...We're back!

Congrats to the following people who got the answers to last chapter's questions right! misaai, Lady Cougar-Trombone (I think it was you - unless I'm mistaken?), incinera, AngelGoneDevil69, raenbc, BTRlover1122 (we'll take that ;) ), StripedFuzzySocks (we'll take that, too! ;) ), and doomforzombies16 - you guys are absolutely right! Principal Perry did call Bree and Chase Susan and Kevin at first then Judy (I thought it was Julie, but popular consensus has me beat :D ) and Steve at the end. Great job, guys!

Huge thanks to Ruxi23 and 88keys also! Your comments warmed my heart, too. Thank you.

Lengthy chapter ahead, guys! There are also many references to publicly recognizable works. I would like to point everyone to the general disclaimer posted at my profile to avoid any problems with them, should there be any.

Please enjoy!

Episode Tag to: Llama Drama

Chronicle 018

Chapter: Paradox

Password: ***********

Date: 08.25.13

Time: 4:17 PM

Usually, when I write an entry for the Chronicle, it's about me getting in trouble or Adam, Bree, Chase and me getting in trouble. Then I'd talk about how I or we would attempt to get out of getting punished for it, and then the said attempt would do a massive faceplant, and voila. The next thing I know, it's back to square one, but not without some sort of understanding why things happened the way they did.

Well, I'm glad to say that this week, things were different—in a good way! Bree and I won a competition that we didn't even know existed until we walked into it, placed first and got gold medals. Bree was excited. If I remember right, it's her first win in a school competition. Big D and Mom were very happy for us, once we managed to convince them that our medals are actually some kind of gold-colored metals shaped like huge dominoes and not just those gold plates behind a doorknob tied around a red ribbon. They said they were proud of our accomplishment and even offered to take us out to a nice dinner as a reward, but our consciences wouldn't let us go, no matter how hard we forced it.

See? The problem of suddenly becoming goody-two-shoes.

Adam and Chase were happy for us, too, but it was kind of short-lived. Unfortunately, the week claimed them as its victims before they can get out of it. I think what happened wouldn't have been so bad if not for two things: (1) Big D's pricey nanobots were involved, and (2) one of Mom's most hated pet peeves was involved. Big D found out that something's happened to the tiny bots when he counted them and saw that four were missing. Adam and Chase would have come out clean if not for Adam slipping, suggesting that they check the llama they stole for the nanobots.

Big D was not happy. At all. And when Mom heard that there was some stealing involved, she was not happy, either. From what Chase told us, Big D was set on grounding them again and making them work for what they lost when Mom stepped in and asked him if she could talk to the two of them privately. Big D let her, and I think it's probably because it would be a break for him since he's the one who always generously apportions punishments to the four teenagers living in his house.

Plus, after about fifteen minutes, Adam and Chase came out from their little meeting with Mom in the lab with an apology ready and a foolproof plan to get the nanobots back.

I don't have to ask what she said, I don't have to ask how it worked. I know already.

I guess that's why Bree and I unanimously agreed to do a little clean up before telling them we actually cheated, because we're sure Mom has something for it, too. We're hoping that by doing some damage control, we can at least minimize the guilt that will come afterwards.

And we already suffered a consequence in what we did anyways. Caitlin banked in on our 'making it up' to her for kicking her off first place. We didn't end up with the two-seater car trip to go somewhere Midwest, but she still took all the fun out of our weekend. Apparently, her parents had planned to take her little brother out of town to a comic con, and they were going to be gone from Friday afternoon to today afternoon. She didn't want to go, so she volunteered to house sit instead.

I have a feeling that she intended to have a party at her house, but her dad made sure that that wasn't going to happen. He asked a few of his neighborhood watch buddies to constantly check on her and the house and to call him about what's happening, to make sure his little princess is okay. In parent lingo, all he really asked them was to keep their eyes peeled because his teenager has a tendency of being a complete teenager, and she has the capability of single-handedly tearing the house up.

Caitlin didn't particularly like that, but she had no choice. Her mom offered a deal, though. She could invite two people over for the weekend to keep her company; that's it. She took it.

Thus any plans that we had for our days off school was written.

I definitely didn't want to come. Even if Caitlin was her best friend, I could tell Bree didn't want to either. But, we figured, it was the lesser of two bad ideas. Might as well.

Caitlin's Mom—or Aunt Carol, as she insisted that we call her—picked us up from the house an hour and a half after school ended. The car was very small. The drive to their house was really uncomfortable. Aunt Carol had let Caitlin and Bree sit in the back so 'they can hang out together,' and she let me sit in front with her. The car seat on the passenger's side was fixed too far up that I felt like I was sitting on the engine. Bree probably felt very squeezed in, too.

