Okay, hopefully this chapter will be better than the last :)

I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks today so I won't be able to update until I get home, because there's no internet in the villa where I'm staying., which sucks a bit. But I'm taking my laptop so I'll keep writing, and if I find anywhere with internet, then I can try and update from my iPhone, but I'm not sure how well that will work.

Anyway, on with the chapter...

Disclaimer: I don't own VA.

My phone beeped on my bedside table, and I fumbled trying to find it.
Why the hell was it so early?
I grabbed it, and forcing one I open, I looked at the blurry screen, trying to find the snooze button.
Then, I saw the name of the alarm I had set.

M&M'S BIRTHDAY. GET UP NOW!

I shot out of bed, simultaneously throwing a balled-up sock at Sophia.
She grumbled in her sleep.

"Wake up!" I hissed. "It's Mason's and Marina's birthday, and you have serious Spirit to pull off. Get up now!"

Fortunately, that seemed to sink in.

Sophia threw back the covers, grabbing her makeup bag off her bedside table and heading for the bathroom.

We'd all gone to bed at 6 O'clock last night, and it was now 10:00. We had about 7 hours to be there and back at school, and that was cutting it very fine. It would take us about 3 hours to get to the mall and back, leaving us hardly any time to do what we needed. We had to move fast.

Why?

To celebrate Marina and Mason's birthdays, we were going to escape the school for a day and go shopping in Missoula, in tribute to the stunts our parents had pulled when they were here. It was scary and exciting and possibly dangerous, though we had pretty much got everything covered safety-wise. The birthday twins had their hearts set on this outing, and none of the girls had been able to get presents for Mason yet. This was our last chance to hit the shops.

In record time, I pulled on my black skinnies and badass bitch top that I wasn't supposed to wear at school. Then I shoved on my black boots, and shook my head upside down to try and get my hair presentable-looking.

Then I grabbed my phone from where I had thrown it on the bed and called Marina. She answered on the 3rd ring.

Ok, I'm up. You're just slowing me down by checking up on me!

She hung up, but at least I knew she was awake and getting ready. Then I texted Lily, who got back straight away with a simple 'yes'.

I did the same for Mason, who replied he'd been up half an hour already, and called Aleks. It was the 6th ring before he picked up.

"Yes?" He groaned, making it clear that I had just woken him up.

"Aleks, get your zadnitsa out of bed right now. We're meeting on the quad in 20 minutes."

There was silence for a few seconds, before it was broken by a string of Russian swearwords.

"Yeah, that's right. Don't be late!" I ended the call, just as Sophia came back.

"That was Aleks and Jet's room, wasn't it." She stated.

I nodded. "We know how to pick them." I said, rolling my eyes.

Sophia laughed. "You and Aleks are a match made in heaven. You could both spend all day in bed, sleeping until it was time for food."

"Believe me, if I had Aleks in bed with me, sleeping would be the last thing on my mind." I said, winking.

She rolled her eyes, but I could feel her amusement. "Just get in there and do your makeup."

I complied, and was ready with 5 minutes to spare.

Sophia was reaching under her bed, pulling out a wooden box. Unlocking it, she took out two velvet bags- a purple and a green one.
After she threw me the green one to me, I opened and took out the silver and emerald ring my mom and dad had got me for my birthday.

The one that Sophia had charmed with Spirit magic last night so that we would be unnoticeable sneaking off campus in the dead of night.

I slipped it on as Sophia fastened her own diamond necklace around her neck. Then we both grabbed out bags, and slipped out the door.

We met Marina on our way down the second flight of stairs, fizzing with birthday excitement, and when we got out to our meeting place under the oak tree, I was pleased to see that everyone except for Jet and Aleks were there.

Just as Lily began to get impatient and was contemplating strangling her brother, we heard them come running towards us. We glared at them, telling them to be quiet.

I took charge. "Alright everyone, got your charmed silver?" They all nodded, and to be fair, they all looked blurry to me. Sophia confirmed that everyone's auras were ringed in gold.
"All got money?" Yes. "Cell phones?" Yep. "Stakes?" Check. "Cover stories?" Done. "Sun cream?" The Moroi nodded.

"I think that's everything. Now let's go."

33333 33333 33333

When we reached the spot we were going to leave, we saw Summer waiting there. She had some separately to us, just in case she got caught. She wouldn't be coming with us, but would help us escape. On one condition.

"You got the list?" She whispered to Sophia, who nodded in reply. The price for helping us get out and covering for us was that Sophia buy her sister some things she wanted, but hadn't been able to get.

