DISCLAIMER!!! Yes, I stole these characters from HB, even though I promised to give them back. I'm not going to!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! {gasp pant wheeze} What? They can *sue* me? Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I'll give 'em back. sigh. And here I was going to donate them to this ml. The cats--Kit, Dana & Colin--are mine. Risk and the kids are up for grabs!

Jonny peered around his father's leg, looking at the girl who stood by Race. Red hair was pulled into a ponytail, the knees of her overalls covered with mud. There was mud on her cheek, and footprints all over the doorway.

Jonny turned and poked Hadji in the ribs, then looked back at the girl. "She acts like a boy," he whispered.

Hadji nodded.

"Why does Race want her anyway? He has us!"

Hadji shrugged.

"Boys are better'n girls any day."

The redhead made a face at him, and Jonny stuck his tongue out.

"Jessie, Jonny, stop that you two." Race eyed both kids, making sure they heard, then went back to his conversation with Benton. They needed to figure out how they were going to have Jessie here too. She was an unexpected addition. Not an unwelcome one, by any means, but it had been quite a surprise when her mother phoned, telling them Jessie was on a plane on the way there. Estella was going to South Africa, and didn't think it was wise to take Jessica along.

Hadji smiled tentatively.

Jessie hid behind her dad and tugged on his shirt.

"What is it sweetheart?"

"I wanna go with mom," she whispered loudly.

"You're mom's already gone, honey. You're gonna stay here with me and Dr. Quest and his kids. I'm sure we'll have a great time."

Jessie shook her head. "I wanna go with mom."

"Honey, you can't. Now why don't you and the boys go play outside while Dr. Quest and I talk?" He put his hands on her tiny shoulders, pushing her out the door. A minute later Benton had put Hadji and Jonny out too. Bandit ran around the house, barking at leaves. Jessie and Jonny glared at each other, then at Hadji. Hadji glared back at the intruder, and Jessie, being outmanned, turned and walked away. Jonny followed quickly.

"You can't play on that! It's my swing!" he said, running to tuck his arms around the tire swing before Jessie could get to it. He pushed off, the swing gliding smoothly in a giant arc, hung from a branch of the huge oak nearby.

Jessie glared at him. "You think you're so cool because your dad's rich!"

"So?" Jonny shrugged nonchalantly and kept swinging.

"So if your dad weren't so rich, nobody would like you."

Hadji stepped forward. "That is not true! Jonny would still have friends because he's nice! You're just jealous!"

Jessie scowled at him. "You talk weird. Where are *you* from, Mars?"

Hadji stiffened. "I am from India. It is a country much better then yours!"

"India sucks! I've been there, all the girls have to wear dresses, and you guys like cows!" Jessie folded her arms across her chest and glared hard.

"Girls should wear dresses! They can't do anything anyway!" Jonny shouted, hurt for Hadji by the insult she made of her words.

"We can too! We're way better then boys! Boys are stupid--they can't do anything! My mom says they aren't even smart enough to drive, and that only men are serial killers!"

Jonny stopped the swing and got serious in this fight. "Oh yeah? Well girls play with dolls, and have fluff for brains!"

"Boys are just dumb jocks!"

"Girls can't do any sports, and they always cry!" Hadji shouted.

"Dumbbell!" Jessie returned.

Jonny: "Airhead!"

Hadji: "Dork!"

Jessie: "Beach bum!"

Jonny: "Fatty!"

Jessie: "Immigrant!"

"Hadji is not an immigrant!" Jonny shouted on his friends' behalf, getting off the swing and walking up to Jessie threateningly.

"You don't even know what an immigrant is!"

"Do to!"

"Do not!"

"To!"

"Not!"

"To!" Jonny reached up and pushed her, sending Jessica falling on her rear.

Jessie grabbed the dirt and flung it at him. "Booger breath!"

"Do not throw dirt at Jonny!" Hadji shouted, jumping forward and throwing dirt at Jessie.

"You're both booger breaths!" Jessie cried, jumping up and running back toward the house.

Jonny and Hadji chased her, Jonny catching her when he threw himself on her ankles, trapping them. Jessie fell hard, her ponytail starting to come loose. She flipped over, then kicked at Jonny who was refusing to let her go. Hadji slipped in the mud they were in, falling on top of the blond boy and forcing him to release the girl.

