TSO, Mini Doll Style — Part Four {Finale}

It’s here . . . the finale of BedtimeBear’s awesome guest photostory series, “TSO, Mini Doll Style!”

Part one, two, and three.

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“There she is,” Kirsten whispered almost soundlessly. “Lady Shaloe.”

Lady Shaloe was a big white Maltese who loved fashion and was basically the richest animal in town. The two, well, technically the three-some, had snuck around upstairs for a while before stumbling upon the Lady, who was at the moment busy primping herself with a crowd of admiring fans:

Nancy, who was an adoring fan of Lady Shaloe; Stripey, who was trying to keep from yawning from boredom; and Ollieo, who was probably going to be an easy capture.

I eyed the scene with my mind swirling with the possibility of capturing more than one animal. Without turning my head from the scene I murmured to Kirsten, “Pick your targets.”

Kirsten nodded and eyed them carefully. Lady Shaloe was now demonstrating the art of modeling an outfit, with Nancy hanging on her every word. Ollieo, thinking that this was a Jeopardy thing, was in vain trying to get Lady Shaloe to call on him by first sitting still, then bouncing and waving his arms, er, wings, excitedly. Stripey had curled up for a cat nap.

Kirsten turned back to me, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.  “I pick Lady Shaloe and Nancy.”

“Then get to it, Private!” I whisper-squeaked. As I watched Kirsten scurry off to find what she needed to defeat Lady Shaloe and Nancy, I had to wonder, How would I defeat Ollieo and Stripey?

 “PIZZZZAAAAA!” A loud voice interrupted my thoughts. Shocked, surprised, and flabbergasted, the three jerked their heads up and Stripey awoke immediately from her probably fake cat nap. There in the doorway stood a giant box with big letters written on it saying PIZZA.

“PIZZZZZAAAAAA!” Lady Shaloe screamed as she jumped on the box, struggling to get it open. Nancy bounced after her and the two struggled for a couple of minutes. Then they tumbled into the box. SNAP! The pizza box closed on them.

“Hey! The box was rigged, most fascinating. I must tell Mama!” Ollieo said before waddling off.

Realizing we only had a couple of minutes to spare before Mama came and stopped us, Kirsten and I jumped into action. While I knocked the box down, Kirsten tackled Stripey’s sharp claws with her sword.

Stripey was so shocked that she took to her heels! TSO AGENTS HAD WON THE BATTLE! Until, “REBECCA! KIRSTEN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Kirsten and I fled and went into hiding, knowing that now we were full-fledged TSO agents!

(Take up the challenge, you MINI DOLLS! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!)

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Thank you so much, BedtimeBear, for sending in your entertaining photostory series! I really loved reading it. :)

And to all the rest of my readers . . . would YOU like to send in a guest post? If so, please visit my Get Featured page and follow the directions. I hope to hear from some of you!

-Loren

Road to Pamel ~season one, episode seven~ {Finale}

Part one, two, three, four, five, and six.

Peter dashed back into the room I was stuck in and ripped off my bonds.

“We need to get out of here!” she shouted.

I willingly ran after her.

We led the men on a wild chase through town, but we finally lost them. Then we made our way to my apartment.

Taped to the door was an official-looking sign.

FOR RENT. Call landlord if interest. 123-4567.

I stared at the sign in shock. For rent? That meant . . . that could only mean that we were too late.

Too late.

Peter hugged me as I cried.

“I — I can’t believe it!” I choked. “We d-did so much . . . traveled . . . killed m-monsters! And we’re t-too late . . .”

“Hey, Devin,” Peter said softly. “I have an idea, OK? Just tell me when you’re ready, and we’ll go find your Mom.”

When I stopped sobbing, Peter and I walked around Lemap, searching for my mom. We found her sitting along one of the back roads, dressed in her weird mom style: a light blue sweater and an ankle-length white skirt.

“Mom,” I called, and the tears started anew.

She looked around in confusion. Then she asked timidly, “Devin? Honey, is that you?”

“Mom!” I shouted again, running to her.

She jumped up and hugged me tightly. “Oh, Devin! Where did you go? I — I was so worried . . .”

“I found Pamel, Mom, Peter and I did.”

I was relived when she didn’t give me a strange look. I’d been afraid that she might think I was crazy, but apparently not. Or maybe she was just so glad to see me again that she was hardly paying attention to what I was saying.

Peter walked up and showed Mom the jewel. “Ms. East,” she greeted. “You remember me, Petrina Marsley?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Devin found a priceless jewel. She was going to use it to pay the rent, but by the time we got back, you had already left the house.”

“That’s wonderful,” Mom said. “So we can get the apartment back?”

“I have a better idea,” Peter grinned.

Peter told us to hold hands. Then she shouted, “Take us to Pamel!” and a portal came to life.

