LAST CHAPTER, LAST CHAPTER, LAST CHAPTER! I can't believe I'm finally done!
CHAPTER 20 -DAY 14-
Tori's POV
"So as you kids might know, yesterday the police managed to catch the two men that that kidnapped Tori."
The entire gang, including my dad and Sikowitz, sat in André and Robbie's room, seeing as it was the biggest. I don't think anyone else was really completely interested in what my dad had to tell us though.
"Their real names are actually Trevor Macintosh and Edward Hussen, or you probably know them better as 'Walter Lowes' and 'Nicolas Right.'
"They were found at the Chips and Dicks casino just yesterday, and Trevor, or Mr. Lowes, bought a hundred dollars' worth of tickets to a raffle with the prize of fifty grand.
"And the reason why we found them was because he made the mistake of using the name 'Walter Lowes' to register. Because we had spread the information of the names that you kids had given us, the lady in charge of writing out the ticket orders recognized the name and phoned the police immediately.
"When they go there, Mr. Right—I'll just use the names you guys are familiar with to save us some confusion—had just gotten away, but they found him in a back parking lot, trying to start up a black van and caught him just in time.
"Mr. Lowes ended up winning the jackpot, so while he was on the stage, the police managed to corner and capture him."
"Wow, that sounds so simple," I commented, trying not to play with my fingers.
"It actually was. The reason why we never found any fingerprints on anything that they went through was because they both didn't have any—they were burned off when they were 'initiated' into their little gang."
"So what are you going to do to them now?" André asked.
"They'll keep them in jail until we decide to press charges," my dad answered.
"And are you?" Jade couldn't keep the curiosity out of her voice.
My dad didn't say anything, and Cat took the opportunity of the silence to say something.
"Am I going to get my three hundred dollars back?"
"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" My dad shoved his hand into his police vest pockets, rummaging around for a little bit. "Ah, yes. Here you go, dear." He handed Cat three hundred-dollar bills, which she accepted with wide eyes.
"Cool! Thanks, Mr. Vega!" She started bouncing around like a little kid.
"You'd better go put that away," Robbie told her, "this time in a safe location so you don't lose it again."
"I didn't lose it. Those guys stole it from me," she pouted, and Robbie put his arms around her in a joking way, pulling her close to his body. They did look pretty cute together, and he was smiling so broadly I thought his mouth wouldn't be able to open any further.
"Hey, I'm sorry to break up the party, but I think it's time to go now," Sikowitz said, coming out of the bathroom. Steam filled the main room, and his hair was slicked back and his beard trimmed neatly.
I looked at the clock. It was almost six-thirty. Time to head to the studio for our very last broadcast.
My dad gave me a hug and told me he'd wait here while we finished up.
Beck and Jade, hand-in-hand, walked out of the room first, quickly followed by Cat and Robbie, still giggling and goofing off with each other. André stared at me almost sheepishly, and gestured me to walk in front of him.
I smiled at him and left with everyone else.
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The studio seemed very pumped up when we entered. Mr. Highes, dressed in a hideously bright red suit, bounced over to us, then stopped.
"You guys ready to give me one last perfect broadcast?" he practically shouted, eyebrows wiggling.
"You bet!" I was the only one to respond with such enthusiasm. Well actually, I was the only one to respond verbally at all.
Everyone else gave some sort of pathetic murmur or mumble.
Mr. Highes frowned, and when he spoke his voice was a good octave deeper than it was earlier.
"Are you guys ready to give me one last perfect broadcast?" he repeated, practically growled.
Cat cowered up against Robbie, and even Jade stiffened a little.
Without warning, Mr. Highes's mood changed again, except this time in a more positive way. His eyes softened, and his voice went back to normal.
"Whoops! Sorry there, kids. Didn't mean to scare you, I promise." He fiddled around in his pockets before pulling out a big orange tube filled with tiny white pills. "My BPD's been acting up a lot more than usual, but I assure you that happens every once in a while. You guys have nothing to do with it." He popped a pill in his mouth and swallowed it quickly while we all stared at him uncomfortably. "What? These are legal." He gestured to the bottle.
"You have borderline personality disorder?" André asked.
