Thank you, mom, for recommending I bring a little shawl with me, "in case it got chilly in the morning, since this was a seaside town and I didn't know what to expect." I really wouldn't have known what to expect, though this... was the farthest thing from weather.

I quickly threw the shawl over Rosa's shaking figure and pretended nothing was wrong. I mean, if Rosa sparkle-ified everyone here, I knew from experience that they would not stop looking at her, which meant secret? undercover? mission? Impossible.

Thank goodness those sparkles didn't seem to go through cloth! And not a moment too soon: Cook-- sorry, the Cookie Monster (?) turned to give us a narrow-eyed glare at that moment, along with his newfound friends. I gave him a bright, reassuring, Customer Service smile, then gestured for him to go back to doing whatever. He paused a bit at Rosa covered like luggage on the ground, but probably decided it wasn't worth it and returned to talking with Friendly Man (???) again. He cleared his throat and prompted, "The winnings?"

"Ah, right. Dry Tomato's chances have increased a little..." Lowering their voices, the two began talking numbers to each other.

Well, I had no interest in those numbers-- it wasn't like I was here to gamble-- so I waited, staring down at the lump of shawl-covered Rosa. Now, how long would she take to stand up?

If I was Rosa, I'd probably have some kind of data on how long she would stay down. Seeing as how I wasn't Rosa, or anything like her, I just used my sixth senses as her best friend. You know, the ones that develop naturally after being in close distance with certain weirdos in life?

Closing my eyes and holding a finger up into the air, I hummed. Yes. According to my senses, it would be.... Right... about... now.

My eyes snapped open, just in time to see Rosa slowly standing up.

"Aha!" I said in triumph. Then my smile and finger faltered, slowly replaced with a faint sense of dismay. What... what was I doing? Was I being, no don't tell me-- was I being contaminated into becoming a weirdo myself??!?

As I held my head in my hands, gently beginning to hyperventilate, Rosa took off the shawl from her head and wiped tears from her eyes, letting out an audibly satisfied sigh. "Aaah, that was a good laugh," she commented blissfully. "Man, the things these people do. You get the chance to call yourself a cool gambling ring name, and you choose Cookie Monster? Friendly Man? Ha! What class."

Both Cookie Monster and Friendly Man turned to glower at us, and the hands that had been holding my head slowly moved to cover my face.

Rosa, I don't know who taught you how to talk behind other people's backs, but if you're going to do it, please do it quietly and behind their backs. This... this was just insulting them in their face.

"Class!" I said brightly, smiling hard at Rosa, my mind whirring a mile a minute. "Yes, classy! Super classy names, aren't they? I would've chosen it if they hadn't." I made a big show of snapping my fingers. "Aw man, can't believe they took those names from right under our noses! What a shame."

I glanced at them quickly-- good. They looked a bit befuddled now, which meant I was succeeding. After all, Customer Service Rule #7 was confusion is always better than anger (though you shouldn't let that fester into more anger).

They were probably fine now, but the problem was that Rosa was going back to being on the verge of dissolving back into a new set of giggles. Holding back a groan, I quickly spun her away so her back faced them. "What's that, Rosa? You're so sad about it that you're going to cry? Aww, poor Ro." Gripping her trembling shoulders, I arched backwards and smiled apologetically. "Sorry," I whisper-shouted, "give us a moment."

Cook definitely looked like he wasn't believing any of this poor Ro is crying fiasco going on, but Friendly Man actually looked kind of... flattered. Like, the touched kind of surprised, as if he was pleasantly surprised to see his fake name was giving her tears.

....sorry, my man. That really ain't it.

Turning back to Rosa, I tightened my grip on her and hissed, "Rosa! Get a grip! We're here for your undercover mission, aren't we?!"

"Yes ma'am. I'm fine now," she choked out, but I sighed. She wasn't fine at all!

I chewed on the insides of my mouth, then nodded to myself. Yes. It was time for the Secret Weapon.

First, I forced her to face me. Second, I stared straight into her eyes, which were still trembling uncontrollably. And third...

"Why do math when you can use a kalk-later," I told her, very very seriously. Pause. "You can't even use tignometry in real life."

The effect was instant, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Rosa's face, which had been bursting with the urge to laugh, fell flat into something resembling a sneer in seconds. Whew! Letting her go, I pretended to wipe sweat from my forehead. Close call!

"First of all, it's calculator, not kalk-later," Rosa snapped, eyes now blazing. "And trigonometry is the foundations of building, I'll have you know. We wouldn't have accurate construction without it!"

"I know, Rosa, I know. I just really needed you to stop laughing." I gave her my best fake smile, then laughed when her glare only intensified. "Oh, c'mon. It worked, didn't it?"

Rosa exhaled angrily, but then folded her arms in an ungraceful show of understanding. "But don't you ever say that again to me," she spat. "You can hit me, you can insult me, but you can't ever tell me math is useless ever again, you hear?"

