Lucia's POV:
Nova and I got back to our apartment complex pretty fast and I told her that she could pick out any car that she wanted so that we could get to school without getting rained on or stared at by creepy looking people as we walked. She was skeptical at first and argued, not wanting to use my money, I compromised with her and told her that it could be her birthday present , but I didn't really mean it because I was getting her a present regardless, even if I had to shove it into her hands. After that, everything was fine and she got really excited then went online to the Land Rover website to pick out a car, while I changed into some workout clothes.
It was 3 o'clock so that meant I had about five hours until I needed to start to get ready but that also meant that Nova had only four as she was super picky about what kinds of things she wore to my illegal 'events' I should say.
oOoOoOo
A few hours later, after I had done my usual workouts before a fight, I heard my phone ring. I checked the screen and it was an unknown number so I immediately went into defence mode. "Hello?" I said with a strong voice.
"Is this Lucy? It's Amalia" I instantly let my guard down a fraction and responded.
"Y-yes, hi Amalia, w-what are you calling m-me for?" Not forgetting to use my stutter, I asked, as I was genuinely curious as to why she was calling me.
"Hey" she said in a cheery voice, "I was just wondering", she stopped and I heard someone push her. "We, were wondering wether you and Nova wanted to come with us to this club with us today at 9:15pm?." She accentuated the 'we' when she was talking so I presumed that Marco was with her.
"I'm not sure" I said in an unsure voice.
"Pretty please, the club is called Lux. It is totally safe and we can get free drinks if you're up to it?" When she said it was called Lux I froze as that was where I was supposed to be fighting.
There was no doubt that I would see them during my fight, and it would've be nice to make some friends from that school. So, I pondered over my decision for a few seconds.
"Okay, sure, we'll see you there" I sounded sceptical on the phone but was actually the tiniest bit excited deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down. 'Besides, I could figure something out with the timings', I thought to myself.
"Great, I'll see you at the club at 9:00pm" she genuinely sounded excited, while I just hoped Santo wouldn't be there, though I knew he most definitely would be.
oOoOoOo
By the time it was 8:30pm Nova and I were ready, still in our wigs and eye contacts, but wearing our normal street clothes. It's not like they would've been suspicious, it was a club after all.
I still had Santo's hoodie from a few hours before so I quickly folded it and put it into my bag so that I could give it to him when we got there. It was so warm but it would be weird for me to keep it. Right?
"So, you ready Luce?" Nova asked putting on the finishing touches of her makeup, while we were walking towards the valet where all of my cars were parked. For some unknown reason, I started to sing the sponge-bob square pants theme song in my head after she said that.
"As ready as I'll ever be" I responded, still singing in my head while letting out a deep breath I was holding.
We got to the valet and Nova and I were already walking to the same car as she knew me so well, knowing what car I wanted to drive every time we went out.I had about 14 cars but my favourite was Lilith. She was my matte black Aston Martin One- 77 that got passed down to me two years ago as my first car when I was 16, as I had already been racing and driving around since I was 14, so my parents trusted me with such a rare car.
While I drove my most prized possession we decided to go over the plan once again (for the fiftieth time), so that I wouldn't be caught as myself by the guys at the club.
We were going to get to the club at 9:00 so that I could tell Mateo about what was going on, then 'hang out', as you would say it, with the group until 9:50, when I would have a 'stomach ache' and go to the bathroom to take off my disguise and get changed, while Nova distracted the others. Then at 10:00, I can meet with Mateo and do my fight at 10:15. The fight would only take 10 minutes maximum so I could change back into my disguise and get back with the group for 10:30. 'It's gonna work perfectly' I thought knowingly to myself.
When we got into the club it was just past 9:00 and Mateo instantly spotted me from the distance as he had helped us pick out our disguises along with my father. I could see the confusion on his face as to why we came in through the main entrance, rather than the VIP entrance that every club with fighters had, but he still came towards us with a big smile on his face holding out his arms to give us each one of his bear hugs.
"Hola, ¿Cómo has estado?" (Hey, How have you been?), he asked while giving us each a quick hug as he saw we had our disguises on and didn't want us to be figured out.
I had been teaching Nova Spanish in our free time and was getting better at it so she replied, "Hemos estado ocupados pero te extrañamos mucho" We've been busy but we missed you a lot).
"Tu español está mejorando Nova, bien hecho. Pero, ¿por qué estás disfrazado y te das cuenta de que tienes una pelea en una hora?" (Your Spanish is getting much better Nova, well done. But why are you in your disguises, you do realise you have a fight in an hour?), he praised, while getting even more confused why we had out disguises on still.
It would've been too much of a hassle to tell him in Spanish, then translate to Nova so I ended up telling him quietly in English, "Well, long story short, some people from school invited us to come here and well, we need more friends so we agreed. So now we're here, but don't worry I have a plan so that I can do the fight and not get caught by any of them." I reassured him as he knew that my plans always worked out in someway or another.
"That's quite risky but I believe in you, but no drinking before the fight and if you get into any trouble you come to me" he said in a serious tone showing us his small knife in his pocket with a straight face while we slightly giggled to one another, as me and Nova knew that even though he was an illegal street fighting manager he would never hurt a fly.
"No, stop laughing at me" he whined while we burst out in laughter, neither of us knowing what was funnier, him pulling a serious face while threatening nonexistent people or him whining like a two year old. I don't know how, but he always saw straight through us.
After laughing together for a few minutes, Nova and I decided to go to the main part of Lux so that we could look out for the group, as they would've arrived at any minute.
We waited for around 3 minutes or so and after that, Nova offered to get us some drinks and who was I to not accept her offer. I asked for a club soda and Nova got tequila and pineapple juice, surprisingly, it was actually quite nice. Nova grabbed her purse and I decided to go over to the front of the entrance to be able to see when they arrived.
A few minutes later I felt someone grab my shoulder and my reflexes instantly made me go to punch the person grabbing me. But, when I went to hit them I felt a hand grab my wrist right before my fist hit their face. Turning around I saw that it was Marco's stunned face I was about to punch, and when I traced up the hand on my wrist, that still hadn't let go, I was face to face with the one and only Santo Buzzelli.
As I locked eyes with him he instantly took his hand off my shoulder and kept eye contact with me. But because I was supposed to be the geek I averted my eyes down to the black knee high boots I was wearing along with some ripped blue skinny jeans and a maroon quarter sleeved top with strings wrapped around my stomach.
Before anyone could say anything Marco suddenly perked up and grabbed me again, probably forgetting what had happened last time, pulling me towards the dance floor, but Santo grabbed my hand pulling me close towards him. "Did you bring me back my hoodie?" he enquired with contempt in his voice.
"Yes, it is in m-my car, yo-you can come get i-it after if you wo-would like" I said feeling his minty breath on my face as he nodded slightly.
"Okay, are you guys done flirting so that we can start dancing" Marco said snarkily while smirking at the two of us.
"Wha-" before I could finish my sentence he dragged us away from the whole group.
I could faintly hear Santo over the beat of the music shouting "We weren't flirting", while Amalia was laughing her but off, looking over at him fuming. If that was one of those animated movies he would have steam coming out of his head and his face would be red as a tomato.