Academy Mission: Supermarket Sweep!!

Ch 7: Champions

Chapter 7: Champions

We are back at our hotel waiting for the last taping to finish. Nathan and Kota won their episode yesterday and moved on to the Champions Episode today.

It was funny how seriously they took the game. When Luke, Gabriel, North and I got back from taping our episode Kota drilled us with questions. What types of questions were we asked, how much were the different items, did it seem like the bigger the inflatable the bigger the ticket price? The questions went on and on and Nathan wrote down all the answers while Kota started formulating a game plan.

They even had a map of the store that they memorized by the time the next day came. All that hard worked paid off---well and using the rest of us a guinea pigs helped too!

"Hey Sang! I thought you knew who Lou Diamond Phillips is?" Luke asks me.

"I don't know who that is, I've only seen the shows you watch with me." I tell him.

"He was in that episode of Psych!! The funny one." Luke explains.

I giggle a little, "They are all funny to me, Luke! That's doesn't narrow it down."

"He was the FBI agent that came in with the suit and he was all serious and what was the word you used..." Luke's snapping his fingers like that will help the word magically appear, but I remember exactly which episode it is now.

"Perfection." I whisper."

"Yes! That's it, you said he was perfection!" Luke laughs, Victor and North both give me a funny looks; albeit different ones, while Gabriel gives a 'what kind of shit description is that?'

I won't explain to them that the character Lou Diamond Phillips was portraying reminded me of an extreme example of Mr. Blackbourne. Well he was a lot like Mr. Blackbourne, but the character was meant for us to get some laughs and I would never---never, laugh at Mr. Blackbourne.

Gabriel gets out his iPod and hooks it up to a speaker, "You know what else he was in?" He pushes play and starts singing and dancing to the song, "Para bailar la bamba, Para bailar la bamba, Se necesita una poca de gracia..."

His voice is beautiful, but I'm not sure he's pronouncing the words correctly, I hope Nathan gets back soon to help him. Gabriel grabs my hand and starts dancing with me. We get distracted when the door opens.

"We won!!!!" Nathan comes in screaming holding two sets of car keys. Everyone shouts and cheers as Kota, Sean, Owen and Silas come in and close the door behind them.

We continue our celebration until Nathan shouts, "Why are you playing La Bamba?" and we all crack up laughing.

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The flight home was short for me because I fell asleep on the plane. Soon I'm being woken up and carried to a car. I groggily sit up from Victor's lap and ask where we are.

"We're almost home, sweetie." Kota answers from the driver's seat.

I look behind us and see North's jeep, along with Mr. Blackbourne's BMW. A look out the window to the side shows me we are almost at Sunnyvale Court.

"So when do we get the cars?" I ask, already excited to learn to drive one like Nathan promised.

"They give us vouchers and we have to go pick them up at a local dealership." Nathan explains. "We'll have them by the end of the week."

The car is silent except for the music coming from the radio. It's low enough for us to concentrate on our thoughts, but still loud enough to make out the words. My thoughts are what bring us to a stop just outside my street.

"Hey, guys? Weren't we supposed to be on a mission?"

"Shit." Is the only response I get and I'm thinking it was from Nathan. I giggle at the absurdity of the situation and wonder how many favors this mess up will cost the guys. Good thing I'm a ghost bird, whatever that means; no one has bothered to explain it to me, but I do know it gets me a lot of favors and leverage with the Academy. I'll be sure they won't get into too much trouble, but I might make them sweat a bit first.