Barry was still absent during Math class, which meant Allie and Ramona spent the last ten minutes of class talking about their weekend without interruption. Private listened out of politeness as he was finished with his assignment and Kenny was getting help from the teacher.

"Looks like baby Kenny's the only one left." A boy snickered.

Private ignored him.

"Gee, I think he's doing this on purpose. I mean, Dyslexic people can get help and learn how to improve."

"Excuse me." Private said. "I would appreciate if you didn't talk about my friend like that."

"Aww, defending baby Kenny?" The boy sneered.

"Shush!" Ramona snapped. "You're interrupting the climax of my story."

"Turn around, nerd."

"Terrence, leave us alone and stop talking about people behind their backs." Allie said.

"Ooh, I'm so scared." Terrence laughed. "You kiddies don't scare me; I'm the oldest and toughest in the class."

"Actually, I'm a year older than you and there are a whole lot of people stronger than you in this school." Ramona said.

"Ah, an older woman. I like that." Terrence said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Oh, and no Barry to claim you."

"Claim?" Ramona said loudly, drawing half the attention of the class. "I am a HUMAN, no one claims me except my family."

"Ramona, babe, you don't mean that."

"Shut up!"

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Private and Allie's jaws dropped. A few kids chuckled. Terrence stared at Ramona.

She narrowed her eyes and scowled. "Not if you were the last living organism on Earth."

"Come now, you tell Barry that all the time." Terrence said with an expression of mock hurt. "You might be avoiding his affections, but no worry, I am here."

"Where did you get the idea that you could actually flirt and that I would actually care?"

"I asked the coolest high school dude ever…Julien."

Laughter rippled through the class.

"What?"

"Julien's a royal fool." Ramona said.

"Don't say that about the king!" Terrence said seriously.

"What? You think he's a king?" Private asked.

"Yes, he told me that everyone in Madagascar worshipped him."

"New York is not the same as where he came from." Allie said. "Maurice told me that they came from a small village and Julien was six when he left. Who worships a six year old?"

"Terrence, what's going on over there?" Mr. Campbell asked.

"These three are bugging me and making fun of me for being friends with Julien."

The teacher raised an eyebrow.

"No we're not, he's harassing me." Ramona said.

"I have never harassed someone in my life." Terrence said. "I may bother or bug, but I never harass."

The class snickered.

"Terrence, leave Ramona alone."

"Bugging her is Barry's job." Allie said.

"Fine, I'll leave her alone." Terrence huffed. "But next semester we have one week where I have you all to my-"

"Terrence, what are you talking about?" Private asked.

"Ahaha, he doesn't know! Oh brother…I'm not explaining." Terrence grabbed his bag and left at the bell.

Barry finally showed up ten minutes into History class with a foul mood. He gave Mrs. Chang a note and sat without greeting his friends. Ramona didn't ask because she was still angry with Terrence.

Private, Kenny, and Allie kept to themselves to avoid the wrath of two very loud people.

Barry and Ramona's moods persisted through lunch. Allie tried to talk to Ramona and was met by a harsh glare. Barry growled every time Private tried to talk to him. Kenny stayed away from the two, not wanting to be in the middle if the two started getting on each other's nerves.

When school let out, Barry bolted out of the classroom while Ramona stormed ahead of the other three.

Private, Allie, and Kenny slowly walked down the steps.

"What are we going to do about this?" Allie asked. "We can't lose them!" She sighed.

"I don't know…" Kenny mumbled.

"She's right; we can't just go from PARK B to…PAK…"

"PAK…like Invader Zim." Allie said.

"Invader Zim?" The boys asked simultaneously.

"You've never heard of Invader Zim?"

"Is that a medicine?" Kenny guessed.

"No!" Allie gasped. "It's an awesome TV show from 2001, it came out the exact same day and year as the Fairly OddParents!"

"What are the Fairly OddParents?" Kenny asked.

"Really? Even I know that show."

"Well, 2001 was eleven years ago, I was one." Kenny said.

"My mum let me watch Fairly OddParents until she saw 'violence' in it." Private said. "I had to go to Ginger's house if I wanted to watch any cartoons. I never saw Invader Zim."

"And you?" Allie asked Kenny. "What is your possible reason for not watching either show? And don't be like my lazy cousin, he could read the Harry Potter series if he wanted to."

