“Call,” Adagio Dazzle said as she threw two white chips into the pot, being mindful not to knock over her glass of whiskey in the process.
“I’m out,” Kiwi Lollipop declared as she placed her cards face down on the table.
“Call,” Aria Blaze then said as she threw two white chips into the pot, followed promptly by four more white chips. “And raise four more.”
With Aria’s raise it became Su-Z’s turn, and the PostCrush girl just stared at the cards in her hand with a very convincing poker face as she contemplated how she was going to respond.
It had been about an hour now since the four girls had sat down to play some five card draw together, figuring it would be a nice way for everyone to unwind a bit after a long day of working on the emu farm. And for Su-Z that was proving to be true, but for Kiwi, Adagio, and Aria, not so much. Su-Z was proving to be a near unstoppable juggernaut of a poker player, having won approximately 85% of the hands thus far and showing no signs of letting up.
“Hmm,” The PostCrush girl uttered thoughtfully as she continued to examine her cards, much to Aria and Adagio’s chagrin.
Both of the Dazzlings were feeling especially vexed by Su-Z’s card-playing abilities, as they were used to being the ones on-top whenever they’d played five card draw in the past. Back when it had just been the two of them plus Sonata they’d always fared much better when they played cards, but now they were looking like a pair of rank amateurs. In fact, they were both feeling so irked by their present predicament that they were each starting to feel envious of Sonata, who was currently out on a date with Rainbow Dash, for being somewhere other than here right now.
After Su-Z was done looking over her cards, she turned her attention towards Aria and Adagio. With great intent she silently stared at them for a few seconds, studying their faces and analyzing them for any signs that either of them were bluffing. Of course since this was her first-time playing cards with the two Dazzlings she had no idea what any of their tells were yet, but that didn’t deter her from giving an expression that proffered the impression she was not only able to but was currently reading them like a book. Essentially, she wanted to make them feel nervous and uneasy, hoping that in doing so she might get them to involuntarily give a blatantly obvious tell that anyone would be able to pick up on.
Su-Z didn’t pick up on anything coming from Adagio, but she did see something coming from Aria. She noticed that the pig-tailed girl was very lightly tapping her right index finger against the table in a jittery fashion, and she took that to mean that the girl was bluffing.
“Alright then,” She said casually as she called Aria’s raise, and then threw two red chips into the pot as well. “I call and raise again.”
Almost as soon as Su-Z had thrown her two red chips into the pot, Adagio threw her cards down.
“I’m out,” The eldest Dazzling admitted reluctantly as she folded and then took a swig of her whiskey.
Although she didn’t display it visibly, internally Su-Z gave a sigh of relief that Adagio had folded, leaving only her and Aria left to battle for the pot. The PostCrush girl was all but certain that the other Dazzling would fold as well since she’d called her raise and raised the bet herself by two red chips, but she didn’t. Almost as soon as Adagio had folded Aria reached for her stack of red chips, no doubt to call her raise.
It took all of Su-Z’s self-control to not bite her lower lip in worry as she began to grow fearful that she’d misread the girl or, worse yet, fallen for a fake tell. She nearly let her emotions show when, all of a sudden, she witnessed something that put her mind at ease; Aria hesitating to pick up her chips. It was extremely subtle, but Su-Z knew she saw Aria’s hand pull back ever-so-slightly from her chips for a moment before grabbing them.
“I call,” The Dazzling said as she threw two red chips into the pot.
With the bet called both girls laid their cards down on the table for all to see, a look of smug satisfaction on each of their faces as they did so.
As Su-Z stared down at Aria’s cards, she was surprised to see that the Dazzling hadn’t been bluffing. As it turned out Aria had been holding the king of spades, the three of hearts, the three of clubs, the nine of clubs, and the nine of diamonds, giving her a two pair. A fairly good hand, to be sure, but thankfully not as good as the hand she’d been dealt.
“A straight?!” Aria blurted out in disbelief as she stared down at Su-Z’s seven of spades, seven of hearts, seven of diamonds, ace of spades, and ace of hearts.
“Yep,” Su-Z replied fortuitously as she reached over to the pot and started gathering the chips that comprised it. “Come to Mama.”
All Aria could do in response was slowly sink into her seat and give an exhausted sigh, unable to believe that she’d lost with such a good hand.
“How?” The Dazzling asked no one in particular. “How is she so good at this?”
“Years of experience,” Su-Z answered as she finished gathering her new chips. “I’ve been playing cards since I was thirteen and gambling with them since I was eighteen. In fact, it was through playing cards like this that I was able to make enough money to go to art school.”
Both Aria and Adagio couldn’t help but dawn expressions of mild surprise upon hearing this. Despite Su-Z’s obvious prowess for playing cards, she never struck either of them as the gambling type. Not only that, but they were also stupefied by the fact that the girl was apparently so skillful at cards that she’d been able to win enough money playing them to afford art school.
“Yes, and then you had to drop out of art school when you gambled all of your tuition money away,” Kiwi spoke up very candidly.
“Hey, that was different,” Su-Z promptly, and vigorously, replied. “I lost my tuition money betting on badminton, not playing cards.”
The looks of surprise on Aria and Adagio’s faces only grew.
“You gambled your art school money away?” Adagio asked in her bewilderment.
“You gambled on badminton?” Aria just as bewilderingly added.
Without even realizing it, a small blush crossed Su-Z’s face as she turned to face the two Dazzlings.
“Y-Yeah,” She said in vexatious embarrassment. “I was at a casino and had just won my tuition for next semester when I overheard a couple of well-dressed guys say that this badminton game was rigged. So naturally I figured I could win three semesters worth of tuition in one day and I ended up betting everything on the player I heard them mention. She ended up losing though, and after that I had to drop out of school and move back home.”
Neither Adagio nor Aria knew quite how to feel in that moment. On the one hand they felt bad that the reason Su-Z had to drop out of art school was because she couldn’t afford it anymore, but on the other hand, since the reason for her being unable to afford art school anymore was because she’d so foolishly gambled her tuition money away on badminton, they couldn’t feel too bad for her.
“Sorry to hear that,” Adagio said, trying her best to sound sympathetic.
“Yeah, that sucks,” Aria concurred.
“Thanks, but honestly the whole thing was kind of irrelevant,” Su-Z replied. “I would’ve had to leave school two months later anyways when my dad died.”
Once again, expressions of surprise became visible on the Dazzlings’ faces. Only this time Kiwi dawned an expression of surprise along with them.
“You never told me that,” Kiwi said, sounding almost wounded.
