Chapter Two

Over the course of the next two months of summer, Alex and Jade hung out nearly every day. Alex understood that Jade didn't like being at her own house, and she didn't bring it up. Jade knew that Alex knew her parents fought all the time, but they didn't talk about that either. Alex had also learned that Jade could be really nice sometimes, when she wanted to be, and she also knew not to get offended at some of the things Jade said.

Jade had learned that Alex's parents barely ever talked to either girl, and that was a big contributing factor in why they had moved to Hollywood. She had also learned that while it took quite a bit to make Alex angry, once that line was crossed the other girl snapped completely.

Over that summer, Beyonce's producer had bought four more of Alex's songs, including the one Jade had sung on. She had also sold a handful more songs to smaller groups, and had produced a couple more of her own songs to put on iTunes, and a few more cover videos for Youtube. The money she had earned over that summer alone would pay for her own schools tuition, all the classes Grace could want to take, and a good portion of college, if Alex decided she ever wanted to go.

When the first day of school rolled around, Alex drove Jade to the building, since that was easier than Jade trying to borrow her mothers car to drive herself. Alex didn't mind, and Jade always appreciated her car, so it worked for them. They had gone in a bit earlier than they needed to so that Alex could decorate her locker door.

The plain grey painted door that Jade pointed out to her was across the entry way from Jade's own black painted locker with various scissors glued to it. Alex had laughed for a good minute when Jade had showed her a picture of it before finally saying that she loved it, and that it suited Jade.

"Ha ha," Jade said sarcastically, pointing to a locker two doors over from Alex's new one. "That's Andre's locker. Good luck with that."

"Ug," Alex groaned, staring at the piano covered locker as she carefully taped up a long scroll of blank sheet music she had put together the night before. "I might just carry all my things with me to each class."

"Maybe you should play match maker for him," Jade suggested in a dry voice. "Then he will leave you alone."

"Great idea," Alex said, smoothing her papers down and using a pair of Jade's scissors to cut it off at the right length. "So when should I schedule your date with him for."

"I will murder you in your sleep," Jade said calmly. "First I will cut off your arms and beat you with them. Then I will light you on fire and drink a glass of water while I watch you shrivel into ash."

"Already threatening the new kids, Jade?" A voice said from behind them. Alex hadn't noticed the halls slowly becoming more populated. She pulled the door open and shoved the pile of books she had set on the floor into it before turning to glare at the new person, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Beck," Jade said shortly as a greeting. Alex lifted an eyebrow at him, her face straight. So this was the boy Jade had broken up with last year? Alex had to admit, he was really attractive, and his hair was amazing. He also looked a little familiar.

"Wow," he said, looking back and forth between them. Alex noticed that Jade had also crossed her arms, and she almost chuckled, thinking back to when Grace had said they looked alike. Alex hadn't straightened her hair today though, it was standing away from her head in slightly tangled curls.

"Don't trust him, he's from Canada," Jade said, rolling her eyes. Alex had to laugh at that, dropping her crossed arms as she started putting the rest of her things into her locker.

"What's wrong with being Canadian?" Alex asked. "I'm from Canada."

"What?" Jade asked in surprise, dropping her glare at Beck to turn back to Alex. "No, you said you moved here from Seattle."

"Yeah, and we moved to Seattle from Vancouver," Alex said, turning back to Jade.

"Oh my god," Jade mumbled, staring at her. "Friendship over." She turned on her heel and began walking away as Alex laughed.

"You say that but I know you can't live without me," Alex yelled to her across the entry way.

"Gank!" Jade called back without turning around.

"So," Beck said, raising an eyebrow at the exchange. "Vancouver?"

"Yeah," Alex said, shrugging. "I grew up on 28th, near Queen Victoria Park."

"No way," Beck said, and he sounded so shocked that Alex turned back to face him.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"I grew up on 28th too, until I was thirteen" Beck said, peering at her with a frown now. They stared at each other for a second, then Alex's eyes widened.

"Holy crap," she said. "Beck Oliver?"

"The one and only," he said, grinning. Alex gaped at him for a moment, then her eyes narrowed and she pushed him in the chest, forcing him to take a step back.

"You. Absolute. Ass," she said, punctuating each word with a push. She had attracted the gazes of everyone in the front hall now, including Jade and Andre, who had just come in the doors.

"Hey hey whoa," Andre said, stepping between the two of them. "What's going on here?"

"Wait," Jade said, stepping forward. "Let them fight, it will be amusing got watch Beck get thrashed."

"No," Andre said, holding his hands out as Alex glared at Beck, who just looked confused.

"Fine," Jade said, huffing. "Mind your own business," she snapped at the onlookers who all scurried to obey her.

"Now, what's gong on?" Andre asked again, dragging them over towards his locker so they were out of the way.

"I have no idea," Beck said, putting his hands up as Alex scoffed.

"You," she said, in a growl, poking him hard in the chest. "Moved away without telling me and then didn't call me again." He looked at her for a moment, confused, then he gasped.

"Alex Zeller?" He asked, grinning at her. Her eyes narrowed further. "No way."

"The one and only," she said, mocking him. "Oh my god, I hate you so much."

"This is great," Jade said, smirking as Beck frowned.

"My dad got a sudden job offer in L.A.," he said, explaining.

"And you were too busy to call your best friend and tell her you were moving out of the country?" Alex asked, crossing her arms.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Andre asked, trying to catch up.

"Beckett," Alex said, spitting his name out. "And I went to the same elementary school. And middle school. And we lived on the same street. And we were BEST FRIENDS FOR TWELVE YEARS!" Alex was shouting by the end of this.

"Wow," Andre said, taking a step back. "Well, this seems like a happy reunion."

"My parents called your parents when we were leaving," Beck said, still holding his hands up in a placating manner. "And gave them our new number. You never called me."

"I didn't get the number," Alex said, frowning now. She had asked her parents for months if they knew where the Oliver's had moved to, but they had blown her off, saying they were busy or didn't know.

"Well then it's not my fault," Beck said, glad she was calming down a little more now.

"Hm," Alex said, spinning back to her locker. She grabbed her books, then slammed it shut and started walking down the hall.

"That was fun," Jade said, falling into step beside her. "Though I don't like that you are from Canada."

"We have free health care and maple syrup," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "You have bankruptcy and corrupted politics. I think Canada wins."

"I agree," Beck said from behind them, and Alex turned to glare at him.

