It was Friday night and Decker State College was alive with activity, the Lady Raptors having just returned from their Thursday road game against the San Francisco University Tigresses, which had been a win in spite having never played on an indoor field before. In honor of the victory the cheerleaders had agreed to host a party for the team, though the old animosities between the players and cheerleaders were still present, with head cheerleader Rachel Xanders and soccer captain Kat Vaughn rarely getting along.
The main area of the Raptors' Nest bar was even more crowded than usual due to the mix of cheerleaders and soccer players, even a few other guests stopping by. Britney Summers, one of the team's star forwards, drunkenly sat down next to Julie, Kat's twin sister who was a cheerleader. "You look annoyed," Brit slurred slightly, her motor coordination being the first thing to go when she got intoxicated, though her mind usually stayed sharp. The blond was dressed in her distinctive uniform, as were all the players and cheerleaders, the orange and white colors being a symbol of pride. Since DSC had beaten SFU, it meant they were guaranteed a chance to defend their title at the next big tournament in April.
"Rachel's loaded and Michelle's off trying to secure her spot as the next cheerleader captain with the rookies when elections pop up next year," revealed Julie, slowly swallowing her own drink, the cups of the classic red Dixie variety, holding a special punch made from four kinds of wine cooler. Michelle was Rachel's lieutenant on the twelve-girl squad, and half of them were new that year. Since every year the veteran squad members got to elect a leader, Michelle was hoping to turn next year in her favor, though she never wanted Rachel to find out.
"Your cute boyfriend isn't here either," pointed out Brit, getting a cold stare as a result. "What?"
"Sorry, while that was out of line, I still haven't really gotten over that he currently shares a house with his ex," sighed Julie, glancing around the party. People seemed to be having a good time, her sister Kat even talking with her new boyfriend Chris.
"Yeah, that's never fun, but you two still seem to be doing okay," pointed out Brit, leaning back. "Not just you either, from the looks of it." As Britney finished speaking she wove her hand in the direction of Kat and Chris, the pair now standing very close together.
"Yeah, its nice to see that finally went somewhere together, though I'm surprised Ayane's doing fine with it," noted Julie. Ayane Nakamura, another star player, had until recently been somewhat competing with Kat for Chris, who, despite being a security guard, was a very warm and handsome man with big dreams. After observing the new couple for another minute or so Julie and Brit engaged in some small talk for a bit. Eventually a tall, visibly upset, and very drunk cheerleader stumbled into the middle of the room, causing every conversation to pause.
"Julie, you little traitor!" screamed Rachel, clearly having had too much to drink as she was barely standing up and her words came out very erratically. "You think... you think... you think you can just..." Instantly panicking, Julie sprang up and slid her backpack, which had been at her feet, towards Brit, moving to calm her captain.
"Hey hey, easy there Rachel, come on, lets take this someplace less embarrassing," offered Julie, quickly pulling Rachel back into a side work office reserved for making posters and other promotional items. Brit picked up Kat's bag and quickly followed, closing the door behind them. While Rachel's sudden appearance and outburst had been unexpected, Julie had recently learned that it was always good to come prepared.
"Michelle told me about you trying to turn the newbies against me," hissed Rachel, her vision seemingly very unfocused. The room they were in was empty, holding only two computer desks and a large shelf full of printer paper and other items needed for helping to rally school spirit. The floor was even older than the rest of the building, the wood not having been replaced yet from its crack-filled nature to something more modern and smooth. Julie was just grateful that the window was closed, since sound traveling was more of an issue for what she was about to have Britney do than someone else being in the room.
"Michelle as full of it as you are on, what, vodka?" answered Julie, sniffing RachelŐs breath as Britney took up a position behind her and Rachel, pulling a Polaroid camera from the bag Julie had slid to her. "She's probably just trying to make you suspicious of me so you won't realize she's the one trying to undermine you."
"Don't bullshit me, I've had it with you blaming her for everything," spat Rachel, even going so far as to reach for her technical co-captain. Ideally Britney was to wait until she only had Rachel in frame, but with the possibility of violence Britney reacted and took a picture immediately. The camera, magical in its nature, froze Julie and Rachel in place, capturing Julie stepping backwards with her arms slightly raised in case Rachel made contact, her face showing an amused smile, no doubt prepared for her squad leader's transformation into a human statue, though not her own. Rachel, meanwhile, was squinting and scowling, her arms reaching outwards at almost full extension, leaning forward slightly and her feet clearly off-balance.
