Chapter 6

Stephanie had finished packing and had some lunch. She realized that lunch was more like a snack before dinner. It was already three o'clock. Her parents wouldn't be home for another two-and-a-half hours. So she called her mom to tell her that she and Beth were going to the movies at four-thirty and would probably get dinner afterwards. Her mother said that was ok as long as Stephanie was home by nine. Stephanie's curfew was usually eleven so she asked what was up. The only answer she got was that there was something her parents wanted to talk to her about something.

Meanwhile back in LazyTown's courthouse, Sportacus was trying to convince the parole board was making a big mistake if they were letting Robbie go. LazyTown's parole board had never had to deal with something like this. Before Robbie tried to bump off Sportacus, the worst crime they had ever dealt with was an assault charge. In fact most of the people in prison were only there for short stints, because most of the charges were for petty crimes. With the exception of Robbie and Bubba the prison had been mostly empty for the past year. Bubba's one year term was almost up for his crime of destroying 20 mailboxes. Since it was a federal offense, was the only reason Bubba got such a long sentence.

Sportacus was getting frustrated and finally told the parole board that obviously the judge had seen fit to give Robbie five years and therefore he should serve them. That's when the parole board foreman told Sportacus to leave so they could make their decision. Sportacus asked when they would publish their decision and the foreman told him he'd know by Wednesday. Leaving the courthouse, Sportacus tried to figure out what he was going to tell Stephanie. Wednesday didn't give him much time.

Stephanie climbed into her Ford Ranger. It was her first vehicle and she loved it. She had gotten home from LazyTown two years ago and her parents had opened the garage doors to reveal her big surprise. Though it wasn't pink, Stephanie liked the silver with blue racing stripes. The interior was gray but Stephanie had put a blue wheel cover on the steering wheel and some blue floor mats. Pulling out of the driveway, she headed to Beth's house.

After picking up Beth, Stephanie told her about the weird mood her mother was in. Beth said she shouldn't worry. It probably wasn't a big deal. The two friends had a good time together and Stephanie managed to drop Beth off at her house by eight-thirty. Making her way home, Stephanie's thoughts once again reverted back to her mother's comment about having a talk. Had she done something she wasn't supposed to?

Sportacus was heading back to his airship, when Pixel caught up to him. Pixel saw the look on Sportacus' face and asked what was wrong.

"I just have a lot on my mind is all, Pixel. Is there something you need?" Sportacus answered.

"I could use some help with my invention. Well actually it's more like a modification on an already invented item. You see I built a phone from scratch but I wanted to see if I could make it use voice recognition technology. I called Stephanie earlier and thought the phone was working until we laughed and it kind of cut us off." Pixel continued to blather on. Sportacus was trying to look interested but he wasn't. Finally he interrupted Pixel and agreed to help him fix his contraption.

It was eight forty-five when Stephanie parked her truck and headed into her house. When she walked in the house, her mother and father asked if she'd had a good time. She said yes and came into the living room.

"Honey, we want to have a little talk with you. We've noticed that lately you seem to be a little out of it. Is there something you have on your mind?" Her father asked. Boy was that a loaded question, Stephanie thought. She replied,

"No, there isn't anything on my mind. I've just been a little tired lately." It was a flat out lie. Stephanie hated to lie to her parents but how was she going to explain everything about her and Sportacus. However her parents seemed satisfied.

"Ok, honey we just wanted to make sure everything was all right. Why don't you go to bed a little early tonight? A little extra sleep won't hurt you." Her mother told her. Stephanie just nodded and told them if they needed her she'd be up her room.

To Be Continued…