"Let's see… gotta get into the art room…" Daisuke took out his key card and sliced it into the little slot of an activation machine.

"ACCESS DENIED," came a strange female voice from the machine.

"Huh?" Daisuke stared at his card. "Oops… this is the card to get into the science room. I must have left the other card in my locker. Oh well, I'll just fiddle with the combination until it opens, because I'm too lazy to get my other card... thing..."

7, 4, 9, 8, 3, 5, 1, 2, 6… "ACCESS GRANTED."

"Hey, that was lucky." Daisuke opened the door and looked around. Suddenly, the door closed behind him again.

It was Satoshi.

Dun, dun, dun!

A very cool dun, dun, dun.

"Oh, hi Satoshi." Daisuke went back to his business.

"Hello, Daisuke," Satoshi said. "I need to ask you two questions. Would you care to answer them?"

"Uh… maybe. Depends on what they are." Daisuke was in the way back of the art room. He wanted to stay as far away from Satoshi as he possibly could. Satoshi's strange interest in him was starting to give him the heebie-jeebies…

"First," said Satoshi. "Are you free this evening?"

"Um... why?" Daisuke asked, slightly weirded out.

"Just wondering."

"..." Daisuke sweat dropped, wondering if he should start hyperventilating or screaming for help, because Satoshi was scaring him again. Then he collected himself; despite not really caring about being cool, having a spaz attack in front of Satoshi seemed like the kind of thing that everyone would know about tomorrow… whether or not his mom shouted it out the window. "Tonight? Well, tonight is my birthday, so I need to make sure my mom doesn't burn the house down attempting to make me a cake… and then I've got homework, but otherwise, no. Why?"

"No reason…" Satoshi grinned suspiciously, that kind of makes-you-wish-you-could-rip-off-their-mouth-stuff-it-in-a-sack-and-throw-it-over-a-cliff grin. Satoshi continued. "My second question is, why did your cell phone ring in class today? And why did our teacher tell you he was 'so sorry'?"

Daisuke blinked as he went back to sixth period…

It was 6th period science.

"Now remember, class," whispered their teacher, Mr. Pretzel. "These ants and these termites have been living together in peace for a long time in a sound-proofed room. However, one abrupt and loud noise could immediately disturb the balance that I've taken years to create. But I thought I could show their digging patterns to you in trust that an abrupt and loud noise will by no means go off."

Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!

Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!

"WHO WAS THAT?!" Mr. Pretzel shouted, tears streaming down his face as the termites began to eat the confused, terrified ants. "'FESS UP OR THE WHOLE CLASS HAS TO WRITE AN ESSAY ON WHY CELL PHONES SHOULD BE ILLICIT!!!" Mr. Pretzel's face was the color of an overly ripe plum. "CONFESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

It was, of course, Daisuke's phone. And Daisuke is a good kid, so he decided that he would turn himself in. But Takeshi got their first.

"It was Daisuke! Not me this time!" Takeshi shouted, before he could take the blame. As usual.

"… Thanks, Takeshi," Daisuke mumbled, sweatdropping.

"Well, no one wants to write an essay…" his friend mumbled back.

"Geez, Daisuke, you're even more annoying than I thought!" Risa shouted in a very Sakura-like way. Daisuke considered begging, but he was immediately interrupted by Mr. Pretzel.

"DAISUKE!" his teacher yelled. "WHY IS YOUR CELL PHONE ON?!"

"M-my mom told me to leave it on…" Daisuke admitted, sliding down in his seat in fear. "She said it was 'In case of something important'. And she's on the phone right now, so it's probably something to-"

Mr. Pretzel grabbed Daisuke's cell phone, flipped it open and turned it on. "Hello? Mrs. Niwa? Yes, your son's cell phone was on in class… How important can it be to have it on in class???... ... ... Oh, that's terrible!... Yes, you can talk to him." Mr. Pretzel handed back Daisuke his cell phone.

"Daisuke! I'm so sorry!" Mr. Pretzel burst into tears as he hugged his student.

"Um, okay… I'm going into the hall." Daisuke pushed out of the embrace and raced off into the hallway.

Daisuke stared at his phone. 'Do I really want to know…?' He sighed (again!). "Hello? Mom?"

"Hi, my little slice of cheesecake! It's Mommy!"

"… Yeah. What did you want me for?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I need you home by 4:25 and 43 seconds today!" his mom said in her ever-cheery voice. "Don't forget!"

"I won't. But what the heck did you tell my teacher?!"

"Oh, nothing… Just that some guy hit Grandpa with a steamroller and I've been peeling him off the road for hours in desperate attempt to bury him in a proper funeral."

Daisuke blinked. "This never happened, I'm guessing."

"How right you are! That's my boy! Oh, and sorry about Risa. Bye!"

Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop.

