Present Day.

When it came to malls, the one nearest UCR was the best our town had to offer.

Which actually meant that, while it wasn't a dump, it wasn't all that great, either. Those who were accustomed to finer things and didn't mind a little extra travel time usually went somewhere else.

For kids who were just looking to kill time, however, it was the first place that came to mind and also where my friends and I had agreed to meet Friday after school.

I walked through the automatic sliding doors. Glad to be out of the sun and harsh, dusty wind, I yanked the hood of my blue and grey sweater off my head and caught a glimpse of my reflection on a store window's polished surface.  My hair looked a mess, so I gathered it up in a quick bun that I secured with an elastic I wore on my wrist.

There were no new messages on my phone, which meant I was the first to arrive. It was normal for something to come up at the last minute on Fridays—extracurricular activities and all that. Even I had to make a quick stop at the school gym before I came here. I just didn't expect things to turn hectic for everyone else so soon, since it was only our first week back.

Frowning, I tapped out a quick group message informing everyone of my whereabouts and afterwards decided to have a snack while I waited.

Unfortunately, the cluster of various food carts and stands where I was headed appeared to be swamped by a crowd that grew more and more unruly by the second.

This was my biggest problem with the place: the lack of crowd control. Appalled at how excited some people got over free samples, I turned around and hoped that the food court on the upper level would have more breathing room.

Getting there, however, meant going through what, in my opinion, was the mall's second biggest problem: the section of small kiosks with its pushy salespeople. I avoided making eye contact and power-walked to the escalator.

Three familiar faces greeted me as soon as I set foot on the upper level, making me scowl.

"The Lord is testing me," I said, under my breath, and strode towards Off-Kilter: Life-Size Cardboard Edition.

Funny how I saw more of these guys now that they were hardly ever around. On the days they bothered to show up at school at all, they were out the door as soon as the final bell rang.

They had a handler,  Shane, who drove the guys from L.A on the first day of school and since then, had been picking them up in a black van and taking them to some secret rehearsal place everyday after class.

It was all a little shady to me, to be honest. On the other hand, Off-Kilter was everywhere—in the form of cardboard displays, key-chains and wristbands. Why question the methods when the results spoke for themselves?

It was the very reason I was avoiding the kiosk vendors downstairs, too. Most of the time, I didn't mind the cutesy little stores and even bought the occasional statement shirt or handmade accessory from them. It just so happened that I was trying to distance myself from the very band whose wagon everyone was presently jumping on.

Because I'd been down this road before. As embarrassing as it was to admit, there might have been a time when I had the tiniest crush on Seth and wished  we could be something more. But that was ages ago and I knew better now.

It took a lot of sour-graping and nit-picking of his flaws on my end to get where I was now: over it.

It was all for the best, anyway. Seth was a way better friend than a boyfriend, from what I had seen and moreover, left teeth marks on each and every pencil he had ever borrowed from me over the years.

See what I did there?

I glared at the cardboard display again and read the accompanying message: Jordan Castle's concert at Radio City Music Hall was out on DVD and Blu-Ray and was available at Warped Records and Pages, one of the biggest stores in the mall.

"The Lord is testing me," I said once more.

If I thought about it, buying a DVD wasn't the same as wearing a band tee. It didn't have to be some giant red flag waving in the air. I could hide it under my bed after a super-secret private viewing and no one would be the wiser.

"Fine." I gave in and with a little flip of my hair was off to Warped to get my copy.

Had this been some sort of divine test, then I just got a big fat F. And if Alex, Beth, and Erin were here to see me buy Off-Kilter merch, they would never let me live this down.

Good thing they were running late, after all.

---

Warped Records and Pages had once been a very popular chain found all over the country.  They carried mainly books, movies and music, but since there were more convenient ways for people to get those things nowadays, they'd had to make a few changes just to keep up with the times.

A few years back, they also started to sell just about every sort of knickknack and opened a small cafe where shoppers could rest and charge their phones and laptops. In spite of all this, there was no denying that the store was on its last legs.

Still, I enjoyed losing whole afternoons in there just browsing and would be one of the saddest when it the inevitable happened and it closed for good.

Full of nervous energy because of what I was about to do, I rounded the corner and as I was about to step inside Warped's doors, some looming figure showed up beside me so abruptly that we almost collided. I nearly jumped out of my skin but I recognized who it was just in time and gave him a small shove instead.

"Dammit, Seth!" I said, only mildly relieved to find that I hadn't been followed by a random stranger. At least I wouldn't care about one catching me in this act and judging me.

"Shh," he said, holding up an index finger. With his free hand on the small of my back, he led me toward the store without another word. We kept walking until we reached the back of the store where there were no other customers. Seth sank to the floor with his back to the wall, pulled his knees up and leaned back to rest. He was out of breath and had a look about him that was even wilder than usual.

"What did you do?" I stood in front of him, eyes narrowed, hands on hips. Part of me was afraid that, any second now, mall cops would burst through Warped's doors and take Seth away. A small other part, however, wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did.

"Me? I didn't!" There was an indignant expression on his face as he answered, sputtering between gasps of air. "Do anything. Those two. Assholes. God!" 

I shook my head. How could someone who looked this good be so out of shape?

