Chapter 18
Wednesday morning finally rolled around. Shannon was so excited to be going home. The doorbell rang and there was Lance and Joey, with their suitcases in hand. "Just put your bags in the back of the Explorer.," she told them. She absolutely loved the car that Justin had bought for her. She had always wanted a blue Ford Explorer, except she wanted a midnight blue one, not baby blue. They all grabbed a hot cup of coffee and soon headed out the door, getting into the car. "Man, we are going to be scrunched up in here with all these suitcases and Joey’s big butt back here," Chris said, looking in the back seat. Joey smacked him in the back of the head, "We’ll make room, just get in!"
They finally got onto the road and headed towards the interstate. Lance was sleeping already, and Joey was just staring out the window. "I think we need some tunes in here," Chris said, reaching up into the console to choose a CD to put in. "Do you have enough of our CD’s in here?," he asked sarcastically. Shannon smiled and looked through the rearview mirror, "What do you expect?" He pulled out her No Doubt CD and Justin just rolled his eyes. Chris must have saw him roll his eyes because Chris got really defensive. "I can’t help it that Gwen is really hot!"
The drive was really boring and they only stopped a few times for gas and an occasional bathroom break; and a few times when Chris spotted a Taco Bell and he nearly ripped out his hair until we stopped. Finally, after about 17 hours of driving, the group finally arrived in Barkeyville. "Man, I remember this place! I used to always come here with my friends on our trips to Clintonville!," Shannon exclaimed, looking on both sides of the road. Justin had been sleeping for a few hours, and when I screamed out about being in Barkeyville, he woke up. "Where are we? Are we almost there?" Shannon looked over at him, smiling from ear to ear. "You don’t need to tell me. The look on your face is telling me that we are almost there." She just smiled at him again and kept going down the road. She was giving him a tour practically, telling him everything about the area. She pointed out the area of the little swimming hole that she went to with her friends, and different places she had been to in the area. As they drove into Franklin, they looked back in the backseat. Joey, Lance ,and Chris were jumbled together, almost drooling on each other. Justin laughed and said, "Watch this." He put in their NSA album and put it on the first track. "This will really wake them up." After the intro, he cranked the volume really loud. The three guys jumped out of their seats. Justin turned the volume down and Chris looked at him through sleepy eyes. "That was just WRONG! Why did you do that?" Shannon looked back, trying not to laugh at the poor guys. "We are almost there, that’s why." Joey sat up and straightened himself, picking up his Superman doll that had fallen on the floor. "Where are we going to first?" As Lance reached down to pick up his beanie babies that had also fallen, Shannon let them know where they were heading. "First, we are going to my cousins house and dropping our stuff off. We will probably stay there for a little bit and visit. Then I want to go see Mandi and Tracy. They are really excited to see us. Especially you and Lance," she said looking at Joey. "I remember those girls! They were so sweet." Lance smiled, "I really liked that Mandi girl. She was so nice. I wonder if she likes me." Shannon just smiled as she came to the sign welcoming them to Oil City. "Ohmygosh! I can’t believe I’m back in Oil City!" Justin smiled as they drove down the road. "Wow, its pretty chilly." Shannon laughed at him, "Well of course silly. It is wintertime you know." She was so giddy as she drove to her cousins house. Pulling up in the driveway, she saw Amber peeking out the window, and running down the stairs. "Shannie!," she yelled, running out to her, giving her a hug! Shannon stepped out of the car and Amber looked back into the car. "Ohmygosh, you didn’t!," she screamed as she started to faint. Shannon turned to Joey, "See what you did to her!"
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