Triple Trouble

by Elise Allen

  “Did you pluck your eyebrows?” Gabby asked, incredulous.

  Alice held up a finger, smiling at the rotund cameraman and a remarkably coiffed-and-made-up redheaded woman sitting at their kitchen table. Then she took Gabby gently by the arm and led her aside.

  “Isn’t this exciting?” she whispered. “Dina Parker from the local news is doing a piece on me! Well, all of us, really—all the local chefs coming together to make the world’s largest pizza at the fair.”

  “Wow,” Gabby said. “I didn’t know giant pizza would make the news.”

  “Not the news-news. Dina does all those kooky special feature stories. She’s so good on camera. Just look at her.”

  Gabby followed Alice’s gaze. Dina was still sitting at their table, but now she held up a mirror and adjusted her already-f lawless makeup.

  Was Gabby imagining it, or had Dina angled her mirror in just the right way to watch Alice and Gabby as they spoke?

  “Did I ever tell you I used to dream about being a TV journalist?”

  That grabbed Gabby’s attention. “No! Seriously?”

  Alice nodded. “When I was a kid. Long before I went to school for chemistry and ages before I even dreamed I’d end up a caterer, I wanted to be on camera, just like her. Bigger though—like, you’d see my face on the side of buses and billboards—and mugs! And I’d be on commercials.” She turned away from Gabby, then whipped her head back around, as if posing for the camera. “Alice Duran, evening news.”

  Gabby laughed. “You’d have been great!”

  “Well, sure,” she said playfully, “I’m great at everything I do. Just like my kids. But with the catering I got to stay home for you and Carmen. You never know, though—maybe this’ll be my big break. I’ll be so good on camera, I’ll get discovered and I’ll be the next Dina.”

  She winked at Gabby, then practically f loated back to the reporter. “Okay, Dina, I’m ready!”

  “Wonderful!” Dina said. She rose to her feet, then looked at Gabby. Her eyes widened in surprise as if she were noticing her for the first time, but there was something fake about it. Gabby was now positive Dina had been checking her out in the mirror.

  “You must be Alice’s famous daughter! Gabby Duran, right? Babysitter to the Unsittables?”

  If Gabby still had toothpaste-rinse in her mouth, she’d have done another spit take. As it was, her throat simply closed up.

  “Unsittables” was code for the aliens she babysat. No one was supposed to know about them. No one but

  A.L.I.E.N…. and their enemies.

  xcuse me?” Gabby croaked out.

  “Oh, please,” Dina said with a conspiratorial smile. “I know all about how you babysit for Adam Dent and Sierra Bonita. Everyone else says their triplets are terrors—totally unsittable. But I hear they’re little angels for their favorite babysitter.”

  Gabby hadn’t realized she’d stopped breathing until she started again. Adam Dent and Sierra Bonita were big movie stars, and it was true that Gabby was their favorite sitter. They’d f lown her to movie sets all over the world to babysit for Ila, Lia, and Ali. Their secrets were just as important to Gabby as A.L.I.E.N.’s, but at least information about them wouldn’t threaten the fate of the galaxy.

  At least, she didn’t think so.

  “I don’t discuss people I babysit, Ms. Parker,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s very nice to call little kids ‘terrors.’ They’re just kids.”

  Dina somehow managed to keep her smile painted on, even as her lip curled in a brief sneer. “Of course. I’m sure they’re lovely. But we don’t have to talk about them. Maybe you’d rather talk about being a f lying girl?”

  The reporter snatched her tablet off the kitchen table and showed Gabby what was on the screen: the same Third Eye article that had been splayed across the planetarium in her dream.

  If it was a dream. Gabby had major doubts that it was. She was also starting to majorly doubt that Dina was actually here for Alice, even though she’d never say that out loud. Alice would be too disappointed.

  “I don’t f ly,” Gabby explained. “The story’s wrong. My friend Zee made these springs I put on my shoes and—”

  “Fascinating, yes,” Dina said, clicking off the tablet, “and I suppose that is more reasonable, but my spidey-sense tells me that you still have all kinds of fascinating secrets, even if f lying isn’t one of them.”

  Dina crossed her arms across her red suit jacket and raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. Gabby had the uncomfortable sensation the reporter was looking inside her mind.

