Well, here's my first original chapter of The Sean Saga. Hope you enjoy it.
Read and review!
Chapter Sixteen
That Sinking Feeling
Primavera Hotel, Milan, Italy-2:49 PM
It was a gorgeous day in Milan.
This could be felt no better than at the city's prestigious Primavera Hotel. This luxurious five-star resort received visitors from all over the world to enjoy fine dining, a refreshing pool, and shopping that would make even the Beverly Hills Mall look cheap.
On this day, numerous hotel guests were just settling into their luxurious home away from home, lounging by the pool, or ordering a cold glass of champagne.
Sadly, this was all too short lived.
As one woman was relaxing by the hotel's pool, she noticed a slight tremor from underneath her chair.
When she reached over to grab her glass of champagne, she could see a slight ripple in the liquid.
Before she had any time to think, the ground beneath her started to rumble.
An earthquake, she initially suspected. And, apparently, the other guests started to suspect the same thing.
Until the ground beneath an umbrella dissolved away, taking it underneath them.
Seeing this, every guest there began to panic, running as far from the hotel as they deemed appropriate.
When they looked back, the hotel was gone, with nothing but a large gaping hole where it once stood.
Sean's House, Beverly Hills-3:15 PM
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Clover asked, as she, Sam and Alex walked up to the front door.
"This is the address Sean gave me," Sam answered, knocking on the door.
The girls had never been to Sean's previous apartment, though from what he had told them about it, this was an improvement.
The house was a two-story brick building with a long driveway being its only noticeable feature from the front. Though, according to Sean, it did have a pool in the backyard, which caught the girls' attention.
The door opened, revealing a woman who the girls deduced could only be Sean's mother.
"May I help you?" she asked.
"Ms. Warren?" Sam asked. "Hi, I'm Sam. And these are my friends Clover and Alex. We're Sean's friends. He called and asked us to come over."
"Sam," she said in recognition. "Of course. Come in."
The girls stepped into the living room.
The whole place looked nice enough, apart from the fact that it was filled with boxes, presumably filled with the stuff from Sean's old apartment.
"Excuse the mess," she continued. "We haven't finished unpacking yet."
"I'll say," Alex said under her breath. "The whole place looks like a cardboard box convention."
Sean's mother just laughed, actually amused.
"Sean's told me so much about you three. I'm glad he's finally coming out of his shell; he's always been shy, ever since he was little."
"So, where is he?" Sam asked.
"Oh, he's up in his room."
Then she turned up to the stairs.
"Sean," she called up. "Your friends are here!"
"Okay," Sean's voice responded. "I'll be right down!"
She turned back to the three girls.
"It's an honor to finally meet you girls."
"Likewise, Ms. Warren," Sam replied.
"Please, call me Rachel. Sean's told me so much about you, I feel like we're practically family."
She paid particular attention to Sam.
"You know, Sam, you're much cuter than Sean said you were."
"Huh?" the girls asked, Sam blushing just as Sean came down.
"Mom!" he exclaimed; his face redder than Sam's.
He came down to her side, mouth agape.
"Sorry about that," he said, still blushing.
"Mom, I need to talk to the girls... alone."
They followed him to his room, which they noticed was painted in a very soothing shade of navy.
"Nice digs," Clover said impressed.
"Thanks," Sean returned. "But I didn't call you over here to show you my new place. I have a problem!"
"Okay," Alex said, folding her arms. "What's the 911?"
Sean sighed. "Well, remember that short story contest I entered?"
"How could I forget?" Clover said, dreamily. "The winner of the contest gets free shopping in the Beverly Hills Mall for a year! I've so been psyched about you winning, I mean there's a totally cute pair of earrings I've had my eye on for, like, ever!"
"Well, I haven't won yet," Sean replied dryly. "And my chances of winning are slim."
"Why's that?" Sam asked.
"Because... I lost my rough draft," he admitted.
"WHAT?!" all three chorused.
They just stood there, arms limp.
"I don't have it on me, and If I don't turn it in by 4:00, I'll be disqualified!"
"This is bad," Alex said. "Like, socks with sandals bad."
"Tell me about!" Clover exclaimed.
"Wow," Sam said. "I didn't know you were worried so much about Sean."
"Are you kidding?!" Clover shrieked. "I might as well stay out of the mall for a year!"
Sam and Sean narrowed their eyes, making Clover nervous.
"And of course, I'm worried about Sean," she added quickly.
"Nice save," Alex whispered to her.
Ignoring the two, Sam turned back to Sean.
"So, do you remember where you last had it?" she asked.
"Well," Sean answered. "Let's see, I was working on it all day yesterday, at lunch, study period, the mall. Okay the mall is where I was writing on it last. I was sitting down with it when...
Flashback
Sean sat alone at a table in the food court, tapping his pen against the stack of papers. Occasionally, he would scribble something on the paper.
Looking over his work, he smiled to himself.
"Looks good so far," he said to himself.
"Sean!" he heard a voice call out.
He turned to the left to see Sam, Alex, and Clover walking towards him.
"Oh, hey girls," he greeted.
Alex, the one who called out to him earlier, smiled.
"How's the writing going?" she asked.
Sean flashed a grin of his own.
"Very good," he responded.
"I hope it's good," Clover said. "That gold gift card they're giving out is totally worth it!"
Sean laughed softly to himself. He didn't really care about the card, seeing as how the winner's story would also be published in Beverly Review, one of the best-selling literary magazines in Southern California.
"So, what's it about?" Sam asked.
"Well," he began. "It's about a girl who-"
"Wait!" Clover interrupted, dreamily. "Let me guess, falls in love with a vampire?!"
"Uh... no. That's already a book. Besides, who in their right mind would read a story like that? No, it's about a girl who's, well, a spy."
"Huh," Sam sighed, looking over his draft.
"Wow!" she exclaimed. "This is amazing! Sean, you have a gift!"
"Uh..." he droned off, face turning red. "Thanks."
"Hey!" Alex shouted, looking off in the distance.
"They're giving out free frozen yogurt samples! Let's go!"
And all three followed her, but unbeknownst to Sean, he left his draft behind at the table... long enough for a slender hand to reach out and take it, laughing nasally.
"And that's the last time I saw it," Sean finished.
Then realization dawned on him and the girls.
"It's gotta be at the mall!" they all exclaimed in unison.
Beverly Hills Mall-3:58 PM
"I don't understand!" Sean lamented. He and the girls had reached the table in the coffee shop he had been sitting at the day before, but still no paper.
