Vacation

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter One: The Cheesy Setup Chapter

"What exactly are you doing?" Mark asked as he slowly walked from his bedroom to find Roger sitting in the kitchen fiddling with a piece of paper.

"I'm trying to make a fan." Roger replied "It's so hot in here."

"You know, in December we're going to be begging for this." Mark said as he plopped himself down on the couch. He grabbed the remote off of the makeshift coffee table and turned on the aging television, blindly surfing the channels. "Is Mimi awake yet?" he asked, his gaze still fixated on the screen.

"Yeah, she was up before all of us. She left us a note somewhere….something about going out to buy food or something." Roger began scrambling around the kitchen, looking for the note.

Mark sighed and got up off the couch. He picked up the piece of paper that was halfway turned into a fan and unfolded it, then held it up. "Um, Roger, would this be the note?"

"Oh, yeah. That's it. Now give it back to me, I need to finish my fan." Mark tossed the fan back at Roger and was making his way back to the couch when there was a sharp knock at the door, followed by a loud voice.

"Mark! I know you're home; you have no life! Open the door!"

"Is it just me, or is Maureen getting up earlier now?" Roger asked as Mark made his way to the door.

"Hey, Maureen. Hey, Joanne. How's it going?" Mark said when he saw Joanne standing behind Maureen.

Maureen wasted no time making herself at home, flinging herself down onto the couch and once again turning on the television. "You guys need to get yourselves a fan or something. It's boiling in here" she observed as she scanned the channels as Mark had done only minutes before.

"I'm working on it!" Roger exclaimed from his place in the kitchen.

"Hey, Joanne, what are you doing here? I thought you were the one with the job?' Mark asked. It was true, since Mark had given up Buzzline Joanne was the only one of the group left with any real employment. Sure, Mimi still made some money, but since her near death experience she had been scaling back her hours at the Cat Scratch more and more, and searching for a less risky job. Roger was still plugging away with that guitar, but not much income was coming from it. Maureen was…well, being Maureen. There really was no other term for how she filled her days. She claimed she was looking for work, but so far her efforts had not been very successful. And Collins was still living off the Food Emporium ATM.

"It's my vacation time. I don't usually take it, but it's been so hectic lately that I just needed to get away."

"And the loft qualifies as "away" to you?" Roger asked, not looking up from his fan.

"Well, it's away from the office. And what are you doing to that paper?" Joanne noticed Roger's project for the first time.

"It's a fan! Believe me, once I finish this thing you're all going to be begging me…"

"…to go out an buy an air conditioner. We know. Anyway, Roger's got a point, Pookie. You've got this vacation time, we should go somewhere more vacation-y."

Just then, Collins and Mimi came in. Mimi was carrying two bags from the grocery store, as was Collins. "Hey, guys!" Collins said as he placed the bags on the counter. "Did you know it was 100 degrees out there?"

"Really? We haven't noticed, we've been having snowball fights in here." Mark replied.

"Man, heat makes you cranky. I swear, it's days like this that make me wish we all had better jobs. Then maybe we could afford a fan."

"I'm working as fast as I can, people!" Mimi turned around at Roger's response to her statement, then looked back at Mark for an explanation.

"He's making us a paper fan that's going to save the world." Mark said, not taking his eyes off the tv.

"Hey, I know! Let's go to a waterpark!"

Everyone slowly turned or looked up to face Maureen, even Roger. "What? Maureen, what are you talking about?" Joanne asked.

"For our vacation, silly! You know, the one we were just talking about before Mark had to explain Roger and the super-fan again."

"Maureen, that is…"

"The best idea ever! Come on, let's go now!" Collins clapped his hands together in excitement.

"See? Someone agrees with me. Come on, pookie. It'll be fun. We'll all go, it will be like a fun road trip."

Joanne threw her hands up in the air. "Fine. Looks like we're going to a waterpark, everyone."

"Hey, I got an idea!" Roger said, suddenly forgetting about his fan.

"Oh, great. Now Roger's contributing to the plan, this can only make it better" replied Mark sarcastically.

"Shut up, cranky boy. Anyway, how about instead of just going to one water park, we go to a whole bunch? You know, we make a real vacation out of it."

"Now you're talking!" Collins exclaimed.

Everyone started talking at once, trying to decide where to go or what hotels to stay at. They all left the loft for Joanne's place, to begin mapping out their trip. Joanne owned an air conditioner.

Three days later, the group was congregating outside Joanne's building. Not only was Joanne the only one in the group with a job and air conditioning, she was also the only one with a car. Granted, it was her company car, but it was a car nonetheless. It was designed to only hold 5 people, 6 at the most, so the drive for all 7 of them would be quite cozy.

Mark and Collins were busy loading luggage into the trunk and onto the roof of the car. Mimi was complimenting Maureen on her new sunglasses, and Joanne was going over the route of their trip again. Roger was sitting on the curb, still struggling with his paper fan.

"God, Roger, you've mangled that piece of paper enough. It's been three days!" Maureen exclaimed as the group began to pile into the car. Mark was up front with Joanne, all the others were in the back.

"I will make a fan, Maureen! And it will be the best fan you ever saw. And then they will patent it, and I will be rich, and I'm not taking you for a ride in my private jet!"

"Sure, Roger." Mimi laughed as she closed the car door. The vacation had officially begun.

A.N. Important Ok, so here's the deal. This is my first published Rent fic, but more importantly this is what I'm dubbing an interactive fic. Here's how to participate: Submit a review with the following information:

Your favorite amusement/water park

Where it is (at least what state)

Any special rides, etc that you would like to see our Bohemian friends experience

Optional: If you know, what's the surrounding town like? Is there a beach? A boardwalk? A mall?

I will then use this information to write one chapter of the story for each park.