"Beauty and the Beast," laughed Brit, recovering the instant photo produced by the camera that imaged the static scene. "Or at least, beauty and the slut. Hell, I could go so many ways with this..." Brit, fairly drunk herself, began to start laughing uncontrollably, and before she knew it she'd stumbled and lost her own balance, toppling sideways and hitting the closest desk. The jerky motions and the sudden impact caused Brit to drop both the photo and the camera, the latter going off while unluckily pointed right at her. In a flash Britney was frozen solid, her arms gesturing in front of her in a vain attempt to catch the camera with her face solidified into a look of alarm. The camera, having hit the ground, sat where it was; seconds later a picture of Brit emerged from the camera and sat, mockingly, in front of the immobilized cheerleader. The first photo, meanwhile, had managed to exploit the tiny paper-sized gaps in the old floor and slid in between the floorboards, becoming wedged underneath. With all three women magically frozen, there was no way to catch the first picture before it was lost, nor was there anyone to come along and unfreeze Brit.
* * *
"I gotta say I'm glad we're on the last one," remarked Tucker Holmes as he carefully stood the stiffened woman in his arms upright. "This had to be my worst set of costume picks yet." The young man was standing his roommate Haley Leone's bedroom, which due to its size and its windows being easier to cover had been converted into a photo studio. A green screen with a matching color carpet had been set up to act as a backdrop, Haley behind the camera making sure Tucker placed the final model correctly. This model was Haley's friend Kayla LeFer, who had been dressed like a medieval bar maiden.
"Well your last few projects tended to either be underwear or bikinis, so you might have gotten sloppy in recalling outfit sizes," suggested Haley, using her hand gestures to help her ex-boyfriend pose her best friend correctly in frame. "Heck, if anything your skill seems to developing backwards. That first one you did with Maggie was amazing, and now..."
"... and now if it had been a real photo shoot where I couldn't stop time to get replacements I'd of been screwed, I know," conceded Tucker, finally getting Kayla exactly where he wanted her. The brunette, though she could be considered a redhead in some circles due to the slight tint her hair had, had her hair styled in twin ponytails, both behind her ears, and held a beaming smile plastered on her face. The barmaidŐs outfit was a simple dress split between a green skirt section and a white blouse, a large black piece of black cotton acting as a sort of belt, though the top and bottom were all one piece. All of the parts of the outfit was ruffled and a bit frilly, the top also lacking shoulder-covers, thus showing more of Kayla's nice skin. Around Kayla's feet were leather sandals and in her hands she held beer mugs, two in each hand.
"Well whatever the issues were, 'Women in History' should be a great calendar, though I do question the name since it implies these might be famous women," commented Haley as Tucker moved to stand next to her and double-check the placement before taking photos. Tucker merely shook his head and glanced over by the entrance to Haley's walk-in closet, where the other eleven ÔvolunteerŐ models had been placed. Thanks to his magic wand, Tucker was able to freeze each woman in time-stop and pose them to produce a new calendar design for his company T & M Productions. In the past he'd favored stopping time completely when doing photo-shoots but found it was easier to take time moving better deal with moving lights around and other little elements such as that. Tucker had even started believing the photos looked better when they were taken when time wasn't frozen.
Before Kayla, Tucker had done Connie Soyer, a dark-haired and green-eyed lawyer he'd once gone on a date with. Connie's hair was in elaborate braids, a laurel wrath framing her head and her body covered in a classic white toga, using two straps to better cover her bra-less breasts. Connie was posed somewhat humbly, her left arm at her side and her right holding one of the straps to her toga, her face neutral and thus seemingly thoughtful.
Next to Connie was Regina, a local blond police woman who was now dressed like a flower child of sorts. Regina's well-groomed hair hung loose, a magenta bandanna wrapped over her hair but not totally covering the top of her head. Purple-tinted circular sunglasses covered the blond's eyes and four brown-beaded necklaces rested around her neck atop a blue, yellow and pink tie-dyed white T-shirt. An almost neon-green knee-high skirt was worn around Regina's waist, her feet bare to complete the look. Regina was posed to appear shaking, her hips leaning to the right while her upper body leaned to the left, her right hand forming the symbol for peace while her left gestured wildly to the side.
Another in the group was Jennifer Yates, a redhead of average height that normally worked, notably against her will thanks to a mind-control chip on the back of her neck, as Haley's personal assistant. Jennifer was technically a criminal, though so neither Tucker nor Haley really worried about the woman's history or fate. Jennifer's hair was up in a fifties ponytail, including the pink ascot, and her dress a matching poodle dress. The woman had a wild smile on her face and was posed to appear to be the middle of doing the Twist, though Haley had pointed out repeatedly that said dance was technically from the sixties. Tucker, decidedly, didn't care and doubted many others would since the pose gave away hints of a not-so-fifties black-lace thong under the pink skirt.
Leslie, a blond from Tucker's personal collection of frozen women, was dressed as a Dutch maid. The outfit consisted of a dress similar to the one Kayla wore, save the skirt was blue, the blouse revealed more cleavage, there were proper but small shoulders that were quite puffy, and instead of a loose black belt there was a tight corset that matched the skirt. Leslie's hair was in pigtails, a white maidŐs hood covering the rest of her head and wooden clogs on her feet. Leslie, like most of the women, had a bright smile on her face and was doing a grand curtsey, her knees bent about a third of the way they were capable of going.
Candice, another woman from Tucker's collection, had been dressed up in a late nineteenth century African dress, Tucker deciding her African-American heritage made it work, though Haley remarked she felt that was perhaps a bit insulting. The outfit however didn't use anything overly cliche, the grass-skirt instead being a yellow fabric with a grass-like design, which had been adopted by some tribes around that time shortly before being discovered by more modern groups. A wrap-around top of sorts that matched the skirt's material was worn around Candice's breasts and a simple leather circlet was worn around her head, holding to keep her high ponytail in check. Instead of doing something trite like arming her with a spear Tucker decided to merely have Candice pose with her hands on her hips and bend her legs slightly, showing she was proud of the outfit she was in.
Tatiana's outfit was yet another elaborate outfit, possibly most of all due to it being from the Renaissance. Her short blond hair was given a pair of fake side buns, both coated with wire-frames and a white veil hanging down the back. Additionally the dress consisted of a white under-gown petticoat, which was of course frilly and somewhat puffy, with a gold-lined red dress over the top. Tatiana's hands were posed to make her appear to be in thought, though she possessed the large grin most of the women sported.
Faith, one of Tucker's old co-workers at the bookstore, was dressed in the most basic of costumes: that of Eve. The brunette's right arm covered her breasts while her left held a rather large leaf over her womanhood, her smile a smaller one of innocence rather than alluring temptation. That oak leaf had been a big problem during the shoot, with Tucker constantly having to adjust it when they moved Faith around to different poses.
Joy, another former co-worker and often associated with Faith, was dressed as another early form of woman, namely that of a cave dweller. A bronze-colored fur toga of sorts covered her body and a simple club was held in her hands; Joy's blond hair also combed in all directions to make it look wild. In spite of the primitive pose Joy also sported the giant grin, Tucker and Haley agreeing the smiles might ruin some of the illusion but certainly made the women easy to look at no matter what a person was into.
Brooke, a redhead and Asian as well as Regina's roommate, was given the kimono to wear. Brooke's hair was wrapped into a traditional Japanese bun, her face even given the classic white makeup and her lips made crimson red. The kimono itself was dark blue and had a peach blossom pattern on it, the obi sash around her waist a light cream color. Rather than hide Brooke's hands in the sleeves of the traditional dress Tucker and Haley had elected to put them behind Brooke's back, feeling it was better to show the falling pedals design on the dress in its completeness rather than block it with her arms.
Patricia, another one of Regina's roommates, was given a bit of a stretch for her costume as while being a dark-haired Hispanic woman; she was dressed as an Egyptian, a cliched one at that with the elaborate black eye make-up, Cleopatra-style haircut and golden snake tiara as well as matching bracelets. the golden dress itself was simple, basically a modern basic dress as it covered her entire upper body minus the arms and the skirt reached down to right above her knees, with slits in the sides being the only thing stopping it from being essentially a rectangle of fabric. To play on the Egyptian ideal of cat worship, a real cat belonging to one of the neighbors, a black Siamese one to be exact, was also frozen and placed in Patricia's hands. Patricia also lacked the giant smile, instead looking more reserved and regal, as Connie had.
Finally there was Alyson, the final of Regina's roommates, who was also a blond and had been dressed in the petticoat style of Victorian era dress. The dress was a dark crimson, the blouse-like bodice of it plain white with extremely puffy shoulders and a tall, black hat on her head that matched the dress, decorated by feathers sticking out from it. Alyson held a closed hand fan in her grasp and her upper body was turned sideways so that in the photo it would be clear how big the petticoat was.
"Alright, she's good, we're done," announced Tucker, taking his eyes off his motionless models and snapping a few quick shots of Kayla. "We're wrapped. Guess I should start returning them all."
"You make them sound like library books or something," laughed Haley, moving her arm to go up and around Tucker' shoulders. "You did good," Haley then added, flashing Tucker a smile that he immediately knew had a subtext behind it.
Since moving in with Haley, Tucker had been well-aware that his beautiful ex did indeed, at least on some level, want him back. Tucker was however in a very happy relationship already and while he had admitted to himself more than once to missing being with Haley in a more intimate way he wasn't about to cheat on Julie. Julie and Haley were very different women some ways, as while Haley did appreciate Tucker's nice-guy personality she never truly called him a good-looking man, though granted he wasn't really, and never gave him the impression that he was much different than any other guy, his taking more interest in what she did than vice-versa. Julie meanwhile had taken an active interest in what Tucker liked, becoming an anime fan specifically to get closer to him, plus the pair shared a lot in common as well as knowledge of his magical wand. Tucker's only real problem with Julie was how much of a cliche bookworm she could be, wanting to spend all day at the library even when there weren't major exams or projects coming up, and this was while still not being entirely sure what she wanted to do for a career. Julie's course load was a mix of business and sciences, to the point where she could easily go for an internship at a major company or head for med-school after she graduated.
"Hey..." Tucker began, wanting to ask Haley politely to move her arm, but his cell phone ringing interrupted him. "Hold that thought," offered Tucker, carefully slipping away from his ex and answering his phone. "Hello?"
"Tucker, thank God!" exclaimed the voice of Kat Vaughn on the other end of the line. "I need you to come to the Raptor's Nest right away! There's been an accident!"
"What?" asked Tucker, lost. "What happened?!"
"It's..." stuttered Kat, clearly in tears in spite of Tucker not being able to see her face. "It's... Julie. She... she... Brit and Julie tried to stop Rachel from crashing the party and in the scuffle, all of them were frozen by the camera. I managed to unfreeze BritÉ but I can't find that other photo of Julie and Rachel anyplace and I don't want to be alone when I drag Julie out pretending she's drunk! I need you to help with moving them and then we'll look for the picture after the party ends, just please hurry! Someone else may discover theyŐve been turned into statues."
"Yeah, I'll be right there," Tucker announced calmly, hanging up. Grateful that Kat knew Tucker knew about the magic camera, the lone male in the room full of models quickly picked up his magic wand, quickly tapping it five times before Haley even noticed. She instantly joined the others in frozen, mannequin-like stillness.
"Talk about your weird saves," breathed Tucker, unable to believe how timely the phone call had been. Haley was dressed casually, wearing a black tank top and dark blue jeans that were tight enough to leave little to the imagination, and as per her at-home ritual her feet were bare, her hair casually tucked behind her ears. Haley was standing with her hands on her hips, flashing Tucker a naughty-looking smile that made him glad the call had come to kill the mood.
"I'll see you girls later, I need to go save my girlfriend," announced Tucker, then stopped before heading out the door. Kat didn't know about the magic wand, so if possible Tucker wanted to avoid revealing it. It was possible that moving Julie would require help, and since Tucker would prefer moving Julie and the other girl while time was frozen and Haley knew that Tucker could do this, it made sense to take her along.