The conversation on our way to their house also started off on a wrong foot. Aunt Carol began with, "I know you'll want to call me Mrs. This-and-That because I'm Caitlin's mom, but I'd really prefer it if you guys call me Aunt Carol. You're my little girl's friends; we're practically family." Caitlin was blushing really bad, and she was darting her mom a please-don't-ruin-my-life look. Bree and I just smiled, because we thought it was a nice way to break the ice.

Then she started acknowledging Bree. She said Caitlin had told her many things about her.

Bree kinda just chuckled and said, "Good things, I hope."

"Well, she speaks highly of you," Aunt Carol told her. Then, she frowned. "Although, I don't think she ever mentioned where you and your brothers lived before coming to California."

"Mom," Caitlin warned. She looked at us apologetically. "I'm sorry. My mom seems to believe that everyone's worth interrogating."

"That's what happens when you become a journalist, sweetheart," her mom told her with a smile.

"No, it's okay," Bree said after another laugh. She exchanged glances with me through the side view mirror before answering. "We've always lived here. We were homeschooled since we were little, and last year our dad decided to let us go to school with Leo."

Aunt Carol nodded. "You know, to be honest, I wouldn't have pegged a big shot like Donald Davenport to just homeschool his children. I thought all three of you would have been off to a boarding school overseas or something."

"Mom," Caitlin tried again.

Through the mirror, I saw Bree shake her head. She looked a little sad even if she was smiling. "No," she said. "He really wanted to be there for us, to make sure we're growing up to be good people."

Aunt Carol nodded again. "That's very noble of him," she said.

"Yeah."

"Well, what about your mom? Have we met her?"

That question touched a nerve. Three, actually. Caitlin surrendered by throwing her head back, her eyes rolling up as she probably asked herself why she didn't just let somebody else drop us off. Bree, on the other hand, looked very uneasy. It was evident from how tight the small smile was on her face.

I wasn't a fan of what was asked either. It's really a harmless question, but I can't help myself from feeling a bit protective of Bree. They'd been through so much after that Darth Vader moment with Uncle Douglas. I think that's too much digging into the past already, and to be forced to come back into that hole again, especially by a complete stranger, is a little insulting.

Still, Bree braved for an answer. "Yes, you actually have," she said sincerely. "She works for the news station, and you see her every day, mostly in the eleven o'clock news. She ran for PTA this year? I'm not sure if you remember."

I think I smiled.

Caitlin's Mom did too when she understood. "Ah," she said. "She's a nice woman. I've worked with her before, and I like her."

"Me, too," Bree said.

"What about you, Mr. Cool?" she turned to me just when I started thinking I would get out safe. "I don't think I've met you before. You're not Caitlin's boyfriend, are you?"

I made a face.

"What? Ew. No," Caitlin practically yelled. I think she realized how rude and not nice that was, and so she calmed down. "I mean," she tried to explain, "I'm sure he's an adorable kid and all, but he's too young. And not my type. Sorry. No offense."

I grinned sarcastically. "Caitlin, believe me when I say this—and this is from the bottom of my heart…but none taken," I said, because the feeling's mutual. I heard Bree trying to hold her laugh in the back.

Aunt Carol just grinned. "You must be Leo," she said.

"Yes. That's me."

"Caitlin told me things about you from when you guys were…you know."

I'm sure she did.

Our talk pretty much went the same route as how it did with Bree's, but that time she asked me if I've always lived in California, and she avoided the parent question altogether. It didn't last long either. We got to their house before any more interrogation was done.

Their house is a looker if you're standing outside, and I think Caitlin's dad studying to be an engineer has something to do with that. It's very simple but stands out a bit from their neighbors' houses. It felt a little medieval, but you don't really get the full blast until you step inside. All the blood red wallpaper and big fireplace and ancient furniture and heads of animals mounted on the wall and the huge bear carpet (complete with the snarling head) just slugged our eyes head on.

Aunt Carol probably realized how their house might terrify their guests, so she apologized quickly. She said that they're going to update several rooms in their house next spring. The reason why everything looked the way it did is because 'it was conducive to writing' from when she was trying to write her novel set in the 1300s.

We met Caitlin's dad while Bree and I were helping them load their luggage in a truck they rented. He seemed very quiet, but he was friendly. When Aunt Carol introduced us to him, he just smiled. He looked really happy to finally meet Bree. He looked a little cautious when he met me.

"Bree's little brother," Aunt Carol assured him. "Nice young man who said those nice things to Caitlin? Not her boyfriend?"

Then he looked happy to meet me after that.

I got to talk to Caitlin's brother a little bit, too. Cool dude. He recommended some good movies, and he told me about a few games that he plays.

They left right after our dinner came, which was delivered in the form of three pizzas.

