Chapter 13- Pretending to be Steve

It was 6'o'clock and Bee was pulling into the Applebee's parking lot. She didn't see a sign of Tibby. But she saw a silver Lexus, so she went over there, and pretended it was hers, until Tibby came. She walked up to Tibby and said, "The reservations are good. We can go in anytime." Tibby nodded. Carmen had hooked up the microphone to the wig, under it, so Tibby couldn't see it. It was connected to an antenna in her pocket that had a satellite to the laptop in Bee's car. They walked in, "Steve, for two," Bee said to the host. They were seated right away at a small table in the back of the restaurant.

Meanwhile, Carmen was at Tibby's front door. She rang the doorbell. Tibby's mom answered, "Hi Carmen, Tibby's not here, she's on a date."

"Oh, I just need to get something from her room, I already called her and asked her," she lied.

"Okay."

Carmen ran up the stairs. Bee had said the pants were on her dresser. And right she was. She picked up the pants, dashed down the stairs and yelled bye to Tibby's mom. Easy as pie, or cake, I like cake. She got in her car and drove to Lena's house. Lena was sitting in the front room eating ice cream.

Carmen ran to the back of the house. Effie was not in the kitchen. She must be in her room, Carmen thought. She climbed up the ladder conveniently placed on the side of the house where Effie's room was. She reached the top when she saw through the window that Effie had headphones on, slipping on a shirt. Carmen banged on the window lightly so she didn't break it and so that the neighbors didn't think that she was a burglar. Effie didn't hear her. She banged a little harder. Effie still didn't hear her. Noticing that the window jiggled when she banged, she slowly lifted it up. It went up without any trouble. Carmen slipped in. she tapped Effie on the shoulder. Effie squealed in surprise. She took off her headphones.

"Carmen, you scared me!" she cried.

"Shhhhh! Sorry, but someone could easily break in."

A/N: If you have a house that is easy to break into, you might want to fix that.

"Um, okay."

"Here are the pants."

"Thank you!" Effie squealed.

"Shhhh! Lena's not supposed to know. Neither is Tibby, so tell me what restaurant you're going to."

"Applebee's, why?"

"No, no, no, no, no. You can't go there. That's where Tibby is. You have to go somewhere else."

"But he made reservations."

"Tell him you don't like Applebee's. Trust me, if you go to Applebee's there will be a natural disaster, and that would not be good. Effie, go to Chili's, order the ribs, they are good."

"Fine." At that point the doorbell rang. It was 7'o'clock.

"Bye Effie. Have fun, and don't you dare do anything to those pants. Oh, yeah, you have to be back by 9."

"Okay, bye Carmen, thanks so much."

Effie left, and then Carmen heard footsteps. "Effie! Did you leave yet? Effie, I need to ask you something!" Carmen quickly hid under Effie's covers. It was Lena's voice that she heard. "Effie?" she said as she entered the room. "Why are you still in bed, your date should be here any minute? Anyways, I have to ask you something, do you think I should've given the pants to Tibby? Maybe I should've given them to Bee or Carma." Carmen moaned. "Oh, you're not feeling good, well I'll call Jay."

"No, I already did," Carmen said in as much of Effie's voice as she could.

"Uh, okay. Um, feel better Effie." Then she left.

After she left, Carmen called Effie to tell her what she did. She told her to tell Lena, when she came home, that she felt better, so she decided to go out. She also told her that she had to be home at 8:30. Just then Carmen heard sobbing from the next room. It was Lena. She stuck her ear to the wall. Lena was crying all right, really hard. She stuck a glass, conveniently in Effie's room, to the wall.

"Why did this happen to me? I just wanted a boyfriend! Now everyone else except me has two boyfriends." Carmen was half-minded to go in there. But she couldn't blow her cover. She quickly snuck out the window and closed it. She got down safely and back into her car, parked a street away. She went to her apartment. She then got a call from Bee.

"Carmen! What time is this date over?" She asked, still in Steve's voice.

"You have to drop her off at her house at 9. Not a minute sooner. Because I have to put the pants back and Effie gets back 8:30."

"But what if she tries to kiss me?"

