I wasn't kidding about the strip clubs, either. Even though I had my sun glasses on at all times, as we drive down the Vegas Strip, I swear, we passed about fifteen clubs in a mile radius, one I particularly noticed called "Some Like It Hot," because it's sign had the glaring neon depiction of a woman pole dancing. I could see that Josh was finding it amusing that I, of all people, who school where I do with all the people I had met at Aaron's party, thought that all strip clubs should be burned to the ground along with gentlemen's clubs and public restrooms. But most of the people that [i]I[/i] hang out with aren't as bad as Michael and Todd. Well, some of them are….
"Here we are." Caleb's voice broke the silence as we stopped in front of one of those 100-story buildings at the end of the strip. I looked up, and more neon lights flashed "The Ava Hotel and Casino." So this is where we were meeting up with Caleb's friends? At a Casino? Well this aught' a be interesting. "Ethan and all of them should just be getting up, so we may have to wait for a couple of minutes before we can talk to them."
"Just getting up?" I was confused.
"They're not Italian. I think we've got a Brit, an Irishman and a Frenchman up there, and their spouses are all American. Two of them are human though, so you'll at least be entertained by their son Adam." I blinked.
"Uhm….ok." We headed inside, and were immediately escorted up about 80 floors, when I private elevator lead us into someone's private suite.
"You things will be delivered to your own suites, and Mr. Carrick will be with you momentarily." With that, Our escort headed down a hall in the suite, and left us in the tidy living room.
"Wait a second, didn't I see a picture of some Carrick guy when we walked in?" I asked. Caleb and Melanie both nodded.
"Ethan Carrick is the owner of this casino. He's also an old friend of ours." Before Caleb could say anything else, the escort came back down the hall and into the elevator, and a moment later, a man with black hair wearing slacks and a button up shirt came down the hall, followed by a shorter woman with short blonde hair, wearing a blue summer dress.
"Caleb, Melanie!" the man shouted, pulling Caleb into a brotherly hug. The woman hugged Melanie cheerfully and kissed her on both cheeks.
"Alexis, it's good to see you again," Melanie said. The woman smiled and hugged Caleb after the man had let go of him, moving to hug Melanie. Then, he spotted Josh. I stepped back as he bear hugged Josh. He was only a few inches taller than him, but it was funny to see, and even funnier when he gave Josh a noogie.
"Hey Uncle Ethan," Josh said, sounding embarrassed. I tried not to laugh as I could tell that Josh would be blushing right now if he could. That's when Alexis and Ethan spotted me.
"Well this must be the newcomer," Alexis said, holding out a hand. "I'm Alexis Carrick, Ethan's wife. Pleased to meet you." I shook her hand, smiling politely. She leaned in close and whispered into my ear. "Don't worry. I'm somewhat new to this whole thing too. You get used to it after a while." I laughed and moved to Ethan.
"And I'm Ethan Carrick, owner of the Ava and President of the vampire nation."
"Stop showing off," Alexis said, rolling her eyes. I smiled gave a pretend little curtsey.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. President. I'm Holly Pevency." Josh snorted behind me, and Alexis let out a little giggle.
"Oh yeah, she'll fit right in here."
This is soooo awkward. Ok, sell maybe not [i]that[/i] awkward, but what could be more awkward than sitting in a room with three women that looked about twice your age, with nothing to talk about while everyone else was in the next room discussing you. Of course, the fact that I had met Alexis a little time before Brittany and Cara had helped a bit, but I still had nothing to say.
"So, Holly, where do you work back in Texas?" Cara asked. I blinked.
"Uhm….work?" I raised an eyebrow. "I don't work yet. Technically not allowed to get my workers permit till Friday on my birthday." All of them looked a bit taken aback. Brittany's baby, Adam, gurgled in her lap.
"How old are you, exactly?" Brittany asked, looking confused.
"Well technically I'm the same age as Josh….."
"You're thirteen?" Alexis asked, shocked.
"Uh…yeah?"
"You look about twenty something," Cara said, sitting back on the couch.
"I seem to be getting that a lot lately. Josh made some crack about how I should apply for a job at that strip club, Some Like It Hot, down the street from here." Cara looked down, and Alexis laughed. "What?"
"Cara used to work there, back when she was human," Alex explained, shaking her head. "And Josh is right, you could certainly pass for their age limit." I laughed this time.
"That was true even before I changed. My friends always said I looked older." I smiled and shook my head. Just then, the door opened, and Josh, Ethan, Caleb, Melanie, Seamus and Corbin all piled out of Seamus' suite, Josh looking a bit peeved. And that would be when I heard the door to Ethan's suite bang open, and two second later, Sadie flounced into the room, wearing a tank top and jeans, sunglasses still adorning her face. She was followed by a man who looked somewhat like Caleb. His hair was graying in places, and he wore the older, 80's cop style glasses. Both of them simultaneously pulled their glasses onto their heads, and Sadie beamed at everyone.
"Sorry we're late," she started. "Our plane got delayed. Some idiot was carrying safety scissors." Caleb walked over to the two and pulled the man into a brotherly hug.
"Eli, good to see you! I keep telling you to get your own plane." Eli laughed as he pulled back. He gestured back to Sadie.
"I would, but this one's already spoiled enough with the yacht." Sadie rolled her eyes and danced over to where I was, pulling me into a small hug. I was a bit shell shocked, but hugged her back.
"Holly, it's great to see you again!" She smiled wider and walked over to Josh, hugging him too. "And Josh, always a pleasure." Josh seemed to brighten up a bit and hugged her back.
