Chapter 43

"SLEEPOVER!" Jaz screamed, jumping on the bed that I unfortunately had to share with her. I glared at her.

"Keep it down, will you?"

We had arrived at the hotel about an hour ago and Mrs. Jenkins had announced who'd be rooming with whom. Of course, she'd stuck me with Jaz.

"I wonder what's on TV!" Jaz picked up at the remote, turning it on.

I yawned. "That's boring. We should do something fun. We're staying at a hotel, anyway."

"That could get you in trouble," the other person sharing the room with us said.

Oh yeah.

Daisy was the third person staying in our room.

I shrugged. "Well, it's better than watching-"

"High School Musical!" Jaz interrupted, pausing on Disney Channel.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, that."

"We're all in this together!" Jaz started singing.

"They're not even singing that song yet," Daisy said with a laugh, hugging her fuzzy pink pillow that she'd brought. Of course, she'd claimed the twin bed for herself, leaving me with Jaz.

"Let me see if there's anything else on," I told Jaz, reaching for the remote.

"No!" she yelled, holding it away from me. "This is my favorite movie!"

"Over here!" Daisy yelled, holding her hands out as if to catch the remote. Jaz threw it to her and the two of them started giggling hysterically.

I studied Daisy for a second. She'd been acting kind of weird with all the staring and silence earlier, but now she seemed normal enough. Maybe she'd just been feeling sick earlier.

I grinned to myself. Daisy isn't evil, of course, I thought. I can't wait to see the look on Fang's face when he finds out we aren't in any danger.

Well, we still had to figure out what to do about Daisy's dad. But I'd think of something later.

"Max?" Jaz's voice said, and I realized I'd just been sitting there, smiling to myself like an idiot. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I mean, of course I am!" I stood up. "Come on. High School Musical is boring, let's go do something…. fun." I grinned.

Jaz shuddered. "I don't like the way you said that."

I shook my head. "We're not going to get in trouble," I reassured the two girls, making my way over to the door and pushing it open. "Anyone hungry?"

~~::~~

"Max, I really don't think this is a good idea," Jaz whispered.

I held my finger up to my lips. "Be quiet or we'll get in trouble," I mouthed.

Jaz, who was apparently not good at lip-reading, loudly whispered, "WHAT?"

"Shhhh!" Daisy hissed.

"You shhhhhh!" Jaz whispered back.

I rolled my eyes at them. "Both of you shut up," I said, in a low voice. "Now come on."

Slowly, I led the way towards the lobby area of the hotel, where there was a little snack shop. It was a simple plan – run in, get the snacks, and run out.

"Can't we just buy snacks?" Jaz whined.

I shushed her. "We don't have any money!"

"Daisy's rich," Jaz retorted, quietly so that only I heard her. "She could probably buy this whole hotel."

"Whatever," I responded. I hadn't really thought of that, but it was too late now.

When we reached the lobby, however, we ran into another issue.

"There's someone working still!" Jaz whispered happily, pointing at the bored-looking lady sitting at the front desk. "Looks like it's too bad for us."

"Go distract her," I whispered back, shoving Jaz towards the lady.

"Wait!" she yelled, then realized the lady had already both seen and heard her.

Daisy covered her mouth with both hands. "We're dead."

I shook my head. "Not if we move quickly!" I told her, pulling her into the little store that was filled with snacks.

"What's in here?" Daisy whispered, opening a small freezer. "Oh, ice cream!"

"Grab it," I told her with a grin, yanking bags of chips off the shelves. I could hear Jaz saying to the lady at the front desk, "So I was wondering if we could have some extra towels, because I need to take a shower and we only have two towels and my friend already used them and-"

I rolled my eyes silently. Leave it to Jaz to never shut up.

Daisy was still just standing there with the freezer open. "What's the problem?" I asked her. "Got everything you want already?" Actually, she hadn't taken anything yet.

Daisy shifted from foot to foot. "Well, Max…" she trailed off. "I've never stolen anything before. Stealing is bad."

"Oh, for crying out loud," I muttered. "Right. Little Rich Girl probably gets everything she wants, right?"

Daisy just stared at me. She looked like she was about to cry – I guess she was really sensitive or something.

But then she frowned, shaking her head. "That's not true at all, Max. I-"

"Who's in there?" the employee lady's voice yelled.

"Crap," I muttered. "Let's move." I grabbed Daisy's arm, ready to get our butts out of there.

"Wait," Daisy whispered, after a second of hesitation. "This ice cream does look good."

"Okay, that's nice!" I replied as she started grabbing ice cream containers. "But we need to go!" Without waiting a second more, I dashed out of there and didn't stop running until we'd made it to the elevator.

After a few seconds, Jaz came running up to us, getting in the elevator just before the doors closed. "That… was… a close one," she panted. "The lady's…really mad."

We were all silent as the elevator started its ascent. Then we all burst out laughing.

"I can imagine she is," I told Jaz with a smirk. "Bet you can't wait to see what we got!"

"Ice cream!" Daisy said proudly, holding up her container.

I grinned, giving her a thumbs-up. She burst out laughing again. "I'm never stealing anything ever again," she added.

As we headed back to our room, Jaz grinned at me. "Best field trip ever!" she whispered.

~~::~~

Author's Note: Well, there wasn't any of the other flock members in this chapter. Hm. But don't worry, it won't stay like that for long, of course.