Chapter 4: And now, the future!
"This is scary." Hannah blurted, sitting on top of the elephant with Kara and Madi.
"What's scary?" Madi asked.
"That if we went back to the future, who knows where we'd end up?"
"We have to save Satine," Kara said, looking across at Christian's apartment where two shadows flitted. "We were sent back just to do that."
"But how are we going to get back?" Madi fiddled with the diamond bracelet she was wearing.
"I have no idea."
"We're gonna have great information for history class, aren't we?" Hannah mused.
"No kidding. But they'll probably send us all to an asylum first." Madi laughed.
"What are you girls talking about?" Christian, followed closely by Satine, climbed up the stairs to where the girls were draped.
"How we're gonna get back to the future."
"Why would you want to go back there?" Satine asked.
Kara took a deep breath. "Listen, Satine, Christian, this is kinda hard for us to tell you. Satine, you're going to die unless we get you outta here and give you some medicine. Medicine that only our century can provide you with."
"How do you know?" Christian asked, clenching Satine's hand.
"The movie. In the end, Satine died." Madi sniffled.
"I'm...dying?"
"You're dying." Hannah confirmed. "And we're trying to figure out a way to get you to 2002 so we can cure you."
"Well, how did you get here in the first place?" Christian wondered, eyeing the girls suspiciously.
"We don't know! We were just chatting on AOL..."
"AOL?" Christian interrupted.
"Yeah, AOL. See, from my computer, I can talk to Hannah and Madi who are at their computers." Kara explained.
"Computers?"
"Oh, never mind." She sighed, exasperated. "So anyway, we were just chatting and Hannah said it would be so chunk to time-travel to the Moulin Rouge, and then we did."
"It was weird." Madi agreed.
"Very weird." Hannah concluded.
"So you're trying to get me to the future? To 2002?" Satine asked, face paler than usual.
"Yep."
"Okay, the last time, we just said how cool it would be to time-travel," Madi calculated. "So maybe if we say we wanna go back, something will happen."
"Here," Hannah stretched her hand to Satine, who reluctantly took it. Kara stood, grabbed her bag, and grabbed Christian's, making a circle of herself, Hannah, Madi, Christian, and Satine. "We want to go back...we want to go back..." Hannah chanted.
"Sounds like Wizard of Oz." Madi quipped.
"I love that movie!" Kara grinned.
"C'mon, guys. We want to go back...we want to go back..." Now Christian and Satine joined their voices to those of the three Rougettes and waited, waited for that strange blackness to come over them. "2002...2002...2002..."
And it did. When they awoke, they were lying on a hot sidewalk surrounded by people who eyed them strangely. "We're back!" Kara shouted triumphantly.
"And in New York City." Hannah pointed out.
"CHUNKETTE!" Kara screamed, grabbing her friends and jumping up and down.
"Yes. New York City, with no money and two people from the past who we've probably..." Madi looked around. "Christian! Satine! Come back here you stupids!"
Christian and Satine were standing by a store window, completely immersed in a soap opera on TV.
"What's this?" Satine asked.
"TV. You are watching Days of Our Lives."
"Interesting." Christian grinned. "I like this TV thing."
"C'mon. We've gotta find a computer." Kara grabbed Christian and Satine and pushed them away from the televisions. "I can probably get my parents to wire some money to my card."
"Your card?" Satine wondered.
"Geez, just pretend you get everything we're talking about, okay?" Hannah said, rolling her eyes. "You're drawing attention to us."
"No kidding," Madi agreed. "Are you sure we're not dreaming?"
"Not dreaming," Hannah winked.
"Where are you going to find a computer, Kar?" Madi asked her friend.
"Um..." Kara started walking and surprisingly, for the country girl she was, knew her way about New York City very easily.
"CHRISTIAN! GET BACK HERE!" Hannah yelped. Christian was standing in the middle of the street, gazing at MTV's huge video screen, watching TRL and not noticing that a taxi was about to run him over.
"What was that about?" He asked. "What was that thing?"
"We'll explain later." Madi said, pulling him along.
"Houston, we have a problem." Hannah suddenly said. "We're all dressed normally, and Christian doesn't look too strange, but our Satine girl here looks pretty weird."
"My clothing is not weird!" Satine fumed. "This is high Parisian fashion!"
"Not in 2002, dearie."
