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It had been just a week since their grand show at the Thames on New Year's Eve. Merritt was just as annoying, Dylan was still the leader, and Atlas was yet a control freak. The only change was that Lula and Jack had become a little closer than just colleagues. But that's not the proper way to begin a story.
Lula was waving her hands in the air, excited about joining the Horsemen. And he couldn't believe she was stealing his spot on stage. Jack didn't like Lula. Or rather, he didn't trust her. She was a girl, and girls didn't have a lot of patience. That's what he had learned from Henley. Henley had gotten tired within 3 months of hiding and left. He wasn't sure Lula would handle it. The hiding, the daily tiresome practices, the constant remarks from Dylan on working together as a single organism. But he wouldn't know how wrong he was until a month later, on New Year's.
Lula was feeling a jumble of emotions at the moment. In just the span of a couple of hours, she had been notified that she was officially one of the Horsemen, had fooled the "control freak" of the group in his own house, and was meeting not only the Horsemen, but also her biggest crush, Jack Wilder.
Although she had been on the undercover scene even before she'd graduated high school, she had never heard of the name Jack Wilder. She'd found information on all the Horsemen once they'd made themselves known, but never on Jack. And Lula found that mysteriously intriguing. When Dylan introduced her to the rest of the group, she was hoping for a little more excitement. But it was okay, she was used to being uncared for.
Her mother had never cared much for her. Her dad on the other hand loved her like Romeo did to Juliet. The night her mother killed her father was one that haunted her nights ever since. Once her dad had died, her mother turned to her. Carrying the bloodied knife, she had slowly stalked towards Lula. Lula, scared out of her wit at the time, tried her magic trick. She had been working on it for some time now. It was meant only to entertain and she'd only performed it once for her dad. She wasn't very good either, but now, she had no other choice. She circled a 360° and came closer to her mother. She grabbed the knife and very lightly scratched her neck, making a stream of blood appear. She then fell to the floor and slowly limited her breathing, bringing it to a complete halt in some time. Her mother soon left the house thinking Lula was dead and Lula got up. She stared at the body of her father. The only person she truly trusted and loved in this world, now gone. Stolen from her because of her condemned mother.
That was the night she ran away. She took all the cash from her father's wallet and packed her bags with her clothes, her teddy bear, and some food and water. She quickly washed the cut on her neck and went to the nearest bus station, where she travelled for 3 days on a trip to her grandmother. Her grandmother cared for her just as much as her father had. She made her feel safe again, normal even.
Her grandmother raised her well. Lula eventually graduated high school and went to a college. All the while, being aware of what was going on the underground level, trying to pick up any news of her mother. Of course, her grandmother never knew this. If she had, she would have freaked.
Lula also practiced her magic, soon becoming quite good at the beheading trick, as well as working with rabbits and hats. Her grandmother always supported her interest in magic, understanding as it let her disappear from the world for those few moments when the audience took a closer peek at the body and beheaded head. But that all happened when she was 9, and she was now 23. Yet, the past always found a way to creep back up on us, didn't it.
They were at Iong's right now. Lula had been trying a couple tricks with a deck of cards. Jack had taken notice to this and immediately noticed her faults. And so Jack walked up to her to tell she was doing it wrong, because one thing Jack hated more than that little Walter was someone not understanding the basics of cards.
"With your hand in that position, you're never going to hide the card." he called behind her.
She instantly spun around. "Then how would I do it?"
"Give me the card, I'll show you"
Lula held her hands out and he saw there was nothing in them.
"Flip your hands over" he said, trying to figure out where the card had gone.
"Oh Jack, that won't help you. Why don't you check your jacket pocket"
"No one can beat me at cards. Plus you play cards as well as a girl." Jack claimed.
"Just check your pocket"
Jack reached into his jacket pocket and felt something thin and smooth like a card. He looked up at her with shock. No one had ever pulled a close up magic trick on him. EVER.
"If you practice a little harder, you can play the cards just as well as a girl, Jack." Lula mocked.
Jack just stood there surprised while Lula went to go look at something else, strutting her hips confidently.
Lula was playing catch with the cards with Jack. She knew she wasn't good at the cards, but she still decided to be so confident with the Sleight and say she was better than him. Now she was facing the consequences of her actions. The score was 0-51, this was the last card. She had to catch it. Whoosh. And there it flew by, nicking her at the ear. Lula stood there staring at Jack and smiling her loss away. "Whatever. It must be a bad day for me."
"Yeah right. Try more like no talent." Jack responded.
"I didn't get into the Eye and the Horsemen for no reason you know"
Jack smirked at that and bent down to pick up the cards. Lula decided to help and crouched as well.
"So what about girls… like relationships?" Lula asked curiously.
