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Chapter 32 – Friday

Kidnap paced the floor inside my room, wagging his tail and looking at me from time to time as I waited for Becky to come by. I stared at my luggage. There were butterflies in my stomach all morning and I know it was not about the things I should have brought but forgot.

“Sarah, they’re here.” Mom’s head protruded through the narrow opening of my door. “Is this everything?” she asked as we carried the bags down the stairs.

“Yep. I think so,” I replied as Kidnap darted down the stairs past us and jumped on Leon who stood waiting at the living room with Becky. My best friend screamed excitedly as soon as I came into view and waltzed her way to greet me with a suffocating hug.

“Sarah! This is it! I am so excited!” Her blond head bounced in enthusiasm, shrieking as she did.

I could not help but smile at her. “It’s kind of obvious, Becky.”

“Let’s go,” Leon beckoned us with Kidnap still on his arms, tail wagging, and tongue hanging lopsidedly.

“Are you taking him with us?” I said almost incredulously.

“Why? You wanted to leave him?” He smiled as he set Kidnap on the floor.

My eyes shifted between him and Mom. I did not like the idea of leaving the poor puppy with Emma. She wasn’t really a dog person.

Mom cocked her red-gold head and frowned. “What’s the big deal? I’m fully capable of taking care of him,” she muttered rather defensively.

I shrugged, gave Mom a wry smile. “Sorry Mom.” Then I turned to Leon. “But wouldn’t that be a problem?”

“Trust me.” Leon smirked.

“Take care, kids,” Mom said as she checked on us through the car window. “Remember my conditions—“

“I’ll call you as soon as we get there, then thrice a day, every day and I’ll never go anywhere without Arthur,” I recited for the twenty sixth time. “Got it, Mom.”

Emma nodded and I kissed her goodbye. It looked like she was going to cry so I motioned for Arthur to step on it.

Kidnap hopped onto my lap and stood on his hind legs to stick his brown head out the window. Leon squeezed my hand and smiled at me. That was enough reassurance for me.

Becky kept talking energetically about the places we should go to and the things we should do all the way to the airport. I kept nodding though I was not really sure what she was talking about. Leon just shook his head as he held back a smile.

“Sorry, she’s really excited about this,” I whispered when Becky started talking to Arthur.

“I can see that,” he said. “But how about you?”

I cleared my throat. “A little more… scared than excited.”

Becky leaned over from the front seat. “Oh come on, Sarah. We’ll have tons of fun,” she chirped encouragingly.

“I think we better tell her.” Leon leaned closer whispering to my ear as Becky continued prattling about the Hollywood sign to Arthur who politely engaged in the conversation with her.

It almost made me fall out of my seat. “Tell what?” I hissed playing dumb.

A smile trailed on his lips. “About me being you-know-who…”

“You’re Lord Voldemort?” I blurted uneasily, mouthing the last word, which he answered with chimes of entrancing laughter.

Ugh. Great answer Nerdy. Now your boyfriend thinks you’re a lunatic.

My heart rammed violently inside my chest. I didn’t know which was worse; looking like an idiot in front of Leon or telling Becky the truth.

“What do you want me to say to her?” I whispered almost exasperatedly. “Hey Becky, you know how superheroes wear glasses and stuff to hide their true identity? Well, look here! It’s a bird! No it’s a plane! No, it’s Leon Walden.”

“Now that you’ve put it that way, then yes.” He let out another quiet laughter which just about made the fluttering in my stomach worse.

“Stop laughing! It’s not funny. Do you realize that more than eighty-five decibels of noise can cause hearing loss?” I hissed scowling at him. Urgh. Jibber-jabber. Plain nerd talk.

“And Becky’s what? A hundred?” he said with a challenging tone, as though humoring me.

From the rear mirror, I could see Arthur smiling meaningfully at us and with that note I shushed Leon.

“Worse… and I’ve had enough of her screaming all morning, thank you very much.”

“Later then,” he said, his perfect lips pulling up slightly as he deliberately held back a smile, which was pretty much a foolproof way to sway my will.

“Ugh.” It would be impossible to argue at this point when he started pulling out the big guns. It was so unfair!

The car slowed down as we reached the airport and instead of dropping us near the main entrance, Arthur made a turn to the right. From inside, the waiting area was jam packed as expected. Summer break just started and the eager crowd was getting antsy to go to wherever they were headed to.