"I guess we'll just have to suffer," sighed Tucker, wrapping his arms around Haley's rigid waist and twisting her so he could carry her under his left arm. Haley was fairly light, her small size and her keeping within an model-slim weight extremely helpful as Tucker wasn't that strong, though people did seem to be lighter when they were frozen. Carrying his immobilized roommate outside, Tucker smiled, noticing the several cars on the street frozen in mid-motion, then used his wand to unfreeze his Ford Focus. While he wasn't exactly in a hurry, the fact that Haley was little more than a realistic mannequin meant Tucker wasn't too worried about how he transported her, thus electing to merely slide her into the back seat while she still held her alluring pose. Once Haley was in place Tucker quickly drove off, having to be careful as Friday night traffic congestion made even time-stop driving dangerous.
* * *
Ideally it was a bit less than an hour to reach Malibu from Tucker's house, but the heavy traffic severely limited Tucker's speed, thus it took just over an hour to reach the Decker State College campus. Pulling up at the Raptor's Nest, Tucker elected to leave Haley in the car and headed upstairs.
The party had turned into a bit of a mess by the time Tucker entered; soccer player Mel Donavan was frozen in the middle of throwing a drink in a decent-looking man's face, Mel's face contorted in fury while the man just looked sheepish. Nearby was Chris Picket, Kat's boyfriend, who was in rapt conversation with Ayane, the Asian blond of the team. Off in a corner Michelle Gim sat between two of the younger cheerleaders, one of them Rita who was slumped over and apparently passed out while the other, Missy, seemed to be almost seduced as Michelle's mouth hung open, her arms around the two women. "I swear sometimes that girl makes me wonder," muttered Tucker, shaking his head before heading straight for the side office. Kat hadn't told Tucker where she'd be, but since there were only two other rooms in the party area and one was the bathroom, Tucker figured the office was the logical place.
The static scene was an odd one, with Kat frozen while glancing behind a desk as Brit was touching a stack of papers on the shelf, both of them possessing tear-soaked eyes. Rachel was still posed in mid-lunge, though she was now facing the wall while Julie stood alone in the middle of the room with a smirk on her face, her hands seeming to gently push away an invisible person in front of her. Without hesitation, Tucker moved over to Kat and tapped her twice with the wand, instantly unfreezing her. "Tucker!" Kat immediately exclaimed, jumping up and wrapping her arms around him, proceeding to bawl. "Thank god! We can't find the picture of Julie anywhere!"
"Hey hey, don't worry, it has to be here, somewhere," Tucker assured Kat, giving his girlfriend's twin a big hug.
"Wait a sec," Kat suddenly muttered, slipping out of Tucker's grip. "I called you maybe a minute ago, how in the hell did you get here so fast?!"
"Oh shit," groaned Tucker, stunned by his own stupidity. His plan had been to unfreeze time, enter the party and find Kat, and if asked going to lie and say he was already on his way. Tucker however did not think things through, first by bringing Haley along and thus requiring him to not unfreeze time, second by unfreezing Kat and only Kat, thus denying him to keep up any kind of illusion after heŐd seemingly appeared out of thin air. Forgetting his own excuse for why he'd arrived so fast was just the icing on the cake; Tucker immediately realized he'd have to tell Kat everything.
"Shit what, what's going on?!" demanded Kat, glancing around uncertainly at the tableau of motionless young women. "Brit? Brit! Say somethingÉ Why is she frozen?!"
"I froze her," confessed Tucker, taking a deep breath. This was going to be a tricky one. "Look, Kat... you know how I got tangled up in the whole rescue of you girls back around Thanksgiving?"
"When that Tisdale woman kidnapped us all, yeah," noted Kat. "Wait, is this the same drug that was used on all of us?!"
"No, what I have is more like your camera," explained Tucker. "Kat, nearly a year ago I managed to buy a real magic wand that can freeze time everywhere, well, that and other things, but mainly that. I used it to get here so quickly; itŐs why Julie and I seem to have done so much when sometimes we've clearly had no time for a date; itŐs also why Julie would sometimes be late with no explanation." He decided to say nothing about the photo sessions or other adventures heŐd had.
"A magic wand?!" repeated Kat, stunned, but noting the object in Tucker's hands. "A wand that can freeze time itself... no wonder you were there. This explains... everything. Wow!"
