Sofia Whitman

A few hours later, with everyone gone and my younger siblings already in bed, my parents were taking advantage of the time to resume their earlier conversation. And I was listening, crouched just outside their door.

Lucas' plan started out simply. Find out everything we can about our parents' connection to Disney. The difference between this situation and our past efforts was that our parents were so on edge that they barely noticed our suspicion. At least, it seemed they didn't.

"Finn, I want to find him as much as you do," my mom said, "But it's just hard to believe they're back. It's been so long."

"I know." Dad said, "But after everything he's done for us, we owe him this, and Wanda too."

Him. It was a man.

"We were just barely 18 when this ended. After all of these years, this shouldn't be happening."

"I think we all know by now, anything is possible."

Mom was silent for a few moments. For a second, I thought I was busted. But she spoke again.

"What are we going to tell the kids?"

Dad sighed, obviously not having thought about this. "Oliver will watch them,"

"Oliver hasn't watched them since the last issue. They are going to get suspicious."

"They, or just Sofia and Lucas?"

"Charlene says Eli is getting suspicious. She found a box of books under his bed."

"Eli? Books?"

There was a thumping sound. I think my mom hit my dad with a pillow.

"Come on, Amanda," Dad said stifling a laugh, "He's just like Maybeck. Remember when he didn't do Philby's assigned reading before the cruise?"

"That's not the point, Finn," my mom said, "Our kids could be hiding things from us."

"They're teenagers. Of course they are hiding things from us. As we are them."

"We're hiding this to keep them safe, they are doing it for personal gain,"

"Don't get so mad about it, Mandy," Dad said, in an attempt to calm her down, "We don't even know for sure if they are. Let's just focus on trying to find Wayne and remodeling tomorrow."

At this point, I decided it would be better to go to Lucas with this than risk getting caught. Mom was already worked up, and her finding me here would be hard to explain.

Lucas's room was right next to mine. It used to have a door connecting it, but my mom closed it up when we were ten, for privacy.

I don't think I could get any more confused with this new information. At least now we had a name: Wayne. And something happening tomorrow night. It was a start.

I opened the door to Lucas's room quietly. He was on his computer, scrolling through an old article. In fact, he had several tabs open, all articles with a similar theme: The Kingdom Keepers.

"Hey,"

Lucas flinched so hard I thought he was going to fall off of his chair.

"God, Sof, you can't do that to me!"

"Sorry," I said, "I thought you heard me come in."

He shook his head, his eyes back on the computer.

"What are you reading?"

"Did you know Mom also was rumored to help out the 'Kingdom Keepers'? And Aunt Jess?"

"No," I said, pulling over a chair to read as well. "But guess what I just overheard."

I told him about Wayne and the mention of something going on tomorrow night. He scrolled over to one of the other tabs.

"There's an article that mentions a 'Wayne Kresky'," Lucas said, clicking on the tab, "He's the one who came up with the DHI program. Or, at least, the idea for it."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lucas responded, "But another one," he clicked on another tab, "says he died over 20 years ago."

I frowned. That didn't make any sense. "Why would Mom and Dad be looking for a dead guy?"

Lucas shrugged.

"Dad said something weird to Mom, like something straight out of a Disney movie, 'I think we should know by now, anything is possible.'"

Lucas shut down his computer, spinning to face me with a serious look on his face.

"Sof," he said somberly, "What if all of the rumors are true?"

"They can't be. It's impossible."

"How are we possible?"

The question hit me like a truck. The conversation had turned from figuring things out to even more questions. It seemed like we picked up the dialogue from another movie, questioning how the impossible became possible. Except in those, everything that happened to the heros seemed much more probable than what was happening to us now. I didn't even want to go there. I wanted to focus on what our parents were hiding from us, not what we were hiding from them.

"Same plan?" He asked, dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Same plan." I agreed.

We texted Alex, Emma, and Eli in the morning, explaining the discovery of Wayne's name and, more importantly, that our parents were going to leave us with Uncle Oliver and go off to "remodel". Whatever that meant.

Just as the bell rang for dismissal, Alex got a text from his mom, telling him to go to our house after school. So, we all rode home together. The high schools all got out later than elementary and middle schools did, so all of our siblings were there already, including Eli's sisters. Uncle Terry was picking up Emma and Eli, so they didn't have to bike all of the way across town, despite normally doing so for movie night.

The plan was simple. We were pretty sure Uncle Oliver was going to be busy with our younger siblings, 6 of whom were under the age of 11. It worked out exactly as planned.

