It's Thursday, June 14.
Whitney glanced around the store looking for her rambunctious mess of a daughter.
“Columbia?” She frantically turned her head about the store, trying to catch a glimpse of the brown curly hair she knew her daughter by. Suddenly, a light tap came to her. Whitney turned around, abruptly and was rightfully shaken by the broken silence.
“Right here,” Columbia said, looking up at her mom. “I got everything.” She smiled. Whitney nodded in approval and walked to the counter rummaging through her purse for her wallet. Columbia followed, a grocery basket in hand. “Let’s go down the list- chips for everyone, some soda, cups, sandwiches, and cookies?” Whitney questioned, pulling out her debit card to pay. Swiping it and collecting the last bag, she left with her daughter towards her car.
Columbia swung open the doors of the gas station as her mother followed close behind. It'd been 3 days now, Columbia and her family had been traveling from Waukegan. "Grab only what you need," Her mother yelled after her as she dashed around the store, looking for her favorites.
A few minutes later, Columbia and Whitney were walking out of the store with 6 bags worth of food.
As they filed into the car, Whitney's husband; Alexander, turned to her.
"Y'all got everything? The sweet tea, chips, all that?" He inquired. Whitney glanced over for a second as she started the car.
"Mhmm, everything-- hey, I gave the bag to Columbia so if y'all want the food, ask her."
Dallas, Columbia's older brother, reached over the seat and lunged his arm at Columbia.
"Give me my batch or else." Columbia raised an eyebrow and tried to hold back words of fury as she slowly turned to her brother.
"You wouldn't even know if this was poison, stop being so demanding."
Her sister, Angela, butted in.
"Right, stop the disrespect. Now give me my food."
Columbia would share a sigh of disappointment with her younger brother, Nolan, as she tossed the bag of food to the back.
Whitney then begins to drive away from the gas station, radio beginning to blast.
7 Minutes go by...
"Why didn't we just fly to Biloxi..." Nolan whined from the front passenger row.
Alexander turned over from his seat and looked at Nolan.
"Because your mother and I decided that the whole family needed less time being polluted by airplane gas and more time on the road to bond."
Whitney scoffed at the lie her husband just publicly told and looked in the rear view mirror.
"Absolutely not true..." She exclaimed.
"It's just that trying to fly to Gulfport is exceptionally hard, because United doesn't normally make trips over there."
Alexander smiled at the remark.
"So your mother and I made calls to different airlines, and the only people who could get us there on time for our party was Delta, which your mother despises."
Whitney turned the car sharply.
"And so after I made my final call to Solarian and they told me all the flights were full because the public already knew we were going, I just gave up on the idea."
Alexander laughed.
"So I took the opportunity to try and bind the family, since we hadn't really had that good a vacation since your mother launched our last show."
