The next morning, Jennifer woke up with a splitting headache. She saw that Scooter and Pattie were sleeping in the room, Pattie on the bed next to her, and Scooter in a chair that looked uncomfortable. Jennifer looked down to see Maribelle on her phone, scowling. When Maribelle saw her, she looked at Jennifer and softened her expression.
"Have a good night's sleep?" Maribelle joked, causing Jennifer to give a small smile.
"Excellent." She replied sarcastically. Maribelle quietly laughed and climbed up on the bed with Jennifer. She handed Jennifer her notebook and Jennifer sighed.
"How much?" Maribelle asked. Jennifer looked up, her expression apologetic.
"I'm sorry, Belle. I couldn't-"
"How much?" Maribelle demanded. Jennifer looked down in shame.
"All of it." She whispered. Instead of the anger Jennifer expected, she got a hug.
"It wasn't your fault, Jen. But what brought it on?"
"At the dinner, Justin... all he would talk about was how fat I was, and how much food I was eating. Then all those things everyone would say about me starting rolling around in my head, and before I knew it, all my food was... was..." Jennifer's voice trailed off and Maribelle shushed her.
"It's all right Jen. I'll be here for you to help. I know I can't possibly be as good as Jeremy was, but I'll be as good as I can, okay?"
"I miss him so much Belle. So much it hurts. I can't go anywhere or do anything whithout thinking about him." Jennifer said. Maribelle nodded.
"I know girl. We'll get through it, I promise." She said. Jennifer nodded, and Maribelle pulled her up to look at her. She had that mischievous smile that Jennifer knew meant trouble for them both.
"Wanna show Justin and Selena and Anna that we can't be beat?" she said in a spooky voice that had Jennifer muffle her giggles. Jennifer bit her lip and nodded.
"Perfect, come on!" she said, and dragged Jennifer from the bed and out the door, both girls laughing.
"But I don't have my shoes on!" Jennifer cried, and Maribelle ignored her as they kept running down the hall.
"Okay, so here's what we're gonna do, just for shits and giggles..." Maribelle said, and Jennifer couldn't help but to laugh at Maribelle's ridiculously ingenious plan.
They made their way to the concierge desk and rang the bell.
"How may I help you, miss?" the concierge asked them. Maribelle nodded.
"Well... the people in 208 need a little... wake up call. Can you send them a maid of something to vaccuum and clean in there? It's a mess. Oh, and they're gonna need their energy up so why don't we give them each a little food. How bout some sardine soup with some saltine crackers? They need a little brain food." Maribelle said, and Jennifer looked down at her bare feet, covering her smile.
"Yes ma'am." The concierge said, a smile playing on his lips.
"Oh, and tell them, if they ask who did this, tell them... Dave and Brenda wanted to give them a little during tour surprise." Maribelle said, and the concierge chuckled.
"Yes ma'am. Right away." He said, and picked up his phone. Maribelle took Jennifer's arm and they headed back to their room, grabbed their dance shoes, and ran back down to the dance studio, after leaving a note to Pattie and Scooter.
As they passed the concierge desk, Maribelle stopped.
"If they ask, we've been in the dance studio since freaking dawn okay?" she demanded, and the concierge chuckled again.
"Yes ma'am." He said, and Maribelle dragged Jennifer by the arm to the dance studio across the lobby. The two girls were going crazy with their laughter, and finally managed to calm down and practice their choreography for the next performance.
After an hour of dancing and practicing and goofing around, the two girls heard the screams coming from the lobby. They ran to the door to see Selena, Justin, and Anna standing at the concierge desk, yelling for information. The concierge tried to assure them that it was a mistake, and giving off excuses of what could've happened, when he caught Maribelle's eye, who gave him a thumbs up and closed the door before anyone could catch on. Selena, however, caught his glance toward the closed studio door and marched over to it.
Jennifer was trying to show Maribelle how to do ballet turns, both girls in their socks rather than tennis shoes as Maribelle tried to turn the way Jennifer had just showed her, and failed miserably, falling flat on her behind. Jennifer and Maribelle both laughed it out, as Selena burst through the room.
"I know it was you two!" she screamed, her mousy voice drowning out the music. Jennifer ran over to turn it down as Maribelle walked up to her.
"What are you talking about?" she asked Selena.
"You know what I'm talking about." Selena snapped, and Maribelle gave her a warning glare.
"You better watch that tone." Maribelle warned. Jennifer walked over to Maribelle and put a hand on her shoulder.
"What's going on?" she asked innocently.
"Well if it isn't Blondie, back from her attention episode. Didn't like the fact that Justin was paying more attention to me than you, did you Barbie? Had to go and get him in trouble huh?" she said insultingly. Jennifer was taken back.
"Lay off her why don't you, Gomez?" Maribelle said, putting a hand to Selena's face. "Now you either tell us what the hell your problem is, or leave us alone to practice. I was just beginning to master my turns before you rudely interrupted." Jennifer let out a laugh and Selena turned to her again.
