chapter 11

I had been staring out the window for a while, Derek fell asleep, and Tori was getting tired so we suggested that since Simon was napping before he should drive now. We had done that switch about two or three hours ago. It was getting pretty dark, and as I observed out the window the farther we seemed to drive the forest would seem to thicken; until the path got narrower...and narrower. That's when it hit me cold and hard.

We were lost.

As if sensing my tension Derek woke up, yawned, and asked Simon for a progress report. When things got silent he started rubbing his eyes furiously and took a look out side, "Simon, where the fuck are we!" oh no.

"Um, according to the map, we are…um…"

Derek started letting out a string of curses and yelled at Simon to give him the map; Simon complied, and silently handed it over to him. Derek seemed to be looking things over so I took a peek over his shoulder to see what he was staring at. When I looked at the map

there were markings of where we were…. from a couple of hours ago, from when Tori was driving, cause she had the decency to map out her trail, in case she ever needed to back track.

Finally Derek spoke and let out a gruff, "Pull over." Simon did so and got out of the drivers seat and traded with Derek. He pulled the key out the ignition once he was seated, and pulled out the map, he turned the light on and examined it.

" Roughly how long would you say we have been driving through the forest?" Derek said in a deep and concentrated rumble.

"About about maybe an hour and half, close to two" I replied softly, not wanting to wake Tori up, cause one thing we don't need for sure is Tori waking up and bitching every five second about how we are lost and never going to find our way to Gwen's. Derek seemed to notice too and lowered his voice the next time he spoke.

"Well, Simon, do you remember for the most part how many turns you took?" Derek said in a hushed tone.

"Um, maybe, three or four turns?" Simon replied softly.

Derek seemed to be looking at the map for about another minute before putting the keys in the ignition and starting up the car. Once it jerked to life he took and u turn and started back tracking. I turned to look at Simon, he seemed pretty bummed I gave him a sympathetic smile, and rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep.

When I woke up I was still on Simon's shoulder and I peered over at the time, it was 3:56 in the morning; and was still pitch black out. Derek has been driving for the past four or five turned to look out of the window and noticed there wasn't any more forest but a commercial highway. I guess Derek found the right way after all.

"How much further away are we now?" I asked Derek.

"Well if we drive for about another 6-8 hours, yanno, it depends, we can pull over somewhere get some sleep, no more motels though, not after last time. After that it's about a 5 hour hour drive, I would skip the sleep part, but I'm way too tired and I don't trust Simon with driving anymore, never trusted you, and I don't know about Tori, so I think I'll just stick to driving."

"Anythings fine by me, if you just agree to getting food soon, I'm starving and granola bars aren't going to cut it anymore." I said while waggling an empty granola bar wrapper in front of his face, he batted my hand away, and muttered something about how essential it is not to distract someone while they're driving. Bullshit.

I heard movement which proved to be Simon followed by a mumbled, "Where are we?"

"Simon," Derek said while peering into the rearview mirror so he could meet Simon's gaze, "Yeah, D"Simon said sleepily, "Shut up, and go back to sleep." Grumbled Derek, I let out a giggle, and Simon said something about his feelings. Soon his snoring was back on track. Right when we thought peace had fallen upon us we heard Tori yawn as she stretched out. Derek and I let out matching groans.

I guess the more we chase after peace, the more it's going to try to evade us. Oh well.

"I need a shower and I need one soon, can't stand smelling my own body funk; already have to put up with wolfboy's…" and that's when the banter started and Simon woke up to join in; on Derek's side of course.

And that's also when I decided to grab Derek's ipod and drown them out with the musical stylings of Pantera.

Soon after I fell asleep, only to be woken up by Tori, "Hey, get up, food. Simon and Derek are already inside." and that was that, she just stormed away like a supermodel with a purpose, as she was walking and about to reach for the door she yelled over her shoulder, "You should bring your toothbrush, for after." "Yeah, sure. Thanks." I yelled sleepily.

My stomach grumbled really loud and I am glad no one was here to hear that. I reached under my seat and pulled out my bag I pulled out my toothbrush, sweater and jeans so I could change in there. I then locked the door from the inside and stepped out, shut the door and made my way towards the ihop in front of me. I pulled open the door and found them sitting at a booth closest to the rear exit. I waved at them and motioned at the bathroom and whispered to Derek to order me some ice cream pancakes. He nodded in acknowledgement. I love werewolf hearing.

As I entered the washroom I passed my reflection and saw that it was like i haven't slept in days.