Just around 5, our parents headed off to wherever they were going. Emma asked her dad if we could go on a bike ride, and he agreed, already engrossed in a game of Just Dance.

We split up, using our phones to stay in touch. We didn't have to search long to find one of their cars.

"I got them on Waterlily Drive." Eli's voice came over the group call, not sounding winded at all.

"Make sure you stay back enough that they don't see you," I told him.

I pedaled quickly in that direction, meeting up with Emma on the way.

"Hold up," Eli said. "I think they're heading onto Disney property."

I knew he was right. There was nothing else in that direction I could think of that would warrant all of our parents' undivided attention. Or be a cause for them to take time off their busy schedules.

"Wait up," I told him, "We can't bike all the way there. We'll take a bus. Corner of Lexington and Marlboro."

We did just that. It took about ten minutes, but we all met up. The driver gave us a dirty look as we boarded with our bikes, but said nothing. A few minutes later, we were searching again for one of their cars.

"I've got them," This time Lucas's voice, "Backstage at Hollywood Studios."

Sending his exact coordinates with his phone, a trick Alex had figured out, we hid our bikes amongst the greenery of the forest, before heading out on foot.

"What is this place?" Emma asked quietly, despite being hidden by trees and bushes.

"Soundstages." Alex answered immediately, "Like the one where they filmed our parents for the DHI program,"

"I think this is where they filmed," Lucas said, pointing to a group of people gathered by a nearby building.

After a moment, I recognized the group as our parents. They must've had to do more security screenings than we did by sneaking onto the grounds. They were let in by someone, and the door closed. Two security men guarded the door, significantly lowering our chances of being able to get into the building.

"Dang it," Emma muttered to herself.

"There's a skylight," Lucas pointed out, "But I don't see how we could-"

"I do." Eli cut him off, pointed to a large ladder being used by a painter. It reached the roof of the building.

"We would still have to get him down," Alex said.

"Leave that to me,"

Before anyone could stop her, Emma walked confidently up to the ladder. She said something to the painter, who made his way down to talk to her. They spoke for a few moments, and the painter turned his back to us to point something out to her. Emma shot us a look like 'What are you waiting for?'.

We bolted from our hiding spot. Thankfully, the painter didn't turn back around, and the two security guards were just out of view. Safely positioned on the roof of the building, which was only about 3 stories tall, we waited for Emma. She came scurrying up, looking pleased with herself.

"How did you…?" I asked.

"I asked him where the nearest bathroom was." She explained, a little out of breath, "He said it was time for him to clock out anyways so he let me into a random building over there," she pointed to a building pretty far from ours, "I ran around the perimeter just in case someone questioned me."

"Actors…" Eli said incredulously.

I didn't fully understand the dynamics of their school, but apparently what your discipline was said a lot about your personality. According to Eli, the acting department was a group of loud, dramatic people. I thought Emma was a little too shy to fit that stereotype, but only with people other than us. She claims the visual arts department was full of quiet, reflective people, which definitely did not fit Eli's ego. I guess you have to be there to truly comprehend those groupings.

"Guys," Alex motioned to us.

He was already positioned around an open skylight. Not getting close enough to be seen by the workers below, we could barely hear the conversations of those in the room.

"What are they doing this late?" Lucas whispered.

I checked my watch: 6:37 pm. Usually most people were off or getting off work. But not these people. Taking a quick glance into the warehouse-like room, I could see at least 20 people, most manning computers or hooking up wires. I watched as another group entered, wearing green unitards. It took a few seconds before I recognized the people as our parents. I ducked back out of sight.

"They're in there," I said, "Wearing weird green suits."

Alex stole a glance, "That looks like what I read about how they modelled for the holograms,"

"Where did you read about that?" Lucas asked, "It's top-secret."

Alex turned bright red. "Definitely not on my dad's computer,"

"Should we be writing this down?" Emma asked, saving Alex from more questions from Lucas.

"Yes," he said, pulling out paper and pens from his backpack.

Lucas and Alex took everything they could see down, positioning themselves carefully so as to remain unseen by the people below. Emma went off to watch for security, while Eli and I listened intently. After about an hour, Lucas and Alex's writings slowed, and a conversation caught my attention.

"I wish this was under different circumstances," an older guy's voice said, not sounding all too sad.

"Wayne isn't just one to disappear," Dad's voice echoed up, "Not without telling anyone."

"True," the guy replied, "But I just have a hard time believing it's the Overtakers."

"They've come back before, Joe,"

"I think we all hope it's not really them," Aunt Charlene cut in.

