"Should we wake him?" Ken Browning asked, as they put down the video camera.

"Well, we've got an hours worth of him asleep in his cereal," his wife replied calmly.

"Yes, that'll go nicely with the rest of the stuff 'to get back at our son when he annoys us'."

"I'm sure it will."

Alex suddenly stirred in his sleep.

"Monkeys...." he muttered drowsily.

"What's all this with the monkeys?" his dad asked, confused.

"I'm not entirely certain," Barbara replied, keeping an eye on Alex.

Alex's eyelids suddenly flickered open. He looked disorientated and confused.

"MONKEYS!!!!!!" He yelled, sitting up suddenly.

Mrs. Browning went over to comfort him. "Alex sweetie, tell us what's troubling you?"

"M-m-monkeys. They're, they're e-everywhere," he stuttered.

"Honey, I know the name of a good doctor," Ken began, putting a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "He's worked with cases likes your before, I'm sure he'll be able to help you-."

"You mean, a shrink?" Alex snapped back angrily. "You think I'm crazy?"

Ken sighed and looked to his wife. Barbara Browning shrugged in reply.

"Yeah. We do," Ken answered bluntly. "This monkey business has been going on long enough. I have had enough of being woken in the night because of you keeping guard with the aid of baseball bats."

"Yeah," Barbara replied. "So, if you can't talk to us about the problem, you can talk to Dr. Schreck instead."

"Schreck?" Alex replied. "I recognise that name."

"Oh, yeah, he's that FBI agent's brother, you know, the one's who tried to make you admit you took heroin?"

"The plane explosion people," Alex sighed sadly. He wished people wouldn't blame him.

"I know it's been hard for you since the crash," his mum soothed.

"Yeah, which reminds me," Ken interrupted suddenly. "You had the vision of Saturday's Lottery numbers yet? Cos time's ticking away boy."

Alex shook his head.

"Not yet Dad. I have had a vision of Carter falling down the stairs though. I hope that comes true."

"Now, now, Alex, you don't mean that," his mum began.

"I do."

"Carter's a nice young man."

"My arse he is," Alex answered back rudely.

"He is. He asked for that brick back politely didn't he? Such a nice boy."

"You crazy? He's horrible to everyone in sight apart from Terry Chaney. He's the most obnoxious insensitive prick I've ever met!" Alex yelled in annoyance.

"Nobody's perfect."

"Ahhhhhh!" Alex cried, frustrated and completely pissed off. "What can I do to make you listen to me?"

"All right, all right, calm down, calm down."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Alex apologised.

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," his mum replied. "I shouldn't go on like I do."

"No, I shouldn't be so rude all the time."

"Well," Ken Browning interrupted. "If this is apology time, I'm sorry for breaking your vase Barb."

"You broke my vase? I thought that was Alex's fault."

"You thought it was me who broke your vase? Why? Why did you just assume it was me?" Alex butted in.

"But I didn't-"

"Right," Ken said suddenly. "I can see I've just started a new argument here, so I'll be leaving now...."

He slipped out of the door.

Outside on the street, The Nine Inch Nails Featuring Terry Chaney were busking away.....

Carter leaned against a tree, what was left of his credibility having been taken from him. He was wearing a scruffy shirt with paint splodges all over the front, and a huge pair of faded mankified blue shorts with huge pockets on the sides. He had had massive loops put into his trainers and was wearing an old grandad's flat cap.

"Step right up," he said in a voice with about as much enthusiasm as......well, I can't be bothered to liken it to anything, but you know what I mean. "And see the groovy Nine Inch Nails performing with their latest edition.." He paused and looked at Trent. "You know, I really don't see the point of these clothes."

"If you wore your normal clothes, you'd look cooler than us," Trent replied in a matter of fact kind of way. Carter smiled as if they were paying him some kind of twisted compliment.

"Yeah," Tyler added. "You have to look crap compared to us to make us look better. Now carry on shouting. We're not paying you a cent an hour to stand there."

Carter sighed and looked to Terry. In his opinion, she looked hot in her leather trousers and jacket. It was at times like these he wished he wasn't dressed like a complete and utter dickhead. But that was the way it was, and at that point in time he had about as much chance of getting into bed with her as his parents giving up their obsession with gardening. He caught her eye and she smirked in a smug kind of way.

'Wow', Carter thought, unable to help himself from lusting after the gorgeous creature he saw infront of him. (From Carter's point of view by the way, NOT mine, to set the record straight for anyone waiting for a chance to label me as a lesbian, not to name names but you know who you are Adam and Calum.)

"Excuse me?" Trent interrupted his thoughts. "We haven't got all day you know."

"Oh, yeah, right," Carter replied sadly. He couldn't believe he had once idolised this band. They were such creeps. He was convinced that after this, unless Terry found his appearance hilariously funny, she would go off and probably get married to one of them. If any, he expected it to be Trent. He kept smiling and laughing with her as Carter stood there looking like someone stuck in an eighties time warp. Terry kept giggling and flirting back aswell. It was too much to bear.

'So this is how the Carter and Terry sage ends,' he thought poetically. 'Losing her to the lead singer of a famous rock band.'

He was suddenly brought back to the real world by Tyler waving his hand infront of his face.

"Hello?" Tyler asked in a mean kind of way. "Anybody there?"

"You're useless," Trent told him plainly. "Why did we even hire you?"

"I'm not sure," Carter replied quietly, looking down at his hideously uncool trainers. Oh yeah, he was definitely slipping further and further down the social ranking system. Right to the bottom. Pretty soon, he's be even sadder than Billy- No, wait. He already was sadder than Billy.

"You're so stupid, you know that?" Tyler insulted him. Once again, Carter snapped out of his deep thoughts. He was almost turning into the artistic poetical type that he was dressed as, but then again, I'm going into these thoughts again so I'll stop. He turned his head and looked at Terry again. She didn't notice him looking at her. Terry didn't attempt to stop them insulting him, but then again, she wasn't saying anything herself. He tried to remember why she was even being so cold towards him. He finally concluded that it was the result of his months of neglect towards her. The times he'd stood her up or been rude to her. Stuff like that.

"Oh, you're soooo fired!!" Trent shouted suddenly. Carter tried to look Trent in the eyes, but he couldn't take his eyes off Terry. He suddenly longed for her to forgive him. He wished she would just run away with him, away from the mailicous Nine Inch Nails. He wished they would run away back to his bedroom. He wanted her so bad.

"Carl, GO!" Tyler yelled, pointing across the street as if he was a puppy. "Go, get the hell out of here!"

Carter nodded slowly and took a step backwards.

"Terry?" he said dreamily, staring into her eyes. "You look really, really, really beautiful."

Then he turned and walked off down the street. He could hear the band laughing at him as he disappeared around the corner. Calling him a geek. It was actually quite weird. Before they had arrived, he was one of the coolest guys in school. It just goes to show that when a famous rock band turns up they can seriously cramp your style.

Clear finished her sketch and put down her pencil, admiring her work. She had always been good at art. She had always loved art. It was probably the only thing she had left in her life. She picked up the paper and walked over to the chest of drawers. Opening the drawer, she placed the picture face up carefully. It was a picture of Alex. She couldn't stop thinking about him. There was something about the guy. Ever since the plane explosion she'd come to realise that. She was one of the few people who didn't see him as a freak. But he probably didn't even notice her. He probably thought she was a freak. But he didn't understand. Not many people did.

Then again, do you think Clear would like him as much if she knew about his fear of plastic hanging monkeys? Me neither.