Luna Waverly's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The stage rose out of the crowd, huge and loud. Colored lights swung above the DJ booth. Kai stood behind the decks, headphones on one ear, blonde hair catching the neon. Kira waved both arms. "Kai! Hey, over here!" He didn't see her. His eyes stayed down on the mixer, deep in the beat. Luna pulled Kira toward the side of the stage. A guard stepped into their path. He was wide as a door. He raised one hand and pressed the other to an earbud. "Passes, please." "That's my brother up there," Kira said. "Kai. He literally texted us to come back, like forty times, so if you just ask him—" "No pass, no entry." The guard didn't move. Luna looked past him at Kai. He leaned into the music, both hands working. He wouldn't glance up for ten more minutes, maybe twenty. Waving was useless. Luna and Kira stepped back and looked at each other. Two hours of searching, and now a wall of muscle. Then Luna saw them. In front of the stage, a group danced with bright pool noodles, swinging them overhead. Every one of them wore a glowing pass on a chain around the neck. The passes lit up, neon letters flashing in the dark. "Kira," Luna said. "They all have passes. And noodles." Kira followed her look. "Oh. Oh, so the noodle people are backstage people?" A girl broke from the group, a pool noodle in each hand, sunglasses pushed up on her head. She spun past them, grinning. "You want in?" she called. "Get a noodle! Stand's right there!" She pointed with a bright pink foam tube, then danced off. Luna turned. A small wooden stand sat near the stage, strung with tiny lights. Stacked pool noodles filled the top in every color. A cardboard box beside it held more, packed tight and glowing under the strings. "Come on." Luna grabbed Kira's hand and cut to the stand. The woman behind it smiled. "Two," Luna said. "You dance up front, you get a pass," the woman said. She handed over two noodles, then two glowing chains. Neon letters spelled BACKSTAGE PASS, tiny string lights threaded through them. "House rule. Kai's rule, actually." Luna looped one chain over her head. It glowed against her party lights. She passed the other to Kira, who slid it on and shook her noodle. "Okay, this is the best problem we've had all night," Kira said. They walked back to the guard. Luna held up the glowing pass. He looked at it, checked his earbud, and stepped aside. "Go on," he said. They climbed the side steps. Up close, the booth roared. Kai looked up from the mixer. His face changed the second he saw Kira. He wasn't relieved. He looked scared. "You came," Kai said. He pulled off his headphones. "Okay. Bad news. We've got a real problem."