A/N: Thank yous to Dawnie-7 and Esmeralda Sparrow, my lovely reviewers. This chappie's a half Mort half Mort's story one, but a little bit of Mort goes a long long way.

xx

Chapter Four: The New Story

Mort closes the laptop. That was enough new story for now, he'd write again, should he have inspiration, in a while. But for now, Clementine was making lunch. Mort hears her coming up the stairs.

"PB&J for you Mr. Rainey," she says, smiling and putting down sandwiches before Mort. "Got to keep your strength up, writing's a difficult job. So, tell me more about this new story of yours." She picks up one of Mort's sandwiches and begins to eat. Mort does the same.

"Well, Barkley, Venice and Icing are all siblings, and Phoenix, Harley and Levi are all siblings, and they're cousins, and Phoenix, Harley and Levi's mom died and Barkley, Venice and Icing's mom is out of the country at the minute, on a cruise. And they're going on a road trip from Dallas, where they live, to California and Disneyland, and to Hollywood then Las Vegas and back to Texas. And they're followed by this guy. They're travelling intwo different cars following eachother and one of the cars disappears, and the others think nothing of it because they've probably just come off at the wrong junction, and then when they do meet up, one of the ones who got lost before is missing, probably Levi. And the guys that didn't get lost thought Levi was with the guys that did get lost, and they thought Levi was with them. Am I making any sense?"

"A bit. Is that as far as you've thought out yet?" Clementine takes another bite.

"Yeah," Mort admits.

"So, you're not sure yet why this guy is following them, is he killing them?" she asks.

"Yeah, I think in the end I'm only gonna have one left, and I'll leave it so the reader assumes they die too." Clementine nods her head in thought.

"I think it's good. It's different to what you've done before, you haven't done teen stuff before right?"

"No, but change is good, its, experimental," says Mort, looking down at the empty plate and wondering how Clementine could eat so much peanut butter and jelly in one sitting. "What are you writing at the minute?"

"Writer's block," explains Clementine. "I'm sure something will turn up, and then I'll give even your good story a run for its money."

"Nah uh, I don't think so Mrs. Rainey," says Mort, leaning in for a kiss. Clementine kisses him.

"Well then, we'll just have to wait and see who gets this Christmas' number one spot," she says. "And it won't be you Morton."

"If it's not me then it won't be you," says Mort.

"Oh, so we're using fighting talk now are we?"

"Yes. And talking of beating you to the number one, I'd better get writing," says Mort, reloading his saved document. Clementine huffs and turns on her own laptop. Mort begins to type.

It didn't take long to get to the Arizona boarder, and Icing was thankful, for as much as she loved Phoenix's eclectic music taste, she couldn't put up with it for much longer, and she gave Levi back that pleasure. Another state line, and another state line photo, in fact, another round of state line photos because everyone had a camera, and Phoneix was in charge of the video diary.

"Arizona has got all the Indian Reservations in it, hasn't it?" Venice asks from the middle seat of the car, Icing was driving.

"Yeah, I think," she replies.

"I remember doing all about them at school, in performing arts," says Venice.

"Sounds posh," says Icing, switching lanes on the highway and sending Venice sprawled about the middle seat.

"We didn't do anout the reservations though, but we watched this film with Kevin Costner in it, um, something about wolves and they had all the teepee's and everything, it was really good," babbles Venice.

"Venice," comes Barkley's gruffer voice from the passenger seat. "I'm trying to sleep, shut up." Venice pulls a face behind his back.

"Did we bring the portable DVD player?"