“It’s not something I like talking about,” Su-Z replied somberly. “It was completely unexpected and my mom had a really hard time dealing with it at first. She kept on acting like he wasn’t really gone and would say things like, ‘Your father’s just on a business trip, dear, he’ll be back soon’ or, ‘I wish your father would call me when he’s going to be late for dinner like this’. Eventually she came to terms with his passing, but for a few months I had to look after her to make sure she didn’t…try anything.”
Needless to say, the three other girls sitting at the table found Su-Z’s story to be nothing short of heartbreaking. Having to drop out of school, losing a parent, and having to take care of the other parent all within the span of a few short months; it was practically something straight out of a Shakespearean play.
Adagio, Aria, and Kiwi had no idea how to respond to such a woeful story, especially Kiwi. For as much as Kiwi felt taken aback by the sheer sadness of Su-Z’s tale, she felt just as equally taken aback by the fact that this was her first-time hearing it. While it was true that Su-Z had always been pretty private when it came to the subject of her family, she couldn’t believe that her best friend had never once mentioned all this stuff about her father and mother to her before now.
Not only that, but Kiwi also couldn’t believe that Su-Z had shared her story of her own volition, without any pressure or coercion applied. Su-Z had never opened up like that about her family when it’d been just the two of them on-tour.
“So your mom’s okay now?” Adagio asked concernedly.
“Yeah, she’s okay now,” Su-Z replied civilly, before suddenly becoming visibly peeved. “No thanks to Eclipse.”
Now Eclipse, Su-Z had mentioned to Kiwi before. Only a handful of times, but those handful of times were enough for Kiwi to learn that Eclipse was easily the touchiest subject when it came to Su-Z’s family.
“Who’s Eclipse?” Aria spoke up curiously.
“My twin sister,” Su-Z explained, sounding uncharacteristically venomous. “If you can even call her a sister. She certainly never acted much like one when we were growing up, always so self-centered and inconsiderate. You know she couldn’t even be bothered to come home for Dad’s funeral? Yeah, and when I told her about how Mom was having a hard time dealing with his death she just said, ‘I’m sure she’s not that bad, you can take care of her on your own, Supernova.’ The bitch.”
Kiwi knew that if she didn’t steer the subject of conversation away from Eclipse soon Su-Z was going to go on a full-fledged tirade that would likely end up lasting all night. She needed something, anything, to interject with to get everyone else to cease talking about Su-Z’s sister fast, but what?
“Hey, so, um,” She started to say as she desperately tried to think of a new topic of conversation. “Earlier today I was thinking about, um, maybe…getting the van fixed up!”
Much to both Kiwi’s delight and dismay, all eyes turned towards her after she said this. She was glad that she’d successfully gotten everyone’s attention so that they stopped talking about Eclipse, but now she had the little problem of keeping this new conversation going so that it stayed that way.
“I just thought, you know, it might be a good idea,” She continued with an awkward look on her face, making things up as she went along. “I mean, because there are five of us in this house and only one car so, um, it just seems like we should have more than one car, er, van…vehicle…whatever.”
Adagio and Su-Z said nothing as they looked on at Kiwi with confused expressions that seemed to silently communicate concern for her. Aria, on the other hand, didn’t even look in Kiwi’s direction, but instead looked almost straight down as she dawned what appeared to be a rather contemplative expression.
“That’s not a bad idea,” The pig-tailed Dazzling said. “We could really use another working car around here during the weekdays when one of us is at school, in case of emergencies.”
“And so that we don’t have to have pizza delivered anymore too,” Su-Z chimed in as she started gathering up all the cards on the table. “Seriously, that guy who always delivers our pizza creeps me out.”
“I agree,” Adagio concurred.
“The pizza guy creeps you out too?” Su-Z asked as she started shuffling the cards.
“No,” Adagio promptly replied. “Well, I mean I guess he does creep me out a little, but I was referring to getting the van fixed. It really does sound like a good idea.”
The eldest Dazzling then took another quick swig of her whiskey, finishing off the glass.
“I’ll look into the cost of it next time I go over our finances,” She concluded as she put the now empty bottle back down on the table.
Not more than two seconds after Adagio had finished speaking, the front door unexpectedly swung wide open and immediately attracted everyone’s attention over towards it. There they all saw a sight that was simultaneously sweet and fulsome; A clearly intoxicated Sonata and Rainbow Dash stumbling into the house, holding one another in their arms and gazing lovingly into one another’s eyes.
“I love you, Dashie,” Sonata said drunkenly as she and her lover slowly made their way through the living room, oblivious to the presence of her sisters and housemates just one room over.
“Not as much as I love you,” Rainbow Dash replied just as drunkenly before leaning in for a sloppy kiss with Sonata that made everyone at the kitchen table instantly turn away in great discomfort.
“Oh for the love of -,” Aria commented softly as she tried to ignore the kissing sounds that were now echoing throughout the house.
“Should we take this to your bedroom?” Rainbow suggested once she and Sonata broke their kiss.
“Oh, we should,” Sonata sultrily agreed just before the two of them rather clumsily scurried off towards Sonata’s room, leaving Su-Z, Kiwi, Adagio, and Aria alone once more.
There were a few seconds of silence in the kitchen as each of the four girls recomposed themselves after witnessing what had easily been the most uncomfortable public display of affection any of them had ever seen.
“Okay, I did not need to see that,” Su-Z remarked queasily just before Adagio stood up from her seat.
“Welp, looks like we have a Code Clash here people,” The poofy-haired Dazzling stated plainly as she made her way over to the front door and grabbed the car keys off of the small table next to it. “Let’s go.”
Aria got up from the table and joined her older sister over by the front door. Kiwi and Su-Z got up from the table as well, but neither of them left the kitchen. Instead, they just stood there with a couple of puzzled expressions on their faces as they tried to figure out what the heck Adagio was talking about.
“Um, a Code what-now?” Kiwi asked in her confusion.
“Code Clash,” Adagio replied, now sounding a tad confused herself. “You know, meaning that Sonata and Rainbow Dash are about to have sex very loudly?”
The looks of bewilderment on Kiwi and Su-Z’s faces only grew.
At first Adagio couldn’t figure out why it was that Kiwi and Su-Z didn’t know what a Code Clash meant, but she quickly figured it out. And when she did she swiftly turned her head to the side to face Aria, a censuring glower forming on her face as she did so.
“I thought you said you were going to explain the codes to them,” The Dazzling scolded her sister.
“I-I was, honest,” Aria replied hesitantly, having been caught off-guard by Adagio’s chiding. “But I just kinda…forgot about it after the whole thing with Kiwi and the emu.”
