Rejoice for the next chapter!

CHAPTER 2
Trina's POV

At dinner that night, Tori could not stop talking about how excited she was to go to Vegas with her friends. Seriously, some people just don't know when to shut up, do they? I sighed and tried to focus on finishing my salad before heading up into my room.

I went to my closet and pulled out my hot pink luggage that my parents had got me several years ago. I piled in a bunch of shirts and pants and other articles of clothing. I knew that I couldn't put anything else in it, like my toiletries, or my parents would probably suspect something. So I shoved the bag back into my closet.

I peeked outside my door and heard my parents and Tori talking.

"We'll get you a credit card or something," Dad said. "Because I don't think it's going to be very safe for you to be carrying out two-weeks' worth of cash. Especially in Vegas."

"Sikowitz is going, too, you know," Tori replied.

"Yes, well," Mom said, "He's Sikowitz, and I don't think he reacts to situations the way most people would."

"Okay," Tori said resignedly.

"We'll connect your account to ours so we can monitor what you spend," Dad said, and I heard his fingers clicking on his laptop. "We'll try and order you a card, but if it doesn't get here in time you can just use ours. We've got a couple extras and you can use one of them."

"Yay!" Tori exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and ducked back into my bedroom. I'd wait until everyone was asleep to make my first move.

It was close to two in the morning when I felt my PearPhone vibrate underneath my pillow. I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes sleepily. I was considering going back to sleep but then I remembered: I had a job to do.

As quietly as I could I tiptoed over to my parents' bedroom. I saw Mom sleeping in the bed, and I figured that Dad was downstairs finishing up his paperwork or something. I knew she kept her purse right next to her bedside, so I had to be very careful going to get it.

I snuck my way to her side, crawling on the floor, looking on the ground frantically for her purse. I found it and reached inside, feeling for her wallet and pulling it out. I opened it up in the dark, not able to see anything in it. I knew that she kept a couple of credit cards in there, in case of emergencies and stuff, so I grabbed the first two cards I could feel before putting the wallet away and dashing out of there as quietly and as fast as I could.

Mission a success, I thought, coming back into my room. I turned on my desk light and looked over the cards. One was a gift card to Skybucks, which I was probably going to have to return so my mom wouldn't get suspicious, and the other was what I was looking for: a silver, shiny new credit card. I smiled to myself, and knew that tomorrow, phase two would be put into action.

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"Hey, Cat!" I called at the redhead. It was afterschool, and lucky for me, Tori had gone with André, Beck, and Jade to some restaurant, and she was no longer here at Hollywood Arts. Even Robbie had somewhere to be; I think he had gone home early to take care of Rex.

"Oh, hi Trina!" Cat said, turning around and smiling at me.

"So I heard you get to go on the Vegas 777 trip," I inquired.

"Yeah I do. Beck invited me and my parents said I could go," Cat replied, fiddling with the stuffed pink rabbit in her hands.

"Well, that's great news," I congratulated. She nodded mutely in agreement, stroking her animal's furry mustache. It looked like she was getting ready to walk away, but I said quickly, "So, did they like, talk to you about the trip today or something? Because I know Tori said last night that someone was going to talk to her about it."

"Uh-huh," the girl said.

There was an awkward silence as I waited for her to tell me more, but Cat was silent, grinning down at her toy.

"So, what kind of things did they tell you?" I asked, pulling my PearPhone out of my pocket.

"Oh, I'm not supposed to tell you," she said, looking up at me.

"Why—why not?" I persisted, trying not to act surprised. I opened up the note I had started from the previous night.

"Because it's a secret…shh." She brought a finger to her lips.

"Well, I'm really good at keeping secrets, you can tell me," I encouraged. "Um, Tori told me everything at lunch, and I want to see if the information she had was right," I lied. "I promise not to tell anyone."

Cat's eyebrows came together suspiciously. Finally she said, "Okay, I guess I can tell you. I'm not supposed to, but they didn't say I couldn't. And if Tori told you, why can't I?" She giggled, and I got ready to take down notes. "They told us that our flight was going to be in the afternoon on Friday and the flight number is LV25, and that our hotel is called The Royale."

I jotted down the notes furiously on my PearPhone. "Is that it? Because Tori told me something about the news station."

"She did? But they made us swear not to tell anyone." She looked so sad all of a sudden. "I don't like swearing."

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant," I said quickly, trying to cover up my mistake. "You know, that must've been my imagination. Never mind."

"Okay," she replied, perking up almost instantly.

