Author's Note: I apologize for the fact that this chapter doesn't have a lot happening… it was necessary to have a bridge chapter that leads to the next part. There is a bit of character development in this though, which may lead you to understand some of the characters a little better. As always, keep on reviewing, but NO FLAMES!!!! Constructive criticism is okay, but don't be mean, cuz well, mean people suck… hehe! And as always, keep the praise coming too!

Disclaimer: I'm broke, don't sue!

Actual disclaimer: Hasbro, Sunbow, Marvel, and everyone else own G.I. Joe. I own nothing except the children I created.

June 21, 1986

7:00AM

Abby awoke to hear someone pounding on the door leading to the quarters she'd been given for the night. She was going to wait for Kaelin or Carla to answer the door because they were morning people, but when no one answered the door, she decided to get up and answer the door herself. She was surprised to see Kaelin on the other side. "Kay, how early did you get up this morning?" Abby asked with a yawn.

"About two," she said sleepily. "I'm ready to crash for a while."

"What are you talking about?" Abby asked her.

"Cole and I went with Mainframe to go meet with our 'mother,'" Kaelin said, her voice registering contempt as she said "mother."

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing," Abby said. "You and your mom are pretty close, aren't you?"

"I thought so, but it turns out that our entire lives are complete lies."

Abby looked completely confused. "You lost me."

"Mom works for Cobra," Kaelin said simply.

Abby was awake now. "What?" she asked in disbelief.

"That's what I said. We had to meet with her in a dark warehouse in the middle of the night and she completely denied anything was going on at first. And then Dad told her about Cole and I and well… she spilled everything." Abby could see that Kaelin was crying.

Abby put an arm around her friend's shoulder and led her to a couch in the main area of the room. "Everything? What do you mean?" she said gently.

Before Kaelin could answer, there was another knock on the door. Abby excused herself and went to answer the door again. Cover Girl was standing on the opposite side. "Good morning," she greeted Abby. "Is everyone else up already?"

"Just me," Kaelin said. "But I'm going to bed now."

Cover Girl nodded. "No problem. Mainframe already told us about his little trip last night."

"He's not going to get in any trouble, is he?" Kaelin asked worriedly. "Because I don't want him to get in trouble on account of the fact that-"

"It's okay. He showed Hawk the picture and your mother seems to be cooperating with us for now," Cover Girl told him. "Just go ahead and get yourself some sleep."

"What are you doing here this early?" Abby asked as she watched Kaelin's retreating form.

"Checking on you girls. Breakfast is being served now too," Cover Girl said. "If any of you girls are hungry, I'd get some food now. And just a piece of advice," she added, "the cereal is usually pretty safe. I can't make any guarantees on the rest of the food though."

Abby giggled at that. "That's the same promise we hear from the ladies in the school cafeteria."

Cassandra came into the room then, still dressed in the same blue jeans and pale pink blouse she had been wearing the day before. Like Abby and the rest of the girls, she had been forced to sleep in the clothes she had been wearing when she showed up in the past and was feeling rather dirty, and was in desperate need for a shower.

"Excuse me, Abigail," she said to Abby. She stepped in front of Abby and spoke directly to Cover Girl. "Do you happen to know where I could get some toiletries so I can take a decent shower?"

"What exactly do you need?"

"Let's see. I'll need some shampoo, conditioner, a facial cleanser, moisturizer, body sponge, body wash-"

"This is a military base, not the Four Seasons," Cover Girl said flatly. "I can get you shampoo and a bar of soap and that's it. Whatever else you need we'll buy at the store later."

Cassandra looked like someone had slapped her across the face. She was used to getting what she wanted when she wanted it and didn't enjoy being told that she couldn't. She conceded however, as she realized she was in some strange circumstances, and the promise of being able to remedy the problem later in the day pleased her. "I suppose that's acceptable," Cassandra said with a nod of her head. "When are we going shopping?"

"Later."

"When?"

"You'll find out when we go," Cover Girl told her, growing more exasperated with each passing second of talking to Cassandra. "In the meantime, go find your mother. I'm sure she can help you find the stuff you need." After giving Cassandra directions of how to get to Lady Jaye's quarters, she watched the teenage girl disappear down the corridor, then turned back to Abby, who was still standing in the room and had a look of disgust on her face.

"How can you stand her?" Cover Girl asked.

"We don't. We try to avoid her whenever possible," Abby said. "Last month, the night before my sweet sixteen party, I had a sleepover party at my house for all the girls- you know, Kaelin and Carla and Hallie and the crew, not my friends from school- but Beth and I carefully neglected to invite Cassandra. She ended up showing up for a few minutes anyway, and started this fight between her and Hallie."

"Well, don't tell her parents this, but Cassandra seems like a snotty little spoiled brat."

Abby grinned from ear to ear. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Hallie stepped into the room then, clad in a brand new pair of blue and white shorts and a matching blue tank top, with white Steve Madden thong sandals. Her hair was still wet from her shower. "Does anyone have a hair dryer I could borrow?" she asked.

"What did you wash your hair with?" Abby asked her.

"Oh, I picked up a new bottle of shampoo yesterday at the CVS in Quincy Market," Hallie told her. "The big bottle of Herbal Essences was on sale."

"Cassandra doesn't know you have shampoo, does she?" Abby said knowingly.

"Ha!" Hallie laughed. "She'll know… when hell freezes over. Do you like the new outfit?"

"Love it," Abby grinned. "Can I borrow some of that shampoo?"

