Disclaimer: Don't own the Tunderbirds, I'm only borrowing them.

AN: This story is for Queen of the Elven City who in one of her reviews of another story of mine asked me to do the stroy about Alan blowing up his school. What can I say - I like a challeng? So here is my version of what really happened at the school Alan "blew up".

Alan's POV:

Fermat and I ducked down beside the lab table, covering our heads. I could hear the panic voices of my other classmates as they tried to get away from my bubbling, smoking beaker of chemicals. Obviously the wrong ones.

I heard Mr. Caulfield voice giving orders. Ordering those closest to the door to leave the room and others to just get behind or under lab tables if they could. Too bad Fermat and I were on the wrong side of the lab table to climb underneath it.

Then I heard the small explosion above me. Heard the glass of the beaker break. Felt the pain as some of the liquid fell on the back of my neck and hands. I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Beside me though I heard Fermat's yelp of pain.

I smelt burning now and looked up to see the curtains on the windows now on fire. I ducked my head back down as I heard two more small explosions from up above. Evidently the chemicals from my beaker had been splashed into the other beakers at the lab table by the explosion and reacted with them.

'My father is going to kill me,' was the only thought that crossed my mind as I coughed from the smoke that was now filling the room.

One Day Earlier:

"A-a-alan," I heard a voice say urgently beside me, disturbing the cat-nap I had been enjoying. Then I felt an elbow in my side.

"Ow, that hurt," I muttered rubbing my side.

"Class is about o-o-ov-ov - finished," Fermat told me. "You slept through the whole experiment."

"Why did you let me sleep so long?" I asked him starting to wake up. I couldn't believe that I hadn't been waken up by Mr. Caulfield before this. It definitely wouldn't have been the first time my chemistry teacher would've caught me sleeping in class. The last time he had assigned me a short research paper as punishment.

I had been up late last night watching the news coverage. I know what your probably thinking - what is a fourteen year-old doing watching the news? Well to tell you the truth it wasn't the normal news broadcast I had been watching. It was special coverage of a terrorist attack in San Francisco, California. Some terrorist group had blown up some office buildings in the city and had attempted an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, the latter of which had been foiled by International Rescue. Once again, my Dad and brothers had been out on some cool adventure and here I was stuck at boarding school in upstate New York at the Churchill School for Boys.

Fermat had fallen asleep during the news coverage but then his father, Brains, was safely back at Tracy Island. I couldn't fall asleep until I knew it was over. Until I knew that my family was all heading home safely.

I think that's what I hated about school the most -being away from them. Sure, Gordon, Virgil and Scott all teased me unmercifully, even John got his pokes in when he was home. Then there was my relationship with my father. Dad and I were at odds most of the time I was at home but I loved him just like I loved my brothers. I hated being so far away from them. If something went wrong I couldn't be there for them and worse off I was alone.

Sure, each one of them may have attending boarding school, the same one I first got kicked out of two years ago, but they hadn't been alone, except for Gordon his last two years. Being only two years apart in age, they had all been in school together. And this whole boarding school thing hadn't started until Scott was about my age. After Mom's death. Up until that point my family lived in Florida. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like if we still did. If Mom hadn't died.

"Alan," I heard Fermat saying again. I definitely heard the frustration in his voice.

"Mr. Tracy," I heard Mr. Caulfield say. I looked up to see him approaching the lab table where Fermat and I sat. I also noticed that the rest of the room was empty. "Do you love chemistry that much that you don't want to leave."

I noticed Fermat take a side step so that he was standing behind me instead of beside me. I couldn't blame him. The only time he got in trouble was when I dragged him along with me.

"Ah, no. I just didn't hear the bell."

'Oh, that sounded real good, Alan,' I said to myself. I really needed to learn how to talk my way out of things better. That was one trick I hadn't learned off of Scott but I wish I had. Scott had always seemed to be able to talk his way out of trouble when he was in high school. Too bad I had only been eight when he was a senior or I might have actually been able to learn some of his tricks.

"Just like you didn't hear any of my lecture today because you were blissfully sleeping back here," he told me.

I felt my shoulders drop. So my nap hadn't gone unnoticed. I could feel another assignment coming up.

"I'm sorry, Mr Caulfield it won't happen again," I told him putting a smile on my face.

