Singing Stars

Many months after they split up, Leo and Maya were sitting in the backseat of a truck as they drove to their destination, The Kids Bop Kids headquarters. Leo is currently reading his comic book while Maya was looking out the window, watching the buildings raced by. Then Maya turned her head to face Leo. "Ok Leo. We're almost there. You know what we are going to do." Maya muttered, putting on a fake hearing aid. Leo groaned. "Yeah, I already know what are going to do sis. You are going to pretend that you are deaf and that you have a brother name Zhen, which is going to be me! So, stop worrying too much and enjoy the ride." Leo grunted, flipping through his comic book. "Ok kids, we're here. Welcome to the most famous kid's singing program." The driver announced.

Meanwhile inside the building,“Hey Chris, have you heard that miss Sasha has accepted the kids from a small town called LaBelle in Florida?” Asked a teenage boy with black curly hair. “Yes, they just announced it today, Matt. They should arrive soon.” Chris said, looking at the door. “I heard that one of them is deaf.” “Yes, I believe it was the older girl that sang ‘Perfect’.” Matt muttered. “The little Chinese boy was really cute when he sang that same song.” Explained a girl with long black hair. She was walking toward Matt and Chris. “He has a pretty good voice, but he seems to speak quietly sometimes.” Chris agreed. Then the speaker turned on.

“Listen up kids, this is Sasha junk, our guests just arrived. So why don’t you go meet them? Give them a warm welcome.” She announced.

