I woke up on Sunday morning groaning at the time on the clock. For whatever reason John had scheduled the flight for eight in the morning. So that means we have to get up at six to be ready and at the Philadelphia airport by seven for check in. I was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when I heard a knock on my door. I looked at the door and thought about just how much I wanted to punch the person on the other side of the door. I stood up, slid on some boxers, and opened the door while pushing my bangs out of my face.
"What?" I asked groggily looking up to see a smiling Alura with a two boxes and a stack of cups and lids. I squinted bleary eyes at her while I looked at the boxes.
"I have coffee and donuts!!!" She said and I looked at her like she was crazy.
"Where is the coffee? Those just look like empty cups to me." I moved aside and let her in. I looked out the door and saw Andy, CC, Jake, Jinxx, and Eliza rubbing sleep out of their eyes and walking toward my door. Andy didn't look happy at all. Then again Andy was never happy in the morning. I put a bag in front of the door, propping it open for them to get in. Alura sat down the two boxes and the cups. She also put about fifty sugar packets and a small carton of creamer on the table.
"The coffee is in this box." She said motioning to the box that said 'Box o' Joe' I looked at it and then to the donut box. It was simple white, nothing written on the sides to say where they came from.
"What kinds of donuts are there? I asked and she turned holding a full cup of coffee in her hand.
"Glazed, plain, chocolate, and sprinkles!" She reached into the box and produced a donut with white frosting and bright blue and pink sprinkles. I shook my head and walked over to my bed.
"It is too early for this." I said and she smiled.
"I've been up for an hour already! Come on wake up! It's our first day of vacation!" I looked up at her and saw her pouring coffee into everyone's cups as they walked in the door.
"Yea let's see how happy you are later." Eliza said taking the cup from her. Everyone made their coffee how they liked it and we all sat down on my bed for a quick breakfast.
"I just thought it would be nice for us to start out the day happy instead of grumpy and tired." Alura said as she sat in front of me on the lounge chair. He legs barely touched the floor when she extended her feet to be on her tip toes.
"Thanks." Jake replied looking better already with some coffee running through his system. We all were looking better. The coffee wasn't too bad either.
"No problem, it's just Wawa coffee, and I drove a little out of the way to pick up these donuts at a pastry shop about 10 minutes from the airport. Looks hectic down there already. Lots of people with early flights." She smiled and crossed her legs. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, with two tank tops on, one overtop of the other. Her hair was pulled up and cascading like a fountain down the back of her head. Her makeup was simple, but today it was a bright teal and pink.
"Guess we better get going soon then." I said looking at the clock. It was 6:30 and that gave us all fifteen minutes to get dressed and do our hair before we all had to be down at the van.
"I'll go get the bell hop and tell him that all our luggage is ready." She stood and walked out of the room smiling.
"How is anyone that happy in the morning?" Jinxx asked looking at Eliza, like she had answers.
"She has always been happy in the morning. It's just not her thing to be grumpy. That is unless she hasn't slept in over twenty four hours. Then she is the meanest grumpiest person in the world. She sometimes even starts crying when she doesn't get sleep." She shook her head and stood up.
"Crying? Is it that bad?" CC asked adjusting how he sat in the chair.
"She gets really bad headaches, and for a long time the only place she had to escape was sleep." She left the room then, leaving the five of us with that. I stood and walked into the bathroom. Leaving the door open I listened while the other four talked about what Eliza could have meant. I knew what she meant, but that was personal, and unless she wanted to tell them it wasn't my business to tell them. I gelled my hair and got dressed walking out of the bathroom with no time to spare. My luggage was gone and I was just grabbing my cell phone when there was a banging on my door.
"Come on we are going to be late!" Andy yelled. I rolled my eyes and opened the door. Everyone was standing there waiting. I walked out of the door, and we all took the elevator down to the lobby, gave the receptionist our key cards and walked out the front door to where John was waiting in the van. John was going home for the week while we had our vacation. Sammie and Juliet were going to meet us in Florida. This vacation was going to be fun, and we all hoped memorable. Alura was tapping away on her I phone while everyone else was talking or texting. I leaned over the seat and tapped her on the shoulder.
"So, what are you doing?" I asked her looking at her phone. She quickly put it down and looked at me.
"I am sending an e-mail to one of my clients." She said. I nodded and sat back in the seat while she continued to tap away. When she finished she put down her phone with a sigh and laid her head back. Eliza looked at her and patted her hand. I looked at Eliza and she looked back at me. Alura took a deep breath and lifted her head from the back of the seat.
"I think now is a good time." Eliza said and I looked at Alura wondering what they were talking about. Everyone in the car was silent and Alura smiled at her friend.
"It's too soon." She said and laid her head back down. John parked the van in front of the drop off point and Alura ran out and grabbed her bags. There were three bags for the girls and four bags for each of us. As we walked into the bag check area we stood in line. The airport was busy, but that was normal. There was never a day where an airport wasn't busy. I walked up to the check in counter and gave the woman standing there my Id and my ticket. She checked all my bags except my backpack. She did the same with Andy's,Cc's, Jinxx's, and Jake's bags. Alura and Eliza simply checked the bag they had nothing in.
"Why don't you check all of your bags?" I asked and offered my credit card before Alura and Eliza could offer theirs.
"We don't want to cost you guys more than you already have paid for us." Eliza said and I raised my eyebrow.
"Put your bags up there and have them checked in." CC said and lifted both of their bags one by one onto the scale. Alura and Eliza both protested but in the end, all of the bags were checked. A couple things were taken from them and put into our backpacks for the carry on and after that we were onto security. We each handed the man sitting in front of the security line our tickets and our Ids and then got in line. I took off my badges, my belt, and my boots, and put everything into a bin and stood in line. I walked through the metal detector and into the imaging machine. Once that was finished I put everything back on and grabbed my bag. I waited for everyone on the other side and once we were all back together we were off to find our gate.
"Now?" Eliza asked and I looked at her. Alura sighed and looked at the big clock off to the side.
"Almost Eliza, stop worrying so much!" She whispered harshly and walked onto one of the people movers to go faster. I watched Eliza go after her and we all got on the people mover one by one. Once we got our footing we all started walking. It wasn't long before we found out terminal. Alura sat her stuff down and Eliza dug through my bag and grabbed a bottle of pills and shoved them at her.
"Take it!" She practically yelled at her. Alura opened her hand and replied,
"Ok so do you have water then?" She asked and now all of us were looking at Alura, not even just the band members, but some of the people waiting for the same plane we were on.
"I'll go get some." She said and took her wallet out of Andy's bag. She dashed off and Alura put the bottle in her lap. She sighed and when she looked up and tossed her hair out of her face she looked out the window of the terminal. I could see she was blushing.
"So what are those for?" Andy asked, once again blunt as ever. Alura looked at Andy and then at the pills in her lap. Her blush became brighter. She sighed and I glared at Andy.
"They are relaxation pills." She said
"You don't need to be more relaxed then you are." He said and sat back in the chair her was sitting in and rested his ankle on his knee.
"They are for flying. I don't fly well, really places scare me." She said and took a pill out of the bottle and put it back in my backpack.
"So did you prescribe yourself?" Andy asked
"No, I can't it's not allowed. I had to go to my doctor and ask if she could give me these. I have them for when I go to see my mother." She smiled and took the bottle from Eliza who had just run up. She popped the pill into her mouth and took a large swig of water. She made a face and finished the bottle of water. "They really are disgusting." She said smiling. Andy nodded and I stood and grabbed Andy by the arm. I lead him away from the group and down the hall. I pushed him into an alcove in the wall and glared up at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked seething.
"What?" Andy asked before he fixed his hair. I knew that nervous tick of his. Good, he better be nervous.
"Do you not like Alura? I asked and waited.
"No." He said and I threw my hands up into the air.
"Then why are you being so fucking rude to her man?!" I asked "The only time you haven't been rude to her so far is when you two were singing Karaoke together at that club!" Andy looked at me and he turned his head.
"You know I don't like psychologists." He said. I knew this, everyone in the band did, he never had.
"Well put aside the fact that psychologists freak you out and like her because she is a fan and she loves our music! She hasn't said anything about you being mean or rude to her I think she deserves some respect!" I said and walked off. I shook my head and took a deep breath before I turned the corner into the terminal and sat down. Andy came back a little while after me with bottles of Soda. He handed us all one and sat down. Alura was looking a bit dazed after twenty minutes. By the time we boarded the plane and sat in our seats Alura was giggly and her eyes were half closed.
"This is what makes flying fun." Eliza said and took out a book from Andy's bag. The plane started up and from across the isle Alura grabbed my hand and squeezed it so tight I thought my fingers were going to break off. Even drugged up Alura's fear of flying was strong. I let her crush my hand and once we were up in the air her grip relaxed. I worked my hand out of hers and Eliza closed the window next to her. I looked at Alura and handed her the water bottle out of my backpack. The flight attendant gave the usual in the case of an emergency speech and we were allowed to stand up and walk around the cabin. Alura was digging through my backpack trying to find something to do and once she found her laptop she was starting it up and playing games.
"What are you playing?" I asked when I came back from the bathroom.
"It's a WildTangent game. It's called Dead Time Stories. I like this one it's fun. But, I'm having trouble seeing the screen. She was squinting at the screen and moving her head back and forth trying to see the screen.
"Well, what if I help you." I said. She smiled and nodded
"Thanks Ashley! I would love the help!" She said and turned to Eliza. "Can Ashley sit there?" She asked and Eliza nodded. Standing up she sat next to Andy and happily began reading again. I sat down in Eliza's seat and put the seat forward. Alura put the arm rest up and turned a little in her seat. Putting her feet up on the chair she leaned against me and be both looked for things on the list. It didn't take long after that for the two of us to be going through the game pretty quickly. The flight was 3 hours long. No connecting flights. Eliza fell asleep sometime during the flight and Andy buckled her in and as soon as we touched down she woke up blinking at the light coming through the window.
We had landed. Alura was still hyped up on loopy pills and Eliza was drowsy. We all thought that it would be best if we all stayed at the hotel for the night. Boy was that the most interesting thing in the world.

Notes

A/N: Let the vacation begin!!!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! Let me know what you though in the comments below!!!
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