"It was right here!"
"Okay, don't panic," Sam tried to reassure him.
"Maybe someone turned into the lost and found," Alex suggested.
"It's a draft for a short story, Alex, not a handbag!" Sean cried, his hands tugging at his hair.
He looked at his watch.
"The contest ends in one minute, and I don't have anything to enter!"
"So, just write it again," Clover stated bluntly. "I mean, after all, isn't that, like your thing?"
Sean turned around to face her, aghast.
"In one minute?! Clover, it took me a week just to write one story! I can't come up with anything that fast! Besides, I don't remember what I wrote!"
He groaned in frustration, sinking to the floor in despair.
Sam knelt down to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," she said softly. "It's okay. I'm sure someone responsible found it."
That was when they heard an all too familiar laugh.
"A voice that annoying," Clover growled. "Could only belong to..."
"Mandy," the others finished for her.
Indeed, Mandy had strolled into the coffee house like she owned it.
"Well," she sneered. "If it isn't the Three Stooge-ettes and their mascot!"
Sean's panic became annoyance, then anger.
"Mascot? Seriously, Mandy? You couldn't come with up anything better?"
Mandy ignored him.
"What are you doing here anyway, Mandy?" Clover asked. "Don't you have to return that gross old wig of yours?"
"What wig?!" Mandy asked indignantly.
"Oh, wait," Clover corrected herself. "That's your hair."
Sam, Alex, and even Sean found themselves laughing at Clover's remark.
Mandy's eye twitched, but it soon stopped.
"For your information," she went on. "I'm waiting for the Beverly Hills Young Authors Committee to hand me my gold card."
"You entered that contest?" Alex asked. "But you hate writing!"
"True, but I love shopping, especially shopping that's free!"
"Well, I wouldn't hold my breath," Sean said. "They haven't declared a winner yet."
"Excuse me," a woman's voice interrupted.
They turned to see a brunette, middle-aged woman walking up to them. She was wearing a dark brown pantsuit and wore glasses.
"Are you Mandy Luxe?" she asked.
"Obviously," Mandy said, gesturing down her whole body. "Who did you think I was, Clover?"
Sean could just hear Clover seething.
"Well," the woman continued. "I'm Rebecca Dennison, and I'm a representative of the Beverly Hills Young Authors Committee. I'm pleased to announce you've won our annual short story competition."
Mandy widened her eyes in elation.
"Really?" she asked, excitedly. "I have?!"
"She has?!" Sean, Alex, Clover and Sam exclaimed, confused.
But the woman ignored them and handed Mandy a gold-colored plastic card along with a small stack of papers.
"Here's the card that entitles you to a year's worth of free shopping at any store in this mall. And here's the winning story."
Mandy took both, before jumping up and down like a kid at Christmas.
For the girls, and especially Sean however, they felt more like it was Friday the 13th.
The woman left leaving behind four dumbstruck teenagers and one cheering one.
"I don't understand," Sean said walking over to Mandy. "The only thing I've seen you like writing is your own name! How did you win that contest?!"
The girls joined him.
"Well, obviously, those judges know talent when they see it," Mandy taunted.
"The only talent you have, Mandy," Clover said. "Is maxing out a credit card in a day!"
"Really?" Mandy said, holding up the paper that Rebecca Dennison had handed her.
"Then what do you call this?"
Alex took the paper from Mandy, and carefully looking it over, began to look impressed.
"Wow!" she said. "I have to give you credit, Mandy! This is really good. It almost reminds me of the story Sean wrote!"
Hearing that, Sean snatched the paper from Alex's hands. Looking it over carefully, he widened his eyes in shock and outrage.
"That's because it is my story, Alex!"
He pointed a finger at Mandy.
"No wonder I couldn't find my draft, you stole it!"
"Moi?" Mandy asked, feigning innocence. "Steal? I made your lousy rag better."
"'Better?'" Sean asked, still angry. "The only thing you changed was the heroine's name! It's supposed to be Kayla not Mandy!"
But Mandy ignored him, and just waved her hand.
"Whatever," Mandy dismissed. "Though when you think about, I did you a favor."
"And how's that?" Sean asked, barely resisting the urge to strangle her.
"A nobody like you, showing up in any kind of magazine? That's more humiliating than being friends with Clover!"
Sean had a brief fantasy of tying Mandy to a log in a river and sending her screaming over a waterfall.
As she walked away laughing, he wished he could do that for real.
"I can't believe it!" he exclaimed, clenching his fist. "I lost to Mandy?!"
"I know," Sam agreed. "This is low even for her."
Sean was barely listening.
"She's so gonna pay for this," he growled.
But before he could come up with ways to get back at her, the floor opened up beneath them, sending all four into the all too familiar metal chute.
"Right after we get back from this!" he shouted over the girls' screaming.
Their ride ended with them landing on the same cushion in front of Jerry's desk.
Jerry stood over them, smiling as he usually did when calling them for missions.
"Good afternoon, spies," he said, casually. "I trust you're doing well?"
"Not exactly, Jerry," Sean answered. "I'm dealing with an act of injustice here!"
"Yeah!" Clover agreed. "Mandy's up to her old tricks again!"
"Well, I'm afraid your high school rivalry will have to wait," Jerry interrupted, turning on the screen.
"Right now, you four have a mission."
On the screen were two very large, very impressive buildings.
"In this week alone," Jerry explained. "Two buildings have been completely destroyed by sinkholes opening up from under them."
He changed the images to show two massive, gaping holes where the buildings once stood.
"Sinkholes don't happen very often," Sam noted. "But happening twice in the same week? That can't be a coincidence."
"Precisely," Jerry added. "What's even more disturbing is sinkholes usually occur randomly. But these seem like they've been designed to specifically swallow buildings. The structures destroyed so far are the Carl Nielsen Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Primavera Hotel in Milan, Italy."
Clover gasped. "Milan? As in the fashion capital of the world, Milan? Now it's personal! We have to find the creep who's been doing this!"
"So, any leads, Jer?" Alex asked.
"Not yet, but we have been able to make a connection between the buildings."
He showed an image of an austere looking, white-haired man with glasses covering his mint-green eyes.
"They were all designed by a German architect named Hermann Kessler, who happens to be an old acquaintance of mine."
"You're friends with an architect?" Sean asked.
"What, did you think I designed this building myself?" Jerry asked.
