Roadtrip

Written by: Rebecca Hornlein

And

Gabrielle Florek

Authors notes:

Plain Text: Kaylie Evercrest

Italic Text: Sarah Dermott

Bold Text: Cullen Brooks

Italic Bold Text: Garett Hunter

Chapter One: Start of a Journey

Kaylie lugged her two small bags of belongings towards the car, dressed in shorts and a white, tight fitting T-shirt and approaches gas station where the car in which we'd take a road trip awaited and placed bags down by car.

Sarah lugs four heavily packed bags towards the car, grunting and stand beside Kaylie. "Kaylie, how can you only pack TWO bags? I bet you didn't even pack nail-polish!" Kaylie gave me a blank look and said, "Sarah, you don't need nail-polish for a road trip..." I flipped my brown hair, dressed in a blue summer skirt and light blue tee shirt with white sandals. "Yeah, yeah...but It's a basic necessity!" Kaylie rolled her eyes. No one exactly knew why two people so opposite from one another were friends, and no one bothered to ask...

Cullen slammed his car door shut, swung his bag over his shoulder, and walked over to where Kaylie and Sarah were standing. He grinned as he greeted Kaylie, but he had a hard time keeping the smile when he said hi to Sarah. He and Kaylie had been friends since they were little and she was very cool, but Sarah...one word...ugh. She was such a priss, it was embarrassing to everyone else around her.

Garett exited from the same car and sighed. He took his duffel bag from the trunk, walked over to the others, and yawned hugely. "It couldn't wait, huh, Kay? Had to start at fucking seven in the morning..."

I blew the bangs out of my face and walked over to the trunk. "Unlike some people, I'm used to waking up for school and not being late...so I'm used to it!" I said. I would have literally been shocked if there was a day when Garett wasn't late for school. I tried to open the trunk, but it was jammed, I checked to see if it was unlocked and it was and tried again.

"Eww! Kaylie! If you keep that up your going to get all sweaty!" I said and wrinkled my nose in disgust. Sometimes I just didn't get her. I looked at Garett and batted my eyelashes. "Garett...be a dear and put away my luggage...pretty please!" I said and pouted my lips.

Garett raised his eyebrows at her. "I don't think the trunk's big enough...you might have to leave some of that stuff behind..."

Cullen exchanged glances with Kaylie. There was no telling how prissy Sarah would react to that combination: being rejected by a boy and having to leave some stuff behind.

"Excuse me?" I said and gave him an incredulous look and placed a hand on my hip and looked at my beloved luggage. "Let me get this straight...YOU want ME to LEAVE me LUGGAGE here?" I seethed. I don't know what kind of guts this guy had, thinking I could leave half my luggage here... Jerk...

I rolled my eyes at Sarah and tried to open the trunk once more, I looked sheepishly at Cullen. "Ummm, a little help here?" I asked with my hands still grasping the trunk doorknob.

"In a nutshell, yep." Garett said with surprising curtness. He, too, disliked Sarah's OMGIBROKEANAIL personality. "Do you really need all this crap?"

Oh-ho, he had crossed the line. Cullen smiled at Kaylie. "Sure," he said.

"Hey!" I whimpered and clenched my fist, I felt Kaylie put a hand on my shoulder. "Sarah, you should really just only take your clothes, I mean come on, you packed a blow up bed and food!" She said and searched through my duffel and I heard her start laughing as she came up and shook her head at me. "Sarah...why do you have a blow dryer in here?" she said and bit her lip to keep from laughing anymore. I took it and shoved it back in the bag. "Fine, I'll leave these two here!" I said and took a long ten minutes saying goodbye to my overstuffed duffels before Kaylie locked them away in one of the station lockers.

I walked over to the trunk, in which Cullen had already popped open and stuck my small duffel in there. "All settled." I said satisfied and grinned, clapping my hands together.

Cullen threw his own bag into the trunk and said, "We ready!"

"That's right! Yowza-yowza-YOWza!" Garett yelled, his fist in the air, and he jumped into the car.

Cullen laughed and followed him in. "C'mon! Los Angeles or bust!"

