Chapter 9

"Well that was a joyful flight," Pete muttered moodily as they exited through the terminal gate. The first to greet them as they had landed in England was the sight of the bright, golden sun making its slow journey to the top of the orangey sky; shadows had been thrown into contrast and the whole air port had been lit up spectacularly. The band however hadn't really noticed or cared about whether it was a 'picture-moment' or not. Julia and Claire on the contrary had been positively delighted to be back in their home island, Julia announcing that she was 'so happy to be back she had even missed the rain almost'.

"Aw, c'mon guys!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Patrick yawned, his face white and drawn.

"What's the time?" he mumbled, his words slurring into each other.

Claire and Julia looked at each other trying to figure out what it was he was saying. Claire's face cleared.

"Oh! It's umm…" she flicked her wrist up to see the watch hanging limply there. "Just gone 8:45am."

The guys groaned loudly; Julia giggled.

"You're a right bunch of happy chappies!" she commented sarcastically.

They couldn't even be bothered to give her an irritated look; instead they followed the two spies who, once again, were moving at a hyperactive speed. Passing through a pair of doors, they found their selves in the baggage claim room. The band shuffled forward wearily; they had only taken about five steps when the girls darted back from the conveyer belt with their backpacks in tow. Now they had everything necessary it was time to face the outside world. A freezing blast of wind whipped around them; the guys' eyes widened and their teeth began chattering. If they were struggling to stay awake, this was definitely their wake up call.

"Sheesh!" Pete exclaimed wrapping his arms around himself. "What is it with the freakin' English weather?"

He frowned at the girls who stood to one side, perfectly composed compared to the band. Claire struggled not to laugh as Julia grinned infuriatingly. Pete's brow furrowed more.

"How can you not be cold?" he demanded through gritted teeth.

"Because we're English and we're used to it. We've had 19 years practise of this weather," Julia answered in an obvious tone, sneaking a sideways look at Claire one eyebrow raised.

Pete ground his teeth and turned away to stop himself swearing at them. Andy tried talking through his rapidly chattering teeth.

"W-w-where…ar-r-e we…g-g-g-going-g…n-now?"

Julia burst out laughing. Claire smiled at him sympathetically.

"We're always prepared for this; we have a vehicle round the back of the air port, hidden in a woody area."

It wasn't until she'd stopped talking that they all realized Julia had wandered off on her own again. For the first time though none of the band were bewildered; they were getting used to the spontaneous, random ways by which the girls worked. Claire gestured for them to follow the distant girl, keeping close at the back on the look-out.

The six travelled round a hidden pathway that would be invisible to anyone unless they came right up to it. Along this they went until they reached the back of the air port, the furthest end to the runways and deafening planes. The guys couldn't see anything at first; then suddenly the wind blew the tops of some trees to one side allowing the sun to pass through. The rays shone down and illuminated a large van parked on a grassy area, Julia leaning against the side happily. As they approached the blinding light disappeared again and they could see the vehicle clearer; it was a jet-black, huge 80's camper van, but the black was hardly visible on the sides as the sliding doors were covered in numerous, bright pictures of all sorts of things. There were only the front windows, the side windows pulled out and replaced with more black metal, and the remaining windows were tinted black also.

Joe whistled.

"This is your transport?"

Julia nodded enthusiastically.

"My first van," she proudly stated, patting the door. "I was over the moon when I found it. Got a whole new paint job with my savings too; mum wasn't too happy about that, but when I bought it, it was a faded pink. Pink! I mean, what, she expects me to drive around in a pink van? I've hated pink since I was three…" She ranted on as she unlocked the van and pulled the door open. Inside she had done a complete 'changing rooms'; there were more paintings on the inside structure, the front seats black and cushiony. There was a flip-down T.V in one side, a black, long, oblong bean bag propped against the opposite door, a small desk on which sat a Macbook and a small stereo with a small CD rack sitting next to it, chock-a-block with different CD's in and out of their cases. Claire herded the band in and they discovered a black rug with red splatters on the floor, and right at the back there was a single, made bed and a small armchair sitting next to it. Next to the bed on the van floor stood a miniature cupboard and a mini-fridge; Claire opened the fridge and handed out bottles of chilled water to the band and two cans of Diet Coke for herself and Julia.

Julia held out her hands expectantly.

"Home sweet hippy van," she proclaimed.

Claire rolled her eyes at her and clambered over to the front seats.

"Who's driving, you or me? 'Cause if it's you I think I'd like to live to see tomorrow," Claire called back sarcastically.

Julia stuck her tongue out at her back.

"You guys can rest back there while we're driving, we're gonna be a long time on the road," she yelled to the nervous, waiting band. They looked at their surroundings, prompted by the two girls who pointed at the bed, bean bag and armchair. Julia tried climbing into the driver's seat, instead sprawling on the seat, head stuck near the brake and gas pedal. Claire sighed with a smile as she righted herself with difficulty.

Pete sat in the armchair, thought about it and instead lay across it, his legs swinging over one side; he plumped up a cushion and leant his head against the back of the chair, preparing for a long sleep. Andy sank down onto the bean bag and instantly made himself comfortable getting ready to have a kip. Patrick and Joe looked at each other before rushing for the bed, pushing each other back desperately; Joe did a little victory wave of his hands and curled up under the duvet as Patrick glared at him from the floor of the van. Standing up, he brushed down his jeans and sat on the end of the bed, leaning against the van's back. Joe gave him a look.

