Fourth story has begun. Just to let everyone know, if you haven't read the other stories, with the possible exception of The Snow Race, you will be confused as heck. I have decided to do a blanket disclaimer for all of my stories, each and every chapter of them- I only own the stuff in my room, and my own characters that I made up, nothing more, nothing less.

Begin Chapter

It was a fine sunny Sunday morning. The weather was cool, with a slight breeze. Birds were chirping, kids were playing in the park, there was a small wreck on the freeway, which had traffic backed up for miles, and Mrs. Hikari was trying to wake her son. "Lan, it's past nine. You really need to wake up now."

"Five more minutes," he mumbled as he buried his head under the pillow. Mrs. Hikari just sighed and walked out of the room.

"Well, just to let you know, a package arrived for you, and there was one for your brother," she said from the stairwell. Lan practically jumped out of bed.

"Mega, why didn't you wake me up?" he said as he looked at his PET. The screen was black. "Mega?" No reply. Lan started to become worried as he ran downstairs.

"Well, I see that you finally woke up," said Mrs. Hikari as she sat a stack of pancakes on the table.

"Have you seen Mega?" he asked, worried.

"Well, I haven't seen him this morning, but I think that he went stargazing on the roof last night. Have you checked there yet?" she asked as she looked out the window.

"No, how did he get up there?" asked Lan, forgetting about the package.

"He used the ladder." Lan ran outside, and sure enough, there was a ladder propped up against the side of the house. Lan climbed, the sun at his back, up the ladder and over to the shady side of the roof. There, asleep, was Mega.

"HEY!" Lan yelled. Mega jumped, and nearly fell off the roof. "Why didn't you go back to the PET last night?"

"Good morning to you too," Mega replied groggily, rubbing his eyes and standing up. "I didn't go because I fell asleep here. It was a nice night out."

"Well, Jena's diary arrived, and so did something for you," said Lan as he climbed back to the ladder, Mega close behind.

"It's probably my journal. I'm going to have to hide that from Lan," he thought as he reached solid ground. He had almost made it into the house when he heard someone call his name.

"Mega," said Roll, running out of Maylu's house. "Did you sleep on the roof last night?" Mega just nodded his head, which caused Roll to shake her head. "You're lucky that you didn't get sick. What would you have done if it had started to rain, or if you got cold?"

"I would have gone inside. But it was such a nice night. I couldn't help it," he said, recalling what Roll had said the night before. Roll just smiled and went back to Maylu's house. "Time to see what condition my book is in," he thought as he walked into the house.

When Mega made it to the room with the books, he found that Lan was reading a note from Jena to him.

---

Hey Lan,

Here's my diary. As you can see, there is a number combination on it. The combination is 24, 8, 22. Have fun and you will learn to be a real troublemaker. It gets exciting about 6 entries in.

Bye!

Jena Walker

---

He opened the book, hardly paying any attention to his brother, who had just picked up his package, and was currently heading up the stairs. "24, 8, 22. There we go. Time to see what life was like then."

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January 17, 2030

Well, this jail, I mean hospital, has just reached a new bottom with me, the most awesome one here. Me. I have to write down everything that I do in this book. I don't like this thing. It's horrible. I'm almost five, but as my parents say, everyone in here is very smart. We know words big people don't. What I was saying was this- but the nurse who told every kid in this hospital to do this was very nice, and gave me candy, so I will.

Hmm, what to write? I will start out by telling you about the supreme one. Her name is Jena Alexis Walker, or as she is sometimes called in the play room when she is showing everyone who's boss, JAWs. Some of the nurses call me that too. I know because I sneak out when I'm supposed to be sleeping and explore this place. Yesterday, I heard the candy giving nurse tell the mean grinch nurse that my name was JAWs in the kid play room, and the mean lady just said that I should be called Jena Alexis by all of the nurses. I'd hate to have that person. I heard that the kids she takes care of almost never get to go to the playroom. I feel sorry for them.

Another thing about me is that I like to squirm my way out of trouble. I like to do things where I almost get caught, but don't. I'm very good at "covering my tracks", whatever that means. I heard the mean one say that I do that very well. From the way the other nurses looked, it was funny. They all think that I am perfect, and who can blame them. I'm only mean to mean people. I'm only hit people when they're picking on other people. I'm called supreme and awesome one because I help people, and the people who hurt the other people always get in trouble.

