Complications

Chapter Fourteen – Missing!

Pascal swings open the door to Loki's bedroom early Saturday morning, sporting a largest smile any sim has ever given after pulling an all-nighter. Pascal flips on the light switch, eyeing his rival, who is fast asleep in bed on his stomach. Pascal sighs, "Ah...it's so peaceful," he awes, thoroughly enjoying the silence. Suddenly, Pascal walks forward and flings the blanket off Loki's body. "HEY LOKI!" Pascal shouts at full volume.

Loki instantly jolts up, screams, and falls onto the floor. He sits up and glares at Pascal, who is staring down at him wondrously. "Sorry," Pascal squeaks apologetically, "but there's some girl at the door for you."

"Circe?" Loki responds, the beam from the chandelier still hurting his eyes.

"I said some girl, not crazy cakes," Pascal repeats before swiftly exiting the room.

A few minutes later, Loki walks out of his bedroom and heads down the stairs, still groggy from the unexpected wake up. He passes by Vidcund and Circe, who are on the couch in the living room making out. They both freeze when they see him, flashing classic deer in the headlights looks, but Loki is so oblivious he doesn't even notice them. Loki groans as he steps into the foyer and swings open the door.

"What?" Loki mutters, narrowing his eyes at the reason why he was disturbed by Pascal.

The young college student with thick, brown hair tied up into a ponytail gazes at him and smiles. "Loki, it's me, Cindy," she claims, giving another wave over her black llama blazer, which sports the standard physics logo on the adjacent sleeve, "Your best friend from Aurora Skies Elementary. Don't you remember me?"

"No."

"Oh, don't be silly, of course you do!" Cindy chimes, waving off his rude response, "Come on, let's catch up!" she beams, grabbing Loki by the hand and leading him off before he can voice otherwise.

They get halfway across campus and into a boring conversation about the young woman's life, before Loki pulls his hand away from her, a mix of disgust and uncertainty in his eyes. "Listen Cindy, I barely know you, okay?" Loki speaks out suddenly as the pair stops near a broken telephone booth, "I'm not just going to let you drag me to an unknown location. This is how sims get kidnapped!"

"Man, you really are intelligent," Cindy replies, crossing her arms with a smirk, "Okay, you got me," she states, "I'm not really here to reminisce with you. I'm here to try to get you to reconsider."

Loki tilts his forehead, puzzled, "Reconsider what?" he wonders.

Cindy laughs lightly and moves away from him, feeling his gaze trail her as she walks towards the side of the road. "Loki, do you ever think you're worth more than this place?"

"Well, I'm worth more than most of the idiots I associate myself with, so there's that," he answers honestly.

"No, not people," Cindy remarks, turning around and flashing him an ambitious grin, "More than this university?"

Loki steps forward, his mind going a mile a minute. "Are you trying to poach me?" he questions.

"Yes," Cindy replies, "You're too talented for Sim State. You should go to a place where you'll actually be challenged. A place where you can achieve scientific glory before you even graduate!"

"Now wait just a minute," Loki fires, staring Cindy straight in the eyes, "My mother went to Sim State-"

"Yeah," Cindy declares with a sassy smirk, "And look how that turned out," she replies, her statement causing Loki to stop in his tracks, "Look Loki, if you ever want to be anybody worth knowing, ditch your teammates and come to Aurora Skies Academy."

"No," Loki states, sounding surer with each passing moment, "Loki Beaker is not a traitor. If you want to win the tournament, then you'll have to beat me and my team fair and square!"

Cindy laughs and rolls her eyes. "Please! Most of your team is dead weight. Everyone with half a brain knows that you're the only reason why Sim State's still in the tournament."

"Excuse me?" Loki chimes, looking as if Cindy has just insulted his ancestors.

"I mean, has Vidcund even answered a question the entire tournament?"

Loki steps forward. "I don't see how that's relevant-"

"I don't see how it's not," Cindy smirks, basking in Loki's uncomfortable state, "You're better than this, Loki. How come you can't see it?" she coos as the college student starts to stutter, "Thank goodness I can," she remarks, before swinging open the broken telephone booth. "Oh, shoot. I just remembered I forgot my phone. Can I borrow yours?" she asks sweetly.

Loki shrugs, not wanting to comply, but desiring to get rid of this nuisance as quickly as possible. "I guess…" he says, pulling out his cell phone and holding it out to her.

"Thanks," Cindy spews, snatching it from him. In a matter of seconds, she swerves around him and shoves the young man into the phone booth. She takes a padlock out of her pocket and latches the door shut.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Loki cries, pounding his fists on the glass, "Get me out of here!"

"Sorry Loki, but I have a tournament to win," Cindy tantalizes from the other side of the glass cage, "You know…for my team, Aurora Skies."

"Cindy, you idiot! You're not going to get away with this!" Loki promises, watching as the true traitor takes off into the distance. Loki sighs and pulls his fists away from the surface, rubbing his aching palms. "Geez, after five years of limited physical activity, there's no way I'll be able to punch my way out of here," he laments, staring down at the vile cement he is forced to stand on, "Man, she really did her research."

…

Across campus, Vidcund, Circe, and Craig are standing behind Sim State's table on center stage, scanning the auditorium for their leader. Vidcund turns to Circe, "Where's Loki?" he wonders.

Circe shrugs, looking genuinely concerned for her boyfriend's safety. "I don't know, he's usually here three hours early," she states, a troubling thought budding in her mind, "Do you think he saw us this morning?"

"I hope not," Vidcund replies, suddenly feeling quite guilty. He stares down at the floorboard, a bad feeling forming in the pit of his stomach as Chairman Brown approaches the group.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Chairman Brown asks.

"No," Vidcund says, "Loki still isn't here yet."

"Oh well," Cindy shrugs from Aurora Skies Academy's table across the stage, "I guess you'll just have to compete without him," she smirks.

…

Meanwhile, Loki starts pacing in a small circle, racking his brain to come up with some way to get out of this mess. "God, it's been ten minutes!" he cries, impatiently glancing down at his watch, "Usually my mother would've shown up by now. Where the hell is everyone?" he states, scanning over the ghostly state of the city around him, "Don't tell me people actually watch our crappy physics tournaments!"

…

"Oh, I can't wait to watch this physics tournament!" Gundrun squeals from her seat in the front row between her daughter, who is dully staring at the program, and her husband, who mirrors her enthusiastic demeanor.

"Me too," Bjorn agrees, giving a small nod, "I do feel bad about embarrassing Loki last weekend, so I'm glad we decided to give him some space today," he says, completely oblivious to the fact that his son has gone missing for the last five hours. The family looks up, noticing the chairman walking towards the center podium.

"Hello everyone and welcome to the second round of the Fifty-third Annual Simverse Winter Physics Bowl!" Chairman Ryan Brown announces cheerily into the microphone, "Since we already know the team captains, let's dive right into the questions-"

"Oh no," Vidcund mutters from their leaderless table, missing question number one entirely, "We're going to get killed."

"Fifteen times ten to the eighth!" Craig buzzes in next to him.

Chairman Brown smiles, "That is correct!" he confirms, "Sim State is now up one to nothing!" he announces as Circe and Vidcund stare dumbfoundedly at their characteristically silent teammate.

Craig shrugs. "Hey, I know the answers too. Loki just beats me to it!"