A/N: Oh my goodness, you guys. I was fighting with Windows Live Movie Maker for hours since like 3:00 AM (minus time to sleep but I probably even had nightmares about it and just don't remember). In other words, I was preoccupied today and didn't focus solely on writing this chapter, so it took a while to get it completed and revised. But it's done now! I'm not sure when Chapter 9 will be up, if not tomorrow then probably sometime on Monday. I haven't even started on it yet and I want to take my time to make sure it's as great as it can be because, hello, it's the explosive conclusion to this story! Gotta get it right! Anyway, here's Chapter 8! Enjoy!


If there was one thing the past thirty-five minutes had taught Sebastian the Camera Guy, it was that being trapped in a car with the Rueda twins when they were both panicking was flat-out frightening. He didn't live far away from The Seven but it had taken him ten minutes to make it over today. It wasn't his fault there was a traffic jam on this particular Saturday, but Gigi and Diego seemed to believe otherwise. Once they'd gotten in the car, Gigi had one of her usual blogger meltdowns while Diego loudly used a string of choice words to express himself. He was usually a pretty chill guy, so needless to say, Sebastian was terrified.

Fast forward twenty-five minutes to now: the group of three was only five minutes away from their destination but the traffic jam was keeping them trapped in one spot. It was also making the twins' "issues" escalate quickly and Sebastian was getting extremely nervous.

"What if they're gone by the time we get there?" Gigi said to no one in particular, tapping her hand against the passenger's side window. It was sort of a nervous tick. "What if something came up and they had to leave early? What if we show up and they're gone and I have to be all, 'Hey followers, I know you were depending on me, but I let you down in a major way and all I have to make up for it is a PICTURE.'?" She slammed her head against the window and groaned. "I'm dooooomed!"

"Would you shut up?!" Diego snapped from the back seat. Both Gigi and Sebastian turned to stare at him, appalled. "Your blog will be fine; my Maddie might not be!" He'd called and texted her a billion times since setting foot outside The Seven, but her cell phone was shut off and no one was answering her house phone and he was freaking out. He reached over Sebastian's shoulder and repeatedly honked the horn. "WHY WON'T YOU MORONS FUCKING MOVE?!"

"SHUT IT, SPA BOY!" a guy in the car next to them shouted back.

It was true. What with all the commotion, Diego had forgotten to rinse off the exfoliation mask before leaving The Seven. But guess how much he cared about that right now.

Exactly: he didn't.

He leaned across Sebastian and stuck his head out the driver's side window. "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU BE MAN ENOUGH TO WEAR ONE OF THESE, BUDDY!"

The drivers of several surrounding cars honked their horns and yelled for him to shut up.

Sebastian sank down in his seat. This was his mother's car and if an offended fellow citizen of Miami rammed into it because he or she was angry at Diego, Sebastian would be grounded for life. "Guys, why don't you just try to calm down and—"

Gigi gasped. "What if someone replaces me as the biggest gossip in school? What if she starts her own blog and everyone forgets about Miss Information?"

"GIGI, NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BLOG!"

"DIEGO, YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS!"

Sebastian closed his eyes and silently started to pray.

"I'm trying Maddie's cell again." Diego's hand shook as he dialed her number.

"And I'm asking the tipster if Maniel is still at the zoo."

"STOP CALLING THEM THAT!"

"STOP STEALING THINGS FROM MY BATHROOM!"

Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut tighter. Our Father who art in Heaven…

A minute of intense silence passed. And then—

"No answer," Diego said in a choked up whisper. He threw his phone on the car floor so hard it bounced back. "NO FUCKING ANSWER! AGAIN! Maddie, please be okay…"

"Yes!" Gigi exclaimed. "The tipster said Maniel is still at the zoo!"

Sebastian glanced skyward and mouthed, Thank You.

Diego was about to yell at his sister again when something painfully obvious occurred to him. In fact, it was so painfully obvious he wanted to punch himself in the face for only thinking of it now.

"Hey guys, wanna play a game?" he asked in as normal a voice as he could muster.

Gigi and Sebastian slowly turned around in their seats and looked at him as though he had five heads.

"Does it involve you killing us?" Sebastian asked. He looked like he was about to wet his pants.

"Of course not. It's fun. You, uh... you just need to close your eyes."

"What?!"

"Both of you."

"What?!" Gigi echoed.

"Would you just do it?"

"I don't think I—"

"DO IT!"

Gigi and Sebastian quickly faced forward and closed their eyes.

"Eyes closed?"

"Yes!"

"Are you lying?"

"No!"

Diego extended his arms in front of himself, tensed his muscles, and blew as hard as he could. The cars in front of them were blown to the sides and a clear path opened up in front of them.

"WE AREN'T JAMMED ANYMORE! GO! GO! GO!"

"But what about the game?"

"SEBASTIAN, OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES AND GO!"

The camera guy's eyes flew open and he stepped on the gas.

"How did that happen?" Gigi asked.

"Don't ask questions; just prepare to get your scoop," Diego said, grabbing his phone and trying Maddie yet again.

"Right!" Gigi went back to tapping her hand against the window, only this time it was because she was eager. "DRIVE FASTER, SEBASTIAN!"

Sebastian flinched and did as he was told. Forty miles per hour became fifty, fifty became sixty... Two police cars sped past them in the opposite direction. Wherever they were going must have been urgent because Sebastian was pretty sure they hadn't even glanced his way.

The Zoo Miami parking lot was mostly packed, with only a few remaining spots open. While Sebastian tried to gingerly maneuver his mom's car into one of them, Diego said, "Gigi, ask the tipster which exhibit Maddie's at."

"Kk," his sister said, thumbs scuttling across her keypad.

"Parked," Sebastian announced, yanking the keys out of the ignition.

