Chapter 10

There was an awkward silence as both groups stared each other down. Alex's instincts were screaming at her to just run for the door and not look back. But chances were that guards were standing right outside, if not on their way. Maybe she could just freeze time and…wait, no, then mortal Harper would be frozen too…oh, there had to be some spell to fix this… "I can explain…" she uneasily began. "…uh, somehow…"

The pressure too intense, Harper exclaimed, "We did it! Well, technically Alex did it but we all went along with it so we did it too – "

"Look, I don't know who any of you really are, but I can't believe anyone would do something so mean!" Sonny yelled, on the verge of tears. "I've been trying to be friends with the real Selena ever since she was almost in Chad's movie, and now this? Why would you do something so hurtful?"

Though she had just been thinking of escaping this mess, Alex felt guilt start to creep up on her too. She had no idea that finding out the truth would hurt Sonny so much. And while she was self-centered, she was never purposefully mean to people she didn't even know well. "I…I'm sorry, Sonny. I never meant to hurt you at all," Alex began, with a deep sincerity that had Justin and Harper raising an eyebrow at her in surprise. "I was just using it as a way to get into the studio. I told Chad that I was here with Marshall, so I couldn't call him to let me in, because he'd wonder why I didn't get to the studio when Marshall got here."

"So, what, you're just a fan who snuck away from the tour group?" Chad guessed. When Alex nodded, he tilted his head in confusion. "Why didn't you just have the front desk call me and say that you decided to get here on your own?"

"B-because…" Alex trailed off, embarrassed. After all she went through, it could have been as simple as that? Really? But since she would rather spontaneously combust right there on the spot than admit such a humiliating error, she reasoned, "Because I thought Marshall would have heard about someone claiming to know him personally! Pretending to be Selena was just easier!"

Alex held her breath for a brief second while Chad considered her thin reasoning. She let it out when he only shrugged. "True," Chad admitted. "Security probably would have let him know. They tend to keep Marshall updated anyway given how many times they have to talk to him about Zora."

"Uh huh! And who knew if you had talked to Marshall already? You would've told security that Marshall said I wasn't coming, then again, they would have checked in with him," Alex pointed out. Since she was on the defensive, the reasoning came easier. Shame on Chad for trying to make me look stupid, she thought triumphantly.

Meanwhile, Sonny had been growing more and more upset. "Why didn't you just tell Chad the truth, then? I'm sure he would have been glad to hang out with you even if you were just a fan."

But Chad shook his head. "No, not really." While Alex smirked and Sonny glared at him, he explained, "Come on, taking those corny little So Random set tours is kind of lame. Actually, being a big So Random fan is kind of lame."

"Besides, I didn't want to get in trouble for sneaking into Sonny and Tawni's dressing room," Alex pointed out. When Sonny's glare was then directed at her, she added, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Okay, look, none of this matters," Justin snapped. "Can we just get to our punishment? I'd like to know if I'm spending the night in jail or not."

Before either of the stars could answer, Alex put up a quieting hand in her brother's direction, which made him glare at her too. "Hold on, I have to know. How I did you figure out I wasn't Selena?"

"Uh…I talked to the real Selena?" Chad offered, as if it should have been obvious. "I suspected something was up so I gave her a call. She is visiting family in Texas right now, by the way. And she thinks this whole thing is totally hilarious." He paused. "I have to agree with her, actually."

Furious, Sonny shook her head. "Chad! This is not funny! Someone tricked me into thinking I was hanging out with Selena Gomez all day!"

"Hey, that's your fault for being gullible," Chad pointed out, then smirked with satisfaction when Sonny only became angrier.

At that, Max gave the two a hopeful glance. "So does that mean we're off the hook?"

"Yeah, come on Chad! You can appreciate a good, uh, prank, right?" Alex quickly suggested. It would be so nice if they all just got past this incident. Unfortunately, she suspected nothing was that simple.

Her suspicions were correct. Chad just laughed at her. "You're kidding, right?" he said through his laughter. "Not only are you a huge So Random fan, but you did all this just to hang out with me, which means you lied and that you are a Mackenzie Falls fan. My work is already done. Peace out, suckas!"

"B-but I'm not…" Alex tried to protest, however Chad was already out the door. Which left the four with enraged Sonny, who still had her arms crossed and a ticked off look on her face. "So, uh…I guess you're not just going to forgive us and let us go, are you?"