After that had been clarified, Sophia placed her hands against the chain-link fence. After a moment, the metal became like liquid, melting away to form a tyre-sized hole about a foot off the ground.

I went through first, checking the area for threats. I could hardly believe we were doing this, but since it was daylight, we were safe from Strigoi. We would also be protected by the charms we were wearing, which made us appear human. We also had a spirit user and a fire-using Moroi, and me. I could sense Strigoi from way off, and was sure that if we were in danger of meeting some, I would get a vision or something to warn me.

Once everyone was through, Summer sealed the fence behind us. We would call her once we had to come back through, or if there was a problem with that, well, that's what the bolt-cutters in my bag were for. She could fix the damage later.

It was a 30-minute fast walk to the bus station that would get us to Missoula. The school had been concerned when the road was built so close to the school, but bus-goers were surprisingly reluctant to venture into the deep forest for long enough to find the Academy, and the odd human had strayed onto the road that led to the Academy before anyway. They knew it was there, but didn't really care. I guess the vampire vibes weren't really that welcoming, and you had to be pretty dull to get excited over a school.

When we reached the bus stop, one was 2 minutes away from arriving. After a couple of games of rock-paper-scissors to see who got to sit where, it arrived.

The bus driver didn't seem to care about the fact that 8 teenagers were getting onto a bus in the middle of the day. He was happy to take the money and drive.

After an hour-long trip, we finally arrived outside the huge shopping mall, and Marina squealed in excitement.
"I feel so bad, but so good! This is what normal people our age get to do!"

I rolled my eyes at her display, but in truth, I felt the same. It was how I always felt in Baia, away from Court, but this was even more out there. If we were caught, we would be in such deep shit.

But I kinda liked the feeling.

I turned to the gang, most of who were staring up at the huge indoor complex with a mix of wonder and anticipation on their faces.
I grinned. "Race you."

I won because of my head start, reaching the revolving doors just before Aleks, then Jet. As we waited for the Moroi to catch up, I went over the plan in my head.

When everyone was there, I started. "Ok everyone; we have 3 hours if we want to be back safely. That means we need to split up for most of this. But first, we go to the supermarket and buy food. Got it?"

So that's what we did. We stepped into the air-conditioned supermarket, and Mason and I got trolleys.

To avoid arguments about where to start, we decided to just go up and down each aisle in order.

First was electricals,and Mason threw in a DVD. Nobody debated his choice, much, seeing as it was his birthday. Marina didn't seem to care.

Then there was the bakery aisle, and I up picked two-dozen donuts and 8 chocolate chip muffins. Then Mason chose a batman birthday cake, and Marina got a chocolate one. Lily grabbed candles. Jet pointed out that we needed a lighter, earning 'you so stupid' looks from everyone, before he glanced at Ash sheepishly.

When we passed through confectionary, Mason told everyone to get two 2-for-a-dollar packets each, then we could share them. I got sherbet lemons and rosy apples.

We then got 4 packets of cheesy Doritos and 2 original, and sent Ash to go find stuff to dip them in. He came back with arms laden with guacamole and salsa and sour cream, and we were impressed to see that he had bought several packets of grated cheese without being told.

I patted him on the head. "What a good little housewife you'll be some day."

"If you're going to be like that, I won't make you any more of dad's special pancakes." He shot back, causing the others to laugh at the look of utter horror on my face.

My trolley was mounting up by now, so we filled Mason's when we got to the drinks. 4 litres of Coke, 2 of Red Bull, 2 Lucozade, 2 Lemonade, 2 pints of flavoured milk and a bottle of cold latte later, the dodgy wheel on the trolley was really playing up.

As we forced our way to the checkout, I glanced at Mason. He nodded once, and I said "Trolley race!"
We sped down the aisle, until we had to slam our heels down when the aisle opened out onto the line of checkouts.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Mason had coasted to a stop several metres away, drinks-laden trolley not able to keep up with mine.

He glared. "You keep cheating today."

I shook my head. "Nuh uh. Not cheating. Beating. You should be used to it by now, Castile."

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I saw the final price we had to pay- $237.54. On food. Insane.

But Sophia handed over the cash without so much as blinking. We had to pay with cash, as we didn't exactly want 'Missoula' showing up on the Queen's next bank statement. That would just ruin everything.

Once we got out of the shop, we were faced with a problem.

"What do we do with all this stuff?" Marina asked. "There's no way I am carrying this around for the next 2 hours. It's bad enough we have to get it back."

Sophia frowned. "I can use telekinesis later, but not exactly in the middle of a mall..."

Then I spotted something a few shops away.

