"So where are you taking me" Cameron asked Alex as they walked down the stairs waiting for Piper to finish changing her clothes before they leave.
"I have a couple of ideas, but it's a surprise."
"If that surprise includes something furry with four legs, I swear I will kill you before you can get onto that plane this weekend." Piper's voice interrupts them as she emerges from her bedroom now in clean clothes still standing at the top of the stairs. Alex and Cameron turns to look at her. Cameron has a somewhat sad look on his face, still not happy about the fact that he is not allowed to have a puppy. Alex on the other hand has a devilish smile on her face. "I am serious Alex. If I get home and there is anything with four legs here I am putting Cameron and that dog on the plane with you." Piper threatens as she walks down the stairs joining the two at the bottom.
"Cameron is right, you are very dramatic." Alex says and raises and eyebrow at Piper. She can feel the boy stiffen next to her.
"You weren't supposed to tell her that." He whispers but obviously with Piper standing right there, she hears it.
"You can be so glad I love you." Piper says looking down at her son.
"How much?" Cameron asks as he approaches his mother with a smile.
"To the moon and back." She whispers as she picks him up to hug and kiss him goodbye. "I have to go now or I am going to be so late." She says as she puts Cameron back down walking over to the key holder to retrieve the keys. As she was about to take the BMW keys they get snatched away.
"I am going to need that one. You can take the Audi." Alex says.
"You are going to 'need' it?" Piper enquires with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you…." She pauses when Alex folds her arms leaning against the wall with a smirk on her face. "You know what. I don't even need to know. I don't even want to know. Just know that I trust you Alex. Don't disappoint me." The blond half threatens, taking the Audi keys and walking out to the garage.
"She must love you to the moon as well," Cameron says next to Alex "but not back from the moon again because she has to love me more."
Alex does not have a response to Cameron's statement because he is unaware of the weight such an innocent statement carries so instead she just ignores it and start walking to the garage shouting to the boy over her shoulder. "Are you coming?"
The whole car ride Cameron was nagging Alex to tell him where they were going from the back where he was in his car seat. She however refused to tell him which caused the boy to sulk, but she knew as soon as he sees where they are going and realises what is happening that would completely make up for the secrecy. Alex wasn't so sure if the boy's mother would be so excited when she first sees what the brunette got her son for his birthday, but in Alex's defence, she had to make it a good one to make up for the fact that she would not be there. Well, that was what she was telling herself to make her feel better about the fact that Piper is totally going to kill her.
Half an hour after they left the house they pull to a stop outside the store. Cameron stretches his neck a bit to see where they are. "There is no toy store here."
Alex just ignores him with a laugh as she gets out of the car and makes her way to the back door. "Who says we are going to a toy store. I didn't say I was buying you a toy for your birthday." She pauses to think about it. "Well maybe not the kind you have in mind." She winks at him and puts him down on the ground.
Grabbing his hand she walks over to the store but soon the boy starts to whine when he realises what store it is "Alex, you said this is going to be my day. Why are we shopping for your stuff."
"Stop whining and come on." Alex says and reluctantly the boy falls into step next to her. She approaches the salesman, have a couple of worlds and then proceeds to another section of the store. Cameron and salesman in tow. "So any one of those three over there should be good?" She asks the storeman pointing to the three objects standing on the far end on display.
"That is what I would recommend. They are actually for ages six and up, but I am sure he will be able to handle it." The salesman says looking down at Cameron with a friendly smile.
The boy hasn't quite yet realised what was going on but he had some sort of an idea and he started jumping up and down. "You heard the man." Alex says to Cameron, "pick any one of those three over there."
"My mom is going to kill you." The four year old squeals as he lets go of Alex's hand and takes of running towards the lime green and black Monster Puma 110CC four-wheeler. "This one Alex." He shouts as he jumps onto the four-wheeler. "Please can I have this one?"
"Anyone you want buddy." Alex smiles as she approaches him. "So you like the green and black one."
"Yes!" he shouts again, jumping off the bike and running towards Alex grabbing her around the legs. "Thank you Alex, thank you, thank you."
"So was it worth the wait." She asks and he nods up at her. "And worth your mom killing me tonight?" She asks again and again he nods. Alex and the salesman just burst out laughing. Not even Alex getting killed could ruin his mood right now.
"How about we properly kit him out. Maybe that way Piper will let you suffer a little less." The salesman laughs at Alex's confused expression at the mention of Piper's name. "I recognise you from the pictures at the airport and then in the paper to clear up who you are. Also I recognised this little guy."
Sometimes she forgets who her friends are and that everybody knows Piper and Cameron, but satisfied with the explanation "Okay then, lead the way." She says at the man and motions for Cameron to follow. "Come on, lets go get you some protective gear."
Along with the four-wheeler, Alex got him some Fly Racing Youth Maverick Boots, gloves, goggles, helmet, kinetic outlaw pants and jersey, knee guards, elbow guards, chest protector and Armor shorts. Alex knew Piper would at first probably not be to thrilled about the gift, but maybe all the protective gear would ease her worry a bit.
