Draka and Joni were out shopping at the local strip mall. They had been browsing through a bridal botique getting ideas for the future wedding of Drak and Joni. They were heading for lunch when Draka noticed Kittie Dred coming out of the electronics store.

"What is she doing here?" Draka asked, walking in Kittie's direction.

"Who?" Joni asked, following Draka.

Draka walked up to Kittie. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Draka!" Kittie said, turning to face Draka and Joni. "Hi!"

"I asked you a question," Draka said.

"If you must know," Kittie said, "I'm stocking up on some electronic components. I never know what I'll need to sabotage one of dad's devices."

"I still don't get that," Draka said.

"What?" Kittie asked.

"You and your father," Draka said, "I know you went out of your way to help the other night when Drak was proposing to Joni, but..."

"Is this her?" Joni asked Draka.

"Yes, Joni," Draka sighed, "This is her!"

"Thank you so much!" Joni said, "The night was perfect!"

"I take it they told you what happened," Kittie said.

"Yes," Joni said, "But they wouldn't say anything to Drak and they wouldn't let me tell him. Why is that?"

"Drak doesn't trust me yet," Kittie explained.

"Why not?" Joni asked.

"Would you trust the daughter of your worst enemy?" Kittie asked.

"I guess not," Joni said.

"I don't!" Draka said.

"Draka!" Joni scolded.

"She obviously has some hidden agenda!" Draka said, "She probably wants to destroy the Drak Pack and take over the world herself!"

"No," Kittie said, "Not since I was 7 years old at P.S. 146."

"P.S. 146?" Joni asked, "What year?"

"1989," Kittie said, looking at Joni intently.

Joni looked at Kittie for a minute and said, "Cathy?"

Kittie smiled. "Yes!" she said, giggling.

"Oh my gosh!" Joni exclaimed, "What happened to you?"

"Dad took me away suddenly," Kittie said, "Social services was after him."

"Wait a minute!" Draka exclaimed, "You two know each other?"

"Yes!" Joni said, "From the first grade!"

"The guys too!" Kittie added.

"Do they know yet?" Joni asked.

"Howler and Frankie do," Kittie said, "Drak doesn't."

"Why don't you tell him?" Joni asked.

"I'm trying to see how long it takes him to figure it out," Kittie said, "I'd have thought he'd have done it by now! He was always the smart one! I've even been throwing him hints for the past couple of months!"

"I guess he's only seeing what he wants to see," Joni observed.

"You're right," Kittie said, "Maybe if I bleached my hair and put it up in ponytails he'd notice!"

"Maybe," Joni said.

"This is why you've been helping the Drak Pack?" Draka asked, "You're old school friends?"

"It's part of it," Kittie said, "I also don't like what my dad wants to do to the world."

"Of course, we weren't friends right off the bat!" Joni said.

"Of course!" Kittie agreed, "The guys wound up changing all that!"

"What happened?" Draka asked.

"It's a long story!" Kittie said.

"Draka," Joni said, "Let's have Cathy join us at the diner for lunch! We can tell you the whole story!"

"I guess," Draka said.

"Sounds cool!" Kittie said, "Howler's meeting me at the diner, too!"

"What?" Draka and Joni asked together.

"He didn't tell you?" Kittie asked.

"Tell us what?" Draka asked.

"That we've been dating for the past several months," Kittie said.

"Uh, no!" Draka said, "It must have slipped his mind!"

"You and Howler?" Joni asked, "I never would have thought!"

"Me either!" Kittie said.

Joni and Kittie started walking away together. Draka followed.

"I don't believe this!" Draka muttered, shaking her head.

Draka, Joni, and Kittie walked into the diner. Howler was waiting inside at the counter. He didn't see the girls when they walked in.

Kittie walked up behind Howler and said, "Hi."

Howler turned around, not expecting to see Draka and Joni. "Kittie, ah, gu...Hi, girls!" he stammered.

"Is there something you want to tell us, Howler?" Draka asked.

Howler thought a moment and said, "I...I've been dating Kittie?"

"Right!" Draka said, "What if Dr. Dred finds out?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Kittie said, "I'm the one who'll be in more trouble, anyway. Dad expects me to be on his side."

"Whatever," Draka said, "Joni and Kittie tell me you all knew each other in the first grade."

"Uh, yeah, we did," Howler confirmed.

"Let's sit down," Joni said, "We'll tell you all about it."

"This ought to be interesting," Draka said as they made their way to a booth in a secluded area of the diner. They sat down and ordered their meals.

"So, tell me," Draka said, "What happened?"

"Well," Joni began, "It all started the end of January in 1989..."

It was mid morning and the first and second grade classes let out for recess. Children streamed from the school building into the chilly air and ran to their favorite playtime activity. Soon, children were scattered everywhere around the asphalt playground, playing ball or hopscotch, jumping rope, or using the playground equipment.

7-year-old Howler, an average-sized boy, was on a swing. He was wearing a blue coat with yellow stripes, blue jeans, and blue sneakers that never seemed to stay tied. Scruffy, light-brown hair poked out from underneath a blue and yellow knit cap.

Frankie was standing next to the swingset, watching Howler. Frankie was larger than the other children. He was tall and slightly husky, though not fat. He had on blue jeans, a light green coat with a matching knit cap, and green sneakers.

"No!" Howler snapped as he pumped his swing higher.

"Please, Howlie?" Frankie begged as he watched Howler swing back and forth.

"I don't want to play see saw!" Howler insisted.

"But nobody else wants to either!" Frankie said, pouting.

"You're ten times bigger than everybody else, Frankie!" Howler said, "It doesn't work right! Besides, you give everybody 'cherry bumps' when you get off!"

"I don't mean to," Frankie said.

"Whatever!" Howler said, "Try the swings!"

"Alright," Frankie said, disappointed. He got on the swing next to Howler and started pumping.

Drak was hanging upside-down by his knees on the jungle gym. He was a rather handsome boy with dark hair and dark eyes. He was wearing blue jeans, a black coat, and black sneakers. His red knit cap had come off and was laying underneath him as he dangled.

Joni was jumping rope nearby. Her long, blonde hair was done up in a french braid and tied in a purple ribbon that matched her purple coveralls. She had a lavender coat and fuzzy, white earmuffs. Her black mary jane shoes clicked on the asphalt as she jumped her rope over to the jungle gym. She stopped jumping and walked over to where Drak was hanging.

"You dropped something," Joni said, picking up Drak's cap.

"Oh, thanks," Drak said, "Leave it there. I'll get it later."

"Your ears'll get cold," Joni said.

"So?" Drak asked.

"Boys!" Joni muttered, tossing the cap back down. She looked at Drak a minute and asked, "Why do you always come out here and hang upside-down like that, anyway?"

"It's relaxing," Drak said, "It almost feels natural, somehow."

"You're wierd!" Joni said, "Cute, but wierd!"

"Cute?" Drak asked, making a sour face, "Blech! Girls!"

Joni picked up the cap again and put it on Drak's head and up over his face.

"Hey!" Drak said, righting himself onto the top of the jungle gym and pulling his cap off. He turned and glared down at Joni. Joni giggled and started jumping rope again.

The bell that marked the end of recess sounded and the children made their way back to their classrooms, their cheeks rosy from play.

Drak, Frankie, Howler, and Joni entered their classroom after hanging up their coats and hats. They went into the room and sat down at their desks.

Everyone was seated when the first grade teacher, Miss Carmichael, came through the door with a little girl.

Miss Carmichael was a pretty young woman in her mid 20's. She had long brown hair that she always kept in a neat braid. She was wearing a flower print dress and a light sweater.

The little girl was pretty with fair skin and golden-blonde hair done up in ponytails. She was wearing a blue plaid jumper dress over a white blouse, white tights, and saddle shoes.

"Children," Miss Carmichael said, "We have a new student."

All heads in the room turned towards the door to see their new classmate.

"This is Cathy," Miss Carmichael continued, "Let's try to make her feel welcome."

"Hi, Cathy," the class said.

Cathy looked out at the other children and smiled shyly.

Miss Carmichael looked down at Cathy and said, "Cathy, why don't you take the empty desk there in the first row?"

Cathy picked up her school satchel, walked to the empty desk, and sat down.

Drak was seated at the desk to Cathy's right. "Hi, I'm Drak." He said.

Cathy turned and looked at Drak.

"I'm Joni," Joni said from the desk on the other side of Drak.

"I'm Frankie," Frankie said from the desk behind Drak.

Howler sat behind Cathy and was silently doodling on a notebook. Drak, Frankie, and Joni turned and looked at him intently until he noticed. "What?" Howler asked.

"That's Howler," Drak said.

"Howler?" Cathy asked. She turned in her seat, looked at Howler, and asked, "What kind of name is Howler?"

"My parents were hippies," Howler mumbled.

Cathy smirked. "Figures!" she said, turning back around.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Howler asked.

"Hippies aren't that bright!" Cathy said.

Howler seethed and glared at the back of Cathy's head.

The class had a history lesson and was let out for lunch. They made their way to the cafeteria. Drak, Frankie, and Howler sat down with their lunchboxes and started eating. Joni and Cathy went through the lunch line for the hot lunch.

Cathy sat at the table near the boys.

"I wish she'd let us have a turn answerin' a question in class," Frankie said, glancing at Cathy.

"Me too," Howler said, "Every single question Miss Carmichael asked, 'I know the answer!''I know the answer!' Jeez!"

"She did know the answers, though," Drak observed, "She didn't even open her book!"

Joni carried her tray over and sat down at the table across from Cathy. "I see you got the fish sticks, too." Joni said, trying to make conversation.

"I love fish!" Cathy said, "It's brain food!"

"It's brain food!" Howler repeated, mockingly.

"It's good you got them," Cathy said to Joni, "You can use all the brains you can get!"

Joni picked up her tray and hurried over to sit next to Drak.

"That was mean!" Frankie said.

"It was embarrasing enough getting an answer wrong in class!" Joni said, on the verge of tears, "She has to say I don't have any brains!"

"Don't listen to her, Joni," Drak said, "She just wants attention."

"You think so?" Joni asked.

"I know so!" Drak said, "You've gotten plenty of answers right before!"

Joni smiled at Drak. Drak smiled back at Joni.

Howler started chanting, "Drak and Joni, sittin' in a tree! K-I-S...Ow!" he stopped when Drak kicked him underneath the table.

Back in the classroom, Miss Carmichael told her students to take out their math workbook and their rulers. Their assignment involved drawing lines of different lengths on a page in the workbook.

Cathy pulled a bag from her satchel and started removing items, looking for her ruler. "Baby work!" she muttered as she pulled a slide rule, compass, protractor, calculator and other items more suited for a college student than a first grader.

Drak sighed and rolled his eyes at Cathy's obvious flaunting of her inteligence.

Cathy finally found her ruler, packed everything else away, and proceeded with the assignment.

Howler started his own work but kept glancing, annoyed, at the back of Cathy's head. He looked around to see if anyone was looking, picked up his ruler, and poked, gently, at the end of one of Cathy's ponytails. He pulled away, quickly, as Cathy brushed at the irritant with her hand.

Howler smiled, waited a couple of seconds, and poked at the ponytail again. He pulled the ruler away and Cathy turned and looked at him.

"What are you doing?" Cathy whispered, annoyed.

"Nothing," Howler whispered back, innocently.

Cathy glared at Howler, suspiciously, and turned back around. Howler waited a minute and poked at her other ponytail.

Cathy spun around in her seat. "Stop it!" she snapped, glaring at Howler.

Howler jumped, startled. "Stop what?" he asked.

"Is there a problem?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"Howler keeps poking my ponytails with his ruler!" Cathy said, turning around.

"I do not!" Howler said.

"Howler," Miss Carmichael said, "Keep your hands and school equipment to yourself!"

"Yes ma'am," Howler mumbled. He went back to his school work and muttered, "Tattletale!"

Drak, Frankie, and Howler sat at the dinner table at home. They were enjoying a meal of spaghetti and meatballs. Drak and Frankie were working on trying to twirl the long noodles onto their forks. Howler put several stands into his mouth and slurped them in. Sauce splattered all over his face.

Howler's nursemaid, Oriana, looked into the dining room from the kitchen. "Howler!" she scolded, entering the dining room with a damp cloth.

Howler winced as Oriana wiped his face clean. "I honestly don't understand why you insist on playing with your food!" Oriana said as she wiped.

Dracula and Aunt Beth walked into the dining room. "Howler," Dracula said, "Do ve have to go ower table manners again?"

"No, sir," Howler said.

"Good," Dracula said as he and Aunt Beth sat down at the table. "So, how vas school today?"

"It was okay, I guess," Drak said, "We got a new classmate. Her name's Cathy."

"A girl?" Aunt Beth asked, "Is she pretty?"

"Yeah!" Howler said, "Pretty annoying!"

"She's really smart," Drak said, "She kept flaunting it and trying to make everyone else feel stupid!"

"And Howlie kept pickin' on her," Frankie added.

"Frankie!" Howler snapped.

"Howler!" Dracula scolded.

Howler looked at Dracula, sheepishly.

Aunt Beth smiled. "You do know vhat they say about little boys who tease little girls, don't you?" she said.

"No," Howler said, "What?"

"The little boy has a crush on her!" Aunt Beth said.

"EW!" Howler exclaimed.

}}}}}

"You two are actually dating, now?" Draka asked.

"We grew up," Howler said.

"Drak didn't even start to notice me as more than a friend until just before I moved away when we were 12," Joni said.

"Really?" Draka asked.

"You probably wouldn't understand boy/girl relationships since you grew up with amazons," Kittie said.

"Who told you about the amazons?" Draka asked.

"Howler!" Draka scolded.

"She's on our side!" Howler said.

"How do you know?" Draka asked.

"I wouldn't go behind my father's back to do the things I've been doing if I wasn't!" Kittie said.

Draka sighed. "I'm sorry," she said, "I'm very protective of my amazon sisters!"

"I realize that," Kittie said, "I haven't told my dad anything. Besides, from what I've heard, they could kick his butt!"

Draka laughed. "Yes, they could!"

"I'd love to hear more about them," Kittie said, "They sound fascinating!"

"I'll have to tell you sometime," Draka said, "But first, I want to hear the rest of your story!"

"Okay," Kittie said, "Where were we?"

"Something about how annoying you were," Draka said.

"She was!" Howler said, "For the next couple of weeks, she went around like she was queen of the school just because she was smarter than everybody else. She would go out of her way to make sure everybody knew just how smart she was!"

"And Howler would go out of his way to tease me about it!" Kittie said, "He'd mimic me or make rude comments. He got everybody calling me 'Little Miss Smarty Pants' and he said if I learned any more my head would explode!"

"What about Drak and Frankie?" Draka asked.

"Frankie thought teasing her was mean, no matter how annoying she was," Howler said, "But, he'd still laugh at some of my jokes. Drak was actually sort of impressed by how smart she was, but he didn't think It was right that she flaunted it."

"How smart are we talking about here?" Draka asked.

"180 IQ," Kittie said.

"Shouldn't you have been in a gifted school?" Draka asked.

"Gifted school?" Joni asked, "She should have been in college!"

"I had been in a gifted school," Kittie said, "I got kicked out."

"Why?" Draka asked.

"I was warped," Kittie said, "I scared them."

"Warped?" Draka asked.

"Oh yeah!" Howler exclaimed.

"Just like dear old dad!" Kittie said, " I did everything the way he would back then."

"She wasn't entirely like that until the Valentine's day incident, though," Joni said.

"What happened?" Draka asked.

"Well," Joni said, "On Valentine's day in American grade schools, the children buy packs of Valentine's cards and hand them out in class. Everyone is supposed to get cards from everyone else to be fair. We all decorated shoe boxes in class to hold our cards in."

"More 'baby work'," Kittie said, "Dad wouldn't buy me any cards even though we were all supposed to bring them. He told me to say it was against our religion."

"Why?" Draka asked.

"It's a 'goody-goody' holiday," Kittie said, "He hates it! I wanted to do what the teacher said, though, and made my own cards on my computer."

"They were wierd," Howler said, "She used a drawing of an actual heart rather than a Valentine's heart."

