“You know, you’re lucky that this highway is straight,” Illyana mumbled with a hint of disgruntlement. It was aimed at Alarie who was squished into the middle of the jeep and had put her foot up on the dashboard since there was no leg room; it was dangerously close to the steering wheel. If Illyana navigated any more to the left or right, Alarie’s foot would be clearly obstructing it.

“I just remember this thing having a lot more room,” Alarie grumbled, equally as disgruntled.

“Maybe you should watch what you eat,” Leona snarked from the passenger seat. She’d been gradually squashed into the passenger door on the ride out to Pandora and had rolled down the window in case she needed to start hanging out the window to allow more room for Alarie.

“Shut your mouth! I wasn’t the one drinking a shake for breakfast,” Alarie snapped and stuck her elbow into Leona’s side

“It was an energy shake! Cut that out!” Leona squealed irritably.

“Don’t make me turn this jeep around!” Illyana shouted, not taking her eyes off the highway.

The other two women bit their tongues. Not only was the room tight, but the heat was simmering. The Jeep’s air conditioning was hardly offering any relief from it. The sun beat mercilessly down on the vehicle as it traveled across the desert. It was mid-morning already and the distant view toward the horizon was waving in a mirage effect on the road.

It had already been three hours and they had gotten on the road before sunrise in order to arrive at the hotel and check in. Leona had a lunch meeting with Edric King and his agent. So with lack of sleep, lack of leg room, and the increasing temperature, all three young women were starting to get supremely annoyed with one another.


Reprieve was found at a small gas station off of the highway nearly an hour later. Alarie and Leona busted out of the jeep’s passenger door to stretch their limbs that had all but fallen sleep. After groaning and popping her shoulders, Leona went around to fill Illyana’s gas tank as she’d promised to pay for it.

“Plumbobs, next time I am taking the train,” Alarie said as she brought her arm up and stretched it.

Illyana frowned, thinking they were both acting ungrateful. After all, she could have just stayed in Isla Del Kashmire and they could have ridden the train. Good luck on trying to get to Pandora in under six hours though on that thing.


Leona decided to call her father and let him know where they were. He could be a little worrisome and overprotective of her at times, and he’d gotten better over the years since she went off to college but she was his only child and understood his trepidations with her road-tripping with her besties out to the desert city known for gambling, shady motel-hook ups, and on-the-fly weddings.

Antoine once jokingly suggested they do it–a quick Pandoran wedding. It was before he left Kashmire, when they had time to spend with each other. She maybe would have agreed back then and done it, that is if her father didn’t kill him first.

While Leona talked briefly with her father, Alarie and Illyana stood in the shade of the gas station roof. Illyana was unusually quiet, and her eyes–the very windows to her emotions–were hidden behind her sunglasses.

“I was meaning to ask you, but how are you doing?” Alarie turned to Illyana.

Illyana shrugged unconvincingly. Though her sleazy ex-boyfriend was not mentioned, he was implied.

“What an asshole. You are so much better off without him,” Alarie nearly growled.

“I keep telling myself that but still feel really…” Illyana took a breath. Then two. Finally three, before finally finding the right word, “devastated.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find you a really good distraction in Pandora,” Alarie nudged her with a playful smile.

Illyana didn’t really care if she ran into a guy that could distract her from her current set of emotions, but she knew it would be fleeting. How could Alarie think that a fling with a stranger could erase three years worth of feelings she had for Adam?

Alarie had been dating Rafael off and on for at least five years! If they broke up for good, could she simply forget him and go with the next person who caught her interests?

Illyana didn’t voice her concerns but stared forward into the desert, trying again to see if she could just blank out her mind from those thoughts. It was better this way. She pushed off the wall from where she was leaning and went around the Jeep to see if Leona was done with getting the gas.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. We’ll be fine,” She heard Leona assure on her phone. The handle to the gas pump clicked and she removed it, and put the cap back on. “Yes, I know…I know…Daddy, I know. I love you too. Bye.”

Leona gave a helpless look after hanging up, “He’s worried we all are going to get married to strangers in Pandora. He spends too much time watching reality television.”

Illyana just nodded absently, not even cracking a smile at Leona’s statement.

Leona turned to Alarie and they exchanged concerned stares. Alarie gestured Leona over and said, “Let’s get something to drink.”

It was hot enough they could use a refreshment. Illyana stood where she was, still staring out at the desert landscape which wasn’t much to behold.


Leona sat on the bench against the outside of the gas station while Alarie browsed for a soda. She wiped some sweat off her brow that had accumulated as she had stood in the heat. "Speaking of drinks, my dad said to watch ours because he saw on the news there's this new drug going around called Torporia. Apparently, it's a roofie of some kind."

