Jessie and Nick were dressed in karate gi's and on the set for the "Teenage Warriors Reunion Show."
"If you want to be called Ninja Man," Jessie explained, "You got to learn basic ninja skills like karate."
As they were sparring, Dorothy staired at him romantically. "I can look at you all day," she said with a sigh.
"We had to bring Dorothy with us?" asked Nick.
"It's either this or let her interrupt Destiny's Child's music video taping for Myla's music Class," Jessie explained.
Mr. Guidi came in drinking some coffee when he spots Nick and Jessie sparring.
"May I interrupt?" he shouted. "You guys can't spar on the set of the 'Teenage Warriors Reunion Show'. My dad doesn't want any Backstreet footprints on the ring."
"But Jess was just showing me a front kick and a roundhouse kick," Nick explained.
"Practice some other time," Mr. Guidi said. "By the way, Nick, your sister is here to see you."
Nick was stoked, he got off the ring to go get change. Dorothy didn't know which sister Mr. Guidi meant. "Leslie, of course," answered Nick.
XxoxX
In the lobby, a beautiful blonde girl was waiting while humming a fairytale tune. Out of the elevator, Nick, Faith, Ginger, Nadine, Jessie, and Dorothy came out.
"Hey, Les!" shouted Nick as he hugged his younger sister.
"Thanks for inviting me, Nick," Leslie replied.
"Girls," Nick said to them, "this is my little sister Leslie. Les, these are Faith, Ginger, Nadine, Jessie, and Dorothy."
Dorothy couldn't believe her eyes. She was in the presence of an actual Carter.
"I remember you," Faith recalled, "from Kids Choice Awards last year, where you and Nick were being interviewed by Dave Aizer and he was interviewing you guys on life in a Carter house."
"You mean," Leslie recalled, "we get up-"
"We write songs," continued Faith.
"And we have a pie fight!" shouted both girls.
Nick became traumatized when they shouted "pie fight," because he remembered almost getting pied by his sister on live TV, hiding behind David and doing the sibling tick-tick.
"Speaking of pies," stated Big G as he came in, "I don't want any trouble at the bake sale today. We're raising money for costumes."
"No worries," Jessie said. "No pie-throwing of any kind will be permitted."
"Good," Big G replied. "We've been going by that rule since 'Up the Cakes' first aired 5 years ago. No unwanted pie throwing on live TV."
Leslie thought that Big G was being a little harsh. Nick, on the other hand, decided to get her warmed up for her performance. "That reminds me," Dorothy whispered to Nadine, "I have to lecture Nick on what to do if your sibling finds out about your secret"
"Being the eldest of five," Nadine replied quietly, "It won't be easy."
In the cafeteria, Big G was doing a pastry check to make sure they were not contaminated. That was when he saw Antonio and Cristiano coming in.
"Pops," Antonio said, "this is going to be the best bake sale ever."
"Whatever," Big G replied. "I just hope those Backfreak Boys don't screw it up. They've done enough trouble."
"Trouble?" Antonio replied. "They've been livening up the kids here, including ours."
Annoyed, Big G started inspecting the pastries. Amongst the goodies that were being sold were pies, cookies, brownies, chocolate cannolis, tiramisus, Bruttibonis, biscottis, and pignolos.
"Most of these are Italian dishes," said Mr. Guidi.
"They're family recipes," Big G said. "Your mother wanted me to commemorate her by selling mostly Italian dishes."
XxoxX
Meanwhile, in Downtown Orlando, a Zallegrean chef teleported down to Earth. He was Chef Zayden, bounty hunter and pastry chef.
"Remember your plan," Zator said on the intercom. "Fatten everyone upon this little planet. So fat that the planet will plummet to Earth."
"No problema," Chef Zayden said in an Italian accent. "The Earthlings will take a taste of my Zallegrean Pies."
At the bake sale, the place was packing up with the sale. Though they'd just come for early Valentine's treats, the Backstreet Boys were helping out.
On the performance podium, Leslie was performing her song, "Like Wow." Nick explained to Dorothy that he invited her only not only for a little sibling time, but get a little relative help thanks to Big G's cutbacks.
"That's good," Dorothy said. "I had to supervise my eight-year-old brother Donovan's field trips while my mom and dad are working at their successful insurance company. Plus, I had to watch my baby sister Joanna."
Suddenly, the Backstreet Boys and the Griff Gals started sensing danger. By the door, they saw a scary pastry chef sneaking into the studio. Big G started to notice too.
"When did we hire a new chef?" asked Mr. Guidi.
