Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis.
A/N: This is an alternate plot to my story 'Trapped', this one isn't horror, it's kind of fluffy. The similarities pretty much completely stop after chapter two. This story is dedicated to emwood who asked for me to write this :)
3rd Person P.O.V:
They were fighting again, Joy sighed to herself, as she tried to block out the bickering that Eddie and Patricia were doing in the back seats. It wasn't working though. Jerome had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, and had no intentions whatsoever to wake up and keep his girlfriend company. Also, there was no radio reception around here, and Joy's car was so old-school, that it didn't have a CD player, but a tape player. Who the hell had tapes lying around these days?
She sighed, and focused on the road ahead of her. It was dry and dusty, and resembled nothing like a road, but Patricia insisted that her GPS never failed, and that they were on the right track. The robotic woman's voice that sounded from the GPS backed up Patricia, and so had Eddie (mainly because he wanted to stay in Patricia's good books), and she would have been outnumbered even if Jerome had been awake.
That had been an hour ago, when the sun had been up high, and cascading heat. Now it was getting dark, the sun beginning to set. Joy was tired, although she didn't know how. They had been driving since lunchtime, and before that, they had just been exploring, checking out souvenir shops, and taking selfies to make the rest of the gang back in England, jealous.
Joy felt her eyelids droop as Patricia and Eddie started making out in the back. Joy was just about to tell them off for being openly 'disgusting', but only a yawn came out when she opened her mouth. What she really need was coffee - the espresso kind. She debated asking someone to take over the driving for her, but Jerome was asleep and it would be cruel to wake him up, Eddie was an absolutely lethal driver, and if she asked Patricia, Eddie would volunteer, and although Patricia could be awful and horrible to her boyfriend at times, he was also the one person that she found it hard to criticise openly without being very angry at him. So, unless they were back to fighting already, Patricia was a no-go...
"Guys!"Joy exclaimed. "Keep it PG please!" The couple rolled their eyes at her, but toned it down reasonably. Jerome was mumbling on about something to do with 'Alfie' and 'pranks' in his sleep. Earlier on it had been 'water balloons' and 'vampire Victor'.
Joy tapped her fingers off the steering wheel, bored. It wasn't like she had to give all her concentration, it was a pure straight road with no turns or bents, and also, it was pretty much isolated. She sighed sleepily.
Then she thought that she saw something out of the corner of her eye, jolting her awake, fast. She felt stupid when she realised that it was just a friendly farmer tipping his straw hat at her in greeting. She hadn't even noticed that there were farms around here, what, with the whole place looking dead and dry... probably on an irrigation scheme or something... So they weren't completely out of civilisation.
She began to relax, but she was definitely more alert now. She stared drearily ahead at the straight road... She then looked over at her boyfriend who was now muttering about 'eggs' and 'bucketfuls of flour'. She guessed that it wasn't baking cakes that he was dreaming about...
Something darted across the road as quick as a flash, and instead of swerving, Joy stepped sharply on the brakes, sending Jerome into the dashboard, herself into the steering wheel, and Patricia and Eddie into the back of the front seats. There was a chorus of groans and owws, along with a 'what the hell?' from a now wide awake Jerome.
Joy breathed heavily in through her nose, trying to slow down her heart rate. She looked out of Jerome's window and met the eyes of a startled, but hissing, tabby cat with glowing greeny yellow eyes. She tore her eyes away from the cat, and back to her friends and boyfriend's wide-eyed gaze.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm just tired, and I got a fright."
"Here," Jerome said, beginning to take off his seatbelt. "You rest, I'll drive until we find that hotel that is so bloody far away..." He glared pointedly at Patricia, who shrugged. It had been her idea to book reservations at this 'amazing' hotel for the weekend. Eddie had nodded to the plan like a bobble-headed doll, Joy shrugged and agreed because she wanted a break from all the travelling, and Jerome, well... he downright refused because nothing that ever looked that good was ever, well, that good. (Obviously Patricia ignored his opinion.)
"I can drive!" Eddie volunteered, and his companions facial expressions grew panicky.
"No!" Patricia cried out suddenly. Eddie looked at her weirdly. "You can't drive because I'm, uh, tired too and I... need to snuggle up to someone." Patricia looked as if it pained her to say the words. "And I refuse to snuggle with Jerome, because he's an idiot, and Joy is, umm... Jerome's girlfriend so... uh, yeah!"
Joy glared, Jerome coughed to cover up a laugh, but Eddie, Eddie looked delighted that his girlfriend wanted to be publicly adorable. "Aww Yacker, I knew that there was a girly side to you!" Patricia grimaced, and Eddie decided that he was hell-bent on making her blush. And... bingo. He knew that everyone hated his 'crazy driving', he just wanted to see how far Patricia would go to cover up the truth to prevent him from getting his feelings hurt. He smiled triumphantly as she leaned back into his arms, her head against his chest, her eyes closed.
Joy and Jerome switched seats, and Jerome drove on. Joy tried her hardest to relax in the seat and doze off, but she really hated sleeping in cars. After ten minutes she gave up, and settled on secretly staring at Jerome through her hair, but apparently it wasn't that secret...
"Do you see something you like Mercer?" Jerome smirked teasingly, staring at the road straight ahead.
"Umm..." Joy stuttered, embarrassed to be caught. Then she swallowed hard and decided to be cocky. "Yes, actually."
"Yeah, and what's that?" Jerome asked, sparing a glance at her, raising an eyebrow in response.
Joy had to bite her tongue to resist saying 'you' and feeding Jerome's already too big ego. "That, ah, tree over there." Jerome feigned a heartbroken look, and clutched his chest as if in pain.
"Alas, my girlfriend is in love with a scrawny, dead tree... I have failed her." Joy laughed.
"Hey!" Eddie shouted. "Look at that dog Patricia! Isn't he so cute?" Patricia groaned.
"I was trying to sleep Slimeball," she complained.
"You were not and we both know it!" Eddie accused her. "Admit it, you just like snuggling!"
"If I admit it, will you let me sleep?" Patricia answered, sitting up and glaring at him.
Joy and Jerome rolled their eyes knowingly as the dog barked, and decided to run across the road abruptly. "Jerome!" Joy shrieked, as Jerome swerved to avoid hitting the dog, and ended up losing control. The car was sent crashing into a weak wooden fence, and tumbling down a not so gentle slope... And everything that Jerome had possibly known went black.
