Invasion of the Boy Snatchers (17 page)

“I can totally see that.” Massie unclipped her seat belt and sat forward.

“Me too.” Claire nodded. “Totally.”

“Plan.” Alicia pulled her cell out of the inside pocket of her gray coat and started thumbing through her received calls. “I still have her sisters’ number stored in here. Should I call and ask if they’re missing anything?”

“Yeah!” Massie and Claire said at the same time.

Massie leaned forward and lowered the radio. Alicia dialed and then hit speaker phone.

They squeezed each other’s hands while they waited for someone to answer. The ring sounded different, more like a piercing beep.

Boop, boop . . . Boop, boop . . .

“Hey, Alicia, are you in love with your cousins?” Massie asked.

“Huh?” Alicia whispered. “No.”

Boop, boop . . .

“Then why are you making a booty call?” Massie cracked up at her own joke.

Alicia and Claire started laughing too.

Boop, boop . . . Boop, boop . . .

“Maybe they’re eating dinner,” Claire whispered.

Alicia shrugged.

“
Hola?
” a sleepy voice finally answered.

“Uh,
hola.
It’s Alicia. Your, uh,
prima
. Is this Celia?”

“
Sí,
” the voice whispered softly. Celia sounded like she was scrunched up in a ball.

“Are you . . . Uh,
estás enferma
?” Alicia said.

“
No, estoy durmiendo.
”

Alicia shrugged.

“Sleeping,” Claire whispered. “I think
durmiendo
means
sleeping
.”

Alicia checked her Tiffany watch, then covered the speaker on the phone with her hand and mouthed, “It’s only five in the evening.”

“I think they’re like seven hours ahead,” Massie said. “I realized that when I was trying to preorder a Balenciaga bag from the head offices in Spain. They were never open when I called.”

Alicia covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. “Ooops.”

Claire and Massie giggled.

“
Hola? Hola?
”

“Excuse me,” Alicia apologized into the phone. “I’m here . . . Uh,
estoy aqui. La razón
I am, uh, calling is, uh—”

“Lemme try,” Claire whispered. She leaned closer to the phone. “
Hola,
Celia,
mi nombre es
Claire. Are you missing any
zapatos
?
”

“
Si!
” Celia sprang to life. “
Quien es? Eres tu la ladrona maldita que levantes mis botas? La policía te van encontrar, y cuando te encuentren, te vam amatar!
”

“Uh, okay,
gracias
,” Claire said. “
Dispénseme.
Sorry to wake you
. Buenas noches. Adiós.
”

Claire snapped Alicia’s phone shut.

“I knew Nina was a thief,” Massie announced.

“Is that what she said?” Alicia asked. “Could you understand her?”

“She said
sí
, didn’t she?” Massie said.

“She also said ‘
ladrona
,’ which is
thief
,” Claire said. “I think.”

“Then that proves it.” Alicia nodded. “She stole their boots and everything else around here.”

“Including my boyfriend,” Claire mumbled.

“
Enough!
” Alicia and Massie shouted at Claire.

“Sorry,” Claire said, even though she probably didn’t mean it.

“We need to catch Nina in the act.” Massie twirled her charm bracelet around her thin wrist.

“How are we going to do that?” Alicia whined.

“I know.” Claire sat up tall in her seat. Her voice was confident and calm.

Isaac turned into the parking lot of the mall.

“Isaac, we can’t stay.”

“What?” Massie and Alicia snapped.

“The dance is in three days—we need clothes,” Alicia said. “And we’re already here.”

“Since when do you tell Isaac what to do?” Massie added.

“Look, do you want to catch Nina or not?”

Massie felt a warm tingle of affection trickle down her spine. She couldn’t believe Claire was being so bossy. She loved it.

“Massie?” Alicia pleaded. “We
have
to shop.”

Isaac pulled into a parking spot but kept the motor running while he waited for the final word. “Massie?” he asked.

She pressed the automatic door lock button over and over again while she thought. The contact clicking added to the tension in the car.

“Massie,” Alicia snapped, “can we please stay?”

Click.

“No.” Massie shook her head. “The shopping will have to wait.”

Isaac backed out of the spot and headed for home.

