Chapter 30

There were three things Katrina missed while she was away. She missed her pony. That was one.

She missed playing with her friends. That was two.

And three, she missed those adorable little kittens over at Danny's.

So when Danny told her about how the kittens were moving around more now, Katrina had to see them.

"Serena!" Katrina ran into the living room, blocking the television to get her attention. "Serena?"

"What?"

"Can I go over to Danny's? He's going to show me the kittens! He said they've gotten bigger and are walking around and everything!"

"Not now."

"Why not?" she pouted.

"Because we're staying here."

"Well you can stay here if you want. I just want to go over there for a minute. Just a minute."

"Your mother said you weren't allowed to walk down the street by yourself, and I said we're staying here. So the answer is no. Maybe later, okay?"

Katrina frowned. "No fair."

"Sorry, kiddo. Those are the rules."

Danny turned to Katrina and whispered, "She's bossy when she babysits me too."

Katrina was about to complain again when she heard a knock on the door. She forgot for a moment that she was angry because she always loved it when someone dropped by. She raced to the door, reaching it first and opening it.

"Hi!" she said happily to the young man on the other end.

He looked around, wondering if he had the right house or not. "Um, is Serena here?"

"Hey, Neil, you've got the right house," Serena said. "Come in."

"Cool."

Danny looked up and smiled. "Hey, Neil! What's up man?"

"Hey, little dude!"

"Who are you?" Katrina asked.

"I'm Neil. And you must be Katrina."

Katrina turned to Danny. "Is he Serena's boyfriend?" she whispered.

"He's visiting his dad, Frank."

"Frank your daddy?" Katrina asked Neil.

"Yeah."

"How come you don't live with him?"

"Because I live with my mom in Paris."

"Oh. Is that near Transylvania? I just got back from there!"

"Um, well it's in Europe…"

"Did you bring the movie?" Serena asked him.

"Yep, have it right here."

"Are you Serena's boyfriend?" Katrina asked.

Serena wondered how many questions a kid could ask. "Katrina, how about you and Danny pick a movie and go watch it upstairs in your parents' room? Neil and I are going to watch one downstairs and it's not a movie you two would like."

"I don't want to watch a movie now," Katrina complained. She would still rather go see the kittens.

"Well you could eat some popcorn and pretend you were at the movie theater," she suggested.

"I want some popcorn!" Danny said.

Katrina suddenly changed her mind. If Danny wanted to watch a movie, so did she. "Let's go pick a movie, Danny!" She ran over to the entertainment unit and opened the cabinet, revealing all of her videos. "You want to watch Sleeping Beauty? It's one of my favorites."

"No way. That's a girl movie."

"How about Toy Story?"

"No. Let's watch something else."

Katrina rifled through her video collection, trying to find a movie that she hadn't seen in a while. She put her hands on one and smiled. "Ooo, we can watch The Parent Trap!"

"Nah."

Katrina frowned. "Well you pick a movie then!"

Danny looked through the videos, tossing aside the ones he thought were too girly. Katrina sure had a lot of those. But he finally found one he could be excited about. "Oh! You got Spy Kids II!"

"Yeah, I love Spy Kids!"

"Cool! Let's watch this one!"

"You go upstairs and get the movie started, and while the previews are playing, I'll get the popcorn and drinks! And make sure to use the bathroom before it starts so you don't have to get up during the movie!"

"Okay." Danny ran upstairs with the video, and Katrina ran to the kitchen for a bag of popcorn.

Serena turned to Neil and smiled. "Didn't I tell you a movie would be a good idea? That should keep them occupied for at least a good hour."

"Alone at last," Neil said, kissing her.

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"Everything looks great," Dr. Meadows said as she walked Alison down the hall after her checkup. "Just keep taking your prenatal vitamins."

"Well that'll be easy. Rafe never lets me forget."

Dr. Meadows smiled. "I'll see you at our next appointment."

"Thanks, Dr. Meadows."

"Take care."

As Alison made her way to the nurses' station, she saw a familiar face. Karen was sitting on the couch rifling through Nathan's baby bag for something. Alison walked over to say hello. "Hi, Karen."