Of course she also had to get a little quad trailer, hence why she needed the BMW, because the Audi does not have a tow-bar.
Cameron was beyond excited and couldn't wait to get into his outfit and let Alex show him how to ride. "Are we going to go ride now?" He ask as Alex puts him into his car seat after they hooked the trailer.
"We are going to go have some lunch first and then we will ride okay."
"But I am not hungry." The boy sulks.
"Not even for Pizza and Ice cream" Alex asks
"No" comes the reply and to say Alex is a bit shocked is an understatement.
"I know you are excited and want to get riding, but we have to eat first okay." Watching Cameron in the rear view mirror she notices the sulking not easing up any time soon. "Okay how about we go drive thru and we can eat on our way to the track?" this brings a smile to his face "but you cant tell your mom we ate in the car. I am going to be in enough trouble as it is already."
"Okay Alex." Now its only the ears stopping the smile from going right around his head.
Happy now that Cameron is smiling again she makes her way over to a McDonalds. Another heart attack to add to Pipers day when she finds out. As they are waiting in the drive-thru que Alex's phone buzzes notifying her of an incoming call. Non other than Piper Chapman flashing across the screen.
"Hello"
"Hi." Comes Pipers voice through the speakers of the vehicle "What are you guys up to."
She is about to answer when the person at the window speaks up "Hi, welcome to McDonalds, can I take you order."
Alex can hear Piper letting out a frustrating sigh on the other side of the line and decided to ignore the blond and instead proceeded to order.
Cameron on the other hand decides to converse with his mother if Alex wasn't going to. "Alex is buying us Ronald McDonald and then she is taking me to go ride…." And before he can finish his sentence Alex presses the end call button. "What did you do?" He asks Alex.
"You are not allowed to tell her about your four-wheeler, remember?"
"Sorry, I forgot." And with that Alex's phone start buzzing again.
This time she takes it off the hands free just to be on the save side. "Sorry about that. Pressed the wrong button."
"No problem, so what are you guys doing except for ordering junk food at a drive thru."
"Well for right now that is what we are doing, waiting for our junk food." Alex laughs.
"And I don't suppose you are going to a park when you receive your junk food to eat?" Piper asks sarcastically and Alex can almost hear her roll her eyes. If you could hear someone roll their eyes, Alex is sure that is what she would have heard on the other end of the phone right now.
"Well, no, not exactly. We are going to a park, but we will be eating on our way there." With that she receives their food and start handing Cameron's back to him while she listened to Piper talk.
"Yeah, that is kind of what I thought. Crap for you that you will be spending one of your last days here cleaning a car."
"I got him nuggets and fries. He can't make that big of a mess with it."
"If you say so Al. I tried it once. I am talking from experience. Did you remove the dipping sauce from the nuggets before he handed it to him, and what about the tomato sauce. I'm guessing you got him a happy meal which also come with a box of juice."
Alex is slowly starting to realise what Piper is getting at, luckily not completely out of the parking lot yet, she makes her way over to a parking spot and brings the car to a stop. Turning around in her seat she wishes she rather didn't. "Son of a bitch." She mumbles
Piper on the other end of the line is laughing so hard she can hardly breath "Would that make me a bitch then, if you are calling my son a son of a bitch."
"That is not what I meant." Alex mumbles again still lot being able to look away from the mess the four year old made in just a minute or two. How it is even possible she doesn't even know. He is so focused on his food he doesn't even notice her turned in her seat staring at him.
"How bad is it?" Pipers voice breaks her out of her thoughts.
"Well, lets see. He managed to get the straw into the box of juice but judging by the juice on the roof and seat and the scrunched up box I think it is safe to say it was a bit of a struggle. Then there is tomato sauce all over his face and on the front of his shirt, so I am assuming when he opened the sachet with his teeth he might have squeezed it a bit to hard and tried to wipe it away not so successfully. I am hoping the brown stuff dripping from the door panel is the dipping sauce."
Piper by now is crying of laughter. "Do you now know why I don't allow eating in the car?"
Before Alex can answer Cameron interrupts "Alex you have to eat and go. You are wasting time."
"I lost my appetite." She says but the boy ignores her and takes a sip of his juice, not that there can be to much left in the box by the looks of the car.
"Don't be rude Alex. He is four."
"Five. He is closer to five. Four does not count anymore."
"Well I have to go. I actually just called to let you know that I should be home round about 4. We are finishing a bit earlier today." Piper informs. "Have fun." She laughs before she ends the call.
Alex quickly snaps a picture of the scene in the back of the car and sends it to Piper before she turns to plug the phone back into the hands free kit. Searching through the front of the car, luckily she finds some wet wipes in the centre console. Thankful that Piper is such and over protective, neat freak.
She gets out of the car and makes her way to the back door, opening it "Are you done making a mess." She asks.
"I was eating Alex." Cameron retorts
"Yeah, and by the looks of it the car must have been starving as well." Alex retorts back but Cameron just looks at her. "Okay come on," she says as she unfastens him putting him down next to her. "Let's get you and the car cleaned up so we can go."
