"Welcome Surprise Party Planning Committee," Emily introduced, holding her clipboard. "I am your leader and inspiration, Emily, and this is my fearful tyrant assistant, Katie." 

"We know who you are," Kendall interrupted. 

"Strike one," Katie muttered, pointing at her brother. 

"Party is tonight and I would like to review the checklist," Emily continued. "Sushi bar?"

"Caterers will be here at 7 to set up," Camille nodded.

"Gold balloons with sparklers inside to go off when popped?" 

Silence. 

"Logan!" Katie snapped. 

The boy groaned, "They're done and still a stupid idea."

"Strike two, Mitchell." 

"Giant pop-art collage of James' face?" Emily continued. 

"Done, and I got a stack of mini ones to hand out as party favors," Jo smiled. 

Katie and Emily exchanged a glance. 

"Negative strike," Katie hummed, impressed. 

"That's not possible," Logan remarked bitter. 

"You're on thin ice..."

"What about Carlos? He isn't even here!"

"Carlos is distracting James right now," Emily told him.

"Kendall, guest list?" Katie asked. 

"Only person who didn't RSVP was Gustavo."

"He's gonna show up," Emily said. "But tell Freight Train not to let him in and to get Gustavo riled up and cause a scene. James will love that."

"And cake?" Katie turned to Alexa. 

"There's a hole in the middle filled with his favorite candy for an extra surprise," she nodded. 

"Perfect," Katie checked. 

"Please remember this is black tie required," Emily reminded. "You all need to be here at 6 for set up–"

"Didn't you hire people to set up for you?" Logan interrupted. 

"Strike three. Get out," Katie pointed towards the door. 

***

"It's 8:05," Emily paced. "Where are they?" 

"Carlos' location shows they're in the building. It's okay," Alexa soothed.

Katie peeked in the crib from the hall, "Emily, we need to talk," she said. 

In the hall was Katie and a distressed Carlos, covered in dirt, scratch marks, and paintball splatters. 

"Where is James?" Emily asked. 

Carlos whined, bouncing around. "I lost him."

"You what?" 

"He said he lost him," Katie repeated. 

"I heard him, Katie!" She started pacing, "Carlos, there is a crowd of people by the pool waiting for James."

"I know," he said in guilt. 

The door opened and Kendall came out, "What's going on?" 

"Carlos lost James," Katie said.

"Dude!" 

 Carlos winced, "I know!" 

"You had one job!" 

"I know!" 

Camille opened the door, everyone in the crib hearing their bickering, "What is going on?" 

Kendall grabbed Carlos' arm, dragging him inside. 

"Carlos ruined the party," Katie said. 

"But all he had to do was watch James," Jo said. 

Emily shook her head in frustration, "And do you see James here?" 

"Well, where is he?" Logan asked. 

"We got separated running from the bull," Carlos explained. 

"Why were you running from a bull?" Logan sighed. 

"Well," Carlos hummed, settling in for his story, "first I took James window shopping where he go distracted by a sale on hair products. Then we went inside for a professional wash and style. That's where we met Benny. Benny works at the zoo. He said he would get us in for free and into all the exhibits to play with the animals if we signed his BTR hat. So we're at the zoo when the alarm starts going off because the crocodile got loose. No one really knows how. Quite the mystery. Maybe magic. I think it's because of the–"

"We know you let the croc out," Kendall interrupted.

"I just wanted to get a cool photo of me on its back!" 

"Carlos!" They snapped. 

"Right, sorry. So we're running out with the crowd, screaming, you know? And then we accidentally ran over a girl scout troops cookie stand. They still tasted delicious. But we wanted to pay them for ruining the cookies. That's how we ended up on the street holding up "help wanted" signs. But people kept coming to us asking for work. We needed the work!" 

"Please rush to the end," Katie pleaded in boredom. 

"Finally, Muriel found us. Her oldest horse on the farm got out and she needed help finding her. She offered to pay $500 for us to bring the horse back! James and I went to the farm, walked around making horse noises and that's when the bull came..."

"So you left James on the farm?" Emily screamed. 

"Well, you said to be here on time!" 

"With the person the party is for!" She spiraled. "The party is ruined. His birthday is a disaster. The sushi is bad. The cake is a waste. Who cares about the balloons? Just slowly drain them all of helium until they die like my spirit," she said, slowly sinking to the floor. 

"Okay, get up," Jo rolled her eyes, her and Kendall each hauling the girl to her feet. "The party is not ruined."

"Let's just call James," Kendall offered. "Maybe it won't be as big of a surprise as you were wanting, but he'll still be here and we'll know he's okay."

Emily sighed, brushing her hair back, pulling out her phone, "You're right. You guys are right." The phone started ringing in her ear, waiting for James to pick up. 

"Hello?" 

But the voice wasn't from the phone. Emily turned with the group and there was James, answering the phone, in the doorway. 

"James?"

"Oh, hey, Em," He replied. "Oh," he realized, hanging up and returning to normal conversation. 

"How did you get here?" Carlos asked. 

"After we got separated, I ran into Banjo, the horse. We rode back to the house, I got the money, dropped it off at the troop leaders house and they called me a cab."

"I'm so sorry, this wasn't how this was supposed to go," she told him. 

"What do you mean?" 

Emily took his hand, leading him to the window overlooking the pool. The crowd looked up, seeing them in the window and yelled a muffled "surprise!" from outside. 

"This is amazing!" James gasped, pressed against the glass. "That's my face!"

"So, can we go..." Logan mumbled. Emily turned to see her friends edging towards the door, sneaking off to the pool. 

"Yes, go!" She laughed. 

James smiled down at her, "Did you do all this?" 

"Me and my servants, yes," she nodded. 

"Pretty sneaky," he joked, slinging an arm around her as they left for the party below. 

"Sneaky... like a spy?" 

"No."

"But you said–"

"No," he repeated, hearing his mistake. 

"Secret spy..."

"It's my birthday."

She fell silent, "You're right. I'm not a spy," she admitted as the elevator doors closed. 

"Thank you," James said, kissing her. 

"...tonight."

"Emily!" 

***

sorry I haven't updated in years. there's plenty of drafts lined up. i just gotta make them nice. 

i hope you liked this little one for now. also i decided anytime emily mentions shes a spy the "i'm an international... super spy... SUPER SPY!" from the backyardigans thats around tiktok rn should play in your head. 

leave requests and tell me how ya are, oh wait...

OVER 300,000 VIEWS WHAT THE HECK GUYS REALLY? you guys are incredible. love yall <3