"Sure. Just wait for Carla to finish her shower," Hallie told her.

"Thanks, babe," Abby said.

"Tell Beth she can use it too."

"I'm going to guess that you aren't too fond of Cassandra either?" Cover Girl asked Hallie.

Hallie bristled at the mention of Cassandra. "If there is one person on this planet that I cannot stand, it's Cassandra. I mean, I've had my fair share of dealing with prissy little girly girl brats at my school, but Cassandra makes them all look like saints. She's rude and nasty and snobby and thinks that just because she's treated like royalty by everyone around her, she can treat everyone else like dirt. I mean, just look at how she treats Carla."

Abby nodded. She knew just as well as Hallie how difficult Carla had it at school especially when dealing with Cassandra and her privileged group of friends. "Cassandra treats Carla like dirt at school all the time," Abby said to Cover Girl.

"They go to the same school?"

"Boarding school," Hallie said, crinkling her nose. "Cassandra lives on campus but Carla is a day student- she goes home every day. And for some reason, Cassandra thinks less of her because of it, like she's not good enough to be going to Andover or something."

"And you and Carla are close friends?" Cover Girl asked her.

"Best friends," Hallie said. "We understand each other in ways that most other people don't. Both of us go to schools where people just don't understand or accept us for who we are as people. The two of us can relate to each other in that respect. And thank god we only live an hour away from each other because it would be horrible otherwise."

"Wouldn't it already be hard to see one another?"

"It is. But during the summer it's great. We pretty much spend the summer with one another and now that we're working on getting our licenses, we'll be seeing each other a hell of a lot more since we won't have to rely on our parents to drive us back and forth." Hallie grinned at the thought of that.

Carla came out of the bathroom then, wearing a new pale yellow tank top, white shorts, and new white sneakers. "You know, I'm pretty happy that we were zapped after we did all this shopping," she said with a grin. "I've got enough new outfits for the next week from that trip."

"And shoes to match!" Hallie said with a laugh.

Abby cut in on their conversation. "Carla, is that shampoo still in the shower?"

"Yeah, why?"

"We have shampoo?" Beth's sleepy voice chimed in. She had just stumbled into the room, hair looking completely rumpled and clothes wrinkled from having slept in them.

"Yeah, Hallie had it in her mass of shopping bags. And you are so lending me an outfit to wear cuz I am sure as hell not wearing this again today. But first, DIBS ON THE BATHROOM!" Abby cried out. Before Beth could protest, Abby made a mad dash for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and immediately starting the water.

"Hair dryer?" Hallie asked everyone expectantly.

"I'll get one," Cover Girl offered. "In the meantime, the rest of you should get yourselves ready, then get some food. You have a busy day ahead."

!!!!!!!!

June 21, 1986

4:00PM

After getting some lunch in the mess hall (which Annie had described as government surplus food at its worst), the teenagers had been split into groups to go to the local shopping mall to get themselves some new clothes and some personal hygiene items. Abby, Beth, Dave, Emily, and A.J. had been grouped with Cover Girl for the trip. All the kids had gotten quite a shock when they walked into the eighties version of the Gap and felt like they had all walked into a time warp. A.J. actually walked up to one of the workers in the store, who had blond curly hair that was pulled up in a ponytail on the side of her head and an off the shoulder white tank top under a black fishnet shirt and tight cut up jean shorts over black leggings, and black stiletto heels, with her face heavily made up, and asked if she was Madonna. She laughed and told him no, but he burst into his own version of "Like a Virgin," and asked for her autograph.

After that experience, they ended up finding some decent clothes, although many things were items they wouldn't have been caught dead in at home, and made their way back to the base and looked through their clothes.

"I can't believe that they wore their jeans this tight," Emily complained as she looked in the mirror. All the kids had agreed they needed to leave the mall looking like they belonged in the 1980's, rather than children of the new millenium. She had pulled her curly blonde hair into a ponytail and had on a new short sleeved oversized blue tee shirt that she had tucked into her pants.

"And that they wore their clothes so big," Abby complained.

"Yeah, I feel like I can fit three of me in this shirt," Beth said, looking at her new lavender tee shirt in the mirror.

"Come on girls," Cover Girl told them, "we have to get you back to the base."

An hour later, they were back on the base, where their friends had already gotten back from their trips, and were looking rather upset by the new clothes they had found. Apparently, they weren't completely enthusiastic about the eighties style of dress either, except for A.J., who was loudly proclaiming himself to be the king of breakdancing and started spinning on the mess hall floor on his back.

"I'm hungry," Alayna proclaimed.

"Again?" Chris teased.

Alayna ignored him. "So what are we supposed to be doing for the rest of the day?"

The rest of the kids shrugged. "I don't know," said Cole. "I guess we can go outside and start a game of volleyball or go swimming or something."

"What about baseball?" Danny asked.

"Lacrosse," Abby said simply.

"Soccer," Dave added.

"Field hockey," Cassandra said.

"Football," Chris put in.

"How about come with me down to the control room?" Mainframe's voice cut in. The kids all turned around to face the door and saw Cole and Kaelin's dad standing with a gravely serious look on his face. "I need all of you to follow me," he said.

"What's wrong, Da- Mainframe?" Kaelin asked.

"You need to talk to your mother. All of you need to talk to her."

!!!!!!!!

To be continued…

AN: Why do the kids have to talk to Zarana? Well, keep reading on! I promise, a lot of questions will be answered in the next chapter pertaining to how the children's trip back in time became possible. Keep on reviewing! The feedback keeps me going! J