Lost in London

by Callaghan, Cindy

  “Exactly.” Then under her breath I think she said, “Idiot.” What kind of person calls her friend an idiot?

  Gordo said, “The police will figure this all out. Don’t worry your pretty little fashionable heads about it.”

  I forced a smile. I hoped Gordo was right, because the videos and photos that Sebastian had would surely put Caroline and me at the scene of the crime during the crime.

  • • •

  From the train station we walked a few blocks to meet Liam, who was supposedly picking us up after we’d all met for breakfast following the sleepover at Ellie’s. On the ride I clicked an e-mail to my mom and dad. My mom had probably scrubbed every surface of the house worrying about me.

  Approaching the manor house, I was again reminded of how big and fabulous it was. Ivy and moss crept everywhere.

  We planted ourselves in her kitchen while Caroline got her iPad. “I cannot believe Sebastian has the nerve to blackmail me. He is more of a weasel than I thought. Just thinking about him makes me feel all icky.” She rubbed her arms.

  Liam brought us an assortment of juices and baby-size muffins. Yay, Liam! I was starving, so I popped one into my mouth whole. I saw Sam look at me, and I thought he was going to call the Hungry Police, but he didn’t. The next muffin I took, I broke and ate in smaller pieces.

  Mrs. Littleton stepped into the kitchen. “Oh, hi there, gang. Jordan, I got an early text from your mama. She was a wee bit angry when she got your message that said all y’all have done is shop and have a pillow party.”

  “Pillow party?” Caroline asked, confused.

  “You call it a sleepover, but we used to call that a pillow party in my sorority days,” Mrs. Littleton said.

  I thought for sure that Ellie was going to blow our cover story. She fiddled with the lace table runner. “The pillow party was very . . . pillowy. We had a pillow fight and a pillow pile and um . . . ah . . . uh . . . We made a fortress out of blankets and pillows.”

  I was officially impressed. I doubted that Ellie with a y would have thought so fast on her feet. The fortress was an especially good detail.

  “Really? A fort?” Mrs. Littleton asked.

  “Yup,” Ellie said. “That was J.J.’s idea. Apparently Americans like to build stuff with blankets and pillows.”

  “J.J.’s?” Mrs. Littleton looked at me to make sure I was J.J. I nodded. “Cute,” she said.

  Caroline said, “This was after we spent a positively perfect day at Daphne’s.”

  Mrs. Littleton said, “Did you hear the news that there was a break-in last night? The telly said there had been some mischief and a theft—jewelry, I think.”

  “Electronics,” Ellie corrected her.

  Caroline said, “J.J. got some nice additions to her wardrobe. I mean, look at her. Better, eh?”

  “I did think there was something different about ya. I thought it was just the blond streak in your hair. Do you think your mama is going to be okay with that?”

  “Oh, yes,” I lied. “She is totally into exploring new fashion.” I really hated lying. “I don’t know when you saw her last, but she has become quite a collector of shoes, like Jimmy Choos. Ha! That rhymes.” (Last night I’d learned that Jimmy Choos were a really hot brand.)

  “A bore,” Ellie said.

  “What?” I asked. “What did you say?”

  “We call someone who collects lots of shoes a shoe bore.”

  “Okay. Right. Well, that’s what she is,” I lied again. “A bore from a shoe store. Ha!” I did it again.

  Mrs. Littleton said, “Well, it sounds like y’all have had great fun. But your mama was peeved that you were shopping instead of working on your school assignment.”

  Caroline mumbled something like, “Heaven forbid we take a break from studies over school vacation.”

  “She was?” I asked.

  “I haven’t heard her so mad since we got splashed with a hose at the homecoming football game. Ohhh, we had been having such a good time until that happened.”

  “My mom had fun?”

  “Oh, all the time! She loved it!”

  I was sure she had my mom confused with someone else from college.

  Mrs. Littleton said, “But don’t worry. I took care of everything. I promised her that you would spend the rest of the week hitting all the places on your list. To calm her down I told her y’all would text pics to her from each sight.”

