Hello everyone! As usual, getting a new chapter up has taken much longer than intended. I really hope you guys enjoy this one, seeing as I left you hanging for so long. Read and review, but also PM me if you have fresh ideas for future chapters. Hugs and butterfly kisses, ravenclawdancer4999
"Why you little-" Jaime uttered under her breath. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen this coming. Lauren wouldn't rest until she came out in top, but this was a new low, even for her.
"Well, at least they already paid for lunch," she thought, trying to look on the positive side of things. The girl picked up her purse and made her way to the door. "I guess I should try to retrace my steps best I can..." Racking her brain, she managed to find her way back to the lot where she parked the car earlier. Jaime walked up to the window purposefully and the attendant looked up from his work.
"Sorry to bother you," she said kindly, "But did you see two girls leave here about two minutes ago? One about my height and the other a few inches shorter? They were driving a green rental car."
"You're in luck," he nodded, "They left about a minute ago, although the smaller one seemed to be in a pretty big rush."
"That's them alright," Jaime agreed, "Did you see which way they went?" The attendant furrowed his brow in concentration.
"I'm pretty sure they took a left, but I'm not positive," he replied tentatively.
"That sounds about right," the girl answered, "I think..."
"I wish I could help you more," the attendant said earnestly, "I really do, but I wasn't paying that much attention..."
"No, it's fine, you've already been a big help." Jaime read his name tag a flashed a charming smile, "Thanks, Jon." She turned on her heel and turned left out of the parking lot, praying she would come across something familiar.
On another side of the city, Julia nervously drummed her fingers on the dashboard.
"Lauren, I don't know about this," Julia frowned, looking very worried, "What if Jaime can't find her way to the hotel? What if she gets hurt? What if someone tries to kidnap her or-"
"Breathe, Jules," Lauren sighed, still concentrating on the road, "Just take a chill pill; Jaime's a big girl, a smart one at that. She'll find her way."
"She isn't a dog, she's a person! I mean, it might be okay if Joey or Darren were wandering around by themselves; they've at least been around here before."
"Don't get your panties in a wad," Lauren replied, squinting at a street sign, "If she doesn't get back before dinner, that's when we can start to worry, kay?" Julia still frowned, but gave a curt nod. "Awesome, now can you hand me the map we printed out?"
"What map, Lo?" Julia asked. "You know, the one Jaime put in her purse before we-shit." Lauren realized all at once, proceeding to slam her head on the wheel at the next red light.
Back Jaime's side of things, she stopped in front of a bus map, hoping to figure out where to go. She absentmindedly reached into her purse, only to come out with a folded sheet of printer paper. Jaime's lips spread into a smile as she unfolded the map Lauren printed earlier that afternoon.
"Talk about a stroke of luck," she murmured, smirking ever so slightly. Leave it to Lauren to take everything but the map that would lead her to their hotel for the night.
Looking from the bus route to the map, she finally figured out where she was and carefully traced her path. From the looks of it, there was a bus she could take that would get her pretty close to where she needed to be. A large bus pulled up to the curb and its doors flew open. Quickly checking the bus schedule, she confirmed it was going to the correct location. With a pleasant smile, she scooped exact change from her purse and hopped on board. As soon as the bus started up, her thoughts began to wander.
"I wonder of Lauren knows I have the map yet," she pondered, gazing out the window, "I'd sure love to see her face when she finds out..."
"I. AM. AN. IDIOT." Lauren bellowed, repeatedly hitting her head on the dashboard. After the directions had been discovered missing, the petite girl pulled into a nearby lot in order to complain in peace.
"No arguments there," Julia rolled her eyes, earning a scowl from Lauren.
"So not helping, Julia!"
"...You know, I think this is a prime example of what goes around, comes around."
"Oh, be quiet. We'll find the way back by ourselves. Remember, we still have cell phones, Jaime doesn't."
On the bus, the exhaustion of the past week seemed to have caught up with Jaime. Her head leaned against the window, she began to doze off and was soon fast asleep. Only when there was a loud honking from behind the bus did Jaime jolt awake. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and turned to the person next to her.
"Excuse me, how long until we stop at station six?" she asked.
"Station six? We just passed station eleven, you missed that stop by twenty minutes at least," the woman replied.
"Damnit," Jaime muttered as she sprinted to the front of the bus. "Will you be headed back to station six today?"
"No, I'm sorry m'am, but this is the last bus for the day," the bus driver answered. Jaime felt her stomach drop as she fell back into a seat.
"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" she cursed herself, "I just blew my last chance of getting to the hotel before dark." She finally got off at station twelve and watched the bus drive away. Looking both right and left, she saw there were labeled TV studios on either side of her.
"If I had my cell, I would call Darren," she thought dejectedly, "He would probably know where I am."
"Lo, why don't you just call someone and ask for directions?" Julia groaned.
"I don't need directions," Lauren scowled, "I know exactly where I'm going."
"Then why does it seem like we're going in circles? I never thought I would meet a worse navigator than Joey, clearly I stand corrected."
"It isn't like that! I just don't know our exact location at this moment."
"That's exactly what Joey said before he got us lost..."
