From New York to New Mexico and Beyond

Chapter eight

"Z! I win!" Specs reached around and punched Race. Katherine had given up on trying to stop the physical violence. After seven rounds of the alphabet game, she had come to two conclusions: one, the boys lived off of hitting, yelling and insults and nothing she could do would change that; and two, Specs, who was totally blind normally, apparently had x-ray vision once he put those magical glasses on, that was the only way she could explain how he had won five out of seven games.

"Okay, I think that's enough of that game for now, we're loosing troops." Katherine chuckled. Crutchie had fallen asleep before the game even started, Jack had drifted off with his head on her shoulder and even Les was starting to nod off. "Fine." Race sighed. "Who's up for a little poker?" Katherine arched an eyebrow. "What are you planning on playing with?" Race waved a bag of candy. "How bout gummy worms?"

"I'm in!" Specs said. "How bout you Kath?"

"Why not? But we've gotta keep it down, okay? I don't wanna wake anyone up." The boys agreed and lowered their voices as Race dealt the cards.

Katherine was surprised by how little violence was involved in this game. Poker seemed like a good choice, it kept Race's mouth shut for the most part, the boys seemed too intent on their game to fight, and she was on a winning streak.

Race was just dealing the cards for another game when Les woke up. "What are you playing?" He demanded, seeing their three guilty faces and hands full of the gummy worms he had picked out. "Uh...poker." Leave it to Race to be subtle. "I wanna play!" He bounced in his seat excitedly, disturbing Crutchie. "Me too!" Crutchie murmured, half asleep. Katherine chuckled. "Sorry, Les, I don't think Davey'll let you in on this game. "No, no gambling." Davey put in.

"Hey, Dave," Race poked him in the arm. "You look a little tired...how bout you give me a turn at the wheel?"

"No!" Davey, Katherine, Specs and Les all cried at the same time. "Aw come on!" Race begged. "I've got my license!"

"No, you don't. They took it away again." Specs reminded him. Davey yawned. "Well I think we should either pull over or let Katherine drive...I'm about to drop."

"Okay, I'll take over...if you buy me coffee." Katherine grinned. "Deal." Davey pulled over and switched places with Katherine, handing her money for coffee.

Two hours later, Katherine was still driving, not showing a single sign of being tired. Everyone else was asleep. Jack stirred and sleepily stretched out his arm, expecting to find Katherine beside him. "Wait..." he opened his eyes and glanced over at Davey who was asleep on his shoulder. "Ew..." he pushed him away and Davey woke up with a start. "Hey! What was that for?"

"You're not Kath!" Davey rolled his eyes. "Really? Of all the stupid reasons to wake me up...I know I'm not Kath! She's driving."

"Hi, Jack!" Katherine chuckled and waved in the rearview mirror. "Ace? How long have you been driving?" She shrugged. "A couple hours?"

"Did you sleep?"

"No, but I'm fine! Davey bought me coffee!"

"Oh god Dave...you put her on caffeine? Do you wanna be up all night?" Katherine rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Jack. I can handle my caffeine. I drink coffee all the time to stay up late for writing."

"Yeah and I've seen what happens. You're never gonna fall asleep now!"

"Good! We can drive all night!" Jack looked at Davey then shrugged. "Let's just hope she doesn't wake the rest of the boys up...then we really wouldn't get any sleep."

Okay so I realize this story is dragging so I'm gonna try to get to an ending point asap and start a more exciting plot.