The Town of Willow Falls

Back in Business

Grace's POV

"She's lost her earring."
I say at the same time as Tara says:

"She's lost her necklace."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Connor shouts at us.

We're at my house and we're rehearsing what we're going to say at Viera's.

"I thought we agreed on necklace because you thought earring was too basic." Tara questions.

"At this point, Rory says 'I lost my phone.' and neither of you speak."
Connor has taken charge of speaking roles.

"The one time I didn't actually lose my phone, I still have to say I did." Rory sighs.

"Look, Connor, you've been a great, um, roleplay coach, but we actually do the real thing and get going."
I check the time.

"Okay. Off you go, my young grasshoppers. Make it seem authentic!" Connor laughs.

I roll my eyes as we head out.

It's super nice out, so we're taking our bikes. We've taken care of all the details so Rory has left her phone at my house. I made Connor swear to take good care of it.

"Let's go!" I say.

---

Tracey Parks opens the door when we arrive.

"Hello, girls. Hi, Rory. What can I do for you?"

Tara and I let Rory speak.

"I lost my phone and I was hoping I could check your house since I might've left it here."

"Of course, c'mon in. I'm just getting the last of the unboxing done but you can take a look wherever you think you might have left it."

We walk in. Viera's at the table with a craft but she comes right over to us. She seems a lot friendlier today. I'm hoping she'll just give the reviver back.

"Hi. What are you doing?" She smiles.

"Looking for my phone. Could we look in your room?" Rory smiles back.

I smile, too. But Viera lets her smile drop.

"No."

Her mother comes over at that moment.

"Sweetie, don't be rude. Just let them look for a second. They're not going to go through your stuff, I promise. Rory came to find her phone. Maybe you could help her. I don't know what it looks like."

"Okay." Viera turns and leads us to her room.

She seems pleased to be able to keep an eye on us.
Tara nudges me and I shrug.
We walk in and Rory makes a deal of turning to look around the room without touching anything.

"You know what, Viera? I think I might have dropped my phone outside when I left. Can you come help me find it? Grace and Tara can stay to look more here." Rory says.

Viera doesn't say anything and stays put.
Rory takes and her hand.

"Let's go! We can pretend we're searching for treasure." She sort of pushes Viera out of the room and motions at us to look around.

Rory leaves us to do the work but I understand why she has to stay with Viera.

"You look through the dresser. I'll tackle the closet." I rush to the other side of the room with the closet door.

I pull on the handle and there's a bit of resistance but it opens easily as I pull harder. A million toys fall out.
Tara instinctively motions for me to be quiet but then sees the pile of miscellaneous things. She looks back up at me.

"I guess Viera's unpacked." Tara comes over to help me.

"Why us?" I sigh.

We shove everything back where it came from.

"Wait! What's that?" I point.

"Um, a teddy bear?" Tara answers in a question.

I dive further into the closet and pull out a bottle.

"The Reviver!" Tara points out the obvious.

"She must have shoved it in here the other night after she came out of the washroom." I guess.

I hear something downstairs and I strain to listen. I look out the window and see the front yard. Rory and Viera are coming back!

"Quick, help me shove the rest of this stuff back in." I say.

We seem to be in many frantic situations lately.
Tara shoves the door shut just as Rory and Viera walk in.

"We didn't find anything." Tara says.

"Yeah we should look somewhere else now but thanks for letting us look in your room, Riviera." I walk past her.

"See ya, Viera. Tell your mom we didn't find anything. Thank you for your help!" Rory follows us out.

As soon as we've walked far from the house, I pull out the Reviver.

"Back in business." I state.

A/N: Trying to write as much as possible. It gets super busy around this time of the year for me. But I hope you like the story, you can always comment your feedback and I appreciate all the nice comments on each part! ~M