"She did the same thing in decorating her box," Joni added.

"I thought I'd be more correct than the others," Kittie explained.

"Was that the problem?" Draka asked.

"Oh, no!" Joni said, "You see, Cathy had offended everyone over and over with her 'I'm smart and you're not' attitude. No one could stand her! Drak was the most popular kid in class and a sort of unofficial class president. He proposed to the rest of the class, without the teacher's knowledge, that no one bring Cathy any Valentine's cards to teach her a lesson."

"That sounds rather cruel," Draka said.

"What do you expect from 7-year-olds?" Kittie asked.

"Did you carry out this plan?" Draka asked.

"Yup," Howler said, "It backfired...big time!"

Cathy kept an eye on her desk from across the room as she passed out her cards to the other students. Several of the students seemed to have finished handing out their cards and sat down without putting anything in Cathy's box.

Cathy threw the remainder of her cards on the floor and walked back over to her desk. Everybody watched as Cathy picked up her box, threw it on the floor, and brought her foot down on top of it.

"What kind of stupid holiday is geared towards pointing out one kid as an outcast anyway!" Cathy yelled and stormed out of the room.

"Cathy!" Miss Carmichael called. She went over, picked up Cathy's box, and looked inside. "Did anybody bring Cathy any Valentine's cards?"

The class all looked at Miss Carmichael, sheepishly.

"Why not?" Miss Carmichael asked.

Everyone in the class pointed at Drak. Drak looked at Miss Carmichael and bit his lower lip.

"Drak!" Miss Carmichael scolded, "Please explain!"

"She...she's been getting on everybody's nerves!" Drak stammered, "We just wanted to show her we don't like her attitude!"

"By hurting her feelings?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"What about our feelings?" Drak asked, "She's been calling us all stupid!"

"That's no excuse!" Miss Carmichael snapped, "The party is over! Everyone will sit quietly at their desks for the remainder of the afternoon."

The class groaned and went back to their desks.

Miss Carmichael started to leave the room. "Your uncle will be called as well as everyone else's parents," She said as she left.

Drak, Frankie, and Howler winced.

Miss Carmichael stepped from the room and found Valentine's day decorations that had previously adorned the walls, ripped up and laying on the floor. She looked down the hall and saw a similar path of destruction that she followed to the lunchroom. Cathy was in the lunchroom ripping up a cardboard heart.

"Cathy," Miss Carmichael said, walking up to Cathy.

"My dad warned me about this stupid holiday!" Cathy growled as she ripped the paper and tossed it on the floor, "I should have listened to him!"

"Would you like to come back to the room?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"Why go where I'm not wanted?" Cathy asked.

"The class is very sorry for what they did," Miss Carmichael said.

"No, they're not!" Cathy snapped, "They will be!"

"Cathy, they are being punished for what they did and they will have to deal with their parents later!" Miss Carmichael said, "I don't want you taking things into your own hands!"

Cathy glared at Miss Carmichael. An evil grin appeared on Cathy's face. "And, why would I want to do something like that?" she sneered, coldly.

"Cathy!" Miss Carmichael scolded, nervously.

Cathy went over to the wall and pulled off a cardboard cutout of a cupid. She turned and looked at Miss Carmichael, holding the picture out in front of her. "Happy Valentine's day!" she sneered, ripping the picture in half.

Miss Carmichael turned and hurried back to her classroom.

Back in the classroom, Drak was being berated by his classmates about the ruined party.

"Smooth move, Dracula!" one boy snapped.

"Why did you have to make us do somthing like that?" a girl asked.

"My parents'll flip!" another boy exclaimed.

"I didn't make you do anything!" Drak exclaimed, "It was just a suggestion!"

"Yeah!" Howler said, "It's not Drak's fault you all followed him!"

"I didn't see you putting anything in her box!" a boy sneered at Howler.

"I don't like her!" Howler yelled.

"Neither do we!" a girl yelled, "But, I wouldn't have done it if Drak hadn't said to!"

"I didn't say for you to!" Drak yelled.

"Everything was perfect here before Cathy showed up!" another girl commented.

"At least she gave all of us Valentines," Frankie said.

"Whose side are you on?" Howler asked.

"I don't know," Frankie said.

"Frankie's right!" a boy said, "It's Drak's fault!"

"I didn't say that!" Frankie said.

"Look!" Drak said, standing up and facing the class, "We're all guilty of the same thing! It's everybody's fault!"

"Yeah!" a boy said, heaving a wadded-up sheet of paper at Drak, "Especially yours!"

Drak shrank back and covered his face as several other children pummeled him with large paper wads. There was more yelling and Miss Carmichael walked back into the room.

"What's going on here?" Miss Carmichael yelled.

The children stopped what they were doing and settled down in their desks, some of them still glaring at Drak.

"Drak," Miss Carmichael said, "If you know what's good for you, you will go and apologize to that girl, now!"

Miss Carmichael left the room and hurried down the hall again.

Drak looked at Frankie and Howler.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Howler asked.

"I don't know," Drak said, "But I'm going to find out."

Drak opened the door to the room and stepped out into the hall. "Uh oh!" he exclaimed when he saw the trail of ruined decorations.

Frankie and Howler got out of their chairs and went over to Drak.

"What do you mean 'uh oh'?" Howler asked. He got to the door and saw the mess. "Uh oh!"

"Oh boy!" Frankie exclaimed as he Drak and Howler looked down the hall at Cathy's handiwork.

Several other students came to see, too. They stayed in the room as Drak, Frankie, and Howler all made their way to the lunchroom.

Cathy was still there. She had found a chair and stood on it to try and reach a red and white streamer with a broom. She snagged the stremer and ripped it loose.

"Um...Cathy?" Drak said.

"What?" Cathy snapped, putting the broom down and jumping off the chair.

"I'm...I'm the one who suggested that no one give you any Valentines," Drak stammered.

"Oh really?" Cathy asked.

"I'm sorry," Drak said, "I didn't expect you to take it like this."

"How did you expect me to take it?" Cathy snapped.

"I don't know," Drak said.

"I'll tell you!" Cathy snapped, "Miss Carmichael says to give everybody Valentines! I do that! What do I get in return? nothing!"

"You can have one of my Valentines," Frankie offered.

"I don't want your pity Valentine you moron!" Cathy yelled.

Frankie's jaw dropped.

Miss Carmichael came around the corner with the principal, Mr. Johnson.

"Don't call my friend a moron you little witch!" Howler yelled.

"Shut up, wolfboy!" Cathy yelled.

"Wolfboy?" Howler snapped, lunging at Cathy.

Mr. Johnson stepped in between Howler and Cathy just in time. "That's enough!" he snapped. "Cathy, come with me."

Mr. Johnson led Cathy down the hallway. Cathy took one last evil look at the boys as she disappeared around the corner.

"I tried to apologize!" Drak said.

"I know you did," Miss Carmichael said, "Let's get back to the classroom."

Drak, Frankie, and Howler sat on the couch in the living room at home. Dracula and Aunt Beth were standing in front of them. They weren't happy.

"I'm surprized at you!" Dracula snapped.

"Ve taught you boys better than this!" Aunt Beth scolded.

The boys hung their heads in shame.

"How could you lead the classroom to do such a horrible thing against a little gorl?" Dracula asked.

"Ever since she got to the school, she's been trying to make everyone feel like they're inferior because she's smarter than everybody else," Drak said, "Everybody's been hurt. I thought it would teach her a lesson. I really didn't expect everybody to do it, though!"

"Drak," Dracula said, kneeling in front of his nephew, "You are a natural born leader! Your peers respect your decisions and listen to you! You must lorn to think before you lead people into a situation that gets out of control!"

"I will," Drak said.

"It sounds like she taught you a lesson!" Dracula said.

"You said it!" Frankie said, "I'll never try to hurt someone's feelins again as long as I live!"

"That's a wery good lesson!" Aunt Beth said, "I bet the poor gorl cried for hours!"

"She didn't cry at all!" Howler said, "She just ran out of the room and ripped up a bunch of decorations!"

"That's odd," Dracula said.

"You're telling me!" Drak said, "It was kinda scary!"

"I hope you apologized," Dracula said.

"I tried!" Drak said, "She yelled at me and called Frankie and Howler names!"

"She called me a moron!" Frankie said.

"Yeah! Then she called me...Wolfboy!" Howler said, cringing.

"Volfboy?" Dracula asked, half smiling.

"What's so funny?" Howler asked.

"Nothing," Dracula said, "I vouldn't let it bother you so much."

"Why not?" Howler asked.

"Vell," Dracula said, "Names really can't harm us!"

"How little we all knew!" Howler said.M.o<

"You didn't cry?" Draka asked Kittie.

"It took an awful lot to make me cry!" Kittie said.

"Rejection by your peers wasn't enough?" Draka asked.

"I already felt rejected," Kittie said, "One more thing really wasn't going to do it. I did want revenge, though. It was all I could think about even as Mr. Johnson chewed me out for my 'inappropriate behavior'."

"Revenge?" Draka asked.

"You don't mess with a Dred and get away with it!" Kittie said.

"We tried to make up for what we did," Joni said, "Miss Carmichael fixed Cathy's box and told us to bring in the cards that we were supposed to have brought in the next day. We did and had the box and cards sitting on her desk when she came into the room."

"Something tells me it didn't impress you that much," Draka said to Kittie.

"Nope!" Kittie said, shaking her head.

Cathy walked into the classroom the day after the Valentine's fiasco and scowled at her classmates. They looked back intently as Cathy's gaze fixed on the box on top of her desk. Without a word, Cathy went to the desk, picked up the box, brought it over to the trash can next to the teacher's desk, and stuffed it in.

"Cathy!" Miss Carmichael scolded.

Cathy looked up and glared at Miss Carmichael. "What?" she sneered.

Miss Carmichael sighed, heavily, and shook her head. Cathy turned and went to her desk.

"Cathy!" Drak said as Cathy sat down, "We're apologizing!"

Cathy said nothing and took out her spelling book for the first lesson of the day.

Drak sank back into his chair and sighed.

The bell rang for recess and the class let out into the schoolyard. Drak went straight to the jungle gym and positioned himself upside-down from one of the top bars. He crossed his arms and sighed, heavily. Cathy's behavior that morning had been stranger than usual and it bothered him. He stayed that way for most of the recess period.

Cathy sat on a bench reading a book. Near the end of recess, Cathy closed her book and strolled over to the jungle gym. She stopped in front of Drak.

"What do you want?" Drak asked, annoyed.

"Nothing," Cathy said, calmly, "You seem upset."

"I don't get you!" Drak said, "You were yelling at me yesterday and now you're so...calm, it's scary!"

"What?" Cathy asked, "I can't let things go?"

"You never just let things go!" Drak exclaimed, "You drag out issues until the bitter end and you just glommed onto this one yesterday!"

"Glommed?" Cathy asked, "Impressive vocabulary!"

"Don't change the subject!" Drak snapped.

"You want some advice?" Cathy asked, "Don't get stuck in your ways. Someone might get the upper hand on you!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Drak asked.

The bell that signaled the end of recess sounded. Cathy smiled, turned, and walked towards the door with the rest of the children.

"Get back here!" Drak said, pulling himself up to an upright position. He got halfway up and realized that his legs wouldn't move from the position they were in. They seemed to be stuck to the bar of the jungle gym. He flipped himself back upside-down and looked towards the door.

Cathy had turned around and was watching him. She smiled again and walked into the building.

Drak lifted himself up again and struggled to get free. He couldn't. His pants were stuck fast to the bar. He screamed and Frankie, Howler, and Joni came running up to him.

"What's wrong?" Frankie asked.

"I'm stuck!" Drak screamed.

"Stuck?" Joni asked, "How?"

"My pants are stuck to the bar!" Drak yelled.

"With what?" Howler asked, climbing to the top of the jungle gym for a better look.

"I don't know!" Drak yelled.

Howler pulled on Drak's legs at the top of the jungle gym. Joni ran inside to get help.

"You're right!" Howler said, "You are stuck!"

"How did that happen?" Frankie asked.

"Cathy!" Drak yelled.

"Cathy?" Howler asked, "How did she do this?"

"I don't know!" Drak yelled, "Get me down!"

Joni ran back out with Miss Carmichael and Mr. Johnson in tow. Miss Carmichael told Frankie, Howler, and Joni to go back into the building. They complied.

Mr. Johnson took a step up onto the jungle gym and inspected Drak's pants. "How on Earth?" he exclaimed.

"Cathy did it!" Drak whined.

"How?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"I don't know!" Drak screamed.

"Then how do you know she did it?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"She was over here talking to me funny!" Drak exclaimed.

"That doesn't mean anything," Mr. Johnson said, climbing down.

"Did she put something on your pants?" Miss Carmichael asked.

"No!" Drak exclaimed.

"How about the bar?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I got out here before she did!" Drak whined, "She didn't come near the jungle gym! Maybe she did it before school!"

"If she had put anything on the bar before school, it would have dried by recess," Mr. Johnson said.

"But..."

"Drak," Miss Carmichael interrupted, "Unless you have more proof, you can't say that Cathy did this!"

"His pants aren't going to come loose," Mr. Johnson said, "I'll go get some scissors."

Drak moaned.

15 minutes later, Miss Carmichael walked into her classroom with Drak. Everyone, except Cathy, turned their heads to see. Their jaws dropped. His pants legs had been cut off just above the knees.

Cathy glanced over at Drak as he stomped over to his desk and sat down. "it's a bit brisk for shorts, isn't it?" she asked.

"Shut up!" Drak snapped.

"You did it, didn't you?" Draka asked.

"Oh yeah!" Kittie said.

"How?" Draka asked.

"I'm a whiz at chemistry," Kittie said, "Drak would always hang upside-down from the same bar at some point at recess. I altered the chemistry of a bottle of super-glue so that it would form a bond when it reacted with cloth, even when dry. I applied it to the middle portion of the bar on the jungle gym before I went into the school that morning after everyone else was inside. Then I threw away the evidence. It was only a matter of time before he got stuck."

"And that was only the beginning of her reign of terror!" Joni said, "She wanted to get back at everybody! The next day..."

Students started pouring into Miss Carmichael's classroom. Frankie walked in and left his book bag at his desk. He headed to the front of the room on the other side of the teacher's desk to see the class's pet hampsters. He looked into the cage and screamed.

Miss Carmichael was sitting at her desk looking over some papers. "Oh dear," she said getting up from her chair, "Did one of them die?"

"No!" Frankie squealed, shaking his head.

Miss Carmichael got to the cage and looked in. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed.

Several other students gathered around the cage to see what was wrong.

There were three hamsters in the cage. They were going about their usual business, running about, gathering food and the like. They looked perfectly fine with one exception. The previously brown and tan rodents were now colored pink. Their fur, skin, eyes, and even claws had somehow changed overnight.

Miss Carmichael opened the cage and took out one of the hamsters. It sniffed at her hand and sat down to wash its whiskers.

"How?" Miss Carmichael asked to no one in general.

"Maybe it was something they ate," Cathy said. She had come in and was standing behind the crowd that had gathered around the hamster cage.

Everyone's heads turned to look at Cathy. She was wearing a pink top and pink pants with pink ribbons in her ponytails.

Drak, Frankie, and Howler stared at Cathy, shocked.

"How on Earth did you do that?" Draka asked.

"Shrimp extract," Kittie said.

"What?"

"Have you ever seen a pink Flamingo?" Kittie asked.

"Yes," Draka said.

"Their pink color comes from a diet of shrimp," Kittie said, "If they didn't eat shrimp, they wouldn't have that coloration. I took a shrimp based chemical and altered it so that it would do to other animals what it does to the flamingo. I added the substance to the hamster's food right after class the day before when no one was looking. I didn't harm the hamsters one bit."

"Frankie would freak out every time he saw the hamsters after that," Howler said, "They were sent to another room. Frankie still doesn't like the color pink. It actually got us out of a jam once, though!"

"How?" Draka asked.

"Dr. Dred captured us and tried to drown us in the color," Howler said.

"What?" Draka and Joni asked together.

"It's a long story," Howler said, "I'll tell you later."

"We seem to be getting off the subject again," Kittie said.

