Chapter 3:
The next day Gina woke up at seven. She showered and dressed in a denim pleated skirt and a white v neck t shirt. She slid on her converse and made her way to the kitchen. She had planned to take two days and give them all the tourist sites. Then they could all plan out things to do. Tomorrow night they had the show and she was going to take them to Ronnie's, her dad's restaurant. She found her mom in the kitchen starting to make muffins, and breads and other baked goods for breakfast. She looked at the clock and saw that it was seven thirty. "Hi mom." She greeted.
"Hi honey. So you think your friends will like pancakes?"
"Sure." She shrugged taking a muffin.
"If you guys are going to catch the nine thirty six train, you should wake them up. Then they could have a nice breakfast and shower and such." Her mom suggested.
Gina smiled evilly as she walked up the stairs, she use to have to wake her brothers up for school. She decided to start with Greg. She had stuck a camera in her pocket for when they went to the city and she decided to get a few practice shots off. She walked into Greg and Nick's room first. Nick had gotten the bottom bunk and since there was no good black male position for him she decided he could be in on it. He was sleeping in just pajama bottoms with on leg under the sheets and one leg on top of the sheets. She leaned over and gently nudged him. He opened his eyes slowly and was about to say something when she put a finger to his lips shushing him. Since she wouldn't be able to with everyone awake she leaned in and gave him a short kiss. She then hauled herself onto the edge of his bed and looked over at Greg. He was wearing a t shirt and pajama bottoms and had the sheets kicked off except he was holding a corner of one of the sheets with his hand and his other hand was up to his face, his thumb tucked securely between his lips. Nick peeked up and had to stifle a laugh. She quickly snapped a picture and ducked incase he woke up. When he didn't move she looked over and he was still asleep. She leaned down and made a silent laugh before moving up. She climbed up the bottom side of the bad and held on with one hand. She waved for Nick to move back before showing her fingers. 1 2 3. "WAKEY WAKEY!" she yelled. Greg jolted awake, rolling off the bed, and landing on the floor with a thud. "Time to rise and shine. Breakfast in five minutes." She said with a smile closing the door and moving on to her next victim.
She peeked into the girls room and heard singing. She moved to Catherine and it wasn't her. So she nudged her awake and moved to Sara. There was a soft song coming from her. "The thunder rolls and the lightning strikes." She sang.
Catherine and Gina snickered at her Garth Brooks song. Catherine woke her up. Then she looked at Gina. "Another love grows cold, on a sleepless night." They sang.
Sara looked at Catherine. "I was doing it again wasn't I?" She said leaning up on her elbows. Catherine nodded. "Damn." She said shaking her head.
"Breakfast in five." Gina said. "You get Griss, I'll get Warrick." She said to Catherine. They nodded and left for the rooms.
Gina walked in and saw Warrick in pajama bottoms and a wife beater. She didn't see anything worth wile for black mail until she got closer. All nicely tucked under the covers with him was a stuffed tiger. She snapped a picture and when the flash went off his eyes fluttered open. He looked at her with the camera as she did a little wave and then looked down to see his tiger. His eyes got big and he flew out of the bed. Gina let out a scream and took off giggling all the way.
"Give it." Warrick yelled.
"No." She yelled running down the stairs. He chased her all around the house until she saw Nick. She ran and jumped into his arms hiding the camera. "Save me." She said.
"I dunno, he's bigger than me." He teased. Gina saw him coming up to them quickly and threw Nick a pout. "Ok." He said. As he and Warrick began to play fight, as they often did.
"Breakfast." Her mom called from downstairs.
"Food?" Warrick asked.
"Truce?" Nick asked back.
"For now." He said. He threw a finger at Gina, "I'll get you later." He said making his way down stairs.
Nick threw on a shirt and then went downstairs to get food.
After breakfast they all showered, using the bathroom downstairs and Gina's bathroom. When they were ready they hit the city and spent all day looking at the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and Gina took them to Ray's for lunch. Ray's has the best pizza in the entire world and they all agreed. They spent the rest of the day in times square and she took them to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. And they all got to take pictures with some of the wax statues. Greg of course had to take a picture with Jessica Simpson and he pretended to grab her butt. When it began to get dark they went to Grand Central to get the train home. They train was pretty empty and so they took one five seater and one four seater by the door.
