“I can’t believe you had the balls to go in there and apply,Poppy. Those guns are freaking me out,” Pixie said, leaning forward to stareout the window.
“Apparently they had a bomb threat and the governmentflipped out. Do you think we just leave all the luggage here and they’ll comeout to get it when I leave? I don’t want to walk through all those protesterscarrying all my stuff.”
“Yeah, let’s just head in and figure out what they want todo.”
As the girls walked up to the doors, the protesters began tosneak steadily closer with their signs.
“C’mon, Pops, let’s keep moving.”
“Why does that guy have an anti-gay sign? That literallymakes no sense.” Shaking her head at her sister, Poppy moved faster up thesteps, trying not to trip on the stairs and yet at the same time unable to takeher eyes off the crowd that was slowly descending on them.
“Ummmm…maybe because he is crazy. Hurry up, bish. They’regetting closer,” Pixie murmured as she grabbed Poppy’s arm and tugged toincrease their pace. She let out a sigh of relief when the guards opened thedoors enough for them to enter before quickly slamming them shut on theprotesters.
“Whew, that was kind of scary, Poppy. I didn’t realize therewere going to be protesters.” Pixie had wide eyes by now and her hair wasbeginning to frizz. They always joked the higher the stress levels, the morefrizz popped up. It was the “hairdicator” that both the girls laughed aboutwhen they noticed one was getting poofy.
After checking in and heading up to Valerie’s office, theywere late. Valerie’s office was locked and there was no light shiningunderneath the door.
“Crap, we’re about twenty minutes behind. Do you thinkValerie thought you were a no-show and went to tell Mr. Awesome you changedyour mind?” Pixie had begun to refer to Poppy’s alien with different monikersever since the great shoe raid of last night.
“I hope not! You already took all my good shoes, and theonly thing I have left waiting for me at home is a broken coffeepot and crappyfurniture.”
“Maybe we should look for her?”
“Maybe she’s looking for us?” both of them said at the sametime.
“Jinx! You owe me a Coke. Let’s go find your new BFF andmeet your big green guy.”
Pixie and Poppy linked arms and had just started walkingdown the hall when they heard raised voices.
“I cannot believe I am doing this. Not only do these humansrisk the security of our females but apparently they cannot even find them!”This was practically yelled by a fairly deep voice. “And did you see mymatch? Her intake picture was not very attractive. What if I am unable to gothrough with this?”
“Calm down, Wheaton. They said she might be running latebecause of the crowd outside. And her liaison told me she hadn’t planned ongetting photographed yesterday so she may not be that bad in person. I am sureeverything will be fine.”
Hearing heavy steps walking across the room, both womenoutside stood stock-still and kept listening.
“You are one of the senior Council members and need to be anexample for your men. There seems to be some discontent that you were one ofthe first matched. If you show displeasure at your fortune, we may have a rioton our hands. We need to show these humans how grateful we are for theirgenerosity. You remember our previous failures with the women we took…”
At that last tidbit of information, both Pixie and Poppygasped.
“There you are!” Valerie’s voice seemed to sound directlybeside Poppy’s ear, which caused both girls to jump into the air with a squeal.
“Holy shit, Valerie! Don’t sneak up on people. We weresearching for you and nobody was in your office.” Poppy was still trying totake in what the men in the room had meant when they had said “women we took.”That didn’t sound good.
“Are you ready to meet your future?” Valerie said with ahuge smile and hugged Poppy.
“Yes, I think so.” Poppy was still dissecting what she’doverheard. Unattractive? What an asshole. And on the same note, thank god she’ddecided to look a bit prettier today. Her hair was down in curls, her makeupon, and she was wearing her “nice” jeans with a pretty top. “Nice” meaning nostains and a newer style.
“I’m Pixie, by the way.” Pixie elbowed Poppy when nointroduction came about. “My sister’s running low on coffee this morning and isa little spacey.” She smiled over at Poppy and said, “Get it? Spacey? Icrack myself up.”
Valerie smiled at Pixie. Pixie always made people smile withher stupid little jokes and the fact she really didn’t operate with a filter.She always watched what she said if it was going to hurt somebody’s feelingsbut in situations like this she pretty much said whatever popped into her head.
“Your warrior is right through here. I have his basicprofile and it says his name is Wheaton. He happens to be a senior Councilmember so this means you might be able to come back once in a while ondiplomatic visits. Well, ladies, let’s go.”
“Wait!” Pixie reached for Valerie’s arm just as she went toopen the door.
Both Poppy and Valerie froze.
“We need to freshen Pops up a bit. Let me give you myearrings and some lip gloss. From what we overheard I would say that we need toknock his space boots off.”
“Overheard?” Valerie asked with a confused face.
“Yeah. Apparently Star Lord in there thinks Poppy isn’t upto snuff. But a little tweaking here and she’ll be perfect.” Pixie took off herearrings, handing them over to her sister. Digging in her bag for the makeupcase she always carried for her multiple glosses, she quickly found what sheneeded. Pixie had the idea that a women should always carry an array of shadesbecause the right gloss could make it seem like you were wearing a full face ofmakeup even when you weren’t.
Rubbing the gloss on her lips and smoothing her hair backover her shoulders to let the borrowed earrings be seen, Poppy straightened hertop and made sure it was lying just right. Then she took a breath for courageand nodded to Valerie to go
