A/N: NUUUUUUUUU! I MISSED IT BY LIKE 22 MINUTES! Oh well, I updated! Yay!
Responses to Reviews:
AmianNatan4ever: I'm hilarious? YAY! I can add that to the list. Seriously though, if I try to be funny it comes out awkward and... not funny. So I'm glad you like it!
PrettiestPerson1: Best chapter yet? Yay!
39clueslover: You guys are so... passionate about yelling at other reviewers.
Epic Books: I know, right? I love Alfred. He's my fav OC ever. ALFRED THE SUPER BUTLER FTW!
Tris: Isabel is evil. I know, I hate myself for converting Lukas! Hate it! But he kind of disappears for a while, and you'll see why in a few chapters.
theharrypotterworld: I know. I feel terrible for him. Even more so since I'm the one who did this to him. *sobs*
KatnissCahill: Oh, don't get me wrong. I adore every review I get. I was just upset because some people who normally reviewed didn't last time. Hence the minimum.
TheLillster: Yep. She has two. You'll get to meet them officially next chapter.
Demi: I know. Almost all of the reviews were upset for poor Lukas. Like I said though he kind of disappears for a few chapters...
Perks Of Being A Book Nerd: Your pen name is awesome, let me just say that. And yes, she is. To the bone.
ILoveThe39Clues: Better than being tortured and maybe killed. If I got a milkshake when I got kidnapped (and a rock awesome room like Lukas') over torture and stuff I'd be more than happy. That's why it's the best kidnapping ever.
justarandomname: NO! THEY LIED! IT IS NOT EASY! IT IS THE WORK OF DEMONS! Well, I hate it. I'm good at it, but it's torture to do. *sarcasm* Yay!
panko: Yeah, she kind of is. When you fail with your own kids, form a secret society and ruin the brains of your grandkids! ;)
Reader277: 'Cause she's evil. And ten year old boys are very impressionable. Here's your update! Oh, and glad your brother didn't get you!
Disclaimer: Don't own the 39 clues, Barbie dolls, the BMW m5 convertible (my dream car, btw. Google it. I WANT ONE SO BAD!), Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or anything else that sounds copyrighted. I do own Arbitra, though. And my characters.
Hope POV
"Yay! Shopping shopping shopping!" Maria squealed, jumping up and down and clapping. Maddie jumped up with her.
"Kill me now," I begged some invisible force. "Ok!" Maddie chirped, picking up a stick and pointing it at me, "Avada Kadabra!" I rolled my eyes and groaned. Maddie just smirked.
"See? This is why Cahills and Kabras shouldn't cross breed!" I exclaimed. Specifically Dan and Natalie. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?
"Ok! I'm here!" Rebecca called, holding up a foreign set of solid black car keys. "I told you to get the keys to your dad's pickup. Who's car is this for?" I asked. She smirked the Kabra smirk. Was I the only one who couldn't pull that off?
"This," she said with her ever-so-present smirk, "is for mom's car." Maria started to scream with joy, but Maddie covered her mouth. "Natalie has a car? I thought she just drove our parents and Dan's cars," she said, confused.
We gave her a look. "Oh, right. We're talking about Natalie." She dropped the conversation.
"So... what kind of car does our esteemed Aunt Natalie drive?" Maddie asked, glancing around. Rebecca and Maria grinned like those creepy demon spawns known as Barbie dolls. "Follow me," Maria said with a mischievous smirk. God, it's like they did that to taunt me.
We followed her to what I thought was an unused garage, but turned out to have an actual car in it. And not just any car, either. "A B-B-BMW-W-W m5 c-c-convert-tab-b-ble?" I stuttered like my mother. I swear I almost cried. Can you tell I'm a car lover?
"You better believe it! I call shotgun!" Maria called, jumping in the front seat. Rebecca and I shared a look. "What?" she asked.
"Well, unfortunately, neither of us have our license. Just a permit. Will you pass for eighteen?" I asked, cornering her. "Uh... no?" she replied. Rebecca and I simultaneously pointed to the back seat. Which earned us some dirty looks from a certain twelve year old girl and her thirteen year old best friend. Rebecca got in the driver's seat and I took my rightful place at shotgun.
"So... what store first?" Rebecca asked. "Uh, Cleveland. Potter's Mill has ONE clothing store. ONE. Cleveland has more, so head there. We're only, like, 20 minutes away." Rebecca nodded and started the car.
