Hi again! Sorry for any misspellings or confusing ways of expressing my thoughts. Also, I'm extremely sorry for the late update, at least I think it's kind of late. I'm really just going to start it almost exactly where it left off.

Chapter 2: Meet the Quads

Lainey was lying down in the vents. They were a little smaller than she thought they would be. She usually liked things a certain way. She shivered in the cold, it was colder than she thought it would be too. To distract herself from the cold she decided to think about which of the quads she would get along with the most, besides Ricky.

"Lainey?" a quiet whisper echoed through the vents bringing her back to reality. It was Ricky's voice. Had he brought her food? Probably.

"Coming," she called back in a whisper. She crawled back through the vents and climbed out. Ricky was in the bathroom holding a plate of spaghetti in his hands.

"Lainey, do you like this?" Ricky asked. He was still whispering so he wasn't heard from the rest of his family. Lainey nodded and as she took the plate from Ricky she noticed he was trying to hide something.

"What's behind your back?" Lainey asked suspiciously,

"My hand," Ricky quickly replied.

"Let me see your hand,"

"Why?"

"Because, I know your hiding something," Lainey said and Ricky hesitantly shows that he had been hiding two cucumbers.

"The spaghetti might taste a little like cucumber because that's how Nicky makes it," Ricky confessed.

"That's ok. I actually like spaghetti with cucumber," she says.

"Really? But a lot of people think it's disgusting without even trying it!" Ricky said,

"Yeah, I also like a lot of things other kids our age would hate," she said, embarrassed she hadn't explained that before.

"Oh. wait, our age? How old are you?" he asked realizing that he didn't actually know her age.

"I'm thirteen, aren't you?" she asked, Ricky only nodded.

"Well then, you want the cucumbers?" Ricky asked holding out his hand for her to take.

"Uh, no thanks," she said, a look of disgust on her face.

"I thought you said you like spaghetti like this?"

"I do, but you're holding them."

"What?" Ricky asked he was definitely confused.

"I'm a bit of a germaphobe, and it feels weird to me to eat food that is wet or liquid-like when someone was holding it in their hand," Lainey explained. Ricky nodded then asks,

"Wait, like Nicky germaphobe?" Ricky was concerned about how much of a germaphobe Lainey truly was.

"Oh no! No, no, no. I'm barely a germaphobe compared to Nicky," she replied, kind of laughing as she spoke.

"Good, good," he said trailing off. A few moments of silence filled the room after that. They just finished eating the food while also getting to know each other a little bit when there was a knock at the door. It was Nicky, he had come up to check on Ricky. Ricky and Lainey exchanged a glance before Lainey ran up the vents and Ricky went to answer the door.

"Yeah,?" Ricky asked sleepily.

"I was, uh, wondering if you were, uh, ok?" Nicky asked as he looked over Ricky he wondered if he had woken Ricky up.

"Oh, uh, yeah I'm fine. Just a little tired. The noise was also bothering my ears."

"But, it's always loud," Nicky said suspiciously. He thought Ricky might be trying to hide something.

"Yeah, but I guess I had more of a headache tonight than I thought. The noise hurt my head," he explained.

"Oh, so did I wake you up?" Nicky asked concerned.

"No, I was just lying down,"

"Ok. Are you sure it isn't a migraine? I don't want you to be, be," Nicky nervously looked at Ricky and started to inch backward.

"I'm not sick Nicky!" Ricky shouted annoyed before slamming the door in his face.

~ the next morning ~

Nicky quickly got out of bed. The clock read 6:00 A.M. Just enough time for Nicky to do some investigating around the room. He still wasn't sure if Ricky was telling the truth last night. He started by snooping under his bed. There was so much dust! Nicky thought he should get his clean suit on for this when he spotted something metal. He reached for it and pulled it out as well as himself. It was some strange sort of contraption. He looked at the green button on the side. It wasn't red, so he thought it was ok to press. Nothing happened when he did, so he opened it up and found a bunch of wires inside. They were too confusing, only Ricky understood this sciencey/engineering stuff. Nicky stuffed the thing into his backpack as he heard Dawn's alarm go off in the other room.

As Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn entered the kitchen Nicky looked up at them from the kitchen table,

"What took you so long?" Nicky asked

"Dude, it's only 7:40! I'm like ten minutes early," Dicky said sitting in his chair next to Nicky,

"I get up ten minutes after you, Dicky. And I still get here ten minutes earlier than you, every day." Ricky said.

"Well, I'm about ten minutes early as well. And it usually takes me forty minutes to get ready," Dawn said, she felt accomplished being the most ahead and that she probably woke up around the same time as Nicky, the early bird of the quads.

"Yeah? And what time did you get up this morning?" Ricky asked, making fun of her because she thinks she needs forty minutes to get ready,

"Same time, as usual, 7 o'clock," she said. Ricky rolled his eyes at her.

"How do you guys sleep in so late?" All three of the older quads stared at Nicky in shock.

"Sleep in late?" Dicky asked

"Seven is early for us," Dawn said

"7:30 is even early for us," Ricky added

"Now is early for us," they said in unison. Nicky rolled his eyes at them.

"What time do you get up?" Ricky asked,

"I'm pretty sure I get up at the same time as you," Dawn says.

"No you don't," Nicky said, "I get up at six," Nicky said, he acted as if he was confused how they slept so late. They all roll their eyes at Nicky and continue to eat his delicious waffles.

~sometime earlier that morning~

"Hurry up in there!" Nicky yelled at the bathroom door. Dicky was taking up the downstairs bathroom, Dawn was busy doing something in the upstairs bathroom, and now Ricky was using the bathroom in the boys' room.

"Just give me ten more minutes!" Ricky yelled back.

"You said that twenty minutes ago!"

"Just go away, or it will take me longer!"

"Gross," Nicky muttered to himself walking out of the bedroom.

~ in the boy's bathroom ~

"Lainey, Lainey," Ricky whispered through the vents. Lainey finally heard his voice that morning. She crawled through the vents and out into the bathroom. Ricky was standing there with a few waffles in a Ziploc bag.

"Oh right need to eat food," Lainey said when she noticed the waffles.

"Yeah," Ricky laughs a little, "but be quiet, I think Nicky is still out in the room." Lainey nods. She eats the waffles plain and climbs into the vents but stays at the opening to see if Ricky thinks the room is all clear for her to walk through. He waves his hand for her to come down. When she's in the room she looks around. How was she to get out of the house without anyone seeing her?

"We'll make a rope out of blankets, you'll climb down and I'll pull it up. Wait on the left side of the house, then you can follow us to school. Where we'll introduce you to everyone," Ricky told her already gathering the blankets for the rope. She was sliding down the blankets as quickly, quietly, and safely as possible. She waited for about twenty-five minutes before the quads walked out of the house and headed towards school. Keeping distance and staying out of sight.

~at the school~

Mae was waiting outside the school with Miles.

"Hey, guys! What took you so long?" Mae asked as she got up from the bench she and Miles had been sitting on.

"Someone took thirty minutes in the bathroom," Nicky said glaring at Ricky.

"Wait, I thought Ricky was in the bathroom for thirty minutes?" Dicky said.

"He was," Dawn said,

"Ok. Nicky, it was Ricky who was in the bathroom for thirty minutes," Dicky informed.

"I know that, Dicky," Nicky said. Dicky shrugged before walking into the school.

"Is anybody gonna get his brain fixed?" Mae asked the remaining quads. They all shrugged unsure of what would happen to Dicky in the future.

"I-I, uh, I gotta go," Ricky stammered as he ran somewhere.

"That was strange," Miles, Mae, and Dawn said at the same time. They all looked at Nicky who hadn't spoken.

"Nicky, is there something you want to tell us about what just happened?" Dawn asked. Nicky looked at her, confused for a second before saying,

"Ricky was acting suspicious last night too. I think it has to do with, never mind," Dawn looked at Nicky,

"It has to do with what?" She asked.

