Chapter Four

Disclaimer: Be happy that I don't own Tales of Symphonia.

Just a little note before I begin…Homocidal-Snowbunnies left me a review pointing out that "Ohana" does not mean family in Japanese, however, I'm not using Japanese here. In Hawaiian culture, Ohana means family, with emphasis on how the family is bound together, and have to cooperate and remember each other. I thought that seemed appropriate, given the story. Thanks for the nifty Japanese knowledge, though!

Again, sorry for my extremely slow updating habits. I love to write, but it's a very slow process. Ahem.

&&Sheena&&

After everyone left for school—and Zelos left for a job interview, ugh—I wandered around the house, examining all the weird gadgets. The Professor had found a book called "The Complete Guide to the American House for Foreigners." It had all these pictures, with names of the objects underneath. Of course, we already knew most of them, but some stuff—like a 'computer'—I wasn't even going to touch. Who knew what it did?

Anyway, at the moment, the clock read 2:10, and I was lying on the couch, being bored.

"Sheena," Raine said sternly, coming into the living room, "Shouldn't you be out somewhere, getting a job?"

"Uh…why?" I asked, "If Zelos gets a job—"

"—Then so should you." She sat down at the computer thingy and looked it over.

"But what about Regal? And Kratos?" I protested, sounding like a three-year-old.

"For your information, Regal has just left to be interviewed at some restaurant near here," she informed me, pressing a button on the computer. The screen lit up with the world "DELL", whatever that was.

"And," she continued, looking curiously at the screen, "Kratos and I are staying home to take care of the house."

"You just want him all to yourself," I teased.

"Possibly," Raine smirked at me, "Hey…come over here and look at this." She motioned towards the computer. Yawning, I rolled off the couch and plodded over to stand behind her. On the screen were the words, "Welcome. Set up accounts? Yes or No."

"Uh…" I said. Raine clicked "Yes." Instantly, a little box appeared onscreen, reading, "Thank you for choosing Dell. To continue the setup of your accounts, please fill in the names of your family members in the spaces below. Dell supports a total of 6 accounts. In the case that your family has more than 6 members, it will be necessary to share accounts. After you are finished, please click Next." Then there were 6 blank lines, and a button reading "Next."

"Uh…" I said again.

"Only six…" Raine muttered, "Well, there are nine of us. Kratos and I can share one…" She looked around, and spotted a square thingy with letters all over it.

"Hmmm…" Raine pulled it towards her and pecked the letters "K-r-a-t-o-s." And what do you know? Kratos' name appeared on the screen!

"Weird!" I said, reaching over. Raine swatted my hand away and resumed her study of the keyboard. After a couple minutes, she had "Kratos and Raine" on the first line.

"Lloyd and Colette share," I said. No way was I sharing with either of them. Raine nodded and added their names to the next line.

"Regal should get his own," she mused, typing in "Regal" on line three, "And you can share with…"

"No way!" I protested, knowing where this was going, "Who knows what kind of things we can do on these accounts? I am NOT sharing with Zelos!"

"Fine, fine," she said, "You get your own." I cheered silently as she typed in "Sheena" on line four and "Zelos" on line five.

"Which leaves Genis and Presea," I grinned.

"Yes…" Raine put in "Genis and Presea" on the final line and clicked "Next." The computer made this weird ringing noise, and a message appeared saying, "Thank you. The setup of your accounts has been completed. You may now login and assign administrator privileges."

On the screen, 6 blank boxes appeared, with the names of the accounts next to them. Raine clicked on hers and Kratos' and a whole new screen opened up.

"Look at all this!" Raine said excitedly, "All the possibilities...I SIMPLY MUST STUDY IT!"

"I'll be in the kitchen," I told her, high-tailing it out of there.

In the kitchen, I found Kratos sitting at a table.

"Raine found a new research subject," I told him. He smiled indulgently and put his hand over his face, like he used to do way back when.

I think he was going to ask me a question, but just then, there was a really loud ringing sound. We looked at each other in confusion.

"What is that?" I asked as he stood up and looked around the kitchen. Then, I saw this thing sitting on the counter…that was shaking. I raced over to it, and sure enough the sound got louder.

"Kratos!" I called. He ran over, looking like he was on the verge of drawing his sword and smashing it to bits.

