Lia leaned back against the bedpost of her bed, the silky, cream-colored sheets wrinkling under her. She was immersed in staring at the ceiling when her father's voice brought her back to life.
"Lia! Visitor for you!" he yelled from downstairs. Lia sat up, smoothing her bedcovers and cramming the assorted junk on her floor into a shady corner where it would hopefully not be noticed. A light knock sounded on her door, and as she headed to open it, she bet herself ten dollars (do they use dollars?) that it was Merea.
However, when she opened the door, she was greeted by Dex. One tiny part of her brain said, ha! you lose, and the rest of it just totally zoned. She stared at him.
"Um… hi?" Dex said, eyebrows raised.
Lia blushed, trying to regain her composure. "Hey," she said. "Come on in."
She opened the door wider and stepped aside. Dex stepped in and sat down.
"Sorry I'm early," he said, fidgeting with his hands.
"Early? For what?"
"Uh… remember? The meeting? At your house? Keefe's so-called 'great idea'?"
"Oh! Dang, I totally forgot." Lia slapped her forehead. "I can't believe it."
"Yeah, well, no going back now," Dex said. He looked around her room, and he looked kind of wishful for a moment. Even though her room wasn't nearly as big as Merea's, it was still bigger than his. Lia scanned the floor for anything that she could've missed. Suddenly she let out a yelp and dived to shove a pair of cotton-candy pink alicorn-patterned underwear under her dresser, straightening up awkwardly with an apology.
"It's okay," he said with a grin. "My room is way messier than yours."
"Suuuure."
"Seriously. You do not want to know the amount of stuff that's exploded in there. Or what the exploding stuff was. Let's just say… it wasn't the best-smelling, and it took forever to get the goo outta my hair."
Lia laughed so hard, she bonked into her own bed. She tripped and tumbled backward. Dex reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back up.
The door burst open and Merea walked in, stopping when she saw what was going on. Dex still hadn't let go of Lia so it looked… um…
...super-strange.
Merea raised an eyebrow as Dex hastily let go and backed away, sitting down where he was before, his face flaming.
Merea grabbed Lia and pulled her outside. "What were you doing?"
"Nothing!" said Lia stonily. "I just… fell…. and…. he…. caught….me…"
Merea smirked. "You don't sound sure."
"It's true!" Lia said hotly. Merea grinned.
"When's he gonna give you a riiiiiiiiing?" she asked teasingly.
"Shut UP!"
The door to Lia's room opened and Dex poked his head outside. "What's going on out here?"
"Oh..." Merea said craftily. "Lia was just telling me how cute she thought you were."
Lia's eyes widened. "Wha...YAAAAGH!" she tackled Merea inside her room and to the ground.
While pinning Merea down on her fuzzy pink rug and poking her in the stomach, Lia clarified some things to Dex. "Don't - listen - to - a - word - she - says," she said between pokes.
"Don't worry, it's not like I do anyways."
Lia laughed, and in that split second, Merea sat up. "How naturally he makes you laugh..."
The color in Lia's cheeks rose. "BE QUIET! SHUT UP! SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE! SHUT THE -bleeeeeeeeep- UP!"
Merea put up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay!" Then she whispered over her shoulder to Dex, "See how she gets all defensive around you?"
Lia grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Stop. Now. Or I will tell Dex everything about Arian."
Dex jumped in, "Yeah, and I'm not that good at keeping secrets…"
Merea nodded, but she just couldn't resist. "You guys work so perfectly together as a team."
Lia stood up, brushing her hands off. "Okay, that's it. Your secrets are no longer safe with me." She leaned over and whispered to Dex. Merea caught the words, 'Arian', 'kiss', and 'boyfriend' and her face took on the resemblance of what could only be described as a human/pomegranate hybrid.
Dex's eyes widened at every word. Lia finished, giving Merea a smug smile.
"Hate. You." Merea growled.
Just then, Lia's dad's voice came again: "Uh...Lia? There are more of… of them."
Arian, Fitz, Keefe, Biana, and Sophie trooped into Lia's room one by one.
"About time," grumbled Lia.
"No, actually," Arian said, "We're on time. Dex was just early."
"So was Merea," Lia reminded him.
"Well, uh.. Merea's a, uh…."
