Connie snuggles deeper into my arms. I stroke her hair and she sighs contentedly.
"Ok," Annie turns round to face us from her post as navigator. Luis is driving now. "We need music. I'm bored of everyone being all huggy and sweet. I bet Charlie will back me up."
Poor Charlie, outnumbered by couples. Ok, so Annie and Luis don't count, but they sure act couply. The Bashes are zonked out on a seat together. They look cute like that, which is a very strange thing to say about a couple of guys who are about seven feet tall and pure muscle, but there it is.
"What have you got?" Connie asks.
Annie flips through the CD collection. "Avril Lavigne, Roxette, Alanis Morrissette – only Jagged Little Pill, the other one sucked, Queen, Bon Jovi – old stuff only, Guns 'n' Roses, Rob Zombie, Less Than Jake, Def Leppard, Metallica, Pantera…"
"Great, I'm in the rocker van." Connie grins.
"I heard Adam bought Britney, so don't complain." Annie shoots back with a friendly grin.
"Am I complaining? This is bliss." Connie replies.
"Amen." Charlie agrees.
"I also have a couple of stand-up comedy CD's somewhere, um, Bill Bailey, Phill Jupitus and Eddie Izzard…"
"I'm covered in Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!" Luis interjects cheerfully.
"Mark Lamarr, Sean Hughes…" Annie continues.
"That's a couple?" I ask with a laugh.
"Annie loves stand-up. Brit only though." Luis replies. "Don't forget all the soundtracks you brought. The Beach is fairly mellow."
"Any objections to mellow?" I ask, hoping that Charlie isn't going to demand we listen to something loud and aggressive to get the Britney/Banks on sugar/Julia being loud etc. out of his system.
There aren't so Annie puts it on, and once more there's silence in the van.
… Well, silence apart from Portman's resonating snore.
Connie moves restlessly in my arms. "I can't sleep. I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep. I need something to do."
I wiggle my eyebrows at her and she laughs.
"Not that." She amends. "It's too hot, and it's really unsociable."
Annie giggles watching our exchange. "I've got a book if you want, Cons."
"What is it?"
"Other Worldly, by Victoria Torrance. Brilliant new writer. However, I'm going to kick her ass if I ever meet her. So completely enthralling that I read it all yesterday."
"You were awake at some point yesterday?" Luis teases. "I'm sure you spent most of it slumped on my shoulder."
Annie ignores him and rummages in her bag for the book. "Don't lose the bookmark, it's my favourite." She says as she passes it to Connie.
I notice the bookmark is a photo of her and Luis. Connie and I grin at each other.
Connie moves to an empty seat and becomes quickly engrossed in the book.
"Thanks, Annie, now I've lost my girlfriend." I comment.
"Don't worry, Guy. I'll hug you!" Charlie grins at me.
"Thanks, Spazway. I feel special now."
"We could play twenty questions." Annie suggests.
"Thanks, but no thanks." I reply, and Charlie quickly backs me up.
**
"Ok, are you famous?" I sigh deeply. We've been playing for hours now. Not the game, just this round, and it's been far more than twenty questions. I look at Charlie who shrugs.
Connie is now halfway through her book, she hasn't looked up once since Annie gave it to her. I'm borrowing that book when Connie's done with it.
Annie is grinning like there's no tomorrow. "You've asked that before, and no, I'm not, but you do know me."
Fulton and Portman woke up about twenty minutes ago, and they haven't got a clue either. Even Luis is stumped.
"Praise the lord, we've arrived." Portman yells loudly as Luis follows the other van into a campsite.
"So you give up?" Annie asks.
"Quick re-hash." Says Charlie. "You're not famous, but well-known. Nobody knows you personally, you're neither ugly nor pretty, you're not a writer anything to do with movies, you're not a teacher, none of us will ever meet you but you know for a fact but we are aware of your existence."
Annie nods. "And just to help Luis out, I've been thinking the answer really loud for the past hour."
"Just tell us the answer!" I beg as Luis parks.
"I'm the call-waiting voice." Annie replies smugly. "You know, 'The number you have dialled is busy, please hold…' Cool or what?"
