Chaos reigned when Melody, John and Tegan returned from Florida, but it was not the usual kind. They couldn't help but notice the two mobile suits which were holding the roof up over the body of the house.

They pulled into the driveway and got as close as they could to the detached garage because the garage door was blocked from view by many members of the Maguanac Corps., who were supervising Quatre's circus elephant, Queenie.

Quatre ran up to the car and hugged everyone. He took Melody with one hand and Tegan with the other and pulled them toward the garage. "C'mon, John, you come too," he called over his shoulder. "Come 'n see what Queenie's doin'!"

When they reached the crowd that surrounded Queenie, the Maguanac moved aside to make room for the returning members of the family of their cherished little Quatre-sama.

"Look! Look!" Quatre cried. "Queenie's a Artist!" He smiled brightly. "She sure is a talented effelant!" he added proudly.

The garage had just been repainted in white, which was the color it had been and was the color it was supposed to be. No problem there. Where the paint job had gone awry was when Queenie had been given 2 large paint brushes and two buckets of paint--red and blue. Not only were there the wild brush strokes made with an elephantine flair, but "trunk prints" were randomly placed all over the garage door. They watched silently as Queenie continued her artistry; all three were at a complete loss for words.

"When she saw the paint she wanted to help so she dipped her nose in the blue paint an' made prints," Quatre explained excitedly. "An' then I 'membered that I saw a show on TV once that had an effelant paintin' pictures an' the people that b'longed to her sold the paintin's for LOTSA money. So I told Rashid that Queenie wanted to help paint on the garage an' he sent Abdul to buy brushes JUST FOR QUEENIE."

"Why--" Melody squeaked and then started over. "Why is the paint red and blue?"

"We was gonna have the Mog-a-nocks paint the 'Merican flag on the garage door 'cause we're pay-tree-ah-tick," Quatre explained, saying the last word slowly so that he would pronounce it correctly; he was proud that he had said it right the first time. "But then Queenie wanted to help so we're lettin' her paint 'stead. Treize says that Queenie is makin' 'ab-strack art.' Isn't it pretty?" Quatre admired his pet with shining eyes. "Look at how where she paints the red an' blue over each other that it makes purple! So there's THREE colors 'stead of only two! I think that's SO COOL--don't you? So the Mog-a-nocks are gonna paint the house to match!"

"But without Queenie's help," said Rashid, who had come up from behind; his deep voice startled them, but they were relieved to hear him say that.

"Rashid says that it would be too hard for Queenie to paint the upstairs part of the house, so he says that the porch an' stuff will be red an' blue 'stead. That will be so pretty!"

Melody patted Quatre's little yellow hard hat and said, "Rashid? May I speak with you privately?"

John and Tegan went to examine the goings-on with the roof while Melody and Rashid had a 'little talk.'

"Rashid," Melody said when they were out of Quatre's earshot, "you don't have to give Quatre everything he wants." She was especially thinking of how Quatre had gotten his elephant for Christmas, with just having made an off-hand remark about how fun it would be to have one.

"But see how happy he is." Rashid nodded in Quatre's direction, his eyes following the adored young boy's every move. "Quatre-sama is such a good boy and we, the Maguanac Corps, take great pleasure in his shining little face and happy smile, so we'll do whatever we can do to make him happy."

Rashid's attention had shifted entirely to the animated blonde little boy in his yellow hard hat, which was adorned with Rashid's goggles. Melody could see that Rashid had had his say, so trying to reason with him further would be an exercise in futility. She walked toward the house where John, Tegan, and other members of the Maguanac Corps were.

"Melody!" Duo came speeding toward her; she quickly hoped that he wouldn't accidentally knock her down. Like Quatre, he, too, was wearing a yellow hard hat, upon the front of which he had written his name in unsteady letters with a black permanent marker. He grabbed her and hugged her around the waist and held on tightly.

"If you let go then I can hug you back," Melody said, and he complied. Then he kissed her cheek right in front of everybody!

"We sure missed ya, but we been keepin' busy."

"I see that," Melody said, looking up at the various activities that were being performed in the attic. "What exactly is going on with the roof?"

