The first thing Benson set his eyes on was the portal, which he'd disregarded last night thinking it was just the effects from those stupid drugs he had to take. Yet, there it was before him, a swirling dark colored cyclone residing smack dab in the center of the television screen. The second thing the dumbfounded gumball machine laid his eyes on was Pops, clutching in his hand a black and white commentary and bearing a surprised expression. He certainly wasn't expecting them to come downstairs this soon. And then the third thing that caught Benson's eye was the girl.

There was something strange about her, no doubt about it. After the first glance, he knew that there was something…odd about her, everything about her seemed a little crooked. Benson stopped in his tracks along with his two employees and allowed their eyes to inspect the scene before them: A nervous Pops, a young girl, and a portal. But Benson allowed himself to take a closer look. The young girl looked more like a rag doll that had been used as a chew toy by the meanest bulldog in the neighborhood. Her long, tangled black hair acted as a barrier, concealing half of her face, and in return making her look pale; deathly pale. She was wearing one of Pops' inherited sweater, and it was much too big for her, seeing as it slid off one of her shoulders and revealed beneath it a bony collarbone and a torn shirt. Her skinny jeans were porous with tears and holes. And, if Benson looked close enough, he could make out red smeared marks along her legs. Dark red, as if it were blood.

Benson turned his gaze back to the girl's face, only to see that she was looking straight at him, into his wide eyes.

The first thing Kairo set her eyes on was the lollipop man, which she'd previously feared, only to see that he wasn't at all capable of hurting a butterfly. And there he was before her, an anxious expression smeared across his face as he looked at the people entering the living room. The second thing the dumbfounded girl laid her eyes on was a raccoon and a blue jay, both staring at the portal behind her and eyeing back and forth from it to the third figure standing far in front of the group, as if they knew they were in trouble. And then the third thing that caught Kairo's eye was the gumball machine.

There was something strange about him, no doubt about it. After the first glance, she knew that there was something…weird about him, everything about him seemed a little crooked. Kairo's limbs paralyzed after sensing that they were all looking at her, all of those whacky creatures in her seemingly impossible dream. She took some time to inspect the predicament before her: A nervous Pops, two mammals walking on heir hind legs, and a living gumball machine, with limbs and all. But Kairo allowed herself to take a closer look. The gumball machine looked more like an overworked father that had been taking care of a dozen children with no help at all. His pink gumballs looked like splotches of color from behind his dome. One could barely make out the spherical pieces of candy, which looked more like clusters of pink tinted marbles than anything else. He wasn't necessarily wearing anything, even though the two mammals were fully clothed. His short, red-painted torso bore a heart-shaped crank and a matching gray dispenser. His skinny silver legs weren't shaking like the raccoon's and the blue jay's were. And, if Kairo looked close enough, she could see that he wasn't at all anxious, or frightened, or angry at all. He seemed to be focusing on something, his expression slightly intensified, mostly relaxes.

Kairo readjusted her gaze back to the gumball machine's face, only to see that he was looking straight at her, into her wide eyes.

"What's going on here?" Skips asked as he skipped through the open door. Kairo and Benson, though they weren't aware of it, had been staring into each other's eyes for five minutes straight, causing the raccoon to nudge the blue jay and whisper something inaudible into his ear. But at the sound of Skips voice, the gossiping mammals flipped around to the front door, Pops set down his commentary to turn his attention to the yeti, and Kairo and Benson broke their connection. Their heads swiveled to the humongous yeti as he closed the door behind him and headed deeper into the living room, inspecting the scene before him as he did so. After a few seconds of being uncomfortably watched by the creature towering over her, Kairo focused her wide-eyed gaze and looked up at him with unfathomable unease.

"Um…Sup?"

The yeti turned back around to the two mammals just as Benson grew angry and started to reprimand them, pivoting on the back of his metal foot and thrusting his finger towards them. "What did you two do now!" his irritated voice bellowed, causing the two to take a step back.

"What? Dude, we didn't do anything! Promise!" Mordecai begged.

"Yeah man, we thought that control panel was supposed to be like an auto-tuner or something!" Rigby added, flailing his arms violently in an effort to show him he was innocent.

Skips sighed and shook his head. "You two messed with the Portal Panel in the attic?"

Benson flipped around with curiosity written over every inch of his face. "The Portal Panel?" Skips nodded and sat down on the couch and began to describe it.

"What you see on the screen is a Portal. It is not an object, nor a device; It is an entity, a manifestation used to call forth two different worlds and bring them together as one. The portal will choose one being to be sent into one world, and later, another to be sent into theirs."

The group looked at the yeti questioningly. Skips face palmed and sighed.

"The portal rescues a being from their own fate by altering their location; automatically."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Rigby protested as he stuck his finger into the air. "So, if we didn't go up there and mess with it, then this would've happened anyway?""Depends. Did you drag it out, or did it find its way to you?"

Rigby turned his finger into a fist, then lowered his head in shame. "It…sorta fell on me. But I didn't, like, pull it out from a box or anything, there it was!"

Skips swiveled his attention towards the girl. "And what about you?" Skips turned his attention to Kairo, who flinched and looked around in confusion. "Huh, what? Wha-what about me? Who?"

"How did you find your way through the portal?"

"Um, uh…My step-sisters'…cat…pushed me in." Rigby laughed and took a step toward her with amusement clearly showing on the features of his face. "Your cat pushed you in? I didn't even know that was physically possible!" The raccoon continued to laugh hysterically as Kairo placed her hands on her hips.

