6:30pm...
Kirstie sits up in the small bed and wipes her eyes. "Don't call me Mam. It makes me feel old." She smiles a little, trying to show she doesn't mean to be rude.
Jim just nods his head and grins, and turns back around. Kirstie gets her bag and purse and climbs up front. "I know it's not much, but here's a twenty for your trouble." She holds a twenty dollar bill out to her new friend, who she'll probably never see again
"Oh no, it was no trouble at all," he says, shaking his head. "And I'm sure you'll need that on your trip."
Kirstie is a very polite person, and wants to make him take it, but she knows she will need it. She puts it back in her purse and gets out of the truck. "Thank you so much." She says starting to walk away.
"Good luck meeting Hanson!" Jim yells to her as reaches over and closes the door.
Great, now what am I gonna do? Kirstie thinks to herself. She throws her stuff down and sits on the side walk. She pulls out her map and trys to determine how far it is to Tulsa. Somebody here has to be going through Tulsa. I can just check the license plates on the cars. She folds her map and gets up. Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona, California, hmmm... they might be passing through Tulsa. Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma, Tex... woah! No way! Stillwater, Oklahoma. I wonder where that is. Kirstie decides to sit beside the car and wait for the people to come back out. She prays they'll be passing through Tulsa, and that they'll be nice enough to give her a ride.
"I like your shirt!" A little girl yells as she runs infront of Kirstie.
"Oh, thank you." She replies, trying to be friendly. "Are you a Hanson fan?"
"Yep, I got to see them in concert!" The hyper girl, who looks about 8 or 9, yells.
"I did too." Kirstie says smiling.
"Come on Sweetheart, get in the car." A woman, apparently the girls mother, walks to the passenger side of the car with the Oklahoma license plate.
Kirstie jumps up when she see's the girls father walk to the other side of the car. She runs over to him. "Excuse me, could you help me?"
"Well I don't know, what's the problem?" The man asks.
"Well... are you on your way home?" Kirstie looks pleadingly at the man.
"Yes we are." He says, giving her the same look Jim did when she first talked to him.
"Will you be passing through Tulsa?" She asks.
"As a matter of fact we are. Now how can I help you?" He says, the look still on his face.
"I need a ride to Tulsa."
"Are you from there?"
Kirstie pauses, looks at the ground and lies. "Yes." They seem like nice people, but she can tell she wouldn't be able to trust them if she told them she had run away from home. "My car broke down back in Springdale. Noboby will be home at my house for a few days, so I need a ride home."
The man just looked at her, trying to tell if she was lying.
"Daddy, look at her shirt, we have to give her a ride." The girl rolled down her window from the back seat.
He looked at Kirstie's Hanson shirt and smiled at his daughter. He then looked back at her, "Okay, hop in." He finally smiled at her.
"Oh thank you!" She cried, and ran to get her stuff from the side walk. She opened the door and got in the back seat beside the girl. "What's your name?"
"Marie. I'm 10, I know, don't say it. I'm just small for my age. What's your name?" She moved her tapes so Kirstie would have more room.
"I'm Alex." She lied, just to be safe. "I'm 16."
"What's your last name?"
"Hanson." Kirstie laughed.
"Nu uh. That's my name, I'm married to Zac." Marie smiled.
"Oh really? Is Zac your favorite? He's mine."
"Yep. So which concert did you go to? The Tulsa one?"
"No, the Atlanta one." Kirstie said without thinking.
Marie looked confused. "If you live in Tulsa, why did you go all the way to Atlanta? I went to the Tulsa one."
"Oh, well, um, I was visiting my cousin in Atlanta, so we went to that concert together." She lied, again.
"Oh." Marie seemed to believe it completely. "You wanna listen to 3 Car Garage?"
"Sure. Sounds great to me." Kirstie starts to relax.
Marie's mother turns to face Kirstie. "We should be in Tulsa in less than an hour Dear."
