Today is the day I'm finally going to ask Wyndy out on a date. I have prepared and rehearsed a short poem I'm going to say to her before asking her out so it sounds more romantic. I've delayed this for long enough and since I'm not getting anywhere in finding my invention, I might as well make my move before Alasdair beats me to it. I can't lose on both sides.

"What are you thinking about friend? Don't overthink this, just do it," Travis tells me when he notices how nervous I am.

Nathan walks up to us and greets us cheerfully. Doesn't he get tired of smiling so hard all the time?

"So, Avan, wanna hang out after school?" He asks me.

"Maybe some other time. I have a date today. Sorry Nate."

"It's fine, we can hang out some other time like you said." He turns to Travis. "Omg, Travis! I can't believe I get to be this close to you. I'm a huge fan."

"Thanks?"

"Can I get an autograph?"

"Uh, what's an autograph?" Travis looks to me for an explanation.

"It's the signature of someone you admire, especially if that person is a celebrity," I explain.

"And you're kinda like a celebrity in this school," Nathan adds.

"Um, okay." Travis signs on Nathan's shirt with the marker he gave him and he grins with excitement.

"Thank you so much! I'm never washing this shirt so I don't wash off the autograph," Nathan says and walks away.

"Celebrities in your universe are really nice to give autographs for free, the ones in my universe would literally charge you for a selfie or a picture with them."

"And people pay for that?"

"Yeah, diehard fans. And the worst part is that the money goes to the government, though they get a certain percentage."

"The government in your universe sure is autocratic. It literally controls everything."

"But if the so called celebrities really loved their fans, they wouldn't charge them for pictures since they know the money isn't even theirs."

"You said they get a certain percentage so I guess they earn a lot of money from the pictures."

"It's still not fair to the fans."

"Who cares about the fans?"

We remain silent as we take our textbooks from our lockers in preparation for our morning classes.

"Nathan seems weird," Travis suddenly remarks.

"That's just how Nathan is," I tell him.

"Not just that. There's something eerie about him that I can't quite place my finger on."

"You don't like him? He's a fan."

"It's not that I don't like him, I'm just getting this strange feeling about him. I feel like he's not who people think he is."

"And what do you feel like he is?"

"I don't know, but I bet it's not as nice and bubbly as his facade."

"Come on, give the guy a break. He literally doesn't have any friends and is trying so hard to make some."

Travis shrugs. "I'm just saying what I feel."

The bell rings for the first period and we head to class but the sound of Austin's voice stops us. We look back to see her and Wyndy hurrying towards us.

"Hey, what's up?"

"What is up is that I have news," Austin says in an exaggerated newscaster voice.

"We have class now so we'd appreciate it if you kept your news for later."

We are about to turn around and head for class when Austin says, "Alasdair's invention got stolen."

"What? When?"

"Last night."

"How do you know this?"

"I overheard Chris talking on the phone with Alasdair."

"This means the burglar managed to break into the lab despite the advanced security system. He must be a hacker himself or hired one," Travis says.

"Who cares about that? What we should be worried about is the motive behind these thefts," Wyndy says.

"The burglar probably wants to use them to compete in the contest, maybe he wants to find out which of the two works best," Travis reasons.

"Or, it could be that he's trying to eliminate competition."

"Whatever the reason is, it's not in our favor which is why we need to find out who this burglar is," I say.

"Maybe we should get Alasdair onboard since his invention also got stolen. He probably found some clues at the lab that might be helpful to us," Austin suggests.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Wyndy agrees. "What do you boys think? Avan?"

"Well, we don't really have much of a choice at this point so let's go with it."

"And I think Wyndy is the perfect person for that. Alasdair doesn't like Avan so she's the only one that can convince him," Austin adds, looking me in the eyes to see my reaction. I keep my face expressionless.

"Is there anything else you wanna tell us? We're really getting late for class," I say.

"No, that's all." Austin dismisses us as she and Wyndy head to their own class. Wyndy turns back to smile at me and my heart does a somersault.

"I hope you don't melt into jelly when asking her out," Travis whispers to me as we head to class.

* * * * *

While at Rick's, I sit at the table close to Alasdair and Caleb's, eavesdropping on their conversation. Travis and Austin are seated at our usual table, watching them. Austin was supposed to have a date with Chris, but she asked him to get the pizza and bring it to Rick's so they could also have coffee. Wyndy serves Alasdair and Caleb their coffee with a smile and Caleb stares at her until she is out of sight.

"You know, your girlfriend looks a lot like one of the kids that broke into my lab with that strange man," he says.

Alasdair chuckles. "Wyndy? Nah, you probably have her mistaken for another ginger haired girl."

"I can recognize that ginger hair anywhere," Caleb insists.

"You've only seen her like once."

"Yes, but her hair is so conspicuous."

"Come on, Wyndy doesn't even know about the lab so how could she be the one?"

"Are you sure she doesn't?" Caleb raises a questioning brow at Alasdair.

"Don't look at me like that, I haven't told her anything."

"They're probably the ones that stole the invention. I wish I was able to capture the license plate of the vehicle they drove in. Have you reported this to the cops?"

"Yeah."

"Have you heard anything from them concerning the case?"

"No."

"We don't have much time on our hands. I don't know why the imbecile, whoever he is, chose to steal this invention when it's in the final stages. He's gonna pay for this when we find out who he is."

"Let's just find the invention, that's our priority now."

"You're right." Caleb stands up and fixes his baseball hat. "Keep me updated if the cops get a lead or something," he says and leaves the café without even touching his coffee.

As if on cue, Wyndy walks over to the table and sits next to Alasdair.

"Hey, what's wrong? You look kinda down."