"Here. Let's get her something. I only have thirty bucks with me." Kara made a face. "What can that buy?"
"What is this?" Christian held up a hot dog to the indignation of a vendor.
"A hot dog."
"What?"
"You eat it. Put it down, Christian." Madi tried not to laugh. Christian was like a little kid in a toy store.
"Okay, we could probably get Satine something from a thrift store." Kara said. "Here, let's go in here."
Screaming Mimi's was busy, much to the relief of the girls. Hannah stayed outside with the oddly dressed couple while Kara and Madi hurriedly searched for something for Satine to wear. "These look like they'll fit." Madi said, tossing Kara a pair of jeans.
"And these'll work too." Kara added a pair of red tennis shoes to their pile, then grabbed a Poison (famous 80's hair band) t-shirt that would need a little deconstructing to make it passable and quickly purchased their clothing. They rushed Satine into a bathroom where she changed and came out to model her outfit.
"I look hideous!" She moaned.
"Not a chance." Christian winked.
"Thanks, Satine." The girls said dryly. "We're wearing the same thing as you...well, pretty close."
"You just need a little snip here," Kara, borrowed scissors in hand, cut the neckline of Satine's shirt, making a small V.
"And here." Hannah grabbed them from Kara and chopped off the shirt's bottom hem. Now it revealed just a little of Satine's stomach.
"Looks good." Christian commented. The girls had grabbed a pair of jeans for him and he looked quite normal.
"Except for her hair." Madi added. She took a rubber band from Kara and pulled Satine's hair up into a normal-girl ponytail.
"Now you look 21st century." Kara laughed. "Perfect."
"We need to find a computer before we take her to the hospital."
"Uh-oh." Hannah's face dropped and her eyes darted from Kara to Madi. "Guys, you need a birth certificate to get into a hospital, don't you? And this isn't gonna work, Satine being born in the 1800s and all."
"I was born in 1876." Satine informed them. "Does that help?"
"No."
"That just makes it worse."
"I don't like these pants." She whined. "I feel like a man."
"I think they look nice," Christian consoled her. "I like the shirt myself."
"Yeah, you just like seeing her stomach and everything so revealed." Madi laughed.
"Of course!" Christian gave her a playful shove and she punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"Okay, I'm starving and we need to find a computer." Kara said, looking kind of annoyed.
"I'm hungry too." The others agreed.
"How 'bout here?" Christian asked, glancing at the little coffee shop that they were standing next to.
"COMPUTERS!" Kara breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Awesome! Hopefully my mom is online."
All five literally flew into the building and sat down at the nearest computer, where Kara logged on to her AOL.
"What does this do?" Satine asked, sitting next to her.
"We're just going to pretend they're some exchange students from some little tiny country who hasn't seen a computer before, okay?" Hannah asked.
"Good idea." Madi grinned.
"Well, I'm sending a message to my mom who's at her work right now. See?" Kara typed: "Hey Mom, I'm having a little trouble with one of my friends and I'm in New York. Yeah, New York. Don't ask why."
Kara's mother wrote back really quickly: "What are you doing in New York?"
"Mom, I just need you to wire me some money, please!"
"Why?"
"Because I need it, okay? I'll tell you later. Long story. PLEASE?"
"Okay. How much?"
"Two hundred?"
"WHAT!?!?"
"Okay, one hundred. I'll pay you back. Promise!"
"All right." Kara's mother typed. "Done."
"Thanks, Mom. I love you. Bye."
Kara closed out of the window and turned to her friends. "That should help. Let's eat. Dinner's on me."
After two huge boxes of pizza and several cans of Coke each, much to the interest of Satine and Christian, who had probably devoured more of the stuff than the three girls combined, they stood to leave. They had gotten some strange looks from waitresses, probably wondering why Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman were sitting with three crazy girls. And why Nicole and Ewan were all kissy-face. "I think there's something going on there," one whispered to the other.
"Let's call The Star."
Satine, Christian, Kara, Madi, and Hannah stalked the streets of New York City, dodging strange onlookers and crazy homeless people, all the while pulling Kara away from the stores that were constantly distracting her. "Kara! We have a Satine to save!" Hannah smacked Kara's arm, taking Kara's attention from a Betsey Johnson store window.
"And I have a credit card to spend!" She pouted. "Just this skirt?" It was a hot pink skirt. "And those boots?"
"No!" Madi grabbed Kara's bag and ran.
