Star POV
"Hey Star," Ray Ray said the next morning.
"What?" It came out muffled, because I was eating some bacon and I stuffed it all in my mouth to keep Princeton from eating it.
"Can you sing?"
I stopped chewing and looked at him. He looked scared, like he'd struck a nerve or something.
"Umm....Hello?" He cocked his head a little, and it made me laugh. Which made me choke.
"You okay?" He asked, patting my back.
I wrestled his hand off. "I'm fine," I said. Because I was.
He put his hand on my shoulder this time. "Good," he said. "Now back to my original question."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not the best singer in the world, but at least I can carry a tune."
I drank some orange juice.
"Well, sing for me then."
I stopped, mid-sip. I stared at him.
"Are you fudging kidding me?"
He rolled his eyes this time. "I'm not gonna laugh, I promise." He looked at me with pleading eyes. "Just sing."
I sighed. Fine, I thought.
I cleared my throat, then stood up. I sang the entire first verse and chorus of "Grenade" and then I sat down.
Ray Ray just sat there staring, his mouth hanging open.
Princeton tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped.
"You should really let Keisha hear you sing."
"Uh...Thanks, I guess."
All of a sudden, Neisha came scuttling into the room. "Help, now. Seriously, there's an emergency," she said. We heard Chyna's screams. "And he won't KILL IT!" She spun on her heel and ran into the room with Roc and Chyna. We all followed.
Roc was standing in the middle of the room, holding his hands out. "Come on," he kept whispering.
"Omigod, it's on the ceiling!" Chyna screamed again.
Ray Ray took off his shoe and threw it at what was now known as a spider. It hit him, but the only damage it did was knock him off the ceiling - and right into Chyna's hair.
"AHHHHH!!" She screamed and ran around the room. "Getitoff, get it off, GET. IT. OFF!!"
Prodigy was laughing and filming the whole thing. No doubt this was going on YouTube.
"Chyna, shut up! You're probably scaring it!" I yelled and tried to calm Chyna down.
No such luck.
She managed to shake it off her head, but it flew on my shirt. Then - this is the scary part - it crawled down my shirt.
I didn't scream, but I hyperventilated until I almost passed out completely. I felt it crawling around on my stomach. Just a few more seconds, I thought, trying to convince myself I was on Fear Factor and that I would win a million dollars if I refused to kill it.
That absolutely did not work, and a few seconds later I completely lost it and started clawing at my shirt, desperately trying to get it off before the thing had a chance to bite me.
"Get it off, get it off NOW, hurry up and PULL IT OFF!"
Neisha struggled to get my shirt off, and Chyna was in the front area with Princeton, trying to recover from her servere state of shock and utter horror.
Ray Ray was standing there, not knowing at all what to do, and Prodigy was looking around, like Omigod, is anybody else watching this? Hello, we need witnesses people! Come and watch this!
I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes, even in my situation. Neisha finally managed to pull my shirt off, and the spider flew out and crawled away. Princeton screamed and stepped on it the minute it waltzed itself into the main room.
Prodigy, Neisha, Ray Ray and I stood there breathing hard, trying to calm ourselves.
I noticed Ray Ray staring at me, and I didn't really mind, but at the same time I did, so I snatched my shirt from Neisha and put it back on. Only, it felt like spider, so I took it off and went looking for a new one. I threw my old shirt on the ground and stepped on it, in case there were live spider germs in it, then took off my shoes and socks and hunted my suitcase.
I changed into Neisha's Cookie Monster shirt and some jeans, and I re-painted my toenails blue to match.
"Lunch time, lunch time, everyone loves lunch time..." Prodigy was singing, carrying a plate of pizza and breadsticks to the couch.
"Oh, shut up," Ray Ray said. He waited a moment, then statched a slice of pizza and a breadstick off the plate.
"Hello," Keisha said, bursting onto the bus. It made us jump, but we settled and looked at her anyway.
"We're going on a road trip!" She looked excited.
The boys shared amused glances, and us girls just sat and stared.
"Well, don't just sit there. Get ready to go! We're leving now, " She said.
We scrambled to gather some things and piled into Keisha's SUV.
She turned on some music, and Ray Ray begged her to play their new Rihanna CD.
"S&M" blasted through the speakers, and Ray Ray started doing a little dance to it.
"You just love S&M, don't you?" Princeton said grinning.
Ray Ray looked at him like he was an idiot. "No, I do not love S&M, because that would be disgusting."
Princeton looked lost, and Chyna started to laugh.
Ray Ray rolled his eyes. "This is what S&M means," he said, and whispered something into Princeton's ear.
His eyes widened, and he put his hand over his mouth and tilted his head back. "I think I'm gonna throw up," he said, but it came out muffled because of the hand.
He jerked his head up suddenly, and Neisha glanced up from her Kindle, but she figured it was noting and went back to her reading.
Prodigy turned around. "Roc, gimme your tuna salad," he said.
Roc looked at him. "Why?"
"Because, Princeton's seriously going to throw up. Now gimme the bowl," he said, and shook Roc's knee.
Roc dug the bowl out of his backpack, and handed it to Prod. "Here," he said in a tone that said he didn't want people using his bowls as barf bags.
I laughed at Ray Ray's expression, which told everyone that he was not happy that he had to watch people throw up, and he was especially unhappy about being around tuna salad.
When the tuna salad opened, everybody smelled it. Neisha covered her mouth and nose, Chyna put her hat over her face, and Ray Ray started crying.
I giggled. I wasn't trying to be mean, but it was funny to see people crying over tuna salad.
Princeton threw up in the bowl, then Ray Ray snatched the bowl from him and threw up too, but he threw up more than once, possibly because of the horrible aroma of tuna salad.
Prodigy took the bowl and covered it up, then tossed it out the window.
"Maybe it would be better if we stopped at a hotel," Keisha said.
Everybody agreed, and we pulled into the parking lot of the nearest one.
