The next morning, Lita woke to the sound of birds singing in the trees right outside her window. With a tired sigh, she dragged herself out of bed and down to the kitchen, where she poured herself a glass of orange juice. With the glass of O.J. in her hand, she headed to the living room. She was about to sit down on the leather sofa when she remembered what had happened there the night before. Almost instantly, she felt sick to her stomach and headed back up the stairs, to her room.

Once in her room, Lita placed the full glass of juice on her bedside dresser, then flopped down on her bed (still in her pajamas), grabbed the remote and flipped on the tv. She was flipping throught the channels when she suddenly realized that each channel had the exact same thing on. Wondering what had happened, Lita stopped flipping through the channels.

"Sometime last night," the reporter began, "Just outside of the O'Hare airport in Chicago, U.S.A. a plane carrying Suboshi Kino and his wife, Cantheeca Kino, crashed shortly after taking off. Mr. Ki-" Lita clicked the mute button on her tv. Watching the news cast, she had remembered the phone conversation that she had had the night before with the police officer and she paled. She just couldn't believe it. It couldn't be true, could it? Her parents couldn't be dead. It was impossible. It had to be a lie. Slowly, the remote dropped from her hand and hit the floor with a soft thud.

Half an hour later, Lita was still lying on her bed when she heard the ringing of the doorbell come from downstairs. Sighing angrily, Lita got up from her bed and marched downstairs, ready to tell whoever it was at the door to go away.

She arrived at the door five minutes later, and flung it open. Seeing who was standing there, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Lita," her best friend whispered sympathetically, wrapping his arms around her in a comforting hug, "I came as soon as I heard."

"Ken," Lita cried quietly into his shoulder, letting the tears fall.

"Let's go inside, Lita," Ken said, after a few minutes.

Lita nodded and quickly moved aside, allowing Ken to step inside.

Quietly, Ken closed the door behind him. "How are you holding up?" he asked gently.

Lita shrugged, not really sure how to respond to Ken's question. She knew that his question was referring to her parents' death, but she just couldn't believe that they were actually dead; she didn't want to.

Ken nodded, understandingly. "Yeah, I know," he said.

Suddenly, Lita realized that Ken did know how it felt; he had lost his mother just the year before to breast cancer. "K. . . Ken," Lita stammered, unsure of how to say what she wanted to say.

"Yeah, Lita?"

"Can we sit down?" she asked, knowing that wasn't what she had really meant to say.

"Sure," he said gently. Without saying a word, Ken wrapped his arm around Lita's shoudlers comfortingly and led her towards the living room.

It took Lita a few minutes to realize where Ken was taking her. When it finally dawned on her, Lita paled. "N. . .not in there, Ken," she warned him.

"Okay," Ken said, slightly confused. Why didn't Lita want to go into the living room? Shaking that thought off, he asked her, "So, where do you want to go?"

"Just not in there," Lita replied, near tears at the thought of having to sit down on that counch again.

Ken frowned, but nodded and led Lita away from the family room and into the rec room. "Is this better?" he asked her once they were seated on a sofa in a corner of the rec room. The rec room was huge, with a pool table in the center of the room, a fuseball table in one corner, and a mini-indoor soccer field taking up the entire right side of the room.

Lita smiled a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, thanks," she said, knowing that he was probably thinking that she was nuts because she didn't want to go into the living room. Especially since she didn't tell him why. She had a reason, though. The living room is where everything happened the night before with Freddie. Of course, she wasn't about to tell Ken that.

"Now what were you going to say?" he asked her, gently.

"Ho. . .how did you find out about what happened?" Lita asked.

"It's on every channel, Lita," Ken informed her sympathetically. "Haven't you turned on the tv?"

Lita nodded her head. "Yes," she sighed, "But it's not true. They shouldn't be allowed to report those lies."

"Lita," Ken said softly, concern showing in his voice. He looked into his best friend's eyes, searching for a clue to what was going on inside of her. "What are you talking about? Isn't that why you were crying this morning?"

Lita looked away from him, unable to answer. She didn't want to lie to him, but she couldn't tell him the truth. She just couldn't. Not yet.

"Lita?" Ken pressed, knowing that she was hiding something from him. "This morning, you weren't crying because of what happened were you? Something else happened, didn't it? You know you can tell me, Lita."

"I can't, Ken," she said, her voice trembling with unshed tears. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Why?" Ken demanded, concerned for his best friend. "What else has happened, Lita?"

"K. . . Ken, don't," Lita whispered, tears threatening to fall. "Please, don't do this to me. I can't tell you. Not yet."

Ken nodded, not liking it, but at the same time, not wanting to press Lita for too much information to soon. "Fine," he sighed. "But I'm going to have to get going soon. Do you want me to call your uncle? You shouldn't stay here by yourself."

Lita shook her head. "No," she told him, wanting anyone to see her so vulnerable; not even if they were family.

Ken nodded. "Okay, then," he said, quietly. "Then go upstairs and get some more sleep. If you can, that is. It doesn't seem like you had a lot last night."

Lita nodded, not bothering to respond vocally, and quietly, left the living room and went upstairs to her bedroom. She wasn't planning on getting any sleep, but she just needed to be by herself.

Ken waited until he could no longer hear the sound of Lita's footsteps on the floor before heading to the kitchen to use the phone. Once in the kitchen, Ken picked up the phone and, seeing the number he needed as one of the emergency numbers on the phone, pressed the number, and waited as the phoneon the other end rang. Once, twice, the phone on the other end rang. It was on the third ring that the phone was answered.

"Hello?" a voice on the other end asked in a tired tone.

"Mr. Akiro Kino?" Ken asked, not sure who had answered the phone.

"Yes," the man replied, "If this is another reporter. . ."

"No, sir," Ken replied. "My name is Ken. I'm a friend of your niece, Lita."

"Lita!" Mr. Kino exclaimed. "Is she okay? How is she holding up?"

"She's fine," Ken replied, then, "Well, as fine as one can except, considering the circumstances."

"So, she's heard about her parents then?" Mr. Kino asked, sounding almost relieved that he would not have to be the one to tell her.

Ken nodded. "Yeah," he replied, "She's heard. I was just wondering what's going to happen to her now? I mean, I don't think it's safe for her to stay here by herself. Especially since the press will be showing up here any time now."

"Of course," Mr. Kino said, as if he had already been thinking of that. "Lita will be coming to stay with us for a while. Then, if she likes, she can continue to stay with us. If she prefers something else, then whatever she wants will be arranged. May I talk to her right now, Ken?"

"Actually, sir," Ken began, "Right now, she's in her room. I think she wants to be left alone for the moment."

"Of course," Mr. Kino said. "That's understandable, son. But either way, I'm going to be heading over there in a few minutes to check up on her."

Ken nodded, knowing that Mr. Kino was probably very concerned about his neice and how she was holding up.

"I'll be ready, sir," Ken said, then with a final good-bye, he hung up the phone.

Lita's not gonna be too happy, Ken thought, knowing that his friend was not going to like it that he had called her uncle when she had specifically asked him not to. But I had to. Something's up with her. I just wish I knew what it was.

With a final sigh, Ken headed back into the rec room to wait for either Lita's uncle to arrive or for Lita to come downstairs.