A Rambunctious Ride

“Have you got everything?” Nick asks the group of three that are sitting on the couch as he walks in. 

He is mostly ignored besides Ian who glances his way, the other two’s eyes trained on the large flat screen in front of them. Ian smiles at his friend, “Yep, I’ve been packed since yesterday, these two just finished throwing things in their bags.”

Nick rolls his eyes before narrowing them at the other two that still haven’t acknowledged his presence. “I’m not letting you guys borrow anything on the road.” He tells them, knowing for sure they’ve forgotten at least something important.

Wyatt huffs, glaring at his friend before sticking out his tongue, “Good for you. We won’t be needing anything anyway, right Landon?” Wyatt turns to the fourth boy who groans.

“C’mon! This team stinks.” He scrunches his nose, finally turning his attention from the soccer game to the three boys that are looking at him with judgmental eyes. 

“Were you saying something?” Landon asks innocently, knowing full well they were talking to him, but he didn’t really care when his team was so close to scoring. 

“Whatever,” Nick mumbles before turning away with the large suitcase in his hand. “Bring your stuff to the car!” He yells as he’s walking out the front door.

Ten minutes later, surprisingly quick for four boys who never get anything done on time, the four of them are waiting by the large van for the last two people joining them to show up.

“Bow down, the queens have arrived.” Jade shouts as her and Isla approach from behind them causing Nick to jump at least two feet in the air. He places a hand on his chest, “Cheese and crackers, warn a guy next time, yeah?” He murmurs before turning to the van and getting in, not wanting to waste any time.

The group of six friends have been planning this road trip for a couple of months now, attempting to drive cross country. Wyatt really doesn’t know how it’s going to work. He knows Landon will be complaining in the first five minutes, Ian will be asking to stop for food every ten minutes, and Nick will just get aggravated, yelling at everyone to shut up so he can drive. 

Wyatt will not be sitting in a van for hours in silence just so Nick can drive undisturbed. 

He also knows that Isla will be trying to get everybody to play car games that Wyatt has lost interest in years ago. He doesn’t want to count how many red cars he sees. Jade will be talking non-stop about nothing important. She’s recently been invested in some band that has been getting popular. Wyatt doesn’t want to admit it, but their music isn’t half bad. 

The six friends pile into the car. Nick situates himself in the driver’s seat, Ian immediately calls the front seat because he doesn’t want to sit near anybody, and Nick will be occupied driving, so he’ll be left alone. For the most part. 

Wyatt frowns when Ian takes the front, so he grumpily sits in the middle, Landon sitting beside him. Thankfully Wyatt had convinced Nick to get a van with individual seats so he wouldn’t be forced to sit so close beside any of them. 

What? They all like their personal space.

Jade and Isla sit in the back two seats. Isla is already situating her pillow against the window, double checking to make sure her blanket is close by. She opens her notes on her phone, reading over the new car games she came up with. She hopes her friends will want to participate. She at least knows Jade will, she always seems to like the games.

Jade glances to her right, seeing Isla pull up a list titled Car Games and she internally groans. She has never liked playing them, but none of the boys are ever nice enough to participate, so she feels like she should. She usually scolds them when they stop to eat and Isla goes to the bathroom, but they are always prepared with their dumb excuses. 

“Ready to go?” Nick calls out, glancing back at all his friends who actually look excited. Even though they sometimes act like they can’t stand each other, they are thankful to have one another. 

They all met in high school, their junior year. Isla and Jade were friends before, and were unfortunately put into a group with Nick and Ian for a class project.

Nick was obnoxious when they first met, and Jade didn’t want anything to do with him, but Ian was really polite. They actually all worked quite well on the project together, usually working at Ian’s house. It was worth twenty percent of their final grade and none of them, even Nick who usually didn’t care, wanted to fail. 

Even after the project was finished, the four of them decided to remain friends, and were introduced to Wyatt and Landon, two of Nick’s and Ian’s other friends. The six of them have just remained as a group since then, and surprisingly are all going to college in the same state. 

It’s now the summer before their sophomore year of college, and the six of them had decided to plan a cross country road trip to make the most of summer. It was just a random thought Ian had one day as they were on a group call taking a break from studying for finals.

He had said it as a joke, knowing that all six of them were stressing out as they took their first exams of their first year of college. But Jade didn’t take it as a joke, she sat straight up in her chair and convinced them all to do it. 

Even though Ian came up with the idea, and Jade wanted to do it, neither of them were really that good at planning anything. Jade tried to book a hotel once for a weekend trip, but that didn’t work out so they ended up at some trashy motel while Jade continuously apologized.

Back in the present the group cheered, smiling as Nick pulled out of the driveway of his parent’s large house. He decided to have everyone meet up in their hometown so it would be easier to leave instead of picking everyone up from their colleges.

Isla turned in her seat to watch the big house disappear from their view, before turning back around, getting comfortable and looking out the window. 

It was silent for ten minutes before Landon opened his mouth to groan. “I’m bored,” He complains, and Wyatt immediately stuffs his earphones in, not wanting to hear it. He can only watch as Ian turns around to narrow his eyes, his mouth moving as if he was scolding Landon, but Wyatt couldn’t hear it. He closed his eyes, deciding to sleep as they drove through the parts of California he’s already seen.

Nick grips the steering wheel with two hands tight as he hears four voices talking over one another, the chaotic words falling from their mouths and making it too hard to distinguish who is saying what.

Ian is permanently facing the back of the car as he’s in a heated discussion with Landon about the best book from some series Nick has never heard of, while Isla and Jade are talking about that band. Nick shakes his head, knowing Isla hasn’t heard of them yet but it won't be long until Jade pulls her under with an obsession over the boyband.

Even though he feels slightly agitated already, Nick wouldn’t want to be here with anybody else, especially his parents. His parents were two of the most dull people he’s ever met, and were so focused on their jobs, they just left him alone in the large house. 

They’ve only been on one ‘road trip’ together, and even though it was only about three hours, it was the worst and most tense three hours of Nick’s life. The vacation wasn’t much better either. They only agreed to go on it because Nick asked them to, wanting to actually spend time with his parents. He regretted it.

x

“There!” A loud voice makes Wyatt jump out of sleep, frowning when he realizes his music has stopped, he must have listened to his whole playlist. 

He turns to see Jade sitting forward in her seat, her head almost beside his. Wyatt sighs before looking to where Jade is pointing, a smile on her face. 

They’re in the middle of nowhere, flat land surrounding them. Jade is currently pointing to a road sign showing there’s a gas station at the next exit. 

“Finally,” Ian murmurs from the front seat, “There’s been nothing for miles.” He whines, fidgeting in his seat. Wyatt rolls his eyes and looks over to see Landon sleeping, his neck making his head flop all over causing Wyatt to grimace. 

Isla isn’t paying attention to any of them, keeping her eyes glued out the window. “Thirty!” She cheers, pointing to a red car that zooms past us. Wyatt laughs quietly, watching the scenery fly by them before Nick pulls up to a sketchy looking gas station. 

Nick looks around, “Ian, I don’t think this place looks-” but Ian is already jumping out of the car. “I don’t care!” He almost shouts before running inside. 

“Well, as long as we’re stopped.” Wyatt mutters before getting out of the car as well and heading inside behind Ian. 

Jade has already leaned back in her seat, swiping through her playlists, deciding which one she wants to listen to for the next few hours while Isla pokes her on the shoulder. 

“Jade, you’re supposed to be playing too.” She frowns, pointing down to her notebook where she was tallying how many cars they each saw. She assigned different colors for everyone, but they weren’t really paying attention. 

“Sorry, my eyes got tired.” Jade lies before looking up at Isla. “I’m sorry Isla, I’ll participate in a bit.” 

