"Zac!! Are you almost ready?" Diana Hanson called from across the house.
"Almost!! Gimme 5 more minutes!!" Zac called. It's not like they could leave without him, he thought. He was a whole third of the group. He was almost done packing, but he couldn't find what he was looking for.
"Where did I put it?" He cried out in frustration. He rooted through a pile of dirty socks. Nothing. He threw the socks in the closet along with all the others. Just when he was about to give up, he picked his pillow up off his bed. He grinned.
"There it is," He said to himself. He picked up a small framed picture and hugged it to his chest. He looked at it for a second. It was a picture of him and Christina from early that summer. She was wearing a light blue tank top that really brought out the color in her eyes. He was wearing Tay's maroon Adidas shirt. He made a mental note not to let Taylor see the picture of him in his shirt. He looked at the picture one more time before carefully tucking it in his suitcase underneath his pile of shirts. He slammed the suitcase shut and headed for the car.
Walker Hanson piled the last of the bags into the back of the van. He slammed the door shut and looked at his family. Avery and Mackenzie were hangng around Diana, Avery clinging to the hair of one of her Barbie dolls and Mackenzie was contently studying a bug he had found crawling along the driveway. Jessica was standing at one side of the driveway glaring at Frankie Starrdust, who was standing with his parents, who were busily talking to Diana. Frankie was glaring back. Walker chuckled to himself and wondered if it was possible for Jessica and Frankie to hate each other anymore than they did. Taylor was sitting on the porch with his friends Toby and Joey discussing what he's going to do if he 'strikes it rich'. Walker hoped Taylor realized success doesn't just magically appear overnight. Isaac sat on the hood of his friend Max's car, talking with Max and Mara about the new car he saw in the paper that he is planning on saving up for. Walker made a mental note to tell Ike there was no way he was getting a car anytime soon. Walker glanced across the yard. Zac and Christina were sitting on the rock together rather close. Zac's other friend sat on the grass next to them. Walker didn't know the boys name, he had only seen him a few times before. He sighed, he didn't want to have to break up all these little socializing events, but they needed to get going. The plane was leaving in almost 2 hours.
"Let's go troops! In the car!!" Walker shouted. He was greeted by a chorus of whines, from not only his family, but the family friends too. Walker grabbed his video camera.
"Let's capture this moment!" he said. he zoomed in on Zac. Zac was giving him the evil eye. Walker quickly focused the camera on Isaac, who just had a spacy look on his face. He wondered what Isaac was thinking when he spaced out like that.
"I guess you gotta get going," Stina said to Zac. Zac looked at the ground. he sighed.
"I'll be back soon. And I'll call you everyday. I promise," He said to her.
"yeah you better" she said jokingly. They got up and walked towards the car, Zac's friend Eric following close behind.
The next few minutes was a chorus of 'goodbyes' and 'see you soons' and 'good lucks'.
"Cya zac, I gotta get going," Eric said.
"Bye man. I'll write to ya," Zac said. Eric nodded. He hopped on his bike and rode down the street. Diana herded Jessica, Avery, and Mackie into the car. Toby and Joey had left a few minutes ago, so taylor walked over and joined Christina and Zac leaning against the car.
"Come on guys. In the car, now." Walker said.
"See ya Zac. I'll miss you," Christina said, fighting back tears. She took a deep breath and the urge to cry was gone. She wrapped her arms around Zac in a huge hug. He hugged back. When they broke the embrace she kissed him on the cheek. He smiled.
"Oh fine then, just dont give me a hug OR kiss," Taylor joked.
"Awww Tay. I didn't forget about you," Christina said smiling. She hugged him. Taylor smiled.
"Bye," Zac said, one last time, as he got into the car. Taylor waved and followed Zac. Isaac hugged Mara goodbye and muttered a 'see ya christina' on the way into the car. Walker hopped into the drivers seat and the car began backing out of the driveway. Zac had his face practically pressed up against the glass as he waved. Christina and Mara waved until the car was out of sight down the road.
"You think they'll be the same when they get back?" Stina said to Mara. Mara sighed.
"i sure hope so"
As the plane took off Zac felt his stomach start to churn. He gripped the armrests until his knuckles were white.
"You packed the Dramamine, right mom?" He said weakly, turning around to his mother who was sitting behind him. Diana sighed.
"Yes Zac, for the umpteenth time, I have the Dramamine, it's in my purse somewhere"
"You're sure right?"
"YES!!" She said so loudly a few people down the isle turned and looked at her. She flashed a weak smile at them. Zac looked over at Taylor. He was leaning against the window, the CD is his discman spinning away.
"yeah Taylor, see if you can press against that window any harder. maybe it will collapse and we'll all get sucked out," Zac said. Taylor took his earphones off.
"Did you say something?" He asked. Zac shook his head.
"Forget it" he muttered. Taylor slid his earphones back on. They'd only been in the air for less than 5 minutes, and Zac was already bored. His father and Isaac sat in the seats in front of him. Walker was busying himself with a crossword puzzle and Isaac was scribbling in a notebook. Probably another song about mara that he would insist wasn't about anyone in particular. In the seat behind him Zac's mother and mackenzie sat. Mackenzie was vigurously scribbling in a coloring book and Diana was trying to convince him to stay on the paper, and not color on the little tray thing from the seat in front of him. Behind them, jessica and avery were having a little party with barbie and ken. Zac reached into his bag and fished around for his discman. He pulled it out and put on the earphones. he pressed the play button about 5 times but nothing happened. He looked down, and saw the 'low batteries' light flashing. He groaned. Zac tapped Taylor on the back. Taylor slid his earphones off again.
"Yes?"
"Did you bring any extra batteries?" Zac asked.
"yeah, I have like 5 packs of eight of them. I plan ahead," Taylor said triumphantly.
"yeah, well, um, thats great. Can i borrow 4 please?" Zac asked.
"No" Taylor said bluntly and put his earphones back on.
"Awwww tay, come on," Zac whined. Taylor took the earphones off long enough to mutter a 'nope'. Zac sighed. This was gonna be a long flight, not to mention a long couple of months.
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