"Up and at 'em boys! New year, same routine! Rico, Kowalski, Private, report!"

Rico groaned loudly. He had been enjoying the moments that he got to sleep in during vacation.

"One hour time difference, Rico." Skipper said.

"I report waking up. And Private's not here." Kowalski said.

"Aw ham steak! I knew that."

The boys ambled out of bed.

Kowalski had been used to waiting for Private to shower, but he got there after Rico. This resulted in the boys having twenty extra minutes. They proceeded to the cafeteria early to see that it was practically empty. There were a couple of students there, but they weren't paying much attention to the boys.

After breakfast, there was an awkward pause. Usually they would run into Kenny and Barry in the elevator, but both of them were still getting ready.

Finally, the younger boys joined them. They were saddened to learn that Private hadn't mysteriously turned up in the middle of the night.

They traveled to school together. The streets were partially icy so the boys had to be careful.

A couple of kids ran by, almost knocking Rico and Kenny over.

"Watch it!" Barry yelled.

"Well that was close." Marlene laughed, having come behind them.

"Move!" Julien barreled by.

"WHOA!"

Skipper spun around and grabbed Marlene's arm to stop her from falling over.

"JULIEN!" Kowalski shouted. "WATCH OUT!"

"I AM KING!" Julien yelled back.

"Sorry about him." Maurice sighed.

"King Julien, wait for me!" Mort slipped on the icy ground as he ran to keep up with Julien.

"Welcome back to New York, huh?" Marlene said. "Thanks, Skipper."

"No problem."

"Hey, did anyone hear from Private?"

"Not yet, but we're hoping."

"Welcome back! I hope you studied because you have a test."

Mr. Campbell grinned at the class.

A couple of students pretended to be shocked, but the majority laughed. Only four did not react.

"Hey, what happened to the energy in here? I detect sadness." He waved his hands in the air as if to test the humidity. "Barry, where's your boundless energy?"

"I'm kind of bummed." Barry said.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Barry glanced over at the empty seat next to Allie.

"Ah, right. Well I don't know if Andre or his identical twin, Private, is going to be here."

Allie smiled slightly at the teacher's attempt at humor.

"Was he on the roll sheet?" Ramona asked hopefully.

"Yes, but I still can't be sure. I don't want to get your hopes up, but I'm not squashing your hope either. Sometimes when a student does withdraw, it takes a while for them to be removed from the roster. But you know, sometimes planes are delayed by layover or weather conditions."

"Are you legally allowed to tell us if he withdrew or not?"

"Of course, I can tell you when a student is leaving or joining the class. I can't, however, share personal information like grades or anything you tell me in confidence that you don't want anyone else knowing."

"Can we trust you?" Kenny asked.

"Absolutely." Mr. Campbell said. "Well, within a reasonable limit. If you tell me something very concerning that I think the principal should know, I must report it. But otherwise if you tell me something like…oh, maybe you're afraid of spiders and you don't want anyone to know, I'll keep it secret and allow a student to leave the classroom or move if they see one near them."

Allie, Ramona, Kenny, and Barry stayed after class for a minute.

"I can honestly tell you that I don't know about Private." Mr. Campbell told them.

"Did you get my email?"

"Yes, and I emailed Mrs. Davis. She hasn't emailed me back so I can only hope that I can have all my pupils back. I think each and every one of you is a unique part of this class. Private seems to fit into your group well. I don't want you to be late to your next class, though."

They nodded and left, except for Kenny.

"Hey, Kenny. I'll write a note for you. Who's your teacher?"

"Mrs. Chang. Um…Do you have to tell the principal everything even if the student wants it secret?"

"Only if you're plotting to set my classroom on fire or something like that."

"No, it's nothing like that."

"What's up?"

"Someone I know…well he doesn't really have a family."

"Barry? I am aware of his situation."

"No, it's not Barry. He has a dad, but there are…problems." Kenny looked uncomfortable.

"What kind of problems?"

"The dad doesn't act like a dad…the boy doesn't know what to do."

"Is the boy all by himself?"

"No, he has a brother…but the brother doesn't care about anything other than the boy, he doesn't even care what happens to him…"

"What happens to him? Are we talking about abuse?" Mr. Campbell looked serious. A few students started coming in.

Mr. Campbell moved the conversation to the hall, telling his class to just hang out until he was done. He gave Kenny the note.

"Well, this boy doesn't know if he should tell anyone…"

"What happened to the boy and his brother?"

"They're okay now, but they might not be."

"Are they being hurt by the dad?"

"Kind of…but they don't want to be separated from each other."

"Why don't they tell an adult?"

"Because they tried and they told themselves that they can't trust anyone but each other."

"Can you tell me who the boy and his brother are? Do they go to this school?"

"He told me not to say anything, but yes he goes to school here."

