Page 37 of The Spotlight Effect

Mental eye roll. Fuck love.

“You know, I had the money to pay for my food,” Alexia whispers beside me.

“I’m a gentleman and no other girl was paying for theirs,” I reply.

“Raven,” Alexia states.

“Kenan covered her,” I correct her.

“Thank you but I got it next time,” Alexia says, as I open the door, and the night air hits us.

“You seem surprised I paid,” I say.

“That you somewhat have a heart, maybe.” She shrugs.

Raven walks us all outside and then presents her idea. It’s something we have all experienced before, except Alexia and Nevea. Nevea chooses to never participate because she doesn’t want to break a nail. We even got Zara to do it and she’s a goody-two-shoes. We’re gonna play random store games but in relay form.

“I’ll see you all back at The Fortress,” Shawn says, making his way to his car. We all know he’s going to see Zara before coming home. He’s totally whipped. I mean his lockscreen and home screen is a picture of her. He even still wears this multicolor beaded bracelet she made him when she was in ninth grade. It’s cute, I admit.

“How does it work?” Alexia asks.

“Basically, we choose something funny to wear because why do it in normal clothes then we spin a wheel to pick a store. Ithas to be like Walmart or Target, and we have a list of games we play,” Scarlett answers.

“The games include hide and seek, cart races, autograph an item, dodge ball, and picture hunt,” Charlie follows.

“As far as autographing an item we try to stick to our records, CDs, and stuff,” Raven tells her.

“Spin the wheel for outfits,” Nevea says, annoyed. Raven pulls out her phone, mumbling. Probably cursing and typing something in.

“I put in onesies, formal wear or Disney costumes,” Raven tells us. We wait a few seconds as the wheel spins then Raven announces the Disney costumes were chosen. We all go to our cars and head for our costume tour bus, which happens to be parked at The Fortress.

“Why do you guys have a tour bus just for costumes and why would it have these kinds of costumes?” Alexia asks.

“Child performances, visiting kids and stuff like that,” I answer.

We pull up to the big, white, modern-style house and drive around back to the RV garage and get out of our cars. Shawn unlocks the bus, and we all go looking around for what to wear.

I end up dressing as Eugene and Charlie is Prince Eric. Scarlett is Minnie Mouse in a red and white, fluffy, short dress and light up ears with red heels. Raven is Vidia from Tinkerbell with a purple dress and purple boots. Kenan is Hercules with the classic outfit most people wear and even includes the little headgear. Nevea is Meg. Beatrix is Silvermist from Tinkerbell, wearing a dark blue fading to a light blue long dress with white air forces and fairy wings, and Alexia is Tinkerbell in the cutest short green ruffle dress and fairy wings.

Damn, that’s a short dress. She does look angelic in it, and I can’t help but stare. I think she just made me like the character,although personally, I’ve always thought Tinkerbell was sort of a pain in the ass.

After changing,we end up at Target for the Relay Store Races.

Like always, first is cart races. We all grab a shopping cart and find a middle aisle that is empty and pair up. Nevea and Kenan, Scarlett and Raven, Me and Alexia and Charlie and Bea.

“Okay, get ready, set, go!” Beatrix calls, and we all run, then jump on the buggies, hoping to be the first at the end of the aisle. Alexia looks around at the others as we fly down the aisle, normally I'd be more focused on winning but right now all I see is her.

We end in second place, and I don’t even care.

Next is the secret sign, where we all separate for three minutes and have to quickly find an item and sign it and get back to the meeting point. The meeting point is electronics this time. We all start a timer at the same time and then go. I run to the music area this time. I’m not going all out of the box like last time. Last time, I signed the band shirts that were in store, and this time, I decided to sign an album. I snap a picture when I’m done and go back to electronics, seeing Alexia, Bea, Kenan, and Nevea already there.

“What did you sign?” I ask Alexia.

“CD cover not that it matters I’m not one of you, so I added The MorningStars in front of my name,” Alexia answers.

“And you guys?” I ask the rest of them.

“CD,” Kenan states.

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