Story [Disney] The Adventures of Milo Murphy

Thanks, and yeah I think that is the appeal of Scrooge as a character. He’s so insanely wealthy that adventuring just for the hell of it is basically his hobby. And yeah, I am trying to use relatively realistic time frames, so that it doesn’t seem like I am using handwavium everywhere as well as to account for the fact that Murphy’s Law kept crashing Gyro’s equipment

 

The battered van pulled into the driveway of the large rambling house in suburban Danville the next day. Cavendish turned the key in the ignition, shutting off the engine, and he, Dakota and Milo got out. They walked up the sidewalk to the front door. Milo rang the door bell. A second or two later the door opened to reveal a long necked sixteen year old girl with a long mane of red hair flowing down her back, almost to her waist. “Hi, Candace,” said Milo. ”We need to talk to Phineas and Ferb. Are they around?”
“They’re in the backyard building another one of their crazy contraptions,” she said.
Milo, Cavendish and Dakota walked through the house, pushed open the back door and stepped out into the yard.
Cavendish and Dakota looked around the yard in amazement. A tall leafy tree stood in the middle of the yard. Packing crates and thick power cables were strewn everywhere. A sleek blue and white space plane stood half completed in the middle of the yard. Cavendish and Dakota looked around in a amazement. They both turned to Milo.
“Does his yard always look like this?” asked Dakota.
Milo nodded. “I think so,” he said. “at least it did last time.” Milo was still having trouble deciding if last time was two weeks ago or yesterday morning.
As they walked across the yard, in addition to Phineas and Ferb’s usual collection of friends, Milo noticed several figures who he had had not seen before. They seemed to be composed of ghostly blue white light, which was emanating from some kind of projector on a tripod. One of the figures was a boy with a mop of shaggy black hair in a T-shirt, running shoes and baggy looking shorts that came down to the middle of his shins. Overhead a crane was lowering what appeared to be a heavy looking jet engine onto a pylon that stuck out from the fuselage of the space plane. As he crossed the yard, Milo heard the hologram of the boy with the shaggy black hair say, “Baymax, perform another structural integrity scan.” From somewhere that Milo evidently couldn’t see, he heard a calm, precise voice say, “scan complete. Structural integrity has improved by 24%.”
At these words a mop of unkept red hair appeared above the lip of the cockpit. “Thanks, Hiro,”said Phineas.
Hiro started say, “No problem, Phineas,” however, before he could completely get the words out, the crane with the jet engine suddenly swung sideways. The momentum of the sudden movement pulled the cable supporting the jet engine taught, which snapped with a crack like a gunshot, sending the heavy piece of machinery flying across the yard, leaving a furrow of plowed earth in its wake and knocking over the holographic projector. The hologram of Hiro Hamada flickered and once and blinked out.
Phineas looked in dismay at the wreckage strewn across the yard. “It took us half the morning to set up that move. How could this happen?” He caught sight of Milo, Cavendish and Dakota walking across the yard. “Oh, of course,” he thought, “it would have to be Murphy’s Law.” He hopped down from the cockpit of the space plane and walked across the yard to where Milo, Cavendish and Dakota were picking their way over a particularly thick tangle of cables. They met in the middle of the yard. “Hi, Milo,”said Phineas, “I’m glad you’re OK after yesterday.”
“Thanks,” said Milo, “and actually ‘yesterday’ was two weeks ago.”
Phineas looked intrigued. “Really?” he asked, “how did-“
“That’s not really important,” said Milo.
Phineas’ face fell a little, “Oh, well, OK then.” He gestured to the mess that Murphy’s Law had made of the yard. “It’s just that we have this mess to clean up and we have to make a very tight launch window in order to make our landing on Europa.”
“Wait, hang on a second,” said Dakota. His eyebrows went up as his eyes widen behind his sunglasses in surprise, “you’re going to Europa? Aren’t you a little young to be an astronaut?”
The young genius gazed steadily up at the much older man. “Yes, yes I am.”
“Well, ummmm, OK, then,” muttered Dakota.
“We are getting away from why we came here,” interjected Cavendish. “Phineas, we came because we wanted to talk to you about the study you conducted on Milo during the second Pistachion invasion.”
“Oh, OK,” said Phineas, “what did you want to know?”
“We want to know if you shared your Murphy’s Law data with anyone,” replied Dakota.
Phineas thought for a second. “No,” he said, “I haven’t shared that data with anyone.” He looked searchingly at Milo. “Milo, what’s going on?”
Milo shrugged. “Probably nothing,” he said. “It’s just that a lot of weird stuff has happened lately, even for me, and Cavendish and Dakota just want to make sure nothing happens without us knowing about it.”
“The Bureau of Time Travel runs a mentorship program, which Milo and his friends have agreed to join,” explained Cavendish. “We’d like you to join them.”
“Yeah, we don’t get the cool missions,” explained Dakota, casting a slightly envious eye over the sleek space plane dominating Phineas’ backyard, “we mostly just pick up alien garbage, but the Bureau has a bunch STEM programs you might be interested in.”
Phineas appeared intrigued again. “Well, OK,” he said at last.

 

Season Two

Episode Fourteen

The city of Danville baked under a late July heat wave. Standing under the hot sun, Milo hefted his hiking pack to sit higher on his shoulders and let his backpack swing idly from his right hand as Zack, Melissa and Amanda piled out of the battered old Range Rover and collected their hiking packs from the trunk. Milo watched as his three friends hoisted their hiking packs, which were loaded with everything thing they would needed for a week of camping in Coyote Woods, from tents to wolf repellent to food and toilet paper. Milo walked around to the driver’s side door. His father, Martin Murphy, rolled down the window.
“Bye Dad,” said Milo.
“Bye Milo,” said Martin. “I’ll be back to in a week to pick you up.”
“OK, Dad,” replied Milo. He turned and walked away from where Martin had parked, leading Zack, Melissa and Amanda toward the trailhead. The four teenagers disappeared into the cool shade of the trees, their shoes crunching loudly on the gravel lined hiking path. They walked for about an hour and half, talking, laughing and trading jokes. For Milo, it was at times like these, simply talking and laughing with his friends, “the three best friends in the world,” as he frequently called them, that he felt the closest to being a normal teenager. Milo had been born with an unusual hereditary condition, Extreme Hereditary Murphy’s Law. Put simply, Murphy’s Law said that anything that can go wrong inevitably will, and things were constantly going wrong in Milo’s life. Extreme Hereditary Murphy’s Law caused Milo’s body to create a field of negative probability, which automatically skewed all energy fields in Milo’s immediate vicinity toward negative outcomes. Camping was one of the few activities that Milo could partake where the risk of Murphy’s Law turning his life into utter chaos was relatively low.
Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda reached their campsite sometime around mid morning. It consisted of a grassy clearing bordered by a sandy beach, which lead down into a crystal clear lake, on one side and close growing trees on the other side. Several nature trails snaked away into the woods. A small cinderblock building containing a bathroom and an attached shower stood in one corner and a picnic table with faded and peeling paint stood in the other. A large fire pit dominated the centre of the campsite.
Milo surveyed their campsite. “Looks like a good spot,” he said. He dropped his backpack and let his hiking pack fall to the ground next to it with a heavy thud. Next to him, Zack, Melissa and Amanda were putting down their packs. Milo stretched his shoulders, feeling his spine decompress, after being relieved of the weight of his hiking pack. He bent over, unzipped his hiking pack and began rummaging through its contents, pulling out a camping stove and cylinder of propane, a tightly rolled sleeping bag, tent pegs and a rubber mallet. He tried to toss them to Zack, who was busy laying out their tent. Melissa and Amanda had already finished and were blowing up their air mattresses. The tent pegs landed in the dirt next to Zack’s right foot. The rubber mallet struck Zack’s foot, ricocheted off and struck the foot pump that Amanda had been using to blow up her air mattress, breaking the pedal.
Amanda walked over to where Milo and Zack were hammering the tent pegs into the ground. “Milo, our air pump is broken,” she said.
Milo looked up. “I packed an extra one in my backpack,” he said, nodding with his head toward his backpack. At the same moment, Zack missed his blow with the mallet and instead of coming down on the head of the tent peg, it came down on Milo’s hand and he felt something snap in his wrist.
Zack had the good grace to look slightly shame faced. “Sorry, Milo,” he said.
Milo gave a characteristic causal shrug. “Don’t worry about,” he said. “It’s just Murphy’s Law.” Milo turned to Amanda, “can you get me my splint and bandages?” Amanda nodded and walked over to Milo’s backpack, which was hardly ever out of his sight. She bent down and began rummaging through it, pushing aside sundry items, including flashlights, batteries, sandals, Milo’s board shorts, extra food, his toothbrush, a bar of soap and cooking utensils. She pulled out the extra foot pump, which she put on the ground and resumed rummaging, pushing aside his grappling hook, which was attached to a long length of rope and found his first aid kit, which included, among other things, splints, pain killers and bandages. Zack held the splint steady as Milo wrapped his forearm in a tensor bandage and pulled it tight. He could feel the bones grating against each other as they were forced back into place. He reached into his first aid kit again and pulled a bottle of pain killers. Milo popped a couple pills into his mouth and washed them down with a swig or water from his canteen. The throbbing in his wrist began to ebb almost at once.

 

It took the rest of the morning to finish unpacking all their gear and setting up the campsite. After lunch, which consisted of peanut butter sandwiches, they changed into their bathing suits and spent the afternoon alternately splashing around in water and sunning themselves on the crescent shaped sandy beach. In the late afternoon, Zack tried his hand at fishing with Milo’s rod and tackle box and actually managed to catch several large mouth bass and as a result, they had an excellent dinner that night of freshly caught fish and they turned in tired and happy.

