"Laurie! Wake up! It's Milwaukee day!" a distant voice screamed out at her. Laurie woke up with a jump.
"Zachary! Don't do that!" Laurie screamed.
"Somebody didn't get their beauty sleep," he responded. Laurie pulled the pillow over her head.
"Come on, my beautiful ray of sunshine," Zac tried again.
"Come on Zac!" Laurie flopped back. Suddenlt, the peephole popped open and Ike's head popped through along with a toy dog.
"Hi Laurie, I'm Bingo and I love you! Mmwah! Mmwah!" Ike said as the dog, making the dog give her kisses.
"Okay! I'm up," she said, laughing. Zac got her out of her bed and Laurie got out. Two strong, yet cold hands grabbed her legs. They were too small to be Ike's and too big to be Zac's.
"Taylor!" Laurie exclaimed. He grinned his devilish grin. "Morning, beautiful," he said, joking around. Laurie's hair was a mess and she had morning breath.
"You don't look any better," she said. Taylor's hair was a mess of tangles and Zac took out half of the hair that he braided last night and it was all frizzy and crimped. Ike's hair looked fine, but he was only half awake, or so it looked. Laurie went over to the other bunk where her clothes were and grabbed a pair of shorts. Taylor peeked up at her.
"Hey Laurie, if you're looking for a shirt, why not this one?" he asked, handing her a white t-shirt. Laurie unfolded it. It had a picture of the guys and the Road to Albertane tour. On the back it had the dates of the whole tour and places they were going in orange lettering.
"Hey, pretty cool! Thanks!" Laurie tok the shirt and went into the bathroom to get changed. She washed her face and brushed her teeth. She then went out. She noticed Zac studying her head.
"Zac, what is so interesting about my head? I don't have anything in my hair, do I?" she asked.
Zac didn't respond. He turned to his brothers. "Wouldn't it be cool if we put Laurie's hair in braids like mine'll be?" he asked.
"Lets do it," Taylor voted.
"If Laurie wants it, I think it'd be cool," Ike said.
"Laurie, what do you think?" Zac asked.
"I guess," she said.
"Hey great! We'll put black and clear beads at the end. I'm sure the girls have some in their bead kits," Taylor said.
"When are you going to get the beads, brainiac?" Andy said, coming up from behind.
"When we stop for breakfast," Taylor replied. He then turned to Zac again. "Go get a brush and a bunch of rubber bands. We have some work to do!" Zac ran off.
"Oh boy...." Laurie said, turning to Ike. He gave her a hug.
"Don't worry, you can always take them out," he reminded her.
"True." Zac came back with all the necessary equipment. Laurie began to brush her hair. Then Zac, Taylor, and Ike began to work on Laurie's hair, quite a process for three guys to be doing this at one time. About thirty minutes later, Laurie was finished.
"Whoa, that looks cool, Laurie!" Ike said. "Check it out." He handed her a mirror.
"Pretty spiffy. Thanks guys," she said.
"We'll put beads in when we get them from Jessie and Avery," Zac promised. Just then, Diana walked in.
"Oh good, I didn't expect you guys to be up yet. We're stopping for breakfast in 20 minutes, so be ready," she said. She then noticed Laurie's hair. "Laurie, what have my sons done to you?" Laurie smiled. Just then, Mackie walked in. He immedietely went for Laurie's hair.
"Ooh Laurie, pretty!" he said, touching her braids.
"Thanks Mackie," she said. Mackie wanted to watch TV, so they all sat down and watched some cartoons. Laurie saw that Tay was drawing something.
"Hey Tay, what are you drawing?" Laurie asked as she leaned close. He moved the paper away.
"You'll see soon," he said with a smile. Laurie sat back, mystified. They soon got to a pancake house. Laurie ordered her favorite, chocolate chip pancakes. She sat down at a table with her family. Mike was busily pouring maple syrup on his pancakes, Andy spreading butter on his, and Mr. and Mrs. Woodman were cutting theirs up. Laurie put some butter on hers, poured the syrup on, and cut them up. She took a bit of her pancakes. Delicious!
"Mmmm," Laurie said.
"Good?" Mrs. Woodman asked.
"Very. How are yours?"
"They taste pretty good."
Laurie nodded and went back to eating. She went over to the guy's table. They were asking their parents something.
"If Laurie goes, will it be okay?" Zac asked.
"If she says yes, then you may go," Mr. Hanson said.
"Laurie! Want to go to the arcade next door?" Zac asked.
"Sure, okay," she said. The guys and Laurie took Jessie with them and they went to the arcade next door. Their parents gave them each $10 for games. Laurie was surprised, but she remembered to them it was small change, even with 7 kids.
