Free Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) by Juli Alexander Page A

motherload!”
    Yeah, the toys were kind of cool. I eyed the spaceship with its “safe for children under age three” astronauts. Not too shabby. Was that an alien?
    Then I saw the little paper tabs hanging off the shelves. Fifty-percent off. Clearance sale.
    “They were already a good deal,” Leah explained. “They only sell these sets before Christmas, and they run ten and fifteen dollars. I can get twice as many for the kids, store them in my mother's garage, and donate them next year to the toy drive.”  
    Leah wasn't a mean girl at all. She sure had fooled me.
    “That's actually brilliant,” I admitted. “So how many do we get?”
    “Almost all of them,” Sidney said, sliding toys into her cart. “Then we'll go to the other four locations that we can get to. If she doesn't use her whole budget, we'll keep going tomorrow.”
    I was almost afraid to ask. “What's the budget?”
    “This year I saved over three thousand dollars.” Leah's face brightened with her smile.
    “That's...” As many as twenty toys per hundred dollars times thirty... “about six hundred toys?”
    “Probably less. A lot are seven dollars and fifty cents. Plus tax.”
    Six hundred toys. Okay, fine, between... fourteen times thirty... four hundred and six hundred toys. Whoa. “That's a lot of toys.”
    “A lot of happy kids,” Sidney said. “She's been doing this since she was twelve.”
    “Target and Walmart usually have some great buys too. The trick is to catch them before all the good stuff sells. Once I got seventy-five percent off.”
    Four times as many toys as if she bought them before Christmas. I didn't know much about this girl, and it occurred to me that Christie and Grandma could have given me a whole lot more information. Had she gone without toys at Christmas? It didn't seem likely from the looks of her dad's apartment.
    “I have two hundred dollars from Christmas,” I said. “Let's use that too.”
    Sidney and Leah grinned at me.
    “We'll leave a few toys here. Just enough for somebody who only got ten dollars from their grandparents to buy something cool. Then we'll get the rest, and head over to my mother's. We can unload before going to the next store.”
    I started stacking the boxes of castles and pirate ships into my cart. “I'm so glad I came.”
    “So am I,” Sidney said. She grabbed some doll houses and neatly stacked them to fit as many as possible into her cart.
     
    We met up at the loft, and my excitement faded as I saw what Will had been up to. He'd spent the day flirting. Image after image of the girls leaning close, whispering in his ear, making eyes at him.
    “Did she just kiss you?” I asked in horror.
    Will turned red. “On the cheek. Like a European thing.”
    Grandma grinned at his discomfort. “You mean both cheeks, I think.”
    I was buying toys for underprivileged kids, and he was getting kisses.
    “Nice of you to make such sacrifices for us, Will.”  My aunt thought she was funny. She was wrong.
    “There's a big party tonight,” Will said. “With a couple of bands.”
    “Do you know where?” Christie asked.
    I couldn't believe she didn't know where. Didn't she know everything?
    Will shrugged. “I don't think they said.”
    “Amanda, can you play the 'my mother needs to know or I can't go' card?”
    “I can, but why me? Why can't Will ask?”
    My aunt gave me a guilty wince. “Um.”
    “Are you seriously treating me and Will differently based on gender?”  She couldn't be serious.
    “It just made more sense for you to do it, Amanda. That's all. No hidden agenda. No gender bias. No parenting judgments based on boys versus girls.”
    Grandma just chuckled to herself.
    Will shifted in his seat. “It's okay, Amanda. I'll ask them where the party is.”  
    “Not necessary, Will. I wouldn't want to undermine your reputation with the guys. Apparently only girls have to check in with their parents.”
    “It's not a problem,” he said.
    “Amanda, I'm not a parent. I