A/N: Okay, I am so, SO sorry I missed an entire WEEK of updating. It's near the end of the term, and the teachers, instead of spacing out the assigned work over the entire symester (something, mind you, they had plenty of time to do) they decided to dump it all on us now! We (my class) counted, literally, TWELVE tests and assignments due over the space of three days! Okay, I'm sorry. This is a pretty horrible chapter in my view, but at least it's up, right? Again, SORRY!

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Kids Next Door Mission...

Operation: F.O.R.G.E.T.

Fragments

Of

Recovery

Gradually

Enable

Team

Chapter 7 – United... sort of.

Kuki POV

"Kuki...? Hey, Kuki! It's 7:45 already! You gotta get up!"

...

"KUKI!"

I jumped up from under my covers, startled awake by Mushi, my younger sister. Groaning groggily, I looked over at my alarm clock, to find the hard red pannels of light reading quarter to eight.

"AH! Mushi, I'm late! Oh, god I gotta get up!"

My sister looked at me with an unimpressed glower.

"Well, duh! I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes! Now hurry up and get dressed before you make me late too!" She burst. I cringed, while attemping to shove both my legs into my black leggings at the same time. Suddenly, Mushi's impatient scowl was replaced by a sly smirk.

"Oh, and I'll tell Wally that you don't want him to be 'gone for too long.' Hm, I didn't know you had a boyfriend!"

I froze.

Damn it! I had enough to worry about as it was.

I was sleeptalking again.

"Okay, Mushi. You can go now!" I said through clenched teeth, trying to contain my frustration.

"Wally and Kuki, sitting in a tree!" She chanted. I looked up. Something tried to surface in my mind like a thought I'd forgotten overnight, but it was gone just as quickly.

"Mushi! Just, go, okay? Go downstairs so I can get dressed and I'll be down as soon as I can possibly, physically magage!" She skittered out the door, still giggling at my red face, as I grabbed a green, black-lined shirt from the end of my bed.

Ten minutes later I was ready and down the staircase, finding Mushi standing on the bottom step, arms folded, foot tapping repeatedly on the floorboards. She looked like an angry old history teacher. She really needs to lighten up. Grabbing the money for lunch left on the counter by my mom, I headed out the door, to meet her where she already had her hand on the door handle.

"Geez, Mush, you coulda waited at least a couple more minutes," I mumbled. She just rolled her eyes, making it very clear to me that it was, and I quote; "8:15: The latest that anyone in the entire history of the universe has ever left for school."

Well, after dropping that little black-haired ball of negativity off at school (Mushi is the only one that can get me this angry. Most of the time, I loved her, but just those few moments...) I headed off around the corner to Gallagher High. I parked my green mini in the parking lot and walked up across the oval to my locker in the main hallway.

"Hey, Kuki!" I heard someone call me from behind. I turned to find Isabelle Tabbs (or, Bella-tab, as she was called) from the drama department smiling back at me.

"Oh, hi Bella. What's up?" I replied, opening my locker.

"Ms. Coaby told me to tell you that there's a meeting at lunch," she said, leaning against the wall next to me. "We have to work out who's gonna supervise the juniors in their dressing room." Last year, the juniors had completely trashed their 'dressing room' backstage of the auditorium. This year (to avoid thousand-dollar repair fees) they were going to make us supervise them.

"Kay, I'll be there," I confirmed, stuffing my bag into the teensy hole in the wall that was my locker.

"Coolio. I'll tell Ms. Coaby. Seeya then, Kuki!" With that, she bounced off to do whatever else she had to do.

The bell rang, striking fear into the hearts of all who forgot to set their alarm. I let out a small 'meap!' before grabbing what were (hopefully) my books for English and headed off, taking the long way to avoid a particularly peeved-looking guard- uh, teacher stalking down the hallway.

