Well, I feel a little lonely since I only received a single review for that last chapter. But I want to thank my very loyal reader who did respond to the chapter, nightmaster000. Thanks for sticking with the story and I hope this was worth the wait. The rest of you people who are reading, feel free to give me some feedback. I love hearing your thoughts and opinions for this story. I want to know what you think of events so far.

Just so you know, future updates are likely to become increasingly sporadic from this point on. Real life is becoming increasingly busy for me.

Timmy didn't know exactly what he expected. Judging from the rest of the house, he'd assumed it would be something like AJ or Trixie's rooms. Well, if the lab components were removed. He also wouldn't be surprised to see something similar to Tootie's room, minus any destruction due to Vicky. Essentially, if he was going to expect anything, it would be something that was at least as expensive as the rest of the house and maybe pink. Pink was the typical color for imaging anything related to girls, even if he also had an affinity with the shade.

Amanda's room, however, didn't quite match his vague ideas. Compared to the rest of the expensive-looking and professionally-decorated household, it seemed rather empty and plain. The place was mostly a boring tan with a purple bedspread as the only real source of color. There was no television or computer. There was very few toys visible, most of them apparently rather old and worn out. His concerns about playing dolls were obviously not going to come to pass since the girl didn't seem to own any. Most of the personality of the space seemed to be as withdrawn and muted as the shy girl that lived here.

"Well, this isn't very exciting," remarked Cosmo, switching out of his disguise since they were alone.

"It is kind of empty," Timmy agreed.

Wanda, joining her husband floating in the middle of the room pointed out, "Not everyone has fairy godparents to poof up their every desire, you know."

"But you saw the rest of the house. Her parents have plenty of money," he explained, walking around the room. "This place should have something." He started poking around her closet and under her bed, "Dolls. Clothes. Comics. Something. It doesn't make sense. No one has a room this empty. AJ has his lab. Chester has those possums. Tootie has her stuffed animals and dolls. Vicky has her torture devices. Trixie has her make-up and hidden stash of comics. Mr. Crocker has his 'evidence' of fairies all across the walls. Everyone else has a room that says something about their personality and their interests. They have stuff that makes them happy and they have fun doing. Amanda's room is… too boring."

"Maybe her personality is just boring," suggested the boy's godfather helpfully. When Wanda glared at him, Cosmo blinked and asked, "What? What'd I say?"

Poof abruptly laughed cheerfully and appeared next to the girl's bed. The infant had apparently spotted the teddy bear resting against the pillow and liked it. The young fairy picked up the toy and began to hug it tightly.

"Put it back, Poof," Timmy requested. "That isn't yours and Amanda will probably be back soon."

"No," stated the infant, hugging the toy closer.

Wanda floated over to her baby and urged, "Poof, come on. Put it back."

"I'll wish you up a teddy bear just like it when we get home," the boy promised his god-brother. "Just put her toy back."

"Poof poof," he sighed, finally relinquishing his grip.

The young fairy let go just as the door began to open. The three floating figures vanished in a poof. The brunette girl slipped in, looking a little nervous. Timmy quickly smiled innocently at her, trying to give the impression he hadn't just been rummaging around through her stuff and essentially snooping.

"Hey, there you are," he commented slowly. "So… what do you want to do?"

Amanda didn't immediately answer, glancing around the room uneasily. Finally, her gaze fell on a rather meager collection of board games. Hesitantly, the girl walked over and pulled one out.

"Do you want to play checkers?"

There was something about this situation that she didn't like. Wanda was rather efficient at spotting impending disaster or noticing a fatal flaw in a plan. This habit of identifying problems before they became obvious might lead her to being referred to as a "nag," but her highly-developed maternal instinct and intuition was right more often than not. And right now, she knew there was something that was making her uneasy and protective. She didn't know what was wrong or who she was supposed to be protecting, but that didn't stop the fairy from experiencing the sensation of unease.

Currently, she and her family were disguised as some decorative pins on Timmy's backpack. From their position, Wanda could easily observe the game and ponder about her difficult-to-identify concerns. It wasn't so much that she was suspicious of any real threat from the girl who was currently taking one of her godchild's pieces. Amanda seemed like a rather sweet and lonely kid and the fairy was rather proud of Timmy for extending his friendship to her. Something about her nearly empty room, her difficulty with meeting anyone's gaze, and how she barely reacted to both Francis's bullying and Vicky's tormenting made Wanda want to pat the child on the back and tell her it was going to be all right. That could at least be part of the protective instinct the godmother was experiencing. The entire fairy species had the basic trait of being caring about children; it was why they became godparents.

