"C'mon Tori, mum wants you up for breakfast. You've slept in for forever" said an annoyed fourteen year old, shaking the shoulders of his small sister.
"Mmph" replied the bundle of arms, legs, hair and blankets.
"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you." The dark haired boy left the room, yawning once.
Victoria, normally called Tori, was a small, eight-nearly-nine girl. In her mind, getting up was the hardest thing of the morning. Though she had no reason to complain. It was the Christmas holidays, she had been able to sleep in until eight thirty (a minute afterwards was deemed wrong by their mother) and best of all, she had graduated from Cadets Next Door, the training camp for Kids Next Door, an organisation dedicated to stopping adult tyranny. Today there was going to be a big meeting for all the operatives of Kids Next Door. It only happened every five years, and was always different, so everyone was interested in what would happen this time. Victoria was especially excited, since after the meeting she would get to go to her sectors treehouse, and pick a room from any of the spares that were there. Then she would be free to decorate that room however she wanted. She'd also be able to talk with her new sector. She had met them before, but only for a couple of minutes after the graduation ceremony.
After laying in bed for another minute, making sure she was properly awake, Tori got up and staggered downstairs for breakfast. The meeting was not until that afternoon, which gave her plenty of time to prepare.
"Good morning Victoria!" Her mother said cheerfully from her office, where she worked for most of the day, working on her many, many projects.
"Morning" The small girl replied, rubbing her eyes.
Victoria Lee Johnson was the youngest of three siblings, with two older brothers, Declan and Wade. The first was fourteen, the second nineteen. As Victoria got a box of cereal and a bowl from the pantry, the former strolled into the room, dressed in a tshirt and shorts, with thongs on his feet.
"I'm going to go to Jason's house, alright?" Declan said, before walking towards the door.
"Be back by noon!" Their mother yelled from her office.
"Whatever" and Declan was gone.
This left Victoria, for the most part, alone. Her mother spent a lot of time in her office, and her older brother Wade was off travelling with his friends after graduating school. Her father worked in the mines up north, with a frequently changing schedule. Sometimes he was home for a week, then at work for a week. Sometimes he was at work for a week, and home three days. Right now it was home five days, work six days. He would be back only a few days from now.
After some Rainbow Munchies, Victoria went back upstairs to get dressed. She wore her favourite dress, a pretty baby blue colour, with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath. She took extra time making sure there weren't any noticeable stains. She didn't want to look dirty when she went up to Moonbase. She carefully brushed her hair, checking for any knots, before doing it up in a side ponytail. Satisfied that she looked okay, she turned to her Fashion Fun Rainbow Monkey.
"Will the others like it?" She said. The monkey didn't respond, but Victoria nodded her head.
"You're right, I can't have my hair too neat, or they'll think my mum did it."
She carefully took out two hair clips, letting her bangs fall across her cheeks like they usually did.
"Is that better?" There was a pause as the rainbow monkey looked over Victoria.
"Thank you Fashion Fun Rainbow Monkey!" Victoria shouted, hugging the pink monkey.
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Angelie Smith bounded out of bed, accidentally awaking her brother, Kaji. The two children shared a room, and poor Kaji was often woken by his sisters energy.
Though her parents could explain it, they called it the Angelie Effect, in that the second she woke up, which was always early, she either had too much energy, or so little that she didn't want to get up. For a few months it was one, then it was the other.
Kaji meanwhile, did not have the Angelie Effect, and was always too tired to get out if bed for at least five minutes, and as he groaned and rolled over in his blankets, The quick moving blonde girl got dressed with black leggings and a blue-green dress. She finished off her outfit with a black headband, before bounding into the kitchen. She had to be ready super quick, otherwise she might be late for the special Kids Next Door meeting! She would be decommissioned by the time the next one rolled around, so she couldn't miss this one. As an added bonus, she would get to talk more with the new girl in her sector. The last time they had met, Angelie had decided she liked her and had spent an hour after she got back him from the Arctic base going over all the rooms in the treehouse, picking out the ones she thought Numbuh 110 would like. Her teammates had not failed to notice she had picked ones close to her own room. But she didn't mind. She secretly hoped Numbuh 110 would pick the room right next to hers. She imagined all the things they would do together as she ran down the stairs.
Just as she did so, her brother rolled off his bed.
Inside the kitchen, Angelie's father was making toast for himself.
"Hi Dad!" She said, rummaging around in the pantry.
"No Rainbow Monkey cereal for you young lady!" Her father said in response, for though his back was turned, he knew exactly what the excitable ten year old was looking for.
"But Daaaad, you let Kaji have it without having the tablets!" She complained, putting on her best puppy dog eyes.
"Yes, because he doesn't bounce off the walls every time he takes a bite!" Riley Smith said, laughing.
"That's not my fault!"
"You can control it, you just have to try!"
Angelie had been diagnosed with some polar disorder or something a few months ago. Before that she'd been told she had some attention disorder as well. She wasn't sure if she still had that or not. There were a lot of fancy science words Angelie hadn't bothered to listen to. But what she understood was that sometimes she would be very happy and crazy for a while, then she would switch to very sad, or very angry. There were lots of verys. So she had to take a series of tablets each day to stop her from switching so much. Angelie had come to associate it with why she wasn't allowed to do things other could. She did not enjoy the tablets, and many times had been forced to sit at the table until she had them.
"But the tablets are gross!" Angelie complained.
"But if you have them, you'd be able to have Rainbow monkey cereal!"
"I don't want the tablets! But I still want rainbow munchies!"
"Fine then, don't have rainbow monkey cereal!" Riley said, still chuckling.
Angelie frowned and pursed her lips, weighing the options. Her father watched, amused. This scene played out most mornings, and every time the answer was the same.
"Okay, I'll have the stupid tablets. But can you mash them into my water again?"
Just then Angelie's mother Susan walked into the room. She had her hand over her swollen belly, and Riley looked up from his mashing with the tablets as she say down on the bench.
"You okay dear?" He asked, mixing in the tablet powder in a large glass of water.
"I'm fine Riley. Honestly, I'm not going to collapse every time I take a step" She said, rolling her eyes.
Angelie's mother was pregnant, five months along. They had opted to keep the gender of the baby a surprise. Angelie wanted a little sister to play with, and Kaji wanted a brother. They had placed bets on who would win. If it was a boy, Angelie would lose one of her best Yipper cards. If it was a girl, she would gain Kaji's play samurai helmet.
"Just drink up, or no rainbow munchies!" Her father warned Angelie, smiling.
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Curtis Tres Triemstra woke up quite early for the holidays, seven o clock. This was because he had chores to do. Being the only boy in the family, and the eldest child, with a little sister eight years younger than him, he ended up helping his mother and stepfather the most. However, he wanted to get his chores done quickly so he could sort out everything he still needed to do for the KND meeting this afternoon. He was only second in command, so he could only imagine what Numbuh 127 was doing, since he had been put in charge of picking up Numbuhs 110, 456 and Eleventy-two and making sure they all had their tickets. Especially Eleventy-two, she had a habit of losing things. He himself was Numbuh 333. When he first graduated, he wanted to be Numbuh 3, after his middle name, which came from his mother being half Spanish. But he discovered it was already taken by someone else. So he settled for triple three, which he decided was much better anyway.
So he walked into the small kitchen, and starting making breakfast for his family. It was a simple enough task, but his half sister was only three, and his parents both had jobs that started early, so he had been tasked with making breakfast and ensuring Cassidy was prepared to go to daycare by the time his parents were ready to go.
He had just finished making up some toast for his parents when his step-father James Redman walked into the kitchen, nodding at Curtis.
"Good morning Curtis, thank you" He said, putting three pieces of toast onto the plate.
"Good morning" Curtis replied.
Curtis was just five when his parents divorced. Why, he didn't know. The one time he asked his mother had said 'the love wasn't there anymore' and after that he didn't want to know. His mother was given custody and both parents remarried. Curtis still saw his father every weekend, along with his step mother and twin half-brothers Toby and Jackson, who were only a year older than Cassidy. When he was younger, he didn't mind as much. All that was happening was he wasn't seeing Daddy as often, and there was a new one who kept insisting that if he didn't want to, Curtis didn't have to call him Dad.
Curtis' mother Kristin walked into the kitchen, dressed in a business suit for her office job, though her long black hair was still messy. James worked at the daycare where Cassidy went.
"Good morning Curtis, lovely toast as usual" She said, smiling. She gave Curtis a quick kiss on the forehead.
