The group was hanging out in the attic. Zoey was sprawled on one of the beds, engrossed in the tragedy of Jack and Rose. Anja was on the other bed in her sleeping bag, intently reading a copy of Vogue magazine, glasses perched lightly on the bridge of her nose. Dachia and Natalya were in the kitchen, munching on cake crumbs and mixing odd combinations of soda in huge Mickey Mouse glasses.

"Hey you guys, listen to this!" Anja said, giggling, as she pushed a blonde piece of hair out of her eyes and began to read from the magazine, "My boss and I did . . . Mmmnmm . . ." she looked up to make sure everyone knew what she was talking about, and then tried to continue, "And now I don't know . . ." she was interrupted by a fit of giggles from the kitchen.

"They did what, Anj?" Dachia asked, laughing out loud.

This was soon forgotten, though, because Apple chat was loaded and Natalya and Dachia moved into the living room to chat. They logged on using Natalya's screen name, Glitterdoll64, and went into the Bored Room.

That night they had time to get into a fight with girls named Malietbabe and MorbidJane over Marylin Manson, and to flirt with a guy named James and three guys from Canada named Scott, Jeff, and Sam before HQ called. Lavender materialized on the computer screen with a beep and Anja and Zoey moved behind Dachia and Natalya.

"I hope you girls will be ready to come to HQ in the morning. A car will be there to drive you to the airport at 8:00 . . ."

"8:00!" Anja whined, and everyone groaned. Anja was a bear in the morning, especially that early.

"Yes, 8:00, so try not to stay up too late." Lavender smiled and was gone.

The next morning everyone got up early because they all knew it would take Anja several hours to get ready. When they were all awake they showered and got dressed. The oven was off, the cat was fed, and it was time to go. Natalya pulled on her cousin Michael Samuelle's leather jacket, while the others froze as they waited outside in freezing NYC until the black jeep pulled around the corner and all four of them piled in.

"So Joey, someone must have been an awful bad boy to be stuck driving the us to the airport." Natalya smiled, as she leaned forward and slipped Aqua into tape player. It started on "Barbie Girl" and Zoey and Natalya began to sing along.

And this was how the ride went, Zoey and Natalya singing to whatever came on the radio, Anja happily eating her PB&J, squealing with joy every so often, and Dachia reading the "Say Anything"'s from the Seventeen she'd brought along.

When they reached the airport Joe practically pushed them out of the jeep, quickly helping them with their bags and then driving away in a cloud of dust.

"Well that was rude." Zoey huffed as she struggled to haul her suitcase into the terminal.

They checked their bags and made sure their plane was on time, then went to go sit in a bar and wait for their flight. Dachia watched the planes come in while she snapped her gum, Anja checked her email, STILL grumpy, Natalya played with her gameboy, and Zoey rated the boys as they passed.

When they finally got on the plane they ordered more drinks and checked out the guys sitting in front of them. Natalya and Zoey ran several reconnaissance missions to the back of the plane, but found no other potentials. Dachia worked on some serious looks at the guys, but to no avail. Discouraged, the girls gossiped amongst themselves until they reached their destination.

When they reached the airport the sun was still shining and they had to give their watches to Anja to set back several hours.

Natalya's bubblegum pink convertible named Pinky was waiting outside the airport. After a quick change into shorts and bikini tops, they were on the open road. It was a forty-five minute drive to HQ. Natalya slipped in another of her tapes. This one was mixed, and included:Janet and Shaggy(Love me), New Kids on the Block (Angel), Ricky Martin (The Cup of Life and Perdido Sin Ti), BSB (Larger Than Life and Hey Mr. DJ (keep playin' this song)) and Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit).

The smell of orange blossoms, salt, and tanning oil permeated the air. Whenever they passed a boy Natalya would lean over the door and scream,

"God damn, what a fine, fine hottie!!" and make everyone look up. Then Anja would turn her head for a minute and give Natalya a look over her huge cat-eye sunglasses, then check her rear-view mirror and continue to drive.

They decided to stop at the beach and remedy their pasty skin. After a few hours they were good and tan, so they grabbed slushies and continued to HQ.

"Boy, will Lavender be pissed or what?" Zoey said from the back seat, as she pulled her light brown hair into a pony-tail, and secured it with a borrowed elastic.

"Oh well." Dachia sighed, rolling her dark eyes, "At least we got tan!" they all smiled.

