A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for a while. FanFiction put a cute, fuzzy, adorable, (NOT) infraction on my account AND I had a play. Yeepers, Summer is hectic. Ha, we're supposed to finally have a break, but I'm still rushed. Also, my mom decided to (ahem) "organize" some of my papers so it took me a while to find my drafts of this story.
Thank you all of my lovely reviewers! Remember to keep on voting for those names! No one has voted since chapter three (tear).
The Notebook Brigade
Chapter Five
The Ancient Art of Hitchhiking
"Eeep!" Isadora shrieked once again as another truck sped by them, sending her shoulder-length brown hair flying. Duncan and Quigley looked at each other.
"Izzy," Quigley said putting a hand on his shaking sister's shoulder. "We're sitting on the edge of a highway. That's going to be happening a lot." Isadora quivered.
"Great." She muttered, then went back to aimlessly rubbing two sticks together. Quigley and Duncan looked at her inquiringly.
"Why do we need a fire, Izzy?" Duncan asked. "It's the middle of the afternoon." Isadora didn't look up from her work.
"Because," she responded, still not looking up.
"Because why?"
"I need to boil water," Isadora said. "There's food packets in my bag that say 'boil in hot water' but they give you everything you need except a stupid lighter!" she ended enraged, throwing down the sticks, breathing heavily, trying to cool down. Duncan rummaged through his backpack.
"They gave me a lighter," he said, holding it out to her. Isadora smiled, took it and lit the fire, but her smile instantly faded and she dropped the lighter in disgust, as if it had just turned into a writhing worm. Duncan also realized the meaning of the lighter and stuffed back into the deepest depths of his backpack.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if there hadn't been a fire?" Isadora asked meekly.
"I'd give anything to spend just one more Christmas together. One more birthday..." Duncan said. Quigley suddenly sat up much straighter realizing this for the first time.
"They died on our birthday," Quigley said. Another truck whizzed by and put out the small fire Isadora had started.
"Auuuugh!" she yelled enraged, without so much as an "Eeep!". Quigley looked at his watch, which he had amazingly found in his purple backpack. He jumped up in alarm.
"Crud! We've been sitting here for over five hours!" Quigley yelled. Duncan and Isadora snapped they're heads around in shock. "How will we ever make up the time?" Quigley continued. Then Duncan looked at him. The brothers nodded to each other. The boys walked past their sister, who was sitting cross-legged on next to the smoking twigs, watching her brothers with great interest. They stopped at the side of the road.
"I think I can see a car...or a truck..." Duncan said.
"Okay on three," Quigley responded. "One...two...THREE!" an both boys stuck their thumbs out into the road and wiggled their hands back and forth. The vehicle drew closer and Duncan and Quigley continued their hitch-hiking signal, but the truck whizzed right past them without even slowing down. And so they tried again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...until they lost all hope and plopped themselves down on either side of Isadora, who had still been watching them with much interest and remained cross-legged on the ground.
"Let me try," she said, and propped herself up (her ankle almost healed) and walked to the middle of the road. She looked around and soon enough there was a dot in the distance. A bus, Isadora began to walk towards it.
"Izzy!" screamed Quigley, who had always been the most protective of his sister, and began to run toward her, but Duncan held him back.
"She knows what she's doing," he told Quigley. Just when the bus was about a mile away she screamed, and held that scream for a full thirty seconds, until the driver slammed on the brakes allowing the bus to screech to a stop only five feet in from of her. Isadora looked at her brothers and smiled. A confused bus driver stuck his head out the door, scratched his scalp, and waved them aboard. As Isadora boarded, she noticed three girls' faces in a vertical line pressed up against the window.
DUN DUN DUN! Who are these girls and what is their major importance to this story? You shall find out in chapters soon to come! The quadruplet's name standings are...
Elise: 2
Irene: 2
Olivia: 0
Suzanna: 1
Keep on voting!