"My invention got stolen."

Wyndy feigns surprise and I have to give it to her, she's a good actress.

"Oh my god, who would do that? I'm so sorry this had to happen."

"I've reported it to the cops and the thief would be caught soon."

"I'm not sure about that. A friend of mine also had his invention stolen few weeks ago and the cops still haven't been able to catch the thief so I don't think you should rely on the cops to find your invention."

"What else can I do, I'm not a cop."

"You can join our team."

"What team?"

Wyndy goes on to tell him about our quest so far and how we thought he was the burglar but discovered we were wrong. Though she leaves out the parts where we snuck into his house and followed him to the lab. If he finds out it was us, Caleb could get us arrested for breaking into the lab.

"Avan's invention got stolen? But he never mentioned it."

"Since you are also a victim, we can work together to find the burglar. We believe it's the same person and he has a motive behind stealing your inventions."

"I don't know about this. Caleb may not want to get involved with other people. You know he's trying to keep a low key profile."

"We're working towards one common goal so it'll be better if we work together."

"Fine. I'm in."

"Yay." Wyndy beams and this brings a smile to Alasdair's face.

"Did you find any clues on the night the burglar stole your invention?"

"By clues you mean anything that could lead us to him?"

"Yes, did you find any?"

"No. But he or rather she did leave behind a purse."

"A purse?"

"Yeah, a female purse."

"Are you with it?"

"Yeah, I haven't even opened it." Alasdair retrieves the pink purse his pocket and gives it to Wyndy. "I was thinking of taking it to the cops to help them in their search."

"Good thing you haven't given it to them. Come on, let's uncover the contents of the purse together, maybe we can find more clues. You could also get to meet my team of friends."

"Sure." Alasdair follows Wyndy to the table where Travis and Austin are seated and I follow them.

"So, Alasdair, these are my friends, Avan, Travis, and my best friend, Austin. Guys, this is Alasdair."

"Nice to meet you guys, Wyndy's told me a lot about you. Although I don't think we need an introduction, considering the fact that you guys already know who I am and I know who you are."

"Good to have you on the team, Alasdair," Travis says.

"Thanks. I still can't believe you guys thought I was the burglar, how absurd."

"Let's not dwell on that now." Wyndy turns to us, brandishing the wallet. "Alasdair says the burglar left behind a purse when he stole his invention. The wallet is a female's purse as you can see, so it clearly belongs to a girl, a girly girl."

"The burglar also left behind a wallet when he broke into my room," I say.

"He sure loves swiping wallets and purses," Travis comments.

"So, let's see the contents of the purse," Austin says.

Wyndy opens the purse and it's actually bigger than it looks. She brings out an ID card, a power bank, a hand sanitizer, a lipgloss and some other makeup stuff.

Wyndy puts the contents back in the purse and picks up the ID card. "This is our school's ID card and it belongs to Deborah Hudson."

"That's Debbie Cheer, the head cheerleader," Austin says.

"Do you think she's the burglar?"

"It's highly unlikely, Debbie doesn't even know what the word science means, she's pretty dumb. Pretty, and dumb."

"What if she's just pretending to be dumb to cover up her acts? I think we should interrogate her, that's the only way we can know if she's innocent or not," Travis suggests.

"And if we find out she's not the burglar?"

"It's not like we have much of an option here."

I give Alasdair back his wallet and he stares surprisedly at me. "You had my wallet this whole time?"

"The burglar left it behind in my room and we thought it was you. I didn't want to return it so you wouldn't know we were on to you."

Alasdair takes slow deep breaths like he's trying to restrain himself from having an outburst.

"Are there any other clues the burglar left behind?" Wyndy asks him and he shakes his head 'no'.

"You're a really good friend, you know. Your friends are super lucky to have you," he says, staring admirably at her.

"That's my bestie right here," Austin chirps and hugs Wyndy.

Just then, Chris walks into the café with two boxes of pizza and looks around, searching for Austin. She waves her hand and he walks over to us when he sights her.

"Hey babe, I got the pizza just like you asked," Chris says as he drops the pizza boxes on the table. He is surprised to see all of us at the table.

"What's going on here?" He asks.

"We're having a meeting," Austin replies with a sweet smile.

Chris narrows his eyes suspiciously. "Alasdair? What are you doing here?"

"I'm also a part of this meeting."

"How—"

"Sit, and I would explain everything to you," Austin tells him and he grabs another chair from the table near us and sits beside her.

She fills him in on everything starting from when my invention got stolen to how we started our search and how we thought Alasdair was an accomplice in stealing my invention. Of course, she also leaves out the parts where we snuck into Alasdair's house and followed him to the lab. Chris is shocked and just looks at each of us before looking back at Austin.

"I can't believe all this has been going on and you didn't even tell me, you never keep anything from me," he says.

"We didn't want to ruin the mission by involving many people so confidential information doesn't get out in the open. I'm sorry."

"I understand, you were just supporting your brother, and I admire that. I'm glad to see you guys being on the same page for this long." Chris hugs Austin and everyone goes 'aww'— well, everyone except me, that is.

"Now," Austin says, rubbing her palms together, "we have two boxes of pizza before us, so let's dig in!"

"Is this why you asked me to bring the pizza here?" Chris asks her and she smirks.

"Kinda."

We open the first box and simultaneously, everyone takes a slice and shoves it in their mouths. Austin and Chris get all romantic as they feed each other and steal kisses. I look at Wyndy and wish I could do the same with her, but, I have not even asked her out yet. I mentally facepalm myself. Before long, the pizza is gone and we open the second box to devour, all the while, laughing and chatting away with Alasdair as if we were friends.