Kenny bit his lip and narrowed his eyebrows. "Both of those sound familiar, but the memories are extremely vague." He said. "And I can't watch TV at home."

"I wonder if you remember anything from all those years ago…"

"I…it…everything changed…" Kenny said. "I'm sorry, I can't-" He shook his head and ran ahead.

"Did I offend him?" Allie asked, worriedly. She spotted her dad's car. "I really hope I didn't. I don't want to lose him as a friend…"

Private shook his head. "I think we got into sensitive topics with him."

"I'm sorry; I really didn't want that to happen."

"It's alright, I'll talk to him."

"Thanks, see you later!" She left.

Private spotted Skipper and ran to catch up with him. The younger boy asked about the shows that were mentioned earlier. Skipper smiled and explained everything, including how he and his siblings used to have battles with one team defending Earth, which was their house, and the other team trying to invade it.

"A kid in class mentioned something happening next term. I think he said it happened in spring break. I don't remember if I heard it before."

"Ah yes, the sixth grade field trip." Skipper said with a huge smile. "I remember that."

"Sixth grade trip?"

"Yeah, the whole sixth grade gets to go camping for a week near High Mountain Park Preserve, there's a lake called Franklin Lake there."

"The entire sixth grade gets to go?" Private said in awe. "But there must be over a hundred sixth graders hers."

"Okay, maybe not the whole sixth grade. I think there are a few other places that you can sign up for in late January or early February. I went to Franklin Lake."

"Oh wow, but the other two didn't go, right?"

"That is correct, Kowalski missed it by a year and Rico came about a year ago."

"Did all your siblings go?"

"No, we moved around a lot so it was hard to get involved in too many activities. I left New York when I was two and came back when I was ten. We left right before Chris could go; Toby and Brian missed it entirely; and Rocky had been pulled out halfway through. Yeah, I was the only one who actually got to stay a whole week."

"Hans wasn't in that group, was he?"

Skipper's face darkened. "No." He said. "And I'm glad he wasn't. He didn't start attending this school until about two years ago like Kowalski."

"So, you didn't see each other for three years?" Private asked. "What happened in Denmark that made you keep those bitter feelings all those years?"

"Nice try." Skipper said. "I am not about to reveal that information to you."

"Will we eventually learn what happened that the whole city saw?"

Skipper snorted. "I'm not going to tell, and neither will Hans Riber. I know what you want to know. You want to figure out what two ten year olds did that got them kicked out of Denmark." He scowled. "I will only tell you that Hans started it and it ended after high speed chases, explosions and a betrayal beyond all betrayals."

"W-what? Now I want to know even more!"

"Nope."

"Skipper, that isn't fair!"

"Life's not fair, kid."

Private shook his head as he followed Skipper into the building and into the elevators. He decided to stop on the third floor to visit Kenny. He was surprised to find Barry there.

"Finally!" The boy said, shaking his head. "Come with me!"

He pulled Private's arm and led him to his room.

"Barry, are you alright?"

"Yep!" He said shortly.

The boys entered the room to see Leonard and Izzy chatting near their room. Kenny and Barry's room was closed.

"He kicked me out." Barry said. "I was coming back from the bathroom and he screamed that I couldn't come in and something about fairy invaders."

"Oh, Allie and I were talking about Invader Zim because our initials spell PAK. I have no idea how that relates to the show, but apparently neither Kenny nor I have ever seen it. I think he had a flashback or something. He looked like he was in pain when he said he couldn't watch the television."

"Whoa-wait! PAK? What happened to PARK B?" Barry asked, an offended look crossed his face.

"You and Ramona were in foul moods all day and barely spoke to us."

Barry was about to answer when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to find Ramona there. She let herself in and marched to the couch. Leonard nervously retreated to his room after catching her expression. Izzy laughed and said something about homework.

"Allie called me." Ramona said. "I'm so sorry about my mood, but Terrence was so annoying! He's in my PE class and he was just-ugh! I don't like him at ALL! How dare he try to flirt with me! He said he liked 'older women', I'm barely thirteen! I-"

"I'm sorry too!" Barry interrupted. "I was coming back and ran into a problem." He scowled. "Stupid problem...won't get me. Anyway, these three geniuses decided that they should change the group name because we 'ditched' them."