When the sun came up the next morning, the four of them got up early. After an early breakfast and a early morning swim. They spent the morning hiking the natural trails that snaked away into the woods and exploring around their campsite. The area was filled with wild life and they spotted blue jays, cardinals and hummingbirds flitting among the redwood trees. In midmorning they caught a brief glimpse of a family of deer nibbling on the bushes that lined the edge of a large beaver pond. In the afternoon, Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda returned to their campsite. They spent the afternoon swimming and fishing. On the third day, they tried to go canoeing, but that only lasted until Murphy’s Law caused Amanda to put her foot through the bottom of the canoe, dumping all of them into the middle of the lake and forcing them to swim back to shore. They spent the afternoon drying their clothes on a clothes line that Melissa set up between a pair of trees.
Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda were up extra early on the fourth day of their camping trip. They left camp just before the sun came up. By the light of a headlamp, Milo produced a clean pair of socks from his hiking pack and pulled them on over his bare feet. He rummaged in his hiking pack again and pulled out a pair of sturdy looking hiking boots. He pulled them on over his feet and cinched up the laces extra tight. Milo generally didn’t wear anything with shoelaces, as he had long since found that untied shoelaces to be a source of Murphy’s Law related complications in his life. His hiking boots were one of the few exceptions that he made to this rule, as he had never been able to find laceless hiking boots. He triple knotted his laces and crawled out of his tent.
When he got outside, he found Melissa and Amanda yawning and waiting in the early morning gloom. The still morning air echoed slightly with birdsong and the hum of insects. The warbling cry of a loon echoed from somewhere across the lake. The sky behind the trees was painted with the pre-dawn glow of the rising sun. Milo turned at the sound of the door to the cinderblock outhouse opening and the banging shut as Zack walked casually across the campsite, his hiking boots crunching in the dirt. He walked up to where Milo, Melissa and Amanda stood waiting and stifled a yawn. “Morning,” he said sleepily. The other three said “Morning, Zack,” in return.
After a quick breakfast, Milo hefted his backpack onto his shoulders and Zack, Melissa and Amanda picked their hiking packs and the four of them set off down the trail toward Mount Danville. Today was the last full day of their camping trip and they were going to attempt to hike to the summit of Mount Danville. Mount Danville, from which the city got its name, was a 3,000 foot spur of granite which over looked downtown Danville and marked the border between Coyote Woods and the much larger Danville Forest. As the sun began to come up, early morning light cast the woods into a dappled mix of light and shade. Milo felt completely at peace. As side from his broken wrist, and the incident with canoe, he had actually managed to whole week without having to deal with Murphy’s Law. He could count on one hand the number of times in his life that that had happened to him. The last several days of camping, hiking, fishing and swimming with the three people that he valued most had been as close to a complete escape from the pressures that Murphy’s Law often placed on Milo, as the hapless teenager could ever hope to get.
By time the four teenagers emerged from the woods, the sun was well above the horizon. The gravel hiking trail wound its way across a broad plain toward a tall granite spur in the distance. As they got closer to Mount Danville, the angle of the trail became steeper and soon even Milo, who was relative fit for his age and build, found himself huffing slightly under the weight of his backpack. By about the half way point, Milo could feel his leg muscles starting to cramp and he called a stop.
“It’s OK if you don’t make it to the top,” said Melissa.
“Yeah, we can always come back next year,” suggested Amanda.
Milo shook his head. He was suddenly feeling bullheaded. “No,” he said emphatically. “We’ve come this far, we’re going to finish.” Milo kept walking, ignoring the cramps in his calf muscles. For a second Amanda looked as if she wanted to say something else, but Zack and Melissa caught her eye. Both of them shook their heads. Milo’s blood was up. It was best to let him work it off in his own way.
Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda reached the summit on Mount Danville just before noon. The summit was dominated by a large circular observation platform that offered commanding views of the surrounding area. The skyscrapers of downtown Danville glinted in the afternoon sun.
Milo stood at the edge, enjoying the view of Danville Forest, which stretched away into the distance like a thick green carpet. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zack walking over to join him.
“You OK, Milo?” asked Zack.
Milo nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, Zack, I guess I just got a little ahead of myself.”
“Amanda’s right, you know,” replied Zack. “You don’t need to push yourself.”
Milo nodded again. “OK, Zack,” he said. “I’ll slow down next time, I promise.”
They began to work their way back down the trail an hour later. They went more slowly this time, hiking about way down and diverting off of the main trail to the end of a long granite outcrop that jutted out into Danville Forest. They stayed there for around half an hour enjoying the distance view of Mount Danville, before resuming their hike back down the mountain. They reached their campsite mid afternoon and after a late afternoon swim, ate dinner and turned in for the night.

Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda were all up early the next morning. After a quick breakfast, they set about breaking down the camp. It took them less time pack their gear than it did then to set up camp a week ago. Milo folded and packed his soiled clothing in the bottom of his hiking pack and systematically packed his tackle box, fishing rod, left over food, camp stove and garbage in his hiking pack. Together he and Zack took down their tent and stowed it in Zack’s hiking pack. Milo repacked the tent pegs in his backpack, which he buckled to the top of his hiking pack. He picked his two backpacks and with only a little difficulty levered the on to his back. He had to bend forward slightly in order to ensure that the whole load was proper balanced over his centre of gravity. Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda each took a last look around to make sure that they hadn’t forgotten anything. When that was done, Milo settled his load more squarely on to his shoulders and the four teenagers began walking back to the parking lot.

Sara was waiting in the gravel parking lot with the battered old Range Rover when Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda arrived at the trail head toward mid morning.
“Hey little bro,” she said cheerfully as the four teenagers walked up to the car.
“Oh, hi Sara,” said Milo, giving his sister a hug through the open driver’s side window.
“So, is there a good war story to go with that?” she asked, pointing at his bandaged right forearm.
Milo regarded his bandaged forearm for a second or two, as thought he had only just noticed it was there. He had wrapped his wrist after Zack had broken it and largely forgotten about it. “Not really,” he said, shrugging, “broken wrist courtesy of Murphy’s Law and a rubber mallet.”
The four teenagers stumped around to the trunk, where they unceremoniously dumped their hiking packs. Milo unbuckled his backpack from his hiking pack and dumped it on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat next to Sara. He climbed into the front seat and shut the door while Zack, Melissa and Amanda piled into the middle row. The door shut with a bang and Sara turned the key in the ignition. The engine rumbled to life and she backed out of the parking lot.
The drive from Coyote Woods back to Danville took around half an hour. Sara chattered away continuously with her brother and his friends during the entire drive. As he listened to Sara trading jokes with Zack, Melissa and Amanda and laughing at the various mishaps and misadventures the four of them had experience over the past week, Milo felt a deep sense of contentment. He was with the four people who mattered to him most. She dropped off Zack first and then Melissa before driving downtown to drop Amanda off at her parents’ apartment building.
Sara pulled over in front of a sleek postmodern apartment block. Amanda got out and on impulse Milo got out as well and walked with her to the back of the vehicle. He opened the trunk, reached in and handed Amanda her hiking pack. He studiously ignored Sara, who he knew was watching her brother in the rear view mirror.
“Thanks, Milo,” said Amanda.
“I’m glad you came,” he said.
“Yeah,” said Amanda. She gave Milo a hug. “It was fun.” Amanda shouldered her pack and walked into her building.
Milo climbed back into the front seat next to Sara and shut the door.
Sara looked at her brother. Milo was trying to pretend that nothing had happened. “You could do a lot worse than Amanda Lopez,” she said.

 

But this is what Phineas lives for, right, so he's a little bummed?

It seems the dimension hopping was s.1.

What a relief for the kid!

Yummy! Crispy fish skin.

Yes, I imagine that velcro closures are his friends.

She's being a sweet sister.

 

Even if he is, Milo basically just introduced Phineas and Ferb to actual time travellers from 150 years in the future. They are going to be pretty happy

It seems the dimension hopping was s.1.[/QUOTE]

For now. I think that both Milo and especially Phineas would love the chance to go globetrotting with Scrooge. The trick is to figure out how to send them to the Duckverse with minimal risk of invoking Murphy’s Law in the process.

What a relief for the kid![/QUOTE]

Yeah, I think he appreciates Murphy’s Law cutting him a break without having to get really, really sick first.

Yes, I imagine that velcro closures are his friends.[/QUOTE]

He seems to prefer slip-ons and loafers.

She's being a sweet sister.[/QUOTE]

Well, to be fair Amanda has a really well written character arc and he won her over purely on the basis of his personal qualities.

 

Episode Fifteen

Milo was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he walked from his house to the bus stop at the end of his street. The air tasted crisp and Milo’s breath frosted slightly in the still morning air as he walked. When he reached the bus stop he found Zack, Melissa and Amanda, along with the usual crowd, Bradley, Chad and Mort, waiting for the school bus to arrive.
Milo gave a Chad and Mort a friendly wave. “Hi guys,” he said genially. “Have a good summer?”
“Hi Milo,” said Chad. “I heard a rumour that you were replaced by an alien doppelgänger this summer.”
Milo chuckled. “Sorry, Chad,” he said, “but my summer wasn’t quite that interesting.”
From somewhere behind him, Milo heard Melissa say,”Oh for the love of-Chad, what have I told you about believe random conspiracy blogs on the internet?”
Chad looked as though he were asked to remember a very difficult mathematical equation. “To, not?” he asked at last.
“Right,” said Melissa, a slight edge of sarcasm creeping into her voice. Chad was harmless enough, but he had a tendency to accept more or less anything related to the supernatural as being completely true, especially where Milo was concerned. That wasn’t to say that Chad wasn’t close to the truth sometimes, but his outlandish theorizing was wrong a lot more often than it was right.
“So what about you,” asked Milo turning to Mort. “How was your summer?” Milo had always like Mort and the two boys tended get along well. He thought that Mort had grown a couple of inches over the summer, or maybe that was himself, Milo reflected.
“Oh, I didn’t get up to much,” said Mort with a casual shrug of his broad shoulders. “I had a blockage in my fifth chakra. Took a fair bit of meditation to work it out. I also saw you on the astral plane,” continued Mort. “I didn’t know you meditate.”
Milo was slightly confused. “Well, actually I don’t,” he began, but before he could continue, his train of though was interrupted by the smell of burning rubber and the squeal of breaks. Everyone turned at the sudden sound to see a large highway truck swing heavily on to the road. It took the corner too fast and tipped up onto its outside wheels. Its load of hot asphalt began to shift and the long cylindrical tank that the truck as towing behind it over balanced and rolled over. At the same moment, the truck jackknifed and the tank of asphalt rolled down the street toward the gaggle of kids waiting for the school bus. It rolled to a stop about fifty feet away from where Milo and the other kids were standing. Hot asphalt leaked onto the road and Milo’s nose wrinkled at the acrid smell.
“Looks like we’re walking to school,” he said with a shrug.

