When I woke up the sun was streaming through the cheap drapes on the motel room window. I stretched and got up. Tori was still fast asleep on her side of the bed, I glanced at the clock, 9:00. I hadn't slept that long in months, It felt so good to wake up fully rested. I walked to the bathroom quietly, not wanting to wake up Aunt Lauren and Tori. I realized I didn't have anything, not a change of clothes or even a toothbrush to get rid of my nasty morning breath. I grabbed some money and headed down to the lobby, they had a small store where we bought food last night, and I was hoping I could find a toothbrush there.
I grabbed money and slipped out of the room quietly. The store ended up having toothbrushes and I bought enough for everyone, I know they'd appreciate that. I walked back to the room and Tori was awake when I got there. "Morning, I got you a toothbrush" I said handing her a pink one. "oh my god, you're a life saver!" she said. I had also picked up a tube of toothpaste for us to all share, I brushed my teeth, thankful to get rid of the terrible breath problem.
The boys room was next to ours and I knocked on the door quietly, Derek is usually a early riser so I knew he'd be up, but I didn't want to wake Simon and Kit incase they were still asleep. Sure enough, Derek was the one to answer the door, he slipped out right away, closing the door behind him. " I didn't want to wake up Simon and Dad" he explained. " I was wondering if you wanted to go on a morning walk? " I asked. I wanted to get out for a while, it was so nice to be able to go wherever we wanted now. I was used to being confined in the Lyle House. " Sure" he agreed with a smile.
I hadn't got a chance to spend time with Derek since we escaped. Once we got outside he stopped and pulled me into his arms, I snuggled into his chest." I missed you. The last couple days were so crazy I feel like I didn't even get a chance to see you" he said, reading my mind. "me too" I replied leaning up to kiss him. Our lips connected and I felt butterflies in my stomach. We had only kissed a handful of times, we had been too busy fighting the Edison Group the last week to do much else. My hands tangled in his jet black hair, it was shaggy, he needed to get a haircut. He pulled me closer, and our bodies pressed together. I pulled back, not wanting to go too far yet, technically me and Derek had only been together for a little more than a week, even if it felt like more. I didn't want to rush through all the steps of the relationship too fast. I looked up at him and he smiled. Since he'd been changing more regularly his acne had faded, only leaving a few pimples behind. His hair had also stopped getting greasy half way through the day, I'd have to watch out for the other girls at our new school when we settled down.
"Woah guys settle down with the PDA!" I heard Tori say from behind me. I stepped back from Derek to see what she wanted. " Kit wants to talk to us all in his room. We need to decide where we're going from here" she said. Me and Derek followed her to the boy's room. Simon was sitting up in his bed, it looked like Kit had finally gave in and woke him up, he had a bad case of bedhead. Lauren and Kit were sitting on the other bed, waiting for us. We sat down on Simons bed and started discussing our plan. " Lauren and I think it would be best to drive as far as we can from here and find a small town where we can settle down for a little while, under fake names of course. Nothing is permanent but we're hoping that this way you kids can go to school and try to lead a somewhat normal life". We all agreed, anything sounded good to us, as long as we were free of the Edison Group. " Of course we still have to be very precautious, the Cabal is still after us." he continued, " we found a small town called Hartlington Springs, which is about a 18 hour drive from here, we're going to drive there today. Once we get there we'll look for a temporary house". I was so relieved. Even though the Cabal was still after us we'd have a lot of freedom in this new town. I can't believe this but I'm excited to be able to go to school like a normal teenager. " Before we go, I know you guys are probably dying to change your clothes so Lauren is going to go out and pick up a few things just for now and we'll get everything else once we get to the town, and I'm going to find a car we can use to drive there, I don't want to use the one we used to drive here just incase". We were all excited about fresh clothes and the new life we got to start " This new town better have some cute boys" Tori said, I wasn't even surprised, I shook my head at her. " Oh and before I go " Kit said. We all looked at him with anticipation, " Chloe and Tori, I got hair dye for you, and Derek and Simon you guys are getting hair cuts, you better hope that Tori and Chloe aren't too terrible at cutting hair" he winked " we can't risk being recognized, Lauren and I are cutting our hair too" . Simon and Tori groaned, "this sucks" Simon complained, but we really heard it from Tori, " new boys aren't going to matter, my hair is going to look like shit". We all ignored her, we were used to it.
When Kit and Lauren left me and Tori went to our own room, dye in my hands. "What colour is it?" Tori asked, I looked at the box, they even had our names on them so we knew which colour was for who. " Blonde for you, and brown for me, great" I said to her. We both groaned and followed the directions on the bottle. We had to wait 20 minutes for the dye to set so I tried to make small talk. "So are you excited about finally settling down? I mean I know it's nothing permanent but we'll actually be able to lead pretty normal lives" I said, " Yeah!" she replied " I know this is so not like me, but I'm actually excited to start school again, I miss being just a normal teenage girl". " Me too" I agreed " we'll have to defend eachother, I'm sure we'll get out fair share of teasing from the popular girls about this lovely dye job" I said pointing to my hair. Tori giggled, " I'm sure we will" she agreed with a wink. We talked until the 20 minutes was up, then we rinsed out the dye. "I'm nevous to see what this looks like dry" I said, Tori was using the crappy hotel blow dryer, we had to take turns. "Trust me, it couldn't look worse than this" Tori groaned. The blonde was a big change, she didn't look bad, it would just take some getting used to. I didn't look at mine until I was done with the hair dryer.
I looked in the mirror. It didn't suit me but it wasn't quite as unflattering as the black that Derek had got me the last time I had to dye my hair. " It looks good! I mean it's different, that's what we're going for right?" Tori smiled at me, trying to make the best of our current situation. "You're right" I replied, " could be worse".
When we entered Simon and Dereks room Derek laughed at Tori "hey barbie" he winked. Tori stuck her tongue out at him " just wait and see what your hair looks like when were done, I'm sure you won't be laughing" she grinned. We each had a pair of scissors and Derek and Simon were sitting in the bathtub, we didnt exactly have time to clean up a bunch of hair after we were done, Aunt Lauren and Kit should be back soon and we'd be leaving. "Have you done this before?" I whispered to Tori, "nope" she replied with a grin. I could tell she was going to enjoy this. I carefully trimmed Derek's hair all around, then I trimmed a few pieces in the from shorter to frame his face. His hair had been long, so the short hair was a big change. Simon was nervous, who wouldn't be if Tori was their hairdresser for the day. It didnt end up being too bad. She chopped off all his perfect blonde spikes. It was sort of military style now, very short, very unlike Simon.
Aunt Lauren and Kit returned then. They had stopped at a hair dresser, Aunt Lauren was sporting a short bob, and Kit's salt and pepper hair was trimmed much like Simons. We changed into our new clothes, ditching our old ones since we were last seen by the Edison Group in them. I got a simple pink hoodie and blue jeans. We all Piled into the van that Kit had hot wired and started our long drive. I snuggled into Derek's shoulder and watched the motel fade into the distance behind us.