Karen looked up with a smile. "Alison. Hey! I heard you were back in town. How are you?"

"I'm good. I just had a checkup with Dr. Meadows. Oh, Karen, he's just darling."

Karen shifted the baby to her other arm. "Thank you."

"He's grown so much since the last time I saw him!"

Karen handed the teething ring she was searching for to the baby. He grabbed it and put it straight in his mouth. "I know. Nate's a big boy, huh?" Karen said to the baby. "Frank swears up and down that he's going to be a football player when he gets older. I'm like, 'Frank, he's not even a year old yet!'"

Alison laughed, taking a seat beside her. "Can I hold him?"

"Oh, please, I could use a break." Karen handed the baby over to her.

"Hi, Nate! How's it going?"

"Say it's going good, thank you!" Karen said.

"I can't wait until Gabe's born."

"When are you due?"

"September 16."

"Oh, so you don't have too much longer!"

"No, just another month or so!"

"You hear that, Nate? You'll have a friend not too much longer! How's Katrina doing? I bet she's excited."

"Oh yeah, bouncing off the walls. She's starting to ask me everyday now when will Gabe get here. I keep telling her sometime after she starts school but she keeps asking."

"So how was your trip to Romania?"

"Oh, it's beautiful there. We had such a good time."

"Lucy said something about you guys starting a bed & breakfast there. Is that right?"

"Yeah. We're going to turn his old family home into one. It's such a big house, it's just really perfect for a bed and breakfast."

"Well I think that's great."

Just then, the baby started squirming. "I think he wants his mama back," Alison said, handing the baby over.

"Well, we should probably be going anyway. I promised Frank and Neil that I'd bring home something really good to eat tonight, and I still don't know what's for dinner." Karen laughed.

"Neil's here?"

"Oh yeah, I guess you don't know since you were out of town. Courtney had some work-related thing to do that required a lot of traveling, so Neil decided he'd like to spend a few weeks here with Frank and new baby brother."

"Oh, that's nice."

Alison's cell suddenly started to go off. "I better answer this."

"Well, I'll see you later."

"Bye, Karen. Tell Frank I said hello."

Alison turned to her phone, smiling as she saw Rafe's number highlighted on the little screen. "Hey."

"Hey, Angel."

"Where are you?"

"Still at the youth center, catching up on some things. Did you go to the doctor?"

"I'm at the hospital now. Just finished up."

"What did Dr. Meadows say?"

"She said the baby and I are the picture of health."

"Good. That's what I wanted to hear."

"Well, listen, I'm going to head home soon and start dinner, so don't stay out too late."

"I won't. I'll see you when I get home."

"I love you."

"I love you, angel."

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Katrina and Danny lay on their stomachs on the bed, watching the movie.

"I want to be a spy kid," Danny suddenly said.

"Me too!"

Danny sat up, suddenly getting a great idea. "Hey, let's play Spy Kids!"

"Okay!"

"You be Carmen and I'll be Juni."

"But we have to have a mission, right?"

"Yeah. Let me think. Hmm. Okay, I got it. We have to sneak downstairs and grab Serena's cell phone without her knowing."

"'Cause it plays good music?"

"No, not because it plays good music. We have to get it because," Danny looked around, making sure no one was in earshot. "Because it's got a bomb in it!"

"Oh no!"

"Yeah! If we don't get that phone before it goes off, this whole place is going to blow to smithereens!"

Katrina gasped.

"Shh! We have to be very quiet. Now just follow my lead."

"Okay," Katrina whispered.

Downstairs, Danny and Katrina crept, not making a sound.

"Look," he snickered, pointing over to the couch. "This is going to be easy."

Katrina looked, and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing. Apparently, Serena and Neil were too busy kissing to notice them.

"Come on," Danny said, going down the last few steps. "We have to find the phone."

"It might be in her pocket book."

"Good idea. Let's check the kitchen."

Danny and Katrina crawled their way into the kitchen unnoticed, then raced for the counter where Serena's purse still lay.