  “You can’t be serious?” Caroline asked, as though the idea of checking if she was lying was completely absurd, even though she had just told a whole story about a sleepover party that never happened. “She wants to spy on us? Why doesn’t she just send a babysitter to trail around after us?”

  I was totally embarrassed. Even though I was on the other side of the world, my parents were still looking over my shoulder.

  “If that’s an invitation,” Mrs. Littleton said, “I’d love to go with y’all.”

  “Yay!” Ellie said. “You’ll be like one of the gang, except older and more . . . more older than we are.”

  Caroline pursed her lips in anger, but spoke in a careful and controlled voice, “Um, I think NOT.”

  Mrs. Littleton said, “Caroline darlin’, I gotcha a little something. Come on into your daddy’s office so I can give it to you.”

  “What is it?” Caroline asked.

  “Ooh, it’s a surprise.”

  Caroline followed her stepmother out of the room.

  “What do you think it is?” Ellie asked.

  Gordo shrugged. “Could be anything. Remember the time she got a Vespa scooter? Her mum didn’t even know she was too young to drive it.”

  They returned very quickly. Caroline was smiling.

  “What was it?” Sam asked.

  “What?” she asked.

  “The surprise.”

  “Oh, it was kinda like a secret surprise. No biggie, really,” Caroline said.

  “No biggie,” Mrs. Littleton confirmed. “So, lemme just get my coat and I’ll come along with y’all today.”

  Caroline said, “As much fun as that would be, I think it’s a richer adventure for J.J. to experience London with us, just us, friends her own age.” She put her arm over my shoulder and said to me, “You are going to have an awesome time.”

  “Well, I want J.J. to have the fullest experience possible,” Mrs. Littleton said, like it was a big sacrifice for her not to hang out with us.

  “That’s what we all want,” Caroline said. “We’ll certainly text you pictures from each sight we visit. Oh, and those pics will be perfect to use for your photo montage assignment.” I thought Caroline had quickly changed her mind about sightseeing.

  “It’ll be heaps of fun, I’m sure,” Mrs. Littleton said, and exited the kitchen.

  There was a moment of silence. “I think that went well,” Ellie said. “She bought the whole fortress thing.”

  Caroline announced, “I’m going to take a shower. Can you start on planet Pluto? We have to do a supergood job on it so that those videos stay under wraps. If we get discovered, it would be very bad for me.”

  Gordo said, “Daphne’s couldn’t ban you for long. You’re their best customer.”

  “Well, I don’t want to risk it. Besides, I have more to lose than shopping.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “A lot,” she said, offering a nonanswer.

  As if commanded by the queen bee, Gordo took the seat at the iPad and began telling us what he was writing: “I am Sebastian Lively, and I am a jerk. I am not the one writing this paper because I’m a cheater . . .”

  “Stop that,” Caroline said. “Don’t joke around.”

  “You’re smart,” Ellie said to Gordo. “Can’t you just whip it out or something?”

  “Of course he can,” Sam said.

  “Bril,” Caroline said, and left for her shower.

  “Sure,” Gordo joked. “I’ll write a research paper in the next few minutes while you pals just hang out.”

  “That w
orks for me,” Ellie said. She didn’t get that Gordo had been kidding. At least, I’m pretty sure he was.

  Gordo googled some sites and sent pages to the printer at the other side of the kitchen. Sam read them over and tossed out random Pluto facts that made me think maybe this could be a good paper.

  When Caroline returned to the kitchen, she was surrounded by shower scents. Her wet hair was combed out and hung lower than it had last night. She wore new clothes: a flowy peasant blouse, black jeans, and ankle boots with a heel. I noticed that she had also put on a new palette of makeup. “J.J., Liam left you fresh towels.”

  As much as I was enjoying working on the paper with Sam and Gordo (Ellie really wasn’t into it), I left. I was excited to use my new hair straightener, and makeup, and to wear another new outfit. As I walked down the hall to the bathroom, I heard Sam and Gordo talking about the solar system, and the printer hummed.

  I also heard Caroline say to Ellie, “Look, we need to make sure J.J. has a good time, and we have to keep the Bakery Bozo off our backs.”