Isla only rolls her eyes, just wanting to continue the drive. 

x Day Three x 

It’s nearing nighttime on their third day, and the group of six is almost out of Mississippi. They were driving down southeast, then were going to drive up the east coast. All of them were entering new territories, nobody having gone off from the west the whole time they’ve lived.

“Why is it so hot?” Landon complains from the backseat where he now sits, the six of them having changed up the seating multiple times already, so everyone has now sat in every seat. 

Jade rolls her eyes from the driver’s seat, cranking up the air conditioning the highest it could go. “Do you guys feel the air?” She asks, knowing sometimes it doesn’t reach the back of the van very well. 

Everyone only hums, a way of saying yes. It had been quiet for some time now, the six of them only wanting to cool off, already done with the heat. They knew they were heading towards the south, and it would obviously be hot. That doesn’t mean they would like it. 

“How about we stop early tonight?” Wyatt suggests from the front seat, having aimed every vent in his reach, in his direction. Nick complained he was hogging all the air, but each of them had at least one vent near their chairs.

They were planning on driving another four hours before stopping at whatever hotel was in the area, usually looking ahead a couple of hours and booking two rooms. 

The group of friends have been enjoying the trip, visiting different landmarks they pass on the way, or maybe a local shop they come across that looks cool. They’ve had lots of different foods (not all of it being very tasty) and lots of different snacks (ice cream being their favorite).

Right now Ian regrets ever coming up with the idea, and he’s indiscreetly sending daggers with his eyes in Jade’s direction for convincing them all to say yes.

“Can we please,” Isla agrees with Wyatt from her spot in the middle beside Ian. She felt smart when she pulled out one of those battery powered fans she bought earlier that day at some shop they found themselves in. 

Jade just nods, asking Wyatt to look up what hotels they’re nearby, hoping they can get in a couple of rooms without a reservation. 

Twenty minutes later and the group of six is pulling into a large hotel that also looks quite expensive. It’s okay though since Nick’s parents were loaded and agreed to pay for the hotels and gas of the road trip. They were glad he was going to do something this summer besides sit around the house.

“Well,” Landon mutters glancing up at the tall building, “Let’s go in.”

x

The rest of the road trip goes by in a blur of fun activities and interesting landmarks. 

Landon remains passive throughout the rest of the days, not wanting to be there much, but at the same time he’s glad to have this experience with five of his best friends. He’s glad they dragged him along, even though he’s hated sitting in a car since he was a kid.

It’s a wonder how Jade never runs out of things to talk about, and Ian wishes he could just press a mute button to have her stop, even if it’s just for an hour. In reality, and deep (very, very deep) down they appreciate her enthusiasm, knowing it would have been a boring trip without her. 

Nick likes to sit in the passenger seat and pout whenever someone else takes over driving. He’s always loved to drive and always volunteered when the group would go out in the past. Now his friends have ‘apparently’ taken an interest in the wheel, causing him to sit bored out of his mind beside the driver.

Isla never gave up on her quest to pull her friends into her games. She smiled widely when Wyatt groaned and finally agreed to play, she knew she would accomplish it one day. She never seemed to get tired of creating new games to play.

Wyatt has somehow entertained himself most of the trip. He finally played one of Isla’s games with her, and he’s still keeping his eyes trained out the window for blue cars. He still jumps every time Isla squeals when she sees a red car. 

Ian eventually started to enjoy himself, looking up different places to go in the area, and convincing the group to stop by the beach for a couple of hours one day, and managed to catch  a college baseball game. He was good at finding cool places to go.

When the group finally arrived home, they all were quite exhausted. They were all glad that Nick’s house was so big, and he was letting them stay for the rest of the summer. They were gone for quite some time, and only had the last part of summer to enjoy.

So they enjoyed it. Most of their time was spent lounging around the pool, occasionally going to the beach, or just relaxing around the house. 

It was a good summer, now with a road trip full of memories they would never forget. 

x

The End