"Uh," Sean said. "Actually, yeah."
An electronic beeping noise from Jerry's computer cut them off.
"Another sinkhole has opened up," he explained. "This time, in Lisbon."
"Alright!" Alex said. "I've always wanted to go to India."
"Alex," Sam said, dryly. "Lisbon's in Portugal."
Alex blushed at her mistake.
"And now," Jerry continued. "The moment you've all been waiting for, the gadgets."
The surface of Jerry's desk split open, revealing an assortment of the gadgets in question.
"For this mission, you'll be utilizing some old favorites, such as the Jet-Pack Backpacks, the Heat Sensor 6000 Infrared Motion Detector Sunglasses, The Crime Scene Scanner Watch, and two new gadgets, the Royal Blue Gecko Gloves, which can stick to any surface for several hours and the Icy Fresh Liquid Nitrogen Breath Spray, which I suppose is self-explanatory."
As he threw the spies their gear, Sean caught the breath spray bottle with a scowl on his face.
"Well, let's get this over with," he said. "The sooner we solve this the sooner I can get back at Mandy."
"Well," Jerry said, running his index finger over a button on his desk.
"Cheerio, and good luck, agents."
He pressed the button, sending them down another chute, this one depositing them into a helicopter, which levitated out of a tunnel and up into the sky.
Lisbon-Portugal-5:07 PM
The spies touched down in Lisbon at Fonseca University, at the exact coordinates Jerry said it would be.
Or more accurately, where it should have been.
Alex looked at the image of the university on her Compowder, where it was sent to by Jerry.
"Okay," she said. "Other than a giant hole in the ground where the university is supposed to be, I'd say everything looks normal."
Sam walked over to the edge, along with Sean.
Sam took out her own Compowder, scanning the hole with it.
"Well, I'll tell you what's not normal," she said. "How deep this hole is. It's over 2500 feet!"
"That's weird," Sean commented, remembering his 6th grade science class. "Sinkholes are usually 165 feet deep."
Clover looked into the hole.
"I'll say," she remarked. "I haven't seen a hole this deep since Normie buried my favorite bracelet. I still have dirt under my nails from when he made me dig it up."
"So," Sam continued. "I think it's pretty obvious these aren't regular sinkholes. But what could have made them?"
"Giant worms?" Alex suggested.
The other three looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"What?" she asked defensively. "Worms burrow. When giant worms burrow, they leave big holes."
The others still said nothing.
"Well, it made sense in my head."
"We're looking for ideas that make sense in real life, Alex," Sean gently reprimanded. "Though, while we're on the subject, how do you feel about worms in Mandy's pillowcase?"
"Ugh!" Clover groaned. "What are you, eight years old?!"
She pulled him aside.
"What are you-" he tried to ask.
"Listen, Sean," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Take it from someone who's played this game longer than you."
Sean raised an eyebrow.
"You wanna get back at Mandy, you'll need a little help from yours truly."
"I'm listening," he replied, intrigued.
"Okay, the key is hitting her where it hurts. And knowing Mandy's ego, it doesn't take much to make her mad. Worms in a pillowcase might annoy her, but she'll forget about it faster than I forgot that tacky topaz toe ring when I found out it was fake. We need to humiliate her so much, that she'll remember it when she's a senile old cat lady."
Sean grinned, that image clearly going through his mind.
"Alright. What did you have in mind?"
She pulled out a long sheet of paper, riddled with her handwriting.
"I made a list," Clover announced proudly. "I call it Clover's Payback Portfolio. Just pick one. But not the ones highlighted in purple. I already used those on her."
He looked over it, absorbing the numerous revenge plots Clover had scribbled down.
Apparently, when she wasn't busy shopping or chasing boys, she had a lot of free time. Enough to come up with this, anyhow.
"If you two are finished," Sam interrupted, strapping on her Jetpack Backpack. "We need to investigate this hole."
Sean nodded, understanding.
All four spies hovered in the hole, jetpacks blazing. As they each examined walls of the massive pit, Sean was looking more at the list that Clover gave him rather than the sinkhole.
"Sean, what are you doing?" Sam asked.
"I'm thinking," he answered. "Which do you like better, replacing Mandy's hair gel with rubber cement or putting moths in her closet?"
"Sean, I think we should just focus on the mission. You can worry about Mandy later."
She looked more closely at the soil, before finding a jagged, cylindrical piece of metal sticking out from the wall.
"Now, what could this be?" she pondered.
"A water pipe?" Alex suggested.
"50 feet below ground? Not likely."
Then they noticed a strange, orange liquid dripping out of the opening of the pipe.
"Besides," Sam continued. "This doesn't look like water to me."
"What is it?" Sean asked.
Clover sniffed then covered her nose in disgust.
"Whatever it is, it smells worse than my mom's compost heap!" she cried out.
Sam took out her Compowder.
"I'd better take a sample," she said, letting it drip on to her Compowder. "Maybe Jerry can tell us what it is."
That was when she called him.
Jerry appeared on the screen, stirring honey into a cup of hot tea.
"Hello, Sam," he greeted. "How are things on your end?"
"Jerry, we think we found something. I'm sending you a sample."
She pressed a button on her Compowder, sending the liquid she collected back to Jerry's office, where it appeared out of a hole in his desk in a test tube.
He examined it with intrigue.
"Fascinating," he said. "I'll analyze this straight away. In the meantime, I have a lead for you four."
"What is it?" Sean asked.
"We've closely examined the buildings' histories and we've found there's a pattern to these attacks."
The images of the three buildings popped up on Sam's Compowder.
"Apparently, the concert hall in Denmark was the first building to finish construction in 1965. Followed by the hotel in Milan in 1968, and the university in 1970."
"So, if we can find out which building was finished next," Sam realized.
"Then we'll know where the next sinkhole will show up," Alex finished.
"So which building was finished next, Jer?" Clover asked.
A large white building showed up on the screen.
"According to the pattern," Jerry said. "The next one to complete construction was this genetics research facility in Johannesburg, South Africa."
"Then that's where we're going," Sean declared. "Speaking of Africa."
He pulled out the list Clover gave him and waved it in front of her.
"I really like this one."
He indicated the 12th item on the list.
"But where am I supposed to get an elephant?"
"I know a guy," Clover said.
Sam and Alex facepalmed.
Johannesburg-South Africa-7:15 PM
As the spies stood before the massive building, they could feel their jaws go limp.