"Thanks mum" Curtis said, smiling.
He grabbed a piece of toast for himself, and ate it as quickly as he could.
"Remember, today is dress up day at the daycare!" Kristin said between mouthfuls of toast.
"Got it!" Curtis said, pushing in the last piece of toast and going to the spare room which was Cassidy's room, armed with her milk bottle.
He gently shook his half sister awake. The small girl had a mop of curly dark brown hair, and as she woke up, pushed the unruly strands out of her face. She had never enjoyed being woken up in the morning, and promptly scrunched her face in what could only be described as a tantrum face.
"I want my Dummy!" She said, giving Curtis a good death glare.
Curtis soon discovered the problem. Her dummy had fallen out of her mouth and off her bed in the night, ending up where Cassidy could not see it. Curtis quickly picked up the dummy and put it in Cassidy's mouth, who calmed down, albeit a bit.
Glad that she was relatively calm today, Curtis put the bottle down on a bookshelf, and rummaged through Cassidy's small wardrobe. He found Cassidy's pink dress, which his mother had decided would be best for a princess dress up, and turned around to give it to her.
"Okay Cassidy, here's your best pink dress!" He said cheerfully. He didn't know why, but he felt as if he always needed to sound happy when talking to her.
"Today is dress up!" Cassidy announced proudly. She then promptly grabbed the dress from Curtis and started unbuttoning her pyjama shirt. Curtis then looked over at the bookshelf and remembered the last time Cassidy had her milk after she got dressed. It was always the worst moment she decided to be a mess. One of his shirts still smelled like baby milk. He didn't wear it much anymore.
"No wait! Have your bottle first!" He shouted, grabbing the bottle and shoving it towards Cassidy, while making a grab for the dress with the other hand.
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Laura Bingle had always been a leader. As a young girl, she would lead the other girls in the daycare in the games. When they were playing shop, she was the manager. When they played school, she was the teacher. So when she graduated into the KND, she was pleased, though not surprised when she was put in charge of the new sector QL. She was surprised by how much harder it was when they were not playing a make believe game that involved buying things with counters.
Not that her sector was bad. Numbuh 333 was a great second in command, and always had a handle on everyone. Numbuh 456 was good as well. He was very laid back a lot of the time, which frustrated her, but he knew when to snap into action. Numbuh Eleventy-Two though was a handful. She was a bundle of energy let loose on the world, and though a great fighter, was often unpredictable and rash, yet for periods of times was completely disagreeable and irritable. Numbuh 110, whom Laura had met yesterday at the graduation ceremony, seemed like a mini Eleventy-Two, and though Laura did not believe anyone could top her energy, 110 might come close.
Which at least meant Laura was prepared. After around two years of dealing with Numbuh Eleventy-Two, she doubted anything the new recruit threw at her could faze her.
"Laura? You up yet?" Laura's big sister Alexis said from the doorway. She was already dressed and ready.
Alexis and Laura might well have been twins. Apart from their height difference, Alexis being nearly two years older, the only difference was that Alexis' hair was a light brown instead of the golden orange the rest of the children had. They had the same green eyes, same freckles, and the same dimples.
"Yeah I'm awake. Just thinking." Laura said, staring up at the ceiling.
"Big day huh?" Alexis said.
Alexis was twelve years old. She was in the Kids Next Door, just like Laura. She was also approaching her thirteenth birthday in a month. Then, she would be decommissioned, and would forget everything about her years working on the Moonbase as an advisor to the Soopreme Leaduh Numbuh 963, a position Laura often dreamed about. She remembered, when a few months ago, the previous Soopreme Leaduh Numbuh 5 announced the world wide game of tag a day before her decommissioning. The operative who was it, Numbuh 83 came to Australia and tagged her. She had been quite pleased, until she accidentally bumped into Numbuh 963 hiding behind a pole, just two seconds before the game ended. Laura had been very annoyed and angry with herself, even though Numbuh 963 was a very good Soopreme Leaduh.
"How do you think you'll handle the new recruit?" Alexis said, walking into the room and sitting on the bed.
"She can't be much worse than Eleventy-Two. I don't think that's possible." Laura sighed.
"Well you've done a great job handling her." Alexis said, smiling.
"Thanks. So, what's the big theme for the meeting?" Laura said, her smile turning mischievous.
