"Daddy?" Zoe asked the next morning as she came down the stairs. "Can you please spend the day with us today?"

"No, sweetie, I'm sorry I can't, but tomorrow, I promise that I will." Zoe looked as if she were about to cry. He kissed her. "Have a nice day, Mommy and I have a lot of things to do today, so you just stay and help make Christmas cookies, okay?"

"Okay." Zoe agreed. Her daddy kissed her again and so did her mommy, and then they left.

Zoe rushed to the kitchen and was surprised to find that only Tessa was there.

"Where's Aunt Tess, and Aunt Gloria, and..."

"Don't ask me why, but they had to go out. Unfortunately, we have a baby sitter."

"Who is it?"

"Phil." At that moment Phil, the angel came in the back door.

"Hi!" the girls said.

"Hey girls, how you doing?"

"Good." They answered.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." They replied.

"You know, I am to old for a baby sitter." Tessa said.

"Well you might wanna bring that up with your Mother when she gets back, because she is the one who asked me to come here. Anyway, I'm sorry that I am late. So, what do you girls want to do on a cold, snowy day like this?"

"Play a board game of course!" Zoe said.

"There's something, I haven't done in a long time." Phil said to them.

"Good, I love board games, how about Risk?" Tessa suggested this, because like her Father, she was very skilled at the game of Risk.

"But it's about war." Zoe protested.

"Of course it is, come on that's the whole point."

"I've never played this before, I'm quite intrigued."

.........................

"Girls, we're back." Monica called.

"We're in the living room." Tessa replied.

"I love Risk, how you doing, winning as always Tessa?" Andrew asked.

"Of course Daddy, I always win, don't I?"

"Yes, you do." He said patting her on the head.

"Zoe, we have to talk to you. Come with us." Monica said.

"Good, anything to get out of this game!" She said, getting up and following her parents out of the room.

"Can I have your countries?" Tessa called.

"Whatever!" She retorted.

"Ha! I get all her countries!"

"Hey, Tessa, that's not fair, we should split them evenly."

"Okay, your right I'm sorry, we'll split them."

.........................

Monica and Andrew took Zoe into the kitchen and sat her down. They needed to talk. They had spent all morning at the police station, working with detectives and officers regarding Zoe's bizarre case.

"Zoe, honey we don't want you to be scared. Daddy and I will protect you at all costs, and you'll be fine. But have you noticed all of the bad things that have been happening to you lately?" Zoe thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"First there was the thing at the play, then the bike thing, and there were lots of other incidents that turned out to not be a threat to you directly. So what Mommy and I want to know, is do you have any problems with any kids at school?"

"Oh, yes. His name is Damien. He teases me and taunts me all the time. Calls me "perfect little Angel Girl," in a very scary voice."

"Did you tell him you were an angel Zoe?"

"No, of course not! Even Lizzie and Lauren don't know that!" Monica and Andrew looked at each other, they now had a piece of the puzzle that they could not share with the police.

Monica took her little girl by the hand and went to help her put her coat on. Andrew went to let Tessa and Phil know where they were going.

"But Dad, I have to go to my photo shoot in a half an hour."

"No big deal." Phil told her, "I'll take you."

"Really, you'd do that?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." She said.

"There, you see now, it's all settled. See you tonight." He kissed Tessa's forehead then he left.

..................................

An hour later Tessa was ready for her photo shoot. She wasn't nervous, after all this was just an assignment. Meanwhile, the thought hit her that she had no idea who her assignment even was! Maybe it was one of those times where she'd just know when her assignment came along, but that was very rare. Tessa rested comfortably in a director's chair, waiting to be given orders. It struck her as rather odd that there was an eight-year old boy, only a few feet a way from her. And obviously he was not modeling for anything, maybe the nineties grunge look which was slowly returning, but that's about it.

"Hi, Tessa." The cameraman said. "It is a pleasure to meet you, I am Jacque." He had a very heavy French accent. "This is my son, Damian."

"Hey, wait a minute, is you're little sister's name Zoe?"

"Yeah." Tessa said reluctantly.
"Oh, that must be why you are so ugly. You know, your sister is so stupid. I mean, she didn't even know that I have been playing tricks on her all break long!"

"Excuse me?" She asked. By now, Tessa had enough and she knew just who was bothering her little sister, and she now knew just why she was there.

"You'll have to forgive my son, he has no manners."

"Obviously." Tessa said. "Do you go to school with Zoe?"

"Duh!!!!" The little boy snapped.

.........................

"Mom, Dad! Mom, Dad!" Tessa screamed as she ran into the house. Her parents met her at the door.

"What is it Tessa?"

"I was at my photo shoot. There was a little boy there, his name was Damien. His Dad was the photographer. He was talking about Zoe. He called me ugly, her stupid and said that he's been playing tricks on her all break long. His Dad apologized, but I insisted that that just wasn't good enough. He gave me his phone number for you to call. He wants to talk to you." Tessa said handing her Dad the piece of paper.

"I'm going to go and see Zoe." She said.

"Thank you Tessa." They called after her.

"Your welcome!" She replied cheerfully.