"Wow!" all but Clover exclaimed.
"It's huge!" Alex said in awe.
The building itself was 20 stories high, over 500 feet wide and shaped like a dome.
"I have to say," Sam broke in. "Jerry really knows how to pick his friends.
But Clover did not look impressed.
"Yawn," she said, bored.
Sam looked to her shock.
"This is one of the largest research labs in the world and all you can say is 'yawn?'"
"Let me know if one of the buildings we're staking out is a mall," Clover added.
They all stood by a tree that rose up to a window on the fifth floor.
"Okay," Sam announced. "According to my Compowder, this is where the ground is weakest. So, if a sinkhole does open up, this is where it'll start."
She gestured to the tree.
"Sean, Alex, you two will stake out the building from here, while Clover and I go inside."
"Uh, excuse me?" Clover asked. "I have a policy against going anywhere with a high nerd ratio!"
"Well, you could always switch places with one of us," Sean indicated himself and Alex. "If you don't mind being attacked by bugs while you're in that tree."
At that moment a wasp flew around Sean and in Clover's face.
Clover screamed and ducked as the wasp flew away.
"On second thought," she said, slowly making herself upright again. "It looks nice in there."
She pointed to the building.
In the tree, Sean and Alex closely watched the area Sam had indicated, waiting for any sign of the ground giving way beneath the building.
But all was still, suspiciously.
"Ugh," Alex groaned. "This is so boring!"
"I know," Sean said in agreement. "But if we leave, we won't find out who's boring their way under these buildings."
Alex just lowered her head.
"So," Sean continued. "When we get this over with, I can't wait to see the look on Mandy's face when she sees... well, I don't know yet, but it'll serve her right."
Alex pulled out her Compowder, an image of Sam popping up on the screen.
"How's it going on your end?" Alex asked.
Inside the building, Clover and Sam, dressed in white lab coats, looked around. No one seemed to pay much attention to them, but a few did seem to notice their presence in the lab.
Clover, despite her previous reservations, did in fact drool over one young lab assistant. Much to her disappointment, he had ignored her.
"So far, nothing," Sam replied. "The only thing out of the ordinary here is that Clover fell for a guy who wasn't a musician, athlete, or actor."
"What can I say?" Clover asked. "I'm a sucker for guys with dimples."
"We aren't having a lot of luck out here either," Sean informed. "Maybe Jerry was wrong about this place being the next target."
Or so he thought.
He was completely unaware of a pair of piercing brown eyes surveying their every move.
Sam closed her Compowder before turning back to Clover.
"Let's just go," she suggested.
"Are you kidding me?" Clover asked. "I haven't learned the Afrikaans for 'do you want to go out for a latte?' yet."
She was looking at the back of the same research assistant's head when the building started to shake.
"Hey," a scientist asked. "What's going on?"
Outside, the area Sean and Alex had been observing began to fall away below the surface.
"I think that's our cue," Sean said, getting ready to jump out of the tree.
"Right," Alex agreed. "I'll-aaah!"
Her speech was cut off by a scream as a large robotic tentacle grabbing her and hoisting her out of the tree toward the ground.
"ALEX!" Sean shouted, jumping after her.
The inside of the lab was pandemonium, as Sam and Clover tried to urge every staff member and scientist to remain calm.
"Everyone!" Sam urged. "You need to evacuate immediately!"
As the scientist filed out of the building as quickly as they could, Sam's Compowder began to chime.
Sean's face showed up on the screen. He looked panicked.
"Sean, what's wrong?" Sam asked.
"It's Alex!" he exclaimed. "She's in trouble!"
Clover and Sam looked distressed. Then resolved.
Kicking the window open, they activated their jetpacks and took off to join Sean in pursuing... whatever had kidnapped Alex, leaving the sinking building behind
Alex continued to scream as the robot tentacle tightened its grip on her. The fact that whatever this thing was came from out of nowhere and grabbed her was scary enough. But the rest of it, if it wasn't just one long metal arm, was hidden underground.
So not only was she being abducted, but she couldn't see what was taking or for sure. Or even who.
As Sean flew above the tentacle, he would try to swoop down and save her, but it was too fast and dodged him every time.
As it tore through the city streets, Sean noted that for something that moved underground, it was certainly fast enough to outmaneuver his flying.
"Need a hand?" a familiar voice asked from his right.
He looked and saw that it was Sam, and to his left was Clover.
"Took you long enough!" he remarked, making his jetpack go faster.
"Sorry!" Sam called out. "We had to get everyone out of the lab!"
The three remaining spies chased the... whatever this thing was that took Alex through Johannesburg as it knocked cars sideways, ripped up street signs and even occasionally knocked a pedestrian off their feet.
But as they continued pursuing, Sean noticed that the arm holding Alex was getting shorter.
No, he realized. Not getting shorter, sinking further.
"It's going to take her underground!" he called to the others.
"What?! Sam and Clover shouted.
"Okay," Clover said. "I'm all for mud baths, but this is ridiculous!"
Alex whimpered loudly as her feet were practically below ground.
"Hang on, Alex!" Sam called.
After a few more maneuvers downward with their jetpacks, Sam managed to touch Alex's hand for a moment before her captor disappeared beneath the earth... along with Alex
The spies landed and their faces became crestfallen.
As the girls tried to think of where that... thing could have taken Alex, Sean sat on the ground, sulking.
"Okay," Sam said, as calmly as she could. "We don't know who is making these buildings sink, we have no idea how they're doing it and now Alex is gone. Could this mission get any worse?"
At that moment, thunder boomed overhead.
"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Clover asked, sarcastically.
All three made a nonverbal agreement to find shelter before it started raining.
In a hotel not too far from where Alex was taken, the girls looked out the window, forlorn while Sean just sat on one of the three beds in their room.
"This is all my fault," Sean said after a long silence that had begun when Alex went missing.
"If I'd been more focused on the mission, Alex would still be here."
"Hey," Sam said. "You did everything you could."
"But I wasn't thinking about the mission when I was flying after her. Since Mandy stole my draft, getting back at her is all I've been thinking about."
"We can't worry about that right now. Right now, we just have to focus on finding Alex along with whoever's been destroying these buildings."
"And besides," Clover added. "I wouldn't spend too much time worrying if I were you, Sean. I mean, it can make you go grey."
She ran a finger through his head, pulling out a single silver hair.
"See? It's already starting."
All at once, Sean snapped out of his guilt induced trance.
