Motel 37
Chapter 2:
Immediately after hearing the good news, the boys rushed off back to their houses to pack. Of course, Yami stayed at the Game Shop, because that was his house… but I digress. Marik and Yami finished packing extremely quickly, but they ended up having to wait for Bakura. He didn't know whether or not to bring his yellow sandals or his blue sandals. Ryou always spoiled his yami with gifts that he really didn't need and therefore his closet was full with clothes and shoes… and a pair of high heels that everyone decided not to question him on.
Eventually, after waiting an hour or two, Marik and Yami came over to help out.
"C'mon, man, you can't take all these shoes!" Marik said, comparing the black sneakers with the white tennis shoes. He lifted them up to Yami, "Eh, I can't tell which ones would look better. What do you think, Pharaoh?"
"That depends on what shirt he wants to wear the first night. The one with blue strips or the wife-beater. Then of course, the pants would have to-"
"I'm gonna go the with the khaki. Ryou says it brings out my eyes."
"…" They stared at him for a minute.
"Oh, shut up!" Bakura blushed, "I'm just saying what he said! Ugh… screw the clothes, I'll go naked if I have to!"
"…"
"Stop looking at me like that!"
Yami put the other clothes into Bakura's suitcase and closed it, "Alright already, can we just go? Grandpa is probably already in the van right now, so we'd best not keep him waiting."
The other two nodded and they all dragged their separate suitcases out of the house and onto the porch. Sure enough Grandpa had the large, orange van parked right out on the curb. It was quiet an eyesore and looked like a large traffic cone meant to block the streets.
He smiled brightly and waved to them, a signal to put their things in the back of the van. As they did so, Grandpa turned his attention back to the cell phone he had between his shoulder and his ear. "… Oh, yes, Yugi, that's right."
"Aw, Grandpa… you told them early? We wanted it to be a surprise…!" Yugi whined from the other end of the line. He had been hopping that the yamis wouldn't figure it out till the last minute, but truth be told, he was more excited that upset.
The old man scratched his head, "Well, I'm sorry, but Marik and Bakura were giving me that look… You know, the one that says 'I'm gonna hang you without probable cause'."
"Ah ha ha ha! I guess that's a good enough excuse. What are they doing now?"
Grandpa turned around, "Hold on, I'll- Oh! Bakura, get down from there! Marik, you leave Yami's puzzle alone! Um… Yugi, I have to deal with something, I'll talk to you later!"
"Alright, bye Gr-"
Bleep Bleep Bleep…
Before Yugi even finished his sentence, Grandpa clicked the button on his cell phone and put it in his back pocket. The yamis were restless and thus decided to take it out on one another. It took about fifteen minutes to get them situated and once he did, he got into the driver's seat and started the engine.
It wasn't more than five minutes later when Yami got bored and began to sing, "1000 bottles of juice on the wall, 1000 bottles of juice! You take one down, pass it around, 999 bottles of juice on the wall! 999 bottles of juice on the wall, 999 bottles of-"
"Stop that!" Marik shouted.
"… Why? I heard it on TV and it sounded like fun." Yami said matter-of-factly. He turned his face and continued singing.
Marik plugged his ears with his index fingers, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening! La la la!"
Bakura rolled his eyes as the other two boys fought. He leaned his head on the window and looked up into the cloudy sky. It'd been slightly gray all morning and into the early afternoon, but now they were shifting melodically. The palm trees swayed in the breeze as the drove down the lane and little pieces of paper rustled along the gutters, people scurrying into their homes.
"Hey, gramps." Bakura called up to the old man, who was bopping his head to sound of Marik and Yami arguing, "I think it's going to start raining soon."
"Hmm? Oh, that's okay, Bakura. We'll be at the airport in a little less than a hour. No little drizzle is going to interfere with that."
Meanwhile, a five star hotel called the 'Chilly Water Resort' was all up in lights. The beacons flashing for no particular reason but it gave the five star palace a more royal look, bringing business from all over the Northern hemisphere. The sky was bright and the early evening sun was casting an unbelievable glow on the water.
Up on one of the highest floors, in room 523 were three hikaris in good spirits about everything that had gone on in the past three days.
"Malik, I cannot believe you've gotten reservations at the Chilly Water Resort!" Ryou squealed loudly as he bounced on his bed. It really was too big for just one boy, but then all the beds were queen size and he couldn't believe how big their suite was. The view of the Jacuzzis downstairs were amazing and beyond that was nothing but white sand and a sparkling ocean. It was his, and the other boy's, dream vacation.
The blonde grinned and examined his nails, "Well, you know how I do… It was easy, really."
Yugi looked up from the room service menu he was looking at on his bed, "Yeah. But how did you manage it? This is great! You must be in good with the manager or something."
"Ha ha! Kinda. You see, his wife comes to me for all her clothing needs… and I've never charged her. So, I figured she kind of owed me."
Ryou grabber the remote from his bedside table and turned the television on. It'd been almost two days since he'd seen any of his talk shows. That includes Oprah, Jerry Springer and the Maury show. He was dieing by this time. As he watched the screen, Yugi took out his cell phone.
"Yugi…" Malik eyed him, "What are you doing…?"
"Eh heh heh… Well, Malik, c'mon, don't you want to know how they're doing? I'm basically just checking to make sure Grandpa hasn't gone over a waterfall or something… I mean, he is driving three yamis and their more than likely to be rowdy and restless, don't you think?"
"Mmm. Yeah, I guess." Was all he said and then began speaking to Ryou about something that was happening on Oprah.
Yugi smiled and dialed the seven numbers on the phone. He waited as the phone rang once, twice, and then three times but no one answered. After ten rings, he hung up and put it down, "Hmm. Maybe their caught in traffic or something."
"No answer?" Ryou and Malik asked in unison.
"Nope. Oh well, I-" He was cut off by a bleeping sound that came from the TV. The screen turned to a weather station and Ryou gave a little pout, signifying his anger about them interrupting Oprah.
"… And on the northern coast, we have a hurricane watch. It's raining heavily and debris will certainly be flying around at about 75 mph. All residents are to stay exactly where they are. The hurricane watch will be active until midday Saturday. And now, the lottery numbers!"
The boys blinked and looked at each other, "…"
In the past half hour, the streets had turned from clean and bright, to flooded and mucky. The sky was a dark gray and it was raining cats and dogs. The wind was blowing harshly and worst of all the van that was once bounding down the road, was now stuck in the mud. The brown, deep, sticky mud and I'll give you one guess who was trying to get it out.
As Grandpa shoved the back of the large van yet again, he yelled up to the boys inside, "Okay, boys! Start the engine!"
"Starting…!" Bakura was at the wheel, his foot on the gas and one of his hands was on the steering wheel. The van moved and was almost out of the mud. He turned to Marik, "Tell the old guy to push harder. We've been doing this for fifteen minutes and if he doesn't put some muscle into, we'll be stuck here."
"You guys!" Yami called to them, sticking his head between the two front seats, "Shouldn't we be out there helping him? I mean, instead of sitting in here, in the nice warmth, while he's in the rain and-"
"If you wanna complain, then we'll sit you out there with him!" Marik growled.
"The man's over sixty, for Ra's sake!"
Bakura rolled his eyes and his ears perked up as he heard Grandpa calling out for some assistance. He grinned and turned on the radio, the volume way too high. "Sorry! I can't hear you!" He said and sat back to listen to the radio.
"…on the northern coast, we have a hurricane watch. It's raining heavily and debris will certainly be flying around at about 75 mph. All residents are to stay exactly where they are. The hurricane watch will be active until midday Saturday." Said the voice from the radio.
Everyone looked at each other. "What did she say?"
"Ah… ah… ah…" Heavy panting was coming in through their ears. The boys turned and saw Grandpa in the window, wiping the sweat off his forehead. But it didn't make a difference because the constant rain. "W-What did the news say?"
Yami blinked, "It said for everyone in this area to stay put because of a hurricane. I don't think it's safe out here."
Everyone looked outside and saw a tree blow over and hit someone, smashing them into their house.
"No duh!" They yelled at Yami.
"Well…" Grandpa hopped back into the driver's seat, "I think we need to find somewhere to stay. For safety's sake and all."
Marik and Bakura's jaws dropped, "What? But what about the Bahamas!"
"The Bahamas aren't going anywhere. Maybe when this all clears up we can book you another flight. But for now…" He tried the ignition and nothing happened. He sighed, knowing the all mud must've messed it up severely. When the yamis were told this, they showed no sign of caring and 'suggested' that he go out and push the van till they find somewhere to stay until the storm blows over.
About fifteen minutes later, through rain and trees and leaves and everything else imaginable, Grandpa was able to push not only the van but the three boys in it to a weird looking building with a busted neon sign that said 'Motel 37'.
"… What is that?" Marik raised an eyebrow.
Grandpa practically crawled to the window and sighed, "That… is where we'll be staying tonight…"