“Remember to breathe,” Bumblebee had reminded her. Though it seemed like such an easy thing to do, one time Ivy had been so nervous she had forgotten how to inhale and exhale and had almost fallen over.
“My treat,” Ivy sang as they sat at a window table. Nearby, some students from their rival school, CAD Academy, were playing checkers. Only, instead of using the checkerboard, they were throwing the pieces at each other.
“Two teas, one with extra honey for Bumblebee, please,” Ivy said to Steve Trevor.
His lanky frame hunched over a bit as he reached for the pencil that was tucked behind his ear to write the order down. Steve looked at Bumblebee. “You’re not gonna want to hear this,” he said, “but we’re low on honey.”
Bumblebee blinked in disbelief. “Low on honey? How can that be? Did someone forget to order it?”
Steve ran his hands through his thick blond hair. “Nope, we have a standing order for honey,” he said, adding, “I know you always want extra on everything. But our supplier said that with the honey supply decreasing, the price has skyrocketed, and I’ve decided it’s too pricey for us. I’m sorry, Bumblebee.”
Bumblebee squelched the urge to panic. Her brains and dedication and ideas fueled her, and her super suit gave her powers, but honey sure did help, too! Didn’t Beast Boy once quip, “A Bumblebee without honey is one bummed-out bee”?
“Okay,” she said dejectedly, “then just tea, and how about some orange scones?”
Steve hesitated. “How about plain scones?” he asked. “Oranges…”
“Let me guess,” Ivy said. “Oranges are getting scarce, too?”
“And strawberries, and other fresh fruits and vegetables.” He shook his head. “It’s the strangest thing, but some farms have them and others don’t.”
It was very bizarre. Bumblebee had the feeling she was going to need to look into it.
“Could it be the weather?” Bumblebee wondered out loud as she bit into her wedge-shaped scone. It had a sweet sugar glaze on it, but orange would have been nice—and to dip it in honey would have been heavenly. She noted that her Darjeeling tea tasted a bit toasty without her usual honey, but the brown sugar cubes Steve put on the table helped.
“I haven’t heard of any bad weather affecting crops,” Poison Ivy noted. She was trying to eat her scone with a fork and knife, and it kept crumbling.
“Hey, hey, hay is for horses!” a green horse said as it trotted to their table. Beast Boy turned back into a teen and sat down with them. “What are we talking about?” he asked. When he reached for Bumblebee’s scone, she picked it up before he could get it.
“There’s a shortage of honey,” she said.
“And lots of fruits and veggies,” Ivy added.
“Honey I can live without!” Beast Boy cried overdramatically, giving Bumblebee a wink. “But fruit and veggies I gotta have!” Then he continued in a normal voice. “Hey, BB, when are we gonna work on that tornado project?”
Bumblebee looked surprised. Since when did Beast Boy want to work on anything? “Tonight?” she said. “After dinner.”
“You got it!” he said, morphing back into a horse and trotting away.
Bumblebee returned to her tea and scone. “That was weird,” she noted. “I thought he was just a goof-off. He never pays attention in class.”
“Give them a chance and people can surprise you,” said Poison Ivy.
Later that afternoon, when Bumblebee called her parents, she asked them why it was taking so long to rebuild the house…and her lab.
“It’s the perfect time to make some changes I’ve always wanted to do,” Ms. Andrena-Beecher explained. “Like skylights. They’ll let more sunshine in.”
“How are you doing?” her father asked.
“Things are okay,” Bumblebee said. Knowing how much her parents worried about her, she wasn’t about to mention that her battery pack seemed to be losing more and more power each day. Recharging it seemed to be a full-time job. She was hardly flying at all, much less shrinking, and she didn’t dare try to use her sonic blasters.
“Although…,” she said.
“Although what?” her mother quickly asked. It was amazing how tuned in to things moms were.
“Although,” Bumblebee continued, “there is some sort of shortage of honey and produce.”
“I’ve noticed that, too,” her dad said. She knew how much he liked his apple a day. “Better stock up while you can!”
Bumblebee nodded. That wasn’t a bad idea, and if she was going to have Beast Boy as a study partner, she’d sure need honey to help get her through the ordeal!
That evening, before meeting up with Beast Boy, Bumblebee opened her closet door. On a shelf were jars of honey—some she had bought, some were gifts from the Honey Bees, and others were from friends and family. There was one jar that had a photo of her parents on it. They had given it to her as a joke. The label read ICE—IN CASE OF EMERGENCY!
In the photo, her mom and dad were making funny faces. This gave Bumblebee a tiny pang in her stomach. Unlike a lot of the other Supers, she got homesick from time to time. Bumblebee counted how many jars she had, then did the math to figure out how much she should ration. What if the honey shortage went on for weeks? Was that even possible?
She opened a jar from the Honey Bees. This one was from the group in Yunnan, China. Just a taste, Bumblebee thought. Just a little.
That night, after a moderately successful meeting with Beast Boy, Bumblebee made sure her super suit was plugged into the charger. Feeling guilty, she glanced over at the empty jar of honey. Bumblebee hadn’t meant to eat the whole thing, but…well, it was honey…and it was soooo delicious.
This shortage better be over soon, Bumblebee told herself. It had to be, or else at this rate, her stockpile would disappear in no time—and how would she ever get through Super Hero High without it?