I prefer the term "proactive."

       ❛ do i LOOK like as if i were made of metal? ❜ whatever this was—          it certainly had a decent grip on his actions. thoughts racing through          his mind, he begins to go over the possibilities. there was no way it          could be his negative counterpart — —- he wouldn’t of been able          to hold this act for so long without messing up. not to mention they          had closed the portal between their worlds for good. so this had to          be something else…

     “I know what you’re doing,” he shot back, reaching into his         back pocket.  “You’re trying to wear me down so I’ll give up         and stop trying to get to the bottom of this. But if they wanted         to build another Nigel Uno, they should have remembered that         he doesn’t know how to give up!”

“How do I know this ain´t a trick? I´ve been around the other Nigel way too long and quite honestly, ya seem really tricky kid.”

    “Tricky? Abby, it’s me!” He couldn’t help but use her name. Abby      not trusting him felt wrong on a fundamental level--they needed       each other, always stood by each other, and now he had to compete      with some kind of enemy for her trust?                                  This really was a nightmare. 

“HE--I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT.”

UNO.

      Solidarity, my fellow kid. The fight against the adults’ broccoli agenda is a long and hard one. It inspires me to hear that you’re taking initiative, so well done for getting this far. But from the sounds of things, you have been compromised for now. Your only choice is to change gears. 

     If you’d like to shift the blame onto the dog, I would recommend putting other objects in this discovered hiding spot. You know, like, dog stuff. This spot can now become your decoy. Suppliment it with small bits of broccoli every once in a while to keep things consistent, and in the meantime, shift the majority of your actual stash to another spot more out of reach of adults’ prying eyes.

      With that, Kent’s affected smile fell. So it was going       to be like that? Granted, Kent tended to “be like that”       anyways, so it wasn’t like he was adverse to bitterness.       He had just hoped that the time spent in isolation from       one another would have… Smoothed over any ill will.

"You know, I've done some reading since I saw you last.  About the way this country is run. And in 4 years or so I'll be voting. I hope you know that this ridiculous enabling of outdated Republican values isn't going to last another generation. Young people know about the mistakes you've made."