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Chapter 2

"No no no," Charlie said, breaking some blocks out of the wall, "this part needs to shift up to diorite to make the gradient work."

Cooper leaned over to Charlie, away from his computer, and gave an unconvinced look. "Diorite looks like bird crap though."

"Trust me," Charlie said, walking around their mansion in-game, "it'll work out. Plus it looks best from a distance."

"If you say so," Cooper shook his head.

They were in the computer lab of their high school library, playing after school. For some reason Charlie couldn't fathom, the school not only allowed students to play games in the lab, but there was also a game club that had set up an official Minecraft server. Charlie and Cooper had been grinding away to create a truly elaborate estate, and Charlie had been watching tons of build videos on Youtube for inspiration. They were for sure going to prove themselves the best builders on the server by the end of the school year.

Their massive mansion building was really sucking up resources though. Every time he thought that several stacks of this or that kind of block would be enough, it never was. And so, Charlie went back underground to search for diorite. Unfortunately, with them being so close to the server spawn, most resources had been pilfered already. He got on the nether boat highway then to get far out where he could actually find stuff, and then, after that whole trip, he finally got to mining.

And then the itchiness came again.

He wrinkled his face in annoyance, and scratched furiously at his arm for a moment. Cooper gave him a look.

"You okay dude?"

"I'm fine," Charlie said, scratching at a really bad itch behind his ear. I've just felt weirdly itchy all day."

Cooper laughed. "Well I can guess why. I'm glad that puberty didn't give me body hair like yours."

Charlie glanced down at his arms, and realized that while his arm hair was normally somewhat silvery, now it looked... thicker. Darker even, like the hair on his head.

"That's... weird."

"What?" Cooper asked. He didn't look away from his monitor.

Charlie turned back to his own computer, tucking his left arm under the table and away from Cooper's sight.

"Nothing."

Charlie returned to mining, while Cooper was much further out, searching for mangrove wood to make some furniture in their mansion. Time passed, other students working on assignments went home, and the sun sank lower out the library window.

"So Charlie."

"Yeah?"

"You like Daisy, right?"

"No whatever gave you that impression my good sir?"

"Well certainly not how well you talked to her, that's for sure."

Charlie cringed.

"I know you enjoy playing up that kind of fancy talk for fun, but just be yourself dude. And don't look so uncomfortable around your own family's dog."

"What do mean?"

"Roxie isn't going to hurt you dude," Cooper smiled. "As dogs go she's pretty tame."

"I'm not much of an animal person."

"Says the guy who was so excited to do his report on lions in second grade—"

"Stop."

"—that he—"

"Stop it."

Cooper hesitated, and then let go.

"Yeah I looked like a loser. Yeah everyone made fun of me. Leave me alone dude."

Now his friend looked ashamed. "Sorry."

Charlie silently continued to play the game. The tension was strong in the air. In a mere few seconds they'd gone from casually playing the game to this very uncomfortable topic.

"I shouldn't have brought it up dude," Cooper said. "That was mean of me. I'm sorry."

Charlie continued to be silent.

"If it helps dude, I doubt anyone cares about that anymore."

Charlie turned to Cooper and gave him a pointed expression.

"You don't get it do you? None of you got it."

"Get what?"

"I don't give a crap about my stupid pants-wetting episode in second grade."

"Oh... kay...?"

"It's about all the times after that, that everyone teased me. I would just be reading a book about crocodiles in the library, and someone would come up to me and go 'oh, don't enjoy that book too much Charlie!"

"Well Charlie, I'm sorry that some people treated you that way, but—"

"'Some people'?" He pointed accusingly. "Dude, one of those people was you."

There was silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry. I... I didn't realize that I was hurting your feelings."

"I...," Charlie held back his watering eyes, "was afraid to read animal books for years after that - and even just getting excited about something, anything - made me afraid that someone was going to make fun of me. The world doesn't like people who sincerely are happy about something. They just want to be 'cool' hating on everything. Now I don't like animal stuff, and everyone gets on my case. I'm so sick of it. Why can't you people just leave me alone."

Charlie exited the game, picked up his backpack, and started walking away.

"Oh, c'mon... Charlie! Dude!"

The librarian came out of a workroom as Charlie passed the front desk.

"Is everything alright you two?"

"Yes," Charlie said quietly, not stopping for a moment on his way to the door.

Cooper caught up with him, but didn't say anything. Charlie simply hung his head. For some odd reason, everything around him was smelling slightly... intense. He could smell the dust from where a custodian was vacuuming nearby. Charlie brushed it off as his mind wanting to wander away from his uncomfortable feelings.

They went down the stairs to the ground floor of the school, and towards the main entrance. Charlie tried to covertly wipe away his wet eyes, and then he looked Cooper straight in the face.

"So," Charlie said, "are you going to walk home next to me in silence then?"

To his surprise, Cooper hugged him.

"You say you want sincerity. You're my best friend. I care about you. I'll try to cut out the teasing... it's something... just part of my personality. I don't think about it much. Sorry."

He broke off the hug, and smiled. Charlie couldn't return the expression, but he did at least feel his anger cool down a bit.

"Are we good dude?"

Cooper extended a fist bump. Charlie sighed and obliged, though his bump was half-hearted.

"It's nice to see some good old-fashioned bromance."

Charlie's eyes shot wide, and he spun to see Daisy, of all people, behind them. Crud. Why did she have to show up when Charlie was at his worst? Why couldn't she have seen him when he was doing something cool? Like... like...

