-Chapter 10 -
Luckily, she made back to her room without incident, without seeing anyone actually. At 6:05am, Penelope heard a knock on her door.
"What the hell?" she answered the door, genuinely pissed off because she'd just fallen asleep again, "Oh my god, Penelope I'm so sorry" Matt apologized. "I thought this was Rossi's room, we were going to go for a run"
"Rossi's going on a run at 6am?" Penelope said skeptically, "You really expect me to believe that?"
"Yeah" matt said slightly guiltily looking, Why did I let the others talk me into this idea, it really is mean to wake the poor girl up at this hour, he thought.
"Why don't you just come in and see for yourself that Luke isn't in here"
Matt laughed, but did take a couple steps in and saw that clearly, Luke wasn't in there.
"Now let's go make sure Rossi's up"
"Well, actually-" Matt started to try to say he'd changed his mind, since Rossi gave him strict instructions not to actually knock on his door at 6am. "Maybe that's not a good-" But Penelope ignored his protests, instead pounding on Rossi's door.
"What the hell Matt, you're only supposed to knock on p-" Rossi said as he answered the door, surprised to see Penelope and Matt.
"Simmons here told me he mistakenly knocked on my door instead of yours at 6am in the morning. Whose door was he actually supposed to be knocking on?" Penelope said in a loud enough voice that JJ was soon opening her door too.
"That's right. You all suck. If you ever wake me up at 6am again just for one of your stupid bets, there will be HELL TO PAY" she glared at them all. "Am I clear?"
They all nodded silently as she turned around and slammed her door shut. Matt looked at JJ and Rossi, "I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or feel really bad about that"
JJ started laughing, Rossi mumbled it was too early for this crap and they went back to bed, while Matt did actually go on the run that got this whole thing started.
Good call newbie, Matt "accidentally" knocked on my door at 6am, and they totally got busted when I knocked on Rossi's door and he answered it telling Matt he was supposed to be knocking on my door not his.
I'm glad it was worth the effort, I have feeling I will be hearing about this soon.
Luke decided to be one of the first ones' downstairs, so he showed up at 7:45am, and he struggled to contain the laughter as Rossi and JJ came over, they looked so guilty.
"Hey, thanks for waking me up at 6am. After your little stunt Penelope called me because she said if she got woken up it wasn't fair that I got to sleep" he glared at them, "what the hell did you guys do?"
JJ held up her hands "I had nothing to do with it other than be a witness when I heard Penelope practically screaming at Rossi and Matt"
"I'm getting to old for this crap" Rossi muttered.
Penelope showed up surprisingly early at 7:55, at about the same time as Spencer and Matt. She just glared at everyone till Prentiss and Tara showed up at 7:58. Prentiss sensed something had happened, "What's going on? why do you look so mad Penelope?"
"Oh please, as if you weren't part of that brilliant little plan" Penelope complained.
"What, did you and Luke get woken up to early this morning or something?" Prentiss teased.
"No, these two got caught, when Simmons woke me up at 6am, only to find my room empty, other than myself, because what do you know I was actually sleeping in there alone" she glared at JJ again to make sure she knew she was part of all this.
"And apparently, I didn't stick to the script because I thought I'd help Matt knock on the correct door, when Rossi opened it rebuking Matt because he was only supposed to be knock on MY door"
Pretty much everyone was looking down at the ground at that point, Penelope looked at Luke with her eyes sparkling. She was LOVING this.
"I meant what I said, if any of you try to pull a stunt like that again, I will make you pay"
"I'm sorry Penelope" Matt said, "They made me, being the new guy and all"
She looked at Luke "There is just something about Simmons, he's so dreamy, I can't really stay mad at him, but the rest of you" She turned around, and stomped towards the SUV with Luke laughing following behind.
"So you guys really were in your own rooms this morning?" Prentiss asked Luke as they walked towards the SUVs.
"Yes, why is that so hard to believe?" he added "I at least am smart enough not to wake Penelope up before the sun comes up"
"We honestly figured she wouldn't be in there, that she was up in your room, so you know Matt could accidentally get it wrong but when she didn't answer after repeated knocking it would be clear she wasn't in there" Prentiss said sheepishly.
"Well, a very pissed off Penelope is what you get for being wrong" he replied smirking. "I for one am loving not being the subject of her anger for once"
Penelope played up her being pissed at everyone the whole rest of the day, make them feel guilty enough that they brought her coffee, and lunch, and a neck rub, and fetched things for her. She even persuaded Prentiss to let everyone quit early, since it's not like they were making any real progress anyway and go out for a group dinner at around 7:30pm.
As they got back to the hotel around 9, Penelope was headed to her room, "I'm going to bed. Do not under any circumstances other than the hotel being on fire, or one of you being shot, wake me up before 7am, am I clear?" Penelope demanded. They all muttered a "yes" or "clear" in response.
"So do you guys think that they're really not together?" JJ asked Spencer and Prentiss as they were hanging out in the lobby, feeling too early to go to bed just yet.
"I know that I am not about to be wrong again, it's so not worth it" Prentiss declared.
"I don't know, I almost think Penelope is over-selling it" Spencer replied. "I mean does it really make sense for her to get that pissed off about getting woken up an hour early?"
"Well, Penelope is not a morning person" JJ commented. "But she is probably also playing it up, because she's still mad we made the bet in the first place, so that might be why she's overselling this particular thing"
"Call me paranoid, but could they have known about the plan and Penelope just came back REALLY early?" Prentiss wondered
"How? unless she's bugging our phones or something I don't see how anyone could get that lucky and figure out things that many times" JJ replied
"No, I guess we just have to admit it, they aren't couple despite seeming so much like one" Prentiss finally decided.
The next chapter (chapter 11) is rated M