I hate her.
"Nice one." Luis grins at her.
"Thank you very much." She says in a very bad Elvis voice.
"Ok, let's go pitch some tents on some really pointy rocks." Fulton says with a sigh.
Charlie looks irritated by his lack of enthusiasm. "It'll be fun."
"Oh, it is fun." Fulton says hurriedly. "If we tent out, it means every gets kept awake by Portman's snoring, not just me."
I grin at Connie and offer her my hand as she gets out of the van. "You're with me tonight, right?"
She smiles. "Yeah, sorry for being a psycho earlier. It's just Julia…"
I cut her off with a kiss. "It's ok."
"Charlie!" Portman calls loudly. "I've found some really nasty looking rocks! Can we camp here?"
"Since when did you need permission to be camp?" Charlie shouts back.
Everyone is mad. And I kind of like it.
______________________________
Julie's POV By CharismaIt's about eleven pm and nobody is tired. Least of all Adam and Julia.
Yes, Adam eventfully forgave Julia for breaking his CD.
"Hey." Connie nudges me as she sits next to me, she glances around. "I'm sorry for being-"
A bitch? I mentally slap myself. I'm never that mean.
"No, it's ok." I cut her off. "You both never really got along from the first day you met, so what's different about now?"
"Yeah." She shrugs. "I just wanted to say sorry. Hope I didn't spoil your vacation."
Guy comes over as I'm about to answer.
"It's ok." I shift over so Guy can fit onto the log. "So I take it that you're sle-rooming together?"
"Yeah, if that's ok." Connie asks. I nod.
"It's freezing!" Peter complains. I roll my eyes at Connie and Guy. He's been complaining all night. Adam's too loud! Hamburgers are black! Bash lovers being too cuddly! Julia's too hyper! Connie and Guy too mushy! Charlie too…you get the idea.
"Would you quit complaining for at least two seconds?" Charlie snaps. Peter eyes get wide. Charlie rarely snaps at him. At least he's quiet for two seconds.
"You're mean!" He yells and storms off into the bushes.
"Someone should go after him." I comment. Charlie shoves his stick into the ground.
"He can look after himself." He throws the stick into the fire. I do feel bad for Charlie, but who can blame us for not wanting to spend our nights in the bushes.
I mean, we could at least sleep in the vans.
"Let's play truth or dare!" Adam yells coming out of nowhere with Julia on his back. Oddly enough I don't find it strange that they're both wet.
"We saw Peter on the way back." Julia climbs down from Adam's back and cheerfully waves at me. Adam follows suit.
"Yeah, Captain Duck and Midget had a little disagreement." Portman grins at Charlie who glares at the ground.
"You know what you need?" Adam asks cheerfully. Charlie looks up at him and shrugs irritated. "Fizzballs!"
"What?!" He exclaims as everyone breaks into laughter. "No. God. No I don't need fizzballs!"
"Yeah, no you don't. He picked those up from the floor of the van." Julia glances over his shoulder.
"I'm pretty tired of your so called joke. That one wasn't even funny." Charlie grabs the fizzballs out of Adam's hand and shoves them into his mouth. Julia grin grows wider.
"Actually, he did get them off the floor." Jesse says with a pained look on his face.
"I brushed the dirt off!" Adam defends. Charlie pauses and then swallows.
"I'm going to get Peter and we're going to play truth or dare." He says sending Julia an icy stare and storming off.
"What?" Julia asks. "I tried to warn him!"
"She did." Adam nods, drags Julia and sits next to Jesse. "She tried."
"-Yeah well I'm tired of your whining!" We hear Charlie arguing with Peter as they return.
"Then let me go first!" Peter shots back as he drops next to me. "Truth or dare Charlie?"
"Truth, no, dare." Charlie answers sitting across from him.
"I dare you let us all go back to our vans." Peter crosses his arms. Great. Now they're both at war, at least it's a change from Connie and Julia.
"I'm starting to-" Charlie takes a deep breath. "Why can't we just have some fun?"
"I'm up for it." Fulton raises his hand.
"Truth or dare?" Charlie asks. Fulton ponders for a while. He must be pretty comfortable in Portman's arms because he chooses truth.