"Sadie! Did Johnny tag along." Sadie pulled back and rolled her eyes again.
"No, he's got those stupid football tryouts for the new school. He promised not to use too much strength, but God knows…" She trailed off, gesturing to Josh. He rolled his eyes too, and looked back at me. How did everyone know each other? Who was this guy with Sadie? Who was this Johnny character? How did Ethan know Caleb and Melanie? The confusion just kept piling on, and I felt like my brain was about to explode.
"Ok, wait, everybody stop!" I put my arms out, and the room's chatted died down, everyone staring at me. I stuttered. "Would s-someone p-please explain what's g-going on? And what y-you looked so depressed a-about?" I pointed to Josh, and he scowled, turning his head so his brown bangs covered his eyes. Sadie looked sympathetic, and Caleb stepped in front of me.
"You might want to sit down." I crossed my arms and scoffed, trying to sound calm.
"Caleb, you'd think I could handle pretty much anything after what I've been through." I could see Josh and Sadie smiling out of the corners of my eyes, and Caleb raised his eyebrows, and crossed his arms right back.
"OK, how about this? We think you're a Nymph Princess."
"Maybe I do need to sit down."
"Out of all the things I could be, it had to be a Nymph Princess Vampire." Sadie, on the other side of the racks of dresses, started cracking up. Shut up, I thought. She only laughed harder.
"I'm s-sorry," she stuttered. "It just sounds so funny when you say it like that." I rolled my eyes for what felt like the twentieth time that day. Cara threw me a look out of the corner of her eyes.
"Did your mom explain anything on the phone?" I twirled a piece of loose hair in my fingers as I passed a rack of pink, sparkly dresses, scowling.
"Well, all she could say was that her mom, my nana, was really good with lighting candles. She never got burned, even when she was cooking."
"So she's a Fire Nymph?" Brittany came around from the other side of the rack, holding a simple LBD up to her.
"She was. And nice choice on the LBD." She smiled, but Alexis looked confused.
"LBD?" She was holding about five different dresses in her hand, each one of them a vibrant color. Sadie answered before I could.
"Little black dress. One of the five staples every female should have in her closet." I smiled and nodded as I pulled a cream and gold short cut princess dress off the rack, holding it up to myself.
"Honey, you've gotta stop thinking you're still a size eight." Sadie grabbed the dress out of my hands and handed me the same one in a smaller size.
"Sorry, force of habit." I held it up to me again. "I don't even get why we're dress shopping. I mean, the party's not gonna be like a ball or anything. And apparently there's some sort of surprise for me there." Melanie had stayed behind at the hotel with the boys, who all already had their tuxes, to make sure that everything was set straight for the event. After the hour of explaining Ethan and Caleb had done, it was almost midnight by the time we got out to shop. Only in Vegas are dress shops open till like three AM.
"I don't know," Alexis started. "The boys just said to be ready by three thirty in the morning. Night life is weird like that. We don't even know what this whole thing is about." I rolled my eyes again and grabbed another dress off the rack.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are the other four staples in a woman's closet?" Brittany was speaking again, and she too was holding a few dresses now. I smiled knowingly and turned to her.
"Well, there's the LBD, of course. And then a good pair of jeans, a white button up shirt, a pair of black ballet flats, and then a black blazer. You can do so many things with all of those."
"God, are you sure you're thirteen?" Alexis laughed at her own joke. I shrugged.
"I've spent all my allowance for most of the past year on Cosmo." By the time we got to the dressing room, we all had our hands full. Most of us had five dresses, Sadie being the exception, having seven. She tried two of them on, quickly throwing them in the "no" pile. Each of us put one dress on, and at the count of three we all stepped out. The first four times, each of us had no's.
"One, two, three!" I stepped out of my stall, and looked at the four other girls.
"Oh. My. Gosh." I glanced at Sadie as I went over everyone else's dresses. Alexis was wearing a dark green corseted dress that was flowy towards the bottom. Cara was wearing a burgundy v-necked slip dress what accentuated her curves. Brittany had on her LBD, a strapless number. Sadie had on an ice blue silk cocktail dress that her legs looked amazing in. And I, ironically enough, was wearing a blood red corseted dress, with a tool skirt that ended just before the knees, with gold and orange accents.
"You all look amazing!" Cara crowed, adjusting her bangs.
"All the guys are gonna go gaga over you two," Brittany said, gesturing to myself and Sadie.
"Well, I'm taken, technically." I put air quotes around the words taken and a pulled my hair out of my ponytail. "But only at school. For now, since tonight is just going to be vampires, I think I'm safe to do a little flirting."
"Hey, Sadie, it's too bad Johnny didn't come, or you could have totally set him up with Holly here." Sadie made a face.
"Holly would have kicked his ass for being the sick pervert he is." Wow, Sadie sure had a strong opinion of her twin brother. As I had learned, Sadie and her brother Johnny had been on the same train as the Carlson's in Ireland when it crashed. Eli was there as well. Ethan was the vampire who changed them all those years ago. Apparently he was almost a millennium old. Strange thought, how much he's seen.
"Sadie, I remind you, I'm in ninth grade. I'm used to sick perverts."
"Oh, if only it were still the twenties." She had this wistful look in her eyes. "Back then, men treated women like ladies. Even teenagers." As I headed back into my changing room, I snorted.
"Yeah, now all guys think about is sex, boos, and more sex."
"Don't forget blood," Alexis said. We all laughed.
"Haha, yeah. Oh, that reminds me, I need to feed when we get back to the Ava. I haven't eaten in like a day." And as we checked out, I couldn't help but think that tonight was going to be more fun than I thought.