A few days later, just the day before Sora and Kairi were due back on Destiny Islands from Sora's grandparents, Riku woke up to a silent bedroom. All week, Mr. Whiskers woke Riku up at 5:00 in the morning, crowing like a psychopathic chicken. Riku wondered how Sora had managed to sleep through the crows every morning. Sora always woke up at 7:00 or sometimes even later, making him close to being late for school.

Riku was lucky. There was no school that day because the teachers had a big important meeting that would take all day. So, Riku would have been able to sleep in, but Riku's parents only let him sleep in on weekends until ten. Riku's alarm went off at 7:00 and there was an eerie silence in the room. He was now used to the sound of a clucking rooster in the morning.

"Mr. Whiskers?" Riku mumbled sleepily as he sat up in bed. He put on his glasses (he is nearsighted in my stories but he wears contacts)and looked around the room. No Mr. Whiskers. He got out of bed and walked into the hallway, where he found a woman with shoulder length hair that was silver and was putting sheets into the linen closet.

"Hey Mom, have you seen Mr. Whiskers?" asked Riku.

Mrs. Thompson closed the closet and turned to her son. "Uh, no." she said. "The last time I saw him, you were giving him chicken feed."

She picked up the empty laundry basket and walked off. Riku sighed and went downstairs to look in the living room, the kitchen, and the den. No rooster. He ran outside where he found a man with light blonde hair that was cut into a crew cut putting gasoline into the lawnmower.

"Riku, I need you to mow the lawn for that barbecue we're throwing for Sora and his family when they get back tomorrow." spoke up Mr. Thompson, looking up at Riku with his green eyes. Riku and his twin had their mother's hair but their father's eyes.

"Dad, have you seen-" said Riku until he realized something. "Wait, did you say barbecue?"

"Yeah, I know how you love barbecues, Riku." said Mr. Thompson, wiping the sweat from the hot Destiny Islands sun. "I'm going to grill up that extremely spicy 5 alarm lime chicken for you. You should get Ryo to try that. She'll love it!"

When Riku was about eight years old, Riku ate his dad's extremely spicy chicken and nearly burned off his tastebuds, resulting in him going to the emergency room. Since then, Riku has had an invunerability to spicy food. He ate jalapenos like nothing!

"Wait, Dad. Did you slaughter a rooster?" asked Riku.

"Riku, you know that I buy chicken from the supermarket!" joked his father. "What makes you think that I slaughtered Mr. Whiskers?"

"He's missing!" cried Riku. "If Sora finds out about this, he is so gonna kill me!"

"Find out about what?" asked a voice.

Riku turned around to find Hurky and Ryo walking up to Riku.

"Morning, girls!" said Mr. Thompson. "Did you eat breakfast yet? Because there's plenty of food in the house-"

"Uh, no thanks!" said Ryo. "We already ate."

"So what seems to be the problem?" Hurky asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"You guys, Mr. Whiskers is MISSING!" yelled Riku frantically.

"WHAT?" cried Hurky and Ryo at the same time.

"Yeah, I know, but how will I find that rooster?" asked Riku. He sat down at the picnic table and put his head on his chin. He sighed. "Man, Sora's still gonna kill me!"

"How will he kill you?" asked Ryo. "Sora ain't got guts to kill a bug!"

"He kills heartless." Hurky commented.

"I mean kill things if he wanted to!" said Ryo. "Sora doesn't have the guts to kill anyone!"

"Wanna bet?" asked Riku. "Sora could get so mad over his beloved rooster, he'd kill me. How are we going to find Mr. Whiskers before Sora gets back?"

"Well, Sora's a pretty understanding guy," explained Hurky, sitting next to Riku on the bench of the picnic table. "Once, I accidentally put a virus on his computer and I thought he'd get mad. So I had to face the music and tell him everything. He didn't get mad. He just told me to run the anti-virus in a tone of voice like he was in a good mood."

"Hurky's right!" spoke up Mr. Thompson, walking over to Riku and his friends. "Maybe you should call Sora and tell him what happened. I'm sure he'll be worried, but he won't be mad at you. He hardly gets mad at anyone."

Riku took out his cell phone and flipped it open, looking for Sora's name on his contacts list. "Why not? I'll give it a shot." he said. He held the phone to his ear and Sora's mom answered it.

"Mrs. Hart?" asked Riku, wondering why Sora's mother answered his cell phone.

"Oh, hi Riku!" said Sora's mom. "Sora put his phone down to go do something. He's tipping a cow. He'll be on the phone in a sec."

Riku remembered tipping a cow with Sora and Kairi last year. It was so fun, that they tipped nearly all the cows at Sora's grandparents' place. They'd tip a cow and then run off.

Suddenly, there was a loud mooing sound and the sound of Sora screaming in the background.

"Uh, Sora can't come to the phone right now," said Sora's mother in a worried tone of voice. "He's getting chased by a cow."

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" yelled Sora.

"MMMMOOOOOOOOOOO!" mooed the cow.

"Then can Kairi come to the phone?" Riku asked.

Right when Riku said Kairi's name, he heard Kairi screaming.

"Sorry, but she's with Sora!" said Sora's mom.

"She's getting chased by a cow, too?" cried Riku.

"I'm afraid so." said Sora's mom, looking out the window to findSora and Kairi running from an angry cow that was chasing them. "Is there something important that you want to tell Sora?"

That his pet rooster is missing, thought Riku.

"Uh, no!" lied Riku.

"Well then, we'll be back on the islands by tomorrow at noon." said Mrs. Hart. Then, she hung up.

"So what did Sora say?" asked Ryo.

"He was getting chased by a cow." explained Riku. "Kairi was getting chased with him, so neither could come to the phone."

Then, a peacock wearing a little yellow hat that said Balamb Express on it walked up to Hurky.

"Telegram for Miss Hurky Dermott!" it said loudly.

"Damn you peacock!" cried Hurky. "What does the Balamb Garden administration want this time?"

"They want you to sign these release papers saying that you are indeed the Balamb Garden keyblade master, but you don't get whatever occupation that you want." said the peacock as he lifted a wing to show Hurky a packet. "Do you have a reply to say to the administration?"

"Fine! I'll sign the stupid papers!" Hurky grunted as she took the packet from the peacock. She patted the pockets of her jeans. "Do you have a pen?"

"Sure do!" said the peacock, holding out a pen with its wing.

Hurky took the pen and began to sign the papers at the picnic table. Riku took this as a good opportunity to question the peacock.

"Uh, peacock?" asked Riku.

"Please. Call me Bill." said the peacock.

"Right. Listen, Bill. Did you see a rooster around here when you flew over here?" asked Riku.

"No, I didn't see any roosters." said Bill.

"Do you know any rabid peacocks?" asked Ryo. "You know, did a peacock over at Balamb Express go nuts or something?"

"Everything's been fine and dandy!" said Bill. "Nobody's quit or been fired in ages! I've been working for Balamb Express for five years!"

"Here!" snapped Hurky, handing Bill the papers in her hands. The peacock took the papers under his wing, lifted his hat in goodbye, and flew off into the clear, blue sky.

"Well, asking a peacock about the rabid peacock or Mr. Whiskers obviously didn't help." Riku said to himself.

Then, there was a familiar, squeaky voice walked by Riku's house. It was a red haired guy named Scott Burkorini.

"I think Burkorini took it!" said Riku.

"Let's go get him!" said Hurky, taking out her keyblade...