"... I hate the stalker gene." Daisuke growled and through down his phone so that it broke. At least he has a spare!

"… Um, actually, I wouldn't care to answer that one," Daisuke replied.

"Why? Because you do have plans tonight and you just don't want to tell me about them?!" Satoshi asked interragtingly, looking at Daisuke with eyes scanning for any signs of lyingness. Daisuke blinked, backing into a corner.

"No...?"

"Oh. Okay." Seemingly disappointed, Satoshi turned back to whatever it was he was doing.

"So… do you like art?" asked Daisuke, not wanting to experience another awkward silence that day.

"I am passionate about art, but not obsessed with art. As some people are. But I am not one of those people." Satoshi turned to look at Daisuke. "Are YOU one of those people?"

"Me? Uh, no." Daisuke had a feeling Satoshi didn't like him. 'Maybe an awkward silence would have been better...'

"You have heard of the art robbery later this evening?" Satoshi inquired.

"Uh… yeah. You were there when my friend told me."

"Ah. Yes. Him. The… incommodious one." Satoshi glanced at the wall clock. "I must be off."

"Uh… yeah, me too." Daisuke finished what he was doing in the art room, I think it was cleaning, and started walking home.

When suddenly it clicked in his mind.

He needed to be home by 4:25.

It was 4:23.

He was three and half miles from home.

…

Whatever would Daisuke do?

But his mom had trained him and Daisuke ran home, making it two seconds before his mom wanted him back.

"Good job, my little bowl of marshmallow fluff!" said his mom, her voice coming over an intercom installed in his house. "Why don't you come in the kitchen for a big slice of pecan pie and a glass of milk?"

Daisuke grabbed an umbrella from the umbrella rack and poked a tile in the hallway. It began slowly drifting into a pit full of crocodiles. Daisuke then took out a can of Pam and sprayed it around the room. As it turns out, Pam can actually show hidden lasers (wow, who would have guessed?), and Daisuke weaved his way in and out of them until he made it to the kitchen. The door said, "Congratulations, Daisuke! You win the pie and milk!" and Daisuke took out a nail and touched the doorknob. The nail melted on impact, and Daisuke kicked down the door and walked into the kitchen.

"YAY, DAISUKE! YOU DID IT!" his mom screeched, hugging Daisuke in a choking hug. "You got 100 percent today! Kicking down the door was an interesting way of getting inside… but still! Yay, Daisuke! I made you some pie and I promise it's not poisonous this time."

"Yes, it is."

"Ooh, you're right! Yay, Daisuke! Yay!" His mom pranced around the room singing.

"Yeah. I think I'm just going to make my own pie…" Daisuke didn't exactly trust his mother when it came to cooking. "And you're not going to put explosives in the cake this year, are you?"

"No, silly," his mom said, thrusting her index finger into the air. "I'll put in something better! You'll never expect it! Mwa, ha, ha, ha! I mean, um... I wasn't just laughing maniacally!"

"… Yeah, okay, Mom." Daisuke went up into his room. Wiz was sitting on his bed. Daisuke's room was very boring. It had a window, a bed, a bedside table and an empty easel. Because of the little furniture in the room, Daisuke noticed the change immediately.

"Wiz!! Where's the picture I painted of Risa???" Wiz burped and a piece of painted paper flew out of his mouth. Daisuke's eyes were as big as medicine balls. "YOU ATE IT?! WIZ HOW COULD YOU?! That took me twenty nine hours to paint!!!!!" Daisuke started crying. "Wiz, you stupid rabbit thing! If you weren't so adorable, I would have eaten you years ago!!!!!"

"Kyuu," said Wiz cutely, widening his eyes and fluffing up his fur to further protect himself from being devoured.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen…

"Oh, Gran-dude!" squealed Daisuke's mom. "You must help me with a surprise idea for Daisuke's cake this year! I've already done explosives, fireworks, mines, electrical currents, hungry vampire bats, bears, pins, needles, and rocks before! I need a new idea! Got any?"

"Hmm…" Daisuke's grandpa thought, then snapped his fingers. "I know! Flammable liquids, such as alcohol and isopropanol! Then when you light the candles, the whole cake will be ablaze!"

"Yeah! Great idea!" Daisuke's mom skipped off into the kitchen. "Where do we keep those again?"

"Second drawer on your right."

"Thanks."

Suddenly, Daisuke shouted from upstairs.

"HEY, MOM!"

"Yes, sugar-nugget?"

"I just got a growth spurt!"

"That's great!"

Daisuke's mom continued to cook. Daisuke's idea of a growth spurt was his hair growing another centimeter or so.

"…Mom?"

"What, sweetie-pie?"

"Does getting a growth spurt also mean I get purple hair?"

"… It's not supposed to."

"Oh."

Silence.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"