"Hey! Gimme that!" Kara stole her bag back and smiled evilly. "I'm buying those when we're done."
"You do that." Hannah, feeling like she was the only levelheaded one in the bunch, just smiled.
"Nicole Kidman? Oh my God! Can I have you autograph?" An older man grabbed Satine's arm.
"I'm...not Nicole Kidman!"
"And Ewan McGregor?"
"No." Christian said. "I think you've had a misunderstanding."
"Hey, Mister," Madi shoved her way to Christian and Satine, "they're just look-alikes, okay? We've got an appointment, so see ya later."
"Ta ta!" Kara waved, flouncing off.
"Who are Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor?" Satine asked when they were away from the crowd.
"The people who played you guys in the movie."
Christian was focused on some porn posters adorning the walls of a theater marked XXX. "Oh my God!" His eyes grew wide.
The girls laughed. "Porn, Christian."
"Porn?"
"Yeah. That's a porn theater!"
"Is that legal?"
"As legal as it can be." Kara answered. "Pretty different from your Moulin Rouge, isn't it?"
"Very different. Look at that girl! Her legs are showing!"
The Rougettes collapsed in giggles. "You guys are funny. We should keep you here forever."
"That would be interesting."
"Guys, how's this gonna work?" Madi asked, looking very skeptical.
"Well, Satine's just gonna have to pretend that she lost her birth certificate when she moved from Oklahoma..."
"Say Oklahoma, Satine." Kara coached.
"Oklahoma."
"Good."
"Anyway," Hannah continued, "She'll say that she lost it after moving from Oklahoma to New York."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Christian added his two cents.
"Can you do it, Tine?"
"Sure I can. Don't worry. I'll be just...chunk." Satine grinned and poked Kara's side and they walked through the automatic doors that fascinated Christian.
"Stop that now. They're gonna think you're autistic." Kara yanked Christian away from the doors he was walking through over and over and led him to where Satine was speaking to a receptionist who was giving her trouble.
"We need your birth certificate, dear." The older lady smiled, dripping with false sweetness.
"I told you, I lost it!"
"Listen, lady," Hannah said, getting upset. "She lost her birth certificate and she's really sick, so let's just get her up to a doctor!"
"Or there could be a thing called a lawsuit heading this way." Madi contributed.
"Fine." The woman cursed under her breath and Kara grinned. "Go up to 3D and see Dr. Kondish."
"Waiting rooms suck." Kara mused. "I hate them."
"Me too," Christian agreed.
"You've only been in one once, Christian!" Hannah giggled.
"I hate them anyway."
"Miss Zidler?" A nurse with a blonde ponytail that was so tightly pulled up it made her look Chinese called out Satine's name in a nasal voice. "Follow me, please."
"Should I go with?" Christian whispered to Madi.
"No, just stay here."
For two long hours, Madi, Hannah, Kara, and Christian shuffled through dozens of Time magazines, played rounds and rounds of poker, watched Oprah, and ate four bags of M n' M's. (Hannah, the allergic-to-chocolate girl, ate a granola bar.) Another half hour passed, and the four made up a dance routine to Lady Marmalade, much to the amusement of the receptionists. Finally Satine appeared, smiling brightly and carrying a bag of medicines.
"There's four hundred dollars down the drain," Kara complained. "My parents are going to kill me."
"We'll chip in. Don't worry." Hannah offered.
"What did the doctor say?" Madi asked.
"Just that I have tuberculosis and that if I take these medicines I'll get better. And he gave me some shots, too." Satine pulled up her sleeve, revealing five Scooby Doo band-aids.
"Ouch." Madi winced.
"Here," Kara tossed Satine her Cosmopolitan magazine. "A little memento from 2002."
"Thanks...I think."
When they returned from a restaurant, Kara loaded down with Betsey Johnson bags and an almost-maxed out credit card, the scary truth dawned on them. "Where are we going to stay tonight?" Hannah asked.
"Eep." Kara made a small noise.
"Kara, return those boots!" Madi said.
"NO! Not my boots!" Kara hugged the bags to her chest.
"We could go back to the past..." Satine suggested.
"Good idea."
"We'll have to do it the way we came." Hannah said, grabbing for everyone's hands. They looked strange in the middle of the sidewalk, chanting "Take us back...1899." But as this was New York, it wasn't too odd.
But this time, the blackness didn't come. They were stuck in New York City.