"Tell her it's too fast."

"Okay, I got to go, bye Mom."

"Bye." They hung up and Carmen turned Friends on. Her mom should be on her way home. She was starving. Just then her mom walked in and she was carrying 3 boxes of pizza. In the apartment were Carmen, Christina, Al, Lydia, Krista, and James, Krista's boyfriend. They dug into the boxes of pizza.

Carmen couldn't help but asking her dad, "Dad, um, why are you staying here?"

"Carmen," he answered, "Our house is being rented for a month. Your mom was as generous as to show us hospitality during the one month of the year that we can't live in our house. She saved us from gigantic hotel room prices." As he said that, he was looking at Christina.

"Oh," was all Carmen had to say. She finished her pizza and then checked the clock. It was 8'o'clock. She had a little less than a half hour before she had to go to Effie's. She got a call.

"Carmen!" Bridget quietly yelled into the phone, as Steve. "I have to go to the bathroom! What should I go into? If I go into the woman's there is a chance that Tibby might burst in. But if I go into the men's…"

"Bridget you have to go into the men's. There are stalls in there. Use those."

"Okay, but Carmen-"

"Bridget you have to, there is no way you can risk being caught by Tibby, especially after all the work we put into this." Carmen interrupted.

"Fine. I am really sacrificing a lot for us Carmen."

"Bye Bee, I love you too."

They hung up. It was now 8:10. Wow, Carmen thought, where does the time go? Lydia and Al were playing cards against Krista and James. Carmen decided to watch them play. Lydia and Al were losing so badly. She watched them for 10 minutes, when Krista and James won. It was 8:20, she had to leave. Carmen drove up to Lena's and stopped a street away. She walked to Lena's house and quickly ran around to the back. She climbed the ladder to Effie's window. She stopped when she reached the top. Lena was in Effie's room. She crouched down below the window, just so Lena wouldn't see her. She checked her cell phone, it was 8:30, and just then Effie burst into her room squealing, expecting to see Carmen, when she saw Lena. She checked under her bed. Carmen realized this was probably to look for her. Lena and Effie talked for a few minutes, and then Lena exited the room. Carmen quickly slipped in the window.

"There you are, I was so worried," Effie said.

"Well, I need the Pants, and good job covering them with your jacket."

"Thanks, here you go."

"Bye."

"Bye, and thanks for the Pants."

Carmen nodded as she, again, sneaked out the window. She ran to her car and drove 5 mph over the speed limit to Tibby's house. She knocked on the door, out of breath. Her mom answered once again. "I just have to put these back in her room-"Carmen started, when her mom just nodded. She ran upstairs and placed the pants on Tibby's dresser. She heard Tibby walk in. Oh no! Tibby's back! Carmen hit the ground and under Tibby's bed, because as Bridget said, that was the best place to hide. Who knew she would actually use it? Tibby walked in her room. "Mom," she said, "Don't ever touch my pants." She was talking to herself. She put on pajamas and went into the bathroom. Carmen quickly ran downstairs trying hard not to make a sound. She again yelled bye to Tibby's mom and ran out to her car. Why didn't Tibby recognize my car? Oh well, I guess it is a typical car.

Next she went to Bridget's house. She let herself in since the door was unlocked. She walked to Bridget's room. She opened the door and Bridget was passed out on the bed. "Bridget," she said, "you can't wear those clothes to sleep, what if your dad comes in?"

"Huh? Oh hi Carmen. Okay, I'll change. Bridget took a pair of clothes out of her dresser. She came back with a tank-top and some shorts on. "Thanks for waking me Carmen. My dad would've killed me if he saw me wearing something like that. I'm glad he's not here yet. He had to work late. Thank you so much."

"No problem, well, how'd it go?"

"Good, Tibby didn't suspect a thing."

"Great, we pulled it off. Just barely though. I almost got caught by Lena when I tried to get out of Effie's bedroom and when I tried to get in again. I almost got caught by Tibby when I put the pants back. Good thing you told me about the hiding spot. Well, I got to go, I'll see you later."

"Bye C- Carmen," Bridget said yawning. Carmen took her microphone and left. Phew, what a night!