Disclaimer's: Hey, big surprise! I now own Jonny Quest! No, I'm just kidding. Review with ACTION ideas before this gets too boring...

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While the TV show makes life at the Quest Compound so action-packed that you can barely eat breakfast in peace, let me tell you something. I almost left 1 week ago and still nothing exciting has happened. There have been many interesting adventures in the VR Room, but none outside of it. Now that we all get along and Jonny's my "boyfriend" (I think), there aren't even any fights to look forward to!

The only interesting thing that's happened is Bandit somehow managed to start the hover board that Jonny left inside on the floor, fell off it, and knocked over a lamp. He's fine, by the way. Dr. Quest isn't though. That was his favorite lamp.

Now that the guys aren't avoiding me (the exact opposite o be precise), that means they swim with me. THAT means that I get teased repeatedly for not going off the diving board and since I weigh next to nothing, I get dunked constantly. Should've left when I had the chance. There is one good thing...

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"Breathe in, and out," Hadji's voice says.

Yes, you may have guessed correctly. I am meditating. Hadji has been trying to convince Jonny for years that finding his center will help him a lot; He convinced me in about 2 minutes. According to him, I already meditate to some extent. My water-soothes-me-and-all-the-problems-just-float-away thing is actually a form of finding my center. Well, if my center's in water, then I might have to live in a pool for the rest of my life. That's the purpose of this exercise. We're trying to see if I can have a center on land, too. So far, I think it's drawing a blank...

"Imagine you are in your favorite spot on Earth," Hadji said, "Now, where are you?"

"At the beach," I said.

I heard a sigh, "Now imagine you are at your favorite place that doesn't involve water."

"In a tree" I said.

"Good," Hadji said.

"So, I'm not hopeless?" I asked opening my eyes.

"Far from it," Hadji said, "Now we just need to get you out of the pine tree onto solid ground."

"How hard is that?" I asked

"Well," Hadji said, "It took me 3 years to find my center."

Great, I have less than 3 months, "Can you hurry that along?" I asked.

Hadji gave me a look like I suggested to strip and do the mambo, "I guess not." I said.

Hadji grinned and said, "You have the Western style of impatience."

"Sorry," I said.

"Don't apologize," Hadji said "We'll figure it out."

Uh-huh, right. People say that when they don't know what else to say...

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I was woken up very unpleasantly the next morning. Birds were chirping (don't they know it's too early to be perky?), the sun was shining, and... someone is yelling. Or at least talking WAY too loudly for... 10:23 in the morning. I pulled my pillow over my head and was half asleep when I heard someone say, "Go get her boy."

Oh, no I thought, I'm back at my house and they're sending the dog in to wake me up!

Half right. I wasn't at my house, but they were sending the dog in to wake me up.

"Ow," I muttered, "Bandit, I have to teach you not to do that." Memo to me, kill his master...

"Cayla, wake up!" Jonny yelled, "We're going to India."

THAT got my attention, "We're what?"

"Going to India," Jonny said, "Get up, get dressed, get some breakfast, and get packed. We leave in 2 hours."

What the heck... Wait, India! Hadji's Mom... palace... Oh, my lord, we're going to INDIA! (Yeah, I know, how observant. Nothing gets by me, let me tell you...)

I got out of bed (got tangled in my covers and fell actually) and bolted downstairs in my PJs.

"We're going to India?" I asked Hadji.

He gave me a weird look, "Yes. I have not seen my mother in some time and we thought we would go while you were here so you could meet her."

"Would you like some breakfast?" Race asked.

"Yes, please," I said, then, "Who made it?" Now, I love Jonny and Hadji dearly, but I will not touch anything they made without help. I made that mistake with pancakes...

"Me," Race said, "Your scrambled eggs are on the counter."

I managed to eat a nice calm breakfast, but the second I was done... ZOOM!

I ran upstairs to get dressed... and ran back down the steps.

"What do you wear to India?" I asked Hadji.

"Clothes," Jonny answered. Men...

"Did I ask you?" I asked. He looked hurt.

"You wear what you would wear here," Hadji said, "Just make sure it's lightweight and comfortable. It will be much hotter there."

"Thank you," I said and ran back up the steps.

I got dressed in a halter top and shorts and was packed and ready to go in an hour and 50 minutes. That left 10 minutes for Hank to load things into the jet and we could leave. Perfect...

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Well, I don't know about you, but it seems to me that whenever you want to go somewhere, it takes you longer than if you could've cared less. Therefore, the 12 hour flight to India seemed like about 12 days long. At least I behaved and didn't keep

going "Are we there yet?"

Of course that could have something to do with the fact that I slept for the last 2 hours. It felt like midnight when we got there, but it was really about 7 am over there. I hate time differences. Fortunately, Hadji's Mom didn't mind that we all looked exhausted. She sent us up to our rooms to take a nap before we did anything. I slept for 8 hours, then got up, washed up, and went out of my room in an attempt to find my way around the palace. I opened the door and got a shock. There was a guard outside my door! What did I do...

