Unfortunately this is kind of a filler chapter, but I wasn't planning on the previous chapter being as long as it was, so I had to put what was supposed to be there in here, and added extra stuff to fulfill my goal of 3,000 words per chapter. :)
Read, laugh, review.
CHAPTER 6 -DAY 1 continued-
Tori's POV
"I have a position for two anchors, two field reporters, a weather reporter, and a sports reporter," Mr. Highes said, reading off the paper. He glanced up at us, our eyes shining with excitement. "You," he said, pointing to Cat, who beamed at being noticed, "Would you like to be our weather reporter?"
She started jumping up and down, grabbing one of Robbie's arms, saying, "I got chosen to be the weather person! Oh my gosh, this is so exciting! Yay!"
Mr. Highes's eyebrows wagged around pleasingly, and there was a strange grin on his face. "Why don't you uh, go through those doors over there, little missy? Someone should be waiting there for you, and if not, well, just wait there." He motioned for Cat to the side of the room opposite of where we had entered.
"Kay kay!" she shouted, rushing out the big doors.
There was a resounding echo in the room as she left. I was slightly worried for her, because we had not come through those doors and no one knew what was behind them, and Mr. Highes, at the moment, didn't seem like a very trustable character. I looked at my friends, and they seemed to be having the same idea.
"You there," Mr. Highes said, pointing at Jade now. He stepped forward, his arms hanging defenselessly at his sides, his emotions flat. He was practically nose-to-nose with Jade, who obviously didn't like it. Her mouth turned from a worried grimace into a complete frown. "Would you like to be a field reporter?" he said in her face.
"I would if you'd get out of my face," she yelled back.
"Excellent." Mr. Highes's mood changed significantly, becoming much bouncier than before. "Go through the door your friend went through earlier, and you should find someone who will help you out."
Jade glanced at Beck uneasily before making her way to the door.
As soon as it was shut, there was silence of several seconds and then a loud crash and a scream. I jumped up and Beck rushed to the door. Mr. Highes doubled over in an obnoxiously loud laugh, and Beck wrenched the door open, revealing Jade standing there, incredibly pale, with sand scattered on her hair, clothes, and littering the smooth floor around her.
"What happened?" Beck asked, pulling her into his arms protectively. He glanced into the dark hall awkwardly, possibly trying to find Cat.
Mr. Highes was still laughing like a maniac, and we all exchanged frightened glances. Why was he acting so weird? I warned myself to be careful around this man.
"I opened the door, took a step, and tripped over something," Jade seethed, spitting sand out of her mouth. I fought to keep in an amused laugh of my own. "And then, a bunch of sand just falls down on me!"
"Well, are you okay?" Beck tightened his grip around her.
"Yes," she said through her teeth, looking over at Mr. Highes. "Is this your idea of a joke?"
Mr. Highes stopped laughing abruptly, not even smiling anymore. "No, of course not, miss. I think some of my other workers might've set that up for me, actually." He brushed off imaginary specks on his suit and walked over to Jade, who tensed up immediately. He offered her his hand. "Come with me. I'll show you to the bathrooms."
Jade did not accept his hand but slowly eased away from Beck and followed the billionaire out of the room, muttering curses about sand as she went.
As soon as the doors closed, we erupted into chatter.
"Where'd Cat go?" Robbie asked.
"Why do you care so much about that chic?" Rex retorted. "At the airport you were all askin' Jade if she was pickin' up her phone and now—"
"I don't know where she went," André interrupted Rex. Robbie glared at his puppet. Beck stood still by the door that Cat had disappeared behind, and looked into the dark hall in front of him.
"I don't even see any rooms," Beck called, taking a hesitant step forward.
"Careful, Beck," Sikowitz said. "Don't go anywhere you're not told to." His mouth mashed into a hard line.
"I'm not really sure about this Mr. Highes guy," I admitted, leaning towards André.
"I know right?" André responded as Beck retreated towards us. "That video you showed us, Sikowitz, he seemed so much more awkward! But geez, if I didn't recognize his face, I would think he was a completely different person!"
"Yeah," Robbie agreed, getting back into the conversation.
"You know what, kids?" Sikowitz interrupted, "I think that Mr. Highes is—"
He was cut off as the man himself came back into the room, his arms swinging at his sides enjoyably, a whistle in the air. Jade was not with him. Beck stepped up to him.
"Where's my girlfriend?"
"She's getting herself all cleaned up," Mr. Highes waved him off, turning to André instead. "Good sir, how would you like to be field reporter number two?"
"Oh, uh, sure," André replied, a little bit hesitantly.
"Excellent." Mr. Highes pointed to the door that Cat had left behind, which was wide open still. "Exit through there, mister, and make sure you close the doors behind you, please."
"Sure," André said coolly. He rushed over to the doors and closed them behind him.
"And then there were three," Sikowitz murmured.
"Hello, sirs," Mr. Highes said as he approached Robbie and his puppet. "Mr. Puppet, would you like to help host this show?"