Jack gave a large groan at that. He hadn't had a lot of them, but they had all ended badly.
Lula could tell Jack didn't like talking about this but she really wanted to know. "What!"
"Well, it's not something I'm proud of, but every girl I get close to, I end up taking their trust. And then their wallets."
And that was what Lula had been waiting for. She could finally show Jack how good she was at magic. She would prove to him that she was good enough for the team.
"You steal their wallets" she stated taking his black leather wallet out of her pocket. "You ever steal their belts, or how about some peanuts from the hotel bar. Huh, don't know why you took those." Lula pulled that stuff out, too.
Jack was now smiling. He didn't know what to say, his heart was beating a little too fast for his liking.
Jack was teaching the rest of the gang the proper techniques with cards. They had less than 48 hours before they would put their plan into motion. Merritt was practicing trying to hit the pencil that had been balanced on a desk a few 25 feet away. Atlas was going through the plan and coming up weird scenarios that would most likely not occur. Lula was moving a card around her body without making it seem to obvious.
Jack for the matter was trying to stay focused on the card in his own hands, throwing it between his hands. He didn't like to accept it but he had found Lula rather enchanting. She wasn't like most girls he'd met. She was different. A good different. She stood up for herself and was pretty confident and independent. And her eyes were rather alluring. They were an emerald green, sparkling and shining like the real gem would, unlike his murky brown eyes. Of course, he hadn't really shown he was attracted to her. They were all really stressed right now, with stealing the stick and getting the heck out of Macau. Love life problems would just be another bother. Besides, his other relations had never gone well, what was the chance that this one would. He stole a glance at Lula while throwing the card. When Lula looked back, Jack missed his card and it landed a few feet away. Lula took notice and gave Jack a small smirk along with a raised eyebrow.
"A little distracted Jack?" Lula asked with a soft innocent voice and a tilt of her head.
Jack stared at that soft spot where her neck and shoulder met, but snapped himself out of it. 'Huh… no, just tired. You know, with jetlag and all."
Merritt could see what was going on and decided to play along. "You know Jack, no one had jetlag when we came. Not even you. Why all of a sudden."
Jack was furiously blushing now. "Hey, guys, can we get back to work. We've got a lot to do." Danny exclaimed.
"Aww, come on Danny. We were just having a little fun." complained Merritt.
"Yeah, and if we don't pull this theft of right, you can finish your fun in jail." countered Atlas.
Lula chuckled at that and Jack couldn't help but stare at that smile.
Jack was nervous. They could not screw this up. They had reached the lab where the chip was and Allen was talking with Hannes. Jack was impressed, Merritt had done a great job hypnotising the guy in very little time.
"Well, if you'd like to follow me." Allen gestured.
"Yeah sure." Atlas replied.
As they entered the lab, Jack made sure to keep an eye on any security cameras. He didn't see any and Atlas had assured them that the lab consisted of none. He had said that the security cameras would have monitored everything in the lab and anyone could have hacked into them, busting their illegal business. It was really great for the robbery, one less thing to worry about. Lula's heels clicking against the clean white tiles was the only noise for a minute until the reached the security perimeter. They hadn't made a plan for how to get the stick out since they really didn't find any fool-proof way. They were going to have to wing this one.
"You'll have to remove all your metal, watches, rings, etc." Allen pointed out.
"Yeah, of course." Atlas said for the all of them.
"Excuse me for asking, but where might I have seen you before."
"Oh, I don't know, probably one of my many symposiums" Atlas responded scratching his head. This wasn't good. If Allen recognized them as the Horsemen, things were going to go downhill really fast.
"Ah, the book jacket. I have to say, Dr. Michelakis, I'm a huge fan." This was surprising to Jack. The man must truly be bad at connecting things together. But Atlas was acing his acting. Lula was too. With the way her body was in constant moving state, it really made her seem like a floozy. That fur jacket, Jack thought, gave her a little more concealed look, which Jack didn't understand.
"Thank you. Which book there have been so many." Atlas questioned.
At this, Allen's face looked confused. "I'm sorry. Does Hannes' chippy always talk for you Doctor?" he questioned, looking at Lula. Lula for that matter had been staring off. "Doctor." This caught her attention.
"Hmm?" Lula stared baffled. Atleast, her brain was working enough to pull up her coat which was off her shoulders.
Jack was slowly understanding the misunderstanding. "When you say Chippy, you are referring to Buffy, yeah?" He asked gripping Atlas's bicep.
"Of course." Hannes said in a duh kind of way.
And then it clicked. Hannes was gay. "Oh, Hannes prefers the term floozy for all his boy toys." Merritt explained. It was a good save for that matter.
"Yeah he does." Atlas said, looking a bit too modest for the title.
