Disclaimer: I do not own Race to Witch Mountain

If you are reading this, thank you. All reads are truly appreciated! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I checked my email one more time to make sure that I had read it correctly. I, Astrid Beatrice Finch was one of the finalists for the role of Nova ( a side character that wasn't really important but like, it was still a role!). I would've screamed if it wasn't six thirty in the morning and my neighbors would call a noise complaint on me….again. For some reason, I was more than excited to go straight to the hotel, if only to turn back in that stupid cadet uniform. It was still in my backpack that was shoved up against the couch. I grabbed my phone to call Bailey immediately.

"Ghat?" I heard her mumble after the phone rang three times. She sounded half asleep. "Dis, better be good, Astrid, I haven't been able to sleep all night because of Cameron's stupid friends…"

"Who all is over there?" I asked. I already knew the answer but prayed silently that I was wrong.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot to tell Cameron that you don't want to hang around Trainor" Bailey whispered.

"It's ok, I can't exactly tell your boyfriend who he's not allowed to hang out with" I mumbled.

"I feel so dumb!" Bailey whispered "If it makes you feel better anymore though, Trainor, got dumped by that girl, Jess."

"It makes me feel a little better" I said, trying to get the image of my ex and the girl he dumped me for out of my mind.

I could hear Cameron call for Bailey in the background.

.

"What makes me feel even better is that I got the email for the callback for that audition" I told Bailey. She yawned.

"I'm excited for you" She whispered "But seriously, tired, can I be happy for you when's the sun is up?"

"Sure" I said before ending the call.

I dialed my director, Ian, to let him know that I would no longer be doing his stupid science fiction play. He said that it was great I was leaving as I wasn't living up to his vision of the cadet squad. He had gotten his brother to play the part of Cadet 4 but I had to hurry over and drop off the costume so that they could do the play. I groaned, knowing I'd have to trek outside while it was still technically dark.

I got dressed quickly, simply putting on jeans, a light pink/brown shirt and brushing my hair in two strokes. I was a total mess but it was just Ian and a bunch of alien, science loving nerds, I didn't exactly care if they saw me looking like troll-woman. No taxi cabs were running early, so I hopped the bus and headed to the hotel to drop off the costume to Ian. He wasn't too pleased as I dumped it out of my backpack in front of him, showing off how messy and wrinkly I let the outfit get.

"The dry cleaning is coming out of your final paycheck" He griped as I shrugged my shoulders. I took my backpack and headed away from Ian and away from the stupid secondary acting jobs. I was on my way to stardom. I had two weeks to get to Hollywood for my final audition in front of the rest of the finalists and the casting crew. I planned on spending the rest of my valuable time in Vegas, preparing for it.

I took the elevator to the ground floor and darted away as many people were coming into the hotel to set up for the convention. I sighed, walking down the sidewalk as I passed by several bus stops, banks, shops. Not paying attention to where I was going, I accidentally walked right between two blonde teenagers.

"Sorry" I said turning to them. "I wasn't watching where I was going." I placed by hands into my the pocket of my jeans.

"Your apology is accepted" The blonde girl said. "We apologize as well. I am Sara and this is my brother, Seth."

"Astrid" I said. I nodded my head towards them. I continued down the sidewalk when suddenly my backpack sort felt pulled off my shoulders and flew backwards towards the ground behind me.

I spun to see the remaining contents spilled out on the concrete. The brother and sister rushed over to help me pick up my items and stuff them into my backpack.

"Carrying this many items is not practical" The boy told me "but perhaps you like to be prepared for any sort of situation or emergency." I raised an eyebrow wandering what the heck he was talking about or why he sound so proper. It could be several reasons such as he hasn't had his morning coffee, the sun wasn't fully up yet, he's attended finishing school or maybe that's just how he preferred to mess with people.

I zipped my backpack up and desperately wanted to run as far as I can.

"If you wouldn't mind reconsidering your plan of action and instead perhaps consider the idea of helping my brother and I" Sara said. She shared a look with her brother "Obtain transportation,:

Now I was truly thinking of sprinting as fast as I could in the opposite direction of the blonde brother and sister.

"There's a taxi lot not too far from here" I said. "It's down three blocks" I said pointing in the direction of the taxi lot. "then a right, and one more block. You can't miss it, huge lot, tons of yellow taxi cabs."

"And this Taxi will take us to our desired destination?" Seth asked.

"Yeah" I said. Both of the siblings were gorgeous in their own way. Thinking to myself that they clearly won sometime of genetic lottery. The girl was small, petite with platinum hair. Her face was round and her eyes were like doe eyes that helped define her as beauty. The boy was hot like sometimes of warrior/model that I only saw in magazines and on trashy romance covers.

If I stayed there any longer I would turn into a teenage version of Blanche Devereux from the Golden Girls. I snuck one more glance at him thinking that if in some other reality that forced children from twelve districts to fight to death I would be betting all my money on him and his muscles.

Sara let out a laugh after the moment of silence. Not an awkward laugh to clear the silence but more of a she genuinely heard something funny. I shrugged my shoulders and was apt to go on about my way when Seth grabbed me by the arm.

"My brother thinks it would be best for you to come with us" Sara said.

"Why?" I asked, trying to pry my arm away from her brother. I wasn't minding the hot guy touching me, I was however minding the fact that they clearly weren't going to just leave me about my business for the day.

"Because of the necessary urgency of our time, there is a good chance that I might not be able to relocate you at a later time" Seth stated.

"What?" I asked. Clearly without my morning coffee the world wasn't functioning properly. O maybe this was the universe's messed up way of telling that "Hey, I'll never let you win!".

These two were so cryptic with their communication.