"No one asked you," she said, turning back to Jade.

"Ouch man," Andre said, smacking Beck's arm as he laughed.


"Alex, can I please talk to you?" Beck asked for the fifth time that day. They were sitting at lunch, Alex was only there because Jade wanted to sit there and she didn't know anyone else.

"Why?" Alex asked without looking at him. "You've done just fine without talking to me for the last five years."

"That wasn't my fault," Beck said again, sighing.

"You knew where I was, and my phone number," Alex said, still looking straight across the table. "You could have called."

"I thought you were mad," Beck said.

"Bingo," Alex said, taking another bite of her salad.

"About me moving," he clarified. "And I just assumed you would call when you weren't mad anymore."

"And you thought it would take me five years to not be mad anymore?" Alex asked, her voice rising as she finally turned to look at him.

"I'm confused," Cat whispered to Andre. "Why are they fighting?"

"Because Beck and Alex used to be friends back in, ug, Canada," Jade said in a stage whisper. She was getting way too much enjoyment out of this. "And Beck moved away without telling her and then he didn't call her."

"That's mean," Cat whispered back. "Why didn't he call her?"

"Because he was waiting for her to call but she didn't have his phone number," Andre said in a fed up voice. "And this fight is getting old."

"No one asked you to sit here," Alex snapped at him, turning back to her salad.

"This is our usual table," Andre said. "Why don't you sit somewhere else."

"I'm not the one who's whining about the table," Alex said, glaring at him.

"It's true," another girl said. Alex had been introduced to Robbie during a shared class, but with this girl Jade had simply said that she wasn't her friend and had walked away.

"Thank you," Alex said, nodding.

"This is ridiculous," Beck said, running a hand through his hair. "Just talk to me."

"Pass," Alex said, closing her half empty salad container as she made to stand. "Bye Jade, Cat, Andre, Robbie. Uh, Jade's not friend."

"It's Tori," Tori said, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever," Alex said, leaving the table. She tossed her lunch into the trash and made her way back through the building.

She had been so upset when she had found out that the Oliver's had moved. She had nursed a little crush on her best friend for over a year by that point, and she had spent months crying when he never called or contacted her. Then she had gotten angry and thrown herself into her music. She sighed, glad that the entry hall was empty, and went to her locker. She opened it, took out her books for her next class, fitting them into her smaller messenger bag, then closed it and stared at the blank staff paper.

Moment's later she had out a pencil and was scribbling away, filling notes into the lines, imagining what it sounded like in her head as she wrote. By the time the bell rang to dismiss lunch, she had filled most of the paper on her locker. She would have to come up with a better way to decorate it if she used so much of it so quickly. Maybe she could rig up a roll on the top and the bottom so she could just make a roll of staff paper and scroll through it as she wanted to.

"Hey curly, you okay?" Andre asked from behind her. She didn't jump, just turned around and glared.

"What's it to you?" She snapped, narrowing her eyes.

"Erm, well," Andre said, backing up a step. "You're crying so I figured I'd-"

"I'm not crying," Alex said, lifting a hand to her eyes. "It's just allergies."

"Right, okay," Andre said.

"Where's the bathroom?" Alex asked, wiping under her eyes.

"Through that door and to the right," Andre said, gesturing to a door beside their lockers. Alex dodged around him and went through the door as fast as she could, then stopped and stared at herself in the mirror.

She had been crying a little, without realizing it, but it was barely noticeable besides her red eyes. She pulled out her eyeliner pencil and began to fix her makeup, breathing slowly as she did. She waited until her eyes had returned to their clear blue before she left the room. The halls were empty, so she wandered around checking classroom numbers to find the right one.

"Hello!" A man said as she pushed the classroom door open. He was dressed very eclectically, and wasn't wearing shoes. "Alex Zeller, welcome to improv."

"Uh, thanks," Alex said, looking around for an empty seat. The only empty one was in the second row, but it was next to Beck. She turned to glare at a curly haired boy on the other side of the room. "Move." She snapped, pointing at him. He jumped up and vacated the seat within seconds, and she went to sit in it. At her old school the teacher would have yelled at her about her behavior, she had gotten quite a few detentions in the past for similar things, but she really wasn't in the mood to be bothered by Beck again.

"Charming," the teacher said. Alex checked her schedule to see what he was called. Sikowitz. The name suited him, she thought. "Now, improv, do you know what that is Alex?"

"Yeah," she said. "Acting without a script."

"Good," he said, nodding. "Today we are going to talk about the importance of details in acting and what they mean. The more you understand the character, the more you will be able to tell. Tori, come on up here. Alex, you too."

Both girls stood to do as they were told.

"Now, tell me some details about either girl and what they might mean," Sikowitz said, resting a hand on each girls shoulder. Alex shrugged it off immediately and crossed her arms.

"Well, Tori's hair is messed up in the back," Robbie said, and Tori immediately raised a hand to smooth it down. "Which is usually because she slept in and was running late."

"Okay," Sikowitz said as Tori shrugged that Robbie wasn't wrong.

"And she's wearing flats, which means she was lazy this morning," Jade added, chuckling. "And that shirt is horrible."

"I wasn't lazy this morning I was just…" Tori began, but Sikowitz held up a hand.

"Tori keeps rolling her shoulder," Cat pointed out. "Maybe her purse is heavy today."

"Yeah, I didn't have time to go to my locker this morning," Tori said. "Because Trina took forever to get ready and we left late."

"Now, anything about Alex here?" Sikowitz asked, and the class was silent for a moment.

"Well, she's crossing her arms," Andre said at last. "Which probably means she doesn't want to be up there."

"Wow, aren't you a genius," Alex said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"She's being mean," Cat said. "Which means she's mad, right?"

"No it means I think I forgot to turn the stove off at home before I left this morning," Alex said.

"One time my brother left the stove on and a towel caught fire and he got burned on his hand," Cat said, then giggled as the class looked at her. "He's okay now."

"Anyway," Sikowitz said, turning back to the room. "As you can see, it's much harder to infer the meaning behind things when you don't know the person or character they are playing very well. Now, what are some things you notice that you don't have an explanation for? Tiny details, come on."

Alex shifted as the class stared between her and Tori.

"Tori's nail polish is chipped," a girl in the back row piped up, and suddenly everyone in the class was calling out little things about the two girls.

"Alright, enough," Sikowitz said, then gave both girls a little push to go back to their seats. "The point of this exercise is to make you realize that people notice a lot more than you think they do, so to be a good actor, you have to think about the little details."

