"How was I supposed to know? I have no way of testing these things!"

Carl stood beside a very upset-looking Zachary as he tried to reason with him. "Besides," he continued, "the box itself actually worked fine. I was only ninety-nine percent sure it wouldn't explode."

Zachary slammed his locker door shut and stared down his friend.

"It might as well have. The force of the harpoon shooting out that fast flung me straight into the ground backwards. You have no clue how much it hurt! Would you like me to show you?"

"N-n-no!" Carl stepped backwards into the busy school hallway, bumping into two students before he managed to step back forward and regain his balance. He fixed his crooked glasses and sighed. "Did you at least hit whatever your target was?" Zachary cringed as he remembered the deafening crack of solid wood splitting as he was falling.

"Yes, I did. But higher up than I aimed because I was... y'know, being flung backwards?" Carl sighed again.

"Not going to focus on the positive here? You hit your target first try. That's impressive. Although, we'll have to find a way to secure it to your back better so aim is more consistent." Zachary laughed and rolled his eyes as he picked up his backpack.

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to be trying that again. Besides, I had to explain to my family that the sound that woke them was me falling down the stairs as I went outside for fresh air. I won't get away with that again. And I couldn't get the harpoon out of the tree, so no."

"Zachary, please! I know how to keep you from getting flung and I already re-designed something last night that will take care of the noise issue and the harpoon issue. Just give it one more chance?" Zachary looked at Carl's pleading eyes. Could he really trust this guy with his safety? Then again, he really wanted to know if Carl could get a man to fly safely...

"..one, and I mean one, more chance. But you test everything from now on. And I will not be breaking any more fingers." Carl grinned.

"I promise!" Zachary set down his backpack.

"Shake on it?"

The pair shook hands and started towards their first-period classes. But Zachary, tired and distracted, walked off without his backpack. Carl called after him.

"Zach! Backpack!" Zachary pushed his way through the flow of people.

"Thanks. Sorry, I'm out of it today." He looked at his friend quizzically. "Carl, why are you smiling?"

"Zach. Back. Pack."

"Carl..?"

"Zach. Backpack."

"Carl..."

"Backpack... Zachpack!"

"Carl!"

"That's it! That's what I'm gonna call it from now on! The Zachpack!"

"Call what- oh no! The harpoon box?"

"Yeah! Except, to make it look cool, I'm gonna spell 'pack' without the 'c' and with a capital 'P', so it's like... superheroey! The ZachPak!"

Zach blinked and stared at his strange friend.

"Yeah, no. I wasn't prepared for this today. I'm regretting things now." He turned and walked away (with his backpack this time) towards his class as Carl laughed.

***

Once again, the putrid smell of manure hit Zachary as he approached his house. Destiny, who was dragging a hose towards a hole in the ground called to him.

"Hey, you ready to start working on that fence today?"

"Sure! Just let me put my stuff inside the house!" He shifted his course towards her as his curiousity took over. "What are you doing?" Reaching the hole, Destiny dropped the hose and rolled up her sleeves.

"Well, this here is your secondary water tank. Your well pumps water up to a primary tank over there and the water is gravity-fed through pipes into this tank and then to your house. But the pipe between the two tanks is clogged, it seems, so I'm using this hose to bring water down here." Zachary peered into the hole.

"Wow. Looks... empty."

"Yeah. It'll take a while to fill. Your house is completely out of water right now though, so as this fills, you'll really have to lower your water usage. And try not to turn on anything until I get water flowing, alright. We don't want air in the pipes."

"Gotcha..."

Desriny chuckled. She could tell how foreign all these things were to him. Must have been quite the difference in lifestyles, moving from Los Angeles to Rundstic. She wondered what life in the big city was like as he wondered how people made these water systems.

"Alright, that's enough for now, Zachary. Go drop off your books so we can start on the fence." He stopped staring down and looked at her for a moment with a guilty face.

"What? What is it?"

"Destiny..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm thirsty now."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Let me finish this and you'll get your drink soon! Just wait like ten minutes, okay? Now, go put your stuff away and get ready to build a fence!"

"Yes ma'am!" He hurried off, with thoughts of water taunting his mind.