"Look! Lockers. We can just shove the bags in there for now."

Aleks shrugged. "Actually not a bad idea."

After cramming the bags into 3 lockers, we decided to split up.
"Ok, we meet back here at 3:00, OK? That gives us just under 2 hours. Avoid using cells if possible."

They just stood there nodding.

"GO!" I shouted, and the guys disappeared.

I turned to the girls.
"Ok. First up: Presents!"

We had all decided that we would each buy Mason one proper present, and one comedy one. Marina had already bought Mason some other presents, but they were back at Court and would be brought down by Mia when she came to visit sometime this week. We'd assured Marina many times that her presents were safely back at the school already.

First we went into the game store, where Sophia bought him Black Ops 2, as well as getting a copy for Summer, as it was one of the things on her list.
Lily also bought him a DVD.

Then, we went to Target. We browsed through our section before making our way over to the guys' bit. Sophia found her second present by the entrance.

Giggling, she held the packet up, causing Marina to laugh loudly.
"Captain America boxers? Really?"

Sophia nodded. "They have batman too."

That made me laugh. "I can't wait until he gets laid for the first time. I bet he'll be wearing his Ninja Turtles pants."

"No, Anya! Don't talk about my brother getting laid at all, especially in reptile boxers!" Marina scrunched her nose up. "And if she runs, I'll have to kill the bitch."

"Don't worry. For Mase, we'll all be right behind you. Same goes for any of the guys."

Lily glared playfully at Sophia. "Yeah, hurt my brother and you'll have me to answer to. And my dad will fight back your Spirit magic, and mom will do some voodoo curse on you."

The thought of Sydney cursing anyone was hilarious, but not all that unreasonable if someone hurt her children. She loved her Dhampir babies even more than her car babies, which was saying something.

Looking back at the rack in front of us, I found a set of Spiderman pants.
"Better get these as well- if he's gonna stay a secret superhero, he can at least alternate them more often."

Sophia took them off me. "Sure, sure. You sure you don't want to get any for Aleks, then ask him to model them for you?"

The others cackled at the look on my face, but I quickly smoothed it over.
"If that was my plan, I'd make sure they were a lot more attractive than Marvel heroes." I grinned. "Besides, I have a feeling there's be more than enough to 'marvel' at even without them..."

We left the underwear section in fits of laughter, stopping when I found what I'd been looking for.

"Hey, wait up a second." On the wall opposite me was a black tshirt with a smiley face. With fangs.
Written under the face in red, bloodlike type was 'bite me'.
This was so Mason.

I tried to reach the shirt, but it was about half an inch too high. I could just about reach the hem of the shirt in front, but it was the wrong size.

I huffed in defeat. "I need my dad for this."

Sophia smiled. "Or Aleks."

I glared at her. "Or a tall, kind friend of mine in heels."

Rolling her eyes, Sophia stepped forward, and going up on her toes, pulled down the shirt in the correct size.

Marina gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Very good impression of a tall, hot Russian man there, Soph."

She swept us a bow. "Spasibo, Marina."

I regarded her sceptically. "Nah, not quite doing it for me. There's something missing."

Lily grabbed a fake banana off the display cabinet where mannequins were eating a picnic. She dangled it in front of Sophia, waist height.

"Better now?" She asked, and we all laughed in response. Shaking my head through my laughter, I rested a pair of big sunglasses over the banana. The 2 circles of the lenses had the desired effect, sending us into another wave of hysterics.

After stopping off at the music store to let Marina but Mason a new guitar strap, we headed to the last store, which was a cross between a party shop and a joke shop.

We had an hour left before we had to meet the guys, and we spent a good part of that just walking around and laughing at what we found.

Marina bought Mason a pair of swimming trunks saying 'warning- may contain nuts'.
Lily got him a bottle of 'comedy cologne', that looked like an ordinary can of body spray, but that promised to leave brown marks on skin & clothes and smell terrible.
When I saw a packet of tricolour 'penis pasta', I bought it without a second thought, and for 'dessert', I got him a chocolate penis. Childish, but he'd appreciate the humour.

Once we had all of Mason's presents out the way, we used the last half hour to buy party supplies. Streamers, balloons, stupid hats.
And 12 cans of Silly String in assorted colours.

Finally we dragged all of our bags back to the food court, Sophia's looking suspiciously light, and flunked down on the plastic chairs, waiting for the boys to come back.

So that's it, hopefully I'll be able to update before 2 weeks, but it's not likely. I'll keep writing like crazy, though :)

So arrivederci until then, my lovely readers :D x