Chapter 13
We sat on the floor in a circle. I wanted answers…real bad.
"Let's start with what happened," I suggested, and Fiske nodded.
"Alright, we arrived in morph and to my surprise, no guards were outside. This got me a bit suspicious, but I pushed it aside," Fiske said.
"Well, you shouldn't have. It would've saved five hours of my life," Natalie scolded.
"Excuse me, Ms. Kabra. Would you like to tell the story?" Fiske asked.
"No," Natalie grumbled.
"Thank you. Now, we easily broke in. There were no locks or traps at all. The security cameras were still on, so we disabled them quickly. After that, we traveled to the heart of the base, where the shield was supposedly held. However, when we got there, we only found a single note."
"What did it say?" I asked eagerly, leaning forward.
"It said, 'Nice try, Cahills. I would try looking somewhere different,'" Fiske recited solemnly. "We looked all around the base, but the shield wasn't in sight and neither were any people. It was deserted. They had moved the shield to another base before we got there."
"How did they know that we were coming?" I asked.
"I don't know, but we have to find out where they held the shield," Fiske said.
"It could be anywhere on this planet!" Sinead shouted.
"Ms. Starling, please lower your voice, and yes. That is true," Fiske confirmed.
"Then all hope is lost," Alistair said.
"No!" Dan spoke up. He had gotten everyone's attention. "We can't give up yet! Do we want a large number of Vesper-Dragons prancing around here?" There were a chorus of no's. "Then we have to keep going. In fact, I found a paper that might help us," he said, and everyone was surprised by his motivation.
"You have the paper with you?" Jonah asked.
"No," Dan said, and I knew where he was going with this.
"Good job, Daniel! That didn't help us at all! Kudos," Natalie said, throwing her hands in the air.
"No, I didn't bring the paper," Dan said, and Natalie opened her mouth to speak. "But I memorized it."
"You memorized it?" Ned asked.
"Yep, every single word," Dan bragged, and I rolled my eyes.
"A photographic memory," Ian mused aloud, then realized he had spoken and hardened his face. "Not that it's uncommon," he recovered. Ian wouldn't give any satisfaction to Dan…psh, boys.
"Yep, and let's see you memorize it, Cobra," Dan retorted.
"It's probably not even that-"
"Dudes!" Jonah interrupted. "Shut up! Dan, recite the paper for us."
Dan shot Ian a victorious look. "Do all of you know how to dance?"
Silence.
"That's what the bloody paper said? Do all of you know how to dance?" Natalie scoffed.
"Nope, there's a Vesper ball. I was thinking that we could sneak in and get some information while we were there. But at the same time…ew, dancing," Dan said.
"Genius! Good job, Dan!" Fiske praised.
"I could have thought of that," Natalie uttered, and Dan rolled his eyes.
"So, there will be dancing involved…interesting," Ian spoke aloud again, but this time he didn't realize it straight away.
"Um, dude? It's a ball. Dancing is what you do at a ball," Hamilton said, clearly disgusted by the thought. Looks like someone didn't know how to dance.
"Whatever, Holt, like you know how to dance," Ian sneered, reading my thoughts, but adding his own little flare of snootiness.
"I bet you don't either, Kabra!" Hamilton protested.
"Ah, but I do, and you just admitted that you don't know how to," Ian pointed out.
"Oh, yeah! Let's see it then!" Hamilton said.
"Alright, but I can't dance alone," Ian said.
"I'm not being your partner!" Hamilton exclaimed.
"The feeling is mutual," Ian looked Hamilton up and down and he didn't even try to hide the look of disgust that crossed his face.
"Kabra-"
"Boys! Please be quiet!" Fiske commanded.
"He started it," Hamilton muttered.
"Shut it, Dolt," Ian growled. I rolled my eyes at their foolishness.
"So, what do we do now?" Alistair asked.
"Isn't it obvious? We dance."
