Zee and Todd

Todd yawned and stretched as he woke to voices coming from one of the rooms in the house. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but found that he couldn’t because of the noise. The door to his room opened and he didn’t bother to look up.

“What do you want Zee?” Todd asked as he felt his cousin’s eyes staring at him. She just laughed as something soft collided with his head. “What time is it?”

“Almost nine,” She replied as he rolled over and threw the stress ball back at her. “Anyway, get up sleepy head, we’re going to the beach.”

“Now?”

“Yes now, we’re taking a family vacation for a four day weekend. Mom randomly decided to plan it earlier this week and we’re leaving in about a hour. So get your butt up, we can’t be missing any sunshine, I need to work on my tan.”

“Oh please, you can work on your tan here; the suns not going to change just because you’ve traveled a couple hundred miles away.”

“Man you’re a crab in the morning. C’mon don’t you want to do something fun this summer. I mean even if we are with our parents this weekend…”

“Hey we’re not that bad,” A voice said cutting Zee off and they both looked to see Todd’s dad standing there in the doorway.

“Oh hey Uncle York, how long were you standing there?” Zee put one of her famous smiles and York just rolled his eyes.

“Long enough to hear that you’re embarrassed of us, just wait until I tell your mother.” York said as he laughed.

“Mm, tell me what!?” Mori asked as she appeared in the doorway chewing on something.

“Nothing mom, I was just teasing Uncle York a little bit that’s all. Anyway, Todd get up already, you can sleep in the car!” With that, Zee stood as Todd shot her a ‘nice save’ look and she just rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room with her mom following behind her.

When his dad left, Todd got up and changed into a pair of shorts and a printed t-shirt. Then going to his closet and pulling an overnight bag out of the mess and then pulled a few pieces of clothing off the floor and folded them on his bed. He found a pair of his swim shorts and packed them also along with the few toiletries he needed from the bathroom. Then zipping up his bag, he slung it over his shoulder and grabbed his phone and flip-flops before walking out of the room.

When he walked into the kitchen, he found his whole family in the kitchen or sitting at the table eating something. He saw his mom standing in front of the stove as Aunt Mori was next to her talking while York and Uncle Quinn where reading the paper. Ben, Zee, and Jack were sitting at the opposite end of the table as their fathers were talking and eating as Todd sat down next to Zee and stole a piece of bacon from her plate.

“Hey Aunt Gretta, Todd stole my food!” Zee tattled as Todd shot her a dirty look. Gretta just smiled as she looked to her son with a mock disappointed look and shook her finger at him. He just laughed as he took the opportunity to steal another piece while Zee was distracted.

“Good morning sweetie,” Gretta said as she smiled to him as he got up to grab his own plate of food once he stole the rest of the bacon from his cousin. He smiled back and then went back to his seat to eat quickly before they all left.

Once everyone was ready, they grabbed their bags and the last little things they needed before heading out the door to the cars. Todd realized that the kids were all going to drive together in Jack’s car while the parents went in York’s car. After packing the cars and figuring out their route, they all got settled in and Zee dragged Todd in the backseat with her so they could ‘talk about something really REALLY important’ as they drove.

“Ok so what in the world is so important that you need to talk to me about?” Todd asked once they had gotten onto the highway heading toward the beach.

“So the other day when I walked the girls home, Rosie and I had to find shelter because the weather got really bad and we found this cellar. We climbed down it and then found this strange tunnel and followed it. Then found this strange lab with this guy inside who was barely alive. He had the exact same tattoo as my brother,” She stopped talking when the car suddenly swerved and they all looked to Jack.

“Whoa, dude you ok?” Todd asked as Jack took a deep breath and nodded. He noticed that Jack had a freaked out look and was as white as a ghost. “Are you sure!?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” Jack snapped back. “I just saw something in the road.”

“Ok whatever you say,” Todd replied as he looked back to Zee who had a expression just like her brother had. “Anyway, you were saying?” He asked since he saw that she wasn’t going to go on unless he said something since her mind was elsewhere.

“Anyway, he said that his name was Toby Moss and he was in really bad condition. We had no cell service down in the cellar so all we could do was wait until the storm passed. Then once it did, we called 911 and then he was taken to the hospital under critical condition.”