"Aww, we didn't ditch you guys!" Ramona said. "We're always PARK B!"

"And don't you forget that!" Barry said. The two of them high-fived.

"We won't." Kenny said, emerging from his room. "I'm also sorry I ran off before…"

"Hey, it's alright! We get to push you into a new era, the golden age of kid and preteen television!"

"Golden age?"

"GOLDEN AGE!" Barry repeated loudly.

"Aah, okay!" Private said. "What does that mean?"

"That means that there are precious few shows on that are good anymore. Have either of you seen Avatar: The Last Airbender? Danny Phantom? My Life as a Teenage Robot? ChalkZone? Rugrats? Hey Arnold? ANYTHING super cool from the nineties that could be put on DVD?"

"I've seen Full House." Private said. "And Ginger made me watch Rocket Power and The Wild Thornberrys."

"Smashing!" Ramona said.

Kenny frowned. "I never saw any of those shows."

"What about those game shows where they threw slime on people and smashed pies in their faces?" Barry asked. "Or live shows like All That, Drake and Josh, Zoey101, iCarly, Victorious, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, The Naked Brothers Band?"

The other boys shook their heads.

"No, my mum saw the word 'naked' in the title and freaked out. And there were too many 'violent' things for her taste." Private said.

"Ever watched Disney Channel?"

"No."

"Ginger and I saw Kim Possible." Private said. "My mum absolutely refused to let me watch anything. Even Pixar movies or-"

"Hold up." Barry said. "You've never seen Cars?"

"No, but I watched the Lion King even though my mum said not to."

"Whew." Ramona sighed. "At least you saw one great movie. As it so happens, I am a huge Disney freak and have a bunch of DVDs of ended series plus movies."

"And I have every Pokémon movie made so far." Barry said. "And I know a couple of people who have DVDs of ended series as well. But really, I can't believe you've never been exposed to a child's dream! I mean, the nineties were awesome even though I wasn't born yet…that made no sense… But my mom let me watch whatever I wanted as long as it wasn't bloody or explicit."

"I feel bad for you, Private, you've never been exposed to the amazing world of anything cool on television!" Ramona said. "Did your mom at least let you watch pre-school shows like Dora or Diego or anything for two year olds?"

"No, she said that it encouraged kids to talk to wild animals." Private said.

"Oh brother." Barry groaned. "You two aren't too late, you know. We can get you some childhood while we're still pre-teens."

"And one teenager as of September." Ramona said.

"What?" Private said, startled. "But I came in September…did I miss your birthday?"

"It's alright; you actually came the day after my birthday."

"Oh, I still would have said happy birthday."

"Thanks."

"Have you ever seen any YouTube videos?"

"I barely was able to be on the internet for projects." Private said. "I do keep hearing these jokes about Harry Potter, red vines, and a thing called 'Pigfarts'. And people keep talking about things on the internet and I don't get it."

"My friend, we have much to teach you." Barry said, putting a hand on Private's shoulder. "You too, Kenny. I won't ask why, but we'll help you learn so much about everything you two have missed."

"That would be awesome!"

"Yeah."

Ramona and Barry grinned.

"So, you HAVE to go on the field trip next semester!" Barry said.

"I'll keep my grades up and hopefully I'll be able to convince my mum to let me stay." Private said. "Although, she's still pretty upset that I'm not at Henry's house for the rest of this term. I did write to her and dad about the Thanksgiving break and how wonderful Skipper's family was. She hasn't replied yet."

"Maybe that's a good sign." Kenny said. "That could mean that she's thinking about it."

"Well, I did write at night and it was four in the morning there. I haven't been able to check yet as I just came here from school. Actually, I should be getting home to do my homework. We have three weeks until finals."

"Aw, come on!" Barry said. "Can't we relax for two and a half weeks and THEN worry about finals."

"No." Ramona said. "In fact, Private's right. We should get as much of a start as possible."

"I think I liked Allie being the Ramona of the group better than you."

"Quiet you!"

Kenny laughed. "Well, I leave you to your conversations."

"Same here, see you tomorrow." Private said.

He exited the room and promptly bumped into a tall figure.

"Hello there."

"H-Hans?"