"Yes," Draka said, "Please, go on."

"I got taken to the principal's office that time, "Kittie said, "They thought it was fishy that I was wearing pink that day."

"Why did you do that?" Draka asked, "They'd be suspicious of you."

"Of course they would!" Kittie said, "It was a challenge for them. 'Here's a hint. Now, prove it!' Of course, they had no proof. They couldn't do a thing to me."

"Why open yourself up to suspicion at all, then?" Draka asked.

"Don't you know anything about mad scientists?" Kittie asked.

"I guess not," Draka admitted.

"Well, I grew up with one and I was one," Kittie said, "I'm kind of an authority on the subject. I'll have to teach you in return for learning about the amazons."

"It's a deal!" Draka said.

"Here's your first lesson," Kittie said, "Mad scientists love to pose chalenges to people they consider less inteligent than they are. It proves who their most powerful foes are."

"Your dad keeps calling my brother out to secret meetings and telling him exactly what he's up to before he does it," Draka said, "Is that the kind of thing you're talking about?"

"Exactly," Kittie said, "Only, Drak has already proven himself to be a worthy adversary. Dad's chalenges to him are a 'try to stop me' chalenge. The 'prove it' chalenge weeds out those like Drak who have the inteligence and desire to put forth chalenges of their own which is what the mad scientist's game is all about."

"Ah!" Draka said.

"As for me," Kittie said, "The school couldn't prove what I had done, despite my behaviior, but the principal did call my father to voice his suspicions. All he managed to do was find out what a loon my dad was."

"Cathy started pulling mean spirited pranks on a regular basis after that," Joni said, "For the next couple of weeks, we were never sure quite what was going to happen next."

"What kind of things?" Draka asked.

"Strange things!" Howler said.

"A stack of test papers spontaniously erased themselves," Joni said, "All of our coats, hats, and galoshes levitated themselves out the front door onto the rain."

"Things in the school malfunctioned," Howler said, "The TV/VCR setup did strange things whenever our class used it."

"Things would disappear from one place and reappear acrooss the room," Joni said, "Sometimes right out of kid's bookbags."

"We couldn't get a drink from the water fountain without worrying about it spraying us in the face," Howler said.

"I went up to the chalkboard to answer a question," Joni said, "The chalk wouldn't work."

"The swings went rigid and wouldn't swing," Howler said, "The same with the tetherball and jump ropes."

"The flowers that Miss Carmichael kept on the windowsill started to smell like a skunk."

"Some of the guys formed a club," Howler said, "The Kids Against Cathy club. Someone brought in a wooden mallet to use as a gavel to start the meetings. She must have found out about it."

"Yup!" Kittie confirmed.

"At the second meeting, the president of the club banged the gavel on the ground outside," Howler continued, "It bounced back so hard, it flew out of the kid's hand and broke a window."

"Everybody suspected or knew that I had something to do with it all, but nobody could prove it," Kittie said, "Mr. Johnson called my dad again and found out my dad really wasn't concerned with my behavior. In fact, he seemed impressed. If I was doing those things that is! Mr. Johnson called in a psychologist to do some testing on me to find out just what the school was dealing with."

Mr. Johnson led Cathy into a sparsely decorated room in the school. The only furniture in the room was a desk and two chairs.

Mr. Johnson and Cathy were greeted by a gentle-looking, gray-haired man in a tan suit.

"Doctor, this is Cathy," Mr. Johnson said.

"Hi, Cathy!" the doctor said, smiling, "I'm Dr. Brown."

"Hi, Dr. Brown!" Cathy said, gleefully.

"My!" Dr. Brown said, "You seem cheerful, today!"

"I am!" Cathy said, "This is getting me out of baby classes today!"

"Well, I'm happy to oblige you!" Dr. Brown said. He looked up at Mr. Johnson.

"Good luck!" Mr. Johnson whispered, leaving the room.

Dr. Brown watched with a puzzled look on his face as Mr. Johnson left. He looked back down at Cathy. Cathy smiled up at him.

"Well, Cathy," Dr. Brown said, "What do you say we play some games?"

"Games?" Cathy asked, "I thought I was going to be tested."

"You are!" Dr. Brown said, "They're fun tests!"

"Oh goody!" Cathy said, sarcastically.

"Come on!" Dr. Brown said, "You might like them! Please, sit down."

Dr. Brown motioned to the large, comfortable chair in front of the desk. Cathy climbed in and sat down. Dr. Brown went behind the desk and sat down in his swivel chair.

"Comfy?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Yes," Cathy said.

"Good!" Dr. Brown said, "First we're going to do something called 'word association'. I'm going to say a word and you're going to say the first word that pops into your head. So, if I were to say the word 'man', you might say 'woman'. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Cathy said.

"Okay," Dr. Brown said. He got his pen and paper ready to write down Cathy's answers. "We'll start with man."

"Homosapien," Cathy said.

"Okay!" Dr. Brown said, "Car."

"Conveyance."

"Father."

"Genius."

"Mother."

"Mental case."

Dr. Brown looked up from his notes at Cathy. She smiled at him. "Cat." Dr. Brown continued.

"Felis domesticus."

"Dog."

"Canis familiaris."

Dr. Brown looked up from his notes again. "Mouse." he said.

"Mus musculus."

"Are you sure those are the first words that are coming to your head?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Uh huh!" Cathy said.

Dr. Brown took out a pad of paper to write down words that weren't on the test. "Horse." he said.

"E. caballus."

"Moose."

"Alces alces."

"Buffalo."

"Bubalus bubalis."

He tried to throw her off a little. "Wolfhound." he said.

"Canis familiaris."

"Book."

"Liber libri."

Cathy didn't miss a beat. Dr. Brown tried some more obscure animals. "Giraffe." he said.

"Giraffa camelopardalis."

"Mongoose."

"Herpestes."

"Tasmanian devil."

"Sarcrophilus harisii."

"Hamster."

"Flamingo!" Cathy exclaimed.

"What?" Dr. Brown asked.

Cathy giggled. "This is fun!" she exclaimed.

"I'm...glad you're entertained," Dr. Brown said, putting the papers away. He pulled out another paper and a stack of large cards.

"Now, Cathy," Dr. Brown said, "I'm going to have you look at some pictures. They're special pictures. They're made by putting blobs of ink on paper and squishing the paper together to make funny shapes. All I want you to do is look at them and tell me what they look like to you."

"Rorschach?" Cathy asked.

"Yes!" Dr. Brown exclaimed, surprized, "They're Rorschach ink blot tests!"

"Uh huh!" Cathy said, "Created by Hermann Rorschach at the Waldau Psychiatric University Hospital. First published for use in 1921 by Ernst Bircher under the name Psychodiagnostik..."

"Yes, I know all that," Dr. Brown interrupted.

Cathy straightened in her chair and glared at Dr. Brown. "You think you're smarter than me?" she asked.

"I'm...just saying I know about these tests," Dr. Brown said, a little nervously, "It helps my job to know about where they came from."

Cathy settled back in her chair and smirked at Dr. Brown.

"Could we continue?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Okay," Cathy said.

"Alright," Dr. Brown said. He placed the cards face-down on the desk and lifted one for Cathy to see. "Okay. What does this look like to you?"

Cathy looked at the card for a few seconds and said, "A lab explosion."

"They all look a little like explosions," Dr. Brown said, "You have to look at the shapes and see what they remind you of."

"I did," Cathy said, "It's a lab explosion."

"Are you sure that's all you see?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Yes," Cathy said. She started pointing to areas of the picture to explain. "See. There's test tubes, beakers, toxic spills, flames."

Dr. Brown turned the card around and looked at it. "Well, whada you know!" he exclaimed.

"There's even a mushroom cloud," Cathy said.

"Mushroom cloud?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Could happen," Cathy shrugged.

"Okay," Dr. Brown said, putting the card on the table. He picked up another card. "How about this one?"

Cathy looked at the card and snickered.

"What's so funny?" Dr. Brown asked.

"It's a bat glued to a jungle gym!" Cathy exclaimed, giggling.

"What?" Dr. Brown asked.

Cathy pointed to the picture again. "See?" she asked, "There's his head and his wings and toes and the bars."

Dr. Brown looked at the picture and put it with the first one. He sighed, heavily and shook his head.

A few hours and several tests later, Dr. Brown walked into Mr. Johnson's office. Dr. Brown closed the door behind him and glared at the principal.

"Well?" Mr. Johnson asked.

Dr. Brown put his briefcase on the desk. "You owe me for this one!" he growled.

"That bad?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"You could have warned me!" Dr. Brown said as he sat down in a chair. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples.

"I said 'Good luck', didn't I?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Like that helped!" Dr. Brown exclaimed.

"What did you find out?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"She's a very smart child!" Dr. Brown said.

"We knew that," Mr. Johnson said.

"She likes to show off how smart she is," Dr. Brown said.

"We knew that, too," Mr. Johnson said.

"She likes to play mind games," Dr. Brown said.

"Mind games?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I've never seen it in a 7-year-old before!" Dr. Brown said.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"It's like she was challenging my own intellect," Dr. Brown explained, "The farther we got into the session, the worse she got! I don't know how much longer I could have lasted without cracking!"

"Her father seems to be the same way," Mr. Johnson said.

"Speaking of which," Dr. Brown said, opening his briefcase, "There's something you have to see!"

"What?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"One of the exercises in the test involves the drawing of different objects by the subject," Dr. Brown said, looking through his papers, "A tree, a house, and the subject's family. It's done to see how the subject percieves things."

Dr. Brown pulled out a piece of paper and placed it in front of Mr. Johnson.

"What's this?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"It's the drawing of her family," Dr. Borwn said, "The names are labeled."

"Mr. Fly...Mr. Toad...Mr. Mummy Man?" Mr Johnson asked, confused, "Miss Vampira? Who are these ...people?"

"Mr. Fly is a half-human, half-fly creature," Dr. Brown explained, "Mr. Toad is an enlarged toad that can talk. Mr. Mummy Man is a large Egyptian mummy, reanimated by her father. Miss Vampira is a female vampire."

"You must be kidding!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

"That's what she told me!" Dr. Brown said, "What concerns me most is the drawing of her mother over on the side."

"She looks odd," Mr. Johnson commented.

"She's wearing a straightjacket," Dr. Brown said.

"A WHAT?"

"According to Cathy, she's in a mental hospital," Dr. Brown said.

"I wonder why?" Mr. Johnson said, sarcastically.

"Considering the drawing, I suspect Cathy's delusional," Dr. Brown said, "Her mother could have the same problem at a more advanced stage. Cathy may have the gene that causes it."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I'm positive," Dr. Brown said, "If Cathy has any hope of a future, she should get treatment right away."

"And how do you propose we get her treatment?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Her father should be notified," Dr. Brown said, "I'm going to pay him a visit and explain the situation."

"I don't know about that," Mr. Johnson said.

"Why not?"

"I've talked to him on the phone," Mr. Johnson said, "He's not all that receptive."

"Mr. Johnson, I'm very concerned about this child," Dr. Brown said.

"I am too, but..."

"No buts!" Dr. Brown interrupted, putting the picture back in his briefcase, "This child needs help, immediately! I'm going to make sure she gets it."

Dr. Brown closed his briefcase and got up. "I'll report back to you on Monday after I've had a chance to talk with Mr. Dred."

"Okay," Mr Johnson said, grinning.

Dr. Brown picked up his briefcase and left the room.

"He'll find out!" Mr. Johnson said to himself.

The next day was a bright Saturday in late winter. There was a slight chill in the air that the sun was desperately trying to melt away.

Dr. Brown drove his car up a dirt road to the house where Cathy lived. It was a large, old farmhouse with a barn off to the side. Cathy was in front with a watering can and some garden tools. She was tending a patch of ground in front of the house.

Dr. Brown parked and got out of his car. Cathy turned and saw him.

"Hi, Dr. Brown!" Cathy said as Dr. Brown made his way to the house.

"Well, hello Cathy!" Dr. Brown said, "What are you doing there?"

"The tulip bulbs I planted in the fall are starting to come up," Cathy said.

"Really?" Dr. Brown asked, "That's a fine hobby you got there."

"It's really a science!" Cathy said, "You have to make sure the conditions are just right or the plants won't grow right."

"You've got that right!" Dr. Brown said.

"Of course I do!" Cathy said.

Here we go again! Dr. Brown thought to himself. "Is your father around?"

"He's in his lab in the barn," Cathy said.

"Could I see him?" Dr. Brown asked.

"I'll go get him," Cathy said, "You can wait in the house."

"Thank you," Dr. Brown said.

Cathy led Dr. Brown up the steps and let him inside. She closed the door and snickered to herself.

Dr. Brown entered the house and waited in the foyer. It was a clean and comfortable looking home.

He became aware of a woman humming a tune in the next room. He followed the sound and entered the kitchen. He found a tall, thin woman in a slinky, red dress.

The woman was slapping pieces of lunchmeat on a roll. She turned to reach for a jar of mustard and saw the doctor.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Dr. Brown," Dr. Brown said, "I'm from Cathy's school. I'm waiting to see Mr. Dred."

"Doctor...Dred," the woman corrected.

"Oh, sorry," Dr. Brown said.

"It may be avhile," the woman said, "He's busy. He doesn't like to be distorbed."

"I can wait," Dr. Brown said. He'd been noticing the woman's pale skin and dark hair and asked, "You're not a vampire, are you?"

"No," the woman said.

"I didn't think so!" Dr. Brown chuckled.

"I'm a dhampir," she said, "My name's Wampira."

"Uh...what's a dhampir?" Dr. Brown asked.

"My father vas a wampire and my mother vas human," Vampira said, "I'm half and half."

"Uh huh," Dr. Brown said.

Vampira went back to spreading mustard on the top of the roll. Dr. Brown turned to leave the kitchen. He sarted to wonder just who was delusional when he looked down and saw what looked like a three-foot-tall toad wearing a tweed suit and sneakers.

Dr. Brown gave a startled yelp and asked, "What are you?"

"Toad toad," it said, "What you?"

"That's Toad," Vampira said, "He's still learning langvage skills."

"That's a costume, right?" Dr. Brown asked.

Toad wasn't paying attantion. He spied the sandwich that Vampira was preparing.

Vampira put the top on the sandwich and picked up the plate. She then turned and noticed Toad's interest.

Dr. Brown was startled to see a long, sticky tongue shoot from Toad's mouth towards Vampira.

Vampira, thinking quickly, flipped the plate sideways. The sanwich plopped on the counter. Toad's tongue hit the plate and stuck. Vampira let go of the plate. It hit Toad smack in the face as his tongue was drawn back into his mouth.

"Ow!" Toad cried.

"He's also still learning manners!" Vampira said.

"Bab Poab!" Toad moaned.

Dr. Brown whimpered.

Vampira got another plate while Toad struggled to unstick his tongue from the other one. Vampira fixed the sandwich and placed it on the clean plate.

"Fly!" Vampira called, "The Doctor's sandvich is ready!"

A heavy buzzing sound came from the next room. Dr. Brown turned towards the door and saw a thin, fuzzy, black, four-foot-tall creature with a large head, yellow eyes, and large, transparent wings fly into the room. Dr. Brown's jaw dropped.

Fly flew up to the counter, glancing at Dr. Brown on the way by. "Who'zz that?" he asked Vampira as he took the plate.

"That's Dr. Brown from Cathy's school," Vampira said, "He vants to talk to Dr. Dred."

"He'zz a doctor?" Flay asked, "Izz Cathy zick?"

"Ve can hope so!" Vampira said, "Maybe she'll calm down!"

Dr. Brown wasn't paying attention to what Vampira and Fly were saying. He had stepped behind Fly and was staring, amazed, at the strange creature. Dr. Brown held up his hand to feel the breeze coming from Fly's massive wings.

Fly turned to leave the room and bumped into Dr. Brown. "Excuzze me!" Fly buzzed, a little annoyed.

Dr. Brown stepped back and let Fly go past. He watched, stunned, as Fly left the room. He then looked at Vampira and down at Toad.

Toad was still struggling with the plate. He held the plate out from his face and looked at Vampira, pleadingly.

