01x09 - A Sparkly Ghost Part 2

[bunniefuu]

It must be so nice being

right all the time, Tess.

Oh, don't turn this around on me!

[RUBEN] Wow, I've never

seen Grandma so mad.

[CHEVON] I've never seen her mad at all.

Listen, Fee, you are the one

that walked away from everything.

Is that really what you think?

You are so naive.

People change.

Clearly. Because I don't know the person

standing in front of me anymore.

[SCOFFS]

This is my life, and

these are my choices.

You don't have to like them,

but you do have to respect them.

Well, that was intense.

It's all starting to add up.

Grandma had a huge fight

with one of her best friends

and she's always regretted it.

- Unfinished business.

- Which every ghost has.

What about the person in the

hospital from the other sparkle?

Grandma lied to Grandpa

about where she went that day.

It could be a red herring. A false clue.

Trust me, not every

sparkle is meaningful.

It led us to Sofia, and

that's what's important.

Well, it looks like we found

our number one suspect.

"Sofia Moore".

Good news. I went online

and found a 75-year-old

woman named Sofia Moore.

She's lived on Dane Street for 40 years.

Grandma would've been 75 this year.

Sounds like a match.

So, what's the plan?

Knock on her door, say her friend's

ghost has been haunting us?

- You should go, Ruben. Alone.

- Alone?

Just say you didn't know

your grandma very well

and you want to meet

some of her friends.

That kinda makes sense

- I guess.

- I'll tag along.

My sparkle power could come in

handy if we're looking for secrets.

Plus, I'm invisible.

I want you to write a backstory

for any of the characters

in Treasure Island.

Imagine the character

before the book began.

And I want you to work in pairs.

So be sure to pick a partner

that has strengths that you don't have.

All right? Buddy up.

[CHATTERING]

[KRISTA] And I'm punctual,

and I have neat handwriting.

So, for those reasons, I think I

would make an excellent partner.

Well, Krista, Todd,

you've both made compelling

arguments, but I must decline.

Good luck on your assignments.

Hey. Wanna partner up?

Oh, um, I was gonna work with Ben here.

Really? Ben?

No offense, but he's not gonna

help you raise your grade.

Don't you want to get back

on the basketball team?

I do, but I also don't want

to feel like a charity case.

I do. Will you be my partner?

Sorry, Curtis, but if I'm with

Chevon, it's a guaranteed B.

I don't get B's.

Okay. It's you and me, Chevon.

- I'm going to pull my weight, you know.

- I'm not worried.

So, we'll meet mornings, around 7:30,

afternoons till 5:00,

and most of Sunday.

Okay.

[SIGHS]

Alison, that outfit is fire.

I thought it was sold out.

How did you even get it?

Heather at Threads told me

she had one left in my size.

I saved my allowance

for, like, six months.

- Well, it looks amazing.

- I know, right?

Hey.

I love that.

- Did you get it at Threads too?

- What?

No, I got it at a thrift store and

then made some changes to it.

It looks brand-new.

Why spend $100 when I can make

it myself for almost nothing?

I'm impressed.

Hey, Alie, you should've

had Donna make your outfit.

You would've still had money.

[BECCA AND LEO CHUCKLE]

This is the address.

Wow.

[RAINE] Looks like

we followed the money.

Look, I know you like

to have a lot of fun

with being invisible or whatever,

but this is serious.

Don't worry, Ruben.

I'll just look for some

sparkles that might help.

- Yes?

- Are you Sofia Moore?

Yes?

And do you go by Fee?

I haven't been called that in years.

Where did you hear that?

My name is Ruben.

My grandmother was Teressa Reyna.

Unfortunately, she passed

away a couple of months ago.

Oh, my. I'm so sorry to hear that.

I didn't know her very well

and I was hoping to meet

some of her friends.

Grandpa said you two were very close.

Oh, for heaven's sakes.

You poor thing. Come on in.

Make yourself at home.

Oh, I'll take that for you.

This lady is seriously rich.

[SOFIA] Why don't I get us some tea?

Okay. Thank you.