He went on to talk about details for the remainder of class, and when the bell rang, Alex was the first one out the door. She had almost made it to her locker when someone caught her wrist and dragged her across the hall, then shoved her into what looked to be the janitors closet.

"Beck!" She yelled, turning to see him closing the door and blocking her way out. "What the hell?"

"Just listen to me for a minute," he said, holding his hands up in front of him.

"Fine," Alex said, dropping her bag to the floor and crossing her arms. "You have one minute. 59. 58."

"I'm sorry," beck said, interrupting her counting.

"What?" Alex asked, surprised.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come see you before I moved," he said. "And I'm sorry I didn't call you when you never called. And I'm sorry you are still mad about it." She was silent for a moment, staring at him, but he looked so contrite that she sighed and dropped her gaze to her hands. She could feel her eyes start to burn again and she blinked furiously, not wanting to cry in front of him.

"Why?" She asked, her voice soft.

"Why?" He repeated, confused. His voice was softer now that she wasn't yelling.

"Why didn't you come see me before you left?" She asked, glancing up at him.

"Because I didn't want to see you cry," he said after a moment's hesitation. "And I know you would have."

"Yeah," she said, feeling her eyes spill over. "I would have."

"Dammit," he said, stepping forward. She took a step back, holding out her hand, and he stopped. "I just… I didn't want to move. My dad didn't give us much of a choice, and he only gave us two days to pack everything up before-"

"You knew for TWO DAYS?" Alex asked, shouting again. Her tears were gone and the anger was back. "TWO DAYS AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?"

"Alex-" Beck began, but she stooped to grab her bag and stepped around him to leave the closet.

"Let's go," Alex said to Jade as she passed the other girl's locker. She walked straight out to the parking lot, dodging around other student who were already leaving, then sat in her car as she waited for Jade to catch up.


"How was your first day of school?" Grace asked as Alex walked in the front door. Jade had only made two remarks in the car, one about her being okay for someone from Canada, and the other about what they could do to Beck as revenge if she wanted, most of which had involved scissors. Alex hadn't said anything until she parked her car in her driveway and had said bye.

Now, Alex dropped her bag at the door then walked toward the couch. Grace was doing some sort of follow along yoga class in the living room, her mat spread out in front of the TV, but Alex ignored her as she flopped over the back of the couch, falling until she was laying face down on it, then she groaned into the cushions.

"That bad, huh?" Grace asked sympathetically as she, and the people on TV, moved into the child pose. Alex snorted into the cushions, then turned her head to the side so she could talk.

"Do you remember that one friend I had in primary school who lived like three houses down from us?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Grace said, leaning forward as the video instructed her to until she was balanced on the crown of her head with her knees on the mat. "The uh, what was it? O'connors?"

"Oliver's," Alex corrected, sitting up with a sigh.

"Yeah, and you were friends with their kid forever and totally in love with him," Grace said chuckling. "You cried for like two months when they moved away."

"I wasn't in love with him," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "It was just a crush."

"Oh yeah, that's why in the summer between eighth grade and ninth before we moved to Seattle, you went and dated every single one of the boys on the high school hockey team that your friend liked to watch," Grace said, snorting as she moved her arms backwards behind her head.

"It's not my fault they all thought I was a sophomore," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "They were all idiots anyway."

"Of course they were," Grace said, rolling her eyes. "Though I'm surprised the girls they broke up with for you never came back to get revenge."

"Anyway," Alex said impatiently, wanting to get to the point. "Beck Oliver goes to Hollywood Arts."

"Oh man, did you kill him?" Grace asked, dropping from her pose to look up at Alex.

"No," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "But there's always tomorrow."

"I think that committing murder might make it a little harder finish high school," Grace said, rolling up her mat.

"I won't kill him," Alex said with a sigh, slouching back into the couch.

"Because you are in love with him," Grace said teasingly.

"No I'm not," Alex said, standing quickly. "I actually hate him a lot. I'm going to do my homework." She stomped up the stairs, not wanting to listen to any more of her sisters stupid comments. Instead of doing her homework as she had said she would, Alex ended up staying up till near three in the morning writing new music.

The next morning when her alarm went off, Alex was surprised to find she didn't really feel that tired despite her late bedtime. She took her time picking out an outfit for the day; a short black skirt, heeled ankle boots, and a light blue tank top that was the exact same shade of her eyes, overlaid with a sleeveless black lace cardigan.

She braided the right side of her hair, then tied it back into a messy bun, and spent quite a bit of time perfecting her makeup.

"Doesn't your school have a dress code?" Grace asked when Alex walked past the kitchen.

"No. 'Every student is free to express themselves however they would like'," she quoted, grabbing an apple from their recently filled bowl of fruit.

"That outfit looks a little slutty," Grace said, turning back to the book she had been reading. "Maybe you should add some leggings."

"Thanks for your opinion," Alex said, leaving the room. "Bye."

Out in the driveway, Jade was already leaning against her car.

"About time," Jade said, rolling her eyes. "I almost thought you were dropping out."

"I didn't realize we had a set time to leave," Alex said sarcastically. "We aren't late."

"Yes but the earlier we get there the easier it is to avoid people," Jade said, climbing into the car.

"Are you avoiding someone?" Alex asked, frowning as she started her car.

"No," Jade said. "I assumed you would want to avoid Beck."

"Why would I avoid him?" Alex asked rhetorically. "It's so easy to just ignore him."

"Right," Jade said, rolling her eyes. Alex chose not to continue the conversation as they drove. "What classes do you have today?" Jade asked as they pulled into the school parking lot.

"Songwriting, then piano, then Sikowitz before lunch with you guys, then after that I have history then physics," Alex said, recalling her schedule from memory.

"I'm in a few of those," Jade said. "And I think Andre is in all of them."

"Great," Alex said, rolling her eyes. Andre had stopped trying to hit on her the previous day, but that didn't mean he wouldn't continue today.

The day went relatively quickly up to lunch. Alex ignored everyone who tried to talk to her, including the teachers. As the bell for lunch rang she considered skipping the meal, but that felt too much like running away for her liking, so she went out to the courtyard, then nearly turned around when she saw that Beck was the only other person in Jade's group of friends who was sitting there. She slowly approached the table, setting down the bowl of noodles she had purchased from the food truck on her way out, and sat slowly, purposefully not looking at him. He didn't say anything for several seconds, making her look up in curiosity.

