Sorry for the delay, I was stuck at home with some kind of stomach virus. I felt awful. But it's going away (yay!) so I sat down to watch my sister play video games while I wrote the next chapter. I hope everyone likes it!

And I'm sorry that it's so short. My mind is not being the most dependable organ today. It and my stomach are rebelling against me. It's very exhausting. The next one will be cooler, I promise!

Glinda: Yeah, the nickname makes things much easier! I'm so glad you like what I've written, and thanks for being such a loyal reviewer! I love you!

Kyre Alder: Thanks so much for your review! My sister liked that line, too. And I love writing in first person, although this is the first time I've done it. It's easier to write.

Dani Blues: Two words: YOU ROCK!

MonMaskedAnge: You're right about the ramblings, and I've tried to stop drifting off, but it's a little hard because I do the same thing! Anyway, this chapter's got less rambling, and I really hope you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

Mrs. Gerard Butler: Your lists of favorite lines are awesome. It helps me know what people like about the story. I hope there are a few lines that you like in this chapter, too!

kissbangx3: I don't know whether he's ever going to change mid-visit, I haven't decided yet. It would be cool, though, and I think he will. Not in this chappie, though. He's not even in it. I'm so sorry I haven't reviewed your story in forever… you know me…

Snape's Opera Rose: Love the screenname. Thanks so much for your praise! It really means a lot to me, you have no idea.

fresh air9: You never know which side she'll meet… (mwahaha!) Anyway, thanks for your review, and I'm glad you like it! You reviewers rock!

Phantom mega Phan: I forgive you for not reviewing – my summer's been busy, too! I can't believe school starts this week for you. It's a reminder that the summer is almost gone… well, I hope you get time during the school year to review, and if you don't, don't worry about it! You rock forever anyways!

Thanks to all of you!

Now, on with the story!

It was almost a week before I could come up with a plausible reason to return to the Fox and put it in action. The solution: shopping. After all, what sane girl wouldn't want to go shopping in the heart of Atlanta?

Well, I was actually only pretending so I could go see a schizo who lived under a theater, but I think that makes it safe to say that I don't count, since I'm definitely not sane.

I brought it up at breakfast Friday morning before school. I had managed to get up in time to actually sit down and eat some toast with the rest of the family. "So," I said to them through a mouthful of food, "I was thinking that Jenny and I could go shopping downtown this weekend." I said it casually, as though it was a passing fancy, but inside I was a nervous wreck, hoping they would say yes.

"Ooh, I want to come!" Jill said immediately, perking up.

I shrugged. "Okay."

This shut her up. She stared at me, mouth hanging open, a bit of egg spilling out of the corner of her mouth. I wrinkled my nose in distaste and she quickly sucked it back up and shut her mouth.

I could understand her shock. I never let her come shopping with me.

"Seriously?" she said when she had swallowed her egg.

"I'm feeling generous today." I took another bite of toast.

My father was considering this. "I don't know," he said doubtfully. "Downtown Atlanta's a big and busy place. You girls shouldn't be out there alone."

"We can bring Paul," I suggested, brightening.

Ah, I forgot – I should explain my logic. Normally, I would never bring Paul along on a shopping trip, or Jill for that matter. Paul hated it, and Jill loved it a little much for my liking. But this time, I wasn't actually going for the shopping. The more people, the easier to disappear. See? Genius.

Jill was skeptical, though. "You want a guy to go shopping with us?"

"He has to read Great Expectations for English," I said with a wave of my hand. "If we don't get him out of the house and away from his video games, he'll never read it. He can finish while we try stuff on." It was true, too. Paul was pretty good about sticking around even when we were doing girl stuff.

Jill shrugged. She wasn't about to argue, considering I was actually letting her come without a fight.

"I still don't know," my father said slowly.

I looked up at my parents and did my best to put on the Bambi-eyes. "Please?"

Jill scooted closer to me and put the same face on, sticking her lower lip out and managing to look pathetic. "Pretty please?"

"Oh, let them go," Mom said with a smile.

"Yes," my sister and I both cheered at the same time.

We turned on each other. "Jinx, you owe me a soda," we both said, again at the exact same time. "Jinx, you owe me a soda – jinx, you owe me a soda – jinx, you owe me a soda – jinx, you owe me a―"

"Girls!" Our father shook his head and glared at us. "Enough is enough!"

"Jinx, you owe me a soda," Jill muttered under her breath at me, but I chimed in and said the 'soda' at the same time as her. She glared at me; it wasn't over until somebody was stumped, no matter how many threats from Dad. It was my turn –

"If you two don't stop, no one's going downtown," Dad threatened.

I got up, putting my dishes in the sink and giving Jill a mock-glare. She returned it. "This isn't over," she growled. It's really funny to hear her growling, and a little scary at the same time.

I grabbed my backpack and squinted at her, trying to look intimidating. "I'll be back," I said, and shut the door behind me.

Still chuckling, I ran to the bus stop, making it just in time and only getting a slight glare from the driver for being late. I sat down next to Jenny and took a look at the book she was reading – of course, a new one, different from yesterday.

"The Catcher in the Rye," I read off, shrugging slightly. "Never read it. Is it good?"

"Yeah," she said, still reading. "It's okay."

"Just okay?" I said. "It's a classic. Isn't it supposed to be inspiring or something?"

Jenny turned the page, shaking her head. "Not really. The guy hates everything, and he never shuts up about it. I can't decide if it's annoying or depressing."

"Oh." I propped my legs up on the seat. "So why are you still reading it?"

"You know we're gonna have to read it for lit class eventually anyway," she said, settling back against the window. "Besides, it's an easy read. Half the book is 'I hate this…' or 'I can't stand this…', so you aren't missing much if you skim through it."

