Chapter 4, A Plan Gone Bad
Zack POV
The next day, I sprinted out of school when lunch period began as soon as Mister Toben let us out of Algebra class. Since I was alone, I knew that using my Reptar skateboard would get me to and from Burger Queen quicker, so used it to my advantage. Luckily I had enough money to pay for my lunch, as well as Tommy and Chuckie's. I saw them briefly in the hall before heading to band at first period, and they agreed to pay me back that night when we were at Tommy's house. So I skated up to the drive in window, ordered the food, received the takeout bags, and raced back to school on my skateboard. I was surprised there was no line at the drive in portion of the restaurant. I guess with how crowded it gets inside with the high school kids showing up, most sensible adults know better to dine elsewhere during their lunch break at work. No matter, I got back to school with fifteen minutes of lunch left, and the doors to the front of the school were still propped open. Tommy told me he and Chuckie were planning to hang out at the library until I arrived back at school, so I went up to the second floor upon returning and went to the library. On the way there though, I saw a flyer stating that tryouts would be coming up for the musical Wicked, to contact Mister Salmon if interested. I ripped one of the pink paper flyers off the wall, and stuffed it into my backpack before I reached my final destination, the library.
"Uh, young man, we don't allow food in the library." Said the librarian, who looked up from her desk to see me walking in, with a skateboard under one arm, and three bags of food in my hand.
"But this is for my friends. You seen Tom Pickles and Chuck Finster around here?" I said.
Just then, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to find Tommy had walked up behind me.
"Just don't bring food in here again please." Continued the librarian, as Chuckie had caught up to us, and the three of us were heading out of the library, purching ourselves down on the floor in the hall against a set of vacated lockers.
"Yes mam." I said, as I closed the door of the library behind me and made my way to the lockers.
Tommy, Chuckie and I all scarfed down our food quickly. None of us were up for being late again today to Koko's class. And then, I drank my drink so fast, I let out a loud belch, sending all of us into explosive laughter.
"So, how are we gonna ask Angelica to take us to that concert?" I asked Tommy, as I knew Koko wouldn't appreciate us talking in class.
"Don't worry, I've got an idea." Said Tommy, grinning from ear to ear, the way he always did when he had a clever idea up his sleeve.
We made it to class one minute before the sixth period bell rang, and took our seats. I glanced up to see what our exercise was for today, and figured that as long as Koko was our substitute teacher, this would be the way class would continue to go until our regular French teacher came back. She took attendance, very loudly I might add, and once she was done, we began our work.
A few minutes later, I was handed a note written in Tommy's hand writing. It read, Angelica, will you be available to take us to see the Broadway Boys concert two hours away in Tacoma on Saturday?
I knew what Tommy was up to, so I passed the note to Chuckie, who sent the note around the classroom until it got to Angelica.
End of Zack POV
Angelica POV
There I was, minding my own business when I got a little note. I knew it couldn't be from Brody, the boy who was secretly interested in me, since he's not in this class. And it couldn't be from Savanna or Gloria, since neither one of them were in this class. I saw it was from my cousin. He wants a ride to that dumb concert on Saturday. The one I couldn't get tickets for, and the only reason why I would even head in that direction besides going to that concert, was to go to that bed and breakfast that Harold promised to take me to once we had been dating for two years. Well, his stupid family had to move, so he didn't get to take me. But then, I got a clever idea. I'd lie and tell them that Brody was taking me, so I'd drop them at the concert, but only if they agreed to stay the night with us, and not bother us once they arrived at the bed and breakfast after the show. I'd even get them their own room, if Pickles treated me to dinner at the seafood diner on the way, which has the best lobster bisk ever. So I took a sheet of paper out of my notebook and scribbled down the note, passing it back through the line of these other students till it reached Chuckie, even if I really wasn't up for doing this. I'd be nice to my cousin and his friends for a change, since Zack had moved back, and Tommy did work his butt off last summer to save up for his ticket, working fifty hours a week at Finster's dumb coffee shop. They'll never let me work there again after I covered for Kimi that summer she went off to Japan, between my sofamore and junior year, I left a begal in the toaster for too long, and started a fire.
End of Angelica POV
Zack POV
Eventually, a new note got passed back to me. This one was in Angelica's hand writing, and I read it to myself. It read Sure pipsqueeks, I'll take you, but I have a date with Brody on Saturday night, and we're spending the night at the bed and breakfast not far from the concert. I'll get you and your friends a room, if, you treat me to dinner at the Seafood Diner on the way, I'll settle for nothing less than their bowl of lobster bisk and a chocolate chip ice cream cake. I figured I could swing that. That is if she was actually going to keep her promise. I gave the note to Tommy, who started scribbling something else down on another piece of paper. I just hoped Koko wouldn't catch us passing notes around in class. And I was wondering who the heck was Brody anyway. Never heard of him. Before Tommy could hand me the note, Koko had obviously noticed what was going on.
"Ok class, what's going on here?" Koko asked, sounding very preterbed.
She marched up to us, and took the note from Tommy's hand.
"Awe, is this a love note for your sweetheart or something? Let's read it aloud, shall we? I'll be glad to treat you to dinner, thanks for taking us on Saturday. Awe, I'm touched. Now get back to work!" Snapped Koko, as she threw the piece of paper across the room.
A bunch of the other students started laughing, as Tommy's face turned red, and Angelica dived and grabbed the piece of paper. Ok, well, we had a ride, I just hope Angelica wouldn't forget.
I finished my workbook pages, went to seventh period, and after school, ran home to grab my overnight stuff for Tommy's, and headed off to his house. I got there to find a red van in the driveway, that Stu and Dil were packing stuff into.
"Well hello Stu, it's Zack." I said.
"Oh hi Zack, Tommy told me yesterday you had moved back into town. It's nice to see you again!" He said with a smile.
"Nice to see you too. Anyway, hope you and Dil have fun larping this weekend." I said.
"Thanks." Said Stu, tossing in the last few bags and a cooler into the back of the red van.
"Is that everything?" A woman asked from the driver's seat of the van.
"Yes Lisa, that's everything." Said Stu, as he went in and road shotgun, Dil climbing into the back behind him. The van pulled away, leaving the driveway deserted. I went up to the front door and rang the doorbell several times, but no one answered. Either Tommy wasn't home, or, perhaps he and Chuckie were in the backyard. So I went around to the backyard and peered over the fence to find Tommy and Chuckie were playing some stupid game, where they were kicking a soccer ball into the pool, and diving in after it to grab it. Maybe we're too old for childish games like that, but at that moment, I didn't care. We were here to have a good time, so I called out to Tommy and Chuckie, and Tommy, dripping wet, let me in.
The backyard had changed a lot since I was last there, with a swimming pool taking up a good portion of the yard, and there was a zipline going into the pool from a treehouse.
"Hey, what's the zipline for?" I asked.
"Don't ask." Said Chuckie.
I just changed into my bathing suit, and until the sun set, we went into the pool. It was fun getting to go swimming in January, something we'd never be able to do in Wheeling, where there was snow on the ground at this time of year. Also their pool was heated, so it was ok to go in while it was winter. We played Marco Polo till the sun set, and afterwards, we went inside, where I ordered us some pizza from Dominos.
I ordered me a peperoni and anchovy pizza. Call me strange, but I love anchovies on my pizza.
"Hey Chuckie, did you remember to bring the DVD of the fall play?" I asked.
"Yep." Said Chuckie, as he went over to turn on the TV in Tommy's living room, Tommy and I, spread out on the floor with three boxes of pizza in front of us, pigging out.
Chuckie turned on the TV to see a weather report on the screen.
"There is a winter weather advisory out for northern California. It's rare we get snow storms here, so please take precaution while driving this weekend." Said the weather reporter as Chuckie loaded the DVD into the player, causing the TV to switch to the DVD as it began to play.
We watched the play of You Can't Take it With you, and I couldn't stop looking at Kimi the entire time, she did a beautiful job on her role as Alice Sycamore. I noticed at one point, I was drooling, and put a stop to it, hoping Tommy didn't notice. I knew Kimi and I would have to break off our love triangle sooner or later, but figured I'd wait till after the concert to ruin either Kimi, or Tommy's life. I wanted one last weekend of fun with my best buds, before all hell broke loose.
The play ended, and by this time, we were stuffed on pizza.
"So, what do you guys wanna do now?" Tommy asked.
"We could order the new Adventure Squad movie on Pay-Per-View." I said.
"Adventure Squad? Chuckie and I haven't watched that in years! We use to play that when we were little. Recall I use to talk to pants or something." Said Tommy.
"Uh, yeah, and I drove the van." Chuckie added.
"As long as we don't look like dorks, I really don't care." I said, turning to the Pay-Per-View channel on the TV, and using the on screen menu to order our movie, which would be starting in thirty minutes.
Anything to take my mind off of Kimi. We watched the movie, and I recall at some point, we fell asleep, awakening to static at sometime around 3 in the morning. I awoke to this, and quietly switched off the TV, careful to not wake up Tommy and Chuckie, who had fallen asleep on either side of the couch, and I had been in a recliner.
The next morning, we all awoke, and I got the brilliant idea to make everyone omlets, as I had learned how to make them in the ninth grade cooking class I had taken at school in Wheeling. Luckily, Tommy's mom had all of the makings in the kitchen, so we got to work.
Later, we were having sodas and 4 cheese daritos, when I happened to look up at a clock on the wall, and saw what time it was getting to be. It was nearly three in the afternoon, and I knew that Angelica should be heading over to pick us up within the next hour, if we were going to have time for dinner and make it to the concert.
"Uh, should we call Angelica, just to remind her she's our ride?" I asked.
"Don't worry Zack, Angelica wouldn't forget about us. She promised she'd drive us on her way to her and Brody's date." Said Tommy.
"Who's Brody?" I asked.
Tommy explained to me that Brody and Angelica met at some day camp when they were little. Angelica wasn't having any fun there so she hid in an outhouse, and Brody snuck her stuff like juice, cookies, comic books, and gum. He tried to sneak her ice cream, but got caught. Nonetheless, they reunited at sometime during high school. Apparently, Brody was on the wrestling team with Angelica, and had a crush on her for a while, so now that Harold was gone, maybe they were thinking of dating. I didn't care who Angelica dated, as long as it wasn't me, and as long as she didn't break her promise.
But the minutes droaned on, and soon, 3:00 turned into 4:30, and still no sign of Angelica.
"Uh, Tommy?" Asked Chuckie.
"Yes Chuckie." Replied Tommy.
"You said Angelica would be here by now! It's 4:30!" Chuckie shouted.
"Relax, she's probably just, running late." Said Tommy.
I wasn't playing around. I went over to the phone on the wall of the kitchen, and noticed that Angelica's house was the number three speed dial button. So I picked up the phone and called, only to hear several rings and then, an answering machine picked up.
"Anybody have Angelica's cell phone number?" I asked.
Tommy got out his cell and gave her a call. But he put it back into his pocket a few minutes later.
"Just tried, it went straight to voicemail." Said Tommy.
"Great, just great." Chuckie muttered.
"I knew it. Angelica forgot all about us. Well, since we're stuck here, let's play a game and pig out some more. Got anymore soda? It appears we finished up everything in here." I said.
"Yeah there's more out in the garage, I'll be right back." Said Tommy, as he headed out to the garage.
End of Zack POV
Tommy POV
I went out to the garage, and noticed my dad's blue car was there. This gave me my brilliant idea. Chuckie and I had been driving for six months, and we were ready to take our driver's test. Who says we can't drive ourselves. So I grabbed the case of soda and headed back in to tell everyone of my plan.
"Hey guys guess what?" I said.
"What!" Zack and Chuckie responded simultaneously.
"We don't need Angelica to take us to that concert. We'll take ourselves. I forgot, my dad got a ride with Lance's mom Lisa to the larping this weekend cuz Lisa was carpooling, leaving his car behind." I said eagerly.
"But Tommy, as much as I love a good scramble, you and Chuckie need your licenses before you can drive without a licensed adult in the car, and you only have your learner's permit." Zack said.
"And besides, even if we were going to do this, we don't have your dad's car keys." Added Chuckie.
Just then, I put the case of canned soda on the kitchen floor, and snuck up to my parents bedroom. I knew where my dad kept his spare set of keys, since he's always losing his. I found them in the corner of his sock drawer and headed back downstairs, showing Chuckie and Zack the car keys.
"Tommy, I really don't think we should be doing this." Said Chuckie.
"And let me point out, that this isn't the backyard and the Reptar wagon, this, is a real car and the open road! And if we were to get into an accident, who knows what will happen." Zack said.
"But I thought you wanted to have adventures like the old days, and that things would never change." I replied.
"So, you did see my Facebook status I put up on Wednesday." Said Zack.
I nodded.
"Come on guys, I'm really good, and I bet ya if we can do this trip, with no accidents and no getting caught, it will prove we're ready for our driver's test next week." I said.
"Ok Tommy, if you say so, I'm in." Chuckie sighed.
"Maybe only one half of the adventure twins has their learner's permit, but count me in too." Said Zack.
End of Tommy POV
Zack POV
I couldn't believe I was about to go along with Tommy's plan to hit the open road to go to that concert without his license, but in all the years we've ventured together, we always made it home in one piece, so figured, what the heck, maybe we were being stupid, but we'd only look stupid if we got caught. Besides, anything beat having to have my aunt take us in her driverless van, which I sat in for a good three days earlier in the week, traveling across the country from Wheeling to California. Anything to not have to ride in it again. And as for Angelica, I knew her keeping her promise was too good to be true. For all I knew, she probably went off to some party last night, and got drunk or something, passing out on somebody's couch. I had no idea if Angelica was that stupid, but she's never been the brightest bulb on the tree in my book, so, I figured this was a better plan, but while I was usually on Tommy's side, I felt more like Chuckie at this moment, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
End of Zack POV
Zack, Tommy and Chuckie got dressed in the clothes they were planning to wear to the concert, and before piling into Stu's car, Zack threw his Reptar skateboard into the trunk.
"What are you bringing that for?" Tommy asked.
"You never know when we might need Reptar to save us." Zack chuckled, as they piled into Stu's car. Zack road in back behind Tommy, who drove, and Chuckie road shotgun next to Tommy. He started up the car and backed out of the driveway, and headed down the street, as they headed off to the concert.
At some point along the road, Zack showed Chuckie the flyer he grabbed for the Wicket auditions.
"What's that?" Chuckie asked.
"This is a flyer I grabbed off the wall yesterday advertising auditions for the upcoming musical, Wicked. I'm hoping to try out for the part of Doctor Dillamond." Said Zack smiling in the rear view mirror.
"Cool! Kimi told me that she was hoping to try out for the part of Glinda. And I think she'd do a good job too." Said Tommy, smiling dreamily as his gaze disappeared from the road, towards the rear view mirror.
"Tommy, might I suggest you concentrate on your driving?" Zack asked, noticing Tommy was turning his head away from the road, as he thought about how cute Kimi would look playing the part of Glinda.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Said Chuckie, as the car continued down the turnpike at this point.
"Don't worry Chuckie, we're gonna get there just fine and nobody will know I drove with nothing but a learner's permit." Said Tommy boldly.
Just then, the sky went gray, and it started to snow. As Tommy continued to drive down the turnpike, the snow storm got worse, turning into a white out.
"Guys, I can't see!" Tommy shouted, as he continued to drive, not knowing where he was ending up.
"I think you should pull over." Chuckie shouted.
"I don't know where to pull over." Yelled Tommy.
Just then, the car slipped and swerved off the road, into a forrest. The car ran into a tree, which toppled on to the car, blowing off a headlight, crushing the hood, and the oil pan blew off the bottom of the car, sending oil spraying everywhere. Surprisingly, the windshield wasn't hit, leaving everybody inside ok, but the car was now dead.
"Uh, guys, I think we're in trouble." Tommy grumbled.
"Yeah." Zack said agreeing.
Tommy got out of the car to have a look at the damage. By this time, it had gotten dark, so Tommy was using a flashlight he had found in the glove compartment to see what had happened. Just then, several green faces showed up in the dark.
"Oh no, Tommy's being attacked by aliens!" Shouted Chuckie in terror, as he saw the green glow in the dark faces out the window.
"Don't be silly Chuckie, there's no such thing as aliens." Said Zack, as he turned to look out his window, to see several of the green glow in the dark faces, run past.
"Uh, Chuckie? I take that back." Said Zack, as he got out of the car, and lunged towards the faces, but before he could get close enough to start attacking them, they disappeared behind some trees, and it was so dark, Zack wasn't about to go after them, so he got back into the car.
A few minutes later, when Tommy didn't see anymore of the glowing faces, he too got back into the car and switched off the flashlight, leaving everyone in total darkness.
"Is everyone ok?" Tommy asked.
Chuckie just glared at him in anger before starting in on him.
"You! This is all your falt! Once again you drug me along on one of your stupid adventures, just so you could attend that concert, and once again, I went along with it, thinking nothing bad would happen. Well, looks like you got us into a mess that you can't easily get us out of this time Tommy." Chuckie yelled.
"But Chuckie I thought you wanted to go with me to see the Broadway Boys." Said Tommy, trying to keep his calm.
"Yeah but that was back when I thought we'd be licensed to drive. And because of that stupid detention, that it's thanks to you we ended up getting, now look at us. Stranded, lost in the dark, with your dad's car, now totaled for all I know, and nearly attacked by aliens." Shouted Chuckie.
"Forget the stupid concert, forget it." Chuckie continued to shout, as he took his concert ticket out of his pocket, ripped it up, and threw the pieces at Tommy, the tiny pieces of paper, landing in Tommy's hair.
"Hey you two, stop fighting!" Zack shouted.
"You stay out of this Zack." Tommy shouted.
"Well, I don't know about staying out of the fight, but I'm staying out of your life. I should have just ended our friendship many years ago when I didn't want to go to that big green box, or if nothing else, when you and Kimi agreed to date, carving your initials in my garage wall, but no, I forgave you. Well Thomas, I've had enough. You wanna go on some wild adventure with your alter ego who just moved back here, then be my guest. But as far as I'm concerned, we're finished." Chuckie shouted, taking out his retainer, and throwing it at Tommy's head. Tommy catches it, but before he can give it back to Chuckie, he has snatched the flashlight out of Tommy's hand, gotten out of the car, and starts to sprint off away into the forrest.
"Oh, and you can kiss your girlfriend goodbye, cuz Kimi would rather be with Zack." Chuckie shouted, before sprinting away from the car, heading off into the forrest.
Just then, the cloud cover broke, revealing a full moon, which illuminated the car. Tommy sat there for several minutes, staring at his friend's retainer he was holding in his hand, before finally tossing it into the ash tray, and brushing the pieces of ticket paper out of his hair.
Zack POV
When I heard Chuckie tell Tommy how Kimi felt about me, I nearly sank in my seat. I couldn't believe that Chuckie would blow our cover. So I decided I'd better speak up once I saw that Tommy had tossed Chuckie's retainer into the ash tray, and brushed the ticket clippings out of his hair.
"Don't you think we ought to go after Chuckie?" I asked.
Tommy turned to face me, his face looking the angriest I've ever seen it in the entire time I've known him.
"Why don't you tell me the truth. You've been dating Kimi behind my back ever since the eighth grade." Tommy snapped.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I lied.
"Yeah you do. Don't think I didn't notice at my barmitsfa party. You and Kimi disappeared before everybody else. And that summer after I graduated from middle school, Kimi was visiting you, wasn't she. Wasn't she!" Tommy shouted, grabbing at my neck.
"Ok ok, loosen your grip would you?" I said in between breaths, trying to breethe.
"Only if you tell me the truth." Tommy snapped.
"Ok ok, it's true. Kimi and I have been secretly dating ever since middle school. To tell you the truth, Kimi likes both of us, but she couldn't make up her mind, so I agreed to secretly go out with her, and we agreed we wouldn't tell anybody. But hmmm look, now that I've moved back into town it looks like our little love triangle isn't so secret anymore." I said, shouting in Tommy's ear.
"Look Zack, if you wanna have Kimi, see if I care. I'm off to that concert, and nobody's gonna stop me." Tommy snapped, getting out of the car and heading around to the trunk, where he pulled out my Reptar skateboard.
"Hey! That's mine!" I shouted, running after him.
"If you can take my girlfriend, I can take your skateboard, which you only have because my family bought it for you like, five years ago before we were to go to that Emmica concert and you moved away, yeah, you moved away so you could take my girlfriend from me." Tommy snapped, stepping on to the skateboard.
"Hey, I really don't think you should be doing this." I shouted.
But it was too late, Tommy had skated off through the forrest, in the opposite direction of where Chuckie went, in hopes that he'd get back to the highway, and miraculously, skate his way to the concert. I had a bad feeling about this, but I decided I'd do better to go and find Chuckie, and maybe I could convince him to come with me, and the two of us, could catch up to Tommy, we'd all make up, and be friends again, just like in the old days whenever we had some stupid argument over something.
End of Zack POV
Chuckie POV
I was angry with Tommy. Sure he's gotten us into some messes before, but nothing this drastic. I mean we were lucky we weren't caught by some cops or something, having our learner's permits suspended because we were driving without a licensed adult in the car. After I blew my top at Tommy, I disappeared into the forrest, hoping I'd find someone. I caught up to those aliens again, who had the glowing green faces. Just then, one of them spoke up.
"Who's there?" Phil asked.
"Hello Phil, you're not acting in character, the aliens can't speak with earthlings." Said Lance.
"Yeah but I thought I heard some yelling somewhere off in the forrest." Said Phil.
"Who's there?" Dil asked.
"Ohnly your brother's x best friend, Charles Krandle Finster." I snapped.
"And… What are you guys doing here Dil? Phil? And Lance?" I asked hesitantly.
"Welcome to larping. How did you end up here anyway? I thought you and my brother were off to some concert." Said Dil.
I explained to them everything, how Angelica refused to keep her promise to take us to the concert so Tommy got the brilliant idea to drive anyway, even though he didn't have his official license, to prove he was ready to take his driver's test next week, only we ended up in a snow storm, causing us to run off the road, crash into a tree, totaling Stu's car, and being nearly attacked by aliens.
Everyone just looked at me and started laughing. I blushed in embarrassment, not knowing what else to say.
"Uh, Chuckie, I can explain what happened to Angelica." Said Lance.
"Oh yeah? What?" Chuckie asked impatiently.
"Uh, maybe you didn't know this, but Dil and mine's friend, Ryan, well, he's dating Gloria. You're probably aware that Kimi and Lil went off to that youth group lockin last night. Well, Gloria, Savanna, and Angelica went too. Ryan snuck Gloria in with some pot and chocolate martinis he had made up at home, don't ask me why his aunt is an alcoholic, but anyway, well you guys know how Angelica can't resist anything that's chocolate. I heard from Ryan, who heard from Gloria, that Angelica smoked some dope to try it, drank six of the chocolate martinis that Gloria snuck into the lockin, and has been passed out on a couch for several hours." Said Lance.
"Well if you knew this, why didn't Kimi or Lil inform me, Tommy and Zack about this?" I shouted.
"Lil tried to contact you, Kimi did too, but you weren't home." Said Phil.
"I slept at Tommy's last night. Doesn't anybody pay attention anymore? Oh, that's right, you're too busy in colinary school and Lil's too busy being a beauty school drop in to care about us anymore." I snapped.
"That's not true, we care very much about you, and your sister Kimi adores you." Phil snapped back.
But I didn't feel up to arguing anymore. I just stood there, staring into Phil's face for several minutes, that is, until I received a tap on the shoulder.
End of Chuckie POV
Zack POV
When Tommy snuck off to the concert via my skateboard, I was not only mad at him for taking my skateboard, but pretty angry after seeing so much stupidity go down that night. In all the years I've known Tommy, Chuckie and the gang, I never saw us get into this much of a rut. But at that moment, I had a decision to make. I could either chase after Tommy, or I could chase after Chuckie. But seeing that Tommy was mad at me for steeling his girlfriend, which, I will admit Kimi and I were in a long distance relationship before she and Tommy ever carved their initials into that wall. But he wouldn't believe me. So since it was obviously official who Kimi had chosen, I decided I'd chase after her brother instead, and make sure he didn't get hurt. For all I knew, Tommy would make it himself to that concert. He may have wrecked his dad's car, but he hadn't wrecked himself yet, not physically anyway.
I headed away from Stu's totaled car, which had my cell phone's battery not died, I might have called Tripple A to come toe it away, only even if it were working, I had no clue what the number was. So I just headed in the direction that Chuckie had ran, hoping I'd eventually, catch up to him. I heard arguing, in several familiar voices, and it was clear who the aliens were. They obviously weren't real aliens, it was Dil's larping group. Nonetheless, I finally reached Chuckie, and snapped him out of his quarrel with Phil, by giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder.
End of Zack POV
"Zack?" Chuckie asked, turning around to see who had tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yes Chuckie, it's me. Look, we've got a bigger problem. Maybe none of you care, but Tommy has run off." Said Zack.