Mom was screaming, my whole body was tingling, and Peter was laughing softly. The next thing I knew, we were in Pamel.

Peter gazed out at the land. “Ms. East, welcome to the lost city of Pamel — your new home.”

Mom hopped up and down like she was a little girl again, laughing and crying at the same time. “I always knew it was real!” she exclaimed. “I always knew.”

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That concludes season one of Road to Pamel! What did you think of it?

Some of you may be sad that this series is over (coughMegancough), but might I remind you that this is only season one? I have season two all planed out, and I have a tiny idea for a season three. The adventures of Devin East and Peter Gates are not over yet!

But I’m going to do a different series before I start “filming” s. 2. It’ll be called Serpents! More on that later.

–Loren

The TSO — Part Three: Confessions {Finale}

Part one and two of The TSO.

IT’S FINALLY HERE! YEEEEEAAAAAH!

Everyone was huddled on the floor in front of the humans’ giant TV. We were all in our pajamas (except for Emily; she had misplaced hers), watching the amazing Batman Begins.

Isabelle Palmer, Savannah Kingsley, and I, Saige Copeland, had been spying on our sisters for the past several months. Ever since we had found out that something fishy was going on in our home.

Savannah, Isabelle, and I, the first TSO (Tween Spy Organization) members, exchanged a look. The whole family was finally together . . . we would be able to confront them about their suspicious behavior, and perhaps get some confessions.

“Hey, Tracy?” I called, and the eldest in our family paused the movie. “Could we look at your phone for a second?” During our initiation mission, we had photographed our sisters doing odd things. And those images were on Tracy’s phone.

Well, they had been on her iPhone, previously. But, from her phone, I had emailed the pictures to Savannah’s laptop. However, I could access them through the Sent folder on Tracy’s phone.

Grumbling, Tracy crawled over to where I was sitting and handed me her phone. “Don’t you dare break it,” she warned.

“No worries,” I replied as I turned on the phone. I wanted to make sure that the images had been deleted, so I brought up the camera app and flipped through Tracy’s numerous selfies.

Tracy slunk back to where she had been sitting, and I sank back onto the ground next to Isabelle. I’d gone through about thirty of Tracy’s selfies all ready, and I was ready to believe that the pictures had been deleted, when I saw it: a photo of one of my sisters, Emily Bennett, crying on a heap of bedding.

“I thought you deleted them!” I hissed at Palmer. She had been trusted with the job of erasing the evidence.

Isabelle smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, Saige. I guess I forgot.”

I leaned across Isabelle and tapped Savannah’s knee. “We have to do it,” I told her under my breath. “It’s time.”

Us TSO members awkwardly got to our feet and stood in front of our siblings. Someone paused the movie.

I coughed to get their attention. “Uh, we’ve noticed the some of you have been acting a little weird lately,” I began, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.

Kingsley elbowed me in the ribs and whispered, “You’re going to blow our cover, Copeland! They’ll know about the TSO, and then our spying days will be over.”

“Calm down,” I ordered. “I’ve got this.

“As I was saying, you’ve been acting strangely,” I continued. “We sort of, um, borrowed Tracy’s phone and took some pictures of you — because we love you and you’re all pretty — and we noticed weird stuff in the photos. Can you guys explain?”

I brought up the picture of MJ pacing around her room and flipping through her cookbook.

“Here’s one of MJ,” I said. “We thought it was weird that she was looking at her cookbook because she’d told us earlier that day that she was going to bake macarons.”

MJ leapt off the ground and peered at the photo. Then she laughed. “I’d run out of almond flour!” she explained. Almond flour was an ingredient in macarons. “I needed to find something else to bake.”

Oh. That explained it. Maybe we had jumped to conclusions, assuming that she was up to something.

Everyone crowded around us, looking at the phone and telling us what they were doing in the photos.

“Show me the photo you took of me!” Tracy exclaimed.

I obediently flicked through the images until I found the one of Tracy.

When she saw it, she snorted. “You thought that was me being suspicious? I’d died in a video game and I was frustrated. That’s all.”

“What about the Spiderman necklace on the floor?” I asked.

“I’m lazy and I didn’t want to put it on my nightstand. “

Emily had a legit excuse as well. “I was rereading The Lightning Thief, and I got really sad because I know what’s in store for Percy and Annabeth. So I started crying. And as for wearing MJ’s pajamas — I just wanted to see how they looked on me.” She said the last part rather guiltily.

When we showed Molly her picture, she pointed to the sliver of purple sticking up from her lap. “I was doing some schoolwork. You know I can block out everything else when I’m concentrating.”

I showed Ivy her photo. “You don’t like eBooks. Why were staring at your phone like that?”

Ivy shrugged. “You’re right, I don’t like eBooks. But that was a special occasion — neither the library nor the bookstore had the book I was looking for, so I had to resort to reading it on my phone.”