~I wanted words, but all I heard was nothing. ~
A few weeks later, I found myself being dragged into a rather expensive looking store to look for a dress. Meanwhile, the guys were looking for suits.
"Do we really have to go now?" I asked, being led by Natalie's hand through the doorway.
"Yes! We can't have you buying some strange dress at the last minute. You're fashion isn't the best, you know," Natalie said, and I rolled my eyes. I could care less what my fashion sense was like.
"Besides, we have to make a certain Kabra drool over you," Sinead pointed out.
"Yeah, right," I said, controlling a blush.
"Kabras don't drool, but she's got a point," Natalie said.
"Of course I have a point. I'm not a Holt," the girls laughed at the joke. I personally didn't think it was that funny. I liked the Holts.
We walked into the store and overwhelming scent washed over me. I ignored the want to plug my nose. The store was full of dresses and gowns of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were pink and fluffy…Whoop dee do.
"See anything you like?" Natalie asked.
"No," I said truthfully.
"Well, we'll find something," that was when an assistant wearing heavy makeup came up to us.
"Alexandra!" Natalie cried and they hugged. Leave it to Natalie to know her.
"Ah, Ms. Natalie, long time, no buy!" Alexandra squealed with an accent that I couldn't place.
"I know, but today I'm not here for me," Natalie said, and Alexandra looked confused. Then she and Natalie cracked up. "Oh, of course I'm here for me, but I need help finding a…friend's dress as well."
"Okay!" Alexandra looked me up and down. "Greens, blues, whites, blacks, or maybe a navy will do."
"That's what I was thinking," Natalie said. "And for her?" Natalie gestured to Sinead.
"The same, but maybe a yellow could be thrown in there somewhere," Alexandra said, and she turned to me. "So, who's the lucky guy?" I choked on air.
Natalie ignored my coughing fit. "My brother."
I got over the coughing quickly. "No! That's not true!" I argued.
They ignored me. "Ah, I see. Mr. Ian Kabra, you're a lucky girl." I choked again. Alexandra tuned to Sinead. "And you?"
"Unlike you, I don't have perfect guys practically falling to my feet," Sinead said, eyeing me. My throat was getting sore. "So…nobody, I guess."
"Ah, but there will be someone once a guy sees you in one of these dresses, and dear? Could you please stop coughing?" I shut up.
"Right this way," Alexandra gestured for us to follow her. Natalie immediately got lost in the dresses, picking up random ones and holding one up to her, me, or Sinead.
Before I knew it, I had about a dozen dresses in my hands. They ranged from floor length to short party dresses.
"Now, this is a rather casual ball. It's not really a ball by any means. It's basically a party with lots of dancing," Natalie had said.
I got in a dressing room against my will and tried on the first dress. It was a black strapless dress that came above my knees. I liked it, but I kind of felt insecure about it at the same time. I stepped out from behind the curtain and met the eyes of my judges. Sinead had already picked out a lovely turquoise dress.
"Twirl." Natalie commanded, and I did a little spin.
"I like it," Alexandra said and the girls nodded. "But I don't think it's what we're looking for. The girls nodded again.
"Plus, we don't want Ian-"
"Don't even finish that sentence," I told her and went back into the dressing room.
Once I had tried on all of the dresses, we had chosen one. I was happy with the choice. It was a dark green halter neck dress that went a bit above my knees. Apparently to Natalie, it was elegant and casual at the same time. Don't ask…
By the time we had walked out of the store, my feet ached and guess what? The girls wanted to go shopping for jewelry.
No, thank you.
Author's Note: Blah, Blah, Blah. I hope you liked it. I'm hungry and tired so I'm going to sleep...and then eat. Wait...that doesn't work. Alright, I'm either insane (very possible) or insanely exhausted (also possible). So...uh...gosh, I have nothing to say. For once...the apocolypse is coming.
~Nataliya
P.S. I didn't check over this so I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes.