Horrid Henry's Zoning Out Problem

Derailing Train of Thought

Horrid Henry was, admittedly, doing anything but actually watching the telly.

He was lost wandering into his own mind, trying to catch his train of thought while he was comfortably curled up on his usual side of the sofa, which by this point has probably engraved his shape in whatever way he was normally sitting in to watch whichever program caught his attention best at the moment.

He thought about many things while the television served as mere background noise, like the fact he was hungry but he wasn't allowed to finish tea for whatever reason, how much of a wormy worm his little brother Peter was, the worrying lack of pocket money as he wanted to buy some more paints to renew some things at the Purple Hand Gang fort, and the sudden silence that he just now realised has settled around him and his best mate, who he almost forgot was right by his side sprawled around the sofa.

He couldn't think about anything to say that would be of interest or that could actually provide some sense of engagement of any kind, so he resumed thinking about whatever else. Like the fact he was also quite mad about a rumour on Gross Class Zero having a chance of being discontinued, even after all those years, because of prissy parents that claimed it was a 'terrible show' and 'nobody even watched it anymore' or whatever, and made it their mission to let the creators know.

Hence, there was a lot going on in the couple of minutes in uncharacteristic silence.

That was until Ralph startled Henry out of his thoughts by nudging him without much warning, of course.

"...nry. Penny for your thoughts?"

"... Huh?" Henry muttered something inaudible to his own ears, as he heard a chuckle right before he tilted his head and actually looked at Ralph.

"You seemed kind of lost there, you good?" Asked the concerned voice of his best friend in a hushed tone, as if his well-being was just their little secret. In a way, it kinda felt like it sometimes.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just thinking..." His best friend gave him a grimace, resulting in a lighthearted kick and an amused eye roll from where Henry was sitting.

Given the way they were spread around the sofa, the kick was right in between being easily delivered and terribly awkward. Both conveniently halfway through facing both each other and the TV, although the way Henry was sitting was the polar opposite to Ralph's. One almost curled up and leaned on the armrest while the other was completely spread through the cushions respectively. The auburn haired boy had to untangle himself from his position, but he found he didn't really mind if it was to tease his best mate.

"Mate, you were thinking so loud I almost couldn't hear the telly anymore." Ralph quipped, ready to burst into laughter. Yet, besides the playfulness in his tone; there was a hint of worry, for there was something admittedly terrifying about the slightly shorter kid being a little too quiet.

Henry merely glared at him with playfulness in his eyes as a response, both laughing at his antics as Ralph tried to scramble away from more potential kicks to his legs.

After what seemed like a few threats of roughhousing, the laughter slowly died down and they settled on a more comfortable silence afterwards, this time being more anticipated than the upsetting, loud silence that was broken in the first place.

Henry swears he had tried to come up with a verbal response that didn't involve lighthearted violence to Ralph's observation, but he was only able to get out of his derailing train of thought empty handed.

He could handpick one of his more reoccurring thoughts, but that was off the table. He would get so mixed up he wouldn't even understand himself. He already whined and complained to death about the stupid rumour of his favourite program being possibly shut down, and how braindead the people actually making that decision should be. Even if it was just a rumour, it was incredibly distasteful. C'mon, even his bloody parents agreed with him! For God's sake!