Wiz and Riku entered the empty cooking room. Mr. Intense was waiting for them with a bag of raw cabbages and sharp knives.

"Don't throw them," he instructed. "Or cut yourselves. The nurse went home and besides, Band-Aids are for wussies!"

'Or people with blood', Riku thought to herself; she had always thought of Mr. Intense as a vampire. She was starting to wonder if thirty bucks was worth this. 'I'm beginning to wonder if thirty bucks was worth this'. That was specific.

Mr. Intense left, locking the door ("There are no escapees in my cooking room!"), to go photocopy several pages from a cookbook, leaving Wiz and Riku alone.

The first few moments were quiet. Riku didn't much care for Daisuke, and she knew acting like her sister wouldn't be a problem. She wasn't sure that Risa even knew who Daisuke was; she already had seemed to have forgotten about him from last night. But she felt she needed to say something; the silence was getting to her.

"So… uh…" Riku said nervously. "Cooking's kind of hard, huh?"

Wiz turned to her and grinned. "Oh, don't worry honey-muffin! The beginning's always the hardest!"

Riku flinched, surprised at his answer. "Excuse me?!"

"We're just getting you warmed up! You'll get used to it, okay, darling-face?"

Riku dropped her knife, which stuck itself into the leg of her stool. 'Why is Daisuke acting so funny? Is he trying to flirt with me? If so, he's really, really bad at it.' Riku decided she would ignore this; from what she heard, Daisuke always acted strangely.

"Creep," she growled, trying to sound like Risa. Daisuke just gave her another large grin and answered cheerily, still smiling, "Darn, I said something incredibly stupid!" He tonked himself on the head with his fist and went back to chopping his cabbage.

'Jeez… this is so worth twenty more bucks than what I'm getting paid', Riku thought again, a vein popping out in her forehead as she chopped up her cabbage as fast as she could. She probably would have gotten sliced, but she was already pretty good at cooking; she hoped this didn't look suspicious to Daisuke. 'Daisuke', on the other hand, was chopping his cabbage slower than molasses, but still had managed to cut himself seven times. His eyes were welling up with tears and his hands were bleeding a little bit (I wouldn't hurt Wiz that bad, even in a story!). He didn't know what to say to Riku, so he just shoved his hands in her face.

"You cut your hands, I can see that. Get them out of my way," Riku growled, pushing him backwards.

"ZOMG, what the heck am I gonna do?!" Wiz shouted to his hands, then licked the cuts gingerly. Mr. Intents came back in with his big stack of papers.

"Daisuke, I know you're not an ace when it comes to cooking, BUT AT LEAST CUT MORE THAN ONE CABBAGE!" Mr. Intents yelled. "And next time, do it without lacerating your hands!"

Wiz glanced at his hands sadly before watching Mr. Intents eat his cabbage.

"No-ee!" he shouted before Mr. Intents ate it, but it was too late.

"What is the problem?" Mr. Intents shouted at poor Wiz, who didn't understand.

But Wiz shouted back, "YOU ATE IT?! HOW COULD YOU?! That took me seventeen hours!" Wiz broke down on his cutting board, sobbing uncontrollably.

'Whoa… he's a really sensitive guy…who over exaggerates', Riku thought to herself. Her nineteen cabbages were perfectly done, but she felt she couldn't just leave Daisuke there when he was having an episode in front of the meanest and most strict teacher in the school.

'This could mean my sister's reputation is going in the toilet, but…' Riku swallowed and put her arm around Wiz. 'At least it doesn't look like I'm doing this. Heaven forbid.'

"It's okay, Daisuke," she said, trying to calm him. "It's just a cabbage." She hated to, but pity made her say, "I'll even help you, if you want."

Wiz looked up at her with sweet, shiny eyes, and said, "If you weren't so adorable, I would have eaten you years ago!"

"That's it!" Riku grabbed her bag and quickly walked out the door. 'What nerve! I am SO not associating with that guy anymore. Who wears Digimon watches now anyway? Everyone knows the cool new thing is Yu-Gi-Oh!.'