"...And after that, you will have to come up with an advertising campaign, and link it to ancient Rome in some way. The report for this should be at least three pages long and, this year, we have had the amazing oppertunity, thanks to some generous grants from the state government, for the best group's product or service to be pitched to the school board. And if they like it enough, who knows, the actual advertising and producing companies could end up hearing about it..." While this was an exciting concept (who doesn't want to be the head of a crazy-successful comany?) the teacher's voice started to drift away into oblivion as I looked over the assignment sheet, lifting up one page to look at the list of criteria. A three-page report, advertising campaign and explanation of the symbolism used in the ads. This was going to be torture. Especially since we weren't allowed to pick our groups. In short, history wasn't one of my favourite subjects.

"And now for the groups," the teacher said, her slightly raised tone cutting through my daydream.

"Sophie, Alan, Mia, Jack and Elanore, you are group 1. Heather, Cody, Izzy, Gwen and Duncan will be group 2," this went on three more times until finally I heard my name.

"Kuki, I'm putting you with Abby..." Yes! A lucky break! Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad...

"...Hoagie, Wally and Alisha." Hm, not too horrible. And with Hoagie in our group, we'd get full marks for the informational part for sure.

Alisha stuck her hand up in defiance, with a bit of a smirk buried somewhere in her expression.

"Alisha, I'm sorry but I cannot change you to another group," Mr. Anandale sighed, shaking his head.

"It's not that, Mr. A. I'm going to Paris in a week, and I'll be gone for a month. I can't really do the assignment at all." Okay, so that explained the smirk.

Ah, Paris. Every girl's dream.

Mr. Anandale spoke again, crossing something off on his piece of paper and writing something else in.

"Okay, so I'll replace Alisha in group 6 with... Nigel."

The brit across the room jumped slightly at the mention of his name. The top of his jacket was slightly off position, an his eyes looked darker than usual. Classic signs of sleep-deprivation.

Mr. A finished announcing the groups, and we were sent off to start thinking up ideas. I made my way over to where Abby sat. Hoagie was already over there, starting to jot something down on a notepad, pointing things out to her here and there; '...So we can make a billboard design, and if I can get some neon lights and electrical tape, I can make it actually light up in time with the music!' Typical of the tech-genius that could turn a simple mp3 player into a fully-functioning electronic planner.

"Hey! So, what have we got so far, Einstein?" I asked, hopping up to sit on the desk and crossing one leg over another.

"Actually, I prefer to think of myseld as more of a modern day John Presper," he replied, as if that was a household name.

Over walzed the tall, confident, blue-eyed breath of summer air with an Australian accent. That I was, uh- so not obsessing over.

"Soow, guys. What're uh, we gonna do?" He asked, pulling out a chair and dropping himself into it, casually tapping a pen against the side of the table.

"Well, I think a clothing store would be a cool idea," came Nigel's reply as he walked over, setting down his books and taking his place at the table.

"Yeah, if you're a cruddy girl," Wally retorted, raising an eyebrow.

"But think about else will be choosing products that are aimed at one feild, while with a clothing franchise, we can aim it at people of all ages. And, I beg to differ about the 'girl' thing. Unless you're too much of a man to wear clothes." Burn.

"Yeah, whateva. Okay then," came Wally's reply. Hoagie lit up, his eyes imitating the invisible lightglobe above his head.

"Yeah! That's awesome! We could make TV ads- and, and billboards, and radio ads and- gah! The posssibilities are endless! ENDLESS, I tell you!"

Abby looked at him blankly, before slowly reaching up to the top of her head, then slapping him hard with her red hat, receiving a small, defensive 'ow...' from Hoagie.

"I agree with Nigel and Hoagie. This could make a pretty cool campaign," I spoke up. This could lead to a good mark in my next report. Which leads to good exam scores in senior year. Which leads to a place in a good college. Which leads to a good job. ...I'm overthinking this, huh?

Anyway, in short, I liked the idea.

"It's not that I disagree. It's just that, I thought that Mr. Prosper over here could use a touch of reality," Abby replied without missing a beat. Hoagie cleared his throat.

"Um, actually it's Presper. Not Prosper," he corrected.

"Whatever, toolbox."

I got back onto the topic.

"So, we need a name for our brand. What should it be?" I queried. I got a mixture of responses.

