A/N: Hey I forgot to mention on the last chapter that those are all legit quotes by famous poets, so I just thought I'd give some credit to Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Diane Ackerman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ben Johnson. Yes, I finally updated, and hopefully they'll be coming more often now that we're in the Christmas spirit! For now, enjoy Chapter 3: Maybe Natalie's on Drugs

Chapter 3

Maybe Natalie's on Drugs

Amy walked out of the room, and Dan began writing Natalie's poem. He stayed locked in his room for hours, not even coming out to eat dinner with his sister, which got her concerned. "Dan, this isn't normal. Eat something."

"I can't eat!" he shouted through his door. "I'm not done with Natalie's poem, and if I don't write it now, I won't be able to remember all the stuff I'm going to write."

"Okay, I'll leave a plate with chicken and corn in the fridge for you, in case you want to eat later."

"Go away, Amy! I need to focus!"

"Wow. That's a first. Good luck, Dan."

Dan stayed in his room until four in the morning when he finally finished his poem for Natalie. Then he came out, ate his dinner, and went back to bed.

The next morning, he was awoken by Amy pounding on his door and shouting at him to get up, "Dan! You have to get up and pack! We're leaving tonight!"

He rolled out of bed and landed on the floor. It was nine o' clock; he had gotten less than five hours of sleep. Amy didn't hear him getting up, so she opened his door, and threw a suitcase in. She didn't look where she was throwing, so she happened to hit Dan in the chest and knock him back onto the floor. "Amy!" he groaned.

"I'm sorry, Dan! I didn't know you were out of bed."

He just groaned again in reply, lay down, and fell asleep with the suitcase on top of him. Amy didn't try to wake him up again, but instead she walked to his desk and looked at the poem he had written. She smiled and silently nodded her approval. She placed the paper back on his desk and walked to her room to finish her packing.

"You know, it's kind of nice to fly somewhere and get picked up in a car and not be freaking out that you're gonna end up getting killed," Dan said to Amy. However, she didn't respond. It was five in the morning, and they had just arrived in England and were being chauffeured to the Kabra mansion. Amy was exhausted, but Dan's sleep schedule was out of whack because of Natalie, so he was wide awake. He was bored and had been talking to himself because the chauffeur refused to say anything. He hadn't even asked to take their bags; he just grabbed them.

When they finally arrived, Amy had woken up and Dan was just the same as before. The chauffeur carried their bags up and inside as they got out of the car. They followed him up the stairs to their rooms, which connected to each other by a door. Once they saw where their rooms were, they changed and went downstairs to eat breakfast with the rest of the Cahills. Amy sat between Sinead and Alistair, and Dan sat next to Ted and Reagan. There were two empty seats across from Amy and Dan between them where Ian and Natalie would be sitting. Servants came out with food on platters, but the Kabra kids hadn't shown up yet.

"Sorry we're late. Natalie was having some…difficulties," Ian said as the two of them arrived and sat down.

"Ian," Natalie hissed with an annoyed look on her face.

The meal continued, as did the conversation. Amy had no stutter, and was talking animatedly to everyone around her. Except Ian. Every time they looked at each other, they shared a weird look that no one could figure out, except maybe them. Dan was having a conversation with Reagan about the Red Sox, when he noticed Natalie looking at him weird. It was different from her usual expression, which said "I want to shoot you with my dart gun so much right now," but he couldn't figure out what it meant. He ran his brain through all of the "girl language" he had figured out from Amy and April.

Hmm…no, it's not "How dare you forget my _!" or "What do you think you're doing?" It's not "I hate you!" or "Don't do that!" Dan just shrugged. It wasn't that big of a deal; he would figure it out later.

After breakfast, Dan decided to walk around the house and look at the Christmas decorations. They were amazing. The Kabras had gone over the top, but that's not very surprising considering how much money they have. Even though it was Christmas Eve, he knew Amy would be in the library, reading, so he decided to stay out of there until he was bored and had seen the decorations in most of the other places. Dan walked in and was beginning to navigate through the bookshelves covered in sparkling red and green garland. He looked around one corner and saw an open area with chairs and a couch or two to sit and read on. Before he could walk toward his sister, he noticed someone else was there with her—Ian. They were kind of just looking at each other awkwardly, sitting on opposite sides of the couch. Dan really did not want to see what this would happen, since it looked uncomfortable enough already, so he turned around and walked out of the library. He was turning a corner in the hallway when he almost ran into Natalie Kabra.

"Dan!"

"Hi, Natalie," he replied, confused by her enthusiastic greeting.

"I was just looking for you!" she said with a smile.

"And I was not looking for you," Dan said as he started to walk away.

"Dan, wait!" she said as she grabbed his arm.

"Your hands are really cold," Dan could feel it biting through his long sleeve shirt and sweat jacket, so he slid his arm out of her grasp and hoped she would also get the hint that he didn't want to have anything to do with her.

"Will you warm them for me then, Dan?" Natalie asked, looking up through her eyelashes innocently as she held her hands out in front of him.

"I, uh, have to go check on a present."

"That can wait, Dan," she said as she kept walking toward him with a weird smile on her face. Instinctively, he looked to make sure she didn't have a dart gun or poisoned fingernails.

"It's your present," he explained, hoping this would make her want to let him leave.

"Oh, okay then, Dan. Have fun! Hurry back!" she called as he sprinted down the hall and up the stairs to his room.

As soon as he got inside, he locked the door behind him and caught his breath. What was that? Natalie never called him "Dan," and why was she acting so…creepy? Eh, maybe she just inhaled a little too much polish for her dart gun. Or maybe Natalie's on drugs. Oh well, it doesn't matter. I'm only stuck in this house with her for another, what, four days? I can handle that.