Hola, everybody! Thank you all for the reviews, there was a little more than my last update, so I'm happy about that.
Okay, let's go to Chapter 4!
Danny, Sam, and Tucker walked inside their hotel suite. It was a very nice room. There was one living room, two bathrooms, two televisions, even a microwave and a refrigerator. But there was only one bedroom with two beds in it. The couch which sat in the living room pulled out into a bed.
"Wow," said Tucker, "I could get used to living in a place like this."
"Me too," agreed Sam, "So who gets the beds and who gets the couch?"
"I want a bed," said Danny.
"Me too," said Tucker.
"But I want one!" shouted Sam.
Before they knew it, the three of them started arguing over who would get the beds. After a few minutes, Sam finally screamed, "Enough!"
There was silence. Sam took a deep breath and said calmly, "Let's just do rock-paper-scissors for it."
"How is that gonna make us decide?" asked Danny.
"The person who wins out of all of us gets the couch."
"Alright, who wants to go first?"
"I'll go first with Tucker." Then she turned to Tucker and held out her fist. Tucker did the same.
They shook their fists and said, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Sam showed a rock, Tucker showed paper.
"Paper covers rock," said Tucker, "Fine, you get one bed."
Sam smiled, and then ran into the bedroom and threw her stuff onto one bed, and then ran back out to watch.
Tucker walked over to Danny and held out his fist. Danny grinned and did the same.
The two friends shook their fists and said once again, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" This time, Tucker showed a rock. Danny, however, showed scissors.
Tucker sighed, "Rock smashes scissors. Looks like I get the couch." Then he smiled at Danny and Sam, "Hey…"
Danny and Sam looked at each other and shouted at Tucker, "Oh, give us a break! It's not like we're sleeping in the same bed or anything!"
Tucker chuckled, "But you want to."
Danny growled, "How about instead of on the couch, you can sleep in the closet tonight?"
Tucker's smile faded, "Shutting up."
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"Everyone, please listen!" shouted Lancer down in the lobby a little while later. "We will start by taking buses around parts of the city. I know it may be a little boring, so if, and only if, you behave yourselves, I will let you walk around the city tomorrow, as long as you are not alone."
Everyone started murmuring at hearing this.
For the rest of the day, the sky remained cloudy as buses took them around different parts of the city. It looked questionable whether the buses would be unneeded for Thursday, but everyone behaved mostly. Even Dash wasn't as much of a jerk as usual, probably because he wanted to go off with his fellow jocks and cause mischief in the Big Apple. Finally Lancer decided that night he would let them go around in groups.
Naturally, Danny, Sam, and Tucker made plans to go together.
But those plans didn't work out entirely. They all woke up to find it raining hard. Nevertheless, they walked down to the lobby to eat breakfast in the café, and then afterward, they walked into the lobby where Lancer would see them off.
"Mr. Lancer," said Sam, "We're gonna go now."
"Alright," said Lancer, "But don't forget to bring umbrellas. It's pouring out there. Take this pass." He handed them slips of paper with restaurant logos on them. "They will get you a free lunch at any restaurant that is on there. And be back here by no later than five o'clock. Got it, you three?"
They all nodded, and then walked outside, holding umbrellas that they had brought.
"Where should we go to first?" asked Danny.
Sam said, "Let's head to the St. Patrick's church."
Tucker groaned, "Sam, do we have to?"
"Hey, we agreed to do whatever the other person wants to do, remember?"
Tucker groaned, "Fine. Let's go to the stupid church."
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Danny, Sam, and Tucker walked back into their hotel room and crashed onto the couch. They had walked around the city for only about three hours, which was until one o'clock, and then they decided to just head back because the rain was making the walk too miserable.
"That was fun," said Sam gloomily.
"Why does it have to rain so hard when we're in New York City?" complained Danny.
"What are we gonna do here?" asked Tucker.
Danny's stomach grumbled, "Well, first off, let's go down to the café and have some lunch."