But it wasn't the entire cause. Even if Wanda felt some maternal instinctive urge towards the shy child, most of her protective reactions tended to center on Cosmo, Poof, and Timmy. And the unexplained apprehension made her nervous about their safety. There was something familiar and worrying that she couldn't quite name. There wasn't anything wrong with the girl, but there was some invisible force that seemed to linger around her that left the fairy anxious. It vaguely reminded her of how Timmy, and those closest to him, now had traces of magic from prolonged exposure to Cosmo, Poof, and her. But it wasn't fairy magic that she was barely detecting around the girl. She couldn't even be certain it was magic that she was picking up on. All Wanda could say for certain was that there was a secret surrounding Amanda and it could be very bad for her family. Of course, she might be blowing the entire situation out of proportions, but she would feel better if she could know for certain.

Even though she knew Timmy's first choice wouldn't be to play checkers all afternoon, the disguised fairy could see that the boy was getting into the game. His desire to win was causing the pink-hatted child to concentrate on his red game pieces as intently as he would his Crash Nebula video game. With a look of triumph, Timmy took one of the girl's pieces off the board.

"Beat that," he challenged.

With a small grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, Amanda jumped two of his pieces and remarked, "King me."

Wanda watched her godchild blink in surprise, glancing at the board in an attempt to figure out how the brunette girl made her move, before grinning back.

"Okay, but I'll still win."

As much faith as she had in the boy and his ability to gain a victory in even the most dire of circumstances, even Wanda had her doubts about his chances of success. At the moment, Timmy was trying to use his remaining three pieces to beat the nine pieces that the girl still possessed.

Checkers, while not as difficult as chess, were clearly not his game. Amanda had captured the last of his red game pieces, destroying any chance of victory for the boy. But he didn't mind too much. He could always try beating her on video games at his house another day. If their next challenge was one he was more familiar and experienced with, he could probably win.

"That was fun," he commented. "What do you want to do now? Play again or try something new?"

The girl seemed to consider the idea for a moment before suggesting, "Do you want a snack? I can get you something to eat if you want."

Timmy, not having any better ideas and feeling a little hungry, nodded in response. The girl smiled a little and stood up, adjusting her backpack to a more comfortable position. Why she was still wearing the thing in her own house, the boy didn't know. Mostly, he decided to just go with it. Everyone had their quirks. At least hers didn't seem to be too dangerous or weird.

The brunette girl lead him back towards the living room, which was still rather fancy and contrasted sharply with the girl's more humble room. This time, his eyes were drawn towards some type of shiny metal object sitting on the glass coffee table. It was vaguely human-shaped and made of some type of reflective chrome that was practically mirror-like. Timmy knew that, if Cosmo wasn't currently disguised as a pin on his backpack, the green-haired fairy would want to poke it. The boy could understand the impulse; what kind of people used such weird, expensive, and shiny knickknacks to decorate the place. It wasn't even that good-looking. It was actually a little creepy, but the shininess made it difficult to look away. Maybe he'd been spending too much time around Cosmo. Plus, the reflective surface worked a lot like a funhouse mirror and at the right angle it made his teeth look normal sized.

"Your parents have weird taste," Timmy remarked, poking the metal thing gently.

"Please don't…," began Amanda urgently, but the front door opened before she could finish.

A brunette woman, clearly the girl's mother, walked into the room while continuing to speak into her cell phone with barely a glance towards the children. She wore a business suit and gave every impression of being a working professional. She was halfway across the room before the adult even paused.

"Hang on, Mr. Jacobson. I have to take care of something," the woman stated before putting her cell on hold. Then, she looked at Timmy and asked, "Why is there a strange child in my home and leaving grimy fingerprints everywhere?"

"Sorry, it's my fault," mumbled Amanda quickly, her eyes instantly dropping to the ground and her turtleneck was tugged higher up. "I'm sorry. He's… my friend from school. I'll clean up. I'm sorry."

The boy wanted to point out that he'd barely touched the weird statue, but he managed to avoid his immediate reaction. The brunette girl seemed to think she was in trouble with her parent. He didn't want to make things worse.

Amanda's mother glanced briefly at the girl, her expression seemingly confused by her daughter's presence, before complaining, "We did not buy this house in order to let untold numbers of troublesome children rampage through the place, getting in the way and causing problems. I don't need this. I don't have the time to deal with another child in the household, especially one I don't have to." She picked up a stack of papers from the table and began heading towards the door, muttering under her breath, "I'm going to be late now and I really don't want to deal with this headache."

"I'm sorry," the girl repeated, seeming to shrink down further.

The woman, not reacting to her daughter's words and barely seeming to acknowledge the continued presence of the two children, pulled back out her phone and restarted her earlier conversation, "I'm back. Sorry, but the girl was wasting my time again. I have the documents with me and it looks like…"

Timmy lost track of the rest of the adult's discussion as she left through the front door. It wasn't like he was interested in what she saying anyway. The woman was, as far as the boy was concerned, not worth his time.

