The Troubles of Growing Up

Chapter 9

"Josh? JOSH! Can you hear me?" I could hear Haylee, calling me.
"Hayl?" I said.
"Josh are you okay?" she seemed terrified.
"Yeah. Fine. what happened?" apparently the sharp pain on the back of my head was Winter's prosthetic tail, smacking me. I had been unconscious for about seven minutes. When her tail hit me I was out cold. She was startled and she turned around to see a motionless person she had never seen before. She tried to wake me and after a failed attempt Winter started to push me toward her trainer who was about to jump in to get me. The trainer pulled me out and drained my lungs. I started coughing but stayed unconscious. I got up and looked at Winter who was sitting at the edge of the pool. I smiled at her and she squealed in excitement as she spun in a circle. The trainer guided me down the small platform by the edge of the pool where Winter was. I kneeled down and reached my hand out to her. The coolest thing that had ever happened to me was touching her. Right then and there. Suddenly Hope appeared.
"Do you have a super soaker?" I asked the trainer. She looked at me for a second, then smiled.
"Yeah just don't fall in again while I get it." she laughed. She walked away and Haylee came and sat down next to me. She reached her hand out to Winter. Winter slowly just went underwater. Haylee frowned. I reached my hand out and she came back up. I chuckled.
"She's probably only coming up for me because she feels bad." just then Hope rushed over to her and held herself half out of the water. Haylee reached for her and she came. The trainer returned.
"Hey HE isn't even supposed to be bothering them. He just had an incident so he gets to. It's actually their training time so nobody should be down here." Haylee frowned.
"This girl is really the biggest reason we're here." I said to the trainer. She looked at Haylee and handed her the soaker.
"Doesn't hurt to have a little fun here and there every once in a while." Haylee filled the soaker and sprayed it into Hope's mouth. She was having so much fun. I was happy. We had some more fun with Winter and Hope for a while before we had to go. I felt bad because we had taken an hour and a half of their training time away. We got back to the hotel at around 3pm.
"Alright so we are going to leave tomorrow early. REALLY early. So you guys are going to want to get to sleep right now because we leave at like three in the morning." Paige declared as we entered the room. "Also josh i'm not sleeping in one of these beds they're too soft. You need to share with someone because i'm taking your couch."
"He can share with me." Hayl said. My mom looked at her with a surprised expression.
"Ok i'm fine with my own bed." my mom smiled. "Just no funny business." she giggled while looking at me and Haylee. Hayl just looked at her. Then she realised what my mom meant. She looked disgusted for a second then shook her head. She went into the bathroom and came out with her pajamas on.
"Better get to sleep then." she told me. She got into bed and I laid down next to her over the covers. I pulled out my phone and opened my tv app. I pulled up lost and gave it to her.
"I finished episode two. You were twenty three minutes in." I told her. I got up and went into the bathroom. I changed into my sleep pants and came back out. This time I went under the covers but I made it so Hayl had an extra layer. I sat on top of a sheet she was underneath. She was watching the episode. We sat and watched two more before Paige told us it was time to sleep. We fell asleep. When we woke up the next morning my mom and Paige were still asleep. I got up and took a shower. After that Hayl took one. When she got out Paige and my mom were still asleep. I grabbed Paige and woke her up.
"It's 2 o'clock, aren't we leaving at three?"
"Yeah we are. Have you showered?"
"Yeah me and Hayl both have."
"Ok get mom i'm going to hop in." I woke up our mom and she showered after Paige. We left at quarter after three. Paige drove for two hours before I saw it. 'Welcome to Daytona Beach'. We passed the sign and my phone vibrated. As did Haylee's. We both pulled them out and then I realised.
"No way." I said out loud. Hayl just looked at me. I looked up and Paige was smiling. She looked at me through the mirror.
"Put the pieces together Sherlock?" she asked me.
"We're going to the Daytona 500." Haylee gasped. Paige giggled.
"How'd you come up with that?"
"Well for one we just entered Daytona Beach Florida." I was really going to explain. "Then earlier right before we left mom asked if you had tickets. CMA didn't ask for tickets. So I knew we still had them. Also you said we had to leave today. The Daytona 500 is a scheduled event. Nascar mobile also just told me about the race being today. You said we were going somewhere special, which means it's something i've wanted to do for a while."
"Wow that's impressive." Hayl said.
"Yup that's Josh." Paige responded. We drove for another half hour and there it was. Daytona International Speedway.