A fresh start

Chapter 10: Trip to Macon

Hey everyone, only us to bring you another chapter for the day. I did want to update yesterday but duty calls and it was really important things that had to finish to help me with my future. Anyway, here I bring you chapter 10. Without further or do, enjoy reading.

Clementine had a nice time at Lee's house, and Ed and Diana returned from Florida just as they said they would, letting them know that Clem's grandmother was going to be just fine as long as she took it easy and got some rest. Lee immediately agreed when Diana asked if he would watch Clementine next time, he enjoyed spending time with her.

A few minutes after Clementine returned home, Lee got himself ready to go to the university to gather his students' results. He hoped that at least most of them did well. He wasn't expecting a 100% from everyone, but it didn't hurt to hope.

As he pulled into the college, he noticed Walter's partner Matthew was sitting in a car, tapping the wheel a couple of times to prevent himself from getting bored. Lee decided to go and say hello before he went into the university.

Matthew noticed him and rolled down the window. He had only met Lee a couple of times, but seemed to like him.

"Hey, Matt, how's it going?" he greeted.

"Hey Lee, things are great, thanks." Matthew replied whilst he leaned back in his car with his arms crossed. "Walter forgot to get gas for his car and I had to drop him off and give him a lift back. I got nothing better to do in the summer anyway."

"He mentioned that you two were going to that ski lodge in Virginia," Lee pointed out. "Not for a while, huh?"

"In a couple of weeks." Matthew answered. "In the meantime, we're going to be busy until then."

"What will you be doing?" Lee inquired.

"Getting some skiing equipment, going to see our families, renew our memberships, etcetera." Matthew began to go onto the details. "Well, I better not keep you waiting. I hope your students got good grades."

"I hope so too, I'll see you around, Matthew," Lee waved, and went inside. He noticed Walter just coming outside with his papers and the two gave each other a nod. Lee knocked on the door and when he was allowed access, he walked into his supervisor's office.

"Hello Professor Everett." he greeted and beckoned for Lee to take a seat in his office. "I take it you're here to collect your student's grade results?"

"Yes, sir," Lee nodded, and sat down in the chair offered to him. "How did they do?"

"Well, I can certainly say that they have improved much more since last year." Lee's supervisor replied in a relieved and proud tone. He handed the results to Lee for him to witness it with his own eyes. "Most of them got B's and C's, some of them even got A's."

"Wow, I guess they have been paying attention," Lee commented in a surprised voice. He took the results and read them for himself. He was surprised that the Russian student, Arvo, had managed to get a B, considering that his English still wasn't all that great.

"Congratulations on getting your students to this level, Professor Everett." the supervisor congratulated. "You're free to go when you please."

"Thank you, sir," Lee stood up and shook the supervisor's hand. "Have a good summer."

He walked out with his papers in hand and began his drive home. He needed to plan out the neighborhood trip to Macon, and decided that he would start that once he arrived home.

First thing he needed to do was organize a bus to take them all there and back. His father had already sorted out rooms for them and he would need to take lunch for them since Macon could be quite a distance away.

Once he arrived home, he logged onto his laptop and looked up buses for available for rent on the few days that he and the group of people would be in Macon. His parents and brother had chipped in to help pay.

He found one that looked fairly cheap and had the right amount of spaces needed for everyone coming in the neighborhood.

The bus was settled; it would come and pick everyone up at 11:00 AM in the morning at the end of the neighborhood, so no one would have to walk far. He decided to go shopping for sandwich ingredients later, but he knew he would have to call or text around to ask what people liked on them.

After organized food with his neighbors, there was nothing else to do. For the next few days, he decided to just enjoy the rest of following days until the day came when they would go to Macon. It sounded like it was going to be great and Lee could not wait.

Two weeks later

Two weeks had passed during the summer holiday and today was the day everyone was going to Macon for the Festival. Lee woke up nice and early to get dressed, pack a couple of clothes and went to join the rest of the neighbors at the end of the neighborhood. The time was now 10:39 AM, and much to Lee's relief, everyone was there. But just to be certain, he did bring a list with him.

"Hey, Lee," Kenny was the first to greet him. Katjaa was trying to calm an overexcited Duck, who was bouncing up and down joyfully, as he was happy to get out of Atlanta.

"Hey," Lee nodded. He took notice of everyone there, and was able to read the list despite all the chatter.

Carley stepped forward out of the crowd and greeted Lee with a peck on the cheek. "Hey, Lee. Today's the day."

"Sure is," Lee agreed. In the corner of his eye, he could see Clementine standing in front of her parents, watching him with a wide smile on her face. He checked his watch, 10:40 AM. "The bus should be here in twenty minutes."

"I'm sure we can wait until then." Carley replied, placing her hands into her jacket pocket.

Lee nodded but he decided to talk to a few of the neighbors. First he decided to talk to Carlos, Astrid and Sarah who were all standing nearby.

"Hey, you all excited?" Lee greeted.

"Yeah!" Sarah exclaimed, while Carlos and Astrid nodded.

