The next morning Alex was still asleep in her bed in the attic. Jan and Marcia went up to get her ready for breakfast. "Alex!" Marcia whispered. "Alex wake up," Alex didn't wake up. "Alex!" she said again. "Alex! Wake up!" she said louder. "Your breakfast is getting cold!"

"I thought it was cereal," said Jan.

"Alex your breakfast is getting, soggy!" Marcia said correcting herself. Alex did not move from her bed. Jan picked up one of Alex's shoes and threw it at her.

"Ow!" Alex yelled rubbing her head, she shot up seeing the two girls standing there. "What did you have to do that for?" She threw her shoe off the bed.

"To get you up for breakfast," Jan replied.

"Couldn't you have let the alarm clock wake me up?" Alex asked as the numbers on the clock changed from 8:59 AM to 9:00 AM, it began to buzz and Alex shut it off.

"Oh, oops," Jan said with a silly smirk on her face.

"Well, get down to the table, your breakfast is waiting," Marcia said the two walked back down. Alex sat up from her bed, she stretched and yawned.

Moments later Alex walked down the stairs, dressed in the usual t-shirt and jeans. The Alex Brady original. "So," said Carol starting out the morning conversation. "You girls going to the Ice Cream Parlor today?" as if she wasn't there for last night's dinner discussion.

"Yeah, after lunch," replied Marcia.

"I've invited some people from school for her to meet too," Jan added. "So when Alex comes to school with Pete and me on Monday she'll already know a some kids,"

"That's a wonderful idea, Jan!" said Carol.

Before they left Peter walked up from the kitchen, the three girls, Marcia, Jan and Cindy were there. Peter didn't know what to say, so he just said whatever. "Hey, um, Marcia,"

Marcia turned around and saw her younger brother standing there, he stood quite awkwardly, his body was tense and unusually straight. She knew he was about to do something, something that would put him in such an awkward position.

"Yes, Peter?" she asked, still a bit angry with him.

"I was wondering, um, if I could go to the Ice Cream Parlor with you guys,"

"Why? So you can try to convince Alex that we're horrible, horrible sisters of yours?"

"No, Marcia, that's not it, I would never call you girls horrible sisters,"

"Then would you mind explaining to me what it is?"

"I feel bad for going and accusing that you were trying to have Alex all to yourself, so I thought I'd buy you guys a round of ice cream, you know, my treat,"

"Aw Pete," Marcia said feeling a bit bad for getting so angry at him for something silly like that. "You don't have to buy us a round of ice cream, but, you can come and help Jan introduce some of your friends to Alex,"

Peter smiled. "Sounds great!"

Later that day Mike dropped off the girls and Peter at the Ice Cream Parlor.

"I'll be back to pick you up in a couple of hours, so be ready at 3:30 okay?" Mike asked.

"Okay, thanks dad," replied Marcia.

"So what are we going to do four two hours?" Alex asked.

"Well, eat ice cream and talk," replied Marcia.

"Talk, for two hours?" Alex couldn't believe anyone could just talk that long. Maybe with her cousins, but she's just shy around new people.

"Yeah, it'll be fun, come on," said Jan. As they walked into the parlor.

"They've got the best ice cream here too," Peter added.

"I remember, when either my dad or your dad would take us here when we were really little!" Alex said as her face brightened. She grinned. "We had so much fun together,"

"Yeah," Peter replied with a grin. "It was a blast, the pool, the ice cream parlor, the carnival!" then his grin turned to a frown. "I'm gonna miss you when you leave,"

"Hey Pete, I just got here yesterday! Why are you thinking about me leaving already? We'll do all that before I leave," said Alex. "We'll have a blast, don't you worry,"

Peter smiled again, "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I guess you're right,"

Jan rushed over to Alex and Peter with a new girl. "Alex, Peter," Jan began. "This is my new friend Rachel Palmer, she just moved here from Iowa a week ago. Her family just settled in so she'll be starting school the same time you are, Alex,"

Alex smiled. "Fantastic, so you're a newbie too, huh?"

"Yeah," she replied shyly. "Jan was going to show me around the school, she told me about you, saying we could become friends, and not being the only new kid,"

"I know what you mean, we're very lucky to have two awesome kids like Jan and Peter to show us around," said Alex.

"Look Cindy," Marcia said pointing over to Alex. "She's made a friend already, by the time she goes to school on Monday, she'll know every kid in the whole school!"

"That'll be more people than I know," Cindy added. "And I've lived here my whole life!"

After the ice cream parlor the four waited for Mike to pick them up.

"So did you have a good time?" Marcia asked.

"Oh yeah," Alex replied. "Everyone was nice and the ice cream was great, now I'm not at all nervous to go to school tomorrow,"

"That's good!" Jan said cheerfully. Alex began to cough several times, she covered her mouth with her fist.

"Gee, you okay there, Alex?" Peter asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "I must've had a frog in my throat or something," she coughed a few times again.

A few moments later, Greg pulled up in Mike's covetable. "Hey, hey you guys!" he said cheerfully.

"Where's dad?" asked Cindy.

"He had a meeting, he'll be back in time for dinner," he replied. "Say, you guys have a good time?"

"Yeah," the kids replied.

"That's great, sorry I'm a bit late, but we need to hustle! Mom wants us washed up before dinner," said Greg. "Come on, come on. Get a move on," he said rushingly making a hand jester pointing to the backseat.

A little while after they got back, it was time for dinner. All the kids trampled into the kitchen and took their seats, except for Alex she stayed in the family room watching television. Carol walked in.

"Alex, aren't you coming for dinner?" she asked.

"Nah," replied Alex with her eyes glued to the TV set. "I'm not that hungry right now, besides I have a load of homework to do,"

Carol looked at Alex funny. "School hasn't started yet,"

"Oh, well, I'm probably just going to stay here and relax a bit,"

"Oh," Carol said looking a bit confused. "Well, okay then," she walked back into the kitchen.

"Hey honey," Mike greeted as he walked into the kitchen. He searched for his niece. "Where's Alex?"

"She's in there," she pointed to the family room. "She says she's not hungry,"

"That's not like her,"

"Well, she must be watching a really interesting television program,"

"King me, Bobby," said Peter playing checkers with his younger brother.

"Ah!" Bobby said with frustration. "That's you're third 'king me'!"

"That's because I can't be beat!" Peter added a bit cockily. They saw Alex walk past by.

"Oh hey, Alex," Peter greeted. "Wanna play me in a game of checkers? I'm the undefeated champ!"

"No thanks, I'm gonna go to bed," replied Alex with a yawn.

"But it's only 8:30!" Bobby added.

"Yeah, well, I'm really tired," Alex said. "Well, goodnight,"

Alex walked up to her room in the attic and never made a sound through the night.