Strangers in the Night ▸ Javi Rivera

6

By the time the next morning rolled in, the parking lot was even fuller now, not only other storm chasers occupying it but now fans too who'd heard about the Wranglers being there. How? Luna wasn't entirely too sure about the answer to that, but she didn't mind the not knowing as she laughed at something one of the women who'd been eager to meet all of them, including Luna even though she was new, had said to her.

"I mean, they got reason to be as confident as they are, but it's a lotta damn fun watchin' ya knock 'em down so much." The words only made Luna's laughter increase as she signed some of the papers and pictures, often screenshots from the videos themselves, as they were handed to her.

"Trust me, if you'd lived with 'em through middle school, you'd never be able to look at 'em the same way." Luna said with a laugh, remembering Tyler's braces and Boone's horrible haircut from the time. "As a matter'o'fact, I'm pretty sure I still got some pictures on my phone. Make sure to transfer 'em whenever I got a new one." She added on, pulling the device out of her back pocket only to have it snatched out of her hand in an instant.

"No!" Tyler pointed a finger at her as if he were scolding a misbehaving pet, and it only made Luna laugh harder. "I'm confiscating this until we got somewhere to go." He added on before walking off and stuffing the phone into the pocket of his own jeans. And once his back was turned, Dani used her chance to lean over and whisper in Luna's ear.

"Send me those so I can post them. Maybe make a T-shirt out of it." The woman said as she finished up a sale of one of the shirts, making Luna do her best to keep the burst of laughter slipping past her lips so Tyler wouldn't be alerted to their scheming.

And while the crew was busy talking to fans who surrounded them and blocked the view of the rest of the parking lot, especially with other chasers often joining the fray as they were pulled in by their own fans, or just wanted to meet the people who inspired them to start heading out on their own adventures, the Wranglers remained oblivious to the glares of the more 'proper and well behaved' group sharing the space with them.

"They're gonna make a mess of things." Scott complained as he glowered behind his sunglasses, watching the commotion and large group as one of the men stepped away from them, putting a cowboy hat on his head as he walked off into the clearing surrounding the building with his eye on the skies.

"Yeah, well, we can't control where people go or what they do, Scott." The voice of the man who was in charge, exasperated and clearly annoyed by the fray as well from the way he seemed to roll his eyes in its direction, pointed out the relevancy of such a fact. "We knew we'd be dealing with chasers whenever we got to the hands-on part of the business."

"Doesn't mean I'm going to ignore it if they do." Scott announced, making Javi look away from arranging the last of the equipment in the car, unsure if he should put a stop to that straight away. Although, the answer was given for him as he found Scott's back already turned, finally focusing on something other than the YouTubers in the distance as he began to evaluate the doppler.

Finishing up his own task, knowing they'd probably be heading out any moment now, Javi slammed the door of the Lion truck closed, leaning against it as he watched the mass of people which seemed to only grow. He couldn't even see any of the people in its center much less hear what the conversations were about over the voices which all mixed together in a undistinguishable cacophony. He could only watch as a bandana seemed to rise above everyone's heads only to be snatched back by a desperate hand.

"Luna Catalina Ramos!" The way her brother called the woman by her full government name had many in the crowd ooh-ing like kids in high school when someone was called to the principal's office. "I cannot believe you just did that!" He scolded her, adding a glare in the direction of the camera which was now in Lily's hands since he'd passed it off for safety once he was forced into a mad dash to rescue the red piece of fabric that had been snatched from his head.