"Wait a minute," he said, taking the hair.
"I know," Clover responded. "Hair as smooth as yours? It's unthinkable."
"No," he corrected, holding the hair up closer. "This isn't mine."
"Let me see that," Sam said, putting on a Crime Scene Scanner Watch.
Running the hair through the scanner, it didn't take long for the face of the watch to pop up revealing...
"Hey," Clover said, pointing at the white-haired man in the picture. "This guy looks familiar."
"He should," Sam pointed out. "He's the same architect who designed those buildings."
"Hermann Kessler," Clover read the name out loud. "Think he's behind this?"
"Looks that way. But why would he want to destroy buildings he designed? It doesn't make sense."
Sean took out his wallet phone.
"Let's see what Jerry knows," he said.
Opening the wallet, it wasn't long before Jerry showed up on the screen.
"Hello, spies," he greeted. "How's Johannesburg?"
"Dangerous," Sean replied. "Rainy, oh, and Alex has been kidnapped, but other than that we're fine."
"Oh my. I certainly hope Alex is alright."
"I do to," Sean said back, guilt still stinging him.
"Well, on the mission front," Jerry continued. "I've analyzed the sample you sent me. It appears to be a synthetic solution designed to induce and accelerate soil erosion."
"Could that be what's been causing the sinkholes?" Sam asked.
Jerry nodded.
"Do you know who makes it?" Clover asked, rushing over to Sean's side.
"Well, presently, no one makes it. It was designed by Soviet chemists during the cold war. It was meant to be used to weaken key enemy structures. But the project was terminated in 1975. However, the formula for the compound went missing after the Soviet Union collapsed. Given the current situation, it's highly likely someone found it."
"And I think I have a good idea where to start looking," Sean said. "What can you tell us about Hermann Kessler?"
Jerry looked at his computer screen.
"It says here that he retired from architecture in the 80s to focus on urban planning. Then about three years ago, he was forced into debt, dropped out of public life altogether and became a recluse. Now he spends all his time at his estate in Berlin."
An image of an opulent mansion appeared in the background behind Jerry.
"Guess that's our next stop," Sam declared.
"Major problem, though," Clover reminded her.
Oh, no, Sean thought. What now?
"We lost our ride when that sinkhole opened up."
Sean widened his eyes. He certainly didn't see that.
"Don't worry, Clover," Jerry reassured. "I'll send a W.O.O.H.P jet for you. Be ready to leave for Berlin first thing tomorrow morning."
Hermann Kessler's Mansion-Berlin-9:50 AM
As the three remaining spies silently snuck their way to the wall surrounding the mansion, they each donned the Gecko Gloves that Jerry gave them before sending them off on their mission.
Sean stuck his right hand, which was now covered by the glove, on the brick wall separating them from their destination. Then the left hand.
True to what Jerry said, the gloves stuck to the wall, allowing them to climb it with ease. Once Sean, Sam, and Clover reached the top, they could see why Jerry called them "Gecko Gloves."
"I love an accessory with a function," Clover said.
"Especially when that function is climbing over walls," Sean added.
After leaping over the other side of the wall, they ran to the mansion door.
Sean pulled on the door, then pushed it to no avail.
"It's locked," he informed them.
Then they saw an electronic keypad on the left side of the doorway.
"Guess that's how you get in."
"Maybe not for us," Sam said, looking up at the windows on the top floor.
"Are you crazy?" Clover asked. "We don't know who's on the other side."
Sam just shook her head, before taking out another gadget.
"We don't, but the Heat Sensor 6000 Infrared Motion Detector Sunglasses do."
She put them on, looking up at the mansion's upper levels.
There were no body heat signatures that she could see, but that didn't mean she was going throw caution to the wind.
"The coast is clear," she informed her teammates. "But let's be careful. If Alex is in there, she's not alone."
Donning the Gecko Gloves yet again, they climbed the side of the mansion.
Reaching the second floor, Sam kicked a window open allowing her to roll into the hallway and onto the long, purple carpet.
Sean flung himself in second, followed by Clover. They looked down the hallway, and they could see it consisted of dark brown wooden doors, wrought iron windows and in the gap between each door and window was a suit of medieval armor. Apparently, Kressman was a collector.
"This place is huge!" Clover exclaimed.
"Shh!" Sean and Sam whispered harshly as they put their hands over her mouth.
Sean looked around, eyes darting back and forth.
"Do you want us to get caught?" he asked.
"Lighten up, Sean," Clover dismissed. "There's nobody here. This place is deader than my Great-Aunt Rose."
"Yeah," Sam commented. "That's weird. You'd at least think there'd be a butler or a maid or... well, anyone."
"Just because we can't see anyone," Sean told them. "Doesn't mean this place is deserted. We'll have to be as quiet as possible."
He looked down the long row of doors.
"Since we don't know where Alex is, we'll have to check every room. Does anyone have a marker or something?"
"Well, I have this," Clover said, pulling out a tube of lipstick, twisting it open.
"That'll work," Sean replied, taking it. "I guess."
The spies looked through door after door, room after room, hallway after hallway.
And every time they came across a room without Alex, or anything related to the sinkholes that had been occurring, Sean would draw an "X" on the wood of the door using Clover's lipstick. Thankfully, the lipstick was bright enough to be seen against the dark wood.
"Okay," Clover said, gripping a door handle. "Room number..."
She trailed off looking to Sam.
"137," the redhead answered.
"Right."
Clover turned the handle, and though they didn't find Alex, what they did find was certainly more interesting than the last 30 bathrooms, 106 bedrooms and one library they had checked earlier.
The room was white, but had scores of beakers, test tubes and other lab equipment.
Most of the glass containers were filled with the same orange liquid Sam found in the sinkhole in Lisbon.
"Woah," Sean said, looking at a beaker. "If this doesn't say Kessler's guilty, I don't know what does."
"I see what you mean," Clover concurred. "Only how did he get that stuff underground?"
"I think this is how, guys," Sam said from the other side of the room. Plastered on the wall was a blue sheet of paper.
Blueprints, no doubt.
Depicted on the blueprint was a giant, ring-shaped device, with small orifices that looked like lawn sprinklers on the top.
"It looks like Kessler fills these devices with the erosion formula, then puts them underground beneath the buildings he targets."
"That makes sense," Sean agreed with her. "We found it coming out of a pipe. But there's one thing I don't understand."
