Disneyworld Vacation
Part One, Chapter Two
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, not mine, la la la...
Incidentally, what color is Roy's hair? I've seen pictures and descriptions that indicate anything and everything from blond to black, although the main color seems to be red. o.O I'll compromise and say reddish-blond until somebody helps me out here... (notices everybody giving her weird looks) WHAT? I don't read superhero comic books, okay? I've never read one in my life, I'm lucky I know who Roy is in the first place, so leave me alone! Sheesh...!
NOTE: This is mostly filler, I suppose. The real stuff starts in the next chapter, which will be up Monday or else you have my permission to crack a clipboard over my head.
"Now this is the life."
Wally leaned into his plush seat aboard the plane. Not just any plane, of course, but Oliver Queen's private jet, which was now well on its way to the Happiest Place on Earth. Right now, though, Oliver Queen himself was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Roy, for that matter. Wally wasn't too worried, though. They couldn't have gone very far, not even on a jet this size.
"You said it," Dick conceded with a nod. "I still can't believe Bruce let me go to Orlando by myself."
"You're not by yourself! You're with me and Roy and Mr. Queen!"
"Yeah, well, unless I'm with either Bruce or Alfred, it's as good as being alone as far as they're concerned," Dick replied, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah… I'm kinda surprised Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris let me come, too. But let's not question good luck or else we'll jinx it."
Dick just rolled his eyes again as Roy suddenly reappeared.
"And where have you been? Don't you know it's rude to abandon your guests?" Dick questioned sarcastically.
"Well, excuse me, Miss Manners!" Roy replied, grinning. "For your information, I was just getting us a snack. Here."
Roy threw a small bag of potato chips at Dick's head, and then did the same thing to Wally. He got a couple of nasty looks for that stunt, but no comments. Just a question from Wally:
"How long till the plane lands?"
"I dunno. About an hour, I guess."
The reply was followed by a slight groan from Wally, and then the sound of crunching potato chips.
Finally, Dick piped up, "You ever been to Disneyworld before, Roy?"
"Me? No. You?"
"Does Bruce look like the kinda guy to take a person to Disneyworld?"
Wally snorted as Roy replied, "Well, no, but you could have gone during winter break while you were still with the circus or something."
"Are you kidding?" Wally interrupted, snorting again. "He was probably too busy learning new moves and doing schoolwork to visit theme parks!"
"He's right," agreed Dick, "although we were planning to go one time…"
Roy nodded, showing that he understood the deeper meaning behind Dick's words. But Wally didn't quite get it and asked, blissfully ignorant, "Why didn't you go? OW!"
Roy had stepped on the other red-head's foot, but it was too late to stop the innocent yet rude question.
"It's okay, Roy," Dick assured him. Then he turned to Wally and quietly informed him that that had been the year his parents fell from the trapeze at a charity performance in Gotham City.
For the first time in his life, Wally was at a loss for words.
"Hey, relax, you guys," Dick said to break the awkward silence. He gave a forced laugh and added, "That was five years ago. I'm not gonna bust out bawling or anything."
Still, the tension hung in the air for several more agonizing moments before Roy decided he'd had enough of it, bent down to remove his shoe, and bonked Wally over the head with it for no particular reason.
"Hey…" scowled Wally.
"You're just lucky I cleaned out the bottom after coming back from camp," Roy said, grinning wickedly. "And I'm not even gonna tell you what I stepped in!"
This time, Dick's laughter was easy and carefree as he watched Wally chasing Roy around the plane, wielding his own sneakers threateningly over his head.
It was only when Ollie's voice came from a different section of the plane, telling them that they were within sight of the airport, that the boys stopped.
Dick wasn't quite sure what happened after that. He remembered Mr. Queen telling them they were getting ready to land. He also remembered cheering with Wally and Roy at the much-anticipated news. How he ended up sandwiched between the wall and Roy's shoulder was still a mystery, though.
What Dick didn't know was that his friends had gotten very excited over the discovery that they were nearing their destination and had both stampeded for the nearest window to check outside. The nearest window happened to be right next to where Dick was sitting, and since the window was fairly small, Wally and Roy were both pushing and shoving to try to get a better view, thus pinning the Gotham teen to the wall.
"Ack… guys…!"
But neither one heard.
Holy good manners, I'm not big on etiquette, Dick thought ruefully, but something's telling me it's very impolite to tackle your guest to the wall of an airplane.
Lucky for Dick, everyone was ordered to sit down and refasten their seatbelts for the landing.
-
Aside from practically being smooshed, the landing was an uneventful one for Dick.
After getting off the plane and retrieving their luggage, the four made their way over to where the buses were loading passengers, all headed for the Disneyworld resorts. Oliver had chosen to stay at one of the less expensive hotels so as to attract less attention from the ever-present paparazzi, and so far, it seemed to be working, much to everyone's relief (well, okay, Wally was a little disappointed to hear that he wouldn't get his picture in the newspaper, but other than that…).
The hotel rooms were still nice, though—smaller than what three-fourths of the party were used to, but nice nonetheless. Dick and Wally's room were adjoined, as were Ollie and Roy's. They were staying at the All-Star Sports Resort, which the boys were quite happy about. They spent at least ten or twenty minutes identifying all the pictures of sports celebrities on the far wall of the lobby before Ollie finally dragged them to the cafeteria for dinner.
On the way to the cafeteria, they passed by a pair of glass sliding doors with people in bathing suits coming in and out.
And that's where they lost Roy.
"Yahoo! Ollie, you didn't tell me there was a pool here!" the boy whooped.
"Now we know why…" Wally snorted as he watched Roy race outside, rip off his shirt and jump into the pool, all without stopping.
