Yakko's "talk" with Wakko didn't really help him sleep any better. He spent a restless night in that bed, his fitful sleep filled with unsettling dreams. Finally, at precisely 6:42 (according to the clock in the guest room) Yakko just decided that now was as good as time as any to get up.

He rolled out of bed and stretched a little, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Debating weather he should wake up Wakko and Dot, he turned around and looked at the sleeping younger Warner siblings.

Dot's head rested gently on her pillow. Her eyes were very lightly closed; not squinted at all. She had a cute, content smile on her mouth. Her body was in a slight arc, and her tail curved gently towards her body. She had the look of a delicate sleeping princess.

Yakko turned to look at Wakko. He looked dead. Wakko always looked dead when he slept.

His eyes were tightly squinted, and his tongue hung out of his open mouth. There was a small pile of drool on his pillow. His body was stretched out and twisted in very strange way. His tail was wrapped around one of his legs.

Yakko sighed and shook his head, even though he was smiling.

Dot's eyes fluttered open slowly. She raised her arms over her head and yawned sleepily.

"Good morning, Dot," said Yakko, moving over to her side of the bed. "Did I wake you?"

"No, at least I don't think so," mumbled Dot. A small smile formed on her lips. "I'd almost forgotten where we were."

"You mean, with a nice guy who actually cares about us? Something that no human has really ever done before?"

Dot looked at Yakko quizzically. "Don't you think that we're human?"

Yakko gave Dot a sad smile. "Do we look human?"

"We act human," said Dot quietly.

Yakko sighed. "Dot, you know that I have no idea what we are. I'll probably never know."

"Could you tell me anyway?"

"Huh?" This request confused Yakko. "What do you mean."

Dot smiled. "Just tell me a story of where we might have came from."

"I want to hear this too." Dot and Yakko spun around and saw that Wakko was smiling at them. They hadn't even noticed that he had woken up.

Yakko sighed, knowing there was no getting out of this. He sat down on the bed to the left of Dot, while Wakko crawled over and sat to the left of Yakko. Yakko put his arms around his siblings' shoulders and pulled them a little closer to him. He wasn't really sure what he was going to say. What COULD he say? There were so many unknowns in his life… Finally, Yakko began in a clear, confident voice, masking his doubt.

"Once upon a time there were a man and a woman who fell in love and got married. And they were very happy together. But after awhile, they decided that they wanted to have a baby. So, they did. They had me! The three of us even made that happy home happier. But they decided that I should have some siblings. So, exactly two years and one month after they had me, they had…"

"Me!" cried Wakko.

"Yes! You!" Yakko continued. "And so, you can imagine that this couple and their two sons were—I hate to overuse this word, but happy—they were happier than ever. Overjoyed. That's a good word. Thrilled. Giddy."

"Enough already!" cried Dot impatiently. "Just get to me now!"

"Oh, right," said Yakko. "So they decided to have a third child. They were hoping that this one would be a girl. And it was!"

"It was me!" said Dot happily.

"Of course." Yakko had to think hard now. Whatever happened at this part, no matter what he made up, it wouldn't be happy, or joyous, or thrilling, or any other synonyms of happy.

His voice grew quieter. "Unfortunately, soon after their daughter was born, they got in a nasty car wreck with a semi truck. They both died." Yakko paused for a moment. Then he continued, very softly now. "The city wanted to put us up for adoption, but we were real little back then. We thought that we had to go out and find our parents. So we did, and when the city went to our house, they didn't find us there. They thought that we had been kidnapped. That was five years ago, however, and they basically lost interest in finding us. The only people who had cared about us were our parents, and they were dead."

Wakko sighed and looked down at the ground. He had known that during this story, something like that was bound to happen, but still… it didn't mean he liked to hear it. Even though it had been one of the nicer ways of explaining their lack of parents

Dot's face also fell, and a sigh escaped from her lips. Yakko had made the story up. Maybe their parents were still alive. But if they were, then why weren't they with them? Why were they even here?

And Yakko… he thought to himself that if those two faint, early memories that he had were really memories and not dreams, then their childhood had not been happy at all. Not even close.

…………

Tony had made the Warners pancakes for breakfast that morning. "Good morning, Warners," he said cheerfully. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine," lied Yakko. Wakko looked over at him crossly. Wakko knew when people were lying, especially people he knew well.

"So," asked Tony, "what do you think you're going to do now? I mean, where do you think you'll go? If you want to stay here that's fine."

"No," said Yakko, "we'll probably just be fine wandering around like we always have."

"Actually," spoke up Wakko, "Yakko and I were talking last night and we were thinking that maybe Warner Brothers might hire us."

Yakko mumbled something that sounded like, "Shut up, Wakko."

"Really?" said Tony. "Well, let me think here… Warner Brothers Studios is in Burbank, California. When and if I get time off work I could take you."

"No Tony," Yakko said quickly, "we'll manage."

"But Yakko!" cried Dot. "He's offering us a place to stay before we go, and a quick way to get there!"

"Why don't you just let someone take care of us, just this once?" cried Wakko angrily.

Years of anguish burst out of Yakko at that very moment. "Don't you guys get it?" he screamed hysterically. "He isn't in charge of us! If anyone is, I am. And we can't trouble people just so we can go to some studio that probably won't hire us anyway!"

"Yakko, if you really feel that way, I won't do any more for you," said Ton, pretty alarmed at the angst he was witnessing.

"Okay, good!" said Yakko.

