Danny rushed quickly to his wardrobe and got out a green, army patterned pants and a yucky green shirt. He pulled the shirt over his head rapidly, and wore his pants at knee height. With finishing dressing up he rushed towards the door. Opened it and raced out.

Along the way down the stairs, Danny fastened his pants. Without looking  he tripped on a step and tumbled down the few remaining ones. He got up in a jiffy ran to the door. He stopped at the door and quickly grabbed his sneakers and without caring about socks, slipped it on. When he was done. He opened the door and flew off. Without even remembering to close it behind him.

Outside on the curb waiting was Corporal Omar and Sargent Major Hiro. They were standing against the porch fence talking and smiling. 'They seem happy today,' thought Sargent Danny. He walked towards them with a nervous smile on his face. Corporal Omar was the first to notice him. He smiled at him.

Sargent Danny took a deep breath and said, "Hello, gentlemen. How are you guys today?"

Both soldiers smiled at him and said at the same time, "Good, and you." Giggling at the end. Danny giggled nervously along.

His face quickly exchanged into a worry. He told his pals, " So, shouldn't we get going now. The General, wouldn't want us to be late today."

Sargent Hiro looked at him and said, "Relax, Danny boy. Everything will be okay. Just take it easy."

"Easy for you to say.", muttered Sargent Danny.

"So, you guys ready?", asked Corporal Danny.

