Chapter 2
“I want some chocolate!” Trixie said loudly as Alexia and Cheater came back within sight of the group. Alexia groaned, was it really a good idea to give her chocolate? She was already so excitable without it. That, and they would have to be with her until it wore off. Hearing a soft chuckle from behind her, Alexia turned to look at Cheater. She made sure to think clearly, so that he understood her hesitation in giving the small girl chocolate. He must have understood her perfectly well though, for a moment later his loud laughter grew. Did he not realize that she was being completely serious?
“I don’t think she needs chocolate.” Jada said softly, grinning slightly. Cheater chuckled quietly and Alexia held in a laugh. Trixie on the other hand groaned, burying her face in her hands. Everyone’s laughter could no longer be with-held after that, as they all broke out laughing in the middle of the town’s small park. Passers-by were giving them strange looks, but the group happily ignored them.
“I agree Jada, Trixie doesn’t really need chocolate.” Alexia said, trying to keep a straight face but failing. She ended up showing her friends a wide grin instead. “But we ought to get going before we draw some more attention to ourselves.” She said, turning the light-hearted conversation into a more serious one. Everyone nodded slowly, taking a look around them.
“So where are we going now that we have supplies for the trip. Now how are we gonna get from point A to point B?” Cheater said, looking directly at Alexia. She shrugged.
“I don’t know, I was hoping that you would. I think that we’d all rather not walk to whole way. But at the same time we don’t have enough money to buy a car, even a decent used one probably. And I really don’t want to ride a bus, since they have a set route and that might not be a good thing for us, people following us and all. If we are predictable then they might be able to find us quicker.” Alexia said softly, looking around them once again. Their decision had to be a group one, she couldn’t-or wouldn’t- just make it for them.
“Can’t we get a car that barely works? If it stops working then you can just use your telekinesis to push it along a little bit.” Cheater said softly, looking at Alexia.
“I don’t know, I’ve never tried it before. I could try though.” She said softly back. The whole group was focused on their exchange.
“Good. You can do it, I know it. I have faith in you.” Cheater said with a grin. Alexia could feel the love running off of him, as well as her cheeks heating up. Instead of commenting or even acknowledging it, she decided to make a joke out of it.
“Very corny Cheater.” She said with a grin. He grinned back at her and laughed.
“You know it!”
“So, are we gonna buy a car?” Adam spoke up with a wide smile. “I wanna go, I like cars.”
“We can all go. We don’t need to leave anyone alone for a long time anymore anyway, it’s not safe.” Alexia told them with a soft smile. “I just hope that there’s a used car lot somewhere in this town.”
“I’ll go ask.” Damon said, walking in the direction of the drug store. Alexia nodded as he left, then turned to Cheater. ‘How much is safe to spend on a car? We need money for food, supplies and gas too.’
“I think we can spend about 2,000 tops on a used car. If we spend that much we have a couple of hundred dollars for emergency supplies. One thing’s for sure, we won’t be staying in hotels during this trip.” Cheater whispered quietly, leaning in to her ear while the others were chatting. She smiled at his attempt to lighten the conversation.
“How good of a car will that get us? Will it even be enough to get one at all?” She whispered back to him worriedly. If they couldn’t afford a car, it would ruin their plan. She had no idea what they would do then.
“We can get a car, maybe not a very good one, but we can get a working one at least.” He replied quietly. “Everything will be fine, just don’t worry yourself too much.” Alexia sighed. How could she not worry?
“There’s a used car dealership just down the road, it’s still in town even. The woman said that we should be able to find a cheap car there.” Damon informed them as he walked back to the group. Alexia felt relieved and she turned and smiled at Cheater. He nodded and smiled back at her, obviously knowing what she had thought.
“Great! Let’s get going then. We need to leave here as soon as possible so they don’t catch up to us.” Cheater said. “Where’s it at?”
“Not far, she said that we can walk to it with no problem.” Damon replied.
“Ok then, lead the way Damon.” Alexia said, nodding to Damon. He smiled at her and nodded. He turned to walk down the road, and Alexia shooed the other kids after him. She and Cheater walked a few feet behind them, conversing in quiet tones so that they wouldn’t be heard.
“When are you going to take the tests?” Cheater said softly, grabbing her hand and squeezing it gently. His warm hand in hers felt oddly reassuring to Alexia, she noted.
“Well I’m about a week late now, so it’s entirely possible. I think I’m going to use at least one test tonight when we stop somewhere.” She said softly back, looking ahead and watching the kids in front of her. None of them seemed to have noticed or overheard the conversation and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“O-ok.” Cheater stammered, a blush moving up his cheeks slowly, making Alexia smile. “Let me know ok?”
“I will.”
“Thanks. Now let’s catch back up before they notice we’re gone.” Cheater said, the blush quickly disappearing. “We’ve got to go help them pick out a car anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Alexia said as she and Cheater started to walk faster, quickly catching up to their friends. Just as they reached them, Damon stopped.