Sonny shook her head. "Nope." She stepped aside and signaled to the hallway. At her cue, several irritated security guards back in. "Hope you enjoyed your day at Condor Studios," she said to the other teens. "Because you won't get another one."

That said, she stomped out of the prop house. As her brothers and Harper became extremely nervous, Alex gave the familiar guards what she hoped was a charming smile. "Hey, weren't you chasing us earlier? Yeah, sorry about knocking over that bucket of soapy water before. No harm no foul, right?"

But the guards paid her no attention as they each grabbed one of the troublemakers by the arm and started to take them out of the studio.

Despite his wife's total lack of faith in him, Jerry thought he was doing pretty well, especially since he finally understood what most of the Spanish words meant. What helped him translate was the Hollywood sign itself. He was able to judge from the sign's position if the directions were telling him to make a turn or keep going forward. Though Theresa had scoffed at him, he had to give himself a pat on the back for figuring that out.

For the past half hour, frustrated Theresa had been begging him to just admit that he lost. But there was no way he would when he was this close to finding their way out.

"Okay, according to this thing," he said as he tapped the GPS. "We're near to the main road. Only a few more turns." When there was no sarcastic response, he glanced at the passenger seat.

Theresa was fast asleep, tourist maps still in her lap. Jerry shook his head as he turned back to the road. While a little annoyed that his only company had fallen asleep, he was happy that he wouldn't have to hear her nagging. But he hoped he didn't fall asleep himself, since driving around the same roads for hours had made him more than a little sleepy. When they did eventually reach the motel, he was so heading up to his room for a nap, no matter what anyone said.

He breathed a massive sigh of relief at the scenery change after he made the next turn. Instead of houses there was…a wide dirt road, that led to a main street. He finally made it!

"Theresa!" he shouted. Excited, he shoved her shoulder to wake her up with one hand while he kept his other hand on the wheel. "Theresa, look! I told you I could do it! There's the highway!"

Still sleepy, Theresa blinked a few times while she straightened up and ran her fingers through her hair. "That's great. Make sure you stop at the first fast food restaurant you see so I can use their bathroom."

Jerry grunted with annoyance. Sure, she could pretend she didn't care all she wanted. But he knew that she was secretly impressed, even if she never admitted it. "I'll keep that in mind," he snapped. "Of course you realize this means you lost and I – "

His victory rant was interrupted when Theresa's cell phone rang. "Hello?" She paused, her eyes wide with attention. "Harper? Honey, what…you're where? Oh, Alex is in a world of trouble...Justin and Max too? I can't believe that Justin would go along with such a ridiculous…okay, Jerry and I are leaving the Hollywood sign now…yes we're just leaving now, I'll fill you all in later…well, if your time is up I'll let you go. We'll be there in about twenty minutes."

Though he hated to ask, Jerry gave her a questioning look. She sighed. "We need to pick the kids up from Condor Studios' holding room." At his panicked expression, she said, "I'll explain on the way."

"Let me guess – Alex," he replied. Without hesitation, she nodded. Jerry shook his head. Somehow, he wasn't even surprised that his daughter had been what ruined his victory, and any chance of a nap.

No matter what Condor Studios called it, the "holding room" Harper and the Russo siblings found themselves shoved into was a jail cell. So what if there was a cushioned bench, a carpeted floor, and a door made of bars that were painted a light tan color.

Under that paint, there were cold metal bars keeping them in. To Harper, it was jail.

She never imagined she'd ever be locked in a cell. Although, come to think of it, she really should have since she chose Alex as her best friend. Alex was constantly dragging her into crazy situations. It was really only a matter of time before one of those situations turned illegal.

"Well, I talked to your mom," Harper said to the others. She had been escorted back into the room about ten minutes ago, after she had been the one to make the dreaded phone call to the Russo parents. When she saw how tense and upset everyone was, however, she'd decided to keep quiet until she couldn't take the silence anymore. "She and your dad will be here in twenty minutes. They're leaving the Hollywood sign now." When the others all gave her incredulous looks, she explained, "I think she mentioned earlier that they stopped at some other places first, but yeah…your dad got them really lost."

"That's nuts…but then again, Dad still gets lost in Citi Field, so…" Justin said with a shrug.

Max shook his head. "Hey, he said he didn't get us lost, he just wanted to get some exercise!" When Justin gave him a meaningful look, Max's eyes widened. "Oh. You know, I did think it was weird when he stopped to ask that hot dog vendor for directions back to our seats."

