The Paramount Chronicles

Where's My Pizza?

C h a p t e r  O n e

||Where's My Pizza?||

Arielle shoved her way out of the crowd, trailing Cassie behind her. Amidst the blaring music and close dancing, Cassie was able to keep up with her surprisingly well. The girls emerged out of the club's entrance and into the Los Angeles night air. With a smile and a dramatic wave of her hands, Arielle took a deep breath and spun around. Her long, curled, chocolate-brown hair whipped around her, filling the air with the smell of strawberry shampoo for a moment.

"Fresh air!" She sighed happily.

"It smells like pollution." Cassie grimaced.

"It smells like home." Arielle grinned.

"I'll give you that... At least, it doesn't smell like sweat and alcohol out here like it did in there."

"The Crypt? Well, what can you expect from a bunch of twenty-year-olds congregating together. A game of charades?"

They walked across the street and up the stairwell of the Magnolia Apartment Complex.

"Explain to me how you manage to pull off stunts like that every time I see you?" Cassie queried.

Arielle stuck her key into the lock to her apartment.

"It's a gift, I guess."

She turned it and the white paint-chipped door swung open. Arielle tossed the keys onto the nearby glass table and fell onto her red stuffed couch face-first.

"Do you think they'll figure it out?" Cassie wondered, moving her best friend's legs to sit next to her.

Arielle sat up and brushed the hair out of her face. She raised an eyebrow.

"Have they figured it out before?"

"Well, we've never exactly snuck into a 21 and over club before—"

"With anything I've done with you... Have we been caught before?" Arielle interrupted.

"No, but—"

"No buts. We are fine. God, loosen your corset a bit. Ever heard the term relax?"

Cassie's mouth twitched up at the corners.

"So, are you gonna stay here the night or go back to your dorm room?"

"Yes, I am. You know you don't have to stay here alone. You could move into the dorms with me."

"It's not like I have a choice, Cassie. The only reason I'm in this place by myself is because my foster mom is staying at her boyfriend's place every night. I can't afford to go to a fancy private school that only elite high school students and their families have heard of."

"It's not really an elite thing, per say."

Arielle scoffed.

"Yeah, well, I guess living in Beverly Hills isn't elite either." She stood up and padded into the small kitchen.

"My dad put me there, you know." Cassie called over her shoulder as she took off her Jimmy Choo pumps.

Arielle stared at her over the counter, her arms folded in front of her.

"Oh, I know. Mr. Blanchard, the king of some private company's empire, put his genius daughter in some expensive institution to further her ridiculous intelligence. I mean what kind of a dad does that?"