Status: Weekly updates, sometimes a bit quicker
The Road Trip
Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Corbin looked at her confused at first as he processed her words, then broke out into a nervous but, nonetheless, big smile.
“Really? You mean it? That would be, I mean, it would be so… Thanks.” Eric told us gesticulating largely and excitedly. But then he paused, and looked over at me.
“And this is okay with you, right D?” Corbin asked. I smiled at him. I walked over and lightly punched him in the shoulder.
“Of course it’s fine with me C.J. I mean I AM the one who discovered you.” I told him grinning.
“Awesome!” Corbin exclaimed, he gave me a big hug, and then gave Levi an even bigger one—wink, wink—and all was well. This is gonna be good. I clapped my hands together.
“Okay, party people let’s get a move on.” I told them, and then changed my voice to a southern accent. “Let’s mosey along, little doggies, mosey on. Yee haw!”
Levi and Corbin rolled their eyes at me yet still smiled at began moving to my car. Levi got to the driver’s seat first which left Corbin and I deciding who gets shotgun. Leo had already hopped into the back without me noticing. I squinted my eyes up at Corbin and pretended to spit in a pot. Keeping my southern accent I spoke to him.
“This here seat ain’t big enough for both of us. Looks like we’re gonna have to draw fors it.” I twanged. Corbin squinted back at me, pretended to spit—or at least I hoped so—and replied in his southern accent.
“You wanna challenge the likes of me. You’re gonna regret it.” We stepped away from each other a little and had a stare down. Then Levi came in, being as she was watching from her seat, with the ominous western them. (doo, doo, doooo, nuh, nuh, nuuuh) I gave her a small thumbs up and focused again on Corbin. We twiddled our fingers then yelled at the same time.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!” We yelled simultaneously. I went with scissors being as my hand seemed to form it quicker than my mind could process—which is saying something. I looked up at Eric’s hand. He had…PAPER!
“Gonna have to do better than that, pardner, if ya wanna win.” I told him, still in character. I smirked at his blank face. Neither of us said ‘best two out of three’ being as it was assumed. I mean, we were both professionals right? We began the routine again, twiddling our fingers then yelling those same fateful words.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!” This time my hand easily morphed into paper. And behind door number three is… Corbin had his hand in a scissor shape. Dang… he won.
“Dangflabbit! Sharpshootin’ Tex..” I muttered, keeping my western motif. Now we both paused. This one was for the tie-breaker. Who was going to win the seat, who would bow down to said winner and kiss their feet in defeat? All my ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ training in 2nd grade has prepared me for this moment.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!!!” We both yelled, more forcefully than ever before. This time my hand was so fast, my mind didn’t register, I had to actually look down to know what it was. Paper… really? I hope you know what you’re doing Hand. I slowly looked up. I was postponing the moment where my destiny—at least for ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’—was realized. But my eyes finally became level to see Corbin’s hand. It was in the shape. Of. PAPER!!!
“YEE DOGGIES! NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A SHOWDOWN, YEE HAW!” I yelled, hopping up and down, square dancing with myself. After I had calmed down some from my victory and we had both lost the façade of cowboys/girls I climbed into the front seat only to see that the driver’s seat was empty and Levi was in the backseat talking animatedly with Corbin all buckled in. I rolled my eyes at them. Smooooth Lev. But you couldn’t have just made this option available BEFORE the showdown, as fun as it was, it would’ve saved time. Isn’t that what you always want to do? Save time? I lectured Levi in my mind and slid over to the driver’s seat. Which allowed Leo to hop from the now crowded backseat into shot gun.
“Guess I’m driving.” I said sarcastically, but they didn’t notice, too busy chattering back and forth. That’s also called a conversation ya know? A part of my mind, my now least favorite part for the moment, thought snarkily. But I was glad I had little Leonardo sitting next to me, he’d be a good driving partner. I put the car in drive and left the rest stop.
I had gotten onto the freeway when I realized that I had forgotten to ask a very important question.
“WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! Corbin, where were you heading anyways?” I asked urgently, which it was. For me at least, apparently not for them. They just looked at me blankly.
“Heylo. Where. Are. You. Headed?” I asked again, punctuating each word. Finally I got some reaction.
