This chapter is short. Do I care? No! Do you? Probably! Whatever. Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a long time, but you've come to expect that, haven't you? This one is an idea I've had for a while, and while it's not long, I think it's pretty amusing. I don't own Lab Rats, and enjoy!

* * * Those Kids and Their Crazy Fads * * *

Donald rubbed his eyes and yawned as he entered the lab, not entirely ready for another day at work. Business had been booming lately, and while he absolutely adored all the money he was making, the endless meetings and talks and consultations with the employees who handled his money drove him to the brink of insanity. Then again, he loved watching the stock prices rise after their IPO earlier that year. Life might be crazy, but it was good.

The kids were already up, Adam and Chase talking about something from the comfort of their capsules while Bree staggered toward the front of the lab.

"Morning, D," she said before a loud yawn.

"Morning . . . Bree?" he said, looking down at her. "What did you call me?"

"D." She looked up at him with her face entirely serious before skipping back over to Adam and Chase. "Is it time for breakfast yet?" she yelled back.

"Uh, sure." Donald walked up and hit the button on the control panel that dumped the power pellets onto the kids' faces.

After they finished, Chase looked over at his brother with a disgusted look. "You eat like an animal, A."

"You eat like a princess, C," Adam replied. "And you look like one, too."

"That's it!" Chase burst out of his capsule and ran into Adam's, hopping on his brother's back. They staggered out into the lab, rolling around on each other. Donald didn't move to stop it, remembering the times when he and his brother had done similar things. It would be best to let them work it out themselves.

Bree walked out of her capsule and sighed. "A and C are such pains, aren't they, D?"

"Bree, why are you talking that?"

She didn't look up to address him, but kept watching her brothers as if Donald hadn't said anything at all.

"Why do you keep using initials?"

Bree looked up. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes, I am. . . . Ugh, forget it. I'm going to be late for work. Adam, Chase, try not to kill each other while I'm gone."

The last thing Donald heard from them before the elevator doors closed was Bree shouting, "They're not Adam and Chase!"

"Okay, Chase, enemy grenade, four o'clock!"

Chase didn't move as the ball hit his left hand. He stood still as if still waiting for his command.

Donald's head dropped to his chest. "Why won't you guys listen to me?"

"I didn't know you were talking to me," Chase said. He looked slightly uncomfortable, but perhaps a little smug as well.

"I said your name! I'm training you!"

"You didn't say my name."

"What is up with you guys today?"

"He's C," Adam said as if it was obvious. "I'm A, that's B, and you're D. Get in the loop, D!"

Donald groaned. "Why on earth did I think raising kids would be a good idea?"

"Adam. Adam. Adam!" Donald sighed. "A!"

Adam looked up from his train set. "Uh-huh?"

"I asked you to clean this up."

Adam looked down. "You asked Adam to clean it up. I'm A."

"You're . . . okay, well, A, would please clean it up for Adam?"

Adam put a hand on his chin. "Nope."

Donald wanted to explode. He wasn't one to get mad at the kids over such silly things, but . . . it was such a silly thing! They'd been going by their first initials for three whole days, and they refused to answer to their real names. Donald was close to adjusting, but he still couldn't believe how stupid the whole thing was. Even Chase was in on it! He didn't know why they suddenly loved it so much, and why on earth they wouldn't stop.

At the very least they could stop calling him D.

"A, use your strength to knock down the enemy. B, use your speed to disorient him. C, protect your siblings with your force field!"

All the siblings obeyed his commands, using their abilities against the training dummy they visualized as an attacker. They carried it out in perfect synchronization as Donald instructed them from the other side of the room.

For the most part, he had gotten used to the whole initial thing. He found it fascinating that they never slipped up by calling each other by their real names, even though he still did it on occasion. It had been a whole week, and he was starting to figure that this trend might be here to stay.

"Perfect. A, let go of your sister's hair. No, no, don't eat it!"

Donald whistled as he entered the lab. After another day of making money—and not too many meetings, thank heavens—he was ready to start phase two of his daily routine: bionic training.

"All right, A, B, C, suit up and get ready. We're going to run through a couple scenarios and teach you how to react to them."

The kids still sat on the ground, wholly occupied by their current distractions.

"Guys?" Donald said.

"Huh?" Chase said as he looked up.

"Get suited up. We're going to start training."

The kids hopped to their feet and hurried over to their capsules.

"B!" Donald said as she came out. "Do you think we could spend some extra time working on your agility today?"

Bree looked up at him. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes . . ." Oh no.

She smiled. "Oh, that's what I thought. I'm Bree, Mr. Davenport. Silly goose."

Donald was too busy rubbing his face in his hands to notice the three children laughing, winking, and subtly high-fiving each other.

XD Poor Donnie. I've had that idea for a while. You know how kids love their fads. Does anyone remember Silly Bandz? Oh, heavens, I still have all of mine strung together and hanging off a bulletin board in my room. XD

Serious time: I don't know when the next update will be. I'll try to make it soon, but to be honest, I can't promise anything. I'm sorry for taking so long on some of my stories, but I do have news: This year and from now on, I won't post new stories until I've finished them entirely. That way you won't have to wait around for so long. I'll also work harder on updating the stories I haven't finished yet. Keep reviewing and reminding me, because I'm quite forgetful.

But anyway, I hope you liked that one. I really enjoyed writing it. Review, and as always, if you have ideas for future one-shots in this series, let me know! I can always use more ideas. See you all soon! Bye!