Night fell outside as Gillian and Mickey were pacing around Gillian's living room entirely jittery from the four espresso's they both inhaled to stay awake to spy on Valerie.

"Did we have to this at night?" Mickey asked.
"Yes!" Gillian answered for the nineteenth time, "If it was day time, she'd see us."

"Well don't we want to talk to her?"
"Not until later. Right now we have to see if she's even home…and the basics to see if she's like…I don't know! Just go with it and stop asking questions."

They past each other pacing in opposite directions. Both were clad in all black. Mickey was sporting knee length sweats, a puff sleeve jacket, upper arm length sheer gloves, and low top converse. Gillian was looking even more Mission Impossible in a black jacket, long black pants, shiny boots, and mid forearm length gloves. Both sported knit caps that completed the ensemble.

Mickey nervously readjusted her long blonde hair, "I still don't think we should do this…"
"Oh come on!" Gillian tightened her two brown ponytails, "We have to! I mean if we don't…"

Gillian had to sit down. The thought of her dad leaving her mom for Valerie made her sick.

"Are you ok?" Mickey asked and paced faster.

"I'll…I'll be fine. It's all the espresso." she looked through the dining room door at the clock in the kitchen. "8:30. Let's roll."

For effect she stood up sharply then did a forward roll on the floor and jumped up.

"Jeez, Tom Cruise." Mickey joked.

"Shhh!" Gillian said bending her knees and walking low to the front door, she opened it slowly, grabbed her Canon camera, a flashlight, a black satchel, binoculars, two bottles of water, and they slipped out into the night.

Now, sneaking around at night is scary enough, especially when you're sneaking around to go spy on someone. Then your nerves are super sensitive to anything, head lights, crunching leaves…the jumpy factor is basically off the charts, even more so when you're two fourteen year old girls.

"Is this the place?" Mickey whisper yelled she could barely see the outline of Gillian's face from the light bouncing off the flashlight beam and onto the shrub in front of them.

"Yeah. 311 Russell Place." Gillian said trying to keep the light beam steady so the people across the street wouldn't see a dancing beam of light and get suspicious.

They both were creeping around the driveway, when the motion sensor light flashed on.

"NO!" Gillian said making a Tom Cruise dive for the bushes, Mickey followed.

They huddled there in the bushes for about twenty seconds until the light went off, letting out sighs of relief, they combat crawled through the shrubbery to the opening in the shrubs, the walkway, and the front door.

There were two tall windows on each side of the door, both in total view. Gillian leaned up and tried to peer inside, Valerie was sitting on her couch watching some symphony and yelling to someone in the kitchen.

Gillian quickly ducked down.

"What did you see?" whispered Mickey.

"She was sitting on the sofa watching symphony and talking to someone."
"Who?"
"I don't know!"

"Well look!"

So she did, she leaned up again and this time she caught the back of the person walking into the kitchen, Gillian gasped— loudly.

Mickey grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down shushing her also loudly.

"Mickey! MICKEY! She's not alone! She's in there with a guy!" Gillian whisper-yell-explained.

"WHAT?"
"Yeah, and I don't know who it was, but it looked an awful lot like one guy I know pretty well."
"NO! Weren't your parents at some dinner tonight?"
"I don't know…it was the Scorch benefit but I have no idea if he even went…"

"That's bad, Gil."
"I know." she thought, then snapped her fingers, "I could call him! Watch that guy in there."
Gillian wouldn't have to talk, just dial him from Mickey's phone and when he answered, see if that guy in there was talking on a phone and see if orchestra music could be heard in the background.

She put the phone up to her ear, it rang, and rang, and rang.

"Is anyone on their phone in there?"
"No. Valerie's on the couch talking, and I can see someone in the kitchen but they're not on their phone."

It rang one last time, then his voice mail message came up. She hung up.

"Ok, well that doesn't really tell us anything because he didn't pick up, and that guy didn't pick up." Gillian said.

"CAR!"

They both ducked.

When it passed Gillian looked in the window again just as the guy was leaving the room again. This time she was quicker, she snapped a picture with her Canon. But she forgot to turn the flash down.