Adagio rolled her eyes in a derisive fashion in response to her sister’s excuse as Kiwi and Su-Z each began to wonder what these codes – plural – that they were apparently supposed to have been informed about by now actually were.
“Oh, Dashie!” Sonata’s voice suddenly moaned very sensuously from her bedroom, loud enough for all within the house to hear.
“Okay, time to go,” Adagio hastily said as she practically flew out the front door, followed promptly by Aria.
Even though Kiwi and Su-Z were still incredibly confused about a great many things at the moment, there was one thing that they knew with 100% certainty; They didn’t want to stick around the house for another second after hearing Sonata moan the way she just had. So the two of them quickly followed Aria and Adagio out the door and got into the car with them, and once everyone was buckled up they were all off on their way to somewhere far away from the nauseating sounds of Sonata and Rainbow Dash making love.
“Okay, so about the codes,” Aria said as she drove through the outskirts of Canterlot City. “They’re something Adagio and I came up with for all of the madcap stuff Sonata tends to get up to. As you’ve probably noticed by now she can be pretty…imprudent at times, so we figured a code system would be good for us to quickly communicate with one another what kind of stuff she’s up to when she gets like that.”
“Stuff like when her and Rainbow Dash have loud sex?” Su-Z inquired from the backseat.
“Precisely,” Adagio replied from the front passengers seat. “In fact, it was that very scenario that caused us to come up with the codes in the first place. The two of them rock the casbah fairly regularly.”
Kiwi couldn’t help but give a little chuckle as she suddenly got why it was Adagio and Aria had designated Sonata and Rainbow Dash having sex as Code Clash.
“So, what are the other codes?” She asked after she was done chuckling.
“Let’s see,” Adagio began to answer. “There’s Code Mabel, which means Sonata’s had a little too much sugar. There’s also Code Hughes, which means she’s become a germaphobe…”
“Code Fluttershy,” Aria interjected without skipping a beat. “Meaning she’s brought home a wounded animal that she found on the side of the road.”
“Code Black Swan, meaning she’s become jealous to the point of hysteria,” Adagio continued. “Code Lyoko, meaning she’s got it in her head that the world is just a computer simulation…”
As Adagio and Aria continued to list off the various codes they’d come up with in regards to Sonata’s shenanigans, Kiwi began to wonder how one person could possibly be so vivacious as to warrant such a system of crypto-speak when discussing them. Su-Z, meanwhile, began to wonder how it was that she and Kiwi hadn’t experienced a Code-related event until now, given how many there appeared to be.
“Wow,” Su-Z chimed in after Adagio and Aria had finished. “Sonata sure seems to lead a pretty active lifestyle.”
“You have no idea,” Aria replied rigidly as she sped up to catch a yellow light, barely making it through in time and bringing them within the city limits of Canterlot.
Once inside the city, Kiwi stared out the window for a bit to admire the bright lights and bustling life of the metropolitan landscape. She’d always loved big cities like Canterlot, even when she was a little girl living in a small, middle-of-nowhere town. They just always felt so alive to her, like there was always something going on in them even after the sun went down, which was why she’d chosen to buy a penthouse in Baltimare to live in whenever she wasn’t touring.
Those were good times. She sentimentally thought to herself as she started to recall the life she’d had back then, before losing everything to the record label and IRS.
While Kiwi had not only come to accept her new life on the emu farm but embrace it as well, part of her knew the deep down she’d always be a city girl.
After a few minutes of staring at the urban scenery around her, a rather interesting question was raised within Kiwi that caused her to cease her gawking. A question that, quite honestly, she was surprised she hadn’t even considered until just now.
“Hey, where are we going?” She inquired curiously as she leaned forward towards the center console. “I mean, I know our main objective was to get away from the house, but what now?”
“Now?” Adagio said as she turned her head around to look at Kiwi and Su-Z with an impish-looking smile on her face. “Now we have a girls’ night out!”
Admittedly, this was not what Kiwi had expected to hear from Adagio. And especially not so exuberantly.
“Really?!” Su-Z exclaimed almost as excitedly as she aggressively leaned forward towards the center console as well, practically squishing Kiwi’s face between her own and the front passengers seat in the process. “I’ve never been part of a girls’ night out before!”
A small groan escaped Kiwi’s mouth as she pulled her head back to free herself from between Su-Z and the seat, causing Su-Z to quickly shoot her an awkward and apologetic smile.
“Then you better prepare yourself,” Aria told Su-Z as she sped up to catch another yellow light. “Because girls’ night with us can get pretty crazy!”
Based on the amount of time that had passed since the traffic light had turned yellow and the current rate of acceleration of the car, Kiwi, Su-Z, and Adagio all had serious doubts that Aria was actually going to make it through this time. They each grabbed ahold of their seats just as the light turned red and the car zoomed through the intersection a split-second later, fortunately before any traffic from the perpendicular street had time to get moving again.
“Made it!” Aria declared triumphantly once they were fully through.
Sighs of relief and heavy-breathing were all that could be heard within the car for the next few seconds.
“Will you please stop running yellow lights like that?!” Adagio very heatedly asked her sister once her heartrate went back down to normal, which only caused it to go right back up again. “I swear, Aria, you’re going to get yourself killed one of these days doing that! And possibly get me killed along with you!”
“Oh please. If anything’s going to kill you, sis, it’s all that whiskey you drink, not me running a yellow light,” Aria replied presumptuously. “So relax a little, will ya?”
All Adagio did in response was mumble something under her breath that Aria couldn’t quite make out, nor could Kiwi or Su-Z.
“My heart is pounding like crazy,” Su-Z then randomly remarked, in a manner that suggested she was enjoying the sudden rush of adrenaline she’d just received. “This is going to be the best night out in the history of nights out!”
“Maybe I…should’ve stayed…home,” Kiwi softly remarked to herself as she tried to get her breathing under control, believing that perhaps she would’ve been better off simply enduring the sounds of Sonata and Rainbow Dash’s love-making than blindly following Aria and Adagio towards a night filled with unpredictable insanity.
In truth though, Kiwi was a tad bit excited about this girls’ night out as well. Like Su-Z she’d never been a part of one before, and she wanted to experience what one was like first-hand. She just had a bad feeling about this particular girls’ night out is all, and she prayed that by the end of it they didn’t need to get rid of a body like in that one Scarlett Johansson movie she’d seen where a girls’ night out had gotten a little too crazy.
