I burst into Ichiko's room, slamming the door behind me and leaning against it. I was out of breath, and smiling.
Ichiko was not happy. He glared at me, spinning his chair around. "Now what?" he snapped.
I hesitated, my smile fading. "Um . . . I . . . lost a bet."
He shook his head, annoyed. "So?"
"Well, Dyllan's mad now 'cause I won't pay up. I can't, actually; I was pretty sure I was gonna win, see, and . . . well, yeah. I didn't."
"What did you bet on?"
"Well, Dyllan bet me that he could hide my stash in the house and I wouldn't be able to find it. Thing is, I grew up here and he's only been here like two weeks, so I thought I could find it."
"But you didn't."
"Nope."
Ichiko frowned, then turned and shoved his papers to the back of the desk with a sigh. "Guess I'm not getting this done today either. You two just won't quit, will you?"
"Finish what today?"
"Like it matters now," he muttered, still mad. "Considering it's Dyllan, did you even check to make sure he actually hid it inside the house?"
"Ah . . . no. Probably should've, huh?"
"You think?"
"Well, sorry. Anyways, I still didn't find it, but I'm also broke so now Dyllan's pissed at me." Muffled footsteps came from behind the door, and I braced myself in case it was Dyllan.
"How much did you bet?"
"Um . . ." Before I could finish, there was a bang as Dyllan tried to get past the door. I leaned harder against it, grimacing. This continued for five minutes, but then I heard yelling and he stopped. Jay's voice came through the door. It was muffled, and kind of hard to understand, but I could tell she was pissed now too.
"What are you doing?!" she demanded.
Dyllan's voice came through the door, sounding sheepish. "I . . . nothing. I was just . . ." he trailed off.
"Well, stop it whatever it was."
"Ma'am yes ma'am."
There was a moment of silence, then she left. After a minute or two, I heard more footsteps. Ichiko looked back at me, "So. How much did you bet again?"
Someone knocked on the door, then Dan's voice came through, slightly less muffled.
"Do you wanna pay me back now? You know you lost the bet. You know you owe us now, we're coming through, we're gonna do you in . . ." Ichiko laughed.
I relaxed a tiny bit, letting it crack open. Dan was peering through, smiling. "Dude, what are you doing here? You're not even part of the bet."
"No," he admitted. "But Dyllan said he'd give me twenty dollars if I got you to let us in."
I raised my eyebrows. "Seriously dude? Why am I even paying you, then? That's like all the money I was supposed to give you!"
There was some arguing, then Dan's face vanished and Dyllan looked in. "No it's not. I still got like five dollars; besides, that's only if you let us in, which you haven't yet."
Dan shoved Dyllan out of the way, "Please let us in. I want twenty bucks."
Ichiko stared incredulously between me and the door. "You said you'd give him twenty five dollars??"
"Yeah. Like I said, I thought I'd win."
Ichiko sighed, and Dan poked me in the shoulder. I turned back to him.