"This is scary." Hannah blurted, sitting on top of the elephant with Kara and Madi.
"What's scary?" Madi asked.
"That if we went back to the future, who knows where we'd end up?"
"We have to save Satine," Kara said, looking across at Christian's apartment where two shadows flitted. "We were sent back just to do that."
"But how are we going to get back?" Madi fiddled with the diamond bracelet she was wearing.
"I have no idea."
"We're gonna have great information for history class, aren't we?" Hannah mused.
"No kidding. But they'll probably send us all to an asylum first." Madi laughed.
"What are you girls talking about?" Christian, followed closely by Satine, climbed up the stairs to where the girls were draped.
"How we're gonna get back to the future."
"Why would you want to go back there?" Satine asked.
Kara took a deep breath. "Listen, Satine, Christian, this is kinda hard for us to tell you. Satine, you're going to die unless we get you outta here and give you some medicine. Medicine that only our century can provide you with."
"How do you know?" Christian asked, clenching Satine's hand.
"The movie. In the end, Satine died." Madi sniffled.
"I'm...dying?"
"You're dying." Hannah confirmed. "And we're trying to figure out a way to get you to 2002 so we can cure you."
"Well, how did you get here in the first place?" Christian wondered, eyeing the girls suspiciously.
"We don't know! We were just chatting on AOL..."
"AOL?" Christian interrupted.
"Yeah, AOL. See, from my computer, I can talk to Hannah and Madi who are at their computers." Kara explained.
"Computers?"
"Oh, never mind." She sighed, exasperated. "So anyway, we were just chatting and Hannah said it would be so chunk to time-travel to the Moulin Rouge, and then we did."
"It was weird." Madi agreed.
"Very weird." Hannah concluded.
"So you're trying to get me to the future? To 2002?" Satine asked, face paler than usual.
"Yep."
"Okay, the last time, we just said how cool it would be to time-travel," Madi calculated. "So maybe if we say we wanna go back, something will happen."
"Here," Hannah stretched her hand to Satine, who reluctantly took it. Kara stood, grabbed her bag, and grabbed Christian's, making a circle of herself, Hannah, Madi, Christian, and Satine. "We want to go back...we want to go back..." Hannah chanted.
"Sounds like Wizard of Oz." Madi quipped.
"I love that movie!" Kara grinned.
"C'mon, guys. We want to go back...we want to go back..." Now Christian and Satine joined their voices to those of the three Rougettes and waited, waited for that strange blackness to come over them. "2002...2002...2002..."
And it did. When they awoke, they were lying on a hot sidewalk surrounded by people who eyed them strangely. "We're back!" Kara shouted triumphantly.
"And in New York City." Hannah pointed out.
"CHUNKETTE!" Kara screamed, grabbing her friends and jumping up and down.
"Yes. New York City, with no money and two people from the past who we've probably..." Madi looked around. "Christian! Satine! Come back here you stupids!"
Christian and Satine were standing by a store window, completely immersed in a soap opera on TV.
"What's this?" Satine asked.
"TV. You are watching Days of Our Lives."
"Interesting." Christian grinned. "I like this TV thing."
"C'mon. We've gotta find a computer." Kara grabbed Christian and Satine and pushed them away from the televisions. "I can probably get my parents to wire some money to my card."
"Your card?" Satine wondered.
"Geez, just pretend you get everything we're talking about, okay?" Hannah said, rolling her eyes. "You're drawing attention to us."
"No kidding," Madi agreed. "Are you sure we're not dreaming?"
"Not dreaming," Hannah winked.
"Where are you going to find a computer, Kar?" Madi asked her friend.
"Um..." Kara started walking and surprisingly, for the country girl she was, knew her way about New York City very easily.
"CHRISTIAN! GET BACK HERE!" Hannah yelped. Christian was standing in the middle of the street, gazing at MTV's huge video screen, watching TRL and not noticing that a taxi was about to run him over.
"What was that about?" He asked. "What was that thing?"
"We'll explain later." Madi said, pulling him along.
"Houston, we have a problem." Hannah suddenly said. "We're all dressed normally, and Christian doesn't look too strange, but our Satine girl here looks pretty weird."
"My clothing is not weird!" Satine fumed. "This is high Parisian fashion!"
"Not in 2002, dearie."
"Here. Let's get her something. I only have thirty bucks with me." Kara made a face. "What can that buy?"