"Do you remember that time we all had to take that maths test? And there were odd symbols on your arms?" Fulton slowly nods. "And you said you drew them to impress this girl-"
"You were trying to impress a girl?" Portman snorts, Fulton elbows him.
"Moron." He grins affectionately.
"Ahem!" Charlie clears his throat. "Were those the answers for the test?"
"You caught me out." Fulton grins and shrugs.
"Nice going!" Peter grins. "Did you pass?"
"Nah!" Fulton smirks. "Luis! Truth or dare?"
"Dare." He snuggles closer to Annie.
"I dare you kiss-"
"Truth!" Luis cuts him off. We all know what the next question will be anyway.
"So who do you like?" Fulton asks, mouthing the word 'spoilsport' to Portman, he nods in agreement. I hug my knees to my chest as we wait for him to answer.
"Nobody." Luis shrugs. "Eliza Dushku."
"Just say you like Annie already and get a room." Terry sighs.
"Okay. I like Annie." We all smile knowingly at each another. "But not like that."
"We may as well give up." Portman grunts. "They'll be in their sixties and acting couply like, refusing to admit they like each another."
"Whatever!" Annie laughs tiredly. She closes her eyes and leans onto Luis. "We're best friends."
"Yeah we are." Luis grins down at her. If somebody doesn't say something, they'll go into their world and we won't be able to get them back.
"Oi!" Adam calls out. "Truth dare someone."
"Truth or dare Bankise."
"Dare!" Adam jumps up. "Name it, I'll do it."
"Errm." Luis thinks deeply. "Do three cartwheels in your underwear."
Annie opens her eyes and grins.
We all hoot and laugh as he strips his clothes off and falls headfirst into the dirt on his first cartwheel.
"Two more!" I call out. He blows me a kiss and does two more. Now he's covered in dirt, shivering and has the giggles.
"Put on some clothes or you'll catch a cold." Charlie grins tossing him his tee-shirt.
"Thanks." He sneers. He pulls his top over his head and turns to Terry. "Truth or dare Terry?"
"Truth."
"When was your first kiss and what was it like?" Adam asks with a wide grin on his face. It's probably was the most sexist thing he could think of.
"That's two." Terry says in a quiet voice. Adam re-thinks.
"What was your first kiss like then?"
"Well." He shuffles his feet. "I haven't…er…quite had my first kiss yet."
Adam doubles over laughing. Terry glares and stalks off.
"That wasn't nice." Jesse snaps standing up.
"I thought he was joking!" Adam tries to contain his laughter.
"Well it wasn't a joke!" Jesse gives everyone a disgusted look. "Have you forgotten ducks stick together?"
Adam shrugs as Jesse leaves.
"That wasn't really nice." Connie frowns at Adam.
"Give me a break. You all had a good laugh at me." He sits back next to Julia, at least he looks a bit guiltily. Julia gives him a pat on the back.
"I'll go find him." Adam jumps up, pulls on his shoes and walks into the bushes.
"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they got lost." Julia comments. "I better go and make sure they don't get lost."
"And I'll come to make sure they don't kill you." I grin at Julia.
"Wait, I'll come too." Annie crawls out of Luis's arms. "If we get lost, I can just use ESP."
"Smart thinking." Julia nods and slides her arm through mine. "Let's go."
Before we know it, everybody decided they want to come, except Luis who is dead to the world. We all trample through the bushes.
"Should we spilt up?" Guy asks. We all shake our heads.
"Jesse!" Portman bellows. Out all of us, Portman has the most loud and deepest voice.
"Yeah?" Jesse yells from our right. We all turn and there Jesse and Terry are. Adam lunges forward and grabs Terry into a huge bear hug.
"Sorry man. I didn't mean to laugh." He says as he releases him. He shrugs and looks away.
"Hey, I'm eighteen and I'm a virgin." Annie grins.
"And I've never kissed a girl either." Fulton laughs. Portman socks him in the arm.
Pretty soon we're all swapping our disastrous love lives.
And Jesse says ducks don't stick together?
I say they do. Even the non ducks.