Jefferson County Middle School was a large building constructed of tan coloured brick and located on the edge of Milo’s neighbourhood. Milo and his friends arrived at the crosswalk approximately fifteen minutes after leaving the bus stop at the end of Milo’s street. They were met by the usual sight of a tall, thin figure with a long mane of slightly unkept dirty blond hair, a bright orange safety vest and a hand held stop sign.
“Morning, Elliot,” said Milo, with a friendly wave.
Elliot Decker cast a suspicious glance in Milo’s direction from behind his sunglasses. Elliot was the volunteer crossing guard for Milo’s school. A chance meeting with Milo’s father, Martin, and his sister, Sara, at the circus, around the time that Elliot was six had left him with a lifelong pathological obsession with safety. Elliot threw out a hand to stop Milo from crossing the street. “Stay back,” he said. “I’ve already counted eighteen safety violations this morning.”
Somebody snorted and Milo could tell without looking that it was Bradley. “Are we going through this on the first day of school?” he sighed.
“Yeah, c’mon, Elliot,” enjoined Zack. He looked at his watch. “It’s almost first bell.”
Elliot surveyed the growing crowd of kids gathering at his crosswalk. “Alright, fine,” he said at last, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is a very unsafe crosswalk.” He walked out into the middle of street, stop sign held aloft and beckoned for the gaggle of kids to follow him. They trooped across the street to the school parking lot and proceeded up the steps into the school.
“See, Elliot,” said Melissa, as the four teenagers stepped up onto the curb on the opposite side of the road, “nothing happened. Everything is perfectly safe.”
Elliot looked as though he was about to say something, but no sooner had Melissa spoken than the ground gave way and Elliot sank up to his waist.
“Melissa, I think maybe you spoke too soon,” said Milo.

When the foursome got inside, the corridors were packed with students and teachers. Milo pulled his schedule from his pocket and consulted it. “According to this, we have Mrs. Camillichec for home room this year,” he said.
“That’s not too bad,” said Zack. “She tends to let you get away with stuff.”
“Her classroom is up on the third floor, all the way at the other end of the building,” put in Melissa. “And we need to find our lockers. We should get going,”
The four teenagers ducked out of the throng of kids, parents and teachers clogging the main corridor on the first floor and made their way up stairs, where they quickly their lockers. Zack’s was half way down the hall from Mrs. Camillichec’s class room. Milo’s was next to the entrance to the boy’s bathroom and Melissa’s and Amanda’s were all the way at the other end over looking the football field. Milo’s lock broke as soon as he tried to enter the combination. His locker door swung open and he deposited his lunch on the shelf inside. Milo rummaged in his backpack and produced the spare change of clothes that he routinely hung in his locker. Next he pulled out his wallet, took out a five dollar bill and put it in the pocket of the pair of shorts that he had just hung up in his locker. He shut the door, shoved the shank of the broken lock back through the hole and walked back down the hall toward Mrs. Camillichec’s classroom. A sign on the door said, “Welcome to the 8th grade.” He pushed open the door and went inside.
Bright September sunshine streamed into the classroom through the large windows which over looked the courtyard and the school parking lot. The bulletin boards on the walls were covered with pictures of famous mathematicians, the multiplication tables, the steps of long division, algebraic formulas, geometrical shapes and various bits of mathematical trivia. Milo sat in his usual seat, next to Zack in the second row. Amanda and Melissa were already at their desks in the row immediately behind to the two boys.
No sooner had Milo taken his seat, than the door opened and Mrs. Camillichec entered the classroom. Mrs. Camillichec was a tall, thin woman with a long mane of black hair and high cheeks and a long pointed nose. After standing for the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, and taking attendance, Mrs. Camillichec gave her class a short pep talk. Milo had never really understood the point of pep talks. They had never made him feel particularly peppy. She surveyed her class. “Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning, Mrs. Camillichec,” replied the class.
“Good morning,” she said again. “I look forward to spending the year with you. This year is an important one in your lives. You’ll be finishing be finishing your elementary school education and moving on to high school. Its important that you work extra hard this year to prepare for next year. As your teacher, I hope you will tell me if you have any problems or concerns.”
The bell rang and the classroom echoed with the scraping of chairs of the linoleum floor, the stamp of feet and babble of voices. Milo shouldered his backpack and maneuvered his way through the crush of bodies to the door. Zack, Melissa and Amanda were waiting in the hall. Their first class of the day was English with Mrs. White. Before passing out their copies of The Hobbit, she gave them a pep talk. So did Mr. Draco at the start of their American History class. Mr. Draco spoke with a slightly clipped east European accent. He was tall and thin, with a widow’s peak and slightly pallid complexion. More than a few of the kids in Milo’s class were of the opinion that Mr. Draco was a vampire.
“Good morning children,” he said. “I hope you all had a delightful summer. I have a wonderful surprise for you. This year you will be divided into pairs and you will be asked to research the history of Danville and present your findings at the end of the school year.” He proceed to pair them off. As luck would have it, or maybe Murphy’s Law working in his favour for once, Milo was paired with Amanda, while Zack was paired off with Melissa, much to the apparent annoyance of Bradley. Bradley had always had a bit off a soft spot for Melissa, but Melissa had never really found him all that interesting.
Following Mr. Draco’s American History class, they had a fifteen minute break, after which they trooped back upstairs to Mrs. Camillichec’s classroom for their first math lesson. She wasted no time no time in setting them to work on a page of algebra problems, the remainder of which was to be handed in at the start of class on Wednesday. In science class, Mrs. Murawski, spent most of their lesson rhapsodizing about her desk. As a result they got nothing done, which was fine with Milo. He felt as though he was already sagging under the weight of his homework and he had tape up his left ankle after he had badly twisted it going down stairs to the cafeteria for lunch. He also had to swing by his locker between classes for his spare change of clothes after a drinking fountain exploded and left him drenched. By the time he returned to Mrs. Camillichec’s classroom at the end of the day, Milo was left feeling slightly wrung out.

 

The next day Milo and Amanda met in the library over lunch time to start working on their history project. Jefferson County Middle School had a large and well appointed library. Tall oak bookcases bordered a large central space with tables in neat rows. The library was lit by large windows, which looked out on the gymnasium and the football stadium. Large chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The floor of the expansive space was covered in two tone blue tiles. Students were milling around looking for books and sitting down finishing their homework.
Milo walked causally up and the rows of the history section, pulling books on local history of off the shelves at random before returning to the large open space in the middle of the library to find Amanda. He found her walking out of the biography section with an armload of books. Unlike his pile, which had been gathered somewhat haphazardly, Amanda had returned from the stacks with a pile of books organized by subject and time period. Amanda took Milo’s pile of books and compared to her own. She scanned through the titles. The History of Danville. Danville of Yesteryear. Famous Danvillians. The Fishmonger Riots. The Haymaker Fire: Danville Before and After. Danville’s Lost Neighbourhoods.
Amanda nodded approvingly. “This is a good start, Milo,” she said.
“Uhhhh, thanks,” said Milo. “So did you have any thoughts about how we should approach our history project?” asked Milo.
Amanda surveyed the large pile of books in front of them. Milo glanced at a few of the titles. Abigail Chase: Clockmaker of Danville. Danville through its Architecture. A History of Danville City Council. “I was thinking that we could design an illustrated time of the history of Danville.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Milo enthusiastically. He checked his watch. Their lunch break was almost over. He gathered up the books he had taken off of the shelf. “We should check these out. That way we can work on this at home.” Milo walked over to the check out desk and dumped his load of books on to the table. The librarian quickly sorted through them and stamped them out with a methodical thud-thud-thud! Milo picked them up and put them in his backpack. The bell rang and Milo and Amanda left the library and headed for their computer science class.

 

He sounds like the supernatural soothes any insecurities ...

An unusual character beginning - maybe this is in the TV show?

 

Episode Sixteen

Milo was waiting in his driveway just before sunrise on Saturday morning as a battered looking van pulled up in front of his house. It rolled to a stop, engine rumbling in the pre-dawn quiet. The side door opened to reveal Zack, Melissa and Amanda sitting on a bench along one side of the van. “Morning guys,” said Milo with a half suppressed yawn, as he climbed into the van. He shrugged off his backpack and sat down between Zack and Amanda. He tucked his backpack behind his knees.
“Hi Milo,” said Dakota, with what seemed like an unnatural amount of energy for so early in the morning.
“Morning, Dakota,” said Milo.
Dakota held out a bag of fast food from Slushy Dawg. “Breakfast burrito?”
“Thanks,” said Milo, taking the bag from Dakota. He reached across and pulled the side door shut with one hand, then sat back down and turned his attention to the bag of food from Slushy Dawg. Cavendish revved the engine and the van backed out of the driveway. As Milo worked his was through his breakfast, which consisted of two breakfast burritos, orange juice and a hash brown, the van rumbled through the sleepy streets of suburban Danville. The drive from Milo’s house to Phineas’ took around twenty minutes. By the time Cavendish pulled into the driveway, the sun was starting to creep above the tops of the houses, casting a dappled mix light and shadow on the ground. As the van pulled into the driveway of The Flynn-Fletcher house, the dome of a large astronomical observatory rose above the top of the house from the backyard. The lens of a large telescope glinted in the morning sunlight. The van’s side door rattled open and Phineas and Ferb clambered into the van.
“Hi Milo,” said Phineas.
“Morning Phineas, Ferb,” replied Milo.
“So what’s with the telescope,” asked Zack.
The young genius shrugged. “Oh that,” he said. “That’s just our astrophysics homework. We’re conducting a study of the distribution of dark matter in the galaxy.”
“Oh,” said Dakota, “well it’s nice to see kids taking an interest in astronomy.” He didn’t bother to ask the genius stepbrothers if they were old enough to be astrophysicists. He already knew the answer.