"Alright." She smiles. I can't believe how great my luck is going. Everything is perfect. They'll probably just drop me off at Hanson's house or something. Well, I guess that's a little much. I wonder where I am going to stay tonight. I suppose I'll just worry about that when the time comes. Kirstie leans back and closes her eyes.
Meanwhile, in Tulsa....
"That's fine with me!" Zac says, grabbing Tay's arm (since he's carrying the money) and drags him down the mall. "We'll be in Spencer's!"
"Alright Ike," Tay, trying to stand up why Zac is still pulling him, says. "But I'm tellin ya. You haven't got a chance."
Ike walks through the mall and goes into the Gap. He looks around the room, and spots Julie, in the back hanging up some clothes. He starts to walk to her. 'This will be easy. I just have to talk to her.' He stares at her beautiful long, wavy brown hair.
"Oh, hi Isaac." Julie says, turning around.
"Hi. He says and smiles.
"How are you?"
"I'm just great. How about you?" Isaac says.
She picks a shirt off the floor and hangs it back on the rack. "I'm okay. Just getting ready to go on my lunch break."
I know. Ike thinks. That's why I'm here. "Would you like to get something to eat with me upstairs?"
"I'd love to." Julie says, smiling at him. "Just let me go tell Sharon." She walks to the other side of the store.
She's so pretty. Yeah, baby, you know you'd like to shag me Isaac does his Austin Powers impersonation and laughs a little out loud.
"Alright let's go." She says. They walk out of the store together and towards the stairs.
"What would you like to eat?" Ike asks her.
"Anything is fine with me. Whatever you want."
"Um, how 'bout Sbarro? You know, that pizza place? I've never known how to pronounce it." He feels his face get warm again.
"Sure that's fine." Julie smiles at him when she sees his red face. "I don't know how to pronounce it either. I think you got it right."
They walk upstairs to the food court together. Isaac completely forgets what Taylor said about her moving away. He offers to buy her slice of pizza, she argues, but gives in. They talk about the usual stuff, movies, music, until Isaac gets his courage up. "Julie..." He looks at the table. "Um, uh, um...."
"What is it Isaac?" She asks, knowing he might ask her out.
"Do you, uh, have a boyfriend?" He asks quietly.
"No, I don't." She replies.
He finally looks up at her. "Would you like to go out with me sometime?"
"Isaac." Now she looks down. "I really like you. I mean, I want to be friends with you. I'm just afraid I'll really start liking you, and that will just make it harder when I have to move."
Ike rests his head on his hands, looking down.
"I'm sorry. Isaac? I... I have to go or I'll be late."
He just nods his head without looking up and she walks away. He puts his arms on the table, turns his head, and lays it down. That's when he notices Taylor and Zac sitting on the other side of the food court, staring at him and talking. When they see he's seen them, they get up to go talk to him. Taylor sits across from Ike and Zac pulls over a chair.
"I guess it didn't go to well." Taylor says
"You should know." Ike says rudely and turns the other way.
"It's not like we followed you or anything, we just came to get some food and then we saw you guys. I'm sorry, we couldn't hear you or anything." Taylor explains.
Ike finally sits up. "Okay." He says, trying to take his mind off Julie for a while. "How 'bout some ice cream?"
Zac snaps out of the daydream he's been in and quickly replies, "I'll go get us some. Just give me the money."
"Okay," says Tay as he pulls out his wallet. "After this we can check out some chicks. Right Ike?" Taylor jokes.
Ike just smiles, thankful he has a couple brothers that can always cheer him up.
on to Chapter 5 ~ Turn Around
"Kirstie, Mam, wake up. Time to go." Jim says, opening the curtain to the back of the truck. "We're at a rest area just past Springdale. There seems to be some nice people here, I'm sure you'll be able to get a ride from someone."
"You guys go in some other store. I'm going in the Gap to talk to Julie." Ike says to Taylor and Zac.
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