"Tell me later." I cut Seth off before he dropped dead of a heart attack. He did as told and put his head down. I watched the slight movement of his huddled form as he took deep breaths that gradually steadied. "Let's take it from the top."

"All I wanted," he said, pouting, "was a soft pretzel."

Having no idea what that meant, I shrugged. "What's that? Like, a new song the three of you wrote?"

"What?" Seth gave me a funny look, reminding me that Breakfast Burrito wasn't something I was supposed to know about.

"Nothing." I cleared my throat and averted my gaze. "You were saying?"

"I was hungry. A soft pretzel sounded good."

"It does." I nodded, remembering my own hunger and proceeded to whine. "Now I want one."

"I'm shocked." His comment came with a little side-eye that I was sure he had meant for me to see. What an ass. "I would've gotten you one, but I never made it to the cart, either."

"Yeah there was some sort of riot at the food stands . . . " I  put two and two together and gawked at him, "which you caused, didn't you?"

"I told you it wasn't me. It was—"

"Those assholes." I snorted knowing exactly whom he was referring to. None other than the remaining two-thirds of Off-Kilter,  of course. Trouble was never far behind when the three of them were in the same place at once. "What did Ethan and Tristan do this time?"

"For some reason those two thought it would be funny to push me into a group of Jordan Castle fans and run away."

"How did you know they were Jordan Castle fans?" I mimicked the way he had said it—derisively—and raised an eyebrow, daring him to say the wrong thing.

"You know, " he said, wagging a finger in my direction, "'Cause they're loud, kinda annoying . . ."

I was this close punching him in the throat when he started laughing.

"You should see your face just now." His shoulders were still shaking, and I gritted my teeth to keep from yelling. "Seriously, who else but Jordan Castle fans would recognize us and make a big deal out of it?"

I scoffed, amazed by his cluelessness. "Your faces are plastered all over this store—the whole mall. A ninety-year-old with cataracts would recognize you."

I pointed out some posters advertising the same things that led me here. He examined one more closely and a confused expression crossed his face.

"This can't be right," I heard him say under his breath. He seemed in shock and couldn't tell if he was just being modest or he actually had no idea how big a deal he now was.

"Kind of a dumb move, running here to hide from fangirls." I laughed and, in an ominous tone, added, "the whole mall must be crawling with them."

As if to prove my point, a high-pitched voice rang out that very moment. "I swear to the Holy Virgin, I saw him heading this way."  

Seth and I turned to the direction it was coming from and I saw a group of five or six middle school-aged girls a few aisles away, purposefully wandering around the store. They were all wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with a black sweater vest on top, a short navy blue plaid skirt and knee-high black socks and black Mary Janes—the easily recognizable uniform of Saint Agnes Academy, the only all-girl Catholic school in our town.

"It's them," Seth whisper-yelled, sounding panicked, his eyes as big as saucers.

Quietly and in a hurry, he walked backwards and ducked behind some tall bookcases and then watched the girls through the gaps in the shelves. I did the same and almost laughed but instead elbowed his side sharply.

"Y'know, you really should be nicer to your fans, " I said in a scolding tone and cast him a disbelieving look as I went on. "I mean look at you, Seth. Hiding from a bunch of tweens? Do you have any idea how ridicu—"

"We should split up," said a different high-pitched voice from the same group. I stopped to listen. "And someone should guard the doors in case they try to run again."

"Okay, that's kind of terrifying," I admitted.

"You don't know the half of it. I think they tore my shirt."

My eyes automatically skimmed over Seth's torso for signs of damage. His shirt was still in one piece but stretched loose in some places and he did look a bit more rumpled than usual.

"Plus, I think I'm missing a good chunk of my hair," he added, rubbing the back portion of his head as he spoke.

Of course that got my sympathy. I was a girl who who hated any sort of physical contact; he basically just described my worst nightmare. I caught myself almost reaching for that same spot but stopped myself just in time and instead, grabbed the nearest book—a hefty hardcover—off the shelf. A quick scan of the back informed me that it was a memoir of a past Supreme Court Justice.

Ugh, I thought, but pretended to keep reading anyway, just to keep my hands occupied.

"Do something, will you?" Seth told me in an impatient tone after a moment.

"Stop acting like a diva and maybe I will," I snapped. He huffed at the insult, as he always did, but at least held his tongue. "Let's go talk to the managers. They can set up a little Meet and Greet for you within five minutes. You can see to your fans in a pain-free way and Warped will get a boost in their sales for the day. Everybody wins."

"Remember what Ethan said? We can't go behind management, and I can't make a scene. Think again."

The sharp tone made me glare at him until he started to squirm. "I don't know what else I can do, Seth. You saw the posters, right? You were doomed as soon as you stepped inside this place. Aside from those girls, lots of other people here are probably on Off-Kilter related business, too."

Even Seth Frasier-related business, more specifically. But of course I didn't say that out loud.

He looked more confused than ever after I'd spelled it out for him. Feeling exasperated, I shook my head and sighed, seriously considering leaving him to fend for himself.

"Then why did you come here?" he asked out of the blue, in a voice that seemed laced with suspicion.

The book I was holding flew out of my hands.

---