"I think we should go over plans for Monday." Gina said. "It might rain, so if it does there's this mall called the Palisades. It's a huge mall with a movie theater and imax and such. We could also go to the Jersey Science Museum, it's very hands on things to do." She shrugged but everyone like the idea. "Also on Tuesday, there is a jazz convention going on, and a bug seminar or something at NYU. The two are pretty close to each other so if we want to split up we can." She said knowing Grissom would want to go to the seminar. They decided to go to the Palisades on Monday and Sara and Grissom wanted to got to the bug thing and the rest liked the jazz idea.
The next morning they went back to the city and went to shops and other sites they didn't see yesterday. They went to Grays Papaya for lunch and had the best hot dogs in the world, except for Sara who had the best papaya smoothie. After a couple more hours of touring the made there way to Broadway and to Ronnie's. They were seated at a large table and ate there free meal. Gina gave her dad a kiss on the cheek as they walked out and made their way to the theater. Gina was seated in between Greg and Nick.
"And that's why Britney is better than Christina." Greg said, making his point.
"You are the biggest nerd ever." Nick said returning to his playbill.
Gina let out a laugh and the man in front of her, with the baseball hat, turned around. Once he was sure it was her he spoke up. "I'd recognize that laugh anywhere." He said.
Gina looked at him. "Joey." She said leaning over and giving him a hug. "What have you been up to?" She asked.
"Doing a little acting. I heard you became a scientist." He said.
"Yeah, out in Vegas." She said.
"Rock on. How's your family?"
"There good. You? I hear you have a daughter?"
"Yeah, she's two now." She turned to the woman next to her. "This is Kelly, my fiancé." He introduced.
"It's nice to meet you." Gina said shaking her hand.
"You too." She smiled.
The lights dimmed. "During intermission, we should exchange numbers." He said.
"Definitely." She said sitting back in her seat as the music started.
intermission
"That's my new cell number." She said handing him the piece of paper.
"And that's mine. So how long are you back for?" He asked.
"Two weeks. My coworkers and I are taking a trip together." She said. "I totally forgot. This is Nick and Greg. Guys this is Joey and Kelly." She introduced.
"Ooo, your mom would beat you." Joey teased her about forgetting her manners.
"Shut up." She said back
"So, are you still dancing?"
"From time to time." She said.
The lights blinked. "Call me tomorrow night after ten. I'll get you guys tickets to my show."
Gina smiled. "Ok, thanks."
"Give my regards to your parents." He said.
"You too." She said back.
The next morning Gina woke up at eight to an overcast sky. She opened her window and was hit with a strong breeze. "Definitely going to storm today." She said to herself. She walked down to the kitchen to see a note on the counter along with two envelopes.
Gina,
I had to leave early this morning for work. It's suppose to rain today, so I thinks it's a good idea to take them to the Palisades. I don't want you to be driving a long way today so that's closer than the Science Museum. If you do go there I need you to pick up a lamp from Gloria's and a printer cartridge from Comp USA. Your father and I won't be home for dinner so you're all on your own. You got mail yesterday, I left it there for you. I will see you later.
Love Mom.
Gina picked up the two papers. One was a letter from one of her friends, and the other was a flyer from Sound Factory. "Ladies night. Free drinks till one." She read out loud. She put the flyer back down and went upstairs to her room. She dialed up her friend from the other night and waited for her to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Gina."
"Hey girl, what's up?" She asked.
"Nothing. I was thinking about what you said, and I definitely want to do it." She said.
"Alright. I'm glad because if you didn't we would've had to find someone else and that would have been a pain in the ass. This is gonna be so cool." She said excitement ozzing out of her voice. "Just like old times."
"Yeah." Gina smiled. "Listen I think I hear them waking up." She said as she heard steps coming to the door. "I'll call you when I get back to Vegas."
