"He's a Shapeshifter," Elliot said.
"And what does he really look like?"
Elliot shrugged. "Whatever he wants."
Cami looked from Elliot to Harold and back to Elliot, and with each turn of her head, her face got redder and redder.
"Are you mad?" Elliot asked. Was it really such a big deal if a Shapeshifter had pretended to be him for a few days? So what if the only reason he and Cami were sort of friends was because Harold had been so nice to her during that time? He really didn't see what the problem was.
Cami poked Elliot in the chest. "I decided to be friends with you because you were so nice when we did the science experiment together. But that wasn't you being nice. It was him. Which means you never wanted to be my friend in the first place!"
Elliot wanted to tell her she was wrong about all of that, but she wasn't. It had never been his idea to be Cami's friend. However, now that she was, he didn't mind it so much. In fact, sometimes her friendship wasn't awful at all.
Then she turned to Harold. "Why do you keep saying I'm the love of your life?"
He smiled shyly. "Because you are the most wonderful human I've ever known. The most beautiful, the kindest, and with a voice that melts my heart."
Elliot couldn't stop himself. He gagged.
Cami's face scrunched up. "Get out!" she said to Elliot.
Elliot backed up a step. "It's my room!"
"I don't care. Get out!" Turning to Harold, she added, "If you really liked me, then you wouldn't have lied about who you are! You get out too!"
She backed both Elliot and Harold out of his room, then slammed the door on them. The door even flattened Harold's nose for a second before it popped back into place.
"Quiet up there!" Wendy hissed from downstairs. "Reed's asleep."
Harold turned to Elliot, his eyes wide. "The love of my life yelled at me."
"I guess we probably deserved it," Elliot said. "I never thought of how she'd feel about you pretending to be me."
Then Harold smiled. "Hey, I just realized that was our first fight. One day she and I will look back on this moment and laugh about it all."
Elliot rolled his eyes, then cracked open the door to his room. Cami still stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and eyebrows pressed low. Before she could speak, he said, "We're both sorry about what we did. And it's okay if you don't want to forgive us yet, but we really need your help."
"How?"
"Do you still have the paper-mache doll of me from when we played Capture the Flag this morning?"
"You made fun of it."
"I know. I'm sorry about that too. But I need it now."
"I already took the doll home."
"Can you go get it? And then maybe bring it to the same place in the woods where you had it this morning?" She hesitated, and he added, "You don't have to do this for me, or for Harold, but would you do it for the human race?"
Slowly, Cami nodded. "I'll do it for the human race, minus you two."
Harold smiled. "Actually, I'm not part of the human race. I'm just in that form right now."
Cami's face reddened again, but Elliot took another step forward and said, "No, that's good. Stop talking, Harold." Then he called, "Patches! I need some turnip juice." While he waited for her to come, he asked, "Are the twins home now?"
"They got home about ten minutes ago," Cami said. "Wendy's feeding them some dinner. She offered me some too, but I'm not sure it was food."
Whatever it was, as long as it could be eaten, it sounded good to Elliot. But he didn't have time to eat now.