  Then Alice placed her arms on Gabby’s shoulders and leaned in close. “I have fascinating secrets!” she said. “Like the secret ingredient for the biggest pizza crust in the world!”

  Dina grimaced, but by the time her eyes met Alice’s she’d transformed into her usual beaming self.

  “Wonderful!” she said. “I can’t wait to hear all about it. And I’m sure Gabby and I will have lots of time to talk when I’m watching you and the other chefs work your magic at the fair. Right, Gabby?”

  “Actually, I can’t go to the fair,” she admitted, far more to Alice than to Dina. “I have to babysit.”

  Both Dina and Alice said, “Really?” at the exact same time, but only Alice looked upset. Dina looked like a vampire who smelled blood.

  “You promised me you’d come watch,” Alice said, and not even her perfect layer of cosmetics could hide her disappointment.

  Gabby’s heart broke a little. Alice did everything for her and Carmen, and she didn’t ask for a lot in return. For a second Gabby considered canceling on her client, but the truth was she couldn’t even if she wanted to. She had no way to get in touch with “Ms. Jackson.” Whatever number A.L.I.E.N. had left for Carmen would only go to Edwina, and she’d never let Gabby ditch. And while it seemed unlikely that some P.T.A. meeting would affect the future of the universe…Gabby had seen stranger things.

  “I know. I’m really sorry. I promise I’ll try to get to the fair in time for the official measuring. It’s just that there’s a big P.T.—” She stopped herself, just in case Dina knew more than Gabby did. “There’s an emergency.”

  “An emergency!” Dina gushed. “This is so exciting. Charlie, roll film.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Gabby said, maneuvering Alice in front of the camera lens. “You can get all the world record pizza rules on camera. Like, it’s not just about the size of the pizza, right, Mom? You have to have enough toppings on it, too?”

  “You remembered!” Alice f lipped her hair like a pro and beamed at the camera lens. “That’s absolutely right, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a lot that goes in to making the world’s largest pizza, and I’ll be happy to tell you exactly what it takes.”

  Gabby caught Dina trying to glare at her as she slipped out of the room, but Gabby just waggled her fingers, grabbed her purple puffer jacket, ran out the front door…and screamed as she nearly ran into Madison.

  “Bestie!” Madison cried, and threw her arms around Gabby’s neck for a huge hug. When she pulled away, Gabby noticed Madison looked like her old self again. She wore a pink fuzzy sweater over leggings with a black-and-white checkered pattern. Her blonde hair hung long and smooth, and she’d gone beyond her normal pink lip gloss to add what looked like eyeliner and shadow.

  She looked beautiful, Gabby supposed, but weirdly overdone for a Saturday morning.

  “Hi, Madison,” Gabby said. “I’m kind of in a hurry….” She tried to edge by and get to her bike, but Madison stepped in front of her.

  “I got you a present,” she blurted. She thrust out her hand, which held something small and rectangular. Gabby knit her brows. Presents out of nowhere was a change. Maybe the mind-zapping was affecting her in new and different ways. She’d have to mention it to Edwina.

  “Thanks, Madison.”

  “Open it!” Madison said, bouncing giddily as Gabby took the rectangle. Gabby hadn’t realized it hinged, but she now opened it to reveal a swa
th of shiny pink with a tiny brush on one side and a mirror on the other.

  “Lip gloss?” Gabby asked.

  “Same shade as mine!” Madison said. “We can be lip-twinsies!”

  Gabby noticed the divots in the gloss and the pink color on the brush. “Is it yours? It looks used.”

  Madison’s cheeks f lushed, but her smile remained wide. “Well, yeah! That’s what makes it meaningful—I’m giving up something of mine, just for you.”

  “Okay,” Gabby said warily.

  Madison was definitely acting weirder than usual. Gabby didn’t even wear makeup, not regularly. Even if she did, it would never be cotton-candy pink lip gloss—never mind used cotton-candy pink lip gloss. Still, it seemed easier not to ask too many questions. She slipped the lip gloss deep into her jacket pocket. “Thanks,” she said.

  “My pleasure!” Madison said. Then she craned her neck to try to see around Gabby. “Um…I noticed the news van in front of your house. Was that Dina Parker I saw walking in?”