“We’re here.” He said as he pointed to the sign of Jenkins Junkers.
“And you’re sure we can get a decent care here?” Alexia asked warily, looking at some of the true junkers of the car lot.
“That’s what I was told at least.” Damon said, also staring at the old car lot uncertainly. Alexia let out a sigh that she had been holding in; they needed the vehicle so they could get as far away from the school as possible. If they couldn’t get a decent vehicle of some kind, that would fit all of them in it, they were really in trouble.
“Here goes nothing then.” Alexia said as she walked into the lot. The group waked around for a moment, searching for a car that was in their price range. After about fifteen minutes, a salesman walked over to them with a strange expression on his face. When he reached them, the group was looking at a Dodge Caravan that had just enough room for all seven of them.
“Maybe you kids should wait until you can come back with a parent.” He said with a smirk. Evil jerk; just because they were teenagers did not mean that they were incapable of buying a car. Alexia smirked back at him.
“Actually, we are here to buy a vehicle, and we have cash.” Alexia said loudly, stressing the word cash. The man’s eyes lit up. “We want a vehicle that is able to hold all seven of us, and is in our price range of course. How much is this van?”
“Oh, I’m sure that it’s in your price range.” The man said with a predatory gleam in his eyes. Alexia knew that they’d have to check the van out before they even thought about buying it.
“How well does it run?” She asked warily.
“Pretty well…” The salesman said, trailing off at the end. Alexia grimaced; that wasn’t a good sign at all.
“Can we test drive it then?” She asked, and the salesman visibly winced.
“Um, of course.” He stuttered out, and Alexia smirked. “But only one of you can go. I don’t feel very comfortable letting seven kids take one of my cars without buying it.”
“You can go.” Alexia said, motioning to Cheater. His eyes widened slowly.
“Wait a second, can I talk to you for a minute?” Cheater said, grabbing Alexia’s arm and pulling her away from the group for a moment.
“What is it? We’ve got to test drive it; he might be trying to trick us.” Alexia said quickly. She thought that he was going to try and get her to hurry along and go ahead and buy it. The thing was, she knew that they had to have a working car and at the same time, they had to hurry up.
“We do need to test drive it, but I can’t be the one to do it.” Cheater said slowly and softly. Alexia frowned.
“What are you talking about? Why can’t you test drive it?” She asked confusedly. Cheater mumbled in reply. “What did you say?”
“I said that I’ve never driven a care before. Well, I take that back. I drove around a parking lot a few times, but I’ve never drove on the road before. I mean, I’ve been locked in the school for a so long I’ve never really had the chance to go driving. You have your license right? If so, you need to be the one to test drive it…” He said, looking away from her and trailing off. Alexia gasped and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
“Oh Cheater I didn’t realize? I’m so sorry!” She said loudly. He simply shrugged off her apologies.
“It’s alright, it’s not like you would have known about it. I mean, I didn’t even realize it until you asked me to drive. I can probably drive if I have to, just not legally.” He said with a frown. Alexia sighed in return.
“Oh alright, I’ll do the test drive then. You can stay here and keep an eye on everyone. Come on, I’ll check it out as quick as I can so we can get going.” She said, grabbing Cheater’s arm and pulling him back to the rest of the group. The salesman look up at their return, holding out a set of keys to Cheater, who handed them to Alexia instead. She smiled lightly and got into the van, slipping the keys into the ignition as she went. She started the vehicle and pulled out of the parking lot, not coming back for about ten minutes.
When she pulled the van back into the car lot, she stepped out with a wide smile. Cheater looked at her with a question in his eyes. “It drives great,” She said. “We’ll take it.” Cheater grinned at her, as well as the other kids. They all knew that they would soon be one step closer to the end of their journey.
“Ok, so we just need to go inside and sign some papers, pay, and you’ve got yourselves a van.” The salesman quickly as he ushered the group into the doors of a building. Soon Alexia was handing over cash and signing papers. Of course, she didn’t put her real name on any of them in case the school was about to trace it. She had a feeling that the owner of the lot wouldn’t run any checks on the name that she used, so she wasn’t very worried. It was obvious that all the man cared about was money. Money seems to talk, and this guy was all ears.
“Here are the keys, have fun with your new car.” The man said, holding out the keys to Alexia. She smiled and thanked him. The kids all trooped out to their new van with wide smiles. When they reached it, they all tossed their heavy backpacks into a pile behind the backseat, leaving enough room for Alexia to see while she drove.
When everyone had piled into the van themselves, Alexia turned around to look at them all. Cheater was sitting in the passenger seat beside her, Trixie and Jada sat on the double seat behind them, and the rest of the boys sat behind. She had a feeling that there would be a lot of moving seats during the trip.
“Ok guys, it’s time to go. We’re finally on our way.” She said, starting the ignition and pulling out of the lot. At first, no one spoke, but that didn’t last very long. Soon the van was filled with chatter. Inwardly, Alexia groaned. It was going to be a long ride.