Twenty bags each and five clothing stores, one beauty parlor, and an accessory store later and we were all dressed like snobby rich people from L.A. I hated every minute of it, but here's a brief description of the horrors I was forced to endure.
The girls dragged me kicking and screaming into that beauty parlor and forced me to get the purple streaks out of my hair. Temporarily. I'm dying them right back the second the mission is over. Now it was all glossy and falling down my back in loose curls. I know, right? Ew. Totally not my style.
Clothing was hell. But at least they let me keep my all black-and-dark-colors style. Otherwise I would've taken Maddie up on her Harry Potter offer. But I looked more... snobby? I was wearing a black one-shoulder top and dark denim short-shorts. I was also wearing black wedges, silver earrings and necklace, and Gucci sunglasses (those I was excited about).
Rebecca got hair extensions so that her hair was about to her mid-back and straightened. She was wearing a blue dress with a cropped brown vest and brown ankle boots. She also got an admittedly cute white purse and some white Prada sunglasses.
Maria and Maddie looked like the clique girls from Mean Girls. They both had their hair in hair ponytails, which showed off their feather-shaped earrings (Maria's were gold while Maddie's were silver). They wore jean booty shorts and tight yet somehow flowy tank tops (Maria in pink and Maddie in green) and brown owl necklaces. They both had chunky shoes and bracelets and had Louis Vuitton sunglasses covering their eyes.
So, in summary, we looked like the slutty mannequins in every junior section of every clothing store in the country. I hated looking like this and I could see in Rebecca's face that she did too. Maria and Maddie looked fine with it. I guess we can all see who got who's end of the gene stick in that regard.
So anyways, four hours of torturous shopping and several guys "checking us out", we were finally on the road to the Angel City with the car-roof-thing down and the wind in our faces.
-10 hours later-
"Are we there yet?!" Maddie and Maria whined. I turned back to them, taking my eyes off the road (Rebecca and I had switched about 4 hours ago), "You do realize we've only been on the road for ten hours, right?" They nodded irritably. "Good," I said, "then you must realize we still have 24 hours of driving to go." They groaned before screaming, "PICKUP TRUCK!" I swerved back on our side of the road just in time. "Can I drive now?" Maddie asked.
-15 hours later-
"I'm hungry!" Maria cried. I rolled my eyes from the shotgun seat and nudged Rebecca, "Hey, the brats need food." She laughed and groaned good-naturedly. "Hey!" exclaimed the preteen girls from the back seat.
"Look, guys, we'll stop at a McDonald's or something after I finish looking at these files," I told them before returning to my work. I'd memorized them already. They went to some nearly impossible to get in to rich kids' school called Arbitra Academy.
"Aw, can't we stay at a hotel and order room service?!" Maddie whined. Rebecca pulled over near a shady-looking motel with a greasy fat man rocking in the rocking chair. "Only place for miles. Wanna sleep here or keep going?" Rebecca asked with a smirk. "KEEP GOING! KEEP GOING!" they practically screamed. Rebecca laughed and started the car again.
Russell POV (bet you didn't see this coming)
Russell sat in his boring science class, texting his friends about the rock awesome party his best bud Vic was throwing. Apparently the demon twins (Jada and Jaden) were coming, but that wasn't a big deal. When you went to a school designed for at-risk Cahills, you ran into people. No biggie.
"Mr. Holt?" asked his annoying science teacher, Mr. Hernandez. "Uh, yes sir?" he asked. "Would you be so kind as to tell me the fifth element in the Periodic Table of Elements?" "Uh..." Russell searched his brain for memory, "helium?"
The class burst out laughing, making his face turn bright red. I wasn't his fault he and his brothers got the Tomas genes! Unlike his fricking prodigy of a sister Nikki. Well, Nicole. Only her brothers called her Nikki.
Mr. Hernandez, however, was not amused. "Mr. Holt, this is the-" RING! RING! RING! Russell sighed in relief. He was literally saved by the bell. When he left the hall he caught up with some of his friends from the football team.
"Holy crap. Russ, did you hear? A whole hoard of hot girls just showed up!" exclaimed Vic, who waggled his eyebrows. The guys laughed like idiots.
But not Russ. Girls never went for him. Even though he was a star linebacker for the Arbitra Giants and best friends with the "hottest guys in school", he never got the girls. And it was all because of his stupid Ekat heritage.
No one wanted to date a half-branch kid. It would bring down their "social status". Whatever the hell that meant. It took him all of middle school to even get the guys on the team to treat him fairly (well, fairish), but girls were a whole new story. And it was the same for all eight of the half-branch kids. They were kind of on their own.
