The next morning, I didn't leave my room until nine o'clock. I went down stairs for my usual morning breakfast, and I already found some pancakes on my plate, a glass of milk, and a note card. I didn't need to guess who it was from.

"Good morning, Kaley," Mom said. "Did you have fun with Dean yesterday? He told me how much fun he had with you. Isn't that right, Dean?"

"Yeah," I heard his voice from the family room. He was plopped on the couch watching some football game. He turned to look at me, and winked. I shivered and looked away.

"Yeah, sure," I said, trying to sound excited. "We had lots of fun. Can't wait to do it again."

Oh, my God! Did I just say that?

"Great," squealed Mom. "See, I knew you would get along with Dean. Aren't you happy?"

No!

"Sure, real happy," I said sarcastically. I waved at Dean just to show Mom how much I like him, but I really don't.

It seems like Mom doesn't know about how I ditch Dean at the café after he harassed me for evidence. Looks like Dean is playing it easy for me. Fine, if he wanted to play around, bring on the next level. I ain't giving up without a fight.

As I was eating my pancakes, Mom said, "By the way, Dean was nice enough to make you pancakes. Isn't that wonderful? I told him he shouldn't go through the trouble, but he insisted."

I wanted to throw up after she told me that. But I swallowed it, and smiled falsely. Maybe after I eat, I can quickly go to the bathroom and quietly throw it up.

Dean's note was sitting next to my glass of milk. I didn't want to read it, if it was a harassing note. But I unfold it, and read it anyway. It said:

"Dear Kaley,

Thank you so much for your company. I enjoyed our quality time together. Next time, we can do it again, and we can get to know each other a little more. I would like to know more about you."

I got even sicker after I read that note. Why did I even bother reading it? I crumbled it up, and toss it into the garbage. I went up to my room, locked my door, and called Amy.

"Hey, Kaley. What's up?" Amy asked.

"Not too good," I groaned.

"Oh, let me guess, that government agent guy has been bothering you again?" she asked.

"No, duh," I told her about yesterday's hang out with Dean, and what had happened when we were at the café.

"Wow," gasped Amy. "Unbelievable! He has gone too far this time. Didn't you tell your mom?"

"She wouldn't believe me!" I almost screamed. "I keep telling her, but she wouldn't believe me. It's like she's under a spell or something. He's, like, harassing me for answers and she doesn't see it. It's just not fair!"

I was close to tears now. I felt a little water coming from my eyes, but I swallowed them back.

"Just calm down, Kaley," Amy said. "I'm sure we can think of something to do."

"Like what?!" I snapped. "Jump off a building? Slice my wrists? Suspend from the top of Mount Everest until vultures feed off my flesh?!"

"Uh, let's not be suicidal here. We should have, like, a back-up plan or something."

I never thought about an emergency back-up plan. That would be a great idea. Amy was always prepared than I was.

"That's a great idea, Amy," I said, feeling much better. "I never thought about that. But what can we do to protect Dainu from Dean?"

We silently concentration for a little while, then Amy said, "How about we call or text each another? We can text each other some kind of code in case something is going to happen to Dainu. What kind of code should we use?"

"How about the Morse Code?" I suggested.

"No, that's too complicated and long."

"Pig Latin?"

"Too easy to decode."

We couldn't think of anything else to create a code we can use. I thought about using music for our code, but Amy said it would take too much time to play or download the right music to signal our secret code. But then it hit me like a meteor shower.

"I know," I said. "We can say 'code green'."

"Code green?" asked Amy. "Don't you mean 'code red'?"

"No, I mean code green. You know how Dainu is all green? When we say 'code green', that means that Dainu is in trouble or is going to be in trouble. Green is a precious color, you know? And we don't want something precious to be taken away from us."

"That's perfect!" squealed Amy. "Great idea! We'll be the only ones who know what code green means. If someone else hears our code, they probably won't think it's an emergency, like saying code red. They'll think we are talking about trees or something."

