The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Eighteen

The first thing I hear in the morning is Peyton's sing-songy voice echoing in my ear.

"Rise and shine, Freaya! It's a big day!"

I open my eyes and see her eager, grinning face right above mine.

"Go away. Give me 5 more minutes." I roll back over and pull the covers back

over my head.

"Freaya, we can't have a repeat of yesterday or Nicholas actually WILL kill us!"

That seems to motivate me just enough.

"Ok, I'm up."

She grins slyly. "I knew that one would work."

"Yeah, yeah. Are the girls up yet?" I slide out of bed and strut over ito my suitcase, which is leaning against the wall.

"Umm...not exactly." Her eyes dart over to the clock. "It's 8:50."

"Again?" I groan, slamming the suitcase shut and giving her a menacing look. "Peyton, why didn't you wake me sooner?"

She shrugs. "I was standing there screaming at you for fifteen minutes. I'd say this one's on you." Peyton skips over to the other side of the room.

"Really?"

"Yup!"

I can hear her coaxing the girls awake behind the divider. I know it'll take awhile for the girls to wake up because, if I'm being completely honest, we're not morning people at all.

I decide to take advantage of this moment by grabbing some clothes and darting into the bathroom to change.

Now she'll have to face the beast.

I'm so smart.

About five minutes later, there's a knock at the door.

I grin furiously to myself. "Peyton, could you get that?"

"I'm coming!"

I can hear the slow creak of my sister opening the door like she's afraid something will pop out from behind the door and eat her.

In this case, that's probably true.

"Good morning, Peyton. Is everyone in there ready to go?" He asks her.

I stick my head out from the bathroom just enough to see what's going down between Peyton and Nicholas.

"Ummmmm..." she locks eyes with me for a split second and turns around to look at the other girls. "It'll just be a few more minutes. We woke up kinda late."

"You...you what?" I can hear the anger building up in Nicholas' voice. "Peyton, this is not acceptable. It happened yesterday, too. I can't believe you." he sighs. "Be down at breakfast in ten minutes or you're both grounded. That would mean absolutely no electronics once we get back home. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She hangs her head as she closes the door behind him.

"You heard the man. It's crunch time, people! Move it, move it!" Peyton yells, running back over to the other side of the room to get dressed.

Realizing that this could literally put us in danger, I manage to kick my dressing process into overdrive and am completely dressed two minutes later.

Fast forward another two minutes and we're all dressed and heading towards the door. I let Abby run ahead and press the elevator button this time since Devyn did it last time.

"Let me! Let me!" Abby shoves Devyn out of the way as they both fight to press the button.

"Hey! Stop fighting or it'll be me who presses the button? You got that?" Peyton and I have to physically pull them apart because they're now on top of each other.

"Guys!" Peyton shouts as she slams her hand on the button. "Stop!"

The elevator door opens and we commence the long, awkward, 30- second ride downstairs.

"You can't just fight over silly little things like that, okay?" Peyton tells them on the ride down. "You're 8 And 3 years old. Act your age."

"Exactly. They're 8 and 3 years old. They're still young," I whisper to her. "The silly little squabbles aren't gonna stop anytime soon."

By that time, we've reached the lobby and the girls are sprinting towards the restaurant.

"What you're doing by reprimanding them for that kind of stuff is setting unrealistic expectations, Peyton. Let them at least have a childhood."

"I think it's pretty safe to say that we didn't have a good childhood. I guess I'm just jealous that they get an enjoyable one."

We share a smile, then step into the restaurant together, where the rest of our family awaits us.

* * *

"Good morning, everyone!" Peyton skips across the room like the little ball of sunshine that she is.

I take a seat beside Toby, and Peyton follows suit.

"So," Peyton starts, slamming her hands on the table. "Are you guys ready to-"

"SHUSH CHILD! Keep your voice down!" I scold her as my hand clamps over her mouth to keep her from saying anything more.

"Aghabagafoomf." She tries to keep talking but it just comes out as gibberish.

I smile widely to myself as Peyton pries my hand off of her mouth.

"Stop it!" She gasps loudly. "What I was going to say is 'Are you ready to eat some breakfast?' Because I know I am!"

"I'm so ready." My eyes scan the menu. "Has anyone had the french toast sticks?"

"You are SPEAKING my language!" Peyton cheers, clapping her hands.

"I had them yesterday. They were AH-Mazing!"

I slam my menu shut. "It's settled, then. French toast sticks, it is."

* * *

When it seems like almost everybody is done eating, Nicholas stands up from his seat. "If I could get everybody's attention, please."

He claps his hands. "Eyes up here, please."

"Thank you. Now that breakfast is almost done, mommy and I are giving you free time-"

The three of us are already up and out of our seats before the words leave his mouth. We sprint towards the elevator excitedly, not wanting to waste a single second.

At this point, every second counts.

"I can't wait! This is gonna be so fun!" Peyton jumps up and down as we start ascending towards the third floor.

Toby scoffs. "Yeah, sure kid. You do you, I'll do me."

"We're kids, not heroes. We shouldn't be the ones saving the world. Er...Nikotopia, I mean." I respond as the elevator opens and we head towards me and Peyton's room.

"Also, I wouldn't exactly describe saving Nikotopia as 'fun.'" I turn towards Toby and pull my phone out to check the time.

