Race Against Time

Door Bells and Nail Polish

The loud, unfamiliar sound of the door bell ringing startled Sam and I so bad that we both jumped, spilling sparkly pink nail polish all over her bed spread.

The red head glanced up quickly, locking her surprised green eyes on mine. "Who's that?"

I shrugged. "I was kind of hoping you would know."

We both stilled, listening intently for any sounds. When nothing reached our ears, we stood, making our way out the door and to the elevator.

As we were waiting for the doors to open a door a few yards away opened, revealing Selina in pajama pants and a t-shirt. Her wardrobe wasn't much different than that of Sam's and my own, seeing as it was nearly midnight. We had decided to stay up and do our nails while watching sappy movies.

"What's going on?" Selina questioned, coming to join us at the elevator. "Who's ringing the door bell?"

"We don't know. That's why we're going to investigate." I answered. "Oh, and be careful with your fingers." I told Sam as an after thought. I spent way too much time on her nails for her to mess them up.

Selina rolled her eyes. The elevator dinged and we nearly bumped into Noah and Aiden as they walked out.

"What are you guys doing?" Selina asked.

"Coming to get you. What are you doing?" Noah asked.

"We were going to go see who was at the door." Sam answered.

Noah put a hand to his heart, feigning offense. "And you forgot about us? What are we, chopped liver?"

Selina said something in reply, but I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy watching Aiden.

His blue eyes were focused on the floor, a look of deep concentration on his face. His black brows were furrowed. I noticed that his fingers were tapping lightly on the outside of his thigh. I don't think he even realized he was doing it.

His eyes snapped to mine as if he could feel my gaze on him. His fingers continued their steady rhythm on his leg. He watched me for a moment before turning to the others.

"We need a plan."

The others looked up in confusion, along with myself. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we need a plan," he said with a glance in my direction.

"Can you elaborate on that?"

Aiden frowned and sighed. "If someone is here this late at night then it probably means we aren't supposed to know about it. They weren't expecting us to be awake. We need to have a reason to be down stairs and we need a way to listen in on whatever is happening."

Selina smiled ruefully. "I have an idea."

"And?" Noah prompted after she went a moment without saying anything.

"Fluffy." She said the word simply, but Sam's face lit up with excitement. Noah, Aiden, and I sent each other confused glances. Obviously we hadn't been clued in on whatever the two girls were planning.

"Ok, so listen to this; it's genius. We go down stairs, claiming to have lost Fluffy. Whoever else is down there will be annoyed, but will have to let us search for him or risk being caught hiding something," Sam explained.

"Yeah, but what about how we're going to listen in and get eyes on whatever is going on?" Aiden asked.

"That's the genius part." Sam and Selina shared an excited glance.

"Sam can get Fluffy to spy on them and report back to us." Selina finished.

That's when it clicked. It made perfect sense. Selina was a genius. It was as if the two girls shared the same brain.