"Oh what the fuck? Seriously?" I hear my mom yelling in the distance, waking me up. She must be arguing with my stepdad. If they aren't arguing, somethings wrong. I look over to my Garfield (Yes, Garfield..) clock and see the time. It's 7 AM. Taking this as my wake up call, I jump out of bed and put a pair of pants on. Considering we're gonna be on the road for a while, I don't think I really need to get all dolled up right now. I just wear a pair of loose plaid pajama bottoms and one of my dads old shirts. I have so many articles of his clothing and no idea how I got them.
Weird fact about me, I love road trips. Being able to spend tons of time on the road, with your favorite people, while eating junky gas station food and watching movies and reading books is overall just one of my favorite things to do. The only issue here, is that unfortunately, I don't know most of the people. This means that the entire time I am in that car, I am going to be doing my best to be a normal person and I'll be way out of my comfort zone.
Similar to my room, my bike also has been due for a change since I was a little girl. I got to say though, It's pretty damn cute. It's all pink and purple, with sparkles and puffy little pom poms on the end of the hand rails. On the front, there's a little basket that I put my bag of clothes and belongings in. Luckily for me, it was pretty sunny out and even though it was early in the morning, it was pretty warm. I peddled out of the driveway and down the road on the way to the Hoover household.
Winded, I finally arrived. I reached down to grab my bag and threw it over my shoulder, approaching the doorbell. Mrs. Hoover answered the door looking stressed. My guess is trying to round up the whole family and avoid a "home-alone" type situation. "Hey, come on in." She tells me and smiles a bit, pushing the door back and motioning for me to come in. Stepping inside, I can immediately feel a sense of chaos. Olive told me they don't travel much. "Do you need help with anything?" I say, trying to relieve a bit of her stress. "Oh no sweetheart, that's alright, you can just have a seat there and um, we'll be ready soon." She scurries around the house like a mouse looking for food. "Olive, would you hurry up?" She yells towards the hall.
I slumped back on the couch and waited patiently. When I say that, I basically just mean I had nothing better to do. The ticking of the clock echoed back and forth in my mind, and I fell into a state of being zoned-out. I was like this for a few minutes, watching the clock go round and round until someone walked past me and snapped me out of it. He stopped a couple feet past me, turned around, and stopped to stare. I gave an awkward smile. He didn't return the favor.
"I'm Chloe. I'm Olive's tutor." I said to him with a cheesy smile. He seemed to observe me for a moment before pulling a notepad and pen out of his pocket and scribbling something down. When he was done, he held it up to me and waited for me to read it. It said, "I'm Dwayne." Olive had mentioned him before, being her brother. Instead of questioning things, I decided it'd be best to just move on. "Nice to meet you!" I spoke cheerfully. He nodded slightly before putting his notepad back into his pocket and turning around to carry onto his destination.
After what seemed like an eternity, the family was ready to go. As if she was checking things off a list in her mind, Mrs. Hoover searched the trunk of the car to make sure nothing was going to be left behind. As awkward as I already was feeling, It'd be much worse in a confined space, like a car. However, I did appreciate the car itself. A hippie van, as I'd call it. a 1970's, bright yellow Volkswagen station wagon. The car itself would make the journey just that much more comforting.
I sat in the very back row, considerably my favorite place to sit, though I can't explain why. I was squished between Dwayne and Olive's grandfather, who was.. creepy to say the least. I always kind of felt like he was looking at me weirdly. I'd try not to think about it too much, or it might ruin the whole trip and pageant. Brushing it off, I opened my puzzle I brought with me and got to work. Was it a stupid thing to bring? Probably. Was it also the most fun thing ever? Yes. You were given blocks and a guide book on where to put them, then you'd fit the remaining ones in the open spaces.
Dwayne was hovering over my shoulder, observing my solving of the puzzles with a searching expression displayed upon his face. I'd continue to solve, even though I felt eyes melting me into the ground. I had done quite a few puzzles when I got stuck. Dwayne noticed this, and must've been solving them in his head because he immediately knew what to do. He put the purple and green blocks exactly where they belonged and completed the puzzle, leaving me baffled on how he completed it so quickly. He pulled up his notepad and scribbled something down quickly and shoved it in my face with a smirk.
"I win." It read. "It's not a matter of win or lose because it's not a competition. Here, do this one." I replied in a standoffish tone, rearranging the blocks to one of the hardest puzzles in the book. I handed it to him, and though he hesitated at first, he quickly began to solve it. It seemed as if he had been waiting his entire life for this minimal moment, practicing and praying like it was an Olympic sport and not just a dollar store puzzle game.
In just under a minute, he had solved the puzzle. Such a silly thing, and yet I found myself jealous that I couldn't do the same. "Alright you got me, smartass." I whispered reluctantly. Olive must've overheard and let out a gasp while putting her hands over her mouth, similar to that of someone who's witnessed a crime. "You can't say that!" Olive blurted out. "My apologies, Ms. Hoover. I will do my very best to please you from now on!" I giggled out, causing her to let out a smile and turn back towards the front.
A little while past this, my puzzles had gotten so boring I was ready to pass out and slump forward like a dead person. Instead, I grabbed a blanket from the trunk and leaned my head back to fall into a state of dreaming wonderland.
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hey there buckaroo!!! thank u for reading all this way :) im glad u guys like the story so far and it's definitely going to get better, with more drama and blah blah blah as we progress. also i love seeing comments!!! so fun. anyway, heres the publishing dates for the next few chapters, so u know when to look forward to them! itll be pretty much fridays and wednesdays for now !
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pNZOyWWDgfkthmy4sg0OvheYDDOJ5xjCeqop_q54DU4/edit?usp=sharing
word count: 1190
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imagination , dwayne hoover
Fanfictioneverything you love turns into dust in the blink of an eye.
