Ninety minutes later, they arrived at the Carters' cabin in the woods.

"Devon, wake up," Cindy cooed, nudging her brother's head.

"Mmmm, wha- huh?" Devon blinked, looking around the interior of the mini-van with sleep-clouded eyes. "We there already?" he mumbled.

"You slept through the entire trip," Fritz teased, already outside.

Devon yawned, sitting up and stretching. "Yeah, yeah, (yawn) you try dealing with my condition sometime."

Fritz rolled his eyes. Dev does have a point, though, he admitted to himself. It can't be that easy to stay awake for long when you have low blood pressure.

"Fritz! Cindy! Devon! Are any of you coming inside for dinner, or do the rest of us get to eat your portions?" Ness called from the door leading out of the garage.

"You touch any of my food, Ness Carter, and I will string you up from the flagpole by your ankles!" Fritz shot back.

"Yeah, whatever. Get in here already!"

"Well," Devon chucked. "If nothing else, that woke me up."

"At least he's good for something," Fritz said, grinning.

Cindy and Devon got out of the mini-van, walking through the door into the kitchen. Conrad was standing in front of the sink, washing a frying pan. When they came in Conrad turned to them and smiled.

"They're in the dining room."

"Thanks, Conrad!" Cindy called, waving back to him as they exited the kitchen.

In the Carter family dining room, the rest of the family and friends were gathered around the table. As he passed Katherine, Fritz gave his sister a quick kiss on the cheek, and Katherine kissed Fritz on his other cheek as he passed.

Four seats at the table were still empty, and Fritz took the one on Cain's right. Ness was sitting to the right of his twin, and Shara was sitting next to Ness. Cain looked a bit miffed.

"What is it, Cain?" Fritz asked. "Don't tell me you actually want to go back to school tomorrow."

"It's not that, Fritzy," Cain smirked. "It's more like the worst of all unnatural disasters."

"Oh, what's that?" Fritz raised an eyebrow at Cain.

"Conrad's cooking today."

Little did Cain know, but the object of his conversation was standing almost right behind him. Conrad still had the frying pan he'd been washing, and was now wearing a devious smirk to go with it. Walking up behind Cain's chair, Conrad spun it around.

"Wha- oh. Uh-oh."

"You, little brother, are lucky I'm such a forgiving person." Conrad poked Cain in the chest with the frying pan, knowing that he'd have to wash it again. But the look on Cain's face was worth it. He turned to the other occupants of the table. "What I was originally going to say, before someone distracted me, was that it's going to be a while before dinner's ready, so if you want to go and read something or play, you can do that."

"Thank you, Conrad," Ulysses said.

***

After dinner, where Conrad had served up his famous spaghetti and meatballs, the eleven of them all split up to go to their various destinations. Cain, Fritz and Ness headed up to the twins' room. Conrad and Katherine went to the den. Raven, Devon, Cindy and Sidney went to the living room. Shara and Ryan were still in the dining room, finishing up their ice cream.

Up in the twins' room, Fritz and Cain were sitting on the lower bunk, reading some of Cain's massive collection of comic books. Ness, who didn't like to do things at the last minute, was picking out the clothes he was going to pack for the camping trip.

***

Down in the living room, Cindy seemed to be preoccupied by something.

"I need to make a call," she said, getting up from the couch.

"Why?" Devon asked. "We've already told mom and dad that we'd be gone for three weeks, and they said it was okay."

"Not them, I have to call the people at The Sharing. I have to tell them I'm not going to be around for three weeks," Cindy said absently, already heading for the phone.

"(yawn) Well, I might as well go start packing. Do you still have the backpack I used last year?"

"We never got rid of it," Ulysses said with a kind smile. "It's in the storage closet. In the den."

"Thanks!" Devon said, hopping off the couch and waving to Ulysses as he headed for the den.

***

Cain and Fritz, after putting up the last of Cain's comic books, headed down to the den to get their backpacks. Ness, carrying his walking stick, followed them out.

The eleven of them worked in silence. Once they had all gotten their backpacks out of the closet, Cain felt something rub against his legs. Looking down he saw Trisha, the shorthaired white and black spotted cat that his dad had gotten him and Ness for their fifth birthday.

She was rubbing against his legs, trying to get his attention. Leaning over, Cain scratched between her ears. Trisha purred, rubbing against Cain's hand, trying to get him to pet her more.

"Sorry, Trisha, I've got to get packing."

Cain gave the cat one last stroke, from her head to the tip of her tail, picked up his backpack, and headed up to his room to pick out his clothes. Ness wasn't far behind.

Trisha went from person to person, looking for someone who'd pay attention to her. When all she found were a few absent-minded pats, or a quick rub from someone who wasn't even looking at her, Trisha turned up her nose, put her tail in the air, and left to go sulk.

***

Up in the twins' room, Ness and Cain were packing their clothes for the trip. Ness' walking stick was already hanging in its holder on the right side of his pack; he wouldn't need it until they were in the woods.

"You know it's going to take awhile before your cat forgives us for this, Ness."

"Oh?" Ness raised an eyebrow. "So now she's my cat?"

"You know the system. Whenever she's bad, annoying, or just generally a nuisance, she's you cat," Cain smirked at his twin. "She's only my cat when she's good."

"You, brother mine, have it backwards. Trisha's only my cat when she's good. She's yours when she's bad," Ness smirked right back at Cain.

"She is not."

"Is too."

"Is not," Cain said, crossing his arms and preparing for a long argument.

"Packing, remember?" Ness reminded them both, holding up his backpack.

"So I get the last word? I can live with that," Cain said, smirking at Ness again.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Ness shook his head, sighing as he resumed packing. Cain was so weird.

***

Back in the den, Ryan and Shara had joined the packing effort at last. Those outside of the family who were coming on the trip had been preparing for it for over four weeks. Ryan, Fritz, Katherine, Cindy and Devon had already had the clothes they were going to take on the trip over at the cabin. Cindy and Devon's parents had agreed to come to the cabin every other day to check on Trisha.