"ASDFGHJKLPOIUYTREWQ?!"
"No, Larry, we're not there yet, so STOP ASKING!"
Larry slumped down in his seat, obviously bored. Barry just rolled his eyes and kept on staring outside the window, looking at the scenery that the bus happened to pass by. It was the Chinese New Year and everyone in the city of Bob was bustling all over the place, getting together with their family and friends, so were our heroes in this story.
Everyone in this bus had already spent most of their lives with their families, and everyone had the permission to go along on this trip. Besides, it was specially planned because someone in the gang needed her friends around pretty badly.
"Tif, are you ok?"
Tiffany turned around to see Danny and June peeking nervously at her from the seat in front. She sighed as she stopped staring at the window and into the concerned eyes of her two friends.
"Yeah, I'm fine…why?" Tiffany asked weakly. That was far from the truth. Tiffany was not fine at all. The whole reason she agreed to come on this trip was to get away from that monster of a father for at least a week. She hardly believed that creep was even related to her.
"Um…we're your friends, you know you can always talk to us, right?" June told her. Tiffany nodded, although that was the opposite of what she thought. Nobody on Earth could relate to what she was going through right now. What kid in their right mind would want their parents to divorce as badly as she did?
Danny and June gave up and turned around, sitting back down on their seats. Today was weird for them, Tiffany was the most bubbly, hyperactive person that they had ever met and today she looked like something the guy with rabies ate, spit out, and then stepped on. The strangest thing was that she actually denied Jake to sit next to her.
Jake!
Not Jake Long, American dragon. Jake, as in her angel of light, as in the guy who had known her since anybody else in the bus did. Jake had been with her through thin and thick and she always wanted him to be by her side in any circumstances. She always wanted to stand next to him and she always wanted him to sit next to her.
Not this time.
Jake looked out the window of the bus as well, obviously thinking of the same thing that Tiffany was daydreaming about. Jake Long was the one sitting next to him, talking unstoppably.
"And then I did the most impossible thing ever possible on the skateboard! That was awesome! Even Spud and Trixie were stupefied…so...um, are you even listening?" Jake Long looked at his friend. The young angel was just slumped against the window. He often kept turning around just to check on his friend. She was two seats behind them, Jake could hardly see her face, but he knew what she was feeling like – crud.
"Dude, are they ok?" Jake Long asked Danny and June. They just shrugged. Neither of them knew what was going on.
"It's just family issues and the domino effect." Sky explained. "When one of Tiffany's unstable family members throws a fit, it affects her, and when she's affected, it affects Jake. It's very simple."
"AAH! LOGIC! IT BURNS!" Cubby exclaimed, rubbing his furry temples, and then stopping suddenly. "Hey, anyone got bamboo juice?" Everyone just rolled their eyes at Cubby.
"Seriously, why did we have to bring him along?" Barry asked, turning around and looking directly at Hui Hua and Dixon, two of Tiffany and Jake's friends from IPIS, Inversely Proportional International School.
"Because he's awesome." Dixon said, raising an eyebrow.
"And because he's Dixon's imaginary friend and he won't leave him alone." Hui Hua smirked. Dixon just scoffed.
"It's not my fault!" He exclaimed.
"Guys, we all agree that whatever happens on this trip, it's Dixon's fault." June smiled.
"Gotcha." Danny grinned.
"HEY!" Dixon shouted.
Soon everyone on the bus was laughing happily, except of course, for Tiffany, who was still looking out the window. Jake stopped laughing and looked at her worriedly.
Tif, cheer up. Laughing's not as fun without you. Jake sent a thought wave to Tiffany. As her angel of light, that gave both of them the power of sending messages to each other using their minds. Tiffany looked up and moved over to a position where she could see her friend. She gave him a sad smile.
Everyone's having so much fun, it really wouldn't matter if I didn't. Tiffany thought back.
Yes it would, Tif! Look, could you please be selfish for a second and think about yourself? Be happy! Jake sent back another thought wave. Tiffany sighed, it wasn't that easy to be happy. Her father was an idiot, her brother was a jerk and her mother was out of the country, so she didn't know about anything that was happening to her family life.
"Jake, it's not so easy to forget about a problem as big as this one, so please stop pretending like it is!" Tiffany shouted, but then snapped back into reality when she realized that everyone in the bus was staring at her.
"Tif, come on, please forget about that, just for a while?" Danny told her.
"When you're not happy, everything here is completely messed up, girl." Jake Long told her.
"A cheerful heart is a good medicine, remember your window?" Hui Hua asked, Dixon just looked at her in confusion, having no idea what everyone was talking about.
"ASDFGHJWERTYUIKXCVB!!"
"Yeah, it's true. When you're not happy, nobody else really is." June told her.
"Except for me." Barry raised his skinny hand.
"Yeah well, that's because you're always such a grouch." Sky rolled her eyes.
"I LIKE PIE!" Cubby exclaimed randomly.
See, it does matter that you have fun. Jake smirked.
"Alright, I'll be better guys, trust me." She smiled.
"You better." Dixon laughed, everyone in the bus smiled and went back to doing…what the heck?
Suddenly, the bus stopped and everyone jumped in surprise. They all looked out the windows in surprise to see the ship that they were all going to board. A huge ship with room for almost a thousand passengers, they could almost spot a stage on top of the whole ship, a pool, a tennis court and even a hair salon.
"I'm definitely gonna be better." Tiffany's eyes widened in excitement.
"That's good to know." June and Danny silently said to each other.