"I thought you hated me," Beck said when he caught her eyes. She frowned, opening her food to have something to do with her hands.

"I do," Alex said shortly, taking a bite of food.

"No, I meant five years ago," Beck said, leaning across the table. "I thought you hated me, that's why I didn't try calling you."

"You told me this yesterday," Alex said, rolling her eyes.

"And I figured that when you didn't call, you didn't want to be friends anymore," Beck continued, seemingly taking advantage of her somewhat calm conversation. "I just assumed you made new friends and forgot about me."

"Beck, that's ridiculous," Alex said, setting her fork down. "You were my only friend until middle school. I literally hated everyone else in our school."

"I wasn't your only friend," he said, shaking his head, but he frowned in thought. She was silent, letting him think back.

"Name one other person that I ever spent time with outside of school," Alex said softly when he didn't continue. He stayed silent for another minute.

"Well you made a bunch of friends after I left," Beck said at last, shrugging.

"How could you possibly know what I did after you left?" Alex asked, twirling her noodles around her fork. She had yet to eat any of the food. Her stomach was twisting uncomfortably. Maybe she was getting sick. Or maybe her lack of sleep was catching up with her.

"I…" Beck began, rubbing the back of his neck. Sometime during their conversation he had moved around the table to keep their conversation from being overheard. "I kept up with you."

"What?" Alex asked, surprised into looking up at him. "Kept up with me?"

"Yeah, on SplashFace and youtube," Beck said, shrugging.

"Really?" Alex asked, frowning down into her noodles. "Why?"

"Because you were my best friend too you know," Beck said, shrugging. "I thought you hated me but I never hated you." Alex sighed at that.

"Look, I'm sorry I've been so angry," Alex said, not looking at him. "I've just been so mad for years and I didn't expect to ever see you again."

"It's okay," Beck said, scooting a little closer to her. There was still almost a foot of room between them, but she could feel all the hairs on her arms stand up.

"I'm still mad," she said. "But I probably won't stab you."

"That's a comfort," he said, chuckling.

"Are you two done fighting?" Tori asked, setting her tray down at the table.

"No," Alex said immediately. "But I'll be civil for now."

"Good," Tori said, then she turned and waved. Alex hadn't even noticed that Jade's usual group of friends had been standing together off to the side of the courtyard, probably watching them talk. Now they all came to the table to eat.

"That was disappointing," Jade said, taking a seat on the other side of Alex. "I was hoping for more yelling."

"I'm too tired today," Alex said, shrugging. "Maybe tomorrow."


The rest of the week passed by without incident, and Alex fell into a routine with her classes. She worked on homework as much as she could during school hours, leaving her a lot of time after school to work on her own music.

Friday morning, Alex drove to school alone since Jade's mom was driving her and Alex wanted to make some improvements to her locker. She was just finishing it when she spotted Tori being dragged across the hall by someone who could only be her sister judging by the resemblance. Alex leaned into her locker so her face was hidden, wanting to eavesdrop on the two of them.

"Wanko's Warehouse is having a huge sale! 80% off everything!" The older girl said. Alex couldn't recall her name.

"Everything?" She heard Tori ask excitedly. Alex turned, walking over to them as Tori's sister began listing things that were on sale.

Within moments, most of their usual friend group was standing around the two girls, trying to figure out what 'secret' Trina was keeping from them.

"Where did you get my number?" Alex asked as her phone beeped with Tori's group message.

"Jade," Tori said, shrugging. Alex frowned at Jade who rolled her eyes in response.

"Let's go," Andre said.

"Sure," the others agreed. "What time?"

"It starts at 7," Trina said. "I'll drive!"

"We aren't all going to fit into your car," Tori said, shaking her head.

"I can drive too," Alex offered. "My car fits four. Five if you squeeze and don't want a seat belt."

"With her driving you need a seat belt," Jade commented. Alex glared at her. "Kidding," she muttered.

"Lets leave here at 5:30," Tori said. "That'll give us plenty of time to get there before 7. We can meet at my house."

They all agreed, then the warning bell rang sending them to their separate classes.

That evening, Jade directed Alex to Tori's house, and they pulled into her driveway right at 5:30. The others were standing around in the driveway, waiting.

"Hey, my mom let me borrow her minivan so we can all ride together," Beck said as they joined the others. Alex shrugged. She didn't really care who drove, and the others were more than fine with Trina not being the one to drive.

"Come on, let's go let's go," Trina said, herding them all towards the van. "We need to get there before all the good things are gone."

They climbed into the car, Robbie, Trina, and Andre taking up the back seat with Jade, Cat, and Alex squeezed together on the shorter middle row. Tori took the passengers side seat. Within five minutes, Alex was wishing she had just taken her own car. Trina was humming something very off key, Cat was chattering to Robbie about something or other, and Jade was picking up anything she could find on the floor and carefully putting it into Tori's hair so the other girl wouldn't notice.

Alex, in the seat behind Beck's, bent over forward, letting her head and crossed arms rest on her knees with a groan. Now she remembered why she hated social outings with a lot of people. There was no way she was going to be able to survive the next hour of driving in an enclosed space with these people.

"Can we put some music on?" Andre called from the back seat, evidently annoyed by Trina's humming.

"Good idea," Beck said. "Tori, my phone is already hooked up to the bluetooth, can you pick something?"

"Sure," Tori said, reaching forward to take his phone off the center console. She took her time about it, scrolling through his music choices.

"Just pick something," Jade snapped after the third time Tori had picked a song only to find another she wanted to play.

"Fine, fine," Tori mumbled. "I'll put on a playlist then."

Alex recognized the song immediately, it was one she had written four years ago, the second one she had ever sold. She lifted her head a little, listening. She liked what the band had done with the song even though it wasn't as she had first imagined it to be. The next song was also one she had written.

"Can I see that for a second?" She asked Tori, holding out a hand for Beck's phone.

"Sure," Tori said, passing it back. Alex scrolled through the playlist, frowning.

"Beck?" She asked, leaning forward to his left so the others wouldn't hear her over the music.

"What?" He asked, turning his head slightly so she could hear him.

"Why do you have this playlist on your phone?" Alex asked, curious. It was almost the same as the one she had played for Jade at the beginning of summer, a collection of all the songs she had written and sold, though it was missing a few.

