As night fell, Angel looked over as the sun fell on the horizon. She sure wished they would get to California in the morning and meet up with her mom. In the evening, when Tom stopped at a remote filling station for gas and to call Wade from an untraceable pay phone, he turned to Angel.
"All right, I'm gonna go check in with Wade, see if he knows what's going on," he told her.
"What was that gonna do?" Angel asked, leaning her head outside.
"It's mostly for drug dealers and fugitives from the law, which is us. Stay in the car. I don't want anybody seeing you with the creature."
"Ugh, fine," she groaned, annoyed.
Angel could not take it anymore. She is getting tired of being told and she is getting bossed around like some child. Her eyes saw the allure of civilization in a bright neon sign that read the Piston Pit. It sounded loud and amazing. Before she knew it, she sped over to the roadhouse through a fleet of motorcycles parked out front.
Meanwhile, Tom is on the phone with Wade. "Hello. Green Hills Police Department."
"Wade, it's me."
"Hi. I'm so glad that you called. Uh, so, some guys came in asking some questions," Wade answered. "Uh, they're a little creepy. Kind of reminded me of, uh, the guys from Men in Black, but not as likable or, uh, charming as Will Smith."
"Wait, what kind of questions?" the cop asked.
"Um, questions about... terrorism?" Wade guessed. "Heh, I told them that I've gone ice fishing with Tom. He doesn't know how to make a bomb! He can't even make, like, bait in the cold!"
Tom knew that he had to warn him fast. "All right, Wade, listen to me. This is really important. Don't tell them that we talked, okay?"
"You know, I think they already know. "
Suddenly, he heard someone punch and then a familiar voice. "Mr. Wachowski."
Tom groaned. It was that insane doctor from the house.
"I want you to know that the only person who ever punched me in the face was the school bully. He hit me in the cafeteria, causing a blunt-force contusion to the soft tissue surrounding my orbital bone. Humiliated me in front of the entire school! And you know what I did in response?"
"Uh, I'm assuming that you reported him to the principal's office 'cause, you know, that kind of behavior is really unacceptable," Tom said.
"No, I examined the inefficiency of a world where brawn trumped brain, and I used technology to resolve that inefficiency. The boy ate his meals through a straw for a year. And I have never lost a fight... until today."
"Hey, hooray for me then, huh?"
"No, because you're about to become the bully with the straw! I'm coming for you, Mr. Wachowski," Robotnik snarled. "And when I catch you, I'll- "
Tom hung up. He knew that Robotnik was after them and he had to warn Maddie fast. He went back to the car. Soon, he began to order a fast food meal for Angel to eat.
"Okay, not exactly the healthiest meal, but..." He didn't see Angel in there. All that was left was the bundle where the creature was in. "Angel?"
Inside, Angel was at a table in the middle of the commotion of a loud biker bar. She wore a cowboy hat, a flannel shirt and a pair of sunglasses that she borrowed from the various parking lot vehicles. She kicked her feet up on the table as Tom barged in after her.
"Come on, Ange. We're leaving."
"But there's a ZZ Top cover band."
"You're gonna have to catch 'em some other time. Let's go! Get up!"
"If we stay, I promise I won't say another word for the rest of the trip," Angel promised.
A waitress came by. "Welcome to the Piston Pit. What can I get you fellas?"
"Ooh! I want nachos and buffalo wings."
"Make her a Mello Yellow, please," Tom added.
"Okay."
"You owe me one," he glared at her.
"I promise, Dad, it's just for one night," Angel said as she spun around the barstool.
Tom knew it wasn't the right time to scold Angel but she was just having lots of fun. "Are you having fun? Gonna check this off the ol' bucket list, huh? Big night for you."
"The bucket list?" Angel asked, confused before her eyes lit up. "Oh I get it! A list of things you want to do in your life before you, well, kick the bucket. Oh, I gotta make a list for the creature and myself!"
"Well, I guess this is the kind of place you could get a lot of living done in a short period of time," Tom replied. "I suppose we can spare an hour."
Angel's eyes went wide. "What? You're gonna bucket list with me?!"
"Sure, why not?"
"You won't regret this!" she cheered.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I will."
Tom regretted it almost instantly. This white haired girl was from another world. She had no attention span, a permanent case of jitters, and the loudest mouth Tom had ever seen on something so small.
The policeman in Tom spoke with authority about how the little girl wasn't a kid but a grown gal with a 'very rare bone condition,' but the patrons still stared as he walked by.
They dove into the fun of the roadhouse, and frenzy followed Angel everywhere. Their dart came like a needle explosion, each projectile landing anywhere but the bull's eye. She rode the mechanical bull until she got bored and decided to make a perpetual backflip pad. Even shooting hoops when the girl tried to do so. Though even for Tom, that was a little fun.
"Glad you're having a good time," Tom said.
"I AM having a good time! I'm having the best time! I mean, what could go wrong?" Angel snickered.
Things went off the tails when they saw a group of mean-looking patrons approaching.
"Uh, heh, can we help you?"
"We don't like your kind around here," the thug said coldly.
"What kind is that?" Angel asked.
"Hipsters."
"Hey, you know what?" Tom said. "We were just leaving anyway. Weren't we? There's not a problem here."
"I know exactly how to handle this situation," Angel replied, standing up. "You just picked a fight with a poorly disguised girl who's seen way too many action movies. What do you do? What do you do? Am I crazy? It's supposed to break, right?"
"Uh, Ange?" Tom muttered.
Angel's eyes went wide when the biker started to prepare to punch her. She ducks the guy's punch, but Tom does not. He topples into more patrons, sparking a full scale brawl. Tom punches two brawlers and dodges a third.
Before Tom could wipe the flecks away, a breeze blew past his leg. Angel was behind the biker, her hands on his waistband. She laughed and tore a wedgie up out of the leather pants and over the back of the biker's head. The biker fell to the floor shouting.by the time Angel was able to stop laughing, what was when chaos broke out.
In every direction that Tom looked, he saw something flying toward him. Chairs. Bottles. Firsts. Spit. Screams. But no matter how he jerked, ducked, or swung, nothing hit him. Instead, an electrical white whirlwind sprung around the entire room in overlapping scribbly lines of light.
Whatever Angel touched, she transformed into something ridiculous. A gal throwing a tray from the kitchen snapped out of focus. Another attacker found both his feet in rolling mop buckets and then wheeled straight into the love detector machine. Two massively muscled goons came within an inch of Tom, but with dizzying speed, they were wrapped in toilet paper like mummies. It was like the craziest movie ever, in superfast forward.
In the center of the storm, things cleared just long enough for Angel to zip up behind tom.
She shot off a white blur status again. She spun into a hyper bouncing sphere ricocheted off the ceiling in loops and bounced to the ground at odd angles. Even as every move looked like a totally random event, the bikers who were still standing parted and made a kind of tunnel of white speed that pointed Tom right at the door.
"So, should we get out of here?" she asked.
"Yeah, time to go!"
He and Angel burst out together like a pair of Wild West outlaws. Maybe Angel had been looking for an opportunity to go wild after years bottled up in Green Hills. But she couldn't risk anything to be friends with an alien. It was something that drove her in.
Later on, they stopped at a hotel to grab a few hours of sleep, and now Tom was winding the way toward San Francisco on the path that Angel hoped will get here.
"Can't you believe how much I used? The next person that goes into that bathroom will have nothing to wipe with." She cheerfully jumps up and down on the bed as her sparks glitter. "I can't believe I can run so fast! So, what are we gonna do now?"
"I'm gonna pass out watching TV. I think you should too," Tom said.
Angel thought about whatever this hedgehog would wake up soon. She could almost hear its heart pump inside. If only it can wake up this alien, it will meet her eyes for the first time. She slowly began to tuck the creature in the covers. She then crossed the one thing she had done from her bucket list.
"All right. We should get some sleep," Tom decided. Angel nodded. She pulled herself into the covers and began to hold the creature close to chest and hugged it close like it was a toy. There was only one more item that hadn't been crossed. 'Make a real friend.'