Whoa. I always wondered what

a private jet looked like.

- Not what I was expecting.

- Me neither.

I thought she'd be

angry, from the sparkle,

but instead, she's, like

The sweetest lady ever.

Who did this?

The glitter. Who did it?

I did.

What were you thinking?

Um, I heard you say the

costume needed to sparkle more

and I thought the color

worked, so I put it on.

I thought you'd like it.

It does look pretty cool.

That's not the point.

What if it didn't look cool? We'd have

to remake the whole costume.

From now on, nobody does anything

without talking to me first.

I'm really sorry.

[SIGHS]

It's fine.

Did you finish tagging the costumes?

Almost. I'm just helping Becca

How about you finish

what I asked you to do?

A queen gave this to her.

- Put it back. It's not a toy.

- Come on. Just check it out.

Oh, oh! I'd better take that back.

It's extremely expensive.

And there's a certain Danish royal

that would be very

displeased if it broke.

I'm sorry, Ms. Moore.

Oh, please. Call me

Fee. Tess always did.

So, Ruben, let's talk business.

Do you want cookies, cheese, or scones?

Say cheese. Ask if she has any Gouda.

I've always been more of a cookie guy.

Coming right up.

Wow. She's so nice.

I have a bad feeling about her.

She reminds me of

people I know back home.

When you've watched as

many sparkles as I have,

you learn things about people.

Things that you wish weren't true

but they are.

I wouldn't believe

anything that she tells you.

These will be yummy. I know it.

Except for maybe that.

They do look good.

[SOFIA] There we were.

The biggest dance of the

year and no way to get there.

So, Tess looks at me and she says,

"Fee, we have no choice.

Get your roller skates".

- No.

- It's true.

We skated all the way

down Montgomery Avenue

wearing our ball gowns.

Made it in time to the dance, too.

- That's incredible.

- Oh, it was always that way with Tess.

One adventure after another.

Enough stories. Ask her

about their big fight.

- Raine.

- Oh, is it raining? I Oh, I better

No, sorry, I thought it was

raining. But it's not, it's sunny.

So you were saying, one

adventure after the next?

Always.

Well, like this painting.

We were traveling around

California and Tess had to have it.

So she spent every last

dime she had on it.

Borrowed my last dime too.

We had to sleep on the

beach the entire next week.

You could do that in those days.

You must've been mad.

Are you kidding? I was furious.

Yes, finally. Here we go.

Don't go easy on her, Ruben.

Did you two argue a lot?

Oh, not really.

She was hard to stay mad at.

Well, I was upset at the time,

but she ended up giving me

this for my next birthday.

I bet you she's lying about all of this.

I remember it as if

it was only yesterday.

She stopped by to drop it off

just before she was on

her way to a big date.

[GASPS]

- The painting.

- [LAUGHS]

I love it. Thank you, Tess.

Um

Here's the spot.

Well, I guess I forgive you for

making us sleep on the beach.

So, tell me about this date.

- Well, he's very cute.

- Mm-hmm.

And smart. Loves to read.

That's promising.

How'd you meet?

We actually grew up together.

We were friends as kids.

I ran into him at the bookstore,

which was an old haunt of ours.

He remembered me.

Are you sure that this dress is okay?

I could go home and change.

Tess, relax. It's not like

you're gonna marry the guy.

What's his name?

Ernesto. Ernesto Reyna.

[RUBEN] Grandpa.

Ernesto Reyna.

I knew the way she said it

he was something special.

And I remember thinking,

"Tess is gonna marry that boy".

Isn't that unbelievable?

Well, that part is believable

because I saw it with my own eyes.

- But I don't buy the other stuff.

- Shh

Choo! Sorry. I think

I'm catching a cold.

- Oh, let me get you a tissue.

- Really, it's not necessary.

No problem. I want to get

an old photo album anyway.

- You need to chill!

- I'm sorry. It's just

When I see a sparkle,

my fingers tingle and I

get the urge to touch it.

Okay, well, don't!

Put your hands in your

pockets or something.

Fine.

So, she's stuck with this

really rich fancy family

and all the phrases she knows

she hears from the butler.