Wakko was hardly paying attention to Yakko at the moment, however. It was Dot whom he was looking frightened of. If Yakko had been looking at Dot, he would have seen what Wakko was seeing. Breathing heavily, eyes so furrowed in her skull that they were hardly visable, and an intense scowl stretched across her face, Wakko knew that Yakko was about to face hell times ten—Dot's aggressive streak was about to kick in.

"YAKKO!" screamed Dot, leaping up on the table. Dot was rather small for a five-year-old, but even if she hadn't of jumped on the table she would have looked menacing and towering over her brother. "Yakko, if all you want to do for the rest of your life is just wander around and beg for food, then I'm leaving you! I wanna do something! I wanna see things that I've never seen before! I wanna be an actress, Yakko! I think that I have the talent! And Warner Brothers could very possibly hire me. Maybe you don't want to stay here until Tony can take us, but I am! It'll be a lot quicker that walking, and I don't wanna wait. My life's waiting for me, and I'm gonna take it RIGHT NOW!"

You could have heard a pin drop after Dot finished her speech/rant/cry for freedom. Yakko, Wakko, and Tony looked at Dot half scared, half amazed. Finally Yakko spoke.

"I…I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to blow up like that. And you're right… if I really want what's best for you two, then we need to get out of our lives as bums… as soon as possible."

Dot turned and looked at Yakko. Suddenly her eyes filled with tears.

"I'm sorry Yakko," she sobbed. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. You're my big brother, and I love you, and I'll stay with you no matter what."

Yakko, all the energy drained from him. slumped in his chair. Dot and Wakko suddenly found themselves at his side, hugging him. Dot was still crying. Wakko rarely cried, so he just looked a mixture of sad and relieved.

"Wow," said Tony. "That's very sentimental."

"Yeah," said Wakko. "I'm gonna barf."

Yakko managed to sit up a bit. "If you really want to, then we'll stay here until Tony can take us to Burbank. I don't like it, but you are right. We would probably get there faster anyway."

Tony suddenly looked at his watch. "I'd better get off to work. Yakko, will you be alright here by yourselves?"

"Of course," said Yakko. "In fact, we might go out and spend our winnings."

Tony smiled. "You do that. I'll be home at four, okay? I'll also find out when I can get off, if I can get off, to take you guys to Burbank."

"That'll be great," said Yakko. "Have a nice day!"

After Tony left, Wakko looked at Yakko and grinned. You really had to swallow your pride, didn't you?

Yakko turned his head so that he couldn't see Wakko. "I don't want to hear it. Sense it. Whatever. You'll be giving me grief about this for as long as I live."

Dot didn't know what Wakko had thought, but she guessed that it was something like, "You really had to swallow your pride, didn't you?" She knew Wakko well enough to know what he would have said. Which didn't explain why she couldn't read Wakko's thoughts either… Dot pushed her pangs of jealousy back in her mind. "Let's go out and spend the money we won last night."

"Yeah," said Yakko. "Come on, sibs."

…………

Once they got downtown, the Warners split up so they could go to stores that fit their interests. Yakko, for instance, went to a bookstore. He knew of something that he had always wanted, but at five dollars was a little hefty for him, especially going along the line that most of their money should have been spent on food, anyway. But now, since they were hopeful that they would get jobs, they could spend some of their money on luxuries. Luxuries like a pocket dictionary.

Yakko made his selection and practically hugged his book. "Wow, imagine the immense vocabulary I'll possess!" said the already wordy nine-year-old.

Dot, meanwhile, was at the music store. She and her brothers, while musically talented, were only able to sit down and play instruments that were in some sort of public place, obviously not owning any instruments of their own.

The small girl browsed through all the instruments. "Jeez, I had no clue how much instruments cost." She suddenly gasped in exuberance. There was a small child's guitar—for only ten dollars! Strumming a few chords on it and being pleased by its tone, Dot ran in line to purchase it.

Wakko, as opposed to his siblings, had something much more practical in mind—food. What better to spend twenty dollars on? But unfortunately, a sudden lurch of his bowels hindered his progress.

"I have to potty!" he moaned helplessly. He ran for the nearest building—a Wal-Mart. Tearing through the automatic doors, he found the bathroom and practically leaped in.

A while later, he emerged from the bathroom, looking relieved. He then noticed for the first time that the bathrooms were right next to the candy. "Hmm, why not?" he muttered. "I can buy stuff here."

As Wakko looked through the candy to make his selection, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that he was near the hat department. For some reason, a bright red baseball cap seemed to catch his eye. He turned around to get a better look, approached it, and touched it. The cloth had a smooth, gentle feel to it. Wakko put the hat on, with the brim side backwards. He liked the feel of it a lot, so he checked the price tag. It was 15.95. He could afford it!

My siblings are going to think I'm crazy. They've known me for a long time, and they know that whenever I get money, I spend it on food! Not hats! thought Wakko. Then he shrugged. But another thing that I am is unpredictable. I'm buying this!

Wakko quickly ran up to the cash register to pay for his hat. As the cashier rung it up, Wakko noticed a flaw in his otherwise perfect hat—there were no ear holes.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he said to the cashier, "but do you have any scissors?"

"Why, yes," she said, confused, handing them to Wakko. "Why do you ask?"

"I need ear holes," he said simply, they way he always said things. He quickly cut two out. "Thank you," he said, handing the scissors back. He handed the cashier his twenty-dollar bill and collected the change. The cashier grabbed a sack.

"Oh, I don't need a sack," said Wakko. He placed the hat on his head, smiled, and strode out of Wal-Mart with a confident glow in his eyes.