We finally came to a stop in front of a small door with a For Authorized Use Only sign.

“Oh my gosh!” said Becky craning her neck to the main entrance to glimpse raucous commotion in the receiving section. “It would take hours to get through that line!” she groaned rolling her grayish-blue eyes.

I followed her out of the car, tucking Kidnap in my free arm (thank God he was still really small back then) and replied with a mocking tone. “Oh, I thought you were so excited about this, Becky?”

She let out a loud hump rolling her eyes. “You are so a killjoy, Sarah.”

Leon just smiled meaningfully as he opened the luggage compartment eyeing on the entrance as though he was expecting someone. From the throng of tourists came Gerald in a tight gray formal suit, nudging his way to the car. Two tall burly men marched after him. One was very tall, with dark coffee-colored skin and bald head, while the other was tan and muscular with his brown hair cropped short to the sides. Both of them wore black suits, heavily tinted sunglasses and earpieces.

Gerald was panting heavily when he reached us and almost automatically, I took a couple of steps behind Leon. “There you are. Moira should be here by now.” He glanced at his silver wrist watch then his eyes fixed on me with an unreadable expression. Kidnap yapped indignantly at him.

Leon caught my hand and squeezed it a little. “Everything’s alright, Sarah,” he whispered.

I answered with a shaky nod and turned to Becky who looked rather confused. Leon was right. There was no point in hiding everything from her.

“Who are those guys in suits?” Becky whispered, leaning closer to me.

I looked at her intently, mustering the most severe expression I could manage. “Err… Becky, I should tell you something. But promise you’ll wait until we’ve boarded the plane. And… try to not freak out.”

Her eyes widened then narrowed out of curiosity. “Okay,” she said, as she nodded surprisingly composed though there was a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. “I’ll play along, but whatever this is, I’m pretty sure I don’t have a time bomb in my luggage.” She chuckled nervously eyeing at the two bodyguards who kept glancing left and right while muttering in an undertone to each other. “Or marijuana.”

“Me neither,” I said letting out a low shaky snigger.

The bodyguard-looking guys took care of our luggage just when the door swung in. Moira came out in her dim claret coat and black pencil skirt, half-running, her stiletto heels clacking against the smooth concrete.

“This way,” she beckoned us to come in and one by one, we piled in, with the jarhead bodyguard in front and the other at the very end of the line.

“Hi, Sarah. We meet again,” Moira said with a smile as she led us into the brightly-lit narrow hallway. Kidnap barked excitedly at her. “Hello to you too, Kidnap,” she said ruffling his floppy ears.

He seemed to like Moira more than Gerald. Go figure.

I answered with a timid smile-nod combination and concentrated on not tripping over my feet.

“Wait,” I whispered to Leon as my free hand rummaged inside my bag. “I think I left my plane ticket in the car.”

“It’s okay. You won’t be needing that,” he replied, towing me before I could argue.

A small utility door ended the hallway, leading to the vast tarmac. Three planes stood motionless in the empty concrete lot. The sky was dim with clouds heavy and dark, warning of a rainy day ahead.

While the other two planes were huge with logos of airlines on the sides, the one nearby was a bit smaller than those used in domestic flights. It had a sleek finish that was odd for an airplane, with a wide blue stripe on the side.

“There’s our ride,” Arthur said smiling as he headed to the smaller plane not more than twenty meters away from us. “But don’t tell Emma. She’ll… freak out,” he told me before adding, “And probably kill me.”

With astonishment on her brightly lit face, Becky followed him giggling elatedly. Moira and Gerald did the same, but the body guards waited patiently behind us.

With a blank stare, I watched them all clamber up the makeshift stairs that stretched up to the door flap. Just after a few moments, Becky golden head protruded from the opening with an animated squeal.

“Sarah! Come quick! You won’t believe what’s in here!” she yelled, half-giggling as she did then disappeared almost instantly into the cockpit.

I bit my lip. “It isn’t what I think it is. Is it?” I blurted out with utter incredulity that even I could not make out what I just said.

Leon flashed a wide grin seemingly too pleased with himself. “Well, it has cup holders and a flat screen…”

My jaws dropped. “You have got to be kidding me.”

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Hmm... so Nerdy's been off the charts for some time but I hope you still look forward to reading this. Tell me if you have any advise or opinions. It'd mean a lot :)