"Well, thanks for talking to me," I said, getting ready to leave. "Now I can compare notes." I waved my PearPhone around in her face. "Bye, Cat!"

"Bye, Trina!" she called, waving at me furiously, although I had already turned around was walking away. And I was too far away to hear her say, "Now wait, was it the LV25 flight or LV44?"

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Tori's POV

It was the day of my departure to Vegas. I stood by the front door, my bags packed and my plane ticket in hand. Dad had given me one of his own credit cards after all, and it was safely tucked away in my purse. He helped me wheel my luggage out to the car, because I would not be returning home: a cab would pick us up from school and take us straight to the airport.

Trina came out of the house just as I had the last bag packed away, wheeling her own hot pink luggage.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Trina," my dad said, holding up a hand to stop her from bringing the bag into the car. "What are you doing?"

"You know my friend Molly? Well, she invited me over to have a sleepover this weekend," Trina told him.

"Really? And how come you didn't mention this earlier?" my dad questioned.

"She sent me a text last night," Trina answered. "We might go watch a movie or just hang out or something."

"Okay, well, give us a call when you get to her house later tonight," he said, taking her luggage and putting it in the back of the car with mine.

Mom came out of the house when Trina was sitting in the driver's seat and I was in shotgun.

"Bye Tori," she said in a thick voice, reaching into the car through the window to hug us. "And have fun at your sleepover, Trina. Don't come home too early now."

I snickered and said, "Bye, Mom," giving her a hug back.

"Keep close with your group," she replied, not letting go of me. "And don't do anything stupid."

"I promise," I mumbled back.

"Okay." She stepped away, and Trina drove the car out of the driveway. "Bye!" I called one last time to my parents, waving at them both. "I'll send you a post card when I get there!"

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Beck's POV

We had all just gotten to the airport. It was about two in the afternoon, and we hauled our luggage through the front doors, trying to figure out which way to go.

"Didn't they say that they were going to meet us somewhere?" Robbie asked as we made our way through the crowds. Much to everyone's dismay Rex was coming along, as he had gotten over his stomach virus.

"Yes," Sikowitz replied, "But they'll be meeting us at the Vegas airport; not here."

"Our flight is in two hours," Tori interrupted.

"Okay, well, why don't we figure out what to do first?" Sikowitz pulled us over to the side. "Beck and Jade, can you guys check in the luggage? Over there." He pointed to a ridiculously long line that led up to several large machines that people were weighing luggage on.

I saw that Jade was about to object so I said, "Sure."

"Good," Sikowitz answered, handing us a whole packet of plane tickets to show to the people that we were checking bags in for our friends, and not just us.

Everyone handed us their luggage that they wanted to be checked in. There ended up being too many for just the two of us, so Sikowitz made Robbie come with us, who left Rex with Tori. We dragged the four big luggages, two large handbag ones, and Sikowitz's backpack to the back of the line.

"Wow, that's a lot of bags you got there," the old man in front of us said when he saw what we were holding.

"They're for friends," I hastened to say, because Jade was probably going to say something ruder. "We're, uh, taking a trip to Vegas."

"Fun," the man replied.

And so we stood there for what seemed hours until we finally reached the front of the line. Robbie kept trying to talk to Jade, but Jade continued to ignore him, while I watched with an amused face.

I grabbed three of the luggage and wheeled them over to the first open counter, while Jade and Robbie waited at the front of the line for the next open spot. We figured to check in the bags a few at a time, rather than all at once. I showed the woman three plane tickets and she accepted them without a word. I saw that Robbie struggled to lift André's baggage onto the scale at one station, and Jade talked to a man at a different counter, no luggage by her feet.

I walked over and helped Robbie place Cat's colorful bag onto the scale before the woman tossed it away on the conveyor belt, and then we made our way over to Jade.

"Yes, this one will be going on the LV44 flight," she told the man, reaching into her purse to pull out some tickets, "but this one is on the LV25 flight." The man looked at the tickets a bit warily, but accepted them without a word.

I heard the little exchange and questioned her when she came over to us.

"Jade, we're all on the LV44 flight," I said as the man heaved Tori's luggage onto the conveyor belt along with the rest, which were already making their way down the line to wherever the luggages went.

"I know," she answered as we started to walk back to the group.

"But I heard you say that one of the luggages was on the LV25 flight," I countered. I paused, thinking. "Give me your tickets," I said, almost frantically.

She didn't move so I grabbed her purse and reached inside.

"Beck!" she shouted.

I looked and found three plane tickets, even though I had three and Robbie had two.