"Do you really think its fair for Mr. Hackenbacker there to do all the work on the experiment and you reap the benefits of that work. Your actual lab grades, the one that Mr. Hackenbacker gets for you, are the only thing keeping you from failing this course Alan," I let my head drop. I didn't like where this was going one bit. "That's why tomorrow Alan, you'll be working solo. Now normally, I wouldn't split a lab group up as punishment for one because it hurts the other too but as you sleep anyways your lab partner can just pretend your sleeping through another experiment."

"But Mr. Caulfield," I started to protest.

"Your missing lunch Alan," he said telling me that the conversation was over.

I quickly gathered up my things, grabbed my backpack and sulked out of the classroom. Tomorrow was going to be a disaster.

"I c-c-can go through tomorrow's ex-ex-experiment with you Alan, so you'll have an idea about what to do," Fermat offered as he followed me out of the classroom and down the hallway in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Thanks Fermat," grateful at my friend's offer. As much as I got him into trouble I wasn't sure why he kept hanging around. "I'm just not sure its going to help," I added beneath my breath.

"What was that A-a-alan?" Fermat asked me.

"Nothing important Fermat," I told him as we reached the cafeteria.

We found our normal table and put our stuff down and then headed toward the lunch line. As we joined the end of it I noticed the topic of conversation that everyone seemed to be talking about today. The Thunderbirds mission last night.

"Man, I wish I could be a Thunderbird," I heard a kid in front of me say.

'So do I,' I thought to myself. It didn't help any that I actually had a chance of that happening and the other kid didn't. Sometimes, I felt like my Dad was dead set against me becoming a Thunderbird. It was like I was always going to be destined to be left behind.

"So, what did I miss is chemistry today Fermat?" I asked not wanting to listen to the conversations around me. I didn't actually plan on paying to much attention to Fermat either but at least his voice would give me something else to focus on.

Jeff's POV:

Opening my eyes, I noticed the sun low in the horizon out of my western window. Suddenly panicked, I turned toward the alarm clock which read 5:30. I had set that thing for two o'clock. Somehow, I must have slept through it. Even then, why did the kids let me sleep this late, unless of course they were still sleeping themselves.

It had been five am when we had all finally gotten back here this morning and much later when we had finally been able to climb in bed and fall asleep. As tired as you knew you were, your body still needed time to wind down from the adrenaline rush it had been operating on.

I threw the blankets back, and quickly got dressed. I had to call John, and tell him that we'd be up there shortly. Scott was suppose to have taken his place this morning but we had decided to wait till this afternoon after the events of the night before. That was why the alarm clock had been set for two so we could be up at Thunderbird 5 by three. That was two and a half hours ago. I just hoped someone had been around to take John's call when it came in.

As I walked by Virgil's room I heard voices, which told me that he and Gordon were up. I hesitated a moment, thinking about knocking on the door and talking to them. I decided it could wait. I wanted to talk to John first.

I walked into my office only to see the back of a familiar blonde head. He had already started to turn around at the sound of the door opening.

"Good afternoon, sleepy head," John said a smile on his face. He stood up from the chair and threw his arms around me.

I hugged him back, surprised but glad to have him back. I tried not to play favorites with my five sons, and I did love everyone of them, but John had always had a special place in my heart. His mother had felt the same way too. When the kids were younger I always figured it was because John was quieter then the other boys. Had a gentler nature than the others and I always felt a need to protect him more and not just from the outside world but from his brothers as well. Since his mother's death I knew it was more than that. I had come to depend on John, both physically and emotionally. John had become my anchor. Without him, I don't know if I would have gotten through these past ten years. If this family would have made it through these last ten years.

I had never told him how much I depended on him. Had always thought it would be too much weight for him. Even now, he was only twenty-two and had so much to learn and experience. I also knew that he had learned and experienced more than most kids his age. All my kids had. I had a suspicion though that John knew just how much I depended on him even though I didn't say it.

"It's good to have you back," I told him. "But how did you get down here?" I couldn't help but ask him.

"Gordon and Virgil brought Scott up and brought me back," John told him. "They thought about waking you up but when Scott came in and realized you had slept through the alarm clock for fifteen minutes already he figured you needed the sleep."

"Definitely not as young as I use to be," I commented my body still feeling tired from the events of the night before. My shoulders ached and I wearily sat down in the chair that John had vacated. "Anything going on?" I asked him as he sat down in one of the chairs off to the side. I turned my chair around to face him.

