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New Lives

A loud buzzing noise yelled in her ears. Kuki's eyes shot wide open. She picked up the small object that created the noise and flung it across the wall. When the noise stopped she sighed in annoyance.

"I take it you don't enjoy alarm clocks," an amused Lena walked into the room. Her usual smile had been painted on, and this time even her eyes wore a shade of green that brightened her overall appearance. Kuki found herself memorized for a brief moment, thinking how it might not be so bad to be an adult if she could wear make-up and be pretty. She didn't have much time to mull over her traitorous thoughts as Lena grabbed her by the feet and dragged an unwilling Kuki away from her cover cacoon.

"Time to get up!" Lena intoned, laughing like the child Kuki was supposed to be. Had been.

Kuki yawned, "What time is it?"

"5:30." She answered like it was no big deal.

"5:30!" Kuki screeched, looking out the window at the still dark sky. "Normal people sleep at this hour!"

"Not when they don't wanna be late for work...Especially on their first day." She looked at Kuki, who smiled sheepishly.

"Oh yeah." She whispered under her breath.

"Here!" Lena handed her a pile of clothes.

"What's this?" She accepted the clothes and looked up at Lena for an answer.

"Your work clothes. Meet me down stairs in twenty minutes." With that she walked out of the room.

Kuki looked at herself in the mirror. She'd never worn anything other than her long green sweatshirt and black jeans. Sometimes she had dragged a white dress from the bottom of her closet, or even a nurses outfit that one time. It felt a bit weird, though, to wear much of anything else.

Kuki looked at herself again after changing. She was wearing a long violet shirt underneath a white apron along with a white shirt that just went below her knees. It was actually rather complimentary to her features.

The raven haired girl picked up a dirty white hat with the letters GD overlapping in red. Kuki smiled at it. The hat reminded her of one of her friends...

Numbuh 5 had always worn a red cap. The once spunky girl had always thought it looked cool on her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about the circumstances that brought her to this particular moment. She and Numbuh 5 used to be the best of friends. They had to be, being the only girls in a squad full of unruly boys. But now Numbah 5 hated her... along with the boys...

Kuki put on the hat and smiled, wiping away the tears before they could fall.

She found Lena sitting in a chair at the kitchen table. She only looked up from her book when she heard Kuki walking down the steps.

"You look nice, Kayonie!" Kuki didn't respond. "Kayonie?" She could have smacked her own stupidity.

No wonder everyone else had been so frustrated with her!

"Oh! Thanks!"

Lena stood up wearing almost the exact same thing as the pre-teen. "Time to go!" She announced cheerfully, grabbing a light jacket from the coat hanger.

Kuki smiled, finding the action much easier than before she had gone to sleep. Strangely, she was actually excited about going to work... Even if she'd fought against the very idea of it for many years.

Lena stopped and stared at Kuki's head for a second. "I see you found my hat."

Kuki took it off her head. "Here," she said handing it over.

"No... It was mine when I was younger. You can keep it, if you like!"

Th asian girl smiled happily and put the cap back on. "Thank you! One of my friends used to wear a red one all the time!"

Lena's smile just grew, "You're welcome, Kayonie!"

"Can I take your order?" Kuki asked cheerfully. She was starting to get the hang of the whole waitressing thing. As the couple ordered, Kuki wrote down their request in her note pad and then finally skirted off to fulfill it.

She walked into the kitchen and placed down the orders on a brass table. The cook picked up the notes and began mumbling like the grouch she had come to understand him to be. Kuki turned around and grabbed two large cups filling one with Sprite and the other with Coke. She grabbed two straws and placed it on a black tray. She walked back out of the kitchen and put down the drinks on the table.

"Your food will be with you shortly," she assured them. She was really enjoying it. Kuki wasn't sure why anyone would hate working!

She went back into the kitchen. Kuki picked up the tray of food that was on the table where she had placed the order earlier. She took it back out and put it down on the table, "There you go!"

Again she went into the kitchen and retrieved more food this time taking it back to the couple, "I hope you enjoy!"

That's how the entire day went on. She found it enjoyable somehow. She was sad when she looked out the window to find the sun going down and a sign that read 'open' on the door. That meant the opposite side-the one for customers-read 'closed.'

"Time to go!" Lena told her after everyone left. Kuki gave her a lopsided grin, which caught the shapely Lena's attention.

"I liked working," she whispered.

