Alright, I'm back with Chapter two....Now I was wondering, should I make Erik and Stacey a couple at some point or not? I pretty much made them both up on the spot so I didn't really think about it before hand but I would like to know what you people think. So if you could review and tell me what you think that would be great. Enjoy!

Fresh Picked Georgia Peach by Randomness

'I hate train rides, I hate train rides, I hate train rides' Stacey kept muttering to herself as she looked out the window. She had been on the train for an hour and had yet to say a single word to Erik.
Erik was sitting right beside her reading 'The count of Monte Cristo' and basically not being even a little fazed by this trip.
"How can you sit there and read like that?" Stacey asked suddenly. "I can't even think on trains without getting sick."
He put his book down and looked at her. "It just take a level of concentration that, even with all your intelligence, you are unable to achieve." He said smiling.
"If I didn't know you better I would say that was a subtle insult, Unfortunately however, I do know you and I know that you wouldn't know subtle if it bit you in the-" She got cut off suddenly.
"Maybe you don't know as much about me as you think you do, carrot top." He said.
"My hair isn't orange you know, it's more red." She muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
"Actually your hair looks like a peach but peach top isn't much of an insult is it, carrot top?" Erik smirked.
"You are such a jerk" I nearly yelled, people were starting to stare at us.
"You know, the sure sign that you've lost a debate is to insult your opponent." He muttered to me.
"Shut up" I muttered back.
"Or to say shut up." He smirked again.
'I hate that stupid smirk of his, why did I agree to this again?' Stacey thought to herself. "I don't like talking to you and I'm sure you don't like talk to me either so why don't we both just stop talking to each other for the rest of the trip. Agreed?" She asked in annoyance.
"Agreed." He said calmly, almost cheerfully as he opened his book and started reading again. The without looking up from the page he said. "You started talking to me first."
Stacey turned away from the window to look at him again. "What about our agreement?"
He looked up from his book. "I was just saying that you talked to me first."
"But you agreed not to talk for the rest of the trip" She said sternly.
"Alright, then let's stop talking for the rest of the trip."
"Fine" She said exasperated and looked out the window again.
"Fine" He said back, as he turned back to his book.
"Wow it's getting dark out...."Stacey muttered a little while later.
Erik put his book down and turned to look at her. "Alright, do you want to talk or just stare out at the darkening sky. I don't care either way but I really hate to get into the book and have to stop to chat every two seconds." He said in an annoyed tone.
"I didn't even know you liked to read." Stacey said quietly.
"Well I do, it's a favourite pass time of mine." He answered. "So are we going to talk or not?"
"Want to play twenty Questions?" She asked after a moment of thought.
"Alright, that's something to do at least." He said as he put the book away. "You go first."
"You refuse to ever tell anyone your middle name, so what is it?" She asked smiling a bit.
Erik looked at her for a moment before answering as if trying to decide whether she was serious. "Wilmore" He said finally.
She grinned and said. "Wow, you actually told me, I assumed you would go back to reading or something.
"My turn. Did you ever like-like someone in school?" He said. He had only played this game once and it was at his little cousins birthday party. All he knew were girly questions.
"Yes, I did."
"Who?"
"That's two questions." She said smirking. "It's my turn now. Hmm. Why did you decide to come to New York?"
"It always seemed like a fascinating place. All those big buildings and parks. Also, I here there are a lot of jobs there and I don't want to be a farmer, I've got enough brothers that I can get away with leaving so I just decided I would go." He said truthfully. "How about you?"
"I always wanted to live on a farm. My Mother and I only had a house and a yard. However, my mother grew up there and thought that was where I should go if anything happened to her. To be quite honest, I'm scared to death." She said looking out the window. "What's your biggest fear?"
"Inclosed spaces. I hate those, I always feel like the walls are closing in on me....What's your's?"
"Being alone. I'm always afraid of being alone......Want to go to sleep now?" She asked. Her eyes were getting droopy and she was nearly asleep as it was.
"Sure Carrot Top, I'm just going to read some more." He said, pulling out his book again. "You go ahead.
"Alright, Goodnight Erik" She closed her eyes and leaned against the Window. "You big jerk." She muttered before going fast Asleep.
Erik smirked again and read some more. He was at a really interesting part of the book. Suddenly a sound distracted him. He looked at Stacey and she was shivering. "I'll never get any sleep if this keeps up" He muttered, not unkindly. He took off his coat and through it over her and then went to sleep Himself.