"Ok, and I'll tell you when it starts once we figure it out." She said. They said their goodbyes and hung up.
There was a knock on her door and she opened it to find Greg, Nick, and Warrick on the other side. "Hi." She said.
"Hi." They said walking in.
She left the door open and followed them into her room. "So what's the plans for today?" Greg said flopping stomach side down on her bed flipping through a magazine. Warrick and Nick were looking at her picture wall.
"I figure we would go to the mall today." All three guys groaned. "It's a huge mall, with a huge arcade room too." She said. Hearing the words huge and arcade in the same sentence made the boys perk up.
"Are there any night places around here?" Warrick said spinning in her computer chair.
"As a matter of fact, I got a flyer free drinks for ladies til one, it's a big club in the city. Three floors." She said plopping down next to Greg.
They all nodded and marked it as a good idea. "My neck hurts."
"That's cause you walked around the city all day looking up." Nick teased.
"Lay flat." Gina said pushing him down from leaning on his elbows. She climbed over him and sat on his butt. She leaned forward and began massaging her hands into his shoulders and the base of his neck. Ten minutes later Nick and Warrick were still in awe that she was straddling Greg on her bed. "Better?" She said climbing off.
"Oh my God." He said sitting up. "Where did you learn to do that." He said feeling much better.
"Just something I picked up a while ago." She said.
"I'm next." Warrick said moving over to the bed as Greg sat in his chair. "You owe me from the other morning." He said. She sighed as she straddled him. "Oh, and can you work between the shoulders, I've been really tense there."
She smiled as she brought her hand up attempting to smack him, but she moved her hands down and began her magic. Fifteen minutes went by before the other three came up to her room. Catherine was the first to walk in and saw Gina sitting on top of Warrick. "Are we interrupting?" She said with a smile.
"No, he's done." She said climbing off.
"Wow, you are good." He said standing up.
"What's on the agenda?" Catherine said crossing her legs on the bed. Everyone jumped when a loud clap of thunder shook the room. "Hopefully it doesn't involve going outside." She muttered.
"It's only suppose to last through the day. So I think we should go to the Palisades. We could shop, go to a movie, have lunch."
"And they have an arcade." Greg shouted out.
They decided it was a good idea. "How are we going to work showers?" Sara asked.
"Us girls can shower up here and you guys can have the bathroom downstairs." Gina said. Everyone left and Gina showered and dressed. When she came out of the bathroom Catherine and Sara were in her room. Sara went in next as Gina got her things together and went to the kitchen. She made bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich's for everyone, one minus the bacon, and set them out when everyone was down stairs. When they finished they took Gina's mom's car, the suburban, or the boat as Gina use to call it. The group let Nick take the front seat hoping that given the opportunity he would make the move on Gina.
When they got there they all made plans to meet in the food court in four hours for lunch. Grissom headed over to the IMAX, Greg Warrick and Nick went to the arcade, and Catherine Sara and Gina headed for clothes stores to find something to wear for the club. They all met up for lunch and they decided to all go shopping together since Sara and Catherine were the only ones with outfits for the night.
When they were in the Mens Warehouse Catherine picked something out for Warrick, Sara picked something for Grissom, and Gina took care of Greg and Nick. "So now Gina is the only one without something?" Catherine asked.
"We'll fix that." Greg said wrapping his arm around hers. They walked into Bang Bang, a store that sold mostly club type outfits. Greg picked out something sexy for her, and she bought it for lack of anything else. They decided to head home and chill for a while before they left for the city.
Since this was labeled as a bonding trip the group decided to take turns asking questions that they wouldn't necessarily know about each other Each person was asked a couple questions and then they moved onto the next person. "Yes, I have one of a flower on my ankle." Sara said of her tattoo. "I got it done in college."
"What about you Gina, any tattoo's?" Sara asked when she was asked her last question.
"One on my hip." She said keeping her eyes on the road.
"What is it?" Warrick asked curiously.
"A black outline of a star." She said.
"How many piercing's do you have?" Grissom asked.
Gina mentally counted. "Eleven. Nine in my ears, my belly button, and my eyebrow." She counted them off.
