After school, Shay went looking for Heidi.

The queen of golden curls was a tea-making goddess. So just by basking in her presence, Shay only had to absorb a fraction of a percent of Heidi’s skills to get to her current, near-expert level.

So if Heidi also knew how to cook-- and if Shay could tap into a tiny, itty, little bit of that power...

Muhahaha. YesSs~

Heidi was cool with the idea-- or at least with the idea that Tyvan would love having something cooked for him. That day and Tuesday were filled cooking talk, brainstorming, annnnd... tuning into the cooking channel.

Shay learned a lot! She didn’t understand 90% of what she heard, but she hoped she could absorb knowledge over time like she did with Heidi’s plant facts.

They also discussed what dish would be best for Shay to make for Tyvan. Eventually, they agreed that making something Italian-based would be the right mix of difficult to delicious. Also, Tyvan was Italian! (Half-Italian.) So that was probably worth extra points.

Cooking practice was scheduled for Wednesday.

But... when Shay got home that day, she found a message on her answering machine.

It was from Nuri.

And it was an invitation to... a party.

--a party that Nuri would be hosting.

Super rich girl Nuri Park... the girl with the worst reputation in Archangel.

She was really nice in person! But... she was also a very particular kind of person. Not everything printed in those gossip rags were true. But... very likely, not everything was a lie.

Shay wasn’t going to go. Why would she? She’d never been invited to parties before.

(That wasn’t including that social hang-out in the courtyard... over a month ago? How was time moving so fast? And did that count as a party? Or was it just a work social?)

But... there was something at the end of Nuri’s message that Shay couldn’t ignore.

“Everyone’s gonna be there,” she said. “There’s even someone you might recognize on the guest list tonight.”

There... was only one person they both knew.

Tyvan.

Nuri had seen Tyvan at West-Meadow.

Since she was a super-rich girl in her super-rich girl circles, it was totally possible that she’d met Tyvan before. Maybe THAT was why she wasn’t so surprised to see him?!!!

So the natural thing to do... was to give Tyvan a call. It was the modern age! People had telephones! Shay immediately went to the front office, looking for Raia.

“He’s not here,” said the cranky goth girl. “He won’t be back ‘till late. Screw off.”

“weLLLL, where is he?” Shay said, smacking the desk. “What’s he doing? Is he with aNoTher wOman?!”

Raia narrowed her eyes, breathing out through her nose. “I dunno. Whatever you’re worried about, you’re probably wrong?”

No help from her.

But if Tyvan was in trouble, it was Shay’s sworn duty to protect him.

--and she had enough information to do just that!

So even though Raia stared daggers at her, Shay waved a goodbye and hopped through the office ⌈Sigilla⌋.

----------------------------------------

Shay looked out of the bus, toward the horizon. The setting sun painted the uber-wealthy Rockford Hills in beautiful oranges and golds.

Nuri had a villa at its heart-- the flat-roofed, modern kind. She had a gorgeous, three-tier fountain in her yard. There was a security detail, too: a bunch of Korean guys in suits, sunglasses, and ear-pieces with coiling cords that ran down their neck to... somewhere.

It was definitely Nuri’s place. Her blue sports car was parked in the driveway. Also... the address matched the one Shay had written down. And... the grass in the yard wobbled to the bass from a particularly ‘Nuri’ style of music.

Shay walked through the front gates, trying not to look awestruck by the expensive-looking flagstone path or the contemporary architecture. (Huh. The walkways back at Elysium were probably way more expensive than she thought.) She sensed security watching her... but they didn’t try to stop her. The guy at the front even held the front door open for her.

Part one of infiltration: complete.

The music inside was much louder... and it seemed like it was a shoes-on house? Weird.

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The lights were off or dim, but people were dancing in the huge living room. Most everyone was wearing a mask? And they all had colorful, glowing light sticks?

No Nuri at first sight... (and no Tyvan, either.)

The music changed to something heavier-- the bass got louder, there were skips on the track, and the vocals were a guy rapping in Korean.

It went hard.

Shay automatically bobbed her head along with the beat.

No one at Nuri’s party knew her. So... without needing to keep up her ‘perfect’ high school image, she figured she could maybe fit in? And then she could collect information. Or maybe make some more friends?