"Yeah, buddy," Rex replied smoothly. "But you call me a puppet again, I'll call you somethin' worse."
I was shocked that Robbie would say something like that to a billionaire, but Mr. Highes didn't seem to mind in the least. He shook Robbie's free hand saying, "Good then. You'll both be hired as the sports reporters. Ha, it won't cost me any extra anyway." He gestured for them to leave the room.
"Thanks, Mr. Highes!" Robbie exclaimed, heading away.
"Yeah, I think I woulda been better in the anchor spot," Rex yawned as the doors closed behind them.
"So that leaves you two—" Mr. Highes hopped up and down once "—as our anchors, if that's all right with you. I can tell from the vibe I'm getting that you both are very comfortable in front of a camera, or audience in general."
I nodded excitedly and Beck grinned at me.
"Excellent!" Mr. Highes seemed very happy. "So why don't we all go this way?" He led us to the exit, Sikowitz following close behind us. He opened up the door and we came into the dark, empty hall. I did not see any of my friends anywhere. "This way." Mr. Highes directed us to a big room, and I was surprised to see everyone in there, all sitting around a large round table.
"Hi!" Cat squealed. Weirdly, she was sitting on Jade's lap, who looked none to thrilled, but at least had all the sand out of her hair and most of her clothes. When Jade saw me, I could tell she had a look of envy in her eye when she realized Beck would be my co-anchor.
"All right everybody, gather round, gather round." Mr. Highes pounded his fists madly on the table. We all quickly stood up around the circular table. Mr. Highes leaned forward, like he was about to tell us something very top-secret. "How many of you would like to hear the game plan for the rest of the day and tomorrow?" he asked.
"Me!" Cat said.
Mr. Highes leaned in a little more and began, "Okay, so first we'll start with the tutorials…"
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It was probably about 8:30 p.m. when we finally got back to the hotel. We lugged our candy bags to the elevators and into our rooms, completely exhausted. We had received a quick rundown of what happens while the show is being filmed, such as where to look to read the script and what happens when the show is experiencing technical difficulties. I was pretty nervous for tomorrow, but it's not like I could back down or anything because the 'usual' cast of reporters were on a convention somewhere in Idaho, and although it was never safe to not have any backups, the crew were familiar enough with the schedule to pull it off if we couldn't. And lucky for me, LV: Daily Reports only reported once a day, unlike most other news stations.
I threw myself onto a bed while Cat went to change so she could go into the pool or something. I didn't know how she could possibly have that kind of energy. Maybe it was just because her 'weather reporter duties' weren't nearly as stressful as being one of the anchors. Mr. Highes promised that everyone would have a chance to do all the positions at some point though.
I lifted up my head just in time to see Cat in her bikini running into the pool area and throwing herself in, splashing loudly. I stuffed a pillow onto my face to try and block out her giggling.
Suddenly there was a heavy knock on the door. I groaned and got up to get it, finding Jade standing there with a Royale robe on.
"Jade, what are you—" I began, but then Cat appeared right next to me.
"Jade! The Jacuzzi's over here!" she said, pulling her friend into our room and dragging her to the bathroom.
"Wait, what?" I followed closely behind them.
"You're obviously not using the Jacuzzi," Jade said, taking off her robe and stepping into the bubbling water. "So I'm going to use it."
I narrowed my eyes at Cat, mostly for letting Jade into our room, but I left them in peace and went back to my bed. I originally wanted to take a nap, except Jade and Cat started yapping like crazy, so that wasn't really such a good idea. Finally I decided to go see André.
I grabbed my phone and headed towards the door. "Hey Cat, I'll be in André and Robbie's room, okay?"
"Kay kay!" she shouted back.
"Whatever," Jade said.
I rolled my eyes and went out into the empty hall, firmly shutting the door behind me. I admired the small picture frames lined up on the walls as I made my way down to André and Robbie's room. I knocked on the door a couple times.
Robbie opened up the door, smiling at me.
"Oh, hey Tori," he greeted, pulling the door a little more to let me in.
"Hey, Robbie," I said, stepping into their room. It was huge, probably a half-size bigger then mine and Cat's, but that was because the bowling alley took up more than a third of the room. I saw André sitting on one of the curved leather couches, his laptop in front of him. He looked up at me.
"Sup, Tori?" He put the laptop next to him and got up. "What are you doing here?"
"Jade's in my room with Cat," I said, "using our Jacuzzi."
"Oh cool. Can I come over too?" André asked, dead serious.
I narrowed my eyes, and he laughed, saying, "I'm kidding, Tori. So you must've come here to play some bowling, right?"
"Sure," I answered, tossing my phone onto one of the couches, which landed next to Rex, who was sitting there with a Coke in his hands. Robbie set up a game at that little control station by the ball return and André directed me to pick out a couple of bowling balls on the shelves in the far back. We got the game started, no bumpers, with André getting a strike on his first bowl.