"Don't sit on my legs that's all I ask," He grinned and chucked a pillow to Patrick who swung it at Joe's head before placing it behind his head.

Pete suddenly sat up and stared disbelievingly at his friends.

"I've just realized we still have all this crap on!" he cried, gesturing toward his wig with disgust. They all stared at each other when there was the unmistakeable sound of someone smothering their giggles in the front seat. The guys stared at the girls' backs stonily. They turned in their seats to look back innocently.

"You could've told us you know," Pete grumbled, tearing off his wig, fake eyebrows and rubbing his face. "Save us looking like a bunch of dumbasses."

A towel flew through the air and collided with his face. Claire burst out laughing.

"Well we would of…we could have…but where's the fun in that?" Julia replied with a grin. "If we had told you that you looked like a bunch of wallies, then we wouldn't have seen your faces when you did eventually realize."

"So we're just your personal humour?" Joe questioned jokily, taking the towel from Pete and rubbing the make-up off. "We have to be tortured and humiliated by you girls just so you can have a few laughs?"

"Yeah that's pretty much it in a nutshell."

Joe raised an eyebrow and smiled. Julia grinned back cheekily and spun round to the steering wheel again, passing Andy his familiar glasses.

Patrick wiped the tan face paint off and yanked the wig off his head, shaking his hair out and securing a hat on top. Claire grinned shyly.

"I gotta say you look a helluva lot better without all that stuff Ri-…err, Patrick," she admitted timidly. He looked up at her and grinned shyly back. Her face turned red and she swung back round hurriedly. Patrick cleared his throat and fidgeted with his pillow. Pete stared at him curiously.

"You've gone red Lunchbox," he said slowly with an all-knowing smile.

Patrick blushed more and shrugged.

"It's just from rubbing that stuff off," he replied haughtily. Pete shrugged and grinned infuriatingly again.

"Can we get a little shut-eye, please?" Andy grumbled sleepily. The other three sighed and made their selves comfortable again before Julia twisted the keys in the ignition and revved up the engine.

"Pedal to the metal," she called joyfully.

They groaned sleepily back at her…

"What d'you mean they're gone?" he screamed at the guard, clutching his t-shirt and slamming him against a hard brick wall. The guard's bottom lip trembled.

"W-well we weren't expecting p-people to come a-…and…break them out," he stammered, trying desperately to avoid the Boss's livid, piercing glare. The man growled in his throat and slammed the tall guard against the wall roughly, dropping him like a piece of trash. He spun round to face the eleven other cowering, heavy-built men. Closing his eyes, he breathed in patiently with difficulty and opened his eyes.

"I give you one simple task," he stated in a quiet, deadly voice. "Twelve of you, four of them; in a room secured with dead-bolts, covered by guns. And they escaped? And by two teenage girls."

"We didn't realize they were there, Sir!" one terrified man gabbled swiftly trying to smooth over the situation; instead he was making so much worse. "We…we had no idea they would come here. We didn't even know they knew where we were! If we had known then we…wo-…"

He stopped dead and shook under the Boss's murderous look.

The Ringleader twisted sharply on his heels, hissed a swear word at his clumsy henchmen and pulled out his mobile phone with a flourish. Pressing a number, the speed-dial tone sounded out as he brought the phone up to his ear. Someone answered after the first ring, obviously not wanting to keep their Boss waiting.

"I need a plane ticket to Heathrow London right away," he commanded loudly, trying to simmer down the boiling rage within him. "I need to return straight away. Get any information on these two girls…ANY information! It's time to end this once and for all."

He clicked the end call button whilst the man on the other end burbled erratically. Glaring at his humiliated and furious henchmen he turned on his heel and strode down the exit corridor…

Patrick stirred in his sleep and tried to open his eyes; he was so tired they ached, so instead he gave up and snuggled down under an apparent duvet. He was already quite warm but his back and part of his stomach were even hotter than the rest of his body. He frowned and wriggled a little to get comfy; that was when he heard the muffled snorts of laughter. He forced his eyes open and squinted blearily. The shape of two tall, shadowy figures loomed over him. As his eyes became accustomed to the light he recognized the smirking faces of Claire and Julia. He groaned and tried to shift over but something was blocking him. Claire giggled again and Julia grinned from ear-to-ear.

"Wow, I thought it was only in the 'This Aint A Scene' video," Julia admitted to Claire sarcastically. "I didn't know they actually spooned in real life!"

Patrick's eyes opened wider as he suddenly realized something strange: his vision was horizontal. He twisted round to see Joe snoring gently next to him. Shrieking, he broke free of Joe's 'cuddly' grasp, waking him in the process.

"Wha…" Joe muttered as Patrick slapped his hand away, scowled heavily and folded his arms, glaring at the girls who were collapsing with hysterical laughter.

Pete sat bolt upright and stared around half asleep and half alert. Andy woke with a loud snore and twisted round with difficulty to investigate what was happening. The girls carried on chuckling wiping tears from their eyes, every so often calming down slightly; every time this happened though they took one look at the disgruntled Patrick and the dozy Joe and cracked up all over again. Patrick stared at them as if he wanted to knock their heads together.

"Finished yet?" he snapped irritated.

Claire struggled to keep a straight face as Julia wandered to the front of the van so as to laugh the rest of it off.

"We umm…" she giggled and bit her lip at the look on Patrick's face. "We were about to wake you guys up actually."

"How come?" Pete broke in.

Claire smiled enthusiastically at him.

"We're here!"