Train Ride, Day 2

The sun was coming in the window and Erik slowly was pulled out of blissful unconsciousness to face the world around him. He knew he was awake, deep down he knew it but the very stubborn childish part of his mind thought that maybe, just maybe if he kept his eyes closed he wouldn't have to wake up. That was until he felt something warm move on his chest. His eyes snapped open and Stacey had her face buried in his chest with her arm across his stomach as if he were some kind of big teddy bear, but to make matters worse, his arm was around her too. 'Uh-oh, I need to somehow shift her back to leaning on the window without her waking up and finding us like this but how?' He thought to himself.
Stacey stirred a bit and muttered, "Five more minutes, mommy."
Erik winced and slowly lifted his arm up. He pushed her lightly and she moved back towards the window where she settled down again. Then Erik got up to use the bathroom.
As soon as Erik was gone, Stacey woke up. She looked around to reorient herself and then noticed the coat that was still on her. "This is Erik's......awfully nice for him to have given it to me." She said to herself. "I hope he's not feverish or anything."
Erik started walking back and noticed her looking at his coat. 'I forgot about that...' He thought. 'She must think I'm delirious or something.' He walked back and sat down.
"Where did you go?" She asked.
"The washroom." He answered.
Stacey looked out the window at the passing landscape. "It's beautiful out. Interesting to see so many things go past like that."
"It's just like any other train ride." He said while rummaging through his things.
"I've never been on a train ride before...." She answered.
"Never been on a train ride?!" He exclaimed.
"No, not once." She answered with a tone of confusion.
"Well, I'm just going to have to bring you on a tour, now won't I?" He said, standing and offering her a hand.
She looked at it suspiciously.
Erik smirked. "Don't you trust me carrot-top?"
"You are an absolute nightmare." She said before taking his hand.
"I know, hurry up now" He said jokingly as he led her out of the car. "First we come to another car just like ours. Fascinating isn't it?"
Stacey couldn't help but smile at him now. "Oh yes, I've never seen anything quite like it."
Erik kept a tight hold on her hand as he led her through and then paused at the door. "Now things are going to get a little different. We're Entering First Class, just look like you're better then EVERYONE and no one will hassle you. Don't worry, you're good at acting better then everyone." He said laughing.
She hit him lightly on the shoulder but still followed him through the doors.
"This is the first class dinning rooms." He said, leading her through the chandelier lit car. "The rich and famous come here to eat dinner."
"I wouldn't have guessed." She said sarcastically.
"But the funny thing is, if your rich, you don't eat breakfast or lunch in this car. Only dinner. Lunch, you have in the parlour car and breakfast is delivered to you." He said smiling at her confused expression.
"But that's ridiculous!" She exclaimed.
"Ah, but my dear, that's the rich and famous. Ridiculous, all of them. Shall we continue our tour?" He said, leading her to the next car where there were beds and some people sleeping. "This is one of the First Class Sleeping cars. They either get a room to themselves with 2 beds and anything their hearts desire or they get a single bed with a curtain. Still better then sleeping in your seat."
"I wish I had a bed." Stacey said, rubbing her shoulders.
"All of us train scum wish that. Shoulders hurt?" He asked suddenly.
"A bit." She muttered, embarrassed.
"Turn around for a second." He said.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Carrot Top, you have to trust me at some point."
"Alright Nightmare, I'll trust you this once" She said, turning her back on him. She nearly jumped a mile when he started rubbing her shoulders.
He rubbed the knots out of her shoulders then grabbed her hand again. "Doesn't that feel better now?" He asked as he pulled her to the next car that was the same as the last.
"Yes actually." She said while looking around.
"Good" He stopped looking at her and kept pulling her along. "The next two cars should be exactly like this one, but the next one after that will probably be the parlour car. Maybe we could grab some rich food on our way through."
"Sounds good to me" Stacey quickened her pace so he wouldn't be dragging her the whole way and soon they were surrounded by platters of food.
"Help yourself, just try not to get caught." Erik whispered as he started grabbing food without stopping off of trays that were put on tables on both sides of them. Erik grabbed them each a plate and just kept pilling the food and as quite as they entered, they were through.
"Wow, I've never seen so much food in my life."
"That's the rich for yah, they love food but they almost never finish it." Erik said, then he looked around. "Uh oh..."
"What?" Stacey asked.
"We're in the observation car. We need to hurry and not get noticed or we'll be kicked out of this section faster then you can say peanut butter." He said almost running through, just barely avoiding dropping his food.
Stacey was struggling to keep up to him but she kept accidentally running into people. "Sorry, sorry, excuse me, sorry" She kept muttering as she hurried. Finally she got to the end of the car to find that Erik was gone. "Oh, well this is just great...." She muttered only to be pulled into the next car from behind. "Ahh!"
"Shh" Erik said. "Now here is the best car, in my humble oppinion. "This is the Library car. AKA the caboose. No one knows that this is here so no one bothers to come in here." He said. Erik walked around and pointed out all the books and all the best places to sit. "Now eat up."
Stacey picked a chair and sat to eat. "This is really good, what is it?"
"That?" Erik pointed at what she had in her hand.
"No, the monster that's attacking the train, of course this."
"Escargot" He said, looking away so that he wouldn't smirk.
"Oh, escargot." She took another bit then seemed to freeze. "Escargot.....Isn't that...?" She trailed off looking at the piece in her hand.
Erik couldn't hold back the smirk anymore. "Snail"
Stacey suddenly looked really sick.
"If you have to throw up, go out that door." He said pointing to the door opposite of where they came in.
Stacey bolted out that door like there was no tomorrow and sounds of vomiting was heard through out the car.
Erik suddenly felt a little bit Guilty. He made his way to the back and held her hair out of the way while she through up. "It's ok, you'll be fine." He said while he rubbed her back.
Stacey threw up a few more times and then just relaxed into Erik's arms.
Erik sat down and held her for a little while on the back fenced in area of the caboose (A/N: I don't know if that actually exists but I've seen it on TV)
"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked distrustingly.
"Well, I couldn't let any of that lovely peace hair get dirty now could I, Carrot Top?" He said jokingly.
"How come you can call me carrot top but I don't have an insulting name for you?" She asked looking up at him.
"You don't have the creativity to come up with one?" He suggested.
"You really are a Nightmare." She muttered.
"There you go, Nightmare. You've called me that a couple times."
Stacey shrugged and stood up. She held onto the railing and looked out. "Wow, it's pretty here."
"This is where people wave good bye to their loved ones right before they leave." Erik said, standing up to lean on the railing beside her "You know, you can tell a lot about people by how they wave."
"Oh really?" She asked.
"Yes, if they wave like this." Did a weak little shy wave. "Then you can tell they're in love."
"Like this?" She mimicked his wave.
"Yes, a little more lost little girlish though."
Stacey smiled.
"And if they wave like this." Erik did a Huge excited wave. "You can tell their just getting home from a long trip.
"I see..." She said, acting like a fascinated student.
"And if they wave like this" He did a small confident wave. "Then you know that their gonna ask you out."
"How do you know all this, Nightmare?" She asked slyly.
"Because, unlike someone, who learned everything through book smarts, I have learned a great deal by observing others." He said, with an air of snobbery.
"Don't try to impress the stars?" She asked.
"Just learn from them, exactly."
"And here I thought I already knew what she was talking about" Stacey said sadly as she watched the stars start to come out.
"That's the great thing about being Alive, you learn a new thing everyday."
"Let's go back, it's getting late." She said as she took his hand and led him back.
Erik just followed along.