"No particular reason," he said, shrugging, but she could see the corner of his mouth twitch up into a smirk. She leaned back and flicked the top of his ear, making him flinch as she handed the phone back to Tori.

The remainder of the ride passed quickly, with them singing along to a couple of the songs, and even skipping a few. Well, she couldn't expect anyone to like every song she had ever written. It was enough of a surprise that they knew any of the songs well enough to sing to, since none of them were done by big artists.

Finally, they pulled into the warehouse parking lot and found a spot. All of them were relieved to climb out of the van, mostly to get away from Trina, who had grown more and more annoying as the trip progressed.

"Hey," Tori said, halting in front of Alex, who nearly ran into her. "Hey look. There's already a line."

"There shouldn't be a line yet it's only 6:45," Trina said, glancing at her watch. "The sale doesn't even start till 7."

"I really don't want to stand in a long line," Beck said.

"Me neither," Andre said, looking at the people lining the side of the building.

"I love lines," Cat said, smiling. "Their like long, single file parties." Alex shook her head but didn't comment. The only reason she was even here was because Jade had promised her that Wanko's had a really good selection of clothes and Andre had said they sold quality instruments, and she needed a new guitar. Her current one was nearly three years old and the wood was starting to get warped. Waiting twenty minutes in a line would be cake after that car ride.

"Hey wait," Tori said. "Look up at the front of the line," she said, gesturing. "Isn't that Sinjin and Berf?"

"Berf?" Alex asked, snorting a little. "What an unfortunate name."

"Berf is Sinjin's friend," Cat chimed in from beside her, smiling.

"Well I'm gonna go talk to them," Tori said. "And get them to let us cut in line."

"That's a good idea, bye," Cat called after her as Tori walked toward the line. Cat turned back and forth in place for a moment, then gasped and grinned, turning back to the van. Alex and the others turned to watch her as Cat climbed in the driver's side, then pressed the horn down multiple times. Tori came jogging back, confused.

"What?" She asked. "What?"

"I just wanted to see if you'd come back if I honked the horn," Cat said, laughing. Tori gave her a look, then glanced at Andre.

"Restrain her," Tori said, then turned to walk back to the line.

"Come here," Andre said, holding his arms out as though he was going to give Cat a hug. She giggled and walked over to him, her arms held against her chest, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, successfully restraining her. Alex shook her head at them, her patience already nearly gone from the hour spent in the car with them already.

"Attention!" A security guard called through a megaphone, and they all turned to listen. "If you want to enter Wanko's now and pay the regular prices, go in that door down there." Someone in the line said something, and he yelled "Shut up!" Through the megaphone at them before walking off. Alex watched as Tori approached the two boys that Alex sort of recognized from their school.

"She flips her hair a lot," Alex commented, watching Tori talk to them.

"That's her 'Please do what I say I'm so sweet and innocent' hair flip," Jade said, using a fake 'farm girl' type voice to mock Tori.

"And that works for her?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's her signature 'insincere' flirt move," Andre said, nodding. Cat, still restrained by his arms, giggled some more.

"Her sincere flirt moves must be terrible," Alex said, chuckling at the idea.

"Oh they are," Jade commented, smiling coldly. "Almost as bad as her sense of style."

"Don't be mean," Beck commented from behind them.

"I'm not," Jade said, throwing him a glare. "Just being honest. I mean look at her shirt."

"I thought today must have been 'dress like a third grader' day and I just didn't get the memo," Alex commented, smiling a little now. "I think I had that exact shirt when I was nine."

"She's probably had it since she was nine too," Jade said, and both girls chuckled.

"I can see why the two of you are friends," Robbie said, frowning at them. Both girls looked over at him, arms crossed as though daring him to finish that thought. He shrunk back behind Trina, who rolled her eyes.

"It's not nice to talk about someone behind their back," Cat said as Andre finally released her.

"Well then call her back over and I'll tell her," Alex said, nodding towards the car. Cat got an excited look on her face and started walking to the car again, but Andre caught her arm and held her back.

"Trina, hey" Tori said, walking back over to the group.

"Hey what?" Trina asked.

"The Wanko's sale doesn't start till 7 AM," Tori said, as though talking to a stupid child. "TOMORROW MORNING. You had us all drive 90 minutes here for nothing!"

"It's not my fault," Trina said, shaking her head a little.

"Yes it is!" Tori said, her face exasperated.

"So?" Trina asked, crossing her arms. The whole group started protesting while Alex glanced along the still growing line outside the building, her eyes lighting on the door for current shoppers.

"Look look," Beck said, stemming the flow of complaints. "Let's just go home tonight, then we can drive back tomorrow morning."

"Man the line's already long," Andre said, pointing. "You know what it's gonna be like by tomorrow morning?"

"And," Tori chimed in. "They'll be sold out of all the good stuff by the time we get in the store."

"Just relax," Beck said, once again playing the peace maker.

"No," Tori whined. "I'm all excited to get 80% off a unitard!"

"Dude," Cat said slowly, pointing at Tori. "Not cool." They all ignored her, not wanting to spend time trying to figure out what she was talking about now.

"Let's just all agree that Tori has ruined our night," Trina said, and the others nodded. Alex chuckled. She didn't really dislike Tori… not much anyway, but the other girl was always so happy and excited about something that it got annoying fast.

"What did I do?" Tori protested.

"Okay!" Alex called, making them all look towards her. "You people want to buy things at Wanko's for a good price?" She asked, then waited until they all nodded of said yes. "Follow me into Wanko's boys and girls."

Alex, who had never been in the Warehouse before, led them around the store a bit longer than necessary before she found what she was looking for. She stopped them in a section towards the back of the store that was full of large plastic storage bins and turned to face them all.

"Okay so, what's your big plan?" Trina asked, and Jade shushed her as an employee of the store walked past them.

"What's the plan?" Tori asked again in a much quieter tone when they were alone in their section.

"Okay," Alex said, leaning in. "We hide here-"

"Hey, you guys!" Robbie said, running to the group excitedly. "Look what I found in aisle 15!" He held up a plastic package to them, grinning widely as the others all grouped around him.

"What?" Alex asked, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Walkie-talkies!" He said, pointing to the package. "And they have a range of 600 yards, so if I have one, and you have one, we can be 600 yards from each other and still talkie," he paused to do some sort of weird backwards shuffle. "While we walkie."

Alex stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was mentally challenged or just weird.

"You have a cell phone," Tori said, her voice dragging the words out.

"Yeah, so?" Robbie asked, grinning down at the packaging in his hands.

