We sat in my room, the only lights coming from the semi-see-through yellow curtains on my window and the twinkling gummy bear shaped LED lights behind my head. I was furious.
"You got Corey involved!" I shouted at Ian "What part of 'this is dangerous, probably illegal and better to be kept secret' did you not understand, Ian!?"
"It was Corey who got us into the Karkaroff House in the first place!" Ian defended, gesturing wildly at my older brother. "He sweet talked that old lady like there was no tomorrow. Lied straight to her face and told her we were here to check the water heater."
I raised a quizzical eyebrow. "And it worked?"
Corey shrugged, popping another piece of kettle corn into his mouth. That boy was almost always eating something. "What can I say? The ladies love me. Even ones as old as Kyler's grandmother."
I frowned. "Gross, Corey. What were you doing in the area anyways."
"That's not important-"
"Trying to get laid." Ian cut him off
"Are you serious?" I said, staring Corey dead in the eyes. "I was getting my ass handed to me by Cobra Kai and you headbutted your way into our mission because you were in the area looking for a lay?"
"I'm sorry?" He said hesitantly "But let's face it, I got us into the house rather than letting Ian sit in his car eating Thai food and staring through his binoculars like some kind of pervert!"
I rolled my eyes, slumping back onto the large pile of pillows at the head of my bed, readjusting the ice pack I had tied to my shoulder with a floral dish towel. "Morons. Both of you."
"Hang on." Robby reasoned from where he was sitting next to me on the bed. "If you managed to get a good look inside the house, did you find anything useful?"
Ian smirked. "Ringo, check your emails."
I sat up, tossing the Mike Wazowski plushie to Robby as I reached into my bedside drawer for my laptop. The perks of having one with a little screen: easier to store and hide in your room so you can watch crappy J-Dramas instead of sleeping. I booted it up with a frown, fully expecting some kind of practical joke when I opened Ian's email.
"What the hell is 'Prince Of Legend'?" Corey raised an eyebrow, pointing at the KissAsian page that was still loaded from my late night cheese-fest. "It looks like the Japanese 'Magic Mike'."
"Well, it's not." I shot back. "It's about a bunch of guys trying to compete to win the heart of Naruse Kanon."
"Sounds stupid." Ian hummed
"Shut up."
"He's right." Robby agreed. "It does sound a little stupid. But let me know when you watch something in a similar vein to Alice in Borderland."
"You all suck." I frowned, logging into my email account. I was surprised to find that the email hadn't been wired with some sort of digital joke, but I spoke too soon when I went to load up the pictures, the first 'image' actually taking me to the YouTube page for Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up.'
Ian and Corey burst out into laughter. Even Robby chuckled.
"Are you serious!" I shouted "A Rick Roll? Grow up!"
"I'll grow up next summer." Corey shrugged. "You know, I have to if I wanna be the next ADA."
"Fat chance of that." I huffed, pulling up the real pictures of the inside of the Karkaroff house. "Explain. What am I looking at?"
The picture showed a room in the basement, walls a pale blue. There was an old bar in the corner, one that had probably been there since the house was built in the late forties. There was a large painting on one wall. It looked like a Monet, but likely was a fake.
"This here is the room from the plans. The one with the hollow in the wall." Ian said, gesturing towards the painting. "The hollow should be right there."
"Talk to me." I said encouragingly, zooming in on the painting. "Could you get it open?"
Corey shook his head. "We didn't want to try and damage anything, but we couldn't even find a catch or a close or anything. But I did some looking in all those books Dad has about the house. The painting itself is just a reproduction Monet, but it's been on that wall in that frame since the Karkaroff's moved in."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Robby asked
"Secret door." I agreed, flipping through more pictures that were zoomed in on the picture frame. There was a faint outline of some hinges on one side, barely noticeable. That meant it opened. A secret hidey-hole for any manner of goods. Even gold.
"We have no way of knowing if it's been opened before." Ian said. "For all we know, one of the past house residents figured it out and already ran off with the gold."
"That's a chance we might need to take." I said grimly. "Cobra Kai is pushing back now that they know we might not have a dojo to go back to."
"So, what do we do? How do we get in there?" Corey asked
I rolled my eyes. I seemed to do that a lot when my brothers and cousin were around. "First of all, your phone stays here. Your Go-Pro doesn't leave the house. I don't want our highly illegal ventures ending up on a YouTube vlog entitled "AreYouAlrightCorey: Breaking Into A Haunt d House To Look For Gold, NOT CLICKBAIT!"
Ian and Robby snickered, and Corey sighed. "Not gonna happen, sis. And if it did, it would have a better title."
Shaking my head, I turned to Robby. "Can you get us in the house?"
"Can I get you in the house?" He repeated sarcastically. "Is my middle name Swayze?"
Ian cackled with laughter, shaking so hard that he fell off the bed. "His middle name is Swayze? Damn, Ringo! This one is a keeper."
"Shut up!" I shouted, lobbing a pillow at Ian's obnoxious and glasses-clad face.
There was nothing I could possibly do to quell the pink tinge on my face. At the time, I wasn't sure why. Robby Keene was simply my best friend.
But clearly nobody else in that house thought as much.
I cleared my throat. "With that settled," I shouted "we all reconvene in the backyard tonight. Which I guess is only and issue for Robby since he's the only one that doesn't live here. Let's go find some gold."
NOTES!!
why did this take me so long to write-
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