“Whoa, have you heard anything else from him?” Todd asked as she shook her head. They fell into silence not really knowing what to say. Somehow, Todd must have fallen back to sleep since the next thing he knew was that the car was stopping and Zee was smacking his arm trying to wake him.

“Pit stop sleeping beauty,” Zee said as Todd rolled his eyes as he straightened his back from the weird position he had been sleeping in as his cousin got out of the car.

“Don’t ever mention that name or any of the other princesses names to me ever again.” Todd replied as he got out of the car just as their parents were heading toward them.

“What name!?” York asked.

“Sleeping beauty, I don’t ever want to hear another princess or prince name after going back in time. I will never watch another Disney movie again.”

“Wait was she even a part of your little posse Mo?” York asked as Mori rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“No that was Snow, Ariel, and Ella. I’m sure you would have remembered Toto, since you and Ella did have pretty good chemistry back then. Besides Sleeping Beauty was just poor victim of the three witches, she tried so hard to get into their ‘group’ but they wouldn’t let her.”

“I’m sorry Dorothy, I don’t remember Ella. I was too busy trying to win Lady Gretta’s heart back then.” York smiled as he wrapped a arm around Gretta and pulled her closer for a kiss.

Todd just rolled his eyes and the make out session and caught up to Zee as they entered the little convince store attached to the gas station. After spending a few minutes there and grabbing snacks and such, they piled back into the cars and drove the rest of the way to the hotel. When they got there, they found parking spots and grabbed their bags and they entered the huge building. The hotel was right in front of the beach so they had easy access and didn’t have to walk too far to get there.

“Grandma! Grandpa!” Ben yelled as everyone turned to see Olivia and Bear walking over to them. Ben ran into Olivia’s arms and she planted a kiss to the top of his head as they walked over to the rest of the group.

“Hey mom, how was your trip!?” Gretta asked as she hugged Olivia and then went to Bear and hugged him too.

“It was fine, your father didn’t get lost this time so we made it on time for once.” Olivia teased as Bear rolled his eyes and pulled her closer to kiss her cheek.

“Oh I’m not that bad at directions you know,” Bear replied as he gave a toothy grin to his wife.

Todd hadn’t seen his grandparents since he had come back from the past and didn’t realize the full extent to the past they shared. He hadn’t realized that the strange name his grandpa had was because he had been a dog before his powerful grandma had turned him into a human when she turned herself back after being a cat. After everything had settled down, his grandpa must have officially adopted his mom since she called him dad all the time and never really spoke of her decease birth father.

There was a noticeable change between the young and old grandparents he had met. Olivia now had pale red hair with grey going through it and Bear had pure grey hair now. Though his grandma’s eyes were the same sharp color identical to his mothers grey green eyes and Bear still had the insane senses of a dog.

“Ok, we’re all set,” York said as he pulled Todd from his thoughts. “The kids are sharing a room and each couple gets a room of their own. Hey kids there are only two keys so I recommend that whenever you split up you split in twos so each of you can have keys incase of an emergency.”

He handed them their keys and then they all piled into the small elevator up to their floor. Todd was thankful that the parents were feeling over protective since their rooms were scattered across the floor and not all right next to each other. When they got in their room, they saw that there were two queen beds and a couch. Ben and Todd took one of the beds and Zee took the other since Jack claimed the couch almost as soon as he realized that there was one there.

Todd notice that Jack was acting a little stranger than usual, after he had disappeared randomly a few days before when they had their sleepover, he hadn’t seen him until that day. He had also been really quiet and with that little incident on the road when he had swerved because there was ‘something in the road’. Todd felt that the real reason he had swerved was because of the guy Zee had been telling him about. the guy with the tattoo that matched his. Something was strange with Jack and Todd was getting a really uneasy feeling about it.

“Ok please tell me we’re actually going to get out of this room and go to the beach? Like now maybe,” Zee said pulling Todd out of his thoughts. As if on cue, Quinn knocked on their door and asked if they would want to join them going to the beach with the others and they all agreed getting ready to go soak up some sun.