“Nicole! Hurry!” Giana hissed, gesturing for the author to scurry into her office.

Nicole glanced over. That wasn’t a good sign. Her eyes flicked down and up the halls. No Megan or Gil in sight—

“Now!” Giana urged.

Okay, no Megan or Gil that she could see. She rushed into the office and Giana shut the door behind her, locked it, and then Kylie shoved a chair under the handle. Kaitlin and Lorelai let out a breath from where they sat in what seemed to be a broken up circle in the back corner of the room. Kylie hurried over to the circle and sat by her sister, Giana followed and gestured for Nicole to do so as well. She did, and plopped herself down in an empty gap in the circle.

“What’s going on?” she whispered. “Are Megan and Gil going mad with the t-shirt cannons again?”

“No. Worse. We’re all behind,” Kylie whispered. “All of us. Kaitlin, Me—”

“Why did I go first?!” Kaitlin squeaked.

“Not important, there must be a sacrifice in a group, Kaitlin.”

“A—” Kaitlin gasped. “How dare you!”

“You’re all—?!” Nicole exclaimed before Giana covered her mouth, muffling the rest of her sentence.

“Shhh! They could be listening! And we all know Gil can try not to snitch, but he ends up being one intentionally or not.” Giana sighed, shaking her head. “Poor Gil, who knows what Megan does to him.”

“What she does to us when we’re far too behind?” Nicole guessed, prying away Giana’s hand.

“Probably.” Kylie nodded. “But, we need to make a doomsday plan at the moment.”

“Wait, why is Lorelai here?” Nicole glanced to the normally vanished author. “Can’t you just stay away until you have some sacrifice to make up for what you didn’t do?”

“I could, but I forgot I was behind and then Megan spotted me— And it was a whole mess.” Lorelai stared into space. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”

“Okaaay,” Nicole dragged out, her eyes flicking to the floor then landing on the others. “Look, we can avoid Megan’s wrath easily if tomorrow is Saturday—”

“Tomorrow is Tuesday,” Kaitlin responded, biting her nails. “It’s not an escape day!”

Giana nodded.“So, then, a distraction will be needed in the form of sacrifices and questions. Nicole!”

“ME?!” Nicole squeaked.

“Yes you, you normally have plenty of snippets and scenes and quotes to share!”

“I— Well, yeah, normally, but I only wrote—” Nicole glanced to the door and then ducked down, “Ten minutes this week.”

“Ten— NICOLE!” Giana gasped, hand on her heart. “Megan’s going to rip you apart!”

“I know!” Nicole cried, before slumping forward. “I’m trying to speed through some today but—”

“We can help you the best we can. Do you have anything from last week?”

Nicole nodded.

“Yay!” Kaitlin threw her hands up.

“Then use those for now. It should buy us some time,” Giana assured, patting Nicole’s back. “Kaitlin, Kylie, you two should try to write too. I know writing is what we all avoid at times, but it’s for your safety.”

Kaitlin nodded, though Kylie squirmed a little, picking at the carpet. “Yeah, about that, I need some more time,” Kylie murmured. “Author’s block hit me.”

Kaitlin gasped,“I think I can do something today! Ooh! I got an idea! Adian could die—”

“NO!” Nicole cried out, putting her hands out. “No murder!”

“Fine. Then Jinx.”

“NO!”

“Do you rather Jinx dies or Aidan or us?”

“No one?”

“Not an option,” Kaitlin smiled.

Nicole whined but after a few silent moments of internal battling that her eyes flickered across she sighed. “Jinx.”

“HA!”

“Lorelai. Just leave through one of the tunnels,” Giana went on.

“Oh, I forgot we had those. Okay, I can do that!”

“The exit tunnel is going to be in the printer room, by the cabinet that is full and dusty.”

Lorelai nodded.

“Now, I will ask Megan questions until she forgets about all of this.” Giana pointed to herself. “That’s simple, for me at least.” She grinned.

“So we all work and you ask questions?” Nicole pressed.

“Do you want to deal with Megan?”

Nicole’s mouth flattened. “No.”

“Then I ask questions and you all get to work—”

The doorknob rattling broke the conversation. “Giana?!” Megan called. “HEY! Why is the door locked?! IS IT BLOCKED TOO?! GIANA!”

There was a heart dropped silence.

“Scatter!” Giana hissed. “Out through the passageway hidden under that trash can!”

The other four scrambled to get to the trash can, move it out of the way, and open up the hatch.All shoving each other and themselves into the drop of the passage.

“Hang on! I was reading a book and got upset! I threw it and it must’ve locked the door!” Giana kicked the trash into place and hurried over to the door, throwing the chair into place before her desk, and opened it with a smile. “Hi!”

Nicole Soto "Do it for the Fame!" A Contemporary/Semi-Dystopian novel touching on revenge and Corruption. Following Emeric through his fight with the Game Show Empire of Fame! Written Californian Author, Nicole Soto, we all are sad because it is... NOT YET RELEASED! Click ​HERE​ to read more about Nicole!

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