"Yeah! No one will know, but us. Man, I'm so clever! But we still need to keep an eye out for Dean. After what happened back at the café, he'll be on top of me like boulders, crushing me for an answer. Let's just pray he'll never find Dainu, and he'll go back to Washington, D.C."

"Right," said Amy. "I'll call Pam, and tell her about our code."

"OK and I'll tell my neighbor, Kyle."

We laughed and squealed excitedly at our new plan. I felt so confident, and so much prepared now. Dean will lose, and he can drive his sorry butt back to Washington.

I went out of my house and walked to Kyle's. I told him about the back-plan and the 'code green'. He nodded with approval. Dainu agreed with the plan too. Kyle then asked, "What if the military or whatever come knocking on my door, searching for Dainu in my house?"

That was something I hadn't thought about.

"Uh, well, maybe you can quickly take him out to the back and code green me so that I get him. I have an underground storage, and I can hide him there, and no one will be able to find us."

"Cool," said Kyle.

"But can I not use my flight ability, and soar myself out of danger?" questioned Dainu.

"No," I said, "It will catch their attention easily."

"She's right, Dainu," Kyle said. "If the military sees you flying away, they will notice you and chase after you more. It's best not to use any of your powers."

"Wait, I just thought of something!" I jumped. "Can you turn invisible, Dainu?"

"Unfortunately, no, I can only camouflage amongst the leaves of the trees, or in any greenery."

What rotten luck!

"Darn!" I fussed. "That would've been an easier way to hide from them."

"What about that government guy?" asked Kyle. "He's going to get more suspicious at you, and he'll catch you one day. What will you do?"

"I'm going to be cool and calm from now on," I said. "I'm gonna start being nice to Dean, so he won't be spying on me, asking me questions, or whatever annoying stuff he does to me."

"Be careful, Kaley," Kyle said.

"I will."

When I return home, I called Pam to see if she got the code green plan from Amy. She did and she told me it was a brilliant plan if Dainu was ever in trouble. I also told her that we should have decent conversations on the phone more often so that Dean won't eavesdrop or spy on me. I was going to play cool and calm towards Dean, so he would get to like and trust me more. He'll eventually think I'm just a normal kid who hasn't experience anything weird. And that will lose his lead on his investigation. He won't know what caught him.

I went downstairs where Dean was still watching sports on the couch. I stood and cleared my throat. Dean eyed me and got up from the couch. Was he expecting something?

"Uh, hi, Dean," I said.

He smiled. "Good morning, Kaley."

"Um, I just wanna say that sorry for mistreating you and everything. I misjudge you, and that is very wrong. I guess I was so upset about how people were treating Old Man Handy, my neighbor. So I'm sorry for everything and I want to become friends right now."

His smile grew wider. "I knew you were sorry. Thank you for your apology, I appreciate it. You're a great kid, and I would love to be your best friend, or BF, as you teens say today."

I laughed nervously, without him noticing.

He opened up his arms for a hug. I grimaced in disgust, but smiled quickly and entered his bear hug. Oh God, if only you would've saw my expression. I totally wanted to throw-up on him; I wanted to gag all over him until he was covered in nasty filth. I also wanted to squeeze around his diaphragm until he suffocated. But I couldn't do all of the above. So instead I hugged him back, without showing anyone disgust.

"Awww," Mom wailed when she saw us. "Look at you two. I knew you would get along with him, Kaley. See what getting to know people brings? It brings friendship and happiness. Oh, this is a Kodak moment." She held up her hands over her eyes to look at us in a camera view.

Stop, Mom, you're embarrassing, I thought.

"You have such an amazing daughter, Patty," Dean told mom. "I wish I had a daughter like Kaley, so I won't be alone. But that's OK, whenever Kaley's around me, I feel happy just by looking at her."

Lying scumbag!

"Oooh, this is so touching," Mom squealed and placed her hand on her emotional heart. She came down and embraced both of us. She was squeezing me like whipped cream on a cake.

This was going to be great. Absolutely, horribly, great!