"Don't worry, there's always tomorrow!" Kuki brightened up again. "I never knew anyone quite like you, Kayonie!"

"What do you mean?"

"Not many people want to work. Especially kids!"

Kuki looked down again. "Yeah, I know."

"What's wrong?"

"My friends hate working! Even the thought of it would make them sick. Somehow I feel like I betrayed them. They were always so against it... and I was, too," she admitted the last part as quietly as possible, though Lena could still hear her.

"I wouldn't blame you Kayonie! And you're not betraying anyone. They already... Hey! Let's go back home and have a good dinner! What do you say?"

Kuki found herself mouthing the word the whole walk back to Lena's. Home.

She sat down on the couch and stared at the blank screen in front of her.

"Do you wanna watch TV?" Lena asked holding up the remote. Kuki shook her head timidly. "Now what's wrong?" Lena threw herself head first over the couch. Kuki half smiled at her assault on the upholstery.

"Usually me and my friends would watched TV at this time... I wonder if that's exactly what they're doing. This may sound selfish but... I hope they aren't. I kind of hope they're missing me... But I know they're not."

Lena helped herself up. She starred at Kuki for a few minutes and then smiled. "Kayonie.. You're a great kid. I'm sure your friends miss you a whole lot!"

"Really!" Kuki looked at her hopefully.

Lena gulped visibly, "Yeah."

Kuki got up and gave Lena a big hug. "You're so nice to me! How can I ever repay you!"

"First of all you can let me breath..." Lena said gasping for breath. Kuki let go and giggled.

"Sorry..."

"Now," she said gently, sitting on the couch and padding a spot for Kuki to sit beside her, "tell me about these old friends of yours."

Kuki looked at her green sweater. She was a bit hesitant about the request. "Well... There's four of them... Nigel Uno was sort of our leader. A real party pooper if you ask me." She noticed Lena smile at this and decided to continue, "He was bossy sometimes and nice others. That's pretty much it. Then there's Hoagie Gilligan, who has a love of airplanes and flying. But he's not the most graceful either." Kuki giggled, thinking of the time he built a flying machine so he could fly around with a tiny horse fly. She'd also wanted to play with it, though.

"And then there's Abby Lincoln. She was the coolest! Really level, too. She had a love for music and I think maybe a love for Nigel..." Kuki almost cracked up thinking about her ex-friend's possible crush. "I miss them..." She admitted, her features suddenly turning grim.

"So who's Wallabee?" Lena asked raising an amused eyebrow.

"How did you know about him?" She almost jumped into the ceiling.

"I found out a very interesting fact about you last night. Did you have any idea that you talk in your sleep?"

"Oh..." Kuki blushed.

"You were saying his name..." Lena detailed for Kuki's embarrassment. "Was he your boyfriend?"

Kuki turned four shades darker. "NO! NO! NO! NO! He was a really close friend, though... He was always nice to me. And he always made sure I was O.K. He had a bad temper sometimes and liked to fight. Besides I'm too young to have a boyfriend..." She hid the disappointment in her voice.

She took a glimpse at the clock. "10:00 already?"

Lena yawned. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna call it a day. See ya bright and early!" And with that Lena got up and left the room.

Kuki felt the yawn to be contagious. She blinked a few times. It was beginning to get harder to see now. She stood up from the green sofa and stretched. The room that surrounded her was so different from the den back at the tree house. She still missed the old days so much.

She turned off the lights and went to her room. There was no use trying not to think about those precious days. Back when she had friends whom had cared about her. Or had they? She yawned loudly and laid down in her bed facing the plain white ceiling and committing each crack to memory just in case her time there happened to be short.

So many thoughts went through her mind and each made her want time to stop time and rewind. She turned on her stomach and groaned. Why did she have to over hear their conversation anyway?

But Numbuh 4 said nothing... She tried convincing herself one last time, while she still stood on solid ground.

I've already told you... He was just as much apart of it as the others. He could possibly hate you the most! Her mind spat out at her.

Why aren't you ever on my side? I thought you were supposed to agree with me.

Oh...? But I am on your side Kuki, dear, I just want you to always know the truth...

Kuki thought for a minute. She could still hear her friend's voices murmuring in the back of her head. She gulped away tears that were already starting to form under her eyes.

The truth isn't always so pleasant...

For Kuki, unfortunately, the conclusion had been drawn under most unfortunate circumstances.