Thursday afternoon, 12:15 p.m. (Pacific Time)-

-Molly Phillips Tour Bus-

-Jack and Carey's Room-

Carey was sitting cross-legged, leaning against the bottom bunk of the twin bunks in the room. His bed to be exact. He was busy stringing is guitar yet once again. "Geez, what are these guitar string made of," he said, picking up the box of guitar string that Molly had given him. "They don't hold anything," he said, frustrated. Truth be told, Carey was actually more frustrated about how the song was coming along than stringing his guitar but it was getting dangerously close on who he could blame more. He hadn't been able to get pass the 2nd bar since before Molly had made the announcement that she was going to be

interviewed by Sayer's Magazine.

He'd inwardly thanked god when she had done so. It had given him a break from the balking task of finishing the song. But once the moment had passed, he had to get back to finishing the song. He had promised he'd have it finished for tomorrow's set but the way things were looking, he clearly doubted if he'd even have the second bar done by tomorrow.

He gave up as he finished stringing his guitar and placed it on the bed next to him. He just stared at the notes he had written on the liner bars and groaned with inner frustration. So much with becoming a songwriter, he thought. He even re-read the lyrics he had written.

She smiles at the world

Keeping things insight

She only has to face

The inner strife

She has endured

As oceans turn

To inner surf

Okay, so it was a bit corny but he was working on it. So that at least that made him feel better. At least for a minute anyways.

He decided he needed a break, to at least let his brain relax. He had been working on the song for a whole week and he needed some major relaxation. He hadn't been able to sleep all week, driving poor Jack crazy. He smiled at himself, as he remembered how annoyed Jack had been last night when the muse had struck him and he had felt the need to continue writing the song. It had been around 2 a.m. and Jack had practically creamed him in the pillow fight that ensued, which ended with Molly coming in and asking what all the racquet was about.

That had made Carey get some sleep since the moment had passed for his creative flow to continue. So he'd just given up and settled in his bunk bed. The morning hadn't been any better, with him waking up late and almost missing breakfast, his favorite meal of the day if it weren't for lunch or dinner. Which reminded him, when were they going to stop for lunch.

He started to rise from the floor when the bus came to a slow and steady stop. "Hmm, good. Dad didn't forget about lunch," he said as he bounded out of the room and headed for the kitchen.

There were Annie and Jack at the table, trying to decide what they wanted to eat from the Burger Hut as his dad tried to decide what everyone else was saying.

"I want a Super large Burger Bale without onions," said Annie.

"Make that two," said Jack, as he looked at Annie. She just blushed. Wait a minute, thought Carey, she'd been doing that a lot lately. He may have been too involved in writing his song but he wasn't dead. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that Annie had a crush on Jack. He just smiled at himself.

"I'd like some nachos with lots of cheese," said Molly from her spot in the sofa across from Jack and Annie. "And three cokes, and two Sprites."

"Hey Carey," said Jack. "What do you want to eat? We haven't finished taking the orders yet."

"Yeah Carey, hurry up. From what I can see, we got the lunch hour traffic here. Try driving with a big tour bus through the drive-thru in this town," said Ned, jokingly.

"Yeah Carey. What'd you like," said his mom.

"Umm, I'd like a Super Cheeseburger with the works and some Hawaiian fries."

"Eww, Carey," said Annie, making a disgusted face. "I didn't know anyone actually liked those things. I thought they were made to torture uncooperative witnesses."

"Very funny Annie," cracked Carey as he headed towards the front of the bus to help his dad with the order.

Once the orders had been taken and done, Ned got on the interstate as everyone got their orders and dug into them. Carey sat next to Annie and started chowing down.

"Hmm, yeah..... good fries....," he said as he saw Annie's face. He loved teasing her. "They're so good," he taunted, fishing the fries in front of her.

Jack just laughed and kept on eating while Molly and Irene took a break from business to eat. Next thing they saw was a sign to Seattle saying "Seattle, 80 miles."

Good, thought Jack, we're almost there.

Carey's break was interrupted when Annie asked him how his song was coming along. "Let's just say, If I died a hundred years from now, I doubt the song would be done."

At this Molly looked up. "Having trouble with your song, Carey?"

"Yeah Molly, I can't seem to get past the second bar. I don't think I'll have it ready for tomorrow."

"Why don't you show it to me and see if we can make any sense out of it."

"Well, yeah. Thanks Molly."

"No problem Carey," she said, "I know what it's like when you get songwriter's block. We'll just look at it once we're done with lunch."

"Okay."

With that, Carey inwardly felt a sigh a relief. At least he wouldn't be alone with the song anymore.