Author's Note: gasp It's Chapter 4! That only took me two months to do... --;;; I'm so sorry! I blame it on homework. Not really any writer's block, but I was trying to figure out a way to make Mega Mom and Destructo Dad more in character (as in, not so quick to let Chad be part of the Scumbucket Punks), but I failed. --;;; Arg, I'm so sorry. But anyway, I hope you enjoy Chapter 4 anyway. ;;;

Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. If I did, why the heck would I be writing fanfiction?

CHAPTER 4—Meet the Scumbucket Punks

A car parked on the side of the street outside of a small brick-orange house. Destructo Dad turned the key to shut off the engine, popped open the car trunk, and then climbed out. He and Mega Mom went around the car and began extracting the guitar from the trunk. At that moment, Piggy and her parents came walking down their driveway to greet them.

"Hii, Chaad," Piggy immediately said.

His parents were too occupied with the trunk and the guitar to notice the Alvaces, but Chad saw them, and the first thing that he noticed was that Piggy had changed her hair since he last saw her, which was the last day of school before summer break. She had dyed her hair—hot pink.

Chad glanced back at his parents, who were still too busy with the guitar and then with Piggy's parents to notice Piggy at all. "Your hair..." Chad said.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Piggy touched her hair self-consciously. "Is there a leaf inside it?"

"No, it's just that—you dyed it. My parents will—"

"Oh, hello," Mega Mom said to Piggy from behind Chad. "Wow, interesting hair," she said as she handed Chad his bass.

Chad looked back to see the expression on his mother's face, and saw that it was perfectly calm. He was confused for a second by his mother's reaction (or lack of one) but then he realized it. As a test, he said, "Can I dye my hair too?"

"OF COURSE NOT!!" both of his parents said at the same time.

"Yep," he thought. "I guess it's only bad if I do it."

"Heey, let's meet the others," Piggy said leading the way excitedly up to the open two-car garage. Chad had been too involved with the Alvaces to notice that there were people in the garage already, and the drummer had even been playing softly on the drums the whole time.

"This is Erin." Piggy motioned towards a black-haired girl on the floor reading a magazine and eating a popsicle. Erin looked up and waved.

"She's the vocalist. And this is Aaron." Piggy motioned towards a red-haired boy sitting behind a drum set. Aaron stopped drumming and looked up at Chad and then at Chad's parents. He asked hesitantly, "Hey, are you Numbuh 274?"

"Yeah."

"The Numbuh 274? Awesome! I'm Numbuh 415. It's an honor to meet you." They shook hands.

Piggy looked at them confused and asked, "What's with all this number stuff?"

"Dunno," Erin said, still eating her popsicle without even glancing up.

"Uh, it's nothing," Chad said quickly. "Well, I guess we should start now."

"Okay, good idea." Piggy and the others set up their positions and their music stands. However, they noticed that Chad was still standing there holding his bass guitar, looking a bit nervous.

"Er... I don't know how to, you know, play," he explained.

"Ohh, right! Now I remember! Well, first, let's get out your bass." Piggy took the bass from Chad's hands and put it on the concrete surface of her driveway. She opened it up and plucked the strings. "Okay, these strings, starting from the big one here are E, A, D, and G."

"Oh, I see. Then it's like a string bass."

"A string bass?"

"Yeah, they have the same string names as a violin, except that they're in reverse order, so E is the lowest and G is the highest."

"Oh, interesting. You play violin, right, Chaad?"

"Oh, yes," came Mega Mom's voice from a lawn chair lower down on the driveway. "And he plays it very well."

"Wooww, that's neato." Piggy held up the bass guitar. "Okay, the strap goes over like this. Yeah, put your arm through. Okay, your right hand—oops, well, your left hand—" Piggy held Chad's left hand and placed it around the top of the fretboard of the bass. "—goes here. Hm... You probably need a pick, don't you? Here, I have an extra somewhere..."

"Did you get that?" Numbuh 298 asked.

"Er... Actually, I wasn't listening," Numbuh 167 replied.

Numbuh 298 sighed, exasperated. "Okay, in case you weren't listening, I was just explaining the RUPC."

Numbuh 318 spoke up. "Wait, uh... what does 'RUPC' stand for? It's been so long since we made up all those acronyms."

Numbuh 298 sighed, exasperated, again. "It stands for 'Romantic, Unnecessary Physical Contact', meaning that Numbuh 274 received a seemingly romantic touch from an unauthorized source."

"Oh, but she only touched his hand, but... I guess it's good to not take any chances."

"My thoughts exactly, Numbuh 318. Now, full speed ahead, Numbuh 167."

"Okay!"

People walking along the street gasped as a small plane flying at full speed whooshed over their heads. As they watched it zoom across the sky, they could see visibly that it was zooming around in a chaotic zigzag, looking very much out of control.

"NUMBUH 167! Would you mind NOT redoing your hair while PILOTING at FULL SPEED?" Numbuh 298 yelled, her voice rising in panic.

"But there's a lump in it that's bothering me!"

"If you want, I can take over piloting, because I really have no idea what these green panels (that I'm watching right now) do," Numbuh 318 said, pointing at the green panels of unknown purpose in front of her.

Numbuh 298 enthusiastically agreed to the idea and soon the ship was stabilized and on its way again.

"Are you ready, Chaad?"

"Well..." Chad said hesitantly, "I'd really prefer to have more practice time but..."

"You'll be fine," Erin said, sounding a bit annoyed. "Can we play a song already?"

"All right."

Everybody got into their places, this time with Chad in their midst.

"Ready?" Piggy asked. Everybody nodded. "Okay. Well, then..." Piggy counted off, and then they began to play. Chad was confused at first but he was able to find the right place (or at least what sounded like the right place), and was glad that the Scumbucket Punks had chosen a song with a very simple bass part.

By the end of the piece, Chad was actually enjoying himself even though everyone could hear him when he made a mistake. They laughed good-naturedly and somehow managed to continue despite their laughing.

However, Chad didn't notice the expressions on his parents' faces until after the band had finished the song. Mega Mom and Destructo Dad looked very pale and shocked, and they were also not sitting on the lawn chairs, but curled up on the driveway.

"What's wrong with them?" Erin whispered.

"Well, according to what they say, this is actually a mild reaction," Aaron answered. "Right, 274?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but they're the ones that put me in the band in the first place, so I really don't know."

Meanwhile, Mega Mom and Destructo Dad had recovered enough to stand up. The four Scumbucket Punks could hear Chad's mother say loudly, "Oh, my! It never occurred to me that such songs would have that kind of language."

Destructo Dad nodded. "I sure am glad that Chad's not the vocalist. Well, I say that this trial run is enough. What about you, honey?"

"Yes, I think so too."

Piggy took a step forward and said, "But, wait!"

However, before she could say anything more, a giant ship came crashing down on the driveway, right in between the garage and the lawn chairs.

To be continued...

A/N: Hm... I think there's only one chapter left (yeah, I write kind of short stories). I hope the next chapter won't take too long to write. Please review, because I love reviews, even ones that criticize (although I must say that my story-fixing skills are sadly lacking).