The three Graces trooped downstairs, leaving Jake to sit by himself on the roof. "You can sit there til the cows come home!" Violet shouted at him, then ran down the stairs two at a time.

Andy was the first one to get to the kitchen; looking around, he quickly hid his three kittens in his hoodie pocket when he noticed the fridge standing in the corner. Violet dragged a stool to the counter, climbed on top of it, and wrenched open a cabinet door. "I'm STARVIN'," she declared. She suddenly fell silent. Deker turned around and stared. Lining the cabinets were packages of crackers, a few things of jams and jelly, a couple old dusty packs of instant soup which had never been opened, and a can of mustard. Andy's kittens, peeping from their hiding place in his hoodie pocket, screamed.

"There ain't no FOOD in there!" they squeaked. It was true; so much for getting dinner. Andy groaned and gave Violet a grimace. "We'll just have to make do," he said. Walking over, he opened the door of the fridge (greatly exciting the kittens) and rifled around. Deker pulled out a trash can and cleared out the cabinet. "I wonder what Granny actually eats," he pondered. Violet giggled and sat on the counter, banging her heels against the cabinets under her. "Prolly she eats worms from the yard!" she shouted. Andy turned and gave her a withering glare.

"We HAVE to go shopping," he said, shaking his head. "There's only some cheese and ham in the fridge, and a few gallons of milk." He stood on tiptoe and opened the freezer, where he saw a few bags of ice, some frozen strawberries, and a frostbitten fish. The kittens were very enthusiastic about this latest development in the realm of munching, and they attacked the frozen fish with gusto.

"We could make sandwiches," Deker suggested, pulling out a loaf of white bread from another cabinet.

"EW!" Violet protested, jumping off the counter and running in mad circles. "I don't like sandwiches! Let's order PIZZA!"

Andy pried the kittens from the smelly frozen fish--who knew how long it had sat in there!--and gave Deker a despairing look. "That might not be such a bad idea," he said, "considering we can only make some measly sandwiches from all this mess."

"With pineapple!" Violet shrieked in Deker's ear.

"ANCHOVIEEEEES!" the kittens chorused, dancing around.

"NO, we're not having anchovies!" Andy yelled.

"Get some snacks and we'll order some pizza or something in my room," Deker said, grabbing the white bread and the cheese. Andy quickly shut the freezer before the kittens could get at the fish again, snatched up the ham, and followed his older brother upstairs. Violet rushed into Granny's room, gave her a peck on the cheek, and then pounded back up the stairs, leaving her grandmother to stare after her.

Once the three Graces had clamored into Deker's attic room once more, Jake peered down from the skylight. "Order cupcakes!" he demanded. Violet threw her head back and laughed. "Yeah, get some cupcakes!" she yelled.

"Junk food, junk food, JUNK FOOD," Andy chanted.

"Good food!" Jake shouted down at him.

"Let's just rot our teeth out!" Andy said, waving his arms around. The kittens giggled. Deker rummaged around in his backpack and pulled out his cell phone, making Andy laugh. Violet grabbed it away from him and screamed, "Let's all order big COMBOS!" She flipped open the cell phone and shouted into it. "Hi, what's up, who's in there?" Jake snarled something about cupcakes and meat.

Deker wrestled his phone back and cleared his throat. "Go take a bath," he told Violet.

Violet frowned up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded. Andy laughed and pushed her out into the hallway. Violet shrugged and ran into her bathroom, turning the water on high and stopping up the drain. "I'll drown," she warned, poking her head out her door. "This bathtub is HUGE."

"You won't drown, yo!" Jules the Tomato screeched, jumping from his hiding place on the bookshelves. The kittens laughed and pawed at him, making him scream. "Get these nuts away from meee!" he shouted.

"Whaddya mean, nuts?" Andy asked him.

"ICE CREAM!" Violet's voice floated in from her room above the roar of the water tap.

Deker sighed and looked around. "Andy, restrain your kittens; Jules, don't be a wimp; Violet, we can't have ice cream and--"

"I'M DROWNING!" Violet's voice declared.

"NO YOU ARE NOT!" Deker replied, and, looking up the number in a dusty phone book which he'd discovered lying under his cot, called the local pizza place.

"Yeah, Pepperoni Pleasure services here, what can I get for ya?"

"You can get anchovies!" the kittens all three commanded, latching their sharp little claws into Deker's shoulder.

"Cupcakes!" Jake grinned.

"YEAH!" Violet screamed from the bathroom. She raced in, a huge soft towel wrapped around herself, and pranced about the attic.