"What? Where's my brother?" Dil asked.
Just then, Stu approached the group.
"What's going on here?" Stu asked.
Zack and Chuckie took turns explaining everything that had happened, and as a result of their quarrel, Tommy out of anger, decided to venture out to the concert on his own, thinking he'd make it there on Zack's Reptar skateboard.
The gang all led Stu to where his blue car was, now totaled, and completely useless. He screamed at the site of the car.
"Now Stu, there's no need to cry over spilled milk. It was an accident." Said Zack.
"Yeah, an accident that could have been avoided if my son hadn't been so stupid. Why doesn't he have his license anyway? Didn't he and Chuckie take their driver's tests on Thursday?" Stu asked.
"We had detention." Chuckie muttered.
"Detention, for what?" Stu asked.
"For being late to class after taking too long to eat lunch at Burger Queen." Chuckie replied.
"Never mind that now, we've got to find Tommy. I'll round up Lance's mom Lisa, and we'll send out a search party. Oh, but you guys might wanna wash off that glow in the dark paint. I'm amazed that I finally invented something that worked." Stu said excitedly.
Everyone went and showered off quickly, while Chuckie and Zack helped pack up camp, rounded up Lisa and the others, and headed in her red van out to find Tommy. Meanwhile, Stu called Triple A to come and rescue his car from the forrest, and take it off to a junk place, since it was no longer useable, and he waited for Triple A while the gang finished cleaning up. An hour later, Triple A took Stu's totaled car away, and he ran to catch up with the others, who were already piled into Lisa's van. He caught up to them, and everyone, headed off.
Tommy POV
I've never been so angry in my entire life! First, my best friend since infanthood bails on me all because I do something stupid, and then, my best friend since toddler hood, claims he's been going with the one girl I truly love, behind my back. Well I was gonna show them. If they'd rather ruin my life, then I'd go to that concert by myself. And if Zack could steel Kimi from me, then who says I couldn't take his skateboard, which I might add, I did get for him as a present a few years ago.
Using the light of the moon, I made my way back through the forrest, to where we came from, the turnpike. Cars were rushing every which way, but I figured, I could do this. No problem. But to be safe, I used the breakdown lane, forgetting that it had snowed earlier, which meant there'd be ice on the roads. The cars came rushing by, slipping and sliding, but I didn't care. I skated down the breakdown lane, in the direction we were heading when we went off the road.
As I continued down the road though, I began to lose control, as the road was slippery. I tried to stop, but couldn't. Next thing I knew, I was tossed off the skateboard, lying in the road, and suddenly, everything went black, as a car came near.
End of Tommy POV
Realizing what had happened, the person in the car that had hit Tommy pulled over, and called 911 from their cell phone. In minutes, the traffic was stopped, and ambulances had shown up. A red van with two adults and several teenagers had shown up at the same time the ambulances had arrived.
Zack POV
As I road in the back of Lisa's van, for the first time, I felt scared. Sure maybe Tommy was mad at me, but there had been a major snow storm. I didn't even care about going to the concert anymore. I just cared if Tommy was all right. Well, we headed down the road, and approached what appeared to be an accident. I peered out the window to see my skateboard tossed to the side of the road, and then, it hit me! Tommy had been in an accident!
I got out of the van at this point and retrieved my skateboard, which had several cracks in it, but I didn't care.
"Zack, what are you doing!" Stu exclaimed.
"Just getting my skateboard, it looks like we're stopped anyway." I said, getting back into the van with my skateboard, seating myself next to Phil, who I was next to all along.
"Oh no, my brother!" Cried Dil.
Just then, I looked out the other side of the car to see Tommy's body on a stretcher, and, well, Tommy looked pretty banged up. I can't even begin to describe what he looked like, but to put it simply, he looked like something out of a horror film.
End of Zack POV
Once Tommy was secured in the ambulance, the party headed back towards Yucaipa, Lisa's van following behind the ambulance all the way to the hospital.
And, this, ends chapter 4.
So, will Tommy be all right? Will everyone eventually make up and be friends again? Find out, next time. And next time may be sometime tomorrow at this rate, since it's getting late, I'm growing tired and hungry, and need a break, but no worries, I'll make sure to reveal the answers within the next 24 hours.