“Oh, Twix, Corbin and I already talked about that while you were with your supposed love of your life,” gesturing to Leo,” we talked about our destinations. Everything’s fine, don’t worry your pretty little head.” Gee thanks for clueing me in. I made a face that said what I was thinking, so Corbin added on to Levi’s ‘brush-off’ statement.
“I’m actually going down to Orlando like you two, and I have a friend who I’m meeting down there so he can just give me a ride back up when we’re done. Technically, we were supposed to have met up by now and parked one of our cars and traveled with the other in the same one, but he called it off for some reason. Something about not making it to the rendezvous point on time and for me to go on without him. Sooo… yeah, that’s why it’s all ‘Hakuna Matata’ that I’m riding with you.” Corbin explained further, which I was glad for. LION KING REFERENCE!! I nearly burst into the song ‘Hakuna Matata’ but I was able to fight it off and push it from my mind.
“Okidokey then. Coolio.” I replied plainly then focused back on the road and sped up as their conversation continued.
}..{
Half an hour to go. Almost there. Most action-packed week and half of my life. It wasn’t supposed to take this long to get down to Orlando. Stupid car hitting me… and boys…
“I ALMOST DROPPED OUT OF SCHOOL AT 14, WHERE I ALMOST MADE OUT WITH THE HOMECOMING QUEEN, WHO ALMOST WENT ON TO BE MISS TEXAS BUT LOST TO A SLUT WITH MUCH BIGGER BREAST-ES! (A/N: For those of you who know this Bowling for Soup song, you know that these aren’t the real words, I had to edit it for the young and naive. Haha, I think it’s still catchy though.)” Levi and I sang, with Corbin humming along, in this hour we have learned that he is not much of a singer. Not that he isn’t okay at it, more that he doesn’t want to. He’s shy. We found this out it in the middle of 99 bottles of milk on the wall, he tried to just speak it, almost like a rap, but more so talking with rhythm. No matter how bad we purposely sang to make him comfortable he would not sing. Even Leo was howling a little.
“Almost there…” I mumbled in between verses of ‘Almost’ by Bowling for Soup.
What awaits us in Orlando? Well besides gigantic people pretending to be cartoon characters, beaches, the sun, old people playing shuffle board, and bathing suits. After all that obvious stuff lies a whole lotta mystery and allure. Sorta-ish.
Corbin looked at her confused at first as he processed her words, then broke out into a nervous but, nonetheless, big smile.
“Really? You mean it? That would be, I mean, it would be so… Thanks.” Eric told us gesticulating largely and excitedly. But then he paused, and looked over at me.
“And this is okay with you, right D?” Corbin asked. I smiled at him. I walked over and lightly punched him in the shoulder.
“Of course it’s fine with me C.J. I mean I AM the one who discovered you.” I told him grinning.
“Awesome!” Corbin exclaimed, he gave me a big hug, and then gave Levi an even bigger one—wink, wink—and all was well. This is gonna be good. I clapped my hands together.
“Okay, party people let’s get a move on.” I told them, and then changed my voice to a southern accent. “Let’s mosey along, little doggies, mosey on. Yee haw!”
Levi and Corbin rolled their eyes at me yet still smiled at began moving to my car. Levi got to the driver’s seat first which left Corbin and I deciding who gets shotgun. Leo had already hopped into the back without me noticing. I squinted my eyes up at Corbin and pretended to spit in a pot. Keeping my southern accent I spoke to him.
“This here seat ain’t big enough for both of us. Looks like we’re gonna have to draw fors it.” I twanged. Corbin squinted back at me, pretended to spit—or at least I hoped so—and replied in his southern accent.
“You wanna challenge the likes of me. You’re gonna regret it.” We stepped away from each other a little and had a stare down. Then Levi came in, being as she was watching from her seat, with the ominous western them. (doo, doo, doooo, nuh, nuh, nuuuh) I gave her a small thumbs up and focused again on Corbin. We twiddled our fingers then yelled at the same time.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!” We yelled simultaneously. I went with scissors being as my hand seemed to form it quicker than my mind could process—which is saying something. I looked up at Eric’s hand. He had…PAPER!
“Gonna have to do better than that, pardner, if ya wanna win.” I told him, still in character. I smirked at his blank face. Neither of us said ‘best two out of three’ being as it was assumed. I mean, we were both professionals right? We began the routine again, twiddling our fingers then yelling those same fateful words.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!” This time my hand easily morphed into paper. And behind door number three is… Corbin had his hand in a scissor shape. Dang… he won.
