Arabella's POV
"Man, why do we have to organize the stupid storage room?" Henry complains as he brings out more storage. "Shouldn't your dad be doing this?"
Charlotte, Henry, and I were organizing the storage and we all didn't like it. Henry especially because he has a date with a girl tonight and he didn't want to be here, which is understandable.
"I don't know." I shrug. "Just tell Charlotte what that is so she can write it down."
"It's a big heavy thing with things on it." Henry explains and I roll my eyes.
"Great. Another big thing that's a thing with things on it." Charlotte sarcastically remarks.
"Ah, whatever." Henry sighs and leans against a large device. I gasp when he started getting electrocuted by it and Charlotte and I began to freak out as he body got zapped.
Moments later, it stopped and Henry stood there in fear and shock.
"What are you doing?" I ask him in disbelief. "My dad said not to mess with this stuff."
"I wasn't messing with it. I just leaned on it." Henry protests.
The sprocket opened and my dad and Schwoz walked out, arguing over something. I heard wild monkeys and gave up on trying to figure out what they were arguing about.
My dad spotted us. "Okay, let's ask them."
"Ask us what?" Charlotte asked.
"If you kids had to choose, would you rather-"
"Be eaten by wild monkeys." My dad continues.
"Or get boiled in a big pot of soup." Schwoz finishes.
"What kind of soup?" Henry wonders and before anyone could finish, a buzzing was heard and Charlotte groans.
"Ugh, Gooch needs me. I'll be back down in a sec." Charlotte leaves to the elevator.
"Hey, Ray. Can we finish going through all this stuff tomorrow?" Henry questions.
"Why? It's only five o'clock?" My dad reasons
"I know, but..." Henry begins.
"He wants to leave early-"
"Don't tell them!" Henry snaps at Charlotte.
"Okay." She sighs and the doors close.
"Henry has a date!" I grin and Henry frowns at me.
"Aw, why did you have to-" Henry groans and he turns to my dad and Schwoz, who were smirking at him. "It's not a date."
"You told me it was a date." I protest.
"I never said the word date." Henry defends and I scoff.
"I bet it is a date." Schwoz mentions.
"You going to where your fanciest pants!" My dad teases and they both laugh.
"Can I knock of early or not?" Henry sighs.
"Yeah sure, take off, kid." My dad agreed.
"Hey, where you going to take her?" Schwoz asked as Henry, walked over to the tubes.
"To dinner at Sotto Voce. "Henry explains and I gasp.
"Bring me back some lasagna!" I tell him and he winks at me.
"You got it."
"Ooh, Sotto Voce." Schwoz says and my dad walks up.
"How can you afford a place like that?" My dad chuckles.
"Because I took a hundred bucks out of your wallet." Henry laughs, showing us the hundred dollar bill and his tube encases him.
"What?"
"Up the tube." Henry calls and he gets shot up.
My dad feels his pants and frowns.
"Are we finished?" I ask my dad. "Can I be done?"
"Sure, whatever." My dad waves me off and I smile.
"Yay!" I leave the Man Cave and go into my room.
——
Later, I was in the Man Cave and the elevator doors open to reveal Charlotte, who had spilled our coffee everywhere because of that ridiculous elevator.
She walks out and hands my dad the spilled coffee cups. "Here's your coffee."
"Thank you?" He replies with confusion and picks one up. He starts to lick it and I wrinkle my nose.
"So, what are you going to do with this manly machine?"
I turned to Schwoz who was gesturing to the device that zapped Henry.
"Oh, yeah. That thins is majorly dangerous." My dad remarks and this catches mine and Charlotte's attention. "We better destroy it. Or I guess we can donate it to a school."
"Hey. What do you mean that thing is dangerous?" I ask Schwoz and my dad as Charlotte and I approach them.
"Well, it was designed to make people stronger, more powerful, and manlier, but it goes to far." My dad explains and this worries me. "Check out what it did to my cousin, Elliot.
Well, Henry could use some meat on his chicken wings he calls arms.
Ray shows us a picture of my first cousin once removed and I scrunched my nose. He isn't the most attractive person.
"Um...." I trail off.