Vampira rolled her eyes, sighed, and walked around the counter to assist Toad. She grabbed the plate in one hand, Toad's tongue in the other, and peeled them apart. Toad's tongue snapped back into place and Toad hopped out of the kitchen.

"Aren't you going to say 'thank you'?" Vampira snapped.

"Thank you!" Toad called from the other room.

Vampira smirked. She looked at the hand she used to grab Toad's tongue. She grimmaced and wiped it on Dr. Brown's suit jacket. Dr. Brown was too stunned to care.

"I need some fresh air," Dr. Brown said, leaving the room.

Dr. Brown went back out to the foyer and opened the front door. A large, heavily bandaged figure stood on the porch, waiting to go in. Dr. Brown stared a moment and said, "And...you must be Mr. Mummy Man."

Mummy Man cocked his head and grunted.

"Could I get out the door, please," Dr. Brown asked, nervously.

Mummy Man stepped aside. Dr. Brown stepped out the on the porch and walked down the front steps. Mummy Man went in the house and closed the door.

Dr. Brown sat down on a step. He sighed and shook his head.

Moments later, Cathy came around the corner with her father following close behind.

"Daddy, this is Dr. Brown," Cathy said.

Dr. Brown stood up to greet the man he had come to see. "Hello, Dr....Dred?" Dr. Brown said, shocked at Dr. Dred's appearance.

"Yes?" Dr. Dred asked.

"Your skin!" Dr. Brown exclaimed, "It's...blue!"

"Are you a dermatologist?" Dr. Dred asked.

"No," Dr. Brown said.

"Then it really doesn't concern you, does it?" Dr. Dred asked.

"I'm sorry," Dr. Brown said, "It's just..."

"You'd like to know why," Dr. Dred interrupted.

"Well...yes!" Dr. Brown admitted.

"Be careful when you give an intelligent 5-year-old a chemistry set," Dr. Dred said, "You never know what they'll come up with."

"It was an accident," Cathy said.

"Now now!" Dr. Dred scolded, "You're smart enough to leave a note for daddy when you make something explosive!"

"I was sleepy," Cathy said.

"You know how to spell the words 'caution' and 'volitile', don't you?" Dr. Dred asked.

"How was I supposed to know you'd sneak into my room and disturb my work, anyway?" Cathy asked.

"It messed up daddy's social life, dear!" Dr. Dred said.

"What social life?" Cathy asked.

"Why don't you run along and plant something?" Dr. Dred asked.

Cathy grinned and went back to her garden.

"Precocious, isn't she?" Dr. Dred asked.

"Yes," Dr. Brown agreed, "I ah...noticed."

"Now," Dr. Dred said, "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Dr. Brown stood a moment and looked at his watch. "Will you look at the time!" he exclaimed, "I have another appointment!"

"Really?" Dr. Dred asked.

"Oh, yes!" Dr. Brown exclaimed, heading for his car, "A very important one! I really can't miss it!"

"I thought what you had to say to me was important," Dr. Dred called.

"It can wait!" Dr. Brown called back, almost to his car, "I'll get back to you!"

"He's an odd man!" Dr. Dred commented as Dr. Brown got into his car. Dr. Dred walked up the stairs and went inside.

Dr. Brown sat in his car, fumbling with his keys. He finally found the right key and popped it into the ignition when he heard a knock on the window. He turned with a start and saw Cathy standing beside the car.

Cathy grinned and motioned for Dr. Brown to roll down the window. Dr. Brown cautiously opened it a couple of inches.

"Do you think I'm delusional now, Dr. Brown?" Cathy asked.

"What?" Dr. Brown asked, "When did I call you delusional?"

"When you were talking with Mr. Johnson yesterday," Cathy said.

"How did you know that?" Dr. Brown asked.

"It's a mind game, Dr. Brown," Cathy said, "You figure it out!"

Cathy grinned and walked back to her garden. Dr. Brown watched her, stunned. He started the car and drove away, quickly.

Mr. Johnson was sitting in his office on Monday morning, sipping coffee and going over notes on what he had to do that day when Dr. Brown rushed in. Dr. Brown looked at Mr. Johnson, wildly.

Mr. Johnson smiled and said, "You can't say I didn't try to warn you, this time!"

"We can't talk here!" Dr. Brown said, excitedly.

"Why not?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"She has your office bugged!" Dr. Brown exclaimed.

"Who does?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Cathy!"

"Excuse me?"

"Just come outside the office!" Dr. Brown said, excitedly, as he opened the door.

Dr. Brown and Mr. Johnson went into the outer office where the secretary was doing some filing. Mr. Johnson asked her to leave for a while. She complied.

Mr. Johnson closed the door to his office and asked, "How do you know she has my office bugged?"

"She knew the content of our conversation on Friday!" Dr. Brown said, "There's no other way she could have found out!"

"I don't believe this!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

"You think that's unbelievable?" Dr. Brown asked, "You know those things that she drew as her family?"

"Yes."

"They're real!"

"You're kidding!"

"I'm not kidding!" Dr. Brown exclaimed, "I saw them! They're hideous!"

"They weren't people in costume, were they?" Mr. Johnson asked, skeptically.

"They weren't costumes!" Dr. Brown yelled, "I got close enough to tell otherwise!"

"What did Cathy's father have to say?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I didn't stay long enough to talk to him about it!" Dr. Brown said, "Once I saw those creatures, everything I had to say went out the window! Between that and his blue skin and talk of chemical explosions..."

"Blue skin?" Mr. Johnson interrupted, "Chemical explosions?"

"I swear his skin is blue!" Dr. Brown exclaimed, "From what I heard, Cathy was mixing some explosive chemicals when she was 5, and an accident resulted in his discoloration!"

"Good heavens!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

"And the worst part is, she acts like it's all normal!" Dr. Brown exclaimed.

"What do we do now?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I don't know!" Dr. Brown said, "I just don't know!"

"A little later that morning, a special police squad was called in," Kittie said, "They searched Mr. Johnson's office from top to bottom, looking for a listening device. Of course, they didn't find anything."

"But, you did have it bugged," Draka said.

"Sort of," Kittie said.

"What do you mean?" Draka asked.

"I had a listening device I created that could tap into already existing items such as intercoms, telephones, microphones, and so forth, and turn them into a bugging device by remote control," Kittie said, "Mr. Johnson had an intercom in his office that he used to call his secretary in the next room. I could tap into either one and hear what was said in the room. The device itself looked like an ordinary walkman tape player. It was completely inconspicuous."

"Sneaky," Draka commented, "After all that, what made you decide to change?"

"The guys," Kittie said, looking at Howler.

Howler smiled.

"It all started that Thursday," Joni said, "She did something that was completely out of character for her."

Joni and her friend, Amy, went into the school during recess together to use the restroom. They entered the girl's room and found two 6th grade girls writing graffiti on the walls and the bathroom stalls with black markers.

Joni and Amy gasped. "What are you doing?" Joni asked.

The older girls turned to look at Joni and Amy. "None of your business!" one of them snapped, "Get out!"

"But, we have to use the bathroom," Amy said.

"Use the one on the other side of the school!" the other girl sneered.

"And, don't you dare tell anyone about what you saw us doing or we'll rearrange your faces!" the first girl snarled, shaking a fist.

Joni and Amy turned and ran from the room. The older girls laughed and went back to their writing.

Joni and Amy stopped outside the restroom to decide what to do.

"They're someone I'd like to see Cathy do something to!" Joni commented.

"Who says I'm doing things to people?" a voice said nearby.

Joni and Amy turned, startled, and found Cathy who had come inside herself.

"Cathy!" Amy exclaimed, "We didn't see you there!"

"Obviously!" Cathy said.

"Look," Joni said, "Everybody knows you've been pulling those pranks around the school. Why don't you just admit it?"

"I'm not admitting to something no one can prove!" Cathy said, pushing past Joni and Amy towards the girl's room.

"You can't go in there!" Amy exclaimed.

Cathy spun around and glared at Amy. "Who says?" she snapped.

"The two 6th graders that are in there!" Joni said, "They already kicked us out."

Cathy grinned. "They're the ones you want me to do something to?" she asked.

"Well...nothing bad," Joni said, "Just something to teach them a lesson."

Cathy smirked and started for the door again.

"What are you going to do?" Joni asked.

"I'm going to use the bathroom!" Cathy said.

"They'll kick you out, too!" Amy said.

"I'd like to see them try!" Cathy said and went into the room.

Joni and Amy looked at each other and waited outside the room to see what would happen.

Cathy went in the restroom and headed for a stall. The 6th graders turned and glared at Cathy.

"Hey!" one of them snapped.

Cathy turned and looked at her.

"We don't want any babies in here!" the girl yelled.

Cathy smirked and started for the stall again. The girl reached out, grabbed Cathy's shoulder, and turned Cathy to face her.

"That means you!" the girl yelled.

Cathy looked at the girl, startled, for a moment. The startled look slowly turned into a glare and Cathy turned and left the room.

The girls laughed again and high-fived each other.

Cathy stormed out the door and grabbed Joni and Amy by the arms. She pulled them across the hall and turned to look at them.

"Go get Mr. Johnson!" Cathy ordered.

"Why?" Joni asked.

"They're vandalizing the girl's room," Cathy said, "Don't you think he should know about that?"

"Huh?" Joni asked.

"They said they'd beat us up if we told on them!" Amy said.

"Just tell him there's something he needs to see," Cathy said, "They'll incriminate themselves."

"They won't care!" Joni said.

"Just do it!" Cathy snapped.

"Why should we do anything you say?" Joni asked.

"Because, you're more afraid of me then you are of them," Cathy said.

Joni and Amy looked at each other and ran down the hall to the principal's office.

Cathy pulled her calculator out of her pocket and started pushing the buttons. "Call me a baby, will you?" she muttered.

Joni and Amy knocked on Mr. Johnson's door. "Come in!" Mr. Johnson called from the inside.

The girls went into the office. Mr. Johnson noticed the nervous looks on their faces. "Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Um...there's something you have to see," Joni said.

"What?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"We can't say," Amy said.

"Is it Cathy, again?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Sort of," Joni said.

"Where is she?" Mr. Johnson asked, getting out of his chair.

The 6th grade girls were still writing on the walls, giggling about the rude comments they were coming up with about people they didn't particularly like. All of a sudden, they touched their markers to the wall and found themselves stuck.

"Hey!" one of them cried, "My marker's stuck to the wall!"

"Mine too!" the other one exclaimed, "And my hand's stuck to the marker!"

"So's mine!" the first one said, panicking, "What's going on?"

"Looks like you've got a case of writer's block!" Cathy said from the door.

The girls turned and looked at her stunned. Cathy laughed and left the room. The girls screamed and struggled to get free.

Joni and Amy got to the girls room with Mr. Johnson. Cathy was standing outside the room, smiling.

"What have you done, this time?" Mr. Johnson asked, angrily.

"Look in there," Cathy said, pointing to the girl's room.

Mr. Johnson opened the door and looked inside. The 6th graders were still stuck to the markers on the wall and were desperately trying to pull themselves off. "So, you're the ones who have been marking up the girl's rooms!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

The girls moaned.

Joni and Amy peeked in the room to see what happened. They then looked at Cathy, astonished. Cathy snickered.

"You girls come with me!" Mr. Johnson said to the 6th graders.

"We're stuck to the wall!" one of them moaned.

Just then, their markers came loose, freeing them. They grumbled as Mr. Johnson led them out and herded them towards his office.

Cathy smiled and went into the restroom. Joni and Amy looked at each other, stunned.

Joni and Amy used the restroom themselves, after Cathy, and rushed out just as the rest of the children were coming in from recess. Joni ran up to Drak as he, Frankie, and Howler were coming in.

"Drak, you'll never guess what Cathy just did!" Joni exclaimed.

"Oh no!" Drak exclaimed, "What now?"

Joni told Drak and the others about the 6th graders and the restroom.

"You mean she did something almost...good?" Drak asked.

"Uh huh!" Joni nodded.

"Why?" Howler asked.

"I don't know," Joni said.

"We'll have to find out," Drak said as they headed towards the classroom.

Drak, Frankie, Howler, and Joni got to the classroom and had to sit down immediately for the next class without confronting Cathy. They waited until lunchtime.

The bell signalling lunchtime sounded. Cathy packed her books away and headed out the door of the classroom. Drak, Frankie, and Howler got their lunchboxes off a shelf and headed after her with Joni.

"Hey, Cathy!" Drak called when they got out to the hallway.

Cathy turned around, confused. "What do you want?" she asked.

"We heard what you did at recess," Drak said, catching up with her.

"What did I do at recess?" Cathy asked.

"You set up those two 6th grade girls to be caught vandalizing the bathroom," Joni said.

"Did I?" Cathy asked.

"Yes you did!" Joni said, a little frustrated, "You told Amy and me to go get Mr. Johnson and that they'd incriminate themselves!"

"Okay," Cathy said, "I admit that."

"Then you made their markers stick to the wall when they were writing," Joni added.

"Now, how would I do that?" Cathy asked.

"How would I know?" Joni asked.

"Then how do you know I did it?" Cathy asked.

"I know what I saw!" Joni said.

"Did you see me do something?" Cathy asked.

"No, but..." Joni started.

"Everybody knows what you've been up to, Cathy!" Drak continued.

Cathy grinned. "Prove it!" she said and turned and walked down the hall towards the lunchroom.

"She's so stupid!" Howler exclaimed, "Even when we like what she did she won't admit it!"

Just then, Howler was startled by a small explosion that seemed to come from inside his lunchbox. He lifted the box and opened it. His lunch had been liquefied and poured out onto the floor.

"That does it!" Howler snapped, slamming his lunchbox to the floor. He stomped down the hall after Cathy.

"Howler!" Drak said, following him, "Don't you dare do anything stupid!"

Howler caught up to Cathy. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. "What do you want?!" he screamed.

"What?" Cathy asked, confused.

"You must want something!" Howler yelled, "Else you wouldn't be doing things like you've been doing, wouldn't you?"

"Uh..."

"Don't you dare say I can't prove it!" Howler yelled, "I don't care! There've been too many coincidences!"

"Howler!" Drak said, "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing!" Howler said, turning to face Drak, "I've just come to the conclusion that Cathy is better than us! That's all!"

Cathy looked at Howler, nervously, and took a couple of steps backward. Howler spun around to face her again.

"That's what you wanted!" Howler exclaimed, "You're the smartest kid in school! You want to be told how great you are!"

"Um..."

"Hey! Maybe we should all bow down to you!" Howler said, getting on his knees.

"Drak..." Frankie said.

"Yeah?

"Howlie's flipped!"

"No duh!"

Cathy watched as Howler bowed down to the floor and started chanting her name over and over again.

"Howler, get up!" Joni said, "The floor's filthy!"

Howler sat back up on his knees. "You're right!" he gasped, looking at the floor, "Maybe I should lick it clean so Cathy won't get her shoes dirty!"

Cathy grimmaced and took another step backward.

"Hey! They are dirty!" Howler exclaimed, pointing at Cathy's feet, "Maybe I should clean them along with the floor!"

Cathy turned and darted down the hall.

"Get back here!" Howler yelled, getting up and chasing after her, "I'm not done worshiping you yet!"

"Howler!" Drak yelled, running after Howler.

Frankie and Joni followed Drak.

Cathy ran down the hall, pushed open a door and ran inside. Howler followed her.

Cathy spun around and found Howler right behind her. "Howler!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Howler snapped.

"This is the girl's room!" Cathy yelled.

Howler looked around at the pink painted walls and darted back out of the room. Cathy stood in the room, shaking her head.

"You ran into the girl's room?" Draka asked.

"I wasn't thinking," Howler said.

"Obviously!" Draka said and turned to Kittie. "Why did you run in the first place?"

"I had never made anyone snap like that before," Kittie said, "It felt weird."

"But, isn't that kind of response what you really wanted?" Draka asked.

"That's another thing about mad scientists," Kittie said, "They may be geniuses, but they're really not sure exactly what they want. Once they actually get it, they're not sure what to do with it. Besides, that talk about licking the floor really grossed me out! He had gone so completely berserk, I was almost convinced he'd actually do it!"

"If she hadn't run, I might have!" Howler added.