"Come on, people; let's do this thing!" Diego jumped out one of the back doors, started running, and chanted, "Move! Move! Move!"

Gigi was right on his heels. Sebastian got Camera 1 out of the trunk then followed after the Rueda twins, a few paces behind.

"The tipster said Maddie's in line for the sky ride with Daniel and Jemma!" Gigi announced, shoes pounding against the pavement.

"Well of course Daniel's trying to get her on the sky ride," Diego spat. "He's probably planning to cuddle with her all the way to the other side of the zoo." He clenched his fists then asked, "Where are they getting on the sky ride at? Toward the entrance or toward the back?"

"I'll find out!"

They rounded a corner and the front of Zoo Miami came into view. A ton of people were crowded around the check-in desks, waiting to be admitted. The twins wove between families and friends and were almost to the front of the crowd when an out of breath Sebastian called out, "Guys, hold on!"

The twins turned around and yelled, "WHAT?!"

From a few feet away, he pointed to a sign they'd completely missed. "Admission's $15.95 per person. I didn't bring any money with me. Either of you got…" He did some calculations in the air with his index finger. "$47.85?"

Gigi and Diego scoured their pockets but came up with nothing.

Diego let loose with yet another string of choice words.

"Are you kidding me?" Gigi said in a voice barely above a whisper. "We came all this way for nothing?!"

"I can go back to my house and—"

"NO!" the twins exclaimed at the same time. Sebastian flinched and nearly dropped Camera 1. Thankfully he didn't; Gigi would have beheaded him if he had.

"This is exactly why Principal Alonso shouldn't lie to me!" Gigi looked like she was about to cry. "I pre-ordered tickets online for Sebastian and me for NEXT Saturday!"

"What's on your face?" a little boy asked, squinting up at Diego.

The Kanay dug his fingernails into his palms to keep from exploding at the child. Hold it in. Hold it in. You can release all your wrath on Daniel. Hold it in. "It's an exfoliation mask," he said through his teeth.

The kid laughed. "I thought those were for girls."

"Billy!" his mother snapped. She looked at the group, said, "I'm so sorry," then ushered her son away.

Diego slowly exhaled and tried to clear his mind. He needed a plan. He needed a plan. He needed—

Just then, two security guards whizzed by on a golf cart. They drove through a special gate off to the left for employees only, away from the chaotic crowd, then disappeared into the zoo.

Bingo.

"You guys remember that game we played in the car?" Diego asked.

"Uhh…" Sebastian said.

"We're playing it again. Close your eyes. Both of you."

"This is not the time for stupid games no one understands, Diego," Gigi wailed. "My life is over!"

"Close your eyes or I'll tell Principal Alonso you're the one who broke into his office last week."

"But I was only in there for a second! I just needed a picture of his Principal of the Year award for Miss Inf—"

"EYES, GIGI!"

"Fine!" His sister shut her eyes. Sebastian already had his closed. He wasn't about to disobey an order; this family was freaking him out.

Diego ran to the right and took cover behind a shrub. Then he glanced around to make sure no one was watching, held out his arms, and blew a strong wind at a nearby employee. Immediately, the guy's uniform flew off his body and landed in Diego's hands, leaving the guy in nothing but his tighty whities. He shrieked then fled the premises.

Diego quickly changed out of his tee shirt and jeans and into the uniform (according to the name tag, the guy's name was Josh. Too bad there wasn't a last name included; Diego could have sent him an anonymous apology card. Dear Josh _, Sorry for stealing your clothes. It was an emergency). Leaving his own clothes in a discarded pile behind the shrub, he ran over to his sister and Sebastian and said, "We're in. Let's go."

"Where'd you—"

"Don't ask questions." Diego placed his hands on her back and pushed her forward. "Just go."

"Can I open my eyes now?" Sebastian asked. Only then did the twins realize he was still standing there.

"YES!"

Diego led the group to the employees-only gate then nodded at the woman stationed in front of it. "They're with me," he said in a deep voice, the same one he'd used when he delivered his apology presents to Maddie.

The woman nodded, barely glancing up from her magazine.

Once they made it through the gate, they all exhaled with relief.

"Alright. Gigi, where are we going?" Diego asked, dropping the deep voice.

His sister looked at her phone and said, "They're near the front of the line toward the back of the zoo, which means they'll be getting off…" She craned her neck to the left and then to the right until she spotted the front entrance to the sky ride. "Right there." Her phone went off with another alert and she gasped once she viewed it. "And look at this! Daniel has his shirt off!"

"WHAT?!" Diego tore the phone out of her hands and looked at the screen.

From: Anonymous

Daniel's been putting the moves on Maddie all day. He even took off his shirt to show off what he wishes was a six pack.

Since Gigi had already downloaded the image, underneath the text was a picture of a shirtless Daniel scowling in line. Both of the shirts he wasn't wearing were rumpled into a ball which he appeared to have a death grip on. Maddie must not have been standing too close to him because the only part of her that fit in the picture's crop was a lock of her hair.

Diego handed Gigi the phone before he could squeeze it so hard it broke then growled, "Oh, he is going down!" He ran toward the back of the zoo, in the opposite direction of the spot Gigi had indicated.

"Hey!" his sister shouted, running after him. Sebastian did the same. "Where are you going? We should wait up here!"

"Like hell we should wait up here!" There was no way the Kanay would be able to constrain himself for five more minutes, let alone ten or fifteen. "I'm going to find Daniel right now."

"But he's about to get on the sky ride!"

A shirtless Daniel touching legs with Maddie on the sky ride? Not on Diego's watch. Increasing his already super fast speed, he called over his shoulder, "He can't get on the sky ride if he's dead!"


One more chapter to go! Please review!


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