Chapter 5

"Aren't you glad you got your basketball back, Numbuh 363?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you glad our sector got all the credit for beating the Old Geezer?"

"Yeah."

"Then, what's wrong now?" Paddy fell back onto the sofa, exasperated with his leader's moods. They had beaten the Old Geezer and his monster house without the help of Sector V, they had returned all the neighborhood kids' toys that the Old Geezer took, and nobody had gotten hurt.

Sure, Numbuh 83 had suddenly turned scary, but they won. They won, so who cared? "Is it about Numbuh 83 turning superscary?" Paddy sighed. "Is that what this is about?"

"No. It's about Numbuh 83 and Numbuh 84. What's going on with those two? They've gone missing again. Something's fishy." Tommy looked up from his Yipper Cards.

"And it's not a dead fish! Ahhahahahhahahaha!" He fell over laughing at his joke, ignoring the blank stares he received.

"Hey!" Paddy suddenly sat up as he remembered. "Numbuh 84 said something to me about Numbuh 83. He thought it was weird how girly he could be," Tommy dropped his Yipper cards. "But then again," Paddy mused, "he beat Numbuh T at arm-wrestling in like two seconds flat!" He snickered. "And that's not easy." Tommy held his breath.

"Yeah. Numbuh 83 is girly." Numbuh 363 dismissed the thought. "But he is the Boy-Girl Relations Officer. He has to get along with girls, meaning he probably picked up some girly traits." He paced the floor as Numbuh 85 watched patiently. "What's bugging me is that Numbuhs 83 and 84 are missing again, and I want to call a meeting!"

Numbuh 363 threw off his helmet, revealing his bowl-cut, sandy-brown, hair. The helmet skid to a stop across the room where Tommy heaved a sigh of relief. The secret was still safe. "Let's go find them." Harvey crossed his arms angrily. "Again."

--

"I don't know how the holding hands thing happened." Sonya burst out. "It just happened - I wasn't even thinking about it. So, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends! So, stop giving me that scary glare!"

"Yeah, I was embarrassed, but that's not what this is about, I'm mad about the kiss." He said, still giving her the glare.

"I'm sorry! I don't blame you for getting mad about that," she squeaked. "But that was some really horrible-looking medicine…" She trailed off. Numbuh 84 rolled his eyes. What a mess.

"The problem is, now Numbuh T knows you're a girl too 'cause I had to tell somebody after the ki-thing happened, 'cause I was going to go crazy."

"Yeah." Sonya nodded once. "I guessed he might know."

"But he promised not to tell. So, don't worry about it." Lee stopped, listening for a noise. "Shh. Someone's coming." Numbuh T walked into the room.

"There you guys are. Numbuh 363's looking for both of you." He looked at Sonya's hat; she satisfied his curiosity by taking it off, and once again, her tangled, blonde hair fell away from the top of her head.

Tommy adjusted his goggles and circled her. "So, you are a girl. Interesting. I don't think I'm affected by your cooties, since I was okay this whole time. But, interesting." He rocked back onto his heels. "You know, you must be pretty cool for Numbuh 84 to beg me not to tell Numbuh 363 you're a girl." Numbuh 83's eyes widened.

Numbuh 84 fell over in horrified shock. He was going to kill him. When he got up, he was more than a little ticked off. "Numbuh T…" Lee reached for his yo-yo with clenched teeth. Tommy began to back away.

"Numbuh 363!" he hollered. "They're in here!" Tommy ran off, and Lee chased him angrily down the hallway. Sonya remained in the room. He begged Tommy? She walked toward her mirror. Her reflection showed her pink face. She touched her forehead anxiously. Her face felt warmer than usual. She didn't think she was sick, but she refused to acknowledge the other possibility. She didn't like him, okay? After a moment, she decided to join her teammates, and she ran out the door.

"Finally, you guys are all here." Numbuh 363 glared at a guilty-looking Tommy, Lee, and Sonya. "We have a new mission, to defeat Mr. Perfecto Lawnman and Mrs. Perfecta Housewife."