"Witch hurt more, tattoo or you belly button?" Sara asked. She was thinking about getting hers done.
"Belly button." She said.
When they got home they rain was still pouring down. They all went into the living room part of Gina's room and sat down. They flipped through the channels but there was nothing good on. "What about twister?" Greg said looking at the stack of games Gina had.
With lack of anything else to do they all agreed. "I have a bad back, so I'll spin." Grissom said. Once they had the mat set up Gina put on one of her mix cd's and Grissom called the first order. "Right foot red." He called out. "Left foot blue." Five minutes later the six people were all tangled up. Greg was on the bottom, Gina did a bridge over him, and Nick was on top of her. Catherine had one leg between Warricks and an arm wrapped around Greg. Warrick was bending over Catherine, and Sara had fallen on the last turn. "Right hand green." Grissom called out. Greg fell and carefully untangled himself from the group. Nick realized that in order to reach green he would have to go between Gina's legs. He carefully did and Greg couldn't help but laugh.
"Shut it Sanders." He yelled, his face turning bright red.
"Left hand yellow." He called out. There was a bunch of groans from the four.
"I'm gonna kill you Greg." Gina called out, after all it was he who picked the game.
Catherine lost her footing bringing Warrick down with her. They laughed as they stepped aside and watched the two. "Maybe we should leave them be and they might get the hint." She whispered to Warrick.
"I know, he should just tell her already." He agreed.
"Are you talking about me?" Gina said from her tangled position on the mat.
"Of corse not dear." Catherine lied.
"Left foot blue." Grissom called out, laughing at the anticipation of them trying to put their left foot on the blue circle.
Nick slipped and pushed Gina down landing on top of her, causing Gina to fall with an "umph."
Nick rolled off quickly as Gina rolled to her side, clutching her stomach and laughing. "You alright?" He said.
"Yeah. You're not so light you know." She joked. He laughed helping her up. Gina looked at the clock. "We should get ready if we want to go out." She said. The boys headed down stairs and the girls got ready in Gina's room.
"Explain to me." Catherine said as she fixed the zipper on her leather pants. Sara was in the bathroom changing and Gina was at her vanity doing her make up, where Catherine was not to long ago. "How is it that you and Nick joined the mile high club, and yet now you two act like nothing happened?"
"You saw that?" Gina blushed and Catherine nodded. "Nothing happened." She looked in the mirror at Catherine and saw the look she was being given. "I'm serious. I went in and kissed him. Then he kissed me back, and we were about to but he stopped."
"Why?"
"He said he wanted to take it slow. He didn't want us to do something we would regret." She said. "I'm telling you I don't think he likes me like that."
"He does, believe me. He's just a big ball of nerves." Catherine said. They both stood up, done with getting ready and faced each other. Catherine was wearing black leather pants, a funky patterned low cut tank top, which looked really good on her, and black high hell boots. She curled her hair let it go all kinky. She added a drop necklace, and matching earrings. Gina was wearing a short, short, black skirt and a silver shirt that had a low neck line and no back. The way it stayed on was by lacing it around the back. She had knee high black boots and also curled her hair, pinning a few strands back and leaving a few around her face. She topped it off by using silver glitter eye shadow and sprinkled glitter in her hair. The gave a single nod approval as Sara came out of the bathroom.
"I'm ready." She said.
Catherine and Gina looked at each other. They knew now that she wasn't lying about never going out. "That skirt looked shorter in the store." Gina said.
"I got the longer one." Sara said. The skirt came to her knee.
"And the shirt?" Catherine questioned.
"What?" She was wearing a burgundy button up shirt. The two girls looked at her shoes and they weren't that bad. The had a three inch heel and they laced up. They were shoes, so they didn't go passed her ankle, but they were cute.
"You get the skirt I'll find a shirt." Catherine said moving to Gina's closet.
Gina fell to her knees and began pinning up Sara's skirt, folding it under and using safety pins to hold it. "Not to short." Sara begged. "Cath, we're not exactly the same size." She said.
"You're only taller, because you have longer legs. I'm very muscular, so I'm not that small. She'll find you something." Gina mumbled with pins in between her lips.