"DANG IT!" Gillian exclaimed ducking down as Valerie came running to the window.

"What was that?" they heard her say.

"I don't know. Lightening." A guy's voice said.

"But it isn't raining…"
She eventually shrugged and went back to her seat on the sofa.

"That was so close!" Gillian said aggravatedly to Mickey like she'd been the one to forget to turn the flash down.

"I know! Now that we have a picture can we please just leave?"
"No because it was a flash through the window! It'll be like a star."

"Dang."
Suddenly there was a car horn and screeching breaks.

"YES!" Gillian said.

"Why yes? I think my ear drums just exploded…"
"No, because now…"
"What was that?" Valerie was at the window again.

Gillian turned her flash off.

Valerie went back to the couch and Mystery Man went down the hall to the kitchen, snap preserved forever.

"YES!" Gillian said, "Ok, now we can leave."

They combat crawled again, being careful around the motion sensor and ran down the street back to Gillian's house.

Slamming her front door behind her Gillian quickly dashed her black duds in the coat closet to reveal her shorts, and t-shirt. Mickey did the same, before flying over the couch and sitting on it like they hadn't just nearly been caught spying into someone's living room.

"I'm getting water, sneaking outside's someone's house can really make you thirsty." Mickey said, heading for the kitchen.

"Hey Gil." A familiar voice said as he leapt on the back of the couch.

"Oh hey Salem." she said.

"Where were you? You were here one minute, then gone."

"We…went out."

"Come on, I tried to take over the world, any meager law breaking you could have done has nothing on me."

"Well, ok. We kinda…were spying on Valerie."

"Woah, and did you see anything?"
"No. All that for one picture of some guy leaving her living room."

"Well, did this person resemble a certain someone we know quite well…?"
"Well, kind of I mean, he had dark hair…"

The door swung open followed by, "I am so sorry, once Annie's had one or two…" Sabrina made a gesture of holding a glass then tipped it a few times to indicate she meant alcohol, "She's a different person. I'm sure that'll eventually come out…I mean if cashmere's as versatile as I'm hoping…"

The two of them stepped inside, looking dapper, and as Sabrina was saying, on Harvey's red cashmere sweater was a giant dark stain, where Annie'd obviously not been paying attention.

"It's not a big deal, although Una was insistent on it. I'm not the biggest fan of cashmere…"

"Oh hey Gill," Sabrina smiled speeding up to greet her daughter.

"Hey mom." She smiled, after briefly hugging her mother, she went on to her dad, immediately being imprinted with his vodka stain, "Woah, Annie got you alright." She backed away
"Oh yeah. And with vodka, so I also haven't been the most fragrant all evening."

Sabrina returned from the kitchen with a bottle of Pellegrino and handed to Harvey.

"So tell me about your night. What'd you do?" Sabrina asked before pointing to herself, and her dapper evening gown changed into grey pants and white shirt that read, 'live the dream'.

"Um…well, it was really boring." she lied, "We basically just hung out."

"My mom said to tell you she says hey." Mickey called from the kitchen stairs. Upon entering the livng room and seeing Harvey and Sabrina she stopped short, "Oh hey!" she smiled, then briefly hugged them.

"Oh your coat's olive green." Mickey nearly shouted.

Sabrina and Harvey exchanged confused looks, then he said, "Why yes it is."
They both looked to Gillian for an explanation, "Well, she's interested in buying a coat for her grandfather and she's observing…"

"Well alright…" Sabrina said, "We'll be in the kitchen, that stain isn't going to come out itself," she declared, taking Harvey by the arm and escorting him into the kitchen.

Once Gillian was sure they were out of ear shot she said, "Way to be sly, Mickey."

Her sarcasm didn't amuse Mickey, "Well if you'd paid attention you'd have remembered Mystery Man's coat was brown. And your dad's is green."

Gillian gasped, "That's right! Oh my God, YAY!"

"See?"
"But you still didn't have to yell to him, 'your coats green.'"

"Don't be picky, at least you know he's not cheating on your mom."
"What?"

They both turned slowly to see a fuming yet cheerless Sabrina.

"Oh no…" Gillian said to herself.