The kids in the room started talking to each others, and they started walking toward the door. “They’re here? Now? That was quick. Do you think they are nice?” Chris heard the other kidz bop kids say. “Come on, let’s go see them.” Matt said, grabbing Chris and the black haired girl’s wrist, pulling them out the door. They ran to the parking lot, pushing their way through the crowd. They made it to the front and Chris spotted them, a young girl with alabaster white skin and brownish hair, her eye’s was hazelnut. She was carrying her bag and a suitcase. Next to her was a smaller boy with brown skin and black hair, he has dark brown eyes. He was carrying a black bag. “Hi, I’m Cliff and this is my two friends, Matt and Sarah. Are you two friends?” Chris asked. The girl and boy looked at each other and looked back at him. The girl spoked first.“ I’m Maya. I’m fifteen years old.” Maya said, her voice cheerful. “And I’m Zhen. I’m twelve years old. And we’re not friends, we’re siblings.” Leo said, his voice is a bit soft. Matt winced, while Chris and Sarah looked at them in disbelief. “It’s OK, we get that a lot. We do look different, but we have been together for as long as I can remember.” Maya said, as she reached out to shake Matt’s hand. “I heard about you Sarah, you have a great voice.” Leo exclaimed, blushing slightly. “Why don’t we show you your room?” Matt said, recovering from his awkward moment. “Show them to their room?! They are nothing but common people. They don’t deserve to be here.” Grumbled a black haired teenager from the crowd. “You might want to excuse Keal, he isn’t usually this rude. I wondered what got him so angry.” Sarah said, helping them gather their stuff. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. We’re used to what people call us, this isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem.” Maya mumbled. “You’re deaf, right?” Matt asked Maya. “Since birth. It was a pretty tough life, but I’ll keep on going. Besides I have a younger brother with me.” She nudged Leo playfully. Leo rolled his eyes in annoyment, luckily nobody saw him do it.“Come on, we can’t be friends if we stand in a park lot doing nothing.” Leo explained. Then they heard someone’s phone started ringing, it was coming from Maya’s purse. “Oh! That must be our mom calling us, give me a moment.” She mumbled, taking her phone out and accept the call. She put the phone next to her ears, “hello? Who is it.” She asked. Chris heard a person on the other side of the phone start talking and Maya’s smile grew bigger. “ Jax! Oh, it’s good to hear from you! How are you?” Maya explained. The person started talking again, and Maya smile disappeared, leaving a serious frown. Then she lowered the phone and covered the phone’s speaker. “Sorry, but need to talk to this person in private. Can you please take Zhen to his room?” She asked. Leo looked straight at her, but said nothing. Chris saw the looks between the two siblings and he wondered what caused them to do that. But before he can asked, “Sure! Zhen, your room is right next to mine. Come on, I’ll show you.” Matt exclaimed, leading Leo to the building. Keal grumbled loudly as he followed them, glaring at Maya. The crowd gradually began to move away, chatting away with Leo. Chris turned his head to Maya who started walking away to a small alleyway near a large garage bin. “Come on Chris! The new kid has some serious adventures in France, he said that he survived on top of the cliff.” Explain a boy with blue hair. “Sure, lead the way.” Chris muttered, slowly moving forward towards the building. But when the blue haired boy wasn’t looking, Chris spun around and raced back toward where Maya went. He went behind the large bin that stunk of rotten eggs and strain his ears to listen to what Maya was saying. “I see. I’ll sent Leo over there to get it back.” Maya muttered, her eyes darting around. Then the person on the other side started speaking again and Chris managed to catch “Greypaws” and “priceless”. What are they talking about? Who is Greypaws? Chris muttered, glancing over the garbage bin. " I know, Windy. That thing belongs to our hometown. Leo will get it and meet you at your next song to pass it on to you.” Maya explained. “Bruce will pass this message to Zeve once I get my paws on him. Don’t worry we’ll watch out for them.” She muttered, hanging up. She stuffed her phone in her purse and started walking away from the alleyway. Chris scrambled after her, trying to hide in the crowd. He watches her moving through the crowd without effort, until she brushes against a teenage boy with black hair. Chris watched her stiffen as the boy walked past, her eyes looking troubled. Finally, after a few moments, she relaxed and continued toward the building.Maya walked up the stairs and walked into the crowd of kidz bop kids at the entrance of the door. Chris scrambled into the crowd,looking around for her. He finally spotted her talking to Matt with Zhen by his side. He strolled over to them without hesitation. “Hey Chris! I was wondering where you went. I just finished showing Leo to his room and he can’t wait to show Maya.” Matt explained. Leo nodded eagerly, glancing at Maya. “I heard that you called your friend, his name was Jax, right? Well thank goodness that he’s not Jax the famous singer of whatsoever. He’s so annoying.” Keal grunted, walking over with a sneer on his face. “Ja. I agree, Jax is just another loser. We sing better than him.” Explained a boy with a German accent. “Listen, Jax is like… second in line from being the greatest singer in U.S.A., but I don’t care if he fails. He just another loser whose head was not screw on right. Trust me, you’re better off without him.” Chris muttered and kids nearby shouted their approval. Then they saw sleek looking car driving up towards the building and stopped in front of the building. Then the driver came out from the front quickly and went to open the door beside the front door. A young teenage boy with light brown hair with with blue eyes came out, wearing a fancy black jacket with jeans. " Jax…” Matt growled, about to throw an insult at him. “Jax! What are you doing here?” Maya explained, running toward him, not noticing the surprise looks on the kidz bop kid’s faces. Leo followed her and leaped at Jax, nearly knocking him over. “Whoa! Hey guys, long time no see. How are you doing?” Jax asked, ruffling Leo’s hair.“We’re doing fine. How’s your sister doing?” Maya asked. " She’s doing OK. Still recovering from you know what. You two just joined the kidz bop kids group,right?” Jax asked, glancing at the group of kids. “You betcha! We’re going to hang out for a few weeks with them. Our room is really nice and comfortable, plus they serve free breakfast.” Leo explained, licking his lips. “Nice…. They really know how to get five stars in hospitality, wouldn’t you agree Maya?” Jax chuckled. “Oh, stop it. You get a free massage and cool rides, isn’t that enough for you?” Maya teased. “Hahaha. OK. Did you tell Leo yet?” Jax muttered, narrowing his eyes. But before Maya could say anything, Matt stormed in.” Whoa,whoa! What’s going on here? How did you know him?” Matt exclaimed, pointing at Windy. “He has a sister? How did you know that he has a sister?” Chris asked, clearly confused. “Oh, Jax is our old friend when we’re younger. We haven’t seen him since last year. His sister prefers not being known to the public, her name is Luna.” Maya explained. “Yo. How are you doing?” Jax asked Matt. Matt ignored him and turned to Chris, whispering something in his ear. “Windy, we’re trying to figure this out right now, so can we talk about this later when we have more time?” Maya asked. Windy glanced at Matt and Chris, nodding slowly. “Sure. Call me whenever you’re free. See ya’ll later.”” Windy said, giving Leo a high five before going inside his car. The driver went back inside as well and started the car engine. Then Windy rolled down the window. “Hey Maya, one more thing. Karl believes that…. the Old King spoke to him, in a vision last night. I don’t know why the Old king chose him to have this vision, but I’ll tell you all about it when we are together without the crowd.” Windy whispered, looking straight at them. Then he snapped his fingers and the car started driving away. Everything was quiet for a few moments before Matt spoke. “You knew him. Why didn’t you tell us about this?” He asked. “We didn’t know that you didn’t like him, besides you didn’t asked us about that.” Leo exclaimed, glancing over to Maya who was still standing in the same spot when she spoke to Windy with a troubled look on her face. “Maya, are you okay?” Chris asked walking over to her. “What, esth es tsga? Oh, I mean… yeah, I’m fine.” She muttered, turning her head to look at him. “We just need to be alone for a little while, try to get some rest before we go to our first show.” Leo explained, already leading his sister to their room. What is going on? Chris wondered as he scanned Maya's face.Why did Maya freeze up when Jax whispered something to her? And what are they planning? I need to get to the bottom of this. Chris thought as he watched them walk away.“OK…. be sure to be dressed up for this show.” Chris muttered glancing at Matt. 20 minutes later,“Whoo! That was awesome that Windy came to visit us. But, what does he mean that you told me what yet?” Leo asked, flopping onto his bed. “He needs us to help him to a priceless artifact that was somehow taken away from our hometown. He needs you to get it and meet him before he sings first song on his show.” Maya explained as she closed the door. “Where’s the artifact? And where does he want me to meet him?” Leo muttered, grabbing a sport bag. “The artifact is located in Chase bank, the biggest bank in New York.” She muttered, opening a paper that has the map of the bank. " The scientists of Manhattan labs somehow managed to get their hands on the artifact and they placed it in this bank. Windy told me that the scientists are planning to do some testing on it tomorrow, so your job is go in, grab the artifact and get out before the alarm goes off. You’ll meet Windy in a narrow alley near his concert and passed it on to him. I’ll distract the kidz bop kids, making sure they don’t know that you’re gone.” She explained. Leo glanced at the map, and looked up to face her. “Well, it’s been a while since we’ve gotten a mission, so I’m in.” Leo mumbled, stuffing a white cloth into the sport bag. “You already got some experience with breaking into buildings, so this shouldn’t be a problem for you. But you need to wear this,” she said, holding up a black hoodie. “This will help you blend into the alleyway without anybody seeing you. And Leo, be careful. I don’t want to lose you again.” Maya explained, looking at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. When will this happen?” He asked, his face full of determination. Maya looked out of the window, and sighed. "I don't know why Old King has chosen Karl to have a vision, but I'm glad that he is doing much better." Maya muttered. "Plus, I heard that he and Flurry really like each other." Leo said, making a kissing face. Maya laughed. "OK! OK! now go do what you need to do, I'll cover you." Maya said, pushing Leo out of the room.

