Chapter5

The door of the old deli creaked open hours later and Gabriella walked in.

"You're still here!" her face lit up at the sight of Scipio, "I would have thought Jaymie would have driven you out."

Scipio shook his head. "No, it was actually Jaymie who made -" but he never got to finish his sentence because he was cut off. Cut off by Jaymie.

"I'm off," she jumped to her feet, "I'll be back in a little bit, but I'm singing in the market if you need me or anything."

Gabriella scowled. "You actually think I would go looking for you?"

Slapped by Gabriella's cold words, Jaymie stood by the door as if she had forgotten what she was about to do. She fiddled with the hat in her hands, and broken smile on her face. Scipio shot a look to Gabriella, but she was glaring at the ground.

"You both better be here when I get back," Jaymie said at last, her face back to its normal hard look, "Even you Scipio." With that she made a dash out of the door.

"What am I, a babysitter?" Scipio cried in annoyance.

Right then, out of the blue, Gabriella was sitting next to Scipio on the ground. She had snuggled up to him, her chin on his shoulder so she could whisper in his ear.

"You don't really think I'm going to listen to her, do you? I have a free life to live and so do you. Jaymie just doesn't get that and thinks she can shower us with rules. Let's get out of here, you could use some sunlight."

As tempting as Gabriella's offer sounded, Scipio couldn't bring himself to stand up. "Look, Gabriella," he groaned, "I want to go outside as much as you do, but your sister sort of has a thing against me. I need to stay on her good side to get her to trust me."

"Fine," Gabriella pouted, "you can stay here by yourself like the good little boy you are… Or you can come out with me. I promise we'll be back before Jaymie." She paused, smirking at Scipio as he tried to choose the right decision. "Oh I know," she cooed, "peer pressure is so unfair, isn't it?"

"Just a little," Scipio grimaced. Gabriella was getting too close for comfort, and the only way he could shake her off without offending her was by standing up, which meant…

"Alright," Scipio got to his feet, "let's get out of here."

Gabriella winked at him. "That's my boy."

The wind was fairly calm that day which let the sunlight soak into the skin of others. It was the first time it had felt comfortably warm outside in months and people weren't going to let this day go to waste. By the afternoon the marketplace was swarming with people, making it easy for someone's hand to accidentally slip into the pocket of another's jacket.

"Who carries a Swiss Army Knife in their pocket?" Gabriella asked as she stared at it intently. She was chewing on a pear Scipio had snatched for her only a little earlier. "Doesn't that make you feel safer now Scipio, knowing that one less person in Venice is carrying a knife around?"

"You mean now that you're carrying the knife around?" Scipio asked playfully, "Not really."

Gabriella giggled. "Oh, by the way, someone's looking for you."

Scipio's whole body tensed. "W-what do you mean? Who's looking for me?"

"Not really sure," Gabriella shrugged as she took another bite out of the fruit, "some girl asked me today if I knew the Thief Lord. She had really long braids and enormous eyes…"

Hornet. Scipio knew immediately it was her. "What did you tell her?"

"Relax, would you Scipio? I didn't give away your hiding spot. Please, why would I tell some ex-thief where you were staying? I'm not an idiot like Jaymie is."

Scipio shook his head in disbelief. "I don't get it," he said before he could stop himself, "why can't you just get along with Jaymie? She's your sister after all."

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she tucked a blonde lock behind her ear. "It's because she's my sister that I can't get along with her. She's too overprotective about everything. I can't stand her sometimes."

"You shouldn't take her for granted though. You're lucky to have her looking out for you -"

"Look, can we ple-e-e-ease not talk about Jaymie?" Gabriella begged as she clutched Scipio's arm, "She's just so boring and…"

Suddenly Gabriella's voice dropped as if someone had come up from behind and covered her mouth. Scipio couldn't help but smile, glad that his ears could have a rest from her shrill voice. But as he turned to look at her, his smile evaporated. Gabriella's face was covered in terror.

"Scip-Scipio, we have to get out of here." She whispered, "We have to leave now… it's Marco."

Although Scipio didn't know who Marco was, he began to scan the crowd. "What's wrong?" he asked frantically, "Who's Marco?"

"Look, Scipio," Gabriella took off her long red jacket and flipped it inside out so that now its black interior was showing (it was quite smart actually), "I don't really have time to explain anything to you right now. We just have to get out of -"

"Gabriella," Scipio took a hold of her arms, "just tell me. Who is Marco?"

She looked up at him, terror written all over her face. "Marco," she whispered, "he's from the Bloodhound Gang, and he's after me."