SIMON'S POV

I couldn't believe the nerve of that Chipette! If she didn't want me slowing down her progress, then she should have driven me home the first time I asked! This was all HER fault, not mine. I wasn't about to leave this car and give her the satisfaction of feeling like she won. Then, she would continue to act like a reckless daredevil secret agent and steal people's things! I had to talk some sense into her.

"If I get out, how do I know you're not going to drive off again in search of the card?" I asked, taunting her.

"Take my word for it." She growled through clenched teeth.

I gave her a snort of derision. "That's not happening. I'm going to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't invade anyone else's privacy tonight." I focused my blue eyes on her and stared in a way I hoped was menacing.

She countered my words with an argument of her own. "Funny you should talk about privacy Mr. "I put tracking devices on every bike in the neighborhood."

"That was for their protection! I wasn't spying!" I claimed. I wasn't proud of my past actions, but….they did help Officer Dangus find out Bocarter stole everyone's bikes once.

Eleanor shifted gears. "Don't you have lab security cameras that watch Alvin's every move?" She asked.

Yes. Yes I do. And for good reason. He's ALVIN. "That's to protect my stuff from him!"

"Whatever." She opened the door of the car. "I'm just saying…..You have your way of helping people and I have mine."

"My way of helping isn't illegal!" I screamed.

"Aaaaactually, it is." She pointed out. "So is listening in on people's phone calls with that little nanophone thing."

Well, now she was playing dirty. "I only did that ONE time. And I did it to Dave and only Dave." I explained. "Alvin was concerned that Dave was talking badly about him behind his back and I proved that he wasn't. That's it. Case closed."

She clicked her tongue. "Still, not legal."

"It's better than ANYTHING you've done tonight." I opened the car door on my side. I wouldn't dare leave the car until she did though. We stared each other down, similar to the sort of thing you would see in a western movie, for quite a while.

"Get out of the car." She groaned, her shiny green eyes beginning to show signs of lack of sleep.

"Not until you do." I told her.

"I will shove you out! Don't test me, Simon." She hissed.

I stuck my tongue out at her childishly. "Go ahead and try."

"Okay, on the count of three we'll both get out of the car, okay?" Eleanor tried to reason with me. "One, two, three…."

I sat firmly in my seat.

"Simon, stop being so difficult." She commanded.

I ignored her orders. I was sick of being treated like her assistant. How Theodore could stand to assist her baffled me.

"Fine. Fine. You win." She gathered up all her spy equipment and her robotic leg for pressing the gas pedal. "I'll leave first." She slammed the car door as she left in a huff, grunting as she tried to carry things that were too heavy to carry all at once.

I poked my head out of the car as I watched her struggle. "Need a little help?"

"No." She growled back. "I'm good. I'm good."

"You're clearly in denial." I stepped out of the car and grabbed my dinosaur patterned backpack.

"Oh go to heck, Simon!" She cursed as she lugged her briefcase, robotic leg, and forensics kit up the steps of the treehouse. A tenacious and relentless little thing she was, without a doubt.

"I don't have to! I've been there all night thanks to you!" I retorted angrily, pulling at the sticker on my forehead.

She reached the middle step and turned around to glare at me. "You're the worst partner I have ever had!"

"The feeling is mutual!" I watched her disappear into the treehouse and finally, finally succeeded in pulling the EVIDENCE sticker off. It was torture, like ripping away the world's stickiest band aid. I'm surprised it didn't pull out all my fur and hair.

My head throbbed as I entered the house. I tiptoed up the stairs, hoping no one had become privy to our loud spat. As soon as I got into my bedroom, I put my backpack near my mini desk and crawled into my bed. I didn't bother changing into my pajamas. I was THAT tired.

Unfortunately, my attempt at slumber didn't last long. Theodore flicked on Talking Teddy's night light eyes and scampered over to my bed. "Where were you?" My youngest brother asked, his lip trembling.

"Out." I answered.

"I heard you fighting with Eleanor about something." He whispered, confirming my fears. There isn't much he doesn't hear. His senses are tremendously powerful. "Where were you guys?"

Great. Now I needed to lie to my brother or HE would tattle to Dave and get us both in trouble. THANKS A LOT, ELEANOR! "Uh….she needed my help with something."

"What was it?" Theo asked, shining the night light in my face. Cool. Super. I was not going to get much sleep it seemed.

Suddenly, I knew exactly what to say to make Theodore stop asking questions. I felt like such a hypocrite saying it, but I had no other option that would make him go back to bed. "It's…..classified. But don't worry, we both...took care of it."

"Oh." The dirty blonde haired chipmunk in green frowned. "Dave was really worried when you didn't show up to dinner, but Alvin said you were probably busy with homework."

"Theodore, can we discuss this in the morning?" I looked at my digital clock. It read 1:07am. At least it was a weekend. I could sleep in tomorrow.

"Oh, sure. Sure yeah." He wrapped me in a giant bear hug. "I'm so glad you're alright." He said happily.

"Okay, so….goodnight." I yawned.

Theodore turned off the night light once he was back in his own bed. I took my glasses off and put on my sleep mask. Within minutes, I was fast asleep at last.

I don't remember all of what I was thinking about before I slept. That's odd since I usually have a very good memory. I know I wondered about Eleanor, and what she was up to. How many nights had she done things like this? No one else was privy to her secret world, and I felt like I'd only been exposed to half of it. I always assumed she was joking when she claimed "I'm a legit spy" or "I have tons of secret agent experience." You know, the same way Alvin jokes about being a bodybuilder, despite his scrawny arms suggesting otherwise. Now, it seemed like less of a joke and more of a serious problem. What if this baseball card thing WAS as important as Eleanor said? Had I somehow just doomed the world by not listening to that bossy heathen? I knew I had to stop thinking about this, or it would taunt me in my dreams. "Okay,..." I told myself. "Time to recite Pi to as many places as possible." 3.141592653589793238….4….something… YAWN….something. Zzzzzz.

ELEANOR'S POV

Back in my bedroom, I hid my mission supplies under my bed and crawled under the covers. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I was still angry from the confrontation with Simon. I had so much faith in him. He actually seemed to be enjoying the mission at some points. How did it all go so wrong? Maybe I poked him too hard when I told him I knew he loved adventures. I dunno.

He was wrong about the heist being nothing. I was sure of it. Heists are typically extremely difficult to guess schemes that rely on multiple parts. They operate on a sort of domino effect which is manipulated by a mastermind to get the results they're looking for. What seemed like a rare golden card could have a much bigger purpose than just….being resold online for an absurdly high profit.

I would show Simon how wrong he was. I would find a way to get that card, or at least find out what the intentions of those criminals are. Nothing could stop me! This is what my stealth powers were made for. I was a person, and a secret weapon….all rolled into one.

I slept really well, once I managed to stop thinking about the heist. When Saturday morning came, I woke up and met my sisters in the kitchen.

Jeanette was busy with her nose buried in a Harry Potter book. She's reread those things dozens of times.

"Can you make us pancakes?" Brittany, my oldest sister and a huge diva, asked.

I rubbed my eyes. Give it a rest, Brittany. I just got out of bed. "How about a good morning?" I snapped.

"Good morning." She squeaked. "Can you make us pancakes?"

I started getting out the ingredients. "You both are going to have to learn how to do this yourself." I murmured.

"We tried." Brittany pointed to a pile of dishes in the sink and a stack of burned pancakes placed nearby. "Well, Jeanette tried. I supervised."

Jeanette set the book down and rejoined us in reality. "I maaay have set the timer for 50 minutes instead of 5." She admitted.

"Pancakes are something that needs constant monitoring. I told you a dozen times." I fumed, as I got out the vegan pancake mix. "But whatever...I'll do it...because I have to do EVERYTHING around here."

"You seem tense." Jeanette remarked.

I shot some sarcasm her way. "Really? I seem tense! I can't imagine why that would be! Can you?"

Brittany studied me with her ice blue eyes that almost appeared white in the early morning light. "Something else is bothering you besides us." She noted.

I felt a shiver run through me. My sisters were normally kept in the dark about all my undercover operations and I needed to keep it that way. "It's nothing." I put on a fake smile. "I just….had a restless night. That's all."

Jeanette seemed convinced, but Brittany looked suspicious of me.

Once they were able to finish their pancakes, they both seemed to forget all about my weird behavior. Thank goodness. Since they weren't pressing me for answers, I was able to relax a little. I slipped into a chair in our living room and started scrolling through my phone to pass the time, as I tried to think up a plan to get the baseball card back. I needed to talk to that Jason Collins guy and interrogate him. Yeah! That's where I would start.

I walked to the front door and bumped straight into Jeanette, who had also been heading toward the door at the same time as me without paying attention.

"Y….You go first." She offered, holding the door open.

"Thanks." I walked through the door and she followed behind me.

I turned to walk in the direction of the sidewalk once I reached the bottom of the stairs. Jeanette turned toward the Seville house. I smiled at her playfully. "Going to visit Alvin?" I teased. I knew she spent a lot of time with her friend turned boyfriend. A part of me still can't believe they stayed a thing. Alvin is literally the most annoying person I have ever met.

