Chapter Four: Dance Battles and Black Mail
"Hey," Kevin said as he and Macy approached Stella and Chad and Sonny and Joe as they were battling it out on the dance floor. "Have you guys seen Nick lately?"
"Last time I saw him he was trying to avoid London Tipton. I sent him to find you," Joe said. "Now go away. We're winning."
Stella glared at him, "Oh, you SO aren't winning."
"Yeah, Stella and I are the stronger pair. Obviously," Chad said with a flick of his hair.
"Oh please! Joe and I are definitely the better dancers. Deal with it," Sonny huffed.
"Ha! If you were dancing with me you'd be winning but you're not," Chad grinned.
"You think so?" Sonny sneered.
"Yeah, I do."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Good!"
"Good!"
Stella and Joe exchanged confused glances as Kevin and Macy smirked at each other knowingly.
"You know," Macy said as she stepped in between the two couples. "You could solve ALL of this by switching partners."
"Oh! Yes! Do that! Please! That way all of this will finally be over," Kevin begged.
There was silence amongst the four teens before Stella spoke up softly.
"I wouldn't mind that," She said before adding quickly. "But only if Joe doesn't mind."
Joe smiled softly at Stella, "I don't mind if you don't mind."
Chad cleared his throat and turned to Sonny, "I guess that leaves you and I dateless, and Chad Dylan Cooper can't be dateless."
"He can't, huh?" Sonny asked with a smirk.
Chad waited for Sonny to say something else before sighing and speaking up, "You're not going to make this easy are you?"
She chuckled, "Nope."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Sonny, would you like to be my date for the evening?"
She smiled brightly, "Well, if you insist."
He grinned playfully at her, "I do."
Sonny chuckled as Chad offered her his arm. She took it graciously.
"Okay, great," Kevin said as he clapped his hands together. "Now, can we find Nick?"
"Um, I think we've stacked up enough supplies. Can we just get this crawling through a vent thing over with?" Nick asked with a sigh.
"Oh we definitely haven't stacked up enough supplies. We have to distribute the sizes evenly or our stack will collapse." Zora said as she reached for a small plastic crate and stacked it on top of the toilet paper.
"You do this a lot don't you?"
"It's sort of a hobby of mine," She said from the top of the stack. "Can you hand me that other crate?"
Nick picked up the crate and stood on his tip toes to hand it to the girl, "Am I even going to FIT in that vent?"
"Oh sure! It's a lot more spacious than you think," Zora said brightly as she placed the crate down and climbed up on top of it. "There, now we can get out of here. I'll go first. You follow. I wouldn't want you falling down the downward portion of the shaft."
"The downward portion of the shaft? Is this safe? I'm not going to die am I?"
"Come on, you big baby. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were an itty bitty baby girl," Zora taunted as she opened the vent. "Now get your rock star butt up here."
She swiftly and smoothly climbed in and crawled forward. Nick stared after her in shock as he climbed up the supplies. How was he going to do this? He cleared his throat nervously and leaned into the shaft and pulled himself up with a bit of difficulty. He army crawled forward and tried to keep Zora in sight, but she was very fast.
"Zora? Could you maybe slow down! Zora!" Nick called urgently.
"Geez, keep up will you!" Zora yelled as she paused and let him catch up.
"You know I'm not as tiny or as fast as you are, little girl! Unlike some people this is the first time I've crawled through a vent like some very clumsy spy," Nick groaned as his head smacked against the top of the vent.
"It's not that much further. We just have to get to the next room," She said as she continued crawling. Nick sighed heavily as she turned a corner. He followed and almost ran into her when she stopped.
"This is it," She announced.
"Good, let's get out of here. I'm starting to get a cramp in my arm," Nick said in relief.
"I'll let you out of here," She said in a wicked tone. "On one condition…"
"Black mail? Really?"
"Do you want to get out of here or not?"
"Fine, what do you want?" Nick asked in a tired tone.
"You've got to say I'm your date so I can stay. I'm determined to see if this club has REAL aliens. Grady and Nico think I'm crazy, but I'm not the one who thinks Aliens live in a night club," She scoffed. "I mean everyone knows they live in the pyramids in Egypt."
"Anything else, your highness?"
Zora held back an evil chuckle as she responded, "You also have to take me to see giraffes on ice."
"Giraffes on Ice? A skating show?" He asked skeptically. "I guess it could be worse."
She smirked and muttered to herself, "You don't know the half of it."
She pushed open the vent, and swiftly crawled out. Nick followed her and tried to slip out gracefully, but ended up flailing his limbs until he hit the floor.
"Ow," he muttered as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Nick? Dude! Did you just climb out of a vent? You're like James Bond!" Kevin exclaimed as he ran to his brother and helped him stand.
"Where did you go?" Joe asked. "We've been looking every where for you."
"I locked myself in the janitor's closet," He admitted reluctantly. "Zora helped me get out."
"Zora?" Sonny asked in shock. "What are you doing here?"
Zora smiled expectantly at Nick. He sighed before he spoke, "Apparently, she's…my date."
Kevin leaned forward and whispered to his brother, "Isn't she a little young for you?"
"She wouldn't let me out unless I agreed to say she was my date…and take her to see some skating show about giraffes," He whispered back through his clenched teeth.
Kevin chuckled, "Sucks to be you, little brother."
"Shut up," Nick groaned as he shoved his oldest brother's shoulder.