"Of course I won't," I agreed smoothly, though in the inside I knew that this would definitely not be the last. This was my Secret Weapon, the Rosa Shock. I wasn't going to let my most effective means die out so easily. And besides, it wasn't like I did this at the drop of every hat-- I saved it for the most dire situations, when I had no other choices. But since Rosa didn't need to know all that, I just gave her another reassuring smile and nodded as peacefully as I could.

"Anyways," I said as I lead her back towards the trio, "what are we going to do about all these false names?"

She gave me a blank look. "False names? Ohh, you mean how are we going to look for the baron--"

"Shh!" I smacked her. "Don't announce that to the world!"

"Right." She gave me an approving nod, as if she'd known that all along.

I sighed, running hand through my hair and turning away. Who was the one on a secret mission here in the first place, and why was it increasingly looking like it was me? Even though I was here to help!

My eyes wandered over the hundreds of people squeezed into this warehouse as I thought. Now, how were we going to do about this? "We need to figure out how we're going to do this. Any plans, Ro?"

There was no answer.

"Rosa?"

When I turned to her, she had a very focused look on her face, so intense I was momentarily surprised. All the frustration that had been building up in me melted away. Of course-- I shouldn't have doubted her! This was her mission, so of course she would be invested in this way more than I was.

"Care to share what you're planning?" I asked, relaxing.

"Shh!" Waving me away, she scooted closer to Friendly Man, Cookie Monster, and Pig Eater.

"Oh," I said pleasantly, "so you weren't focusing on your mission, you were focusing on their rates." Then, without dropping the smile on my face, I smacked her hard against the shoulder.

"Ow?!" she hissed, jumping back. "That hurt!"

"As it should! You're not here to gamble, Rosa!" I hissed back, pulling her back. "Aren't you looking for Baron whatever?"

"Oh." She rubbed her shoulder. "Right. I'm not here to gamble. I'm looking for a baron."

I scanned the crowded area. "What was his name again?"

Rosa didn't answer, and I turned back to her to see her craning her head towards the three gamblers again. I smacked her again. "Rosa!"

"Yes!" she yelped, her head whipping back to me. "Wait, what?" I repeated the question. "Oh, then yeah. Baron Brenton. That's his name."

I nodded thoughtfully, my grip on Rosa tightening when she began turning to the three men again. Yanking her back, I thought about what she'd told me yesterday, before she'd whisked herself off for the sake of yet another 'event.' Apparently, this Baron Brenton was her prime suspect. 

"Remember the Duke of Norden?" she'd whispered, two minutes or so before she left.

I'd frowned. "No. Is he important?"

"Mmm, nah. He's the guy we heard talking with Prince Baltazar at the Winter Palace, before we found the Crown Prince up a tree."

"Ah." That I'd remembered. It wasn't often you went to the Winter Palace and announced that the Crown Prince was up a tree, after all. "What about him?"

"He mentioned a baron. I've figured out who it probably is. We're going there to chase him down."

If I remembered correctly, the plan had been to befriend the Baron by pretending to be one of his supporters (or befriending one of his supporters by pretending to be in on the whole thing, whatever this 'thing' was), then getting all the inside scoop of what he was doing for the Duke of Norden.

But now? "As I was saying, how are we going to even find the Baron, if they're all going by fake names?" I asked her, pulling her away again. "Your plan's going to fail."

That got Rosa's attention. She began turning all around, taking in the environment once again. After a few moments, "We'll go up there," she decided, pointing upwards. I followed her gaze to find a balcony. I raised an eyebrow-- a balcony in a warehouse! Who would've thought. "We'll be able to see more people there, and we'll be able to see if anyone's doing anything suspicious."

I frowned. "But this is a gambling ring, everyone's going to be doing something suspicious."

"Yes, but there's gambling ring suspicious and illegal business suspicious," Rosa informed me. "Obviously."

My frown only deepened, but well, this was her mission, not mine. "Okay, then let's go."

"Great. But first--" Rosa turned to the trio and tapped Cook on the shoulder. "Coo- uh, Cookie Monster?"

Cookie Monster turned to us gruffly. "What?"

"We're going to meet up with some people, but before I go, you should bet on Potato Peeler."

My jaw dropped. "Rosa!" I sputtered, half-laughing and half-incredulous.

Friendly Man shifted uncomfortably. "But Dry Tomato's chances--"

"Even if his chances went up by fifteen percent," Rosa interrupted, "his original chances are still too small, it's too miniscule an increase to count. If you want to have the most moderate amount of risk within an acceptable range with the most pay-off, Potato Peeler's your man. Or woman. Cook. Whatever."

Cook only stared in confusion, and he looked kind of unable to make a proper response, so I laughed and began pulling Rosa away. "Good luck on your, um, chances, Cook...ie Monster. I'm sure you'll do well."

"Mark my words!" Rosa called as we went. "The risk for Dry Tomato is too big for the payoff! Go for--"

I clamped my hand over Rosa's mouth. I may not be very well-versed in how to act in gambling rings, but I was pretty sure we weren't supposed to be yelling out recommendations for everyone to hear. "Good luck!" I shouted again, then marched through the crowd, and Cookie Monster and his crew was left behind, dumbfounded and blinking behind us.