"Howler!" Joni scolded, "We're still eating!"

"Sorry," Howler said.

"So, if your father were to actually succeed in one of his plots..." Draka said.

"And destroy the Drak Pack," Kittie added.

"That too," Draka said.

"He would have no idea what to do next!" Kittie said, "Of course, he'd enjoy it for awhile, but once you have everything you ever wanted, what is there left to do?"

"Hey, Kittie," Howler said, "Do you have those April fool's pictures with you?"

"Ooh! Yeah!" Kittie exclaimed, opening her purse.

"April fool's pictures?" Draka asked.

"What of?" Joni asked.

"My dad," Kittie said, taking a small stack of photos out of her purse.

"They're hilarious!" Howler exclaimed, chuckling.

"They're in sequencial order," Kittie said, handing the stack to Draka, "As an April fools day prank, I told my dad the Drak Pack were dead."

"You what?" Draka and Joni exclaimed.

Howler snickered. Joni looked over Draka's shoulder as she looked through the stack of photos that showed Dr. Dred with various expressions of surprise, shock, and then finally, elation.

"If you ever want to see how he'd react if he'd win, this is it," Kittie said.

"Ah! Kodak moments!" Howler exclaimed.

"I don't know how I kept a straight face!" Kittie exclaimed, "I ran in with the newspaper and told my dad that the Drakster had had a run-in with a low-flying plane. Then I read the 'article' in the paper , that I had written, of course. I had a hidden camera taking pictures so that I could show Howler later."

"You're demented!" Draka exclaimed.

"I learned from a master," Kittie said.

"I see," Draka said. She got to the last picture. "He doesn't look too happy in this one."

"That's when I told him 'April fools!'" Kittie said.

"Obviously," Draka said, handing the pictures back to Kittie, "So, all it took to change you was Howler doing what you wanted?"

"That wasn't it," Kittie said.

"It did shut her up for the afternoon,though," Joni said, "There's also more that Cathy did that we were confused about."

"Drak, Frankie, and Joni were right outside the girl's room when I came out," Howler said.

"His face was pinker than the walls inside!" Joni said.

"I'll bet!" Draka said.

"The shock from running into the girl's room calmed him down, somewhat," Joni said.

"Shock and embarassment," Howler said, "They brought me to lunch and shared what they had with me."

"What are friends for?" Joni asked, "With all of us giving him a little bit, we all had plenty to eat."

"Cathy normally sat right near us," Howler said, "After what I did in the hallway, she sat as far away from us as possible."

"I didn't know what to expect," Kittie explained.

"I wouldn't have done anything more," Howler said, "I had worked off enough steam already. I was also still in shock."

"Didn't know you had it in you?" Draka asked.

"Yup!" Howler said, "Although, it wasn't so much that I had it in me, it was that it had come out! Someone who witnessed it told Mr. Johnson and he called Big D!"

Howler sat slumped in a chair in the outer section of the principal's office. The secretary had left for the day and he was all alone.

Howler looked up as the door to the hallway opened. His nursemaid, Oriana, as well as Drak's and Frankie's, Luna and Helga, walked in.

"Howler!" Oriana scolded, walking over to Howler, "What happened?"

"I just...went a little nuts when Cathy ruined my lunch," Howler mumbled.

Oriana sighed. Luna knocked on the office door.

"Come in," Mr. Johnson called.

Luna opened the door and the three women went insideand closed the door, leaving Howler alone in the outer office. Howler moaned.

Howler sat, quietly, a moment and found that he could hear some of what was being said behind the door. Curiosity got the better of him and he moved to a chair right next to the door so that he could hear what was going on.

"I'm glad you could come in," Mr. Johnson said as the women sat down.

"I'm sorry this happened," Oriana said, "Howler's normally a very good boy."

"Well, he really didn't do anything wrong," Mr. Johnson said, "From what I was told, he just did some yelling and ranting. It was just rather bizarre behavior that I thought you should know about."

"So, he's not in trouble?" Oriana asked.

"Not really," Mr. Johnson said, "I do like to make sure any odd behavior is checked before it becomes a problem."

"What about this 'Cathy' we keep hearing about?" Luna asked.

"Okay," Mr. Johnson said, "You got me there!"

"I hear she is the one who provoked Howler," Oriana said.

"From what I heard, she is," Mr. Johnson admitted.

"What are you doing about her?" Luna asked.

"She's been terrorizing all our boys," Oriana said.

"And Frankie's still having nighmares about pink hamsters!" Helga said.

"She's been terrorizing the entire class!" Mr. Johnson said, "We're having a lot of trouble getting her under control."

"Why don't you just expel her?" Luna asked.

"I wish we could," Mr. Johnson said.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked.

"We know she's doing things," Mr. Johnson said, "She hints that she's doing them. Unfortunately, the things that she does are so unbelievable impossible, we don't know how she does them. She's been very clever to hide how she does what she does and if we can't prove how she does them, we can't prove that she's doing anything."

"If you know she's doing things, why don't you expel her, anyway?" Luna asked.

"Without proof as to why she would be expelled, we could be in for a lawsuit," Mr. Johnson explained.

"What about her parents?" Helga asked, "Haven't they been told about her?"

"That's another problem," Mr. Johnson said, "Her parents are divorced. She lives with her father. I can't give you specifics, but her mother is sick and has no control in the situation. As for her father...well...if you'd meet him, you'd understand where she's learning her behavior!"

"Is he making her do these things?" Oriana asked.

"I doubt it," Mr. Johnson said, "I've talked with him on the phone. It seems to me she's doing these things without his knowledge. When I told him what we think she's been doing, he actually seemed impressed!"

"If he said she was doing those things, then..." Luna started.

"He didn't say it was her," Mr. Johnson interrupted, "He said that whoever was doing those things, he liked their style!"

"That's outrageous!" Oriana exclaimed.

"You're telling me!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

"What do we do now?" Helga asked.

"The school is looking into some legal options to help her," Mr. Johnson said.

"Help her?" Luna asked.

"She has some...problems at home," Mr. Johnson said, "I can't get into specifics on that either, but along with her father's obvious influence over her, her home life really isn't fit for a child."

"Oh dear!" Helga said.

"She's a bright child with some incredible skills," Mr. Johnson said, "I'm hoping that if she can get out of the environment she's in, in time, she can turn her life around."

"Hopefully, she won't do anyone any permanent damage in the meantime," Luna said.

"I understand your concern," Mr. Johnson said, "I don't want anyone to get hurt, either. Fortunately, nothing she's done seems to be geared towards doing that. It seems like she's trying to confuse and annoy people rather than harm them."

"That can be harmful in itself," Luna said.

"Yes, it can," Mr. Johnson said, "But, my hands are tied. I assure you, I am doing what I can to curb the situation."

Howler listened as the nursemaids said their "Thank yous" and "Good byes" to his principal. "Aw man!" he muttered.

The nursemaids exited the room and were a little surprized to find Howler sitting in a different chair.

"What's going on?" Howler asked.

"Don't worry," Oriana said, "You're not in trouble. Mr. Johnson was just concerned about you."

"No!" Howler said, "What's going on with Cathy?"

"Mr. Johnson is doing everything he can to try and punish her," Oriana said, "It's just going to take some time."

"No!" Howler said, "Is she okay?"

"What do you mean?" Oriana asked.

"Mr. Johnson said something about problems she's having at home, didn't he?" Howler asked.

"Howler!" Oriana scolded, "Were you eavesdropping?"

"I'm sorry," Howler said, "I couldn't help it."

"Oh, I forgot!" Oriana sighed, "Your sensitive hearing!"

"She's okay, isn't she?" Howler asked.

"Why are you so concerned about her all of a sudden?" Oriana asked.

"I didn't know she was having problems," Howler said, "What do you think is wrong?"

"I don't know," Oriana said, "They're doing what they can to try and help."

"I gotta tell the guys!" Howler exclaimed. He jumped out of his chair and ran out the door and down the hallway.

The nursemaids looked at each other, puzzled.

Drak and Frankie waited in their classroom for Howler and their nursemaids. They were looking out the window onto the playground.

"I hope Howlie's not in big trouble," Frankie said.

"I hope not too," Drak said, "Cathy did provoke him. It was just the last straw!"

From the window, they could see Joni and Amy sitting on a bench. School had been out for a while and they were waiting for Joni's mother to pick them up. Soon, Drak and Frankie saw two angry-looking, older girls emerge from the school.

Joni and Amy sat on the bench, chatting and giggling about their plans for the afternoon. The sixth grade girls from earlier stormed over and stopped in front of the bench.

"You ratted us out!" one of them shouted.

Joni and Amy jumped, startled, and turned to look at the girls.

"We've been suspended for two days!" the other girl yelled, "And we have to come in on the weekend to clean up all the grafitti!"

"You're the one who put it there!" Joni spoke up, bravely, "It's ugly! No one likes to look at it!"

"We don't care!" the first girl said, "We'd been getting away with it too! That is, until you told Mr. Johnson on us!"

"We didn't tell Mr. Johnson anything about you!" Amy said.

"That's right!" Joni said, "We were telling on Cathy!"

"Who's Cathy?" the second girl asked.

"The girl who stuck you to the wall," Amy said.

"Oh, really?" the first girl asked, punching her hand with her fist, "We'll have to do something about her too!"

"I wouldn't mess with her if I were you!" Joni said, getting a little nervous, "She can do much worse than stick you to a wall!"

"We're not scared of her!" the second girl sneered.

"She's going to be scared of us, though!" The first girl proclaimed, "But first, we're going to deal with you! You do remember about our promise to rearrange your faces, don't you?"

Joni and Amy cringed on the bench. The first girl brought her fist back as far as she could and let it fly straight at Joni's face. Joni closed her eyes and waited for the blow. None came. The girl's fist struck an invisible barrier just in front of the bench.

"OW!" she screamed and gripped her hand.

Joni opened her eyes to see what happened. The second girl was inspecting the barrier, dumbfounded. The first girl was holding onto her sore hand and whining.

Joni and Amy looked around and saw Cathy standing nearby. The sixth grade girls noticed their gaze and looked in Cathy's direction. Cathy glared at the sixth graders.

"Like she said," Cathy snarled, "I wouldn't mess with me if I were you!"

The sixth graders looked at Cathy, shocked. Cathy glared back and the sixth graders ran off.

Joni still had her hand on the invisible barrier. As the older girls ran off, the barrier disappeared and Joni's hand lurched forward into thin air.

Joni and Amy looked at Cathy, astonished. Cathy smirked. Before Joni or Amy could say anything, a dark mini-van with tinted windows drove up. Cathy picked up her school satchel and went to get in the van.

"What was that?" Amy asked.

"I have no idea!" Joni said.

Drak and Frankie watched, terrified and helpless, from the window of their classroom as their friends were being terrorized.

Cathy came out of the school and into the view of the boys. She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out her calculator.

"What on Earth is she doing?" Drak asked as he watched Cathy punching the buttons on the device.

Cathy finished pushing the buttons and looked at the four girls at the bench. Drak and Frankie looked too. Just then, the one girl swung her fist at Joni and hit the invisible barrier.

Drak's and Frankie's jaws dropped. They looked back at Cathy who was putting her calculator back in her pocket.

"Did Cathy do that?" Frankie asked.

"Looked like it!" Drak said, "I still don't understand how, though."

"Maybe it was that calculator," Frankie suggested.

"The calculator?" Drak asked.

"She doesn't need one," Frankie added, "She's too smart."

"Wait a minute!" Drak exclaimed, "She doesn't need a calculator! She's too smart!"

"I just said that," Frankie said.

"You know what?" Drak asked, ignoring Frankie's comment, "Maybe she's smart enough to rig up a calculator to do the weird things she's been doing!"

"Yeah!" Frankie agreed.

"Wait'll we confront her with this one!" Drak said.

"We gotta tell Howlie!" Frankie said.

"Yeah!" Drak said, "Let's go!"

Drak started hurrying towards the door. Frankie followed close behind. They got out the door and Drak ran head-on with Howler who was hurrying from the other direction. Frankie couldn't stop in time and ran into Drak. All three boys wound up on the floor.

"Ow!" they moaned together.

The nursemaids, following close behind Howler, sighed and helped the boys to their feet.

"Come on, boys," Luna said, "You've had a long day!"

Drak, Frankie, and Howler shared what they found out with each other on the way home. They were all thouroughly confused and were sitting at the dinner table at home picking at their food when Dracula and Aunt Beth walked into the dining room.

"Luna tells me you boys are concorned for this Cathy gorl now," Dracula said as he and Aunt Beth sat down at the table.

"Yeah," Drak said, "Tell him what you heard, Howler."

"I could hear everything when our nursemaids were talking with Mr. Johnson," Howler began, "He said she has some problems at home. He also said that her father doesn't care what she's doing and is impressed by it."

"Vhat sort of problems?" Aunt Beth asked.

"He didn't say," Howler said, "He just said her home life isn't fit for a child."

"That's appalling!" Dracula exclaimed, angrily.

"What sort of father doesn't care that his daughter's getting into trouble at school?" Drak asked.

"Yeah!" Frankie said, "You always said a parent's main job is to teach thier kids right from wrong so that they can become better people."

"So, how's Cathy supposed to learn to be a better person if her father doesn't teach her to be?" Howler added.

"Ve have taught you boys vell!" Aunt Beth commented.

"Indeed!" Dracula agreed, "Being concorned for your enemy's vellfare is not necessarily a bad thing!"

"We just don't know if she's all that bad anymore," Drak said, "She did a couple of things today that really surprized us!"

"Vhat did she do?" Dracula asked.

"Joni and Amy caught a couple of older girls vandalizing the girl's room with markers," Drak said, "Cathy caught them too and had Joni and Amy tell Mr. Johnson. When they got back, Cathy had made the girls get stuck to the wall with their markers and they were caught red-handed and punished."

"Interesting!" Dracula said.

"Later on, we were watching out the window and saw the two girls try to beat up Joni and Amy for telling on them," Drak continued, "Cathy put up some sort of invisible barrier between them and one of the girls hit that instead!"

"Wery interesting!" Dracula exclaimed.

"Yeah," Frankie said, "And we saw her this time!"

"Frankie!" Howler scolded.

"Oh yeah!" Frankie said, "Sorry. I forgot."

"Forgot vhat?" Dracula asked.

Drak sighed. "We saw her do it and figured out how she may have done it and all the rest of the stuff," he said, reluctantly, "We don't want to tell anybody what we know just yet."

"Vhy not?" Dracula asked.

"If the people at school find out how she did those things, they could expel her," Howler said, "Mr. Johnson said so."

"You don't vant her expelled?" Aunt Beth asked.

"Not yet," Drak said, "We want to confront her with what we know and find out why she's done something good all of a sudden."

"Vhat do you hope to accomplish by doing that?" Dracula asked.

"She may not be a bad person," Howler said, "She's just being taught that way by her dad."

"She's proven that what she can do can help people rather than hurt them," Drak added, "I'm hoping that maybe we can convince her of that and change her in some way."

"Vell, she is young enough to possibly change her vays," Dracula said, "But it's a wery tricky thing to do. Vonce a porsoon is set in their vays, it takes a lot to cause them to change!"

"I still want to try," Drak said, "I hate to see all the things she can do go to waste on evil pranks."

"Boy, if I had neat powers like Cathy, I'd be doin' good things all the time!" Frankie said.

"Me too!" Drak exclaimed.

"Me three!" Howler chimed in.

"It's good to hear you boys say that!" Dracula said, smiling.

"Why?" Drak asked.

"No reason," Dracula said, "It's just good to vant to do good. That's all."

Drak, Frankie, and Howler went to school the next day and observed Cathy until recess. Joni and Amy, along with a few other students, thanked Cathy for what she did the day before. Cathy seemed confused, at first, and got increasingly annoyed as the day wore on.

Recess came and Drak, Frankie, and Howler went out to play. Cathy came out after all the other students had already left the building. The boys watched as she stomped over to a bench and sat down to read a book.

"She sure is actin' strange," Frankie said.

"And how!" Howler agreed.

"It's about time we got to the bottom of all her behavior," Drak said, "Let's go!"

