Chapter Four
He turned around and looked at the henna haired woman who was putting the moves on him. "SHERIDAN?!" He backed up in astonishment, knocking over the filing cabinet in the process.
"You're so clumsy. Let me help you. " Sheridan said picking up some of the papers that fell out of the cabinet.
"What are you doing here? Where have you been? You know you need to be somewhere where people can protect you." Luis scolded her and helped her up.
"See, you guys? I told you everything is fine. Luis is still trying to protect me for no good reason. He's so adorable, isn't he?" Sheridan cooed as she latched onto his arm.
"Sheridan, I have told you time and time again that you need a body guard to protect you from the drug cartel from paris. You just can' t help but not listen to me. I am trying to help you here, but what do you do? Give no thanks and disappear out of- " Luis started up the normal side of his argument without so much of a notice about the flirtations.
"I told you so..." Kay mumbled as she fell into a chair glumly.
Sheridan just looked at Luis wondering what kind of drug cartel he could possibly be talking about.
"Sheridan? What did you do to your hair anyway? You think that a wig will disguise you from these hitmen, well you're wrong. Come on. Aren't you gonna hit me with 'Macho Chauvinistic Pig' stuff? Then I call you a stubborn spoiled princess and you say you hate me and never want to see me again. Sheridan?" Luis tried to get her attention.
"What did you call me? WHAT DID YOU CALL ME???" She yelled at him angrily... 'Not Luis..'
"I called you Sheridan. What's your problem? That's your name." Luis just looked at her with a confused look on his face.
"Sheridan.... You've always called me Sherry... since forever.... " Sheridan started crying and Theresa stood up to give her a shoulder to cry on.
"Luis, I'm gonna sleep at Sheridan's cottage. Kay is, too. Please tell Sam and Papa where we'll be." Theresa spoke up. She invited herself and Kay because of their promise. Stay together.
Luis put his hands on Theresa's shoulders, "Theresa, honey, you know that Papa's been gone since you were little..." Theresa's body shook in horror. Kay stood up and ran to her before she collapsed on the floor. She knew Theresa had no time to think of an excuse so she talked for her.
"Luis, um, you see... You know Theresa still holds out hope that her father will come back." Kay lied through her teeth. She had hoped that would work. None of her friends' fathers had disappeared so she had to think of SOMETHING.
"Okay, have fun- WHOA! What do you mean you're staying the Crane's? You know that they are evil manipulative people who do nothing but squash people's dreams and scheme to get their own way." Luis hollered with all the hatred he felt toward the Cranes.
Kay helped support Theresa and Sheridan as they went towards the door. "She meant we're staying at the Russells, but we're dropping off Sheridan at her cottage. She accidentally left out like half her sentence because she's not feeling very well right now. Don't worry. I'll take good care of her. Tell Dad I'll be at the Russell's. Bye!" They got out of there as fast as they could without Luis asking more questions.
*At Sheridan's Cottage*
Sheridan opened the door to her cottage and looked in at the furniture. "Well, at least my cottage is the same." She fell down on the couch. "I have such a headache..."
"I think we all do, but what we need to do is figure out what's going on. Let's say what we know. I bet we all could go for a nice cappucino." Kay went into the kitchen to make some coffees.
"Okay, I'll start. Ethan is engaged to someone and we're only friends. I went to Bermuda and Ethan said he dropped me off when we got back so I must've gone with him.Papa's disappeared. Whit is no longer in New York with Chad working on their CD, but Chad's in the hospital and she's angry at me for not calling her when I got back." Theresa stated matter-of-factly still believing it may be a dream.
"Don't forget how this all started. You and Kay were on the pier and knocked out by two people. I was in the park and I got knocked out by only one. Today I found out that Luis hates the Cranes and me along with them, even though I haven't been a Crane in over 3 years. He has no idea of our relationship and we constantly argue. A drug cartel from Paris is after me. My hair was not originally like this. Luis is trying to make me get a bodyguard, but I don't want one." Sheridan added in while braiding her hair. "Does anyone find this at all strange?"
"I do. My sister thinks I have to get Miguel's attention, my father.... he brings up my dead best friend. My mom... says she's a Crane and not my mother... she says my real mother is one one of the.... is Grace.... and people think that I have changed my hair even though I've had this haircut forever!!!!" She let out in one frustrated yell as she came out of the kitchen.
Theresa got the coffee and brought it back in. "We just need to stay calm and figure out WHY this is going on. Anyone have any ideas?"
Kay stood up. "Oh, my God! Why didn't I think of it before?!" She picked up the phone and dialed some number. "Hi, it's me, Kay. Can you come over to the Crane Mansion. Don't ask questions just come over. Thanks."
*15 minutes later*
Kay pulled open the door. "Reese, good. I didn't know who else to call. We need to talk to you." She grabbed him and pulled him into the living room.
"What's going on?" Reese asked seeing Theresa and Sheridan also in the room.
They told him the facts that they had just gone over and he listened attentively. "Well, it's simple really. It's like this old Star Trek show.... " He pushed up his glasses and was about to talk about Captain Kirk or something when Kay interrupted.
"Can you give us the Cliff's notes of it?"
"Okay, Kay. You see, you were sent to a parallel world last night's party was the peak of happiness for YOUR world. Everyone was with who they should be with. Everything was right. You're here to make THIS Harmony a better place to be in. When you guys were knocked out, you were sent to another Harmony and took the place of your doubles. Their lives are probably on a 'pause' right now and you will be able to go back to your world when everyone is right. It's a kind of Sliders meets Quantum Leap thing."
The girls sat there wondering if it was true (and for the sake of this story it is.).
"Wow, that makes sense of why people were treating us so weird... " Theresa murmured.
"Kay, does that mean we're not going to the prom together?" Reese asked with a little bit of sadness in his eyes.
"Aw, you're so cute, Reese. I've been dating Miguel since 7th grade. Besides, Jess would kill me for dating her boyfriend. You know last night's Engaged to be Engaged party was for you two... Oh, I guess you wouldn't know that, would you?" she laughed and showed him out the door. "Thanks for everything, Reese."
Sheridan and Theresa cleaned up the living room so everyone would have a place to stay. Kay found a picture that as soon as she looked at it, she started laughing very hard. She tossed the picture to Theresa. Theresa in turn laughed so hard she fell on the ground. Sheridan was very perturbed that this was going on and took the picture from Theresa.
"No, it's that picture of you when Princess Di died... Don't... hahahahahaha... Don't look..." Kay tried to say but she was just laughing too hard.
"Oh... My.... God.... What did she do to my hair?!" Sheridan yelled.
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