"Hello?" I said.

"Hello," the guard's English was pretty good except for the heavy accent, "You are Cayla?"

"Yes," I said.

"Come. All of your companions are with Her Majesty, waiting for you."

We walked forever. It didn't really seem that long before, but then again I was only half conscious earlier and I have the funny feeling that Race carried me the last part of the way.

The guard left me outside a door and said, "They are in there," and left.

I felt really dumb standing outside of this huge door. Was I supposed to knock or something? I decided to opt for politeness and knock. I'd rather be stupid than rude, so I knocked.

Another guard opened the door and let me in. Jonny, Hadji, Dr. Quest, and Race were sitting on pillows with Hadji's Mom. I must have been really tired because I didn't recognize her at first. Then I realized that since she was the only female there, hey, THAT'S HER!

"Hello, you must be Cayla," she said.

"Yes, I am," I said, "It's nice to meet you." My eyes were shooting Jonny and the others frantic looks: Well do I bow or something? Say Your Majesty? HELP! And of course, none of them could understand me, so I got no help whatsoever.

"Won't you please have a seat?" she asked.

I sat down on the pillow next to Jonny and sighed quietly. Today just was not my day for impressing people with my brains.

Jonny must have to sense something was wrong because he put his arm around my shoulder and I thought he was going to try to make it better but, "You look so tired. Didn't you take a nap?"

"Yes, I did!" I snapped, "Don't you think I would've been down here sooner if I wasn't sleeping?"

"Calm down," he said, "I really don't think you got enough sleep."

My response to that was shaking his arm off and moving my pillow on the other side of Race. I looked back over at Jonny who gave me a vicious look. Race and the others just looked amused. Again, today was not my day. I was tired of being tired.

"As I was saying," Race said. Oops, interrupting. Bad Cayla, "We've been really lucky the last few months. Surge and Company hasn't attacked in awhile. This vacation should give us even more time to relax. There's no way they could know we're here."

I knew it! I picked the worst possible time to be at the Quest Compound! No attacks, fighting, anything! Not that I wanted to die or anything, because that's always a possibility, but maybe a little fight?

Well, as fascinating as this was, I wanted to talk about something I understood. The adults were talking about politics and Hadji seemed to know what they meant, but Jonny seemed as confused as me.

Then, I heard, "But the children won't want to stay around the palace all day. I'll arrange for an escort to take them out into the city." Now Hadji's Mom was talking my language!

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Well, the city wasn't very interesting. The only good thing was I got a crash course in etiquette from Hadji, "We don't refer to her with title. She's a close friend of the Quest's and she is my Mother. You don't need to use a title. And don't bow. That's another unnecessary thing that you don't need to do."

"OK," I said, "I was worried about offending her."

"Mother is very easygoing," Hadji said, "It would take a lot to offend her."

"But apparently it doesn't take a lot to offend you," Jonny said to me.

"What?" I asked.

"You were so crabby today, snapping at me and moving your seat. What did I do?" he asked.

What a typical man! "You said I looked tired and you didn't think I had gotten enough sleep!" I said, "If I looked that bad, didn't it occur to you that maybe I didn't need someone to say it?"

He looked surprised, "I was concerned. If you were still tired, you could've gone back to bed. No one would've minded."

I sighed "You just don't understand."

"Apparently not," he agreed.

We didn't speak for the rest of the tour.

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Dinner was fabulous. I couldn't repeat the names of any of the dishes if I tried, but it was great. We sat in the dining room afterwards and talked about really nothing in general. I can't remember how we got o the subject, but I asked about the palace's guard, "It scared me this morning. I went outside to try to find someone familiar, and there was a huge guy outside of my room with a sword hanging from his belt."

Hadji's Mother laughed, "You did nothing wrong. We put guards outside of all guest's rooms for safety measures and he was also there to show you where we were. We didn't want you lost."

"Thanks," I said, "The palace is so big. I would never have found my way to the room you guys were in."

"Well," she said, "Jonny's room is right across from yours and Hadji's is on the right of yours. Dr. Quest and Race's are further along the passage. If you need to find your way and you don't wish to ask the guard, you'll know where to look for them."

"That's good to know," I said.

"The next few days will be more interesting," she said, "Today, I had legal problems to work out with some of the subjects."

"That's all right," I said, "Today was interesting."

"That's good," she said, "But you all look so tired. I'll have the guards accompany you to your rooms."

We all got up, "I guess this is about as safe as it gets," I said.

Then the lights went out...

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Oooh, a cliffhanger ending! What's going on? Is there an attack? Or is it merely a power outage? Review and maybe I'll write the rest... *evil laugh* Till next time...