  Madison smoothed her hair and rubbed her glossed lips together, and Gabby instantly understood. The “present” didn’t have anything to do with the mind wipe or their new bestie status at all. Madison just wanted to be on TV.

  “It was,” Gabby said. “She’s interviewing my mom about the world’s largest pizza. She’s pretty into weird and unusual things, so you never know—if there’s anything weird and unusual you can show her, she might want to interview you, too.”

  Madison’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Gabby knew exactly why and she tried not to laugh. “Weird” and “unusual” were two words Madison would never want associated with her, but now they were exactly the qualities she needed to get on TV? Her brain was totally short-circuiting.

  Then Madison gasped and put her hands to her cheeks. “I was named most popular girl in school every year—even when I was in Baby Buckaroo! That has to be a record! I’ll go get the ribbons.” She broke into a run back to her house across the street. “Thank you, bestie! LoveYaMeanIt!”

  Gabby grinned as she made her way to her bike. Sometimes it was fun having the new Madison around. It definitely cost her time, though. She needed to hurry if she wanted to get to her job on time.

  Putting all thoughts of Madison, news reporters, and giant pizzas out of her mind, Gabby quickly snapped her phone into the holder she’d installed on her bike handlebars, punched in the address Carmen had given her, then strapped on her helmet and rode off at top speed, wondering what A.L.I.E.N. had in store for her this time.

  dwina tells me you’re a pro, so it should all be very easy,” Blinzarra said as she sat on a bench in her foyer and pulled on a pair of thick-heeled leather boots. “Sharli’s in the living room, watching TV. If it were up to her, she’d sit there all day, so if you could pull her away for a little while, that’d be great.”

  “If it’s okay, I’ll keep the TV off,” Gabby said. “I like playing with the kids I babysit. It’s more fun.”

  Blinzarra stopped mid-zipper and looked at Gabby, amazed. “Bless you,” she said. “You’re a better woman than I.”

  She bent back over her boots and continued her monologue as she moved her belongings from one purse to another, swung on her long coat and cinched the belt, then gathered her keys. Gabby listened, but she almost didn’t have to—it was the same spiel she’d heard a million times from a million different parents. Honestly, it was so normal that Gabby wondered if Blinzarra was even an alien. Maybe she was just a human being who worked for A.L.I.E.N. Gabby had found that most aliens—even the ones who looked completely human—had something that gave them away, at least when they were with Gabby and didn’t need to pretend. Maybe their head spun all the way around, or they lapsed into a native tongue that sounded like a teakettle’s whistle, or they sprouted an extra arm to gather their things. Blinzarra did none of that. She looked like a regular mom, her hair in long, natural curls, tamed by a vibrant headband. She wore a professional-looking belted dress, boots, and the jacket, and never did or said a single thing that didn’t strike Gabby as one hundred percent Earthling.

  “We recycle our bodily wastes internally, so you don’t have to worry about the bathroom,” Blinzarra said. “Though we do have one for you if necessary.”

  Okay, almost one hundred percent Earthling.

  “I hate to say I’ll be out of reach,” Blinzarra went on as she gathered the last of her things and stood by the door, “but I really will. If there’s an emergency, Edwina will get a hold of me. She said you know how to reach her right away?”

  Gabby didn’t; not exactly. After all this time she still didn’t have a cell phone number or email for her boss. But Gabby usually found that if she really needed her, Edwina somehow knew. So she didn’t feel like she was lying when she said, “Absolutely.”

  “Great. Right in here.” She took a step down the hall, then stopped short and smacked her palm into her forehead. “Oh. I hope you don’t mind. My friend Lester dropped his son, Petey, here, too. Ten years old, really good kid. Lester’s wife, Mayvrell, was supposed to be home to watch him, but she had a family thing come up. I would have asked in advance, but it all happened at the last second, and Lester’s on the P.T.A. organizing committee, which means he had to get there early—”

  Blinzarra was speaking a mile a minute. Gabby could tell she felt bad about the situation, so she jumped in as soon as she could to put the woman’s mind at ease. “It’s okay,” Gabby said. “I understand. Things happen.”

  Blinzarra let out a huge sigh and smiled. “Edwina was right. You are amazing. And don’t worry, we’ll double your fee for the extra child. Come on.”