Like, "Dinner is served, madam".

Then, one day, she looks out the

window, she sees a pirate ship.

Then she's like,

"I hate this fancy home.

I'm gonna go and live with the pirates".

So, of all the characters

in Treasure Island

you could've written a backstory for,

you chose Captain Flint the parrot?

Yeah. Is it too weird?

Are you kidding? It's brilliant!

Everyone else is gonna

write up some dumb story

about how Long John Silver lost his leg.

Only thing left to do is

sit back and wait for that A.

Yeah, right. Now comes the actual work.

Write an outline, do a first draft,

second draft, have our

parents read it over,

address their thoughts,

read over it again,

print it out, and staple.

Suddenly, I feel tired.

It'll be fun. You write the first

half, I'll write the second half.

- I'm really glad we partnered up.

- Me too.

Now, this photo is from

our class trip, senior year.

- Where's the rest of your class?

- We ditched them.

Like I said, it was always

an adventure with Tess.

She was always so full of life.

It's hard to imagine

she's not with us anymore.

I know.

[RAINE] Ruben! You cannot

believe how big her closet is.

Seriously. It's like the

size of my whole house!

I wish I'd seen her again.

I always meant to drop by the

bookstore, but it never happened.

[SIGHS] We just grew apart.

- Was there a big fight?

- No, nothing like that.

Our lives just took different paths.

Did you ever try to reach out to her?

I wish I had, but no.

Not even a letter?

Like a, um, emotional letter

written on an old typewriter

and signed only with an initial?

Time's a funny thing.

It always feels like

you got plenty of it,

but, in fact, there's

never nearly enough.

[SIGHS]

You know, you should stop

by the bookstore sometime.

I'm sure Grandpa would love to see you.

I just might.

We need to leave! We need to leave!

- Uh

- Now!

Okay. Well, um, Sofia Fee.

I just remembered that I have a, um

- A trampoline lesson.

- Trampoline lesson.

And I have to go, like,

right now. Sorry for the rush.

Um, stop by the bookstore sometime. Bye.

- Trampoline lessons?

- It's all I could think of.

You need to see what I found.

Well, it better be good. I felt

bad walking out on her like that.

Plus, those cookies were awesome.

What is it?

Just watch.

Please just keep this quiet.

[MALE POLICE OFFICER] Next.

Thank you.

Next.

Told you.

I don't believe it.

Grandma went to jail?

Hey, Alison.

I really like your outfit.

[ALISON] And I like your jumpsuit.

You get most of your clothes

from the dollar rack, right?

I guess so.

Did you get to the part about the piano?

Uh-huh.

I thought it was really good.

Uh-huh.

- I'm confused.

- By which part?

The beginning. The middle. The end.

All of it. What happened?

Hey, I worked really hard on

that. I thought it was great.

Well, we have very different standards.

And I'm not trying to sound mean,

but your ideas were all over the place.

You sound mean, so work on that.

You had sentences that went on and on,

and so many spelling mistakes.

It's a total mess, and now

I have to rewrite all of it.

You're not gonna believe

what we just found.

We shouldn't talk

about it here. Let's go.

Yeah. So, Raine and

I went to Fee's house.

It was massive. She answered the door.

I thought she seemed nice,

but Raine thought she

was hiding something.

- Ruben's grandma went to jail.

- What?

I was getting to that!

Anyways, we saw a sparkle where

they got their mug sh*ts taken.

And get this. Sofia told

Grandma to keep it quiet.

Then that's the secret your

grandma was keeping for "S".

Yeah.

That's a pretty big clue.

Aren't you gonna write it down?

Huh? Oh, right. Yeah.

[CHEVON] What could they

have been arrested for?

[RUBEN] I have no idea.

Maybe for something really

small, like jaywalking.

[CURTIS] No way. I

totally disagree with you.

Sofia wouldn't tell your

grandma to keep that a secret.

[RUBEN] I don't know. If I

got arrested for jaywalking,

I wouldn't want my mom to find

out, even if I was grown up.

Dude, they weren't jaywalking.

