Zac looked across the table in the bus at Holly and Brynn. Holly was staring at him with a strange look on her face. "Ok, I give up. What did I do?"
"Nothing. I just finally came up with a word to describe your stature."
"Uhm..." He looked at Brynn, worried. "Do I want to ask?"
"Go for it." She laughed.
Holly nodded her head and smiled. "You are ursine."
"I'm insane?"
"URSINE."
Brynn nudged Holly. "So are you going to tell us what that exactly means?"
"It means you're like a bear." She grinned, proud of her new word.
"Ursine. I like that." Zac smiled. Then he looked across the table at Brynn and bit his bottom lip.
"Zac... why did you just give me a look like you were going to eat me?" Brynn asked, completely unaware of what she had just said.
Holly on the other hand, was very aware. She had just taken a sip from her bottle of water when she spit it all over Zac's face. Then, she shook her head as if nothing had happened, and took another sip.
Zac turned bright red and Brynn looked back and forth between the two of them. "Ok, I don't wanna know what's going on."
At that moment, Taylor came into the room wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a baggy white t-shirt with a large hole on the side. His hair was slicked down onto the side of his face and it was evident that he had been sleeping.
Holly grinned and grabbed her pen. Then, she wrote furiously in her notebook while speaking allowed: "Taylor. Tatterdemalion. Taylor came out of his hole looking like a tatterdemalion with a bruised ego. Tatterdemalion. Bum. Dirtball. Ragged loser. Taylor." Then she closed her book and smiled.
Zac leaned over the table and whispered to Brynn, "What's with the big words today?"
"She's slowly studying for her SATS." Brynn paused. "DUDE! HOLLY! YOU JUST USED A SIX SYLLABLE WORD!"
"ROCK ON!" Holly high-fived Brynn and then started writing in her book again.
Taylor sat down next to Zac. "What's so special about a six syllable word?"
Holly sighed. "Well, the only six syllable word I could ever use in a sentence was Nickelodeon." She paused and waited while she got the reaction she expected. Taylor and Zac began counting the syllables on their fingers. "And then Brynn brought it to my attention that Nickelodeon was only 5 syllables, and I've been on an intellegence hunt ever since."
"Sounds like fun." Zac smiled and tried desperately not to stare at Brynn for fear that his brother would wring his neck.
Taylor glared silently at Zac and then gave Holly the most depressing look she'd ever seen. To cheer him up, she came up with the only compliment she could think of at the moment. "You're so pretty."
Taylor rolled his eyes while Zac and Brynn laughed.
"OOH! PULCHRITUDE!" She began to write again. "From the latin word, pulcher**, meaning beautiful. Taylor. Pulchritude. With his charming personality and shiny blue eyes, Taylor is the epitome of male pulchritude." She put her pencil back down.
"I don't think that works, Holly." Brynn shook her head and tried not to laugh as Taylor turned to a shade of deep maroon.
"Yeah. I guess you actually have to good-looking for that."
Taylor glanced at Holly and then turned to Brynn. "How long is she going to keep this up for?"
"Oh this is nothing. You missed it last week when she was singing, 'It's a microcosm world'."
"Oh lord." p>Holly jumped as if awakened from a light sleep, and turned to a page in her notebook that she'd scribbled in the week before. Next to the lyrics of 'It's a microcosm world', she wrote, "Infinitestimal". Then, after closing the book, she opened it again and scribbled, "SIX SYLLABLES".
Brynn looked over her shoulder and laughed. "My friend, ladies and gentlemen."
"Are you calling me a girl?" Zac asked, glaring.
"Whoa, Zac. Guilty conscience much."
Taylor got up from the table and announced that he was going to the back of the bus to change. They would be in Pittsburgh in about fifteen minutes and he didn't want to be known as a tatterdemalion at the hotel... or on the bus, in front of Brynn, for that matter.
Isaac sat down in his place and smiled across the table at Holly who was writing furiously in her notebook again. "What's she doing?" He asked Zac, leaning over in a whisper.
"Seeing as though you just came in the room... something about you."
Brynn leaned over the notebook and looked at what Holly had written. "Oooh. Nice." Then she stood up. "Well, I'm going to go see if I can walk in on Taylor, naked." She laughed. "Just kidding." Then she went to the back of the bus.
Isaac sighed and shook his head. "So..." He lowered his voice. "Are we still trying desperately to not speak to Brynn for fear that you'll confess your undying love."
Holly rolled her eyes and kept writing.
"Uhm..." Zac blushed and looked out the window. "I think we're in Pittsburgh now. Aren't we?"
"Afraid to answer, Zachary resorted to circumlocution to avoid direct reference to the subject." Holly looked up from her book and smiled at Zac.
He sighed. "Must you?"
"I'm supposed to be writing down these words and using them in a sentence. And since you crack me up so much with your patheticness," She paused, "I don't think that was a word. Oh well. Since you're such a wussy, I might as well put you in my sentences."
Isaac nudged his younger brother. "So seriously, what are you going to do?"
Zac shrugged. "Nothing."
"What do you mean nothing? You can't just do nothing."
Holly smiled. "I'm with Zac. Taylor is making Brynn really uncomfortable and I think if he doesn't chill out soon..."
"Me gots a chance." Zac grinned.
"He gots a chance." Holly nodded.
Isaac shook his head. "I still think you're being a... help me out here Holly."
"WUSSY!"
"Ok, I was looking for something more sophisticated, but that works too."
"Hey, who needs 6 syllables when you have a word as lovely and descriptive as wussy."
Zac grumbled and put his head down. "Ok, fine. I'll confront them both."
"When?" They asked in unison.
"As soon as we get to the hotel."
Holly looked out the window. "Which would be now."
"As soon as we get unpacked."
"How about now?" Isaac asked and stood up. He grabbed Zac by the arm and pulled him into the aisle.
"How about tomorrow?!"
"Now." Holly and Isaac both said and shoved Zac into the back of the bus with Taylor and Brynn. It was only a matter of time before all hell would break loose.
**Yes, I do speak Latin.
Hearts of Fate
CONGRATS TO BRYNN
Brynn and Holly
Brynn's band, Anything But Jaded