After about another five minutes of driving, which thankfully didn’t involve any more yellow lights, Aria pulled the car into a medium-sized parking lot that appeared to be fairly full.
“Anybody see a spot?” She asked as she slowly coasted through the lot, shifting her eyes back and forth between what was directly in front of her and what was to her sides.
“I think I see one,” Kiwi spoke up as she peered out her window and pointed to where she thought she saw an open space. “On the other side of that black Mercedes.”
“Oh yeah, I see it,” Aria replied as she accelerated a bit more to get to the spot, fearing someone else might beat her to it despite the fact that there were no other moving vehicles in the lot. “Good eye, Kiwi.”
Sure enough, by the time Aria reached the spot Kiwi had spotted it was still open, and once the Dazzling pulled into it she turned off the car and everyone began to unbuckle their seat belts.
“Whoo, girls’ night!” Su-Z enthusiastically exclaimed as she opened her door and stepped outside.
Just as Kiwi was about to step outside as well, though without the loud declaration that it was girls’ night, she noticed Adagio rummaging around in the glove box, clearly looking for something.
“Ah, there you are,” The Dazzling said as she pulled out a small metal tin from the compartment and handed it off to her sister. “Here, you hold onto this tonight.”
“Alright,” Aria said casually as she took the tin and tucked it away in her pocket just before getting out of the car.
Although Kiwi had only seen the tin for a few seconds, she could’ve sworn she’d seen it somewhere else before. Not that tin specifically, but one very much like it. The fact that she couldn’t place it right away nagged at her mind for a few seconds, but soon enough she recalled where it was she’d seen it; On a TV commercial for something like breath mints or gum.
Figuring that Adagio and Aria simply didn’t want their breath to smell like alcohol the entire evening, Kiwi didn’t give the tin much second thought.
“This way,” Adagio addressed her and Su-Z as she and Aria started making their way through the parking lot.
“So where are we going?” Su-Z asked excitedly as she followed closely behind the two Dazzlings. “A Bar? A nightclub? A strip club?!”
Since no one was looking at her, Kiwi gingerly gave a small facepalm.
“I doubt a small city like Canterlot has any male strip clubs, Su-Z,” She told her friend as she lowered her hand from her face.
“Oh, it has one alright,” Aria replied, sounding like she’d been there before. “But that’s not where we’re headed.”
Aria then turned her head around to face Kiwi and Su-Z, an impish smile on her face not unlike the one Adagio had given the two of them in the car earlier.
“At least not right now,” The Dazzling continued. “Right now we’re headed to a nightclub about a block away.”
Once they were out of the parking lot the Dazzling and PostCrush girls headed west towards the nightclub Aria had mentioned, and as they did so Kiwi began to admire the city around her once again. Canterlot may have been a smaller city compared to others she’d been to like Baltimare or Whinnyapolis, but it was still a city teeming with activity and life. Most of the stores and shops they passed as they walked were still open despite the late hour and a fair number of people were still walking up-and-down the sidewalk as well. It was all just as she remembered it being when she’d still been living in Baltimare or touring for PostCrush, and it helped her forget about the concerns she had regarding this girls’ night out.
As the four girls continued to walk down the street, Su-Z peered ahead a bit to try and see where exactly it was they were headed. She expected to see a large, elegant-looking building similar to the nightclubs she’d frequented in other cities while on-tour, but she didn’t see any such building. All she saw were a variety of stores, restaurants, and what appeared to be just a large brick wall with a neon sign on it and an ATM embedded into it. Nothing even close to what she would consider a nightclub.
“Here we are,” Adagio said as she and Aria suddenly ceased walking…stopping right in front of the large brick wall.
Su-Z and Kiwi both stopped walking as well and looked over to see that what had appeared to be an ATM from a distance was actually just a small door. They then looked up to see what the neon sign above it read.
Chaus
Neither of them knew what this meant. Kiwi figured it was either an Italian or Latin word by the sound of it, but had no idea what it translated to in English.
“This place seems…nice,” Su-Z commented, unconvincingly.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Aria said as she and Adagio headed for the door. “Just wait till we get inside.”
Following the Dazzlings’ lead, Kiwi and Su-Z catenated behind them as they entered the building. Once they were through the threshold, they found themselves in a large but narrow antechamber adorned with sconce light fixtures and artwork on the exposed brick walls. On the other end of the room was a door with a bulky-looking man guarding it, presumably the bouncer.
“Still just nice,” Su-Z whispered to Kiwi as they continued to follow behind Aria and Adagio.
“Good evening, Axel,” Adagio greeted the man once she was close enough to him.
“Good evening, Ms. Dazzle, Ms. Blaze, ladies” The man, apparently named Axel, greeted back as he opened the door for all of them.
As soon as the door was open, the sound of upbeat club music immediately came blasting through from the room on the other side.
Instinctively, both Kiwi and Su-Z winced at the sudden assault of loud noise on their eardrums. Adagio and Aria, however, did not, and proceeded to step on through into the other room with ease. After a few seconds, Kiwi and Su-Z joined them and were instantly blown away by where they now found themselves.
The two PostCrush girls and two Dazzlings were standing atop a platform with stairwells on either sides of them, overlooking a massive room with a dancefloor that took up the center of it. Surrounding the dancefloor were a number of tables with a bar located on the far-right side and a performing stage located on the far-left side. It was difficult to tell just how many people there were in the room, but considering that the dancefloor alone had to have at least 70 people or so on it one could easily guess the total capacity to be somewhere around 200 people.
It was as true a nightclub as any other either Kiwi or Su-Z had ever seen, and they were both amazed that such a place existed in Canterlot City.
“Okay, this is more than just nice,” Su-Z remarked in her amazement.
“No kidding,” Kiwi added as took it all in.
“Told you,” Aria then said, her voice containing a hint of smug amusement.
“Come on, I see an open table,” Adagio instructed everyone as she headed for the left stairwell.
Aria, Kiwi and Su-Z followed Adagio down to the main floor. Once there they all weaved their way through the large crowd of people and over to the free table that Adagio had spotted; a small booth located against the back wall that could seat roughly five people, which Kiwi was surprised to see available given the number of people in the club and how nice it was.
“Ooh, such soft Corinthian leather,” Su-Z remarked, for some reason with a smooth Spanish accent, as she sat down in the booth and scooted inwards to allow Kiwi to sit next to her on her left.
Adagio then entered the booth and scooched in to Su-Z’s right, leaving a spot to her right free for Aria to sit. But Aria didn’t take a seat.
“I’ll get some drinks,” The pig-tailed Dazzling said. “What’s everyone want?”