“This plan better work, Kuh-laire,” Alicia hissed. “Because the last one you came up with sucked.” She folded her arms across her chest and slouched down in the leather seat.

“It’ll work, right?” Massie pinched the side of Claire’s arm. “Right?” She pinched a little harder.

Claire nodded.

“Good,” Massie said. “Because a shopportunity is a terrible thing to waste, and you’re running out of chances.”

“It’ll work,” Claire promised.

“If I were you, I’d start praying, just in case,” Alicia said.

“Believe me,” Claire assured her, “I am.”

“To the house, Isaac,” Massie instructed. “And take the shortcut. We have a lot of work to do.”

T
HE
B
LOCK
E
STATE

Tuesday, February 10th 5:37
P.M.

Massie led Claire and Alicia around to the side entrance near the kitchen. Across the yard, the workmen were loading up their trucks with lumber and tools, ready to pack it in for the day. Claire couldn’t make out any specific details in the dark, but it looked like the house had walls and half a roof.

“They sure are building that guesthouse quickly.” Alicia sounded impressed.

“It doesn’t feel very quick when you’re sleeping in a bathtub,” Claire mumbled.

“Huh?”

Massie elbowed Claire in the ribs. “Nothing,” they said at the same time.

“Whatever.” Alicia shrugged. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Are you sure Todd will be home?” she asked Claire while Massie unlocked the door.

“If I know Todd, he’s circling Inez while she’s cooking dinner, hoping she’ll accidentally drop some scraps on the floor.” Massie reached in her bag for her keys.

Alicia and Massie started giggling.

“I’ll admit, sometimes Todd may act like a dog but—,” Claire started saying, but Massie cut her off.

“Look, Kuh-laire, if what you told us in the car about his spying is true, he’s more like a weasel!” The door clicked open.

They walked into the warm kitchen and Claire knew right away that they were having Inez’s crispy roast chicken. The rich, succulent smell of the browning skin was unmistakable. Claire peeked inside the pots on the stove and saw bacon mashed potatoes and noodle soup. At least dinner would be a success.

“Kendra.” Judi followed Mrs. Block into the kitchen. “With all due respect, you can’t just expect a child to want to show up to school on time. You have to teach them good habits by setting a good example and getting involved.” They must have been in the living room having tea, because they dropped their empty cups in the sink.

“Well, Judi, with all due respect . . .” Kendra rested one hand on the kitchen counter and the other on her tiny waist. “This whole thing is new to me. You see, Massie never had a detention until today. In fact, she never got into any trouble at all until she started hanging out with—”

“Hi, Mom.”

Kendra and Judi whipped their heads around and gasped when they saw the girls standing there.

“Uh, hi, sweetie, how was school?” Kendra asked.

“Fine,” Massie said. “Where’s Todd?”

“Upstairs, practicing his tuba.” Judi gave Claire a We-need-to-talk-about-those-detentions look. Claire rolled her eyes.

Inez hurried into the kitchen, frantically waving her arms like she was trying to clear a cloud of smoke. “What are you doing in my kitchen before dinner?” She clapped her hands three times. “Get out! Out!”

Everyone left without saying a word.

Massie led Claire and Alicia upstairs to Todd’s room. She reached the top and turned around. “Why are our mothers fighting about discipline?” She said “discipline” like she would say “dog poo.”

“I dunno. But it’s weird. It sounded like your mother was about to blame me for the detentions.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Alicia huffed as she climbed the last stair. “She used to blame me every time Massie got a wrong answer on a test.”

“Better you than me.” Massie winked, then turned toward Todd’s room.

Once they were outside his door, Claire squeezed her way past Massie and gently placed her hand on the brass knob. She could hear the farting sound of Todd’s tuba through the walls. “Allow me,” she whispered. And to her surprise, Massie and Alicia willingly agreed.

Claire counted to three inside her head and then pushed open the door. “Hi-ya!” she shouted and kicked her leg like a kung fu expert when she entered his room.

Massie and Alicia screamed, “Hi-ya!” too, then sliced the air with the sides of their palms. Even though she was supposed to act mean and angry, Claire couldn’t help smiling at their improvised entrance.

Todd lifted half of his mouth off the tuba. “Hello, angels. Does this make me Charlie?”