"What is this?" I asked her, pointing to the one ticket that was clearly labeled, 'Flight LV25.'

"It's a plane ticket!" Jade shouted again.

"But it's not even our…" I turned over the odd ticket in my hands. "Where did you get this? Did you make this with that fake plane ticket generator? Come on Jade, this is serious!"

"I know," she shot back.

"Why would you make a fake one if…" I looked back at the conveyor belt just in time to see Tori's luggage disappear behind the black curtains. "Wait, what flight did you put Tori's on?" Jade's face was expressionless, but I knew her well enough to see the guilt in her eyes. "Oh my God, Jade."

"What's wrong?" Robbie interrupted.

I didn't answer but shoved the tickets into my pocket, sprinting back to the counter Jade was originally at, pushing the couple that were being attended to out of the way.

"Sir, you need to stop that thing," I said, pointing to the moving conveyor belt. "My girlfriend put some luggage on the wrong flight."

"I'm sorry, but we can't stop everything over one piece of misplaced baggage," the man explained, turning back to the couple. "If it's going to the same place, you'll just have to wait for the flight to get there to reclaim it, all right? And if not, well, I suggest you see the customer service desk. I don't even know how you could get luggage on the wrong flight anyway." He continued to talk to the couple, pointedly ignoring me.

I walked away slowly, hoping that the LV25 flight was also meant to go to Vegas. Robbie was still staring at me weird, and Jade was trying to look as innocent as possible. We trudged back to the group.

"What happened?" Tori asked. "I saw you run back over there, Beck," she said, handing Rex back to Robbie.

"Yes, well," I said, looking at Jade, whose eyes got big, "Jade put your luggage on a different flight, Tori, so when we get there, we might have to wait a little bit until you can get yours."

"What?" Tori exclaimed. "How could she get my luggage on a different flight?"

"With this," I said, pulling the tickets and fake one out of my pocket.

"Where did you get this?" Tori muttered angrily, snatching the fake one out of my hand, a surprised look on her face at how real the ticket seemed.

"She used that fake ticket generator app, I think."

"Why, why, why would you do that?" Tori said, turning to Jade angrily.

"Well, if our plane breaks down and loses all its luggage, at least you know that yours will be safe," Jade explained.

"That is not the point here!" Tori replied, almost shouting. "Come on Jade, what have I done to you to make you hate me so much?"

Robbie watched the argument with mute interest and Jade prepared to answer when Sikowitz stepped in.

"Okay, Tori, calm down," he said, acting like a mature grown-up for once. "And Jade, if you pull any more of those pranks you will be sent home immediately. Especially if those pranks are illegal." He took the fake ticket out of my hand and ripped it to shreds. "This trip is supposed to fun, and it's not going to be if either one of you are constantly arguing."

I nodded in agreement.

"And that goes for the rest of you," Sikowitz continued. "If anyone here—"

"Hey wait," Rex interrupted, "where's Cat and André?"

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André's POV

Waiting for Beck, Jade, and Robbie to check-in the bags was really boring. Sikowitz leaned up against the wall, looking like he was sleeping. Cat stood next to me, and Tori watching the group at the check-in areas like a hawk, as if she were waiting for something bad to happen.

"Hey André," I heard Cat say, tugging at my sleeve.

"What, Li'l Red?" I asked.

"You know the one time when I came here with my family, my brother had a backpack full of water balloons, and he threw them at random people before we got to the security," she said.

"Oh…kay…" I replied slowly.

"But it turned out, the balloons weren't filled with water, it was paint, and so it got everywhere and on everything, so they had to repaint the walls which cost a lot of money. And now my brother's not allowed to come here."

"Interesting," I said.

"Do you want to go and see what that area looks like now?" she asked. "It's really pretty."

"Um, no, we have to stay here and wait for them to finish up with the luggage," I told her.

"Come on, André!" she persisted. "It'll be really quick; I promise."

"Fine," I said. I have nothing better to do anyway. Cat grabbed my hand and started to pull me in one direction. "Hey, Tori!" I called as Cat dragged me away.

"What?" she asked, not looking at my direction, but still at the baggage area.

"I'm going with Cat to see something! We'll be back soon," I said as we went through a crowd of people.

"Okay," she responded, so quietly I almost didn't hear it.

Too bad I didn't realize that Sikowitz had 'woken up,' and that Tori was talking to him, not me.

Not much of a cliffhanger, but it does make you want to read more, right? ;)

I hope all the characters are 'in character,' except for maybe Trina in the beginning.

Review!