Yo. I don't own pong. You'll see.

Enjoy!

Grub got home at nine-forty five. Disregarding his mother's rules, he sat down in his living room and cracked Holly's journal open. Grub grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and began taking notes.

An hour later, the following was scrawled out on the paper:

Hides from Chix + Root in Ops booth.

Pays Foaly in carrots for hiding place

F+H blackmail each other often

H likes the centaur!

Grub closed the book and tossed it into his briefcase. He went to his bedroom and flopped into bed.

In Haven, coffee was a necessity. Without coffee, there was no thought. Without thought, there was no life. And life was, well, life. And so coffee was a necessity.

No one could resist its tempting charms. Its smooth-as-silk texture and scent that said, "Come, partake, I am everything and nothing, know me, and know thyself." (Admittedly, coffee was more important and better tasting in Haven then on the surface of the Earth.)

Captain Holly Short was no exception. But the coffee maker in the LEP vending machine room was still two blocks away, and she had approximately a minute and a half until she was late.

Curse the softness of her couch! Curse the string of sleepless nights! Curse the willpower she apparently had a lack of!

Good thing she fell off the couch, otherwise she might never have woken up.

She had snatched her briefcase and grabbed a clean jumpsuit, running out the door and slamming it behind her. She then vaulted over two fences, and ran like hell to the front of the Police Plaza. Which was now only one block away, with forty seconds to go. The meager crowd outside stole twenty of those seconds, and another ten were used in making a mad dash to the hallway that held the punch-card machine. Eight seconds were taken by the dash down the hallway, and one more used to slam her card in and out of the machine. The bell rang one half second afterwards.

She looked down at her card, breathing heavily. It said "Due by 9 o'clock AM, Entered: 8:59:59 AM"

Holly victory-danced over to the coffee machine, to the bewildered stares of many.

The walls of the Ops booth shook as the door slammed. Foaly didn't even turn around.

"'Lo, Holly," he said, eyes on the monitor. "Chix or Root?"

"Chix. He's gonna enter in about fifteen seconds. If he asks, I'm not in the cabinet." The small cabinet (which was used to hold snack and larger tools (in separate compartments))'s door slammed.

Foaly suppressed a smile and prepared his customary, indignant, "How-dare-you-burst-in-here-when-I'm-working?" face.

Chix came in ten seconds later. His eyes darted around, and they saw a highly irritated centaur.

"New thing called knocking. Ever heard of it?" Foaly asked.

"You seen Holly? I got a little present for her," Chix said, not answering Foaly's question. Foaly got out of his swivel chair with a bit of difficultly and came over to the sprite, towering over his little green body.

"First of all, you busted into my office without my authorization. That is called trespassing. Second of all, you are giving chase to a female who wants nothing to do with you. That is called sexual abuse.

"Third of all, you are wasting my time when I may actually doing something productive to ask me if I have seen the fairy that you are sexually abusing. I will not forget to mention your name to Commander Root when I explain why the revisals on a prototype are not finished on time. Now, anything else I can help you with?" Foaly asked with suddenly sweet sarcasm.

Chix made a sullen "Nuh-uh" sound and turned tail, leaving the booth. The clocks in the booth ticked. Fifteen seconds later, Foaly had sat back down in his seat, and was looking with amusement at the cabinet.

The door flew open, and Holly's head shot out from the opening. She gasped a huge breath of air, looked right, looked left, and burst into laughter. The rest of Holly came out of the cabinet.

"My knight in shining tin foil!" she exclaimed. "I wish I could have seen his little green face!"

"Glad to help," Foaly said, turning once more to his computer. Holly came up behind him.

"Sorry; did I interrupt your work?" she asked. Foaly gave her a look, one that said, "What means this work?"

"See this?" he asked, pointing at the monitor. Holly looked.

"Is that…pong?" she asked, laughing again.

"Yup. I sent the revisals off this morning."

"Smooth. But you're down eighty points."

"Inconsequential!"

"Consequential!" Foaly looked at her slyly.

"Oh, Chiiiiii-ixxxxx!" he called. Holly slugged him.

"Better get back to work," she said. "What do I owe you this time?"

"Mmm…how about…you admit that I am the lord and master of the Universe and go get me an apple from the cabinet?"

"Bite me…" Holly began.

"Oi, CHIX!" Foaly called.

"Let me finish!" Holly said, grabbing an apple. "Bite me, O lord and master of the Universe." She chucked the apple maybe slightly more vehemently that absolutely necessary. "See ya."

Holly left, and Foaly kept an eye on her as she retreated from the Tech department. He sighed and smiled to himself. Then, he almost-reluctantly returned to his game of pong.

Whew! Long one!

Review!

Oh, and sorry I have no witty post-chapter shtick. I've decided that the "Remove Story" thing was getting old, so I'll have to work up to something new. But gimme a break! It's been a slow week!