Meanwhile On The Dance Floor…

Inez found herself in the middle of a dance circle along with a blue eyed brown haired Latino teen around her age. They were both dancing on opposite sides of the ring in perfect unison to the rhythm of the music. In the sim it was easy enough for her to do flips and splits which came in handy due to the fact the boy was flexible as hell and wasn’t ashamed in showing it. He was bouncing around the floor like a kid on a sugar high during Halloween. The song soon reached its end the two bowed to the crowd around them that clapped in loud applause. The ring around them soon dissolved as people left to continue dancing with a new song. Laren walked over to Inez with a water bottle and handed to her which she gave a thank you in return. Despite the fact she can’t really drink anything in the sim it was a nice gesture.

“Got to hand it to you. Those were some nice moves back there,” Laren complemented her as the two went to sit at a nearby bench.

“Thanks. I’m used to going to places that have dance floors so when I saw there was one here I knew I had to join the fun,” Inez responded as she tried to regain her breathing.

As the two continued to talk about music and dancing a tall teenage boy with dark brown hair and hands full of junk food came over to them. Inez guessed that Laren knew him because the said boy immediately perked up at the new comer.

“Oh hey Hoku! You finished with work now?,” Laren asked which Hoku responded with a huge grin.

“Yup! My family made a few extra caramel apples and chocolate dipped strawberries than there were needed so I took a few for us,” Hoku responded as he showed them the food hall. “Took a few” was an understatement to make due to the number of sugary foods he got in his arms. Laren took a caramel apple from the haul and started to munch on it. Looked like he built up an appetite after dancing up a storm.

“Dude these are so sweet. I bet they were freshly made for today.”

“That what I was saying,” Hoku agreed before turning to Inez.

“And it looks you made a new friend!”

“Oh right. Hoku this is Inez. She and I were having a dance battle a couple of minutes ago.”

Inez waved over to Hoku who returned the gesture with a hello.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Inez. Do you want a snack?,” Hoku offered to her. Inez looked at the various snacks in his head and drooled in real life at the sight. There was an array of chips, cookies, caramel apples, chocolate covered chocolates, and even donuts! Yet they were all virtual foods which Inez wouldn’t be able to eat.

‘God damn you Carmen! Why did you have to make virtual food look so good,’ thought Inez as she mentally raised her fist towards the sky in frustration. Inez liked that her sister was talented in 3d modeling but never would have imagined her being mad about that. Now she wished she would have done what Varian did and grab a few snacks before the party.

“No I’m good,” she declined.

“Well if you say so,” Hoku responded before a group of people came towards them. Looks like the others have managed to find them thanks to Carmens help.

“Told you they would be here,” Carmen said to the others.

“So let me guess. You were one of the two in the dance battle back there,” Piers guessed correctly as Laren just shrugged nonchalantly.

“Hey I had to get my party on. You know this can’t be contained,” Laren said as he gestured to all of him. This caused a few to chuckle.

“Contain what? Your stupidity?,” Piers teased him which caused the others to laugh and Laren to exaggerate being offended by putting a hand on his chest and gasping like in those bad novella shows.

“Damn Laren! He’s calling you out! What you going to do about that?,” Inez asked him.

“Well I’m going to…not say anything because I fear for my life around this gremlin,” he responded before leaning over to Inez to whisper to her.

“He’s a knee cap hitter.”

Inez nodded in understading.

“Oh I totally understand. My sister Carmen also hits our kneecaps sometimes. But I think that’s because they’re just small,” Inez whispered back which caused Laren to chuckle.

Unfortunately Carmen heard that commented and looked downright offended.

“Okay I’m not that small,” defended Carmen despite them being the smallest of the group with Piers being the second shortest by two inches.

“Well if your short and full of spite I think you and Piers here would get along very nicely,” said Laren as he leaned on Piers as if he was a stool due to his short height. Piers struggled to get Laren off of him and ended up kicking him in the peanuts. Laren doubled over in pain which caused the rest to burst out in laughter.

“My peanuts,” said Laren in a frail voice.

“Well now that we found you two all we need to do is find Keito and…Enola right?,” matteo asked Varian to see if he got his sisters name right. Varian nodded in confirmation.

“Yup! The only thing I know was that she went over to the trailer that had the virtual pilot simulation so she might be there. Once she gets invested in a game it takes a while for her to finish playing it,” Varian said as Inez and Carmen nodded in agreement. Enola had the tendency to get really into video games which is a reason why Carmen wanted to insert features into the sim that she thought her siblings would like. She wanted to let her siblings have a good time in the sim even if it meant having to create a highly detailed pet system that lasted an entire week to create.

“I bet Keito is there too. He always takes the chance to pilot anything. Even tho he doesn’t know how to drive yet,” Laren says as he chuckles a bit.

