Mall of Vetis

Nell slammed her hands on the steering wheel of her van and began to scream a long string of curse words. A burst of noise escaped when she slammed on the horn by accident, causing the neighbors dog to bark.

This was the third time this month Nell's van hadn't started. The past two times she had to ask for someone to jump start it. This was never a problem before, but she had been running late this morning and everyone was at work by now.
The van sputtered again and Nell threw her hands into the air. She started cursing Gerard for even selling her this terrible metal beast, after all this is completely his fault in the first place. Sure, Gerard had painted a cool design of some zombies on the side, and Nell thought the carpeting in it was pretty great, but a year had passed since she first bought the van and the smell of cigarette smoke was still present. No amount of air freshener could mask the scent, and Nell was starting to get sick and tired of having to buy a new pine tree freshener every month.

Nell knew that William was giving his watch an angry glare that was intentionally meant for her. Her last chance was calling Brendon, who seemed to always be late for work. If Brendon wasn't home, she was most certainly doomed to public transportation. Nell grabbed her cell phone from the passenger seat and dialed Brendon's number. The phone rang a few times before rolling over to voicemail. All Nell could think was 'Why did Brendon decide to be so responsible all of a sudden?' Then she started to get angry because seriously, today Brendon? Really? This is totally not fair. She didn't bother locking the van on her way to the bus stop. Nell figured that if anybody wanted to go to the trouble of stealing it, they'd be doing her a major favor.

The lucky thing about living where she lived was that the bus stop was no more than a block down the street. It was easy to walk to, but that didn't make the ordeal any more pleasant.

When the bus finally rumbled up to the bench, Nell cringed and boarded it. She then remembered why she had bought the van from Gerard in the first place; point being that the public bus is terrifying.
Nell took a seat next to a shirtless man holding a balloon, he smiled at her in a 'Hey, I'm going to talk to you the whole time you're here until you run off this bus screaming' kind of way. Nell made a mental note to smack Gerard when she got to work.

.......................................

William was already behind the counter with an irritated expression on his face when Nell walked in. She was guessing that he had been practicing in the mirror for at least a good thirty minutes, waiting for her arrival so that he could look good and mean.
Sometimes Nell really doesn't like William Beckett.

"Do you realize how late you are?" William looked down at Nell with one of his all superior gazes that Nell was in no mood for.

"Do you realize that Gerard Way is a con artist?" Nell set her bag down on the floor and took off her jacket. William's once stern expression turned into an amused one.

"Did you have to ride the bus again?" William leaned on the counter and smirked.

"Yes William, I did. And now there is a shirtless man named Lenny running around town holding a pink balloon, thinking that I'm his bestfriend."

William didn't say anything else, he just started laughing hysterically. Nell huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't think it was fair for William to laugh at her misfortune, but on the bright side she'd just have to switch around the new stock while he was on lunch break.

"I hate you." Nell frowned at William.

"That's okay." William wiped a tear away from his eye, "At least you still have Lenny."

"I'll have you know that Lenny was very kind hearted and-" Nell looked out the window of the store and saw a few people run past, "What's going on?"

"Oh, yeah I forgot, we're all playing hide and seek so go hide or something. And make sure not to make friends with anymore strangers!" William walked out of the shop and towards Forever21.

Sometimes Nell really, really doesn't like William Beckett.

.......................................

In all due respect, Nell doesn't really like hide and seek. It isn't the hiding, or the seeking, it's mostly the fact that it kind of freaks her out. She knows it's just a game and nobody is seriously hunting her, but she still seems to get all nervous each game.

When hunting for a place to hide, Nell is always rather picky. She takes her sweet time, which isn't an issue most of the time. A few games back Pete cheated and found her, but that wasn't her fault.

She made her way to the record shop to hide. It was always nice and air conditioned in there and Patrick played good music. Nell crept into the shop and looked around, making sure that Pete was nowhere insight to rat her out. She hopped behind the counter and sunk down, crawling under it and making herself comfortable. Nell grabbed a magazine off the counter and started to read it.

She heard the door open and then somebody was walking around in the shop. Nell quieted down so she wouldn't be found, but then Frank Iero's head peered around the corner. Frank started to whine and put his hands on his hips.

"No fair! I wanted to hide in here." Frank pouted. Nell set her magazine down and smirked at him.

"Maybe you should stop refusing to make me the sandwiches I want. Then maybe karma would be on your good side."

"Come on, move over!" Frank pushed Nell's legs over a little, she glared at him.

"I'm not moving over just because you have nowhere to hide." Nell smacked at Frank's hand making him glare back at her.