The boys walked over to Cathy. Cathy glanced up at them and moaned.

"You really started something, didn't you?" Cathy asked, glaring at Howler.

"What are you talking about?" Howler asked.

"That little outburst of yours yesterday!" Cathy said, "Now everybody's coming up and saying what great things I've been doing!"

"Is that why you think people are doing that?" Drak asked.

"Isn't it?" Cathy asked.

"No!" Drak said, "It's because you protected Joni and Amy from those bullies!"

"Is that what you think I did?" Cathy asked.

"Isn't it?" Drak asked.

"I'm not saying anything!" Cathy said.

"We saw you!" Frankie said.

"What?!" Cathy asked, "How?"

"We were in the window right above you!" Drak said, "We saw everything!"

"I don't believe you!" Cathy said.

"We saw you use your calculator in some way just before the girl tried to hit Joni," Drak said, "She hit something invisible yet incredibly hard before her fist could get to Joni's face!"

Cathy looked at Drak, astonished and speechless.

"It is the calculator, isn't it?" Drak exclaimed.

"Maybe I was doing my homework," Cathy said.

"'Baby work' on a calculator?" Drak asked.

Cathy smirked.

Drak smiled. "If you can produce a force field like that with that calculator, you can do all the other things you've been doing too!" he added.

"Not all of it!" Cathy said.

"What do you mean?" Drak asked.

"The hamsters, the flower, the glue!" Cathy said, "They weren't done with the calculator!"

Drak looked a little confused. He looked at Frankie and Howler. They looked at Drak and shrugged.

Drak stood in thought for a moment. Cathy looked at him, grinning.

"Chemicals!" Drak exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "Those things could be done through chemistry! I've seen you reading a chemistry book! You could do that kind of thing very easily!"

Cathy closed the book she was reading and put it aside. "So, you figured it out!" she said, smiling, "Is that all you came over to bug me about?"

"No," Drak said, confidently, "We want to know why you're doing good things for a change."

"What good things?" Cathy asked.

"The last time I checked, protecting someone from bodily harm is a good thing!" Drak said.

"You think I did that for them?" Cathy asked.

"Why else would you do it?" Drak asked.

"I didn't want those two sixth grade nothings to get off on a technicality!" Cathy said.

"What are you talking about?" Drak asked.

"They told Joni and Amy that they'd beat them up if they told on them," Cathy explained, "I got around that by making sure that Joni and Amy didn't mention them when they went to get Mr. Johnson. I couldn't let those two just do it anyway, now could I? Besides, it was more fun confusing all four of them than watching two of them get beat up!"

"Then why did you make Joni and Amy tell on them and get them caught in the first place?" Drak asked.

"Because they called me a baby!" Cathy said, "That's why!"

Drak, Frankie, and Howler looked at Cathy, astonished.

"Now, if you don't mind!" Cathy said, picking up her book and getting up, "I'd like to go read!"

The boys watched Cathy hurry over to another bench with her book. She sat down, opened her book, and started reading. The boys turned and looked at each other, dumbfounded.

"That's why you did it?" Joni asked Kittie.

Kittie turned to Howler. "You guys never told her?" she asked.

"Uh...I guess not," Howler said.

"You never told her what?" Draka asked.

"That what she did wasn't as good as we thought it was," Howler said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Joni asked.

"It was Drak's idea," Howler said, "He though that we could still turn her if we used the right approach. Everyone treated her badly because she treated them badly. After what she did, people were treating her nicer. Drak hoped that if everybody still believed that she did something good, they'd keep treating her nice and it might change her own behavior."

"Did it?" Draka asked.

"Not really," Kittie said, "It was mainly just annoying."

"What was annoying about it?" Draka asked.

"I did something selfish and was being praised for it," Kittie said.

"Couldn't YOU have told them why you did it?" Draka asked.

"They didn't earn the right to be told like Drak did," Kittie said.

"Because he figured out how you did everything?" Draka asked.

"Exactly!" Kittie said, "Once he showed he was as smart as I was, I saw him as worthy of an explaination."

"So, what did it take to finally change you then?" Draka asked.

"We're getting to it," Kittie said.

"Like I said, Drak wasn't going to give up," Howler said, "We watched her reaction to the people who were thanking her all day and planned our next move."

Cathy sat on a bench in the schoolyard after school. She had her arms crossed and was scowling. A couple of kids came up and talked to her.

"We just heard what happened yesterday!" one of the kids said.

"Yeah! That was neat!" the other said, "I've run into those two before. They're mean! It's about time they learned a lesson!"

The kids ran off. Cathy winced and gritted her teeth. Drak, Frankie, and Howler came up to her.

"Is something wrong?" Drak asked.

"Everybody thinks I'm good now!" Cathy snapped.

"You did that yourself!" Drak said, "When you do something mean, you're not supposed to save someones life in the process."

"I know that!" Cathy snapped, "I told you why I did it! Why didn't you tell anybody?"

"Were we supposed to?" Howler asked.

Drak smiled.

"I get it!" Cathy said, "You're getting your revenge for all the things I've done to you!"

"Well, it is sort of fun watching you squirm for a change!" Drak admitted, "But, that's not it."

"We're worried about you," Frankie said.

"Worried? About me?" Cathy asked.

The boys nodded.

"What for?" Cathy asked.

"We don't like what your dad's doing to you," Howler said.

"What's my dad doing to me?" Cathy asked.

"I hear you act just like he does," Howler said.

"Is there something wrong with emulating a parent?" Cathy asked.

"When the behavior they're imitating is getting them into trouble there is!" Drak said.

"You're not in trouble if you get away with it!" Cathy said.

"You wanta bet?!" Howler exclaimed.

"Is that what your dad's teaching you?" Drak asked, "That you can do whatever you want as long as you don't get caught?"

"Yeah, so?" Cathy asked.

"That's just wrong!" Frankie exclaimed.

"Doesn't he teach you what would happen if you do get caught?" Drak asked.

"I'm smart enough not to!" Cathy said.

"Didn't we catch you yesterday?" Drak asked.

Cathy paused for a moment. "I can always deny it!" she said.

"Hey, Drak," Howler said, "What is it that your uncle tells you whenever you get too cocky and think you're smarter than everybody else?"

Drak smirked and rolled his eyes. "It is a mark of superiority to treat others as equals," he said, "To treat others as inferior betrays your own inferiority."

"What does that mean again?" Frankie asked.

"It means, nobody's perfect," Drak said, "If you think you are, you're fooling yourself!"

"Is that supposed to apply to me in some way?" Cathy asked.

"Yes!" Drak exclaimed.

"Well, it doesn't!" Cathy sneered, "I am perfect!"

"Why? Because you're smarter than most people?" Drak asked.

"What do you mean 'most'?" Cathy asked.

"You may be able to do more than the average person," Drak said, ignoring Cathy's comment, "But, I bet there's plenty that you can't do!"

"Name something!" Cathy snapped.

"You're not athletic," Howler said, "You never use the playground equipment. You always sit and read instead."

"Brains are more important than muscle," Cathy said.

"You don't know how to make friends," Frankie said.

"What do I need with friends?" Cathy asked.

"What?!" the boys exclaimed together.

"They're always after something you have!" Cathy said, "They string you along until they have it and then dump you like nuclear waste!"

"Did that happen to you?" Drak asked.

"What if it did?" Cathy asked.

"Then you don't know what a real friend is," Drak said, "True friendship is unconditional!"

"They like you for who you are, not what you have or what you can do," Frankie said.

"They're always there to do things with," Howler said, "And they can be trusted with your deepest feelings and secrets."

"They're there through thick and thin," Drak said, "And whenever you're at the lowest point in your life, they're there to help you get through it!"

"I have my dad for all that!" Cathy said.

"He's a bad influence!" Drak exclaimed, "Whatever he's letting you do is going to come back and get you in the end!"

"Once my dad takes over the world, I'll be able to do what I want anyway!" Cathy sneered.

"Excuse me?!" Drak exclaimed.

"You'll see!" Cathy sneered.

Cathy's ride pulled up and she got off the bench, picked up her satchel, and hurried off. "You'll all see, someday!" she yelled as she got to the van.

The boys watched her, stunned.

"Take over the world?" Frankie asked.

"That's just weird!" Howler said.

"This is a lot harder than I thought!" Drak said.

"Did that happen to you?" Draka asked.

"Did what happen to me?" Kittie asked.

"The thing you said about a supposed friend stringing you along to get something," Draka said.

"Oh, yeah," Kittie said, "That's what caused the problems in the gifted school I went to."

"What did this 'friend' want from you?" Draka asked.

"I had a project that was a shoe-in to win at the science fair," Kittie said, "One kid got jealous and made me think that I was his best friend so that he could get his hands on my plans. He stole my project and submitted it first. The faculty didn't believe that one of their students could be a thief and accused me of being the jealous one!"

"So, so much for friendships, huh?" Draka asked.

"Exactly," Kittie said, "The only one I thought I could trust was my father, but I was about to learn otherwise!"

Dr. Dred came into his house for dinner after working in his lab all day. He opened the door and found Vampira, Fly, Mummy Man, and Toad standing in the foyer waiting for him. They didn't look happy.

"Is there something wrong?" Dr. Dred asked as he closed the door.

"Your daughter is in von of her moods!" Vampira said, angrily.

"Aw!" Dr. Dred said, "Did she have a bad day at school again?"

"Yezzz!" Fly snapped.

"And a bad day at school for her means a bad night at home for us!" Vampira exclaimed.

"Whenever zhe getzz thizz way, zhe orderzz uzz around and expectzz uzz to wait on her hand and foot!" Fly elaborated.

"You know it makes her feel better if she can pretend she's your leader for awhile!" Dr. Dred said.

"Ve don't care!" Vampira exclaimed.

"She'zz worzz than you!" Fly buzzed.

"Do something!" Vampira snapped.

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk to her!" Dr. Dred said, "Where is she?"

"She's in the dining room spoiling her dinner!" Vampira said.

Dr. Dred and the rest went into the dining room. Cathy was sitting at the tabler with her arms crossed. A large bowl of ice cream sat melting on the table in front of her.

"Is there something wrong with the ice cream?" Vampira asked.

"It's not the right kind!" Cathy sneered, glaring at Vampira.

"That's the flavor you asked for!" Vampira said, mildly annoyed.

"Wrong brand!" Cathy yelled.M.o<

"Aren't we tezzty!" Fly said under his breath.

"What?" Cathy snapped.

"He said, 'Isn't it tasty?'" Vampira said.

"No!" Cathy yelled, "They use the wrong kind of chocolate chips!"

Vampira sighed and threw up her hands.

"Catherine," Dr. Dred said, empathetically, as he knealt next to his daughter, "What's the matter?"

"You think I'm perfect, don't you daddy?" Cathy asked.

"Of course I do!" Dr. Dred reassured, "Do those ingrates at school still think you're not?"

"Yes!" Cathy said, "Some of them even said so today!"

"Aw!" Dr. Dred said, patting Cathy's head, "Well, you'll think of something extra special to do to them on Monday, won't you?"

"Uh huh!" Cathy said, "I can't wait'll you take over the world! then I can really show 'em!"

"Don't hold your breath!" Vampira said, "I've been vaiting almost von hundred years for von of your relatives to come through on that von!"

"What?" Cathy asked.

"Vampira!" Dr. Dred scolded.

"What is she talking about?" Cathy asked her father.

"Nothing!" Dr. Dred said.

"I've been vith O.G.R.E. since your great-great-grandfather vas running it!" Vampira said, "He, your great-grandfather, and your grandfather have all said that they vere going to take over the vorld, but none of them did!"

"I'm different!" Dr. Dred exclaimed, standing up, "I'm going to do it as soon as I complete my research!"

"They all said that!" Vampira said.

"Vampira," Dr. Dred said, grabbing Vampira's arm and pulling her from the room, "Could I talk to you a minute?"

Cathy watched her father and Vampira leave the room, stunned.

"Vampira did things like that sometimes to get something she wanted as a bribe to stop," Kittie said, "Dad sent her to the beauty parlor and came back to talk to me. He reassured me that he had some brilliant plans and that one of them was bound to work. Still, what Vampira said made me suspicious. I played the trusting daughter and waited until everyone was asleep that night to do some snooping.

"I snuck out to his lab late that night and found some journals and diaries he had written on his research and other things. I read them and found some rather interesting information!

"First of all, his research was pathetic! The ways he came up with to take over the world were not going to work!"

"What kind of things?" Draka asked.

"From what Howler's told me, most of the stuff that the Drak Pack foiled early on was what I read in my dad's research journals!" Kittie said.

"From what my brother's told me, that stuff could have caused a lot of damage!" Draka said.

"True, but it wouldn't have given him control over the world!" Kittie said, "In fact, that damage may have left him with nothing left to control!"

"True!" Draka said.

"Second, some things I read in my father's personal diaries changed everything I had been told by him over the years."

"You read your father's diary?" Joni asked.

"You think it was beneath me?" Kittie asked.

"I guess not," Joni said.

"Right!" Kittie said, "The O.G.R.E group had been in existence since my great-great-grandfather came up with it. The leadership of the organization had been passed down from father to son since then.

"My father had always told me that we Dreds were too smart to get caught doing what we do. I found some newspaper clippings in one of the diaries that mentioned the three past leaders of O.G.R.E. They had all been caught doing something wrong and punished for it!"

"Big surprize!" Draka said.

"For me it was!" Kittie said, " I had been led to believe that our family never got into trouble no matter what!"

"What kind of things were they caught doing?" Joni asked.

"My great-great-grandfather was caught with dead bodies buried in his backyard and hanged for it!" Kittie said.

"Why did he have bodies buried in his backyard?" Draka asked.

"It's a long story," Kittie said, "I'll tell you later. My great-grandfather was caught trying to steal the crown jewels and was banished from England. He came to America and disappeared. No one knows what happened to him. We think my grandfather might know. He was with him when he disappeared. No one's ever been able to get anything out of him though.

"Years later, my grandfather was caught trying to steal a nuclear weapon from a government facility. He spent ten years in a federal prison for that."

"What made him think he could do that?" Draka asked.

"He created an invisibility device," Kittie said, "He had it stapped to his back. It did make him invisible, but unfortunately, the device wasn't!"

"And these were your family members who were 'too smart' to get caught doing anything?" Draka asked.

"Exactly!" Kittie said, "I started to think Drak might know what he was talking about! The last shock of the evening for me was finding out what my dad really thought about me!

"As I said, the organization had been passed down from father to son. I was the first girl to be born into the family in several generations. I found a diary marked '1982', my birth year, and found my father was expecting a boy. He was rather disappointed when I wasn't.

"My grandfather and my father don't get along all that well. They have differences of opinion on how to take over. From what I read in the diary, my father was moping over not having a son when grandpa came to him and said, 'A girl? Can't you do anything right?' After that, my father became determined to prove that a girl could be trained to run O.G.R.E. just as well as any boy could."

"I almost like him!" Draka commented.

"Don't say that just yet!" Kittie said, "I skimmed through the next six years worth of diaries and found the seventh. My father noted that I had all the qualities he could have hoped for in a daughter and a possible future leader of O.G.R.E."

"Possible?" Draka asked.

"Yes!" Kittie said, "He had been telling me ever since I was a child that I was going to be the leader of the group and the world one day. He was still saying that, but according to his diary, I wasn't quite perfect. He thought I had started to act too feminine to be the best leader!"

"You're right!" Draka said, "I take it back! What was it about being 'feminine' did he think would keep someone from being the best leader?"

"He thought that certain behaviors would distract from the tasks of being a leader," Kittie said, "I was becoming concerned with my looks like any girl does at that age. I always had to have my hair just right and clothes that I liked."

"You couldn't rule and look good at the same time?" Joni asked.

"Apparently not," Kittie said, "Of course I was probably a little pickier than most girls. The only female role model I had since my mother left when I was four was Vampira."

"Nuff said!" Draka said.

"He was also disappointed in my flower garden," Kittie added, "Bringing the beauty of flowers into the world was not what he was after and 'only a woman' would want to do that!"

"Didn't he know what you did to that flower in class?" Joni asked.

