"I am hungry, tired, bored, and hot!" Thundra complained loudly from the back of the group. "I thought you lived here once!" Harriet retorted. Jess smirked. It was funny that Thundra was whining, because she was the most intimidating of them all. Luke didn't seem fazed by the heat (probably because he grew up on a desert planet), and Becka looked exhausted. The worst part was that they were all wearing 25-pound backpacks. Chris seemed to be trying to strike up conversation with Maia, but she was ignoring him. Fircone suddenly cheered. "What?" Lily said, scowling at him. "I looked it up on my phone! It'll take a little more than 77 hours to get there!" He said happily. Harriet frowned. "That's if we take no breaks, don't sleep, and 77 hours is more than three days. So it'll take us about a week, unless we catch a train in Pahi." "I wouldn't mind taking a train." Maia said, after stubbing her toe on the third rock hidden in the grass. "Well, we've got another 8 hours to think about it," Fircone remarked. 10 hours later, the exhausted gang staggered into the city. They took a look at a city map to find a train, but Thundra couldn't find one. "Why?!" Maia moaned. "Well, if we commandeer a car, we can get to a nearby city in a little over six hours." Fircone suggested. Luke groaned from where he was sitting on a bench, rubbing his blistered feet. "As long as I don't have to walk anymore, I'm fine with it," he muttered. "Here," Maia said, pulling out a small vial of ointment. "If you have blisters, rub this healing cream on your feet." Everyone gratefully took some. "Hey Fircone," Chris interjected. "You said commandeering a car. And stealing happens to be one of my best talents." he said, with an impish grin. "Well, can you hot-wire a car?"
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"I still can't believe we stole a minivan from a parking garage." Jess said to Luke, a few hours later. "I mean, I stole a candy bar from the store when I was 5, but never a car." "That's nothing. I stole a speeder bike and crashed it." he remarked. "Well, with Thundra driving, she's probably gonna ram the car in front of us at the first traffic jam." Jess said, and let out a rueful laugh. "Um, can I have another one of those puffy, cheesy things? Whaddaya call them?" Jess smirked. "They're called Cheetos, and I said, they're mine. If you ask for one one more time, I will throw you out of this car." Luke proceeded to scoot as far away from her as he could, cramming Fircone against the window, who squeaked, "Hey!" Maia twisted around from the front seat, and said "We'll be there in about two hours. Try not to irritate Thundra. She said if anyone bugs her, she'll crash the car." They had crammed 11 people and their respective backpacks into a minivan designed for seven people at most, with several of their backpacks tied to the roof, and Harriet, who was squished between Raj and Chris, shot Maia a dirty look. Two hours later, everyone was groaning. "I...want...out...please..." Becka was moaning repeatedly. Luke, Fircone, and Chris had launched into song ("99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall"), and Thundra looked like she wanted to kill everyone. Jess had been occasionally dozing off, but the boys' singing was keeping her up. Finally, Maia snapped, and yelled, "IT'S 11:00 AT NIGHT!!!" which shut them up. As they drove into the city of Marangu, they decided it would be best to stay the night in a hotel to keep from strangling each other. When they got to the hotel, Harriet and the manager conversed in rapid swahili; Thundra was too cranky to function. They finally pooled their money and got two rooms for the night, one for the boys and one for the girls. When they got to their rooms, Jess collapsed backwards onto one of the beds. "I call the window seat!" Lily yelled, and darted over. She pulled off her jeans (which had been hiding her furry legs), and curled up into a ball, and fell asleep, her tail resting on her nose. For a moment, no one spoke. "I GOT DIBS!" Everyone yelled at once, and dove for the beds. Jess was lucky. She managed to get the pullout couch before anyone noticed. Muttering angrily, Thundra grudgingly shared her bed with Becka, and Harriet shared with Maia. Jess observed that nobody looked happy about it. She grabbed a blanket from the closet, and settled down, and attempted to ignore Becka hissing at Thundra to be quiet, who was grumbling irritably.
YOU ARE READING
The Magical Quest
AdventureFifteen-year-old Jess has no idea that she's unordinary. She spends most of her time trying not to fall asleep in class, hiding in her room, and eating Pringles. She's not exactly Mrs. Goody Two-Shoes, either. Little does she know that her life is a...