“Dangflabbit! Sharpshootin’ Tex..” I muttered, keeping my western motif. Now we both paused. This one was for the tie-breaker. Who was going to win the seat, who would bow down to said winner and kiss their feet in defeat? All my ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ training in 2nd grade has prepared me for this moment.
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!!!” We both yelled, more forcefully than ever before. This time my hand was so fast, my mind didn’t register, I had to actually look down to know what it was. Paper… really? I hope you know what you’re doing Hand. I slowly looked up. I was postponing the moment where my destiny—at least for ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’—was realized. But my eyes finally became level to see Corbin’s hand. It was in the shape. Of. PAPER!!!
“YEE DOGGIES! NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A SHOWDOWN, YEE HAW!” I yelled, hopping up and down, square dancing with myself. After I had calmed down some from my victory and we had both lost the façade of cowboys/girls I climbed into the front seat only to see that the driver’s seat was empty and Levi was in the backseat talking animatedly with Corbin all buckled in. I rolled my eyes at them. Smooooth Lev. But you couldn’t have just made this option available BEFORE the showdown, as fun as it was, it would’ve saved time. Isn’t that what you always want to do? Save time? I lectured Levi in my mind and slid over to the driver’s seat. Which allowed Leo to hop from the now crowded backseat into shot gun.
“Guess I’m driving.” I said sarcastically, but they didn’t notice, too busy chattering back and forth. That’s also called a conversation ya know? A part of my mind, my now least favorite part for the moment, thought snarkily. But I was glad I had little Leonardo sitting next to me, he’d be a good driving partner. I put the car in drive and left the rest stop.
I had gotten onto the freeway when I realized that I had forgotten to ask a very important question.
“WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! Corbin, where were you heading anyways?” I asked urgently, which it was. For me at least, apparently not for them. They just looked at me blankly.
“Heylo. Where. Are. You. Headed?” I asked again, punctuating each word. Finally I got some reaction.
“Oh, Twix, Corbin and I already talked about that while you were with your supposed love of your life,” gesturing to Leo,” we talked about our destinations. Everything’s fine, don’t worry your pretty little head.” Gee thanks for clueing me in. I made a face that said what I was thinking, so Corbin added on to Levi’s ‘brush-off’ statement.
“I’m actually going down to Orlando like you two, and I have a friend who I’m meeting down there so he can just give me a ride back up when we’re done. Technically, we were supposed to have met up by now and parked one of our cars and traveled with the other in the same one, but he called it off for some reason. Something about not making it to the rendezvous point on time and for me to go on without him. Sooo… yeah, that’s why it’s all ‘Hakuna Matata’ that I’m riding with you.” Corbin explained further, which I was glad for. LION KING REFERENCE!! I nearly burst into the song ‘Hakuna Matata’ but I was able to fight it off and push it from my mind.
“Okidokey then. Coolio.” I replied plainly then focused back on the road and sped up as their conversation continued.
}..{
Half an hour to go. Almost there. Most action-packed week and half of my life. It wasn’t supposed to take this long to get down to Orlando. Stupid car hitting me… and boys…
“I ALMOST DROPPED OUT OF SCHOOL AT 14, WHERE I ALMOST MADE OUT WITH THE HOMECOMING QUEEN, WHO ALMOST WENT ON TO BE MISS TEXAS BUT LOST TO A SLUT WITH MUCH BIGGER BREAST-ES! (A/N: For those of you who know this Bowling for Soup song, you know that these aren’t the real words, I had to edit it for the young and naive. Haha, I think it’s still catchy though.)” Levi and I sang, with Corbin humming along, in this hour we have learned that he is not much of a singer. Not that he isn’t okay at it, more that he doesn’t want to. He’s shy. We found this out it in the middle of 99 bottles of milk on the wall, he tried to just speak it, almost like a rap, but more so talking with rhythm. No matter how bad we purposely sang to make him comfortable he would not sing. Even Leo was howling a little.
“Almost there…” I mumbled in between verses of ‘Almost’ by Bowling for Soup.
What awaits us in Orlando? Well besides gigantic people pretending to be cartoon characters, beaches, the sun, old people playing shuffle board, and bathing suits. After all that obvious stuff lies a whole lotta mystery and allure. Sorta-ish.
♠ ♠ ♠
La lee la lee lo lo lo lo.. <---Don't ask... :D