Whee, I am back with another chapter for you all! Thanks for still reading and thanks for the reviews!

Lars is back everyone for this chapter and he talks with Reggie since he's concerned over Twister's strange behavior, even though he doesn't want to admit that he's actually concerned. I guess it's sorta hinted at that Lars is definitely attracted to Reg and in the back of his mind, definitely sees her as potential girlfriend material.

And mike2000 gets a cookie for being pretty much right, sort of. I didn't really mean anything by the loser statement. I just didn't want to be redundant by using "traitor" constantly, but you are 100% correct as to why he sees him as a traitor. Twister is spending a lot more time with Reggie and even using her more in his videos - which was pointed out by Sam in chapter 4 - even if he doesn't realize it. That's another reason why Otto's semi-cross with Reggie. He feels that she's stealing his best friend from him and the spotlight.

In response to what one of you said - sorry can't recall who it was right off - I don't feel Twister is really stupid, but more so slow on the uptake or for a better word, naive when it comes to some topics of discussion. Twist can be smart when he wants to be.

Oh, something else, I don't know when I'm going to bring Otto back into this fic quite yet. Well, he will be at the pep rally, but I haven't decided what chapter I want that to happen in quite yet. And the day after the competition is when I plan on having Otto back to his usual, caring self and apologize too.

Well, enjoy this chapter and I hope everyone has a really nice holiday! Hopefully, my one-shot RP fic will be up for your reading pleasures, so keep an eye out for it. Who knows what I'll be doing for Christmas. I know, hanging over at my aunt's house to play with my younger cousin's Gamecube. She's getting Mario Kart Double-Dash! lol

Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with Rocket Power. Klasky-Csupo has that honor.

Chapter 13: Lars' Friendly Offer?!

Next day, Reggie awoke early to shower, anxious to get to school. She didn't want to see Otto, and was planning on avoiding him at all costs. She was still a bit mad over the way he had treated both her and Twister. She really felt the need to apologize to him. She was definitely grateful that out of the three of them, Sam had managed to avoid being on the receiving end of Otto's anger lately.

Before falling asleep the previous night, she spent a good while thinking over her day, trying to, once again, make sense of Otto's behavior, but that only made her angry. If he didn't want her help, or his friends' help, why should she bother offering?

After that, she started thinking about Twister and how he had treated her to the amusement park, the concern he had shown for her after Otto blew up at the both of them, and just how nice he had been in general. She just couldn't get him off of her mind.

What really stayed on her mind was the hug he had given her. She had really enjoyed the embrace, even if it was innocent. She felt very content about it, but at the same time, it made her feel strange. A hug from a friend shouldn't mean anything and it shouldn't be stuck on her mind either.

The strangest thing of all was how she wouldn't have minded having Twister hug her again, to be close to him like that just seemed joyous to her and she almost had before he rushed out. She actually wouldn't have minded trying to get another hug out of him, even if she was the one to initiate it...but she still didn't understand why she had that feeling or why her heart skipped beats thinking about it. It had been small and she had noticed some things about the boy...but why was she longing for his hug again? 'Why should it matter?' she continued to ask herself until she had finally fallen into a deep slumber, unable to answer her own question.

Reggie went through her closet and took out a white tank top - the Squid had informed her the previous day that this day was going to be incredibly hot - a pair of light brown capris, and flip-flops.

"I guess this'll be okay," the girl murmured as she changed.

After she dressed and propped her shades on the top of her head, she ran downstairs. It was very quiet, and Ray was nowhere to be found. Reggie figured that he had left early to do some stocking at the repair shop. As for Otto, she wasn't sure if he had left or not, not that she fully cared.

The girl headed out the front door, locking it behind her. Within a minute or two, she arrived on the doorstep of the Rodriguez home, and rung the bell.

It didn't take long before the door was opened.

"Whoa, it's Rocket Dork's sister!" the older boy exclaimed, his Mexican accent stronger than ever.

Reggie had to admit, she did find Lars' accent cute, but she would never admit that to anyone, not even Trish or Sherry. They both probably would've thought of her as strange if she had.

One thing she always wondered was why Twister's accent wasn't that strong. As a matter of fact, it was like he didn't have one at all, unless he actually spoke Spanish, and he rarely did that whenever around them, unless it was some simple phrase that everyone knew anyway. Lars wasn't born in Ocean Shores like Twister was, but seems he would've lost his accent at some point from living there for such a long time. He's lived in Oceans Shores longer than he has out of it.

"An angel has been bestowed upon me," Lars joked as he got down on one knee as if worshiping the girl. He had to do something to keep from staring at her and teasing was the only thing he knew he could do and get away with.

"Can it, Lars. Where's Twister?"

He stood up. "What does it matter, Rocket Dork's sister, you can talk to me."

Reggie gave him a look. "Now why would I want to do that?"

Lars flashed her a big grin. "Because I'm the All-Mighty Lars," he flexed his muscles, "and all girls love me!"