"Where were you guys this morning??" Selena demanded.
"Not that we have to explain a damned thing to you, but we've been in here all morning, practicing." Maribelle replied.
"I don't believe you." Selena said.
"I didn't say you had to. Why are your panties in a bunch anyway?"
"Someone had the room service people come in too early with some nasty fish smelling soup, and the freaking maids were cleaning, and spilled the whole thing on the floor! So now our room smells like that nasty fish smelling stuff!" Selena cried, and Maribelle and Jennifer started to laugh. "It was you!" Selena yelled, and Maribelle shook her head.
"No, it wasn't. But whoever it was, I should surely shake their hand and give them a kiss on the cheek because that I pure freaking genius!" Maribelle said, laughing. Jennifer was covering her laugh with her hand.
"Laugh all you want! When we find whoever did this, their going to jail!" Selena cried, which only made Maribelle and Jennifer laugh even harder.
"I'm sure the fish smelling soup police would love to hear your complaint!" Maribelle called out to Selena's retreating figure as she stomped out of the dance studio. Once the door was safely closed, Jennifer and Maribelle fell to the floor laughing.
"I think you deserve a handshake and kiss on the cheek, Maribelle because that was genius!" Jennifer said between giggles, and shook her best friend's hand and kissed her cheek.
"I think I'm gonna have to give that concierge my number because that whole dropping it on the floor thing was absolute genius. That and he was cute!" Maribelle said, and Jennifer laughed again, turning to the stereo again to turn the music up.
"All right now let's try that turn again, Miss Perfectionist." Jennifer joked, and the next hour and a half was spent on getting Maribelle to perfect her turns.
After the two girls left the studio, the lobby was clear of Justin, Selena, and Anna, Maribelle and Jennifer made their way to the concierge stand.
"You should get like double your Christmas bonus or something dude, because that was amazing." Maribelle said, and he laughed.
"I tend to be very good at my job." He said proudly, causing the girls to giggle.
"I'm sure you are." Maribelle said, grabbing a piece of paper and taking his pen from his chest pocket. "Call us up sometime when you need new people to spice up your shift, eh?" Jennifer noticed that Maribelle had put both of their names and numbers on the paper. The concierge looked at them both, and kept eye contact with Jennifer, who blushed and looked down.
"I sure will." He assured Maribelle with a smile. Both girls ran back to their room to see Pattie and Scooter with Justin, Selena, and Anna, scowling. Maribelle and Jennifer dropped their shoes off at the foot of Jennifer's bed and faced everyone.
"What's going on?" Maribelle asked.
"Jennifer, is it true you stuck fish in Anna and Selena's room??" Scooter asked, Jennifer gasped.
"No! No! Me and Maribelle were in the dance studio all morning!" Jennifer said.
"That's right Scooter, we were." Maribelle said. "I've got a sore butt and legs to prove it."
"This is no time for jokes, Maribelle." Scooter said. "Jennifer, if it's not true, then why would they just make something like that up?" Jennifer was at a loss for words, she simply looked down at the floor, willing herself not to cry.
"Scooter, we were in the studio! Even Selena knows she was the one that went in there, screaming and yelling at us for something about fish soup!" Maribelle explained, trying to save her best friend.
"Is that true Selena?" Scooter said, rounding on her. Selena was shocked.
"Well, they were in the studio when we went to go talk to the concierge..." Selena managed to choke out.
"The concierge! You can ask him! We were in the dance studio all morning!" Maribelle shouted. Scooter held up a hand to silence her.
"Selena, if you knew they were in the studio, why would you come in here making all this noise, complaining at how you saw them placing the fish in the room, you too Anna? I'm very disappointed in you both. Go back to your rooms, all three of you." Scooter said, and with that, Anna, Justin, and Selena walked out, heads facing the floor. Once the door was closed and everyone was sure they were long gone, Scooter turned to them.
"And you two," he said. "Really?? Sardines?? That's disgusting!" he cried, and Maribelle caught on and laughed. Jennifer continued to stare at the floor. Scooter stepped over to her and gave her a hug.
"You okay Jen? I didn't mean to be so harsh. I just had to put a show on for those three." He said, and Jennifer looked up at him, smiling.
"That wasn't funny Scooter! I honestly thought you were mad at me!" she said, giving him a small shove. Even Pattie was laughing with Maribelle. Scooter gave her another hug.
"Are you better?" he asked. Jennifer shrugged.
"A little. I can always count on Belle to get me to laugh." Jennifer replied, giggling. Maribelle and Pattie shared a knowing glance.
"Well, it's a day off so what do you say to us exploring the city?" Scooter said. Maribelle shrugged.
"What kind of trouble could we get into in the city, Scoot?" Maribelle asked.
"On second thought..." Scooter said, causing the girls to laugh. Instead of going out to explore the city, they stayed in, ordered popcorn and watched movies.