I laughed. just a second ago he was ready to fall asleep, and now he was roaring to go, I hopped into the backseat, followed by Sarah, who was still grumbling about her priceless luggage. I gave my Coheed and Cambria CD to Cullen. "Can we play this CD?" I asked. (same song I made you listen to in class)

My poor poor luggage... As we drove off I waved goodbye to it and regained my seat behind Garett.

Garett stared unbelievingly. "Were you just waving to your hairdryer?"

"No way!" Cullen said, turning around in the driver's seat. "Hey, one of ya's, get up here. Too crowded back there."

"Oh, me!" I exclaimed and climbed up front into the passengers seat.

I glared at Garett. "Haha, very funny. It just so happens that that hair dryer was over 30 dollars!

I looked at Sarah in horror. "You bought a hair dryer for over 30 dollars? That's crazy!" I said in shock as my CD played.

Cullen was sure to keep the music low. He looked out the window and exclaimed, "Whoa! That bird just for hit by an airplane!"

I looked up at the plane but didn't see and bird but smiled nonetheless. "Were actually doing it! Were actually on a road trip after all those months of planning!" I said with such joy that I was sitting on my knees in my seat with my fists in the air and the wind blowing my hair.

"Calm down before you fly outta your seat," Garret retorted.

I rolled my eyes and plopped down in my seat. "Well sorry for being happy! You just ruined the mood!" I pouted and took out my diary to write in after awhile of getting bored and took out my dark pink inked pen that I'd had since about 4th grade with a refillable ink cartridge. I refused to write with anything else. I scribbled down every thought that passed through my head. I wrote -

"Dearest Diary,

Wow, I can't believe it. Road trip. Just the sound of it makes my body rack with excitement! Nothing much going on, Garett's being an ass, as usual, and believe it or not, Sarah is enjoying the scenery! Total change from the usual 'if I look too long my eyes will get watery and mess up my eye liner!' persona. . . . Cullen is driving, though he seems to be in his own little world..." (Kaylie continues to write in diary as conversation ensues...)

I looked around at the trees lining the deserted road. I'd never seen such a peaceful place. No wonder Kaylie liked to go hiking in the summer...of course, I'd never do it. Too hot, it'd be revolting if I broke out into a sweat. I shook off the thought. I so wouldn't be looking at the scenery if I'd forgotten to put on my eyeliner today... "Where's our destination for today?" I asked to no one in particular, I saw Kaylie shrug, in her own little world with her diary...

"Our destination, your Highness, is California. Same as planned for three months," I said scornfully, my hands tightening on the wheel. What a priss...I'm going to love seeing her face when we stop to camp out...

"Why do I get stuck with the Queen?" I complained, shifting myself as far away from her as possible. Normally sitting next to a chick in the back of a car...uh, yeah. But Sarah was so much of a turnoff...

I rolled my eyes and lightly smacked Garett. "No you nimrod, I mean, where are we going to be at the end of the day? It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out you can't get from New Jersey to Los Angeles in one day!" I said and crossed my arms over my chest. "Kaylie, back me up here!" I said and shook her shoulder until she looked at me annoyed and sighed, closing her diary and packing it away.

Okay, I know Sarah is my friend and all, but sometimes she could be a pain in the ass! I put my diary away and thought a moment. Was I the only one who'd taken time to think about this before we started? I calculated everything up and had an answer. "Well, at this speed we should have crossed through Pennsylvania by tonight." I said. And even as I said it I felt like such a nerd. I mean, who would actually take the time to think about this... My heart sank and came to the conclusion that only Kaylie the Calculus Wiz would know.

I sighed. "Here we go..." I said to Kaylie, just making good fun at her. She was really good at math. "We'll stop at a rest stop somewhere...or maybe rent out a motel room if we have the cash..."
"I vote motel!" Garett said, an evil grin on his face.

I smiled and playfully tapped Cullen's shoulder, he may have been poking fun at me but it made me feel better nonetheless. "Well of course we have cash, everyone brought all they're savings..." I said and when I didn't get an immediate agreement I had a dreaded feeling in my stomach and I turned around to be greeted by the blank faces of Garett and Sarah. "...You...did remember to bring most of your savings...right?" I said wearily to the two back passengers.

