Side Fangs: “Impromptu Casino Visit” (Part 1) (Stella)

It was way too bright. I kept muttering to myself, "This is why I don't go to casinos." Everything was lit up in eye straining neon. It was too loud, too, every machine, all of them branded with some strange, scantily clad woman. My group was huddled around a slot machine, in which Alix was on an impressive run of at least a hundred pulls with zero tokens earned.

"I'm so sorry!" Alix said for the fifth time. "I'll pay you back, I swear."

"You only get five more tokens from me," Evy said, carefully counting out the tokens. "After that, you're on your own."

"Thank you, you're the best!" Alix said.

I thought back to a time way back when, just a short while after I became Zeta's sole guardian. I thought it'd be nice to visit an out of town library, but on the way back I realized I hadn't properly fueled my car, and needed to stop somewhere. Zeta was beat and had to use a bathroom, and there was no place in sight but a casino on a lonely highway that had a refuel station attached to it. I tried to get her to the bathroom in the station, but they had an absurdly high minimum payment for anyone to use their restrooms, so we ended up running to the casino part. Precious little baby Zeta kept saying "I don't wanna go here," or "I hate it here," and I shared the sentiment. She probably...would have the same reaction if I brought her here now, so it was good she wasn't here.

"Oh wow, yes!" Alix shouted. "One token won! Victory for Corinani!"

"Now, hold on there, partner," there was a gremlin-like girl poking her now. Vaguely, in the back of my mind, I knew this was strange, but at the moment I just stared. "Officer Chumbler is making sure nobody's cheating in this here Chumblerosa 2."

"N-no, I'd never!" Alix said, sounding immediately way-too-suspicious.

We all just chuckled as Alix bantered with Chumbler about how to cheat at slot machines.

While they talked, I took another look around. It looked like everyone was having fun. It was nice to see all the fellow guardians and parents getting a break like this. But something wasn't quite right.

Even if Zeta would've hated being here, I'd rather be on a trip taking her along instead of going with all the chaperones. Didn't I say our next vacation would be one with just the family, not with all our friends? But this wasn't just friends, all the parents, teachers, faculty, staff, chaperones, everyone involved with...what were we all involved in? It was a school thing, surely...but all the brightness and loudness was making my mind foggy.

I started to wander, looking over all my coworkers excitedly playing on slot machines or at the card tables. Evy joined me, and I looped my arm around hers.

"It's kinda nice the school set this up," I said idly.

"Yeah, it's nice," Evy said. "Nice break from the action."

"Yeah...feels good that..." I yawned. "Good that we get a break from...what were we getting a break from?"

"It was...something, right?" Evy said.

"A...dance?" I said.

"That's it!" Evy said. "The dance. They built that new dome. Nice for the kids to get a break, too."

"Kind of...strange, too," I said. "Sending all of the chaperones...to a casino...while the dance is..."

"Wait." I said.

"Wait..." Evy said at just about the same time.

We looked at each other, and it was like we both woke up.

"Where are we?" I asked.