The sun began to sink lower and lower in the sky as an hour, than two hours passed. Jaime continued to wander the abandoned sidewalks, completely and utterly lost. The lack of noise in the suburbs began to unnerve the girl. In order to comfort herself, she began to hum and with time, the humming grew into singing.
"I look for reasons, but I don't need em'. All I need is to look in your eyes, and I realize..." Jaime belted, "Baby you're not alone, cause you're here with me. And nothing's ever gonna take us down cause nothing can keep me from lovin' you, and you know it's true. It don't matter what'll come to be, our love is all we need, to make it through...Yeah, that's all we need...And nothing, nothing, no, no, no...And you know it's true...It don't matter what'll come to be. You know our love is all we need, to make it, through..."
She gave a deep sigh and smiled until she heard the sound of someone clapping behind her. Whipping around, her eyes fell on a boy with dark curly hair and a proud smile, his eyes dancing in the fading light.
"Bravo! Encore!" he laughed, still applauding quite loudly.
"DARREN!" Jaime shouted, tackling him in a hug. The two friends toppled to the sidewalk in a giggling heap. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was walking to my car from the studio," he grinned mischievously, "That is, until I heard a fantastic voice that sounded awfully familiar. Sure enough, it was you. I've been following you for almost two blocks now; not that I minded getting to hear Clark's new arrangement in addition to you singing."
"Thanks, Darren, " Jaime smiled, "But just wait till you hear it with everyone else, it sounds incredible!"
"I would expect nothing less," Darren replied, "But, not that I'm not ecstatic to see you, but what are you doing around here this time of night? And by yourself?"
"About that," Jaime rolled her eyes, "To make a long story short; I did something to Lauren to get back at her, she wanted to get back at me, she left while I was going to the bathroom at lunch, stole my keys and phone, and drove off in the rental car. So I tried to find a way back, found a map, took a bus, missed my stop, got off, started to wander around, and here we are."
Darren's face twisted in confusion while he tried to piece together what Jaime just said. Finally, he managed to wrap his head around the situation and simply sighed.
"Well, we didn't call her 'you little shit' for nothing," he commented, offering the crook of his elbow to Jaime, "May I have the pleasure of escorting you to your hotel? I was going to try and surprise everyone, but I guess I could change plans."
"That's the truth, and yes, you most certainly may," Jaime smiled, accepting the gesture and following him back down the street, "And I'm sure we could work something out in terms of a grand entrance..." The pair promptly got into Darren's car and arrived at the hotel twenty minutes later. On entering, Jaime pointed to a chair and handed Darren a newspaper off a table.
"You wait here," she ordered, "I'll take care of the rest, you'll know what to do." Jaime dashed up the stairs and knocked on the door of one of the guys' rooms. Predictably, everyone was hanging out in the same room, chatting, eating, and laughing.
"About time!" Dylan joked, answering the door, "We thought you guys drove to Seattle or something."
"Not quite," Jaime answered pleasantly.
"Where are Lopez and Julia?" Jim asked.
"They aren't back yet?" Jaime said, looking surprised.
"No, we thought they were with you," Rosenthal responded.
"How interesting," Jaime mused, "But anyways, back to the matter at hand. I was walking around downtown LA and I found the most adorable little puppy wandering the street all by himself. He's pretty small, is super energetic, and has got dark, curly hair and these eyes that practically sparkle. The little guy was following me for almost two blocks and, I was wondering if maybe we could, you know, keep him?"
"I don't know, Jaime," Corey piped up, "We can hardly handle ourselves, let alone an animal."
"But, what if he gets hit by a car or, swallowed by a fox or something?" Jaime pouted, fighting a smile.
"Come on, Corey," Joey begged, "Can't we at least take a look at him?" Everyone looked at Corey pleadingly, until finally he threw his arms up in defeat.
"Fine," he sighed, "We can take a look at him..."
Within seconds, the entire troupe of young adults stampeded down the stairs and burst into the lobby. Several heads whipped around, looking for any signs of a dog. Jaime simply marched up to the occupied chair and with a smile, tapped the stranger's shoulder. Right on cue, Darren dropped the newspaper and gave a large grin.
"Hey, guys," he said happily.
"DARREN!" everyone shouted in unison, attacking him in the same fashion as Jaime had. At this particular moment, both Julia and Lauren walked in and seemed to be arguing.
"See? I told you I would figure it out!" the petite girl stated.
"Yeah, but it took you hours when it could have taken a few minutes," Julia retorted, "And we still don't know if Jaime's okay..."
"Oh, I'm just fine," the girl answered, stepping out from behind the crowd and looking very smug, "Thanks for your concern."
"You? But how did you- I mean, what?" Lauren spluttered.
"Some help from an old friend," Jaime replied, gesturing to Darren, who had now emerged from the dog pile, "Karma's a bitch, Lo." There was a cold stare between the two girls for barely a second before they both burst into a fit of laughter.
"Damn right it is," Lauren agreed. They failed to notice the entire group had been watching this last exchange, and were all looking dumbfounded.
"Does any one of you want to tell us what the hell is going on?" Holden asked, looking very befuddled.
"It's a long story," Jaime laughed.