Chapter 7

Nearly a week had passed since the Bradys' computer exploded, and life began to return to normal. The Bradys had started repairing the damage done to the living room – and spent more time doing activities that didn't involve the computer. Jan in particular tried to get used to life without it. The summer was winding down – yet it seemed almost as if it had just started. Although it seemed hard at first, Jan felt that she was adapting just fine to life without a computer. After all, she had already gone a few weeks without using the computer when she was punished.

One afternoon, Jan was playing checkers with Cindy in her room. Suddenly, Oliver burst inside.

"Guys! Guys! I think you're going to like this!" Oliver said excitedly.

The girls' eyes widened in excitement. "What? What is it?" Jan asked.

"It's downstairs," Oliver said. "Follow me!"

Jan and Cindy followed Oliver downstairs to the family room. That was when they saw their old computer sitting on the desk. To the girls' surprise, the computer case had been restored to its old beige color. In addition, the computer was actually running again!

The girls, especially Jan, smiled widely. "Oliver! You fixed it! But-but HOW?" gasped Jan.

"One of my old classmates just inherited a storage unit full of computers and computer parts. He has more than he knows what to do with, so he let me have some parts. I got some replacement parts for the computer, so now, it's all fixed!" Oliver said. "But that's not all." He pointed to the sofa – where three more '90s white box computers were sitting. "I got more computers for the family to prevent disrupting each other!"

"That's great, Oliver!" Cindy said.

"Not only did I get these extra computers to prevent future conflicts, but I also got them as a way to say I'm sorry for causing the original computer components to explode," Oliver said.

"That was so nice of you, Oliver," Jan said, "but you didn't have to do this to apologize. I know that you didn't mean it."

"Thanks, Jan," Oliver said. "We probably should let everyone else know about these computers. The arrangement I had in mind was one computer for the girls, one computer for the boys, one computer for the den, and one computer for the family room – to serve as a family computer. What do you guys think?"

"Sounds good to me," Cindy said. Jan nodded in agreement.

Oliver then gathered all members of the Brady household into the family room and showed them the new computers and the restored old computer. They all were quite happy upon seeing the computers – and accepted Oliver's proposed arrangement. Later, that evening, Oliver spent the evening setting up computers in the girls' room, the boys' room, the den, and the living room. The computer in the girls' room, of course, was the Bradys' original computer. It had a lot of sentimental value to Jan since she had spent the much of the summer using that very computer – and had also spent more time using it than any other member of the household. Because of that, it only made sense that the computer would go in the girls' room.

The next evening, about half an hour after dinner, Oliver went into the family room to watch TV. However, after about five minutes, something hit him like a ton of bricks – Jan wasn't in the room to harass him about making noise! In fact, nobody else was using the family computer. That was a pleasant surprise for Oliver. Out of curiosity, he decided to walk around the house and see what the others were up to.

Oliver first went stuck his head into the den. Sure enough, Mike was sitting in front of his computer, which was sitting on his drafting table.

"Hey, Uncle Mike, can I come in?" Oliver asked.

Mike turned around in his chair and smiled warmly. "Sure, Oliver!" he said.

Oliver entered the den. "I see you're enjoying your new computer," the boy said.

"I am," Mike said. "These things are amazing! I can actually make sketches a lot faster and easier on the computer! We should have gotten a computer years ago! Thanks again, Oliver."

"No problem, Uncle Mike," Oliver said. "I'm glad you like it."

With that, the boy left the den and went upstairs to the room that he shared with Peter and Bobby. Upon entering, he found that Greg was also there. Playing from the computer speakers was a MIDI of "Everybody Loves a Clown." Bobby was sitting in front of the computer, which had been set up on the boys' desk, while Peter and Greg stood next to him – watching their brother mining gold in a flash game. The boys then realized that Oliver had come in and smiled at him.

"Hey, Oliver, it's so awesome having our own computer!" Peter said. "Now, we don't have to fight Jan for it!" The boys all laughed.

"Oh, and check this out!" Bobby said – minimizing the AOL window – revealing a picture of Jean-Luc Picard aboard the USS Enterprise. "I installed a Star Trek theme! The computer will make noises like the ones on the spaceship, so it's almost like we're on there, too!"

"Cool!" Oliver said. "I'm glad to see that you guys are enjoying your computer."

Oliver left the boys' room and went into the girls' room. Marcia and Cindy were sitting in front of the computer – playing Minesweeper. He not only noticed that the girls' computer was using the theme "The 60's USA" – but also that Jan was not present.

"Where's Jan?" Oliver asked.

"She went to spend some time with Kerry Hathaway," Marcia said.

"Well, that's amazing!" Oliver said. "You'd think that she'd want to spend more time on the computer now that summer's almost over and now that she doesn't have to fight over it as much. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are enjoying your computer. I'll see you later." With that, Oliver headed downstairs to resume watching TV.

Later that night, one of the double doors slowly creaked open as Jan entered the dark house. She quietly shut and locked the door and crept up the stairs – hoping not to wake anyone. She had stayed at Kerry's house much later than planned. Since Jan had been so preoccupied with the computer, she barely talked to Kerry all summer. She was glad to have spent the evening with her. The two had so much fun together that Jan had forgotten all about the computer.

That changed, however, when Jan entered her bedroom and turned on a lamp. There, sitting on the girls' desk, was the computer that Mike bought the family earlier that summer. Jan sighed in nostalgia just thinking about it. In just one summer, Jan and the other Bradys had so many memorable experiences on that computer. Jan was tempted to use it some more, but she felt tired – and didn't want to risk getting addicted to the computer again – not after she remembered how much fun she had with Kerry. Jan alternated between looking at the computer and her bed – trying to make up her mind as to what she was going to do.

A few minutes later, Jan reentered her bedroom with a glass of Pepsi and a bowl of Oreos. She then turned on the computer and took a seat in front of it. Once Windows 95 had loaded, Jan inserted two disks. One was the Warcraft II CD-ROM, and the other was a CD, given to her by Kerry, with a number of old songs including "Aquarius." Jan put the audio CD into a second CD-ROM drive that Oliver had installed. Jan plugged in some earphones so that the computer sounds wouldn't disturb her sleeping sisters.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Jan finally was playing Warcraft II again. She quickly remembered how much she enjoyed playing it – and how engaging the gameplay was. Jan drank some Pepsi and ate some Oreos as she played in the last level of the game: The Great Portal. It was an extremely hard level, and Jan found herself having to repeat the level a few times. She felt discouraged a few times but kept playing.

By 2:30 AM, Jan had already been awake far longer than she had planned. However, all of a sudden, she jumped up and shouted, "I WON! I WON! I WON!"

Jan gasped and covered her mouth – remembering that everyone else in the house was asleep. Slowly but surely, the other Bradys woke up and glared at Jan irritably.

"Jan, what's going on?" Mike asked irritably.

Jan grinned sheepishly. "I…uh…won the game…?"

"It's about time," Greg snorted. "Maybe now you can actually go to sleep!"

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," Jan agreed. "Good night, everyone! Sorry to wake you all!"

As the other Bradys went back to their beds to sleep, Oliver looked at his roommates and said, "And here I thought that Jan was getting over her computer addiction. I guess some things never change!"

The End