A/N: So, I've worked quite hard to get this to you guys tonight. I'm continuing! *claps* And *drumroll* I have a beta! So a great big thanks goes to pink-strawberry-lemonade for looking this over and helping me. Here it is! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own HoA, a train ticket, or Brad Kavanagh. Doesn't stop me from trying, though.
"Alright everybody, it's time to go! Cabs are here!" Trudy called from the front door, which she had propped open.
"Great!" Patricia grumbled. "The cabs get here just as I was sitting down!" She stood up, a magazine in hand, and bee-lined towards the luggage pile by the door.
Nina, Amber, and Mara came from downstairs, while the boys appeared from the hall.
"Everybody grab your luggage!" Trudy instructed, helping sort the mound that everyone had made to supposedly make leaving easier and more efficient.
"Oomph!" Amber grunted, her carry on strapped to her back, big bag in hand. "This is heavy!"
"Here, Amber! I'll help you!" Alfie said, moving to help the blonde. The problem was, he already had his own bag to carry, and with hers, he was a tad overbalanced. "Ah, ah, ah!" He yelped, toppling over.
Jerome started laughing, while Amber screeched, "Alfie! That's my bag!"
Mara squealed as she hurried to move out of the way, and Patricia just loomed over him saying, "I bet you did that on purpose. Now get up, you moron, we've got a train to catch!"
Fabian bent to help sort the jumbled mess. "Can't we do anything as a group without there being a commotion?"
Nina giggled under her breath. "Come on, we can all just grab a bag and sort out whose is whose later—we need to go!"
Everyone grumbled, but they appeared to be able to get it together at last. Patricia grabbed her bag—"Oh, and let you all get a hold of it and lose it? No, I don't think so."—and Alfie managed to hold both his and Amber's, without falling over this time. Mara made to grab hers, but Jerome swept in and took it. She just shrugged. Nina and Fabian both took hold of their own bags, and finally everybody was ready.
"Oh, I hope you all have a wonderful trip!" Trudy said from the doorway, where she had watched the whole ordeal with a fond, motherly smile. "Be extra careful—we don't want any of you getting lost along the way!"
"Thanks so much, Trudy," Nina smiled and hugged her housemother. "We'll all be really careful."
"Yeah, we'll all work to keep tabs on each other. Buddy system!" Alfie said, eyes set on Amber.
"One problem with that, genius. There's an odd number of us since Mick's not here," Patricia pointed out.
"We'll fix that later! Let's just go already!" Amber complained, tapping her foot.
"I actually agree with her—we don't want to miss our train," Nina said, walking through the door.
Fabian followed, then Amber, Mara, Patricia, Jerome, and lastly, Alfie.
"Be safe!" Trudy called out the door, waving. Everyone waved back, some more enthusiastic than others.
"Oi, I remember you!" A vaguely familiar voice said from behind Nina. She whirled around, and was face to face with the very cab driver that first brought her from the train station to Anubis House.
"You brought me here!" Nina exclaimed, a smile taking form on her face.
"Aye, that I did! I recognized your name on the roster, so I thought I'd snag the job. Here, I'll take your trunks." He reached over and pick up her bags, and put them in the trunk of one of the cabs.
"That's so thoughtful," Nina said to Fabian, smiling. He nodded agreement.
"Who's riding where?" Patricia asked, standing with the rest of the house, observing the line of 4 cabs in front of Anubis House.
"Um. Well, there's 7 of us, and 4 cabs. So we can double up, and then one cab will have only one person in it." Nina pointed to each of the cabs, who had a driver standing in front of it.
"I call solo cab!" Patricia screamed, running to the last cab in line. The driver packed her bags in the trunk, opened the door for her, and waited for everyone else to pick their rides.
"I'll ride with Amber!" Alfie said, looking at her.
Amber's shoulders drooped a tad, but she smiled all the same. "Okay. So, Mara and Jerome will share one? And we all know Fabian's going to ride with Nina." She winked at them, causing the couple to blush furiously.
"Sounds like it's all set, then," Jerome said, trying to smile instead of smirk. He didn't really want to scare off Mara, and he didn't want anyone else to think he had any sinister plans—they thought that enough of him, anyways. While he may really be a devious, plotting prankster, he wouldn't actually do anything truly harmful. At least, not to his friends or anyone that mattered.
"Yep!" Nina said, walking to the cab in front, where 'her' driver was. Fabian followed, and threw his bag in the trunk on top of Nina's. Mara and Jerome took the second cab, and Alfie and Amber took the one in front of Patricia's.
Once everyone was settled in their respective cabs, they drove off in the direction of town and the train station.
"Ninnnaaaaa," Amber whined. "Why does our train have to leave at night?"
"So we can get to London, and only have to wait a couple of hours at the airport before our flight takes off. It's a timing thing," Nina explained, leading everyone into the small station. There was no secretary on duty, and the place was practically deserted, except a few stragglers.
"So our train ride will be how long exactly?" Patricia asked, coming up beside them.
"About five and a half hours tops."
Patricia groaned, plopping down on a bench. Mara and Jerome came in, both smiley for whatever reason, and Alfie and Fabian came back from their quest in search of a vending machine.
"Oh, yay, everyone's here!" Amber said, perking up. Then she turned to Mara. "Why are you so happy?" She asked, her tone slightly accusatory, as if she knew something was up.
Mara went wide-eyed, not faring well in the face of pressure. "Oh, no particular reason. I'm just excited about this trip, is all."