"You're really turning me off that book, Jen."

"Sorry." She finished a chapter, sighed, and put it down. "So, what's up?"

"Are you free this weekend?"

"Other than reading Great Expectations, yeah."

"You haven't finished it yet?" I said, feigning shock.

Jenny waved a hand. "Yeah, but I'm rereading it so it stays fresh in my mind."

I gaped at her for a minute, not understanding how her mind worked, before remembering what I had been talking about. "Right. Anyway, I want to go shopping downtown this weekend."

"You and me?" she asked, brightening. For being a bookworm, she liked to shop a lot.

"And Jill, and maybe Paul."

"Paul?" Her eyes lit up at the idea of being around him all day, and then she blinked in confusion. "Uh… why would we take Paul shopping with us? You know he hates when we do that."

"My dad feels better when he's around to watch out for us," I said with a shrug. "Besides, he can read Great Expectations while we shop. Not everyone can read it twice in a week."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. It sounds cool. I'll ask my parents, but I don't think I'm doing anything, so I can probably come."

"Awesome." My weekend was looking pretty great. "I just have to ask Paul and figure out how to get there."

"If he can come," Jenny pointed out, "his sister might agree to come, too."

"Right." I nodded. "Good idea. She'd love a chance to shop downtown."

Paul's sister, Ashley, was eighteen years old and was used to driving us around. She, like Jill, was a major shopper, and I was sticking to my original idea – the more people, the merrier, since it made it easy for me to disappear and not have it noticed right away.

The bus pulled up to the school and we got off, hurrying over to wait for Paul to get off his bus. "Hey," he said with a smile when he saw us. "What's up, guys?"

He fell into step between us. From the looks on our faces, he immediately knew we wanted something.

"Okay, what is it?" he said with a slight sigh.

"You love us, right?" I said with the Bambi-eyes again.

Paul swallowed. "I'm not gonna like it, am I?"

"It's just a couple of hours of shopping in downtown Atlanta," Jenny said with a smile. We held our breath and waited for his reaction, which probably wasn't going to be too good for us.

"Guys…" Paul groaned. "Shopping?"

"We thought you could catch up on Great Expectations while we shop," I said quickly.

Jenny nodded eagerly. "I can help you out. I'm on my second time through."

Paul heaved a defeated sigh. Jenny and I exchanged a triumphant look. "Who's coming?" he asked, glancing between us. A look of fear entered his eyes. "Please tell me Jill isn't tagging along."

"Yep," I said cheerfully. "It's just your lucky day, isn't it?"

"Oh, man, that girl scares me," he said with a shudder.

Jenny hit him playfully on the shoulder. "It gets better."

"No." He had already guessed what we were going to say. "Shopping with you guys is one thing. Shopping with you guys and Jill is another, and you're lucky I'm even considering it. But I am not going to go shopping with you, Jill, and my sister."

"Oh, come on," we pleaded. "We need somebody to drive us."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Come on, Paul!"

"No."

"We'll give you candy."

"No."

"We'll pay you."

"No."

Jenny and I looked at one another, put on horrified looks, and stared at Paul tearfully. "You don't love us!" I said, forcing a look of horror and shock on my face. Jenny mirrored it, and we both heaved fake sobs.

Paul rolled his eyes heavenward and groaned at the torture we were mercilessly giving him.

"Fine," I said, sniffing dramatically. "We'll just stay at home and watch depressing movies and cry because you abandoned us and we'll be miserable and eat cookies and get fat and cry until our eyes fall out and then you'll be sorry―"

"Okay, okay, okay," he interrupted, glaring at me. "Fine, I'll go."

"Yay!" we both cheered, dropping the depressed act and hugging him.

Paul, no doubt wishing that he had played hooky today, followed us into school with a look on his face that reminded me of a man being led to the gallows. I grinned at our victory and high-fived Jenny, already imagining the dark cellars of the Fox and how awesome it was going to be.

I was still beaming with my victory when I got home from school. I dumped my stuff in the hallway and started up to my room, almost skipping with happiness.

"I'm gonna go see the Phaaantom," I sang, to no particular tune. "I'm gonna go see the Phaaantom…"

"Alex!" my mother shouted from down the hall. "Don't you dare just leave your things in the hall!"

I quickly turned and snatched my backpack up off the floor. "Sure, Mom, wouldn't dream of it!" I shouted back, still humming my lame little song to myself. I'm gonna go see the Phaaantom…

"Yes you would!" She knew me too well.

"No I wouldn't!" I hollered, and then went into my room and shut the door behind me, dropping my bag on the floor beside my desk and collapsing onto my bed.

I must have fallen asleep, because it felt like only two minutes before Jill burst into my room, even though she doesn't get home until an hour after I do. "Are we going?" she asked excitedly, bouncing onto my bed with more enthusiasm than I had seen in her in quite a long time.

"Yeah, we're going," I said, rubbing my eyes and grinning as I remembered the good news.

"Paul said he'd come?"

"And that he'd ask his sister."

"Yes!" Jill was gone as quickly as she had come, singing a song of her own. "I'm going shopping dooowntooown… I'm going shopping dooowntooown…"

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed. It was a Friday, so I never would've dreamed of doing homework, but I wanted to take a look at the stores around the Fox and figure out which ones everyone would go to. If I could find three or four right around the theater, then the others could hang around in one and I could go on to another by myself – and, of course, by 'going on to another' I mean 'secretly going to the Fox and meeting the Phantom and having a totally awesome time while keeping it a secret from everyone else in the world'.

Yup, this weekend was just going to be awesome. I could tell.