We turned to Caroline, who was standing uncomfortably at the back of the group. “How about you?” I asked. “Do you have an excuse?”

In her picture, she was wearing a sleeveless dress, holding several daisies, and dancing to some pop music.

“Can’t a girl dance once in a while?” she mumbled.

No, no they can’t. Not in my house, anyway. I was about to press her for more information, but Savannah elbowed me again and gave me a look: Drop it.

So our family wasn’t nearly as weird as we had thought. I was sort of relieved, but also disappointed.

Our family settled back down and we continued to watch Batman Begins. Nevaeh Taylor, the newest addition to our family, slunk over to our side of the room and sat next to Savannah.

“I know you’re up to something,” she said softly. Her tone wasn’t threatening — it was just curious. Then she hurried back to her seat.

“That was weird,” Savannah managed, turning to me. “You know, Saige, Nevaeh might be a good addition to the TSO. She’s in the age range, too: ten to twelve years old. Think about it.”

“Perhaps,” I said. “There may be a day in the future where Nevaeh will be needed. But three’s a crowd, and we are the original spying trio.”

Our spying days were not over yet, not by a long shot.

The BFF Wars — Part 13

Life didn’t exactly turn back to normal after The BFF Wars. I would get ambushed on the street by random citizens, asking for my autograph. It was like I was a celebrity.

And, of course, nothing was normal without Jules by my side.

I was walking through town one drizzling afternoon when I saw a familiar person at my favorite ice-cream shop. The curly blonde ponytail, the stunning sky-blue eyes: it was definitely Jules.

I got some mint ice-cream and sat down across from Jules.

“Hi, Jules,” I said after a minute.

Jules looked up from her pink dessert. “Hi.”

All of a sudden she burst into tears. I tentatively put my arm around her and she cried into my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Tori!” she sobbed. “I wanted to spend time with you, but Venus wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to call The BFF Wars, but Venus made me do it! I tried to talk to you, but she wouldn’t leave me alone. I want to be your friend again! Your best friend!”

I helped Jules up and looked her in the eye. “Jules, of course we’re best friends. Best friends forever, right?”

We hugged each other, tears pricking the corners of my own eyes.

***

 I introduced Jules to Charlotte, and they quickly became close friends. We were a trio — the perfect number. That’s why cars have three seats in the back: so you can take your two best friends on adventures with you!

As for Venus? She crawled back to Paris. Hopefully we’d never see her again.

With Jules back in my life, things returned to normal pretty fast. People forgot that we had been on The BFF Wars, and we stopped getting mobbed.

Jules made me feel adventurous, and Charlotte made me feel hilarious  — with both of them, I felt unstoppable, like I could do anything.

I loved my best friends. ♥

Victorian Beauties ~Part 5~ The Grand Finale

You guys are gonna be SHOCKED by the ending. And don’t try to tell me you were expecting it, because you were NOT.

Part 1, 2, 3, and 4.

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When I woke up, it appeared that Sylvia and Annie had not moved the entire night. They were still staring at me in awe.

Then I got dressed in a beautiful white gown and twisted my hair into loose curls.

I was walking to the kitchen for my birthday breakfast when Mother ran into me in the halls.

“Happy fifteenth birthday, Rosilia,” Mother said.

“Thank you, Mother!”

After a moment, Mother sighed, “Really, Rosilia? Does it have to be sleeveless?”

“Well,  if you don’t want me to wear it, then why was it in my closet?”

Mother bit her lip and replied, “Henry wanted you to wear it.”

“Oh.” And then somebody knocked on the front door.

“Will you get that, Rosilia?” Mother asked as she hurried away down the hall.

I opened the door to find Ben Woods. “Happy birthday, Rosilia,” he said.

“Hello, Ben. Please come inside,” I said politely.

We stood in awkward silence for a few minutes.

Finally Ben remarked, “It’s a beautiful day.”

“It is,” I agreed

 I stepped outside and Ben followed me.

We strolled towards the courtyard and talked a bit.

 “So, do you feel any different? You know, being a year older and all,” Ben asked.

“No, not really,” I answered. “Birthdays used to be fun, but now their just . . . eh.”

He glanced at the pasture and saw Cloud Shimmer loping around it. She had a smooth gait, almost like she was flying. “Is that your horse?”

I nodded proudly.

Then he asked me why I wasn’t riding her right now, flying away over the hills. So I told him about how I had been riding like a man — and getting away with it, too — and then that little pain Sylvia.

We were both laughing by the time we reached the courtyard and sat down.

Suddenly, he got down on a knee and took a small black box from his back-pocket.

I instantly stopped laughing when he flicked the lid up.

“Rosilia Knight, will you marry me?”

I stared into his eyes. Did that really just happen?

It took all my willpower to say that one little word.