“Where’s your spy gear?” Claire asked.

“What spy gear?” Todd widened his eyes, trying to look innocent.

“Massie, you search under the bed. Alicia, you check the drawers. I’ll take the closet.”

“What are you doing?” Todd jumped to his feet. “Help, police!” He started blowing his tuba like a car alarm.
Puurp . . . puurp . . . puurp . . .
“Police! I’m being robbed!”
Puurp . . . puurp . . . puurp . . .

“We should be the ones calling the police.” Claire pulled Todd’s clothes out of his closet and threw them on the floor. “It’s illegal to spy on people.”

“Not in New York State,” Todd said. “Hidden cameras are legal here as long as one party knows about it. And I’m that party.” He handed Claire the legal document that had come with his camera equipment. “See?”

Claire pretended to read it, but she was angry and couldn’t focus. She threw the document on the floor. “Well I don’t think mom and dad will care if it’s legal or not, especially since you’ve already been grounded for eavesdropping.” She tapped her stubby fingernails against his closet door. They had been chewed so much, it actually hurt. “I wouldn’t be surprised if mom grounded you from playing in the finals game.”

Massie and Alicia folded their arms across their chests like threatening bodyguards.

“Okay, fine. It’s in the box marked Dirty Old Underwear.”

Claire searched the floor of his closet.

“Up top.” Todd pointed to the shelf above his hanging clothes.

Claire jumped up and knocked the Adidas shoe box to the floor. It fell to the floor and spilled open.

“Ew!” Claire shrieked. “There’s nothing in here but dirty old underwear. What’s wrong with you?”

“Oops, wrong box.” Todd grinned. “I keep those for good luck.”

“Well, you’re gonna need ’em if you don’t tell us where the spy gear is,” Massie said.

“Try the box that says Operation Underpants,” he offered.

“What is with your family and operations?” Alicia asked.

Claire shrugged as she knocked the L. L. Bean shoe box off the shelf.

“Easy.” Todd threw his tuba on the bed and rushed over to the closet. “This stuff is fragile.”

Claire gave a dramatic sigh before lifting the lid. “Ready?” She loved that she was in control of the situation, and was trying to milk it as much as she could.

“Yeah,” Massie insisted. “Open it already.”

“Hurry,” Alicia said.

“Here goes.” Claire lifted the lid. A swatch of red velvet material lined the inside of the box.

“Hey, that’s my Christmas scarf!” Massie shrieked. “Where did you get that?”

“It was a gift from Nina. Because she thought I was cute.”

“Well, it’s mine.” Massie tugged on the red velvet, knocking around the little camera that had been resting on top of it.

Alicia reached into the shoe box and pulled out something that looked like a black button. “What is this?” she asked.

“It’s a button cam,” Todd explained.

“Cam,” Claire sighed, then turned to Massie.

“Oh no,” Massie said. “Don’t start thinking about him now.”

“Todd said it, I didn’t. It’s just that I have no idea what we could have possibly done wrong—”

“Not now.” Massie turned to face Todd. “So how does this work?”

Todd folded his arms, then turned his back on the girls.

“Todd, you better talk or else no soccer game.” Claire was amazed at how much she was able to sound like her mother when she wanted to. “And without that, you have absolutely no chance of ever getting a girl to like you.”

“Fine.”

Todd explained how to work the hidden camera and showed the girls how to watch the feed on a TV. Once they understood how to hook everything up, Alicia took the camera and dropped it in her signature brown-and-black Fendi change purse.

“Alicia, are you sure you’ll be able to plant it on Nina without her knowing?” Massie asked.

“Given,” Alicia said with a big, toothy smile.

“Okay, then tomorrow after school we’ll meet in the DJ booth to watch the footage,” Massie said, reviewing the plan. “Todd, if you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll tell every girl at OCD that you talk to your fingers.”

Todd whimpered and shook his head.

“Then not a word to anyone.” Massie narrowed her eyes. “Not even Mr. Thumb.”

Alicia and Claire giggled. Todd threw a sneaker at them on their way out, but Massie shut the door before they got hit. “I’m so not done with you yet, Lyons,” Massie shouted through the door. “
So not!
”