Totally Spies: Clover's Totally Fabulous Birthday
Chapter 5
Clover, Sam and Alex, along with Daisy and Stella were riding in the WOOHP hover limo which was heading toward Beverly Hills.
"Wow, the inside of this limo is fantastic!" Daisy said excitedly. "I mean, message seats, sparkling melon water and Global Satellite TV? It's just too good to be true!"
"That's exactly what we thought when we rode in this thing," Clover said. Her expression became a frown. "Until it brought us to our destination where we had to fight gigantic living octopus sushi."
"Living octopus sushi?" Daisy repeated in confusion.
"Yeah, there was this giant octopus monster and all his friends destroying a bunch of sushi restaurants," Alex explained. "We had to fight them along with this weird sushi chef."
"Wow, that must have been one bizarro mission," Daisy commented.
"You don't know the half of it," Sam groaned.
Sam remembered how that was right around the time when she went on her undercover mission to spy on the mime villain known as Jazz Hands. It was not a very pleasant experience for her, Alex or Clover.
Soon the limo reached its destination.
The girls climbed out of the high-tech vehicle before walking toward their favorite hangout place in Beverly Hills: The Groove.
They soon reached the entrance.
"Daisy…" Clover got her sister's attention. "Welcome to The Groove."
Clover and the girls walked into The Groove and Daisy was amazed by the atmosphere of the place.
"Wow! This place is so cool!" Daisy exclaimed. "And groovy."
"Well, they do call it, "The Groove" after all," Sam pointed out.
Alex giggled, "Nice one."
"Alright, girls, time to get our shop on!" Clover said excitedly.
"Yeah!" the rest of the girls cheered.
"To the nearest clothing store we go!" Clover announced.
As the girls went over to the nearest clothing store, they were unaware that they were being watched from afar in a dark corner of a nearby building. Mandy, Mindy and Phoebe, who had been infected by the SUDS, had been tailing the girls since they left Mali-U.
Mandy was watching the girls through a pair of binoculars before smiling sinisterly and turning to her two companions.
"This is it, girls," Mandy said sinisterly. "Now's the time to unleash our fury on those loser spies."
"Remind me again why you're calling the shots, Mandy?" Phoebe demanded with her arms crossed.
"Duh! Because, I've been a spy-sassin longer than you have, Mom!" Mandy whined. "Now keep quiet!"
Phoebe grumbled.
"Just remember the plan," Mandy spoke. "You two will eliminate Sam and Alex while the pleasure of capturing Clover for our 'mistress' will be all mine."
"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Mindy replied.
Inside the clothing store, Clover and the girls were picking out some outfits.
As Sam and Alex were looking for outfits of their own, Clover spotted one beautiful looking blue dress in particular.
"Oooh, what a cute looking dress," Clover commented.
Clover took the dress into her hands.
"I'm gonna go to the fitting room to try it on," Clover announced.
"Can I go with you, Clover?" Daisy asked. "I'd love to see you in that dress."
"Sure, Daisy," Clover nodded in agreement.
"Um, I'm not sure it's a good idea to split up, Clover," Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, what if we get attacked?" Alex added.
"Look, I know I've been a little worried about that lately," Clover spoke. "But I think I can handle being by myself for a few minutes. Plus, Daisy will be with me."
"Yeah," Daisy added. "I'll be with Clover the whole time."
Sam and Alex were looking at each other uneasily.
"Well… ok," Sam said finally. "But don't take too long."
Clover waved her hand, "You worry too much, Sam. I'll be out lickity-split."
With that, Clover and Daisy went to the store's fitting room.
"I sure hope nothing bad happens while she's gone," Alex spoke up.
"You said it," Sam added.
"Now girls," Stella chimed in. "I know you're worried, because a villain might be after you and all, but Clover will only be in there for a few minutes. Besides, me and your mothers have learned first-hand just how capable each of you are of taking care of yourselves."
"Well, I know, but it's just…" Sam hesitated.
Alex had a nervous look before she continued, "There was one time when Clover went off on her own, like, over a year ago…"
"And let's just say we didn't exactly make her feel welcome when she came back," Sam finished.
Stella looked confused until a few seconds later, it hit her.