I had absolutely no idea what that was, even though I think I might've heard about it before.
"Well yes…I thought I told you kids before," Mr. Highes replied, crinkling his forehead.
"No, you never did," Beck said. "We just though you were seriously bipolar or something."
"Oh, well, no. My goodness, I'm so sorry I never told you kids earlier. That would probably explain why you all seemed so creeped out half of the time I was around," he mused thoughtfully.
We stared at him blankly.
"Anyway," Mr. Highes said, clapping his hands together, "let's get started shall we? You'll all be in a special position today since it's your last broadcast, and typically at the end of the Vegas 777 kid's shifts we always do something special for them."
We all walked out to the main stage area. Instead of the usual professional-ness the room held, it was now heavily decorated with colors and designs that you'd normally see at Hollywood Arts.
"You're teacher told me that this is what the main hall of your school looks like," Mr. Highes said, glancing at Sikowitz.
"Wow!" Cat shouted, jumping up and down. She grabbed Robbie's hand and without another word they ran over to take a closer look at the setups. Mr. Highes walked over to Sikowitz and bent his head towards him, their mouths moving quickly. Then he straightened back up and approached us.
"You like it?" Mr. Highes asked, noticing that we weren't reacting the way Cat and Robbie had. "A lot of kids come back years later to tell me that their last broadcast was always the most memorable," he said thoughtfully.
"Well this is very cool indeed," I agreed.
"Yep. So I'll just you all of to the dressing rooms to get suited up, okay? You'll find out which positions you'll be working when you're done."
We finally managed to get Cat and Robbie's attention and then we all headed over to get ready for our last show in Vegas.
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When we all emerged from our separate stalls, it turned out that we were all pretty much matching. The boys wore identical suits, except of different colors. André wore a nice navy blue, Beck had black, and Robbie's was white.
I matched with the other girls as well, with black jeans and a button-up plaid shirt. I wore a purple one, Jade's was red, and Cat's was dark pink. I have to admit, we did look pretty awesome.
We found Mr. Highes in the green room, and he appeared to be meditating on one of the sofas, legs crossed and arms held out in front of his body, lying on top of each other. No one wanted to snap him out of his trance.
"You do it," Jade hissed at Robbie, poking him.
"No! Why can't you do it?" Robbie argued, color draining from his face when he talked back to Jade.
Jade glared at him and he squeaked, hurrying forward to do as she said.
Robbie stopped two feet in front of Mr. Highes. Tentatively, he reached out an arm and shook Mr. Highes's. Immediately the older man woke up and grabbed the surprised Robbie in a chokehold. Robbie's glasses slid down his nose and he spluttered, trying to pry the hands off of his throat.
"H-H-H-Hold on…M-M-Mr. H-Hi-Highes, it's me," he gasped.
"Whoops, sorry there, m'boy," Mr. Highes apologized, pulling Robbie up and brushing off the front of his suit. "For a moment I thought you had that wretched puppet of yours with you…"
Robbie blushed and André and Beck snickered.
"What are our positions for the day going to be, sir?" I asked as Robbie went back to stand next to Cat.
"You're all going to be anchors," he replied, leading us out of the room.
"What?" we all said at once.
Well, that's going to be impossible, I thought. How are the other jobs going to be done?
"Don't worry," he said, waving a hand around as we entered the main studio again. "I've enlisted the help of the usual workers to take over the other jobs while you kids just do the anchor's work."
"We're not all going to fit on that desk," Jade pointed out.
"That's okay, Miss West. I'm fine with you sitting on the floor," Mr. Highes replied, twitching his eye. He shook his head and took out his orange bottle, taking another pill.
At first, I thought he was joking because some crewmembers brought in an extra desk and placed it next to the current one to expand it, and they also brought out three chairs, only leaving enough room for five people.
I almost had a heart attack from laughter after seeing the look on Jade's face when she realized Mr. Highes was serious.
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All of us sat down on the stage in an orderly fashion: Jade was on the ground on the right, I was on her left in a chair, then André, Beck, Cat, and Robbie was on the opposite end.
"Having fun down there, Jade?" I asked her.
"Shut up Vega," she replied tartly.