The men nodded and started walking to the base.

~~~~~ 5 Minutes Later ~~~~~

The General heaved a big breath. He was getting impatient. 'My men should have been here by now', he thought,' What is taking them so long?'. His ears tingled, to the only sound heard: the thumping of his foot.

Briefly, the General's ear's caught onto a noise outside. It sounded familiar to him. He concentrated on the noise, and instantly he knew what it was. His troops finally arrived. The General stood up, tidied his clothes, and got ready to give his troops a warm welcome when they entered.

The first of the troops arriving at the base was, Sargent Henry. A tall and strong soldier. His complexion was interesting. Afro-American by birth, but Indian, German, and North-African, played in his blood. His hair a dark chestnut color and eyes matching it, with a hint of green. He stood proud and tall in front of his General.

On the outside, the soldier stood bravely. But inside, he was scared as a baby. He feared the General more than anything. And right now, was the worst time to fear him.

Henry noticed at the corner of his eye, that the general was getting impatient. And he knew why.

In no time, the rest of the troops piled in the base. And, at once, a horizontal line was formed in front of the General. No soldier dared to move a muscle. The General walked next to the line and counted each soldier, that he passed. 'Only seven,' he thought. 'Where is the eighth?'

The General stared at his men angrily. Not one dared to blink. The general sighed and said in a low voice," Where is Mack? "

Not a single soul responded.

Annoyed, that his men weren't answering him. He repeated his question again. Louder this time,'' Where is Mack?!''

The General waited for someone to respond to him. But, no one did. He waited for a few more seconds. Still, no response. When he had waited long enough he said,'' Ok. Fine then. If you don't want to talk. Then you can leave. As of today, you're all fired!!" He hollered.

The soldier's faces went pale. There doom finally came.

But before the General could continue his storm of anger. Sargent Major, Danny interrupted him, "General, sir, Let me explain, why we were late. Your mother called us for help. In which, we couldn't refuse saying no. She wanted us to help her carry some cookies, a lemonade glass, plates and cups to the picnic table outside in the backyard."

"NO! ", shouted the General, " I don't want to hear this. I thought I gave you guys a solution to stay away from problems like this! "

But, before either boy could continue their argument. A panting noise was sounded at the base's door. With each second it grew louder. No one made a noise. All eyes were at the door. A small childish hand appeared, from below and smacked the floor hard. Another hand rose and followed. The panting grew heavily. A dark black head rose. With bright green eyes shining at them. The figure stood still for a few seconds doing nothing but staring at them. It lifted its body, until half of it was visible. It was Mack, the missing soldier. He looked up at the boys, with his tongue sticking out, like a dog. All eyes were on Mack, who was still panting lightly. They were waiting for him to speak.

Mack said in a happy tone, "Did, I scare you guys?".

He stood there waiting for an answer.

The General answered him saying, "Where were you private Mack? Why were you late? And, how come you didn't come up with the rest of the troops?" Said the General in a cold tone

The young boy replied," I was having cookies and lemonade."

The General looked at him angrily and said, " Mack, we are army men. And we don't take breaks, especially. . . for cookies and lemonade!" He hissed at the end.

Mack looked at him with an odd expression. He crossed his arms and said," Well.... well I don't care. If I want to have cookies and lemonade, then I am going to have cookies and lemonade!"

The General grred in frustration.

Mack kept talking," Anyway, Jacky. The reason why......"

But before he could continue, the general cut him off, again," What did you just call me -- Jacky?Mack, how many times do I have to tell you that you either call me General Jack or sir!"

Mack sighed and said," Ok, Jacky, ok. Anyways, I am here to tell you that mommy said to come down and have a snack, you and your friends. She- she-she also, says to stop being a mean General and play nice."

"Again, Mack! You called me Jacky!" He stared at his younger brother, with bulging eyes. His face reddened and smoke started puffing out of his ears.

Mack looked up at him frightened. He yelled out, " Mommy, Jack is shouting at me!"

A faint but clear voice yelled out Jack's name.

Annoyed of his brother's dumb move. Jack had no other option, but to surrender this battle with his brother. He told the his brother, in the sweetest tone he could manage, "Ok, Mack. You can go tell mom, that we will be down 10-15 minutes top."

Mack looked up at Jack. His eyebrows raised. And an evil little smile appeared.

Jack stared at the little devil in front of him. 'Always getting his way just because he was the youngest', thought Jack. Impatiently, Jack stood waiting for Mack to leave. But Mack just stood there, smiling at him and giggling. He tried again talking to him sweetly, "Are you going to stay, Mack. Or leave. We are very busy, right now."

Mack still had the same expression on his face, and giggled even more. His next move, pissed Jack even more. He rested one elbow on the base's floor, and his face rested in his palm. While the other hand laid resting on the floor. His smile turned grimmer.

Jack knew Mack was doing it on purpose. His eyes narrowed at him. Mack noticed Jack's expression and giggled some more.

Jack crossed his arms, and huffed loudly.

A small pink tongue, stuck out of Mack's mouth, and pointed at Jack. Jack did nothing but stare. Mack giggled for one last time, and started heading down the ladder.

He mumbled something on the way," The cookies are going to get cold and gross, for Jacky."

After Mack left and couldn't be heard or seen. The General spun around, facing his men. He began saying happily," Now, where were we... Ah, yes. So, boys, anything new happened in the neighborhood, this past week."

The boys glanced at each other and the General in confusion.

Danny talked first," Sir, but I thought we were fired. Did you change your mind? "

Jack looked at them confused. He then remembered what he did, and replied, " Ya, I changed my mind. I am offering you guys one more chance. And this is because you guys are my friends. And I need you.  My mom doesn't have anything to do with this."

The soldiers' faces brightened up and they hollered in celebration.

