a beat of silence before Mike sighed. "I wish we could see each other more often."

"Me, too."

"I'm sorry for forgetting you were coming yesterday."

"It's alright. I should've called."