"He's gonna get in trouble…" added Dick, who wasn't doing a very good job at resisting the urge to laugh at his friend's antics.
Ollie, however, was not half as amused.
"You bet he's in trouble—Roy! Get back here!" the man ordered. He stormed outside after his wayward ward, leaving the other teenagers inside, snickering softly.
I can tell right now, this is gonna be one fun vacation! Dick thought.
"Hey, Dick, while we're here all alone, I think I'll check out the gift shop," Wally said, pointing down the hall to the souvenir store. "Wanna come with me?"
"Sure, why not?" Dick agreed with a shrug. He moved to follow Wally when he spotted something move out of the corner of his eye. Oh, sure, what with all the tourists moving about, this may not seem like the kind of thing to catch a kid's attention. But Dick was a highly-trained crime-fighter, remember. He knew he had seen something familiar in that crowd.
But by the time he turned around, the familiar thing was gone.
Whatever it may have been.
"Hey, Dick! You coming?" Wally hollered.
"Yeah," answered Dick.
Eventually, Ollie managed to coax (I mean yank) Roy out of the pool. They would have stopped by the hotel room first so he could change, but their luggage hadn't arrived yet. They had arranged to have it delivered to the hotel from the airport just before they had boarded the bus. Unfortunately, it would be at least another hour before it got there.
"But now I'll have to go through dinner in wet pants!" the boy complained while slipping his shirt over his head.
"Consider that your punishment," Ollie replied flatly.
"Wonderful," grumbled Roy.
Unfortunately, by the time they got back inside, Dick and Wally were gone.
Great, Ollie thought with an inward sigh. He was already beginning to regret this whole Disneyworld thing. He should have just taken his chances with Roy's strike.
"Alright, now where have your partners-in-crime gotten to…?" he muttered to himself.
"Here we are!"
Ollie and Roy turned at the sound of Wally's voice; they soon spotted red-headed Wallygrinning at them from the souvenir store. Oliver just sighed and waved him over before bringing his ward through the glass doors to his right, which led to the cafeteria. It wasn't long before Dick and Wally joined them.
-
10:30. The four heroes had gathered in Ollie's room and were currently lounging around, watching Britcoms on TV and still waiting for their stupid luggage to show up. They had recently called the front desk to find out what was taking so long and when the luggage was expected to finally show up. They didn't get a very definite response.
Dick and his 'babysitter' exchanged glances.
"Somehow, this isn't how I imagined spending my first night in Disneyworld," Oliver Queen whispered to Wayne's ward.
"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but now that you've brought it up…" Dick whispered back.
"You're a very well-mannered young man. Please teach Roy that trick, will you?"
Dick snickered. Then he rolled his eyes as Wally and Roy were busy laughing at something that had just been said on whatever show they were watching at the moment. They seemed to find it hilarious while Dick just had trouble understanding it.
"You guys are really strange. You know that, don't you?"
"Ignore him, Wally," Roy replied. "Living with Wayne for so long has dulled his sense of humor."
"Personally, I think I'll stick with Fawlty Towers, thank you."
"You watch that?'
"Whenever I can find the remote, yeah. Alfred always hides it to prevent me from watching too much television. And besides that it helps me on my detective skills."
The two red-heads momentarily looked up from the show to give Dick a weird look, and then they went back to staring at the TV screen.
11:00 saw the long-awaited arrival of the clan's suitcases. Which meant their pajamas and toothbrushes had come as well. And so they were finally able to go to bed.
Me: (staring blankly at the screen, watching the infamous Zidane-headbutting-Materazzi scene for the twenty bazillionth time)
Me: (in shock) Um... what just happened here?
Dick: They LOST, okay! Now get ON with your life!
Me: NEVER!
Dick: Man... and I thought she was pathetic BEFORE the World Cup...
Me: Anyway, the little suitcase incident really happened--we arranged for our luggage to be sent to our room, it arrived about three hours late, we watched Britcoms while waiting for the stupid things to show up, and I did not understand anything on the show we were watching (and I'm part British... sheesh, you'd think I'd get it...). I still prefer Fawlty Towers, and I think I saw an episode of Keeping Up Appearances once... now how did we get onto THIS topic? Dick, do the reviews, would you?
Dick: No.
Me: Oh, yeah?
(evil grin, maniacal laughter, and something involving cheese and donuts ensue)
Reviewer Replies
Yourperfectdisaster-One of panamint's most loyal reviewers is back for more, huh? Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you continue reading, too!
Sunshine Silverjojo-Things should start getting very interesting in the upcoming chapters. Anyway, yes, curse you Haunted Woods! Panamint's sister was playing for that team...
caltha-Dick torture? Um, can't say I'm a fan of that, but there is some minor 'torture' towards the end... anyway, thank you for the nice review!
Zarz-Driving lessons. Haha, very funny (and yes we have!). Disneyworld was great, and Soarin' was recently recreated at Epcot Center, so you may recognize that if she includes it...
CrazyInsomaniac-You don't need to tell ME about cleaning the Watchtower! If I never see another sponge it'll be all too soon. And the issue about Bruce letting me go to Disneyworld will come up a little later, so don't worry about that too much.
Robin Knight-I can guarantee you I'll never forget that day... week... month... (cough) Here's the next chapter for your reading pleasure!
Scottenkainen-Yay, favorite authors' list! Thanks! And panamint apologizes for the little characterization issues. She's never written Roy before (the idiot) so she's a little nervous. She says she'll work on it though.
Lord hack-Yes, she's been doing her homework on that. And like it said in the note at the top, things should start picking up in the next chapter. Maybe. We hope (isn't this the picture of confidence?). Thanks for reviewing, hope you get more into it soon!