Storm rubbed at her temples, stupid headache. There was simply too much to deal with while running the school. She wished she'd known all of this before taking over for the Professor, not that she'd had much of a choice after the Professor's death. Someone needed to be in charge

With a sigh, she rose and went in search of the kids. She found them hanging out in Ziva and Skylar's room. "I need all of you to take a trip to the grocery store, we need a few things."

Skylar smiled at her. "Sure, not a problem, we'd be happy to."

"Good, good, all right here's the list. It isn't long." She handed the list to Skylar before leaving the room, feeling a bit better that she'd at least gotten one thing off her plate for the day.

Ziva groaned. "Did you have to tell her we'd do it?"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I mean grocery shopping?" Ziva shrugged.

The curtain climbers appeared out of thin air, smiling widely. "Can we come with?" Mellissa asked.

Craig glowered at her. "Why exactly?"

"No reason, we just want to." She shrugged. "Ya know, get out of the house for a bit. We're growing children and we need fresh air and sunshine."

"Yeah and it sounds like fun!" Angela twirled, her tutu flared out as she did. "I'm even wearing my shopping tutu! See, it has shopping carts on it!" She pointed at her tutu. Sure enough, it had little shopping carts emblazoned on it.

Craig looked at Ziva and Skylar in question. They both shrugged. He sighed. "Fine you can come, but if you cause any problems you'll regret it."

Mellissa wrinkled her nose at him. "Oooh, I'm real scared!"

"You should be, we're going to ask A'Cadia to come with," Ziva told her as she headed for the door.

"Oh, come on that's totally not fair!" Stevie whined as he ran after her.

"No one said we were going to play fair," Ziva told him with a grin. She stuck her head into A'Cadia's room. "Hey, we're heading to the store for Storm, wanna come with so we can keep the curtain climbers in line?"

She smiled at Ziva in an evil sort of way. "Hey, why not, I like to see the fear in their eyes when the claws come out. Why let you have all the fun?"

Ziva chuckled and moved away from the doorway as A'Cadia walked over. Stevie sent them both a glare and stomped off down the hallway. "Guess he didn't like that," Ziva told her.

They made their way downstairs and met the others in the garage. A'Cadia arched a brow at her. "When did you get a car?"

Ziva shrugged. "I figured I'm here for the duration so the money I was saving for a house might as well be put to some good use."

Skylar squealed as she walked around the car. "Ooh, it's pretty. It isn't an Acura, but it's cute!"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "I don't need anything fancy."

A'Cadia tilted her head as she studied the car. "Well a Kia certainly isn't fancy, that's for sure."

"Oh, shut up and get in the car!" Ziva snapped as she pulled open the driver's door. She'd bought the Sorento because it had the third-row seat and it was cute. She grumbled and thought about seriously zapping A'Cadia as she started the car. She caught the smirk on A'Cadia's face when she looked in the mirror to back out of the garage and decided that A'Cadia probably knew what she was thinking, so she nixed the idea.

When they got to the grocery store, they made their way inside and Ziva turned to the munchkins. "You three had better behave!"

Angela gave her a wide-eyed innocent look. "Why would you think we'd misbehave?"

A'Cadia snorted. "As if you could do anything else."

Skylar pulled out the list as Craig snagged a cart. "Right, let's get this over with," he called out as he started down the main aisle.

Mellissa pulled Stevie and Angela aside as they watched the teens move away. "Right, let's go."

Angela smiled brightly and looked over at the cashiers. "Which one, Mellissa?"

Mellissa studied the cashiers for a moment before choosing one and walking over to a young girl who looked to be in her early twenties. Mellissa gave her a large smile. "Hello there." She squinted at the girl's nametag. "Helen. We need some help. Can you possibly give us some change?"

The girl hesitated a moment before answering. "Uh, change?"

"Yes, change. You know, coins in exchange for dollar bills," Mellissa told her as if she were less than bright.

"Yes, I know what change is!" the girl snapped at her.

"Well, then we've accomplished half the battle, haven't we! Now, can you give us change?"

"Fine, how much?" the girl asked her wearily.

"Twenty thousand," Mellissa said with a smile.

"Twenty thousand? As in dollars?" she asked awestruck.

"Yes."

"Where on Earth did you three get twenty thousand dollars?"

"That isn't important!" Mellissa told her.

"Yes, it is! How old are you three?" she shrieked.

"Well, we're six but he's nine, is that really important?" Angela asked with her nose all scrunched up.

"How did you manage to get twenty thousand dollars?" Helen asked them again.

"Well, we sold a friend's car, but we totally had permission!" Mellissa told her.

"Where are your parents?"

"Um, shopping." Mellissa hedged.

"I want to talk to them, right now," Helen told them, hands on her hips.

Angela shot Mellissa a look. Ziva and Craig walked up at that moment, looking less than pleased. "What are you three doing?" Ziva asked.