Many hours passed, the sun had already gone away and the stars are coming out. Everything was quiet, until a loud speaker cut through the air.

“Welcome to the kids bop kids concert! We are so happy to have you here. And we can’t wait to show you our two newest kidz bop kids that recently joined us. The first song will start in fifteen minutes.” The speaker announced.

“Maya, you look dazzling.” Matt explained, as Maya walked up to them. She was wears a short sparkling blue dress with golden flowers earrings. “Thanks, you say I need to dress up. So I did.” She replied, twirling her hair. “ Where is Zhen? It’s almost time for you first show.” Sarah asked. fixing her hair. “ He has to get dress, he’s in the changing room. He was playing video games earlier and he didn’t bother to get dress until now.” Maya lied, rolling her eyes in fake annoyment. “Speaking of missing people, Where’s Chris?” Keal asked, smirking.

Meanwhile in the dark alleyway near the Chase Bank. "OK. Remember the rules, Leo. Be fast and do not let anyone see you. You can do this." Leo muttered to himself as he put on a black mask. he glanced around the empty street before kicking in his speed. He raced down the street, his feet making no sound on the ground. When he finally reached the building he jumped and crashed through the window. In less than five seconds he opened the vault and grabbed the artifact and raced out of the building before the alarm went off. " There, that was easy enough. Now to get this to Windy." Leo muttered, taking off his mask and stuffed it inside the bag, next to a small wooden box that holds the priceless artifact. He slung the bag over his shoulder and walked away, unaware that someone was watching him.

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