"Business wise, everything is quiet. The mayor of San Francisco called thanking us for our help last night. They're still continuing clean up but everything is under control," John told me his voice even and professional. He sounded much older than his twenty-two years. "Smoke is still coming from Mt. St. Helens but there is no immediate indications of an imminent eruption. The storm that was plaguing Russia for the last few hours has died out without causing as much damage as was expected."

"However, on a personal note," John said the tone of his voice shifting from the cool professionalism to a more concerned and compassionate tone that he always used when talking about things concerning his brothers or our "extended" family here on the island. "Alan's school called. Seems Alan's been caught sleeping in class again."

"Which class."

"Chemistry. The last time he did that his teacher assigned him an extra paper to right. This time it seems that the teacher is splitting him and Fermat up and making Alan do the lab part of the class on his own. Should be interesting."

"You can say that again," I said softly thinking about Alan's not so stellar grades in Chemistry class. I couldn't help but wonder just how many classes my youngest son had slept through. " I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid. What could possibly be keeping that kid up so late at night to make him so tired that he sleeps through class?"

" I think the answer to that question is fairly obvious," John said in answer to the question that I had purely meant to be rhetorical. I should have know that John wouldn't let it go by without trying to answer it. "He was up late watching news coverage of the mission last night."

"You really think so?"

"Come on Dad, every time Alan's schools calls about an assignment not getting turned in, or him skipping a class or even sleeping during class, there has always been a mission the night before. You know how interested Alan has become in International Rescue the last couple of years. Even more now that Gordon is with us full time and he's the only one not involved in what is going on."

"He's too young," I stated not wanting my youngest son involved in the organization I had created at all. I already had four sons involved. Four sons that I put into danger every time I sent them out on a mission.

"Dad, I was thirteen, younger than Alan, when you started making your ideas and dreams for this organization into a reality and I was a part of it from the very beginning."

"That was different," I told him. "You and Scott helped create all of this. The three of us and Brains spent two years building Thunderbirds 1 and 2. How could I not let the two of you be a part of it after you put so much work into making this dream become a reality. Both Virgil and Gordon were sixteen before they became involved in International Rescue. Not to mention, that all of you still attended boarding school and graduated. The way Alan's going I'm not sure he'll ever get through his four years of high school before I run out of schools to send him to."

"Alan's just feeling left out Dad. He's the only one of us not involved."

"He's too young."

"Too young or are you just afraid to let him be apart of this. Afraid to put another son in danger every time strangers need help."

Before I even had a chance to answer him I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," I called out. I knew it wasn't Virgil or Gordon as my sons just tended to come into the office without knocking and I liked it that way. There was a time when I had gotten to involved in my work and my kids had felt shut out because of that. I wanted to be sure that never happened again. I wanted my sons to know that nothing was more important to me than they were.

"I was sent to tell you that dinner is ready," Tin-tin said as she walked into the office.

"Okay we'll be right there," I told him. As she disappeared again I turned back to John. "It's too soon. He's not ready," I said determinedly.

John just nodded. He had already said what he had to say and unless I brought the subject up again I knew I wouldn't hear anything else about it from him. Yet, we both knew Alan's age wasn't the reason I didn't want him to be a part of IR. We both knew that John was right. That the main reason I didn't want Alan involved was that I didn't want to put my fifth and youngest son in harm's way.

Still I didn't think he was ready. Alan's tendency to get into trouble and not pay attention to the task at hand was a problem. He tended to be careless and carelessness could get him or one of his brother's killed if he was out on a mission. Still, John did have a point. If I let Alan start getting involved in IR just a little bit then he might not get into so much trouble. Stop paying so much to news reports and a little more time on the task at hand which in his case was high school.

The two of us walked silently out of the office and down to the kitchen. Kryano, Brains and Tin-tin were already at the table. Onaha was at the stove dishing out the food she had just cooked.

"Where are Virgil and Gordon?" I asked as I walked into the kitchen.

"I think the boys went outside," Onaha replied.

"John can you go get them?" I said as I headed for the table myself.

"Sure Dad," John said although I heard a bit of hesitancy in his voice. It took me a few moments but then I realized where that was coming from. The last time John had come back from Thunderbird 5 Scott and Gordon had tossed him into the pool.

I almost changed my mind and told him I'd go but then decided against it. Surely, Virgil and Gordon wouldn't do the same thing this time.