It was a Saturday in August. A normal, warm, lazy day and everything was as it always is...At least, almost everything.

"Time to wake up, you two!" My mom yelled at my sister and me somewhere around 9am (I don't know the exact time because who can see clearly to look at the clock when they first wake up anyways?). Ashley, my 23 year old sis, rolled over in bed as I jumped down off the top bunk onto her bed.

I turned the CD player on to Josh Groban and asked Ashley if she was awake yet. She said something that I didn't really understand as I was getting dressed. I went to the bathroom to do all those first-thing-in-the-morning things that everyone does, and came back into the room.

Ashley was just finishing getting dressed when she said "have you noticed how quiet it is in the house?" I was crawling up to my bed, to yes, oddly enough, make my bed when I replied "yea, I didn't see anyone running around". Ashley finished getting dressed and went upstairs.

I decided not to make my bed once I finally got up there, and I followed Ashley upstairs. She was sitting on the couch, talking to mom. She was asking where everyone was. Mom replied by saying "Your dad took all the kids to the lake to go fishing so that you could have a day to do whatever you want for your birthday. They'll be back late afternoon so we can have your special dinner".

I looked at Ashley who had her eyebrows raised in as much surprise as I, then turned back to mom and asked "Soooo, does this mean I can go anywhere or do anything I want all day!" She smiled and said "Yes, within the law that is. And before you even ask, NO this doesn't mean you can go and get another piercing" I sighed and added "well, it was worth a try, right?"

Ashley and I decided to go to a movie that afternoon; mom was wrapped up in a book and didn't want to go. So we got ready (which all girls, no matter how beautiful, must do) and left the house around 1pm. We rocked out to the Phantom of The Opera soundtrack all the way to the cinema, then went inside to watch our movie.

Once we got out it was around 3pm, and we headed home. Listening to Phantom once again, because as Ashley said "It's been almost 2 hours since we heard it last" and of course I just wanted to make her happy, so we listened to the cd.

We got home, and went into the kitchen for a drink. Mom was sitting on the couch, on the last page of her book. "How was the movie, girls?" she asked. Ashley answered for us, as I was still between gulps, and said "It was pretty good, I mean, I wouldn't go see it again, but it was entertaining enough". Mom nodded and continued on with her book.

Ashley and I were about to go back downstairs when I saw a big box on the table that had my name on it "Um, mother? Hello? Why didn't you tell me I got an enormous, very promising looking package? And on my birthday no less..." Mom looked up and me and smiled "I didn't want to interrupt your drink".

I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm and read the label on the package. "From Sparklescanhappen Inc…What tha-?" I looked up at Ashley who only shrugged and offered me a knife to open the box with. I opened it and gasped with shock and total excitement when I saw a brand new beautiful laptop.

After several minutes of jumping up and down mixed with dancing around the room with Ashley, singing, and giving quite a few shouts of joy, I had calmed down enough to actually take it out of the box.

I read the user manual (Well, the important bits anyway) and saw that I had to plug it in to charge for 5 hours before I could use it. "Well, doesn't that just bite…" I muttered to myself. Ashley, who had been finding the charge cord and taking the obnoxious plastic bags off all the equipment, plugged the computer in and said "So, now only 4 hours and 59 minutes to go !".

I looked at her in a rather surprised way and asked "How did you know that?" She pointed to the rather large piece of paper that was taped to the laptop and underlined the words as she read them –MUST CHARGE 5 HOURS BEFORE USE- .I rolled my eyes at her and said "Yea well of course if you look at the OBVIOUS…"

I walked over to my mom and hugged her and kissed her cheek, and she said "Oh, that was nice…what's it for?" I took a seat beside her on the couch and replied "Well, to thank you for the laptop of course!" She replied saying "Oh, well, I didn't get you that laptop. It must've been from one of your friends". I let my hands fall to my sides "Then what did you make me hug you for?" I was trying not to smile from teasing her, and she said "Get up off the couch you twit" I got up and she gave me a spank on the buns "I was juuuuust kidding mother, you know that of course" I did my best to look innocent, but she only rolled her eyes and started to read again.

