A/N: The LoTR characters will enter soon (I promise); I just wanted to organize the characters.
Road Trip
"Road trip! Yes!" A short, slightly tanned child stood on top of the seat of the car, sticking her head out of the open sunroof. She stood on the tips of her bare feet, shoes discarded on the ground, leaning between the middle row and the front seats.
"For the love of-" The driver shouted, startled. "Kit! Sit down! " The girl merely laughed, watching as the novice driver's knuckles turned white from clutching the steering wheel.
"Kit, act your age," an amused voice said from the passenger seat. "And Leya, this is the seventh time in ten minutes. Kit is 23. She is not that excited about a short break, nor is she going to throw herself out. You know she's just teasing your driving skills." Ever the peacemaker, and generally the leader, the brunette didn't even blink as she continued to trace their path on the map.
"Well, I act as I look. And I look ten," Kit said jokingly as she tried to fix her dark, windblown hair using the car mirror.
"Alonna, it was eight times," a teasing tone called out to the front from where she sat next to the reprimanded Kit. "And Katherine, you look 23. It's like you just were shrunken mostly proportionally down to about four feet. What?" she asked. "It's not an insult. It works for you."
"Why do you call me Katherine? Not Kit?"
"I call you Kit sometimes. I prefer not to use nicknames; you know that," the girl sighed. "Katherine is a pretty name, and I like my formalities. Well, some of my formalities."
"Aren't redheads supposed to have fiery tempers and rowdy temperament? And we call you Aurel or Lia all the time instead of Aurelia," A sleepy voice questioned from the back of the car.
"Good, someone's finally awake!" Leya pulled over onto the side of the small dirt road. "Alonna drove for three hours, I drove for two, and Aurel drove for three, and all of us, even Kit, have been on either map or driving duty. Your turn, Lora." Leya pulled the strands of wispy blond hair that were falling out of her sloppy bun and tucked them back under her hairtye as she opened the driver's door.
"No, already? I just woke up!" Lora slowly crawled to the front of the car and plopped herself down.
"Look at that awesome hair of yours," Alonna teased. "Maybe next time you'll sit upright in the middle with Kit and Aurel instead of sleeping in the crowded backseats of doom."
"My face hurts." Lora brushed away the hazel coloured bird nest hair blocking her face. "No! I fell asleep on the icebox again!"
"Nice tattoo. Karma, I say," Leya laughed as she slid Kit into the middle seat and slammed the car door shut.
The rest of the car trip was filled with laughter and life as they shed whatever burdens they had, driving down the dusty road to their destination: a small farmhouse.
A/N: Thoughts?