“The usual for me,” Adagio replied.
“Um…” Su-Z then said as she tried to think of what it was she wanted to drink. “…Just get me something that has a high volume of alcohol.”
It wasn’t that surprising that Su-Z didn’t know much when it came to spiritous drinks. When she and Kiwi were touring the two of them had agreed to stay away from alcoholic beverages for fear that they might ruin their singing voices, so naturally neither of them were exactly alcohol aficionados. It wasn’t until recently when Kiwi partook of some of Adagio’s Jim Beam after a bad day on the farm that they had decided to lift their self-imposed prohibition, since it was clear that their performing days were well and truly behind them.
Even still though, Su-Z had never seemed so interested in consuming alcohol until now. And Kiwi couldn’t help but wonder why.
“Club soda with cranberry juice for me,” Kiwi answered, earning her a few confused looks from everyone else.
“Oh come on, Kiwi, live a little,” Su-Z told her friend. “It’s girls’ night!”
“We need a designated driver, Su-Z,” Kiwi bluntly stated in response. “I don’t want to die in a car crash by the end of the night because we were all too buzzed to drive safely. And since everyone else is getting drinks I guess that means it has to be me.”
“Y-Yeah, okay,” Su-Z replied, sounding disappointed. “Good point.”
A couple of seconds of uncomfortable silence followed, brought about by the noticeably tenser atmosphere now surrounding the group of girls.
“I’ll, uh, be right back with the drinks,” Aria broke the silence just before heading off towards the bar.
While it was clear to all three girls still at the table that tensions among them were now higher than they had been only a minute ago, none of them quite knew why.
“Anyone want to dance while we wait for Aria?” Adagio spoke up, determined to get the night back on the right track. “Judging from how busy the bar looks it might be a while before she gets back with the drinks.”
“Me, me! I wanna dance!” Su-Z promptly replied as she raised her right hand, clearly back to her usual energetic self.
“I’m good,” Kiwi simply answered.
Adagio started scooting over towards the open end of the booth with Su-Z not far behind her so that Kiwi didn’t have to get up. However, the two girls didn’t make it out of the booth as someone swiftly sat down at the open end, blocking them in.
“Thought I saw you girls come in,” The mystery person said as they put their drink down on the table.
All three sets of eyes immediately turned towards this brazen mystery person who thought they could just invite themselves over to their table, and who they saw made each of them shutter internally; it was the creepy pizza delivery guy.
“Oh, uh, hi there, um…” Su-Z replied, not quite politely but politely enough, as she tried to remember the guy’s name.
“Dart,” The guy introduced himself/reminded Su-Z. “And you’re…Suz, right?”
“Su-Z,” The PostCrush girl corrected him, with no small hint of annoyance in her voice.
“Right, right, Su-Z,” Dart said as he leaned in closer to Su-Z, essentially shoving Adagio out of the way and causing Su-Z to lean back a bit. “So, what brings you here tonight, Su-Z?”
Taking note of how much Su-Z clearly didn’t want to talk to Dart, which somehow Dart himself was completely oblivious to, Kiwi leaned forward across the table to tell the creep to buzz off. But before she could, Adagio pulled Dart off of her and spoke up first.
“We’re here because Su-Z’s father died recently and we’re trying to cheer her up a bit,” The Dazzling said.
Not surprisingly, Kiwi and Su-Z both looked at Adagio with confused expressions for a second, but they soon figured out why she’d said what she just had. She was trying to get Dart to leave by making him feel like he’d intruded on a very private party.
“Oh, man, I’m sorry to hear that,” Dart said sympathetically, remaining in his seat and showing no signs of getting up. “My dog died last year so I get how hard something like that can be.”
The fact that Dart had just compared losing a dog to losing a parent really ticked Su-Z off. Sure, if Princess Thunder Guts died she knew she’d be sad about it, but she also knew that she wouldn’t be as sad about it as she’d been when she’d lost her father.
Much like Kiwi had done a moment ago, Su-Z leaned forward with the intension of telling Dart to take a hike. But once again Adagio intervened first.
“It can be hard losing someone you care about, can’t it?” The Dazzling feigned sympathy while doling out her patented charm. “But let’s not talk about such unpleasantness. Why don’t you tell us, tell me, all about yourself.”
In an effort to really draw Dart’s attention to her, Adagio brought both of her hands up to her chin so she could rest it on them, making sure that her arms smooshed her breasts together enough to prominently display them. While it was true that Adagio was the least endowed of the Dazzlings, she more than made up for it by knowing just how to use them to captivate anyone’s attention she wanted, guy or girl.
“W-Well,” Dart began to say as he tried to make it look like he wasn’t ogling Adagio’s bosom, which he obviously was. “As you know I’m delivering pizzas at the moment, but that’s just until me and my band make it big and…”
As Dart continued to ramble on about himself and take occasional glances at Adagio’s cleavage, Su-Z took a few scoots to her left. Not only to get some distance from the guy, but also to whisper something to Kiwi.
“You don’t think Adagio’s actually into him, do you?” She asked her friend.
“I sure hope not,” Kiwi answered just as Aria returned to the table with drinks in-hand.
“Uh, who’s he?” The pig-tailed girl asked as she placed all the drinks she’d been carrying down on the table.
“Dart. He’s the guy who always delivers our pizzas,” Kiwi said. “He just sat down at our table and tried to hit on Su-Z, but Adagio interjected and started chatting him up.”
At first Aria looked over at her older sibling like she had two heads or something, but as soon as she saw how Adagio was presenting her breasts to Dart she understood what it was her sister was doing. And what she needed to do now that she was back.
“Is that his drink?” The Dazzling then asked Kiwi as she pointed to the bottle Dart had put down on the table when he’d first shown up.
“Yeah,” Kiwi replied.
“Good,” Aria said as she reached into her pocket.
Initially Kiwi and Su-Z thought Aria was reaching into her pocket for her phone, but they soon realized that they were wrong in that assumption when the Dazzling instead pulled out the small tin that Kiwi had noticed Adagio giving her earlier.
Wasting no time, Aria opened the tin and pulled a small white square out of it. She then quickly checked to make sure that Dart’s attention was 100% on Adagio, and when she confirmed that it was she proceeded to reach over to his drink and drop the small white square into it. After which she sat down at the edge of the booth next to Kiwi.
“What was that?” Kiwi asked the Dazzling in a low hush, a bit of alarm evident in her voice. “What did you just put in his drink?”
“A tranquilizer,” Aria replied far too casually as she put the tin down on the table before taking a sip of her drink.