Isaac held the door to the arcade open. A person gave her a change bag with quarters in it. She looked around. There were tons of games! Video games, games you played for tickets, those machines with the claw that you grab things, the quarter machines....any game you basically wanted! Laurie headed over to a game called Copycat. She read the instructions.
"When the cat plays a pattern and it stops, copy the pattern exactly as the cat had it. Each right note is worth 10 points, 100 points are needed to win a prize. Good luck!" The prizes were little super balls. Laurie put a quarter in. She found the game surprisingly easy, and before she knew it, she had amounted 400 points! She made a mistake when her score read 540. She got her prizes, 5 little super balls. Laurie went to the next machine that offered a prize, which was little plastic froggies. She won 3 of those. After those, she went and played some games for tickets. She played the basketball game for kids, and after 4 tries, she had 63 tickets. She tried her luck at Skee ball and won another 30. Laurie looked over and saw Taylor playing a soccer game for tickets. Taylor was kicking goals, and each goal was worth 1 ticket. Taylor had 20 goals with 20 seconds left. She watched as he managed to add five mroe goals to the total. He turned around and saw Laurie.
"Hey, how are you doing?" he asked her.
"I'm pretty good. I've won 5 superballs, 3 plastic froggies, and 93 tickets."
"Cool, I won some candy, about 56 tickets, a puzzle ball, and a few figurines." Taylor showed her the figurines. There was a Marvin the Martian, a Mickey Mouse, and a Donald Duck.
"Cool, where do you win those at?" Laurie asked. Taylor pointed to a machine.
"I'll go there next. I'm going to see if I can beat your soccer record!" she said with a grin. She got the first 10 goals easily, with 45 seconds to spare. She got 10 more with 15 seconds left. She had 4 goals with 3 seconds left.
"She might beat me," Taylor thought. Laurie tapped in her 25th goal at the buzzer.
"Tie! We gotta go again!" Taylor exclaimed.
"Allrighty then," Laurie said. Taylor was a bit more on his game, scoring 33 goals. Laurie tied him once more. It came to the third game. Taylor got an amazing 45 goals, but Laurie had the edge with 46.
"So close! Nice try," she said to Taylor.
"I almost had you," he said with a grin. They walked around and played a few more games, including the basketball game, a baseball pitching one, a coin flipper one, Copycat, and a game where you raced the jet-ski clad Barbie and Ken. Before Laurie changed in her tickets, she had amounted 10 small superballs, 3 large ones, 8 plastic frogs, 2 small puzzle balls, one big puzzle ball, and a bunch of plastic soldiers that she planned to give to Mackie. They caught up with Zac, Ike, and Jessie and exchanged their tickets. Laurie got a cheap watergun, 20 more soldiers, and 4 figurines, Marvin the Martian, Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, and Woody from Toy Story. Ike also won her a stuffed teddy bear. His fur was a light shade of brown and very cuddly.
"Thank you, Isaac," Laurie said, giving him a quick kiss.
"Eww! PDA! PDA!" Zac cried out, running as Taylor tackled him and tickled him. They went back outside and into the vans. Only Mackie and Mrs. Woodman were in there.
"Diana and Walker went to the store again, and the kids all went with them," Mrs. Woodman explained.
"Okay," they said. Laurie went to her bunk. She got out her box full of little toys and added her new ones to the pile. She organized them and put them away. She picked up the teddy bear Ike gave her and tried to think of a name. Before she could think of one, Zac was in her bunk asking her to play Pop a Shot basketball with him. Since Laurie isn't one to turn down a challenge, she joined him. Andy and Taylor wandered in later, Andy had a new game to add to the collection, which was Mouse Trap, and the two guys played as well. Andy was the overall champion, which was no surprise to anybody because Andy was starting center for the varsity basketball team ever since they all lived in Glenpool. Lunchtime came, and Mrs. Woodman and Mrs. Hanson made sandwiches and had strawberries, grapes, chips, and fruit snacks to go with them. They all watched Tommy Boy as they ate. When Chris Farley smacked his head against the metal beam, Mackie laughed and sprayed potato chip crumbs across Taylor's face. After the movie, everyone went to their bunks for a nap.
"Why are we sleeping?" Laurie asked Ike.
"It's going to be a long night, and we don't know how much sleep we will get, so we get it whenever we can," he explained. He kissed Laurie good night, and Laurie turned her lights off. She turned on the mini tv that was right in front of her, popped in Tommy Boy again, and cuddled with her new teddy bear, Calvin, who was named after her favorite comic strip character. With all these things in tow, Laurie drifted off to dream land.
Chapter 9
Chapter 7
Heading to Albertane
Kelly's Stories
