Chapter Six: The Bucket List

The yellow glow of sunrise filtered through the crack between the curtains, illuminating the patches of damp on the wall opposite the bed. The sheets were thin and scratchy and the window didn't shut properly, letting in a persistent draught. I sat up quickly when I felt a tickle at the back of my throat, and let out three successive sneezes. This room was not doing anything for my cold.

I wrapped my arms around myself and crawled out of bed, shuffling over to my suitcase and extracting the green Sac State hoodie from one corner. As I moved I felt the ache start to pound in my head. I hadn't drunk that much last night in the end, but it had still been enough to make my memories a little hazy. The argument with Mia shone out clearly. Then my talk with Brittany. After that there were drinks and dancing and trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. I remembered dancing with Brittany a lot. She'd been trying to get me talking with Mia again, until I'd finally convinced her to drop it.

Now a little warmer wearing the sweater, I looked over at Mia rather than hop straight back into bed. It wasn't like those sheets were doing anything to keep me warm. She was turned away from me, but I could see her shoulder rising and falling gently, letting me know she was still asleep. My anger at her going on at Puck again had faded a little, but a bubble of irritation still wormed its way up. I did kind of regret saying what I had, though - not only because Brittany had overheard, but also because I really didn't need to start arguing with Mia again when we were about to spend six weeks in each others' company 24/7. We hadn't been around one another so much since that time we'd been living in the same house. I'd thought this would be different. I'd avoided talking to her about it, because talking about the events of last summer never ended well. But maybe that had been a bad move. Perhaps I should try and bring about that conversation. Once she stopped being mad at me, anyway. And it was probably best to wait until after her birthday.

There was no point in waking her now anyway. I wasn't sure how I was awake so early; nor why I wasn't tired. Just sniffly and with an aching head. Even Brittany was still asleep - except as my attention turned to her, her eyes flickered open.

"G'morning," she croaked after a few moments, rubbing a hand over her face then using it to prop up her head, her elbow digging into the pillow. She smiled sleepily up at me, her eyelids drooping every so often.

"Morning," I replied softly. I leaned back against the wall, watching in silence as she struggled to stay awake. After a few seconds she released a sigh of frustration and sat up straight. She reached behind her for the pillow and brought it up to rest on her legs, wrapping her arms around her shins and leaning on it, her head tilted slightly so she could still see me.

"Why're you awake so early?" she mumbled.

I grinned down at her. "I can't believe you're asking me that."

She muttered something incomprehensible into her pillow, and I bit my lip to stop myself laughing in case I woke the others.

"You should go back to sleep," I advised.

"Nu-uh," she replied, shaking her head and dropping the pillow back behind her before rolling off the air mattress and stumbling to her feet.

"Britt, what are you doing?"

"Walk. Uh - if you want to come again?"

I grinned wider as I remembered our breakfast in LA and nodded eagerly, dropping to my knees once more to locate the rest of my clothes.


"D'you mind if we stop off at Puck's hotel? I need to drop off his phone," I said as we walked back in the direction of the Strip. Really, he could have got his phone later. But I wanted to talk to him before this thing with Mia escalated any more than it already had, so I'd grabbed the iPhone from where Quinn had left it last night on the bathroom counter.

"Ah yeah, sure! He still owes me for that bet anyway."

I laughed at the reminder, suddenly glad Brittany didn't conduct her bets in money. "Decided yet what you're going to make him give you?"

She shrugged, shooting me a sly smile. "I've got an idea."

"What?"

She shook her head, her smile widening. "Wait and see. I haven't decided for sure yet anyway. So I'm not telling."

And she wouldn't, no matter how much I came up with ideas and questioned her on whether I was close. The entire journey to Puck's hotel was taken up by my questions and her giggles and refusals to answer.

"Come on, Britt! I won't tell him!" I repeated yet again, swivelling to walk backwards across the parking lot and fix her with a pleading stare.

She laughed and shook her head, reaching out to pull on my arm so I was facing the right way again. "No! And stop looking at me like that, Santana! It's really hard to keep saying no when you're being all sad panda!" I snorted at her words, and she giggled again. "Wait and see. Please?"

I sighed as I nodded. "Fine. But remember you still owe me for giving me this cold with your crazy dancing in the rain."

She deflated for a second. "Sorry… Oh! But we still need to do your bucket list, I just remembered!"

"Wait, that wasn't a joke?" I questioned.

