After breakfast, Darla, Lilia, Rudy, and Dimetroodon were dropped off by their parents at the front of the Palace. We packed up their stuff, and then finished getting ready. With our stomachs and the luggage full, we buckled up.

I sat at the driver's seat and looked in the rearview mirror. "Everyone ready?"

When everyone said yes, I turned on the ignition. But before I could press my foot on the gas pedal, Larry shouted, "Wait!"

"What is it?"

He pointed at the fuel gauge on the odometer. The red needle was on the letter E and the light was flashing. "Huh? What the heck? It can't be empty!"

"Well it is."

"But I just filled it last night for the trip. I filled it."

Then Larry said, "It must've all gone when I…uh, never mind."

I glared at him. "When you did what?"

"Nothing, nothing."

Yeah, I'm not buying that. "Larry? What did you do with the all the algae gas?"

He laughed nervously and tittered. "I, uh, sat here last night. I listened to the radio and I guess I fell asleep."

"You did WHAT?!" I face-palmed myself and groaned. "Oh, Larry. Larry, Larry, Larry. Don't you know that you can listen to the radio without turning the music on?"

"But it was hot!"

"You can also turn the A/C without starting the engine, you jerk!"

"You see? I didn't know that. I did it out of ignorance, not maliciously. Let's just go to the nearest service station and fill 'er up." I shook my head, just staring. How was it possible that someone could be so intelligent when it came to science, medicine, and powers, but so stupid to life itself?

I had no choice but to live with this kind of thing. Day in and day out. We drove out of the Royal Grounds in the direction of the Interstate. There was a service station just before the on-ramp. I pulled in an empty pump.

"Okay. I'll go pay and you fill it," said Larry. I guess he was trying to make up. Under other circumstances I would've probably ruined it all by saying something sarcastic. But since he was being sincere and a good friend for once, I decided to just go along with it.

"Okay. And do me a favor. See if there are clean restrooms so we can all make the final pit stop so we won't have to later on the road."

"Sure." He got off and ran inside while I placed the nozzle in the tank while I waited. I had a thought then poked my head through the driver's window. "Does anybody need to use the restroom?"

Everyone shook their heads, but Rudy said, "Somebody is in the bathroom. Greeny just got off."

He was right. Greeny's booster seat was empty. "Oh, okay. You know what? Everybody get off! Everyone's going to the restroom. I don't want to have to stop anywhere else from here to the campground."

"But-but-but," said Dimetroodon.

"Don't argue. Everyone get down."

"But that's why I brought these empty bottles," said Robert, holding a bag with empty water bottles. "And I also brought some funnels for the ladies." Well, he really crossed the line that time. Not only did I yell at him, "ROBERT SIMPSON KYVERNÁ!" He also got elbowed by Kathy and Patty who were sitting on either side.

I grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out of the TIV. "Go to the restroom!"

"But somebody is already there!"

Greeny came running from the gas station store. And I mean, running. He had a look of disgust on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I can't go."

"Why not?"

"Because he was saying a lot of gross things. He was saying that his…"

"OKAY! You don't have to tell us." Larry came bursting out of the store. "Do me a favor. Never get too close to a one-bathroom door. Not only will you hear unpleasant sounds, you will also hear even more unpleasant phrases."

Just the thought made me nauseous. I wasn't about to get sick and ruin the whole trip. "All right. We're going to next gas station. But when we do, everyone's getting off." We all buckled up and go onto the freeway.

It was about fifteen minutes later, while I was driving just beautifully if I do say so myself through the southern end of Sauropolis and its suburbs, when I suddenly felt a cold and wet sensation on the back of my neck.

I yelped. "Ah! What was that?"

"What was what?" said Larry, taking the earbuds from his iPod out of his ears.

"Somebody…" I looked behind. "All right? Who was the wise-guy who threw the spitball at me?"

"It's not 'threw a spitball'" Greeny stated. "It's 'spit the spitball.'"

Thanks for the grammar lesson. "Whatever. Who spit the spitball?"

Cricket….cricket…cricket…

"Spiny, watch out!" Larry shouted. My eyes darted back to the road just in time to see the huge, horned buck go flying to the other side of the road. I glared at everyone through the rearview mirror. "There, you see? Whoever spit the spitball made me kill a deer. If you keep on…"

"And a rabbit," said Larry.

I looked at him in confusion. "Say what?"

"While you were yelling at everyone in the rearview mirror, you ran over a rabbit. You didn't even notice." Larry looked in the side mirror out the window. "Yep. Rabbit's still there. Or what's left of it after being run over a 7-ton, 10-wheel tank."

Frustration doesn't even begin to describe what I was feeling at that moment. I swerved towards the right and pulled off on the side of the road. As if all that wasn't bad enough, while I was stopping, an owl crashed into the windshield and…you guessed it. Died.

I groaned and looked at everyone. "Okay, for the last time…who threw the spitball?"

No one said anything. Just 8 pairs of staring, unblinking eyes. "Okay, okay. You guys want to play funny? That's fine with me. I'll play along. What about this? The next time anyone does something immature, I'm going to turn this thing around and…"

While I was talking, I felt the sensation that the TIV was moving. That's impossible. You're pulled on the side of the road and you have the brake on. Wait…Larry! What's he…oh, no! The idiot is controlling the TIV with his Technopathy power!

Just an FYI. Technopathy is the ability to control technology with your mind.

Using Telepathy or Mind Communication, I said, "Larry, what are you doing? You're going to reveal the powers!"

"What powers?" he answered.