"How about Breakout?" Nigel suggested. Abby disagreed, pointing out that the name made us sound like a pimple cream. Wally came up with 'Slash,' but that was strongly rejected by everyone else. We went on like this for what felt like ages; 'Neutron' from Hoagie, 'Green Youth' from Nigel (could that guy be any more out of it?)

"Well... we could use sixteen, since we, y'know, are sixteen," I said. Wally raised an eyebrow.

"Are we tryin' ta sell clothes here, or high-heeled shoes?" he said somewhat harshly.

"Okay, sheesh, I get your point. You don't have to be so mean about it," I said quietly. His skeptical look dissapated and was replaced by one of apology and embaressment.

"I- sorry, I didn't mean it like, um, like that. Really."

Abby smirked as if she knew something I didn't (what could that be?), before speaking up with her own idea.

"What do you think of Teens Next Door?" She chirruped. Instantly, I loved the idea. It was like it was meant to be.

"Awesome!" I agreed seconds after she had spoken.

"That's the best idea we've had all day!" Nigel burst. His eyes were getting visibly heavier again, and anyone could tell he was desperate to finish with the names.

"Yeah, that could work, Ah guess," Wally brightened up. Hoagie was so bored that he took this excuse of a celebration to go completely insane again.

To be honest, I think something was getting to him a bit.

"That's GOLD! Woo! Okay, we have the name! This is awesome! Let's think of something now..." he drifted off at the end. I decided to go with it. After all, 99% of the time, he was sane.

"Yeah? And what would that something be?" I questioned.

"Uhm, I don't know..." he admitted, "Something!" Which earned him another smack, courtesy of Abby's hat. (another 'ow..') Nigel decided to get us back on track, as we needed so many times.

"So, what kind of clothes are we gonna sell?" he pushed, "and how in the name of Godzilla are we meant to link it to ancient Rome?" There was a simultaneous 'hmm..' all round.

"Our clothes could be based around Rome?" Abby put forward, though her answer sounded more like a question.

"That... could work, if we did it right," I said, contemplating possible designs and outfits. It looked pretty good in my mind.

"Yeah! Y'know, I think we're onto something here," was Wally's response. He'd really lightened up since the whole awkwaed apology thing.

"Um, how about our motto is 'Centuries old, decades young." Hoagie said, more calmly now, laying his hands palm-down on the table, stretching out on either side of his body like a buisiness executive pitching an idea.

"I like it!" I cried. Things were finally clicking into place.

For the first time since our group had met up in the centre of the room, I looked around at the other small divisions of our class, and was slightly distressed upon seeing them far ahead of us; most of them already on laptops or jotting down ideas and marketing lines on messy notepads, some with balled up and rejected sheets of lined paper laying abandoned in a place vaguely near the rubbish bin. I felt a bit behind at that point, but was reassured when I turned back around to face our group, only to see Abby listening intently to the ideas that were pouring out of the three boys in front, next to and behind her, lightly turning the ones that were completely unfitting or just not right down, and using her weapon of choice (her hat, of course) to add to the rejections that just needed a bit more force in them (these were reserved for ideas that were utterly out of line). I joined in, and after a mere few seconds, I was up to speed with what we had come up with so far and contributing ideas of my own.

Geez, for a mish-mash of two friends, one new addition, and another two almost-strangers, we worked pretty damn well as a team.

And suddenly, after almost an hour of floundering around, looking for an idea to latch on to, we finally had our target in sight. Now, we just had to find our bow and arrow.

A/N: So, that's that. Bad, cliché chapter over, (hopefully) good and exciting chapter up soon! We have a long weekend this week, and Thursday's a student-free day, so I'll be spending those days writing; Yay! Anyway, another inevitable apology from me for my inexusable lateness (..sorry). Hey, I am actually wide-awake yet painfully exhausted at 2:20AM on a Saturday just to finish this for you guys. Hey, there's probably only 5 of you reading anyway, but any excuse is a good excuse when it's an excuse to stay up late! ; )

Goodnight, Fanfiction!

-xoxo, Numbuh 25