I splashed some ice water on my face and that seemed to bring back some of it's color. Well a little bit of it. Brushed my teeth, then I shimmied out of my leggings and jumper, and put on the fresh clothes. I stepped out, feeling slightly refreshed, and started my little trek back to the booth. Once I was there I took a seat beside Tori who despite everything still looked gorgeous. Like whateven?

After a minute a server came with a bunch of pancakes in hand. Damn he was good at balancing. He then proceeded to put down our four stacked high plates, smiled and walked away.

"Well that was fast" Simon mumbled through a mouth full of blueberry pancakes. "Urgh, you're disgusting, can you not talk with your goddamn mouth full?" muttered Tori with pure displeasure.

"Well I can, but I choose not to" said Simon with his mouth full then he began to shove more pancakes into his mouth while chewing viciously and rather loudly, opening wide and snapping shut. Tori, then disgusted kicked him under the table and excused herself to the washroom. Simon then proceeded to swallow his his pancakes and speak.

"Finally the priss is outta the room." Simon said with a shit eating grin. "Don't you think you're a little bit hard on her, I mean people can only take so much annoyance in their lives, and especially from Simon's" I commented with a grin. Simon then raised his brows at me in disbelief.

"You act like she's never done anything to me, I mean she's the one who always starts the fight's."

"No. I don't," said Tori as she approached the table and took a seat, "... Well maybe I do, but! it's always because you're always doing something stupid or annoying." And then hell broke loose they both started bickering at full force, and I'm pretty sure Tori would have strangled him right here right now but took note that they're in a public place, and we don't need to be tailed by the police any time soon.

Derek and I continued to eat our pancakes in silence whilst watching the bicker fest. God. Do they ever shut up? It's been a good five minutes and I'm almost done eating. Derek is done, and said he'll be waiting in the car. Just as I finished eating Tori got up and stormed off to the car.

"And then there were two, yanno I lost my appetite, wanna go?" said Simon with a small smile of victory. "Sure, I call shotgun if Tori didn't take it already."

"Man, there is no way I'm sitting next to that lardhead."

"Lardhead?" I said with a giggle, I mean who the hell say's that?

He then glared at me disdainfully. Shook his head and gave me a small smile, it's like he could never be permanently mad. As we arrived in the car Tori had taken shotgun, so that left Simon and I in the back. As I sat down and buckled up, I asked Derek how much longer till Gwen's place.

"Well, from here, a rough estimate would be… maybe 4 hours it just depends on traffic and stuff like that you know." Simon and Tori groaned in displeasure.

"I'm seriously starting to get butt cramps from the long rides and sleeping in cars, man" said Simon in a rather whiny voice, "Yeah me too, I mean this is the only time I'm going to agree with the asian barbie", Simon started fuming, "Well, hey! you're asian too! lardhead!" he said as his face was turning red.

"Lardhead?" Derek and Tori said in synchronization with looks of mockery on their faces, as they began to laugh at Simon, and I couldn't help it I joined in too. Once things quieted down Derek reached into the glove box and pulled out a bunch of cd's he flipped through a few of them until he finally chose one and put in the cd. It was Nightmare, an album by Avenged Sevenfold, it was the first album I heard of theirs, and then I completely fell in love with them.

"Hey, after this can you put 'Buried Alive' on?" I asked, he then muttered a brief, "Yeah." And continued to pay attention to the road. Simon was napping again and gave soft snores to accompany the soundtrack of our little escapade. Tori was staring out the window at some point, and fell asleep against the glass I'm sure that would look pretty funny from the outside, yanno to see her face smushed against the glass window, oh, or to roll it down while she's still asleep.

I tapped Derek on the shoulder and he grunted in response, so I whispered in his ear, "Put Tori's window down." For a second he looked really confused; until he looked over at Tori's compromising position. Grinned a bit and started to lower the window.

It made these hilarious squeaking sounds as it lowered. Then I patted him on the shoulder signalling him to stop, again he looked curious until I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and turned on the video setting, Then T tapped him on the shoulder again, signalling that he should start rolling the window down... lower…lower… and… bam! her head hit the side and she woke up, looking shocked and a bit scared, then furious that's when i caught a glimpse of the right side of her head which was shiny and red from being pressed up against the glass for so long.

Simon then woke up and alert, because he heard yelling until he noticed it was just Tori then he saw her face and broke out into a fit of laughter, and that's when Derek stopped the car we all stopped laughing and looked towards him for an answer, he simply nodded his head towards… a house?

That's when it clicked, it wasn't just any house, it was Gwen's house.