CHAPTER 11

"What do you mean more attractive, sweet, and devilishly charming?"

-The Mummy Returns

I shook my head in disgust. "I can't believe I ever liked him." Elizabeth shook with silent laughter. "He always was a big fat idiot." she agreed. I glanced back at the O'Connell's, and sighed. "Okay. First, no talking to people around here, we don't need any confusion." I instructed, "Finally, if you're hungry, we can stop at MacDonald's on the way to the mall."

Before Evy could open her mouth, Elizabeth threw her the information. "Dr. Pepper, cheap, greasy food all that junk."

I glanced at Michelle, and whispered, "be careful." into her ear. I took Evy's hand in mine, and waved a sad goodbye to the rest of the family.

Little did we know that we brought one extra person with us on our journey across time.

The Curator smiled at his superior work he'd done. Twelve hours ago, he would've thought that the time travel thing was absurd. Now, it was his one way ticket to ruling the world. All he had to do was sneak up behind those two girls with the strange attitudes and the waco family and bang! He was in the future. And they didn't even know he was there. He figured that he would find where the book of the dead was, the one he was planning to use on Imhotep before those suspicious girls came out of nowhere. Out of his thoughts, the Curator looked up to see a familiar, battered old sign up ahead. The British Museum.

Elizabeth quietly turned the key to her apartment, and opened the door. She sighed with relief when she found her house completely empty. "Is it safe?" Alex whispered behind her. She nodded, and walked further in. Her mother wouldn't be home for another hour or so. Perfect time to do some digging around. "I probably only have clothes that fit Alex." Elizabeth said, "Since my father doesn't live with us anymore." she shook her frown away and walked into her brother's room. "He's away at college right now, so it's just me and my mom."

"Lucky you!" Jonathan grinned.

"It's not lucky, it's boring!" Elizabeth sighed. She began searching through her brother's closet. Everything was sorted in little baskets according to age. "My mom is kinda a neat freak."

She smiled when she came to the pile labeled 6-8. "These should fit you just fine." Elizabeth said, holding up a pair of red converse shoes, baggy jeans, and a green shirt. "You want him to look like a gangster?" Rick looked strangely at the clothes.

"That's the style these days."

"I could get used to these!" Alex grinned. Elizabeth pointed to the right hallway where the bathroom was.

"You're next O'Connell." she glanced at Rick with a wicked smile.

I grabbed my laptop from my room, and quietly took a few Dr. Peppers from the fridge. "Here. Thought you might want a bottle to yourself." Evy gratefully took the bottle, and downed half the bottle in one gulp.

"Good, isn't it?" I smiled, taking one myself. "But we should get back to business." I pulled up my online checkbook on the screen. "730 pounds?" Evy gasped. "That's a lot of money for a sixteen year old girl!"

"See what five years of babysitting can do to your bank account?" I said.

I moved the arrow towards the withdraw button, and typed in the number 300. "Time to go shopping!" I smiled. Evy looked at the money, and shook her head. "You can't spend your money on my clothes!"

"You guys are my heroes; it's the least I can do."

Evy looked at the screen, then back to me. "We'll go cheap, right?"

"Whatever makes you happy."

I held up the credit card between my fingers.

"Shall we?"

Elizabeth smiled when she saw Alex in his new attire. "You just look so cute!" she laughed, hugging him. "But you now reek of my brother." she opened one of the drawers, and pulled out a bottle of cologne. It was labeled 'chic magnet'. She took the lid off and gave Alex a couple of sprays. "Other stuff is really strong, but it attracts girls like moths to light."

Hearing this, Jonathan grabbed the bottle and dumped the whole thing on his clothes. "Nice." Rick smirked, seeing the empty bottle.

"Now we can go shopping for you two!" Elizabeth smiled. Rick and Jonathan looked uncertainly at each other. "Don't worry; I'm great when it comes to shopping for boys! I planned out my cousin's whole wardrobe for his wedding!"

Leaving the men be, Elizabeth slipped out into the hall, and into her mothers bedroom. Everything was just as she left it last time she went in there. Neat, tidy, and clean. She went over to her dresser, eyeing the top drawer. Her mother had told her if there was any emergency, she'd know where her secret credit card was. Elizabeth pulled it out, looking at it greedily. "Are you sure your mom wants you playing around with that thing?" Alex came into the room. "Well," she looked at Jonathan's soaked clothes. "This is defiantly an emergency!"

I opened the giant doors at the front entrance of the mall, and smiled at the familiar surroundings. I've been here many times before, but this was the first time going with a celebrity. "How do you like it?" I asked, dying to know what comments she had for such a wonderful place. "I- I think I'm in heaven!" she gasped at the millions of stores in front of her. "Every girls dream lies within these walls." I sighed.

"This beats chasing mummies around Egypt any day!" Evy laughed. I had to shake her out of het trance before moving on with the tour. "Journeys, Hollister, Abercrombie, the possibilities are endless!" I grinned.

We walked through all the hallways, pointing out all the good stores. When we came upon the Victoria's Secret store, Evy halted to a stop. She eyed the giant pictures of women in interesting choices of clothing like it was a horror movie. "Do people usually..."

"No, no, no, definitely NO." I said, disgusted at the new styles they now had at that store. "Okay then, moving on!" Evy shook the pictures out of her head.