"What does it do?" I asked.

"Pick it up!" Kratos ordered warily.

I reached out and plucked up the part that was shaped like a banana. Instantly, the ringing stopped.

"Whew," I sighed, "Glad that's over."

"But…what does it do?" Kratos asked, taking it from me. He examined it closely, then held it up to his ear. His eyes widened.

"What?" I asked.

"It's…talking," he said weakly, "It sounds like…Lloyd?"

I leaned my ear close to the thing, and sure enough, I heard Lloyd's voice.

"Dad?" it was saying, "Uh…Colette and I are, uh…in this weird place…"

"With lots of happy people!" I heard Colette's voice chime in.

"Why aren't you at school?" Kratos demanded.

"Well, we were…" Lloyd answered, "But then the bus took us here…" In the background I heard lots of banging and a bunch of guys laughing. "Hey! Stay away from Colette!" Lloyd bellowed, "Uh…anyway…Colette had written this number on her hand, and this guy told us if we put some money in this thing and typed it in we could talk to you…and it worked! Hey…hey! Get off her!"

"Where are you?" Kratos asked, sounding worried, for once.

"Some place called Wanda's Bar…." Lloyd said.

"WHAT?" I nearly jumped out of my skin as Kratos screamed into the phone. Raine came tearing into the kitchen, as if she was expecting the house to be burning down or something.

"Whoa!" Lloyd's voice said, "You actually screamed!"

"Lloyd…don't move…" Kratos growled, "Stay right there…" He handed the thing to me and raced out of the kitchen. A very bewildered Raine tailed after him, which left me to entertain Lloyd.

"Uh…Lloyd?" I said unsurely.

"Sheena?" he asked, "Hi! Where'd Kratos go? I hope we didn't make him too mad…" There was the sound of breaking glass, "For the last time! Don't touch her! I said—"

There was sudden silence.

"Lloyd?" I said, "Lloyd?" But he didn't answer. I placed the thing back onto its stand. I had no idea what had happened. But at least I didn't have to talk to him anymore. Lloyd and Colette had gone to school and wound up at a bar…I shook my head, just as Kratos rushed back into the kitchen.

"I'm going out," he informed me, "Who knows what will happen to them if they stay there…"

"Kratos? What is going on?" Raine appeared in the kitchen, but Kratos was already out the door. She looked at me.

"Colette and Lloyd got lost," I explained vaguely, deciding not to go into gory detail. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her.

"Oh dear…" she muttered, just as the front door flew open again. Presea walked slowly into the kitchen, followed by a very defeated looking Genis.

"How was your first day of school?" Raine asked, sensing the mood but trying to lighten it anyway.

"It was…" Presea began.

"I want a name change," Genis said.

Raine and I looked at each other in confusion.

"A what?" I asked.

"A name change!" Genis repeated, his voice shaking. He turned and ran upstairs.

"Presea?" Raine asked.

"The boys in our school were…" she began, but the front door was flung open yet again. This time, Zelos came bounding in, whooping and waving a piece of paper.

"I got a job!" he called happily, running over to me and giving me a big hug.

"GET OFF ME!" I yelled, pushing him away. I hoped my face wasn't turning red…

"Let me see," Raine reached out and snatched away his paper. She read it carefully and looked up with raised eyebrows.

"You're working in a hospital?" she asked slowly.

"Yep!" Zelos grinned widely.

"But you don't have any medical degrees or anything!" she protested.

"I have fake ones," he said, "Think of all the operations…and all the patients…all the female patients…"

"You're never going to change, are you?" I demanded.

"Nope!" he bounded up the stairs. In all that, Presea had managed to slip away, so Raine and I were back where we started.

"I'm going to go see Genis," Raine sighed, "And see what all that was about…" she climbed upstairs. I sank into a chair, resting my elbows on some ads on the table. Boredly, I picked up the first one.

"Driving Lessons" it read "Mr. Reed will teach teens to transport themselves! Must be at least 15 to begin. If interested…" then it listed ways to contact him. There was a picture of a girl and a guy in one of those car things, grinning widely.

Hmm…

I snatched up the ad and headed upstairs.

&&

Oh noes! Sheena learning to drive, and Zelos the nurse…what more could go wrong? Hehehe…you'd be surprised! Remember to review! Until next time…