"First of all, it was my step-sisters cat. And second, it could push you in easy as pie!""I only weigh 58 pounds!" Rigby protested."So? What does that have to do with anything?" Their conversation turned from a laughing matter to an argument.

"That means you way a little over how much I do! You're lighter than a feather!""No, you are! You're tinier than me!""Maybe your cat friend didn't like competition!""You sayin' that I can't take on a cat?"

"I'm saying that you're part cat, and you couldn't even win a catfight for your life! OOOH!"

Kairo stopped and brought her hand up and felt through her knotty hair, running her fingers against something soft and fuzzy.

"Hmm. Well that's interesting." She said as she looked over her shoulder to see a maroon tail calmly wagging with a pattern.

Skips looked back at the portal. "You said a cat pushed you in?" Kairo looked up at him and nodded. "That's why you have those ears and tail. The portal gives you certain qualities of the thing that caused you to enter it."

"Dude," Kairo stared off into space. "That's wicked."

"And how old are you in human years?""Dude, I'm part cat, not all cat. Gimme a break."

"That's not what I mean." Skips said sternly. "If you were originally in this world, you'd subtract your age by three. If you were in another world, you'd add three. That's how the system works."

Kairo stared off into space until he finished his sentence. "You know? I don't like this already; It has math problems. That's lame."

Rigby hopped up and down enthusiastically. "Oh, I know my human age! I'm twenty!" Mordecai leaned up against the wall. "That makes me twenty too I guess."

They looked at Benson, who sighed and crossed his arms. "Twenty four." They all turned their heads to Kairo, who still sat awkwardly in the center of the room.

"Um…uh, if you add three, then…I'm 17 ½."

Rigby laughed again.

"What's so funny!"

"You're only fourteen!""Fourteen ½!" Kairo shouted, Benson taking notice of how hoarse it was.

"Um, pardon me." Pops barely spoke up, raising his hand into the air ever so politely. Everyone turned their attention to him.

"Well, I was wondering, I already told Kairo that she could-"

Rigby butted in again, seizing this moment to make fun of her. "Kairo? Isn't that an Egyptian name?"

"I'm not Egyptian!"

"So you say," Rigby mumbled under his breath continued. "I already told Kairo that she could stay here, therefore-"

"What?" Benson, Mordecai, and Rigby asked him with disbelief.

"Oh my!" Pops exclaimed at their surprised response. "Was I not to be a good host and give her a place to stay? Besides, I'm sure that is the reason why the portal let her through in the first place!"

Skips stood up. "Pops has a point. The Portal knows what it's doing.""And besides," Kairo spoke up with a scratchy voice, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "If it turns out it made a mistake, I could hop right on through it and go back!"

The portal closed. Kairo eyed the empty television screen and turned back as Rigby spoke. "You just had to say something, didn't you?""You see?" Pops exclaimed proudly, standing up and straightening out his fancy attire. "It clearly wants her to stay. Am I mistaken?"

Skips grunted in agreement. "Benson, you shouldn't deny the portals. They mean good."

Benson looked around the room, still overwhelmed with what was going on. A tattered young girl with an Egyptian name, but clearly not Egyptian. Two common troublemakers messing with something that was eventually going to happen in the first place. All this talk about an intelligent paranormal being who had the power to send people to other worlds, in order to save them from their own fates. It was too much to bear; he was frazzled, confused. But both Skips and Pops had proved to him that it was of importance, so he sighed and shrugged his aching shoulders. "I guess; there's a guest room next to Pops' room, so it shouldn't be a prob-"

"Oh, good show! Jolly good show!" Pops hopped up and down and embraced Kairo in a bear hug. Mordecai and Rigby laughed and went to introduce each other, followed by Skips and Benson.

Rigby thrust out his brown furry hand and took Kairo's. "Hi! I'm Rigby!" He said immaturely, and Kairo shot him a playful stink-eye. Mordecai nudged him away with ease and took her pale hand into his feathered one. "I'm Mordecai."

"Sup?" she said back before he walked away to follow Rigby. Skips skipped up and nodded. "Skips." he trudged away back out the front door, and the two mammals went with Pops to help clean up the guest room, leaving Kairo and Benson standing awkwardly in the living room. Benson nervously rubbed the back of his dome and held out his hand. "Er, uh, I'm Benson." Kairo didn't hesitate taking his hand and shaking it enthusiastically. "Kairo! Not with a C, with a K. I'm not Egyptian if you were wondering, my birth certificate says Katra, but my step mom can't read. She's a retard, you know?" Benson looked at her awkwardly and nodded, and cleared his throat, not really knowing how to respond to her sudden optimistic attitude. "Y-yeah, you know, you'd better go and make sure they aren't vandalizing your room. A-and since you're stuck here, you're gonna be helping out at the park."

Kairo's eyes lit up visibly. "A park? That's where I am? Y'mean, with a playground and sandbox and everything?" she wholeheartedly exclaimed.

"Well, we have a small playground, but most of it is just scenery; rolling hills of grass, trees, benches, the usual. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. I-I used to go to a specific park all the time. It had a huge playground, and kids, and my parents and I would…"

Her voice trailed off, as well as her gaze and her attention. Benson observed the sudden alteration, but had no time to take action, for she'd already straightened back up and stuck her hand against her forehead in a sloppy solute.

"The room will be cleaned out to the greatest of my ability sir!" She laughed a little bit before dashing up the stairs to the spare room where the three groundskeepers were eagerly waiting for her assistance…

Leaving a confused gumball machine standing at the base of the stairs still staring where Kairo was moments before.