"Oh, by the the way, I got your email. You had a query on how to maintain quantum coherence on room temperature without the use of dilution, refrigerators, or error correction.." Lula still had a dazed look on her face. "Do you care to elucidate" Allen asked.
"Yes that's right. I did send that email the other day." Lula affirmatively stated.
"Yeah, I saw you send it." Atlas assured.
"That's right, so what gives?" Lula asked Allen.
"I'm sorry. What gives?" Allen asked confused.
"What she's trying to say here is that…" Atlas tried to explain before Lula cut him off.
"Actually, the grown ups are having a meeting here Buffy." Lula commented brazenly.
"Okay." Atlas ducked in head. Jack was impressed. Atlas would have, in another situation, yelled at the other other person, bawling that he was mature. But they all had a part to play.
Lula sucked her gum out and held it towards Atlas, "If you'll hold on to that."
Atlas looked surprised but solemnly held out his hand, "Sure Doctor."
'Thank you. Now as I was saying, all the 7th graders, even the dumb ones, know the second law of thermodynamics. All ordered systems tend towards disorder. DISORDER! So I'm going to ask you one more time! What gives!" Jack was surprised, he didn't even know there were laws to thermodynamics, while Lula knew the second one to it. He was now quite interested in this conversation.
"Well, it's actually topological quantum order. The emergence of quantum effects on a macroscopic level. So that is in fact, what gives." Allen said with a smug face.
Lula seemed to consider this information for a while. "Thank you" and with that she took off her coat, gave it to Allen, and strutted through the metal detector.
Jack had to hand it to Lula. The girl knew her science and confidence. As Jack scanned Lula, he began to lean in to Merritt. As soon as he made contact with Merritt, he snapped out of the gaze and hinted the guys to take off all their metal.
"You know Buffy's not a bad name for you. You know, buff, firm, taut, nubile." Merritt teased.
"That's good. Did you just find a thesaurus somewhere." Atlas countered.
What the guys didn't know was that Jack was pondering over some names he'd like to call Lula.
Lula couldn't believe Allen had made them go through another round of security checks. She hadn't exactly liked her guard. He was always staring at her in some kind of lost way. Of course, it did mean she was rather attractive, but there was only one guy she wanted to impress in the room. Jack. She had noticed the way he had been staring at her lately and every time he did, it would bring butterflies in her stomach.
Her guard pushed her back, telling her to start walking. He was such a douche, the guard. To warn Atlas, she decided to make it clear what was happening. "Oh we're walking this way now."
Of course, since Atlas is Atlas he already knew and in a blink, the card fell out his pants and onto the sole of her boots. She smirked at that. She was starting to like this adventurous trip, no matter how deprived she felt of her freedom. But right now she had to get the card of her shoe. She saw the guard ahead and decided to fake a trip. She quickly grabbed the card and tried to see who she could give it to. With her luck, no could take it, so it was her to impress the guys with her cardistry. She put her hands on her neck like the guard said. Then, when she turned put it in her bra. The guards wouldn't check there, right? Wrong. The guard came closer and clamped his hand on her back, trying to reach for the clasp under the dress.
Lula, shocked because she had received no warning, shoved the man away. No one would ever touch her without her acceptance. That was one of her rules. "I'll do that myself" she loudly warned the guard with her pointer finger out. The guard nodded, watching.
Now all the guys had her eyes on her. Watching what she would do with the card. She unclasped the bra and pulled it out from the front, making sure she didn't reveal anything while at it. She held the bra at the guys. It was quite pretty, with its nude color on the inside and the black lace on top. It had cost her $50 and it was new so she knew it looked good.
Merritt didn't hide the impressed look on his face and Atlas's reaction was a look of pure arousement. But it was Jack's face she took the most pleasure from. He looked at her face and then her chest and back at her. His eyebrows were raised and he had a faint smirk. Lula looked at the guards to see their reaction. They just nodded and she tossed the bra aside. She saw the 1st guards gaze drifting south and she whistled at him, notifying him she didn't like wanderers. His eyes flew up and stayed there. And with that, she had made her statement of the day.
They'd done it. They had revealed Walter and Tressler to the world and their plan had worked. She couldn't believe it. This had to be the best way to spend New Year's ever! With all the adrenaline running in her head, Lula lost her senses and walked towards Jack. She grabbed his face and pulled his lips to hers. Much to her approval, he didn't let go. Instead he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. It was sweet and sensitive. Fireworks were exploding in the sky and in Lula's body. She couldn't believe it, the guy she had been crushing on for 2 years, the guy she thought she'd never have a chance with, was the guy who was kissing her now. But as quick as it happened, it finished even quicker as the gang pulled them away. They were right, once they got away from here, she would like to talk about the kiss and see where their relationship would go next.