Mr. Campbell scratched his chin. "Kenny, is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, but the boy doesn't want to go home."

"Are you the boy?"

"I got to go."

Kenny ran off before the teacher could call him back.

He slipped the note on Mrs. Chang's desk and sat down before anyone could question him. He refused to answer anyone and sat like stone.

At the break, he ran to the locker room before Allie and Ramona had finished packing their bags.

Barry approached Skipper and Kowalski in the locker rooms and told them about Kenny.

Their teachers set them to do warm up laps around the track. Kowalski caught up with his brother while Skipper hung back with Barry.

"I'm sorry." Kenny said.

"Why? What happened?" Kowalski asked.

"I almost told Mr. Campbell…"

"Kenny, you can't trust him."

"I know the teachers back at our old school didn't pay attention, but Mr. Campbell was worried. He was actually listening. I trust people here."

"Please don't. I'm still trying to figure out how to…" Kowalski trailed off.

"But you trust me. And I trust my teacher. He wanted to know more about what's going on."

"What if that's just how it starts like everyone else? They'll just become blended."

"Private won't let it go, neither will his friend. Ginger almost got too close."

"Skipper too."

"Can't we trust them?"

Kowalski hesitated.

"Please, Kowalski."

"I can't." Kowalski said. "I just can't." He ran ahead, leaving Kenny feeling anxious.

"What happened?" Skipper asked.

Kenny shrugged, following Barry. "He can't find out who to trust…and I don't know what to do…I've always gone with what he says, but…"

"It feels different." Skipper supplied.

"Having Private here changed us. He was a friend and he wanted to get to know us better."

Skipper looked at Kowalski's back. "Maybe you don't have to follow your brother. Be your own person."

"What if that gets us separated and we can never see each other again? Or at least we can't see each other until I'm eighteen. That's six whole years."

"We wouldn't let that happen. I'll fight for you to stay with him. If you do get separated, it could be for three years. Kowalski would be eighteen and legally allowed to take custody of you. But you'd need to trust people and tell your story."

Skipper walked ahead, letting Kenny have his thoughts. Barry was actually silent for once as he walked the cold track.

Kenny's stomach lurched as he realized that he had Science class and he'd be without Private. He shook nervously as he sat in his seat. As he predicted, no one wanted to sit with the Dyslexic kid. He went through the lab procedure with a 'group' who just ignored him. One girl winked at him and let him borrow her lab sheet to copy. He smiled.

"Marlene tutors me and she told me to keep an eye on you." She said.

"Thanks." Kenny said.

Park B, minus Private, was sitting at the lunch table in an unusually quiet fashion. Not even a comedic remark from Barry or Allie inputting something she learned. They were utterly silent.

Kenny had moved up and was able to join the English class. Ramona walked him there before she went to her class.

He sat behind an empty chair.

"Welcome to my class." The teacher said. "Are you Kenny?"

"Yes, is Pr-Andre still on your class list?"

"Yes, I have not received word about him."

Kenny sighed, having asked every teacher this since Math. He tried to pay attention, but his vacation kept replaying in his mind. Luckily, the teacher allowed an easy day since it was the first day back.

Study hall was painful for Kenny. The supervising teacher told him the same thing that every teacher had told him all day.

He sat with his friends.

The four of them tried to talk about their vacations, but they were all thinking about the same thing.

Meanwhile, the Penguins were having trouble concentrating too. Rico, being a TA, didn't have much to do except doodle on notebooks. One of his doodles looked a lot like Private.

Kowalski had Computer class and felt himself becoming disinterested even though he loved technology and science.

Skipper was being poked to attention by Marlene in their History class. He was usually alert and somewhat excited to learn about History, but the subject bored him today.

The Penguins met up with Park B and they all walked back to the apartments, Allie walked home, following a classmate of Kowalski's who lived across the street.

"Alice?" Skipper said, walking up to the front desk with the rest of the group.

"What is it?"

"Is Andre here? He's about this tall, a little shorter than him." He indicated Kenny. "A little bit chubby, black hair and blue eyes, British accent? I believe you call him Alvin."

"I don't know, Sorenson." Alice said grumpily. "How the heck do you expect me to remember everyone who lives here?"

"I described him completely. He's our roommate." Skipper pointed to Kowalski and Rico, then himself.

"We were wondering if he's alright."

"I just said I don't know. Get out of here!"

"Geez." Barry said. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the desk."

"Bed." Ramona corrected.

"No, I mean desk." Barry said. "Someone told me that she's grumpy because someone threw a water balloon at her on New Years and she never caught the person."

"Well that would make someone upset."

"It was a pretty big water balloon so yeah, she was furious."

"No rest for the lazy."

The younger kids were dropped off at their floor while the Penguins headed back to their room.

"Skipper, is it official? Private's not coming back?" Kowalski asked.