"Sorry I was sorta eavesdropping," she laughed awkwardly. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Well she definitely had. Heck, any time she was around Charlie he felt uncomfortable. Anything he could say in that moment would make him look like a fool. So instead he acted like a cowardly child. He just shyly turned away, as if that would somehow hide him from her.

"Can I walk home with you guys?" she asked.

Augghhh...

"Sure," Cooper said.

As they walked outside, Cooper clapped a reassuring hand on Charlie's back. Charlie just gripped the straps of his backpack and then those strong senses came again. He could smell the plastic of his backpack. He could smell gas from the cars driving down the road in front of them. Something about the freeing, strong scents felt calming. He let it distract him, choosing to focus on the smells of everything they passed by.

Cooper started up some small talk after they'd been walking for a while. He asked what Daisy was doing for summer. Not much, was the answer. His family was visiting some relatives in another state, going to do some stuff while there, like go to an amusement park.

As they got closer and closer to home, Charlie began feeling his itchiness increase again. Was there... more hair on his arms? He felt like he was going nuts. He was soon scratching himself all over.

"Are... you okay?" Daisy asked.

"He's been feeling itchy since yesterday, apparently," Cooper answered before Charlie could. "Don't know what's going on."

"It's the stupid dog house!" Charlie said in frustration as he continued to itch, "I don't know how, but it is. I went into that thing, felt a weird nausea inside, and after I came out, I started itching all over."

Daisy shrugged. "Maybe there's some weird chemical in the wood or in the paint?"

"Maybe...," Charlie said, feeling slightly reassured.

"I'm not saying this to be mean or anything," Cooper said, "But perhaps you're kinda making it up? Like a placebo thing?"

Charlie looked down at his arms, and the increasing amount of dark hair on them. And... there was the intense smells. No... something really, really weird was going on...

They turned onto Cooper's street—the street with the old decrepit house. Cooper stopped and turned around to them.

"Look Charlie, if you really are fixating on this, lets go look at the dog house."

"I... I don't want to."

"Why not?"

Charlie looked over at the unkempt yard and aging home. The home most have been there decades before all the others in the neighborhood. Having looked up random architecture for minecraft stuff, he recognized it as a more midcentury looking house.

"I just... we're invading someone's private property. Even if no one is living there now, someone has gotta own it? Right? What if they come back?"

"Then we run away as soon as we see a car pull in the driveway," Cooper laughed. "C'mon, let's check it out."

Charlie begrudgingly followed Cooper into the yard. Charlie also noted Daisy's slight look of displeasure at Cooper's choice to trespass.

Cooper set down his backpack next to the old dog house, and he walked around it. Charlie and Daisy also set down their backpacks and watched him investigate it.

"I don't know what to say," Cooper said. "It looks like a normal, though very old dog house."

Charlie also walked up to it, scratching his arm as he looked inside. There was nothing in there. Outside the dog house was a dog bowl, filled with scummy, stagnant water, and dirt and grime up against the sides of it. Daisy took her own turn looking over it, and also seemed to find nothing noteworthy.

"It's... just a dog house," Daisy shrugged.

Charlie shrank back slightly, feeling embarrassment crowd out all his other thoughts.

"I guess I'm going to actually test this out," Cooper said. He got down on hands and knees.

"What?" Charlie stepped forward in concern.

"It's just a dog house dude," Cooper laughed. "Calm down."

Cooper crawled inside.

He let out a wavering, "Whuhuhh." A few seconds later he crawled back out.

"So...," that was weird," he said, standing up a bit wobbily.

"What happened?" Daisy asked.

"Like... an electric pulse hit... or like someone punched me in the gut and knocked the wind out of me. I don't know."

Daisy's frown deepened as she glanced between the two boys.

"You two are putting me on, aren't you?"

"Nah," Cooper said.

"I'm being serious," Charlie said. "There's something... unnatural about that thing."

"Oh c'mon," Daisy rolled her eyes. "This has gotta be some kind of prank."

The others were silent.

"Okay then," Daisy said, getting down to crawling position. Before Charlie or Cooper could say anything, she crawled inside.

This time there was a yelp, and then a groan. But she didn't leave. They saw her shadowed body look up, apparently trying to examine the inside. She groaned again, and then had to back out. She got to a sitting position, and covered her mouth, looking nauseous.

"Now do you believe me?" Charlie asked.

Daisy was silent as she breathed steadily, then nodded and got to her feet. She picked up her backpack.

"Let's get out of here," she said, "this place is messed up."

They didn't say much as they walked to Cooper's house, and he said bye to them. Daisy tried some small talk after that, but Charlie wasn't very interested. He stopped in front of his house.

"I guess... I'll see you later," he said. He internally sighed. He wasn't shaking in the presence of a girl anymore, but his conversational skills still left a lot to be desired. Maybe he was growing more comfortable because he was realizing the truth - that dating Daisy seemed like a less and less realistic prospect for him.

"Do you still need help with your geography stuff?" Daisy asked.

"No, it's fine," Charlie said.

"Cooper said that's not the case."

"Wh-what?" Charlie said, surprised, and somewhat annoyed at Cooper.

"How about I stop by after you have dinner, in an hour or so?"

"Oh...okay?"

"Good enough," she smirked. "See you later."

He waved to her as she walked off. She left him standing there on the sidewalk, his brain twisted up in a knot of relief, stress... and... a little bit of hope.

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