Marie Billows' POV

It's annoying being able to clearly see the future of all the terrible things I do not want to see, but when I simply just want to see when and where my new friends will exactly show up, my visions seem clear as mud. The last vision I saw of them arriving was at a small law firm called Walter, Walter, and Walter Law Firm. They should've been here by now. I mean, I explicitly told them where they could get a quick ride over here. It's been three days since I sent them that letter. Although I could not see the exact time that they would get here, I knew the date that they would. May 23. What's so hard about getting here by today? I gave them enough notice.

In the distance, I saw that my wait was over. Driving down the main road, was a small white car. I couldn't contain my excitement. Sprinting out in the middle of the road, I couldn't just let drive off without seeing me, the approached me, but they weren't stopping. Were they really going to run me over? That seems kind of rude. Once they were a half a foot in front of me, thanks to my ADHD, I was able to slam my hands onto the hood of their car, thankfully the driver, oh look its Ian, had the sense to stop suddenly. Hopefully they didn't have whip lash.

Keeping my hands on the car, I shimmied over to where the driver's window was, behind the tinted window, Ian was... scowling at me? Slowly, and a bit dramatically, the window rolled down and Ian, who still looked unhappy to see me, strange, asked in a dark tone, "You're her, aren't you?"

He said it like it was an insult, but I cheerfully replied, "If you mean I'm Marie, then you are correct. Very nice to meet you, Ian." I shoved my hand into his window to meet his, hoping to receive a firm handshake of friendship, but instead, he simply ignored my hand and ordered firmly, "Get in the back."

"Oh, okay." I said, slightly discouraged. But, I obeyed calmly and climbed into the back seat, because we were still in the middle of the road. Oops. A couple cars behind us were stopped and honking, which caused Ian to peer his head out of the window and stick his tongue out at all of them. Ivy muttered to herself at her brother's display, "Real mature, bro."

I grinned at how adorable they were.

I took off my back pack and placed it next to me. Inside was an extra pair of clothes, some snacks, and my hand crossbow, χαλάζι φwτιά or better known as Hail-Fire, it was just the length of my forearm and only had two rounds of these weird gold arrows with similar gold plating on the bow. Always have to be prepared for a fight. Those are my grandma's words of wisdom.

At first I didn't notice it, but both of the twins were staring at me. Oh did I staring, I meant glaring. But, I took a deep breath and realized, oh they just need me to tell them where to go next. I'm sure that's it. With a light smile on my face, I kindly informed them, "We need to go to Portland, Oregon next, in case you were wondering." Ian looked like he was about to explode, but Ivy calmly held up her hand to stop him, and exploded instead,

"PORTLAND! YOU EXPECT US TO TAKE YOU TO PORTLAND, OREGON! WE COME ALL THE WAY HERE ON A GOLDEN PIG, JUST TO PICK UP A MIDDLE SCHOOLER WHO WE BARELY KNOW! NOT TO MENTION, YOU'VE BEEN STALKING MY DREAMS FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS! BUT FINE! WE'LL TAKE YOU TO OREGON! BUCKLE UP!"

She was scarier than that time when Mount St. Helens erupted.Ian looked like he wanted to cry out for joy, hugging his sister with great enthusiasm, he proclaimed, "I'm so happy you're not insane!"

"Of course, I'm not," Ivy responded like it was obvious, hugging her brother in return, "Did you really think I thought this was a good plan? Trust me, I had been planning on what to say to this... little cutie ever since you put me on Gary."

That's when I noticed the kazoo hanging around Ivy's neck.

"Where is Gary?" I asked, "You should probably call him over, we have quite a bit more traveling ahead of us." I continued while gesturing to her kazoo necklace.

"What makes you think that we want to get on that thing again?" Ivy snapped.

"Well. It's a faster way of getting to Portland, for one thing, I mean we could take this car, but it would take a good twenty hours or so... Whatever the driver wants I guess." I speculated. Ivy looked like she was about to say something quite harsh, but Ian put his hand on her shoulder and said smugly, "Yeah, Ivy, Gary would be faster and more efficient... It's what the driver wants, after all." While motioning to the steering wheel and back to himself. Ivy just pierced him with a look of hatred.