"Nope!" Kittie said, "He knew a couple of things I did because Mr. Johnson called him, but Mr. Johnson got so frustrated that my father didn't care that he stopped calling him. At home, my father was so wrapped up in his own research, that he didn't have time to listen to what I'd been up to. I never even got to tell him how I had been doing the things I was doing."

"Big D always made time to talk to us!" Howler said, "Every night at dinner, he and Miss Beth would sit with us and talk about how our day went. If there were any problems, he'd address them right away. Big D had heard that it helped with child development."

"Except when your father's a madman bent on taking over the world," Kittie reminded Howler, "Who knows what my dad would have advised me to do!"

"Of course," Howler said.

"What really threw me for a loop was my father wrote that he would like to get married again someday and try to have the son he always wanted!" Kittie said, "If that happened, he would work on training the son instead of me and make him the leader!"

"That wasn't necessarily going to happen, though," Draka said, "His skin is blue! What woman would want him?"

"You'd be surprized!" Kittie said, "He eventually found a couple of women who were willing to date him! Not for long,though!"

Kittie smiled, slyly, after her comment.

"I take it you had something to do with breaking them up," Draka said.

"Of course!" Kittie said, grinning.

"That must have been devastating to learn your father thought of you that way!" Joni said.

"And that he was lying to me!" Kittie said, "I never felt so alone in my life! My father had been the only person in the world I could trust! Now, there was nobody! Well...almost nobody."

It was a bright Saturday afternoon in late winter. Spring was still a few weeks away, but the weather was pleasant enough for Drak, Frankie, and Howler to get to the park to get some fresh air and exercise. Their nursemaids sat on a nearby bench, keeping an eye on them as they ran around and played "catch" with a football.

Drak threw the ball to Frankie. Frankie caught it and turned to Howler.

"Go long, Howlie!" Frankie yelled.

Howler turned and ran as far as he could from Frankie. Frankie threw the ball as hard as he could towards Howler. Howler turned and positioned himself to catch the ball. He caught it and was sent sprawling on his back from the force of the throw.

"Oof!" Howler gasped as he landed on the ground.

Drak and Frankie came running up to Howler.

"Are you okay?" Drak asked.

"Yeah," Howler said, sitting up.

"Nice catch, Howlie!" Frankie said.

"Frankie, could you throw to Drak for awhile?" Howler asked, getting up, "Your 'long bombs' are killing me!"

"Okay," Frankie said.

The boys started to regroup and resume their game when Drak noticed a blonde-haired girl watching them from behind a tree nearby.

"Cathy?" Drak asked.

Cathy ducked behind the tree.

"Cathy? Where?" Howler asked.

"Behind that tree," Drak said, heading over to Cathy's hiding place. Frankie and Howler followed.

"Cathy?" Drak asked as he, Frankie, and Howler came around the tree.

Cathy jumped, startled.

"What are you doing here?" Drak asked.

"I...heard you guys say something at school about coming here today," Cathy said.

"And?" Drak asked.

"I...uh..." Cathy stammered. She sobbed a bit and a tear ran down her cheek.

"Are you crying?" Drak asked.

Cathy sniffed and quickly wiped the tear away.

"You are crying!" Drak said, "What happened?"

Cathy sobbed, heavily. More tears ran down her face. "My dad doesn't believe in me!" She wailed. She sat down next to the tree, put her head in her hands and burst into tears.

The boys looked at each other and sighed. They all knealt down around Cathy.

"He keeps *sob* he keeps saying that he does," Cathy sobbed, "But he really doesn't!"

"How do you know?" Drak asked.

"He wrote it in his diary!" Cathy moaned.

"You read your dad's diary?" Frankie asked.

"Frankie, I don't think this is the time to make judgements," Drak said.

"Oh, sorry," Frankie said.

"He keeps telling me I'm going to take over the family business some day," Cathy continued, "But he's been writing that now he doesn't think I'm good enough because I'm too much like a girl!"

"What family business?" Drak asked.

"Taking over the world!" Cathy said.

"That's a family business?" Howler asked.

"In my family it is!" Cathy said, "That's another thing *sniff*! He keeps saying that our family's too smart to get caught doing anything! But he lied! My grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my great-great-grandfather have all been caught doing things! They all got in trouble! big time! Go on *SOB*! say 'I TOLD YOU SO!'"

Cathy wailed and a new crop of tears ran down her face.

"I don't think we have to," Drak said.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Cathy cried, "After all I've done to you! You have me where you want me! Why don't you just let me have it?!"

"We weren't brought up that way," Frankie said.

"You look like you've been hurt enough, anyway," Howler said.

"You're a kid like us," Drak said, "You were decieved by someone who should know better."

"Why do you care about that?" Cathy asked.

"You're really smart!" Drak said, "You could do anything you want in life, but you're being held back by beliefs that are ruining it!"

"I don't know what to believe in anymore," Cathy sobbed.

"Believe in yourself!" Drak said, "You know what you can do! Think of all the good things you could do for people!"

"But I'm not good!" Cathy exclaimed.

"You could be!" Drak exclaimed, "Being bad is going to get you nowhere! Do you want to wind up like all your grandfathers?"

"No," Cathy said, quietly.

"Then, you could at least try to be good!" Drak said.

"I don't know how!" Cathy said.

"Use what you can do to help people like you did with Joni and Amy," Drak said.

"I told you!" Cathy said, "It wasn't to help them!"

"We're the only ones who know that!" Drak said, "Everybody else thinks it's the greatest thing anybody ever did! It can be a start. At least with that, they won't be quite as upset when you apologize for all the other things you did!"

"What do you mean when I apologize for all the other things I did?" Cathy asked, a little defensively.

"Well..." Drak said, "If you want to start being good...you're going to have to."

"That means a confession," Cathy said.

"That's pretty much what an apology is, yeah," Drak said.

"That means I'll be punished," Cathy said.

"Well...yeah," Drak admitted, "But we all have to face that kind of thing. We all make mistakes and do something wrong once in a while. The entire class caught heck from their parents for that Valentine's day stunt! Even us!"

"But, I've never been punished for anything! Ever!" Cathy said.

"We figured that!" Drak said, "If you want to change, you're going to have to."

Cathy moaned.

"Look...It's really not as bad as you'd think," Drak said, "If you come forward and confess and try to change, it's not going to be nearly as bad for you if they have to find out what you did for themselves. Right Howler?"

"What?" Howler asked.

"Remember when you were 5 and you broke that porcelin statue and hid the pieces in the closet?" Drak asked.

"I remember that!" Frankie said, "Uncle Vlad was really angry!"

"Ugh! Don't remind me!" Howler winced.

"The point is, he'll never do that again!" Drak said, "That's what punishment is supposed to be for."

"What makes you think I can just...change?" Cathy asked.

"We don't think you can just change," Drak said, "You need to learn how to be good first! But we believe in you!"

"You do?" Cathy asked.

"Yeah!" Drak said, "We do!"

Frankie and Howler smiled and nodded.

Cathy got quiet. She looked at the ground and twiddled her thumbs. "Uh...let me think about it," she said, getting up. She hurried down the park path and disappeared in the distance.

The boys stood up and watched her go. They heard a voice ask, "Who was that?" They turned and saw Drak's nursemaid, Luna, who had come looking for them.

"That was Cathy," Drak said.

"The girl that's been causing so much trouble at your school?" Luna asked.

The boys nodded.

"What was she doing here?" Luna asked.

"I don't know exactly," Drak said, "She said she was looking for us."

"She was really upset," Frankie said.

"Her dad's bad news," Howler said, "She's just starting to realize it."

"Yes, I heard what you told her," Luna said, patting Drak's head, "That was very inciteful. I'm proud of you."

The boys smiled.

"Now," Luna said, with a more stern expression and pointing to the playing field, "Get back to where we can see you! We were worried sick!"

"Yes ma'am!" the boys said together and hurried back to their game.

"What did you go to the park for?" Draka asked.

"I had to see the guys," Kittie said.

"What for?" Draka asked.

"Exactly what I got...advice," Kittie said.

"After all the problems you had with them?" Draka asked, "You went to them for advice?

"I didn't know who else to turn to," Kittie said, "There was no one else in the world I knew I could trust. I still didn't really trust them, but at least they had been honest about a few of the things my dad wasn't. And, they did say they were concerned about me. I was hoping that if they were really concerned they would steer me on the right path."

"Was the path they steered you on the one you wanted?" Draka asked.

"Not really," Kittie admitted, "But, it made sense. I mean, how many people have tried to take over the world and failed? With even more than my dad had? I thought about it the rest of the weekend, and, by Monday...In had my decision.

Drak, Frankie, and Howler entered their classroom on Monday and sat down at their desks. They kept the events of Saturday to themselves. They wanted to see what would happen.

A couple of minutes before the bell was to ring, Cathy walked into the classroom. She carried a brown paper bag that she placed carefully on her desk before she put her satchel down. Without a word to anyone, she opened the brown bag, tore it carefully down the side, and folded the torn part back. She reached in and gently pulled a potted flower from the bag. She then walked to the teacher's desk and placed it in front of Miss Carmichael.

Miss Carmichael was stunned. "What's this?" she asked.

Cathy looked at the floor and fidgeted. "It's...to replace the one that I...messed up," she said, quietly, "I'm...sorry...I did that."

Drak, Frankie, and Howler looked at each other and smiled.

"It's...beautiful," Miss Carmichael said, a little flabberghasted, "Thank you."

Cathy turned and faced the class, still looking towards the floor. "I'm sorry...I did all the other stuff too," she said, quickly, hurried back to her desk, and sat down.

The kids in the class looked at each other, surprized at Cathy's sudden confession and apology. Miss Carmichael went over to Cathy's desk, removed the bag, and knealt down in front of Cathy. Cathy sat facing the floor with her arms crossed.

"It must have been tough for you to say that," Miss Carmichael said.

Cathy nodded.

"Thank you for the apology," Miss Carmichael said, "I'm very proud of you."

Miss Carmichael got up and went back to her desk.

"We are too," Drak said, "That took guts."

Frankie, Howler, and several of the other students nodded and agreed.

"Now, you just need to tell Mr. Johnson," Drak added.

Cathy winced and moaned.

"Once it's over with, things can get back to normal," Drak reassured, "The guys and I will take you at recess."

"We will?" Howler asked.

"Yes...we will," Drak emphasized, "This is a big thing for Cathy to be doing. We've come this far with her, we need to stick by her all the way!"

"Alright," Howler sighed.

Drak, Frankie, and Howler walked Cathy to the principal's office at recess. Drak knocked on Mr. Johnson's door.

"Come in," Mr. Johnson said.

Drak opened the door and stepped into the room.

"Oh no!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed, "What did Cathy do now?"

"Uh...actually, she has something she'd like to say to you," Drak said.

Drak motioned to Cathy. She shuffled past Drak into the office.

"Cathy?" Mr. Johnson asked, a little confused, "What do you want to tell me?"

Cathy took a deep breath. She fidgeted and struggled to look Mr. Johnson in the eye. "It's about...the things you...think I've been doing," she said.

"What about them?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I did...do them," Cathy said.

Mr. Johnson was stunned. "Would you take a seat, Cathy?" he asked, "Thank you, Drak. You may go."

Cathy looked at Drak.

"It's okay," Drak said, "We'll be right outside."

Drak left the room and closed the door.

The boys waited just outside the door.

"She's bold," Frankie said.

"Shh!" Howler said, "I want to hear what's going on."

"Howler!" Drak and Frankie scolded.

"Shh!" Howler said again.

***

Cathy sat down in a chair.

"You've been causing some pretty serious disruptions, young lady," Mr Johnson said, sternly.

"Uh huh," Cathy choked out, nodding.

"You obviously didn't learn from the problems you had at your last school," Mr. Johnson said, "I should be expelling you too."

"What do you mean expelling me 'too'?" Cathy asked.

"They expelled you for your behavior there in case you didn't know!" Mr. Johnson said, sarcastically.

"I wasn't expelled from there!" Cathy exclaimed, "My dad...*MOAN*!"

"Your dad what?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"My dad said he took me out because they didn't appreciate me there!" Cathy said through clenched teeth.

"You didn't know?" Mr. Johnson asked.

Cathy shook her head.

"Why wouldn't your father tell you about something like that?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Because, he's an idiot!" Cathy exclaimed.

Mr. Johnson sat, silent, for a while. He looked at Cathy. Cathy sat in the chair, gritting her teeth.

"I'm going to give you two weeks detention after school," Mr. Johnson finally said, "I never want to see you act the way you have been again! Do you understand?"

"Yes," Cathy said.

"Thank you," Mr. Johnson said, "You may go now."

Cathy got out of the chair and left the room. Mr. Johnson sighed, heavily, and shook his head.

"That man is unbelievable!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed.

***

Drak and Frankie reluctantly let Howler eavesdrop on what Mr. Johnson and Cathy were saying. They had to admit, they were curious too.

Howler listened for a minute and his jaw dropped.

"What is it?" Drak asked.

"Shh!" Howler hushed and listened again.

The boys waited a minute more. Soon, Cathy stepped out of the office and closed the door.

"Your dad didn't tell you you were expelled from your last school?" Howler asked.

"What?!" Drak and Frankie asked.

"That's what you heard?" Drak asked.

"You were listening at the door?" Cathy asked.

"Not...at the door," Howler said.

"Howlie has really senitive hearing," Frankie said.

"Oh," Cathy said.

"You were really punished for something and your dad didn't tell you?" Drak asked.

"That's right," Cathy said.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Drak exclaimed.

"You're telling me!" Cathy said.

"So, what did Mr. Johnson give you?" Frankie asked.

"Huh?" Cathy asked.

"What was your punishment?" Drak elaborated.

"Two weeks detention," Cathy and Howler said together.

Drak, Frankie, and Cathy looked at Howler.

"I'm getting you earplugs for your next birthday!" Drak said.

"Sorry," Howler said.

"Hey, two weeks detention isn't so bad," Frankie said.

"Yeah," Drak agreed, "You just have to stay after school for an hour every day and help do things like clean the chalkboard and stuff."

"At least it's an extra hour I won't have to be around my dad!" Cathy said as she walked past the boys and exited the outer office.

The boys looked at each other and sighed. They started to go after her but were stopped by Mr. Johnson who called to them from his doorway.

"How did you get her to do that?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"We convinced her that it was the right thing to do," Drak said.

"Since when does Cathy do the 'right thing'?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Since we convinced her that doing the wrong thing wasn't getting her anywhere," Drak said.

"And when did all this happen?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Saturday," Drak said.

"How can three 7-year-olds do overnight what a school principal and a psychologist can't do in a month?" Mr. Johnson asked.

Drak thought a moment and said, "Peer pressure?"

"Drak," Mr. Johnson said, "Has anybody ever told you how incredibly precocious you are?"

"Uh huh!" Drak said, nodding.

"Go play!" Mr. Johnson said.

Drak, Frankie, and Howler left to make what they could of the rest of recess.

***

The boys got out to the playground and found Cathy sitting, alone, on a bench. They went over to her.

"Are you okay?" Drak asked.

"My whole life is a lie!" Cathy said, quietly.

"Not anymore," Frankie said, "You're comin' clean with us."

"At home it still is!" Cathy said, "Everything I ever knew about my family is a lie! If my family's a lie, who am I supposed to be?"

"You're who you want to be!" Drak said, "And, you're smart enough to be anything you want!"

"I sure don't want to be in the family business anymore," Cathy said.

"Is you dad goin' to be upset about that?" Frankie asked.

"I don't know," Cathy said, "He thinks my being a girl is a burden to it anyway. Still, he's not going to like my being good now."

"Have you told him?" Drak asked.

"Not yet," Cathy said.

"Maybe you could fake being bad at home and be good at school," Howler suggested.

"Howler!" Drak scolded, "Don't be rediculous!"

"That could work!" Cathy said, "Dad doesn't really have to know what I'm up to."

"Cathy!" Drak exclaimed.

"She wouldn't have to do it for long," Howler said, "The grown ups are trying to get her away from him, anyway, remember?"

"Where did you hear that?" Cathy asked.

"Mr. Johnson said," Howler said.

"He told you that?" Cathy asked.

"No," Howler said, "I...overheard it."