This was somewhat true. Lars had dated some girls, but the relationships never really lasted since the girls he ended up dating were pretty shallow and self-absorbed. They seemed only interested in cars, clothes, and fashion, and if he ever mentioned street hockey or any other sport he enjoyed playing or watching, the girls would turn up their noses at him, which was ironic since his participation in sports was what attracted these girls to him in the first place. He could never seem to find any common ground with the girls or even common interests. He pretty much dated them for all of the wrong reasons; they were attractive and "fun".

The only reason the girls seemed to like hanging out with him, he felt, was due to his popularity and that he had his own car. Sure he was a bit of a bully, mostly to his brother and his "lame-o dork friends," but he was rather popular amongst his peers, and he was considered cute to the female students.

Lars had hoped that one day, he'd be able to date a girl with actual substance who would understand him or at least talk about something other than the latest boy band, or what the latest sales were at the mall; maybe a nice, down to earth girl who wasn't fast and also liked sports, but he knew better than to hold his breath waiting for such a girl to come along, especially since he considered that particular girl to be out of his league and also a bit weird. She never seemed to pick up on his subtle hints through his joking around and realistically, never expected her to.

"Well, All-Mighty Lars, this girl would like to speak to the All-Mighty Maurice."

"Well, can't say I didn't try. Come on in Rocket Dork's sister."

"My name is Reggie."

"Yeah, and your point is?" Reggie shook her head at him as she walked in, Lars shutting the door behind her. "Hey, speaking of Rocket Dork, what's going on with him and my brother?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hello! He's spending all of his time at home or with you and the Squid and he's speaking Spanish a lot more than what he would normally and whenever he does that, it means that he's totally bummed out about something.

"The twisted one seems to have been down a lot lately, and I overheard him muttering some stuff from his room last night, but he was speaking so fast, even I couldn't catch what he was saying. That's something else he does whenever he's upset about something. He speaks his Spanish really fast, like mom whenever she's really mad at us about whatever."

"If I didn't know any better, Lars, I'd say you were actually concerned over your bro."

"Wh-what?" he stammered. "Me? Concerned?"

She nodded, her arms folded over her chest.

He shook his head. "Uh-uh, chica! He's moping around like a lame-o and it's, um, getting on my nerves!" Reggie gave him a look, not really believing him. "I-I'm just wondering if the shrimpo and dork-o are trying to psyche me out before our match next week and Twister is only pretending to be down."

"No, they are not trying to psyche you out, and yes, something is going on with Otto and it's probably bumming Twister out. Unfortunately, neither of us knows what's going on with him," she sighed depressingly, "Otto seems to have something against us now and I don't know what that is or why he does."

Lars rubbed the back of his neck and gave the younger girl a serious look, one Reggie had never seen before, not very often anyway. He always seemed to joke around whenever he would talk to her.

"Yo, Reg, if you need any help, or whatever, you know, you can, like, um, ask me or, um, something."

Reggie gave Lars a gentle smile. "I'll keep that in mind."

She was probably one of the few who had seen a decent, human side to Lars. As a matter of fact, the two got along fairly decently. You would've never guessed that the two didn't get along when they were younger. As for now, they weren't really friends - it wasn't like they hanged casually like she did with others - but they were far from being enemies. Reggie considered Lars to be more so an acquaintance than an actual friend friend and she actually felt very comfortable talking to him on occasion. It had been that way for the past couple of years now. Reggie figured he'd finally matured and "grown a brain".

Occasionally, Reggie would chat with him on the phone, or online (which was rare since both were always busy with extracurricular activities). Other times, he may catch her in the hall at school and he'd maybe give her a nice casual, "hello". She had never really mentioned how good she and Lars got along to Otto, Twister, or Sam. She knew that both Otto and Twister would call her crazy, and Sam would probably quiver in fear over the thought of it, or either tell her to keep her guard up since she didn't know what Lars was capable of.

Lars was two years older than Reggie, but was only one grade up on her. He started school a year later than he was supposed to due to the move from Mexico to Ocean Shores. He wasn't prepared enough for Kindergarten when it was time for him to go, and his English still wasn't too good.

"Well, uh, chica, I should probably go," Lars said quickly.

"Why?" She turned up her nose. "You have to meet up with another cheerleader to walk to class or something?"

"Oh, you don't know how wrong you are, Rocket Dork's sister. I'm stuck helping to set up for the pep rally later this afternoon and some other executive senior stuff. Why not ditch Twister and the Squid and come with me? At least you'll get to school in style and you wouldn't have to walk with those lame-os."

The girl gave up whenever it came to his name-calling. No matter what, he would always call Twister, Otto, and Sam some kind of a name.

"I would," Reggie began, "but I really ought to talk to Twister. It's important."

"Well, maybe we could hang out another time, eh Rocket Dork's sister?" He sounded somewhat hopeful.

Reggie shrugged, not really seeing what the big deal was. "I guess."

"Great! Maybe we could talk or-or something."

"Having girl trouble again?"