  Gabby grinned—Edwina had called her amazing! That was two compliments in less than twenty-four hours!—and followed Blinzarra as she clomped down the hall and into the kitchen, then made a left to enter a carpeted family room with three plush sofas and a recliner. Eschewing all of them, a three-year-old girl with a head full of braids instead sat cross-legged on the f loor in front of the TV. A brown-and-white springer spaniel lay next to her, with its head in her lap.

  “Awww! You have a dog!”

  The dog didn’t get up, but its tail thumped at the sound of Gabby’s voice.

  This was new. The only pets Gabby had ever seen in alien homes were aliens themselves, and they never wasted time acting like animals in front of Gabby.

  “We do. Sneakers is a good boy.” Blinzarra walked over to them and kissed both Sharli’s and Sneakers’s heads, then she remained crouched close to Sharli. “I’m leaving, okay? Be good and do what Gabby says.”

  “Okay.”

  Sharli didn’t take her eyes off the TV as Blinzarra gave her one more kiss before she stood to go.

  “Love you!” Blinzarra called.

  “Mwah!” Sharli called back. The three-year-old kissed her palm, then raised her hand high and opened and closed it, as if sending the kiss to her mother. Blinzarra made a show of catching it, even though Sharli wasn’t looking. “Got it. Thank you, baby!”

  Blinzarra gave Gabby a final good-bye, then walked down the hall toward the door.

  “Wait!” Gabby said. “Where’s Petey?”

  “He’s around,” Blinzarra said. “He likes to hide sometimes, but he doesn’t go far and he’d never leave the house. Thank you again!”

  Blinzarra walked out the front door. While Sharli kept her eyes on the TV, Gabby wandered around the kitchen, looking for all the places a ten-year-old might hide. The pantry door was ajar and Gabby smiled.

  “Petey?”

  She pulled the door open, positive she’d see a grinning boy crouched inside…but it was empty. So was the back hall and the space between the washer and dryer. Gabby returned to the family room. She peeked in all the spaces between the three couches and behind the recliner, and even pulled back the f loor-to-ceiling draperies that framed the sliding glass door to the backyard, but there was no sign of Petey.

  He really did like to hide.

  That was okay, though
; Gabby knew some kids needed time to come out of their shells. She’d give him his space and eventually he’d emerge and say hi. In the meantime, she plopped down on the f loor next to Sharli and her dog.

  “Mind if I pet Sneakers?”

  Sharli shook her head, but she didn’t look at Gabby and she didn’t say anything. She just pointed at the TV.

  “You like this show, huh?” Gabby said. “Okay. I promise I won’t interrupt. But once it’s over, we’ll turn it off and do something else that’s just as fun.”

  Gabby petted the dog as she watched the show, paying close attention to the story. It wasn’t always easy to get a kid to turn off the TV, but if Gabby came up with a game based on a show they loved, that made it simpler. It helped that Gabby knew this show, and it wasn’t hard to get the gist of the storyline. She kept her mouth shut throughout the episode—she’d promised not to interrupt, and her number one rule for babysitting was Always keep a promise—then grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.

  “Okay!” Gabby said, hopping to her feet. “So we’re gonna play the show. You’re the pink puppy, I’m the green puppy, Sneakers is the yellow puppy, and this couch is our headquarters, so we’ll hop up and get our mission—”

  But when Gabby threw herself onto the couch…the couch howled.

  “OWWWWW!”

  Gabby jumped like her body was on fire. “What was that?!”

  Sharli didn’t answer. She just narrowed her eyes and looked at the couch…at which point one of the seat cushions rose three feet and f loated in thin air. Gabby was so mesmerized by the f loating cushion, she didn’t even notice the far stranger thing the cushion had revealed.

  “Ooooh…you’re gonna be in trou-ble,” a voice singsonged.

  Gabby looked down at the now-cushionless couch…and saw a tiny male figure, about as tall as a box of crayons. He looked around ten years old, and wore jeans, a gray-and-black T-shirt, and little running shoes. When Gabby knelt down for a closer look, she saw his shoes were scuffed, his jeans were grass-stained, and his short brown hair had a small cowlick that stuck straight up on top of his head.