Carrying The Banner With You

Chapter 24- Well What Ever Happened To Romance?

My stupid alarm goes off and it makes me want to punch something yet jump for joy. Why? Because it is five thirty in the motherfucking morning, but we are now one day away from previews.

I sit up to see Steph is already up and at 'em. "How and why are you up already?" I ask her.

"Because I had to shower and I wanted to make sure that I had everything packed and ready to go." She crosses her arms. "Unlike you who has to wait until the very last minute to do everything."

"I finished packing everything except for my bathroom stuff, my pajamas which I am wearing now, and my blanket."

"Yeah but we are supposed to be on the bus by six. You just woke up now. Thirty minutes before we have to leave. You are also wasting time sitting in bed talking."

"You are wasting time sitting in bed talking," I mimic as I get up out of bed. I finish up in the bathroom, get dressed and throw whatever I haven't packed into my suitcase, which I can barely close.

"Kaylee! You are cutting it awfully close!" Steph yells from downstairs.

I lug my suitcase, blanket, duffel bag, and my backpack down to the kitchen. I feel like a pack mule.

"How the hell do you have so much stuff?" Dan asks.

"Clothes, dance necessities, pointless school junk, and, of course, my fuzzy blanket," I explain to him.

"Yeah, but why the blanket?" Zach asks as Steph hands me a granola bar while she runs around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to get everything ready.

"It was a birthday gift from my friends. They sent it to me and I figured it would be rude to send it back home after they sent it here. So I'm sorta stuck with it. But so far it has proven to be very useful."

"Less talk, more loading your stuff into the car and driving," Steph commands. "And eat that granola bar. You need something in you or you will be hangry. Trust me. Nobody wants to put up with you when you are hangry."

I wave her off and lug my bags to the car, where Sky, Josh, and Ben are already waiting for me. "We agreed on getting to the car by five thirty. It is currently forty-five," Sky informs me and I load my stuff into the trunk.

"Sorry?" We get into the car. "We are still going to make it on time if that makes you feel any better," I offer.

We, in fact, do make it to the studio on time; we weren't even the last ones there, ironically that was Steph. I have to refrain from saying, "I told you so." A group of people is formed around Jeff, our director, to await instructions and Steph.

"It is currently five fifty-five in the morning and we are waiting on our lead female roll to grace us with our presence," DeMarius says to his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I am documenting this momentous occasion. Partly because it is a momentous occasion, partly because I need something to distract myself from the cold." He angles his phone toward me. "Say hi."

I awkwardly wave. "Now what?"

He shrugs. "Thumb war?"

"You're going down," I threaten.

After dominating at thumb wars, Steph finally graces us with her presence, so that means we can finally hit the road. We gather around Jeff, the director, who gives us a breakdown of all that is going down.

Basically he told us what bus we are on, how bathroom and gas stops will work, and the plan when we get to the hotel; so the boring stuff. We have an hour of down time at the hotel when we get there and then we head to the theater for rehearsal. We hand over our larger suitcases and bags to be stowed away in the storage space below the bus.