"Of course not! We'll make you one just for this trip, and I'll make sure you get to do everything on it. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed with a shrug, pushing open the door of the hotel. I held it open for her, then walked over to the reception desk. "Can I get the room number of Noah Puckerman?"

The man behind the desk turned to his computer, typed in something, then turned back to me.

"How do you spell that?"

"P-U-C-K-E-R-M-A-N."

He stared at the screen for another couple of seconds, then shook his head. "Sorry. No one by that name on our system."

I frowned, leaning over the counter to check his spelling. It wasn't exactly a difficult name. He glared at me, but leaned back, allowing me to see. A very clear 'no results' was displayed at the top of the page.

"Uh… well have you seen a guy, pretty muscley, shaved head. He arrived yesterday morning?"

The man shook his head as he turned his attention back to the paperwork in front of him, apparently done with the conversation. I turned back to Brittany, confused.

"This is the right place, isn't it? I thought he was parked here."

"Maybe it was the hotel next door?" she suggested as we walked back out of the building. I turned my head to look across at the hotel she was pointing at, but as I did I noticed Puck's car sitting at the edge of the parking lot.

"No, that's his car there," I said, gesturing at it. "Maybe… I don't know. I guess he'll have to come back to it. We can just wait there."

Brittany nodded straight away, heading towards the car. I took two quick steps to catch up with her so we were walking side by side.

"Sorry, I thought this would be quick. And it's probably gonna be ages till he turns up. Maybe I'll just come back later."

"No, it's fine. We'll wait for a little while. And if he doesn't turn up then we can come back," Brittany suggested with a shrug, leaning against the side of the vehicle. I was about to do the same when I noticed movement from within the car, and paused. I stepped closer, peering in through the window - and found Puck sprawled out on the back seat. Or at least, as sprawled out as he could get when his car was so tiny. I lifted a hand and rapped hard against the glass. His head jerked, knocking sharply against the opposite door.

"Puck, what the fuck are you doing?" I demanded, pulling on the door handle but finding it locked. I knocked on the window again and motioned for him to open the door. He stared blearily up at me for several long moments before he finally shifted. One hand scrabbled underneath his seat and a second later produced his keys. I heard the unmistakable click of the doors unlocking and immediately pulled it open, exchanging a look with Brittany. She looked just as confused as I felt.

"Santana, what're you doing here?" Puck muttered. He was scowling in my direction, but wouldn't meet my eyes.

"That's a better question for you. Why the hell are you sleeping in your car? Did you lose your keys or something?"

Now he was definitely avoiding my gaze. "Uh… no… not exactly."

I rolled my eyes, reaching into my back pocket for his phone and tossing it to him. He fumbled the catch and it bounced down onto the worn leather of the seat. He swore under his breath as he picked it up.

"You left that at the bar last night. Now why are you sleeping in your car?" I repeated.

"I… it's no big deal, Santana." He sent a nervous glance behind me and I looked to see Brittany standing a few feet away. I shook my head dismissively and rounded back on him

"What's not?"

The longer the silence went on, the more agitated I felt. Something was up. Something worse than just losing Mia's money. I'd been noticing odd things all weekend and brushing them aside; the talks with Quinn, the insistence on staying in a different hotel, even the fact that Puck was apparently on a diet for the first time in his life. But still he wasn't saying anything!

"Puck!"

He let out an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head. "Jesus, I just didn't have the money for a hotel room, alright?"

I blinked, temporarily surprised into silence. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting him to say. But it wasn't that. After a few seconds I found my voice again.

"After losing that poker game?"

"…Sort of."

I stared at him, the various things I'd been noticing over the past few days starting to slide into place. I didn't like where this was going at all.

"…What do you mean, 'sort of'? Did you sleep in your car last night too?"

He nodded briefly, now glaring determinedly at the headrest of the seat in front of him.

"Puck! You said you could afford to come, that you'd sort out your own hotel - your car is not a hotel!"

"Well I would have been able to afford it. If I'd won that poker game," he muttered under his breath.

I raised my eyes to the sky, running fingers through my hair as I tried to process what I was being told. So Puck had no money. My immediate thought was that Mia would be furious at the prospect of not getting her own money back, but I pushed that aside for now. I'd talk to her later, explain things. A heavy weight settled in my stomach at the thought of that conversation, but I tried to concentrate on Puck.

"Do you have money for the gas to get back to LA?"

"Yeah. I filled up when we got here."

"Okay," I replied, nodding once. My brain worked rapidly, trying to work out the next best question to ask. "So… just… how much money do you have? Why didn't you stay in LA, you could've got some pool cleaning done and got money from that."

Puck sighed heavily, leaning forward and resting his forehead on the seat in front. His eyes were closed as he spoke in a quiet, defeated tone. I couldn't recall ever seeing him look like that before.

"You remember I mentioned that woman, Olivia Sheldon?"

"Yes." She was one of the few women Puck had mentioned that I remembered specifically - mostly because the others he referred to as 'bleach blonde nurse' or 'hot-teacher-barbie'. Olivia had actually been graced with her real name.

"She was… ugh…"

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. I couldn't remember the last time a girl had made Puck speechless. He happened to glance over at that moment and rolled his eyes at me, slumping back in the seat again.

"She was nice, okay? She didn't treat me like an idiot. I could talk with her. Not just smooth talk, proper talk. And she was fucking hot as hell."

He paused, eyes on me like he was waiting for a reaction. I stayed quiet. Now was not the time for a snarky comment. Even though I had plenty dancing on the tip of my tongue.

"So, her husband comes back from work early one day last month. Realises what's up, chucks me out - sets his dog after me too, crazy bastard. And he's some high up politician or council member or whatever. So then he goes and starts telling people I seduced his wife - and that I did a shit job cleaning the pool, which is not true. That pool was sparkling, I visited Liv so much, and I made sure to clean it every time. But then… word got round. Went to the Robins', they turned me away, said they'd found someone else. Same happened the next day. I've lost half my pools. Try and find new ones, but no one wants me! I've barely got the money for rent this month, and I thought coming here would help 'cause I'd be able to get a bit of extra cash, but…" He shrugged helplessly, eyes closing again and his head leaning back.

I remained silent at first, processing everything I had just been told. It was worse than I'd suspected. From all Puck had said, it sounded like his pool-cleaning business was about to disappear.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd think I was a failure!" Puck burst out. "Everyone will! They all said - that's a stupid business plan, it'll never work out. Or if they didn't say it they were thinking it. I was barely keeping afloat before this shit, but now… I can't go back to Lima. I can't, it'll just prove them all right."

"But then what are you going to do?" I asked quietly.

"I… I don't know. Get a 'real' job, I suppose. If anyone'll employ me, if fucking Mark Sheldon hasn't got to them too."

I frowned, resting an arm on the top of the open car door as my mind worked, trying to find a solution to this mess. But it wasn't that easy. None of this was easy. I just wished he'd told me sooner.

"Do you need to borrow money?"

He shook his head straight away. "I don't want to borrow any more money from anyone. I'll sort this out myself."

"Well how much do you owe Mia?"

"Like thirty bucks. I don't have it to pay her back, though."

"I'll give you that, okay?" He opened his mouth to object and I cut him off. "Look, you owe that money anyway. Better you owe me than owe her. Just pay me back when you can, when I'm back in California. I don't care if it takes you a while - you'd be doing me a favour. But don't tell her you got the money from me. Say you found it in your car or something," I told him. I wasn't sure if it would help fix things with Mia, but hopefully it would do something.

"Whatever I say she's gonna go off on one," Puck muttered. "She overreacts to everything. She's fucking crazy."

I opened my mouth quickly to form an angry retort but before I could say anything I felt something brush my shoulder, and turned my head to find Brittany standing just behind me, looking into the car.

"Puck?" He switched his attention to her. "You still owe me."

His face immediately transformed into a fierce scowl and he sat up straighter. "Fuck's sake, are you deaf? I have no money!"

"Don't speak to her like that," I snapped, but Brittany was stepping forward and shaking her head.

"No no, I don't mean money! I don't like betting money."

Puck folded his arms across his chest as he glared at her, his expression suspicious. "Well what do you want from me then?"

"Say sorry."

His eyebrows rose, and he was silent for a few seconds before speaking. "…What?"

"To Mia. Say sorry to her. That's what I want you to do for losing the bet."

"…Are you crazy too?"

"Hey!" I objected loudly, but again Brittany piped up before I could say any more.

"It won't cost you anything. And maybe it'll make her see you're not a bad person, and help her and Santana make up."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him glance at me, but I was more focused on Brittany. What was she doing? And why?

"It won't take long," she continued. "And it's way easier than anything else I could get you to do. Yesterday I was planning to send you to the circus hotel to learn how to juggle, so you could teach me."

He stared at her for a few more seconds before slowly nodding. "Fine. I'll say sorry. Just don't expect her to accept it."


"…Sorry?" Mia repeated, her expression incredulous. Her eyes shifted to me like she was trying to ask if he was serious without speaking aloud.

"That's what I said," Puck muttered.

I was tense as I watched them from further down the table. I was convinced that at any moment all hell was going to break loose. Doing this in the middle of a hotel had been a terrible idea. Even if the hotel did serve the most spectacular buffet breakfast I had ever seen, and Brittany had managed to persuade one of the staff to teach her to juggle later in the day.

"…You've never apologised for anything before."

He shrugged, his eyes twitching like he was about to roll his eyes, but then he stopped himself. "So?"

She glanced down at the money in front of her on the table, then back up at him. "This isn't a joke?"

"…No."

"Oh. Uh… okay," she said quietly, settling back in her seat and picking up a segment of orange, biting into it. Puck looked as though he was about to say something else and ruin his short but apparently effective apology. Fortunately Brittany elbowed him and he shut his mouth before Mia noticed. I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding. I still needed to talk with her. But hopefully this would keep things calm until then.

Something nudged my arm and I turned to find Tina looking at me. I couldn't read her expression. Of all the people on this trip, I knew her the least - although I wasn't sure how that had happened when I'd only met Brittany last week.

"What did you say to him?" she murmured.

I frowned. "I didn't, really."

"So you're saying he came up with that all on his own?" she replied, raising one, disbelieving eyebrow.

"Well… not exactly." I struggled to find a way to explain without making Puck out in a bad light again. Considering most of Tina's knowledge about Puck would have come from Mia, I had a feeling she might misinterpret anything I said about him like Mia did. But then, she hadn't objected when I'd asked if it was okay for him to join us for Vegas. And she didn't really seem like the type to judge people. "It was Brittany. She spoke to him."

Tina's confusion disappeared almost instantly and she nodded with a warm smile. "Okay."

My eyebrows rose at her sudden change of expression. "That's it?"

"That's it," she replied, still speaking quietly so no one else would hear. "It makes sense. Brittany's good at that sort of thing."

I propped my elbow on the table so I could turn to look at her properly. I was the curious one now. "What sort of thing?"

Tina shrugged. "People."

I waited for her to elaborate, but she just returned to her plate of blueberry pancakes. I wasn't sure if she didn't want to talk about it or if it was just Tina being her normal quiet self. I'd ask her about it again another time. Maybe she'd be more talkative when Brittany wasn't just a couple seats down.

We spent at least an hour in that restaurant. It was too fancy to call a diner, even though we were just eating breakfast. I had surreptitiously paid for Puck's food as well - so he would at least have one good meal before heading back to LA later today. I still didn't know what to do about him. He wouldn't take any more of my money than he already had - and that was only with him insisting he'd pay me back as soon as he could. I was still preoccupied with trying to work out what I could do to help when I realised the others were getting up from the table. I followed them silently out of the room, not noticing Mia fall back until she was walking right next to me.

"Thank you," she whispered, her fingers tangling with mine between our bodies. I frowned at her uncertainly. She was acting like we hadn't been yelling at each other just yesterday night.

"For what?" I replied shortly. I didn't pull my hand away, though.

"For talking to him. I know he wouldn't have said that if you hadn't spoken to him."

My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to protest that it hadn't been me - but then I caught Brittany's eyes. She was looking back at us, smiling softly, and gave the tiniest shake of her head. That one look chased away the words that had been on my tongue just a second before.

"Don't be mad," Mia murmured, dropping a kiss on my cheek. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not mad," I sighed, turning my head away from Brittany to smile briefly at Mia. She brightened visibly and I felt a weight lift off my shoulders - but it didn't erase the churning in my stomach that continued all the way through the hotel and back out into the sunlight.


The rest of the day passed in as much of a blur as the previous day had. I was starting to worry a little how fast this trip was going to pass, if the pace of the last few days was any indication. Turning my head, I stared out of the window at the fading skyline of Las Vegas. On the other side of the city Puck was in his car heading back towards LA, and I couldn't help but worry. I'd never really had cause to worry about him like this before. He made out like he was in control of every situation, and while I'd always thought it was a bit of an act I hadn't realised quite how much. I wished I could talk about it with someone to work out what was the best thing to do, but Puck's words just before we'd said goodbye kept coming back to me.

"Don't tell Quinn."

"What? Why? Isn't that what you guys were talking about the other day?"

"Please."

I released a heavier sigh than I intended, and felt Brittany nudge me lightly. One eyebrow lifted, asking silently if I was okay. I gave her a tight-lipped smile, returning my attention to the scenery outside the car. She knew what was going on, and I was pretty sure she wouldn't tell any of the others. But I was still uncertain about discussing it with her. It wasn't that I didn't trust her - well, it partly was. As much as I liked her, I couldn't entirely forget that I'd only known her a week. I wanted to trust her. I really did. But I wasn't quite there yet. The only other two people in the car were out of the question. I didn't know Tina well enough. And Mia... well, that was just asking for trouble. And then what if she worked out I'd lied earlier about talking to Puck? Even though I hadn't properly lied. I just... hadn't corrected her. I wasn't sure she'd see it the same way though, and I didn't want to cause another argument after just getting the last one sorted. With her birthday tomorrow, hopefully she'd be distracted enough that the whole thing would just fade from her mind and it wouldn't come up again.

I heard shuffling next to me and turned my head to observe Brittany rummaging in the bag by her feet. She straightened a few moments later with a worn notebook and pen, and turned to me with a tentative smile.

"How about that bucket list?"

I laughed aloud at the reminder. I didn't know why she was so insistent on getting me a bucket list - but it would be a welcome distraction, and there were still several hours before we reached Flagstaff.

"What the hell, why not?" I agreed, resting my elbow on the door and shifting so I could see her better. On her other side Mia was dozing, and in the front seat Tina and Quinn were having yet another of their boring book talks. "So how do we do this exactly? I just say crazy stuff I think should happen?"

Brittany bit her lip as she carefully wrote at the top of the page. I could see she was doing her best not to let the pen jerk around with the movements of the car.

"It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, Britt," I teased.

"But it should look nice! It's your record - you're going to find it sometime when everyone's back home and remember all the great times we had together. It'll make you remember things that you'd never remember otherwise. So it should be nice."

I paused, then nodded. It was strange how she could be so fun and goofy one moment, but completely earnest the next.

"See - look. You'll already remember how we were going to go out in LA but couldn't because the weather was so terrible," she said, passing the notebook over so I could see what she'd written.

*~ Santana's Mega Road Trip Bucket List ~*

1. Dance in the rain

As I read it she ducked down again, retrieving another pen and leaning over to place a large, green tick next to it then dropping that pen back into her bag.

"So what else do you want to do while we're travelling?" she asked, pulling the notebook out of my hands and back into her lap, fixing me with a steady gaze.

My mind whirred, but with her staring at me like that I couldn't think of anything. I turned to examine the headrest in front of me instead. I tried to run through all the places we were going and think of things that could be done there. Panama City came to mind - and in particular, the sea.

"I kind of always wanted to learn how to surf," I admitted.

Brittany's face lit up and she nodded excitedly as she wrote it down. "That's great! Hey, you know what else looks really fun? Scuba diving. My friend did it and she met so many Nemos - I want to meet a Nemo! And a dolphin. Although I guess a shark would be just as good, they're basically the same except for the whole gay thing. But I think they're quite hard to find. And- oh. Sorry." She deflated as she looked over at me. "This is meant to be your list."

I reached for the pen and plucked it out of her hand, holding the notebook steady on her leg as I added the third item to the list. "No way I'm missing out on it after that description," I told her with a light elbow to her side. She giggled, pulling then pen back from me.

"Okay, okay. Good," she said happily, writing a number 4 on the list then leaving her pen hovering over the page. "Anything else to do with the sea? We should really put all the sea ones together. It makes sense."

I reached down for my bottle of water and took a drink as I thought it over. I was just leaning down to put the bottle back in the seat pocket when I paused, taking another look at it.

"Send a message in a bottle."

I turned to her with a smirk, expecting to find her giggling and tell me not to be silly - but instead, her eyes were wide.

"That's brilliant! That's genius! That should be on my bucket list!"

I bit my tongue to stop myself telling her it had just been a joke as she quickly wrote it down. What the hell. I doubted anything on this list was going to get done anyway.

"Okay, we're on four. What else?"

I hummed under my breath as my mind wandered, glancing out of the window again for inspiration. Just as I did, a loud roar signalled the passing of two motorbikes. I recalled the time Puck had bought one on a whim and promised to show me how to drive it - but then he'd sold it again before I'd had the chance to go down to LA. I'd been mad at him at the time, but now I realised the probable reasons behind him selling it so quickly.

"Ride a motorbike," I said firmly.

"Ooh, that's a great one! You're so good at this, Santana," she enthused. "Hey - didn't Tina say you were in a choir or something in high school? You should totally do karaoke!"