"Ah, I take it you're referring to the 'plagiarized essay and crashed car' incident?" Stella said with a stern expression.
"Oh. Clover told you about that?" Sam said with a nervous expression.
"She sure did," Stella said with her arms crossed. "To say I was disappointed in you, when I first heard about how you wrongly accused my daughter, would be an understatement. But Clover was adamant that she had forgiven you and wanted to stay with you at Mali-U."
"Yeah, to be honest, that was more than we deserved," Alex said with a guilty expression. "We have moved on from that last incident with Geraldine and tried to carry on as if it never existed. But we still have the major guilties about it sometimes. Even though it happened over a year ago."
Stella nodded, "I know you girls have moved on from your mistake. But I'd just like to know what was going through your minds when you accused her like that."
Stella looked at Sam, "I mean, Sam, why did you think Clover would copy an essay for a class she doesn't even take?"
Stella turned to Alex, "And Alex, she wouldn't be able to borrow your car let alone crash it since she doesn't even drive a manual transmission. Not to mention, she'd never leave any of her accessories let alone her purse inside a crashed car."
"We know," Sam spoke up. "Clover already told us those things."
"Well… um…" Alex started nervously. "I guess we were so angry we forgot to consider those things."
"That and we were kind of frustrated about how Clover kept obsessing over what Blaine was doing at the time," Sam explained. "We kind of suspected that she cared more about him than us."
"And Geraldine's planted evidence didn't exactly make it any better," Alex added.
"After we figured out that Clover was innocent and helped her and Blaine take down Geraldine, we vowed never to jump to conclusions again and always stand by Clover no matter what happens," Sam said.
Stella nodded and smiled, "Well, I am certainly glad to know you've learned your lesson. And if Clover forgives you for your big mistake, then I do too."
Sam and Alex smiled and said in unison, "Thanks, Stella."
"Come on," Stella spoke. "Let's continue shopping before Clover and Daisy come back."
With that, Sam, Alex and Stella went back to looking at outfits to try on.
Meanwhile, Clover was in one of the stalls in the fitting room while Daisy was waiting for Clover to come out.
Clover soon came out of the stall wearing the dress she had found in the store.
"Well, little sis, what do you think?" Clover asked as she twirled around in her new dress.
"You look amazing in that dress, big sis!" Daisy said in amazement.
"Thanks," Clover said happily. "I guess I can add this dress to my 'buy it' list."
"Hey, Clover," Daisy spoke up. "Sam and Alex seemed really worried about you. I mean, I know you're probably being targeted by a villain and stuff, but I think you and your friends are used to that by now, aren't you?"
Clover sighed, "Well, ever since our last… 'incident' with Geraldine, Sam and Alex basically vowed to always stand by me no matter what. I think they're just worried about me being met with another… 'unpleasant surprise'."
"I'm guessing they're still guilty over how they accused you of copying Sam's essay and destroying Alex's car?" Daisy guessed.
"Well… sometimes," Clover answered. "I mean, I was pretty hurt when they accused me of stuff I didn't do and didn't believe me when I tried to tell them otherwise. But I was very grateful to them and relieved when they figured out I was innocent on their own and came to my rescue when I needed them the most. So I forgave them right away and we moved on with our lives."
"Yeah, I guess that's a good thing," Daisy said. "People do make mistakes and jump to conclusions sometimes. And I really like Sam and Alex. They seem like really nice people."
Clover nodded, "And they're the best BFFs a girl could ever have. And I'm happy to be spending time with them on my birthday as well as you and mom, little sis."
Daisy giggled, "Me too, Clover."
"Well, I suppose we better meet Sam, Alex and mom before they miss us," Clover pointed out.
"Totally," Daisy said with a nod.
But before they could do anything, suddenly, Clover felt something tightly wrap around her before it knocked her to the floor.
"Clover!" Daisy said in panic.
"What the?!" Clover said in bewilderment. She noticed that she was wrapped up in what looked like a blue glowing rope. "What is this?"
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Clover, but you and your loser sister are going nowhere," a familiar voice came.
Clover and Daisy looked in bewilderment as they saw Mandy drop down from the air duct above them.
"Mandy?!" Clover said in complete shock.
To be continued…