Status: Finished, check out the sequel!
Show Them What it Means To Be Alive
Seventy Miles an Hour, Windows Up Tight
and I am home
"Who let Jack drive the car?" Melanie mumbled the same question she’s sure anyone else would ask as she arose from her sleep.
"TOLD YOU!" Alex shouted at Jack, a hint of laughter in his voice
“Hey!” Jack yelled. “Do you wanna try driving this thing at like, negative 2 in the morning?” For once, something the kid said actually made sense, thought Mel.
Alex stayed quiet after that.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Zack’s voice cut the silence a little while later, “Cause I’m like, about to eat my leg off”
“I could go the rest of my life without getting that mental picture,” Alex mumbled
“Yeah, I wanna eat” The still half-asleep girl responded, ignoring Alex’s all-too-true comment. Everyone else agreed.
That being said, they soon found themselves sprawled out in a booth at the closest Denny’s they found along the way.
The plus about being out so early, Melanie decided, was that most of the people out at that hour weren’t even on the same planet as everyone else.
The six of them weren’t completely ‘here’ either, but that’s a given.
"Wouldn't it suck if..." Jack started, for what had to have been the twentieth time that night
"-Alex!" Rian cut in,thankfully interrupting Jack, "I'm not Melanie. Stop playing footsie with me!"
Blushing, Alex yelled a few choice words at Rian before kicking his shin under the table. The two of their mock serious demeanors didn’t last long, and they cracked up soon afterwards.
“D’you guys wanna tell me what your gonna do with me yet?” Melanie teased, swallowing a sip of Diet Coke.
“Well, since you asked nicely,” Jack began while smiling smugly, “We’re gonna take you to Alaska and feed you to the penguins.”
“Don’t wanna rain on your parade or anything, but there aren’t any penguins in Alaska.” Kara corrected, chuckling.
“… polar bears?”
“Nope.”
“Dammit.” A defeated looking Jack dug back into his tower of waffles and ice cream.
They all left soon after, the two girls leaving a large tip for the maple syrupfight world war that the boys had gotten themselves into while Kara and Melanie weren’t looking.
*
About an hour and a half later, everyone who had been asleep had woken up again. The rest, along with Melanie, were slowly but surely regaining consciousness from their sleep-like trances. She leaned against the window she had switched with Alex to acquire, and for the first time in a couple of hours, her eyes focused on something – a street sign.
Welcome to Maryland, the sign read. If Melanie didn’t do well enough in middle school geography to know they had been headed south, she’d be afraid that Jack’s plan was serious.
“Why Maryland?” She wondered aloud
“It’s mah homeland,” Alex responded in a weird accent.
“Aren’t you from England?”
“Go away.”
“… really though. Why Maryland?” Melanie repeated a few moments later.
“Youuu’ll seeee,” Alex sang.
Since everyone was at least half awake by the time the sun barely peeked over the horizon, they came to the consensus of playing music from the car’s stereo.
‘Playing’, according to the guys, apparently meant blasting music through the rolled down windows, wind blowing past as they drove what had to have been at least 70 miles an hour down the near barren highway.
The stereo blasted Jack’s favorite song that he insisted on playing (not that anyone had any real objections). They allsang screamed along, Alex’s voice of course 10 times better than the rest.
“Everybody would waste it all,
to have a summer that they could call
Memory that's full of fun,
Fucked up when it's all done
On and on, reckless abandon
Something's wrong, this is gonna shock them
Nothing to hold on to
We'll use this song to lead you on
And break the truth with more bad news
we left a scar, size extra large”
"Who let Jack drive the car?" Melanie mumbled the same question she’s sure anyone else would ask as she arose from her sleep.
"TOLD YOU!" Alex shouted at Jack, a hint of laughter in his voice
“Hey!” Jack yelled. “Do you wanna try driving this thing at like, negative 2 in the morning?” For once, something the kid said actually made sense, thought Mel.
Alex stayed quiet after that.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Zack’s voice cut the silence a little while later, “Cause I’m like, about to eat my leg off”
“I could go the rest of my life without getting that mental picture,” Alex mumbled
“Yeah, I wanna eat” The still half-asleep girl responded, ignoring Alex’s all-too-true comment. Everyone else agreed.
That being said, they soon found themselves sprawled out in a booth at the closest Denny’s they found along the way.
The plus about being out so early, Melanie decided, was that most of the people out at that hour weren’t even on the same planet as everyone else.
The six of them weren’t completely ‘here’ either, but that’s a given.
"Wouldn't it suck if..." Jack started, for what had to have been the twentieth time that night
"-Alex!" Rian cut in,thankfully interrupting Jack, "I'm not Melanie. Stop playing footsie with me!"
Blushing, Alex yelled a few choice words at Rian before kicking his shin under the table. The two of their mock serious demeanors didn’t last long, and they cracked up soon afterwards.
“D’you guys wanna tell me what your gonna do with me yet?” Melanie teased, swallowing a sip of Diet Coke.
“Well, since you asked nicely,” Jack began while smiling smugly, “We’re gonna take you to Alaska and feed you to the penguins.”
“Don’t wanna rain on your parade or anything, but there aren’t any penguins in Alaska.” Kara corrected, chuckling.
“… polar bears?”
“Nope.”
“Dammit.” A defeated looking Jack dug back into his tower of waffles and ice cream.
They all left soon after, the two girls leaving a large tip for the maple syrupfight world war that the boys had gotten themselves into while Kara and Melanie weren’t looking.
*
About an hour and a half later, everyone who had been asleep had woken up again. The rest, along with Melanie, were slowly but surely regaining consciousness from their sleep-like trances. She leaned against the window she had switched with Alex to acquire, and for the first time in a couple of hours, her eyes focused on something – a street sign.
Welcome to Maryland, the sign read. If Melanie didn’t do well enough in middle school geography to know they had been headed south, she’d be afraid that Jack’s plan was serious.
“Why Maryland?” She wondered aloud
“It’s mah homeland,” Alex responded in a weird accent.
“Aren’t you from England?”
“Go away.”
“… really though. Why Maryland?” Melanie repeated a few moments later.
“Youuu’ll seeee,” Alex sang.
Since everyone was at least half awake by the time the sun barely peeked over the horizon, they came to the consensus of playing music from the car’s stereo.
‘Playing’, according to the guys, apparently meant blasting music through the rolled down windows, wind blowing past as they drove what had to have been at least 70 miles an hour down the near barren highway.
The stereo blasted Jack’s favorite song that he insisted on playing (not that anyone had any real objections). They allsang screamed along, Alex’s voice of course 10 times better than the rest.
“Everybody would waste it all,
to have a summer that they could call
Memory that's full of fun,
Fucked up when it's all done
On and on, reckless abandon
Something's wrong, this is gonna shock them
Nothing to hold on to
We'll use this song to lead you on
And break the truth with more bad news
we left a scar, size extra large”
♠ ♠ ♠
you guys totally have permission to throw various objects at me for being so dumb. I completely left out this chapter D:so i'm gonna leave this one here, and hopefully get the other one back up soon to make sure everyone read this.
:|
chapter title credit; Shoulder to the Wheel - Saves the Day