"Ew." Charlotte says.
"No, that's a before picture." My dad tells us.
"Oh." Charlotte and I say.
"Here's what Elliot looked like a week after my dad tested this machine on him." My dad tells us and changes the picture. Charlotte and I jumped in fear when we see the horrifying picture of Elliot on the screen. He looked like a caveman.
"He turned into a man beast." My dad mentions.
"He looks like my sister." Schwoz chimed in.
My dad laughs. "Ha! You're sister wishes! She is an animal!"
"She smells like a horse." Schwoz laughs and they both laugh together.
"Guys!" I call and Charlotte and I sigh.
"You guys!" We both yell and they turn to us.
"What?" My dad said.
"Yeah." Schwoz said.
"Henry accidentally touched that machine." I inform them.
"He...he turned it on?!" My dad questioned in disbelief.
"He didn't mean to." Charlotte reasons. "His hand just hit one of those buttons and it went all...bzz, bzz!"
"Uh-oh!" Schwoz gasped.
"Did you see Henry start to show any signs of... exaggerated manliness?" My dad questioned us.
"No." I shake my head. "But Henry isn't manly in the first place."
No one could argue with that.
"I'm not sure." Charlotte shrugs.
"Well, where is he?" My dad asked.
"He's having dinner with a girl at Sotto Voce." I explain to them.
"Oh, right!" My dad snaps his fingers.
"I hear they have good paninis." Schwoz mentions and my dad hits his arms.
"Oh, shut up, Schwoz!" My dad snaps.
"I got to go get Henry before the symptoms advance too far and they become permanent." My dad informs us. "Come with me, Charlotte."
"Okay!
"What about me?" I ask.
"Stay with Schwoz and clean this place up!" My dad tells me as he and Charlotte go to the tubes.
"But, that's not fair!" I complain.
"Oh, don't be such a baby!" My dad teases.
I act like a baby, because he treats me like one.
I sigh as they stood inside the tubes.
"Bye." Schwoz and I say, but he smiled and waved.
"Up the tube!" My dad called.
"Bye bye!" Charlotte waves and they got shot up.
Schwoz looks at me as he pulls out his phone. "I really should call my sister... a horse!"
He laughs and I just stare at him, unamused.
——
My dad and Charlotte returned with Henry, but Henry didn't look the same the last time I saw him. He had a large beard, a hairy chest, and was acting like a crazy gorilla. We had to strap him down to a chair to restrain him and I hated seeing this, especially that chest hair.
"Let me go!" Henry yells.
We had a machine that could change him back, but it's not perfect. Let's just hope it works and doesn't change him into a full on man beast.
"Can we please hurry up and get this done?" I rush Schwoz as he opens the door to the machine.
"Is it ready." Schwoz declares. "Pick up the meat beef!
My dad picked up the raw beef and Schwoz released Henry from the chair. He stood up and roared as my dad got closer.
"Throw the meat beef!" Schwoz yells and my dad tosses the meat inside and Henry follows it into the machine. We all rushed over and shut the door, before Henry could escape.
Schwoz switched on the device.
"What happens now?" Charlotte asked.
"What the machine did to Henry, this machine do the opposite." Schwoz explains and I grabbed my dad when Henry started to yell more.
"Hurry!" My dad yells.
"I go speedy!" Schwoz says and activates the device. Smoke emits from the machine and colors flash, causing Henry to yell and scream louder. My dad hid behind Charlotte and I, and I rolled my eyes. The machine stopped and it dinged at the end, causing us to jump.
Schwoz pushes the lever up. "Open!"
We opened the door and a taller and feminine body walked out. It wasn't Henry, it was a female and I was disturbed by her presence.
"What happened?" She or he asked. "I feel so...different."
My dad puts the female back into the machine and shuts the door. Schwoz rushes over to the lever and grins nervously.
"I need to make some adjustments!"
I guess when Schwoz meant opposite of the manly beast machine, he really meant opposite.
——
Eventually, we transformed Henry back into himself and he apologized to Chloe and everything was okay. Except for the fact that I never got my lasagna.
I'm still not satisfied unless I have my lasagna.