“A what?!” Kiwi then asked, wanting to make sure she’d heard Aria correctly.
“A tranquilizer,” Aria reiterated as she looked down at the still open tin. “Either that or a chiclet. It’s kinda hard to tell the difference between them just by sight.”
“Wait a minute,” Su-Z chimed in. “So if that was a tranquilizer, then the next time he takes a sip from his drink he’ll fall asleep soon after, right?”
“Pretty much,” Aria replied.
A sly smile crossed Su-Z’s face as she took a quick glance over at Dart before returning her attention to Aria.
“Excellent,” She deviously remarked.
Kiwi couldn’t believe what she’d just heard from Aria…or from Su-Z either for that matter. Aria had to be joking, right? There was no way she’d actually just slipped Dart a tranquilizer. That little white square was just a really strong breath mint or something that would ruin the taste of his drink, not leave him unconscious, right? But regardless of all that, was Su-Z being serious right now as well? Was she seriously okay with the idea of drugging someone? Sure Dart was kind of a creep and couldn’t take a hint to fuck off, but even someone like him didn’t deserve to be slipped a freaking tranquilizer.
As Kiwi’s mind continued to reel with how wrong this whole situation had become, Dart picked up his bottle and took a swig of his drink.
“Oh that is too funny,” Adagio said as she feigned beguilement at whatever Dart had just said. “Please, continue.”
“Okay, so there I was on the roof of the building,” Dart continued his story after he put his drink back down. “And I hear this weird sound like a broken trombone or something, right? So I lean over the edge to see what it was, and there, right below me on the sidewalk, there was…was…”
Dart abruptly ceased talking as he began to show some very visible signs of disequilibrium, but managed to remain upright in his seat.
“There was this…big cat…” He continued on, trying to act as though he was completely fine when he clearly wasn’t. “And it had a -”
And just like that, Dart started to fall sideways towards the table as he lost consciousness, only to be caught by Adagio before he made contact with it.
“Finally,” The Dazzling remarked as she discreetly sat Dart back up so that he appeared to be sitting normally. “I wasn’t sure how much longer I could pretend to be interested in hearing about his stupid band, or his even stupider idea for opening a rooftop juice bar.”
“Hehe, rooftop juice bar,” Su-Z chuckled in amusement. “How would that even work? I mean, who would go all the way up to some random apartment building’s roof just for juice?”
“Not only that, but who even goes to juice bars anymore?” Aria chimed in. “Those things stopped being popular years ago when the whole health craze died down.”
“I know, right?” Adagio replied. “There’s no way something like that would be financially sustainable today.”
While this conversation between the three girls was going on, Kiwi sat silently in the middle of it all and simply stared intently at the unconscious Dart, trying to convince herself that none of what had happened in the last few minutes had actually happened. Aria hadn’t slipped Dart a tranquilizer, Su-Z hadn’t acceded to such an action, and Dart definitely wasn’t sitting unconscious only a few feet away from her. Alas though, the reality of the situation was too much for the poor girl to deny, and she soon found herself on the precipice of a panic attack.
“We drugged someone,” She said anxiously to no one in particular. “We’re going to jail. Oh dear god we are going to jail.”
The conversation going on between Adagio, Su-Z, and Aria ceased when they all heard Kiwi’s panicky words.
“Relax, Kiwi, everything’s going to be fine,” Adagio assured the distraught girl before taking a sip of her drink. “We’ve done this kind of thing to douchey guys on almost every girls’ night out and never had any problems.”
Hearing this did not help Kiwi relax. In fact, it had the exact opposite effect and elevated her already high anxiety levels even higher, causing her to begin hyperventilating.
“Breathe, Kiwi, just breathe,” Su-Z tried to comfort her overly-anxious friend.
Just then, a beautiful woman with long, luxurious white hair wearing a black business suit with a red shirt and black tie tucked into it approached the table as a new song started to play throughout the club.
“My, my. If it isn’t The Dazzlings, or at least two-thirds of them anyways,” The woman greeted them with a very devil-may-care attitude, her voice containing a subtle but noticeable British accent. “What a surprise to see you here, since I don’t recall booking you for a performance tonight.”
“We’re just here on a girls’ night out, Lucy,” Adagio replied on the qui vive.
“Oh, how fun,” The woman, apparently named Lucy, said as she shifted her attention over to Kiwi and Su-Z. “And I see you’re spending it with a few new friends too.”
It was then that Lucy extended her right hand out in front of the two PostCrush girls.
“Lucy Beel, owner of Chaus,” She introduced herself. “It’s such a pleasure to have the girls from PostCrush in my club.”
“You know who we are?” Su-Z asked surprisedly as she shook Lucy’s hand, followed promptly by Kiwi doing likewise.
“But of course. As a nightclub owner I need to keep up with all the biggest names in the music industry,” Lucy replied. “And let me just say that I was absolutely shocked when I heard your record label dumped you. Two of the most talented names in pop music getting let go simply for asking for their fair share of the money made off of their art, so disgraceful.”
“Oh, um, t-thank you,” Kiwi replied as she started to calm down a bit.
Once introductions and flatteries were all done Lucy shifted her gaze over to the other end of the table, where the unconscious Dart was sitting. And as soon as she noticed him her eyes narrowed slightly and she turned to face Adagio, causing Kiwi’s anxieties to shoot right back up.
“What happened to him?” She asked the Dazzling.
“He couldn’t take a hint,” Adagio answered coolly. “So we had to put him down for a little nap.”
And that was the final nail in Kiwi’s coffin of anxiety. Adagio had essentially just admitted to the club’s owner that they’d drugged someone, and now Lucy was going to have security detain them while she called the police. And once the police arrived they were going to take them all to jail, a place Kiwi knew she wouldn’t survive. She’d seen enough prison dramas to know she’d most likely become one of those prison bitches who got passed around amongst her fellow inmates in exchange for cigarettes...if she was lucky. There was also the possibility that she would simply end up getting shanked on her first day for inadvertently looking at someone the wrong way. In either case, she knew it was game over for her as a cold sweat began to form on her forehead.
“I see,” Lucy simply replied with an exhausted sigh, much to Kiwi’s surprise. “Well just make sure he’s the only one you ‘put down for a little nap’. I don’t want half of my patrons falling asleep and unable to buy drinks.”
“That’s really up to the rest of the male patrons here,” Aria replied. “But we’ll try to be good girls.”
“Please do,” Lucy said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a club to oversee.”