  Ellie said, “Where I am, fun follows, and the boys have Pluto under control. No worries, Carrie.”

  “Don’t call me Carrie,” Caroline said.

  “Gotcha,” Ellie said.

  I was so happy to hear that Caroline wanted me to have a memorable visit to London. She was sincere, wasn’t she?

  14

  I felt like a celebrity in my new duds, makeup, and straightened hair. I found Ellie thumbing through a fashion magazine while Sam and Gordo huddled over the iPad. When she saw me, Caroline checked me out from hair to shoes. A quick jump of her eyebrows told me she was pleasantly surprised with my look. She dropped her feet from the kitchen table to the floor and said, “She’s back. The American of the week.” To her friends she said, “We’re off to see the sights of London!” Her words sounded excited, but something about her tone said otherwise, I think.

  “Oh, yeah,” Ellie said. She put on a crocheted wool cap. It was so cute. I never thought of wearing a cap like that. It covered her spiky hair but let her double earrings show. I wanted double earrings and a cap. Maybe I could get those today.

  Sam finally stopped reading and caught a glimpse of me. He didn’t look long, but brushed some longish hairs in front of his face and packed the iPad in a pack with one strap that he hung diagonally across his chest.

  Thankfully, I had my new purse, or I might have been jealous of that pack. I really preferred having free arms, but I liked having a stylish purse too. I flipped my fab hair over the strap. It felt good.

  Gordo said “Ooh lala” about my appearance. “Sit tight. I need a minute to freshen up if I’m gonna hang with this one.” And then he locked himself in the powder room.

  When he returned, his collar was snapped up and I smelled a hint of cologne. We were ready for Liam to take us to the train station.

  “Where are we going first?” Gordo asked, looking at his reflection in the steel refrigerator and moving a hair to where he wanted it to be.

  “I suppose we should ask J.J.,” Caroline said. “This week is all about her.”

  Normally that would’ve made me do a Yay, me! But something in her voice sounded just a little sarcastic. No one else seemed to notice, so maybe I was being overly sensitive. So: Yay, me!

  “I’d like to go to the Tower of London,” I said, with very little confidence that was the right answer. “I’ve been dying to go there.” Then I laughed because I said “dying.” “Get it? Because King Henry killed so many of his wives there?”

  Gordo and Sam cracked a bit of a smile at my joke. I didn’t think Ellie got it, but she laughed anyway, probably to be polite.

  “Then off we go to the Tower,” Caroline said. “If we make it quick, we’ll have time to see the new zombie picture.”

  “Oh, right!” Ellie said. “I absolutely cannot wait to see that picture. I hear it’s scary and gory. ‘The bloodier the better,’ that’s what I always say.” She got her face very close to mine, looked me in the eye, and said, “OOOOH! I am so excited. After the picture maybe we can get manis. I really need one. Look.” She held out her hand with chipped black polish.

  “Ditto,” Gordo said. He held out his hand too, but he didn’t have chipped polish. “My cuticles are so bad.”

  “TD,” Ellie said about his nails. No one knew what she meant. “Total Disaster,” she explained to our questioning faces. “Duh.”

  “Not me,” Sam said. His nails were bitten as low as they could go.

  “That’s fine,” Caroline said. “You can work on the Pluto project while we’re mani-ing. We’ve totally got to stay on top of that. I swear if I get in trouble because of that rat, I can’t be responsible for what I’ll do to him.”

  Sam didn’t seem bothered by being told he’d be working on a research paper. He said, “This assignment isn’t hard. I don’t know why he can’t do it.”

  “Fab,” Caroline said. “Then everything is peachy. We’ll jet through the Tower, catch the zombie picture, and get manis.”

  “Sure,” I said, but honestly, I didn’t like the idea of rushing through the Tower of London to see a movie I could see at home, or rent on DVD. But getting my nails done sounded like a treat.

  As we walked to the car, Caroline added, “I would love to think of a way to get even with the Swine of Sweets for making us do his work for him.”

  No one commented that Caroline had said “us” even though she wasn’t doing anything for the Pluto project. I wondered about a way we could get our videos back and also make sure Sebastian got caught for cheating. Caroline would probably be psyched if I came up with a plan.