"Well, you could say that," Lars responded slowly. "Anyway, chica, let's meet up after school, or maybe I could catch you during lunch, or better yet, you could join me for lunch!" Lars gave the girl a smug smile and gloated, "I have special senior privileges, which mean I can leave campus for lunch and the rest of you lame-os-"

"Watch it Lars," Reggie threatened.

"-I-I mean, the rest of the lame-os, minus you, don't; and we both have the same lunch period."

"Well," she thought it over for a moment, "okay. I guess it'll be okay to hang out off campus, just make sure I get back in time for my Journalism class and leave your three idiot friends behind. I don't mind hanging around you, but the Three Stooges are another story."

"Don't worry about that, Rocket Dork's sister; I'll speed and make sure you get back in time," he said with a laugh.

"You just want an excuse to speed."

He clicked his tongue and winked at her. "You got it, chica. I'm a speed demon whenever I can get away with it, and of course I wouldn't take Pi, Sputz, or Animal in my car! My old man would kill me if I did, with the way they are, but anyone else, it's cool. I worked way too hard for that car; I'm not going to blow it now so close to my birthday and graduation.

"I gave Pi one chance, and he blew it by leaving that cigarette burn on the seat! I was grounded for, like, forever after pop found out I had someone in the car smoking!" He bawled up his right fist and swung it as if he were hitting something. "Pi got a good whomping out of me for that one, and there is no way in hell I'm going to have Sputz or Animal in the car with their addictions! What if a cop stops me? I'll get arrested!"

'And you're still friends with them because?' Reggie felt like asking. She always wanted to ask him that, but could never bring herself to. She felt it wasn't her place to say anything and that the four of them obviously had some kind of a bond for Lars to put up with them. Lars had matured slightly - probably from hanging around her at times - but the other three didn't seem to care about their futures at all.

Lars went towards the front door. "Well, I'm out. I'll see you at lunch outside of the cafeteria, Reg, and we can talk then about whatever you feel you need to talk about."

She nodded to him as he exited the Rodriguez home, Lars asking himself, 'Why did I do that?'

Lars was a lot nicer than he obviously let on. Sure, he still got into trouble sometimes, like on Mischief Night, but he never did anything really bad, like drink, smoke, or take drugs. Even he had his limitations, but too bad one couldn't say the same about his three friends. Lars' chubby friend, Pi Piston, was a smoker, the tall, incoherent Sputz Ringley enjoyed drinking, making it even more difficult to understand him, and the quiet, short Animal seemed to partake in both. Reggie wouldn't have been surprised if Animal did more than that. He always seemed out of it and high.

All three had offered Lars cigarettes and alcohol, but he always turned them down. Lars was pretty athletic, and he would hate to mess up his health by doing such unnecessary things. Reggie did admire that about him. She had seen him turn the three down and they seemed to respect that. If they didn't, he would probably just whomp all three of them and all three of them saw Lars as a leader, and feared him some. All three were also too stupid to think on their owns and with the alcohol damage, they're probably ten times stupider than what they already were.

One thing Reggie always wondered was why Lars remained friends with them, and how they could function together as a team. The Lasers was always tough competition, and she, and the others, had seen them practice. They were outstanding! *Lars had come up with new plays, determined to beat the Rockets this year, especially since this was going to be the Lasers' last season.

'I wonder what's with Lars. He was acting a lot nicer than he normally would and what's there for me to talk about with him? He always has girl trouble, which he's mentioned to me before. I think he was dating that blonde girl, a cheerleader, named Sarah Jenkins. I don't know how he can put up with her! She is such a snob!' She rolled her eyes. 'She's in my gym class! She refuses to do anything in fear of breaking a nail.'

"Lars!" Reggie heard a voice call, her train of thought broken...
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Author's Notes

Note 01: I hope you all are enjoying Lars for this chapter. I've always personally liked him okay. Like I've mentioned before, I don't feel he's all that bad since at times, he does show he can be caring and concerned over the welfare of Twister. There are also episodes where the two are shown getting along, like "Rocket Girls" and "Here's the Twist", for instance. "The Great Sand Castle Race" he helped out Twister and the others when Twister begged him to help protect their sandcastle. So yeah, he does have some kind of concern over his brother and "Escape from Lars Mountain" really showed that, imo, and also happens to be one of my favorite episodes.

IMO, I feel that Lars is the type where it's okay for him to mess with Twister, but would probably go ballistic if anyone else messed with him or put him in danger (and I'll get more into this during the lunch chapter). That's how I'm viewing their relationship. It's just like how Twister may think Lars is a pain, but he wouldn't actually want anything bad to literally happen to him in the "dangerous" sense.

Oh, also, I kind of like Lars and Reggie getting along somewhat, which is why I used it. I guess it's also pretty obvious that Lars has a bit of an attraction towards Reggie, but I won't have him act on that so sorry to all of you Lars x Reggie fans. I like that pairing…well, I like it one-sided from Lars' side, but I really like Lars/Reggie friendship stuff even more.
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Note 02: Sorry everyone, but I never knew when the street hockey season was. I'm assuming it's mostly during the summer, but there are some episodes where they are practicing like after school, so during the school year, so go fig, right?