“No.”

“No?” he repeated. He looked devastated, crushed.

“I can’t marry you, Ben!” I cried. “I’m only fifteen. And I don’t want to have to cook and clean all day, when I could be riding like a man, being a rebel!”

He took my hand. “That’s why I love you. And you don’t have to marry me now. Just remember, I’ll always be waiting. You are the only person I’ll ever love.”

And then we kissed.

*

My grandmother used to say that there was a moral to every story, real or made-up. My father’s, I guess, is that love lives on forever. And mine . . . well, I truly don’t know. The story of Rosilia Knight has not ended yet, but I’m sure that it will end with these few words:

And they lived happily ever after.

The Great Escape ~Part 13~ FINALE!!!

Read part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,  11  and 12!

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Regan crept into their bedroom, where Lily was still asleep. “Wake up, Lil,” Regan whispered.

When Lily kept on sleeping, Regan shook her. “It’s Christmas! Get up!”

Lily groaned and pulled the blanket up over her face.

“Lil-y!” Regan said, louder.

Finally, Lily rolled over to face Regan. “This is my third Christmas without my parents,” she said softly.

“Oh.”

Lily sat up. “But what am I talking about? I can’t go back.”

“Just let me do something with this mob, okay?” She held up her hair.

” ‘Kay.” Then Regan left.

Lily got out of bed, quickly pulled her hair back, and followed Regan downstairs.

Lily got to the living room where everyone — except Amy and Nellie — were waiting in their pajamas.

“Where’s Amy?” Lily asked.

“She went to get –” Maddi’s voice dropped to a whisper “– Nellie’s present.”

“Which present do you think is yours?” Ellie asked.

“I think that one’s mine.” She pointed to a black bag with white and pink leaves and flowers on it.

“Hmm, maybe this one?” Lily walked over to the biggest gift. “It could be a karaoke machine!”

Suddenly, Amy came running into the room. “I got it!” she said. Then they heard footsteps in the kitchen. “Quick — hide it!”

Natalie grabbed Nellie’s present and stashed it behind a chair.

Just then, Nellie walked into the room, holding a cup of coffee. “Morning , kiddos,” she yawned. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas!” the girls sang.

She sat down on the couch. “Mornings,” she grumbled. “Why?”

She drained her cup of coffee and stood up. “Why don’t those who are able sit on the ground, and I’ll start passing around presents?”

She placed a shopping bag on Natalie’s lap.

“Wow!” Natalie exclaimed. “New boots!”

“Here, Regan.” Nellie put a bag  down on the couch.

Regan pulled it’s contents out. “A soccer ball and a basket ball. Thanks!”

Then Nellie gave Amy a small, blue box.

Amy opened it up, and pulled out some earrings. “I love them! I’ve been eying them for quite a bit now.”

Maddi got a purse and a charm necklace,

and Ellie got a mermaid figurine and a pillow made out of a saddle-blanket.

Nellie gave Lily a little black box.

“Open it,” she encouraged.

So Lily did. “It’s a locket.”

Nellie nodded. “Now see what’s inside,” she said with a gentle smile.

Lily opened it up and gasped. Inside were the smiling faces of her parents. Her eyes shone with un-shed tears.

“Oh. We’ve got something for you, Nellie,” Amy announced, standing up to get it.

Once Nellie was seated on the floor, Amy gave her the box.

Nellie pulled each item out of the box. “We made a gift that showed all of our talents,” Amy told her.

Maddi leaned over and pointed to the thing she’d made. “It’s a coupon for one play written by me.”

Lily picked up what she and Amy had made together. “It’s a CD of Christmas carols. I sang them. Amy recorded me, and then she did a special feature by her at the end.”

Regan gave her a water bottle by a brand called ‘Running Queen,’ and Natalie made a purse.

“I made you a clay unicorn!” Ellie giggled. “I’m an animal lover, and a bit of an artist, too.”

Nellie’s phone started beeping. ” ‘Scuse me.”

“Hello? Yes, this is Nellie Rodriguez. What?! . . . oh, thank you, thank you!!!”

Nellie turned back to the girls, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

“What is it?!” they all asked in unison.

“They said I could adopt you! They really did!” The tears were falling freely now.

The girls surrounded Nellie in an enormous hug.

And the laughing and crying and hugging and joy on that day would never be forgotten.

And it was official: this was the best Christmas ever.

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And that’s the end! How did you like it? I had a lot of fun making it, but I’m also glad it’s over. I’m sure I can make a better photostory next time!

Now, to answer a question many of have asked: will there be a season two?

It’s possible. There probably will be. Season one would make a lot more sense if there was one! But if I do make a Season 2, it won’t be any time soon. I’ll do Victorian Beauties and  another photostory series I’m planning first.

So if you have any questions about S. 1, feel free to ask me!