December 31, 2005

"Well, Platoon, anyone have any ideas for invasion?" Keroro asked. He and all the others (Except Giroro and Dororo for obvious reasons) couldn't believe they were on Pekopon for almost 2 whole years, and they had not made one smudge of progress!

Everyone shook their heads, as usual. "Oh, come on! Does anyone have any ideas? Anyone at all?"

Still nothing. Suddenly, Mois stood up. "Oji-sama! I have an idea!"

Keroro's eyes gleamed, like the way they did when he's excited. "Yes, Mois-dono?"

She pulled out her cell phone and became her Angolian form. "I could use the Lucifer Spear not to destroy Pekopon, but damage it. Then everyone would be weakened. You could say an easy invasion?"

"Mois-dono...that...is...AMAZING!!!" This is it! he thought. This is...

"No way!"

They all turned to see a familiar blue frog. "You will NOT kill all of these beautiful-"

"Oh, Dororo, I didn't know you were here!" Keroro exclaimed.

"You're too mean, Keroro-kun! I've been here for 3 whole hours!" He went into his "trauma switch" pose.

Everyone facepalmed. "Well, meeting dismissed, I guess," Keroro said, his heart sinking with each word. "We'll...discuss it tomorrow."

Natalia was running out of her room, her carrot-red hair trailing behind her in the pigtails she wore. The 14-year-old was rushing to her brother's room, muttering to herself, "We're so late!"

She went to wake up her "baby brother," Freddie. He had black hair, like their mother, Ari. He was 13, but he was a lot more dependent than other kids his age, mostly because he couldn't walk. He used a wheelchair. He was paralyzed from the waist down when he was a baby in the car crash that took their dad's life.

"Freddie? Fredrick Hanta, wake up! We're going to the Nashua house for the New Year's party in a half hour!"

"Okay, okay." He pulled himself into a sitting position, so he was slumping over the back of his bed. He held his arms out, and Natalia understood. This was their morning routine. She pulled his wheelchair out from its place in the corner of the room and wheeled it to where he could reach it. He picked out a pair of jeans, and a "Homework Kills Trees: Stop the Madness!" sweatshirt to wear, and Natalia walked out of the room. She herself picked out a pair of jeans with a hole in one knee, and a long-sleeved t-shirt that said, "Hollywood or Bust!" on it.

She tugged it on, and adjusted her wig to make sure it was in place. Right before she went out of her room, she had a strange tingle in her stomach, like she expected something exciting to happen that day. She just shrugged it off, and then went downstairs to grab herself a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast.