Chapter 3 (Sunday, February 24, 2008)

As it turned out, sleep was kind of not an option. We had to get up really, really early in order to pack up and get on the stupid ten o'clock flight. Lucas knocked on the bedroom door around 5am.

"Samantha, time to get up," he said.

"You can come in, but Katrina's asleep," I said. Lucas opened the door, and stared at me. I was sitting on Katrina's roommate's bed, with my laptop in my lap, and earbuds in my ears.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked, exasperated.

"You're not my mommy," I said. "And, no, I didn't. I can sleep on the plane. Why do we have to get up so early?"

"Security," Lucas said. "And you still have to pack most of your stuff." He left the room, and I moved with my laptop into the living area, where Ryne was sitting on the couch, yawning, with a bowl of cereal on his lap. I didn't ask.

"So, aren't you going to ask me what I was doing?" I asked.

"Not really," Lucas said, shoving things into the bag he had with him. I pouted. He didn't notice.

"I'm pouting over here," I said.

"Fine," he said. "What were you doing?"

"The question is not what was I doing, the question is what wasn't I doing," I said. "Which is a very good question."

"Sly," Ryne said, sleepily. Chris walked out of one of the other rooms, stretching, and into one of the two bathrooms.

"Morning, LC," Lucas called. Chris grunted at him and continued his walk to the bathroom. I giggled.

"You call him LC?" I asked.

"Yeah, it stands for Little Chris," Ryne said.

"Well, where I'm from, it stands for Lauren Conrad," I said, rolling my eyes. I opened the door to the food closet, and pulled out some poptarts, and stashed some in my backpack. I turned my laptop off and stashed that in there as well. I put all my laptop accessories in the bag, and then zipped in up. "Where's…um…"

"Olesya?" Ryne supplied.

"Yeah," I said.

"Bed," Ryne said. "She's so not a morning person."

"Didn't know that," I said. "Interesting. So, I've never been to Cali before. What's it like?"

"Like this, except for warmer," Lucas said, laughing. "It hasn't been very nice this year, so far, but it's still winter."

"It's gonna be like summer over there for me, isn't it?" I asked. Lucas shrugged and nodded. I threw the remainder of the stuff I hadn't yet packed into my duffel bag. "Okay, I'm all packed. What was the rush?"

"The rush is we have to be at the airport in an hour and a half, and it takes almost an hour to get there," Lucas said.

"You worry too much," I said.

"No, I worry just the right amount," he said.

"No, he worries too much," Ryne said, through a mouthful of cereal. "Why d'you think he stayed?"

"I thought he was the responsible one," I said. "Didn't we cover that?" I didn't wait for an answer, and went over to the bathroom sinks to brush my teeth. Chris came out of the bathroom as I was brushing, and he walked into the living area.

"Dude," Ryne said. "Put on a shirt." I giggled, and Chris walked back past me into the bedroom he'd been using to search for his shirt. I finished brushing my teeth and started fooling around with my hair (which still looked good from the dance, I might add). I just took it down from the ponytail and let the blonde curls fall around my face.

"It's an airplane, not a fashion show," Olesya said, walking into the bathroom beside me.

"I know," I said. I went back into the living room, where all three boys were sitting around and yawning. I yawned.

"Oh, case in point," Chris said. "Yawning is contagious."

"There's a book about that," I said. "I think they read in on Between the Lions once."

"Okay, you're how old?" Lucas asked.

"Fifteen!" I insisted. "It was a long time ago, and we didn't get cable til I was a senior in high school."

"So, you were, like, what, nine?" Ryne joked.

"Thirteen," I said.

"Same difference," Ryne said, lazily. I rolled my eyes, and Katrina emerged from her room, stared at us, and then went into her side of the suite's bathroom.

"Good morning to you, too," I called after her.

"Mm," she said.

"Okay, so when are we going?" I asked.

"When they call us," Lucas said. His cell phone rang. "Hello? Zac, why are you calling me? It's like 3am in LA. There is no possible way that you just got in. Oh, well, that sucks for you. What's the weather like? That's cool. It's still snowing here. How's V and Ash? Awesome. See you guys in a couple hours. We're about to leave the dorms. Yeah, as soon as Olesya gets out of the bathroom."

"You didn't have to tell him that," Olesya complained from the sink area.

"She says hi," Lucas said to Zac. "Okay, well, I gotta go. Yeah. Uh-huh. I know, I know. Yeah, okay, bye." He hung up his phone, and we were all staring at him. "That was Zac. He says, um, hi."

"Uh-huh," I said. "That wasn't the weirdest half a phone conversation that I've ever witnessed or anything."

"You should hang out around Corbin. He has really weird half a phone conversations," Ryne said.

"I bet," I said. "Okay, we're going!" Katrina came hurrying out of the bathroom.

"Have fun in Cali, and don't forget to call me," she said.

"You're right on my list," I said. "Right after getting Lucas's number." I could practically hear Lucas turning bright red. "For my mom." I actually could hear him turning bright red. I could also hear Ryne and Chris laughing their heads off.

"Okay, time to go," he said. "And I don't want to meet your mom ever."

"Sounds like a plan." I said. "I don't want you to meet my mother."

"Coolio," he said.

"Coolio?" I mocked.

"I mean…coolz?" he offered. I rolled my eyes.

"Lise, you done in there?" Ryne called.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Olesya said, walking into the living area.

"Okay, we're going," Lucas said. "Grab your stuff, and for heaven sakes, put a coat on."

"Yes, mother," I said, donning a coat and picking up my backpack. Chris grabbed my duffel, and Katrina walked the five of us down to the limo that was waiting for us. Even though it was way to early to be awake, there were people gathered around it. I waved at them in a rather "I'm so much better than you" way, that made Chris laugh, and we drove away to the airport.

We had to wait around for.ev.er in the airport, because Lucas insisted upon getting there so early. I did a word seek book. Yep, the whole book. Finally, they called us for boarding, and we went up to the little podium place. They asked for my ticket and boarding pass, when I realized I didn't have one.

"Luc–" I began, but he handed me a ticket and boarding pass before I could get out the rest of the sentence. "Thanks." We boarded the plane.

"Sorry it's not first class," Chris apologized as we boarded. "We're not cool enough to fly first class."

"I've never flown first class in my life," I said. "I'm not such a big fan of leather seats anyway."

"Ohh, they're so comfortable," Lucas said. Ryne and Olesya had two seats together on the far left of the plane. Lucas, Chris and I had three seats together on the far right of the plane. There was an aisle between Lucas and Olesya. Why there was only five seats to a row, I'll never figure out. I took the right window seat, next to Chris, who was next to Lucas. Are you still with me? Okay.

"I don't have to have the window seat, you guys," I said. They insisted I have it. "I…no!" I traded with Chris, so I was between the two boys. "Okay, so now, as I was saying…"

"It was Kaycee's ticket," Lucas said in answer to my unasked question. "She didn't come so you got hers."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that's cool. That's not what I was saying."

"Aren't you tired?" Lucas asked.

"No," I said. "I'm a college student. I don't get tired." The captain began informing us of stuff that no one cared about, and then we took off. When we were in the air, I took out my notebook, and opened it.

"What's that?" Chris asked.

"Good God, do you have to know everything?" I asked.

"Yes, actually," he replied.

"Oh, well, since you asked, this is a notebook," I said. "You can use it to write stuff in."

"What'cha writing?" he asked.

"None of your business," I said. I took out a pencil and began writing quickly, before the idea escaped me.

"Are you even writing in English?" Lucas asked, peering at my notebook.

"Maybe," I said.

"No, I think she is," Chris said. "See that word there. I think it's 'stalker'." He pointed to a grouping of words that actually said "stroke above par" and I rolled my eyes and kept writing.

"Here, why don't you keep yourself busy?" I suggested, handing him the first piece of paper in the front pocket.

"List of Famous People I Want To Meet," Chris read. "Written in Chemistry Class, January 2008."

"Nice," Lucas said. "Who's on it?"

"Us," Chris said. "There I am, number…six! I'm number six?!"

"Hey, I'm number one!" Lucas said. "That's…weird."

"I'm going to stop saying stuff to you guys now," I said. "Really." I kept writing in my notebook, and every once in a while Chris would identify a word or two incorrectly and I would laugh.

"Okay, give me a new piece of paper. I'm bored," Lucas said. I passed him the stack of papers in the front of my notebook and went back to writing. I didn't have any idea which pages I'd given him until he started laughing his head off.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Do you actually know people who end up proving something completely different from their original hypothesis?" Lucas asked, showing me a page from an original story I'd been writing.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "My best friend does it all the time. He'll start with something like, how come rhinos are big and scary and I'll zone out on what he's talking about, and when I drift back in, he'll end with 'and that's why movie stars are completely overpaid'. Actually, this one time, he started talking to me about my ex-boyfriend, and then he ended up telling me I can't name my TV show 'The Samantha Show' because he's going to name his show 'The Sam Show' and people would get confused." Lucas stared.

"Okay," he said. "That answers my question." He went back to reading, and I went back to writing. I realized Chris hadn't said anything in a while, and when I looked over, he'd fallen asleep. It was cute. There was a long, long pause, during which the flight attendant threw pretzels at us.

"What'cha reading now?"

"The cave is part of Mars?" Lucas asked. "I'm confused. Okay, the cave is next to Lost Land, which is near the center of the earth, but it's on Mars?"

"It's not supposed to make sense, that's the whole point," I said. "There are people teleporting and time-traveling and turning into mist…and that's the part you find unbelievable?"

"Yes," Lucas said.

"Alright," I said. "Keep reading, it gets dumber." I resumed writing, but before I'd finished with my idea, the plane was landing again, and I had to put it away. When we landed, we got off the plane. "Where are we?"

"Kentucky," Ryne said.

"Why are we there?" I asked.

"Because we're in the Cincinnati airport," Ryne said. "Lunch anyone?"

"It's like…noonish…" Lucas said. "So, sure. Pizza?"

"Sounds good," I said, remembering one other time I'd been to the airport. "There's a good place to eat right in the center of the moving sidewalks place…" After lunch, Lucas called Zac to talk to him, and had a really weird half a phone conversation. Our flight to LA didn't leave until 3:30, so we had a bunch of time to kill. We mostly sat at the gate, and I typed on my laptop until I fell asleep. At three o'clock, Lucas poked me awake.

"Morning sunshine," he said. I laughed, pulling my iPod out of my ears and turning it off.

"Whatcha listening to?" Chris asked. I looked at it quickly before it turned off.

"Well, it was Legally Blonde when I fell asleep, but now it's Lion King, I guess," I said, putting the whole device in my sweatpants pocket, headphones and all.

"Oh," Chris said.

"Chris played Young Simba in the Broadway version and the touring cast," Lucas informed me.

"I actually knew that," I said.

"Wow, you know scarily a lot about us," Lucas said, handing me the ticket for this plane as we boarded.

"Well, I have to," I said. "My mom keeps asking my dumb things about you guys."

"I sure she really cares, too," Lucas said, laughing. I looked around.

"Where's Ryne and Olesya?" I asked. Lucas looked around, before spotting them just going past the podium. "So are they, like, back together now, or what?" Lucas and Chris looked at each other, then back at me and shrugged. I stowed my backpack in the overhead bin, and sat down in the window seat. This time, there was two seats on my side, and three on the other side. Lucas sat with Ryne and Olesya and Chris sat next to me. I fell asleep before the plane even began taxiing down the runway. Before long, we were landing in sunny LA, although it was raining, so I might say rainy LA. Evidently I hadn't missed much except for the drink cart. I got up, got my backpack and stumbled sleepily off the plane. It was already five local time (eight at home), and I was hungry for dinner.

"Shit," Chris exclaimed.

"What?" Olesya asked.

"Where's she gonna stay?" he asked. Olesya exchanged looks with Ryne and they shrugged.

"You'd think Zac would have planned this out," Chris said.

"Well, he did," Zac said, sneaking up behind us. "Didn't Lucas tell you?"

"No, he forgot," Lucas said, slapping five with Zac. "Missed you dude."

"You two are weird," I said. "And you speak about yourselves in the third person."

Evidently I was to stay at some place, where Vanessa and Ashley had rented an awesome apartment. It overlooked some really scenic scenery. We claimed my baggage at Baggage claim, and Zac and Lucas took me to the apartment place, where Vanessa and Ashley were sitting on the couch, watching some dumb TV show I'd never heard of in my life. Lucas dropped my duffel, which alerted the girls of our presence. Vanessa jumped up, almost spilling her popcorn, ran over to Zac and kissed him. I tried my hardest not to look to annoyed, but as anyone who knows me knows I can't even watch the kiss scene in HSM2 without getting annoyed.

"Anyway," Vanessa said. "Hi Samantha."

"Hi Vanessa," I said.

"So, there's a room for you down the hall," Ashley said. "Come on boys." Zac and Lucas picked my stuff back up and carried it down the hall before dumping it in a pile on the floor.

"Thanks guys," I said. "And thank you so much for letting me stay here and stuff."

"Hey, we took you from your home, made you quit school," Zac said. "We owe it to you to put you up some place."

"And here was the most logical choice," Lucas said. "So, get some sleep tonight, because we have a meeting tomorrow. If you're lucky you might get to meet some more of the people on your list."

"What list?" Zac asked.

"Famous people she wants to meet," Lucas said, taking it out of his pocket and slipping it to Zac.

"Hey, why am I number THREE?" Zac complained.