"When will we be able to cross over?" Uncle Philby asked.

"Tomorrow," Joe said, "We can start programming tonight, but it'll take a while for it to upload into the software."

"Then I think we should cross over tonight," Dad said, obviously anxious to do whatever it is they were going to do, "Hopefully someone will have seen something,"

Lucas and Alex suddenly ducked. Eli shot them a look. Lucas mouthed, 'Dad looked up'. 'Did he see us?' I mouthed back. Lucas shrugged. The voices had stopped, either because they saw Alex and Lucas or because the little break was over. We didn't take any chances.

Carefully we made it down the ladder and back to our bikes. We pedaled quickly home, praying that Uncle Oliver didn't question how long we'd been out for. By the time we made it, it was almost 8:30. Thankfully, he didn't question our timing, or the fact that all of us were soaked in sweat from 40 minutes of continuous biking.

Back in the basement, we all collapsed into seats. We didn't say anything for a few minutes. I thought Emma might be dead. But she was the first one to break the silence.

"What are our parents into?"

She sounded so defeated. Emma always was the one who defended them. Everything they did, everything they kept from us was for a reason. But now she layed on her back, staring up at the ceiling as if it could answer the questions we had. As if it could confirm the optimistic view she had taken of the world, put everything into perspective.

"Something bad," Eli answered, simplistically.

"Agreed," Lucas said.

"It must be something big," Alex contributed, "With the Company involved."

"And they talked about the 'Overtakers'," he continued, flipping through his notes.

"What is that?" Eli asked.

"Who," Alex corrected.

"They were the group of villains that our parents supposedly 'defeated'," Lucas said.

"It all just doesn't make sense!" Alex nearly yelled, surprising everyone.

Alex was usually so easy-going, never arguing, not even stating his opinion. Now he looked almost panicked, laying upside down, eyes closed, his face getting red from the blood rushing to his scalp.

"We'll figure it out," I said, mainly to Alex.

"Wild theory," Lucas said, and I knew what he was going to say before he even said it, "What if the rumors are true?"

Eli and Emma stared at him, incredulously. Even Alex opened his eyes to look at him. Lucas continued, "What if they actually did fight the Disney villains and win."

"Those are just rumors, dude," Eli said, though not sounding so convinced.

"Think about it," Lucas went on, "What have we overheard them saying? Someone named Wayne is missing, who we think is Wayne Kresky, who died years ago and our parents are going to try to find him." he continued, speaking quicker with each passing sentence,

"Something is going to happen tonight. They all remodeled their DHI holograms. Why? Because they need to search for Wayne, the guy who came up with the program in the first place. They talked about a group who are 'back', then they mention the Overtakers, who they supposedly defeated when they were teenagers."

"Dude, you're sounding nuts," Eli told him, "There is no way our parents defeated a group of fictional characters."

"It makes sense,"

"Here's what I suggest," Alex said, sitting upright once more, "We do exactly what they did."

That brought an end to the debate.

"What?" Emma said, clearly not following.

"You heard what that guy, Joe, said. Whatever they did will be uploaded to the software tonight. If we can get in there and do exactly what they did, then that data will also be uploaded. If we're right and they remodeled their holograms, then we could also become holograms,"

He paused, obviously looking for someone to butt in. No one did.

"And if Lucas is right and the rumors are true," he continued, "then we'll also 'cross over' into the parks in our sleep."

"You're all nuts." Eli declared, leaning back on the couch.

Noone said anything. At no chorus of agreement, Eli leaned back forward. "You can't be buying this, Sof," he said to me.

I wasn't sure how to answer. It did seem a little bit far-fetched that our parents could fall asleep and wake up as their holograms at night to fight Disney villains. They weren't cool enough for that. But Lucas's rebuttal from the night before kept ringing in my head, 'How are we possible?'

"It's worth a shot," I said, "What bad can come from trying?"

"Um, getting caught sneaking out," Emma said.

For the first time I could remember, Eli and Emma agreed with each other. She was right of course. If we got caught we would be grounded and probably locked in our rooms for all eternity. Mom and Aunt Charlene were already suspicious of us because of Eli, and if they found out we snuck out, there was nothing Dad could say to get us out of it.

"Well I'm going to try," Alex announced to unbelieving looks from Emma and Eli.

"Me too," Lucas said, looking at me.

Everyone awaited my answer. I looked at Alex. He seemed confident, like he was absolutely positive he was right, and that we could do this. I took a deep breath.

"I can't not do anything," I said, "I have to figure this out."