Disclaimer: Don't own...I swear.

A/N: Yay, another update! As always, thanks for reading and reviewing!

Long stretches of roads lay before them, miles already left in their wake. They'd been traveling for nearly two days; Paul and Lizzy each taking shifts, alternating between sleeping and driving. They had to rough it, not having enough money to stop at a motel for the night or buy proper food to feed themselves. They stopped periodically at a gas stations to purchase bags of chips and bottles of water. The two of them had pooled their last dollars to pay for a tank of gas, which they had stopped for back in Charleston, South Carolina.

Paul was at the wheel now, looking exhausted but focused. Lizzy felt bad that he'd volunteered himself for this, when neither one of them actually knew how tough it would be. Lizzy sat in the passenger's seat, with the map spread out on the dashboard and her sketchpad in her lap. She twirled the pencil in her hands absentmindedly as she gazed out the window. It was the middle of the afternoon; it seemed as if they were the only car on the road. Lizzy was bored of staring at the same scenery. Every state they went to, it was all similar. Small towns, deserted roads, shady looking gas stations. She was incredibly anxious to see the bright lights and overwhelming sounds of New York City.

As they passed through North Carolina, Virginia, and entered West Virginia, both Paul and Lizzy kept a cautious eye on the level of gas in the car, because it seemed to get lower every time they glanced at it. Paul hated to admit it--he wasn't going to say it out loud--but he had a bad feeling that the car wasn't going to make it to New York. They still had to go through West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and that was a lot of driving. And they had no clue what the weather was going to be like once they went father up north. The teenagers had already become aware of the drop in temperature. Being from Florida, Paul and Lizzy didn't have experience driving in the snow.

Lizzy stared down at the blank paper in her sketchpad, and sighed. The open road wasn't striking her with any creativity as of yet. Maybe because her thoughts were always elsewhere, often daydreaming. She kept imagining the reunion between herself and her family, running through a million different scenarios. Thinking of what she might say, or how she might act, or even how they might respond. Surprised, definitely. Happy? She hoped so. By what Jude had written his letter, they seemed pretty willing to meet again.

…maybe someday, if you want to, you'll find your way back to us. That's what he had said. And that's exactly what Lizzy was doing.

She closed the sketchbook and tossed it into the backseat with all of her and Paul's luggage. Lizzy tucked the pencil into her pocket and turned the heat up a little bit. It was major change to be going from extreme heat to near bitter cold.

"Paul." Lizzy called. He looked over.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna switch?"

"Yeah…sure." Paul pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. Lizzy slid into the driver's seat, and he took the passenger's side. After Lizzy shut the door, she reached into the back and uncovered a hoodie from her backpack, which she tugged on before buckling her seat belt. Lizzy pulled the car back onto the road and drove on while Paul shifted to a comfortable position. Discovering that there wasn't really a comfortable position at all, he gave up with a frustrated groan. Paul tapped his fingers on the arm rest, thoughts wandering while he tried to keep himself from going insane with sheer boredom. It wasn't like he didn't enjoy being in Lizzy's company, it was just annoying to be stuck in one place for a long period of time. He was eager to get to the Big Apple.

"I'm bored." Paul stated, voicing his own restless thoughts.

"Well, I'm sorry," Lizzy said sarcastically. "There's not much I can do. But if you start up that 'Are we there yet?' shit again, I'll be forced to beat your ass."

Paul laughed. "You know I was just joking around."

"Yeah, that's what you said for the first…I don't know…fifty miles."

"How about we play some of those road trip games?" Paul suggested. "You know, like the one where you count how many cars there are of a certain color…"

"Yeah…no. What are we, five?" Lizzy giggled. "Take my sketchbook. Maybe you'll have more luck than I did." Paul nodded. Sketching, even though he didn't have much artistic ability, was better than not doing anything. He grabbed Lizzy's sketchpad, and she handed him the pencil from her pocket. Paul looked intently at the blank page for a few moments, contemplating what to draw. He wasn't the artist, so whatever he did end up drawing was probably going to look like crap anyway.

Paul looked over at his best friend. Her deep brown hair was slightly disheveled, and her stunning, sapphire eyes were concentrated on the road. Lizzy's hands had a firm grip on the wheel, her right hand keeping a beat to some unknown song. Given her untidy appearance, he still saw her beauty; a beauty that had become especially apparent to him in the past couple of years. He started his sketch, drawing a rough outline of Lizzy's profile. Paul took great care in his drawing, although he knew he'd never be able to capture Lizzy the way he saw her.

Meanwhile, Lizzy was watching the level of gas out of the corner of her eye as she drove. The thing was almost on empty, and they were getting close to the border of Pennsylvania. It wasn't until a few miles after they crossed into Pennsylvania that their fears came true. The car made some weird noises, and came to an abrupt halt. Lizzy shared a panicked glance with Paul, who shut the sketchbook and threw it in the back. Lizzy, aggravated, slammed her hands down on the steering wheel, and rested her forehead on her hands.

"Shit," she cursed. They were stuck on some random road, in the middle of nowhere, without a gas station in sight. If there had even been a gas station within walking distance, neither teen had money to pay for a tank of gas. To add to their problems, it had begun to snow when they entered Pennsylvania. Big flakes were coming down fast, and it seemed like it had no intention of stopping. "Damn it, Paul…we were so fucking close."