"What is this?" Christian held up a hot dog to the indignation of a vendor.
"A hot dog."
"What?"
"You eat it. Put it down, Christian." Madi tried not to laugh. Christian was like a little kid in a toy store.
"Okay, we could probably get Satine something from a thrift store." Kara said. "Here, let's go in here."
Screaming Mimi's was busy, much to the relief of the girls. Hannah stayed outside with the oddly dressed couple while Kara and Madi hurriedly searched for something for Satine to wear. "These look like they'll fit." Madi said, tossing Kara a pair of jeans.
"And these'll work too." Kara added a pair of red tennis shoes to their pile, then grabbed a Poison (famous 80's hair band) t-shirt that would need a little deconstructing to make it passable and quickly purchased their clothing. They rushed Satine into a bathroom where she changed and came out to model her outfit.
"I look hideous!" She moaned.
"Not a chance." Christian winked.
"Thanks, Satine." The girls said dryly. "We're wearing the same thing as you...well, pretty close."
"You just need a little snip here," Kara, borrowed scissors in hand, cut the neckline of Satine's shirt, making a small V.
"And here." Hannah grabbed them from Kara and chopped off the shirt's bottom hem. Now it revealed just a little of Satine's stomach.
"Looks good." Christian commented. The girls had grabbed a pair of jeans for him and he looked quite normal.
"Except for her hair." Madi added. She took a rubber band from Kara and pulled Satine's hair up into a normal-girl ponytail.
"Now you look 21st century." Kara laughed. "Perfect."
"We need to find a computer before we take her to the hospital."
"Uh-oh." Hannah's face dropped and her eyes darted from Kara to Madi. "Guys, you need a birth certificate to get into a hospital, don't you? And this isn't gonna work, Satine being born in the 1800s and all."
"I was born in 1876." Satine informed them. "Does that help?"
"No."
"That just makes it worse."
"I don't like these pants." She whined. "I feel like a man."
"I think they look nice," Christian consoled her. "I like the shirt myself."
"Yeah, you just like seeing her stomach and everything so revealed." Madi laughed.
"Of course!" Christian gave her a playful shove and she punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"Okay, I'm starving and we need to find a computer." Kara said, looking kind of annoyed.
"I'm hungry too." The others agreed.
"How 'bout here?" Christian asked, glancing at the little coffee shop that they were standing next to.
"COMPUTERS!" Kara breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Awesome! Hopefully my mom is online."
All five literally flew into the building and sat down at the nearest computer, where Kara logged on to her AOL.
"What does this do?" Satine asked, sitting next to her.
"We're just going to pretend they're some exchange students from some little tiny country who hasn't seen a computer before, okay?" Hannah asked.
"Good idea." Madi grinned.
"Well, I'm sending a message to my mom who's at her work right now. See?" Kara typed: "Hey Mom, I'm having a little trouble with one of my friends and I'm in New York. Yeah, New York. Don't ask why."
Kara's mother wrote back really quickly: "What are you doing in New York?"
"Mom, I just need you to wire me some money, please!"
"Why?"
"Because I need it, okay? I'll tell you later. Long story. PLEASE?"
"Okay. How much?"
"Two hundred?"
"WHAT!?!?"
"Okay, one hundred. I'll pay you back. Promise!"
"All right." Kara's mother typed. "Done."
"Thanks, Mom. I love you. Bye."
Kara closed out of the window and turned to her friends. "That should help. Let's eat. Dinner's on me."
After two huge boxes of pizza and several cans of Coke each, much to the interest of Satine and Christian, who had probably devoured more of the stuff than the three girls combined, they stood to leave. They had gotten some strange looks from waitresses, probably wondering why Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman were sitting with three crazy girls. And why Nicole and Ewan were all kissy-face. "I think there's something going on there," one whispered to the other.
"Let's call The Star."
Satine, Christian, Kara, Madi, and Hannah stalked the streets of New York City, dodging strange onlookers and crazy homeless people, all the while pulling Kara away from the stores that were constantly distracting her. "Kara! We have a Satine to save!" Hannah smacked Kara's arm, taking Kara's attention from a Betsey Johnson store window.
"And I have a credit card to spend!" She pouted. "Just this skirt?" It was a hot pink skirt. "And those boots?"
"No!" Madi grabbed Kara's bag and ran.