Look, Ruben, I get it.

I don't wanna think of

Grandma as a crook, either,

but we have to face facts.

Huh?

Your ghost is back.

[CHEVON] Grandma's

trying to explain herself.

The same clue, twice?

"Follow the money". Maybe they

robbed a bank or something?

Grandma was not a bank robber.

That would explain Sofia's big house.

Then why didn't Grandma

get any of the money?

Maybe she did. She

just kept it a secret.

She could've hidden it under

a floorboard or something.

Maybe Sofia had some dirt on Grandma

and kept it all in exchange

for not revealing it.

Wow. This is deep.

[BELL JINGLES]

Uh-oh.

- What?

- Don't look now, but Sofia just walked in.

Or should I say inmate number 146658?

[CURTIS] That lady's a criminal?

It's a brilliant disguise.

No one would ever suspect her.

Grandma was really nice,

too. Was that all an act?

- What do we do?

- We confront her.

We know her secret.

Yeah, Ruben, go for it.

- What's the worst that could happen?

- That's not helping!

Oh, Ruben.

I forgot how wonderful this place is.

Ruben?

- I know you lied.

- Excuse me?

You lied about always

getting along with Grandma.

I know you had a big fight.

What? No, we didn't.

I mean, sure, friends have

their disagreements, but we

You and Grandma were arrested.

You went to jail.

This isn't funny.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You know, it's not as

serious as you think.

I didn't want to tell you because

I didn't know how much you knew

and I didn't want to upset you.

But it's true.

Tess and I were pretty wild back then.

Were you bank robbers?

What?

No, of course not.

We were peace activists.

Nonviolently standing up

for what we believed in.

There was a pretty big

w*r going on back then.

We marched in protest.

- Fee! What a wonderful surprise.

- Ernesto!

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

I see you met Ruben.

- Funny. We were just talking about you.

- What?

Yeah. Odd. Then she

just randomly walked in.

You should have seen Fee and

your grandma back in those days.

Everyone loved to talk

about peace and love,

but these two actually fought for it.

We did. That's why we were arrested.

We organized a sit-in at the

state capitol to protest the w*r.

But don't worry, charges were dropped.

[GRANDPA] You two were utterly fearless.

It was really inspiring.

Still a smooth talker after

all these years, I see.

Nope. Just honest.

Wait. So, you and Grandma were cool?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

They were the coolest.

I was

I was so sorry to hear about Tess.

Thank you.

And, you know, I always felt

badly about the way things ended.

So did she.

- She missed you all those years.

- Oh.

What happened? Why did you stop talking?

As silly as it sounds,

it was all over a job.

I was supposed to run

the bookstore with Tess,

but at the last moment, I took a job.

So? You decided to take another job.

It's not that she got another job,

it's who she went to work for.

You see, I went to work

with a real estate developer

and your grandmother thought

that we were running small

stores like this out of business.

- Maybe she was right.

- [SCOFFS]

- We were young. What did we know?

- Yeah.

You needed the money. We did too.

- Yeah.

- We were so broke back then.

Wait. If you were so poor, then

how could you afford this bookstore?

It's one of life's enduring mysteries.

What do you mean?

Out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere,

your grandma got a huge inheritance

from a great aunt she never

met on her mother's side.

- That's right. I forgot all about it.

- Follow the money.

It was, oh, what was it? Um

- Daisy!

- [CHUCKLES]

- Sadie.

- Ah.

Wait!

Is that Sadie with an S?

Not sure how else you would spell it.

Got it. Well, I know you two

have a lot of catching up to do.

It was nice seeing you.

You know, peace.

Did you hear that?

- And a big inheritance from Aunt Sadie.

- Follow the money.

The first "follow the

money" took us to Sofia

and the second "follow the

money" brings us to Sadie.

Your grandma really needs

to give simpler clues.

So, what do you know about your

grandma's side of the family?

Almost nothing.

Don't worry. I just found

this free genealogy website.

We need to look at your family tree.

Great idea. Then maybe we

can find this Aunt Sadie.

And finally solve this mystery.