It was decided that, for that Friday night, I was to stay away from them as much as possible. Caitlin gave me free reign on the basement, where a small TV and the desktop were, while she and Bree would stay upstairs in her room where they would have a chick flick marathon. I saw no problem with that. I had some Mine Craft things to attend to that night. I was down for it.

The next day was pretty much like it, except that they went to the mall while I was still snoozing.

The only interesting thing that happened was when Bree and Caitlin came back. Not an hour after they got in, her aunt rang the doorbell, three little kids in her tow, asking Caitlin if she could look after them for two hours while she's on a job interview. To be fair, when she asked, she didn't give her niece time to say no. She pretty much just shoved her kids into the door before sprinting back to her car.

It was a given that Bree and I had to help. Caitlin took the easy way out and claimed her seven year-old cousin, Andrea; Bree was delegated three year-old Sydney; and I was left in-charge of one year-old Hank. Surprisingly, they were very well-behaved. Sydney followed Bree wherever she went. She was really shy at first. She would just nod or shake her head when she was asked questions. Hank didn't throw any tantrums as long as I'm carrying him. It wasn't much of a problem. He was a very sociable kid. He called me 'E-Yo', called Bree 'Bee', and apparently calls Caitlin 'Ca-Ca,' which was downright entertaining and hilarious.

Andrea was okay. She was like a forty year-old woman in a seven year-old's body.

So that they didn't get bored, Caitlin decided that we would have a little tea party. I tried to find every excuse under the sun not to go. Come on. What teenage boy would ever want to go to a tea party? But Hank and Sydney—and Caitlin—loved the idea, and so it was. Andrea uninterestingly chose our location ("It's for the children," she whispered to me later on while she looked on at Caitlin and Sydney, both wearing their crowns), and everybody got to be whoever they want to be.

That's how we ended having lunch in S.H.I.E.L.D's headquarters, with two princesses (Caitlin and Sydney), Pink Ranger (Bree with a pink motorcycle helmet on), Iron Fury (Hank wearing an Iron Man mask with an eye patch that he insisted on wearing), Agent Melinda May (Andrea), and a civilian held hostage (you got it) as attendees.

Bree and I agreed that we would never mention it to anyone again.

By nighttime, all of us were tired. Like the day before, Bree and Caitlin went upstairs. I tried to stay in the basement, but I couldn't go to sleep. The furnace was making all these screeching noises, and it kept me up. I went back up and decided to crash on the couch in the living room, but it wasn't that much of a good idea either. It's comfortable and all, but the bear carpet was staring at me so hard it was troubling.

I guess that was why I may or may not have jumped up a little bit when Bree spoke up from behind the couch.

So that she wouldn't notice, I asked her instead what she was doing up that late.

"I can't sleep," Bree said.

"Oh. Not comfortable with non-cylindrical beds?"

"No. It's Caitlin," she said, pushing my feet off the couch to make space for her. "She may walk like a princess and talk like a princess, but she snores like an ogre."

"Huh" was all I said. Maybe it wasn't the furnace after all. I stood up and told her that she could have the couch. I moved to one of the bench-looking seats and crashed there. "Just—turn your eyes away from Smokey and you'll be fine," I advised her as I closed my eyes.

Bree scoffed after a few minutes. "I guess this weekend could have been worse," she said.

"I guess," I said. "We could have been in the middle of Omaha having a tea party over the rainbow with Ca-Ca and the posse."

Bree laughed. "Yeah," she said.

I opened one of my eyes to look at her. "Though, I'm surprised you didn't join Caitlin and Sydney. That little girl practically forced the tiara on you," I said.

Bree shot me a smirk. "I'm not much for crowns," she told me.

I shrugged and just closed my eyes again. She'll probably change her mind once prom comes.

It was silent for a while, and I thought she had already fallen asleep. I was starting to fall asleep too when she started talking again.

"I didn't like it when he called me princess."

I looked at her. She was staring high up into the ceiling. "Who?" I asked.

"Him."

I frowned. "Big D?"

"No."

It took me a while to understand who she was talking about, but I did eventually.

"I just don't think he has any right." She paused as she thought about it more. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"Well, to be fair, I don't like it when people call me princess," I offered.

She chuckled. "Leo."

"Alright," I said, holding my hands up. "But, I can't tell you what your feelings make you, Bree. You have your reasons why, and I'm almost sure they're good."

"They are."

"Hey. Look at the bright side. You don't have to worry about him anymore."

"I hope so," she said. She sighed. "I just, I don't want to grow up and be like him. Isn't that what happens? Kids pretty much become a little bit like their parents? Caitlin has some of her dad in her, and I can see it. But I don't—I don't ever want to be the kind of person he is. You know?"

"You won't," I told her.

"Oh, yeah? How'd you know?"