"Hey! Gimme that!" Kara stole her bag back and smiled evilly. "I'm buying those when we're done."
"You do that." Hannah, feeling like she was the only levelheaded one in the bunch, just smiled.
"Nicole Kidman? Oh my God! Can I have you autograph?" An older man grabbed Satine's arm.
"I'm...not Nicole Kidman!"
"And Ewan McGregor?"
"No." Christian said. "I think you've had a misunderstanding."
"Hey, Mister," Madi shoved her way to Christian and Satine, "they're just look-alikes, okay? We've got an appointment, so see ya later."
"Ta ta!" Kara waved, flouncing off.
"Who are Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor?" Satine asked when they were away from the crowd.
"The people who played you guys in the movie."
Christian was focused on some porn posters adorning the walls of a theater marked XXX. "Oh my God!" His eyes grew wide.
The girls laughed. "Porn, Christian."
"Porn?"
"Yeah. That's a porn theater!"
"Is that legal?"
"As legal as it can be." Kara answered. "Pretty different from your Moulin Rouge, isn't it?"
"Very different. Look at that girl! Her legs are showing!"
The Rougettes collapsed in giggles. "You guys are funny. We should keep you here forever."
"That would be interesting."
"Guys, how's this gonna work?" Madi asked, looking very skeptical.
"Well, Satine's just gonna have to pretend that she lost her birth certificate when she moved from Oklahoma..."
"Say Oklahoma, Satine." Kara coached.
"Oklahoma."
"Good."
"Anyway," Hannah continued, "She'll say that she lost it after moving from Oklahoma to New York."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Christian added his two cents.
"Can you do it, Tine?"
"Sure I can. Don't worry. I'll be just...chunk." Satine grinned and poked Kara's side and they walked through the automatic doors that fascinated Christian.
"Stop that now. They're gonna think you're autistic." Kara yanked Christian away from the doors he was walking through over and over and led him to where Satine was speaking to a receptionist who was giving her trouble.
"We need your birth certificate, dear." The older lady smiled, dripping with false sweetness.
"I told you, I lost it!"
"Listen, lady," Hannah said, getting upset. "She lost her birth certificate and she's really sick, so let's just get her up to a doctor!"
"Or there could be a thing called a lawsuit heading this way." Madi contributed.
"Fine." The woman cursed under her breath and Kara grinned. "Go up to 3D and see Dr. Kondish."
"Waiting rooms suck." Kara mused. "I hate them."
"Me too," Christian agreed.
"You've only been in one once, Christian!" Hannah giggled.
"I hate them anyway."
"Miss Zidler?" A nurse with a blonde ponytail that was so tightly pulled up it made her look Chinese called out Satine's name in a nasal voice. "Follow me, please."
"Should I go with?" Christian whispered to Madi.
"No, just stay here."
For two long hours, Madi, Hannah, Kara, and Christian shuffled through dozens of Time magazines, played rounds and rounds of poker, watched Oprah, and ate four bags of M n' M's. (Hannah, the allergic-to-chocolate girl, ate a granola bar.) Another half hour passed, and the four made up a dance routine to Lady Marmalade, much to the amusement of the receptionists. Finally Satine appeared, smiling brightly and carrying a bag of medicines.
"There's four hundred dollars down the drain," Kara complained. "My parents are going to kill me."
"We'll chip in. Don't worry." Hannah offered.
"What did the doctor say?" Madi asked.
"Just that I have tuberculosis and that if I take these medicines I'll get better. And he gave me some shots, too." Satine pulled up her sleeve, revealing five Scooby Doo band-aids.
"Ouch." Madi winced.
"Here," Kara tossed Satine her Cosmopolitan magazine. "A little memento from 2002."
"Thanks...I think."
When they returned from a restaurant, Kara loaded down with Betsey Johnson bags and an almost-maxed out credit card, the scary truth dawned on them. "Where are we going to stay tonight?" Hannah asked.
"Eep." Kara made a small noise.
"Kara, return those boots!" Madi said.
"NO! Not my boots!" Kara hugged the bags to her chest.
"We could go back to the past..." Satine suggested.
"Good idea."
"We'll have to do it the way we came." Hannah said, grabbing for everyone's hands. They looked strange in the middle of the sidewalk, chanting "Take us back...1899." But as this was New York, it wasn't too odd.
But this time, the blackness didn't come. They were stuck in New York City.