"Rory use your hearing!" I whisper-yelled to him.
"Oh right!" Rory nodded then focused. "He's actually doing it!"
"I changed my mind- this is definitely worth a hundred bucks!" Benny grinned.
"Awe I'm so proud of him." I placed my hands on my heart. I see Ethan turn to us with a nervous look on his face. "Keep going! You got this!" We all encouraged him. He turns back to the girl and keeps going. I see her nod and we all cheer silently. She walks away and Ethan walks back to us.
"She said yes!" Ethan jumped up and down.
"And I never doubted you ever!" Benny smiled at his best friend.
"Yes you did Benny. But I'm so proud of you Eth." I pulled him in for a hug.
"Me neither! And we're not lying like Benny!" Rory pats him on the shoulder.
"Yeah! Wha-hey!" Benny got offended.
"I can't believe she said..."Yes."" Ethan sighed in happiness and relief.
"One hundred dollars." We were now back at Ethan's house to give Ethan his end of the bet. "In nickels." Benny holds up a huge bottle full of nickels. "Best money I ever spent... what are you doing?" The three of us turned to see Ethan flipping through a book.
"this." He turns the page to us to show us a picture "I saw this in the vision I got from the council librarian."
"What did they say it was?" Benny asked.
"I didn't tell them about it." Ethan shrugged.
"You what?!" I gasped.
"Dude!" Benny covered Rorys ears. "Rory can't hear this."
"Im not gonna tell the counsel Benny." Rory shrugged Benny's hands off his ears.
"You kept a secret from the council?" I pressed.
"How'd you get so cool all of a sudden?" Benny laughed.
"Nows not the time benny." I rolled my eyes.
"Look, the wizard who raided the council library was looking for something called the Lucifractor. You saw how Anastasia tried really hard to not look worried when I mentioned that." Ethan said.
"Must be pretty important if it scared little Miss Fang Thang." Benny shrugged.
"Maybe we should figure this out. Maybe I should just call Sarah about tonight and-"
"No!" We all clamored against it.
"Hey, whoa, whoa! It took a full year to get one date - one!" Benny stepped forward and put his hands on Ethan's shoulders. "This? This happens every week. Go on your date, dude."
"We'll totally figure this thing out. The two of us make almost a full Ethan. And then Dri can just get frustrated and figure everything out for us." Rory wrapped his arm around me. My face dropped and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah..." I sighed.
"What?" Benny looked at my boyfriend confusedly.
"Okay. Yeah, you're right." Ethan agreed.
"So, where are you taking her?" I changed the topic.
"Well, Erica mentioned a little restaurant Sarah might like." Ethan answered me.
"Nice. Time for some tips." Benny clapped his hands together.
"Oh, I don't need any tips." Ethan's eyes widened.
"I don't need any tips...Coach." benny spoke with an evil glint in his eye. And then ten minutes later, Ethan is dressed for his date and the three of us are teaching Ethan how to have a successful one.
"How necessary would you say that wig is?" I asked Rory.
"Very. I totally think it brings out the color in my eye." He responded.
"Couldn't I just play Sarah?" I asked.
"It's alright babe I got this." Rory said to me. "You just sit and relax. It's time for me to impart my wisdom on how to get the girl. Because that's right, I've got a girlfriend before you two. And she's the bomb." Rory bragged. I blushed and sat down.
"Yada yada yada yes we all know how awesome my sister is. We don't have all day times a wasting." Benny rolled his eyes. "Now, what do you do when you first sit down?"
"Act like it's the only place to be." Ethan said to Rory. ""Isn't this awesome?"" Rory smiles, twirled a strand of the wig in his fingers and sighed.
"Awkward pause alert!" Benny gasps. "What do you do?"
"Uhhh." Ethan thinks for a second.
"Um, compliment her eyes or her shoes! Just make her feel like she wants to be there with you and only you. Give her compliments that she wants to hear only by you."
"Do you have a map?" Ethan turns back to Rory.
"Why?" Rory pretends to look at his nails.
"Because I just got lost in your shoes."
"Oh god." I facepalmed.
"Why would you-" Benny does the same thing.
"I don't know my shoes are pretty nice." Rory looks at them
"Here comes the bill, hotshot." Benny goes on to the next lesson. ""There you are, sir."" Benny pretends to be the waiter. "What do you do?"
"Don't make a big deal about how maybe your soup wasn't worth seven dollars?" Ethan winces.
"Lesson time's over! Get in there!" Benny pushed him out of the seat and out of the house.
"Get your date on!" Rory says.
"Good luck Ethan." I smiled.
"Oh...Thanks!" Ethan nods at us.
"You think he'll blow it?" Rory asks.
"Yeah, probs." I shrugged.
"I mean, he left you the bill." Benny turns to Rory.
"We should probably get working on the Lucifractor." I suggested. So Benny ran upstairs and grabbed all the books he could on magical objects. 20 minutes later we had opened all the books and could barely find anything.
"I've been staring at this thing for five minutes and... Does this look like a monkey's head to you?" Benny asked.
"I mean, with one eye?" Rory guessed.
"I think it looks more like this." Benny turned the book around.
"Hey, you're right. Nice catch."
"Mr. Morgan. What is this map?" The man had come home about 10 minutes into our research lesson.
"Oh, that would be the "oh-no zone."" He said.
"That what?" I questioned.
"It's the only part of town my company won't insure. Too many weird accidents." He sits down across from us. "Uh, this one..." he points to one part of the map. "House sucked into the ground. Um, garage torn apart by trees. Oh yeah, driveway turned to lava! Yeah!" He pointed to each place on the map. "Nothing that gets built in these spots stays up for long. It's like the whole area seems to be filled with bad luck."
"Oh. And, what's this place in the center?" I continued my questions.
"One Darkwood Road? Oh, Darkwood Hotel -oldest in town. You know, back in the '40s, a busload of people checked in. The next day... They disappeared. Checked out." Ethan's dad informs us.
"Checked out?" Rory asked. "You mean, like...?"
"No one knows. Whatever it was, their insurance didn't cover it." Mr. Morgan laughed. the three of us did not. His laughter then turned into an awkward one and then subsided. Benny and I caught on that this may lead to something.
"So, Ross, um... We kids, we love your insurance stories."
"No we-" Rory started. I kicked him slightly. "Ouch."
"Do you have any pictures of, like, flooded basements and stuff?" Benny asked.
"Do I? Yeah, they're upstairs! I'll go get 'em!" The man smiled excitedly and ran to go get them and being them back to us.
"Thank you. Okay, each place he mentioned is a nexus of supernatural energy." Benny explains.
"What about this one?" I pointed to it. "It's on the drawing, but not in the map."
"Ethan said that Cloaky Vamp-stomper was looking for something called the Lucifractor. If this is where it is, we need to get there first." Benny says.
"Oh, I know where this is going." I facepalmed.
"We're going to One Darkwood Road." Benny finished his thought.
Authors note!!!
hello everyone how are you doing!!! I hope you like this chapter! if i'm a little slow with my writing its because i'm just so sad to write it! I've been building Alexandria for about two years now and I don't want to let her go just yet!