"Come on!"

"Why don't you go find Heaven or Nicole then? I bet Tarra would want to hide with you! And if you can find wherever Parker went off to, I bet you could bribe her into letting you hide with her. Just let her spray you with perfume a few times tomorrow." Nell was grasping at straws now because seriously, Frank was going to make her lose.

Frank put his hands on his hips, "First of all, I don't know where Heaven, Nicole, Tarra or Parker are. And second of all I want to hide in here!"

Nell sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine, squeeze in here, but be quiet."

Frank clapped and climbed in next to Nell. His elbow was digging into her leg and right now she couldn't dislike Frank any more. Frank did not understand the meaning of 'personal space'.

"What are you reading?" Frank whispered, which was more like softly yelling. Nell wasn't deaf, she just didn't like Frank very much.

"A magazine. Now be quiet." Nell turned a page and started reading an article on guitars.

"Hey! Is that a guitar?" Nell glared at Frank and his loud whispering. She didn't think he deserved an answer, "Is that a guitar?"

"Frank!" Nell was whisper-shouting now as well, "Shut up!"

The door to the shop opened and Nell heard footsteps. She put her finger to her mouth in an attempt to make Frank shut up. She knew it was a long shot, but it was worth a try. Frank sneezed and the footsteps moved over to the counter. A second later Heaven and Brendon's faces were peering down at them.

"Ha-ha we found you guys!" Brendon smirked at them. Nell punched Frank in the arm and he whined, rubbing the spot.

"This is your fault, Frank!" Nell pointed at him.

"I had to sneeze!" Frank threw his hands into the air, but they hit the top of the counter making a loud thud. Heaven giggled at him.

Nell stood up and stretched, "Well I guess I'm going to go wait in Picasso Pizza so that I can smack Gerard as soon as he turns up."

"Did you have to ride the bus again?" Heaven lifted her eyebrows. Nell sighed heavily and rubbed her temples.

"Yes. And I have to take it home too. Gerard is a con artist, a con artist that smokes and makes delicious pizza, but a con artist none the less."

"I could give you a ride home if you want." Brendon shrugged; Heaven and Frank made cooing noises.

"Sure! I mean, if that's okay." Nell rubbed her arm and held back the urge to tell Heaven and Frank to shut up.

"I bet we can split now and no one would notice." Brendon stuck his hands into his pockets. Nell nodded her head.

"Just let me get my stuff from the Hallmark store, okay?"
Heaven and Frank were smirking, but Nell wasn't paying much attention to their shenanigans as she left. Brendon followed Nell out of the store, whistling some song that Heaven was sure she heard in Aladdin.

.......................................

Nicole was starting to get worried when she found out the next day that nobody had found William yet. She'd gone to the Hallmark store to ask Nell, but she was running late to work. She'd asked around and nobody seemed to know where William had gone off to. William was never late to work unless he was sick or was having car troubles. This wasn't like him and Nicole was starting to worry that he had gotten hurt.

Gabe was being left unattended in Forever21 so Nicole thought it wise to head back. When she walked in everything looked calm and orderly. Gabe obviously hadn't noticed she had left because he was nicely fixing the accessories. Nicole decided to go straighten up a rack of clothing that looked a little messed up. She was rearranging everything when she tripped over something. She swore it looked like a shoe, but the shoe section wasn't anywhere near this part of the store.
Then Nicole heard the mystery object groan so she moved the clothes aside and looked down. William was laying there on a make-shift bed of shirts. He was wearing a dress over his regular clothing and he had a flowered headband in his hair.

"What...are you doing?" Nicole blinked at William. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with his left hand.

"Oh, I hid in here as a mannequin." William stretched, "Got locked in."

Nicole sighed and took out her cell phone, texting Heaven that she had found William amongst the 'fresh fashions for summer'.

"No!" Gabe ran over and pointed at William, "How come he gets to try on the clothes in here and I'm not allowed?"

"We've been over this, Gabe." Nicole sighed and gave Gabe a disapproving look. William stood up and stretched, taking off the dress and headband.

"This isn't fair! I'm starting a riot!" Gabe tapped his foot and crossed his arms. Nicole was not one bit scared, Gabe would forget about this soon enough.

Gabe pointed at William, "This isn't over."

William scratched the side of his head and gave Gabe a look of utter confusion. Gabe just walked backwards into the stock room, pointing a finger at William's face.

"That's it." Nicole sighed, "It is way too early for me to even be caring about this. I'm going to go get some coffee." Nicole walked out of Forever21, making her way to Java the Hut for some much needed coffee.