Amanda, however, did deserve his attention. The brunette girl was practically hiding in her turtleneck again and her eyes hadn't left the ground since her parent arrived. She was wearing the exact same resigned and hopeless expression across her face that she'd adopted when Francis confronted her. It was a little depressing to see a child reacting the same way to her parent as she did to a bully.

"You okay?" the pink-hatted boy asked carefully.

"I shouldn't have done it," she mumbled. "I'm not supposed to get in the way or waste their time." Her voice was so low that he couldn't be certain if the girl was actually addressing him with her statements. "They're busy people with busy lives. I shouldn't bother them. I'm not supposed to be a burden."

Timmy, getting a little concern with the tone of voice and the words coming out of her mouth, quickly pointed out, "Hey, it was my idea to come over. I didn't mean to get you in trouble or anything, but this isn't your fault. And it took your mom like thirty seconds to complain, so it didn't really waste much of her time. She's overreacting."

"I can't waste their time," Amanda stated firmly, sounding like it was absolutely vital. "I can't do that, Timmy. I have to stay out of their way, I can't bother them, and I can't be a burden. They are busy people with busy lives and they don't want anyone to interfere with that."

"Calm down," he urged. "Don't worry."

"Poor kid," murmured Wanda from her disguised position on his backpack.

Trying to devise a way to deal with the obvious distress that Amanda was suffering, the boy asked, "How about I help you clean up whatever the problem is? And we'll just go to my house next time. Vicky isn't there all the time. Tomorrow should be safe."

"You… still want… No, I can clean up. But… if you still want to… tomorrow? Really?" she whispered slowly.

"Sure," Timmy nodded, seeing a little of her tension fading. "How about two o'clock in the afternoon? It'll give me time to make certain that there are no evil babysitters involved."

Meeting his eyes for just a moment, Amanda hesitantly responded, "Okay. Thank you."

He could tell that it was probably time for him to leave. As soon as he headed out, waving at the girl right before slipping out the door, a trio of colorful felines appeared on the lawn. While most people would neither notice nor care about the expression on a cat's face, Timmy could see that his godparents were equally concerned by what just transpired.

"Please tell me if I'm missing anything so far," the bucked-tooth boy requested. "Amanda lacks the survival instinct to run from bullies. She points out that the fact I have a babysitter at all, even if it is Vicky, is a sign that my parents love me." Each statement was marked off on his fingers as he walked down the sidewalk with the disguised fairies. "Before she met me, she claims she never had any friends, which is something not even Elmer can say. Her house is full of expensive junk, but her room is practically empty in comparison. She freaks out about 'wasting her parent's time or getting in the way,' which her mom even complains about in front of Amanda." He paused a moment, mentally adding all these depressing factors up before remarking, "And yet, despite all of that, there is no sign of weirdly-colored birds, ferrets, hamsters, or fish in that household. Is there something wrong with this picture?"

Timmy knew that they couldn't just tell him if a kid had fairies. He was supposed to figure it out on his own, though they could confirm or deny his suspicions. But everything he knew about how the godparents were assigned to a child suggested that either Amanda should have one or she'd already lost a fairy. Remy had parents who never spent time with him. Crocker, when he was a kid, had a busy mother and an evil babysitter. And he certainly knew why he was considered miserable. If they qualified to have fairies, then surely Amanda had earned that same right. And yet, there was no real evidence that the girl had any godparents.

"Sorry, Sport, I don't know what to tell you," Wanda remarked. "I could double-check the records back in Fairy World, but as far as I know, she's not anyone's godchild and never has been one."

"Maybe she needs a banjo," suggested the green cat. "It worked for Chester. Temporarily."

The boy frowned thoughtfully as he contemplated possible explanations, "Well, Tootie isn't usually miserable enough to qualify, even if she does live with Vicky. Not to mention that keeping a secret isn't her strong point since Tootie can't help announcing her love for me in the most annoying and noticeable fashion. So, even with all those rather depressing parts of her life, Amanda is either not quite miserable enough for a fairy godparent or she's too big a risk concerning secrecy. Thus, no fairies."

"That would be my guess," the pink feline nodded. "From what I've seen so far, she certainly deserves them."

He really shouldn't feel guilty. None of this was his fault. But if he considered how much he had to be thankful for and how she didn't seem to have the same opportunity when she had every right to have godparents, it didn't seem fair.

"Maybe we should point her out to Jorgen some time," Cosmo proposed.

