The Godmother

Chapter 12: Costume Party

The alarm rang in the midst of the cold silence of the morning. I woke up with a groan and got ready to face the trials and tribulations of the day... While cursing all through it as cope.

I was never a morning person. I don't think anyone is, unless they're from a Disney movie.

They say mornings are new beginnings... I say, mornings are horrible inceptions. Why would I want to wake up when I'm finally comfortable enough on the bed after a night of tossing and turning?

I was in the middle of cooking some eggs when someone with a horrible stench came over. "Ready for my date, how do I look?", Ben grinned at my frown.

He was wearing a casual coat over his usual jeans and T-shirt with a Hogwarts gryffindor scarf lazily looped around his neck. While his outfit was geeky but ambitious, his smell was on a whole other dimension of reek.

"What the fuck did you spray over yourself?", I asked. "My new 60 dollar perfume bottle that I found in the closet. I don't remember buying it but its too expensive for me to not try it. Isn't it nice?", He goofily explained.

I was about to tell him that he smelled like a nuclear plant but decided against it when I saw Van in the doorway behind him putting a finger over his pursed lips with playful eyes. "Y-yes you smell great. Go get her, man!", I nervously replied.

Ben being the oblivious little shit he is, happily skipped away to the front door. That's right... He SKIPPED, like a 4 year old with a lolipop. "Call me up when you guys need me to check out one of those cafes, I'll be around Hobble street, undetectable and undercover", he winked and clicked his keys as he closed the door.

"Undetectable would be a little hard when you smell like grandma medication", I muttered under my breath. Van giggled and came to the kitchen where I emptied my cooked eggs into a plate.

"What did you do to the poor guy?", I asked Van. "Might have secretly left some bug spray in a sophisticated bottle for him", Van replied now eating an apple.

"You should stop bullying him. He looks really invested in his date for the first time", I said seriously. "If she's good for him, she would accept his flaws... And cheap bug spray perfume", Van justified.

"Plus, he got all cutesy and dressed up for her. If that's not swooning enough in a dude like him, I don't know what is", he continued. I laughed and shrugged.

"I'll let you off because of that prank he pulled when you were at your date last year", I said. "Yeah, putting charcoal in my mouthwash wasn't the most 'flattering' thing", Van shuddered.

"Hey, atleast that made her laugh. Ruby loves you because of it!", I raised my eyebrows and said. "I'm pretty sure Ruby likes me for more than just that. To be honest, I wasn't expecting her to laugh and kiss me when I got embarassed of showing my stained teeth", he admitted.

"She's a keeper", I smiled. "I know", he whispered and tried to hide a smile. "When is she coming back?"
He sighed and shrugged, "She said she'll be back once that stupid University let's her off. Man, do I hate France because of it."

"She's missing you too, Van. Her fashion diploma won't complete itself, give it a while. She's in her last year remember?", I replied. "Yeah, yeah. I know", he rolled his eyes and sighed. "You guys are up already?", Harrison walks in with his boxers and taped up glasses.

"Unlike some people, we have lives", Van seethed."Ouch, who hurt you this early?", Harrison fawned, placing a hand on his heart. "Ruby", I replied for him. "Pfft. You literally bragged about being able to maintain a long distance relationship better than anyone of us", He laughed at Van's red face.

"Yeah, I can. Its just hard", he whispered. Harrison stopped laughing and slapped Van's butt. "Its only morning, quit the sad, broken boy demeanor. Just a few more weeks of blue balls, you can do it!", He hollered. Van just laughed it off and rented the blender beside me for his smoothie.

"We leave in 15 minutes", Flint's cold voice reverberated the halls. We all groaned in unison and sped up our morning routine pace. 15 minutes and 50 seconds later, we were out the door with our tracking devices and gps.

"We split up radially. We don't want any suspicions to arise so its an individual course of action. I've already informed Ben to take the north east cafe, Van go the one in the west park, Harrison in the centre, Rochelle in the right side and I'll be opposite to that. If we don't find anything, we search the rest of them in a similar way-"

"I've to leave at 11:30", I interrupted Flint. "Perfect, we each get 2 cafes except Rochelle. He's a hacker so we can't rely on these radio walkie talkies and smart phones. Each one of you gets a burner phone, once the job is done, discard it", he instructed handing us all small phones.

We suited up into our disguises. I heard a laugh as I was putting on my fedora. A homeless looking Harrison was laughing at Van who decided he was going to dress like a Business woman... Yeah, woman.

"They only had a female pantsuit left in the store. Don't ask me why", Van sighed putting on a wig and fixing it securely over his wig cap. "You could've just gone with the pantsuit as a man instead of a budget bra and wig. People love seeing gender barriers broken these days, you know?", I replied.

"I'm trying to go undercover... ATTRACTING ATTENTION seems to be quite the opposite", he emphasized.

"I would debate but I'd be lying if I said you don't look better as a lady. Goddamn!", Harisson exclaimed looking at Van's final look. Van just rolled his eyes and put on his rich-lady cat eye shades. Flint came out from the changing room with a clown costume.

If you thought Van's appearence was a treat, Flint's outfit was a cake fit of giving diabetes. Harrison found it so funny, that he just stood there with his mouth open without a noise coming out. Talk about speechless.

"Clowns are common in the area for balloon distribution", he justified. "I'm glad you chose that. Ben must be so mad he's missing out on this wonderful costume", Van said while trying to stifle a laugh.