"Because she'd rather wear me on a necklace than you," Lucas said, sticking his tongue out at Zac, and then scurrying out of the room before Zac could catch him.

"Boys, no running in the house!" Ashley called.

"We weren't," Lucas and Zac said at the same time. I laughed, and followed them back into the living room. Ashley was holding the list.

"Hey, look, I'm number two!" she exclaimed.

"On what?" Vanessa asked from the couch.

"List of famous people she wants to meet," Ashley said.

"What number am I?" Vanessa asked.

"Um…" Ashley said, looking down the list. "Seven."

"Seven?!" Vanessa asked. "Jeez. Who's above me?"

"Well, the three of us, Corbin, Drew, and Chris," Ashley said.

"Oh, okay," Vanessa said, turning her attention back to the TV. Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Don't you boys have to be somewhere?" she asked. "Like your own apartment?"

"Okay, we're going," Zac said. "You don't have to push."

"I wasn't," Ashley said. Zac and Lucas left the apartment.

"Where do they live?" I asked. I heard a door slam that wasn't ours.

"Across the hall," Vanessa said, laughing.

"Like Friends," I said.

"Kind of," Vanessa said. "Am I Monica or Rachel?"

"I'd have to say Monica," Ashley said. "Cuz she's married to Chandler, who would of course be…"

"Lucas?" I asked, laughing.

"Yeah, I guess," Ashley said, laughing. "Let's pretend he's Zac. And Lucas is Joey."

"Yeah, okay," I said, laughing.

"So, you hungry?" Ashley asked.

"That depends, what is there?" I asked.

"Well, there's a pizza menu on the fridge," Vanessa said. "Or I think the boys have some frozen lasagna."

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, they had a thing and they needed lasagna…" Vanessa said, vaguely. I walked over to the fridge and looked inside it. "Or you can have anything in the fridge." I settled down on a chair with a bag of grapes.

"That's your dinner?" Ashley asked.

"We had pizza for lunch," I said. "And it's really breakfast, because I didn't sleep until this afternoon…you know. We went to a dance last night, so I really wasn't tired, and Lucas made us get up at, like, five because he's insane or something really similar, and then we were waiting around forever at the jetport…so…"

"Well, what a day," Ashley said. "You went to a dance? Jealous."

"I'm not," I said. "You can go in my place next time. I sort of accidentally trusted Lucas to Katrina. Which was a mistake." Ashley laughed. "Katrina's a little…insane."

"We noticed," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, but I love her to death," I said. "She's like my second best friend in the whole world." My phone rang and I looked at it. "Hey, I get service out here." I answered the phone. "Yeah?"

"Where are you?" my mom asked.

"Nowhere," I said. "What's up?"

"I take it you've decided to drop the Lucas thing," my mom said.

"Well, no, he's here, but he's across the hall. I'm hanging with Vanessa and Ashley right now," I said.

"You are insane," my mother said. "So, I'm going to bed. Are you in for the night?"

"Mom, it's like six," I said.

"Actually, it's like nine," my mother said, "and I'm tired. Are you in for the night?"

"Yeah, sure," I said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." I hung up. "There's a three hour time difference between here and home."

"Yeah," Ashley said. "We know."

"I got a good question," I said. "Why are you filming College Musical in Maine, if all DCOMs are shot on location in Utah? And especially if it's the University of Albuquerque. It doesn't snow there."

"Well, it doesn't snow in Maine, either. In July," Ashley said.

"Not usually," I said. "Good point. Do one of you two have my list?" Ashley checked her pockets.

"No, Lucas must have taken it," she said.

"Bet he did," Vanessa said, eyes still glued to whatever dumb TV show she was watching. "He always steals our stuff."

"V, that was toilet paper, and it was one time," Ashley said.

"Just saying," Vanessa said.

"And he gave it back," Ashley said. "Sort of."

"He TP'd our apartment!" Vanessa said.

"It was funny!" Ashley said. I rolled my eyes. It seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun with the girls in LA.

A/N: I'm back with another installment of this story, in honor of me finally watching HSM: The Concert. Anyway, so next chapter: No idea yet. Probably we go to that meeting and meet more famous people. Probably I finally freak out about meeting so many famous people, and probably my mother finds out where I've gone and freaks.

I'd like to say that I own neither HSM nor the real people actors that act in it (or Drew Seeley, even though I wish I did own them all, but especially him), but I like to use them anyway, because I think it's funny. I don't own any of the other products I mentioned, and the only thing I really own is me, my mom and Katrina. That, and the sheet of paper with the List of Famous People I want to Meet written on it. As of this second, it is 32 people long.

Samantha. :)