Lydia came running into the living room, dodging around the boxes that littered the floor while exclaiming, "Did you guys see this?"
Max, Crysta, and Alex looked at each other with varying degrees of confusion on their faces. Anything that made Lydia this excited didn't bode well for the others. "What now?" Crysta asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lydia waved the sheets of paper in her hand around wildly in the faces of her three friends and bounced up and down. "Convention! Vegas! Shatner!" She grinned madly.
"NO!" they all shouted in unison.
"Why not?!" Lydia asked, looking hurt.
The three girls looked at each other then at Lydia. "Were we the only ones there in New York, Lydia?" Alex asked while continuing to pack.
Lydia refused to back down, her inner Trekkie would not be denied the chance of seeing Captain Kirk. "But…but...Shatner!"
"I seem to recall you had the exact same argument for Campbell." Max replied while taping a box shut and marking the contents on the outside.
"We could gamble...and see shows and and and—"
"NO." Crysta said loudly, cutting Lydia off.
Lydia shot daggers at her friends and huffed, "Fine. I'll go by myself." She then stormed out of the room and slammed the door to her room. A few seconds later the three in the living room could dimly hear rock music blaring from the other side.
Max paused putting CDs in a box and listened to the music. "It's Triumph," she said after a moment. "she must be pissed."
"...we really shouldn't let her go alone." Crysta said after Max had finished speaking and picked up the paper that Lydia had dropped when she left in a huff. "Oooo...Connor Trinneer is going to be there."
"I don't care if Connor Trinneer is going to show up...we are not going on a road trip again." Max argued, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?" Alex asked, looking at Crysta with narrow eyes.
"Possibly..."
"Just like a Trekkie to side with her." Max rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"But she'll get in trouble without us." Crysta reasoned.
"Hey, I think I just got an evil idea." Alex said, grinning and chuckling.
"What?" Max asked slowly, not liking the fact that Alex found her own idea funny.
"Isn't McKay in New Mexico?"
"...yes." Crysta nodded her head while wondering what Alex had planned.
"I thought he was still on Atlantis." Max said from behind a stack of boxes.
Crysta shook her head, "No, he came back to pack up his lab. Said that if he didn't then his stuff would all get messed up."
"Isn't New Mexico on the way to Vegas?" Alex asked, getting them back to focus on her idea.
"...if you go that way, sure."
"And isn't McKay a trekkie too?"
"I suppose."
"But they'd kill themselves." Max said, catching on to what Alex was thinking.
"Or each other...which ever happens one or both of them will end up dead." Crysta added.
"Well what better way to disabuse Lydia of her road trip plans than inviting McKay along?" Alex concluded, still smiling. "Or better yet, we can just tell her we'll go...so long as we can pick someone up on the way."
"Do you think we can rent an arena and charge people to watch 'em fight it out?" Crysta wondered out loud.
"It would be pretty entertaining."
"We'd make a killing." Max said grinning.
"And it would offset the cost of going..."
"I say we do it."
"Only if Max doesn't lend money, drive, or give directions."
"Hey, I resent that." Max said, pretending to be hurt. "Besides I won't be able to go, remember? I have to be in Maine and you guys have to go back as well."
"It's two birds with one stone; we keep Lydia from ever suggesting a road trip again and we get to watch her suffer." Alex said, laughing. "When does school start?"
"Last week of August."
"We don't have to leave until the Daedalus gets back, when it does Vegas will be over and done with for awhile and you'll still have plenty of time to pack and move."
"I'm in!" Crysta said quickly, smiling.
Max was silent for a few minutes, wondering if she should cross over to their side and just go along with it.