“So, where are we going?” asked Amanda as Cavendish turned onto the highway.
“Kind of out town,” replied Dakota.
“Really?” asked Melissa, “I though you guys only ever worked around town.”
Dakota nodded,”yeah, most of the time we do, but for some reason Mr. Block is sending us way out to the back side of Danville Forest.” He shrugged. “What can I say, the Bureau is weird sometimes.”
Cavendish nodded in agreement. “Yes, the actions of the Bureau don’t always make sense.”
“And exactly what do you do?” asked Phineas.
“We pick up garbage,” said Dakota. “Like I said, we don’t get the cool missions-“
“Wait, wait, wait,” Phineas interrupted, “you pick up garbage? I thought you said were time travellers.” The tone of Phineas’ voice gave Dakota the impression that the young genius didn’t suffer fools gladly. Dakota smiled to himself. Milo really had a knack for picking his friends.
“Emphasis on ‘were,’ Flynn,” replied Dakota. “We were stripped of our time agent credentials for stopping the Pistachions. You’re welcome, by the way.”

The drive from Danville took almost an hour. By the time the battered van arrived on the far side of Danville Forest, the sun was well above the horizon. Cavendish parked the van and the eight of them piled out in into the mid-morning sunshine. They walked around to the back of the van, where Cavendish threw open the doors and handed out white jumpsuits, trash picks, gloves and plastic garbage bags. “Most of the stuff we pick up is pretty innocuous,” said Dakota, “but sometime time we find stuff that’s different. If you find anything unusual let us know and Cavendish and I will deal with it.”
“How will we know if we find anything unusual,” asked Milo.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” said Dakota.
Cavendish and Dakota turned and led the four teenagers and Phineas and Ferb into the woods. The walk from where Cavendish had parked the van to the clean-up only took fifteen minutes and they eventually emerged on to a clearing bordered by pine trees and strewn with garbage. They immediately set to work picking up the trash that was scattered all over the ground.
At first glance, it appeared to Milo to ordinary terrestrial garbage, however, upon closer inspection, the writing on the various paper food wrappers and disposable plastic cups, if that’s what they were, were written in languages that Milo had never seen before. There were smears of blue and purple stuff that Mill assumed was some kind of alien condiment. Milo quickly speared all the waste in his immediate vicinity and deposited it into his plastic garbage bag. The clean-up site was large, but there eight of them and it only took them an hour to clean up most of the garbage. Milo had almost filled his third garbage bag when he noticed Phineas, who was standing about six feet away from him, suddenly stoop and pick something up off the ground. From where Milo was standing it appeared to be cube shaped, roughly the size of a baseball and made of some kind of dark metal with a matte finish.
“Phineas,” Milo started slightly and the sound of the voice behind him, before realizing that it belonged to Melissa. “Be careful with that around Milo.” Phineas was slowly turning the strange object over in his hands. As it moved, it caught the light and Milo noticed the surface was incised with a hexagonal pattern. There was also a thumb sized depression on each face.
“Phineas,” said Melissa again, this time more loudly, “I think you should show that to Cavendish.”
“Melissa, I don’t think he’s listening,” said Milo. Phineas had a distant look on his face, as if the young savant could inside the cube and was trying puzzle out exact what it did. He placed his thumb in the depression on the top of the cube. As soon as he did so, the little device emitted a bright flash of green light. At the same instant, Milo felt as every particle of his being was being pressed toward his centre. It was as though Milo were being squeezed by a giant pair of hands. Then he felt as though he was falling and Milo instinctively curled into a ball. He hit the ground with a jarring thud and felt his left shoulder pop. The force of the impact had dislocated his shoulder. He bounced a couple of times and came to stop. He was lying spreading eagled on his back, with his backpack wedged beneath him. Ignoring his dislocated shoulder, Milo sat up. He looked around and saw Melissa slowly picking herself up. She looked at him.
“Left shoulder again?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She nodded and walked over to him. Melissa took hold of Milo’s left arm and holding it out straight, she gave a hard push, Milo felt a momentary flash of pain as the joint was inserted back into its socket. He started perform some preliminary stretches, but his shoulder protested loudly and he had to stop. Phineas had picked himself up while Melissa had been resetting Milo’s shoulder and was looking around. Milo began to do the same. He quickly realized that everything appeared to have drastically changed. The small twigs on the ground suddenly looked like tree trunks and the tiny particles of dirt that had previously been nearly microscopic now buried Milo’s feet up to his ankles in clouds of earth the size of baseballs. From somewhere behind him, something was casting a long square shadow. As Milo turned to see what it was, Phineas said, “oh, so that’s what that does.”
The baseball-sized cube that Phineas had been turning over in his hands now appeared to be the size of a large office block.
Milo was suddenly aware that Melissa was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. The look on her face plainly said, “we need to talk about Phineas.”
Milo gave her a return look that said, “later, after we get out of this.”
“I think we’ve been shrunk ,” said Phineas.
“Ok,” said Melissa slowly, “how do we get unshrunk?”
Phineas though for a minute, then pulled out his phone. It appeared to be a make that Milo and Melissa didn’t recognize. “I’m going to see if I can call Ferb,” said the young genius.
Milo and Melissa traded a skeptical look. “Will that work,” asked Milo.
“To be honest, I’m not sure,” replied Phineas. “We never thought about this scenario when we built our phones.”
Milo and Melissa looked at each other, astonished. “You built your phone?” asked Melissa.
Phineas shrugged as if this was a perfectly normal thing for a nine year old to do. “Sure,” he said casually, tapping and swiping through his contact list looking for his stepbrother’s phone number. “We built the prototype for Candace last summer. We liked the design so much that we built two more.” Phineas stopped tapping and swiping and stared at his screen. “Hmmmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “I thought that might be the case.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small set of screwdrivers and proceeded to remove the back of his phone. He deftly made some adjustments and the replaced the back plate with a metallic snap. Phineas examined the screen again. He nodded in approval in approval, tapped Ferb’s number and then the call button. He placed the phone to his ear and spoke for a couple of minutes, then hung up.
No sooner had Phineas hung up, than the three of them began to hear noise in the distance. Milo could see figures coming closer and he realized that he was staring at Cavendish, Dakota, Zack, Amanda and Ferb, except that they were all absolutely enormous. Phineas had a calculator out and his hands were deftly dancing over the key pad. “Based on the disparity between our height and theirs,” he said, “I’d say we’re a couple of millimetres tall.”
“How does that help us?” asked Melissa.
“Well, It lets us know where we stand,” offered Milo.
“Milo, not helping,” said Melissa.
Milo was still watching the towering figures of his friends as they came closer. He could feel the vibrations of their footsteps rattling his teeth. He felt something familiar click in his brain and he began to analyze direction, gait, stride length, weight, mass density and impact force. Milo did it without thinking. Thirteen years of living with Murphy’s Law had turned the analytical part of his mind in a fine tuned precision instrument. He turned to Melissa and Phineas. “We need to move,” he said pointing, “over this way.”
The three of them began to move. It was difficult. The vibrations from the footsteps of five people caused the soil around Milo’s feet to liquify. It was like walking in thick mud and in a rare lack of foresight Milo had not packed his hiking boots in his backpack. He wondered if he should make a point of packing his boots from now on. The jolt of Amanda’s right foot coming down not far from Milo interrupted his thoughts. He pushed the thought aside and kept moving, eventually reaching the spot he had indicated to Melissa and Phineas. He stopped and turned to face the towering figures of his friends. They had stopped short, not wanting to accidentally step on anyone. Dakota threw out a huge arm to keep Zack, Amanda and Ferb out of the way. He turned to Cavendish and Milo saw his mouth move, but couldn’t hear the words. Cavendish turned walked and a little way a way from the others. He bent down and picked up the cube that Phineas had found.
Milo watched as he examined it carefully. At the same time, Dakota tapped the side of his sunglasses and bent very low. He could see himself reflected in the lenses of Dakota’s sunglasses. Text and icons scrolled down around Milo’s reflection. Dakota pointed at Milo, Melissa and Phineas, then turned and said something to Cavendish, who nodded. Dakota made a sign that clearly said, “don’t move.”
Milo turned to Melissa and Phineas. “Don’t move,” he said. “I think Cavendish and Dakota have an idea.” There was another bright flash of green light, but instead of Milo, Melissa and Phineas returning to their normal size, they watched as Dakota shrank down to their level.
“Yeah, OK, that didn’t go the way I thought it would,” said Dakota after he dusted himself off.
From high above them, Cavendish sighed and shook his head.

 

Episode Seventeen

It took another couple of hours of careful study of the cube, which Dakota explained to them later, was called a shrinkatron, before it was possible to restore Milo, Melissa, Phineas an Dakota to their original sizes. Milo felt himself once again seized by a giant pair of hands, only this time he felt as though every bit of him was being stretched. The muscles in his dislocated shoulder howled in protest and when it was over, Milo tasted blood in his mouth. He had bit through his bottom lip.

“This is extremely dangerous technology in the wrong hands,” said Cavendish, as they drove back to Danville that afternoon. “With enough energy, this device is capable of shrinking the entire planet down to the size an atom.”
“Yeah,” said Dakota, “whoever let this thing get out must be a real nutjobber. We definitely need to phone this in.”

