It's currently 5:58 am, and I've been writing alllll night and only just wrote this up in like, twenty minutes so this chapter isn't really that good. Don't worry though, the next chapter will be better!
"I'm done packing, Madoka!" Ginga announced proudly as he strolled into the B-Pitt foyer and slapped his suitcase onto the bench.
Madoka jumped and glanced around the room. "Huh?" She had fallen asleep sitting upright waiting for her burger loving friend. Masamune, Tsubasa and Yuu were already in the car.
"I packed, just like you told me to," a wide grin stretching across his face.
"Oh good. You packed properly didn't you? We'll be gone for a week, and I won't be sharing any of my things with you if you happen to run out."
He stretched his hands behind his head. "Don't you worry your little head. I thought of everything."
"Mmhm, mind if I take a look?"
"Go right ahead."
She clicked open the locks of Ginga's suitcase and almost fell over when she saw the contents. She couldn't help but slam her palm into her face and throw a look his way that said ever so clearly, 'You've got to be kidding me?'
Inside the suitcase looked like a condiment tray at a McDonald's restaurant. The bag was lined with bottles of ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper, and a bottle of vanilla essence. There were also three extra Bey launchers aside from the one on his belt, and a battery operated toaster."
She face palmed again. She made a mental note to stop doing that, as she could feel that bruise getting worse.
"Ginga!"
Obviously startled, Ginga threw his arms up to shield his face. "What? What's the problem?"
She shook an open palm at the suitcase. "Ketchup? Honestly, you've packed ketchup?"
"What if the Best Burgers In The World have ketchup? I've thought ahead and prepared for the worst case scenario"
"And why a toaster?"
"For emergencies."
Madoka's previously fury painted face fell immediately. She decided not to argue. "Okay, okay, okay. We don't have time for this. We have to repack your suitcase, come on," she reached for his wrist and held it in a vice grip, dragging him towards her bedroom. Or maybe 'their' bedroom would be more suitable, as the boy had hung around her for so long that she'd actually cleared a space in her closet for all his clothes.
They had just reached the door when a car horn sounded.
BEEP BEEP
She groaned. "Nevermind. Just get your ketchup and let's get out of here."
Tsubasa sat in the driver's seat of Madoka's father's car. Madoka previously stated that she didn't want to be the one to answer to her father if something should happen to the car, and since Tsubasa was older anyway, he took on the responsibility. She wasn't lying when she said it was an antique, about that much Tsubasa was certain.
It was of a rusted, brown color and riding in it made Tsubasa wonder if he'd just been sucked back through time a few hundred years. The wheels were far too small in comparison to the car itself, and the windows were tinted an ugly sepia. On the sides, was the number '5' painted in what looked like simple spray paint. There were no seatbelts, and the interior was horribly out dated.
Yet, Old-man Amano was very kind to have let his daughter borrow such a thing. Despite it's unappealing appearance there was no doubt that this thing would probably cost more than the Queen of England herself. He was reluctant to lend it to her, but Madoka promised him that she would never leave it unsupervised in Ginga, Yuu and Masamune's presence. He had believed her.
Poor, misfortunate fool, Tsubasa thought.
After securing Ginga's suitcase of ketchup and her own luggage to the top of the car, Madoka climbed into the shot-gun seat, went to pull a seat belt over herself, then remembered that there was no such thing. Ginga climbed into the back seat next to Yu, who sat in the middle and Masamune who sat on the far right.
Tsubasa turned to Ginga and the other bumbling idiots in the back seat, "I hope you've all packed properly."
Yu chirped up, "I think I've got everything. I don't know Basa , you packed my bags."
Ginga's lips stretched ear to ear in one of his trademark grins and prepared to talk but Madoka cut him off. "Don't even ask."
Tsubasa gave her a questioning side glance but was interrupted by the sound of Masamune slapping his forehead.
"Damn! I forgot to pack!"
Ginga pat him on the back. "Don't worry buddy, I packed extra for both of us. I had a feeling you'd forget."
"Thanks, Ginga,"
"He hasn't really packed everything you might need," Madoka began only to be totally ignored as Masamune continued.
"You brought the ketchup, right?"
"Wouldn't dream of leaving it behind."
Masamune let out a relieved breath. Madoka sighed.
Tsubasa just didn't bother. He shrugged, started the car and the car roared to life. He pulled out of the driveway and they were soon making their ay through the city streets.
Slowly.
35 miles per hour to be exact.
At peak hour.
Ginga leant forward in his seat. "Tsubasa, other cars are beeping us. Can't the car go any faster?"
An old man driving a beat up old Volvo sped past them to overtake, shaking his fist at Tsubasa and hurling a word at them that none of them would ever expected to come from someone of his age.
Tsubasa took no notice. "Ginga, this is Madoka's father's car. I can't just go speeding all over the place that would be incredibly irresponsible."
"I don't care. At this rate we'll never get to the burgers!" he pouted.
Masamune began to grow agitated too, "C'mon Tsubasa! Pedal to the medal, man!"
Tsubasa sighed. "If you insist." He then proceeded to press his foot down onto the accelerator and bring the speed up to a flying 40 miles per hour.
Yu sat back and rolled his eyes. Sarcastically, he muttered "Whoa, slow down, don't get too Fast and Furious. You'll kill us all."
Tsubasa didn't reply.
The noise the car made didn't help the situation at all. As it drove along, it made an incredibly hysterical 'put-put-put' sound. To pedestrians, this was quite an amusing sight.
