Nothing much to say except that this is a gift fic for Glowing Insanity. I hope you enjoy your fic, and I'm sorry that it was a bit late!
Izzy liked getting lost. Well, lost wasn't quite the right word for it. She always knew exactly where she was. It was her companions who would be the ones getting lost. And "getting lost," forcing them to find her, and watching as they got themselves into trouble trying to find her was truly her favorite activity. What better companions were there to "get lost" with than her dearest buds Owen and Noah? Furthermore, what better place was there to get lost in than sin city itself: Las Vegas? The answer to both questions was a loud, curt, definite nobody and nowhere, respectively, so the moment the troublesome trio found themselves in Las Vegas, Izzy's master plan went into action.
The trip was planned to be a week long, which was plenty of time to go up and down the stripand visit every notable place along the way, with enough time left over for plain ol' relaxation. However, Izzy's plan clashed pretty starkly with Noah and Owen's, so she had no choice but to take matters into her own hands.
Okay, she did have a choice, and she didn't have to ruin everything, but where was the fun in that? It was day three of the trip. Why day three? Because for the first two days, Noah was so paranoid about Izzy wandering off that he forced her to walk in front of the group, within vision and earshot. After two days of being on her best behavior, Noah was finally off high alert, which meant it was time to bolt.
It happened around three hours past noon, at southernmost end of the iconic Vegas strip. Noah finally gave into Owen's insistence that he try out a slot machine with him. The ever-cynical Noah knew that all the slot machines were made specifically to steal his money, but Owen just had to play the two-player Batman machine with his little buddy, so he inevitably gave in and found himself sitting at a slot machine, flushing his money down the drain.
Which was the perfect moment for Izzy to run for it. In the blink of an eye, Izzy went from standing still as a statue to running as fast as her amazonian legs would take her, out of the casino and to the north end of the strip.
It didn't take five minutes for Noah to blow all of his money away on that stupid slot machine, but by then it was too late. He sighed and stood from his seat next to Owen. "Alright well that was fun. Except not. Let's go guys."
"Uh, Noah?" Owen said as he looked around, confused.
"What is it, big guy?"
"Where's Izzy?"
Noah froze in place, eyes wide. "You've...got to be kidding me. Izzy's gone? The one time I don't tell her to stay put, and she runs off!" He threw his hands in the air in frustration. "Alright, let's go find her." He stormed off, grumbling to himself about how obnoxious Izzy was, followed by Owen, who was slightly scared at the daunting idea that Izzy could be lost in such a huge place.
Noah hadn't planned to walk too far on day three. His goal was to cover the southern portion of the strip and then go back to the hotel room, but the Wild Izzy Chase ended up taking him and Owen up and down the entire strip.
Three times.
Up and down they went, in and out of every casino on the strip, taking long, hard looks at the crowds of people milling about outside in the sweltering summer heat, all to find their missing friend. Alas, there was still no sign whatsoever of Izzy when the sun found itself disappearing over the desert horizon. Night fell, the lights went up, and the night life began, which was when Owen and Noah's search became truly interesting. When inside one o the casinos, Owen caught sight of something that the two really should have noticed earlier. "Hey Noah, is that Trent on that billboard?"
He pointed to an advertisement for one of the many shows the casino they were in was home to and indeed, Trent was front and center, with an acoustic guitar in his arms and a fake smile on his dumb face. "Interesting," Noah said. "Riveting even. That is not who we're looking for."
"But he knows Izzy, so maybe he can help us look!" Owen clapped his hands together, eager to meet an old buddy from the TV show that never seemed to stop influencing his life.
Noah rolled his eyes. "I guess it could never hurt to have an extra pair of eyes, but do you really think we'll find Trent here? He's a big enough deal to have a show in Vegas, do you really think he'd spend his time wandering the casino his show's in?"
"I guess not..." Owen said, sadly kicking at the ground.
