"And if you wake up my older sister, oh ho, forget about it. She's worse than him!"
I had been listening outside the door for quite some time now. Nigel, Sonya, Lee, and Patty had been talking about the hair-cutting fate that awaited Shawnee.
"We've never run into an adult or older sister that we can't handle!" Nigel said. After a bit of mumbling, the three other operatives presented themselves. Nigel told Patty he better stay here.
"I'll go too," I said, sliding through the door. The looked up at me in surprise, wondering what the heck I was doing up here. Truthfully, I had been called up because I know everything there is to know about hairstyles, and I'm a near expert at getting gum out of hair without making it look as though your head's been attacked by a vaccuum cleaner. I grimaced a little at the sight of Patty's hair. "I can fix that up for you later," I told him. Then I turned to the others. "But for now, we've got a little boy and his hair to save."
We arrived at the house in record time and slipped down through the chimney. Someone hit the lightswitch and my eyes darted around. Sonya was standing there with her finger on the switch.
"Sonya," Nigel hissed. "Are you trying to let the whole neighborhood know we're here?"
"Sorry," she winced. "I'm afraid of the dark."
The green yo-yo Lee always held shot out and flicked the switch. Wow, he was really good at that. After a little more snooping (and the discovery that Mr. Boss was in the living room, sleeping) we crept up the stairs. I was pretty good at sneaking. I did it all the time at home. When a stair creaked, we all tensed. I waited a few moments, but no sound came. "S'alright," I whispered. We moved forward once Lee gave the signal. Nigel opened the first door. "Must be the older sister's room," he said, closing it after one look. "She's got more Rainbow Monkeys than Numbah 3."
"I didn't think that was possible," I mumbled.
"Which one is his?"
"I'm guessing it's the one on the end marked "Shawnee's room." I told them. We slipped quietly into the room. After a bit of persisting, Shawnee agreed to come with us. Just then Mr. Boss came into the room. Everyone started yelling. I took the opportunity to slip out. Something about this house seemed all-too-familiar….
I opened the door to the sister's room again. I peered inside. This was…Fanny's room? But why would she..
I made the connection all-too-fast. So fast I stumbled against the dresser. A mirror banged to the ground. Fanny woke up.
"Who's that?" she said, shooting up. "Oh, it's you Heather." She relaxed a little. "What in the world are you doing in my house?"
"Apparently," I said, "rescuing your little brother." I gave her the "we've been played" look, even though it wasn't so much a trick as an honest misunderstanding, and we marched down to Shawnee's room. But before Fanny could reach the door it was flung open and next thing we knew, we were on the ground. We sprung up, unhurt. I jumped over the rail of the stairs and landed perfectly on my feet. Fanny did the same. We raced around for about fifteen minutes, then everything came to a crash in the dark. I was first up.
"What just happened?" Nigel moaned.
"Allow me to shine a little light on the situation," I said, flicking the switch. Crumpled on the floor were Nigel, Sonya, Lee, Shawnee, Fanny, Mr. Boss, and a chair, all in a heap.
"Ok, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Fanny screeched.
Then she looked over the pile again. "Daddy," she said with a nervous-but-warning tone in her voice. "What did you try to do?"
"Daddy!" Nigel cried. "Mr. Boss is your dad?"
"Oh, keep up," I said, lightly smacking Nigel on the back of the head.
"OF COURSE HE'S MY DAD! THIS IS MY HOUSE!"
There were a lot of explanations to follow, some tears, and some hugs. "OK, how about some pancakes?" Mr. Boss said. Fanny smiled. Shawnee went after her, and I followed.
"Hey, do you kids want some pancakes?" Mr. Boss called to the three others, still standing in the middle of the living room.
They all started agreeing.
"Well then, GO TO A DINER!" he said, and stalked back to the kitchen.
"Come on," I said. "I bet I can coax him into giving you a few." They had to admit, I could charm my way into almost anything. We smiled and I turned off the light as I left, forgetting for a moment that Sonya was behind me. "Yeeep!" she squealed.
"Sorry."
I AM NOW TAKING REQUESTS OF EPISODES TO DO!