"No way," answered Timmy quickly. "He might volunteer to do the job himself. One day of his extreme wishes would probably kill Amanda." He shook his head at the memories of his own experience with the extremely-muscular fairy and his ideas of fun. "So what do we do? Ignore it and pretend it is none of our business? Try a few subtle wishes to improve stuff? Loan you guys to her some time?"

"I don't know," Wanda remarked. "There are no easy answers. We're supposed to help those children who need us, but some still slip through the cracks for one reason or another. You don't have to make any major decisions now, but I think you're already making things better for her by simply being a friend."

"I thought she was a 'trial-basis back-up friend'," corrected the green feline.

Timmy considered for a moment before stating, "I think I'm going to knock off the 'trial-basis' part."

While he'd originally been rather concerned by how close he could have come to being exposed due to Turner being at Amanda's house, Norm was currently in a rather good mood. Crystal had not been too disturbed by his abrupt departure and there had been no further interruption for the rest of the night. He'd left early that morning to pick up a bagel for breakfast, but he was quite certain that she'd be happy to see him again in the future.

Gonging into the girl's house, he knew that Amanda would already be cleaning and her parents would be gone. Saturdays were fairly predictable. Thus, he felt confident appearing in the middle of the living room with his breakfast.

Spotting the brunette child cleaning the glass coffee table, her head down as she focused on her work, the genie called to her cheerfully, "Hey, kid. Have a good time?"

"Kind of," Amanda responded hesitantly, never even pausing with her chore. "We played checkers and I won."

"Always knew you were smarter than Turner."

"But then… Mom came home to pick up some papers."

Norm cringed in sympathy for the girl. He didn't know what might have happened. He didn't have enough experience with the adult to know for certain what their reaction might be, but his vast experience with a variety of humans was enough for him to make a general predication. The fact that she hadn't looked up yet also lent weight to the theory that the parent's behavior towards the child hadn't been pleasant.

"And?" he prompted, trying to gauge the emotional damage to his master.

"I shouldn't have said 'yes.' Timmy said it was his idea and his fault, but I should have known better. It's my fault. I'm not supposed to cause problems or get in the way or be a burden," she explained hurriedly. "But him being my friend meant he ended up bothering Mom. Which means I was causing problems."

"Hey, calm down," pleaded Norm as she began to sound frantic. "As much as I'd rather not agree with Turner, I don't think whatever happened to bug your mom would be your fault. Humans have the freedom to make their own stupid choices. And I'm rather fond of the idea of blaming the entire mess on Turner."

Taking a deep breath and apparently trying to compose herself, Amanda continued, "He said we could play at his house for now on. That way, Mom and Dad won't be bothered. But if I'm already causing problems after only a week, then maybe I was right and I don't deserve to have friends. He invited me over this afternoon to his house, but I don't know if I should go."

Once more, he was being offered the perfect opportunity to keep Turner and the girl separated. All it would take would be a few choice words. Manipulating people was so easy for him and he had no doubts that he could convince her it was for the best. She'd probably even make the decision even if he didn't say a word. Silence could be equally effective in dividing the pair and making his life infinitely simpler. Instead, the genie decided that Mars was too good a fate for the girl's parents and gave into the strong impulse to do what was actually best for the kid.

"Sorry to end the whole 'drowning in guilt' thing you're working on over there, but I think you're making a mistake if you believe that one little freak out from your mom or whatever happened means that you shouldn't hang out with Turner," he commented. "Regardless of anything else, you were far too happy when you first met the boy to just give up. And even if you refuse to believe this rather obvious fact, you do have the right to be happy."

"But…"

Norm quickly interrupted, "Forget about your parents for a second. If your mother didn't stumble upon the both of you yesterday, would you have accepted Turner's invitation?"

She hesitated a moment, clearly conflicted, but she eventually nodded. A weak smile even began to form on her face. The girl was beginning to get past whatever doubts her mother had caused the day before. Or at least, she was trying to.

"So that's settled. And if you plan on running off to Turner's house this afternoon," he remarked casually, "then we'll have to hurry things along if we're going to have time for a game of chess."

The genie snapped his fingers and every speck of dust vanished from the household with a gong. All the mirrors reflected back without a smudge and all forms of lint and dirt disappeared from the floor. Since Amanda wouldn't do anything else until the house was clean, Norm had sped up the process. He wanted to enjoy a game of chess against the girl and this was the only way to have enough time before she left. Helping her clean was practical.

"Come on, kid," taunted the genie in a good-natured fashion. "Let's see how long it takes you to lose this time."

A little shorter than usual, but this is the ideal point to stop. I certainly hope that none of you are too disappointed by the length. Hopefully the next one will be a little longer to make up for it.

Okay, I don't know when the next chapter will be posted, but I'll keep working on it. I just have a lot going on currently. But your feedback makes me happy and motivates me. So please leave a review and tell me what you think.