Disclaimer: Do not own Ant Farm

Chapter 2

Olive, was always, to her knowledge, an energetic girl whose body ticked hard and fast as long as the sun was up. It meant that she was a morning person, and that she'd get sleepy as soon as the sun disappeared from the sky. She knew her fellow teens didn't quite work that way, but that was always how she'd operated.

The only exception was when she'd have sugar. Sugar would send her to hyper energetic overdrive. Even at night. It would keep her up way past her usual sleeping hours, making her do things, she'd never ever do, "sober."

Oh, sugar. Sugar was thy enemy.

So because of her unusual body clock, for a teen anyway, she was always up bright and early during summer days.

But even 3:45 am PST was asking too much of Olive. The phone rang, shrill and loud, waking the dead of the night.

She fumbled, with one eye open, for the phone next to her bed.

She flipped it open and without looking at the caller id, sleepily answered: "Hi, this is Olive."

The voice on the other end was Principal Skidmore, and she was not at all sleepy.

"Olivia Doyle!" Skidmore sang loud and clear, by way of greeting.

"Principal Skidmore?" Olive was dumbfounded, and getting more awake by the second. "Not that I don't want to hear from my favorite principal," she lied through her teeth," but you do realize, it's 3:45 in the morning right?"

"Well yes…but it's 6:45 in the afternoon over in Tokyo!"

"So you're in Tokyo?"

"Well, no. But I will be – I mean, we will be, this time in two days!"

"Wait, what…?"

"I mean, yes, there is the matter of getting your parents' permission," Olive could just imagine Skidmore sneering at the other end of the line, "but all that will be taken care of quite very easily."

In any other circumstance, Olive would've jumped at the chance to go overseas on vacation, especially Japan. She spoke the language quite fluently. But choosing to go with Skidmore, that was little like jumping into a pit with a snake, and no way out. She had the feeling she wasn't going to have a choice in the matter though. Principal Skidmore always had a way of making parents see things her way. It was the only reason why she hasn't been overthrown as dictator – principal, she corrected herself in her head – of the school yet.

A question was there, at the tip of her tongue, when Skidmore rudely cut across her.

"You remember that boy I told you about? The swimmer, from Japan?"

Most teens would've had a hard time remembering some really random conversation with their principal from many years before, but Olive, thanks to her eidectic memory, definitely remembered.

It was clear in her head, as if it was yesterday that Skidmore had barged into the Ant Farm asking if Olive knew Japanese. How she wanted Olive's help to recruit a Japanese teen swimmer for the Ant Farm. Skidmore had remarked how the teen "swims faster than an eel" and Olive had tried to explain to the principal that Starfish were the fastest swimmers in the water.

"Yes," and Olive was about to recant everything about her conversation with Skidmore about that boy in spit fire Olive fashion when the principal cut across her again.

"It's high time we recruit that boy," interrupted Skidmore, "and we're going to get our chance in two days!"

Boy, Olive could picture Skidmore salivating at the thought already. Everybody knew that the principal had always thought of the Ants as little more than her own personal trophies to add to her collection. The Japanese swimmer, whose name Olive still hadn't learned, was just another one to add to Skidmore's collection.

Olive had three very important questions pop immediately into her head. Why her? What was going to happen in two days? Why now, after three years since they've had their first conversation about the swimmer?

At the very least, Skidmore answered one of the questions, unknowingly.

"It took everything I had. You have no idea how many red tape diplomatic bureaucracy I had to cut through. All the bribing I had to do, how many blackmails –" the principal stopped suddenly. Olive suspected that Skidmore realized she had said too much.

"Well anyway, you should be getting your rest. It's 3:50 in the morning for crying out loud! Don't you realize how rude it is to call people in the middle of the night?" Skidmore admonished Olive as if Olive had been the one to make the phone call. Olive was about to remind her principal otherwise when she heard a distinctive click and then a dial tone at the other end. Skidmore had hung up.

Olive shrugged. It took a lot to offend the teen. She thought about going back to sleep, but thought best to open up and begin reading her Physics textbook. School was two weeks away now. It felt best to get a good head start on things.

She made a note to call Chyna in the morning, and then Fletcher. It was going to be a while. She knew Chyna wasn't going to be up for several hours, and Fletcher at least nine.