And then, as if the universe was working specifically to spite Noah, they found Trent himself, in the flesh, hanging around the area that had been converted into an unsubstantial gift shop for his show. "Well I'll be damned," Noah said with a sigh. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised, he is the kind of person who'd look at himself at every opportunity."
"Heya Trent!" Owen said happily, waving at the superstar.
"Oh, hey guys," Trent replied with a timid wave. "I didn't think I'd see you here."
"The same could be said to you," Noah said, crossing his arms. "I'd love to hang out and chat, trust me, but we have to be going. We've been searching for someone all day."
"Oh, right! Can you help us with something, Trent?" Owen asked.
Trent shrugged. "I don't have a show tonight, so I guess I could help you guys out. Besides, at this point I know Vegas like the back of my guitar hand. What are you guys looking for?"
"Izzy," Noah answered.
Trent's eyes widened and he went pale. "Oh...she's here. Great..."
"So are you gonna help us or not?" Noah asked. "I'm getting tired of wasting my vacation looking for her."
"Oh sure, I can help you two out. Totally," Trent finally said. "Let's start looking. Where have you covered?"
"Everywhere," Owen replied.
"Okay...and where would Izzy hide?"
"Anywhere," Noah sighed.
"You two are a great help," Trent said with an eyeroll. "That's alright. I can still help." With that, they started roaming the strip once more, searching for their "lost" friend who actually knew exactly where everyone was. One more trip up and down the strip later, the trio found themselves right back where they picked up Trent with still no sign of the hyperactive redhead. "Well, I tried," Trent said. "Sorry guys. I wish I could help you out more, but I don't wanna be too tired for my next show. You're on your own now." With a wave, he turned and ventured to the area of the casino where the scantily clad women danced for the sake of giving gamblers some eye-candy.
"Trent, no!" Owen yelled. "You can't leave us! Stop! Don't go into the Love Pit!"
"Ugh, whatever," Noah groaned. "It obviously doesn't matter if he's helping us or not. Let's go, Owen. We'll find her on our own."
He dragged Owen away, not liking having to listen to Owen scream about Trent putting women before his good old friends from Total Drama.
When they got outside the casino, Noah's anger finally reached a boiling point. "Where. The hell...is Izzy?!" He yelled to the skies.
It was at that point the hilarity of the situation was too much. Izzy's manic laughter ran out through the strip, finally revealing her whereabouts to the boys who were so oblivious to that which was hiding in plain sight.
The key to this mystery was simple: Throughout the day, the one thing that remained a constant for Owen and Noah was that which they forced themselves not to pay attention to. Those poor souls roaming the strip in costumes from children's movies had a special talent in the form of making whoever made eye contact with them feel incredibly awkward, which caused the passerby to force themselves to look ahead. Izzy's master plan was to spend all day switching between costume after costume. That gleeful snowman that Noah and Owen passed without a second thought? Izzy. The ninja turtle who didn't call to them? Izzy again. She was even one of the homeless people sitting on the pedestrian bridges above the busy street. Using this tactic, Izzy could keep tabs on Noah and Owen's whereabouts and watch them get increasingly flustered as their search yielded no results. And with her constant costume changes, they never suspected they were being followed by the same street performer. As the icing on the cake, Izzy even made money from being lost!
Her most daring get-up yet went unnoticed, even by the one who didn't seem interested in searching for her as much as he was interested at looking at the beautiful women of the Vegas strip. Her face was completely uncovered, which should have made her easy to spot, but her glittery costume was just revealing enough to give her away as a street performer easily. Noah and Owen paid her no mind at all, while Trent was a bit busy looking at the region just below her face. Her costume which was so thin it might as well have not even been there caused an awkward situation when she finally gave herself away, as Noah and Owen got an eyeful of more Izzy then they ever wanted to see.
The fact that she sent them up and down the strip a grand total of five times was too much to make up for; and, as Noah put it, no amount of money she made that day would pay for all the therapy he would need to get the mental image of a mostly nude Izzy scrubbed from his memory forever.