About the Groups

Soon, they arrived at the house. They strolled up the front walk Mom unlocked the front door with a key. She opened it and the ten entered.

"Here we are," said Mom.

"Wow," said GT in amazement. "This place is really cozy."

I headed upstairs with Spencer and Mark following. Everyone else headed upstairs too. Oreo, one of our cats, was sleeping on the recliner, and Reena crept silently past, not wanting to disturb her.

I opened up a laptop that sat on the table and clicked on a collection of columns that symbolized Internet Access. However, the columns had a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it that symbolized No Internet Access. When I clicked on the symbol, it brought up a network of buttons.

"Hold on a moment," I said slowly, clicking on a button that said Desktop. It brought up the desktop, links to certain things coating the sides. I double-clicked on a folder with a star in it that read Stories and Poems and Thou by Roman. I scrolled down until I found the story I was looking for: Swat. I couble-clicked on Swat and it opened the word document.

"Here," I said, gesturing to the computer. "Read."

"Um, Voltergeist," said Mom carefully, "I don't want to sound like a bad hostess, but could you not stand so close to the computer? I'm afraid you'll electrocute it and destroy it."

"Well, actually," said Voltergeist, backing away a few steps, "if I electrocuted your computer, I wouldn't necessarily destroy it. I would probably just screw up the system and fry the motherboard. Unless I possessed it. In which case, you know, not."

GT started to read.

GT FORD'S LOG

Tuesday:

''Today, a catastrophe has broken loose. An insane robot called the Wreck Mech is threatening to destroy Varcanzoggle! We have heard of one weapon that can deactivate this thing, and it is called the “Rehnch”. However, this weapon is not on our planet, it's one a different one called “Earth”, so me and four of my friends are going in a rocket ship to get to Earth and find the''

"GT," said Spencer, "we're getting ready to launch. You ready?"

GT put down his journal and got up.

"I was born ready, bro," he replied.

''"I hope so," said Spencer. "You're the only one who can fly the ship better than the rest of us, so you'll have to watch out for stuff like meteors and space junk and other crap like that."''

''"Don't worry," said GT. "I've got this under control!"'' ''GT Ford and his friend, Spencer, were in the rocket ship, getting ready for takeoff. There were five being aboard the rocket ship: GT, Spencer, Voltergeist, Reena, and Mark. The five were setting out on a dangerous mission to retrieve the Rehnch from Earth, a planet that flourished with life... and danger. Luckily, GT and his crew were well prepared for''GT stopped reading, astonished.

"Almighty Var," he gasped. He turned to me. "This is exactly what happened! That's what I wrote, that's what I said, that's what had happened!"

"Impossible," I said.

"I know this sounds crazy," said Reena, "but maybe this story has some kind of connection with Varcanzoggle and everything living on it." She turned to me. "You said that you invented Varcanzoggle?"

"Yeah," I stammered, "but I didn't think it was real."

"Well, apparently we are real," said Spencer. "Did you write any other stories about Vacanzoggle?"

"Just this one."

"Well, don't delete it!" cried Mark. "If you do, we might disappear! If we really are supernaturally connected to it in some way."

"Can we have a wrench?" asked Voltergeist.

"Uh, sure," I replied. I went into the hall and came back a moment later, a wrench in hand.

"Here you go."

"Thanks." Voltergeist took the wrench in his hand, and instantly, electricity began to dance along the surface of it.

"This is too much for my mind," said Spencer, closing the lid of the laptop."

"Wait!" I grabbed the lid and lifted it up. The screen was black. "Great. You're supposed to put it on Standby first, not just close the lid!"

"Oops," mumbled Spencer. He winced. "Sorry."

"No, it works either way," said Mom.

"Well," said GT uncomfortably, "I guess we'd better get going."

"No," I said. "You could stay with us."

"Really?" GT asked.

"Could they, Mom?" I asked her.

"Roman, we don't have any place for them to sleep," Mom replied.

"We don't need anything fancy," said GT. "Like here, I could just sleep on the couch. It's fine with me."

"Me too," said Mark.

"I called it, man," said GT. "I get the couch."

"Hey," Mark replied. "Who's the strongest one on our team?"

"You," said GT.

"And who has all the Arrow Magic?"

"You."

"And who's teaching you that Arrow Magic?"

"You."

"I get the couch," said Mark.

"Fine," muttered GT. He perked up again. "could I have a sleeping bag, then?"

"Sure," I replied.

"I can just sleep in an outlet," said Voltergeist. "No big deal."

"Well, that just leaves Spencer and Reena," said Ava.

"I can sleep on a chair," said Reena. "I've seen one of your cats do that."

"Well, where am I gonna sleep?" Spencer asked.

"You can sleep with me," said Ava.

"What?" he asked in disbelief.

"I have a bunk bed."

"Oh," said Spencer. "Sure! Thanks!"

"What time is it?" I asked Mom.

She glanced at the clock. "Whoa! 10:25! Ava, you'd better start getting ready for bed. You flossed and brushed?"

"Yeah," was her reply.

___________________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later, when it was time for me to go to bed, I put on my pajamas, got under the covers, and took of my glasses. I fell asleep, but at 3:15 AM, I woke up to a noise. A kind of crawling sound, nails clicking on hardwood floor. A moment later, I saw a head poke around the corner of my doorway. Two eyes glowed brightly in the dark. My first thought was it's the Rake! but then I realized it was just Reena.

"Hello?" she whispered. "Roman? Are you awake?"

"I am now." I sat up in bed and put on my glasses. "What's up, Reena?"

"It's just - can I sleep with you?" she asked.

"Had a nightmare?" I asked.

"No, it's not that," she replied. "I just don't want to sleep by myself on this planet and I have this feeling that I trust you the most out of our family."

"Sure," I replied. "I let my cats sleep with me sometimes. And it's understandable that you trust me the most. Cats, especially female cats, seem to like me for some reason. And you're part cat, and... you're female. I guess I just have a way with them. I dunno."

Reena crept into my room, her eyes trained on me. "I just can't sleep. Despite GT and Mark being nearby, I still feel alone for some strange reason. I can't stop thinking about whether or not we're going to make it back to Varcanzoggle alive."

She hopped up on my bed and stared deeply into my eyes with worry. "I'm afraid."

"Don't be," I replied. "You'll get back, don't worry."

"I don't know," she said. She curled up beside me, her bright eyes still fixated on me. "I'm just wound too tight to sleep."

"I can calm you down," I said. "I have a technique that works with Oreo."

She looked up. "Really?"

"Of course," I said. "Why do you think cats love me all the time?"

"Good point," Reena said. She crawled over to me and lay down beside me. "Okay, go for it."

"Okay." I reached over and started to gently stroke her fur, from her head to her back. She was so soft. I felt like I was petting a cloud. Reena smiled and slowly stretched out, with me still petting her. I started massaging her between her shoulder blades with my other hand, and occasionally on the back of her neck. I started to feel a vibrating sensation on my hands, and it took me only a moment to realize that she was purring.

"Mmmmm," she sighed happily. Her eyes closed, and she lay her head down on the bed, a smile on her face. I continued to pet her for several more minutes until I felt confident that she was asleep. I took my glasses off again and lay my head down on my pillow.

As I started to doze off, I heard her soft voice float to my ear: "Thank you."

And I slept.