"Is it in there?" Katrina asked.

Danny shook his head. "No, it's not here. She must have left it out in the living room. We're going to have to check and see."

Quietly, they snuck back into the living room, and that's when Katrina spotted it. "I see it, Danny."

"Where?"

"On the table by the couch. See?" She pointed.

"Oh man. That's too close. They'll definitely see us now. Okay, this calls for Plan B. We need some kind of distraction."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Let me think."

And suddenly, without warning, the cell phone began to ring.

"OH NO! GET DOWN!" Danny yelled, and he and Katrina hit the floor, covering their heads.

Serena and Neil looked at each other, a look of confusion on both of their faces.

"Hello?" Serena answered the phone.

"Hey, the bomb didn't go off," Katrina said.

"Whew. That was a close call."

"What are you two doing?" Neil asked.

"We're playing Spy Kids," Danny explained.

"Neil, it's Frank. He wants to talk to you." Serena handed Neil the phone. "Kids, I thought you were upstairs watching a movie."

"But there's a bomb and we have to get it before it goes off!" Katrina said.

"The bomb must be somewhere else because it didn't go off when the phone rang. We should keep looking."

"Well, I got to go," Neil announced, handing Serena's phone back to her. "Karen's on her way home with dinner."

"Okay, well I'll see you tomorrow?" Serena asked.

"Sure. Bye."

Danny and Katrina watched as the two of them kissed each other goodbye. They looked at each other and laughed, then began to sing the kissing song together.

Neil and Serena

Sittin' in a tree!

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

"Hey, that's enough," Serena warned.

"See you later, rugrats," Neil said.

"Bye, Neil!"

Serena was about to tell the kids to go play again when another phone began to ring.

"OH NO! THE BOMB!" Danny yelled, and once again, Katrina and Danny hit the floor.

Serena rolled her eyes. "It's just a phone." Serena answered it. "Hello? Oh hi, Eve….Yeah, I'm over here babysitting Katrina….Yep, he's here….Sure, I'll let him know. Bye."

Danny looked up from the floor. "What's my mom want?"

"Your mom says it's time for you to go home."

"Oh man!"

"Hey! Can I go with him, Serena? To see the kitties?"

"No, I think they're about to have dinner. And besides, your mom is going to be home in a few minutes anyway."

"Oh, pooh," Katrina said. Would she ever get to see those kittens?

"Bye, Katrina. See you later."

"Bye, Danny."

"Well, looks like it's just me and you for now, kiddo. What do you want to do?"

Katrina grinned. "Let's go play in your car again!"

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The moment Katrina heard her mother's car pull into the driveway, she ran over to greet her.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

"Hi, sweetie." Alison had barely gotten out of the car before Katrina was already begging her for something.

"Mommy I wanna go over to Danny's to see the kitties can I? Can I? Huh?"

"I don't know, baby. It's getting late. It's almost time for dinner and Daddy will be home soon."

"Oh please, Mommy! Danny said they were the cutest little things and I could come over and see them anytime I wanted too! Please!"

"Hmm. Well maybe after dinner. We'll see."

Katrina grinned widely. Mommy didn't say no! "Come on, Mommy," she said, taking her mother's hand. "Let's go get dinner started now so we can hurry up and be finished with it!"

"Okay, but we've got to get the groceries first."

Katrina ran towards the trunk of the car and grabbed a few bags.

"So, how was everything?" Alison asked Serena.

"Great!" Serena grinned.

"Well good. I'll have to call on you to babysit more."

Katrina grinned widely, turning to her mother. "Serena pretended to watch a movie but really she just kissed her boyfriend the whole time!"

Serena turned bright red as she laughed nervously. "Ha, ha, kids say the funniest things."

Alison laughed. "It's okay. I don't mind if you had someone over. Come on inside, I'll pay you."

"Hey, Serena?" Katrina called out.

"What?"

"This is you and your boyfriend." Katrina pouted her lips and began kissing her hand.

Serena rolled her eyes and went inside.

Katrina laughed as she followed her. "Neil and Serena sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G…"