Disclaimer: Me no owney!

Later that night, the team had managed to calm the kids down long enough to make dinner.

"So how was taking Christy to visit your granny, Herry?" Odie asked as he ripped lettuce into shreds for the salad.

"A disaster," Herry groaned, "She went mental and broke two stools. That kid has, like, super strength or something."

"Hmmm…sounds like someone else we know," Odie snickered, "Anyways, I shouldn't complain. Lily beat me at chess, checkers, AND Scrabble."

"What about me?" Neil asked, "Have any of you ever tried to change a diaper? It's disgusting!"

"It's pretty sad that a little kid can beat you at Scrabble, Odie," Archie teased from where he was chopping onions, completely ignoring the blonde-haired complainer.

"Shut up!" Odie called at him, tossing a dirty dish-cloth at his purple-haired friend.

"Hey, watch it will you?" Archie exclaimed as the towel landed on his shoulder. "My sweatshirt is already in the wash covered in baby barf. Let's try to keep the rest of me clean, shall we?"

Tommy gurgled happily as he piled up wooden building blocks at Archie's feet.

"What are you laughing at?" Archie snapped at him.

Tommy's chin trembled, than he started to cry.

"Archie!" Atlanta groaned as she scooped up the baby, "Leave him alone, he didn't do anything." She walked over to a chair and sat down.

"Don't listen to mean old Archie," Atlanta said, rocking Tommy back and forth. She planted a kiss on the infant's forehead and tickled his stomach. Tommy giggled and wrapped his arms around Atlanta's waist.

"Mama," he cooed.

"Awwwwwww," Theresa sighed, "You've got a real way with kids, Atlanta."

"Yeah," Atlanta mumbled, "A real way." She grabbed an angry Tara as she ran by, trying to swipe at Josh with her bare hands. Josh let out a sob and ran to hide behind Theresa's legs.

"What are you doing?" Atlanta asked.

"He scratched me!" Tara shrieked, showing Atlanta the small wound on her forearm.

"Josh…." Theresa warned.

"It was an accident," Josh insisted.

"No it wasn't!" Tara screamed at him.

"Yes it was!"

"No it wasn't!"

"Yeah!"

"No!"

"YEAH!"

"NO!"

Tara went to lunge at Josh again but Atlanta held her back.

"Here, you handle this," Atlanta told Archie, walking over to her friend and plopping the young girl into his arms.

"But….." Archie began. But it was too late. Atlanta had already returned to stirring a pot full of spaghetti sauce.

"What's wrong, kid?" Archie asked, setting Tara on the ground.

"Josh's stupid," Tara huffed.

"Yeah, guys tend to do be sometimes," Archie sighed.

"But you're a boy," Tara pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I'm not stupid," Archie told her.

Tara smiled for the first time since she arrived at the dorm. "You're funny," she giggled.

Just then, the tiny girl noticed a flash of gold coming from Archie's ankle. It was his ankle brace.

"You gots one too?" she asked, hands on her hips, tilting her chin at the armor.

"What do you mean?" Archie asked curiously.

"I wear one of those," Tara told him, rolling up her right pant leg. Sure enough, she also had a metal appliance supporting her. But Tara's was different then Archie's. Hers was silver, and unlike Archie's, whose leg brace stopped halfway up his calf, Tara's climbed past her small kneecap and fastened around the bottom of her thigh.

"Ouch," Archie winced, "Were you hurt when you were small? Err…..smaller?"

"No," Tara answered, pulling her the jean leg of her overalls back down. "My daddy says I've gotta bad heel."

"Things keep getting weirder and weirder….." Jay muttered under his breath.

"Oh my God!" Atlanta yelled as the sauce pot began to overflow.

"What did you do?" Theresa exclaimed as she went over to help her.

"I don't know!" Atlanta said angrily, trying to stuff the red mess back down with a wooden spoon.

"Well, THAT'S not going to work!" Theresa snapped as she snatched the utensil out of the red-head's grasp.

"What IS going to help then?!" Atlanta asked sharply.

"Up! Mama up!" Tommy whined as he tugged on Atlanta's cargo pants.

"No, 'Mama' is busy right now," Atlanta told him in an exasperated tone. "Go see Uncle Odie!"

The baby looked upset, but he crawled over to Odie anyways.

"Up?" he asked the short boy hopefully.

Odie picked the baby into the air and brought him over to Archie.

"How come everyone's giving the kids to me?" Archie fumed.

Odie shrugged and walked over to assist Theresa and Atlanta, who were desperately trying to stop the flow of the sauce.

"You could turn off the heat!" he barked at the two girls.

"We tried that!" Theresa fumed, "It just keeps coming!"

"Well, if you just….." Odie began. But before he could finish, a large bubble rising in the pot exploded, showering all three teenagers in the face with the liquid.

"Ha ha! You look funny!" Josh laughed.

