f o r e v e r | lab rats | *EDITING*

c h a p t e r 8 ; bionic birthday fail

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"Adam, that was the Rebel Leader", Davenport chastises his oldest son as the Lab Rats pull off their simulation goggles and step off the raised platform. "The whole purpose of today's mission simulation was to interrogate him."

"I did, and his answer was, 'Aaaaah'!" is what Adam replies with.

Cue the eye roll.

"Hey, next time could you maybe throw in a cute, blue-eyed rebel?" Bree tentatively asks, disregarding the strange look Davenport gives her. "What? I'm just sayin'. It's not gonna kill you to add a little somethin'-somethin' for the ladies."

At this, Gemma snorts, therefore falling victim to the older man's steaming expression. Weakly she raises her arms in defense. "Not laughing."

Leo takes over the conversation, snatching a pair of goggles from Bree and standing on the platform with his hands on his hips.

"Step aside, amateurs. Go ahead, Big D. Set it to 'awesome'."

"Leo, these goggles are not a toy," Davenport, once again, chastises.

"Come on!" his stepson begs. "My birthday's coming up—Globally known as 'Dia De Leo'."

"That is not at all true," I remark.

"Did we forget that mine's coming up too, and that's the only reason I'm here with you morons?" asks Gemma, and Leo nods in her direction.

"Gemma's too! And I am not a moron!"

"No. I designed the mission simulator to fine-tune their bionics, not to go on 3-D joyrides. Besides, you're not trained for it."

"Well, how about as a birthday gift you give me a bionic ability?"

"Or I could gift-wrap reality and you could play with that for a while."

"So this one's having a birthday," Chase cuts in playfully. "What are you, like, nine?"

"Fourteen," replies Leo, getting a laugh from his stepbrother.

"No, seriously."

I smack his shoulder. "Can you try to be a nicer brother?" I ask, gaining a chuckle. "Besides, he's actually seven, just overgrown."

"Hey!" Leo yells as Chase becomes overcome with laughter.

"So how are you gonna celebrate?" Bree asks Gemma, though the younger boy is the one who answers, very rudely if I may add.

"We're all going to celebrate. Every year my mom throws us a big surprise party."

"Which I never attend," I chime in, though no one hears.

"Really?" Adam excitedly asks.

"Last year she baked a cake the size of me," he answers. "I'm not gonna brag, but I was delicious."

"What about you?" Chase asks me quietly as the other four carry on their conversation.

"What about me?"

"Why don't you go to Leo's birthday parties? I mean, I never have but I'm sure it seems like a lot of fun."

I sigh. Well, at least someone is curious.

"All I'm gonna say is, something really traumatizing happened one time during a party, and suddenly I can't go for longer than ten minutes before completely freaking out."

"When's your's?"

"November. And when it comes, we are not going all out, okay?"