"Man, I hope when they apply they turn out to be Cahills. If so I call the blond!" Vic yelled loud enough for the whole school to hear. "Man, I heard there's like one of those Goth girls that are hot and rich and stuff. I want a girl that dresses in black leather all the time!" announced a wide receiver named Patrick. Clearly they were all Tomas kids. Well, except Russ.
"Oh crud. Here they come. Do I look sexy enough?" Patrick asked. Russ rolled his eyes and turned to see... two of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen in his life. Seriously, it was destiny.
The blond girl was really sweet looking and tan with sparkling amber eyes. She was smiling and looked friendly, but then again looks can be deceiving. Her clothes were revealing enough to get Vic's attention, so that was kind of a negative in her case.
Then there was the girl next to her. She had sunglasses on, so Russ couldn't see her eyes, but he really wanted to. She had curly black hair that fell down her back in waves and bounced as she walked. She was clearly the "hot Goth" Patrick was talking about, but she was very low key about it. She looked less comfortable in social situations than the blond did, which Russ thought was kind of cute.
Then she was right next to him asking a question. "Uh, sorry, what?" he asked, wondering how the girls (and the preteens tailing them) had approached without him knowing. The girl with black hair cocked her head to the side like she was rolling her eyes and said, "I said we're lost. Where's the reception office or whatever?"
Okay, now Russ really wanted to see her eyes. Seriously, who wears sunglasses indoors anyways? Then suddenly Vic was whispering in his ear, "I called the blond. I can hold Patrick off the Goth for you." Russ rolled his eyes and grinned, "Uh yeah. Follow me."
She nodded and pushed the sunglasses up on top of her head, revealing large jade-green eyes. Yep, he knew it. Amber and jade, very fitting of them. "So, what's your name?" she asked. "Russell," I replied, turning around to shake her slightly pale hand, "but you guys can call me Russ."
"Russell... Holt?" she asked. I nodded, confused. Did I know her from somewhere? "Uh... do I know you?" I asked, voicing my thoughts. "Uh, no. But we need to talk to you, Darren, Eric, Jackson, Peyton, Hanna, Nicole and Ashton. Like now," said the blond, eyes widening with urgency.
I took a step back, "Who the hell are you?" "Uh... do the names Amy and Dan Cahill and Ian and Natalie Kabra mean anything to you?" asked the redhead behind them. I nodded. Duh, our parents, aunts, and uncles never shut up about them and how they just dropped off the face of the earth.
"Well... we're they're kids. I'm Rebecca," said the blond, shaking my hand. I gaped in disbelief. No way. No effin' way. "Seriously, dude, take a DNA test if you must. Or better yet... do you know what Amy and Natalie look like?" asked the pretty girl with the black hair. I nodded again, dumbfounded.
The teen girls took a step back and the preteens took their sunglasses off, revealing 12 and 13 year old versions of the women I had seen picture after picture of. Now the amber and jade eyes made sense. "Holy crap," I gasped before rapidly taking out my phone. "Wait here," I ordered before running off.
Nicole POV
Nicole breezed through her math worksheet in ten seconds flat. No, not ten seconds. Two minutes, 58 seconds, and 43 milliseconds. She should learn to stop exaggerating.
So, anyways, after she finished her work she pulled out one of her favorite books. The one by Steven Hawking that not many people would understand. This was usually how she spent her class time: at the one table by herself, reading a book while the Neanderthals around her struggled with basic Calculus.
It sucked being a half-branch nerd. Seriously, no one sits by the half-branch kids, except other half-branch kids.
But anyways, she was alone with Steven Hawking until her idiot brother Russ burst in. "Nikki needs to leave now!" he yelled, grabbing her arm and yanking her out. "What the hell, Russ?!" she screamed. "Nikki, I swear to God this isn't a prank. The Cahills and Kabras are standing in the school courtyard with the rest of our family. You were the only one with the phone turned off.
Nikki's eyes widened. No way. The entire Cahill family had been searching for these people for years. She took off running. "Wait! There's more!" Russ called. Nikki forced herself to stop and turned back to him, raising an eyebrow.
"I think they might be half-branch, too." Then she bolted.
A/N: Okay, I personally think it sucks. But my biggest fault is constantly downing stuff I write, so I'm not sure. Huh, not much else to say except that I'M EXPECTING REVIEWS! And that I love all of you. Even you silent people who read it but don't fav, follow, or review, I love you guys too!
-Emory (who now updates EVERY SATURDAY)