"Wait, isn't Sikowitz supposed to be in this room?" I said, assessing the lane carefully.
"Yeah, but he went to the front desk to complain about the vending machines not having coconut milk or something," André informed me, laughing a little. I laughed with him.
"So are you guys ready for tomorrow?" I asked, sending my ball down the lane and knocking down a pitiful four pins. I joined André on the couches.
"Sort of," André said. "I'm still not too sure about that Mr. Highes guy. I don't know what it is, but the way he acts…it just makes me a little nervous, you know what I mean?" Robbie was up to bowl, and he was mumbling some sort of good luck chant under his breath. I rolled my eyes and looked back at André.
"Aw, no!" Robbie shouted suddenly. I glanced over and saw that he had a split.
"Yeah I know what you mean," I said, continuing our conversation. "You're field reporting with Jade, right?"
"Uh-huh," André sighed. "That's going to be fun."
"It should be," I said seriously. "That's the whole point of this trip, right? Go to Vegas, be on TV, and get noticed!"
"Ha, yeah." André got up and bowled, getting a spare this time. I went, and got fouled out. We sat down on the couch again.
"You know, I wonder how Trina's doing," I said thoughtfully. "She must be so jealous that I'm here while she gets to stay at school still…"
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Trina's POV
I had spent the entire day in The Royale. It was such a big hotel, I needed to make sure I went and looked through every nook and cranny of it, and anyway, I didn't want to be spotted by any of Tori's friends; I had heard they had gone to the news studio to get their assignment for Vegas 777. Hmm. Maybe I should've gone with them.
But I had discovered a pool on the first floor that was as big as my house, with water slides and Jacuzzis and everything. Then I had gone and seen the stores, shops, and amazing restaurants as well as the hotel's own buffet area. The Royale also had a baseball/football field in the back, a full gym, spa and massage room, and a whole bunch of other fancy stuff I didn't know hotels were capable of affording. There were plants everywhere, especially around the paths and walkways, making a nice atmosphere. For all I knew, the Royale might have an underground theme park or something.
I lay down on my soft hotel bed, staring up at the plain ceiling. My hand patted the blankets beside me, trying to locate my orange PearPhone. I finally found it, and I brought it up so I could see it. I sent Tori a text.
What'cha doing in Vegas now, Tor? –Trina
Oh, hi Trina. I'm bowling with André and Robbie. Robbie is winning. :P –Tori
They have a bowling alley at the hotel? Is it like, private or something? –Trina
On my little exploration around the hotel I did not seen a bowling alley. Maybe they had gone somewhere that had one.
Uh, no. André and Robbie's room has a bowling alley inside it. I actually wish you were here to see it. Hold on, lemme take a pic. –Tori
I waited a couple seconds and my phone beeped to let me know that I had a message. I looked at my text and saw a dim picture of Tori, André and Robbie squished onto the little screen, standing in front of a two-lane bowling alley, all of them laughing. I was incredibly jealous. I bet that's the sort of 'special' things that were in the rooms starting on the thirtieth floor that I couldn't afford. What a shame. I'm sure I deserved them more than my sister, anyway. She got here because of Beck. I snuck out of the house and carefully planned my trip here.
I'm so jealous of you I'm going to stop texting you. TTYL, sista. –Trina
Oh, all right. Fine. Wish me luck. :) I think this game belongs to me now! Ha! Love you too. TTYS. –Tori
I threw my phone back in the folds of the white blanket. I sighed, still looking up at the ceiling. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was about 9:00. I rolled off the bed and made my way to the bathroom. I quickly adjusted my hair to make sure I looked outstanding, and got my things together to take a quick shower.
When I first turned on the water, I didn't realize that the showerhead on the side would come on too, and I ended up spraying practically the entire shower area as I tried to get it under control. Oh well. It was worth it, and water dried anyway.
I got wrapped up in a towel and a fluffy Royale bathrobe and went back out to the bed. I sat down on the edge, grabbing my phone in my hands and dialing home.
"Hello?" my mom's voice answered.
"It's Trina," I responded, leaning back on the blankets.
"Oh, hey baby. How are things with Molly?" she asked.
"We, uh, just saw a movie. It was pretty good, very funny," I improvised quickly. "We're still at the theaters, actually."
"Oh, well that's good."
There was a brief silence, and I said, "Molly's here now, Mom. I think we're going to see another movie." I took my ear off the phone and made a soft bickering noise, making it seem like I was talking to someone else. "Yeah, that's great Molly. Let's go get some more popcorn first." Then I acted like I came back to the conversation. "Sorry, Mom, gotta go. Love you."
"You too, Trina."
I hung up, sprawling across the bed, a happy feeling rising inside of me. Tomorrow, I would hit the streets of Vegas.
Sorry if this was kind of boring, but I wanted to start a new chapter with Day 2, but I hadn't quite completed Day 1 yet, so I had to drag it over. I promise though, most 'days' will not be two entire chapters.
Hope you liked it though.