--

"Whoa, hold on. You're saying that Mr. Perfecto Lawnman and Mrs. Perfecta Housewife force their kids to slave away for hours doing yard work and cleaning the house?"

"You got that right, Numbuh T." Numbuh 363 said grimly. "We've got to save those kids before…let's hope we aren't too late."

"Before what?" Sonya asked. She jumped when she noticed that suddenly; the rest of the sector was decked out in black. She rubbed her eyes, and realized that it wasn't an illusion. Simultaneously, Numbuh 363, Numbuh T, and Numbuh 84 took off their helmet, hat, and ushanka respectively, and placed them over their hearts. They bowed their heads sadly.

Numbuh 85 explained in a quiet voice. "You know the saying, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?" Sonya nodded with wide eyes. "Recently, the Kids Next Door has discovered that when kids are forced to work all day, delightfulization occurs over the course of one month.

"Oh no." Sonya whispered. "Those poor kids."

"It is a gradual process, so most kids don't have to worry about it, even if they are subject to a week of hard labor. Most adults aren't evil enough to submit their kids to work all the time. However, there are always exceptions. This case was brought to light, when Jack and Jill's friends have noticed they have been acting more and more strangely in the past couple weeks. Then yesterday, Jack came to school sporting a blue suit, and Jill came to school wearing a sailor dress."

Sonya turned around, and silently vowed to herself. She would not let Jack and Jill turn into Delightful copies. She turned back around. Numbuhs 363, T, 84, and 85 had resumed their normal positions, in their normal outfits.

"What's going on here?!"

--

Sector W solemnly watched Jack pulling weeds. Through a window, they saw Jill vacuuming the house; their parents relaxed on lawn chairs on the driveway.

"Sector W, let's beat some sense into them!" Numbuh 363 charged out of the hiding place, shooting his mustard gun haphazardly. He ran straight toward Mr. Perfecto and Mrs. Perfecta. A second later, he was joined by the rest of his sector who shouted his (or her) individual battle cries.

Jack and Jill stopped their work and watched Sector W battle their parents. They shrugged and went back to work.

"Stop shooting, little boy! You're staining my clothes!" shrieked Mrs. Perfecta Housewife at Numbuh 363, who attacked her relentlessly with the mustard gun.

"You kids stop running all over the grass!" shouted Mr. Perfecto Lawnman at a gumball-shooting Sonya, and a S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R.-carrying Paddy.

Tommy and Lee ran over to rescue Jack and Jill.

"Yipper Cards, man." Tada! Jack tore off his sailor suit, revealing his normal outfit.

"I'm back, I'm back!"

Tommy, Lee, and Jack ran into the house to a Jill that was still obediently vacuuming.

"Rainbow monkeys." Tada! Jill blinked, and looked down at her outfit in disgust. "Yuck! What am I wearing?" Suddenly, the sailor dress disappeared and was replaced by pink dress with ruffles.

The three boys nodded and shook each other's hands. "Good job, boys."

Harvey rushed into the room.

"Guys! We're in trouble! Mr. Perfecto Lawnman is driving a gigantic lawnmower big enough to shred us to pieces! And Mrs. Perfecta Housewife is - I don't know yet, but I'm sure we'll find out."

A scream was heard from outside accompanied by a noisy sucking sound and triumphant laughter from Mrs. Perfecta.

"That was Numbuh 83!" Numbuh 363 began to shout instructions.

"Numbuh 85, take Jack and Jill to the S.C.O.O.T.E.R.; Numbuh 84, help Numbuh 83. Numbuh T, come with me, you're going to disable that lawnmower while I distract it!"

Numbuh 84 ran outside, and gasped. He hurriedly threw his yo-yo around a tree to stop himself from hurtling into the sky. A gigantic vacuum was sucking in cars, cats, and refrigerators, and whoa. He grabbed his ushanka before it flew off, and stuffed it into his pocket. Sonya hurtled past holding onto a branch of an uprooted tree. "Numbuh 84!"