Mellissa sent her a large, bright smile, showing lots of teeth. "Mom, this lady won't let us have any change, see we have dollars and everything, and her nametag even says, 'how may I help you' and she's not being very helpful at all."

Helen sent Ziva a doubtful look. "Mom? You don't look old enough to be her mom."

"I'm not her mother!" Ziva told the woman.

"Mom! That's so mean, why would you say that?" Mellissa's eyes filled with tears and her lower lip trembled slightly.

Angela decided to get in on the game and she looked straight at Craig. "Dad, why is Mom being so mean?"

Craig's eye went wide and he gave Ziva a fearful look. "What? Wait, hold on, do not pull me into this!"

The cashier harrumphed at them. "I want the lot of you out of here! I am not giving these little monsters twenty thousand dollars' worth of change! And I do not believe that you two are their parents!"

Ziva spluttered. "Twenty ... thousand dollars ... change? Where? What?" Craig stood there looking shell-shocked.

A'Cadia and Skylar walked up pushing the cart and looked around at the group. Skylar scratched at her head. "What's going on?"

Craig gave her a look and stuttered out an explanation. The clerk filled in some of the missing information as he went, explaining about the supposed car sale. Skylar blinked several times when they had finished.

Stevie smiled at the two of them and then looked at Helen the cashier. "These are our sisters!"

A'Cadia growled. "That's it we're leaving!"

Mellissa squealed out a protest. "Noooo! We need our change!"

A'Cadia growled again. "No, you do not!"

Craig scooped up Stevie and tossed him over his shoulder. "Skylar, grab Angela would you."

Skylar dove at Angela and grabbed her up. Helen the cashier gave a satisfied little grin, put up her closed sign, and muttered something about needing a break.

A'Cadia scooped up Mellissa like a sack of potatoes beneath her arm. "Ziva, go pay for the groceries we'll meet you in the car." She sent the cashier a small nod as she turned for the door.

Ziva shoved the cart toward one of the other checkout lines. Helen was glaring at her, Ziva shrugged and tried to smile. "It was fake money, really, just ignore them. They are only kids after all." Helen harrumphed again and headed off for her break. Though she noticed Helen stop and talk to a woman wearing a manager's shirt. Ziva paid for the groceries and hot-footed it out to the car.

The others were sitting in the car waiting with the protesting kids. While A'Cadia and Craig put the groceries into the back of the cat, she yanked open the back door and glared at Mellissa. "Where is it?"

"Give you what?" Mellissa asked with a bat of her lashes.

Ziva emitted a low growl worthy of Logan and began searching Mellissa's pockets "I'll take that." She pocketed the cash she found. "I don't know where you got this from, but I'm going to find out!"

"Hey, that's ours! No fair!" Mellissa shouted at her.

"Too bad!" Ziva got into the front seat, started the car, and headed back to the school. They unloaded the groceries and told the kids to go to their rooms.

Mellissa sent her a glare. "This is so not fair!"

"It's very fair! You could have gotten us into a lot of trouble!" Ziva told her.

Mellissa poked her in the ribs. "That's our money!"

"I doubt it!" She looked at A'Cadia. "You should check your bank accounts there rich girl."

A'Cadia blinked at Ziva. "Beg your pardon?"

Ziva looked back at Mellissa. "Where did you get the money?"

Mellissa stuck her tongue out at Ziva, turned, and ran, with Angela and Stevie following close on her heels. Ziva swore, patted her pocket, and swore again. "The little monster picked my pocket! She took the money back!"

Skylar giggled. "You should have guessed she would do that!"

A'Cadia tapped her foot. "What about my bank accounts?"

"Figured they probably took it from you, that's all."

Logan appeared in the doorway. "Storm wants to see you in her office. Hustle."

They grumbled and headed for Storm's office. Inside, two police officers stood before Storm's desk.

Ziva stopped dead and stared at them and then Storm. "Is there a problem, Storm?"

Storm stood and glared at them. "Yes, there is. What happened at the store?"

Ziva swallowed hard. She explained quickly about the money, how the kids had wanted change, but she told Storm that the money had been fake. Play money. "We handled it, Storm. We took them out of there as quickly as possible. I apologized to the cashier. I told her that they were playing a joke. Obviously, she wasn't amused. I'm so sorry! I told her we weren't their parents! I explained they were lying about that! Honestly!"

Storm pinched at the bridge of her nose and looked at the police officers. Both officers nodded. One spoke up. "I believe her. I also think the clerk made a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be. I don't see a problem here. Just some little kids playing a prank. Sorry to bother you, ma'am. You have a good day now." They both left.

Storm dropped into her chair and let out a long breath, she waved them out of the room.

Ziva grumbled as they left, "When I get my hands on those three!"

"Forget that, when I get my claws on them!" A'Cadia snarled.

"Let them be, they're just being kids!" Skylar argued.

"They are not kids, they are menaces!" Ziva argued.