"Why a guy who lives in a place like this can't afford a maid?" Clover asked, wiping away some dust from a desk.
"No. If Kessler designed those buildings, why go through all the trouble of destroying them?"
"Jerry said he was in debt," Sam suggested. "Maybe this a way for him get insurance money."
"But he doesn't own those buildings, he just designed them."
At that moment, a spider dropped down from the ceiling and landed on Clover's shoulder.
She shrieked as she swatted off.
"Find Alex now, ask questions later," she said, scared.
After marking that room off, Sean and the girls came to yet another door.
But this one was unlike the others in one respect.
It was cracked open slightly, leading into a dark abyss.
"An open door," Sam announced. "That looks promising."
Sean pulled it open all the way, revealing, through the darkness, a small flight of stairs.
As the spies carefully walked down the wooden steps in the dark, Sean silently prayed the wood was strong enough to hold them.
"I can't see a thing!" he complained.
"Tell me about it!" Clover added. "It's darker in here than Mandy's heart."
"Feel around for a light switch," Sam commanded.
As they ran their hands on the walls surround them, it wasn't long before the lights snapped back on.
"Well, that was easy," Sam observed. That was when Sean and Clover bumped into her, causing all three to fall down the steps.
They quickly recovered, Sean rubbing his lower back.
"And I thought getting W.O.O.H. was painful," he said, helping Sam up.
(Why did he feel excited holding her hand?)
They looked around. All around them were several rows of barrels stacked on their sides and racks containing numerous bottles.
"Must be a wine cellar," he said.
Clover, sniffing, put her hands over her nose.
"Is that why I'm smelling rotting fruit?!" she screamed.
"I smell it too," Sam added.
Sean sniffed. Something was definitely rotting down here.
"Me too. All the more reason to find Alex and split."
That was when they heard muffled screaming.
They turned around, and there on the floor, tied up and gagged was...
"Alex!" they joyfully cried out.
After untying her and taking the gag off her mouth, Sean noticed that Alex didn't seem any worse for wear. Well, other than being kidnapped, anyway.
"So, Alex," Sam said. "Did you see who was controlling the thing that took you?"
"No," she answered. "After it dragged me underground, I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I woke up here. It was so freaky!"
"Have you seen this guy since you got here?" Clover asked, showing the image of Hermann Kessler on her Compowder.
Alex shook her head. "No. Just some guys in black who went back upstairs after I woke up."
"When was that?" Sean asked.
"An hour ago," she answered. "Though, since this place majorly reeks, I can see why they'd wanna bail."
Sean sniffed the air again.
"Now that you mention it, it is getting stronger."
"Where's it coming from?" Sam asked, walking further into the cellar.
Alex followed her, then Sean.
But Clover...
"I think I'll catch up with you guys upstairs!" she declared. "Maybe in a room that has perfume!"
Sean, having none of that, grabbed her arm, dragging her with him.
"Come on!" he exclaimed, frustrated.
It took less time than they expected to find the source of the smell. After all, the cellar was enormous, but small enough so odors could permeate throughout the room.
Sam deduced the smell had to becoming from the back.
And they found it. Along with a large wrought-iron gate shrouded in darkness off to their left, which was probably an elevator.
But directly in front of them was a large, green, comfortable armchair. A light was shining over it.
And Sean could see white hair sticking out from behind it.
"That's gotta be Kessler," Sam said.
Clover marched over to the chair, clearly trying to fight the urge to vomit.
"Okay, buster," she said angrily. She reached the chair and began to turn it.
"I don't know who you think you are, but-"
But Clover's words were drowned out in a scream that was accompanied by those of her fellow spies.
They had expected to find Kessler at some point on this mission and find him they did.
If you counted finding a decomposing corpse as the same as finding a person.
After their scream fest was over, Sean was shocked to see that at some point, Sam had jumped into his arms, and he was holding her bridal style.
Carefully putting her down and blushing while he did it, he looked at Kessler's rotting body.
"Guess that explains the smell," he noted.
"Okay!" Clover shouted, her voice getting higher. "That's it! I'm so over this mission!"
She turned away, clutching her stomach.
"I don't know who put a dead guy down here, but they're clearly messed up!"
"Yeah!" Alex exclaimed. "What's next?! A guy in women's clothes stabbing me in the shower?!"
"I don't understand," Sam said, as calmly as she could. "That hair was Kessler's. Why would it be there if he was dead?"
"I think I can answer that,fräulein," a heavily accented voice called out from the shadows.
At that point, the lights came on fully.
In front of the elevator was a man who appeared to be in his early 40s, with black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a purple suit with an amethyst stickpin affixed to his lapel. And behind him were three men in black suits.
"How else could you know where your little friend was going to be?"
The spies just glared at him.
"But I have been rude. Guten tag, kinder. Und welcome... to your doom!"
"I'm guessing you're the reason Kessler's a stiff now?" Clover asked, pointing at the chair behind her.
The man nodded. "Sadly, Herr Kessler is no longer of this world. But his estate und resources are in very capable hands... mine!"
"You won't need them where you're going!" Sean shouted, leaping in the air, prepared to deliver a kick to him.
But the man just pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it, bringing down a large pane of glass that separated him from the spies.
Sean's foot hit the pane; the glass didn't break. However, he did clutch his left foot in pain after hitting it hard.
"Apologies," the man said, brushing a bang out of his eye. "But this is my favorite suit, und I don't want to soil it."
"I know what you mean," Clover said. "If I went on this mission with my favorite jeans, I'd bill Jerry my dry cleaning."
The man smiled, walking closer to the pane.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Wilhelm Krenz, und I am Hermann Kessler's assistant. Or at least I was, until about three years ago."
"Okay," Sam said. "So, why have you been destroying Kessler's buildings?"
Wilhelm's affable face melted into fury.
"You mean my buildings!"
"Huh?" the spies asked.
Wilhelm's smile returned.
"You see, when I was child growing up in Eastern Germany, I came from nothing. I had nothing. Until I met Hermann Kessler, the greatest architect in Europe at the time. My family was poor, und my father struggled in that Soviet laboratory, slaving 10 hours a day. So, I accepted the job straight away."
"So, you designed those buildings?" Sean asked. "But I thought Kessler was the architect."
"Ha!" Wilhelm scoffed. "That dummkopf couldn't design a child's playhouse! I focused on making buildings that would last millennia! All Kessler concerned himself with was making them look pretty. Everything else was my design! But did anyone acknowledge me?! Did Kessler give me the credit I deserve?! Nein!"
