"Wh-what kind of sneak fun?" I stuttered it out.
"Why do you seem nervous Cupcake?" His eyebrows scrunched together a little, but there was still a smirk on his face.
"Well, you know. You are known for getting into trouble when you go off to have sneaky fun, as you call it."
Luke let out a hoot of laughter. "That is true. So true." He grabbed my hand and led me to the door. "Tonight will probably be no exception, but I promise it is nothing too serious. And if, once you find out what I have planned, you don't want to participate, we will think of something else to do. Plus it's not that sneaky. They would probably kick me off the team if I did anything too drastic with you."
"Like bring me on the motorcycle to sneak into someone's house and take back a camera?"
He smiled at my reference to that night. "Yeah, exactly."
We walked back towards the car and Luke held my door open for me while I settled in. A few minutes later we were pulling into a Walmart. I looked over at him, confused why we were here. "We have to get our supplies." I followed him into the store, and he immediately turned to head towards the hardware section.
"What kind of supplies Luke? When are you going to tell me what we are doing?" Luke had started to skip down the aisles, looking down each row. Finally he skidded to a stop and turned to go down the row. I stepped up next to him and looked at the shelves he was scanning, which were full of boxes of locks and keys. Luke started grabbing a few different types of locks. They looked like ones that you would see on school lockers. He moved down the row and picked up two sets of door knobs. What was he planning? "Luke?"
He looked over at me, his eyes smiling with excitement. "I don't have a lot of fancy talents." I started to interrupt him, to tell him that he had lots of talents, but he kept talking before I had a chance. "Kota is a walking wikiapedia, Victor knows computers inside and out…"
I waved my hands in the air. "Stop Luke, you have lots of talents, including cooking. You are amazing in the kitchen."
Luke smiled. "Aw thanks Cupcake. I know, I love cooking. But I mean in terms of something useful to the group. My talents are pickpocketing and lock picking." I didn't know what to say in response. Before I met the guys I would have never considered those things a useful talent, not for anything good. Luke must have noticed my hesitation. "I know, it's not a typical talent one boasts about. I told you I only use them for good though. Anyway, I thought I could show you the art of lock picking. You never know when it could come in handy." I wanted to say that I didn't think it would be useful, but the fact is I wanted to be a part of the Academy. And Luke made a good point. I needed a talent to set myself above others, to show some of the guys that I could hold my own on their team. "Ok, I'm in."
Luke's smile grew wider and we walked to the front to check out. Once we were back in the car Luke didn't turn the car on right away. I looked at Luke, wondering why we were just sitting in the parking lot. Luke looked over at me. "I didn't think about where we could do this. Where should we go?" He was asking me?
"We could go back to Nathan's or the diner?" Those are the only places I really hang out, I didn't know where else we could go.
"Ugh. I know, those were my first thoughts too. North will kill me though if he finds out what I am teaching you. I'm sure Nathan and Kota will help him out too."
"Why? Why would he kill you?"
Luke laughed and smiled at me. "Seriously Cupcake? Have you met North? He is the big grumbly one that swears a lot when he can't think of a comeback. He is also the one that is so overprotective of you that if he knew I was encouraging you to learn to pick locks he would think that it would someday lead to you getting into a dangerous situation and then he would blame me for it." That might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but I could see what he meant. Sometimes North got carried away.
"I don't think it would be that bad Luke. Plus, I will just tell them that I asked you to show me. He can't get mad at you if I made you help me. If he wants to get mad at someone, he can get mad at me." Luke reached over and took my hand. "O Sweetie, we both know that North will never be that mad at you. You're right though, we will go back to Nathan's and do it there. And if anyone tries to yell at us…" He paused and squeezed my hand before continuing "I am running away and blaming you." I laughed at that and Luke started up that car and drove towards Nathan's.
When we pulled into the driveway, only Kota's car was in the driveway. Was he here? Would he come over to hang out with Nathan every time I had a date? I guess it didn't matter, maybe it gave them a reason to hang out like normal friends and not Academy teammates that are always busy. Luke opened my car door and walked with me up to the door. He walked right in and back towards the kitchen. We stopped in the living room, where Nathan and Kota were sitting on the couch. They had been watching a movie, but it was paused, with both guys turned to look at us.
"Hey guys, whatcha watching?" Luke had put the bag with our locks on the floor next to his feet. Kota looked at the TV then back at Luke. "The Wolf on Wall Street. Do you want to watch it with us? It's only a half hour in, we can catch you up."
Luke bent down and picked the bag back up. "No thanks, Sang and I have a project. We will be in the kitchen." He jingled the bag and then grabbed my hand and led me into the kitchen. I waved and smiled at Kota and Nathan as I walked by. I heard the rustling of the couch cushions and felt the air shift behind me as Nathan and Kota followed us.