"Really. This is your way of getting revenge. I thought you had more class." Ivy growled, but she didn't question her brother. Lifting the golden kazoo to her lips, as soon as the wicked noise was blown through the kazoo, the tractor-sized boar from my visions came into view. I was slightly unsettled, lets just say, seeing something in a vision is much different from seeing something in real life. Ivy though, seemed to have forgotten all her anger at me and used that energy to look truly terrified of the boar's return. Ian had to practically drag Ivy out of the car and throw her onto the saddle. Thankfully, he helped me get on since I was shorter than both of them.

Ian then attached the car with heavy golden chains to Gary. Without even asking if we were ready, Ian exclaimed, "Su-wee!" And off we went. At the speed of a rocket! I almost flew off, but I feel like that's what Ian wanted.But, we were only on Gary for one minute before we stopped. We probably traveled quite a bit of distance, but although Gary was fast, it would still take at least a half an hour to reach Oregon. We couldn't have been even out of California yet. And to my horror, we weren't.

I recognized all the buildings and streets. This was Berkeley, California. Why would Ian stop here? And so close to the place. Ian was guiding Gary over to the beach, but it was a beach that I recognized far too well. My mother's restaurant was right in plain sight. Just a few yards away.Soulle's Sunbar.

The place hadn't changed at all in the past year. The first thirteen years of my life, I had practically spent every waking moment in that restaurant. Either helping my mom, or just working on my homeschool work. I only left because my mother sent me away for this past year to live at my grandparents.I could see my step-dad, a tall African-American man, Gregory James, taking out the trash. He was a nice guy, but he did look rather shocked when he looked up and saw me with two mysterious eighteen year olds. Running up to us, he asked sternly, "Marie, what are you doing here? And who are... your friends here?"

"Why does everyone assume we're friends?" Ian muttered to himself. We all ignored him."Honestly, I don't know what we're doing here. But, this is Ian and Ivy. My very close friends." I sassed while holding eye contact with Ian. Ivy sighed, but Ian strangely gave me two thumbs up. Maybe I will never understand him. My step-dad just motioned for us to follow him inside. While we were walking behind him, I turned to Ian and asked,"Why did you bring us here? How did you even know about this place?"

"Well, first of all, I'm hungry. Second of all, I can't really explain it, Ivy was drawn to the Chase House, the same way that I was drawn here and now that I see that this is your favorite restaurant, we have to eat here." Fates were cruel.

Once inside, I saw that the place was fairly empty, but it was beautiful how my mom designed the place so that all the light was able to be let in. Greg went behind the counter and began to make us some cheeseburgers. He leaned over to me, in the middle of grilling the patties, "Your mom's not here right now. I'll mention this to her later, but I wouldn't advise you to stay. Just eat your lunch and be on your way." He looked sad as he told me this. After all, he really was a nice guy.

He served us our cheeseburgers, my mouth watered, I hadn't even realized how much I missed Greg's cheeseburgers. Ian and Ivy seemed to be big fans also. Ivy was halfway through her until she stopped, as if she came to some terrible realization. I didn't think the bacon cheeseburgers were that bad.

Ivy sprinted to the bathroom, Ian and I had already finished our cheeseburgers. We waited by the bathroom door for about fifteen minutes and Ian looked rather worried. From his expression, I definitely did not want to know what was going on in there. When Ivy finally exited, she looked pale and green at the same time. She was shaking rather violently and Ian helped her out of the restaurant and onto Gary. Ivy glared at Gary as if somehow he had caused her pain. I gave Greg a good-bye hug and got onto Gary. I wasn't sure what Greg was seeing, but he acted as if it was normal. Finally, we left.

The rest of the journey went smoothly with no more pit stops. Before we knew it, we arrived in the drizzling yet colorful city of Portland, Oregon.

Time to find our next companion. Hopefully, he would be more friendly.