Why am I here? I thought to myself, staring at Professor Friday's house. I took a deep breath, then I walked forward and stepped onto the porch. My hand reached for the doorknob, then I hesitated.

"Go on, Amelia." The watch said gently.

I winced, and I grasped the doorknob and opened the door. I coughed as smoke blew into my face. I waved my hand in the air as I walked into the house, and then almost fell over as Connor ran past me.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted at him.

Connor skidded to a halt and turned around. "Madeline took my pudding!"

"Jacqueline Sparrow took your pudding." Madeline corrected, holding up a chocolate pudding cup with a spoon in it.

"Give it back!" Connor shouted, running after Madeline. Madeline bolted down the hallway, taunting Connor as she ran.

I stared after them as they disappeared down the hallway. I shook my head, then cautiously walked down the hall. When I got to the lab, I coughed again as more smoke went into my face. "What's going on in here?" I asked, waving my hand in the air to get the smoke away.

A soot covered Professor popped his head out of a strange machine and looked at me. "Oh, hi Amelia. I didn't hear you come in." Friday stood up and made his way to me. "I was just making something that no one else had ever made in the world and or thought of... No big deal." He smiled.

I only looked up at the middle aged man, confused. "You're crazy." I said bluntly.

He let out a loud laugh. "You could say that, but you could also call me brilliant, if you want." He winked.

I scoffed. "In your dreams." I mocked.

He seemed to float away a little after I said that, and he looked off into the distance as if he were thinking about something in the past. He began to squeeze his hands, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"Uh, hello?" I snapped my fingers in his face.

He blinked and looked down at me, then smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that," he said to me awkwardly, "I was just spaced out a little bit."

"Here's your sandwich, Professor!" Evelyn shouted, coming into the lab with a plate and a sandwich.

"Ah, thank you." Professor Friday took the plate from her. Evelyn smiled and looked at me, eyes sparkling happily.

"Amelia!" She shouted, bear hugging me. "Welcome back to our weird hideout, my friend!"

"Yay! Amelia's back!" Jericho shouted happily.

"Gah! Get off of me!" I pushed her away.

She let go and looked up at me, her smile still on her face. "Okay!"

"Can you stop shouting? I've seen kindergarteners act better than you." I said coldly.

"You know believe it or not, I had an eighth grader tell me that once, then I beat her butt in laser tag... We were on the same team, though..." She skipped towards the strange machine.

Professor Friday took a bite out of his sandwich and walked back to the machine. Charitie surprised me by squeezing through the door and walking over to them.

"Ooh! What's that?" Charitie asked, walking around and observing the machine.

"That is a portable-food-making-machine! " Evelyn did a little jazz hand routine. "Or for short, the P.F.M.M.!"

"Why on Earth would you want to make something like that?" I asked.

"Because it's cool! Now hush!" Charitie scolded. "So how does it work?"

"Well, you press this doo-hicky and then pull this thing-a-ma-bob, then you type in what you want on this what-cha-ma-call-it, and then it makes the thing-a-ma-jig you wanted." Explained Professor Friday.

"You don't even know what the things are called?" I asked in disbelieve.

He looked at me. "Hm? Oh, I do. I just like calling them something else that others can understand."

I shrugged. "Whatever you say, old man."

"What? You think I walk around with a cane and that I have dentures instead of actual teeth?" He asked, then he hunched over and pretended to have a cane in his hands. "Eh? What's that, son? Get off of my lawn, you wipper-snapper! And don't come back!"

Evelyn giggled. "Run, Cherry! He's after us!"

"Oh no! Don't get me with your cane!" Charitie shouted, then Evelyn and Charitie ran around the lab, 'Old Professor Friday' running after them and saying things like, "I'm gonna get cha." Or, "Come back here, ya little monsters!"

How childish can he get? I thought to myself as I watched them run around. What the heck made this grown man act like this? And why does he let random children into his house all the time?