As September faded into October, and Milo and his friends settled into their classes, Danville was cloaked in a mantle of orange and yellow and crimson, as the leaves on the trees gradually turned from summer time green to a riot of Autumn colours. Two weeks after the Shrinkatron Incident as they had taken to calling it, Melissa raised the subject of Phineas.
“Milo,” she said as he wrapped his knee one afternoon between classes.
“Yeah, Melissa.”
“We need to talk.” She had intentionally let Zack and Amanda go ahead of them because she felt as though what she wanted to say was something should remaining between her and Milo.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asked. Milo finished wrapping his right knee. He had slipped going upstairs between classes and had banged his knee rather badly. He guessed that he would have to put ice on it later.
She took a breath. “Milo, I think you should be careful around Phineas,” she said quickly.
“You don’t think it’s safe for me to be around him?” asked Milo.
Melissa paused, wondering how to say what she wanted to say. She knew that Milo liked Phineas and she didn’t want to seem like she was trying to come between them either, but as his closest friend she felt as though she owed her honest point of view. “I think that Phineas and Ferb live in a bubble,” she said at last. “I don’t think they always realize the consequences of their actions.”
Milo thought about this for a second or two, then said, “maybe this is just part of the Phineas and Ferb effect. Maybe being born with a positive probability field means they have a higher tolerance for taking risks.”
“Possibly,” Melissa allowed slowly, “but after Duckburg, and the now Shrinkatron Incident, I can’t help but wonder if Phineas and Murphy’s Law are a bad mix.”

The six of them spent the next two weekends shadowing Cavendish and Dakota, as they worked various clean up sites around Danville. For the life of him, Milo wondered why aliens who could apparently master interstellar space flight couldn’t master something as basic as recycling.
“That’s a really good question,” said Dakota one Saturday when Milo asked him. “Maybe one day you’ll be able to ask them.” He passed Milo a lawn gnome. “Take this and put it a container. And try not to touch it any more than you have to.”
“Why?” asked Milo.
Dakota told him.
Milo looked revolted. “But that’s just-I mean why would anyone do that?”
Dakota chuckled at the look on Milo’s face and shrugged. “Maybe it’s somebody’s idea of a funny prank. Perhaps you can ask them that too, although personally, I don’t really want to know.”
Heinz stood pensively in front of the white board in his shed in Milo’s backyard one afternoon in early October. Over the past several months, Doof’s calculations had slowly become more refined, thanks in part to Perry and Cavenpuss’ input, but he had found himself beset by frequent setbacks and obstacles nonetheless. He was facing such an obstacle now. Heinz’s white board dominated one wall of the shed which had previously belonged the Milo’s mother, Brigitte, who was an architect and had used it as a design studio. The large workbench on the perpendicular wall, was located under a large rectangular window, and contained an elaborate array of mirrors, magnetic coils and lasers. The purpose of the experiment was to develop a base line for the time it took for a beam of light to travel through a temporal continuum from one point to another.
Cavenpuss and Perry stood on a chair next to the lanky scientist, staring the calculations On the white board. Perry chittered at Heinz. “Your calculations are off,” said Cavenpuss. “There is a variance of three microns.”
“What,” said Heinz, “no there isn’t. There is a variance of less than one micron. Look.” He rattled off a series of mathematical equations and formulas, pointing to each one as he spoke.
Perry shook his head, chittered emphatically at Heinz and pointed at the calculations on the white board.
“Alright fine, Perry the Platypus,” said Heinz in exasperation, “go ahead and show me.”
Perry picked a pad of paper and a pen and scribbled out a series of mathematical formulas. He chittered his teeth at Heinz and handed him the pad of paper. Heinz took it and studied for what seemed like a long time. He made some notations and walked over to the apparatus on his workbench. He made some adjustments to the positioning of the mirrors. He booted up a laptop, opened a new window and input a series of commands. Heinz shifted his attention from his computer to test apparatus on his work bench and made a few more adjustments. Heinz flipped a switch and a pair of blue and green lasers when ricocheting around the maze of prisms and mirrors and through the magnetic coils. A pair of jagged lines appeared in a window on Heinz’ computer screen. He studied the readout carefully and then sighed.
“There is still a two micron variance,” observed Cavenpuss.
Perry chittered.
“A two micro variance is still within the margin of error for-“
“Technically,” said Cavenpuss, “but only barely. You would be able to enter the time stream, but you risk substantial damage to yourself and your vehicle.”
Heinz was silent for a long time.

 

A week later the weather turned chilly. Danville was drenched in a cold rain that washed away last of the fall colours and turned everything drab and grey. Zack trudged across the parking lot from the bus stop to the Googleplex Mall. He reached the entrance to the mall, pushed open the door and stepped out of the bad weather. He unzipped his coat, took off his hat and stuffed it in his pocket. He walked over to the mall directory and ran his finger down the index of stores until he found the one that he wanted. He double checked its location. It was up on the fifth floor. He made a mental note of the location and walked over to the nearest escalator. He was half way to his destination when he heard a voice behind say his name.
“Hey, Zack.”
Zack stopped and turned to find Melissa coming out of Safety Barn with a large bag under her arm. “Oh, hi Melissa.” For some reason that he couldn’t explain, Zack suddenly felt his face grow hot. “What’s with the bag?”
Melissa shrugged. “Birthday shopping for Milo,” she said. “Mr. Murphy said that Milo needed a new hard hat, so I thought I’d pick one up for him. You?”
“Same,” said Zack. “I was going to check out the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon.”
Melissa nodded approvingly. “The official Doctor Zone store,” she said. “Good call, and you definitely won’t run into him there today.” The Trashcandroid’s Dungeon was Milo’s favourite store at the mall and was near the top of their list of places to check when Murphy’s Law made it unusually difficult to find him.
“So you arranged some interference, then?” asked Zack.
Melissa nodded. “Sara and Neal took him to Danville Comic Con,” she said. “All of the Time Wardens are appearing together on stage with Orton for the first time over twenty years.” Melissa laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Milo so excited before.”
“Why don’t you come with me,” suggested Zack. “You’ve been friends with Milo for a lot longer that I have. You might know what he’d like.”
“Sure.”
They walked the rest of the way to the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon together chatting amiably, mostly about Milo and about, “the ridiculousness that is his life,” as Melissa liked to put it. As the person closest to Milo outside of his family, Zack had often noticed that Melissa could get away with saying things to Milo that anyone else would have been immediately called on. He remembered the first time he had met Milo, while waiting for the school bus at the bus stop at the end of Milo’s street. They had almost been run over by a section of concrete drainage pipe and had eventually ended up in the sewer. Zack had stared in amazement as this strange kid had calmly rummaged in his backpack and handed him a head lamp.
“Here,” Milo had said, “we can use these to navigate in the dark.”
“Dude, if and when we get out of here,” Zack had said, “I’m going to have to go my own way. No offence, but I’m not sure I can handle all of this.”
Milo had turned to stare at Zack, as if confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this cyclone of calamity that follows you everywhere you go,” Zack had replied. “How do you live like this?!”
When Milo spoke next, It was clear that he felt as though he had just been insulted. “How do you live like that?” Milo had asked.
Now it had been Zack’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean?”
Milo had given Zack a searching look, as sizing him up. “I mean do you want to live like those other kids? They took a bus to school today. A bus! Does that honestly seem like more fun to you?”
In spite of this initially rocky start, Zack’s relationship with Milo had quickly hardened into a durable friendship. Zack’s thoughts were interrupted by the ethereal music drifting from the Doctor Zone store, just ahead of them. “It’s time for danger! Time for action! Time for Doctor Zone!” Zack and Melissa stopped in front of the entrance to the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon, which was flanked by life-sized statues of Doctor Hankry Zone and Time Ape.
Zack and Melissa went inside. The store was decorated in lurid shades of purple and gold. The Doctor Zone them played over the store’s speaker system. “Chronological time is an abstraction when you’re with Doctor Zone.” Props were on display behind glass display cases. T-shirts, sweaters and sweat pants hung on racks. A life sized replica of the Time Beehicle, for sale for $50,000, dominated the open space in the middle of the store. They spent around half an hour wandering around the store looking at all the coffee mugs, action figures, comic books, Christmas ornaments and various knick knacks for sale. They eventually picked out several T-shirts, four Doctor Zone Universe graphic novels and an expensive pair of sixth scale figures of Doctor Zone and Time Ape.
“So,” asked Zack, as they walked out of the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon, “do you want to hit the food court?”

 

Now I think perhaps he's addicted to fun and all the calamities are just the price of it ...

I hope Milo has fun at the comic con and doesn't disrupt it too much.

 

Well, to be fair, he’s really, really good at managing Murphy’s Law, but at the same time it’s interesting to consider that both Milo and Melissa have overtly stated that Milo wants to live like this.

 

Episode Eighteen

Zack and Melissa walked out of the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon, Zack’s wallet feeling a solid $300.00 lighter. They walked over to the nearest escalator and made their way up to the sixth floor. The food court was at opposite end of the mall from the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon. They walked from one end of the mall to the other, stopping occasionally to browse, although neither of them bought anything else. The food court was packed was shoppers trying to avoid going out in the bad weather. They picked their way through the crowd to the Slushy Dawg counter. They ordered, got their trays, paid and began looking for a free table.
They were still looking for a table five minutes later when Zack saw someone standing up, head and shoulder over the crowd and waving at them. “Hey, I think I see Milo’s parents.”
“Where?” asked Melissa.
Zack pointed and waved. Balancing their trays and their shopping, Zack and Melissa picked their way through the crowded food court to where Martin and Brigitte Murphy were eating lunch. There were several bags under the table.
“Hi kids,” said Martin between mouthfuls of his hamburger.He eyed their bags from Safety Barn and the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon. “Shopping for Milo’s birthday?”
Zack and Melissa both nodded. Melissa eyed the large bag under Martin’s chair. “Looks like I missed you at Safety Barn,” said Melissa. “What did you buy?”
“Milo’s been hinting at a new pair of steel toed boots,” replied Brigitte.
“For weeks,” added Martin wryly. “He wasn’t exactly subtle.”
“What about you Zack,” asked Brigitte, “what did you pick up for Milo’s birthday.”
“Well, I had some help from Melissa,” answered Zack. “We went to the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon and picked up some swag and comic books and stuff.”
Martin smiled at Zack and Melissa. “Kind of hard to go wrong with swag from Milo’s favourite store. Sounds like you two did well.”

