"Girls! Can you come out here for a second?"
"Sure Dave!"
I popped my head outside, hoping Brittany was going to stay with Dave for a few days, or as far away from us as possible.
"Brittany, could you head inside please, I just need to talk with your sisters for a minute."
I couldn't believe it. She didn't seem sick at all.
"Alright, Jeanette, Eleanor, I'm not completely sure what is going on, but somehow I don't think Brittany is sick anymore. The doctor just touched her, and then she started acting completely cured. It was a miracle! She wasn't sick to her stomach, she quit sneezing and coughing, and she got her appetite back! I guess since she is feeling better I can let her go home with you guys, but if she seems like she's getting sick again let me know, okay?"
I looked straight at Jeanette, and my throat immediately went dry. I could see the fear in her eyes, and I hoped I was showing her the same distress signal. We needed to be careful. Dave had probably been taken over as well! I couldn't deny it, up until she was "miraculously cured", I was skeptical of the whole thing, but then I knew for a fact that Brittany wasn't just sick.
"Dave... are you okay?"
Jeanette was obviously just trying to make small talk to look for signs that he had been taken over, but I could tell she was freaked out.
"Huh? Of course I'm okay, girls... what's going on?"
I didn't know what to say, I just stood there with my mouth shut. There were a few moments of awkward silence, but then Jeanette took the reins.
"Oh... nothing Dave. We'll let you know if we need something."
"If this is about me kicking you out of the hospital I'm sorry girls. I overreacted, and should have just had a talk with Alvin. I still can't believe he thought she was an alien!"
I knew exactly what to say there! I could get Dave to leave if I just made him think that was the issue, and that we had forgiven him for it.
"Thanks for apologizing Dave, we were sad and just wanted to be with our sister. I feel a lot better now. Bye Dave!"
Normally I would have hugged Dave after that, but Jeanette and I bolted inside instead.
"Wait, girls—"
Jeanette slammed the front door and locked it. Dave was a danger to us, whether we wanted to admit it or not. We had to make sure everyone was protected from Brittany, otherwise the whole world could be taken over. She had already gotten to Dave, but we had to leave that under Alvin's control. We stood there for a second behind the locked door taking everything in. Jeanette broke the silence first. She always came up with good plans.
"Eleanor, we can't let Brittany out of our sight. We'll have to take turns watching her, while the other one of us is making sure everything else doesn't get out of hand as well as figuring out how to fix all of this."
"We only have to do this until monday, which is the day that Alvin said we would catch Brittany."
"That's right! We just have to keep her occupied tomorrow and the rest of tonight."
"How about I bake cookies with her. That could take a few hours if I really drag it out. You've got to text the boys to let them know about Dave. Also... please stay close by. I don't want to be alone here."
As much as I hated to admit it, I was in danger without Jeanette near. I had no idea what kind of power the alien could have. I wasn't safe around Brittany.
"We can do this Ellie."
Jeanette had a look of determination on her face, and I could tell she wouldn't give up on her sister, just like me.
"Let's go find Brittany. Stay nearby, but don't appear like you are following us around, okay? We can't let her know that she has been found out."
I was really worried, but I needed to appear brave for Jeanette. I'd always been the daring one, but at the moment, I felt the most scared I'dever been.
"Brittany, where are you at?"
"Just changing my clothes quickly, Eleanor. I'll be out in a minute. Did you need something?"
"Yeah, I've really been wanting to bake some cookies recently, but Jeanette won't make them with me. Would you want to do that? I want to make them completely from scratch."
"Sure Ellie! I don't know why, but cookies sound really good right now!"
"Okay!"
I really was not expecting that from Brittany. She never wanted to work for anything. For a second I questioned if maybe the body snatcher had a positive effect on her, but quickly realized that I couldn't start thinking like that, or I would never save the Brittany I loved.
"Alright, Ellie, I'm ready! Let's head to the kitchen!"
"Step one is always to get all of the ingredients."
"Can we do this like we're on a cooking show? I've always wanted to be a part of one except that I don't like failing in front of a large group of people."
"Sure! We can make that work! Here's how we have to do it then. I'll start the timer and then read off a bunch of ingredients. Your job is to go find them, throw them to me, and wait for me to set them down before I call out the next thing. Got it?"
"Got it!"
"Alright. Three, two, one, butter! Sugar! Vanilla! Flour!"