"I here ya, Danny," said Sam, "Tuck, you coming?"
Tucker shook his head, "Na, I'm not hungry. You two lovebirds enjoy lunch by yourselves."
Danny and Sam shouted, "We're not lovebirds!" and then got up and walked out.
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Danny and Sam walked back into the café. They knew they had forgotten the free lunch pass Lancer had given them, but it really didn't matter. Lunches here were free anyway for them.
Danny ordered salad and a grilled cheese sandwich with orange juice to drink. Sam had salad and spaghetti and iced tea to drink. As they ate, they talked.
Danny said between bites, "Man, I'm so tired of everyone thinking we're a couple."
"I know," said Sam, "It gets very irritating after a while. Why can't everyone see that we're just friends?"
"Maybe it's because of how much we seem to match."
Sam looked at him oddly.
Danny found himself blushing and quickly said, "I mean, no, wait! That's not what I meant! I mean, they just think that, but we don't and, um, I…"
Sam put her hands up and blushed as well. "Danny, it's okay. I know what you mean."
Danny sighed with relief, and then changed the subject, "How do you like it here, Sam?"
Sam shrugged, "I'd be having a better time if it wasn't raining."
It thundered outside.
Danny nodded, "Weather's been pretty bad lately, hasn't it?"
"I know," said Sam, "But that's okay. Storms aren't that big of a deal."
"It hasn't just been around here," said Danny, "Or Amity Park, for that matter. A very powerful hurricane ripped through the Caribbean last week and there was a huge hailstorm greatly damaged Tokyo one day after. And at that Global Warming conference in India, it was actually snowing."
Sam thought for a minute. "Hmmm…do you think this could be serious?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's nothing."
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New York wasn't the only place that was thundering. Late that night in Washington D.C., Fredrick Fenton was asleep while it stormed outside. His near-disaster in Antarctica had been forgotten and had gotten back home after talking a bit with Roy Peterson.
Just then something woke him up. It was the phone. Fredrick turned over and answered, "Hello," in a tired way.
"This is Roy Peterson. Sorry for calling you so early, Fredrick." It was currently daytime in Scotland.
Fredrick shook his head, "No, that's alright, professor. What is it?"
Peterson got right to the point. "Well, we've found something rather extraordinary. Extraordinary and disturbing as well. Do you remember what you stated in New Delhi that melting the polar ice caps may possibly disrupt the North Atlantic current?"
Fredrick nodded, "Uh huh."
Peterson answered, "Well…" Then he said in a rather hushed and worried whisper, "I think it's happening now."
Fredrick didn't answer right away. Peterson couldn't be making sense. "What do you mean?" Fredrick asked after his hesitation.
Peterson explained, "One of our buoys registered a thirteen degree drop in ocean temperature the other day. I sent you an email about it."
"Hold on," said Fredrick as he got out of bed and walked over to his computer to check it out.
Peterson went on, "We first thought it was just a malfunction, but then we discovered four more across the North Atlantic showing the same thing."
Fredrick opened his email folder and saw the message Peterson had sent. Sure enough, it showed exactly what Peterson had said. Fredrick was quite shocked, "This can't be happening."
Peterson responded, "You predicted it would happen, Fredrick."
"Well, yeah, but I wasn't talking about our lifetime. This is too fast."
Peterson sighed, "There are no forecast models that can possibly plot this scenario, except yours."
Fredrick answered, "Professor, my model isn't a forecast model. It's a reconstruction of a prehistoric climate shift which began the first Ice Age."
"This could be just what's happening. But even if it's not, it's the closest thing we have. Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"At least not in the last ten thousand years," Fredrick said as it continued storming outside.
Oh, dear. This could be serious. Well, currently no one in New York sees anything wrong, but that's all going to change soon. It appears what Fredrick thought would happen in about a hundred or a thousand years is happening right now. What will unfold out of this tragic disruption of the North Atlantic Current? Find out in Chapter 5!