Stranded

“Yay! I guessed right!” Sara congratulated herself, walking on the bus. Kyle ran back to the bunk area, not before he gave a squeak of fright.

“Scaredy cat!” Jonathan taunted.

“Hey, Makahla, you’re going to miss the Young Veins and Panic…so come on.” Sara smiled, having seen Kyle’s bright blond blur run away.

As soon as Panic was done playing, and might I say that they were fantastic, Matt called us all to order.

“Okay, here’s how it’s going down. On each bus, there are only two bunks free…so you’ll have to split up. I’ll be going on the bus with all the techies and managers.” He explained.

I stood in between Jack and Sara, who stood by Alex. “So, we’re going to draw from a hat first a partner then a bus. You will be responsible for your partner getting to role call on time, if they’re not, you will not be allowed to have pudding for a whole week.” Matt warned. Jack’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.

“But—“ He started to protest.

“No buts! Do you want me to make it two weeks?” Matt shook his finger. In a way, he was their mom.

Rian pulled first, getting Alex and Mayday Parade’s bus. I mentally sighed, I wanted that bus!

Next, Jack drew, picking me and Panic’s bus. I shrugged, it wasn’t the worst thing. Which meant that Zack and Sara were on Forever the Sickest Kids’ bus. Poor Kyle, I thought.

“Hey wait!” Sara protested. “I’m a girl!” She stated. The guys looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah…we got that.” Rian urged her to go on.

“In a busful of guys. I don’t think so. I demand to have Makahla bunk with me.” She stomped her foot.

“But! I wanted to bunk with Makahla!” Jack whined, pouting at Sara. He looked at Matt next. “Tell them that everything is final.”

Matt shrugged. “They are our guest, and best friends…if Sara’s uncomfortable with a buss load of guys, then I say let her be with Makahla.” Sara smiled triumphantly, Matt’s words were always the final ones.

“It’s for Sara’s safety, Jack…” Alex shrugged.

“Uh, no.” Sara said in a ‘duh’ voice. “It’s for the guy’s safety. So she can protect them if any of them rub me the wrong way.” She added, arms folded across her chest. An awkward silence followed.

“A regretful choice of words.” Alex said, looking at Sara, smirking.

“Makes me mad, you perverted freaks!” She shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “Honestly, I don’t know why I hang out with you lot!”

“Because we’re sexy.” Jack said. And when neither of us denied it, laughter continued.

“Guess who’s staying the night!” I yelled, walking onto FTSK’s bus. Caleb smiled along with the rest of them. Besides Kyle, his face went white.

“What’s up, man. You look like you’re seen an angry grizzly bear.” Sara smiled devilishly, smacking his back. None too lightly, I noticed with a smile.

“More like a lion cub still working on its roar.” I put in.

“But, it’s got a vicious bite.” Marc laughed.

“I’m kidding, Kyle. We’re cool right?” Sara asked, sticking out her fist.

“We cool.” Kyle nodded, tight smile on his face as they bumped fist.

“Which bunks are ours?” I asked, holding my small bag out.

“Matt lied, we only have one bunk left.” Kent replied apologetically.

“Then I’m so glad I demanded Makahla be with me. I mean, Zack’s cool and all, but he’s a boy.” Sara cringed.

“What’s wrong with boys?” Austin asked, feigning hurt.

“They’re against my religion.” Sara joked, well…mostly.

After a long battle, we all decided to play a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. Sara said she wasn’t playing on the basis that ‘Gambling’s against my religion” I had to laugh at that, even though it was technically true.

“Brain flash!” I shouted suddenly, looking at my hand. “There are actually seven Texans on this bus now.”

“You’re a Texan?” Jonathan asked, his accent making me smile.

“No, Sara is.” I shook my head. “Sorry, random thought. Let’s get back to the game.” Over on the little couch, Sara laughed, watching some show on my laptop. Well, our laptop.

And, as it turns out, I’m awful at this game. Not only was it hard to remember all the rules, I also have no straight face whatsoever.

Sara had gone and gotten ready for bed, in her Optimus Prime pajamas and sat down at the table beside Jonathan. Only thing was, she was upside down. Her head dangled off the seat while her feet tapped against the window. “I’m bored.” She said simply. “I’m booooooooored.”

When no one responded, she started to sing “I love life, and life loves me. Everything in the world makes me happy. I love live, life loves me. Let’s take another trip to Disneyland.”

“What kind of song is that?” Kent asked.

“A GOOD ONE!” Sara responded. “And since you guys are boring…I have to entertain myself with my Ipod brain.”

“Then where’s the ‘skip song’ button?” Caleb asked.

“Right…” I started, poking her side. “There.”

“She made a squeaking noise and started singing and N*SYNC song. To which Jonathan pressed her side and she squeaked before switching to the Pokemon theme song. Then all these other anime (in Japanese or not) themes. The boys and myself laughed at her nerdiness.

Sara jerked up suddenly, hitting the table with a loud bang. “Owie!” She said, rolling off the bench, holding her forehead. Blood trickled down her nose. “How come you haven’t gotten hurt yet, Makahla?” She whined, voice nasally from pinching her nose.

Meanwhile, all of the guys were running around the bus, ice from the cooler and some tissues. “Tip your head back.” I instructed.

“I might drown.” She protested, I rolled my eyes and tipped her head back. “Hi, Kyle.” She smiled, looking at him.

“For your information, I probably will get hurt tenfold pretty soon since I haven’t gotten hurt in a whole week.”

“A new record.” Sara laughed. “My head hurts.”

“You’ve got a nasty bruise and bump forming that you could already land a plane one.” I told her. “Did you just not see the table right in front of your face?”

“My eyes were closed.” She defended halfheartedly.

“What were you doing anyway?” I questioned further. She shrugged.

“I was going to tell you something, but then I forgot.” After she as cleaned up and ready, she went to our bunk and we continued our game.

Yawning, I rolled over on my bed, thinking how it seemed smaller and lumpier than normal. Then I remembered. I slipped out of bed, trying not to fall to my doom in the too high up bunk.

Sara’s head poked out of our bunk a few minutes later, and she yawned. “Does this look infected to you?” She asked, holding out her wrist, which she had peeled the dressing off to reveal the cut. I pulled a face and was about to say something when—

“Get up, you motha lovas!” Alex Gaskarth’s voice shouted, coming onto the bus.

“Nice try, but we’re already up!” I shouted back. Alex appeared and smiled towards Sara.

“Holy cow! Where’d you get that HUGE bump!” He shouted, pulling her down from the bunk, kind of like an injured kitten, and poised his finger to poke it.

“Don’t touch it!” Sara shouted, smacking his hand away.

“I leave her with you for less than 12 hours and already she’s bruised and broken?” Alex glared playfully at the members of the band getting up from their bunks, hugging Sara to his chest tightly, face first.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Head.” She objected. Alex looked at it again, then kissed it lightly.

“There, all better, now…right?” Alex smiled.

“Yes, because touching it works better than Advil.” She replied sarcastically. Alex pouted as she went in search for the medicine previously mentioned. Alex followed.

“Whoa, that was almost painful to watch. Talk about sexual tension.” Caleb put in, one of the only remaining ones left in the bunk area. I almost started to laugh.

“Yeah, right! Sara’s never even French kissed for longer than three seconds.” I did actually start laughing there.

Caleb looked shocked, but otherwise didn’t say anything. We moved out of the bunk area in silence and Sara stood in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and humming a random tune. The rest of the boys were consumed in a video game. I looked at the clock, it was only ten in the morning.

“Ugh.” I groaned. “I’m so not used to being up this early, I don’t think I’ve seen A.M. on the clock since high school.”