"You know, I just realized something," Drak said to Howler.

"What?" Howler asked.

"You're as sneaky as Cathy is!" Drak said.

Howler smirked.

"I don't think you should lie to your dad, Cathy," Drak said.

"He's been lying to me for years!" Cathy said.

"That doesn't make it right!" Drak said.

"My dad wants me to be as bad as he is," Cathy said, "I can't tell him what I'm doing! If I can still appear to be bad at home, then it'll be good enough for him."

"I don't know," Drak said, cautiously.

"Got any better ideas?" Cathy asked.

"Not at the moment," Drak said.

"Then it'll have to do," Cathy said.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Drak said.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to fool him until I can get out of there!" Cathy said.

Drak sighed and shook his head.

"Hey, Cathy," Howler said, "You wanta come play with us?"

"Yeah!" Frankie said, "Do something on the playground today!"

"The playground?" Cathy asked.

"Yeah!" Howler exclaimed, "It'll be fun!"

"Okay," Cathy shrugged.

Frankie and Howler ran off towards the swings. Cathy got off the bench and started to follow them. Drak turned and watched her go.

Cathy got halfway to the swings and turned back. She walked back to Drak. "Drak?" she said.

"What?" Drak asked.

"Thanks," Cathy said.

Drak smiled. "No problem," he said.

Cathy turned and ran to the swings. Drak started walking towards the jungle gym. "She's doomed!" he said.

***

Frankie and Howler showed Cathy how to play on the swings. They played there for the rest of recess.

The bell rang and the children ran to the door of the school. Howler and Cathy were standing next to each other waiting to go in.

"That was kind of fun!" Cathy said.

"Told ya!" Howler said.

They stood in silence for a moment and Howler said, "Cathy?"

"Yes?" Cathy said.

"I'm sorry I called you Little Miss Smarty Pants," Howler said.

"Thanks," Cathy said.

"And Brainiac," Howler said.

"That's okay," Cathy said.

"And Einstein," Howler added.

"I get the point!" Cathy snapped.

"Sorry," Howler said.

} } } } }

"After that, Cathy was completely changed!" Howler said.

"Completely?" Draka asked, "Overnight?"

"Well, she did seem a little uneasy with her new behavior," Joni said, "But, it was still a dramatic change!"

"For the next couple of days, we actually had fun with her," Howler said, "She played at recess and sat with us at lunch."

"Amy and I even showed her how to play jump rope!" Joni said.

"The biggest thing she did was teach Frankie how to multiply," Howler said, "We had been learning basic multiplication and had had a test on it. Frankie hadn't understood it too well and flunked the test. Cathy helped explain it to him using piles of marbles."

"He seemed to learn things better if they were explained to him using visual examples," Kittie said.

"Did it work?" Draka asked.

"He aced the next test!" Howler said.

"Wow!" Draka said, "You know, it took Uncle Vlad years before he could even figure out how to be good!"

"Vampire instincts tell them to be bad," Howler said, "He had to figure out what it was that fueled those instincts. Once he figured that out, he knew how to stop them."

"What was it?" Joni asked.

"Human blood," Howler said, "Once he cut it out of his diet he found it much easier to change."

"Oh," Joni said.

"And what was your fuel?" Draka asked Kittie.

"Attention," Kittie said, "My dad taught me that being smart was everything. I thought I had to prove how smart I was to get everyone's respect."

"Her problem was, she kept trying to drill it into our heads!" Howler said.

"She really didn't have anything to prove," Joni said, "Once she calmed down and stopped gloating, her intelligence spoke for itself."

"But, what made you change so fast?" Draka asked.

"Once the guys opened my eyes to what my dad was doing to me, I decided I needed to get my revenge on him," Kittie said.

"Revenge?" Draka asked, "Is that really the best reason to change for the better?"

"It's a good a reason as any!" Kittie said, "I knew I had to change, but it was still hard to do. I wrote down all the reasons I could think of as to why I should change. I'd been lied to, I didn't want to wind up like my ancestors, people would like me more, Drak, Frankie, and Howler believed I could, but it still wasn't enough. Revenge on my dad was the best motivation I could find."

"But, revenge?" Draka asked.

"Children do it all the time!" Kittie said, "They usually resent the restrictions and discipline their parents put on them and find a way to rebel in some way. They wind up going out and getting in trouble to spite their parents. I just...turned the situation around a bit."

"The point is, she did it," Joni said, "She became a better person."

"Another thing is, once I got into actually being good, I started to like the feeling it gave me," Kittie said, "Everybody was paying me attention and saying how smart I was without my telling them to. They said the way I helped Frankie with multiplication was brilliant!"

"Like I said, her intelligence spoke for itself," Joni said.

"And you did all this behind your father's back?" Draka asked.

"Of course," Kittie said.

"How did you explain your detention to him?" Draka asked.

"I told him I was setting up some devious trick after school while no one else was there," Kittie said.

"So, you were still pretty sneaky at home," Draka said.

"I had to pretend to be the way I always had been," Kittie said.

"What if you got caught?" Draka asked.

"I haven't yet," Kittie said.

"You still could," Draka said.

"I know," Kittie said, "But, I'd rather be caught doing something good by my dad then doing evil by someone else."

"Now, Howler, you said you had fun with her for the next couple of days," Draka observed, "What happened after that?"

"Nothing," Howler said, "She left."

"Left?" Draka asked.

"Social services were planning on taking me away from my dad sometime that week," Kittie said, "My dad had gotten suspicious and sent Vampira to spy on them. He found out what they were planning to do and he decided to take me out of the country so that they couldn't find us. I came home on Tuesday and he had everything packed and ready to go. We left right then and there."

"We were all really upset," Howler said, "She had just started to shape up into a really neat kid. We hoped she would keep up what she started."

"Did you?" Draka asked.

"Of course," Kittie said, "I had to do it. My future was at stake!"

"Did you ever fall back on any old behavior?" Draka asked.

"Not really," Kittie said, "By then, it felt good to be doing good things. I did still have a lot to learn about what was good and bad behavior. I found some friends who were willing to help me with that. I'm not saying I didn't make mistakes. The hardest part was trying to regulate my own behavior without being too critical about everyone else's."

"That's a bad thing too," Draka said.

"I know!" Kittie said, "I found that out!"

"Where did you go, anyway?" Joni asked.

"England," Kittie said, "My dad grew up there. It was the only place he could think of. Howler said your dad did something similar to what my dad did to me later on."

"For entirely different reasons," Joni said, "Jonathan and Mina Harker are my great-great-grandparents. I found out that Drak is Dracula's nephew and told my dad."

"Big mistake," Kittie said.

"I can't just keep things from my father the way you can," Joni said, "He panicked and had us pack up what we could the night we found out. We went to stay with my grandparents for awhile. After we settled down in a new town, my dad even sent me to a Karate school so that I could learn to defend myself if Dracula should ever come after me."

"How far did you get?" Kittie asked.

"Black belt," Joni said, "Let's just say if anyone were to try and punch me in the face again, I wouldn't need an invisible barrier to stop them!"

"Neat!" Kittie said, "That's better than what my dad sent me to! When we got back from England, he sent me to a criminal school!"

"A what?" Joni asked.

"A school where criminals send their children to learn how to commit crimes," Kittie said, "It's hidden in upstate New York. It was my 'junior high' and 'high school'."

"They have a school for that?" Joni asked.

"Yup," Kittie said, "It's very secretive. You have to have certain 'connections' to get in."

"She mentioned that school the other night," Draka said, "It seems she's been doing some pretty interesting things behind their backs as well as her father's."

"I had to," Kittie said, "I didn't want to actually commit a crime. You had to do that for the final exams. That's when I learned how truly valuable friends really are. Some of my friend's parents acted as petty crime 'victims' to help me fool the school. I had to use my wits to do other things."

"And you got away with it?" Joni asked.

"I was the valedictorian of my senior class," Kittie said.

"I guess you did!" Joni said.

"What kind of things did they teach there?" Draka asked.

"Every kind of criminal activity imaginable," Kittie said, "I was primarily learning how to run a criminal organization."

"I thought your dad didn't want you to run O.G.R.E.," Draka said.

"By that time, he had given up all hope of producing a male heir," Kittie said, "There was a chemical spill in his lab that completely sterilized him. I was better than nothing. Unfortunately for him, he's going to be in for a big surprize when it's my turn to take over."

"It's a shame you wasted six years of your life learning things you're not going to use," Joni said.

"The only waste of time is not using your mind at all!" Kittie said, "When I learned how to commit crimes I also learned how to fight crime! I now know more about the criminal mind and how to outsmart it than anyone I know."

"Even Drak?" Draka asked.

"He's smart enough to outsmart criminals, but he hasn't been exposed to their culture as much as I have," Kittie said, "It gives me a big advantage!"

"True!" Draka said.

"So, what brought you back to the area?" Joni asked.

"Revenge," Kittie said.

"More revenge?" Draka asked.

"It's a mad scientist thing!" Kittie said, "After I finally graduated from the Criminal Academy, I decided I wanted to go to a legitamate college and study science. My dad would have preferred that I continue my criminal education, but I was 18 and he couldn't make me do anything that I didn't want to do anymore."

"I know what you mean," Joni said, "My dad didn't want me to go to NYU. He thought Drak would still be here and be a threat to me. It took awhile for Drak to convince him that he wasn't."

"How did your dad take the news of your engagement to Drak?" Kittie asked.

"He fainted," Joni said, "A couple of days after Drak proposed, we went to my parent's house to tell them. Drak formally asked my father for my 'hand in marriage' and dad passed out cold. He said it sounded like dismemberment."

"I guess it would, coming from a vampire!" Kittie said, "Did your dad consent?"

"Reluctantly," Joni said, "He had to admit, Drak's not a bad guy and that he wouldn't do anything to harm me."

"You two can talk about that later!" Draka said, "What happened at your college?"

"Yeah," Joni agreed, "And how did you get in without a legitamate high school diploma?"

"I got a GED," Kittie said, "I studied all summer to take it so that I could get in in the fall. I passed with flying colors and was accepted into college.

"A month after I started at the school, my dad showed up with O.G.R.E. for a visit. I had a card key that unlocked the school's private science lab. My dad stole it and used it to steal some of the equipment from the lab for his own personal use. I didn't even know the card key was missing until a couple of days later when the dean called me into his office. He expelled me!"

"Another expulsion?" Draka asked.

"This one was my dad's fault!" Kittie said, "I packed my things and went looking for him. Unfortunately, he had moved while I was boarded at the Criminal Academy and hadn't told me where he went."

"Why would he do that?" Draka asked.

"I'd gotten nosy," Kittie said, "He thought I wanted to steal his plans and take over the world myself and steal his glory. I'd also started acting more feminine than usual...just to annoy him! He hid how annoyed he was pretty well, but you could tell he hated it!"

"Serves him right!" Draka chuckled, "How did you find him?"

"I looked everywhere I could think of where he might be," Kittie said, "A couple of weeks later, I found my way back here. To this very diner, actually!"

"That's where Drak, Frankie, and I ran into her," Howler said, "She was showing his picture around and eventually showed it to us. We had no clue that she was Cathy!"

"How could you not know?" Draka asked.

"We never learned her last name," Howler said, "Besides, the last time we saw her, she was 7 years old. She's kind of, ah...matured since then!"

"Did you recognize them?" Draka asked.

"Not at first," Kittie said, "I should have! Drak and Howler are not common names! But all I could think about was finding my dad and getting back at him for what he'd done."

"We knew exactly where to find him!" Howler said, "We even took her to him! It was hilarious watching her chew him out!"

"I'll bet!" Draka said, "When did you realize who each other were?"

"I figured it out later that night after I had calmed down," Kittie said.

"I found out on our first date," Howler said.

"We ran into each other at the grocery store," Kittie said.

"Literally!" Howler added, "She had been helping us fight her father in subtle ways up until then. I got curious and asked her why. I wound up asking her on a date."

"He said they had found my school records," Kittie said, "My dad had forged my first grade records to get me into the second grade in England. I assumed the forged ones were the ones they found or they'd know who I was. I went to P.S. 146 and got the real ones for him. I showed him on our date that night."

"Wait a minute!" Draka exclaimed, "Is Kittie the one who distracted you so badly you forgot half of our grocery list?"

"Uh...yeah," Howler said.

"Awww!" Joni said.

Howler blushed.

"Who else knows who she is?" Draka asked.

"Now that you know, everybody but Drak," Howler said.

"And my dad and O.G.R.E.," Kittie added.

"Of course!" Draka said, "Why don't you just tell Drak who you are?"

"It's more fun trying to get him to guess!" Kittie said.

"Big D thinks it's a good idea," Howler said, "He thinks Drak needs to bone up on his powers of observation."

"Uncle Vlad knows about all this?" Draka asked.

"When I said 'everybody but Drak', I meant everybody!" Howler said.

"Does he know about your dating?" Draka asked.

"Yeah," Howler said, "He says he's okay with it as long as Dr. Dred doesn't find out."

"Once he figures it out, I'm outa there!" Kittie said.

"How much have you been dating?" Draka asked.

"Every chance we can get!" Howler said.

"Well, not at first," Kittie said, "The dates were originally just to exchange information about my dad when he was planning something."

"We just didn't count on enjoying each other's company so much," Howler said.

"It was hard to admit," Kittie said, "We were trying not to develop too much of an emotional attatchment to avoid a big let-down if my dad found out."

"When did you finally admit it?" Joni asked.

"Right after our family reunion," Howler said, "Kittie saw how happy our families all were and got upset."

"I never had a real family life," Kittie said, "I hadn't seen my mom since she was committed to a mental hospital when I was 4. I really missed her. There was a family curse keeping her from completely recovering. Howler tracked her down and figured out how to take the curse off so she could come back."

"I couldn't stand seeing Kittie so upset," Howler said.

"Awww!" Joni said.

"Will you stop that!" Howler snapped, blushing.

"So, has your mother recovered?" Draka asked.

"Yeah," Kittie said, "She and I have been getting a lot closer."

"What about you and Howler?" Joni asked, "How serious have you been getting?"

Kittie looked at Howler. "Well..." she said.

Howler looked at Kittie. "Sorta," he said.

Just then, a beeping noise came from Kittie's purse.

"Uh oh!" Howler said, "It's not the dad detector, is it?"

Kittie quickly opened her purse and took out a pager and looked at it. "No," she sighed in relief, "He's just paging me."

"What's a 'dad detector'?" Draka asked.

"It's a device Kittie installed in her pager," Howler said, "If her dad or any of the members of O.G.R.E. were to come within a certain distance of it, it'll go off. We can't date without it. If Dr. Dred were to catch us together, we're toast!"

"Of course!" Draka said.

"Oh darn!" Kittie exclaimed, reading the message on the pager, "I gotta go. Dad has another evil plot he wants me to help him with!"

"That means I gotta go too," Howler said.

Howler and Kittie got up from the booth and left tips for the waitress.

"Well, Kittie," Draka said, "This has been rather interesting."

"Anytime you want to know anything, just ask," Kittie said.

"It's been great seeing you again!" Joni said, "We need to get together again and catch up on old times."

"You bet!" Kittie said, "I'll let you know when I have some free time."

Howler and Kittie went to the register and paid their bills. Draka and Joni watched them leave the diner. They saw Howler and Kittie pause on the sidewalk outside, kiss, passionately, wish each other luck, go to their respective vehicles and drive off.

"Did he say 'sorta' serious?" Joni asked.

"That looked pretty darn serious to me!" Draka said.

"You think I should plan a double wedding?" Joni asked.

"Not just yet," Draka said, "They still have Dr. Dred to contend with."

"It's a shame," Joni said, "They make a cute couple!"

Draka and Joni finished their desserts and got up to leave themselves. They left tips, went to the register, and paid their bills.

"You know," Draka said, "I kinda liked fighting Dr. Dred the other night. I wonder if Drak and the guys could use a hand on their mission today."

"We could go home and find out," Joni said.

"Let's do that!" Draka exclaimed.

"If it's as exciting as you make it sound, I almost want to do it!" Joni commented.

"It's a never ending job!" Draka said as they left the diner.

The End

---

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