Awhile later, after lunch and a long discussion about Milo’s birthday, Zack walked back across the mall parking lot back to the bus stop. It had stopped raining, but there was still a damp chill in the air and he pulled his hat more closely around his ears to ward against the damp cold of the late afternoon. The sun was slowly sinking behind the tall buildings of downtown Danville, casting long shadows over everything. Car headlights were starting to come on in the falling darkness. The puddles in the road caught the light, casting weird reflections on the sidewalk and the walls of the surrounding buildings.
It had actually been a nice afternoon, Zack reflected as he got on the bus, going to Danville Comic Con with Milo, Sara, and Neal probably would have been fun, but Zack had enjoyed a quite afternoon with Melissa, without the stress of constantly being on watch for Murphy’s Law. As much as he liked and admired Milo, Zack hadn’t had too many quite afternoons since they had become friends and he had appreciated the breather from the unmitigated chaos that followed Milo everywhere he went. Melissa unexpectedly drifted into his thoughts. She had looked nice today he thought. Wait, had she? She had been wearing her usual white jacket, black tank top and pink skirt, which is what she wore practically every day. And yet she had looked nice. Perhaps she had always looked nice and Zack had just never noticed before. He wondered if he should notice things like that more often.

Milo and Amanda met again in the library after school the following Monday. They found Zack and Melissa already hard at work surrounded by a pile of open books.
“Hi guys” said Milo, with his usual friendly wave.
“Hey Milo,” said Zack. “How was Danville Comic Com?”
Milo practically went into transports of delight at the question, as he usually did at anything Doctor Zone-related. “Oh, it was super” he said excitedly. “I was supposed to have my picture taken with Orton and all of the Time Wardens, until Hall Three was flooded when the sprinkler system went off and the photo ops had to be cancelled, but I still got to meet them all and I got all of their autographs.”
Zack and Melissa both chuckled at Milo’s unbounded enthusiasm. “Sounds like you and Sara and Neal had a fun day on Saturday,” said Melissa.
“Oh yeah,” said Milo, “we had a great day. So what did you guys do on the weekend?”
Zack and Melissa traded conspiratorial looks. Zack gave a causal shrug. “Oh, you know not very much,” he said, “mostly just getting caught up on homework.”
Milo gave his two best friends a searching look. Sometimes Zack could almost swear that Milo could read minds. “Well….OK,” he said at last. He squared his backpack more securely on his shoulders and walked off with Amanda to look for books for their history project.

 

On the morning of Milo’s birthday, the weather was damp and chilly. It had rained the night before and the pavement was slick with moisture. Milo slipped and fell twice walking to the bus stop at the end of his street and had to stop and rummage through his backpack for his elbow brace and to tape his left ankle. The school bus came on time for once and the ride to school was uneventful, which had given him time to peruse the new issue of Doctor Zone Insider that had been waiting for him at his usual place at the kitchen table as his mother had fixed his favourite breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes. He was also sporting a slip lip because he had fallen out of bed at 5:30 in the morning trying to reach his phone when it had started ringing. Milo had left underneath, on his desk to charge the night before.
“Hi Milo,” Uncle Joey had left him a message in his voice mail. “Happy birthday. Hope you have a great day today.”
Grandpa and Grandma Murphy had also left him a birthday message, which of course, was mostly unintelligible. Grandpa and Grandma Murphy had a habit of talking over each other. He had also gotten a succession of texts from Zack, Melissa, Amanda, Chad and Mort.
“Hi buddy, happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday, Milo.”
“Have a great birthday, Milo.”

The day seemed to drag by with almost interminable slowness. At times it seemed to Milo that the clock hands on the classroom wall were barely moving. After morning exercises they had grammar with Mrs. White, who set them to work parsing sentences. After their morning grammar lesson was geography with Mrs. Baxter, who launched into a long and boring lecture about the human biome and its effects on the natural environment. After the morning break, they had Spanish with Mr. Garcia followed by music with Mrs. Whipple. Milo’s knowledge of Spanish was excellent, having taken a number of conversational Spanish classes at Danville Community College and he allowed his attention to drift during Mr. Garcia’s vocabulary lesson. He was slightly late for Mrs.Whipple’s music class. Milo had had to run, upstairs to his locker between classes to get his accordion and he hobbled into class, ten minutes late, having slipped going downstairs and badly sprained his ankle. The upside, Milo reflected, as he limped out of the cafeteria after lunch for computer science class with Doof, was that he would have to sit out gym class, which today suited him just fine.
Computer class turned out to be an exercise in frustration. Doof had paired Milo and Zack together for the semester long robotics project he had assigned the class in the second week of September. They were supposed to be designing, building and programming a robot to traverse a simulated moonscape. The goal was to reach a series of designated stations and perform a series of increasingly complex tasks within a set time frame. They were supposed to start programming their robot today, that is if they could get it to turn on in the first place.
Milo and Zack examined their robot for the third time. “Why won’t it turn on?” asked Zack, in confusion. “Murphy’s Law?”
Milo shrugged. “Maybe,” he checked the battery indicator again. “It says we have a fully charged battery.”
Zack frowned. “Hmmmm , maybe there’s a lose connection somewhere?”
Milo picked their robot and a screwdriver and began tightening all of the electrical connections. It fell apart in his hands almost immediately. Milo looked sheepish. “Sorry, Zack.”
Zack waved away Milo’s apology. “It’s OK,” he said, as the bell rang. “Don’t worry about.”

 

You're writing adolescence nicely, that time of life when everything "wakes up."

 

Oh, good. I was wondering if that seemed kind of forced or not. The problem I’ve sort of been having is that the writers did a really good job of developing Milo and Amanda, but didn’t really develop Zack and Melissa, so I’ve sort of had to think about how to write their relationship and why Milo isn’t interested in her like that. I sort of have a theory about that but I have to figure out how to make it work.

 

It is a challenge to get inside characters' heads ... since he's adolescent, too, maybe it's a shallow turnoff, like not liking her hairstyle or earlobes or something ...

 

Actually, I don’t think it is. My theory is that he definitely has feelings for Melissa, but hasn’t acted on them because he thinks that if he does Murphy’s Law will intervene somehow and he’ll be forced to walk away from their friendship, which would just about kill him.

 

