Elemental

9. THE EXPLODING FOUNTAIN

"Get into the car already, will you?" Moaned Joe at McKay, a frown contorting his face, "I'm growing old here!"
"Oh shut up!" McKay retorted, rolling his eyes and getting into the driver's seat. "Morgan held me up in the foyer."
"What? Why?" Tori perked up at this, leaning forward to see McKay clearly. She and Laverne were in the backseat while the boys were in the front. Laverne looked surprised, Joe wary.

"Something about safety," McKay mumbled, adamantly looking down as he buckled up, and adjusted the rearview mirror.
"Safety?" Tori asked, her brow creased inquisitively.
"All set?" McKay asked with a sigh, choosing to pointedly ignore the question for the moment.
"Obviously," grumped Laverne, shooting him a disapproving look. "I mean, it's been almost half an hour you know."
"I was just trying to be polite." McKay rolled his eyes, pulling out of the parking space, and driving out of the college compound.
"I see," Laverne retorted icily.

Joe spun around, grinning, to meet Tori's eye. "We're in for a long day," he mouthed, grinning.
Amused, and by now quite used to McKay and Laverne's constant squabbling and run ins, Tori shook her head and replied, "What else is new?"
Laverne, who had just noticed Joe laughing, leaned forward and poked him in the side.

"Ow!" He exclaimed, squirming in his seat and accidentally nudging McKay. "What was that for?"
"That should help you shut up." She folded her arms at her chest.
"She's got a point," Tori quickly added.
"Same goes for you missy, I saw that."
"Oh please. Stop being such a control freak." McKay quipped in, meeting Laverne's eye in the rearview mirror.

And the bickering continued all the way to the town. Laverne was seething, McKay annoyed, and Tori and Joe enjoying the drama unfold, only commenting where their input was bound to make things even worse.

They went into a mall when they reached the town, and spent all morning drinking milkshakes and feasting on chocolate donuts, and unnerving and flabbergasting clueless non magic shoppers.

"She looks like she could fall for something," said Tori, who was thoroughly enjoying the whole experience, nodding towards a plump lady who was ordering a burger with the seriousness of an army general giving instructions to his troops in a war. "I mean geez, it's only a burger, not rocket science."
Joe laughed, his eyes crinkling cheekily. "What did you reckon? Water or air?"
Tori brushed her electric blue hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. "Water." She smiled at Joe. "I bet you two pounds she screams like a little girl."
"You're on." He nudged McKay. "Go on, it's your turn."
McKay feigned an evil smile. "Mwahaha."
"Cut out the special effects and get to it already for heaven's sake, will you?"
"Fine, lady grouch, you don't have to suck the life out of everything!"

Laverne only rolled her eyes, but watched with mild interest as McKay clicked his fingers, causing a soft drizzle to fall over their target who looked up and muttered, "blimey it's raining through the ceiling!"
"Oy!" She yelled at the waiter, looking more and more like a blond planet with a hairnet and pocketbook. "There's a leak in your bloody ceiling!"
The four friends chuckled.
"Now watch this," hissed McKay, speeding up the drizzle into a fully fledged shower of rain.
Just as predicted, the boulder of a woman screamed like a little girl as she shot out of her seat and ran for cover into the ladies bathroom, where the 'rain' simply followed her like a shadow, leaving the four friends rolling in laughter.

Next, they drove around town, taking in the autumn breeze and getting on each other's last nerve. McKay and Laverne had not exactly chosen the best day to not get along.
"I swear McKay, you drive like a wimp! Speed up, for God's sake, will you?"
"Well you're a whiny potato, do you see me complaining?"
"I'm hungry," Tori commented, trying to lighten the tension in the car that stretched, as it so frequently did, between Laverne and McKay, before Laverne could take offence.
"There's a good place down this street," Joe replied, picking up her line of thought and looking out of the window at the bottleneck up ahead, "but only if this bleeding traffic jam would ease up."
"Language language!" Reprimanded Laverne.
"Sorry mom." Came Joe's retort.