After a while, everyone came home from the lake & we had my birthday dinner/celebration. After that, a couple of my friends called to wish me a happy birthday, and each of them said something along the lines of "I got you a present, I just haven't sent it yet" so I ruled them out, one by one, as the buyer of my laptop.

When I got off the phone, I went upstairs where everyone was sitting in the living room. "Well! I can't figure it out. I have no idea who sent me this package". Ashley said "You've been wanting a laptop for ever, why not just leave it at the fact that whoever got it for you wishes to remain anonymous". I shrugged in resignation, and took a seat beside her.

Jared, my 20 year old brother, who was on my dads laptop at the time asked "So how much longer do you have to charge it anyway?" I had been keeping close track of the time so I didn't have to look at the clock when I answered him "1 more hour".

Ashley & I went downstairs, where our computers are, to listen to music and talk (mostly listen to music and sing really, as we don't get around to the talking part much when we're listening to music because we are overcome with an urge to sing). We stayed down there for a while, listening to a variation of music, from The Time Machine soundtrack to The Beach Boys. We heard a lot of walking around going on upstairs, and so we decided to go and check it out. Jared was still on Dad's laptop, and everyone else was in bed it seemed. Ashley looked at the clock "It's only 9:30! Why don't they ever let us know when they're going to bed so we can say goodnight or something?"

I shrugged and walked down the hall to my parents' room. After waking everyone up to tell them goodnight, Ashley and I decided it was finally time to turn on my laptop and give it a trial run. I unplugged all the charge cords and took it down to my room & we both sat on her bed. As it was booting up, Ashley was reading the users manual and said "OH! Look at this, it has a DVD player!" I turned the laptop on its side to see if what she said was true. I saw that it did have a DVD drive "Oh awesomeness! Let's get a DVD to try out first thing!" As I was saying this, Ashley had already gotten up off the bed, and headed into the TV room to get a movie.

When the computer had finished booting up, Ashley returned to the bed, and placed a DVD in my lap. It was Live and Let Die, a James bond movie from 1973 with Roger Moore, our favorite James Bond (so far, unless Gerard Butler gets the role!). I rolled my eyes "Aaaassshhhleeeey, of all movies you coulda picked, why didn't you get one with huge explosions or something cool?" Ashley opened the DVD and started putting it in the DVD drive "Oh please, you know you love this movie, besides, it was already out on the table so I just picked it up".

I decided to go along with it (frankly, because I was too lazy to get up and walk to the TV room) we put the movie in, and a DVD viewing program automatically popped up, it was called "Magical World Viewing". Ashley elbowed me lightly in the side and said "How 'bout these newfangled devices eh?" I didn't respond (she's used to that) as the movie started playing. The Live and Let Die theme song came on, which Ashley & I both happen to find particularly vile, so we started singing along with our loudest most obnoxious voices (don't worry, the door was closed).

Once the song & credits were finally done, we both laid down & settled in to watch the movie. Now, you'll have to keep in mind that Roger Moore speaks rather lightly in the first place (I think its supposed to add to the sexiness of him?) so Ashley said "Hey how do you turn the volume up?" I looked at the laptop screen "Hhmmm, there's supposed to be a button for that around here somewhere..." Ashley looked at the keys; there was one in particular that caught her eye. It was colored, purple and orange, and looked like a little tiny firework. She moved her finger towards the key and said "I wonder what this does…" I was about to grab her hand in protest as it was MY laptop and I am supposed to be the one to find out what keys do, but it was too late as she'd already pressed it.

At the exact moment when she did that, it felt like everything froze, and then resumed. It was truly the weirdest feeling I've ever had & therefore, totally indescribable on paper. When it seemed like someone pressed the PLAY button on my world again, I was still looking down at the laptop, and Ashley was just pulling her hand away from the Sparkle key. I grabbed her hand and looked at her "What the heck just happened!" I think Ashley's eyes were open just about as wide as mine as we looked down. We were laying on a king sized bed that had a plush silk comforter.

