Artemis corrected him immediately, "Artemis."

The boy beamed happily and repeated, "Artis!"

Artemis shook his head, "No. My name is Art-em-is", he said enunciating carefully.

Pfeiffer mimicked in a singsong tone, "Artis, Artis, Art-is!"

Artemis rubbed at his eyes blearily. The pronunciation lesson would have to come later.

Eva saw his gesture and looked at him sympathetically, "Oh, you poor dear, you must be exhausted from your flight. Come, let me show you to your room."

Artemis followed her gratefully to a room walled-papered in Nautilus blue with a spectacular view of the ocean.

Danny heaved his bags into the closet, "Night, cuz'. The waves should put you to sleep instantly."

Pfeiffer came to his door and said solemnly, "Goodnight, Artis." He paused for another minute in the doorway and asked quite seriously, "Are you sure you're not a vampire?"

Artemis turned away and called back over his shoulder, "I'm sure." The quilt was filled with feathers and the pillow was filled with the same. He sank into it gratefully, feeling a flash of loneliness before sleep overtook his weary mind. The dawn crept into the room subtly, caressing Artemis into wakefulness. A foreign smell swept in grandly, mixing pleasantly with the crisp salt air. He pulled on a polo shirt and khaki shorts, running a comb quickly through his jet-black hair. He went downstairs, following the vaguely familiar smell to the kitchen.

Eva had her salt and pepper hair pulled back in a messy bun. She was standing over a steel stove, thoroughly mixing a crème colored batter. She poured the batter onto a flat pan and looked up, "Good mornin' sunshine. Pancakes sound good to you, hon? I've got cold strawberries to slice up on top if you want."

Artemis furrowed his brow. So, that is what the smell was. I haven't had pancakes in years. "All-right. That sounds.good."

Eva smiled sunnily and stacked three pancakes on a glass plate with engraved flowers around the rim. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out syrup and a green carton filled to the brim with huge strawberries. She set his plate down on the table and walked upstairs to wake Pfeiffer up. Danny was all ready sitting at the table, half of her pancakes gone, her mouth bulging with food, "M-ff-gulp. Morning Art."

He sat down, "Good Morning, Danielle."

She shot him a purely venomous look and replied, "My name is Danny."

He merely cocked an eyebrow at her, distributed sliced strawberries all over his golden brown pancakes and smothered them in maple syrup. Artemis lifted a bite cautiously to his mouth. His eyes widened as he chewed slowly.

Danny seeing this said, "My mom makes the best pancakes in the world, doesn't she?"

He nodded agreeably.

She continued, "Any hoo, we are going downtown San Diego today, Los Angeles tomorrow, and Hollywood the day afterwards. Oh yeah! We are also going to visit this guy's mansion today. He's supposed to have a huge collection of acting awards, like Oscars, Emmys and a bunch of other stuff."

Artemis's head snapped up, "Really? How interesting."

Danny gave him a strange look, "Yeah, and he's supposed to be like a midget or something." Maybe this trip won't be such a waste of time after all.