Disclaimer: Do not own Ant Farm

Chapter 4

Ringing. Ringing. And more ringing. It just wouldn't stop no matter how long Fletcher would ignore it. He would've refused the phone call, but that would have took physically getting up from bed to get his phone, and then that would wake him up. He didn't want that.

He had been up all last night playing video games with another Ant, Tyler Bueller. This Ant's gift was video games. He was really, really good at it. The best, as Tyler kept reminding Fletcher time and time again.

At first, Fletcher thought, no way could this Ant be the absolute best at every video game. He had to test this Ant's boast for himself. Fletcher was pretty good at video games himself, particularly first person shooters like Halo or Call of Duty.

But all night long Tyler was kicking his behind. He stayed up till the early hours of the morning trying to win one game, just one game, but Fletcher didn't win a single one.

It drove Fletcher mad. He wished he had a super cool gift like that. Not something stupid like art. Who cares about art? Like it did him any good. 90 percent of his time was devoted to making art of this girl, admittedly, one super cool and awesome girl, but a girl who couldn't care less about it at all.

It would've been much better to have a video game gift like Tyler. Then he would spend every summer night like Tyler blasting online gamers from Russia or Taiwan to smithereens.

The incoming phone call was persistent. It just wouldn't go away, so Fletcher, as sleepy as he was, got up from bed to take the phone call. His eyes widened like saucers when he saw who it was.

He considered not taking the phone call, but it was Chyna. He knew deep down, no matter what, he could never turn her away.

He answered.

Chyna got straight to the point. "Oh hey, Fletcher, by the way, do you have Angus's number by any chance? It's really, really important that I talk to him but his number's unlisted."

Fletcher felt that familiar, rising sense of jealousy. Ohh it was Angus she was interested in, was it?

"The number's 512-639-4475," he said in a flat tone. He was about to hang up when Chyna spoke up again.

"So you're not going to ask me why I need the number?"

"Nope." Wasn't it obvious?

"I have this plan, Fletcher. How would you like to go to Tokyo with me and Olive?"

Fletcher was sure if he had jumped out his window, he would've soared.

X

"You want me to do what?" Angus said.

"You heard me. Do you think you can do it?" Was Chyna's answer.

Angus was insulted that Chyna would even ask. "Well, of course, I can do it. But what's in it for me?"

There was a pause at the other end. "You can come with us. Just imagine 11 hours sitting right next to Olive. And then staying with her at a hotel. In Japan. She'll be so lost over there, she's going to be needing you for company."

Angus wasn't so sure about the latter part. But he was already sold when Chyna had mentioned the 11 hour flight sitting next to Olive. 40,000 feet in the air. There was no way she could escape from his company.

"So how are you going to convince your dad to let you go?" He asked, curious.

"I got that part taken care of," Chyna sounded very smug and self-assured. "See, I told Dad that Gibson's chaperoning."

"Smart plan, but how did you convince Gibson?"

"Told him it was a school trip."

"Smart." Gibson, ever the gullible guidance counselor/tutor/therapist, would've believed anything Chyna said.

"Yep," Chyna said brightly. "So you'll do it?"

"Already done."

"What?"

"Yep, I hacked into the London Tipton website while we were talking. I mean, compared to the Pentagon firewall, this is child's play. But I also had to hack into the airlines for an extra ticket. Turns out the website only awards three tickets, and we're four."

"Oh wow, you're fast!"

"Darn right. And Chyna, you're such a liar."

"What do you mean?"

"Olive already has her own ticket, and she's not going to be sitting next to me. And you very conveniently forgot to mention that Skidmore was sharing a flight with us!"

All Angus heard from the other end of the line was a very faint laugh. "Oops, forgot to mention that, goodbye."