"Yeah, my dad mentioned something about that too. He's heard of a few cases in Scandalica City involving it," Alarie remarked; her father worked as a detective for the IDKP. Both girls knew better though; they would not accept open drinks from strange men or even men they sort of knew without seeing them made by the bartender first. Their fathers had all but warned them. Alarie stopped browsing the vending machine options and saw Illyana still standing by the Jeep, staring into the desert. Illyana's father was dead. If her were alive, Illyana's father would have castrated Adam Hamilton the moment he knew the reason for the break up.

“We gotta do something. She can’t stay like this–like some depressing lobotomy patient,” Alarie said with her usual brashness, referring to Illyana. She punched her choice of soda and heard a rumble and clanking as it fell inside the machine.

“She’s never been through something like this before though. She has to process it and heal.”

“Which is why…” Alarie fished her soda bottle out from the machine slot and then turned around and pointed it at Leona, “We are going to find her a good way to distract her from all this. She’s competitive. If we get her in on a poker table she will be there all night, I am sure of it.”

“Yes, until she is stone broke,” Leona frowned.

“Or…until she’s a millionaire,” Alarie grinned.

“Doubtful, but I agree she could use something to take her mind off the whole thing,” Leona nodded. She knew what heartbreak felt like, but it was a dull memory now. Seeing Antoine again last night, and actually getting to talk alone with him renewed all her hope, and if things went well this weekend and she established herself some more contacts in the music industry–well she’d be on top of the world.


They made it to the Pandora’s Box Hotel & Casino with little time to spare. Leona wasted no time in checking in and trying to charm the concierge into moving faster. All the while Illyana considered the luxurious open lobby space, speckled with desert flowers and other native wildlife. Through one threshold lay the hotel restaurant called the Cactus Bar & Lounge, while through another was a vast atrium containing a swimming pool. Then, through the middle was the bright lights and loud sounds of a lively casino, even at the noon hour people were trying their luck.

“Come on!” Leona nudged Illyana, breaking her of gaping around at the amenities. Leona passed her while dragging her roller suit case forward and through the casino floor toward an elevator. Alarie and Illyana followed, trying to to be too distracted by the slot machines and other assorted gambling fare.


Leona wiggled from side to side in excitement as they rode the elevator up to the room they’d be staying in, “I got us a three-room suite!”

“Wow, that sounds expensive…” Illyana replied and removed her sunglasses, “Are you sure you don’t need us to pitch in?”

“Nonsense, I told you guys it was my treat!” Leona smiled and they stopped off the elevator and onto their floor. The suite was more long than wide, they noted, as they stepped into a common room with a TV, table, and sofa.The windows looked out over the hotel’s roof, it was probably at least cheaper that way. There was a larger room toward the back and then two small rooms with twin beds.

“So, I have to get changed and meet Edric King and his manager at the Oasis, we’re having lunch and discussing the process for tonight’s show and I have a lot to cover,” Leona explained.

“Wait, the Oasis? You mean the Wild Scarlet Oasis?” Alarie seemed very curious all of a sudden and asked for clarification.

“Yeah that’s the one, what about it?”

“It’s only like the most exclusive spa in the region. You have to make reservations seasons and seasons in advance to get in and you get to go there just like that?” Alarie snapped her fingers to emphasize Leona’s luck to be going there.

“Oh I wasn’t aware,” Leona admitted and Alarie rolled her eyes, not surprised that her friends were never up to date on the coolest trends or places. Illyana reached out to calm Alarie’s dismay. Leona continued, “Anyhow, because of this crunch time, I probably won’t see you guys until after the concert.”

They had been slightly dismayed to find tickets had already sold out for the concert. Illyana even more so, but not because she was missing out on music by Edric King, but because she could have used the concert as a springboard for her journalism class, which had an assignment due in a few weeks and Illyana wanted her the subject to be on music.

“Well, good luck,” Illyana said and gave Leona a thumbs up.

“Yeah, knock them off their socks,” Alarie aired the same sentiment and made a pantomime of some fisticuffs.


“Thanks guys, and thanks for coming down here with me,” Leona smiled before dragging her suitcase into the larger room to get changed. She sighed, still with a smile on her face and looked at the bed appreciatively after being cramped in Illyana’s Jeep all morning. She couldn’t wait to relax and meet the popular singer.


Meanwhile, Illyana had claimed the small room with windows and had just sat down on her bed to take a moment and think. Now without Alarie and Leona’s bickering, she had some peace and quiet. She wouldn’t mind relaxing and maybe getting a start on outlining her paper. She’d had more ideas for how to structure it as the week went by.

Little did she know, Alarie had different plans for her–when she barged into the room and said, “Leona gets to have her fun but we’ll have ours. I propose we get dolled up and hit that casino floor with no regrets tonight.”

Illyana thought about it, she didn’t know entirely how to gamble or doll herself up to the extent Alarie was expecting. When she told Alarie this fact, her friend brushed it off with no worry, “I’ll take care of everything, just bring your A-Game and all your luck.”

Illyana didn’t know much about her luck considering recent events, but she was competitive and if there was something to be won from the night, she would make her absolute best attempt to win at it.