Hyuu! I wouldv'e posted this earlier, but... heh. Oh, hi Rain!

Chapter 4: Alone (narrarated by Danny)

Sam shut the door, leaving me alone in the room. Suddenly, I was aware of the darkness and loneliness circling in on me. I was alone.

I had never been home alone overnight before, let alone two weeks. I began thinking frantic thoughts- what would happen? Now that Tucker was gone, my silly side went to bed, and my serious and scared sides both kicked in at the same time. Even though it was half an hour early- and summertime- I went to bed.

I couldn't sleep. Every time a thought entered my head, I woke up panting. To get to sleep, I turned on the radio.

"Now, it's time for VH1's BEHIND THE MUSIC! Taking you behind the scenes of your favorite singers!" the radio guy said. I groaned. This meant that there wouldn't be any music for an hour. Just boring commentary on some guy I didn't care about.

"Tonight, we're taking you behind the music of teen singing sensation CHIP SKYLARK! He has perfect teeth, girls dream of being his wife, and his voice is dreamy…oh, sorry. Heh. But could all this-"

I turned the radio off. Just like always. Behind the Music always had the same format- the guy has lots of fame, but still can't be happy for some reason. I didn't care much about Chip. I've heard his songs, but I've never seen what he looks like.

With Chip to keep my mind off my loneliness, I was okay. I began thinking about his songs. Icky Vicky was kind of good, but there was one thing I just couldn't get: who's Vicky? I know she's icky, but who is she? Shiny Teeth and Me was weird- I mean, who writes a song about their TEETH?! I really liked Find Your Voice- it made sense, had a great beat, and it was inspirational.

Then I began thinking about something else- the strange things Jazz gave me. I took them out of my pocket. Maybe examining them would make them make sense. It didn't.

The disc, at further examination, had a button on it, so I pushed it. A female voice I didn't recognize said, "Sorry, but this unit will be dormant until it is inserted into an InfoSlot. Thank you for trying to use the InfoDisc 2.0, Copyright 2003 by-" "Oh shut up," I said to the unit, and pressed the button again. The voice stopped.

The card didn't take long to examine. It was basically a plastic card with a ghost symbol on it. There was a serial number in the corner, but other than that, the card was completely devoid of information.

I sat back in bed, thinking about what Jazz had said to me. Tomorrow afternoon, go in the basement. Bring Sam and Tuck with you. That should explain everything. Tomorrow, all my questions would be answered. Tomorrow, my curiosity would be satisfied. Tomorrow… tomorrow, I'll wake up. I turned out the light, and went to sleep without that much difficulty.

(end Danny narration)

And Danny did wake up the next morning. As promised, Tucker showed up for a fun-filled day. Sam had to go somewhere, but she promised to come in the afternoon. The morning was awesome, and so was most of the afternoon. But at about six, Danny's curiosity got the better of him. He had to see!

"Uh, guys?" he said. "Do you wanna…you know…go in the basement and play with experiments?"

"I dunno," Sam said. "Remember what happened the last few times?"

Danny did remember, and all too well. Besides the half-ghost thing, Danny, Sam, and Tucker had also suffered other oddities from previous goofing with the inventions. Danny had a permanent scar on his back shaped like President John Quincy Adams (in his first term) and some of his common sense had been drained. Tucker had almost all of his common sense drained, and some of his hair had been burned off. His parents never knew why it never grew back (guess why he wears that weird hat!). Sam, being the (almost) sensible person she is, is unaffected.

Danny was tired of the narrarator's useless chatter, so he interrupted. "Soo… can we go in the basement yet?"

"Ah, fine." So, the trio went down the stairs into the basement, and walked straight into-

"Uhh…"

Coming in Chapter 5:

It looked like any street back home, but the three friends had never been there. There was nothing suspicious about the dark street, but Danny couldn't help but wonder (out loud)…

"Where am I?"

This and more... on Universal Roadtrip!

Bye! -SP