"...right?" Kaylie asked. I laughed nervously and fiddled with my Proda bag handle. "Well, um, you see...I didn't exactly bring 'most' of it..." I felt guilty about it but that Proda bag was SO more important than a stinky motel! Kaylie frowned and hung her head, shaking it from side to side.

"I brought about a hundred..." Garett said. It wasn't exactly his savings. He had bummed twenty bucks off three friends, his mom, and his dad to get a grand total.

"Yeah, I got my mom's credit card..." Cullen informed.

I took out my purse (which in fact was NOT Proda, thank you very much...) and took out a wad of money. "I got $210 right here. I worked at my dads auto body during the school year." I said proudly and stuffed it back into my purse and packed it into my duffel. "How much did you bring Sarah?" I asked and dreaded the answer.

"How much did you bring Sarah?" I smiled sheepishly. "I got 90 over here..." Kaylie just smiled at me and returned to looking out at the windshield as we neared a nearby town. She was always so kind to me, I felt bad about the money and all but she didn't even get angry or frustrated at me. Which only worsened my guilt.

"And how much would you have, if you only owned thirty purses instead of thirty one?" Cullen muttered darkly.

I heard Cullen's remark and sent him a helpless look from the corner of my eye and the CD I put in played.

I sat in the back and picked at my nail polish, once I got this shade off I'd paint them blue, it's match my skirt. "Hey Kaylie...what's a 'Valley Queen' ?" I asked and looked at the back of her head from the front of the seat.

I bit my lip and tried to stifle a laugh and my shoulders shook and I covered my mouth as to try and prevent the laugh from spilling out and for something to do in response I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head 'no' .

I choked on my Coke trying to stifle the laughter. Putting a hand to my mouth, I caught Cullen's eye, and we exchanged an amused look. It was the funniest damn thing I've ever heard. I glanced over at Sarah, and from the look on her face I knew she wasn't kidding or anything. Figures...she has the sense of humor of a garden hose.

That was priceless. Completely priceless. Aw, man, I wished I had a tape recorder or something...

I don't get it. Why is everyone smiling? I shrugged and took out my file and started filing away at my nails. "I can't understand how you can like listening to a band like Coheed and Cambria." I said referring to the song playing on the stereo. "I mean who likes Punk/Rock? I like Britney Spears and Ashley Simpson, personally." I said and once again shrugged.

I shook my head in my seat. "This song happens to be number one on Z100 for the last month!" I said and crossed my arms. "Coheed and Cambria are right up there with the All American Rejects!" I protested and popped a lollipop into my mouth.

"Spears is out. The only way she manages to stay in the tabloids is to make a big-ass deal about her husband and kids." I merged into the next lane. We still had a long way to go.

"Yeah, and Ashlee...totally hot, but clueless. I guess all hot girls are clueless, huh?" I waited for a moment for everything to catch on before leaning forward and putting a hand on Kaylie's shoulder. "Love ya anyway, Kay..." I said innocently.

I laughed and tapped his hand off my shoulder. "Thanks a lot Garett..." I smiled.

I scoffed and crossed my legs and stashed the file away and looked around as we approached a small looking town. "Wow, this place looks like a dump, no mall or anything..." I said, it looked like a cozy place, but there was no sleek blue metal signaling a right turn into Menlo Park anywhere... I sighed and shifted in my seat a few times to get comfortable.

I looked behind me at Sarah. "Sarah, if you move around anymore your ass is gonna rub a whole in the seat!" I said half joking / half serious.

"Ahaha! Love to see that, would pay to see that!" I cackled. I sobered up a little and said, "Hey, Kay, feel like trading seats next stop? I'm getting tired of sitting next to Queenie here..."

I looked back as we came to a red light. "Sure." I said and lightly made my way to the back seat and mentioned for Garett to move up front before it turned green. Sarah smiled widely. "Yay! Finally! Another girl!" she exclaimed. I could do nothing but grin and bear it.

Finally, Garett was stinking up the backseat with his Axe cologne, that Kaylie said she had no problem with. Well, I don't know what she's smelling, but it's awful! But now that she's there it smells of her lovely Coconut shampoo and it was soon covering up the Axe that Garett wore. I sighed and took out my nail polish, drinking a Coke and painting my nails pink.