--not in the main hall, though. It was so loud it was hard to think.

She walked around and glanced into one of the side rooms. It had two people her age in it-- oh, they were making out. And touching each other. Shay didn’t want information that bad, so she went to another room.

Another open door led to a room that looked like a theatre. A big projector screen hung from the wall, showing the split screen of a racing video game. That looked fun... and it didn’t look like the people playing were very good.

There was a mask-less white girl with dark, wavy hair sitting alone and watching the action. That person seemed easy to approach.

“Hi,” Shay said. “Hi. What’cha guys doing?”

The girl looked back with a smile and gestured to the nearby coffee table. “Cocaine. Wanna do a line?”

Wait, what? Shay shut her mouth and gulped. The plastic bags on the table-- the razorblades and the... straws? Those were for hard drugs?

“Um. No thank you.”

“Okay,” the girl replied. “That was always allowed.”

“I mean... I don’t think it’s-- I dunno? What if I get tested? --like at work?”

Shay didn’t think drug testing at her job was a thing... but maybe it was? She skipped all the fine print in her contract since that was mostly obvious stuff.

“It’s fine, really,” the girl said. “You don’t have to drink or do drugs to vibe.”

There was drinking too?! Shay looked around and finally noticed all the red plastic cups around the room-- even by the people playing the racing game! Drinking and driving?! Was that why they were all so bad!?

She needed to find Tyvan and get them out! He wasn’t stupid-- but he was too polite to reject people. People like Nuri were his natural enemy! She was so pushy.

Oh, no~

Shay needed to save him immediately.

She excused herself and rushed out. She checked a few other rooms. More masked people. Some even had naked people?!

Also-- and totally unrelated to the fact that there were naked people around, for some reason, everyone at Nuri’s party was really attractive? The people there had... supermodel-level looks. It was like Rockford Hills was only populated by hot people.

One of those hot people even tried to hit on her. Shay did not like that-- and she basically ran away from that person.

Then... Shay found the dining hall! There was even a change in the background music from trance-y to extra-bass that made her achievement sound extra-special. There was so much food-- rows and rows of delicious-looking Korean food, hot and steaming on little buffet trays.

But... Tyvan was nowhere in sight.

Shay was beginning to doubt he was there. Where else would he be if not within a minute’s distance of where she was.

She... still hadn’t checked the upstairs area, though.

And... her conscience wouldn’t let her leave until she was absolutely sure Tyvan wasn’t there.

Bleigh...

A single guard stood in front of the big, central, carpeted staircase. He was really tall-- almost as tall as Bishop. But unlike Bishop, he was... actually intimidating.

Like the other guards, he was wearing a black suit and black tie... but he wore an identity-hiding mask, as if he was a guest. Or... it wasn’t a mask, really? It looked like a white... burlap sack?

And he... it... didn’t move. Most people moved a little bit-- chest rising and falling, shifting their weight, or looking around. The tall guard didn’t move at all.

Maybe... it was just a creepy statue? The costume party had a generally Halloween-ish vibe.

Oh-- it moved. The guard stepped out of the way of a drunk couple making their way to the snack area-- and they were... WeReWOLVES?!?!

Wait, WHAT?! Was Nuri part of the secret supernatural world of--

--ah. No. Wait.

Those people weren’t members of The Pack.

They were... regular people-- regular humans. They were just wearing dog costumes.

That was... different.

After the costumed people went away, Shay approached the tall, sack-headed guard.

“Excuse me? I have some questions.”

The guard looked down at her, but otherwise didn’t say anything.

That was... fine? --a little creepy, though.

“How tall are you, sir?” Shay asked.

“......One-hundred and ninety-three centimeters.”

...Huhhh~

Shay bared her teeth in a wry smile. “I don’t suppose I can get that in, uh... freedom units?”

The tall guard tilted his head to the side... “No.”

Hm. Fair enough. It was her own fault that she hadn’t memorized how to convert centimeters to inches.

“I’m looking for Nuri,” Shay said. “Where can I find her?”

The guard stretched out his very long arm to the side, gesturing to the stairs.

The darkness up there looked more foreboding than the rest of the house. But... that was probably just in her imagination.

“Th-thanks a lot. I’ll... get going now. Excuse me. Thanks again.”