"Yes, that is my name." The older boy said. "And how are you today?"

"Good, I guess." Private said.

"Why do you look so afraid?"

"W-well, I-er…I was just-"

"Be careful." Hans said, he smirked and walked down the hall. "I know a secret."

"What was that about?"

"Ah!"

"Sorry." Ramona said. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah…" Private said. "Do you know anything about him?"

"No."

Private returned to his room and relayed what Hans had said to the others. Skipper told him to ignore Hans whose threats were not to be concerned with. Kowalski had been out experimenting in the lab and Rico just shrugged.

The next few weeks were not the blissful relaxation that Barry had been hoping for; it was a full blown study time. Study groups were being formed in school and the apartments to help with finals. Kowalski and Marlene formed a group for sixth through ninth graders with Rocky helping out. By the end of the third week, Ramona had snapped at Barry for poking her once with a pencil.

Kenny had five panic attacks in the last three days of the third week because he was afraid of failing his finals. He admitted to his small group of friends that he had never gotten help for his Dyslexia until a year ago, but still refused to explain why. He struggled mainly with Math, Science, and English. The first two contained numbers and formulas which confused him to no end. English was hard for him because he had a hard time reading the bigger words and they often caused him headaches. He wanted to pass this class so that he could be placed in Private's class.

Barry began panicking around the same time as well. Despite his relaxed nature, he really did want to pass and move onto the rest of sixth grade.

Each day also passed without a response from Private's mother. His father had been corresponding with him, but said that Candace hardly spoke to him in the past few weeks since their son's email. He was more worried about her than anything else. Ginger told Private that she'd been to the bakery, but Candace didn't speak to her at all.

Kowalski had been on edge lately because of the late nights in the lab followed by studying. Dark circles had appeared under his eyes. Skipper had growled at several younger kids when they giggled too loudly.

Allie and Rico seemed the calmest of Private's friends. Rico quietly reviewed his notes while balancing his pencil on his lip. He didn't mind being bothered for a question and smiled whenever the others told him they were stressed. Allie was on the same page as she simply said she knew she was going to do well. She hadn't even flinched when Ramona harshly called her a psychic know-it-all. Allie just said that she was confident that she knew the material and had planned out her study blocks with breaks in between.

The cause of most of the irritation was the group of boys in 4Q. Fred constantly got on Eggy's nerves which caused him to complain to his already stressed sister. Mort would not stop singing very loudly in a high pitched voice which set the older kids on edge. Maurice hadn't been annoying, but he certainly didn't help very much. He was better help than Alice, who seemed to be more stressed than the test taking kids.

Julien was the worst. He took the exams lightly and in a relaxed manner like Rico and Allie. Unlike them, though, he used every opportunity to loudly exclaim that he was the best and he was going to top everyone in the final exams.

The only plus side to all of this was that Kowalski had made the swim team. He seemed happy and was allowed to keep his swim shirt on.

The Saturday before finals, Skipper and Rico were working out in the underground base while Private joined them. They had decided to take a leaf from Allie's book and relax for a while.

Kowalski was in the lab, working away on something.

"GUYS!" He yelled after a while.

The boys ran into the lab and found the tallest at the table, holding colorful tubes.

"Where's the intruder?" Skipper demanded.

"Are you alright?" Private asked.

"No intruder; I'm fine." Kowalski said. "I wanted to show you my new experiment."

Skipper gave a groan. "Kowalski, is this another one of your 'destined to go horribly wrong by bursting into flames and/or exploding' inventions?"

"No." Kowalski said, rolling his eyes. "I have invented the camouflage ray, though it's in the liquid stage. I have to use this to charge the neutrons and fuse a ray and I have no idea how that's possible. Right now, I'm heating it."

The boys walked closer to see the tube changing colors.

"Wow, that's amazing." Private said.

"And you're saying this thing will let us disguise ourselves?" Skipper said.

"Yup." Kowalski stated proudly. "I have proved that I can make amazing inventions and I am awesome."

"Kudos to you then." Skipper said.

"Um, is it supposed to do that?" Private asked.

The test tube was shaking and smoking and the black liquid inside was boiling.

"Scientifically speaking…no."

"HIT THE DECK!" Skipper shouted.

The tube exploded as the boys threw themselves on the ground.