Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter VI

HEATH

Music: Sand Storm from Gradius III Arcade

I'm awakened by none other than the sound of Sam mumbling to himself. He tends to talk to himself when his "imagination is going wild" or whatever. Plus, he kinda has an issue with keeping his volume down when others are trying to sleep.

"Dude, do you mind?" I grumble, turning over in my sleeping bag.

"Nope," Sam replies, sounding peppy. I sigh and get myself into a sitting position. I rub my eyes and stretch out.

And then out of nowhere, Luke starts tickling my armpits from behind me. I start laughing and yelling, "Stop it! Stop it!" whilst thrashing about wildly, then finally shove him away and mumble, "Great. Now I'm fully awake." This whole fiasco startles Sean to the point where he wakes up, looks around frantically, and then rolls off the couch he's sleeping on.

"Well, today's off to a lovely freaking start," Sam sighs.

The four of us make our way upstairs to find Mia, Mackenzie, Shanna, and Emilia already up and having breakfast at the kitchen table. I don't normally eat breakfast at a stranger's house, so Luke and I just head over to the couch and turn on the TV while Sam and Sean raid their cabinet drawers for anything they will eat.

"You guys are so ungrateful," Mia sighs.

"Hey, you're not that far off from us," Luke laughs in reply. Mia doesn't respond.

Nothing interesting is on TV in the mornings, so I change the channel to show the news. The first thing that catches my attention is the headline: "5-YEAR OLD'S DISAPPEARANCE CONFIRMED TO BE ABDUCTION"

"Hey, Emilia, have you heard about this?" I call out.

Emilia turns her attention to the TV and shakes her head no. "Oh, that. Some kid went missing a few nights ago. Sucks that it was a kidnapping. I wouldn't worry too much about it, though."

Luke and I turn to face each other, both of us contemplating whether we should treat this like a big deal. Luke shakes his head no, so I shrug it off and go back to watching.

"Well, who's ready to party?" Avery's voice says from upstairs. All eyes turn to see Elle and Skylar making jazz hands towards Avery as she walks down the stairs. Her hair has been tied up and put in a small bun, and she's wearing all black, which I assume is for her dance competition. Don't even get me started on how much makeup has been applied; I probably couldn't describe it all to you in perfect detail.

The first person to comment is Luke. Not really a surprise. "And a surprisingly quick erection from Luke," he says, nodding in approval. Obviously, I don't check to see if he's telling the truth or not.

Avery gives him a look of disgust. "Did you HAVE to say that?"

"Yes."

Avery shakes her head and then tells us, "Anyways, it's 11:12 AM right now. I have to be there at noon, and the competition starts at 1."

"That early in the day? You'd think they'd save it for, like, the evening or something," Sam comments while pouring himself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.

"Do you want a ride there, Avery?" Emilia asks.

"No. We're taking the bus," Avery replies. This is an obvious lie; we're using the hovercraft. Avery goes on to say, "In fact, we should probably get going. Thanks for letting us stay here."

"Oh, no problem!" Emilia smiles. "Good luck!"

"Thanks!" On that note, the ten of us pile outside and walk to Emilia's backyard. After making sure no one followed us or is watching us, Sam pulls the hovercraft out and we take a short flight to the dance studio.