It was the big day. The sun was only just rising when Roanna and Erin dragged their duffle bags out the door of their home and into the car service before heading to Brianna’s.
When they arrived, they weren’t disappointed about Brianna’s appearance.
She was as bright and shiny as always, every hair in place and a smile permanently fixed on her face. Even though it was freezing and dewy because of the time, she was wearing of those cute little outfits that you see advertised for teenagers, white Daisy Duke shorts, a white tank top and a blue and white plaid button up shirt over it. Instead of looking tacky, as she should have, she looked young and fresh.
It pissed Roanna off just the tiniest bit.
Jack, however, was a different story.
His hair wasn’t brushed, and he looked like he was wearing yesterday’s clothes, a rumpled pair of jeans and an equally wrinkled gray T-shirt under a black sweater with the hood up as he lugged his duffle bag into the trunk.
Brianna and Jack got into the first row of seats in the Hummer, and Roanna and Erin took up the seats behind them.
“Can we shut the screen, Zack?” Roanna called up to the driver.
He flashed her a flirtatious grin before closing the screen between the back and driver’s parts of the interior, effectively closing the four of them in together.
“Okay, here is the game plan, so listen up. We are going to Chicago International Airport, where we will take a plane to Port Isabel, just before the Mexican border. We will have an eight hour layover, and we’ll use that to sleep and change. After that, we will board another plane to the French Guiana, the country that borders Brazil. Once we are there we will have a fourteen hour layover, which we will use to sleep before taking a boat from the coast of the Guiana to Macapa-Acape, Brazil, where we will take a boat further inland from the coast. Depending on where we go, we may or may not see other people; it depends on what we do. But one thing must be perfectly understood: What I say goes. If I say we cannot go somewhere it is because we cannot go somewhere. Is that understood? Because if not, we’re stopping the damn car right now and kicking your asses out so I can go back to bed,” Roanna said, getting through the instructions quickly and briskly, practice making her voice a monotone.
“Understood,” Brianna said.
“Crystal clear, Ro,” Jack said with a smile, looking deliciously rumpled with his hair falling around his face and his chin growing a five o’clock shadow.
Roanna scanned the group.
“We’re two short. Where’s your stepmother?” Roanna demanded.
“She’s vacationing in the French Guiana, she’ll be meeting us at the boat port. She’ll be with us until we board in Macapa, where she’ll be staying for business,” Brianna said.
“And the bodyguard?” Roanna asked archly.
“He’s meeting us at the airport,” Brianna said.
Roanna thought about it for a moment, gave Brianna the information about the port again, and sat back.
They rode in silence for a while until Brianna piped up.
“Why do we have to take such a long route?”
Roanna thought as she looked at Brianna before responding.
“You’ll see more of the land this way.”
She would have left it at that, but Brianna was confused.