Jack smiled at them. He took a deep breath and said," Well, now let's get to business."

He turned around and walked towards a table behind him. Around it he went until, he pulled out a chair and sat directly in front if his troops. Once seated he motioned the rest to sit down. The soldiers took a seat and waited for their General to proceed the weekly meeting.

Jack began the meeting saying, "Today on Friday, March 4, 1991. We will begin the eighth weekly meeting of this year." He stopped talking and slightly turned his body to his left, where Sargent Hiro sat. " Starting with Sargent Hiro and ending with Corporal Rudolf. In an anti-clockwise rotation. Each of you will be entering the latest activities that happened this past week, in the monthly entry. Please, include your name, sector number, the date, the timing of activity, place of activity, and witnesses if there are."

As Jack ended the intro. He swerved around to a light brown cabinet holder, behind him. He reached into the pocket of his army pants. A fiery, warmth surrounded his hands. The pocket was soft and fluffy inside. His fingers searched for something opposite of that: cold and solid. A shock of temperature rushed through his fingers. He pulled the object out and inlaid a ring of keys. He fiddled with the keys, until he found a golden house key. The key was placed into the lock, and turned. The cabinet opened easily and slid towards Jack. Inside the cabinet, were packs of file holders, with tons of files inside them. About twenty or so holders, were labelled with a four digit number. Jack scanned each number till he reached the file holder reading 1991. His opened it and his hand brushed through the files till, he stopped at a file with March written on it. Jack gently slipped the file out of its place and settled it on the table.

Jack opened the file and inlaid blank sheets of paper. The first page on top was an attendance sheet. Jack took it out and closed the file.

In the middle of the table was a pencil holder. Jack's hand reached out to it and grabbed the tallest and sharpest pencil there. He cleared his throat and said, "Ok, boys we will be taking the attendance first. I will call each of your names, in order on the page."

Jack's eyes squinted at the first name. The name was written poorly. He bent over to Hiro, and whispered, "Hiro. What does this say?"

Hiro glanced over at the name Jack's finger laid on. He studied it for a minute and finally said, "Rudolf Bientzfer, sir."

Jack nodded to him and said in a clear voice the name.

Rudolf answered the General, "Here."

On hearing Rudolf's reply, Jack marked with a check, under the column Attendance.

He did the same procedure, with each name, until he came to the last one. Mack.

Jack sighed and placed a check linked with an 'X'. Marking that the cadet was here but decided not to show up. Next to the 'Attendance column' was a 'Reason' column. Jack wrote: Is eating cookies and lemonade.

"Ok. Now that we got that settled. Let's Move on. Here are your entry sheets.", said Jack, as he passed each empty sheet to each boy.

"Now remember to say the entry you have written.", reminded Jack. " You each got five minutes to write your observations for this week."

As Jack talked, each if the boys grabbed a pencil from the holder.

Jack looked at his watch and said, "Begin, now."

The boys raced away, writing down everything, quickly. While, Jack got his sheet and an extra for Mack. He began writing in both sheets at the same time. Briefly, Jack checked his watch, until the five minutes were up.

He looked up at the boys and said, "Pencils down. Times up. Sargent Hiro If you may begin."

Sargent Hiro looked at the General and said," No activity, sir."

Astonished of the reply, Jack said,"Ok, ok. That's good news so far. Corporal Omar."

Omar replied, using the same words Hiro used. For the next three boys, they each said the same words. Until, all, who was left was Sargent Major Danny and Corporal Rudolf.

Danny's words were different. He began saying, "Today at exactly 2:42 p.m. When I arrived home, from school. I noticed the 'For Sale' sign, that was on the Woodlock's lawn has been removed and a new car now rests in the driveway. The car prototype is a new red version of Nissan Sentra, sir. I haven't though been able to identify, who the new resident is. As it was beyond my vision."

Jack stared down at the table and said in a low voice, "A new neighbor, huh." Smirking at the end. He now turned to Corporal Rudolf and said, "What about, you, Corporal. Any new interesting events have taken place this week, in your sector."

Corporal Rudolf faced the general and replied, "No, sir. No disturbing activities has been seen since last week.

Satisfied for this week's case. Jack bent the chair back and settled his arms behind his head. And said, "Well, boys you know the drill. It's a code yellow."

The boys stood up and walked to the end of the base. There lying against the wall, were 8 lockers. Each with a name inscribed on it. The boys opened their lockers and took out the equipment inside: binoculars, water goggles, army jackets and boots, several body straps, walkie talkies, 1 large water gun, 4 small hand water guns, 2 medium sized water guns, 3 empty large water bottles, and a fanny pack containing: green and black face paint, a smaller container of water, notepad and pencil.

While the boys were getting ready, Jack quickly gathered the papers and placed them in the file. The file was then locked away back in the cabinet.

When everything was secure. Jack headed towards his locker and got ready.

The first thing worn was the jacket, then the belt straps were equipped. They were placed on their hips, forelegs, back, and chest. The back strap was the only one overlapping the jacket.The water guns were strapped first. The medium sized guns were placed on the forelegs. The smaller guns were placed; two on the chest and another two on the hip. The walkie talkie was attached on the chest strap with a clip. The fanny pack was strapped loosely on the hip, with the water goggles attached to it. The last thing to equip were the water bottles. The boys helped each other place the empty bottles on their backs. When they were done, they  resembled navy seals heading on a secret mission.

Jack did a quick equipment check. When all was set. He yelled to his troops, "Let's move out!"

One by one, in a straight line, the boys headed out the base and down a rope ladder. After his men left the room, Jack took a quick glimpse. Everything was in place. He studied the picture for a minute, until it was stored. He closed the door and took out a fancy golden key from around his neck and locked the door. He set the key back on his neck and climbed down the ladder.