"See, that's why you don't be so rude to billionaires," I said. "Especially when they have the power to humiliate you on public television live in front of millions of viewers."
"Shut up."
I turned to André. "She shouldn't have questioned Mr. Highes, right?" I asked him, pointing down to Jade.
"Nope," he responded, looking somewhat distracted. He was playing rock, paper, scissors with Beck and looked extremely into it for some reason.
"Kids, you've got sixty seconds until show time. I repeat, sixty seconds," the main cameraman called.
"We are not freaking kids," Jade growled. "How many times do I need to say that?"
"Mr. Highes," I said, raising my hand like I was in school, "Jade said that—"
"SHUT UP!" she yelled, grabbing my leg and digging her fingernails angrily through the black fabric.
"Ouch!" I shouted, swatting her hand, but she didn't let go, only crushing my leg harder. "Ow, Jade!"
"Girls!" Mr. Highes reprimanded. "You've got…"
"Five, four, three, two…" the cameraman interrupted.
The mood changed instantly. Jade let go of my leg and I fought the urge to reach down and massage it. My head snapped up and I smiled, trying not to show that I was actually in pain.
"Hello and welcome to LV: Daily Reports. This is our last broadcast, and we bound to make it a special one," Beck read off of the green cue box.
A special one? What exactly does Mr. Highes have in store for us?
But then André tap my knee and I realized I was supposed to read the next line.
"I'm Tori Vega, and today we're going to start the broadcast off with your usual anchors, Petey Mackin and Sophia Whiteshot down at a construction site right off of Brightlit Avenue."
We continued with the broadcast, each of us taking turns saying the lines.
At about 8:52 during the commercial break, Mr. Highes leaped onto the stage, carrying a box and pulling out several handheld microphones and handing them to each of us.
"Wait, what's going on?" I asked, taking one.
"You'll see," he responded with a wink.
"But, wait, we don't…" I tried to say, but one of the cameramen interrupted.
"You guys are on!"
Mr. Highes turned around, throwing the now empty box out of the view of the camera. He smiled broadly
"Hello, I'm Mr. Highes, a billionaire here in Las Vegas and also the creator of LV: Daily Reports. As you might already know, this is the Hollywood Arts kids' last broadcast, and tonight they'll be heading back home.
What is going on?
"So as you people of LV might know, the staff here always likes to send our wonderful reporters away with a very good lasting memory. And this time I've given each of them a microphone, as you might know that HA is not only an acting school, but also one of singing."
Before I could do anything, several crewmembers came up and dragged us away from the desk, putting us on the main floor. The cameras swiveled loudly to get each of us in the shot.
"You guys might recognize this song," Mr. Highes said, turning to us. "And you can sing along, if you know the words."
And then, there were a couple of guitar chords blaring out of the speakers surrounding us that I recognized. Immediately.
Make It Shine.
I gasped, bringing the microphone closer to my mouth and glancing at my peers. They stared back, eyes gleaming. Sikowitz, in the corner of the room, had his hands against his face and he was smiling too.
Everyone else backed up a few feet, leaving me standing closest to the camera. They wanted me to start singing. I took a deep breath, unable to keep the grin off my face.
"Here I am, once again…"
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We all rocked out to the brilliant tune that André had written a while back. Even though we never rehearsed it like this before, everyone knew all the lines, and we all somehow managed to take turns without needing to make a big deal out of it.
When we finished, Sikowitz applauded loudly and Mr. Highes actually wiped away a few tears as he walked back in front of the camera to finish off our broadcast as we held hands and bowed like in a Broadway play.
"Thank you so much, and can we get another round of applause for this wonderful group of Vegas 777 participants?" He paused, waiting for the clapping that we wouldn't hear, but I knew it existed, and anyways the people in the studio were clapping loudly. "They've all been through so much and managed to keep it together, so let's here it for them!"
"Thank you all for watching these great kids, and we'll be getting a new set in about two or three days. Have a great day, everyone!"
"And we're off!"
I turned to my friends, and they were all standing there breathlessly looking at each other. It was over. It was time to head home. Our days hosting a hit news show were done.