Episode Nineteen

Milo’s birthday dinner was a happy and noisy one. When he wasn’t debating the finer points of Doctor Zone lore with Sara, or trading inside jokes with Zack, Melissa and Amanda, he was swapping stories, Murphy’s Law incidents for time agent adventures, with Cavendish and Dakota. Eventually, once everyone had finished eating, the remains of the meal was cleared away and Brigitte brought out a huge chocolate cake, covered in a thick layer of chocolate fudge icing, Milo’s favourite. The words “Happy Birthday Milo” were written around a large number “14” in blue icing. She set the large birthday cake down in front of her clearly salivating son. There were no candles. They had tried candles on Milo’s cake for his seventh birthday. It had taken a month for Milo’s eyebrows grow back.
Brigitte bent over and gave Milo a kiss on the cheek. “Happy birthday, Milo,” she said.
Milo gave his mother a kiss in return. “Thanks, Mom.”
After they sang happy birthday, Milo cut the cake and began passing out slices. It was double chocolate chunk on the inside. Milo’s mouth watered in anticipation. He picked up his fork and took a big bite. It was rich and moist and melted in his mouth. Milo felt his eyes go wide in delight. He swallowed his mouthful of birthday cake.
“Oh, Mom!” he said. “this is delicious.”
Brigitte chuckled. “I’m glad you like,” she said. “I wound up making three. I finally had to get your father to take Diogee for an extra long walk.” Martin had caused the first batch of cake batter to go sour when he had walked past the kitchen on his way out of the downstairs bathroom and had caused the second to come out of the oven completely charred when he had walked into the kitchen for a can of Pep.
Milo was shovelling birthday cake into his mouth as though he hadn’t seen food in a year. Sara was laughing at her brother again, as Milo practically inhaled his slice of cake. When he had finished his slice of birthday cake, Milo drained the last dregs of his glass of milk. He raised his hand to his mouth, stifling a polite burp. “That was really great, Mom,” said Milo.
“We all know your weakness for anything chocolate,” said Sara, smiling at her brother.
Milo grinned back his sister. “It’s practically my glorpium,” he replied.
“Well, that sure was the best chocolate cake that I’ve ever tasted,” put in Dakota, “your mom’s a hell of a cook.”
“Yes, Mrs. Murphy,” said Cavendish in agreement, “that was most excellent.”
“I’m glad you both enjoyed it,” said Brigitte, “I’ll cut you some extra slices and you can take them home.” Cavendish and Dakota nodded appreciatively.
“Well, we’re not done yet,” said Sara, getting up and collected the remains of Milo’s birthday cake. Martin got up at the same moment and began gathering up the plates and glasses from around the table. Diogee was hovering at Brigitte’s feet as she scraped food scraps into the compost bin under the kitchen sink. A few scraps of meat fell from the plate in her hand and on to the floor. Diogee gobbled them up, barked happily, then went back to sit on his accident prone master’s foot. Milo gave Diogee an obligatory scratch behind the ears and Diogee’s tail thudded happily against the floor.
In the commotion of people moving around the kitchen, Milo suddenly realized that Sara had disappeared and he wondered where she had gone. No sooner had the thought occurred to him, than she appeared, framed in the kitchen door, with an armload of brightly wrapped birthday presents.Milo suddenly remembered the small wrapped package that Cavendish and Dakota had given him early and pulled it out of his pocket. He put it on the table as Sara deposited the mountain of gifts in front of him. She sat down.
Milo immediately attacked the pile of gifts in front him, pulling a large box toward him. He recognized Melissa’s hand writing on the card. He opened Melissa’s birthday card and read it. “To my best friend, have a great birthday, best wishes, Melissa.” Milo turned his attention to the large box that the card had come with. He ripped off the brightly coloured wrapping paper, revealing a sky blue hard hat in a cardboard box. “Thanks, Melissa,” said Milo. “How did you know I needed a new hard hat?”
Melissa shrugged and gave Martin and Brigitte an appreciative look. “I had some help,” she said.
“The big crack in your old one was also kind of a subtle clue,” said Martin.
Milo chuckled, “oh, right,” he said, “I forgot that I hit my head during the woodpecker incident.” Milo continued to tackle the mountain in front of him, pulling another brightly coloured box toward himself. The envelope taped taped to the box had the words, “our son,” written on it in what Milo recognized as Brigitte’s round hand writing. He pulled off the wrapping paper, revealing a large boot box. “Hey,” said Milo excitedly, “great, I needed a new pair of safety boots.” He got up and gave his parents a hug.
“We know,” said Brigitte, smiling at Milo, “you’ve been hinting at new boots for at least a month.”
“You’re not always as subtle you’d like to think, you know,” chuckled Martin.
Milo reached next for three gifts taped together with generous amounts of scotch tape. The card read, “Keep being wizardy, happy birthday little bro, your sister, Sara.” Inside the card was a $50.00 gift for the Trashcandroid’s Dungeon. “Hey, cool, there are a bunch of Doctor Zone comics that I haven’t read yet.” The three gifts from Sara turned out to be a new full face filter mask and a sixth scale model of the Time Beehicle, “oh, Sara, this must have cost a fortune,” gasped Milo, gazing at the large and extremely detailed model. The third gift was, “Doctor Zone On-line,” enthused Milo. “Thanks, Sara, these are all really great.”
Sara shrugged and laughed at Milo’s obvious joy. “Well, you’ve tried to drop the XGB-720 into casual conversations that really had nothing to do with it, and as for the rest, well, duh!”
Milo laughed and got her point at once, “yeah I guess I do have the words,’Doctor Zone fan’ tattooed across my forehead, don’t I, I mean did appear in the pilot, after all.”
Everyone laughed. They were all well aware of the events of the Pistachion Incident.
Milo pulled a large gift bag from Zack toward himself and began to unpack its contents. “Hey, cool,” said Milo after reading the card, “new Doctor Zone T-shirts, thanks, Zack.”
“Keep going, Milo,” said Zack, “there’s more.”
Milo looked intrigued and returned to rummaging in the large gift bag. He pulled out several flat objects. They were all individually wrapped and then wrapped in scotch tape, like Sara’s gifts had been. He began pulling off the purple and gold wrapping paper, revealing a stack of hardcover graphic novels. “Hey, cool,” said Milo again, “I’ve been meaning to read these. How did you know?”
“I had some help from Melissa,” said Zack with a shrug. “And keep going. You’re not done yet.”
Milo looked amazed. “Seriously?!” He looked the bag, wondering what else Zack had gotten him. He rummaged in the gift bag again and pulled out two long rectangular objects. He picked one up and started to unwrap it. Milo got about half way through unwrapping it when he gasped. “Oh, Zack,” said Milo in amazement. A sixth scale Doctor Zone stared back at Milo. He quickly unwrapped the other one, to find a matching a sixth scale Time Ape. Milo gaped. “Zack,” he said again, “you didn’t have to do this.”
“No, we didn’t have to-“ started Zack.
“But we wanted to,” finished Melissa.
“We felt like you’ve been through a lot this year,” said Sara. She ticked off the Murphy’s Law events in succession. “First Octalia, then Duckburg, then the Shrinkatron.”
Melissa smiled at Milo. “We felt like you had earned something special.”
Milo gazed at Sara, as though he had just figured something out. “So all those times you kept sneaking off at the Danville Comic Con, you were co-ordinating with Zack and Melissa.”
Melissa nodded again. “Yep.”
“Well, that and I had get away from Murphy’s Law just to get my phone to work at all,” said Sara.
Milo chuckled. “Yeah, I can totally understand that one,” he said. Milo broke his phone at least a couple of times a week. There was even a box on the kitchen counter labeled “Milo’s phones.” It usually held at least five or six broken cell phones. Milo surveyed the table. There were only two gifts left. There was a birthday card from Amanda and the small package that Cavendish and Dakota had given him when they had arrived. He picked up the small, thin package from Cavendish and Dakota, wondering once again, what it could be. He unwrapped it and something that looked a lot like a high end smart phone fell into Milo’s hand. He looked at Cavendish and Dakota. “Uhhhhh, thanks guys,” he said a little confused, “but, what is it?”
“It’s an inter temporal communicator,” replied Cavendish.
“Yeah, technically we’re not supposed to let you have that,” said Dakota, “but this is an obsolete model and we figured that the Bureau won’t notice if one goes missing.” Dakota shrugged. “We tried to spring loose a quantum localizer as well, but the Bureau keeps those under close watch, even the outdated ones.”
Milo stared at the device in his hand, slightly stunned. They had given him actual time agent technology as a birthday gift. He had always had an easy rapport with the two time agents and had always liked them, but evidently Cavendish and Dakota placed a level of trust in him that he had not realized was there. Milo swallowed. “So how does it work?” he asked.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Dakota, and he quickly talked Milo through setting up his new inter temporal communicator.
“It’s range is rather limited,” explained Cavendish, “only around ten thousand years or so relative to your current time frame-“
“-And you’ll only be able to contact your home dimension so long as you’re less than thirty degrees off of the dimensional axis,” continued Dakota, “but we figured that given all the weird stuff that Murphy’s Law throws at you, this might be useful someday.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said. “It might be, but how well will it stand up to-“
“ -You?” finished Dakota, chuckling . “To be honest, we have no idea, but the outer casing is made of carbon fibre reinforced with diamond filaments. It should take a hell of beating before it breaks.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” said Melissa.
“Yeah,” said Zack, “for the next time we end up in a parallel dimension full of talking ducks or something.” Everyone laughed.
Milo picked up the envelope containing Amanda’s card. The envelope was oddly thick, as though it contained more than just a birthday card. He pulled out the card, which simply said, “because you’re worth it.” Then Milo noticed that something was taped to the inside of the card. It was a pair of event tickets. Weird Al Yanchovich: Strings Attached-VIP Experience P, Danville Arena April 18, 2020. As though from somewhere very distant, Milo heard himself say, “oh my god, Amanda, he’s my favourite-I mean-I just-“ Milo fell into a ringing silence. He had absolutely no idea what say.

 

Episode Twenty

Sara roared with laughter as she took in her brother’s utterly dumbfounded expression. “You’re welcome, little bro,” she said, grinning from ear to ear at him.
Milo came back to himself at once. “This was you,” he asked.
Sara laughed again. “Not completely,” she said, with a glance at Amanda. “We went in on it together.”
“Sara told me what his music means to you,” interjected Amanda.
Milo suddenly felt himself flush slightly. “He taught me to be an optimist,” he said. “I-uhhhh-thanks,”said Milo, “both of you.”
“You’re worth it little bro,” said Sara. At the same moment, Amanda’s phone pinged. That seemed to be the cue for Milo’s party to break up. The kitchen was filled with the babble of voices and the scraping of chairs on the tile floor. Milo walked everyone to the front door.
“Good bye, Milo,”said Cavendish warmly
Dakota clapped him affectionately on the shoulder, “See you around, Murphy.”
“Bye, guys,” said Milo to the two time agents.
“Bye Milo,” said Melissa.
“See you at school, buddy,”said Zack.
Milo waved goodbye to Zack and Melissa, then turned to Amanda. He gave her a warm hug, which she returned. “Thanks for the Weird Al tickets,” he said. “That was totally unexpected.”
“You’re welcome,” said Amanda, “I’m looking forward to going with you.” He let go of her and Amanda walked outside to where her ride was waiting the driveway. Milo stood in the doorway and watched as the car backed out of the driveway and into the road. He shut the front door and walked back to into the kitchen. He shrugged off his backpack and quickly stowed his birthday gifts inside. He slipped his backpack back over his shoulders and bent over to gather up the large pile of wrapping paper that had accumulated around his chair at the kitchen table. He walked it out to the recycling bin in the garage. When he came back into the house, Brigitte was mopping up a puddle of water on the kitchen floor and Martin was crawling soaking wet from under the kitchen sink. The faucet was lying on the counter. It had come off in Martin’s hand when he had tried to turn on the water to rinse a dish.
Martin eyed his son. “So,” he asked casually, apparently heedless of the fact that he was dripping wet, “how long have you and Amanda been a thing?”
Milo looked momentarily confused, then started to say, “we’re not a thing,” but he was interrupted by the sound of Sara coming out of the downstairs bathroom.
“Oh they’ve been a thing since the summer,” she said airily.
“No, we haven’t-,” Milo started to say, then something clicked and he gave his sister a searching look. “You’re trying to set me up, aren’t?”
“No,” insisted Sara, then she said, “well, OK, little bro, maybe a bit.” She chuckled. “You made an impression on her somehow, though. Did you know that she submitted your name for the WIBA Award for Greatest Perseverance?”
“Really?” said Milo, in slight surprise, “how did you find that out?”
Sara shrugged. “She told me. She said that your sheer persistence was what she admires most about you.”
Milo suddenly felt himself growing hot. He had had no idea that Amanda felt that way about him.
Sara laughed. “Face it, Milo,” she said. “You got a girlfriend for your birthday.”
Milo turned to his father, looking confused. “So, what should I do, Dad?”
A look of wistful amusement flickered for a moment across Martin’s face, as he realized that his son was growing up. He remembered when Milo had been born. The doctors had decided not to wait for Brigitte to give birth naturally, and had performed a C-section because Murphy’s Law had kept shorting out the diagnostic equipment in Brigitte’s hospital room. After they had brought Milo home from the hospital a few days later, Martin and Brigitte had had a long talk about what raising a boy born with Extreme Hereditary Murphy’s Law would mean. Martin thought for a second. “Well, Milo, do you like Amanda?”
Milo nodded.”Yeah, I do,”he said at once.
“Well, why don’t you ask her out to lunch and see how that goes,” suggested Martin. “You could take her to the Diner Downtown.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” said Milo. “Thanks, Dad.” Milo hefted his backpack higher onto his shoulders, said good night and walked upstairs to the usual clatter of falling pictures.

