This chapter will prove to you that in fact Kiwi is in this story.

"So," I began three days later. "What are you guys up to today?" I was walking with Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremie toward the school gate.

"My mom has been bugging me to help her clean the house all week. See ya later!" Yumi skipped out the gate and headed home.

"Bye."

"See ya."

I turned to the guys, "What about you?"

"Sorry, I got this extra curricular programming project to work on." Jeremie waved and turned his back to me and Ulrich.

"You?"

Ulrich scratched the back of his neck. "Soccer." And he was off too.

I shrugged to myself. Hey, there's always ONE place I can go. Lili's place.

%%%

What?! At the tree, I find not Lili, but a little slip of paper. It says, 'Come around the back' . Well–well okay.

Tentatively, I crept through the fence-hole and tiptoed around the eerie mansion. I've never been to the back before.

Just then I heard barking. It wasn't that far away. I bit my lip. Taking a deep breath, I peeked around the corner of the house.

Huh, nothing. Casually, I stepped out of my hiding spot and inspected the area.

Just then mad barking started closing in on me!

"Aaaa!" I yelped, doing my standard procedure of jumping onto a tree. But of course, they were still after me.

Someone whistled, and the danes stopped clawing at me.

"Lili!" I exclaimed. And there she was, sitting on a porch (behind the wall) I hadn't noticed before. The dogs rushed to her like they were innocent puppies, tongues hanging out and tails wagging.

Lili laughed and rubbed their heads. "I see you've met Kankerlot and Krabe." She had on a slightly different dress this time, more pink, and had another smaller pooch on her lap.

I slid down the tree, landing on the ground with a little thump.

"Crab and Kanakerlot? Where did you get those names?" I asked.

She shrugged, "My dad named them. And Krabe is spelled,with a 'K' instead of a 'C' and an 'E' on the end."

I glanced at the dogs, "Are they gonna bite my head off?"

She laughed again, "Not if I can help it."

I smiled lightly. "What about that one?"

"Oh this one?" She got up, scooping up the little lap dog in her arms. "This is Kiwi."

"Kiwi? What bizarre names," I noted the obvious.

"Aww but there so nice to have around. Come on, come say hello," she grabbed my wrist and pulled me over.

"Nice to have around? Well I don't know about the little one but the other two seem to have it in for me."

"You just have to get to know them. And they have names you know," Lili said, sitting down again. She tapped the porch, where I should sit down. And I did.

At first, the two big dogs growled at me a little, then they eased up, and I pet them. I had to admit, they are kinda nice.

"So how do you tell them apart? They look the same to me," I asked Lili. "I mean Kankerlot and Krabe."

She looked pleased that I started using their names. "Well, first of all Kankerlot is smaller than Krabe. Second of all, Krabe has some reddish-orange fur coming in. See?" She pointed to the large dog's back, which in fact did shine reddish orange.

"Huh," I stood corrected.

The little dog noticed me and wriggled off of Lili's lap onto mine. It was weird, but he just casually lay down on me. He was so small, yet not fragile looking.

"He likes you," Lili said.

I smiled and pet Kiwi.

"What breed is he?"

"I know, it so hard to tell. Mostly Bull Terrier."

"Mostly?"

"Well that's what dad says. But I still think he's a little bit chihuahua." She giggled. "Just a little bit."

"Why?" I asked Lili.

"He's so small! Didn't you notice?" She patted his head. "And also his face. Just a little bit."

Neither of us spoke for a minute. Don't get me wrong, it was kind of nice. You know, sunny day, cool porch, funny dogs and happy us. Is there a better scenario?

Kiwi hopped off my lap. "So, let me guess, you also have a parrot named monkey right? And a slug named caterpillar?" I joked.

She shook her pink head of hair. "But I do have a humming bird named Hornet."

"Really?" I asked.

"Mmmhmm," she said. Hummed, I guess. "Although that little pointy nose–mouth, long thing is kind of weird."

"I know what you mean." I nodded.

"And I also keep an aquarium." She added.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup. I've got an eel, named Kongre. And a miniature shark, named Shark, a little manta ray called Manta, and a baby squid named Kalamar. And we've also got a jellyfish."

"A jellyfish?" I asked in surprise.

"He's called Scyphozoa. But I don't really like him. He's really creepy and gives me the heebie-jeebies." Lili shuddered at the thought.

"Boy, you sure do have a lot of exotic companions," I noted.

I think I just got her started. "Oh that's not all! I've also got," Oh no, I thought, this list isn't ever going to end. "Block, the Persian cat, and in separate terrariums there's Creeper, the Boa Constricter, and Tarantula."

"Let me guess, Tarantula is a gecko right?" I had caught on here.

Lili looked at me blankly. "No, he's a tarantula."

"Named Tarantula?"

"Yes, a tarantula named Tarantula."

"A tarantula named Tarantula?" I repeated.

"Yes, a tarantula named Tarantula! Have you got a problem with my tarantula named Tarantula?" She asked jokingly.

"No," I replied, playing along. "I have no problem with your tarantula named Tarantula."

She laughed, falling backward on the porch. "Good!"

I laughed too, and lay back onto the porch with her.

"So where is your dad? And the rest of your family?" I asked after the laughter died down.

"My dad IS my family." She said, looking straight up.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I felt bad.

"That's okay," she sighed sadly. "Anyway, my dad is at his lab."

"You mean in the house?" I was slightly confused.

"No. I think he's got some kind of underground tunnel or something to get there because I never see him leaving." She looked at me, looking like she was recalling that detail.

"Huh," I stared back up at the bland ceiling of the roof over the porch. And I'm guessing so did Lili.

Suddenly she started giggling, like nuts.

Looking over I see Kiwi, licking her face happily.

"No, Kiwi! Stop," She says in between giggles and pushed his face away.

I smiled. "Do these guys like playing games?"

She stared at me, a little confused like at first. But soon enough, Lili had found a stray tennis ball and we were taking turns playing variations of fetch with the dogs.

%%%

Before I knew it, the sun starts setting.

Lili stoped playing for a minute. "Hey," She calls, "Don't you have to go soon?"

I glanced into through the trees into the sunset. "Yeah," I replied, kind of disappointed.

She noticed I wasn't too happy about that. "Don't worry. This definitely isn't goodbye."

I smiled, waving to Lili and giving the dogs one last pat before weaving into the forest. My feet were on the ground yet my head was in the clouds. I couldn't help reminiscing how nicely my afternoon had gone, after starting out so bleak.

~~END~~

AUTHORS NOTE

YAYS! Thanks so much for the awesome reviews! Just giving you a heads up here, the next three chapters are kind of meant to be read all at once, so it might seem like a cliffhanger. Either way, hope you enjoy.