Carmen Sandiego - The Final Caper

Chapter 13 - The Party

(Player's POV)

After talking with Julia, I immediately ignored her advice and went downstairs to make some more coffee. As I pulled out the stool to look on top of the fridge I noticed it wasn't there. They must have known I had found its hiding place. As I searched around the kitchen as quietly as possible I managed to find it hidden away in the back of a cupboard. When I pulled it out and turned around to set it on the island behind me, I saw Ivy standing there, arms crossed. I put the machine down and tried to brush it off.

"So, Ivy, want some coffee?"
If looks could kill then I would be dead. The glare she gave me was far worse than any look Carmen had ever given me, and I felt guilty immediately. I started to go back upstairs, not to sleep, but to try to continue on anyway, when Ivy stopped me.

"Oh no, you don't get to just go back up to your room. Sit down right there, we need to talk about this."
She went upstairs, presumably to get Zack, and I sighed. All this over some coffee? Granted it probably wasn't good for me, but I needed the energy. Anyway, it's much better to have coffee than those sugar filled nightmares called energy drinks. They didn't even taste good, so what was all that sugar even for? My thoughts were interrupted as Ivy dragged down a very tired Zack down with her. I shot him an apologetic smile and he shrugged, as if to let me know not to worry about it. I wasn't surprised when Ivy started things off, as neither of us wanted to be here.

"Player, coffee isn't good for you, and neither is this lack of sleep."

I was about to agree, just nod and go along with it to go back to my room, when I realised why I needed the coffee in the first place. I took a deep breath and told them about the party plans. They were on board... until I told them who I had invited. I was surprised when it was Zack who spoke first, due to him usually staying quiet and calming his sister down.

"No way. There is no way we're letting her anywhere near here."

After Ivy stopped staring at her brother, she turned back to me.

"For once I agree with him, it's way too risky to let her in here."
I knew this may have been an issue, so I had already come up with some counterarguments.

"What risk would we be taking? She's helped Carmen for well over a month, this is the least we can do!"

This clearly pained Ivy, however much she tried to hide it.

"She's an ACME agent! We can't trust her!"
There was one detail she missed that I had remembered. Zack had remembered it too, and he saved me the trouble of telling her.

"Sis, we're ACME agents now."

Ivy threw her hands up in defeat and stormed around before coming back to sit down.

"If you're all going to gang up on me, fine! She can come, but I'm setting some rules first, got it?"

I nodded enthusiastically, Zack less so.

"Rule one. Player you have to hold off on the coffee until Carm gets back. Then I can stop dealing with this problem of yours and make someone that you'll actually listen to tell you."
I pouted in protest, but she didn't care.

"You wanted this; you deal with it. Rule two. She can't know where she is. When we come to pick her up, I'll blindfold her before we go."
I saw a problem with this plan.

"What if Red doesn't mind Julia knowing where we are? She might not appreciate you tying up her brand-new co-worker."
Ivy waved it off.

"If Carm wants us to let her see, I'll let her see. You just have to make sure she's ok with it first."

I nodded; glad this was going so well.

"Last but not least, rule 3. Our main priority must be to welcome Carmen home, so no mention of ACME, her imprisonment, and certainly not that dammed rooftop. Got it?"
This was a rule neither of us had any objection to, so we both nodded our heads. Ivy clapped her hands together.

"Perfect! This means it's party planning time!"

After pointing out that it was early morning, and not party planning time we all went to bed. Only Ivy stayed behind, claiming to hide the machine in a place I would never find it. That night I fell into a deep sleep, not plagued with nightmares for the first time in over a month.

The next morning, we drove down to the local Party City to pick up all the supplies we needed. After stocking up on balloons, buntings and a large banner we moved on to Walmart. Going from store to store, we picked out decorations, food and presents for the party. We were all enjoying ourselves, really bonding for the first time since I moved in. I wanted to split up to look for presents for Carmen, but Ivy wouldn't let me go off on my own. I started to grumble to myself, I was 16 after all, until I realised that I didn't mind. This trip wouldn't have been half as fun without the siblings goofing around and telling jokes. We already had our big present sorted, so we had to find smaller ones from each of us. Ivy ended up getting her a striking red dress that we saw in a boutique window, Zack picked out a box of her favourite chocolates and I got her a book on the worlds unsolved mysteries. We also ordered a custom cake for delivery on the day of the party. When said day finally arrived, we set to work preparing everything. We all got up early to help set up, as Ivy and Zack had to go pick Carmen and Julia up. On the way out, Zack discreetly handed me the piñata Ivy had vetoed, nodding his head over to a small hook in the ceiling. I nodded back, hiding it out of sight temporarily. After all the decorations were put up, and the cake was delivered, I set about preparing the final things. I set up everything for Carmen's big present and waited. It arrived a few minutes before they did, leaving me just enough time to put it in her room. With a big smile, I stepped out to greet them as the car rolled up in the driveway.

I made an announcement on my profile but I'll just copy-paste the important part here:

So the main story is coming to a close on my fanfic, but don't worry, I will keep going. I'm also planning something special on the side but it will take a while.