 

As Milo walked up stairs, he felt his right foot sink up to above the ankle half way up the stair case. He pulled his foot out and hobbled his way to the top of the stairs. From there, he turned left and walked down the hall past the bathroom and stopped in front of his bedroom door. Milo was about to open the door when he heard a series of metallic clattering noises, followed by a loud thud as his bedroom door fell inward. Milo walked into the room, shrugged off his backpack and bent over. He was in the middle of lifting the door back into position when Martin appeared, framed in the doorway.
“Pins fall out again?” he asked.
“Actually, I think it was the screws this time,” replied Milo. Together, Milo and Martin raised the door upright and maneuvered into the proper position. Martin held the door upright while Milo replaced all the screws. Martin let go of Milo’s door, which swung easily on its hinges. The door knob came off in his hand. He placed it on the low book case next to the door and went out of the room. Milo picked up his backpack from where he had put it down earlier. He opened the flap and began pulling out its contents. He took the sky blue hard hat out of its box and hung it one of the empty coat hooks by the door next to his hazmat suit, fluorescent safety vest and windbreaker. The steel toed safety boots went into his closet next to his hiking boots and the full face filter mask went on the last remaining hook by the door. He left one of the graphic novels, Doctor Zone Unlimited: The Glorpium Gambit, in his backpack to read over lunch tomorrow. He put the others on his bookcase to read later, pinned the Weird Al tickets to his bulletin board and left Doctor Zone On-line next to his computer, before turning to the two sixth scale figures and the Time Beehicle.
Milo sat down at his desk and flicked on the fluorescent light screwed into the underside of his bunk bed. The bulb, which he had only replaced three days ago, flickered once or twice and then went out. Milo pulled open a drawer and extracted a new light bulb and replaced the old one. He flicked the light switch again and the surface of his desk was with bathed in a bright white glow. Milo took the figure of Doctor Hankry Zone out of the metal collectors’ tin. He stood around twenty inches tall and had twenty-five points of articulation. His long flowing tail coat was a deep plum colour and had a slight sheen under the light. The plastic lenses in the Doctor’s googles, around the brim of his top hat, glinted in the light and his chronotronic backpack looked as if it were made of metal. Milo pulled out the plastic tab separating the battery from the contact and pushed the button in the middle of the backpack. A pair of leds began blinking white and blue. Milo turned his attention to the various accessories that had come in the box and whistled in amazement. There were two extra heads, each with a different facial expression, as well as four extra pairs of hands and at least a dozen different gadgets and weapons. Milo took Time Ape and the Time Beehicle out their boxes and sat staring the three extremely detailed models and the dozens of accessories spread all over his desk. He looked around his room, wondering where he could put them and at the same time, feeling as though he should do something nice for Zack, Melissa, Amanda and Sara. They had clearly put a lot of thought into what they thought he might like for his birthday. He decided to put them on his low chest of drawers under the large window overlooking his tree house and the backyard. They would look good there in the morning sunlight, he decided. Milo was still wracking his brain ten minutes later as he pulled off his sweater vest and golf shirt, tossed them into his laundry hamper in the corner and then hung up his body armour. His shorts and socks followed his golf shirt and sweater vest into the hamper. Milo was still thinking as he pulled on an old pair of gym shorts and a faded Doctor Zone T-shirt and climbed into bed.

The next day was cold, cloudy and blustery as Milo and his friends walked to school. The school bus’s brakes had failed just as it had arrived at the intersection where Druid Drive met Waterford Road. As a result, it went skidding through the intersection, barely missing a city bus going in the opposite direction.
“So, Milo,” asked Zack, as the foursome crossed the school parking lot and climbed the steps into the school, “how did you enjoy your birthday yesterday?”
“Oh, it was great Zack,” replied Milo, “those sixth scale figures you got me look fantastic.”
Zack chuckled, “I’m glad you like them,” he said.

Milo seemed to spend the rest of the day something of a fog. His mind was only half on his lessons, but he generally got good grades, so this wasn’t really a problem. When Milo wasn’t thinking about what he could do for his friends in reciprocation for his unexpectedly expensive birthday gifts, he was trying to find a way get a few minutes alone with Amanda to ask her out to lunch. He thought it might just be his imagination, but in the hallway between classes, she suddenly seemed to be constantly surrounded by at least half a dozen other people, including Zack and Melissa and he very much wanted to talk to Amanda alone. He didn’t think that Zack and Melissa would laugh at him, or least if they did, it would be with him, but he wasn’t sure he could work up the nerve to ask her out in front of people he didn’t know, lest Murphy’s Law intervene and embarrass him somehow. The more rational part of his brain told him that he was being ridiculous. Milo knew that Amanda’s perception of him had changed markedly over the past year, particularly after they had competed together on Cake Splosion, earlier that year and had unexpectedly won. He really couldn’t think of a reason why she wouldn’t go out to lunch with him if he asked her, and yet he couldn’t quite shake the small voice in the back of his head telling him that she would probably say no.

 

Episode Twenty-One

As Halloween came and went, October faded into November and Milo began to come down from his birthday high. The chilly wind seemed to carry an extra edge as it blew the last of the Autumn leaves from the trees and sent them skittering down Milo’s driveway and into the gutter in front of his house. The slight breeze, in the pre-dawn gloom, was like a knife on his cheeks as he walked to the bus stop at the end of his street and he had had to exchange his windbreaker for his heavy winter coat and trapper’s hat. The flaps were pulled down over his ears and the cord was knotted tightly under his chin. His signature flip stuck out prominently from under his hat.
When Milo got to the bus stop, he found the other kids huddled together and stamping their feet for warmth. Milo immediately recognized the broad shouldered figure of Mort Schaeffer and went over to say hello. “Hi Mort,” he said, his breath misting in front of him.
“Oh, morning Milo,” said Mort. “I heard it was your birthday last week.”
“Yeah,” said Milo enthusiastically, “thanks for asking. I turned fourteen last week.”
“I’m sorry I missed your invitation,” said Mort with an apologetic shrug, “but we went to state again-.”
Milo waved away the bigger boy’s apology away with a gloved hand. “It’s OK,” he said. “I understand.” Zack played second string fullback on the team and had agonized for three weeks over whether or not he would play in the state championship. As Mort was the Geckos’ starting quarterback, it would have taken an injury for Coach Mitchell to even consider leaving him behind, and Milo knew that Mort would have been crushed if that had happened. He was being actively scouted by the Danville Thunder, even though he was only fourteen and from other conversations that Milo had overheard, several college teams were interested in Mort as well. “So how did we do?” asked Milo.
“We won by three touchdowns,” replied Mort proudly.
“Awesome!” replied Milo, “I bet Coach Mitchell was pretty happy.” This was Coach Mitchell’s fourth state title in six years.
Mort laughed. “Yeah, he was pretty happy.” Mort looked as he had just remembered something. “Oh, seeing as I missed your birthday last week.” He rummaged in his backpack and pulled out something lumpy looking and badly wrapped. He handed it to Milo.
“Ummm…..thanks,” said Milo, taking the belated birthday gift. He began to pull the wrapping paper off and then stopped. He looked at Mort in surprise. “This is your rose quartz,” said Milo, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable . “Mort, I can’t accept this.” He made to hand it back, but Mort gently pushed the large shard of crystal back toward Milo.
“No its OK, Milo,” said Mort, “I was meditating on my second chakra, when my Third Eye told me that you need it more than I do.”
Milo didn’t really know what to say to that beyond, “well….ummm…..thanks.” At that moment the school bus arrived, and pulled smoothly to a stop in front of the bus stop and all the kids piled on board.

When the bus pulled into the school parking lot, Milo found Zack waiting at the top of the steps. “Hi, Zack,” he said.
“Oh, hi Milo,” said Zack. He eyed the large shard of pink crystal still cradled in Milo’s arms. “What are you doing with Mort’s rose quartz?”
Milo shrugged. “He gave it to me.”
Zack’s dark eyebrows went up in surprise. “He gave it to you?”
Milo nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I think he felt bad about missing my birthday last week-,”
“-but we went to state,” interjected Zack, “and we won by three touchdowns.”
Milo gave another casual shrug. “He said that his Third Eye told that I need more that he does.” He turned to follow the last few stragglers inside. Milo stopped and turned when he realized that Zack wasn’t behind him. “Zack?” he asked, half turning to look at his friend. “C’mon, it’s almost first bell. We’ll be late.”
Zack seemed to collect himself at these words. He turned and followed Milo inside out of the cold. “Melissa was supposed to meet me here,” he said. “Its not like her to be late.”
Milo gave Zack a sympathetic look. “I don’t think she’s coming to school today,” he said. “I was trying to Skype with her last night, and she looked awful.” Milo and Melissa had been trying to put their heads together go over their math homework. Melissa had always placed a large proportion of her self worth in maintaining her universally excellent grades. As a result, Melissa generally had a better head for math than Milo did, however, Murphy’s Law had kept crashing Milo’s computer. As a result, they hadn’t gotten very far.
“We should take Melissa her homework,” said Zack as they climbed the stairs to the third floor.
“That’s a good idea,” said Milo as he took off his hat and coat and hung them up in his locker next to his spare change of clothes. He slung his backpack over his shoulders, took out his wallet, pulled out a five dollar bill and put it in the vest pocket of his coat. Milo shut his locker door, replaced the broken lock and turned to go to class.

 

Good job creating a refresher for a story that has lots of events and settings - it helps pull everything together for ongoing readers.

Somehow, I don't think pub trans is for Milo!