"Ugh, this just isn't fair!" Alex suddenly exclaimed. She'd been pacing the room, ignoring the others' conversation up until that point, so her shout made them all jump. "After what happened in Puerto Rico, I deserved a good vacation this time around! But now, when Mom and Dad pick us up, they aren't going to let us out of our sight for the rest of the trip! This is going to be the worst week ever, and it's all because of stupid Chad Dylan Cooper!"

After a brief moment of quiet, Justin tentatively pointed out, "Maybe I'm missing something, but aren't you the one who pretended to be Selena Gomez?"

Alex gave him a death glare. "Because Chad invited me to hang out with him! And we got caught because Chad called the real Selena Gomez! And you know what, I'm mad at her too! Why does he have to be all…looking like me…" She paused as she realized how much she didn't make sense. "Oh, whatever, it's still not my fault! Which makes being stuck in studio jail and probably grounded for who knows how long totally unfair!"

"Okay, I'll admit that the rest of this trip probably won't be very fun but…think of what we got to do!" Harper argued. Her positive outlook couldn't be beaten down by studio security, apparently. "We got to spend the whole day with celebrities! Come on now, what other fan can say they got to sit in on a So Random rehearsal?"

Though reluctant, Alex shrugged. "I guess that was pretty cool. But you can't deny that the rest of this trip is going to be pure torture."

Still, Harper insisted, "Yeah, torture in Hollywood! Even if your parents drag us to all sorts of tourist attractions, we'll still be seeing LA! We could end up spotting even more celebrities! Or, you know, you can pout for the whole rest of the vacation, whatever you want."

"Yeah, I mean, I'm happy right now," Max added. "I got to hang out with Zora, and climb through some vents! This was pretty much the most awesome day ever."

They all turned to Justin, who glared. "Tawni Hart now thinks I'm the biggest geek in the world. I pass on my part of the uplifting speech."

"Yeah, but you got to talk to Tawni Hart, which never would have happened in a million years," Alex said with a laugh, then paused. "Hey, I think your little pep talk worked. I am feeling better."

Harper nodded, thrilled that Alex was finally seeing the silver lining. "It's like I've been saying since we got here! All that matters is that we're all here in Hollywood!"

"True," Alex confessed. "Plus we can spend the rest of the trip figuring out how to get away from my parents, and that's always fun! Of course, we just have to get past the messy business of Mom and Dad yelling at us when they get here to pick us up."

Harper, Justin and Max gave her angry looks and exclaimed in unison, "Us?"

Her hands on her hips, Alex replied, "Hey, you all went along with it, didn't you? As Mom and Dad have said many times, that's almost as bad as doing the crime itself." She then smirked at her older brother. "Especially for the person supposed to be in charge, right Justin?"

"Oh my gosh," Justin replied as his face turned white. "I-I was in charge! I forgot about that! Oh this is bad, I knew I should have stopped you from sneaking in! But no, I just had to see if you could pull it off!" He glared at her. "I hope you know that's the only reason I ever let you get away with stuff."

But Alex only laughed at him. "Right. Whatever makes you feel better."

"Come on guys, I'm sure it won't be that bad," Harper tried to assure them, though even she knew the argument was weak. "It's not like this goes on your criminal record or anything…I think…"

"Alexandra Margarita Russo, what did you do?"

Theresa's harsh exclamation made all four teens slowly turn towards the cell door, where Theresa and Jerry stood side by side, their arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Harper had told them to pick them up because Alex had wanted to sneak into the studio…but she hadn't explained more than that.

Nervous, Alex slowly approached the bars. "Hey…Mom and Dad…uh, this isn't as bad as it looks…"

"Don't you love when explanations start that way, Theresa?" Jerry remarked sarcastically.

"Okay, what happened was that I…kind of pretended to be Selena Gomez to get past security…" Alex continued while her parents' eyes widened. "Yeah, and it worked perfectly…until Chad Dylan Cooper called the real Selena. And, well, I'm thinking you can figure out what happened from there."

As the atmosphere became more tense, Harper rushed up to the bars so she could talk to Jerry and Theresa. "Hey, um, I know we're all in big trouble, but could you get us out first? Being trapped tends to make me panic."

Thankfully, her rising distress worked, so Jerry and Theresa went to fill out the proper paperwork that would set their kids free. However, when she realized that they would all have to face the parents' wrath in the car ride home, Harper wondered if they would've been better off staying in the cell.