"Hmph," Sam exhaled. "Now who does he remind you of?"
Sean knew that was directed at him. Wilhelm's ranting about credit being stolen from him? It wasn't unlike his frustration and subsequent plotting of revenge on Mandy. Only this was even more out of control.
"Look," Sean said, putting a hand on the glass. "I know what feels like when someone else takes credit for something you do. But don't you think you're overreacting?"
"Overreacting!" Wilhelm practically screamed. "He never even saw me as an equal! It was always, 'Wilhelm, fetch my coffee! Wilhelm, answer the door! Wilhelm, put away those silly drawings and come help me with mine!' It drove me insane! I was always beneath him! Well, now he is beneath me. And soon, his creations will be too. That erosion formula my father helped develop has proved useful in my plans. I was lucky to find it before he could take it to his grave."
"But why go through all this trouble?" Sam asked. "Couldn't you just go into architecture for yourself?"
"Hmm. An intriguing idea, but I've come so far. Why stop now?"
"You'll never get away with this!" Alex shouted, charging at the glass. But like with Sean, she had no success.
"You'll find that quite impossible," Wilhelm informed. "That glass is thick enough to stop a charging elephant. I doubt you four will be able to break through it in time."
Sean didn't like the sound of that.
"In time for what?" he asked.
Wilhelm pressed another button on his remote.
"Underneath your feet, there is a smaller version of my sinkhole device. It's a prototype, so the erosion formula will be released at a slower rate. But it will still be too fast for you spies to escape!"
"Uh," Clover chimed in. "Hello, Earth to crazy sinkhole guy? Won't this place fall in too?"
"Your concern is touching, fräulein. But the sinkhole will only be large enough that it takes the late Hermann Kessler to his grave. And you to yours."
Sean gritted his teeth as Wilhelm turned to leave.
"Now," he said, signaling his henchmen. "If you'll excuse me, I have one last building to check of my list. Perhaps you've heard of it? A little place you call... what was it again? W.O.O.H.P headquarters."
"Jerry!" the spies gasped.
Wilhelm paid no attention to them as the elevator rose up, taking him and his henchmen with him.
"Auf wiedersehen," he said mockingly. "It hasn't been a pleasure."
He laughed maliciously as the elevator rose out of view.
The spies tried in vain to break the glass that separated them from freedom, as the chair holding Kessler's corpse was already beginning to sag into the ground.
Soon enough, it and the deceased architect, were gone.
"Oh no," Sean pointed out. "It's already starting."
Sean kicked against the glass.
"We've gotta get out of here and stop Wilhelm before we're six feet under!" she said urgently. "Literally!"
"More like six hundred feet!" Clover said, charging it again. "That's more shoes than I'll own in a lifetime!"
"Really?" Alex asked.
"Well, a girl can try."
Sean punched the glass.
"Of all the days to leave our jetpacks on the plane!" he cursed.
Another chunk of ground sunk behind them.
"We still have our Gecko Gloves!" Clover pointed out. "We can stick to the glass!"
"One problem, Clover!" Sam interrupted. "We used those gloves to get in here! They don't have enough power left, and even if they did, they'd run out eventually! And we still can't break the glass!"
Clover sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot! You think I want to spend the rest of my life at the bottom of a hole?!"
She struck a pose.
"A face this gorgeous doesn't belong underground!"
"Look on the bright side guys," Alex tried to lighten the mood. "With all that dirt at the bottom, at least we'll be landing on something soft."
The others just glared at her like they did when she mentioned her giant worm theory in Lisbon.
"That's cold comfort, Alex," Sam said.
Then it hit Sean.
"Cold," he said. "That's it!"
He grabbed Sam by the shoulders.
"Sam, you're a genius!"
Sam blushed. "I try."
Sean pulled out the one gadget they had yet to use, the Icy Fresh Liquid Nitrogen Breath Spray.
"If I'm right, this will make the glass so brittle anything could break it."
He sprayed the surface of the glass, making look like a windowpane in the snow.
"Well, here goes nothing."
He kicked the glass.
To his surprise and utter joy, it finally shattered.
The girls cheered.
"Way to go, Sean!" Clover said.
"It was nothing," Sean dismissed, as he and the others climbed out of the square hole in the glass.
"Sam gave me the idea."
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "But I wouldn't have said it if it hadn't been for Alex."
"And I..." Alex stopped short. "Well, actually Clover didn't help much here."
"That is so not true!" Clover suggested. "I said we should use the Gecko Gloves! It's not my fault they're useless now!"
"No time for arguing, girls!" Sam interrupted. "We've gotta get back to L.A!"
W.O.O.H.P Headquarters-6:45 AM
A black car pulled up in front of W.O.O.H.P headquarters.
The door to the back passenger seat opened up, allowing Wilhelm Krenz to step outside.
"Ah," he said. "Beautiful. Too bad I have to send you plummeting thousands of feet below the Earth's crust."
He turned to the other men who exited the car with him as they pulled out a laptop from the trunk.
"Start the procedure!" he ordered. "Schnell! Schnell!"
With a few simple keystrokes, one of Wilhelm's henchmen began the process of sinking the building. It would take about eight minutes to start, but he knew it would be worth it.
"Any moment now..."
"Sorry," a voice called out from behind him.
Wilhelm looked back to see Sean and the girls standing on top of his car.
Sean, the one who called, folded his arms.
"But this place is like a second home to me. And with today's economy, who can find another job?"
"You!" Wilhelm exclaimed. "How did you escape?!"
Alex spoke up next.
"Let's just say we know an old guy who makes the best gadgets."
Wilhelm growled, then turned toward his henchmen.
"Get them!" he barked.
The three men jumped into action, the spies doing the same.
"Go after Wilhelm," Sam told Sean. "We'll handle these guys."
"Right," Sean responded, jumping down from the car to pursue Wilhelm, who was now clutching the laptop and fleeing into W.O.O.H.P headquarters.
Clover blocked at least a dozen punches from the goon she was fighting before leaping into the air, delivering a blow to his back with her legs.
Sam dodged a kick before knocking her opponent of his feet with a leg sweep.
And Alex kept jumping backwards as the man facing her kept trying to land blow after blow on her.
She could tell he was getting frustrated.
"Didn't your mom ever teach you not to pick fights with girls?" she asked, before kicking him in the solar plexus.