I looked at her. "With you and Adam and Chase always saving the world, I just figured," I said factually. "You do like saving it. Don't you?"

She smiled. "As long as it's not interfering with my plans," she answered.

"There you have it." I just nodded and tried to go to sleep. "And, as far as I know, Big D's not a bad dude, so there's nothing to worry about."

I ended it with that and let things settle by themselves. I was convinced she got my drift.

"Your dad must have been a really nice guy," Bree commented, and I could tell from the surprised look that came on her face that she was thinking about it but didn't necessarily want to say it out loud. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pull an Aunt Carol on you."

I shook my head. "You're not," I said. It was my turn to look up at the ceiling that time, and I started to notice how high that thing is. It actually made me feel ten times smaller. I dealt with it by laughing it off, because in no way did I see the resolution to it as being touchy about the subject. "Believe it or not, he wasn't annoying or anything like that," I said. "I guess being annoying just came with being me."

"You're not as bad as you think you are, Leo," Bree said. "You have your moments."

I said nothing, not because I'm offended. She was calling it as it is, and I'm fine with that. And it was actually nice, because she said it in my defense.

There were many things I wanted to tell her about him. He was a nice guy like she said. Mom used to tell me how funny he was and how he was this awesome dancer. He loved both of us, that's for sure. He also used to pull the most epic of pranks. Mom said it drove her nuts, but I think it would have been awesome to learn some of his best.

It would have been awesome if he didn't have to go.

"Can we change the subject?" I asked Bree, because I hate being all mushy about things that's already happened. It is what it is. No use sulking about it.

Bree said sure, so we switched to a relative but somehow different topic: What the heck are we going to do when Mom finds out we cheated. It generated an hour conversation, because we really did not want to have to suffer as much as Adam and Chase did. I gave her a warning on how things would probably happen and what we may hear. It resulted into more planning on how we should approach the matter until we fell off the conversation and into sleep.

Things moved in a nice pace this morning. We woke up, had breakfast. Bree and Caitlin had an interesting talk about how Bree ended up downstairs. Around noon, Caitlin's family came home. They had all these nice stuff from the comic con. I was a little jealous. It went away as soon as Aunt Carol pulled out two Marvel comics that she got for me. She said it was a thank you gift for staying with her baby. She also bought this nifty DC headphone for Bree. She loved it.

Mom picked us up at around one, and that was the end of our weird, almost non-existent weekend. Since we got home, I've been trying to finish all the homework I left piled up over the last two days. Bree had been doing the same.

Thinking about it now, I am led to the conclusion that a lot of things really are paradoxical.

What is a paradox? Paradoxes are statements or facts that are true but not true at the same time. Like, for example: shooting an arrow. It's agreed that the arrow will get from Point A to Point B when you shoot it. But, if you take that fact apart, it will also seem illogical. For the arrow to get from Point A to Point B, it must reach the halfway point first. But for that to also be true, it must reach the halfway point of the halfway point first. But for that to also be true, it must reach the halfway point of the halfway point of the halfway point. There will be so many halfway points that have to be reached in between that it could also be agreed that the arrow will never reach Point B from Point A.

It's also like becoming somewhat like your old folks. It's very possible, but for that to be true, many things in between have to be true, too. Like with Bree and Uncle Douglas. For her to be just like him, she has to spend years with him to pick up on his habits. Still, for that to be true, she also has to be with him from the start. There are a lot of things in between that has to be true first that what sounds possible is now impossible.

Thankfully, that's the case. It really helped that Big D intercepted the three bionic little arrows. Now, Arrows A, B and C will really never reach Point D, which makes a big difference in the world.

I don't know about me. I guess it's true that I'm like Dad. I won't really know. I've only gotten as far as the halfway point of the halfway point.

Maybe I'll ask Mom about it.

I wonder if asking her before she talks to us about cheating will be a good time…

Signed,

Leo Francis Dooley

End of Chapter: Paradox

Re-Enter Password: ***********

Date: 08.25.13

Time: 8:57 PM

As mentioned in Llama Drama, what is Mission Creek's rival high school? Answers are optional, reviews are loved!

As far as recommendation, this week I'm reccing 88keys' 'Weakness.' It's truly a lovely little one-shot. Adam's one of my favorite characters, and the level of Adam-whump in this is absolutely delightful. The Adam/Chase friendship here is a plus, too, of course.

So, yes. If you like those things, please give her story a read and let her know your thoughts. ;)

I did not see the Halloween episode of Lab Rats nor do I plan to see it, which means…the first open tag is next! Just a head's up: it's going to deal with a sensitive topic. I may just be being paranoid about it, but I'd rather be upfront and honest than to catch people unaware. I'll try to time the posting after another new episode has aired so that if you don't want to read it, you can just skip ahead. :)