Cooking with Brittany while she was actually enjoying it was a really weird experience. Not that I didn't enjoy it, because honestly it made me really happy, but it just didn't feel normal. I definitely was not dealing with the real Brittany here.
"Come on Ellie! Next ingredient!"
"Sorry, Britt! Brown Sugar! Salt! Chocolate Chips! Eggs!"
As soon as I said "eggs" I immediately regretted it.
"Wait! Britt, don't!"
I really did try to catch all dozen of the eggs, but it just wasn't possible. Just about all of them hit some part of my body, covering me in raw, slimy, egg goop. I stood there speechless.
"Oh... whoops..."
We both looked at each other and started laughing like crazy.
"Don't worry about it, Britt. We're still on the clock, so I'll go wash up quickly while you grab the baking powder, baking soda, and... very carefully, some eggs."
"Yeah! Let's do this!"
Her positivity caught me off guard as I ran to my closet to grab a fresh set of clothes. She seemed like she was having the time of her life cooking. She normally would have blamed me for telling her to throw the eggs, but at the time she was just fun to be around. Even though I was having a great time, the thought that she was an alien was still at the forefront of my mind. I had to stay on task, but it was good to keep her distracted. I quickly switched out my clothes, and even though I still felt eggy, headed out to the kitchen. I would have to wash it off later.
"Alright! I'm back! Britt, you start making the batter, I'll set everything else up."
"Perfect... but how do I do that?"
"Just mix all of the ingredients together using the recipe on the counter. I'll add the eggs, because even though you have experience breaking eggs, it can be a little tough."
We both started laughing again. Baking cookies with Brittany was way more fun than I had expected when I came up with the idea. I quickly set the oven to preheat and got out all of the tools we needed, and decided to go check on Jeanette in the living room.
"I'll be right back Britt, I have to ask Jeanette a quick question."
"Okay!"
I lowered the volume of my voice and started talking with Jeanette hoping Brittany would be fine in the kitchen while I was gone.
"Jeanette? How's it going out here?"
"I texted Alvin and he said he'd keep an eye on Dave. He also said that he has an 'Alvi-tastical' plan."
"Oh no. 'Alvi-tastical?' That sounds dangerous to me."
"Yeah, and he said it was best to keep the details to himself, just in case body snatchers can read minds."
"That's probably not an awful idea, except that it's Alvin's plan."
"Yeah, I'll keep working on it. I don't really know what I can do in order to stop him. How's your half of the plan going?"
"Surprisingly, It's going great. Brittany is actually having fun cooking with me. Well, half-Brittany is having fun. At least there's no lasers or mind control. It could be way worse."
"Awesome! How about you go back in and keep her occupied."
Jeanette was probably right. I didn't really know what could happen if you left an alien alone for too long.
"Alright."
I really hope Alvin's plan either works or he just doesn't go through with it. Trusting him is like throwing a dart at a dartboard with your eyes closed and hoping for a bull's eye. As soon as I walked in I saw Brittany covered in flour, which I could not understand. We hadn't even started the mixer yet!
"Britt! What happened? You have flour all over."
"Yeah, I made a small mistake, but that's okay. No big deal. It's time to put the eggs in now, Ellie! Hurry! Time is ticking!"
I grabbed the eggs, quickly cracked them and put them into the bowl as I thought about the new positive mindset Brittany had. She never would have said stuff like that a week ago.
"Done! Now grab the mixer and mix for two minutes."
She flipped the power switch on the mixer, putting it on level seven, causing more flour to spray everywhere.
"Brittany!"
"What? I can't hear you!"
The mixer was way too loud to hear anything.
"Nevermind!"
After a few more minutes of mixing, she turned the mixer off, and I hurried us on to the next step.
"Perfect! Now we gotta roll them up in balls and set 'em on the cookie sheet!"
"Let's do it!"
She was actually a cooking machine! She was amazing at it when she put her mind to it!
"Can I put them in the oven now Ellie?"
"Yeah! Now we gotta just wait until they cook!"
"This has been tons of fun Ellie."
She was right. It really had. I hadn't had a fun night just with Brittany for quite a while. I missed spending time with her like that. I kind of wished we could keep Brittany as an alien, because she was so positive and fun, but I knew it was wrong. I wasn't really spending time with the Brittany I loved. It was imagining that I was spending time with Brittany, but it was all just a fantasy dreamt up in my head.