We went on our way, trying to forget what we just saw a few minutes back. After some walking around, we finally made it to the store I was waiting for. Aeropostale. There, you can find the cutest clothes, (some of them at a rather high price) jewelry, perfume, and more. "Here it is!" I said excitedly. Evy was instantly all over a pair of sandals as soon as she walked in. I hesitated, and then looked at the price tag. "Fifty pounds?" I gave her a sympathetic glance. She sadly put the shoes down, and looked elsewhere around the store. Everything there looked fine, but Evelyn O'Connell needed something spectacular to wear.

I eyed a pair of jeans, boot cut. "I thought denim was only for workers." Evy said.

"Here, everyone wears them." I smiled, pushing the boot cut one back to reveal skinny jeans. I picked what I thought was the right size, and held it up in the air. "Perfect!"

Evy took a long stare at the jeans. "If you have twigs for legs, then sure!" she laughed. "Trust me; they'll make you look irresistible!" I reassured.

I handed her the jeans and began searching through different tops. Evy laughed when she saw one that had a picture of a pyramid and said 'everything's sandy in Egypt'.

"I know right." I smirked. Putting it back in its rightful place, I saw the perfect one next to it. It was an ivory white spaghetti strap top with a bright flower on the side. I grabbed a matching purple cardigan to go with it and pushed Evy into the changing room. Minutes later, she came out looking like a model. "Wow." I breathed. "Do I know fashion or what?"

"I love it!" Evy smiled. "The only problem is that I can't bend my legs to save my life."

"You get used to it." I walked over to the cash register to pay for the clothes. The cash register lady looked at the new Evy suspiciously. "Have I seen you before?" she asked.

"No, I'm not a million dollar actress sorry." Evy grinned.

"Fifty three pounds." the woman tried keeping her eyes off the potential movie star. I gave her the money, and glanced at the counter. I couldn't resist the temptation. I grabbed the gold necklace, along with a bottle of perfume and a pair of sunglasses and added them to the pile.

Once we got out, I handed her the accessories and smiled at the perfection. "Now nobody can really recognize you!"

Evy smiled, and gave me a hug. "Thanks for doing that."

"No problem!" I grinned, "We should probably head back to my place though." I saw the sun setting outside.

"And we better hurry."

The adventurer Rick O'Connell stood by the mirror, looking at his new appearance. He had on:

-a red Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt

-dark (NOT skinny) jeans

-a pair of new Vans sneakers

"Elizabeth, I'm not sure-"

"You look amazing Rick!" Elizabeth laughed. Her laughter grew in volume when she saw Jonathan struggling to button up his pants. His shirt came from the same store that Rick's came from, but his had the words 'question authority' across it.

"I don't think your sister will like that shirt." Elizabeth said.

"That's why it's perfect!" Jonathan muttered. Elizabeth jumped up from her bed, and ran into the bathroom. She came back moments later with a bottle of hair gel. "Meet your new best friend!" she said, dabbing it into the palm of her hand. She signaled to Alex, and put the gob of gel in his hair. "This stuff is like a date in a bottle." Elizabeth whispered to him. "neto!" he grinned, feeling his now messed up hair.

Rick paused, hearing a noise in the kitchen. "I think somebody's home." he said. "Oh great." Elizabeth sighed, shushing everyone down. She hesitantly opened her bedroom door, and gasped when she saw her mother standing by the front door. "Elizabeth?" her mom said, rather surprised at her sudden appearance. "I thought Michelle's mom said you two were at some lake house or something!"

Elizabeth forced herself to smile, keeping everything under her control. "Yea, well, we got bored and went home early."

"I see." she rolled her eyes at her daughters attitude. "Don't scare me like that!" she said.

"Well, as you can see mother, everything is okay with me!" Elizabeth started back towards the bathroom where her fugitives lay. When she thought her statement could become true, a man came out of the bathroom. "You're all out of soap!" Jonathan yelled, obviously oblivious to the woman standing next to his friend. "Why is there a grown man in your bathroom?" Elizabeth's mother shouted. "Jonathan?" Elizabeth groaned, pushing him back into the room. "Who the heck is Jonathan?"

"Can we just pretend that didn't happen?" she grimaced. Seeing the look on her mothers face told her otherwise.

"Can I also bring out the fact that I love you?"

Her mom pushed Elizabeth aside, and opened the door. Two grown men, plus an eight year old boy waved to the shocked mother. "Oh, didn't know there would be three of them!"

Jonathan got up to get his hat, and looked up to see Elizabeth's mother more carefully. He was very surprised of what he saw in front of him. She looked exactly like Elizabeth. The blond hair, the same smile, pretty complexion, and she was older too. "Um, hello." he stammered, sticking out his hand willingly. Very strange for Jonathan Carnhan. "Julie Princeton. I have to say, your cologne smells really nice!" she smiled. The two of them stood there, gazing into each others eyes for a long moment's time. Elizabeth waved a hand in front of her moms face, seeing no response from her. "eww!" she stuck her finger into her mouth. 'This probably isn't the right time to tell her that he kissed me a few days ago.' she thought. The only good thing is that she completely forgot about being ferociously mad at her daughter. "Why don't you take your friends over to Michelle's or something." her mom finally uttered. That was good enough for Elizabeth. She grabbed Rick's hand, and ran out for the back door.