"What?! Stop doing that!"

As you can surmise, he ignored me completely, and raised his finer, returning TIV to the freeway. This was a critical situation. If any of my friends found out about the powers…never mind. I don't like to think of that.

I had to take drastic action, so I yelled out loud, "Will you please stop that?!"

He lowered his hand and I grabbed onto the steering wheel. "From now on, will you please let me drive it manually?"

I was just starting to feel relieved that no one had noticed what Larry had done when Darla made my heart stop beating when she said, "How did you just do that, Larry?"

My mouth went dry and my stomach turned inside out. "Uhhhhhh…"

"Do what?" Larry said with the same tone of nervousness.

"Control the TIV without driving. How did you do that?"

Come on, Larry! Say something quick! "Uh…well, you see…yeah. Um, all of our vehicles have an emergency system that allows you to control it with gestures." Nice going, Larry!

"Yeah, that's right."

"For example, when Spiny's nagging and not paying attention to the road…"

Wait, what?! "Nagging? I wouldn't be nagging if people in this tank would stop making childish, silly pranks!" I stopped…again. "All right, you know what? Larry, get in the back. Lilia, you come up front of me."

Telepathically, Larry said, "Don't make me teleport!"

I threw daggers at him and said, "You wouldn't!"

He returned the glare. I wasn't about to let something else happen so I decided to avoid any more conflict. "Okay. Larry, would you be kind enough to sit in the back so that my dear girlfriend can sit up here with me?"

"Okay." Larry and Lilia both unbuckled and opened their doors. As Lilia was getting into the passenger seat, Larry showed her the way with his hand and said, "Madam?"

"It's mademoiselle, you fool. Madam is only for married women," Kathy said.

"Oh. In that case, Mamy Swell, get in there!" he said, whipping his tail at her.

"Hey, stop that!" she yelled at him.

Larry jumped in next to Dimetroodon. Being the nerd in the group, he sat next to the computer monitors that were connected to the radar on top of TIV. Once they were both ready, I pressed my foot on the gas pedal and resumed our trip. Great! Now thanks to his antics we're now a half hour behind schedule. Make the best of it. Now you've got the most beautiful girl next to you.

I placed my hand on Lilia's and held it softly. She looked at me and smiled. She held up my hand to her mouth and I felt the soft touch of her lips on it. It sent pleasant shivers all the way up my arm and down my back.

And guess who ruined the moment?

Yep. Mr. Half-Stepper. Mr. Never-Knows-How-To-Apologize. Mr. Lerk-Jerk. Larry.

You see, he was saying to Dimetroodon, "How's it going, man?"

"Great, Larry, and you?"

Then Larry poked Dimetroodon in the ribs. You know, in a playful, brotherly way. Well, that was bad. Do you know what happened when he poked Dimetroodon?

PFFFTTT!

"Open a window!"

"Yech, that's gross!"

"Open a window!"

"No, open the doors!"

"Spiny, the windows are locked!" Roger yelled. Oops.

"Oh, sorry. There. Now they're unlocked!" All windows went down, and out went the toxic fumes that were burning our respiratory systems along with coughing heads. "Okay, from now on, Dimetroodon is off-limits. No one touch him!" I ordered.

"Sorry. Must've been what I had for breakfast," Dimetroodon said.

"Please don't say what it was," said Rudy.

"Two toasted breads covered in mayonnaise and banana."

Everyone in TIV replied by saying, "Eww!" or "Gross!" or like Darla, who said, "Dimetroodon, you're a pig!"

At that moment, I happened to be looking at Lilia, when…another spitball. This time I saw who had done it. In my peripheral vision. "Robert!"

"Uh…yes, dear brother?" he said in a clearly guilty voice. Never mind the fact that he was trying to be cute and all.

"Do that again and you'll be mowing the entire lawn for the next two weeks!"

"With or without allowance?"

"No comment!"

Can you believe that nerve of that guy?! Asking for allowance! I couldn't believe we had the same blood running through our veins.

Anyways, just at that moment, I caught the scent of food. It smelled like meat, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. "Hey, what smells so great?" I said.

"Oh, it's these tacos I brought," Rudy answered.

"You brought tacos?" Patty asked.

"Yeah, before the trip. So we wouldn't have to stop anywhere in case we got hungry. I bought 40 of them." Rudy handed Lilia a bag with three tacos. "Here, this is for Spiny." Lilia set it down in my lap.

"Thanks, cuz," I said to Rudy.

"Sure." While he was handing out tacos to everyone, Roger said, "Did you bring something to drink?"

"Yeah, I brought beer."

I started choking on the tacos and the lettuce got lodged in my throat. Lilia slapped me a few times in the back to help me. "You brought WHAT?!"

"Just kidding. Nah, I brought some nice, warm, wine."

"You brought wine?"

"Yeah, for stomach problems. Or cravings."

"What do you mean cravings?" Lilia asked.

"Rudy, that's irresponsible!" I said in an authoritive tone.

"What do you mean irresponsible?" Greeny asked. "Look at Larry."

Mr. Role-Model was drinking something. I couldn't tell what it was, because it was inside a paper bag. But something told me it wasn't a Pepsi. "Larry!" He looked up at me, and then took what he was drinking out the bag.

It was a Pepsi.

I was really starting to get irked. I said to Lilia, "You see, baby? See what I have to deal with?" Before any of us could say, I heard a loud BANG! right next to my ear. I screamed and my hands flew in both directions on the steering wheel.

The TIV started screeching and we were heading at full speed towards a metal post.