"Your flight is at eight tonight, so you've got a little time to go shopping or something before needing to go to the hotel and get ready, okay?" Mr. Highes said turning towards us.
We all nodded meekly before looking at Sikowitz, who seemed to be blankly staring at the floor. He looked up at us and snapped out of it.
"Oh? All right. You guys better thank Mr. Highes for letting you be on his show.
"Yeah, thanks Mr. Highes."
"It was an honor working for you."
"I'll never forget this!"
We made a few more good-byes to the rest of the crew, and visited all of the rooms for one last time. Once we were out of the studio, we flagged down several taxis and speeded away towards the hotel like there was no tomorrow.
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We spent the remaining hours of our stay in Vegas shopping at the nearby stores. Back at the hotel, we hung out in each other's rooms, challenging each other to bowling games, taking a dip in the swimming pool, and dancing away on the disco floor.
Instead of taking separate taxis to the airport, Mr. Highes offered to personally drive his own private bus so we could stay together. My dad wasn't going to come with us because he had to finish up his paperwork at the police station, but afterwards he would head back to Los Angeles.
On the bus, we were crowded by our luggages and newly purchased items, still in boxes and bags. Cat was sitting on Robbie's lap, his arms around her waist, and Beck and Jade were leaning on each other. André looked at me expectantly, like he was waiting for me to hold his hand or something.
"So, what did you kids think about this trip?" Sikowitz asked once we had started moving.
"Well, besides the fact that we almost got killed by some crazy people with guns, our billionaire-host person turned out to be bipolar, Robbie slapped me, and having to sit on the freaking ground for the last broadcast, I think it went pretty well," Jade said sarcastically. "No offense, Mr. Highes."
"None taken, Miss West," the driver responded, actually smiling.
Sikowitz raised an eyebrow.
"I liked the shopping part," Cat said, rubbing her palms on her knees like she was nervous or something. Finally she pried Robbie's hand from around her waist and sat down next to him instead, leaving him looking very surprised and almost hurt.
"That was really nice of you to let us sing at the end, Mr. Highes," André said.
"It was," Beck agreed, even though I knew he wasn't much of a singer.
"Yeah," Robbie added. "You're not as weird now that we know you have a special disorder."
"Unlike you," Jade retorted, "who's just really messed up."
"All right, kids, back to the question," Sikowitz said, trying to get us to focus again.
"Like Jade said, even though I got kidnapped and thrown into a forsaken desert, I think it was still a very interesting experience," I admitted. "And how many people can say that's happened to them?"
Sikowitz laughed.
"You think this has brought us closer together?" Beck asked, playing with Jade's hand.
"Absolutely," everyone agreed, nodding our heads together.
"I'm very proud of you all," Sikowitz said suddenly. "I honestly thought that you were all going to lose it at some point, especially when we were ambushed at the studio, which was not planned, by the way.
"And Tori, when you got kidnapped, every one us worked really hard to make sure that you were still alive and you would come home safely."
Wow Sikowitz, you're making this sound like a movie or something.
"Yeah, yeah," we agreed.
"Hey, we're here!" Mr. Highes interrupted, pulling up to the curb and bringing the bus to a slow stop. No one moved. I didn't want to leave anymore. Despite everything that had happened, I didn't want it to end.
The boys, Sikowitz and even Mr. Highes helped take everything out of the bus and put it on the pavement. This time, I would make sure to take my luggage to the checkout myself so Jade couldn't get it booked on another flight.
Mr. Highes gave us all a firm handshake before he got back on his vehicle.
"You kids take care now!" he said, waving his hand out of the window.
"Will do!" Robbie replied, waving back as he drove away.
I looked up at the sky, blue and sunny, and suddenly a very cliché idea came to my mind. As we gathered all together, dragging our luggages towards the doors, I looked at my friends, smiled, and said:
"No matter what happens, it's always sunny in Vegas!"
THE END.
Hahaha, that ending makes me crack up so much. XD
Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, alerted and favorited this story! It was so much fun writing it.
There will not be a sequel, because I think that everything was resolved in the end, right? But if you still have questions, concerns, etc., just send me a P.M.!
My next story should be up in a few days. Thanks for everyone's support! You guys are all so awesome. :)