Skipper sighed. "I don't know, boys. It looks unlikely that he'd be coming. I mean, you wouldn't want him to miss the first day of school. Maybe his mom really did call off the truce once Kenny left."

"That stinks." Rico said.

"I agree."

"Well boys, there's nothing we can do now. Hopefully Private can still be a valuable member of the tea- MORT!"

They spotted the young boy with a room key, near their door.

"Oopsies." He squeaked.

"Whose key is that?" Skipper asked sternly.

"H-his…" Mort pointed to Rico. "K-king Julien says it was because you taked his key and now mine is gone."

"Get out of here."

Mort squeaked and dropped the key as he fled.

Rico picked it up.

They entered their room, hearing someone moving around.

"Private?" Kowalski said hopefully.

"Private, fall in soldier!"

The person stopped. No one came out. They found the source of the noise as there were a few papers scattered in the doorway of Kowalski's room.

"Private, are you there?"

They opened the door to find the person holding Kowalski's journal.

"H-hey…"

"JULIEN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Skipper yelled while Kowalski snatched his journal away.

"Bye!" He raced out.

The boys took note of any damage.

"He ripped a few pages out, but nothing more than silly revenge." Kowalski reported. "We're going to get him later…but for a moment…"

"I know." Skipper said.

"Private." Rico finished.

"So is that it? It's over?" Kowalski said hoarsely. "We're a team of three now?"

"I can't say for certain." Skipper said, looking at what remained of Private's things.

It was like a ghost in the way it drew their attention. They stared at Private's side of the room as if he'd mysteriously appear on his bed.

"Private?"

"I don't think he's coming back, Rico, he wouldn't have missed the first day if he was…and he would have contacted us."

"Unless his mother took away his phone and told him he couldn't talk to us again."

"He would have found a way, Skipper."

"Yeah…he's pretty smart."

The boys tried not to think about Private as they went through their day.

The second day back was the same, with everyone trying and failing to ignore the fact that one member of the team wasn't there. Barry was uncharacteristically calm and quiet. Everyone had expected him to make a commotion about how it was unfair that Private's decisions had to be made for him.

Soon enough, nearly a week had passed. Friday afternoon came without any sign of Private. He still hadn't communicated with them even though Ginger said her mom had seen him.

Skipper decided to call it in that the team was most likely to be reduced to three. The agents were saddened to learn that Private was no longer on the team. The boys spent the weekend in the HQ to get away from Julien who had been bugging them all week.

On Sunday night, they entered their room to hear a grunt.

"Julien again…" Skipper scowled. "Julien if you don't clear out of here by the time I count to three, I'm going to hurt you. One…two…" He paused, but Julien did not come.

"Julien, do you hear us?" Kowalski asked.

"Three. Rico, get him out of here."

Rico grinned and rushed into Kowalski's room. He gasped loudly.

"Do I want to know?" Kowalski groaned.

"No, but I do. JULIEN! If you touched anything, I-" He stopped. His jaw dropped as he looked into the room.

"What's with the silence? What did he do?!" Kowalski panicked. He ran into the room. "Julien- HOLY COW!"

A/N: Skipper: Aw, come on! You can't end it on that note! Boo!

Kowalski: Actually, it's perfectly legal. It would be what is called a cliffhanger. That's strange though, why would you be hanging from a cliff if you're reading the story?

Rico: Pfft, hahaha!

Skipper: Don't over think it. But seriously, that's just mean! Evil cliffhanger…What did Julien do, set the place on fire?

Kowalski: I don't believe so or our reactions would have been different.

Skipper: If he's going nude in our room, I'm going to-

Rico: Kaboom?

Skipper: If only…

Barry: Shh! It's getting good. *eats popcorn*

Skipper: *takes handful of Barry's popcorn* Fine, but if it so much as mentions him being nude, I'm covering your eyes.

Barry: But they're covered in salt and butter!

Kowalski: *takes some popcorn* Then you shouldn't have put so much on.

Kenny: *eats some popcorn* Ack! I need soda!

Rico: Here. *gives Kenny soda and grabs popcorn*

Barry: Hey! Get your own popcorn!

Ramona: Can Allie and I join? *takes some popcorn*

Allie: Ooh, I love the decorations in here. *eats a piece of popcorn*

Barry: Stay away from my popcorn!

Skipper: I bet the word popcorn sounds weird now that it's been repeated so many popcorn times like it was popcorn. Have a pleasant popcorn day! Okay, now it sounds odd.

Kowalski: We just fixed the fourth wall, don't break it again!

Julien: SHUSH! This is about me! I want to see the brilliance of King Julien! *Grabs Barry's popcorn bag*

Skipper: What if you did something and we have to pound you next chapter?

Julien: O.o

Skipper: Yeah, think about that.

Barry: …my popcorn…