He was reluctant to wake up at the required 7:00 a.m. time that Numbuh One had inflicted on the tree-house. Obviously, Numbuh Four was exhausted from spending all night at the field, and he had only gotten two hours of sleep. Numbuh One was usually very punctual, but he was known to be forgiving at times, and besides, as long as he had an extra hour of sleep, he would be fine. So he smashed his alarm clock with his fist.
In his dreams, he wasn't one to dream about Kuki in a romantic manner, or with any hearts surrounding them or other mushy stuff like that. He refused to dream about "girlie" things, like hugging or kissing. Usually, his dreams consisted of Kuki and himself playing one-on-one soccer with each other. He would be the goalie, and she would be the offensive player. All their concentration was on the ball, shifting their position every time it jerked in another direction. Numbuh Three wouldn't even aim the soccer ball. She would just giggle and smack it as hard as she could, which was actually very hard. The ball would randomly go flying somewhere, and Numbuh Four would slap his forehead and run after it. Most of the time, she would end up making a goal after a few tries, and he would simply say, "You got me again, Kuki! How are you so cruddy good?"
In this dream, he had his glasses on.
Numbuh Four was starting to see that his glasses weren't so bad after all. What was once a huge blur was now precise, defined, and easy to see. He had pulled out a book from his backpack earlier that morning and put on his magical frames and realized that the words were much easier to read. Of course, he couldn't read the entire thing, due to how tired he was, but he enjoyed reading the first few sentences of it, even though it was one of Numbuh Three's Rainbow Monkey romantic comedies. Besides, Numbuh Three had been ranting on and on the other day about how guys with glasses always appealed to her. If anyone dared to call him a nerd, he decided he would punch them in the eye, and if that didn't work, he would run away screaming. Everything was going to work out.
Until, of course, a certain British KND operative interrupted his beauty sleep.
"Numbuh Four!" Numbuh One screeched over the intercom. "Could you please get up without us dragging you out of bed, for once? The morning announcements have already been delivered, and only fifteen more minutes remain for breakfast. We won't have anytime to stop by the Moon Base before school starts."
"Oh, that sounds peachy," Numbuh Four yelled back. "We have school again, and before that, Numbuh 86 gets to boss us around? What kinda torture are you puttin' us through?"
Silence lingered throughout the tree-house, and with a groan, Numbuh Four pulled himself out of bed. After getting dressed into his jacket and jeans, he carefully picked up his brown, leather glasses case from the floor, and extracted his silver frames. He cleaned him with a sheet of toilet paper from the bathroom, trying his best not to scratch the lenses, and put the pair of glasses on while he wandered out of his room. Grudgingly, he arrived at the kitchen, where the other operatives were sitting down, eating bowls of sugary cereal. He followed their lead, and slouched his back as he walked to the cupboards to get a bowl and spoon.
"Hey, Numbuh Four, you look a little tired. Long night?" Numbuh Two said with his mouth full. "The mission wasn't that long really, but still..."
"I kinda stayed up," he sighed, sitting down at his usual spot, "so don't get on my nerves today."
"Maybe you should take the day off. Numbuh Five doesn't think you're looking so good," she said.
"I'm just tired," Numbuh Four yawned, attempting to pour cereal in his bowl, thus spilling it all over his place-mat. He rolled his eyes, and swept it into the bowl. His hood was pulled over his face, which was one of the reasons why he spilled the cereal in the first place, but he didn't want to show off his glasses just yet. Being as tired as he was, however, he accidently brushed his hood backwards, revealing his blonde hair and four eyes.
"Ooh, Numbuh Four! That's so cool that you decided to wear your glasses today! They look really shiny." Numbuh Three always sat next to him, due to the fact that their assigned numbers were so close together, so she was the first to notice Numbuh Four's spectacular spectacles. Most of the time, being seated so close to her and getting to talk to her without the others listening in was a benefit, but today, he might as well have screamed into a megaphone to tell her to shut up. He would have loved to have done such a thing, but he knew that one pair of glasses wouldn't draw so much attention...right?
The three other kids dining at the table and reviewing papers became very alert of his face. Numbuh One dropped his pen, Numbuh Two dropped his spoon, and Numbuh Five dropped her mouth. All four operatives were now examining Numbuh Four with a peculiar expression on each of their faces.
"Um, wow," Numbuh One exclaimed. "You are wearing glasses."
"Since when do you have glasses?" Numbuh Five questioned.
