New Place, New Feelings | Horrid Henry x Rude Ralph

[1] The Life Of A Horrid Boy

"Henry, it's time for breakfast!" shouted a blonde woman from the bottom of the staircase. Her brown-haired son groaned and rolled over in his bed.

"Five more minutes," he slurred, barely awake.

"No Henry, NOW!" his mother replied. Henry let out another groan as he swung his feet off the side of the bed.

"Coming!" he yelled back, a clear tone of annoyance in his voice. His mother simply sighed.

"That horrid boy..."

As Henry exited his room, he noticed a young boy coming up the stairs. He shared their mother's hair colour. "Sup, worm?" he greeted his younger brother. He and Peter used to hate eachother, but when Peter realised how unfairly their parents treated Henry, they started to become closer. 'Worm' was more of a friendly nickname now.

"Hi Henry," Peter replied with an enthusiastic smile, making his way into his own bedroom to get dressed. Henry nodded in his direction before making his way downstairs.

"Come on Henry, or you're going to be late for school," his father remarked just as Henry's foot hit the bottom step.

"I am coming!" Henry responded rather loudly, earning him his usual 'Don't be horrid, Henry!'. He hated that sentence.

Henry sat down in the kitchen and, as if on cue, his mother placed a bowl of cereal in front of him. He considered saying thank you, but he was already agitated so he stayed quiet and began to eat. "Why can't you be more like your brother, Henry?" his mother asked.

"What are you talking about?" her son responded, his mouth full of cereal. He knew exactly what she was talking about though.

"Peter always uses his manners, wakes up early, and never misbehaves. Why can't you be like that? Why do you have to be so horrid?!" Henry shrugged in response, but a part of him knew the answer. They would never pay attention to him if he was good. They clearly preferred Peter, and the only way he could get them to notice him was to be as horrid as possible. It's not like they would care about him anyway, whether he was horrid or not.

Henry finished his cereal as quickly as possible, just so he could get out of that room. Then he ran upstairs to get dressed.

"Henry, clean up after yourself!" Henry rolled his eyes, ignoring the yell from downstairs. He knew that his mother would clean it anyway, it was like a rhetorical question. Well, a rhetorical command. He finished getting changed and picked up his bag before making his way to Peter's bedroom door.

"Are you ready yet, worm?" he asked impatiently. The door quickly opened.

"Yes Henry!" Peter smiled at his older brother and they both went downstairs. "Bye Mum, bye Dad!" Peter said, quickly hugging his parents. Henry stayed quiet until they were both outside. Ashton Secondary School was only down the street from Ashton Primary, since they were partnered, meaning that Henry and Peter could still walk to school together.

"So, what happened to Best Boys?" Henry asked Peter as he shut the door, remembering that Peter had mentioned something about it the day before.

"Oh yes, I forgot to tell you didn't I? Well, me and Ted started arguing. He said that I'm too bossy to run the club! So then it just kind of... broke apart." Peter looked up at Henry once he had finished his story. Henry smirked slightly.

"I didn't know that smelly nappy babies knew how to argue!" he joked.

"Shut up!" Peter responded, laughing. Henry was about to reply when he heard a shout behind them.

"Hey Henry, wait up!"

Henry turned his head to see his best friend running towards them. "Ralph!" he exclaimed happily, sharing a high-five with him as they met.

"I told you to wait for me!" Ralph said, slightly annoyed.

"You did?" Henry asked, unable to remember Ralph telling him that.

"Er yeah, didn't you check your phone?" Ralph replied. Henry reached into his pocket, only to find that it was empty.

"Damn it, I must have left my phone at home!" Henry mumbled. "Better hope Mum doesn't call, or she'll kill me..."

"What, for forgetting your phone?" Ralph asked.

"Yeah, you know what she's like. If I don't answer a text or a phone call off her she gets really angry - and then she takes my phone off me anyway! It's not fair," Henry muttered the last sentence quietly, but both Ralph and Peter still heard it.

"Mum and Dad are too harsh on Henry," Peter said, looking at Ralph. "They always shout at him, even when it's not his fault!" Ralph nodded in agreement.

A small smile grew on Henry's face. "Hey, remember that time you turned horrid for the day?"

Peter nodded with a small giggle.

"You even replaced Great Aunt Greta's chocolates with slugs! I was kind of impressed actually..."

"No, there's no way you did that!" Ralph exclaimed, looking at Peter in disbelief. The trio laughed together - even Peter himself was still surprised that he had brought himself to pull such a horrid prank.

Soon enough, the group reached Ashton Primary. "Do you want to walk home together Henry?" Peter asked. Henry thought for a moment.

"Can't promise anything, I might get a detention today," Henry replied with a smirk. Peter giggled.

"Well I'll wait for a while, and if you don't show up I'll go home," Peter decided, still smiling. Henry nodded, patting him on the shoulder.

"See you later, worm!" he said. He continued to walk with Ralph, who pulled out a pack of bubblegum.

"Want some?" Ralph asked, holding the gum out towards his best friend.

"Yeah!" Henry exclaimed, taking a piece and popping it into his mouth. "Thanks Ralph!" The two friends smiled at each other. Ralph was one of the only people who Henry was genuinely nice to, though Peter was starting to become one of those people. Apart from those two, the only people Henry actually enjoyed talking to were the other members of the Purple Hand Gang. Nobody else really liked him all that much.

The pair quickly reached the gates of Ashton Secondary School, and were about to enter when Henry was knocked to the ground.

"Oops, sorry!" Clumsy Cassidy said as she pulled herself up off the ground.

"Yuck, a girl!" Henry exclaimed, jumping up and vigorously brushing himself off. Cassidy rolled her eyes and attempted to walk into the school, but instead walked straight into the glass door.

"Ow!"

Henry laughed at the girl's misfortune, but he quickly stopped when he noticed Ralph wasn't laughing like he usually would. "Er, Ralph, are you okay?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Are you always going to think that girls are gross, Henry?" Ralph asked. Henry looked confused.

"Well, yeah, I suppose. Girls are gross," Henry replied, a disgusted look on his face. It quickly changed back to a look of confusion. "Why are you asking that, anyway?"

"Oh, er, no reason, just wondering," Ralph answered, looking towards the ground awkwardly.

"Er, okay then," Henry brushed off the conversation with a shrug. "Well, are we going inside then?"

"Oh, right!" Ralph exclaimed,  his face slightly red as he and Henry made their way into the building. One question flooded Henry's mind.

What is going on with Rude Ralph?!