The sun rose on the last day of their train trip and Stacey opened her eyes to realize she was leaning against Erik. 'Oh well' She thought as she just laid there and rested.
Erik slowly woke up to, finally his eyes fluttered open.
"Good Morning." She said, not really looking at him
"Morning." He answered.
"So, It's our last day. What are you going to do when we get to New York?" Stacey asked quietly.
"Probably find a job, maybe look for a school that will accept me, how about you?"
"I'm going to look for my Grand Father, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to look for my Mother's best friend."
"What if you can't find either?" He asked, with his arm still around her.
"Then I'm going to find you and make you take me home"
"Sounds like a good Idea Carrot Top. Looks like you have everything worked out."
"Thanks Nightmare, I just hope that's true....HEY LOOK!! I see New York, and the Statue of Liberty!!"
"Really?" He leaned over and looked.
They both watched the city come closer and closer into view until before they knew it, they were getting off at the platform. They each grabbed their bags and books and everything then turned to look at each other.
"I misjudged you, you weren't as much as a nightmare as I thought you would be." She said smiling a little.
"Well thank you very much, you were a peach yourself." Erik answered almost sarcastically.
"I'm glad I went with you and I'm glad I got to know you better. Now I know what Miss Angela meant by don't try to impress the stars, just learn from them."
"I suppose I learned something from you too...." He said seriously. "I'll call you whenever I figure out what it was." He couldn't keep his signature smirk off his face.
Stacey smacked him in the arm and then smiled. "Well, If you're going to be like that, I'll just go." She turned to leave.
Erik grabbed her arm and turned her back to face him. "Sorry Carrot Top. I'll miss yah, I really will and I never expected to." He hugged her then.
Stacey hugged back. "I'll miss you too...."
Erik gave her a kiss on the head. "When you find what you're looking for, don't hesitate to look me up."
"Any hints on where you'll be?" She asked pulling away from him, smilling in contentment.
"Just looked for the biggest house in New York and you'll find me there." He smirked.
"I'm sure I will, one day" She said in complete seriousness and then she turned around and left, never looking back.
If she had, she might have noticed Erik, who didn't leave from where he was standing until she was well out of sight.