Digging a Little Deeper- Love, Alex

          If I could give an award for the creepiest, scariest, yet goofiest thing I've ever seen in my life, it would go to Nanny Mcfiggins in this very moment. Now, from what I've heard, Nanny McFiggins hadn't always been all hairy moles and creepy smiles, she used to actually be- as odd as this sounds- pretty. The boys would chase after her as if she were a million bucks. And apparently that's how she looked to them. Then I guess as time changed, her heart turned cold, and her outer-appearance seemed to soak up the evil inside of her. And she had never looked as creepy as she had at that moment: her evil-soaked, green eyes bulged ferociously out of her sockets, her nose seemed to be twitching, which looked more like it was trying to do some kind of hip-hop routine, her nostrils were flared, her lips curled in a nasty grin, and then her hair stuck up like she had been struck by lightning or something. Her arms were raised above Kailee with a metal bar clenched within her hands. Kailee lay motionless on the floor, and had obviously been knocked unconscious by Nanny McFiggin's "weapon". Unfortunately, this wasn't our only problem. We were separated. Rikki and Bailey were gone. Wait, I thought to myself, Bailey's still here... But didn't she leave? This Bailey had to be a fake. I wanted to point out the fake-Bailey to my sisters.Then I had a better idea. What if she could lead us to Rikki and the real Bailey, then to our parents? Maybe she's trying to help us? There was no way to know quite yet. "Looks like we'll be keeping her around," I muttered to myself. I knew it wouldn't take long for my other sisters to figure it out, but oh well. We can figure that other problem out later...

I snapped back to the present, as Nanny McFiggins stomped towards me. Play it cool, relax, remember what you're here for, my conscience whispered to me, be strong. I took a deep breathe and stood up a little taller. 

"What do you want from us?" I pleaded to my former "nanny", "What have we ever done to you?"

She smirked, which was followed my a malicious giggle, then took a breath, as if she was going to tell me why, when she instead turned to Hailey, picked her up by her collar, and slammed her against the wall.

"Stop!" Carter cried, her eyes slightly misty.

"Don't hurt her!"

Nanny McFiggins seemed to loosen her grip, but continued to hold poor Hailee against the wall.

"Please, just tell us," Carter asked, looking deeper into Nanny McFiggin's eyes, her tone softer. And 

I knew why. She was trying to loosen her up a little, calm her, and read into her eyes. She was trying to find meaning of why a girl who once had everything she seemed to have wanted turn into a cruel old lady, taking six sisters' lives into her hands and ripping it apart, bit by bit, by taking what they had loved, destroying their lives as they had once been. It worked. Nanny McFiggins let go of Hailee, who stumbled to the floor, struggling to catch her breath. Carter, Hailey, fake-Bailey, and I all stood still, wondering what was to happen next. I'm sure we all had the same thought: Nanny McFiggins was going to snap out of it any minute and go wacko on us again. Then the unthinkable happened. There was a deep grumble as the door opened up, showing the way to where Rikki and the real Bailey were. We immediately took action: Carter carefully tossed the still-unconciouss Kailey over her shoulder, Hailee stood up, and we all headed for the door. As everybody took off, I looked back a second to watch Nanny McFiggins slump down to the floor, her back leaning up against the wall, her face clearly deep in thought. For I second, I could almost see the old her, the kind, beautiful one, instead of the crazy, nasty-looking one. It had me feeling bad for a second, but then I remembered what she had done to us, her on-going effort to destroy my family's lives, and realized she was probably going to snap back to her mean-self. So I ran ahead, catching up with Carter, Hailee, Kailee, and "Bailey". We continued to move along carefully, but still with force and speed, searching for Rikki and Bailey. We had been looking for about 10 minutes, when the fake-Bailey finally spoke,

"I'm tiiiireddd!" she exclaimed, her lips pouting and arms crossed. I snorted. This girl clearly had no idea what our real Bailey was like. Sure, she was young, and a girly-girl, but she was stronger than you'd think. If the real Bailey was here, she'd be focused on finding our parents, she would be helping us out, and getting her hands dirty in the process. That's what we'd all be doing. Oh, and she would certainly never whine like a baby. Carter and Hailee's faces showed they were thinking the same thing I was: this girl is a fake. And that's why I'll be calling her "Fail-ey" from now on!

"Deal." Carter said, her face showing disgust. Fail-ey glared at her, pulled out some lip-gloss, puckered up and smothered her already-pink lips with the thick, glossy substance. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised if it was my face that showed disgust; it was how I felt.

"That's better!" she exclaimed, as she smiled and did a little dance. She then turned toward Carter, and glared at her again as she spoke between gritted teeth,

"Don't. You. Tell. Me what to do!" She then stepped back, stuffed some bubble-gum in her mouth, and plastered another smile on her face. I laughed at her, but this time it wasn't mentally.

"Look," I said to Fail-ey," I don't know what in the name of cotton-candy you are trying to get at. WE know you're a fake, and it doesn't take a brainiac to notice it. Why don't you tell us what's going on, het us to our sisters, and then we can part ways as acquaintances, nice, clean, and easy." I took a step closer, softening my eyes a little bit, trying to hint that we didn't mean harm, we just wanted our sisters back. And that's when another surprise hit me: Wasn't MON in the room when Kailee had been knocked out? How did he escape so fast?! Great, I thought, another mystery- another knot we need to untangle before we can get back to our quest to find our parents!

For the second time within that last 15 minutes, I was still again, as were Carter, Hailee, and, obviously, Kailee. We were all wondering what was going to happen next, and why this was happening in the first place. Then things started to look up. Kailee woke up and seemed okay, minus the goose-egg on her head, the tired expression on her face, and the cut under her eye once she had fallen, and Fail-ey spoke,

"Fine," she said as she looked up at all of us, a pleading look on her face, "I'll tell you where your sisters are."

And that's where we are now, on a subway in Chicago with "Fail-ey"- well, her real name is 

Keeli- and she says she's a lost girl who says she has good intentions, and knows where Rikki and Bailey are. Trusting her is a risk we are willing to take; we need our sisters. We need our parents. We need each other, all together. And I want to know: What went wrong with Nanny McFiggins?

Wish us luck!

-Alex :D