Lee nodded before proceeded over towards Omid and Christa who were speaking together. Omid looked a little more excited than per usual whilst Christa merely sighed and went along with it.

Omid turned around when he noticed their friend approaching and greeted him. "Hey, Lee, we're really excited for this trip."

"That's great to hear, mind if I ask what you did with Whiskers?" Lee inquired.

"We dropped him off at my parents." Omid replied, but he looked a little sad. "I'm going to miss the little guy."

"It's only for a few days, the cat will be fine," Christa assured. Clearly she wasn't as attached to Whiskers as Omid was.

Lee smiled lightly at them and walked off. He next went to check on Alvin and Rebecca, with little AJ in Rebecca's arms. "He's getting big," Lee commented, referring to the baby.

"Oh, hey, Lee." Alvin greeted in a kind tone.

"Thanks for inviting us to this trip, Lee." Rebecca thanked whilst she gently rocked AJ side-to-side.

"No problem. I don't think we've really spent much time together, so I figured why not, you know?"

"A good enough reason for me." Rebecca replied with a smile whilst she eyed her baby carefully. AJ was too busy playing with Rebecca's fingers like a toy.

Lee walked off, talking to a few more people before the bus finally arrived. He decided to let everyone climb on board first before getting on himself, checking off the bus on his list.

"I figure we got about two or three hours before we reach Macon, then we can settle into the motel and maybe look around a bit," he announced to everyone before taking his seat next to Carley.

"Sounds like a good enough plan for me." Pete replied as he got into his own seat behind Luke and Nick.

In the seat next to them, Lee noticed Mike and Bonnie talking...and maybe even flirting? He didn't know, but he could sure hear Clementine and Sarah whispering to each other and giggling about it in the seat behind him.

Nearby, Lee noticed Ben and his little sister Katie sitting together whilst Ben's parents sat behind them. Katie was a little bit like Duck: talking too much, but Ben didn't seem to mind that much.

"So, are you looking forward to this?" Lee asked of Carley, who was staring out the window until he spoke to her.

"Definitely." Carley nodded. "I've been looking forward for this trip since you told me. And it's going to be nice to see your family again."

"Yeah, they've been asking about you," Lee replied. "I still need to tell them about our date, though."

"I got no problem with that." Carley replied as she leaned back in her chair and decided to relax and enjoy the ride there.

The sandwiches were distributed to everyone about an hour into the trip. They came in Ziploc bags, and Lee had written the names of who got what sandwich. Except for AJ, who was obviously still too young for solid food.

"Thanks Lee." Omid thanked and practically dug into his sandwich like he had not eaten for a week.

Christa merely stared towards him and gave him a look that said "Where are your manners?"

"What?" Omid mumbled after he took another bite of his sandwich.

"Never mind," Christa rolled her eyes as she took a much smaller bite of her own sandwich.

"Where did you get the sandwiches?" Carley inquired after she took a bite out of her own cheese sandwich.

"I asked around what everybody liked, and spent an hour yesterday making them," Lee responded. "Wasn't hard to get the ingredients."

Carley seemed satisfied with that answer and continued to eat her food in silence.

A couple of rows down, Kenny and Duck were playing a game on Kenny's phone together to entertain themselves for a while. Katjaa was sitting behind them with Mark.

Nick began to tap his hands against knees before he began whistling. He got bored really easily.

The only two times the bus ride was ever really loud was when AJ cried, and he was luckily calmed down quickly. Most of the time everyone seemed to be doing their own thing aside from the few people talking to each other.

Clementine looked out of the window and noticed a sign on the highway that said Macon along with an arrow and the number of miles to go. "Hey, Sarah, I think we're halfway there."

"I can't wait to get there," the older girl looked up from her book and smiled at Clementine. "I don't think I've ever been."

"You'll like Macon, it's a nice town." Clementine assured as she brought back her memory for a moment. "And you'll definitely like Lee's family."

"I hope so," Sarah responded. "My mom showed me some pictures of the cherry blossoms. They're really pretty!"

On another part of the bus, Christa and Omid were having a humorous argument. "We're not calling our baby Omid!" Christa retorted, slapping his hand away playfully. She happened to be two months pregnant, but only Omid knew this.

"Oh, come on." Omid tried to persuade her to change her mind. "I'm being serious about little Omid's future."

"And what if it's a girl?" Christa wanted to know, crossing her arms. A smirk played across her lips.

"Then I take little Christa's future serious." Omid answered.

"We're not naming her Christa, that's my name." Christa disagreed.

"Exactly." Omid grinned. He clearly was not going to give up. "We want your legacy to continue."

"Omid, stop it!" Christa laughed, swatting her boyfriend playfully.

"Stop what?" Omid pretended like he did not know what she meant by this. He continued trying to convince Christa to name their baby after them.

It would not take the rest of the group long to reach Macon now that they were more than halfway there. Everyone was looking forward to arriving in Macon and Lee had the feeling all this was going to turn out great.

And...That brings us to the end of chapter 10, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, guys and gals. Chapter 11 will be here shortly, and in the meantime, stay tuned.