"Vicki, I can't take you to the store!" I heard Ally cry out as I woke up.

"But Awwy!" Victoria yelled back. "PWEASE!"

Dustin came upstairs with the mail. "Hold your horses, girls!" he shouted. "We got a letter from Vinny!"

Thank God, I thought. Finally.

"What's it say?" I asked Dustin, who brought us all downstairs into the living room.

"It says:

'Dear Simon and Jeanette,

'I hope the two of you are alright with your friends. I'm jammed at the office right now. There's so much paperwork that needs to get done that I won't be home for a while. I'm sending the five of you down to Chipmunk Island in a few days. There's no tuition price, so the five of you are getting all-expenses paid trips down there.

'Simon, I'm counting on you to make sure they get there safely. Good luck!

'Love, Vinny'

Oh, yeah. Sure, Mom. Leave me with the hardest job.

"Okay, here's the game plan," I began, "Ally, Dustin: you two stay here and start packing up for the trip. Jeanette and I will go with Vicki to the mall."

I heard a slight "Yay!" come out of Vicki's mouth as Jeanette, Vicki and I went out the door and headed for the mall.

When Vicki and I were in one of the department stores in the mall, she completely blindsided me when she asked, "Why do you and Jenny get all the cool powers?"

I had never thought of that. "I don't know," I said. "I don't know why I get all of the powers."

She grabbed a small bracelet with a charm and wrapped it around my wrist. "Perfect!"

"Um, Vicki... I thought you were getting this for yourself."

"Nope... You like it, don't you?" She was giving me the "puppy-dog face" as we walked towards the registers.

"I do."

"Then you can get it. I don't need it."

I ruffled her hair. "That's very sweet of you."

After checking out, Vicki and I made our way to the food court, where Jeanette was catching up with Alvin, Brittany, Theodore and Eleanor.

"It's so nice to see you again, Jeanette," Eleanor asked, sipping her smoothie afterwards.

"Yeah, we thought you were never gonna make it out," Alvin added.

"Well, let's just be glad she's here with us right now."

I laughed. "I couldn't agree more."

The four of them raced over to me. "Simon!"

Next thing I knew, I was getting cramped between everyone's hugs.

"Guys, you're killing me here," I told them.

"That's good," came another voice. "That means I don't have to see you."

I turned around. "What are you doing here?"

"Just back in L.A for a few days before going back to DC."

"That doesn't mean you have to ruin our little reunion, Charlene."

Charlene turned to her friend. "See, Savannah? I told you nerds were nothing but trouble."

Alvin pulled Brittany away from us. "We gotta go. Theo, Ellie: we gotta get back to the hotel."

"Right," Theodore said. "See you guys later."

Just then, Savannah dropped her bag. Being the gentleman I was, I picked it up for her.

I got smacked for it.

"That's what you get for touching my stuff," she yelled as I made my way back to one of the tables to rest for a minute or two. I wasn't about to test them again, but there still had to be some way to convince Savannah of Charlene's misbehavior.

And he knew exactly how to do it.