"Hic."

"What that my phone?" Max asked, looking around for it wildly.

"No, that was Lydia. Again." Crysta said, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Hiccup..."

"Damn it Lydia, you made me drop a stitch." Alex growled.

"Hiccup..."

"Cut it out Lyd!"

Lydia clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the sound of her hiccups.

But it wasn't working.

"Hic hic hic."

"Would you knock that off? You've been hiccupping since Indiana." Crysta snapped, stealing a glance in the rearview mirror to look at Lydia.

"Hiccup, hiccup, hic-Gah Damn You Max!"

"What? What did I do?" Max asked, turning sideways to look at Lydia.

"Every time we're around each other for an extended length of time I get the hiccups!"

Max raised an eyebrow, "We've been rooming together for almost two months."

"And..."

"This is the first case if hiccups I've seen you get."

"That you've seen!"

"Your point?" Max asked giving Lydia a rather doubtful look.

"My point is usually, I get them-or feel them coming on-and leave the room." As Lydia finished talking a rather large hiccup sounded. "Damn It!"

Crysta and Max tried to stifle giggles but failed, letting Lydia see that they obviously enjoyed seeing their friend like this.

"Oh sure laugh at my pain." Lydia groused, crossing her arms.

"'You mock my pain! Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.'" Max replied with a grin and still giggling.

"...talk about random." Alex said, after a pause.

"Random nothing, I knew that was coming." Crysta commented.

"Sure." Alex rolled her eyes and was unconvinced.

Crysta just stuck her tongue out at Alex , "Can't you just hang upside or something?"

"Sure...hang upside down in a car...there's a bright idea." Max deadpanned.

"I do that all the time at home and it's never stopped the hiccups." Lydia huffed.

"Why do you do that?"

"It helps me HIC-think!"

"You think?" Alex asked in mock surprise.

"Oh shut the Hicc-up."

"What about holding your breath or sugar? Do we have any sugar in the car?" Max asked.

"Yea, it's next to the blowtorch in the trunk." Crysta shot back.

"Funny. Funny like a crutch."

"Hey, crutches can be funny. But think about this; do we really want to give Lydia sugar?" Alex said, trying to get them to realize that might not be a good idea.

"...oh god, no. Not after the great Pixie Stick Debacle." Crysta remarked, slightly flinching at the memory.

Max laughed at the memory, "Hahaha...that was great."

"It wasn't a debac-HIC-le." Lydia said, defending herself.

"Yes it was." Alex commented, nodding her head.

"You bounced on your bed and hit your head on the ceiling-" Max started to say.

"until you knocked a hole in the plaster." Crysta replied, finishing the sentence.

"Not to mention the stitches you needed." Alex concluded, nodding her head.

"Yeah, remember how we had to explain that one to the landlady?" Crysta said, raising her eyebrows.

"I don't think she bought our 'Lydia was testing a new nuclear reactor' excuse, do you?" Max asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Nope." Alex said, shaking her head to agree with the statement.

Crysta grinned, "But on the plus side, we got a great home video to show our kids."

"Hey, that's not as bad as the time she proved it wasn't lethal to snort baby powder." Alex pointed out.

"True...come to think about it didn't we stop watching 'Mythbusters' after that?" Max asked leaning her arm against the door and resting her head on her arm.

"I think we did." Alex mused.

"We probably shouldn't have, it would have been way more entertaining to keep letting her watch it and reenact things..." Crysta said smiling.

"...but the people at the ER would've gotten suspicious every time we brought her in as a result." Max reasoned.

"Still having the hiccups over here!" Lydia exclaimed.

"Good for you." Max replied coolly.

"Why you mother HIC-ing frakking HIC son of a HIC!"

"You kiss your Frohike poster at night with that mouth?" Crysta asked while at the same time Alex said, "Hey, do you kiss your mother with that mouth of yours?"

Lydia opened her mouth to respond to that but instead of a witty retort out came a rather large "HIC"

It was silent for a few minutes and the four girls didn't disturb the peace, each soaking in the silence that hadn't been there for a while.

But it was shattered with another loud 'HIC!'

"Lydia!" Crysta groaned.

Max heard her phone ring and she scrambled to answer it before it went to voice-mail. "Hello?" she said, motioning for the others to shut up. "…Yes this is her."

Lydia, Crysta, and Alex exchanged looks of confusion but before they could start to eavesdrop Lydia's phone rang and she picked it up.

That just left Crysta and Alex to figure out why Max was jumping for her phone all of a sudden.

"…Yes I have your number, I'll let you know by then…Thanks for letting me know." Max said. After hanging up the phone she glanced up to see Alex turned around in her seat, looking at her and Crysta stealing glances in the mirror. "What?" Max asked.

"What was that all about?" Alex asked.

"Something."

"Obviously, but what specifically?"

Max opened her mouth to retort but Lydia broke in with a loud, "God fucking damn them to the seventh circle of the ninth level of hell!"

"What? What happened?" Alex asked.

"Ah…nothing." Lydia mumbled, turning her gaze towards the window.

"Oh."

They were silent for a while until Crysta, hoping to lessen the obvious tension, remarked, "Hey Lydia, your hiccups are gone."

"Whoopdie-freakin'-doo." Lydia grumbled.

"So…Max, what was the phone call about?"

"Oh…nothing." Max replied, slightly distracted.

"That didn't sound like nothing to me." Alex replied.

"It was nothing, ok?" Max snapped.

"Ok. Sorry I asked."