The Backstreet Boys and the Griff Gals knew that wasn't an actual chef, it was a Zallegrean causing trouble. Nick and Dorothy decided to check it out for themselves. Before thy could go inside, Leslie shouted, "I'm coming with you!"
Nick and Dorothy were petrified because she didn't know that they were Ninja Man and Diamondnix. Without a choice, they decided to bring her along.
XxoxX
Inside, they saw a trail of cookie dough. This was leading them to the cafeteria.
As they got in, they started to smell something like stale bread dough. On the ground, they could see dough rising up. And by the kitchen door was Chef Zayden. "Hope you like my bread house, because this will be your last meal."
As he left, the place was filling up with over-yeasted Zallegrean bread. Nick wanted to turn into Ninja Man, but he couldn't due to his sister's presence. Dorothy started to figure that this was a good time to lecture him, "Nick," she said, "you can only reveal your identity if it's an emergency like this. And when you're revealing your secret in front of your siblings, make sure they're not the tattletale kind."
"Nick," Leslie growled, "what's going on?"
Nick looked at his sister, then he looked at his friend, and then he smiled.
Backstreet's Back Alright
In the nick of time, Nick turned into Ninja Man, Dorothy turned into Diamondnix, and they cut and froze the rising dough. Leslie was surprised to learn that her brother was a superhero.
XxoxX
Outside, Chef Zayden was tossing pies at random customers, hoping that it would fatten them up. But instead, they were disgusted by the pies and were starting to get angry at him, "See, folks?!" shouted Big G. "We can't have any unwanted pie throwing here!"
By the time that Leslie, Ninja Man, and Diamondnix got out, they saw Chef Zayden armed with all sorts of pies. The two heroes had to stop Chef Zayden from escaping. Ninja Man decided to do a front kick and a roundhouse kick, like Jessie taught him.
With one pounce, Ninja Man did the same technique that Jessie taught him. *He's finally got it*, Jessie thought to herself. *I'm really proud of him.*
As Chef Zayden fell down, pies fell on him and everyone laughed. Chef Zayden was so humiliated, he teleported back to the Zallegran Galaxy, "So the rumors are true," Big G said as he walked up to Ninja Man. "These Cyber Crusaders have been helping the good citizens of Orlando. This is a job for the police. As they say in 'Snooper Dawg,' 'Let's see who this monster really is'."
Before Big G could remove Ninja Man's goggles, Leslie said, "Aren't a few kids sneaking away some pastries without paying?"
"What?" asked Big G. "Not at my studio, they don't."
With one shocked look, the Griff Gals and the Backstreet Boys knew that Leslie had found out. After five seconds of embarrassment, they began to smile because they knew that Leslie wasn't the tattletale kind.
After she winked at her brother, Ninja Man and Diamondnix quickly rushed to a bush and changed back to Nick and Dorothy, "Hey, guys," said Nick. "Did we miss anything?"
"You just missed Ninja Man and Diamondnix saving out studio," answered Mr. G. "Plus, my dad is complaining about a bunch of goths stealing some pastries."
Big G was yelling at Hone and her crew about stealing pastries. To avoid getting in trouble with their parents again, they used their guitar string money on the stolen pastries.
"Alrighty, folks!" shouted Mr. Guidi. "Who wants to see me juggle rubber chickens?!"
"Me!" everyone shouted as they walked up to the podium with Mr. Guidi doing his act.
Leslie walked up to her brother and smiled. "You're not telling Mom and Dad?" Nick asked. "Nor BJ, Angel, or Aaron?"
"And get you grounded at 22?" Leslie laughed. "No way. Your secret's safe with me. Plus I brought a little something for a little family time."
In her bag, Leslie got out a frisbee, "The classic fresh air game," recalled Nick. "Good job, sis."
Dorothy watched Nick and Leslie play with the frisbee, and it reminded her of how she and Donovan played it when they were kids. Then she started to smile.
XxoxX
Later that night, Dorothy was in her pajamas and in the guest room at her Aunt Alayna's home. She was about to go to bed when her mom's sister came in, "Did you remember to brush your teeth?" asked Mrs. Booth.
"I did," answered Dorothy. "Did you and my mom ever get into some sibling troubles when you were kids?"
Mrs. Booth took a deep breath. "How I remember when McKenzie and I use to play around the castle and sneaking one biscuit before dinner, in case the chefs took too long to make dinner. Plus, there were times where we found some of Father's old frisbees during my Cousin Emery's 10th birthday party and acidentally made the clown throw pies at himself."
This sounded a lot like what Dorothy went through today at the bake sale. Anyway, Dorothy was glad to be a sibling.
The End.
In Memory of Leslie Carter (1987-2012)