Catherine came up to Sara with a black halter top. "It's stretchy." She said. Gina finished with the skirt. It wasn't as short as hers but it was shorter that it was. Sara went into the bathroom and threw on the halter top. She came out and Catherine went to work on her hair while Gina did her make up. Gina put on black eye liner and light brown eye shadow, and a dark red lip stick. Catherine pulled Sara's hair into a low bun and left a few pieces out in front and gave them a little wave.
"Oh yeah." Gina said giving Catherine a high five.
"Now you're ready." Catherine commented. Gina grabbed a long black pea coat from her closet and put it on. "Isn't it a little hot to be wearing that?" Catherine questioned.
"I want to surprise him." She said. "Besides it's a little windy out." The jacket was long enough that it covered slightly past her skirt.
The other girls threw on their jackets and headed down stairs. The guys were waiting by the door. They saw the ladies come down but they couldn't see their outfits, except for Sara's skirt and Catherine's leather pants. Warrick took Catherine's arm and walked out to the car. It had stopped raining but it was still cold and windy.
"Yeah Sara." Greg said adding a whistle.
She slowly turned to him. "You make one comment Sanders and it will be your last." She smiled evilly before taking Grissom's arm and walking out.
"Yes ma'am." He said. He looked at Gina and wasn't sure if he should make a comment.
She caught this. "Eat your heart out." She said turning one leg in and placing her hands on her knees, blowing a kiss.
"Ow ow." Greg hollered and whistled. Gina took booth arms of Nick and Greg.
When they got to the club they had to wait twenty minutes to get in. Everyone thought that was long but Gina thought it was actually short. They were online to check there coats and bags. Catherine and Sara removed their coats, and the boys were most shocked at Sara in a revealing top and short skirt. When it was Gina's turn they all waited in anticipation since her coat was longer than her outfit. When she removed her coat all four boys gawked at her choice in clothing, or lack there of. "You're drooling." She said as she passed Greg and went into the club.
Warrick and Greg looked at Nick and then each other, thinking that if he wasn't going to get her they wouldn't mind having a shot. Speaking of, the first thing they did after they found a table was order a round of shots. Gina tipped Nicks head to the side. "What are you doing?" He yelled over the music.
"Don't move." She said as she seductively ran her tongue along the side of his neck. The others watched in awe at what she was doing, and Nick tried his hardest to pretend it didn't phase him. She poured the salt on and then took the lime and placed it between his lips so that the juice part was facing out. She winked at Catherine and then took her shot in one hand. She licked the salt off swallowed the shot and then took the lime with her mouth and slowly sucked on it. 'So Emotional' by Carl Thomas and Faith Evans came through the speakers interrupting the techno music. "Come dance with me Nicky." She said getting up. Catherine and Greg had gone off to dance and Sara and Grissom agreed not to dance, together.
"I'm not a very good dancer." He said.
"Please Nicky, it's a really good song." She begged with a pout. He shook his head nervously. She sighed and turned to Warrick, giving him a look. He nodded as she took his hand. He shook his head at Nick before following her to the dance floor. She pressed her back to him and began to grind her hips to his. The two moved like one. When one would do a move the other knew how to react to it. Catherine, who was dancing next to them saw this and wondered why the hell Nick wasn't out here with her. Half way through the song Gina turned around and slung an arm around Warrick's neck while his hands were going up and down her sides. She was giving up on Nick. He said he wanted to take it slow but if he wanted to act like nothing happened, then she would do the same.
Four hours later the group left the club and made their way to the train station to catch the train home. Since Gina made up her mind not to pursue Nick she had a little more to drink than everyone else. They were a block away from the train station when Gina almost tripped. Luckily Warrick was already helping her walk and caught her. Nick was walking along side and took her other arm to help her steady. She tore her arm away from her. "Not you." She said.
Warrick helped her down the ramp and onto the train. When they were seated She pulled her knees to her chest and covered herself fully by placing her coat backwards over herself. She placed her head on Warricks shoulder and fell asleep to the gentle sway of the train.