Marshall Mathers tilted his head to the left, cradling the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he reached into his refridgerator and pulled out a loaf of bread, and a jar of grape jelly. He walked over to the counter, and set them down, beside the plate, and the open jar of peanut butter, with a butter knife sticking out of it.

"Yeah, man." Marshall nodded, listening to his best friend, DeShaun Holton, talk about the upcoming Christmas holiday. Turns out his girlfriend wants to take the kids to her parents house, but DeShaun wants them to stay home, in Michigan, instead of traveling to Missouri. When he finished, he asked about Marshalls plans, wondering why his friend hadnt mentioned it.

"Havent given it much thought," Marshall shrugged, smearing peanut butter all over one side of the bread and then dipping the still cover with peanut butter knife, into the jelly. That was always Kims pet peeve. He used to get in so much trouble for doing that. But Kim wasnt here. Was she? "I kinda wanted to do something fun, you know, for Hai."

"Yeah," DeShaun agreed through the phone, pausing to answer a question quietly to someone in the room with him.

"I mean, Christmas is a week away, so is her birthday. I tried getting this huge tree, told her we could decorate it together, but..." Marshall trailed off. "It looks like Elton John exploded in there or something, Hailie hates it, she doesnt even want to celebrate Christmas, and when I asked what she wanted for presents, she said she wanted Kim. Its killing me that no one knows where she is."

"I know man, Im sure shes okay, she just doesnt wanna go to jail." DeShaun reassured him. "Remember the last time no one could find her? She came back two months later, she was in a rehab upstate... Shes probably doing the same thing."

Marshall lowered his voice, it was as if he knew penguin was standing right behind him, peeping around the corner, listening intently. "Yeah, but what everyone doesnt know is that, I checked all the rehabs in Michigan and Missouri, and theres no Kim Mathers listed in any one of them. I just, I think shes gone for good this time."

Penguin, also known as Steph, turned and raised an eyebrow, getting an idea. She had been wondering what to get Marshall and Hailie for Christmas for a while now, and a week before the holidays she hasnt done her shopping. Thankfully she heard exactly what they wanted. Kim.

But she only had a week. She grinned, and mumbled under her breath as she ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time, and down the hall to her shoeshining office to make a phone call, "Better start lookin then..."

Once she was inside her office, she walked over to her desk, winking at the cardboard, life size cut out of Eminem. Marshall HATED it.

"You," She pointed at the cut out, "are going love me. And then I will be more than just a shoeshiner to you."

She sat down at her desk and began flipping through a small black book, marked "CONFIDENTIAL--- STAY OUT--- PENGUINS ONLY!" and paused, looking down the page, and picking up the phone. It was time to get down for business.

"Hello?" She asked, when the person on the other end picked up. "This is Stephanie Sculler, the penguin..." She paused, listening. "Yes... yes, this is a very important request, can I trust you with it? Make sure you write everything down, its very important.... "

She waited, and then began speaking when the person could write the message down. "Im gonna need a large pepperoni pizza, delivered to- Oh yeah, sure throw some of those onion rings in too. How could I forget... You know the address, you've been ordered here before," She laughed as the pizza guy rolled his eyes and muttered, '3 times already today!'. "Yes, well put a rush on it, okay?"

She hung up, and sat back in her chair, satisfied with herself. Well, her work was- oh yeah. The real reason she was up here. She carefully put the little black book away, and took out another phonebook, this time with a picture of a penguin taped to the front, and thumbed through the pages, until she got to the G section. The only one in this section, was of course, Gianna Savannah, faithful sidekick and fellow penguin.

She dialed the number, not even worring about the long distance charge that Marshall would yell at her for at the end of the month, and when Gianna picked up, she said. "Ready to ride?"