"I'll show you to the taxi lot, if that's alright?" I asked. That seemed to please them. Frankly, I feel sorry for whatever poor soul ends up shuttling them around later today. Whoever that person is they are in for it.

"oh, and could you please let go of my arm?" I asked Seth, who looked me straight in the eye before dropping it. If I wasn't so tired and it was so early, maybe my mind would've picked up on the red flags waving around in front of my eyes. But these two looked my age and harmless.

I tried to be a good person most of the time. What harm could showing two people to a taxi lot really do to me? I wish I knew. I really wish I knew.

The taxi lot wasn't exactly empty as we arrived with the sun starting to rise. The driver from the night before was out in the lot, talking to a few guys. They seemed to know each other and were in a heated conversation.

"That guy drives that cab" I said pointing to the taxi cab he had driven in me the other night. "Just get inside when he lets you, and I hope I have been helpful."

"You have been helpful" Sara said as Seth grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me towards the cab.

"Guys, I'm not going on this ride" I tried to say but I was already shoved into the backseat by Seth and Sara. I tried to unlock my door. It was one of those where you had to pull the little plastic piece up before you could open the door. Each time I managed to pull it up it magically fell down into the hole, locking me inside.

"I really need to be somewhere" I told them, with a bit of desperation in my voice. I really needed to be anywhere but here.

"You don't need to be anywhere" Sara informed you "urgently other than the place that you are in now."

"I need to leave" I started to get up but the taxi cab started taking off. The driver, Jack Bruno, was now behind the wheel. I fell forward down into the floor as soon as I tried to stand up Jack slammed on the car's breaks, causing to fall forward again.

"Where did you come from?" Jack asked.

"Outside" I heard Seth say. I stood up and fell back down into the seat. I sighed, leaning my head against the seat. This was going to be a long day. I eyed Jack from where I was laying and we shared the same look of disbelief.

"Yeah, I figured that out on my own" Jack mumbled. I could tell I was going to like this guy. "How did you get in the car."

"Honestly, I have no idea" I muttered low enough that it was outdone by Sara's answer of her and Seth pointing to the door.

"Through that portal" Sara explained. Jack's eyes widened probably as he realized he was too old now to get the hip young teen language.

Seth spoke next. "I am Seth and this is my sister, Sara, and my bound, Astrid. We require your transportation services immediately?"

Bound? I tried prying the door open again. Maybe I can hurl myself into the oncoming traffic and get away from these crazies. I would feel bad for leaving Jack with them but his sacrifice will not be in vain.

Jack stuttered at Seth's response. "Well, I require…"

I continued fighting with the "portal".

"A currency transaction…" Sara finished.

Seth reached into his pocket and pulled out the largest wad of money I had ever seen in my entire life. My mouth hung open, like were they some type of rich elite private school kid runaways?

"What did you two rob a bank?" Jack asked.

"You know these two have already committed the act of abducting someone" I said putting emphasis on my last words " So at this point I wouldn't be surprised"

"They abducted you?" Jack asked, still trying to get over the amount of money that they were offering.

"Is this acceptable, Jack Bruno?" Sara asked. The surprise of hearing his full name come out of the girl's mouth put him in a small state of shock. There were cars honking all around us to get a move on.

"How did you know my name?" Jack asked. I feel the guy, too many questions, so few vague and strange answers. Sara pointed the license that was near the front of the car dashboard.

"If we have a deal for your services then we must move forward rapidly" Seth said "It is urgent that we get to our destination without delay." I watched Jack closely as he seemed to argue with himself on what to do.

I wasn't having this. This is technically kidnapping and I wanted out of here. They were strangers! I pulled my phone out of my bag to see that it had cracked severely when my backpack hit the concrete earlier. Too top it all off, my battery was dead. Here I was trapped in a car with a phone that would literally cause me to bleed with a swipe of my finger and no charger to call for help.

"What about you?" Jack asked me directly. "You said these two abducted you?"

"I just would appreciate it if you could just drop me off at the bust station down the road" I said.

"Astrid, please reconsider" Sara said "Despite forcing you into this taxi cab, we do not mean to cause you harm in anyway."

Seth nodded his head. "I admit it was a mistake on our part, but it would be disastrous for Sara and I, if you were to leave us now."

There was a soft look in his eye as he spoke. There was a piece of my brain saying that it would be wise to tell Jack to let me out down the road, head back to my apartment and begin working on my upcoming audition. And also look into fixing my phone. Then there was a part of me that existed much lower, that seemed to say "Look how adorable Seth is; what's the harm in spending a few more minutes with them. Isn't he cute?"

Plus Jack Bruno seemed to be an ok guy. He would probably help if something were to go wrong and I needed to escape these two.

"Why exactly do you need me?" I asked. I could give five reasons why I needed him and all of them included some really bad things. Sara caught my eye and seemed to be suffering from carsickness.

"That explanation is would be rather long but I promise if you continue on this journey with us that I will explain everything in due time" He stated. Whatever idiotic part of me (hormones, baby, hormones) decided to mouth the words "sure" as I nodded my head must be punished severely.

"I'll stay" I decided, buckling in my seat belt because safety first as you ride in a taxi cab with a bunch of strangers!

Jack began to pull out onto the road. "Where to?" I looked to my left to see Seth had pulled out some weird device. Gee, rich kids sure get all the advancements in iPhones.

"I need an address" Jack said.

"We must travel in that direction" Sara said, pointing aimlessly at a random spot. Well, my day is over. Jack groaned from the driver's seat. Seth was busy tapping away on his device which had like mini holograms and everything.

"I'm going to need something a bit more specific than just 'that direction" Jack complained.

Seth didn't hesitate to start rattling off coordinates. We must locate latitude 40.54 cross-intersecting longitude…"

Jack held up his hand to get the boy to stop. "We're just going to stick with that direction."