"A special case?" Dex finished with a smirk.
"Shut up. And speaking of Merea-"
"Which you do all the time."
Arian scowled at Dex. "Speaking of Merea, why is she lying on the floor?" he said, and his voice had a kinda-creepy edge to it.
"I'm lying on the floor because Lia football-tackled me to the ground and held me there while tormenting me with secrets," Merea said in an over-dramatic voice.
There's no way Arian will buy that, Lia thought.
Arian bought it.
"Sheesh, Lia. Why you gotta be so mean?"
"Mean? I'm not mean! You should've heard what she was saying! About me and-" Lia broke off.
"You and?" Sophie asked.
"Um, no one. Arian, Merea was lying on the floor because of a swooning attack that was triggered by the thought of your-" she made air quotes with her fingers, "-'sky blue eyes and beautiful brown hair, the color of a dry, murderous desert, et cetera.'"
"I did NOT say that!" Merea yelled.
"Whatever. Look, can Keefe just share his brilliant idea already?"
"Yes, pleeeeeease? He's soooooo smart," simpered Biana.
"Okay, okay. Gimme a break, Caverly!"
Merea piped up. "Actually, it's Dizzn-" Lia clamped a hand over her mouth and gave her a glare that seemed to say, one more word about me and Dex and everyone here knows how many times you've kissed the A-man. And yes, I did see that secret meeting behind the trees. So don't try to fool me.
Or maybe Merea could've imagined it.
But she wasn't taking any chances, so she clamped her mouth shut. Keefe continued.
"So, my idea was that…" he paused for dramatic effect. "We go to the Forbidden Cities!"
Silence.
"What?!" Sophie asked. "Do you wanna go to Exilium?!"
"No. And we won't, 'cause we won't get caught. Remember, we have a ton of secret weapons… we have a super-cool tech dude, two super-special mind people, a super-invisible super-secret weapon, we can get everything we need in a snap of a finger," he looked pointedly at Arian, "free transportation, and… we have me. Nothing can go wrong!"
"But I'm so baaad at my ability!" Arian wailed. "I can only conjure marshmallows!"
"That's good enough for me…" Merea said all lovey-like. Lia pretend-barfed.
"Don't you mean, 'in the snap of a super-finger'?" Fitz said, looking around like he expected everyone to laugh. Instead, he got about a billion raised eyebrows.
"Dude, was that supposed to be a joke?" Dex asked incredulously.
"Yes… no… never mind. Forget it."
"Sorry, WHAT? You want us to go to the Forbidden Cities? Did I hear you correctly?" Lia had a look of disbelief on her face.
"Yep." Keefe ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up.
"When do we leave?" asked Dex.
"Whoa, wait. We don't know what we're getting into!" protested Lia.
"Yeah! We could get into some serious trouble this way," agreed Merea.
"I don't think it's a bad idea," Arian commented, with a look at Merea that made her blush and shrug.
"Fine… I guess I'll do it. What's the worst thing that can happen?"
"We could all die, for starters," Lia said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, I want to go," Biana said, moving over next to Keefe. Everyone was split up: Merea, Dex, Arian, Biana, and Keefe on one side, and Sophie, Fitz, and Lia on the other.
"You know what? What the heck," Fitz said with a shrug. "I'll do it. I've done worse." He crossed the room to stand with the rest of the clump.
Lia and Sophie exchanged a glance. This is a little too dangerous for my liking…
"Don't be wimpy," Merea piped up. "Come on, there's nothing to be scared of! Don't you wanna be adventurous?" she challenged.
"C'mon, Soph," Fitz coaxed. "We need you. You're the one that lived there…" he pleaded with his beautifully, impossibly teal eyes...
Soph?! Dex thought in disbelief. He turned pink and looked away at the wall.
Lia and Sophie sighed simultaneously. "Fiiiine," Sophie groaned. "But if we all get killed, don't look at us."
"So, like I said, when do we leave?" Dex persisted.
Keefe shrugged. "Dunno. No details yet, just the brilliantity and amazingness of the plan."
"Brilliantity?"
"Brilliance, whatever. We could go tomorrow," he suggested.
"Or we could just go now!" Merea said excitedly.
"Hey, I'm all for it!" Keefe said with a grin. "Let's go! Forbidden Cities, here we come!"