"For the last time, I can't tell you! It's a surprise!" Alexis said, giggling.
"Well fine. Let's have some breakfast." Laura said, clearly intending to ask again after her stomach was full.
The two girls went downstairs, where their mother, from whom Laura and her younger sisters had inherited their fair hair, was feeding said younger sisters, Charlotte and baby Lilly. Charlotte was a six year girl who was always smiling, and lit up whatever room she was in. Lilly, at eighteen months, was smiling sometimes and either asleep or bawling when she wasn't. The two elder girls often found themselves roped into babysitting, and many a times Charlotte and Lilly had been brought into Laura's treehouse, where Numbuh 333 was found to be very helpful with Lilly, and though Eleventy-Two kept them entertained, 456 made himself scarce. Laura had often asked Alexis to take the girls up to the Moonbase, but apparently only KND operatives were allowed, and a baby and girl who was not quite old enough to be recruited were not on that list.
"Good morning girls! Charlotte has Lucy's birthday party to go to this afternoon at the cinemas, so I won't be home until six." Their mother said, in the middle of getting Lilly her bowl of baby food ready.
"We're going to see the Rainbow Monkey movie!" Charlotte announced happily.
"I thought that movie was already gone from cinemas." Alexis mused out loud.
"It is in America. But we always get movies late." Laura sighed sadly.
She had resisted reading the book, hoping to wait for the movie, but found the whole thing thoroughly spoiled when she went online looking for a limited edition fuschia rainbow monkey.
"I can't believe people wrote the whole ending on the rainbow monkey fan site!" She continued.
"Did they? Good thing I've read the book." Alexis said.
"Haven't you been on the fan site recently? It's been up there for like, a month! They must have though they had waited long enough." Laura said, shocked. Both she and her sister were members of the site.
"Not for a while. I've just been so busy. I've barely had time to keep up with all the things I have to do on the Moonbase." Alexis sighed.
"Oh you girls with your imaginations. I bet you're going to your 'moon base again today aren't you Alexis?" Their mother said, smiling.
"Yeah. Laura's coming too with her sector." Alexis said.
"It's going to be a super cool meeting!" Laura added, remembering how exciting the whole thing was.
"I want to go!" Charlotte suddenly cried.
"But if you do, you'll miss the movie!" Their mother said, smiling. That got Charlotte to be quiet. Laura rolled her eyes. Their mother thought the Kids Next Door was made up. Alexis and Laura, and hopefully Charlotte and Lilly in a few years, knew better.
"Well now, make sure you're back from your little meeting by dinner time, and don't forget to have some lunch. Now Alexis, we've run out of cheese so you're going to have to have a ham sandwich only ok?" Their mother said.
"Ok mum" Alexis replied. She wasn't concerned about sandwiches. There would be lollies and soft drinks at the Moonbase.
"I have to go early to help set up. Make sure you're not late!" Alexis said, heading towards the door.
"I'll try!" Laura replied. Alexis flashed a grin at her before closing the door.
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Jackson Kath woke up at seven o clock. Not for chores. It was so he could watch his favourite cartoon, Action Platypus. He raced into the kitchen, poured himself a bowl of sultana bran cereal, and ran into the living room, grabbed the remote and turned on the television.
"He's blue, he's bad, he's Action Platypus!"
Jackson ate his cereal eagerly, waiting to see what would happen to his favourite hero today.
"Last time on the show, Action Playtpus' party and girlfriend Platygirl had been kidnapped by the evil Dr Doom Von Doom!"
The screen suddenly turned into rainbows and monkeys. Jackson looked up quickly to find his little sister Scarlet holding onto the remote.
"Hey! I was watching my show!" Jackson said, annoyed.
"But I want to watch Rainbow Monkey!" Scarlet said, holding on to the remote.
"I was here first!"
"You watched your show yesterday!" Jackson made a grab for the remote, and Scarlet pulled it out of reach, before jumping off the couch and running into the kitchen.
Jackson was ready to go after her when he realised there was a better way of doing this.
"Alright, I guess you win Scarlet." He said, pretending to be sad.
He saw Scarlets black hair and dark face pop up from behind the kitchen counter.
"I'll just have to take my cereal and go." Jackson put the bowl down on the couch, and grabbed a green rainbow monkey that was sitting next to it.