Heero, followed by Relena, had made his way through the crowd and they were greeted with hugs and kisses. Relena had decorated her hard hat with lace that she had glued all around the rim and she had several silk flowers, which Melody recognized as having been taken from a floral arrangement in the living room, glued above the brim. She had a million questions and was chattering at ninety miles an hour so Tegan took charge of her while Melody continued to try to find out what was happening.

"Why has the roof been removed from the house?"

"OH--it's SO COOL!" exclaimed Duo, but he said nothing else because his attention had shifted to admiring the massive mobile suit nearby.

Since he was of no help, Melody turned to Heero.

"Well, the Mog-a-nocks wanted somethin' else t' do when they finished paintin' the rooms you wanted 'em to so Quatre heard 'em talkin' 'bout it an' he told Rashid" Melody rolled her eyes upward with a "Heaven help me" look "that the only thing we didn't get that we wanted when the Nursery was redec'rated is the laser lights that was Duo's idea," Heero explained. "'Member?"

Duo's attention was drawn back to the conversation when he heard his name. "It's gonna be the COOLEST ROOM EVER now!" he declared. "Relena wanted laser lights too since us boys in the Nursery were gettin' some an' Rashid said that was only fair."

"Then Quatre told Rashid," Heero continued, causing Melody to cringe inwardly, "that it would be a nice surprise to make laser lights for ALL the chibis' bedrooms--an' Tegan's too. He said that that would be fairer."

"So THAT'S why they had to take off the roof!" Duo finished with his typical enthusiasm.

Trowa and Wufei were putting on their hard hats when they came out of the house; they walked toward their returning family at a normal pace. Despite their lack of emotional display, Melody could see that they were happy to see her. Wufei even allowed himself to be hugged and kissed IN PUBLIC.

"Come an' see what we done inside," Trowa invited.

"Hey, Quatre!" Duo called, "it's time t' show Melody the surprise we got for her INSIDE the house!"

So Quatre came running and joined the little band of chibis as they escorted Melody through the house. They came upon Milliardo and Treize, who were calmly concentrating on their game of chess as if nothing unusual were happening; they took a break from their game to greet their webmommie. The smaller chibis were antsy and excited about showing their 'secret' to Melody, so the older boys wisely went back to their game and left the showing to the little ones. After all, they'd had NOTHING to do with what awaited Melody upstairs, and they were glad of that!

The chibis lead their bewildered webmommie down the hall because they had wanted her to close her eyes. When they got to the master bedroom Trowa said, "You can open 'em now." She did and they all shouted "Surprise!"

What she beheld as she looked into their normally pretty bedroom was that it was now a monstrosity in its new decor. In place of their beautiful floral bedspread was one that Melody was sure would win a "World's Ugliest Bedspread" competition, hands down. The material was greeny-gold and olive-brown and striped. The green-gold stripes shone slightly even in the dim light.

And covering the top third of the bed were shams and throw pillows; they, as well as the dust ruffle, were made of the same awful material.

Melody was even more horrified when Trowa and Wufei opened the heavy matching draperies and let the sun shine in; it looked even worse with the added daylight.

The walls had been painted a matching green-gold and a horrid olive-brown carpet had been installed. All of the furniture in the room, as well as the woodwork, had been painted to match the olive-brown stripes on the ugly new bedspread.

"We had lotsa trouble 'cidin' on the colors," Trowa informed her.

"'Cause we like ev'rythin' differ'nt from each other," Wufei added.

"So we 'cided that these would be the PERFECT colors since you don't already have them ANYWHERE in the house," Quatre declared with a look of great satisfaction.

There was a reason that these colors were not used in any room of the house: Melody hated, loathed and despised them! Passionately!

"Our beautiful room," she mourned inwardly. She looked at all of the bright, happy faces that were watching her; they were still wearing their hard hats but that safety equipment would not prevent the broken hearts they would have if she told them her opinion of the great alterations that had been made to their bedroom. It was now dark, dreary and ugly beyond belief!

"Are ya surprised?" Duo asked, looking up at her with his sincere big blue eyes.

Blue eyes were Melody's greatest weakness--especially Duo's--so she forced herself to smile and said, "I sure am."

They would just have to live with it. And think long and hard before taking another vacation.