Ashley touched it, I guess to see if it was real, and said "Okay, this is definitely freaking me out" I nodded as I was looking around the room. "I would be agreeing with you on that one". The walls were painted a light shade of yellow (we're talking that really hip style of yellow that was oh-so-popular around the 70's, when colors had to look like puke or…well, other disgusting things) and there was a huge clock on the wall.

Ashley got off the bed, and I followed suit. I went over to the clock "Well, at least we know what time it is!" Ashley turned to me "Aubrey! This is not a time for being sarcastic! Where are we? How did we get here? Where the heck is HERE!" I tried to think of an answer to at least one of those questions when I heard a faint voice coming from the other room. "Oh crap, what now!" I rolled my eyes.

The voices were getting closer, and I will admit that I started to panic, only slightly of course (if there is such a thing as a state of slight panic) and turned to Ashley "Quick! Under the bed! Grab the laptop!" she raced over to the bed, folded the laptop and slid under the bed with it. I followed her under as the door handle started turning to the bedroom that we were in. When I was beside her she poked me in the side and said "You know how I hate being rushed!" I put my hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear "I thought you were the one who said this is no time for sarcasm!"

We couldn't see out from under the bed as the blankets were too long, but we knew someone (or should I say, two someone's) had come into the room. Ashley and I had our hands over our mouths to keep from puking as we heard "ooohh, James…" and "I can't believe I have you all to myself tonight darling" and "you're the most wonderful man ever" etc. I couldn't see Ashley very well, but I could just imagine what her facial expression was as we felt the weight from the "happy couple" tumbling onto the bed.

"Gross!" Ashley whispered to me, and it was all I could do to keep from laughing. We heard "James" I guess is who it was; say "Did you hear something my love?" with his trying-to-be-overly-sexy voice and his polished British accent. My heart was either pounding so hard that I lost count of the beats, or it stopped all together as James got up off the bed. 'If we're caught here under the bed…oh my goodness, how embarrassing for one thing. But how do we explain it for another...oh crap crap CRAP!' I thought to myself.

Just then the doorbell rang. "Ahhh, must've been someone outside…at this hour though? And such terrible timing. Well darling, save my place. I shant be but a moment." James said as he walked out of the room, I'm supposing towards the door. I was wishing I could breath a sigh of joy just then, even just BREATHING would've come as a muchly needed relief, but I knew "Darling" was still on the bed lying right on top of our hiding spot.

All we could hear were mumbling voices, and they sounded very business like. Whatever was going on between them in the other room must have been of some interest to the chick on the bed, because she ran out and shut the door behind her. Ashley lifted up the blanket just enough to peek out. When she gave the all-clear I let my head drop to the floor with relief. Ashley covered her face with her hands "Whew! That was totally sickening. I've never welcomed the doorbell with such heartfelt affection before" I nodded in agreement (even though you can't hear a nod) and said "We'd better try to find a way to get out of this place!"

We both got to our feet and opened the door ever so slightly to peek out and see what was going on. "James" was standing in what appeared to be the entry-way talking to a man and a woman. We closed the door. "Great, what now!" I asked. Ashley stood with her back to the wall, scratching the back of her head (But only with 3 fingers. I'll never know why she does this to help her think, but I find it generally works so I don't interrupt…Usually)

"Ok, well, let me see here" she said. I started drumming my fingers against the wall "Not to rush you or anything here Ash but hurry up and think!" She pulled away from the wall and came closer to me. She whisper/yelled at me "And how would you like me to do that? I have no idea where we are, who we're with, or what they'd do if they found us here! You can't rush me because I don't even really know what I'm thinking about here, ok?" I raised my hands "Ok ok, I'm sorry…"

Ashley sighed. We heard the door close, but no footsteps back towards the room we were in, so we decided to take a look once more. Ashley opened the door and saw "James" and "Darling" standing by the coat closet, kissing; right beside the front door, of course. "Crap! They're standing right in our way" Ashley said. I knelt by her to get a view out the door under her. I grabbed her leg in hope as I said "Hey! They're headed into the closet!"