  Liam dropped us at the train station, and I followed the gang to the right platform.

  Suddenly Gordo stopped and pointed to a screen overhead. “Look at the telly,” he said.

  The reporter named Skye said, “As we reported earlier today, there was a break-in at Daphne’s, during which some sophisticated electronic equipment was stolen. After a thorough inventory, it was determined that the loss was greater than originally suspected. A selection of power tools was also taken. The combination of items leads authorities to believe the robbers may have been collecting tools necessary for other crimes.”

  “What exactly are the items that were stolen?” Cole asked.

  “That information hasn’t been released, Cole. But an interesting video has been attracting a lot of attention on the Internet. Let’s go to the clip.”

  They ran the video that Sebastian had uploaded of Caroline and me trying on shoes.

  “You can see by the date and time stamp that this video was taken at Daphne’s. No faces are visible in this clip, but the audio suggests it’s a local and an American girl.”

  Cole asked, “Are you saying these are the robbers?”

  “Authorities haven’t said that, but these girls were in the store after closing on the same night,” Skye said. “I know I’d like to be loose in Daphne’s after closing, Cole. Can you imagine?”

  “No I can’t, but I’d love it too. For now, let’s take a look at the weather.”

  “That blasted Sebastian!” Caroline said. “Look what he’s done. He’s tied us to this robbery.”

  “Was it heavy?” Ellie asked Caroline.

  “What?”

  “All that stuff?” Ellie asked. “Where did you put it?”

  “For the love of the queen! We. Didn’t. Steal. Anything!” Caroline barked.

  Ellie cowered a bit from the volume, then softly asked, “Are you sure?” Then, after seeing Caroline begin to boil red, loudly she said, “Never mind! I didn’t just say that. I swear, I didn’t. I heard it, so someone said something, but it wasn’t me. Maybe it was a ghost.”

  “Maybe we should go to the police,” I suggested, trying to take the heat off Ellie.

  “And tell them what, exactly? That we stayed in the store after closing and ran amok in every department all night long on the same night there was a major theft, but we had nothing to do with it? T
hat sounds like it will work,” Caroline said. “Truly bril idea, J.J.”

  “Maybe we should tell your father,” Gordo said. “He’s involved with Her Majesty’s government, isn’t he?”

  Caroline looked at Gordo like he was stupid, a total moron.

  “You know what?” Gordo asked. “Bad idea. Forget I mentioned it,” Gordo said.

  “Gladly,” she said. “Look, no one can think we did this.” She asked Sam, “Can we get this Pluto project done early? And get the flash drive back? I don’t like the idea of the Dork of Danishes having photographic proof we were in Daphne’s that night.”

  “Early?” Sam asked. “Sebastian was quite specific about the schedule.” (He said “schedule” like “sheh-dyul.”) “If we stick to his deadlines, we should be fine.” He said to Caroline, “You just can’t do anything for three days to make him mad.”

  15

  We stood in front of the Tower of London, which was much more than a single tower. There were multiple Gothic castlelike buildings in the complex.

  “Let’s get a photo,” Caroline said. “J.J., you stand right in front here.”

  Gordo already had his arm around me with a toothy grin exposed. I hadn’t noticed before, but braces must not be popular here, because they needed my orthodontist’s digits. Except Caroline, of course, who seemed effortlessly perfect.

  Ellie crouched down in front of me and stretched her arms wide as if to say, Ta-da!

  Gordo reached out to a man walking by and said, “Excuse me, mate. Would you mind snapping our photo?”

  The man agreed. Gordo had an arm over Caroline’s shoulder and the other over mine.

  A second later we had a great shot. It was totally going into my photo montage.

  “Let me text this to the stepmummy and Mrs. J.J., and we can move on.” Caroline fiddled with the phone. “Maybe this is what it’s like for a prisoner to have a tracking anklet that follows their every move.”

  Was she really comparing texting sightseeing pics to our moms to being a prisoner?

  Gordo must’ve been thinking the same thing, because he asked, “A little dramatic, eh?”