"Suddenly, being covered in baby spew doesn't seem so bad," Archie sneered.

"Shut up," Atlanta smirked, scraping up a handful of the goo and pitching it at him.

Archie ducked just in time and the slop wound up striking Jay in the side of the face.

"Who…..threw that?" Jay gasped, wiping some of it off of his face.

Atlanta laughed as Archie pointed at her.

"It was an accident," she insisted, tears of hysterical amusement flowing down her face.

Jay walked over to the pot and stuffed some of the gunk in her face.

"So was that," he told her.

"Somebody's hoping for a death wish," Atlanta said, picking up the pot. But instead of dumping it on Jay, she poured it over Archie's head.

"What was that for?" Archie asked, "I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, but you ducked earlier when I tried to hit you!" Atlanta replied.

Neil and Herry were clutching their stomachs in out-of-control laughter. The other children ran into the room to see what was so funny, and burst into giggles when they saw the state of Archie, Jay, Atlanta, Theresa, and Odie.

"Shut up," Archie said, taking two globs of sauce of his chest and throwing it at Herry and Odie.

"Hey!" Herry shouted.

"Aaaaaah! My new shirt!" Neil screamed.

"Me too! Me too!" Christy shrieked, gathering up some sauce from the floor and rubbing it on her stomach.

"This is fun!" Scott cackled as he scrubbed some through his hair.

It wasn't long before all the kids were rolling around in the slop.

"Oh no, you don't!" Atlanta said to Tommy as he began to gouge some into his mouth. But as she ran over, she slipped into the tomato sauce and crashed to the floor. Theresa tried to help her up, but doing so she fell over herself.

"This spaghetti thing was a REALLY bad idea!" Theresa complained as she tried to pull herself up.

"Who's up for pizza?" Herry suggested.

"And a bath?" Neil added.

X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0

"You're the one who let him eat six slices of pepperoni!" Theresa barked, as Jay stared in disgust at the pizza-colored mess that Danny had left on the floor.

"I am NOT cleaning that up!" Herry exclaimed as he carried a messy Christy up to the bathroom.

"Oh no, you don't!" Neil shouted as he rushed by, clutching Scott, "This pint-sized fiend is dirtier than yours!"

"Not as bad as mine!" Odie yelled, running up the stairs and into the bathroom.

Herry and Neil bellows of anger as they went upstairs and began banging on the bathroom door, demanding that their charge be washed off first.

"There's another bathtub down here!" Atlanta hollered, but the two boys were two busy trying to force Odie out of the bathroom.

Jay let out a sigh of hesitation as he leaned down to mop up Danny's hurl with paper towels.

"Do it," Theresa ordered. Jay knew better than to argue. It took him five pain-filled minutes before he got it all cleaned up.

"I think I'm going to be sick again!" Danny moaned, clutching his stomach.

"Oh no! Danny! Don't you dare!" Jay yelled as the boy bent over.

Too late.

"Gross," Jay muttered.

X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0

Atlanta couldn't sleep. And how could she? She'd been kicked out of bed and forced to try and snooze in an old sleeping bag while Tara was rolled up comfortably under HER sheets!

Just when she about to close her eyes and try to slumber a bit, she heard a tiny voice calling her name.

"Atlanta?" the voice squeaked, "Atlanta? Are you awake?"

Atlanta realized that the voice was coming from Tara.

"Yep," Atlanta groaned.

"I can't sleep," Tara whispered, "I'm scared. Can I stay in there with you?"

"Are you crazy?" Atlanta asked, rolling over, "This thing's barely big enough for me, let alone the two of us!"

Tara's chin wobbled.

"Fine," Atlanta sighed, "I'll go up there, okay?"

"Okay!" Tara said happily.

Atlanta grunted a few times, then grabbed her pillow and walked over to her bed.

"Move over," she commanded as she climbed in.

Tara did so cheerfully and put her head on Atlanta's shoulder as soon as she lay down.

"What are you scared of exactly?" Atlanta questioned.

"The boogeyman that you said would get me," Tara answered.

"Tara, there IS no boogeyman," Atlanta told her, "I was just kidding."

"Okay," Tara said quietly, "Don't leave though, okay?"

"Sure," Atlanta laughed.

Tara talked again after a few minutes of silence.

"Atlanta? Do you think my little brother's okay?"

"Huh?" Atlanta yawned, "Who's your little brother?"

"Tommy," Tara replied, "Didn't you know that?"

Atlanta shook her head no, but as she looked at the little girl, she realized that she should have. The two kids had the same tanned, oval shaped faces, bright blue eyes, and button noses.

"I'm sure he's fine," Atlanta smiled, ruffling Tara's hair slightly.

"Okay," Tara said, rubbing her eyes. Then she bowed her head and started to sleep.

"Night, Tay," Atlanta murmured, wondering why the heck she just called Tara, "Tay".