Paul reached over to rub soothing circles onto his friend's back. "It's all right. We'll figure something out."

Lizzy picked her up. "How can you say that? We're in the middle of nowhere, in a snow storm!" She let out an irritated groan and got out of the car, pocketing the keys. To take out some of her anger, she gave the side of the car a good kick before opening the back door. She shoved her sketchbook into her backpack, which she slung over one shoulder, and picked up her portfolio.

"What are we doing?" Paul asked, taking his belongings as well. Lizzy shrugged.

"Don't know," she stated, wiping away a tear that had managed to escape. "but I'm not going to wait here. We're getting to New York one way or another." Paul couldn't help but smirk at Lizzy's stubborn determination, even under the current circumstances. They had no choice but to leave the car where it was; Lizzy knew Mr. Harrison would be pissed, but it wasn't like he couldn't afford to buy another one. And at that point, she didn't care what the hell happened to the car, as long as she and her friend made it to New York City.

The teenagers put the hoods of their sweatshirts up and pressed on, keeping their hands in their sleeves or pockets. They walked close to each other; Paul's arm wrapped around Lizzy's shoulder to provide extra warmth. They didn't know how long they'd have to do this before they came across someone who'd drive them further, so they kept their heads down and walked.

"You okay?" Paul questioned later on. The seventeen-year-old had no clue as to how long they'd been walking, but there was no way they could go on much further. Lizzy had started shivering quite violently beside him, and he had to hold onto her a few times because her legs had almost given out. The two of them were feeling fatigued and very cold. The sky was growing darker, and that most likely meant the temperature was going to drop even more. If they went on like this, they'd both get hypothermia.

"N-N-Not…r-really." Lizzy admitted, teeth chattering.

"Let's stop for awhile." Paul suggested, taking hold of Lizzy's arm. She stopped walking, and gave him a confused look. He dumped his belongings onto the snow-covered ground, and took Lizzy's things from her, which he set beside his stuff. With his shoe, Paul cleared the snow from a spot on the side of the road and sat down, motioning for her to join him. Reluctantly, she sat down, and Paul wrapped his arms around her in a desperate attempt to keep in some warmth. He wasn't so much worried about himself as he was for his friend. Lizzy stayed close, burying her head deeper into her hoodie. She tried to imagine the heat of the sun back in Florida…sitting on the beach…digging her toes in the sand…

"Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine

We take a walk, the sun is shining down
Burns my feet as they touch the ground

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine…"

Lizzy whispered, a faint smile gracing her lips. She held onto the memory, a distraction from the freezing weather surrounding them. She must've fallen asleep, because some time later, Paul was shaking her awake frantically.

"Lizzy, wake up! Get up--there's a car coming!" Paul shouted. She opened her eyes as Paul got to his feet and began waving his arms in the air. Lizzy stood, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She noticed that night had fallen, and two headlights were shining clearly in the distance, coming from the direction where they'd left the car. Lizzy rolled her eyes at Paul and stepped forward a little, and motioned for the car to stop.

Thankfully, the car halted in front of them. But this wasn't just any normal car, as Paul and Lizzy immediately discovered. Even in the dark, they could see that it was a bright yellow VW Microbus. Very hippie-esque, too, considering the amount of random things painted onto it.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Magical Mystery Tour

That was the hand painted message on the side of the bus. The passenger door opened, and a man with round spectacles and long, shoulder-length hair stepped out.

"You kids need a lift to somewhere?" he asked.

"Yeah." Paul answered as he and Lizzy picked up their things.

"Where ya headed?"

"New York City." Lizzy replied.

"Awesome," he said. "We have a gig in Manhattan. We'll give ya a ride. Hop in."

Lizzy and Paul shared a glance before agreeing to go with the band. The door slid open and the two teens climbed in, all the while being greeted by the other band members. It was much, much warmer inside, and the teens found themselves feeling a bit revived by the heat.

Besides the guy with the glasses, there were two additional men, with equally long hair and psychedelic clothing, and one woman. It was like they had climbed their way into a time warp. The band appeared to be fairly young, possibly in their late twenties to early thirties.

In the back of the van, there was all sorts of equipment, and the rest of the space was scattered with random junk, all indications that the band basically lived out of their car. Once Lizzy and Paul squeezed themselves in with their belongings, the guy driving took off, and the other man who'd offered them a ride turned around to face them. The other guy and the woman were sitting in the back seat smoking…and Lizzy had a feeling they weren't smoking cigarettes.

"So what're your names?" The man with the glasses inquired.

"I'm Lizzy," she responded. "and this is my friend Paul. We're from Florida."

"Cool," he said. There was a tone to his voice that made the teens believe he was just a little bit stoned. "You can call me Sergeant Pepper…'s my stage name…" Paul had a half a mind to ask him what his real name was, and how he'd come up with a stage name like that, but thought better of it. "Our driver is Billy, the guy sittin' over there is George and that lovely lady is Penny."

"What were you kids doin' out there in this weather?" Penny asked.

"Our car ran out of gas, so we started walking…" Paul told her.

"And your parents let you go to the Big Apple alone? Sweeeet." she said, taking a long drag from the joint George had passed back over to her.

"Well, not exactly," Lizzy admitted. "It's a long story…"

"It's a long way to New York City," The man called Sgt. Pepper pointed out. "So let's hear it."