“That’s a bit concerning,” said Inez with slight concern.

Carmen quickly glanced over to Piers who glanced back at them with a knowing look.

“Yeah but it’s alright. He’s going to take his space flight license next month once the new year starts again. He’s was the top of his class last year so it’ll be pretty easy for him.”

“Yeah I can totally understand that. Carmen over here drives our van on our property sometimes and she doesn’t even have a drivers license yet,” said Varian as he gestured to his sitster. Carmen glared at him due to being put on the spot.

“Wait really?,” asked matteo.

Piers turned to her with a bewildered look as if he wasn’t expecting her to drive like Keito.

‘You know the prospect of disappearing forever doesn’t sound to bad right now,’ thought Carmen to herself as her anxiety grew due to the conversation.

“Uh yeah but don’t worry! I don’t drive it that often. And my mom thought me how to drive and she said I was good enough to use the van. Speaking of my mom did you know she opened a restaurant down town a week ago? We should totally go there after the exam!,” lied Carmen before she tried to change the subject.

As their new friends started talking to one another if they should accept the invite or not Carmen took the opportunity to punch Varian in the shoulder.

“Hey what was that for?,” asked Varian in a whisper.

“Because you put me on the spot and I almost broke character! And just so you know your acting skills are terrible. Except for you Inez. You do you girl!,” scolded Carmen in a hushed tone before complimenting Inez who gave her a thumbs up.

“Oh come on give me a break! I never acted for anything serious a day in my life mister theater kid,” exclaimed Varian.

“I thought you were also a theater kid?,” asked Inez, puzzled.

“Yeah but I’m mostly a theater enthusiast. There’s a distinction.”

“Well maybe you wouldn’t just be an enthusiast if you put your back into this mission,” commented Carmen as they inspected their nails.

“We wouldn’t have to do this mission at all if your world wasn’t so messed up with glit-!,” before Varian can finish Carmen stopped them from talking by punching their shoulder again.

“Drones Varian! There are drones here!,” reminded Carmen.

As the two continued to argue their new friends turned around in bewilderment.

“Uh is everything alright?,” asked Hoku, concerned.

Inez stood in front of the two and pushed them away from one another.

“Yup! totally! We were just- talking about what activities we should do if you guys decided to come over to our restaurant! We were thinking about playing tabletop games. My siblings just got a bit excited about the idea that’s all,” lied Inez as the other two calmed down a bit.

“Okay! Sounds like a good idea. We just texted Hoku’s parents so they could let him off work early so he could come,” explained Laren.

“Excellent! Now lets go check out the pilot simulator. I wanna see if my twin beat anybody yet.”

The group continue to talk for a while as they made their way over to the pilot simulation trailer. Once they arrived they spotted a group of teens surrounding the trailer while cheering on the current users of the pilot sim. As the group pushed their way through the crowd in order to see what the hell was going one they spot Enola playing against a black haired boy with a dark red jacket.

“Looks like Keito is really going at it against that girl,” Hoku said surprised that his friend was trying so hard to defeat his opponent. Keito was one of the best pilots in the group and tended to get easily bored of competitors due to his skill exceeding most people. He only tries his best when trying to beat people in the friend group since they matched his level.

“Go Keito! You can do it!,” Laran shouted in encouragement as he waved his hands in the air with make believe pom poms like a high school cheer leader.

“That’s my boyfriend! Hes the best!”

He always took the chance to encourage his partner in his activities and usually has a poster board with cheer slogans like “Go Keito Go!” on hand during competitions but this time he didn’t have one so he had to make do with non existent pom poms.

“You can do this Enola! Show them what you can do!,” Carmen shouted to her sister as she tried to be her hype man. Her siblings were waving neon colored light sticks wildly as if they were in a k-pop concert to show their support. Looks like they found them in the inventory of their gauntlets.

‘They could have packed a million more important things and they decided to bring glow sticks. Yeah checks out!,’ thought Carmen to herself before remembering they were her siblings so this was just usual behavior for them.

“Wait, that’s your sister?!,” Hoku asked surprised at her sisters advanced piloting skills.

“Yeah! My twin can get a bit…competitive at times.”

“Go Enola! Beat him to the ground!,” Varian shouted as he started to get a bit too invested into the competition.

“Show no mercy!,” Inez shouted rather aggressively. The two siblings appeared more unhinged and wild every second as the game went on causing the group to look at them with mild concern and amusement. The two decided it wasn’t enough and started to dance in place a bit despite their movements being kind of awkward.

“Looks like it runs in the family,” matteo said as he chuckled at the sight of the siblings aggressive cheering.

“You don’t say,” Carmen said sarcastically