Amber nodded, a knowing glint in her eye. "Uh-huh. Whatever you say, Mara."
Mara looked around. "I'm being serious, Amber! Honest!"
"Oh, can it, Mara. It's Amber, she's going to think what she wants anyways," Patricia said, pulling out her magazine. "The real argument is whether or not Moron-boy and Geeky found a vending machine?" She looked in the direction of Alfie and Fabian.
"Oh, ha ha, call me a geek. Not like I haven't heard that one before. And no, we weren't able to find a vending machine, sorry to disappoint." Fabian rolled his eyes. Patricia really got under his skin when she said stuff like that—he thought it unnecessary to always put people down with degrading names.
"No need to be so sarcastic," Patricia said with a glance in his direction. She just shrugged and went back to her magazine.
Nina just looked between the two with a surprised gaze. "Okaaay," she said, exaggerating the 'a' sound. The air around them was tense for whatever reason. Mara and Amber were still having a conversation about what happened or didn't happen between Mara and Jerome; Jerome and Alfie were goofing off as always; Fabian and Patricia were pointedly avoiding the others' eyes, and Nina felt as if she was caught in the middle of it all.
Just then, an announcement was made over the intercom. "The 8 o'clock train for London will arrive in 5 minutes' time. All passengers riding this train need to present their ticket to the conductor at the platform entrance and be prepared to board when it arrives."
"Oh, that's us!" Nina said, glad for something to break up the suddenly icy mood. She grabbed her bags, as did everyone else, and they headed to the conductor's station to present their tickets.
"Ooh, he's cute!" Amber said of the 'conductor,' who really looked like he was about their age.
Mara rolled her eyes but smiled, while Nina said, "Um, if you say so, Amber."
Amber giggled when she handed him her ticket. The conductor just gave the blonde an odd look and took her ticket, ripped the stub, and handed it back. While Alfie had frowned when Amber called the conductor cute, he perked up at the conductor's estranged receipt of her.
Next, they moved out to the windy platform. "Ah, my hair!" Amber squealed. For once, Nina was inclined to agree with her as her own hair was flapping about, getting caught in her face and mouth.
"Bleh!" She said, spitting some of it out. Fabian gave her a questioning look. "I got hair in my mouth." He smiled in understanding, his eyes alight.
Oh, what did I do to deserve him? She thought, smiling back for all she was worth. She was only vaguely aware of the others talking around them.
Fabian was just as entranced. He was still hard pressed to not give in to that 'pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming' feeling when he realized that Nina really was his girlfriend, everything this past term had happened, and he actually got to hug her and kiss her whenever he wanted. (And when it was appropriate—there's a time and place for everything, he thought.)
Suddenly the wind picked up, and a train horn could be heard quite near, bursting the bubble they had been in. Sounds from the outside world flooded their ears, the sights of the lights on the night sky seemed bright on their eyes, and the realization that they were about to be on a train to London seemed to hit them full force.
"It's here! Oh, this is so exciting!" Mara exclaimed, leaning closer to the yellow line that they were still standing behind, as the train lined itself up with the platform.
Nina smiled, having done this before. She knew the excitement and jitteriness of it, and she thought it was nice to watch someone else experience it.
Fabian sidled up beside Nina, and grabbed her hand. She squeaked in surprise, then turned and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"Alright, let's go!" Nina called. She didn't let go of Fabian's hand, but still managed to carry her bags and make it onto the train in one piece. She twisted at the waist, counting heads to make sure everyone got there okay.
The seats were in blocks of two, all facing one way. Amber took hold of Mara and dragged her off to sit together, Alfie and Jerome sat side-by-side, and Nina and Fabian took seats together. Patricia sat across the aisle from Amber and Mara, and she leaned across the space separating them to chat.
For about the first hour of the ride everyone was awake, lively, either talking or otherwise engaged. But as time wore on, the activity tapered away. Amber was the first one asleep, leaning her head against Mara. Patricia was next, her head propped up by her hand. It was hard to tell who fell asleep first of the two—Alfie or Jerome. Jerome's head was against the window, and Alfie was slumped forward, his face pressed into the seat in front of him. Mara tipped her head back, and soon she was unconscious as well. All that was left were Fabian and Nina.
Nina yawned, seeming to crack first.
"Tired, Ms. Martin?" Fabian asked, teasing.
"Maybe just a bit. What's it to you, Mr. Rutter?" She asked, calling his bluff.
Fabian smiled, his face soft. "Not much. Just that I get the luxury of being your pillow for the night," he said as Nina was making herself comfortable using his shoulder to prop her head up.
"Hmmmm," Nina hummed. "You make a good pillow."
Fabian chuckled, and she could feel the vibrations travel through his body. "Thanks. I think."
"It was a compliment."
Fabian nodded, and she was almost gone, when he asked, "Nina, how are we going to know when to get off if we all fall asleep?"
"I have an alarm on my phone," she replied, quite groggy.
Fabian nodded again, and soon felt her breathing get deeper, letting him know she had finally drifted off. He smiled at her before leaning into her hair (it was very soft, and smelled quite nice) and giving in to his fatigue himself.
A/N: Soooo. Did ya like it? I rather liked this chapter. It gave me a bit of trouble at first, but I liked it. Feedback is always nice - keep those wonderful reviews coming! I got a lot of great ones last chapter. It makes me so happy knowing people read and like my story! :]
-Zenelia*Sky