"Get back in your bath!" Deker said to her.

"...Huh?" said the pizza guy.

"Oh, uh, sorry; we want to order--"

"ANCHOVIES!"

"NO! We don't want anchovies, you nimcompoop!" Deker said to the kittens. The pizza guy was thrown into stunned silence. Andy frowned at his brother for calling his characters a nasty name and Violet laughed wildly up at Jake.

"Take that back, Deker, or..."

"We want one cheese," Deker shouted desperately, "and one--"

Violet ran back and jumped headfirst into her bathtub, splashing water all over the place.

"Just make it two cheeses!" Deker shouted something about the address.

"Get off of him!" Andy cried, trying to pull his kittens off Deker's shirt. "Get off the PHONE!"

"Got it?" Deker coughed, then snapped the cell phone shut and threw it on his bed. "I'm exhausted," he said.

Ten minutes passed with the chaos consisting of Violet jumping in and out of her bathtub, not actually getting clean; Andy scolding his kittens; and Deker trying to keep Jules from jumping out of the window from shock. The doorbell rang just as Violet struggled into her pajamas. "I'll get it!" she shrieked, and threw herself downstairs.

"She's in her nightgown..." Andy said slowly.

Violet ripped open the door, looked up at the nerdy little pizza delivery guy, and said, "Yo, man! Where is my pizza? I'm hungry!" The guy quickly handed her the two boxes, which were warm from the fresh, fragrant pizza, and Violet pounded up the stairs again.

"Finally," said Daimon, walking in suddenly. "I heard you were ordering some kind of meal, may I partake of it?"

"But WHY does pizza sauce HAVE to be made of tomatoes?!" Jules demanded, but no one bothered to answer him.

The three Graces and their characters spent a happy evening munching on pizza in the attic room, getting the slices of pizza confused. Daimon was enthralled by the modern food and ate it happily, the kittens were disappointed at the lack of anchovies but were consoled when Andy drew from his bag a can of tuna, and Violet (as always) got the biggest piece when no one was looking.

That night, the two younger Grace children climbed wearily into their beds, happy and full and eager to see what the next day would bring. But just as peace was finally settling over the house and Granny was snoring softly, a thunderstorm rolled in from the west and beat about the house with crashing thunder and crackling lightning. The kittens got fluffy and climbed into Andy's bed, wiggling around until they woke him up. "Make us a milk shake!" they ordered him. Andy sighed and crept downstairs, watching the rooms light up and fill with shadows every time the lightning flashed. He quietly made a strawberry milk shake and ran back upstairs, bare feet pounding the carpet on the stairway. He didn't happen to look behind him, in the shadows of the kitchen, where Caspar stared with glinting red eyes after him, a crafty expression etched across his face.

Violet screamed and woke up from a bad dream. She saw Andy's thin little figure crossing the hallway and decided to follow him up his secret tunnel to Deker's room. The thunder was snarling above them as Violet delicately stepped around Jake's hulking figure, sleeping peacefully on the floor of her room.

Deker sat typing on his laptop, the light from the screen casting an eerie glow on the wall behind him and Jules snoring loudly on the bookshelves, when Andy and Violet crashed into the attic.

"HEEEEEEELP!" Andy screamed, holding aloft his milk shake. "They won't get off!" Deker looked up, startled, and saw that the kittens had attached themselves to the rim of the cup and were trying to slurp up its contents. Violet jumped in Deker's lap and climbed under the covers.

"We can't sleep," she sniffed. Andy got some leftover pizza and nibbled on it as the thunder crashed outside and the lightning lit up the walls of the attic room. Somehow it was safe here, sitting with his siblings on the cot in the darkness. Everything was safe and it was the beginning of summer.

The three Graces were fast asleep as the falling rain stilled to a drip and slipped off the evergreen branches. The ground was sodden as Jake, taking a midnight walk in the cool winds, prowled silently about the grounds of Granny's house. He stepped delicately like a cat, his tail lashing back and forth. The sky was dark with retreating clouds and shadows flitted in and out between the woods. No lights were on inside the house as the young dragon watched the moon peer from behind the clouds. He suddenly turned as he sensed a movement behind him. His piercing sapphire eyes shot into the shadows but he could see nothing. Unsettled, he spread his great multicolored wings and rose into the sky like a blue mist advancing into the heavens.

Red eyes glowed in the darkness of the pine woods. Caspar leaned against the tree, watching Jake fly away, then looking towards the house where the three Graces slept, ignorant of anything wrong. Upon Caspar's sharp face was a frightening expression of triumph.