In W.O.O.H.P headquarters, Sean followed the sound of Wilhelm's laughter and taunting as it echoed throughout the building.
"Come und get me, little spy, before your precious W.O.O.H.P sinks into the abyss."
Wilhelm let out another laugh.
He was close, he could tell by how clear the voice sounded.
But he was running out of places to hide. The only thing on the floor above them was the roof.
"You know," Sean tried some taunting of his own. "For a guy who knows architecture, it was a pretty stupid move going into a building you know is about to be underground."
"Ha!" Wilhelm's voice sounded out, and Sean knew it was coming from behind a small tree near the door to the roof.
"I just need to get high enough long enough for my jet to come and save me."
Now why would he tell me how he's getting out of here? Sean thought. Idiot.
"I only have five minutes, but that's longer than you have!"
A sharp blow to his neck from behind the tree caught Sean completely off guard, but he recovered long enough to see the door opening.
His face pure determination, Sean ran up the stairs after Wilhelm.
Reaching the roof, he found him standing in the very center.
Sean charged, leaping with his right foot forward. Wilhelm simply stepped out of the way, leaving the spy landing on the opposite side of the roof.
He tried again, this time hoping to land a punch to his face.
Again, Wilhelm dodged it, and the next one. And the next. And the one after that.
I've gotta work fast before W.O.O.H.P winds up like those other buildings, he thought.
Then he remembered...
"Hahahaha!" Wilhelm laughed. "You're wasting your time! Any minute now, this building plummets beneath the earth, und my revenge is complete!"
"Okay," Sean said, taking out the Liquid Nitrogen Breath Spray. "You really need to chill out. In fact, let me help you!"
Aiming the bottle at Wilhelm's feet, he sprayed. Wilhelm looked down in shock to see his feet were encased in ice.
"What?" he asked.
As he watched him struggle fruitlessly to break out, Sean put the breath spray back in his pocket.
"I should ask Jerry about keeping that," he said, smiling. "You know, until I can get my icemaker working."
"Verdammt!" Wilhelm cursed in German as Sean took the laptop from his arms.
"Get me out of here!"
Sean ignored him, as he opened his wallet phone.
"Sam, I took care of Wilhelm. How are things on your end?"
"Just finished," she answered.
"Good," he replied. "Now could you get up here? I need help turning off the sinkhole device."
By some miracle, Sam was able to stop it before another sinkhole could open up, with only 30 seconds to spare.
As a pair of W.O.O.H.P agents dragged the still partially frozen Wilhelm away, Jerry turned to the four spies.
"I'm sad to hear of Hermann's loss," he said forlornly. "But I am happy you four apprehended Wilhelm before he could do more damage. I hoped he would rise above his resentment, not sink below it."
"Jerry," Sam said. "What are you gonna do about those sinkholes?"
"And those buildings?" Sean added.
Jerry smiled. "Don't worry. W.O.O.H.P is filling in the sinkholes as we speak. As for the buildings, we've offered to reconstruct them."
"You can do that?" Alex asked.
"Well, Agent Prescott was in architecture major in college, so yes."
Beverly Hills Mall-1:30 PM
The teens were on an escalator, heading to the food court in the mall.
"Well, I'm glad that's over!" Alex said in relief.
"Speak for yourself!" Clover exclaimed. "After that mission, my dreams are gonna be sinkhole and dead body central!"
Sean put a hand on Clover's shoulder.
"Don't worry," he said. "With all the coffee we're about to drink, I don't think you'll be sleeping tonight anyway."
"So," Clover said, lifting his hand off. "What are you doing about Mandy? I hope it's No. 12. She's gonna be so soaked!"
Sean sighed. "Actually, I'm doing anything."
"What?!" the girls exclaimed.
"Well, after seeing how crazy that last bad guy was over getting even with someone, I decided Mandy wasn't worth it."
"Wow!" Sam said, impressed. "I didn't think you had it in you!"
Sean laughed slightly as they reached the coffee shop.
"Besides, you know what they say. What goes around comes around."
"WHAT?!" Mandy's voice shrieked from inside, catching their attention.
Mandy was standing in front of Rebecca Dennison, who was trying to yank the free shopping card out of her hands.
"What do you mean I'm disqualified?!"
Miss Dennison just pulled harder.
"I'm sorry, Miss Luxe," she groaned. "But plagiarism is not tolerated in the Beverly Hills Young Authors Comittee!"
"What?! I stole- I mean wrote that story fair and square!"
"The inconsistent handwriting says otherwise!"
The card was finally out of Mandy's hands, and Mandy herself was sent tumbling backward into a waitress, who spilled two cups of chai latte onto her.
Everyone in the shop, Sean and the girls included, laughed as Mandy ran out screaming in frustration.
"Looks like you were right," Alex said.
Sean was still laughing. "I didn't even need to do anything!"
Miss Dennison, the only one who was still stone faced, looked at the card in her hand.
"Now I have to find the real contest winner," she said to herself. "But where can I find Sean Warren?"
Sean ran right over.
"I'm Sean Warren," he told her.
She looked at him in surprise and relief.
"You are? Good! I'm pleased to announce-"
"Yeah," he cut off. "I already know. I was here when you said Mandy was the winner."
"Oh," Miss Dennison said. "Well, here's the card that entitles you to free shopping in the mall. And about your story, we've already submitted it to Beverly Review, but we have told them you were the real author."
Sean smiled, running the card through his hands.
"Sorry about Mandy, by the way," he said.
"Don't worry about it, young man. I see her type all the time. It's unavoidable when you live in Beverly Hills."
She walked out of the story, saying, "I swear, these contests get crazier every year."
Sean sighed. "Well, here you go girls!"
He tossed the card to them, Clover catching it.
"Finally!" she celebrated. "Free shopping for a whole year!"
"Yeah," Sean added. "For three stores, anyway."
Clover's excitement deflated like a balloon.
"Say what?"
"Am I the only one who reads the fine print of those contest rules? That card gives you free shopping, but only for three stores a day."
The girls fainted in shock before Clover got back up, angered.
"I should just give the card to Mandy! What's the point of free shopping if you can't even do it in the whole mall?! That could be my payback for time she put that picture of me with that really nast bedhead on Pete Mannheim's locker!"
"Just give it up, Clover," Sam said, walking over to her along with Sean.
"Yeah," he agreed. "You don't want to sink to Mandy's level."
Sean laughed, along with Sam and Alex, while Clover just scowled.