"No." Jeanette replied, reaching down to keep the strap on her shoe fastened. "Simon actually. He called me and said he needed to talk."

My blood ran cold. THAT LITTLE SNEAK! He promised he wouldn't tell anyone about me…..Of course, that was before our fight. Still, Simon didn't seem the type to go back on his word.

"Did he say what he wanted to talk about?" I turned around to face my sister in purple.

"Uhh….not really. He said he wanted to ask me questions." Jeanette flapped her hands twice and then nervously twisted a strand of her brown hair.

"Ah, it's probably some trivia thing." I told her. Phew. Simon wasn't ratting me out after all.

She nodded. "I think so, yeah. We love doing random trivia challenges together."

"Well, have fun you two!" I waved to her and then I was off, racing down the sidewalk.

I got about two feet before I was stopped by Officer Dangus. Aw crud.

"What do you think you're goin', little missy?" He asked, bending down so close I could smell his flavored chapstick.

"On my daily weekend run." I fibbed, keeping my cool. "What are you doing here? Did Alvin blow up something?" I needed to get him to stop thinking about me. He tends to be very suspicious of me. After all, he wasn't too thrilled that I solved the mystery of Miss. Miller's vanishing carpet cleaner a few months ago….or was it years? Does it really matter? He told me to stay out of it and leave the crime stopping to adults. And I would, if most adults weren't USELESS.

The cop stood back up and adjusted his aviator sunglasses. "No, he didn't. I'm on patrol, if you must know."

I felt that chill again. Why was he patrolling this particular neighborhood? Had someone seen that Dave's car was out for a joyride? This couldn't be a coincidence. "Well, don't let me distract you." I told him.

"Have you been keepin' yer nose clean?" His thick southern accent sounded oddly serious. Usually, he's super chummy. He definitely knew something. Was he waiting for me to admit everything so he could take me into custody?

"Yeah. I got a huge box of tissues." I said, making a hilarious joke.

He laughed. "That's gooood." He told me, sounding less serious. "You keep mindin' yer own business and I'll handle all the craziness. Enjoy your jog and I'll see you round. Byeee."

"You got it, Dangus." I saluted him.

He walked away and, completely going against his advice, I trailed secretly behind him. Talking to Jason could wait. I needed to find out what Dangus knew.

It felt like I followed him for an hour. It was extremely boring. Most of the time he just walked around whistling. There was one time he got attacked by a swarm of birds….that was pretty hilarious. Just when I thought I'd never get anything good out of this round of snooping, he answered a call from the chief.

"Hi,...I know, chief. I know…...Are you sure it was Dave Seville's car?...Well, it coulda been a look alike!...The car's in their driveway. I checked….I can't keep walking back and forth in front of their house….Why? Why? Cuz it makes me look like a creep!...Okay, fine. We'll review the traffic tape one more time, but I'm tellin' you, it's not Dave's car." Dangus put his phone away and groaned loudly.

I gulped. Traffic tape? I hadn't even thought about that. When I ran the red light, they must have gotten it on tape. Dang it! Simon told me not to run that red light and I didn't listen. I may have doomed us both. Unless…..the traffic tape were to mysteriously vanish….so they couldn't zoom in and realize I was behind the wheel. I had a new objective. Get the tape, at any cost.

I zipped away from Officer Dangus and headed for the police station. It didn't take me long to locate the traffic tape….since Dangus was dumb enough to leave it sitting on his desk. As usual, nobody saw me go in or out of the building. I was entirely undetected.

With the traffic tape in my clutches, I returned to the treehouse and stashed it under my bed. Mission accomplished….unlike my failure the night before.

Brittany walked into the room and I grabbed one of her fashion magazines and pretended to read it. She saw me, and sat down next to me on the bed.

"Since when do you read Fashion Week?" She flipped her hair and looked down at her polished nails.

I shrugged. "I thought I'd give it a try, since you're always going on and on about how good it is."

Because Brittany has the IQ of a breadstick, my excuse worked. "Oh my gosh! If you like Fashion Week, you need to read these too! They're just as good and they'll give you so many outfit ideas." She dropped a stack of magazines in my lap. Great.

I was forced to listen to Brittany's babbling for much much longer than I planned. At least when she's busy talking about herself, she isn't asking questions about me. Both my sisters remained entirely in the dark. Too bad I still had to worry about the police force finding out about me. I needed to prove I was right about the heist and FAST!