As Lucy began to walk away, Kiwi once more found herself in a state of complete disbelief. How was it that Lucy, the owner of Chaus, was so okay with someone being slipped a tranquilizer in her club? Didn’t she have some sort of responsibility to report such an explicitly illegal action to the authorities, if for no other reason than to cover her own liability as a business owner? Of course, Kiwi wasn’t complaining that Lucy was taking such a laissez-faire approach to this whole situation, since it meant she would avoid going to jail.
Even still though, the morality of all this was something that Kiwi knew would continue to plague her mind for the foreseeable future.
“Oh, and Kiwi, Su-Z,” Lucy said as she turned back around to face the group of girls. “If you ever feel like performing again, come and see me. I’d love to have you play here.”
And just like magic, all of Kiwi’s thoughts and worries about the tranquilizer were instantly banished from her mind.
“R-Really?” The girl asked.
“Of course,” Lucy replied. “Having PostCrush play here would definitely be good for business.”
Just then, a man who was dressed similarly to Axel approached Lucy, tapped her on the shoulder, and whispered something into her ear.
“Tell Raziel I’ll be right there,” Lucy told the man before returning her attention to Kiwi and Su-Z. “Just think about my offer, girls.”
“We will,” Su-Z said as Lucy started walking away once again. “It was nice meeting you.”
For about the umpteenth time that night, Kiwi found herself in a state of incredulity. A chance to perform again, in front of a live crowd? Albeit a smaller crowd than what she’d grown accustomed to while on-tour, but a live crowd none-the-less? It just seemed too good to be true.
“We have to play here, Su-Z,” The girl said with gusto as she grabbed ahold of her friend’s shoulders. “We have to play here!”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Aria remarked. “Lucy’s pretty infamous for making shady deals with musicians that end up screwing them over.”
“Believe us, we know,” Adagio added.
Kiwi immediately let go of Su-Z and turned to face Adagio, a look of befuddlement on her face.
“You’ve…done business with her before?” The girl asked.
“You could say that,” Adagio answered cryptically. “A few years back she approached us and offered us a contract worth somewhere around $500,000 a year to perform here for five years.”
Both Kiwi and Su-Z’s jaws dropped when they heard this. $500,000 a year? For a club gig in Canterlot City? It was unheard of.
“The problem was that the fine print stated we could only perform here,” Aria took over. “Plus, Lucy would’ve had complete control over when we’d gotten paid. So legally she could’ve paid us nothing until the end of our contract if she’d wanted to, and we would’ve been powerless to do anything about it.”
If Kiwi and Su-Z’s mouths hadn’t already been hanging wide open, they certainly would’ve been now. Having worked with a record label for how many years they were no strangers to trying to be screwed over, but what Aria and Adagio were describing was practically the modern-day equivalent of a Faustian deal.
“You can probably guess that we didn’t sign when we learned this,” Adagio concluded the story. “Just thank goodness we had a lawyer look over that contract when we did.”
As Adagio took a sip of her drink after finishing her story, Kiwi felt a mixture of despondency and relief come over her. She was sad that the hope Lucy had just given her of performing again turned out to be false hope, but she was also relieved that Adagio and Aria had warned her about Lucy before she ended up making a huge mistake. Despite how much she wanted to jump at an opportunity to perform again, she wasn’t desperate enough to allow herself to be taken advantage of.
“Hold on,” Su-Z spoke up, sounding puzzled. “If Lucy tried to screw you guys over, why do you still come to her club?”
“Cause it’s a nice club,” Aria answered, as if stating the obvious. “And she doesn’t call the cops when we tranq douchey guys.”
And just like magic, all of Kiwi’s thoughts and worries about the tranquilizer were instantly returned to the forefront her mind. The PostCrush girl looked over at Dart, who unsurprisingly was still out cold, and was once more filled with moral shame and dread for having been complicit in drugging him.
“Alright, let me out,” Adagio spoke up as she scooted over closer to Su-Z. “I want to get some dancing in before another creep comes up and tries to hit on one of us. Of course knowing my luck some creep will just come up to me while I’m dancing.”
“Yeah, probably,” Aria said as she got up from the booth to let her sister out, followed by Kiwi and then Su-Z.
“Well if that happens I’ll just deal with them the old-fashioned way,” Adagio remarked as she walked off towards the dancefloor.
“The old-fashioned way?” Kiwi inquired tentatively, fearful of what the answer would be.
“Kicking ‘em in the nads,” Aria explained, a wicked smile forming on her face as she did so.
Sure enough, Kiwi wasn’t all that thrilled with the answer she’d just received. Though she figured that, at least from a moral standpoint, kicking a guy in his family jewels was slightly better than drugging him. Slightly.
“Come on, Kiwi,” Su-Z exclaimed as she grabbed her friend’s hand and practically dragged her over to the dancefloor. “Let’s dance!”
Kiwi said nothing as Su-Z forcibly schlepped her across the club. She wasn’t really in the mood for dancing after everything that had just happened, but at the same time she really didn’t want to rain on Su-Z’s parade either. It was still her friend’s first girls’ night out, and even though Kiwi couldn’t for the life of her figure out how it was that Su-Z was still as pumped and energetic as she was, the last thing she wanted was to be what ruined this night for her. So she decided that, for the time being, she’d try to put aside her anxieties and make an effort to have a good time. For Su-Z’s sake.
But Kiwi knew that all those anxieties weren’t going to remain on the sidelines forever, and that when they eventually came back she was going to need to have some very difficult and uncomfortable conversations with her best friend…and Aria and Adagio as well.
Thankfully, the rest of the night went by fairly smoothly for the girls. No other creeps tried to hit on any of them at the club, they had no trouble getting a room at Starlight Karaoke later on when they felt like singing, and they were even able to find a cake shop that was still open when they inexplicably decided they wanted some cake. They almost had an incident at the strip club though when Su-Z tried to get a little too handsy with one of the male strippers, but fortunately Kiwi managed to keep her friend under control. After the strip club they decided to call it a night and head home, believing that by now Sonata and Rainbow dash would be done with their love-making and fast asleep.
As it had been since leaving Chaus, Kiwi was the one who drove since she was the only one who hadn’t consumed any alcohol throughout the night. Su-Z, who was completely sauced at this point, sat next to her in the front passengers seat and Adagio and Aria sat in the backseat. Or rather, Adagio and Aria lied down in the backseat since they’d both fallen into a drunken slumber almost as soon as they’d gotten into the car, with Aria lying on top of Adagio’s large, poofy hair.
“This was soooo much fun!” Su-Z remarked in her intoxicated state as they left the city limits. “We’ve got to do…do another girls’ night out like this sometime soon.”