When they reached HQ they all put on sandals, flip-flops, or sneakers, and pulled tee-shirts, tank-tops, or dresses over their bikinis. Zoey and Anja stopped to smell the roses outside, then they all entered HQ. The group received smiles from all the ops as they walked down the corridor. Birkoff came up and hugged Natalya, then kissed her and pulled her away from the group. She waved and smiled at the girls as she headed for her and Birkoff's room. Boy, was it good to be home.

Later that night, after Birkoff and Natalya had "caught up", and Dachia and Zoey had hung out with their main squeezes (Evyn Stone and Miguel Gianoche) for a while, they decided to head for the mall.

When they reached the mall, they split up into groups. Natalya, Anja, and Birkoff headed in the direction of the food court for pizza and DQ Oreo blizzards, while Zoey and Dachia headed off towards the Gap to check out the sale on vests. They all had intentions of meeting at the movie theater. After the groups had hit the food court and the Gap, each group split again into smaller groups until each person was alone and wandering.

When they met at the movie theater they sat as they always did, in the very first row in this order(from left to right):Anja, Zoey, Dachia, Birkoff, Natalya.

The theater was packed. They sat and talked loudly in the dimly lit room, throwing M&M's and Dots at each other. Natalya looked over and there was a boy looking at them.

"Um, yeah?" Dachia asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Are you guys gonna talk through the WHOLE movie?" was the reply. Suddenly the boys two friends came and sat down next to them. They were forgotten until Dachia was hit in the head with a gummi worm.

"Okay!!! Who threw that?" she asked, leaning over Natalya and Birkoff.

"Steve threw it!" came the reply from the boy who was there before and his little friend who just sat down as they pointed at the older boy.

"I was aiming at my sister!" was the reply.

"We call his sister Roadkill cuz she's so damn ugly!!" said the littlest one, and all three boys nodded. Natalya laughed.

"Whatever. Give me a gummi worm." Dachia demanded, holding out a handful of Skittles in a trade. Steve gave her three gummi worms.

"Hey, Steve's pretty cool. How old are you Steve?"

"He's nine." the little one answered again.

"Hey Roadkill!" Natalya called to the girls sitting behind them.

"Which one of you's Roadkill?" Dachia asked. One of the girls pointed at another and said:

"She is!!"

"Shut up, bitch!" the little one yelled. Natalya and Dachia laughed again.

"Hey Anj, this one talks like he's on South Park! I don't think he even knows what he's saying!"

"Girls, don't fight with the other children." Suddenly, there was a commotion next to them as the little one and Steve switched places so Steve was sitting next to Natalya. She leaned over Birkoff and whispered in Dach's ear,

"Hey, I think Steve's coming on to me!"

Once the movie had started (it was Star Wars: Episode One. Anja and Natalya had seen it at least twelve times before), they all somewhat quieted down, but every once in a while would giggle about the hotness of Obi-Wan.

Natalya looked over in time to see a gummi worm fly up and stick to Anakin Skywalker's forehead. She stifled a giggle. The next person to get hit in the head with a wet gummi worm was Natalya. And she was pissed.

"Ewwww!!!!!!" she screamed, as she threw it back at the little one and wiped her hand on Steve's leg. He looked up at her in amazement. Suddenly from the darkness there was a voice,

"You guys!! I'm trying to watch the movie !!!" they all looked at Anja, then burst out giggling. They could SEE her turning pink!

After the movie, the lights came on and they headed for the car. After a quick pit stop at the 7-11 for sodas, chips, oreos, and other assorted un-healthy snack foods, they where back on the highway, headed for HQ.

All was quiet in the car for a long time, then Natalya began to sing, softly at first and gaining in volume:

"Sombody once asked could I spare some change for gas,"

Dachia was the next to join in:

"I need to get myself away from this place,"

Then Birkoff and Zoey:

"I said yep, what a concept, I could use a little fuel myself,"

And finally Anja:

"And we could all use a little, CHANGE!!!"

Then all together:

"Hey now, you're an All Star, get your game on, go play, hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid, and all that glitters is gold, only shootin' stars, break the mold . . ."

When they returned they all went their seperate ways, Natalya towards level 6 to see her cousin, Anja to see Madeline, Birkoff back to comm, his vacation time for the year was all used up, Dachia towards her room and Zoey to the sub-basement. But tomorrow would be another day.