Well, I'd like to just take a second before posting the next chapter to thank all my readers- you guys are pretty awesome! Here's to you. :)

~~::~~

Chapter 12

Iggy and I were still laughing when we got on the bus later that day. Our clothes were also still covered in paint.

"What's with them?" Nudge asked Gazzy. He shrugged.

Iggy laughed. "We just had fun at school today."

"How is that possible?" Gazzy shouted, grinning.

I shrugged. "We got paint everywhere. It was pretty fun."

"Why didn't you invite me?" Gazzy protested, making us laugh. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Iggy reaching for my hand.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you doing?"

He turned bright red. "Uh…I was just…I mean…nothing."

I frowned. "Right…" I murmured, trailing off.

After what seemed like hours, the bus pulled up to our stop. We managed to leave Jaz behind on the bus – thank god – and ran all the way home.

"Hello!" Jeb called from the kitchen. "Come in, I have to talk to you about something!"

We all ran into the kitchen, where Jeb had already set out a snack for us. As we ate, he said, "So what do you kids think about taking a vacation?"

Milk almost went up my nose. "A what?" I asked, surprised.

"A vacation," Jeb continued. "Would you guys like that?"

I decided I had to be the reasonable leader, since Jeb wasn't doing too good of a job. "Well, we-"

I was cut off by Nudge. "Yeah! A vacation!" she cheered, grinning. "That sounds like fun! We should go to the beach! Or Hawaii!"

"Hawaii is a beach," Gazzy said.

"No, it's an island! But it has beaches!" Nudge argued.

I didn't even get what they were talking about. As usual, the younger kids weren't making any sense.

"Jeb, are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked, frowning.

He glanced at me. "What do you mean, Max? I thought you would enjoy going on a vacation."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I guess," I muttered. Why was Jeb making decisions for my flock? I was the leader here.

Normally, vacation would sound fun, but since Jeb was trying to act all leader-ish, I decided to object. I knew everyone else would want to go.

I sighed. "Alright, flock vote. Who wants to go?"

Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and even Angel raised their hands. I glanced at Fang, who shrugged.

I frowned. He probably didn't want to leave Jaz.

Jeb smiled. "Alright, it's settled! We leave tomorrow!" That left me wondering how long, exactly, he'd been planning this.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Nudge asked.

Jeb just smiled again. "It's a secret."

~~::~~

"Road trip! Road trip!" Gazzy yelled as we piled our bags into the car.

Did we have school today? Yes. Did Jeb even care that we were ditching school to go on a surprise vacation to a secret destination?

That would be a negative.

I rolled my eyes as Fang called shotgun. "I want a window seat!" Nudge yelled. "Otherwise I'm going to barf!"

In the end, our seating arrangement was as follows: Fang riding shotgun, Iggy and me in the middle row, and Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge crammed in the back.

We were about twenty miles from our house when Nudge wailed from the backseat, "I forgot my nail polish!"

I sighed in exasperation. "Nudge, you don't need your nail polish. You're like, eight."

"We have to go back!" Nudge whined.

That was when Angel realized she didn't have her favorite teddy bear. "Where's Teddy?" she cried, looking around.

"I think I forgot to pack him," Jeb admitted.

Angel started crying. Between that and Nudge whining about beauty products, I was ready to throw someone out of this car.

"We're not going back," Jeb started to say, as Gazzy yelled, "I don't have my G.I. Joe action figures!"

"Are you kidding me?" I yelled back. "You said you had everything!"

"Well, you can't get mad at me!" Gazzy shouted. "I'm only five!"

I rolled my eyes. "That is not a valid excuse and you know it!"

"Everyone shut up!" Iggy hollered. This, of course, got everyone yelling even louder.

I facepalmed. "You have got to be kidding me. This was the worst idea ever."

~~::~~

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer," Gazzy sang from the backseat.

I whirled. "Gazzy, stop singing about beer! You're just a little kid!"

"TAKE ONE DOWN AND PASS IT AROUND!" he belted even louder. "Ninety-eight bottles of BEER ON THE WALL!"

I resisted the urge to slam my head against the window. We'd been in the car for a few hours now, but it felt like an eternity. Between Nudge moaning over nail polish and Gazzy's singing, this vacation was not off to a very good start.

Jeb was currently trying to get the GPS to work.

"Make a U-turn," the GPS said.

"We can't! We're on the freeway!" Iggy yelled at it.

"What would happen if you made a U-turn on the freeway?" The Gasman looked thrilled at this idea.

"You would get in a giant accident and there would be a huge explosion and everyone would die!" Iggy told him.

"Wow," Gazzy said in awe. "Cool."

"Make a U-turn," the GPS told us again.

"NO!" Everyone yelled at it.

~~::~~

"Jeb, I'm hungry," Nudge complained for about the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes.

"Me too," Gazzy chimed in. "Let's get some food!"

We were driving west – that much, I could tell. None of us still had any idea where Jeb was taking us exactly, but we were heading west. That was where the School was, which made me a bit nervous.

Jeb finally gave in. "Okay, okay," he said, turning off the freeway and pulling into a McDonald's parking lot.

"Yeah! McDonalds!" Nudge cheered as the rest of the kids piled out of the car and I unbuckled Angel from her car seat so I could carry her inside.

"I want like ten Happy Meals!" Nudge said.

"Me too!" Iggy chimed in. "With lots of fries!"

Jeb frowned. "We don't have enough money for ten Happy Meals for each person."

"Look! They have Pokémon toys!" Gazzy yelled, looking at the Happy Meal toy display.

"I'll have a few burgers," Fang decided.

"Can we get McFlurrys? Can we, can we?" Nudge asked, jumping up and down.

"Quiet!" Jeb ordered. It didn't really work that well. Everyone just went on talking and jumping up and down or whatever, except for Fang, who's not much of a talker in the first place.

In the end, Jeb ended up ordering eighteen Happy Meals – three for each of us – and about five orders of fries and a ton of drinks. He sighed as he looked at the receipt.

Soon, we were all climbing back in the car, ready to head out again. As we drove down the road, everyone drifted off to sleep. I turned around to see Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel all fast asleep.

Iggy rested his head on my shoulder, his eyes already closed. I smiled as I looked around at my flock – my family – sleeping peacefully.

"Goodnight, guys," I murmured.