"It lets you walkie, and talkie, to people all around the world," Tori said.

"And text," Andre chimed in.

"Which you can't do with a walkie-talkie," Beck finished. All of them were thoroughly unamused.

"Well now I feel bad," Robbie said, slumping as he walked over to set the walkie-talkies on a nearby shelf.

"Your plan?" Tori asked again, and Alex rolled her eyes.

"Just before Wanko's closes at nine," she began. "We hide here, in the store."

"Then after they close we have the whole place to ourselves," Jade said, recognizing what Alex was trying to say. "We can walk around, pick up what we wanna buy, have some fun."

"And then," Tori said, her face lighting up in understanding. "We're the first ones here tomorrow morning when the sale starts!"

"Exactly," Alex said, nodding.

"But isn't that like breaking in?" Andre asked, frowning.

"We're already in," Beck said, shrugging.

"That's some legit logic right there," Andre said.

"So," Jade said, turning to look at them all. "You guys up for an all-nighter at Wanko's?"

They all cheered and agreed, making a lot of noise until an employee walked past them. Alex shook her head as they all suddenly pretended to be interested in the bins around them.

"Come on," Tori said after a few minutes. "Let's go look around and meet back here at 8:45."

"Sounds good," Andre said, heading off in one direction. Robbie and Cat went another way, and Trina dragged Tori off to look at clothes.

"I'm gonna go to that sandwich place across the street," Alex said after exchanging a slightly awkward glance with Beck. She was still mad at him, but she felt weird knowing that he really had kept up with her over social media, the playlist on his phone had been proof of that.

Over the years she had gotten the idea in her head that he had moved and then just wanted to focus on his new life, that she wasn't important enough for him to care about now that he didn't live on the same street as her anymore. She knew it was immature and unfair for her to still be angry about it, but it had taken her nearly a full year to really get over the loss of her best friend. It probably hadn't helped that she spent all her time locked in her room. Then, during her summer 'Hockey Team' dating spree, she had gotten lucky and found her talent in songwriting. Thank god too, because there was no way she wanted to stay in a high school where all the other girls had branded her as a slut. She had only attended school there for four months before they moved to Seattle, and there it was like a brand new start, until halfway through her junior year when one girl, that Alex had thought to be a friend, though not a very close one, had found out about Alex's small amount of internet fame and spread it around the school. It didn't take long for them to dig up other things about her, and soon everyone was suddenly her friend, wanting to sing for her or write songs with her, anything to get noticed in the music business.

One of the main reasons Alex had agreed to move to Hollywood was that she assumed most people here were successful enough on their own that they wouldn't bother her much. She still hadn't told anyone besides Jade about her agent though and they had no reason to look her up online and find out on their own. Beck must have known a little, if he was following her on SplashFace and everything. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

At the sandwich shop, she checked her phone for the time, then sighed. She assumed that the others hadn't thought to bring food or drinks, since they hadn't planned on staying there overnight. Alex ordered eight sandwiches and eight bottles of water from the woman who gave her a weird look, then she fit everything into her purse, glad she had grabbed her larger one today.

Back at the warehouse, the others were still wandering around, so Alex made herself comfortable, sitting on one of the chairs in the furniture section until it was late enough to meet up with them.

"Okay," Jade said, glancing around the aisle corner. "Pick a bin."

"I'll keep look out," Alex volunteered, hiding her purse in one of the wicker hampers next to a larger one she had chosen to hide in. Then she went to the end of the aisle as the others all found hiding places and helped each other into them. Twice she had them stop as a worker walked by the aisle, but finally they were all in their bins, and Alex climbed into hers, shutting the top of it over her head.

They stayed there for nearly an hour before, finally, they heard the security guard leave and the lights turned off.

"It worked!" Alex heard Tori say, and she climbed out of her basket as the others also came out of hiding.

"We got the whole store to ourselves," Andre said, clapping his hands together once. Alex went to peek around the end of the aisles, just to be sure that all the workers had left. The emergency lights lit up enough of the store that she could see that no one moving. She looked the other way down the rest of the aisles, but everything was still so she turned back to see Tori and the others excitedly planning out their night.

"Security system; On," an automated voice came over the announcement system. They all froze, not knowing what was going to happen, and then suddenly a grid of lasers appeared between Alex and the others.

"Pretty!" Cat called, looking at the moving lasers as the others all stared. Their aisle wasn't a dead end, it had little alcoves on either side, but there was no way in or out of them from the rest of the store. Alex crossed her arms. She had not thought of this. Why would a warehouse store have such an highly advanced security system inside when they only had two video cameras outside?

"Man I don't get it," Andre said a moment later. "What are all these laser beams for?"

"They're part of the security system," Robbie said. "If you break one of those beams it set's off the store alarm."

"Alex," Beck called, noticing she was outside the lasers. "You can get to the front desk and turn the security system off."

"I don't know anything about security systems," Alex said, crossing her arms.

"Take a walkie-talkie and Robbie can talk you through it," Tori suggested, grabbing the package Robbie had left there earlier.

"Fine," Alex said, rolling her eyes. She waited as they set up the radio's, then she took one, carefully held between the beams by Tori, and set off toward the front of the store. Most of the other aisles were also closed off by laser beams, and Alex had to wonder how much this system had cost the store.

She jogged back to them five minutes later.

"There are more lasers in front of the main entrance and the front desks," Alex said when she came to a stop. "I can't get through them without setting one off."

"Great," Andre said. "What are we going to do now?"

"Our plan can still work," Tori said. "We just hang out in this aisle and… talk. Or admire these vacuum cleaners. And then, we will still be the first ones here in the morning for the big sale."

"So how much time until the store opens?" Beck asked.

"Well it's 10:15 now," Robbie said. "And the store open at 7, so 10.25 divided by 7 divided by-"

"About nine hours," Andre said angrily, interrupting his weird math he was doing.

"Okay then," Tori said, gesturing for them to all calm down. "Why don't we all just sit down, chill out, and have a nice, long, fun night." The others all agreed, finding places to sit or stand for a while. Alex wandered down the central aisles, not wanting to listen to the group chattering.

"I'm getting hungry," Alex heard Robbie say as she walked back to them fifteen minutes later.

"Me too," Tori said, and Beck nodded in agreement.

"Freedom!" Andre shouted, raising his fists.

"Hey," Alex called over him. "My purse is in that basket," she said, pointing.