He narrowed his eyebrows. "So what if they're cruddy glasses? I like 'em. They look cool. Haven't you heard about the new things in style lately? Glasses. Yep, that's right, glasses are the coolest things around, and I happen to have my own personal pair." His eyes darted around the room, and he pounded his fist on the table. "Got it?"
"Easy there, Numbuh Four," Numbuh Two said, picking up his spoon again. "We were just a little...shocked. I mean, you're not the kind of person to wear glasses."
"Aw, they look so adorable on you, Wally! You're just like a little Ready To Learn Rainbow Monkey doll!" Numbuh Three cooed, pulling his glasses harshly off his face. "Let me try them on," she squealed as she placed them right above her nose.
"No, Kuki! Don't touch the lenses! I just cleaned them! Erggh..." he groaned, since Numbuh Three had already gotten multiple fingerprints on them.
"Wow, my eyes hurt! Everything is kinda blurry," she giggled, moving her head left to right.
While Numbuh Four attempted to snatch his frames away from her, Numbuh One cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Well then, that's important news, I suppose. Now that we have covered our current list of adults who are devising new plots against our video games and television, I feel that, although this is a dreadful topic to discuss, we really need to revise our upcoming decommissionings, approximated." The entire room fell silent, all the operatives now thinking sad thoughts in their minds, as they knew the day would have to come someday.
"I will review the scheduled dates. Now, remember, Numbuh 362 said that she can try to keep us from having our memories completely wiped out, but it would still be against the traditional KND rules, and it might not be successful anyway, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. The current order is Numbuh Five, Numbuh Two, Numbuh Four, Numbuh Three, and myself. Numbuh Five, I regret to inform you that your thirteenth birthday is in only eight months, and Numbuh Two, yours is in eleven. Numbuh Four, your twelfth birthday is in a week, which means you still have about a year before you are decommissioned. Numbuh Three, you have another fifteen months until decommissioning, and for myself, I have eighteen months remaining." He sighed. "I don't know how I'll be able to cope without my original team, but I'm sure I'll figure out some way to bear it."
"Now, don't be down on yourself, Numbuh One," Numbuh Five said soothingly. "We still have a lot of months to go until Numbuh Five's decommissioned." The other nodded their heads in agreement, although sulky looks remained on their faces.
"Abby," Numbuh One smiled, "I do wish that I was the one being decommissioned first, and you were the leader. I'm certain you could take up the responsibility."
Numbuh Five opened her mouth to comment, but just shook her head, crossing her arms. "Maybe I'd consider it, but I'm not positive."
"Make up your mind soon." He winked at her, and began rambling on again about more important announcements for the day. No one was really paying much attention, but they gave him a nod every once in a while to make him believe they were interested. Numbuh Four, being as delightfully dimwitted as he is, decided to interrupt his leader mid-sentence to ask a question.
Numbuh Four wiped his glasses off with his napkin, and put them back on his face. "I wonder what it'll be like to be twelve. Is it fun?"
Numbuh One groaned and slapped his forehead.
"It's okay," Numbuh Five admitted. "Things could be better, since Numbuh Five's getting closer to turning thirteen and all. There isn't much difference between eleven and twelve once you think about it. But there's still some things that change when you're twelve."
"Like what?" he asked, continuing to eat his dry cereal. He had never really liked putting milk in his cereal. It made the milk full of pieces of grains and sugar.
"Well, you can't order off the kiddie menu anymore at restaurants," Numbuh Two said slyly, a spark in his eyes that seemed to light up the whole room. In just a few seconds, everything seemed to be lighthearted again, and the darkness in the room was replaced with a lively bunch of eleven and twelve year old kids.
Numbuh One's watch began to beep. "Uh-oh. Looks like we're behind schedule," he said blankly. "We don't have time for any playing right now, we'll have to fly straight to the Moon Base and receive our new orders." Understandably, everyone retorted with annoyed remarks. "Yes, I know, we'll try and get to the arcade during lunch break if we can, forbidding we don't have to deal with any adult tyranny today."
Which obviously made everyone groan more, because when have the Kids Next Door ever had a day without villains?
"Crud," Numbuh Four muttered. "Crud, crud, crud, cruddy CRUD!"
"What is it?" Numbuh Three asked. She had picked up his backpack for him, so she thought maybe it had something to do with that. "Is it a bad color?"
"No! I forgot to plan how I'm going to torture Matthew today."
Of course, he was joking. Well, sort of. All he knew was that he didn't want Kuki to be swept off her feet again by some guy...and that's how his plan began to form. His plan to impress Kuki in just one year.
(Flashback in next chapter, for you confuzzled, people.)