Wish Apon A Star

Nicole - Theories

James and Annabelle came back excited. They had all sorts of theories and ideas, and were practically bouncing off the walls. I listened to them, and I tried to be excited, too, but I was tired. I was tired of scheming and planning and it always, always going wrong. I wanted something to go right, for once. But it didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon.

As James and Annabelle animatedly started clueing everyone else in (they'd all been wondering and asking for months), I got up and slipped away, hoping to go unnoticed. I was glad they'd found this out, and that they were excited, but...I also just wanted to sleep for a million years. Without dreaming.

Leo noticed, of course. He followed me towards the kitchen, leaving the crowd around James and Annabelle. I turned to face him before I was out of the room, even though every part of me wanted to run and hide. I was fine. And it was Leo. Leo, who'd never hurt me or even raised his voice at me, who told me he loved me almost daily, even after I called him a liar and seemed to do everything I could to ruin it. Leo, who always knew what to say to me even when I was being stupid (always), and who refused to give up on me even when I gave up on myself. I owed it to him to at least not ignore him, even though I knew he would tell me I didn't owe him anything.

I did.

"You okay?" he asked. He smiled faintly, and his dimples appeared.

"I'm okay." But I let him pull me into him, anyway, my hands on his shoulders as his arms wrapped around my waist. "People are staring." I could see several of them already glancing over at us behind Leo.

"Really?" He leaned closer to me, and my heartbeat sped up. "What do you think they'll do when I kiss you in a minute, then?"

"I don't know." I pretended to think about it. "Maybe you should find out."

"Maybe I should." And then he leaned closer to me and kissed me softly, and my hands were in his stupid hair that I loved, and I couldn't think straight again. My heart was pounding and my head was spinning, but I didn't want him to stop. He made me lose all control, and part of me told myself that I should hate that, but I didn't. It made me want him to do it again.

He finally pulled away from me slightly, and I could feel him smiling against my lips. "How was that for shocking everybody?" He leaned back slightly to look at me and whispered, "So scandalous of you, Nicole."

"Shut up," I whispered back.

"Leo! Nicole! We need you for a second!" Ollie shouted.

Leo sighed. "Do you think if we pretend we can't hear them, they'll leave us alone?"

I laughed. "No. But you can try."

"Leo and Nicole!"

"We're coming," Leo shouted over his shoulder. He rolled his eyes as he turned back to me. "You're right. As usual. But this time–" He kissed my forehead, and I closed my eyes. "--I wish you weren't." He tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. "But you're sure you're okay? I can make an excuse for you in you need to be alone."

"I'm okay," I said. He raised an eyebrow at me. "I will be okay."

"You will," Leo said. He started to say something, but Ollie started shouting at us again, and he shook his head. "Okay. Let's go before Ollie has a heart attack."

...

"You knew him," Ollie began, "so we were wondering if you had any ideas. To add on to ours, I mean." He had just gone over all of their elaborate theories, with plenty of interruptions, and was now looking at me expectantly. I bit my pinkie nail.

"I never really knew him," I finally said. "Only when I was really little, and that was well, when I was really little. When I was about six or seven, I started leaving the house. I never spent any time with him, and our conversations weren't exactly 'what are your hobbies' type stuff. It was all fighting." I dug the toe of my boot into the ground. "Sorry."

"But what do you think about all of this?" Ollie pressed. "Would it be plausible?"

"I mean, I guess? I really don't know about for him specifically. Sorry."

"There's got to be something. Think, Nicole."

"I don't know. I'm sorry. I just don't know. I know he did business deals and stuff, but I definitely wasn't involved in them."

"Which might support our World Domination theory," Annabelle jumped in.

"Your what?"

"Our World Domination theory," she repeated. "Which actually has some pretty solid evidence behind it. It'd explain why he was making deals in Aeloni and Itari, and he could be using the print shop as a base. And a farm in Aeloni as a base. Of course, it leaves out a bunch of the world, but world domination can't be rushed."

"He also had dealings in Atela," I said slowly. "That's how he met my mom–that's where she was from. He was on there for business with his father, but I know he kept up relationships there even after his death. He had dealings all over the world–including the Floating Islands. If you're right..."

"Which I always am," Annabelle said.

"It wasn't just your idea, idiot," James grumbled.

"It doesn't matter," I said. "What matters is that he had contacts all over–who's to say he's not turning them into something bigger?" The thought made me nauseous.

"See?" Annabelle said, turning to Eric. "I told you it wasn't stupid."

"It sounded like a fairytale!" Eric protested.

"We don't have solid evidence for any of this yet," Leo said. "Let's not rush into things. We need something more concrete to work off of–not just theories. They won't get us into anything but trouble."

"How are we supposed to find out more, though?" Annabelle protested. "Everything so far has just been a trap."

"But they expected all of that," James said. "We just followed their terms. We've got to do something else, something they don't know about or even suspect."

"Like what?" Zoe asked.

"I don't know," James said. "But we'll figure it out. And I want revenge in the process, too."

Word Count: 1,067