My nice nurse just came in and gave me candy because she saw that I had written so much. I get to go to the playroom twice tomorrow too! Uh oh, it's bedtime. If I'm going two times, I need to go to sleep now and save my energy. I also need to think of a good name for you, little book. I hope that the quiet kid will be at the playroom. He's very smart, and will help me think if I ask nicely. Good night!

\\\

Lan started to laugh at the way that Jena looked at life back then. "The supreme one? JAWs? The awesome one? Jena sure had a high opinion of herself, and she still does. I wonder who 'the quiet kid' is. And where did Hub go? Oh well, I might as well read the second entry."

\\\

January 18, 2030

Hey Velvet,

I found you a name, with some help from the quiet kid. He was sitting in a corner, reading a book to a toy when I came in. I don't think that he noticed that everyone in the whole room was listening to the story, or that everyone was quiet like he almost always is. I think that the story was the Velveteen Rabbit. It's a sad book. When he was done, everyone started clapping and made yay noises. This really embarrassed him. I know because he just turned red, but before he could say anything else, the mean nurse came in. Everyone got really quiet really fast. She told the boy that he was 'disturbing the peace', a term that she usually reserved for me when I'm getting 'beat up', but I'm really beating up the other kid and acting like I'm hurt. She then took him out of the room. Everyone was sad because they were going to have him read another book. I went over to where he was sitting, and saw that the toy he had was a stuffed panther named Velvet and so I named you after the toy.

When I went back to where the rest of my friends were, they were mad. I forgot to tell you who my friends are, and what they are sentenced with. First there is Cody Dickenson. He has something wrong with his third ventricle. At least I think that's what he said. Second there is Daniel Blecker. He is recovering from a heart surgery. Next is Samantha Alexandra McCormick. We all like her name almost as much as mine because we can call her Sam by her first name or SAM from her initials! She has a stomach ulcer, or something like that. Fourth is Howie Funderburk. We all like his name, and he is in here because he was in a bad car accident, but we all think that he is better now.

Back to what I was saying. Everyone was mad because the mean nurse took away the quiet boy. My friends were already trying to figure out what his room was so we could sneak him back here. We are very good at sneaking. I got voted to go and find him. I snuck out of the room, past the nurses' place, and saw the mean nurse turn the corner. Apparently the quiet kid either can't go very fast, or the nurse is slowing him down biggly-like. She tries to do that to me too. I saw her put the quiet boy in the room with the numbers 363 on the side of the door. The mean nurse was about to turn around when I left to go back to the playroom.

I found my friends and told them that I found out a few things about the quiet boy. Everyone in the room came to listen to me. I found out why the quiet boy was so embarrassed, it's scary having everyone watching you. I told them that he had the mean nurse, and that he was in room 363. We spent the last of our time trying to figure out whose room was closest. Mine was. My number is 354. The kid who was the watch out, the kid who watched out for the nurses, told us that one was coming after we found that out. We all scattered and started to do other things before the nurse came in. We are all very good at doing that. The nurse told us all to go back to our rooms.

The second time I went, I told everyone there about the quiet boy, and some of them knew him. Number 374 said that his name was Hub Hickory, or something like that. The second group didn't have a watch out, so we didn't have a meeting. I like my group better. I have to go to bed. The mean nurse just told me to.

Goodnight Velvet!

\\\

Lan just sat there when he was done reading, looking at what he assumed was his brother's name. "I'm going to have to ask him about that. I think that I found a good stopping spot right here," he thought as he put a bookmark in the diary and closed it. He took the diary up to his room, and found that Hub was lying on his bed, reading a note that Jena had written him. It was four pages long. "Hub, I have a question."

"What is it?" he asked as he set the letter down.

"Did you used to read in the playroom in the hospital?" Lan asked. Hub gave him a confused look until he saw that Lan was carrying the diary.

"Yes, I did sometimes. What else did Jena write about that room?" he asked, sitting up.

"Well, she said that," here Lan paused to open the diary, "you were known to everyone as either 'the quiet boy' or as 'the quiet kid'. She didn't even mention anything that resembled your name until she said that 'number 374 said that his name was Hub Hickory'."