Jessie hopped up and ran again, ignoring the fact that she was caked in mud, and bleeding slightly. She ran in the door, sent it crashing shut behind her.

Her father wasn't there.

Upon hearing the door open again, she ran into the next room, and into the next after that. Finally she ended up in the kitchen, Jonny and Hadji following the mud-prints she'd made on the floor, and making their own while they were at it.

Jessie grabbed the bowl of cereal that was still sitting on the counter from that morning and threw it at them. Jonny shouted as he was suddenly covered in luke warm milk and Cheerios. He grabbed the pie they'd been eating and launched it at her, overshooting.

Hadji went for the girl herself, missing when she threw soda in his face.

"Fart brains!" Jonny yelled as loud as he could as he threw a banana at her.

"Jerk!" She opened the refrigerator and pulled out the watermelon, throwing that at Jonny. It hit the floor, splattering all over all three of them.

"Ugly face!" Jonny grabbed the dishwasher soap and threw that at her, then ducked as ice cream flew past his head. Hadji grabbed the movable water faucet and turned it on, spraying the red-head.

"Meanies!" Jessie grabbed the chocolate syrup, squirting it at Hadji so that he dropped the faucet.

"Brat!" Hadji said as he opened the cupboard and threw stale crackers at her.

"Mucus licking, fart sniffing, bouble-butt!" Jessie threw some of the crackers back at him and was ambushed by Jonny wielding a tomato. Jessie grabbed the ketchup and Hadji grabbed the mustard and they both opened fire at each other.

"You're such a brat even your mom doesn't want you! That's why she sent you here!" Jonny shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Liar!" Jessie screamed, finding the fruit bowl and sending apples his way. Jonny shouted as the hard orbs hit him, one after the other.

"It's true! It's true! Your mom hates you!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Race ordered as he and Benton half ran into the room. "Hadji, get off the sink, now! Jonny, what did you think you were doing?! Put that down and go upstairs!" Race turned around to his baby, looking her over. "Jessie, are you all right?"

"Jessie," Benton said as the boys watched the floor intently, "You go to your room too. We'd better get it clear now that you don't get to ruin my house."

Race looked up, astonished. "Benton, she wasn't ruining your house, she'll help clean it up. And I don't see where you get off telling my girl to go to her room! She didn't do anything! If those boys hadn't--"

"My boys? They weren't the ones throwing apples just now, Race!"

Jonny, Hadji and Jessie all watched their fathers in silence.

"Jonny should know better then to attack a girl!"

"That girl attacked them first!"

"She is not 'that girl,' she is my daughter!"

"With her father's temper, to be sure," Benton said sarcastically.

"Are you saying I can't control my temper?" Race almost roared.

Jonny looked at Hadji, who shrugged, then they both sidled over to Jessie. "I've never seen my dad fight with Race before!" Jonny whispered.

Jessie shrugged. "I've never seen my dad fight before at all."

"You spineless, boneless--"

"You uncouth, uneducated--"

Hadji scratched his head as he watched the adults trade insults.

"My hair is all sticky," Jessie commented, pulling her ponytail out the rest of the way and trying to run her fingers through it.

"Mine too. Wanna go have a water fight? Then we can come back and see if they're still fighting," Jonny suggested.

"Okay! Weird. Grown-ups aren't supposed to fight . . . " Jessie said, shaking her head as they walked out.

"Savage, barbarian--"

"Weak kneed, sappy--"

Jessie giggled as her dad pushed Benton, and Benton pushed back.

Just plain weird.

***

DEER MOM

I GOT TO GO TO A NEW HOUSE TODAY. THU BOYS WERE MEEN, BUT THEN NICE. DAD GOT A BLAK EYE FROM DOKTR QUEST. HAJEE TAKS FUNNY. JONY THINKS HE KNO'S A LOT, BUT HE DOSN'T. I THINK I LIK IT HERE. I THINK MAYBEE I'LL STAY FOR A WILE. I LUV YU, SEE YU LATR!

LUV, JESSICA

JJJJJJJJJJQQQQQQQQQQ

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