They had picked up Dalton, and had just gotten to the diner. And of course, the boys just had to make asses of themselves right off the bat. Liv slid a hand over her face as they walked towards Carly and her boyfriend Wade at a table. But they kicked a poor, homeless man's cup of money right out of his hands, telling him to 'get a job.' Liv shot Nick a glare as he took a sip of the beer in his hand, and she saw apologies in his eyes. He seemed to think he had to play up the bad-boy role he had somehow managed to get.
"So, what do you think guys? Gonna be a sweet game tomorrow, right?" Wade asked politely.
The two other guys made noises of agreement, but then Dalton swung his video camera around to record Carly.
"Dalton, please don't film me. Please," Carly said with a sigh.
"I'm not filming though," Dalton responded without putting it down.
"But the red light's on," Carly pointed out as Nick pushed the camera away, telling Dalton to put it down anyway.
"You know she doesn't like having people up in her face," Nick added, earning an annoyed look from Carly and a somewhat blank one from Dalton. "She feels under pressure."
Carly, who had been flipping through a magazine, flopped the pages down and looked up at Nick. "Nick, you got something to say to me?" she snapped.
"No, no, I think you've already spoken enough for the both of us, don't you?"
Liv sighed. This was already off to such a great start. She couldn't wait for the rest of the weekend. It was sure to be a blast, if it was starting this...awful. "Don't start this again..."
Wade gave her a look of pity. He thought that her adoptive brother was a criminal, or at least a delinquent, and all she wanted to say was that everyone was wrong about Nick.
"Well, we're outta here. See ya," Dalton announced, getting up and leaving the other four at the table.
Carly frowned after him, settling for ignoring their brother as he took another sip of beer. Liv was uncomfortable, but offered up nothing.
"Liv, are you okay? You haven't said much," Wade asked politely, since her two siblings were just staying silent.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Uh, girl stuff," she said, coming up with an excuse on the spot.
Wade blushed lightly, nodding. Nick and Carly gave her looks of confusion, but didn't comment. The trio wasn't as close as they used to be, but they knew how she was during that-time-of-the-month to know her usual behavior.
"Come on, I think we're all ready to leave, so let's get rolling," Liv suggested, getting up quickly, wanting away from her brother and sister.
But she didn't. She ended up in Wade's small car, wedged between Dalton and Nick, the former of whom kept swatting at Nick in front of her, irritating both of the front seat passengers. Eventually they had to go on a detour.
"So much for this nice little shortcut," Wade muttered.
"Hope he's not gonna get us lost," Wade mumbled as he pulled up the road beside Blake and Paige's truck.
"Yeah right," Carly agreed.
None of them were prepared to pull up beside the couple and see Paige's head out of view, and a somewhat-blissed look on Blake's face. Everyone in the car started gawking, except Liv. She just made a face, squishing back into the seat so Nick could lean over and watch along with everyone else. Dalton was even filming.
"Really you guys?" she muttered, disgusted by her siblings' and friends' behaviors.
Nick gave her a slight sideways look. "I thought you hated her." He spoke quietly enough for her to be the only one to notice.
"Doesn't mean I think we should be peeping."
Nick snorted, reaching back to pat her shoulder.
She rolled her eyes, ignoring Carly as she talked to Paige on the phone. Sweet Liv. Selfless Liv. Innocent, little Liv. She sometimes hated these things about her. But she knew they were all traits that were a part of her. She hated Paige, Nick was right about that, but her sweet, selfless, innocent sides didn't want her friends gawking at the girl like that.
Paige claimed to have dropped her lip balm, and although everyone else acted like it wasn't true, Liv chose to go along with it, even though she didn't really believe it herself.
Carly talked to Paige a little bit more, before the general consensus was to stop and camp out for the night. But on the way, Wade pointed out a faded billboard on the side of the road.
"Hey, a wax museum."
Liv's eyes shot up. Unlike most people, she found wax museums fascinating. To make a figurine so realistic and lifelike was like magic to her. In all honesty, she'd rather go to 'Trudy's World Famous House of Wax' than a football game.
The gang pulled down a dusty dirt road, going over a bridge to get to a campsite. As Carly, Paige, and Nick all sat around doing nothing, Liv helped set up the tents. But then, instead of dealing with the drama, between everyone else, she sat in one of the tents.
There was some ensuing drama outside between everyone outside, particularly Carly and Nick, until a wing blew through, and a rotten, yet familiar smell filled Liv's nostrils. That hill must be nearby, she thought. It smelled just like it did when that vision went through her head earlier.
She heard everyone complaining about what the smell was, until a vision blocked out all of her senses.
Nick smashing the bright front headlight of a truck with a beer bottle.
The group splitting up, seeing if someone could help them, since Wade's car wasn't working.
A strange man driving Wade, Carly, and Liv to town to get help at the gas station.
Meeting a handsome stranger at the church, and asking him for help.
Looking through the wax museum.
Finding out who the stranger was.
Getting tied up in a basement with Carly.
Getting abandoned.
A fire burning through everything, melting the walls.
"Hey, Liv, help us dress up Dalton!" Paige insisted as she and Carly burst into the tent.
Liv shook her head, not knowing how long she'd been zoned out. She hadn't gotten a full vision, just little pieces here and there. But she felt as though she'd been asleep for almost two hours.
"Uh, yeah. Sure," Liv replied, trying not to scowl at the fake-kindness of the other blonde.
The girls all got Dalton dressed up, and then Paige and Carly stood outside the tent, encouraging him out. Dalton really didn't want to go, and Liv didn't either.
"I don't want to go out there, but I'll go if you do," Liv promised.
Dalton smirked, poking her in the cheek. "Aww, you'll do it for me."
Liv rolled her eyes. Sometimes she hated Dalton, but not always. "No, stupid. Just go and I'll join in whatever is going on out there."
Dalton hesitated as he looked down at his attire, and Liv grabbed his wrist, dragging him out. Blake made a comment about him looking like a gayer Elton John, but Liv ignored the ensuing nonsense, opting to sit in a chair beside Nick.
"Nick," she said softly.
He glanced over, offering her his beer. "Did you want one of these?"
Liv scowled. "Why would I?" she asked, sounding appalled.
Nick snickered. "I figured. What's up?"
Liv glanced around. "I had a vision."
"Is that why you were gone so long?"
"Yeah. Some...bad, bad stuff is gonna go down in the next few days."
Nick looked concerned. "Well, your visions don't always come true, do they?"
Liv shook her head, and her adopted brother gave her a gentle smile. "So it'll be okay. You don't know that bad stuff will happen for sure."
She took a deep breath, nodding in agreement.
Suddenly, a camera was pointed at them, and they looked up at Dalton with both curiosity and annoyance. He was grinning lopsidedly after filming the couples making out around them. "Hey, Nick, take the camera," Dalton snickered.
Liv gasped, outraged, and Nick scowled. "Idiot..." he muttered. "And I'm not kissing her either."
She made a disgusted face, since Nick had been at the very least a brother figure since they were little, until an older truck pulled into their little clearing through the trees. A familiar-looking truck. The bright lights blinded everyone, and the guys called out, trying to see if the driver needed something.
The guys all got up but Nick, and then he chucked a beer bottle at the front headlight, smashing it. Just like in her vision. Everyone was up by then, questioning what was going on.
Liv's eyes were wide, and she was breathing a little hard as the truck backed away.
It had started.
