The music booms as the girl slips through the crowd, observing everything around her. There is nothing that she does not notice. The girl slides around a group of chatting students clustered together in the doorway. She settles down at a table with her cup of raspberry tea, content just to sit and watch the antics of her schoolmates. "Kala!" Someone shouts, but that does not startle the girl.
Her classmate grabs a chair and pulls it up next to the dark-brown haired tenth-grader. "Hey."
"Hi Jennie." Kala smiles slightly. "How's it going?"
"Great! The music is amazing, don't you think? Oh, and we found a casino. Want to go with us?" Jennie says energetically as her friend, Sienna, pulls over another chair.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine here." Kala responds politely, inwardly scolding herself for not finding a better place to watch where she would not be interrupted.
"That's great and all, but I think that you'll be coming with us." Sienna announces, and grabs Kala's wrist. "Let's go."
"Honestly, guys. We're tenth-graders. Tenth-graders don't go to casinos." Kala sighs.
"There are lots of cute boys!"
"You know that doesn't work on me."
"Come on, Kala. And on the subject of the boys-we think that you may want to watch them." Jennie pipes up.
"And make myself look like a stalker?"
"They seem strange. They're not the normal casino type. I'm sure that you'll be able to find out more about them than we can. After all, that is what you do best, isn't it?" Sienna protests. Kala decides not to ask about how her friend knows what the normal casino type is.
"All right, fine. I'll go look for a few minutes." Kala finally caves, smiling softly.
"Yes!" Both of her friends exclaim, and jump up. "Let's go!"
"Wait just a second. I have to go get Abby." Kala states. After all, she never observes anyone without having her best friend there.
"You won't have to go very far, Kala." A smaller girl with jet-black hair walks up behind her best friend.
"Hi Abby. How long have you been listening to our conversation?"
"Long enough to be able to figure out the gist of your plan." Abby runs her hand through her short hair while staring expectantly at Jennie and Sienna.
"We'd already considered the possibility of you listening to us."
"Good. You two can lead the way and we'll follow." Jennie and Sienna grin at each other and bounce off, heading to the casino, Kala and Abby follow soon after.
"You never could turn down a chance to investigate, Kala." Abby teases.
"Look who's talking," Kala retorts.
"Oh come on. We're almost there." Abby says.
"You just walked past the casino, Abby."
"What?" Abby whirls around, surprised.
"Just joking. See you later."
"Kala!" Abby shouts, chasing her friend down the hallway. They arrive, panting. "You ready?"
"Ready." The two tenth-graders slip inside and walk along the wall, trying not to attract attention to themselves. Jennie and Sienna are waiting for them in a corner.
"So you both made it here without getting yourselves killed. Good job." Jennie says.
"Yeah. I've already calculated that the chances of the ceiling of the building in which we are currently stationed falling down on our heads is a whopping 5%." Kala retourts.
"There is a larger chance that we will get squashed by a gaming machine in here than have the ceiling fall on us. Anyway, where are the people that you want us to watch?" Abby states, eager to get started.
"Over there. Don't make a scene, and we need to be back at the party by 9:45 so that people don't get worried." Sienna tilts her head in the direction of the DJ booth.
"Good. Everyone meet back at the same table that we met at by 9:45. Good luck." Jennie grins. "Come on, Sienna. Let's go over there. We'll keep them occupied so that you can watch them." She winks.
"Uh oh," Abby groans, "we're in trouble now."
"There's nothing we can do to change their behavior."
"True. Where do you want to start?"
"What about the Italian?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Hey." Both girls jump and look absolutely shocked. Nobody can just "sneak" up on them. They're always on red alert.
"Hi." Kala finally manages to squeak, wide-eyed. She is speechless. This was not part of the plan! The stranger has floppy black hair with a white streak and blue-tinted glasses, much like the ones that Kala is wearing.
"Ah'm Jazz, by th' way." The boy, who could not be much older than the two friends, announces.
"Kala. It's very nice to meet you, Jazz." Kala says, still surprised. Jazz? That must be a nickname. She thought.
"Jazz!" Somebody shouts. Kala immediately notes the heavy Italian accent.
"B'there in a click, 'Raj!" Jazz calls back. "Well, gotta go. It wa' nice meetin' ya'll. Have a good night!" He smiles, and Kala smiles back while Abby just stares. Jazz walks off into the crowd.
"Wow." Is all that Abby has to say.
Two Hours Later
"You know, I'm starting to not want to leave here. They are actually proving themselves to be rather interesting to watch." Kala says wistfully. Abby snorts.
"You just don't want to want to leave the Italian. I do believe that there is some saying about not falling in love with random people at casinos, if I can remember correctly…" Kala punches her best friend, who winces.
"Shut up, Abby! I don't like the Italian! It's just that I get the feeling that I've met Jazz before, but I can't remember where." Abby raises an eyebrow.
"Oh, so you like Jazz?" Kala just stares at her through her blue-tinted glasses.
"I do believe that you have a death wish." An overly-amused voice chuckles. The girls turn around in the blink of an eye. There, leaning against the doorframe of one of the hallways, is the Italian. "I'm Mirage, but you can call me Dino." Kala punches her friend.
"Abby. Nice to meet you, Mirage. I'm so sorry that you had to hear our little… conversation." Abby finally gets out, eyes still wide with surprise and embarrassment.
"Nah, it's fine. I don't mind." Mirage winks at Kala, who stares at him, dumbstruck. "You must be Kala."
"Yeah,..." Kala stutters.
"I was wondering if you could possibly tell me how to get to the Relative Dimensions headquarters." Mirage states plainly.
"Sure. If you take me to your car, then I can program the address into your GPS for you." Kala recovers her ability to talk.
"Let's go, then. Do you like race cars?"
" I love racing!" Kala exclaims, and Mirage grins. They walk out of the Casino, talking about Formula One racing.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that!" Jennie smirks.
"I'm pretty sure that none of us were, Jennie…" Abby says.
Little did they know that they were all being watched.