Right, I'll keep going. Thank you for reviewing, Ali6132, berkbar740, and Sideshow Cellophane 26.
Scott picked me up that afternoon, as he'd promised. "Can we go somewhere other than the hideout today?" I asked specifically. "Say...I don't know, Taco Bell on my dime?"
Scott looked a little bit disappointed, and asked "Okay, but then...are your parents home?"
I laughed, knowing why he was asking. "Is that all you ever think about? But as it happens, my parents won't be home until six. So if you leave from out the window, we could have an hour and a half. But," I added, "Taco Bell first, all right?"
Scott shrugged. "Whatever you say, sweetheart. I could do with some nachos, anyway."
I decided not to say anything about what Dawn had told me. I didn't want to think about it, and it would become too real if I said it. I could take every precaution – it couldn't be that hard, since the only gang member I'd talked to alone since the summer was Scott. Instead, Scott asked a very interesting question. "So sweetheart, your parents haven't gone on any business trips this year. How come?"
"Where did you get that information?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't in my school file."
"I wanted to know why you were at boarding school. So I looked into it."
"Actually, I was at boarding school as kind of a legacy to my mom's side of the family." I told him. "But they do go on some business trips – only like five a year, though." A thought occurred to me. "Their first one should be next week, actually, and for three nights – they leave Friday afternoon, so like just before school gets out, and then they get home Monday night. Which reminds me, I better find out if I can stay with one of my friends."
"Don't bother." Scott grinned. "We're planning another test heist for you and Sammy, anyway."
I rolled my eyes. "You know I'd need an alibi. My parents would never say it was OK for me to stay over with a guy, no matter who it was. I'd have to ask Sammy – or Jasmine, I know she'd cover for both of us."
I 'casually' mentioned my parents' business trip and that I didn't have a place I was staying at the very next day. Jasmine instantly offered. "My parents are pretty cool with letting me have friends over for as long as whenever."
That's when I told her what Scott had said to me. "But we could have a sleepover on the first night or something. If Sammy came too, she could leave without Amy getting suspicious again."
Jasmine, of course, wasn't too pleased with the idea of becoming an alibi, but Sammy and I both managed to convince her in the end. We weren't ditching her – it wasn't our idea. And we did truly plan a sleepover for the Friday – just Sammy and I would have to leave before sunrise. I even passed the info on to Scott, as well as Jasmine's address, and he promised that they'd let that happen. "Also, guess who's on semester break and is hanging out with us again for the next week? She's going back to college after that and she's got a part-time job, but she decided to take off time to come see us!"
"Gwen's back?" I said, starting to smile. Of the female members of the gang, I'd liked Gwen much more than Courtney or Heather.
"But don't worry, we've still got one free room for Sammy for the weekend." Scott added. "And Gwen's not going to come with us for heists, but she's going to hang around and have fun with us."
I'd never been to Jasmine's house properly before the sleepover. It was surprisingly dark for a place with so many windows. I think it was to do with the wallpaper. And it was painfully obvious that Australians lived there, because it was absolutely stuffed with Aussie and Aborigine souvenirs.
Jasmine saw me staring. "We've only been here since I was about twelve." she explained. "My Dad keeps saying we should have sold some of this stuff and it makes us look like stereotypes to visitors, but I like it. Although sometimes it reminds me of holidays camping in the outback. That's when I really miss living in Oz."
There was only one minus about sleeping over at Jasmine's – Whiskers, her cat. I don't care what anyone says, that cat was vicious. I just tried to stroke her once, and she scratched me deep enough to draw blood.
"She does that to everyone." Sammy told me afterwards. "Jasmine doesn't seem to mind her – I guess she's used to it – but trust me, you're not the first person Whiskers has scratched without being provoked."
We mostly did the same things Sammy and I had done at my house – watched a movie with popcorn and sundaes, played stupid games, and ended up talking about boys. I only really talked about Scott, and Jasmine clearly didn't really notice boys apart from Shawn, but Sammy was the only one of us not taken. When I nudged her, saying "Hey, you haven't mentioned it, have you?", she instantly became the colour of a gala apple and shook her head.
"Go on!" I encouraged. "It's not like Courtney's going to hear you." So Sammy, still blushing, admitted about her crush on Duncan in some detail.
Luckily, Jasmine took it pretty calmly. "After hearing how you guys are doing stuff with them, that's no big deal." she said.
"Except," I added, "What Sammy didn't mention is that Duncan already has a girlfriend – Courtney, and she'll be insanely mad if this gets back to her. But thing is, Scott told me that Duncan's getting fed up with her being bossy, and he might end up dumping her soon."
I think I only got two hours of sleep before all three of us were woken up by the partially-open window being wrenched back. Jasmine opened her eyes, instantly alert. Sammy rubbed her eyes, and I blinked, before realizing what was going on. Both of us grabbed our bags that we were taking to the hideout, and jumped out of the window.
"Thanks for having me, Jazz." I whispered. "Sorry we had to go so quickly."
"See you at school, Jasmine." Sammy said softly.
Only Scott and Duncan were waiting with the van. Sammy got to go up to the passenger seat, while I sat further back with Scott.
"So why is it just you two?" I asked.
"Everyone else is asleep for once." Scott answered. "Well...okay, I thought I heard something when I was passing Alejandro's room, and Heather was definitely in there, but maybe one of them was just having a nightmare. Gwen is definitely asleep, and Courtney...well, I don't know. She and Duncan argued again, and they are officially through...but they've said that so many times, I don't know if it's going to stay that way. Basically, while they're together, Duncan goes along with what Courtney wants most of the time. Then he stands up to her, and they break up. Then they can't stay away and end up in one or the other's rooms, making up, if you know what I mean."
"Um, spare me the details, please!" I pretended to gag.
"Point is, I don't know if Courtney's asleep or not. I heard her screaming and throwing things around in her room a few hours ago, but I haven't been near her room since then. She always does that after she's had a row with Duncan, and then usually ends up exhausting herself and crashing out."
When we got back to the hideout, Sammy bunked alone in a spare room better than the one I'd been locked in, and I slept beside Scott (I say 'beside' rather than 'with', because we didn't do anything that night).
Things are garaunteed to get a little weird next chapter. Things are building up!