"Yeah, and right now its our best chance to find the photo without anyone else getting suspicious," confirmed Tucker, glancing over at his immobilized girlfriend. "So take me through it: what happened?"
"Rachel started yelling at Julie, so she and Brit came in here with the camera, probably to take Rache out of it," revealed Kat. "There was a scuffle and two photos were taken, one of Rachel and Julie and the other of Brit. I came in about a half hour later and found them all frozen, so I tore up Brit's photo since it was on the ground. We've been looking for JulieŐs for the last hour or so though and nothing! Brit swears she saw the other picture before she froze too!"
"How did two photos get produced in the first place?" asked Tucker, a bit confused.
"Brit said she accidentally snapped Rachel and Julie in the middle of the fight and then dropped the camera a second later, where it went off again," explained Julie. "What a klutz, but both pictures happened almost immediately, so I can't understand where it might have gone, what with Brit being frozen too!"
"Have you searched Brit for it?" asked Tucker, dead serious, but Kat got an accusing look on her face like Tucker had just asked her to steal test scores.
"She may be a bit of a weasel but she wouldn't lie about this!" Kat practically screamed, Tucker took a step back. "Oh, I'm sorry," offered Kat, covering her mouth for a moment. "Wait, time's frozen right? I'll yell all I want then! I'm not going to search Brit! She's one of my most trusted teammates! She knows all about the camera too!"
"Sorry about this," offered Tucker before waving his wand at her, directly in Kat's field of vision, freezing her solid. Kat stood instantly rigid with her arms extended outwards, as if trying to ward off Tucker's spell, her face frozen in alarm. "Sorry," Tucker muttered again, walking past Kat and moving up to Brit, who had remained statue-still throughout the conversation.
"Show me everything, sweetheart," Tucker almost purred as he moved his hands over Brit's frozen body, carefully removing her soccer shorts to reveal tangerine-collared underwear. "No thong? I'm shocked," laughed Tucker, taking delight in the strip search in spite of the whole situation around it. With great amusement Tucker proceeded to then lift Brit's arms above her head and pull off her jersey, revealing a light sports bra that was more red than her underwear. Moving his hands slowly and gently Tucker felt inside Brit's stretchy bra and underwear, finding nothing that could be a Polaroid photo though he did find himself an erection. After a few minutes however, Tucker was certain Brit didn't have the photo. Disappointed, hoping he'd be able to freeze Brit for a bit longer as punishment, Tucker redressed the soccer player and carefully posed her as she'd been standing before, taking an extra-long time to adjust her shorts.
"I guess I'll search the room next," breathed Tucker, getting to work tearing what little there was in the room apart. Kat had claimed they'd spent an hour looking and Tucker was shocked it had taken her that long to call him, given how little there was in the room. Tucker first searched all around the computer desks, even unfreezing the computers so he could check the disk drives as well as the drawers. Next Tucker searched the paper shelf, even checking open paper stacks for any slight bulge that might indicate a hidden Polaroid. Tucker wasn't convinced Brit was innocent, not seeing any other way the photo could have disappeared, but after the paper shelf all that was left were the other three women in the room. Electing for the moment not to remove their clothes as Tucker figured Brit, or possibly Kat, wouldn't be that elaborate in hiding the photo, Tucker resorted to simply feeling up each girl in the areas where it was possible to hide something. Rachel's breasts in particular took Tucker a while, the touch there enough to get him to climax after three minutes of intense searching.
"Where the hell is it?!" shouted Tucker in anger to the frozen world around him. Frustrated, Tucker collapsed on the floor, noting sitting on the cracked hardwood was uncomfortable. As Tucker lay on the ground he rolled over to look under the desks, and it was then a thought came to him.
"Kat, Kat!" shouted Tucker even before he'd finished unfreezing her, the blond looking at him like he was some kind of sick freak when she realized what heŐd done while she was frozen.
"You searched Brit, didn't you?!" shot out Kat accusingly.
"Yes, and she was clean, you were right," admitted Tucker, not wanting to linger on the question or mention Rachel. "Did either of you ever leave this room?"
"Not since I unfroze Brit," answered Kat, moving over to stand by the closer of the two desks. "Brit was crouching right here, the camera was in front of her."