"Obviously," Madoka began. "We'll need to make a stop for the night. We can't just keep driving, that's a road hazard. There's an overnight inn a few miles out of the city, we'll stop there and leave again the next morning, you guys following me?"
"Yeah," replied Ginga. "I just wanna get there before I have to apply for my retirement fund."
From where she sat, Madoka could see Tsubasa's knuckles whiten as he gripped the steering wheel to refrain from cracking.
Finally, after many hours and having picked up many new swear words from other drivers that none of them had heard of before, the sun had set and Tsubasa pulled the car into the carpark of the overnight inn. Ginga, Masamune and Yu entertained themselves on the way there by looking up the meanings of those swear words using Urban Dictionary via Madoka's laptop.
Tsubasa got out of the car and stretched, "Well, we better go check in."
The group went inside to the reception. A rather large and round woman sat behind a desk, clicking away on a computer using her tacky, far too bright acrylic nails.
"Excuse me mam, might I be able to hire a room for five. Just for the night."
The woman looked them all over. "$150."
"One hundred and fifty dollars? What do you think you're running here, lady? This isn't exactly the taj mahal!"
Tsubasa threw his hand over Masamune's mouth and smiled meekly. "That's fine," he dug into his pocket and handed over a wad of cash. The woman in return, threw him a key with the number 13 engraved on it.
As they turned to walk up the steps to find their room, the woman called to them. "We have a bar here, too. But I don't know if the regulars would warm too kindly to city slickers such as yourselves."
"Uh, thanks?" Madoka added.
One by one, they climbed the stairs and came to their room. Inside, they found a single bed, a t.v the size of a computer screen, and a toilet. Not a bathroom, no. Just a toilet situated in the corner.
"Gee, Doka, you sure can pick accommodation," said Yu sarcastically, taking in his surroundings.
Ginga wasted no time bounding towards the bed. "I call top bunk!"
Masamune ran at him and crash tackled him off the bed. "There's no bunk, idiot! There's only one bed and it's mine."
"In your dreams, man," Ginga yelled, bouncing off the floor and proceeding to wrestle Masamune.
Tsubasa and Madoka sighed. They were in for a rough night.
After enduring a fierce battle for the right to the bed, Ginga lay awake. His friends had fallen asleep hours ago, but his head was pounding! He didn't know where the migraine came from, he suspected it might have popped up when Masamune hit him over the head with his Bey launcher, but he wasn't too sure.
Yuu laid at the foot of the bed curled up like a kitten. Masamune's snoring was deafening as he lay sprawled out on the floor, his head a little too close to the toilet for Ginga's liking. Tsubasa had fallen asleep with his back against the wall, and Madoka took his body for a pillow, resting her head on his legs.
Ginga had been trying to sleep for hours, but that migraine just wasn't going to give in. He got up and silently snuck out into the hallway of the inn, recalling how the woman at the reception had said that there was a bar downstairs. Maybe they'll have some pain killers, he thought.
As he got closer, the sound of old, country western music played downstairs. He could hear the clacking of glasses and big, burly laughter.
He came to the reception and continued further to the left of the first floor. There, he finally reached what he instantly recognized as the bar, though he wasn't entirely comfortable by the greeting he was given.
The music stopped instantly. Ginga suddenly felt the heat of several dozens of pairs of eyes stick to him. Those eyes belonged to large, rough and dangerous looking bikers and hunters. A silence fell over the entire bar as Ginga proceeded to approach the counter.
A blonde girl stood behind the bar, cleaning a glass with a rag. "Got any I.D, kid?"
"No, I don't want a drink… I was just wondering if you had any panadol or something. I've got a really bad headache."
She turned and went to reach into a cabinet above the wall behind the counter, when a biker who sat on a stool next to Ginga spoke up.
"Brandy, don't give the kid any of that panadol. I know just what he needs."
Brandy shrugged and walked away to serve another biker.
"What do I need?" asked Ginga, totally oblivious.
"These," he pulled out red and yellow box and handed it to Ginga.
Ginga read the label, "No-Doz? What are No-Doz?"
"Extra strength painkillers. That headache won't be troublin' anymore." He handed a drink of water that was sitting on the bar to Ginga.
"Gee, thanks Mr!"
"No problem, kid," replied the biker as he tried to stifle a laugh. Several other bikers sat behind him, also trying to fall to the floor in a fit of hysterics.
Ginga opened the box and took a little white pill.
"Hold on little buddy, you need to take more than that. Try the whole box, I've got more up in my room. Don't need those."
So Ginga swallowed all twenty of the pills. "I feel better already! Well, I've got a big day ahead tomorrow, so I'd better get to sleep. Thanks again, mr." He smiled in that goofy way of his and walked off, waving as he did.
After Ginga left, the entire bar burst out laughing. Except for the bartender, Brandy.
"You're all so mean sometimes, I swear." She said, shaking her head.
"Aw c'mon. A little No-Doz isn't gonna hurt the kid. They're just caffeine pills.
"Yeah, but you had him swallow twenty. The limit is three…"
Like I said, chapter 3 will keep to the insanity element I wanted for this story. I was just really tired writing this.
No-Doz are caffeine pills, I got the idea when I noticed my sister takes them sometimes to stay awake. They're totally safe! Well, in small amounts. One pill is the same thing as a cup of coffee. Just clearing that up so no one flames me for drug use in the story.
Okay, thanks for reading guys!