"Toby, get your stuff ready and meet us at the door to our room in five minutes."

He nods curtly. "Aye aye, captain!"

I slide the key card into the slot and open the door to our room. For the next three to four minutes, Peyton and I scramble to get our stuff together. I grab the bag I had previously packed with all the stuff we need, plus a few other things. Five minutes later to the second, we hear a knock on the door.

"That must be Toby. I'll get it," Peyton calls out. "Toby, hey. You ready to go?"

"Yes, ma'am." He enters the room and plops down on the bed, his bag of supplies in hand.

"You guys are slowpokes. Why are you not ready yet?" he complains, laying down on the bed and staring at the ceiling.

"Dude, everyone knows that girls take much longer to get ready. Give us some time," Peyton tells him, squeezing the toothpaste out of her tube and wetting it down. "So back off."

Another two minutes later, we're finally ready to leave. I lay the plan on them one more time.

"Guys, listen up. We don't have a whole lot of time, considering we're trying to save our town from being destroyed by our evil uncle who, before this weekend, we didn't even know existed. So when we get down there, we have to act fast. Toby will provide a distraction to the front desk person so that we can grab the keys and sneak out. When we give him a signal through the window, he'll follow us." I pace around the room nervously as I talk, then watch as my brother and sister look at me the entire time, each of them nodding occasionally.

They're probably just as nervous as me.

"What's the signal gonna be?" Toby asks.

"Whatever you want it to be," I reply with a smile. "As long as it works, we should be fine."

"Can it be this?" Toby wraps his thumbs around each other and crosses his arms, making his hands look like a bird-type thing. He flaps them up and down to make it look like the bird is flying.

"Sure, whatever. We have to go, so let's just go with the...bird thing as our signal." I tell them, waltzing towards the door of our hotel room.

"Now what are you waiting for? Let's do this thing!"

We all walk out to the elevator together; I can feel the nervous energy getting more intense. This is a risky thing that we're doing, and anything could go wrong.

Let's just hope it goes according to plan.

Peyton pushes the button for the elevator and we all silently enter when the door opens. Nobody makes a peep until I break the silence.

"Hey, don't be nervous. We got this."

They both nod, but I'm still unconvinced that they believe me.

"First came me and mom said..."

"Gee." Toby takes the words right out of my mouth. "Then came me and dad said..."

"Whee," Peyton whispers. "Then came me and they said 'that's three'!"

"Big Three!" I exclaim, smiling widely.

"Big Three!" They echo after me as I pull both of them into a group hug.

"Now, let's go save Nikotopia!" I cheer as the elevator opens and we all strut out, cool as cucumbers. Toby even has his sunglasses on.

Peyton and I walk as unsuspectingly as we can towards the automatic doors at the entrance of the hotel. We turn to the right and walk past the large window that's sitting there. Once we get past the windows we both lean up against the wall carefully, scared of being seen.

Toby is already harassing the front desk person with his corny humor. The hotel employee does not look amused. I peek in through the window and see Toby sneaking a wink in our direction.

"That's our cue. Let's go back inside." I whisper in Peyton's direction and she nods in response. We both walk back into the hotel nonchalantly and sit down in the ugly firetruck red chairs until the clerk is distracted enough for us to make our move.

"Hey, you wanna hear a joke?" I hear Toby asking the hotel clerk, who is half-asleep by this point.

"No," he moans, closing his eyes. "Kid, what do you want from me?"

"N-nothing. I just...my parents won't listen to my jokes and I need someone to tell them to because...my jokes are just the best!" he stammers, managing to recover later in the sentence.

"Well, I don't want to...hear your jokes..." the man's voice tampers off as he falls asleep completely. Peyton, Toby and I share a silent high five, then Toby tiptoes carefully behind the desk to grab the key. He puts it in his bag so nobody can see us walking out with it.

"We did it!" I can tell Toby has been hiding his excitement because he's practically screaming when we get outside.

I give him a high five and smile faintly. "Hate to break it to you Tobes, but this is like the easiest part of our mission. We still have a lot of obstacles in our way."

"We can't succeed if we don't try," he says, digging the key from out of his bag. "We also can't fail if we don't try but that's beside the point. Now, which one of these vans matches the key?"

"There should be a number on the key that matches the van number." I grab the key from him and glance at the sticker attached to it. "This one says Van 19, so we just have to find van 19."

"Over here!" Toby yells, pointing off to the right. Sure enough, there's a van with a white sticker marked #19. The letters are faded so it looks a little like a #11 instead.

"Give me the keys, Toby," I tell him, holding my hand out impatiently. "Unless you're planning to drive."

Being the lazy human that he is, Toby tosses the keys over to me instead. I roll my eyes at him and walk over to the other side of the van.

Toby and Peyton start to pull impatiently on the handles of the van as I turn the key to open it. They climb inside excitedly, pulling their gear up with them and shutting the doors behind them.

I stick the key in the ignition and turn it and the engine roars to life. This must be an old-fashioned van; the new ones don't even have ignitions, they have buttons. Some of them even have hands-free steering.

As I start to back the van up, I see the worried yet excited looks on Peyton and Toby's faces. They both give me a faint smile and I smile back. As I drive out of the ramp connected to the hotel, all that's going through my mind is, "we'll be ok. Everything will be ok."

And it will be. I'll make sure everything is ok. It just has to be.