Mellissa hummed as she led Angela and Stevie down the upstairs hallway. Rogue passed them, looking slightly frantic. She stopped and looked at them. "Have you three seen my Prius? I went to the garage and it's gone! I can't find my keys either!"

"No, why would we know where it is? We can't drive!" Mellissa said.

"I don't know!"

"It probably ran off 'cause you never drive it. You're always with Bobby in his stupid car," Angela pointed out.

"Cars don't run off! That's ridiculous!" Rogue turned and strode off down the hall.

Angela shrugged and looked at Mellissa, who smiled and continued down the hall. "We need to get our change. Let's split up and start checking the rooms, we can leave the money in place of the change," Mellissa told them.

Rogue nearly ran down the others as she passed them coming around the corner downstairs. "Have you guys seen my Prius?"

Craig shot the others a look. "No, why?"

"Because I can't find it anywhere! My keys either! I need to talk to Storm!" She hurried off.

"Oh well, now that explains where the rug rats got the twenty thousand from!" Ziva snarled out. "I am so going to massacre them!" She headed for the stairs at a run.

"Not if I get to them first!" A'Cadia called out, hot on her tail.

The two were neck and neck as they hit the top of the stairs; they ran from room to room, searching for the three curtain climbers. They came to a stop outside Stevie's room. Ziva looked at A'Cadia and A'Cadia looked at Ziva. Then they both stared at the door to the room.

"You go first," Ziva told her.

"Hell no, you go first.

"Afraid?"

A'Cadia scrunched her face. "Yes. It is booger boy's room after all."

The others came skidding to a halt behind them in the hall. Skylar rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "You two are wimps." She shoved around them and opened the door to peer into the darkened room. She looked over her shoulder at them. "It doesn't look too bad inside." She entered the room and began looking around. There was nothing immediately apparent inside the room, no one under the covers on the bed and no one under the actual bed. The room, however, was a complete mess. Dirty clothes were strewn everywhere. The only immaculate spot in the entire room was Stevie's desk which held a bank of computers.

"Look in the closet," Ziva called from the doorway.

"Fine," Skylar said and slid the partially open closet door so it was fully open. There was a deep growl from inside the closet before something, two somethings, leaped out from inside. Skylar screamed and scrambled back from the closet.

"Oh my god, those are the largest cats I've ever seen!" A'Cadia yelled.

"Are those baby jaguars?" Ziva screamed as she ran forward, grabbed Skylar by the back of her shirt, and hauled her from the room. A'Cadia slammed the door shut before the two cats could follow.

Skylar panted, her eyes were wide. "I'm never going in there again! Ever! Do you hear me? Never! You can't make me!"

"Right, let's go check outside in the cooooouch house and see if they're in there." Ziva pulled Skylar away from the wall where she cowered.

Together they went outside and out to the cooooouch house. Inside they found the threesome tossing change at the cooooouch.

"What on earth are you three doing?" A'Cadia asked them.

"Feeding the cooooouch, what does it look like?" Mellissa told them.

"It likes change!" Angela said as she shoved a handful of quarters into the crack of the cooooouch.

"Yeah, that's what we needed it for!" Stevie added.

Ziva slapped a hand to her forehead. "Sure of course, totally obvious! Did you three sell Rogue's Prius?"

"No, why would you even ask that?" Mellissa gave her a blank look.

"Because you have twenty thousand dollars all of sudden and Rogue's car is missing. Wow, I honestly don't see the correlation between the two events," Ziva replied sarcastically.

"Well, neither do I," Mellissa said while still tossing change at the cooooouch.

A'Caida took a step forward. "Yeah, well we do. So, unless you want to say hello to the claws, you'll replace the car."

"Nope, you don't have no claws. You got close to those boxes with the Compound 13 in 'em. Remember?" She smirked at A'Cadia.

A'Cadia smirked right back at her as she released the claws. "Wanna bet, little one? I never got that close, Tiffany dropped the shield when she got freaked out and Ziva ran out before I needed to get near enough to the boxes to touch them."

Mellissa backed up a step. "Um okay then. Well, we'd be more than happy to replace the car, except we don't have the money. That is to say, we sort of fed the change to the cooooouch already." She gestured at the stuffed full of change sofa that Angela was currently replacing the cushions and patting gently.

"He's full now. Don't want him getting fat by overfeeding him!" Angela said.

"Great, now what?" Skylar said.

A'Cadia sighed. "I'll talk to Rogue about it, explain what the brats did, and replace the car."

Mellissa looked relieved. "You will? Wow, thanks!"

"You will owe me the money you little brats!" A'Cadia snapped out.

"Oh, right sure." Mellissa shrank back from the still exposed claws. She watched as A'Cadia spun around, stalked out of the cooooouch house, and disappeared. "You think she's mad at us?"

"Yes, I do," Ziva told her before she and Skylar followed A'Cadia out.

Mellissa turned toAngela and Stevie. "Well, at least we got to feed the cooooouch! Come onlet's head back to the school."