Chapter One: The Black of the Night
"Hey Ryan. Are you ready to go to our first acoustic set? It's in Philadelphia," Arica asks her twin brother.
"Yeah, but aren't you worried something will go wrong?" RJ responds with his own witty question.
"Nah, not really. It ain't like we'll be hit by debris from an exploding airplane," she says. "But before we go, we should probably see Alex and Clear. They will both be in Paris for 3 days before we get there."
"Hop in then. To Asiras's first acoustic set," RJ says, eliciting a smile from Arica. He starts the champagne-colored 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7 convertible.
"Cheers," she replies, opening a small bottle of champagne.
Ten minutes later, they end up at JFK airport and all they see is Alex & Clear. Either everyone else isn't there, or they are already on the plane, which really does not explain why those two aren't on it. "Why are you the only two out here, near the ticket booths?"
"Well, let's see. The Hitchcock family is running a little bit late, as always. Carter and Terri, well, I do not feel like going there. It's kind of X-rated. Tod and George are still trying to bash each other's head in. Jaze is drinking a 24-ounce cup of French Vanilla coffee and also swallowing cough medicine like there is no tomorrow. He's gonna kill himself doing that. His mother has much more important stuff to worry about, so he's the absolute least of her problems right now. And, yeah, that's about it," Clear says. "Ooh, is that a bottle of champagne? I'm having some of that whether you like it or not."
"Dammit Clear. Can you just wait six freaking hours? Then you can be as wasted as you want to be," Alex says. "Do you have the navy headphones and the Starbucks DoubleShot I asked you for?"
"Yeah. Hey you now owe me ten bucks," RJ responds
"Like hell I do. Why?" Alex asks, slightly infuriated.
"That's why," RJ ecstatically stated, while Alex drops his jaw. RJ, still laughing his ass off, says, "Jaze really has gone off the deep end."
"I'll say. Jaze, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Kyra Hitchcock, just getting out of the Mercedes 190E, yells.
"I know how to stop him. Anyone have like 3 dollars I can borrow?" Clear says. "Or do you guys want Jaze to be the psychotic version he is right now during the whole fucking trip to Paris? That is, if we can even get on board thanks to his antics."
"Don't tell me what it is. Is it a two liter bottle of Pepsi?" Arica asks, but before Clear can answer, RJ butts in. "Yeah, for him. Well, we gotta get going. The gig starts in like twelve hours."
"Peace," Alex says.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I get to Paris, Lex, I expect that ten dollars."
"Sure."
RJ and Arica leave and start driving the 94-mile long road trip between New York City and Philadelphia. Nicky and Suzie drag Kyra out of the airport before she starts fighting Jaze, and Nicky starts to drive back home. The rest of them board Flight 180, with Alex falling asleep on the plane in seat 25-I. He has a premonition about the plane exploding. Clear wakes him up, after seeing him jolt in a dream. "What's wrong, hun?" she asks.
"Text Arica and Nicky. Tell them to turn around."
"Why?"
"I know this may sound wrong but I think this plane is gonna explode."
"What did you say?" RJ says over speakerphone.
"I said this fucking plane is gonna explode."
"What the fuck is wrong with you Lex? This goddamn plane will not explode."
"Shut the fuck up Jaze!" Clear responds in lieu of Alex.
"Why? It ain't like it's true that the plane is gonna explode. Have you gone fucking psycho?"
"Jaze, your ass is gonna be six feet fucking under when I am done with you!" It's at this time that the main flight attendant comes by.
She states, "Ok, I'm gonna be polite here. No, I'm not. Get all your asses off of the plane. The all of you."
"George, you coming?"
"Yeah, why not?"
The following students get off in this order: Alex, Clear, Tod, George, Terri, Billy, Carter, and Jaze. Ms. Lewton also gets off. It was at that time that Kyra, Nicky, Suzie, Arica and RJ show back up at JFK Airport.
"Just fucking great. We will be stuck here for the next three days. Can we hop on the band plane?" Billy says.
"Now, why the hell did you drag all of us in here? Is there something wrong in your mind?" Nicky says. A mile away from the airport, Volée Flight 180 blows up. The force of the explosion shakes the ground, causing the windows to break.
"How the hell did you know that was gonna happen, hun?" Clear asks, obviously terrified.
"What the fuck did you do Alex? Did you try to blow us all up?" Carter aggravatingly asks.
"Let's just say, I had a vision. I wasn't sure that was gonna happen like my vision showed me, but it felt pretty damn real when I had the vision," Alex says.