“Oh yeah, totally,” Kiwi replied, sounding more humoring than sincere. “Just maybe next time we don’t do something illegal like drugging someone.”
“Wha?” Su-Z asked confusedly. “Oh, you mean that whole thing with…with…the creepy pizza delivery guy who’s name I can’t remember right now.”
“Yes, that whole thing with Dart,” Kiwi said.
“Relaaax, Kiwi,” Su-Z told her friend as she leaned in closer to her. “All we did was slip him a little something to make him go night-night, he’ll be fine. And Lucy’s not gonna call the cops on us or anything for doing it, so it’s all good.”
“No, Su-Z, it’s not all good!” Kiwi retorted fiercely. “I don’t care that we’re not going to jail for drugging Dart! I mean, I do care that we’re not going to jail, but even still I’m bothered by the fact that we drugged him, period! It was wrong! It was wrong and I don’t understand why it is you’re so okay with that!”
Kiwi had expected an immediate response from Su-Z, but she didn’t get one. So she turned her attention to the passengers seat for a second to see Su-Z practically huddled next to the car door with tears starting to form in her eyes.
“Look, I’m…I’m sorry, Su-Z,” She apologized as she returned her eyes to the road, realizing she might have been a bit to harsh on her inebriated friend. “It’s just, I…I don’t feel like I understand you lately. When we were touring together you never opened up about your family to me, but ever since we started living with the Dazzlings you’ve been telling stories about your dad dying and how you had to take care of your mom and all sorts of stuff like that. And then tonight when Aria and Adagio slipped Dart a tranquilizer you actually seemed happy about it.”
The tears that had been forming in Su-Z’s eyes started to dry up as she listened to Kiwi’s words.
“Just help me understand all of that, Su-Z,” Kiwi concluded.
In truth, Kiwi didn’t actually expect Su-Z to explain why it was she seemed to be acting differently lately, what with her being drunk and all. But much to her surprise, out of the corner of her eye she saw Su-Z sit back up-right in her seat and look at her with a very earnest expression on her face.
“I dunno why I’ve been so chatty ‘bout my family lately,” The girls said. “But I do know the reason I was happy that Aria slipped Dart that tranquilizer was ‘cause he was ruining our first girls’ night out with our new family and I wanted him to stop. Even if that meant having to put him to sleep for a while.”
It took all of Kiwi’s self-control not to give any kind of physical reaction to Su-Z’s explanation even though every instinct she had said to, least she accidently jerk the steering wheel and end up driving the car into a ditch or something.
“Our new family?” She asked with no shortage of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
“You know, our new family,” Su-Z replied. “The two of us, plus Adagio, Aria, and Sonata. We’re a family, aren’t we?”
In all honesty, Kiwi had never thought about their relationship with the Dazzlings that way. Sure that relationship was technically employee-employer, but when she really thought about how much the Dazzlings had welcomed them into their lives and their home the argument could be made that they were all a family.
“Y-Yeah, I guess so,” She told Su-Z.
Even though she was completely brickfaced, Su-Z was able to pick up on Kiwi’s hesitancy.
“Well I think we’re a family,” Su-Z went on. “At least more of a family than my actual family.”
“What do you mean?” Kiwi inquired.
“I mean we’re all a lot closer to one another than me and my sister, mom, dad, and I ever were,” Su-Z explained. “Growing up we never did any of that fun family stuff like go on vacations or build a snowman together, so we never really developed a real closeness to one another, ya know?”
It was then that all the pieces of the puzzle came together for Kiwi. She finally got why this girls’ night out had meant so much to Su-Z and why she’d had such a strong desire for it to be the best night out ever, no matter what.
All she wanted was the kind of fun, family togetherness time that she never got growing up.
Of course this was in no way justification for her blatant complacency in drugging Dart, but at least now Kiwi understood why her friend had been acting the way she’d been tonight.
“Now don’t get me wrong, I love my parents,” Su-Z continued. “They both worked super hard to make sure Eclipse and I were taken care of growing up, but that was kinda part of the problem. They were always so busy, busy, busy that they never had a whole lotta time to spend with us. And I don’t think I need to re-explain what a bitch Eclipse was for you to figure out how close the two of us ever were.”
“Yeah, no. I got that,” Kiwi assured her friend.
“You’ve always been more of a sister to me than she ever was, Kiwi,” Su-Z said, now sounding pretty emotional. “I…I love you so much!”
Without warning, Su-Z then flung herself over the center console and wrapped her arms around Kiwi in a very sloppy hug, much to Kiwi’s chagrin.
“For god’s sake, Su-Z, let go of me!” The girl shouted frantically as she desperately tried to maintain control of the vehicle.
“I love you!” Su-Z repeated as she continued to hug her best friend. “I love you, I love you, I love you!”
“I love you too!” Kiwi replied as she took one hand off the wheel real quick to push Su-Z off of her. “Now just…please let go of me!”
Thankfully Kiwi was able to remove Su-Z from her person before she lost control of the car, and soon after Su-Z fell into a drunken slumber just like Aria and Adagio had earlier.
It wasn’t much longer before Kiwi reached the emu farm and pulled the car up the driveway. Once in front of the house she turned the car off, got out, and wondered whether she should try and wake the others up or just let them sleep. Figuring that if she were them she’d want to be woken up instead of left to sleep in the car, she opened one of the back doors and was caught off-guard by the sight before her; Aria with her arms wrapped around Adagio’s hair like it were a pillow. After a few light giggles she leaned into the car and gave the pig-tailed girl a few shakes to try and rouse her from her sleep. Aria didn’t wake up.
However, what Kiwi’s shaking did do was cause the small tin which had been in the Dazzling’s pocket to fall out and onto the seat. Immediately sensing an opportunity to prevent any future tranquilizer incidents, Kiwi grabbed the tin and put it in her own pocket with the intention of throwing all the tranqs, chiclets, and whatever else within down the garbage disposal once she got inside.
After trying and failing to awaken Aria once more, Kiwi then tried to wake up Adagio. Adagio didn’t wake up either, nor did Su-Z when she tried to wake her up next. Since there was no way in hell Kiwi was going to drag each of the three girls out of the car and into their beds, she just decided to let sleeping drunks lie and headed up to the house.
As Kiwi made her way inside, she hoped that Su-Z, Aria, and Adagio all managed to get a good night’s rest. Because first thing in the morning she was going to give them a very stern talking to about the many, many reasons why it’s wrong to slip someone a tranquilizer. Even if that someone happens to be a creepy, douchey guy.