Wiz grinned, wondering what happened. Mr. Intents sighed.

"Daisuke, your incommodious friend is right. You really don't have a way with the ladies."

"How does THAT work out?" Wiz asked plainly. Then he ran away before Mr. Intents could stop him.

"Let me get this straight," said Daisuke, trying to keep an inside voice. "You told me to go get the special painting. We're clear on that part, right?"

"All the other thirty-six times we've gone through it, yep," Daisuke's mom said, sipping some hot cocoa calmly.

"But then when I get there, it's gone."

"Yes, indeed."

"Because Grandpa already had it."

"Um… yes…"

"For fifty-nine years."

"... Heh, heh?"

"So your only son almost risked his butt again, dodging police and sudden death and that's it? No big deal?" Daisuke asked, throwing out his arms.

Daisuke mom put down her mug and grinned sheepishly. "You're trying to tell me that I'm spacey, aren't you?"

"I'm trying to tell you that you're a terrible mother!"

"He's right, you know."

"No one asked you, Gran-dude!" His mom turned to Daisuke. "I'm sorry, sweetums! If it makes you feel any better, you only have to go steal art once a week now! Okay, honey-nose?"

"Mom, don't ever call me that again. That and all your other little pet names for me."

"But is it okay?"

"Well… less time stealing art… sure." Daisuke suddenly remembered. "Oh my gosh! You guys haven't seen Wiz, have you?"

"Not all night. How'd you get over there anyway, if you couldn't fly?" Daisuke's mom inquired.

Daisuke rubbed his arms restlessly. "Let's just say it involved a lot of flapping."

'Weakling. My arms don't hurt a bit. I've got biceps and triceps of steal!'

Wiz walked in the door. He had cuts all over his paws, but otherwise he was grinning like a clown. A happy clown. Not an evil clown that kills people in their sleep.

"Wiz! You're back! How'd it go?!"

"Daisuke! Never use Wiz to do your dirty work!" His mom shouted, waggling a scolding finger at him.

"Compared to what you have me do, this was simple…" Daisuke turned back to his fluffy rabbit critter. "So?"

"Daisuke, yes, no!" Wiz said.

"'Atta boy! Have some Bugs n' Stuff!" Daisuke poured him a huge bowl, completely unaware of the scene that had happened while he was fighting crime.

"Dad? I can't go mini golfing, I have to-… Dad… Dad, just listen to me for a sec-… You're not making this eas-... I CAN'T GO MINI GOLFING, GOODBYE!"

Satoshi slammed the phone down as hard as he could. Only problem was it was a cell phone, so it broke in half.

"Man… I need a phone with a receiver," Satoshi growled. "All the cool people in movies can slam down their phones without them breaking."

Satoshi traveled around his giant mansion home. It wasn't long before he realized he was lost. Oh, wait. There was his room. And there was his quote-a-day calendar. "If you live in a glass house, you must be very rich or very stupid." –Some Guy Named Joe. Then there was his schedule.

"Hmm… I wonder when Dark is going to come next…" Satoshi asked, flipping through the book. "I should find out ASAP." Satoshi looked around. "And I should really take care of that talking to myself problem."

Then he went back to exploring his maze of a house, because cool people never go to sleep in animes.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Risa later that night, brushing her hair.

"… weird. Really weird."

"Oh, you know Mr. Intense… He's always up in your face," Risa said. "I got to see Dark on TV! It was great! Thank you, sissy-poo!" She gave her a big hug.

"Cut out that sissy-poo crud. I want my cash. Now," said Riku, holding out her hand.

Risa grinned sheepishly. "I was half-hoping you'd forget."

"Yeah, right. A deal's a deal and after that, I hope thirty bucks is worth it."

Risa shuffled her deck of Pokemon cards after handing her the dough. "My cards said you had an awkward experience tonight."

"THEY DON'T WORK, RISA!"

Risa snorted. "Fine. But they've always worked for me."