Chapter 10: "Hit the Road"
They'd been driving for three hours. Music and conversation had filled the car, but eventually waned. And the further onto the continent SpongeBob and Sandy got, the more SpongeBob complained about the heat. Fortunately, Sandy had planned for this, and had a big flat of water bottles ready in the backseat. They were almost to Glendale, where they planned on stopping for lunch.
SpongeBob turned the road map that he had in his hands sideways, upside-down, and then right-side-up again. "Why take this road?" He asked. "Isn't there a way to get there faster? You know what they say about straight lines!"
Sandy laughed. "I know, a straight line is the fastest way to get from one point to another."
"Well, I was gonna say if you get lost in the woods, just keep going straight..."
She made a face. "Anyway, I'm used to driving the 10. I won't get lost, and there's almost never highway construction." She smiled. "'Sides, we'll be passin' through all those places I'm always tellin' ya about!"
"You mean like Pho...Phe..." He squinted at the map.
"Phoenix." Sandy said, keeping her eyes on the road. "It's right past Glendale. And El Paso, and Austin, and San Antonio, and--"
"The towns up here have weird names!" SpongeBob exclaimed. He began reading off every name on the map, before Sandy silenced him and popped a Trace Adkins CD into the player.
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"Well, no, I guess if you--"
"Then my point is proven!" Squidward spun back around and glared at the doors of the Krusty Krab past the cash register.
Meg stared, baffled. Squidward had been acting grumpy today, even for Squidward. In fact, she didn't recall seeing a smiling face all day. Mr. Krabs had come in that morning grumbling about Cache and shut himself in his office, and all of the customers seemed particularly gloomy. That saying about 'the unhappiest person in the room has the strongest effect on his peers' must really have some merit. She thought, as she filled out another order and passed it through the window.
"Where is my order?!" Squidward demanded, moments later.
"I'm working as fast as I can!" Meg told him. She really was multitasking, watching the patties on the grill and trying to get the dishes that were taking over the counters clean and loaded into the dishwasher.
"Well work faster! It's getting crazy in here!" He turned around and resumed glaring.
She couldn't see what the big deal was, it got crazy at lunch time every day! Maybe he was just having a bad day. Or he was tired. Or perhaps being effected by all of the negativity.
-----
SpongeBob made a face. They'd resumed their drive from Glendale a good five hours ago, and he was feeling increasingly worse. "Something's wrong." He finally said.
Sandy glanced over at him. "You feeling carsick? I can pull over if you--"
He waved his hand at her. "No, no, I mean..." He shook his head. "I don't know what I mean. Never mind." The feeling didn't go away, though. Maybe it was just that he'd never been so far away from home. Yeah, that had to be it.
-----
After work, Meg walked home alone. After that day, the last thing she desired was Squidward's company. Maybe this was what Mr. Krabs had been talking about when he talked about Squidward being 'moody'. She unlocked her door and went inside, kicked off her shoes, and flopped down onto the couch. After work today, she could probably sit still and watch anything. She felt unusually tired. She'd had a long day at work, granted, but even that amount of physical stress never left her feeling this physically or mentally exhausted.
"Tea." She told herself, and walked into the kitchen. She froze when she heard a Crunch! And lifted up her foot to find a half-eaten several-days old cookie. When she looked around the rest of the kitchen, she realized where it had come from; the trash can.
"CARLY!" She shouted, and stormed out of the kitchen and headed upstairs. She found both Carly and Gary hiding under her bed. She lay down on the floor and glared at them under the bed. "Why did you get into the trash can?"
"Meow!"
"I don't care who's idea it was! That was wrong. Come out and take a bath, you're both filthy."
Silence. And stillness.
"Five..."
More stillness.
"Four..."
They decided that Meg meant business, and crawled timidly out from underneath the bed, eyestalks lowered in shame.
"I'm going to go run a bath. When I come back in, I expect both of you to take yourselves in there and wait for me. Then, I'm going to go clean up the mess that you made in the kitchen, and come back upstairs to scrub you both down with soap. I expect your full cooperation, or you'll be sleeping in the crate for the next week. Do I make myself understood?"
In unison, both snails meowed timidly, and Meg stalked off to fulfill her promises.
-----
"What do you mean?" Sandy glared at the young mammal manning the hotel desk over the counter.
"I mean we only have one room left!" He was becoming increasingly nervous.
SpongeBob put a hand on Sandy's arm. "That's okay, really." He plead with her with his eyes. "I can sleep on the floor or something."
Sandy growled, but reluctantly signed in. They'd stopped at a small place between Tucson and El Paso, very close to the Mexican border. Evidently, so had a lot of other people.
SpongeBob grabbed Sandy's suitcase from the car, despite her protests (but had ended up giving it to her anyway, seeing as how it was about 5x heavier then his own) and they hiked up two sets of stairs to the third story, the very last available room. It may as well have been the smallest room in all of...whichever state they were in. They'd stopped right along the border, and then driven back and forth looking for a hotel with vacancy, so he wasn't quite sure which state they were in now. He was sure Sandy knew, but he didn't feel that inclined to ask.