"Right here?" asked Tucker, moving to touch the wood floor in front of where he imagined Brit had been.
"Yes, why?" asked Kat, confused now and having forgotten Tucker had just admitted to searching an innocent woman.
"Son of a bitch," cursed Tucker, feeling the floor. "There's a gap in between the boards here, Kat. A big crack."
"Big enough for a photo to fall through?!" exclaimed Kat, falling to her knees next to Tucker. "My God, Tucker! YouŐre right; it's stuck in the floor!"
"Yes, it wouldn't of fallen through since there's probably a solid base underneath these boards," noted Tucker, now looking extremely worried however. "Just before I say what we know I'm going to say, are you sure no one else came in or out before you came in?"
"Tuck, I was standing right by the door, but since it was quiet I figured things were okay," confessed Kat, bursting into tears. "Oh God... my sister's freedom is stuck under a damn floor!"
"Hey, hey," offered Tucker, moving to hug Kat again, and once again the girl embraced him back, though they kept it brief. "Look, this isn't all bad news. This floor is supposed to be redone soon right?"
"Not for at least another month!" howled Kat, nuzzling in against Tucker's shoulder. "How am I going to live with my sister as a statue for a month?! There's also Rachel! I can't have two major cheerleaders disappear until the floor is fixed, Tucker!"
"Sure you can, you just need a good lie," pointed out Tucker, his face deadly serious as he moved Kat away from him, holding her shoulders firmly. "You come up with the cover-up, I'll hide them until we can get at the photo. You'll know when they're going to actually get to work, so when that happens you can call me and I'll step in, getting the photo with none the wiser."
"But Rachel, how will we explain that sheŐs lost a month?" muttered Kat, still stunned that Tucker was working on a plan to get out of the situation.
"I have a month to figure that out," Tucker told Kat with assurances, deciding he'd be better off thinking of a solution when he wasn't so worried about Kat. "The plan is simple: I smuggle them home and put Brit to sleep so she'll think she passed out. WeŐll say Julie can have gone off to do a last-minute internship out east or something, and Rachel can have run off with a record producer. When we can finally unfreeze them I'm sure we'll have a good explanation for Rachel, but Julie, in spite of the shock, should be okay. Your sister is pretty smart after all."
"Yes, she is," agreed Kat, shaking her head. "If I hadn't been so strict with her she might of not acted so recklessly... Okay, lets go with your plan." Wiping away her tears, Kat stood and took a final look at her sister. "Wait, what was that about sleep-" Kat never finished the sentence as Tucker waved his wand, freezing her in place.
"Don't worry, your sister is in good hands," Tucker promised, giving the frozen soccer captain a final hug. Wiping his own eyes, which were a bit watery, Tucker moved to stand in front of Julie. "Well, I did want us to move in together," laughed Tucker, then shaking off his failed joke.
"Not like this, not like this..." muttered Tucker, already missing the sound of Julie's sweet and innocent voice.
* * *
"...Julie?!" exclaimed Haley, finding herself in the living room with Tucker's girlfriend, who stood frozen while standing at attention. "Rachel too?" noted Haley next, seeing the cheerleader captain leaning against the wall in the same pose as Julie. "What's going on?"
"Long story, I'll explain after I take the rest of our models back to their homes," offered Tucker, who had sad look at his face, which was new to Haley since he never seemed to frown when he had a woman like Regina under his arm, as he did now. The policewoman was back in the clothes she'd been wearing before they'd picked her up, namely a white tank top and teal pajama bottoms. Haley had to smirk at the sight of Regina under Tucker's arm while posed with her hands down the back of her pants, apparently feeling her own rear end.
"Drive safe," offered Haley, then realizing time was probably frozen as Tucker left the room. Haley stood by, trying to figure out what to do, then realized Tucker would probably be gone for an hour or two. "Hey there," offered Haley, inching over to where Julie stood, frozen like a mannequin.
The two women were physically similar, Haley only having an inch of height on her, though she probably weighed slightly less. "You know, since you two started dating I've never had a chance to talk with you. Come on, letŐs have a bath, swap stories, and then see how you'll stack up as a measuring dummy for my outfits!"
The End - until One Woman's Legacy