"Hyah!" Lee threw two yo-yos, both had their strings replaced with Tommy-tether; Numbuh T assured him that Tommy-tether was unbreakable; Numbuh 84 hoped that Numbuh T wasn't joking, before slinging them, one he wound around one of Mrs. Perfecta Housewife's enormous ankles and himself, the other, he wound around Sonya.

"What you're doing is useless!" screamed Mrs. Perfecta Housewife. She tried to cut the Tommy-tether with branch cutters. Lee ignored her for the moment.

"Hold on!" He yelled to Sonya, although he knew she couldn't hear him. He began to pull on the Tommy-tether, bringing Sonya closer and closer to the ground.

Suddenly the lawnmower ground to a halt. Lee heard Tommy's triumphant voice. Uh oh. He reeled in Sonya faster when he realized Tommy would disable the vacuum next. Slowly, the sucking of the vacuum grew weaker, until it stopped altogether.

Sonya began to fall. She began to scream. "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Oh crud!" He panicked; instead of using his yo-yos as he should, he tried to cushion her fall by catching her. When she landed on him, he immediately crumpled to the ground. "Oww…" Sonya scrambled off of him.

"I'm sorry, Lee! I'm so, so, sorry! Are you all right?

"Oww…"

"I'm sorry, Lee!" She bent over him worriedly. "Can you get up?"

She heard a scream, and turned around to see Paddy gaping open-mouthed. Tommy was behind him, frantically gesturing toward his head.

"Numbuh T! Numbuh 85! Numbuh 84 needs immediate medical help -"

"Y-y-y-ou're a…a-a-a…g-girl! You're a girl!" Paddy said in disbelief. Sonya swiftly raised her hand to adjust her cap…except it was gone. Lee sat up quickly.

"Your hat!" He ignored his pain. Oh no. Lee's heart thudded erratically in panic.

"The vacuum!" Sonya realized her cap had long disappeared inside the powerful vacuum. "Um, well…" She bit her lip when she looked at Paddy's stricken expression.

"Numbuh 83," Tommy hesitantly reached out to try to comfort her. "It'll be okay."

"You're a girl!" Paddy remained unable to get over this new revelation. Tommy smacked him angrily with his hat.

"Lee, Tommy, what am I going to do?" Sonya tucked a piece of hair behind her ear agitatedly.

"Numbuh 84!" Paddy swung around. "Numbuh T! That's right! Why aren't you guys freaking out about this?"

"Of course, I'm freaking out about this! Now she's going to get kicked off the team!" said Lee, waving his arms in the air.

"But she's a girl!" Paddy repeated unnecessarily.

"Yeah, we've known that for ages!" Tommy cut in. "And Lee's known longer than I have!"

"What!" Sonya bit her lip anxiously as she watched her teammates freak out.

"Guys?" They halted and stared at her. "I… Can I borrow one of your hats?" They froze.

Finally, slowly, haltingly, Lee handed over his ushanka. "Here." He looked away from her curious eyes.

"Oh, Numbuh 84..." His ushanka. She realized the significance of it. She felt her cheeks warm as she fit the ushanka over her head. "Thank you." She said, softly.

"Numbuh 84!" Tommy's jaw dropped. Paddy's jaw dropped. "You gave her your ushanka!"

"I know what you're thinking, guys." Lee muttered. "I'm not crazy. She's a girl, but," he paused, "she's Numbuh 83." He paused again. "Are you going to tell, Numbuh 85?" Paddy shook his head slowly.

Sonya watched Numbuh 84. He turned around, embarrassed. "What?"

"Nothing," she stammered. I think, I think, I do like you.

--

Paddy, Tommy, Lee, and Sonya returned to the S.C.O.O.T.E.R. Harvey stared. Numbuh 84's ushanka was on Numbuh 83's head. He rubbed his eyes quickly, and looked again, and realized it was not an illusion. What was going on?

Hello! To clear up a few things...

1) The unrealistic change of outfits in the blink of an eye? It was an idea...and I liked it. lol

2) Why does Sonya not cut her hair? To avoid her mother's wrath.