"Well, she's right, I was very quiet. I was extremely shy because I never had anytime to meet the other kids. What did she say that I was reading?" he asked.

"Um, The Velveteen Rabbit. And she said that you were reading it to a toy panther named Velvet. Is that true?"

"Yep. Velvet was my favorite toy in the whole room. It was small and very soft. Anything else you want to know?"

"When did you meet Jena?" Hub thought a minute before answering.

"I'm positive that Jena wrote that down, so you're just going to have to wait and read. I have a question for you."

"What is it?" asked Lan.

"What did Jena name her diary? I know that she named it," he said, standing up and walking over to the window.

"Velvet," Lan replied. He looked out the window too, and saw that Maylu was outside with Roll. "Hey, do you want to go to the park with Roll?"

"Sure, but we'll go to the net park, at least I think that Roll would like to go there," he said.

"Don't tell me you're still shy," Lan joked. Hub just rolled his eyes and gave him a light smack upside the head.

"I'm going outside now, coming?" he asked as he walked out the door, followed closely by Lan.

Meanwhile at IPC, Chaud was enjoying an easy day, or at least it was easy for him. Only two memos to look over, and one phone call, which he was putting off until the last thing. "Chaud," said Proto from his PET, "you have three new emails. One from Mary, one from Yai, and one from Annetta. Which one do you want to read?"

"Well, since I have to call Yai in a few minutes, I'll have her's first, then Mary, and finally, Annetta's," he said, finishing the second memo.

"Ok. Yai says that her normal phone is broken, so the telephone call will need to be changed to a video call. Hmm, if you get on the topic of who you have a crush on again, like you did last time you had to call, don't break eye contact, in case you have to lie through your teeth, and try to change the subject as quickly as possible," said Proto, with one of his smirks. Chaud just shook his head and smiled.

"Since when are you the expert on girls?" he asked. Proto responded by opening the second email.

"Since now. Mary says that she had a safe flight home, and that she misses you already. Aww, how sweet. She also says that Ring, um,"

"Ring what?"

"Nothing." Chaud responded by pulling the email into his computer and locking Proto in his PET while he read the email.

"It says that she hasn't taken the necklace off since she put it on, and that she misses you very much. That's so cute," he said, looking at his PET, where Proto was turning a light shade of pink. "It also says that Mary wants to videophone me tonight. Ok, well, that's something that I'm not going to miss. Ok, now what does Annetta want?" Proto composed himself somewhat before he started reading the email.

"She wants to know who the girl that you have a crush on is. She said that Yai told her about that. Do you want to respond?"

"Um, I think that I should go with telling the truth here and tell her that the girl that I have a crush on is Mary. Well, I guess that it's time to call Yai," he said as he pulled up the videophone on his computer and dialed Yai's number.

"Hello Chaud!" said Yai as she saw whom it was who called her. "I'm glad that you got my email. How are you?"

"I'm fine, and I'm about to go home, so what do we need to discuss?"

"Well, seeing as how our companies are going to start on the new PET packs soon, I thought that we should come up with some ideas."

"I have already typed some idea's up. Do you want me to email them to you?" he asked, suppressing the urge to laugh at the look of utter astonishment on Yai's face.

"Sure. How's Mary? She just emailed me," Yai said as Chaud sent Proto the document to attach to the email.

"She's fine. And how is that Navi that we sent you a few weeks ago?" he asked.

"He's getting used to his new role as my secondary assistant. He's very organized, but nowhere near as organized as Glyde, no one is. Well, I had better let you get home now. Bye!" she said as she closed the window.

"Well, we had better get going. I'm just going to leave all of my work here tonight," he said as he turned off his computer, picked up his PET, walked out of his office. He said goodbye to his secretary and went to the elevator, only to have it open before he could touch the button. His father walked out and over to his son.

"Hello Chaud, would you like to go with me to Bennihannas for lunch?" he asked. Chaud thought about it for a second before answering.

"Sure, I was about to go home and change, but is this fine?" Chaud asked, motioning to his everyday clothes.

"They're fine," his father said as they walked back into the elevator. "In fact, I think that I'm going to stop wearing these stuffy suits, and start wearing some that are more casual and comfortable. What do you think?"

"I think that'd be fine," he said as they walked out to the limo and drove off.

End Chapter

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