"Maybe we should go," Nick suggested.
"No, wait. Let's see the necklace first," Emily said.
"Alright, fine," Nick consented.
"Whoa!" Joe, Stella, Melissa, Jody, and Kevin said. Nick and Emily looked where they were looking and their jaws dropped. Lori Shara had on a floor length, faux fur coat, a faux fur hat, earrings the size of a golf ball, bright purple lipstick, and seven-inch stiletto heels. One of the ski instructors walked over, kissed her, and said
"Hello, darling."
"Melissa, Stella, isn't that the guy you went gaga over before?" Jody asked.
"Yeah," Melissa answered.
"No, there was no guy," Stella said hurriedly. She didn't want Joe to hear them. Her friends looked at her, confused, then Emily said
"It looks like he's the heiress's fiancée`."
"Look, she's putting the necklace in the case," Kevin said. Stella's detective eye caught something suspicious.
"Look at the way her fiancée' is looking at it," she said. Her friends agreed as Joe said
"That looks really heavy. It must do some work on your neck."
"Let's head back up the suite. We have a story to tell you," Nick said, noticing that the crowd was starting to disperse. As they walked toward the elevator, Stella made a point to walk as close to Joe as possible.
"So, what's this story?" Jody asked once they were settled in the suite.
"OK, so it was the day before our mom's birthday." Kevin began.
"In the attic, her and our dad found these old home movies she thought we lost. They were irreplaceable. We watched a few and our friend, Macy came over and watched, too. We've known her since we were little, so she was in them too."
"We didn't have a gift for mom yet." Nick continued. "So we got a women's magazine and looked at the top five birthday presents for a mom. Number 5 was a dog clock that barked each hour. We got her that two years ago. Number 4 was a candle. We got her a candle collection last year. Number 3 was a dinner with Joe. Number 2 was a vacation with the family. Number1 was a vacation without the family. We decided to put the home movies she loved so much on DVDs and they would also never get ruined. The next day, Kevin showed Joe a do-it-yourself birthday cake he got for mom and Joe said they should make the cake for her. Kevin said they didn't know how to make a cake and I came in and showed them my baking awards and said 'Let's bake a cake'. Joe put the movies on the floor and we started to bake. Joe got a bowl and Kevin poured the batter. Then Joe said 'It's some kind of mysterious bottomless bowl'. Then I said 'It's a colander. Then Joe asked 'What's a colander'. Then I said 'Something only you would call a mysterious bottomless bowl'. Then we realized the batter had gotten all over the home movies and mom was really upset."
"So we decided to reenact the home movies and play them at her party that night. Before we showed her, we said we were really sorry. Then Kevin said 'We know we can never replace the movies Joe destroyed.' Then I said 'Me! You poured the batter!' Then Kevin said 'You got the bowl with the holes in it.' Then I said 'It's a colineder.' Then Kevin said 'It's a calander.' Then Nick said irritatedly 'It's a colander'. Then at the party mom and Macy were watching the movies and we said we had a special feature. It was a really embarrassing tape of Macy. She thought her mom erased it, but I said 'Maybe somebody made a copy'. Then she was like 'Oh no, you didn't.' Then she chased me and I slid down the fire pole and she said 'I'm wearing heels' and slid down and landed on me and I was like 'Ow!' It was really funny." Joe finished.
"Wow that must have been fun." Melissa said.
"It's getting late. Are you guys hungry?" Mrs. Jones called from the kitchen.
"No mom. We were snacking. I think we're just going to go to bed. I'm a little limo-lagged," Stella called back.
"Ok, good night!" Their mothers called. As they stood up and stretched, Stella said flirtily
"Maybe tomorrow you can tell us about some of your concerts, Joe?"
"Sure, anything," Joe said dreamily. S Joe and Stella went to their rooms, the girls pulled Nick and Kevin aside.
"Look at how cute they are together. I wonder if they like each other," Emily said. Nick and Kevin finally pinpointed why Joe had been acting so odd. They hadn't seen him this happy for a long time.
"You're right," Nick agreed. "Good night." He dragged Kevin to their room and shut the door. The girls shrugged and went into their rooms as well. Soon, the suite was in complete darkness and all was quiet as the mothers went to bed as well.