Upon further inspection of the boy Alex realised that it was not only tomato sauce covering him but he was also soaking from the juice. She knew she couldn't leave him in those clothes so she grabbed him by the hand making her way into the McDonalds restrooms. Cameron squealed out when he realises Alex is letting him put on his new riding pants and jersey. That was the only option she had. She didn't exactly pack him an extra set of clothes when they left the house. He is almost five years old, she didn't think she would need it.
When they arrived back at the car she used the whole pack of wet wipes trying to clean, only to realise it didn't help to much. She will have to take the car in to get cleaned, but that is tomorrow's problems. Right now, they are going to ride and Cameron could not be happier to hear this.
The track she was taking him to was only about ten minutes away from the McDonalds, but in that ten minutes she is sure he asked her if they are there yet about twenty times. That would be every thirty seconds, which sounded about right.
"Okay we are here, finally." She says pointing towards the tracks "You see over there?"
"I see it." Cameron shouts. "I see it."
Looking for a good parking spot Alex brings the car to a stop and turns off the engine. As soon as the car stopped purring Cameron started fumbling with the belts from the car seat.
"Okay buddy you have to calm down. I will take you out now. Just give me a second."
Not being able to get the belts loose anyways he relaxes a bit and waits for Alex. As soon as his feet hits the dirt he runs towards the back where the trailer is but Alex tells him to hold on for a second because before they can ride she needs to put on the rest of his protective gear first. Equally excited about this as he is about the four wheeler he has no objections and five minutes later he is kitted out and they are taking the bike down from the trailer. Alex snaps a couple of photos of him on his bike, on his trailer, next to the bike and a couple of him just standing around. Eventually she pushes the four wheeler out to the tracks where all the little children, also beginners, are riding.
"Okay, come on, jump on. Let me show you." She gestures for Cameron to get onto the bike.
"I am a bit scared now." He whispers as he gets on.
"You have nothing to be scared about buddy." Alex reassures him. "It will be fine. Just go slow okay." He nods in agreement so Alex proceeds her explanation. "Okay so this here, is where you step to start accelerating. That is what makes the bike go. You have to push it down with your foot really slow so you don't go to fast right from the start. As you get going you can start pushing it a bit more, but not to much okay. I don't want you to go to fast at first. You have to get used to it first. Okay?" She asks for confirmation that he understands and he nods again." Okay and this here, this is the brake. When you want to stop you take your foot of the accelerator and pulls on this, but also not to hard. You are not going to go to fast so you don't have to worry about having to do and emergency stop."
"Okay" Cameron confirms. "This is go." He points to the accelerator. "This is stop." He pulls the brake leaver.
"That is it. That is all you need to know. Pretty easy hey." The boy nods. "When you are bigger we will get you one with gears." Looking around the track satisfied that it is quiet enough she decides its time to go. "Okay, so are you ready. I am going to run beside you for a bit until I am sure you are okay. If I stop running you can keep going okay. You don't have to stop unless you want to. So ready?"
"Ready." Cameron thumbs up her.
"Okay so go in the same direction as everybody else all the time okay."
And with that he nods and presses his foot down on the accelerator. It was a bit shaky at first because he didn't want to press down to hard but Alex told him to relax and just go for it. He got the hang of it pretty quick to Alex's relieve because she didn't feel like exercising in skinny jeans and doc martins. Every time he came past her she would show him thumbs up or cheer for him and clap her hands. She also snapped quite a couple of pictures of him riding. She couldn't really see the smile under the helmet and goggles but she had no doubt that it was present throughout the whole ride. Occasionally he would stop next to Alex to ask her how he was doing and every time she praised him for being a natural which encouraged him to go again.
Before Alex realised it, it was already just past three and she knew they needed to get going because Piper leaves set at four and she wants to be home before the blond gets there. She is going to have some explaining to do. Camron sulked a bit because he wasn't ready to go yet. He was having way to much fun but Alex promised him she will take him riding again before she leaves this weekend and that she is sure Braydon will also take him whenever he gets a gap. She didn't make any promises involving the four-wheeler and the boy's mother, well because she knew that would probably be a promise she is not going to be able to keep.
Arriving home Alex parked the BMW with the trailer still hooked and the bike on it in front of the front door. That way she knew that Piper would see it as soon as she drives in the gate and maybe the one minute it would take for her to pull into the garage and enter the house might calm her down just a fraction. Alex could only hope. She also told Cameron to keep on his outfit and protective gear. He was more than happy to oblige. Only the Helmet and Goggles stayed behind on the trailer.
Fifteen minutes later Alex and Cameron was standing by the living room window watching the white Audi pulling in the gate and as it approaches closer to the house coming to an abrupt halt. They can see Piper sitting inside the vehicle looking towards the BWM and trailer. The next moment she slams her hand down on the steering wheel, pulling away towards the garage again leaving some dust behind.
"Oh shit." Cameron mumbles.
"Yeah, I'd say. Come on." Alex grabs Cameron picking him up under her arm like a sack of potatoes. She doesn't have time for his short legs right now. She runs up the stairs taking them two at a time and just as she closes the door she hears Pipers angry voice as she enters the house.
"ALEX!"