"I think we're about to find out," Mae said pointing towards where Ricky was walking with some girl they didn't know. She was as tall as Dicky, her brown hair went only a little past her shoulders and became curly halfway through her hair. It was more of a messy curly than a purposeful curl, though.

"Hey, who's this?" Dicky asked coming out of the school with Natalie, Dooley, and Avery.

"This is, um, Lainey," Ricky said.

"Hi. I don't know if any of what we're going to say will make any sense. It will seem absolutely crazy, but, uh," Lainey tried to say.

"So who exactly are you?" Dawn asked,

"Yeah, and how did you meet Ricky?" Nicky asked, "actually, when did you two meet?" his eyes narrowed at the pair.

"I'm technically nobody, I don't exist here. I met Ricky, well, basically last night." Lainey said.

"Last Night!" The other quads and Mae yelled.

"Yes. While Nicky was making dinner, Dawn and Mae were in Dawn's room, mom and dad were doing whatever they were doing, and Dicky was doing whatever it was that he was doing," Ricky said.

"So it was right before dinner?" Dawn asked,

"That's why you were acting so strange last night!" Nicky exclaimed. Ricky nodded,

"Yes,"

"Wait, how do you not exist?" Mae asked Lainey.

"Oh, well, that's the hard part to explain. And I need you to all promise you won't freak out," Lainey replied. Avery, Natalie, Dooley, Dawn, Mae, Miles, and Nicky nodded.

"Dicky, do you promise you won't freak out?" Ricky asked, noticing that Dicky had not nodded his head.

"Oh, uh, yeah, yeah I promise," he said, still eyeing Lainey suspiciously.

"Ok, good," Ricky said,

"I'm from another universe," Lainey said. No one said anything all of them looked at each other in confusion.

"She's from an alternate reality?" Ricky asked hoping some of them would understand. Mae, Dawn, and Nicky nodded still confused about how though.

"Basically, I come from another world, but it's still earth. The same places on that earth, that are on this earth, just not the same people." Lainey explained. Everyone else understood.

"So basically Ricky built a machine that could travel through alternate realities?" Nicky asked.

"Yes, but that's not even the craziest part. And this part might be acceptable to freak out about, but please try not to," Lainey said. They all nodded.

"In my universe, alternate reality, or other earth, whatever you want to call it. You and your lives, the people you know, well, they're all fictional characters that are part of a TV show about the quads." Lainey waited.

"What?" Dicky asked.

"In my world you're fake," Lainey said

"Oh. Wait fake, all of me is fake!" Dicky started to go insane.

"But you're not fake here. Here you are completely real," Lainey whispered something else in Dicky's ear and he sighed in relief. Combing his fingers through his hair. There was a lot of confusion, and it took a while for Lainey and Ricky to try and explain it all.

"Now I have one question," Lainey said, everyone looking at her, "who's schedule am I going to follow today?"

"Well, if you're going to be here awhile you have to have a consistent schedule," Ricky said.

"I think it would be suspicious if you had the same exact schedule as someone else," Mae said,

"And annoying to be with that person all day, every day," Dawn pointed out.

"You'll also need to know the school," Nicky said. They all nodded.

"Well, I'll need a guide first," Lainey said,

"What if we all took turns being your guide?" Nicky suggested

"That doesn't seem like a bad idea," Lainey said. Everybody agreed, then Dooley said,

"I have a guy who can get you a fake schedule, but we need to plan it out first," Lainey nodded in agreement.

"So, we should plan out the schedule so I'm with at least one of you at all times," Lainey said, everyone nodded in agreement. Lainey looked around as everyone took out their schedules. It took a while and was confusing to make, but they finally had Lainey's schedule. Now all they had to do was wait for Dooley's guy to get her into the school's system.

Again sorry for the delay in this chapter! I had too many ideas that I tried to cram into this chapter, but you'll see them in the next chapter! Also, I'm writing Natly as Natalie, because she always says the 'a' is silent, which means it's in the spelling of the name. At least I hope you do. Anyway, I always appreciate a review. And also thanks to JustVilda Potter for their review! I've read some of their stories and they're great! That's all, hope you enjoyed!