"Give me the remote or the monkey gets it!" He said, holding up the monkey, one hand on its head.
He was bluffing. Their mother had forbidden him from breaking Scarlets monkeys after he accidentally ripped one apart. Hopefully Scarlet forgot about that right now. She was only five. Sure enough, Scarlet gasped, and came around the kitchen counter, the remote firmly held in her small fingers.
"Give me Mrs. Fluffykins" She said. Her cheeks were turning red.
"Give me the remote" Jackson replied calmly. Hopefully she wouldn't call out for mum.
He held out the monkey, and Scarlet, narrowing her eyes, reached out the remote. When Jackson had the remote, she grabbed the green monkey, hugging it tight.
Victorious, Jackson returned to the living room, his cereal and his show.
"Don't worry Platygirl, I'll save you!" cried out the hero, as he entered Dr Doom Von Dooms lair.
"Oh Action Platypus, watch out for the traps!" Platygirl cried, but it was too late. Action Platypus was trapped!"
Jackson watched the show intently, eating his cereal. He suddenly noticed that Scarlet seemed to have disappeared, realised where she had went, when sure enough, he heard it.
"Jackson Kath! Come here!" His father shouted from their room.
Jackson groaned. Scarlet had told on him. He turned off the television, put his cereal on the dining table, and trudged towards his parents bedroom. Inside, was his mother, father, and Scarlet. Along the way, he passed by his older brother Timothy.
"You are so busted" He said, grinning as he went towards the kitchen.
"Yes mum?" He said tentatively.
"Scarlet tells me you threatened to destroy her rainbow monkey. Is this true?" His mother, Alieta asked.
"Yes." Jackson sighed. He was in trouble.
"And why was that?"
"She took the remote." Evidentially Scarlet had not told their mother this bit of information, as she turned towards the five year old, who seemed to shrink a little.
"Did you take the remote?"
"He wasn't holding it!" She said, finding herself and putting on a cute face. Jackson groaned inwardly. She could do anything with that face.
"Alright. Both of you are in trouble. Scarlet, you shouldn't have taken the remote from him. Jackson, you shouldn't have threatened to destroy her monkey." She said. Their father was watching the scene, with a stern face, but he obviously didn't plan on contributing.
"Sully, what do you think we do?" Their mother suddenly turned to him, and his stern look faltered.
"Umm, whatever you think is appropriate dear." He said, before quickly exiting the room.
"Well then. Jackson, you're banned from that Platypus show. Scarlet, you can't go to the rainbow monkey show next week. You'll have to wait until the week after."
Both children reacted. Scarlet scrunched up her face, clearly intending to throw a trantrum unless the punishment was retracted. Jackson meanwhile got onto his knees, begging for him to be given privilege to watch the show.
"But muuuuum!" Jackson said.
"No buts!"
Scarlet however insisted on buts and jumped onto the bed, begging to be allowed to go to the show, despite there being another one only five days after the one she would miss. Jackson left the room, grumbling. He went and got dressed, and went to go out the front door.
"Where are you going Jackson?" His father called as he passed.
"To Curtis' house. Bye." He said.
He couldn't wait to go find Curtis. The original plan was that Curtis would come to him, but at this point Jackson didn't want to stay in his house. Then maybe he could get to the treehouse before they left for the special meeting at Moonbase. He could relax there, maybe play some video games before they had to go. If there was time.
Besides, maybe if he hurried, Curtis would let him watch Action Platypus on his tv.
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Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I will release more. I can't give a specific time as to when, but I'll try to have another chapter out about every two weeks, maybe every month. I'm not sure. I'll do my best. Eventually I'll get into a rhythm though. Also to clear some things up, I'll try to make this brief.
Angelie has bipolar disorder. More about her and her disorder will be revealed later on, but it doesn't play a very important part to her character. She is on medication for it. And she definitely won't be switching moods every hour, that is unrealistic and not how bipolar works. If you have questions, feel free to message me or ask in a review.
Second, this story takes place a little after INTERVIEW. Numbuh 5, as has been mentioned, has been decomissioned. Numbuh 1 is gone, and Hoagie is nearing his decommissioning. Wally and Kuki have a while to go.
Finally, the five kids are from Australia. Queensland to be specific. Just to clear up the location.
Hope you enjoy, and please give me feedback so I can improve! And again, any questions on anything, feel free to ask!