I'm sooooooooo sorry I took so long to update, guys. I know you hate me. But here's another chapter, and sorry for making you wait!

And I actually had this ready like a week ago (please don't throw things at me!) but then I got the new book, so I just wanted to read that first.

Good things come in threes, Dairine thought hopefully as she answered the phone. For three days now the phone had rung near 11:30. The first time, Nita found out Kit loved her. The second time had yielded a somewhat less than productive, but interesting nonetheless, conversation between Carmela and Dairine. What would this phone call yield?

"Hello?" Dairine asked into the phone.

"Dairine, hi," said Tom Swale's voice. "Can you and Nita come over?"

"Right now?"

"Right now. See you in a few." Tom hung up.

"Sure, Tom, we can come over." said Dairine to the air, annoyed that Tom had hung up without waiting for an answer. She set the phone down.

Why do you never talk to me? the phone said suddenly.

"I-I do so!" Dairine said indignantly.

Do not. Not like you talk to the door.

"Oh-look, fine, I'll talk to you later, okay? But Nita and I need to leave now."

You won't come back. You think I hear enough talk as it is. You-

Dairine ran up the stairs, ignoring the phone.

Nita was jolted out of her stupor when Dairine said sharply, "Nita, we gotta go to Tom and Carl's."

"Will Kit be there?"

"How should I know? Come on."

"So sensitive," grumbled Nita, but she reluctantly followed Dairine down the stairs.

They left a note for their father and tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid the phone.

YOU HAD BETTER TALK TO ME LATER! It screeched at them.

"I will!" Dairine shouted back. "And stop talking to the front door!"

It's better conversation than with you!

Dairine slammed the door; thanking all the powers the back door was still well-mannered.

"What was that about?" Nita asked.

"It wants attention."

"Ah."

Dairine set up the beam-me-up-Scotty spell that would transport them to Tom and Carl's house, and they appeared in the seniors' yard seconds later. They knocked on the door and were let in and led to the kitchen.

Nita froze. Dairine looked first across the kitchen at Kit, who was as frozen as Nita was, his eyes wide. Oh looking up, Dairine saw Nita had the same expression. Neither could tear their gaze away from the other's eyes.

Kit snapped out of it first. "Uh, um, hi." he said awkwardly. He kept his gaze aimed downward. "Well, guess Tom and Carl called you guys too. Nice to see you, Dairine, uh, hi, Nita."

"Oh-oh, right," Nita began to inspect her feet as well. "Well, yeah, hey, Kit. And hi, guys." She nodded to Carmela, Tom, and Carl.

Carl raised his eyebrows at Dairine. Tom raised his eyebrows at Carmela.. Dairine walked over to them and said under her breath, "Yeah, Mr. Romance over there decided to tell our most idiotic wizard yet, my sister, that he loved her. You see the result."

"Really?" Carl whispered back. "I coulda swore Nita was in love with him."

"Oh, she is. Dairine didn't call her the most idiotic wizard for nothing. Though, sorry, Dairine, but Kit gives her very steep competition." Carmela whispered.

Dairine said in her normal voice, "Uh, what did you ask us here for?"

"Well, there's a problem on the planet of Curie in the Mendel galaxy. This galaxy only recently showed life, and it's their Choice. They're having a tougher time than normal, and the Powers would like some intervention. They're doing all they can, but they thought, maybe some wizards from a planet that made the right choice could help."

Carl now spoke. "I guess the reason the Powers want you is to test you again. That's the best explanation we -- Tom and I -- can come up with. So, it'll be Nita, Kit, Dairine, and Ponch. Carmela, you could be of help – we're not sure how, but call it wizard's intuition – so Tom and I devised a way to keep in touch. Here" And Tom handed Carmela a silver laptop. "is what you'll use. It's a modified edition of Dairine's Spot. Just type in the password, X-entropy, and get any info you want on the four. You can also talk to them via Spot." He tapped a button and Dairine felt Spot wriggling around in her backpack and saying "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" Dairine took Spot out, opened him, and saw Carl's face on the screen.

"Dair', walk into the back yard so you can't hear me, okay?" said Carl. She obeyed.

Once in the backyard and out of normal earshot, Dairine heard Carl's voice coming from Spot.

"Think it'll work?" he asked.

"It's got incredibly long range and the messages travel incredibly quickly, right?"

"The messages take as much time to get from one person to another as you going through a warp gate. In a sense, that's what the picture and sound does."

"Great!" said Dairine. She walked back in the kitchen, impressed, and saw that all in the kitchen were as impressed as she.

"Okay," said Tom. "You'll have to leave tomorrow by warp gate. See you then."

"Bye," said Carl.

The four left.

Um, hi guys…looks around you're not gonna kill me, are you? I'm sorry I took so long to write. I'm an awful person, I know. Well, hope you liked! If you have any ideas for chapter four, please, let me know, because I have no idea what I'm going to write. I'll probably think of something in geometry one day (yech I hate that class) and under the guise of writing down proofs, I'll make a spectacular chapter four. One can only hope.

Oh, and did you like my planet and galaxy? My two favorite scientists! (How geeky am I to have favorite scientists? No wait don't answer!)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and sorry to keep you waiting!