"So?" Trina asked snottily.

"Soooo," Alex said, crossing her arms. "Earlier I went across the street and bought sandwiches, they are all in there."

Andre was the first to reach the basket, pulling out her purse and tipping it over on the floor, spilling everything out of it.

"Hey," Alex said, taking a half step closer. "Can you not throw all my things around?"

"Sorry," he said as the sandwiches and waters were passed around. Beck and Tori began putting all the other things back inside it.

"So you bought sandwiches for all of us?" Robbie asked when they had all settled down again. "Why?"

"Because none of us planned to stay the night here so I assumed no one else brought food or water," Alex said, settling on the floor cross legged.

"So you can be nice," Cat chimed up. "I was beginning to wonder."

"I'm nice sometimes," Alex protested, leaning back against a display shelf. "But since I hate all of you there's no reason to be nice to any of you. I bought the sandwiches so I didn't have to listen to complaining."

"You don't hate us," Tori chimed, grinning slyly. "Admit it."

"Right, I don't hate all of you," Alex said, smiling back in a mockingly sweet manner. "One of you is alright, and one of you isn't the worst person ever, but the other five of you are terrible, and one of the five is the worst person I know."

"But who is who?" Cat asked, frowning over her partially eaten sandwich.

"You can guess," Alex said, chuckling.

"I hope I'm the alright one," Cat said, giggling. Alex rolled her eyes and slid down until she was laying on the floor. When the others had stopped complaining about being hungry, they started talking about how bored they were. Alex sighed and debated going to any other part of the store just to get away, but she wanted to be on hand in case something happened, like Cat trying to lick a laser beam again. As she turned to look back at the group, her gaze caught on her keys, which had slid across the floor when Andre had upturned her purse.

"Hey," she said, sitting up. "Those are my keys. Can someone put them back in my purse?"

"Sure," Tori said, arching over to pick them up. "Why do you have so many keychains?"

"Why do you talk so much?" Alex asked, making Jade snort.

"Sorry, just asking," Tori said, slightly offended.

"You were one of the five terrible people," Alex told her as Tori handed her keys across Robbie to Beck, who was sitting next to Alex's purse. Tori huffed and crossed her arms, pouting.

"What are these?" Beck asked, holding up her key ring. Alex glared, trying to figure out what he was looking at, then she blushed.

"It's a turtle," she said shortly, as though that was obvious. The key chain he was holding up to look at was one she'd had for years. Seven of them to be exact. And it had been a gift from her at the time best friend. She knew he recognized it or he wouldn't have said anything, and right now she was wishing she had thrown the stupid thing into the trash, but he didn't say anything else, just raised an eyebrow at her and dropped the keys into her purse.

Within another fifteen minutes, Alex was fed up with them. She went back to wandering the store. As she was passing the hardware aisle, Alex got an idea. The lasers were only about seven feet tall, leaving a good five feet of space, at least, above them. She took the ladder at the end of the aisle and dragged it through the store to the front, then climbed up it, took a deep breath, and jumped off, landing hard on the other side. Her ankle throbbed as she landed, but the alarm didn't go off, and she grinned, pleased with herself, then turned to the computer system. It looked relatively self explanatory, the lasers were split into sections to be individually turned off, but she figured she had better call the others just in case. She pulled out her pearphone and dialed Jade since that was the only number she had saved in her phone.

"Hey," she said when Jade finally answered. "Put me on speaker phone."

"Okay one sec," Jade said, and Alex listened for a moment, taking the opportunity to put her own phone on speaker.

"Okay so I'm at the control panel for the security system," she said, then waited a moment for the excited questions to die down. "It looks pretty easy to figure out but I figured I'd call anyway, just in case."

"Right," Robbie said, moving closer to the phone. "What's on the screen?"

"Well," Alex said, turning back to it. "It say's 'click here to adjust settings'," she said, tapping the button with her free hand. "And now there are lighting controls."

"Okay, is there anywhere that says 'lasers' or 'grid' or-"

"Oh shit," Alex said, turning as she heard a noise. She muted them and put the phone behind her back as two guys came around the corner. "Uh, hey," she said, thinking they were security guards.

"Hey there," one of them said, moving to block her in behind the counter.

"Uh, what are you guys doing here?" She asked, trying to get them talking so she could have more time to think of what to do.

"We're fixing to rob this place," one of them said, rolling his eyes. "Who were you talking to?"

"Oh, funny story," Alex said, edging further back along the counter. "I was also fixing to rob this store."

"Really now?" One of the men asked, glancing at the other.

"Yeah," Alex said, taking the walkie-talkie out of her back pocket and replacing it with her phone. "My friend was walking me through how to get into the safe on this."

"Well open it then?" One of them said, pointing a large flashlight towards the safe.

"I have to turn off the security system first," Alex said, turning back to the computer. "Otherwise the alarms will go off when it's opened." She saw them look at each other out of the corner of her eye, then turned her attention to the computer, quickly finding the control panel that said 'grid' on it. She tapped the off button, then turned to look as the laser's fell away from the entry way.

"Now open the safe," one guy said, and Alex slowly moved over to the safe, pretending she knew what she was doing. Her heart was beating in her chest. If the others didn't come to help her soon she wasn't sure how she was going to get out of this.

A moment later, the others came rushing around the corner, all of them ready to attack, though, surprisingly, Trina was the only one who actually did. Alex jumped over the counter to get away from them as Trina kicked and hit both of the men.

"Are you okay?" Beck asked as Alex reached the group. He automatically swept his arm out in front of her, making her step behind him and Andre where Cat, Tori, and Robbie were cowering. Jade was enjoying the fight, egging Trina on, and Andre looked ready to jump in at any second if needed but his expression clearly said he didn't want to.

"I'm fine," Alex said breathlessly, taking her phone out of her pocket to finally disconnect the call to Jade's phone.

Trina stood over the two men within seconds, both unconscious.

"So, what now?" Tori asked as they all looked at each other.

"We should just leave," Andre said.

"And let these guys wake up and rob the place?" Andre asked, waving a hand over them. "If they are even still alive."

"We could stay here," Alex said, feeling the adrenaline wearing off now that the immediate danger was gone. "No listen," she said, as the others looked at her as though she were crazy. "It's almost midnight, and with the security system off we can walk around the store like we planned. I'm sure we can find something to do with these idiots."

"There's duct tape back in aisle six," Jade commented, smirking. "And some nice bins in aisle 18."