"What? No. No way." I shook my head adamantly. The only person who got to hear me sing nowadays was Mia - and that was only when I forgot the walls of her bathroom were so thin that she could hear me in the shower. "That is way behind me."

"But I want to hear you sing! You must be really good!"

"Pretending glee club never happened doesn't make it go away, Santana," Quinn said from the front seat, turning to smirk at me.

"Fuck off Fabray." Was it her life's mission to wind me up?

But then I turned back to Brittany and found her looking at me with a pleading, hopeful expression.

"Ugh, fine. Add it to your stupid list. And I'll just pray on a fucking shooting star that no one else is about to witness it."

"Ooh, yeah!"

I glanced over and laughed as she quickly added 'see a meteor shower' as number seven.

"Not quite what I was getting at there, Britt," I told her.

"Oh. Oh well," she replied with a shrug, settling back in her seat to read through the list so far.

"How big is this list gonna be anyway?"

"We should get it up to ten, I think. Ten's a good number," she decided, adding the three extra numbers to the bottom of the page.

"Okay. Well, as long as we're on this trip. I want to make the most of it. So at some point. In one city where there's way too much to see in one go. You and me are going to stay up for forty-eight hours straight, and see everything we possibly can. And then we'll get the rest of these losers to drive while we sleep it off."

Quinn twisted in her seat again to object and I threw the pen lid at her, hitting her square on the forehead.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"I just got this sudden, strange feeling you were going to say something to mess up my bucket list plans. And we wouldn't want that, would we Britt?"

"Definitely not," Brittany replied seriously. "Bucket list plans are important."

"Exactly. So go back to discussing your fancy pants literature and stop butting in on our conversation just because yours would bore the Pope to sleep."

"Just because you don't appreciate good literature doesn't mean the rest of us can't find it interesting."

I rolled my eyes at her as she turned back to Tina, reaching to take the pen from Brittany and adding number nine without saying it out loud. Get a tattoo. There was no way I could say that and not have Quinn comment on it.

Brittany nodded appreciatively as she considered the empty space next to number ten. I frowned at it as well, trying to come up with something else. Everything that came to mind seemed stupid, or completely implausible.

"Can't we just leave it at nine?" I asked with a sigh. "It's good right now. We don't want to ruin it with a shitty number ten."

"No, we'll come up with something good!" Brittany insisted. "Just think. Isn't there anything else you really want to do? I dunno, something from when you were a kid?"

I shrugged, trying to think back to what I used to ask my parents for. There hadn't really been anything I wanted to do, I'd just got games and toys. And had no one to play them with, or help when I got stuck. Which happened a lot. My mom had first accused me of picking up a Lima Heights attitude the time I'd thrown a rubik's cube at my dad because I couldn't do it.

"Stupid rubik's cube," I muttered, recalling my frustration.

Brittany tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. I could almost see her mind whirring, trying to work out what I meant. I felt my cheeks heating up. I hadn't meant to say that out loud.

"I want to solve a rubik's cube. I had one. But it got thrown away before I could work it out, and I never got another," I explained as briefly as I could.

I waited for her to laugh. But again, she didn't. She smiled gently at me before returning her attention to the list. She added the last line, then ripped the piece of paper out of the notebook and added a large, looping signature to the bottom.

"Here. Now you sign it," she instructed.

"Sign it?" I repeated, tentatively taking the list and the pen from her when she passed them over.

"Yes. So I'm promising to try and make that stuff happen for you. And you're promising to try as well. And together we'll make it all happen. Okay?"

I nodded once, scanning my eyes down the sheet of paper.

*~ Santana's Mega Road Trip Bucket List ~*

1. Dance in the rain

2. Learn to surf

3. Scuba diving

4. Send a message in a bottle

5. Ride a motorbike

6. Karaoke

7. See a meteor shower

8. Stay awake for 48 hours

9. Get a tattoo

10. Solve a rubik's cube

It was a good bucket list. At least, I thought so, even though I'd never made one before. And karaoke aside, there wasn't really anything on there I didn't actually want to do, despite the miscommunication on the meteor shower and message in a bottle.

I moved the pen to the bottom of the page and signed my name.


Sorry this took a little while. It's been a stressful couple of weeks, I'm actually starting a different job next week, and I've had some other stuff going on too that's made it difficult to focus. But on the plus side, that craziness meant I never really got started on nanowrimo, so I've been concentrating on getting ahead on this instead.