﹙ TAKE A BITE ★ ﹚

CHERRY AND ARIA WERE YANKED BEHIND A WALL BY AMY!

They were about to head downstairs to greet Hartley when they were pulled into a hiding spot. The trio peeked down the stairs.

Jake was pacing with a phone pressed to his ear. "Okay, sounds good. Yeah, talk soon. Okay. Bye!"

"Why are we stalking your brother? This only interests Aria." Cherry commented but was immediately shushed by both girls.

"I'm not stalking. He's ordering something and I need to know what it is." Amy narrowed her eyes at him.

"Is he on the phone with a girl? Where's his Jaria loyalty?" Cherry huffed, shaking her head for added dramatic effect.

"What's Jaria?" Aria crinkled her nose with confusion.

"My vision. You wouldn't get it." Cherry waved her friend's concern away as the three girls returned to spying.

Hartley shot up from the couch. "Oh no! I already feel guilty about keeping a secret from her. She's one of my best friends and she wouldn't keep secrets from me."

"Yeah, she would," Jake interrupted. 

"Yeah, you're probably right. But I don't like doing this to her." 

"Neither do I! I'm not going to keep this from her forever, just until I can find a way to make her see the Starling that I see. You know, the one she won't want to toss off a tall building." 

"Fine! But the stress of keeping this secret is getting to me. I'm starting to lose my hair! I mean, the shower drain looks like it's wearing a wig." 

"Come on, you can stay for dinner." 

As soon as the pair ducked into the kitchen, the trio of girls collapsed onto the floor and started to breathe properly.

Amy glared at nothing. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to find out."

"I'm not interested unless it has to do with Jaria. I'm gonna go get some water." Cherry yawned, not bothering to be sly as she walked down the stairs.

Aria pushed herself up off the floor and offered a hand to Amy. Suddenly, she gasped.

"Is Jaria supposed to be Jake and Aria?" She realized.

"I cannot confirm nor deny." Amy grinned and raced her down the stairs.

The trio of girls entered the kitchen. Hartley straightened up as she greeted them and then shoved a pancake in her mouth to try to stop herself from talking.

"Everything okay?" Hartley asked, noticing her friend's deadpan expression.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be? Do you know something I don't know? Because if you do, you could tell me. It doesn't matter what it is, I mean, we're best friends, right?" Amy pressured, almost causing the other girl to yelp.

"Of course." 

"Good! Well, be careful. Your hair is shedding all over your pancakes. So, what's everyone doing tonight?" 

Nobody in the room answered. Cherry looked up at Jake which caused everyone to do the same. He stared at the ground to avoid their glances.

"Well, I'm off to the mall to hang out at the food court and check out the surfboard store. Yup, taking up surfing, totally normal teenage boy in Texas stuff. Bye!" Jake abandoned his plate on the counter and ran into the living room. 

"What about you, Hartley?" Amy turned the attention to her.

"These pancakes are so good, I might just eat them all night!" Hartley said, shoving another one into her mouth. 

"Well, I'm gonna go get a burger. This whole breakfast-for-dinner thing is, uh, really weird," Amy followed Jake back into the living room.

"I'll come with." Aria offered, her eyes narrowed in Jake's direction.

"Why is everyone being so weird?" Cherry muttered and reached for a pancake.

"I did it!" Vic cheered, appearing from the hidden door behind the fridge. "I've been up for three days straight, but I finally found a way to stop Colby from being trapped in a random shape-shifting cycle. We're gonna get our son back! Ooh, pancakes." 

"Dad, stop, it's me." Colby's voice yelped from somewhere on Eva's plate.

"Oh. Well, hurry up and swim out of that syrup. Daddy's hungry." Vic set the stack of pancakes back down. 

"Don't call yourself Daddy." Cherry advised. "Also, what's the worst that could happen if you just ate Colby?"

"All right, ladies," Vic began, pulling the tarp off a contraption in the middle of the room. "Say hello to my amazing invention that's going to turn Colby, the fly, back to normal! The first-ever molecular re-atomizer! I haven't slept since Wednesday, clap for me." 

"You know what I need to clap?" Colby asked. "Human hands!"

Cherry held her hand up and Hartley smacked her own against her friend's palm. She immediately pulled away when she realized Cherry was trying to rub the fact she had hands in Colby's face.

"There goes Fly Guy." Cherry watched as Colby's insect form was placed inside the center. "If I'm lucky, the machine will explode."

"Wait, are you sure it's safe for us to stand this close?" Hartley looked up at Vic.

Cherry caught the safety precaution goggles. She muttered something about their visual aesthetic but pulled them on when everybody else did.

Vic flipped a switch on the machine and it began to flow.

Suddenly, the machine began to glow. When it was over, normal Colby sat there.

The first thing he did was hug his mother. He was thankful to be back in his body until he fell face-first onto the concrete floor. His human legs hadn't been used for a long time so he had to get adjusted.

"Sorry, son," Vic winced. "The machine is still restricting your DNA, so you're gonna have to stay in there a little longer." 

"Which will give us time to go pick you up a cake to celebrate," Eva smiled. 

"Aw. That's really sweet." Cherry commented, unable to resist her own smile.

"We couldn't decide between 'welcome back to your body' or 'congrats on being normal again', so we're just gonna swipe one from the neighbor's retirement party." Vic informed, his fists pumping up to cheer.

"That's not so sweet." Cherry took back her comment.

"You can't do that!" Hartley said, her eyes widening. 

"He's old! He probably won't even know it's gone," Eva shrugged, leading her husband out of the lake.

"We'll wait with you, Colby," Hartley said, pulling up a stool.

"Who's we?" Cherry laughed to herself.

"We'll wait with you." Hartley yanked her friend back.