"Perfect," Alex said, grinning at her.

The eight of them dragged the two men to the bin aisle, then securely duct taped them into separate bins.

"You know, I think this might be illegal," Cat said when they were all standing around the bins. The others exchanged uneasy laughs, then all went their own separate ways.

Alex went back to the furniture section, finding a nice couch to lay on somewhere in the middle of the sea of chairs. She dropped onto it with a sigh. Even though she found most of the others annoying, she had to admit that Cat had a lovely personality, and Robbie was weird, but a good kind of weird. Even Tori wasn't so bad, as long as Alex didn't have to spend time near her. And though she hadn't had a lot of friends who really wanted to hang out with her for a couple years, it was nice getting into these crazy adventures. She certainly never would have done anything like this by herself.

"Hey," Beck said, plopping down into an arm chair near Alex's head. "You forgot your purse," he said, holding it out to her. She took it silently, letting it drop to the floor by her couch. She looked up again when she heard a rattling sound.

"Those are my keys," Alex said, turning onto her stomach so she could rest her chin on the low couch arm and glare at him.

"They are," he said, agreeing as he continued to fiddle with them.

"Give them back," she said, but she was tired and the venom that was usually in her voice turned into resignation.

"You kept this," he said, lifting up the turtle key chain as he glanced at her. She shrugged. "Why?"

"It's cute," she said, pulling herself up a little more to drape her arms over the couch arm.

"No other reason?" He asked playfully, and she couldn't help but smile at his tone. It was the same one he had used throughout their childhood when he knew something embarrassing about her.

"You once saved a gum wrapper from Rebecca Hansen for six months," Alex said, making a grab for her keys. He pulled them out of reach.

"I forgot about Rebecca Hansen," Beck said, chuckling. "She was so hot. She had the biggest boobs of any girl in 7th grade."

"She stuffed her bra with socks," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, she has a kid now and dropped out of school."

"That's a shame," Beck said. "I bet she's still hot."

"Why don't you just stalk her on SplashFace?" Alex said, rolling her eyes. "You've proven that you have a talent for stalking."

"I don't stalk people," Beck protested, twisting the small turtle key chain between his long fingers.

"You have a playlist of songs I've written and sold to other people," Alex said, shaking her head a little. "And I know you've listened to it before because when I let Jade listen to my list, she said it sounded familiar."

"It's on SplashFace for anyone to listen to," he said, but he chuckled.

"Stalker," she said, letting her arms drop over the side of the couch again. They sat that way in silence for a while, both content with listening to the distant chatter of their friends.

"Why did you really keep this?" Beck asked after a while. Alex looked at him for a moment trying to decide what to say. She must have been quiet for too long, because he turned his head and caught her eye, his expression serious.

"I had a huge crush on you in like, seventh grade," Alex finally said, rolling her eyes. His eyes widened, but then he smirked, tossing the keys to her.

"Just seventh grade?" He asked, turning forwards again.

"Yes, you idiot," Alex said, glaring at him even though he couldn't see it. He chuckled, and Alex curled back onto her side, playing with her newly returned keys.

"Right, and now you hate me," he said with a sigh. "And I'm the worst person you know."

"Actually Trina was the worst person I know," Alex said, chuckling. "She's so obnoxious and it's just worse than other people because she doesn't realize how much everyone else hates her."

"So which one was I?" Beck asked, leaning back in the chair to stare up at the ceiling.

"You were the 'not the worst person I know," Alex admitted softly.

"So you don't hate me?" Beck asked, looking over at her with one raised eyebrow.

"No," Alex said with a sigh. "I never hated you. I was just angry for a really long time and I guess I never really forgave you."

"Do you forgive me now?" Beck asked, his voice hopeful.

"No," Alex said immediately, then chuckled. "Though I probably should thank you."

"Thank me?" Beck asked, confused.

"Yeah," Alex said. "When you left with no warning I had no other friends so I started songwriting. And I was so mad at you that the summer between eighth and ninth grade I dated the entire East Side hockey team."

"No," Beck said, sitting up. "I like that team!"

"I know," Alex said, grinning. "I made up so many lies about you to them all. If you ever go back, you will have a lot of fun sorting through them."

"That explains so much," Beck said, sitting forward and rubbing a hand over his face. "I went back last year to visit my uncle and we went to a game while I was there and Branson Murphy," he named one of the biggest guys on the hockey team that had also been in their year, "gave me his phone number. I was so confused."

Alex laughed at that. Branson Murphy, along with most of the guys on the team now, had joined after Alex had started all her rumors about Beck, but rumors got passed down, and a lot of people at East Side High would have remembered Beck from middle school and primary school since he didn't move away until the end of eighth grade.

"I'd apologize for that," Alex said, grinning. "But Branson Murphy is the hottest guy on the team right now. You should be honored."

"What about Moose?" Beck said, laughing. "You don't think he's hot? The girls in the stands at that game I went to thought so."

"Oh yeah," Alex said, chuckling. "I forgot you and Moose were friends."

"I asked him about you all the time after I moved," Beck admitted, and Alex snorted.

"I only talked to him like twice," Alex said, thinking back. "I don't know what he could have told you."

"Almost nothing," Beck said, chuckling. "I had a crush on you too, you know. In 8th grade."

"No you didn't," Alex said, raising her eyebrow. "You liked Allison Sharp. You told me so."

"I lied," Beck said, shrugging. "I didn't want you to know."

"Idiot," Alex said, but she chuckled, trying to remember any instance from middle school when Beck had liked her.

"That's why I didn't come and tell you we were moving," Beck said, his tone more serious.

"Your logic is backwards," Alex said.

"I know," Beck said, sighing. "Come on, let's go find things to buy on sale."

"Fine," Alex said, grabbing her purse as she stood.

The eight of them actually had a lot of fun picking out random things and showing them to each other. Andre and Robbie had found a multitude of scented candles, forcing the others to smell random ones. Tori, Jade, and Alex spent nearly two hours looking through the clothes, Cat trailing behind them pointing out random things.

By the time 6:30 in the morning rolled around, they hid their collections of things to buy in bins and got back into their own hiding places. Alex reset the security system, running back to the bin area to beat the minute delay on the lasers.

They hid there until they heard the security guards come back in to open the store and other people coming in the front, then climbed out, gathered their things, and made their way to the checkouts.

By the time they finally got back to Hollywood, they were all overtired, giggly, and in desperate need of sleep.