Royal Disaster

the disastrous distraction

Aiko and I were two peas in a pod. We did everything together. We went on our first dates together. We went to our first dance together. First party. First ditch day. We met each other seven years ago, just six months before she moved to other side of the city. She and her parents had arrived from Los Angeles from the Philippines, working on their visas. Because of their heavy workload working almost every day and night, they needed someone to babysit her. That's where my babysitter came in. She'd met them earlier and, knowing my parents wouldn't mind, offered to babysit Aiko with me, so they cautiously accepted the offer since it was the best they could do with the circumstances and Aiko began to come over.

And we clicked immediately... after she introduced me to the goodness that is Filipino food. Ever since then, she'd been my best girl friend and we'd never parted. As her parents got richer, they worked less and they no longer needed to bring Aiko over. But they offered to let me stay over sometimes and that was around the time when the house sitter, Daisy, had to go to college so she didn't have much free time and my parents soon discovered that I didn't need any sitter.

Our parents haven't met each other, though. They're never in the same city long enough to find time. But they have talked over the phone. Briefly. Many times.

And, well, in the ten years we've been friends, we've shared millions of moments that have been kept on the down low- mostly. So I knew that Aiko could be somewhat trusted with my next plan. As long as she thought it was some sort of a prank.

"So, all I have to do is search their rooms for their phones?" Aiko clarified.

It was three days later and all of us were at my house, once again. It was a beach day and we were all drying up, pigging out on some extra food from the Cooper's latest banquet. Aiko and I had snuck upstairs to her bedroom so that we could come up with a plan. And we did because it was pretty simple.

"Yes, just Arthur and North's room," I whispered to her with a nod, my hands holding her shoulders to make sure she understood in case her overpowered brain got too caught up in the moment and searched everyone's. "And I will go distract them and make sure they don't come up until you come down. Okay?"

If you're wondering why she's going and I'm not, well, she volunteered. She loved the action part of the plans more than I ever did and I didn't mind bugging them till I won. It was all about my pride and I had a lot of stubbornness to go with.

"Okay," she nodded once more, her eyes darting towards the stairs.

"I'm gonna go shower," came Kurt's voice. In a rush, we ran into Aiko's room just as he stepped onto the landing. He was coming up backwards, so he didn't see us and we managed to escape into the room.

I kept my ear to the door, listening as Kurt walked to his room. When he shut the door, I waited a moment before I turned to Aiko and held up a finger to my lips. Slowly, I turned the knob and poked my head out. With the coast clear, we gently pulled the door open and then exited.

While we went down, I reiterated, "So, first, we wait for Kurt to come down. Then you go up so that if they asked where you went, you have an alibi." I paused briefly before continuing, "And then I will be downstairs, monitoring them. If they try to come up, I'll distract them. Got it?"

"Yeah." A mischievous smile appeared on her face as her shoulders rose briefly in anticipation. She was clapping silently. "This is going to be so fun!"

I rolled my eyes, a little amused at her enthusiasm. But I was still apprehensive because of the secrets that I might discover once I find that phone. It frightened me because I had a really bad feeling that they did have something to do with that missing box. Which, in retrospect, also means that they know about my secret exit. (It's basically a lose-lose situation for me.)