"Mom?" Taylor called from where he was sitting in the back of the van. He had been quiet most of the trip, lost in his own little world of CDs and an the alternative reality known as sleep.

      "What, Taylor?"
      "Why are we going to Indianapolis? I thought that we were spending our two week mini-vacation in Cleveland so that we’re there for the next show."

      "Well, you all remember your Aunt Karen and Uncle Ryan, right?" Walker began as he concentrated on the highway in front of him. He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing on. "Well, we decided to stay with them, since we haven’t seen them in so God-awful long. Besides, you’ll get to see your cousin Jay again," he said, referring to their nineteen year old cousin. Zac’s head shot up.

      "Isn’t he the homo whose homo friend Mark was hitting on me last time we were there?" he asked, not caring if he sounded rude or racist. See, it wasn’t that he was bigoted against gay people…just gay guys. Gay guys hit on him, and he didn’t like that. On the other hand, lesbians were cool, cause they didn’t become obsessed fans.

      "Zachary! I don’t want to hear those words come out of your mouth again, am I understood?" Diana demanded angrily, turning around in her seat to face him.

      "Yes, mother," he muttered unhappily, slouching down in his seat.

      Walker cleared his throat. "Well, yes, he is…um…gay…but he’s still your cousin, and besides, Mark was just trying to be friendly."

      "And if you really get uncomfortable, I’m sure that if you went outside, you could find some…straight, uh, yeah, guys to hang out with," Diana added, sounding very stressed to be talking about the subject of homosexuality. She did remember how, when they had been there last, Taylor had kind of disappeared and spent the whole weekend with a couple neighborhood kids that weren’t liable to hit on him, Isaac had hung out with Taylor, and Zac had been more than willing to hang out with the girl next door, despite her tendency to go into uncontrollable screaming fits. Then, when they had gotten home, it had taken all her might to keep her boys from going out and screwing the first girl they came in contact with…not that she could blame them, that had been one uncomfortable weekend.

      "Can’t we just by-pass this whole little expedition?" Isaac wondered hopefully. Walker and Diana shook their heads firmly.

      "You’ll survive, don’t worry."

      "Mom!" Taylor and Zac whined in unison. Isaac had a look on his face that betrayed the fact that he wanted to join in their pleading, but he was too mature to do that.

      "I don’t want to hear it! All I’m asking is that you be polite. It isn’t like there’s no one else around for you to make friends with and hang out with! I mean, I can count off a good five people in the surrounding houses that I saw last time!" Diana shot back, slightly impatient though trying to be sympathetic.

      "Who?" Isaac, Taylor, and Zac challenged. Their younger siblings were all watching with wide eyes, and Jessie was looking hard pressed not to laugh.

      "Well, there was that one girl who lives right across the street-" Diana began.

      "The Gothic chick!?" Taylor exclaimed. "Mother, you can’t be serious! She looks like she’s in mourning or something…that is, if you ignore the dog collar and the black nail-polish!"
      "Taylor, stop being difficult. She’s probably a very nice girl!"

      "At least she’s a girl," Jessie put in. She couldn’t help it. She received a burning glance from her mother, but she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.

      "As I was saying, there’s also those twins who live a couple houses down-"

      Zac burst out laughing. "You mean Josh and Sherea? Mom, last time we were down there, Josh pulled a knife on me and Taylor and told us to go back to Tulsa!"

      "Well, there’s always those kids who live behind your Aunt’s."

      Ike cleared his throat. "Mom, they think getting a drop of water on their hair is a natural disaster…come on, get real."

      "Well, if you guys are going to shoot down every suggestion, you can just hang out with your cousin and his friends," Diana shot back, just a bit frustrated by her sons’ pessimism.

      "I got dibs on the Gothic chick," Taylor mumbled under his breath, sinking back into his seat and rummaging through his backpack for a new CD.

      "I’ll see if Josh is around…at least his girlfriend’s cute," Zac said. Then, he added sarcastically, "Maybe he got a new knife or something."

      Diana rolled her eyes. "Guys, give it a chance…its not like I’m asking you to spend the whole time with your cousin. I know that it makes you uncomfortable, and I really don’t need to put up with all three of you being ruled by hormones and chasing constantly after girls for a month after this visit again like last time. So just be polite, and find someone else to hang out with. Its only two weeks."

      "That’s like what you said last time, only it was two days. That turned out to be a disaster!" Isaac exclaimed, rolling his eyes as well.

      "Yeah, Mom!" Taylor spoke up. "If you would remember, by the time we left, Zac was nearly crying!"

      "Hey! You would be, too, if on the way out the door you had a GUY tell you how cute you were!" Zac defended angrily. "I did not appreciate that!"

      There were a couple snickers from within the van, and Zac looked like he was about to kill the next person who spoke. Except its extremely bad form to kill the woman who gave birth to you.

      "Calm down, Zac. Its only two weeks. Everything will be fine."

      Zac couldn’t help but roll his eyes and twist his face into a look of utter disbelief. "You must be trippin’."

      A silence fell over the van, and all that could be heard was the background beat from Taylor’s headphones, Zac muttering angrily to himself, and the sounds of traffic outside the van. Finally, Isaac spoke up with an intelligent question.

      "How long till we get there?"

      "About three hours."

      Zac thought for a second. "Maybe that’s long enough for me to go into sudden cardiac arrest and die. It doesn’t look as if there’s a hospital around."

      "Zac," their father said, looking into the rearview mirror. "Stop being a smart ass."

      "I was just wondering, geez. Its not a federal crime," Zac mumbled.

      "Its an offense in my house, so stop it before I give you a little bit of mother punishment," Diana warned.

      "Yeah, Zac, she might make you hang out with Mark!" Jessie exclaimed meanly, her eyes laughing. Zac glared at her, and Diana spun her head around to look at her daughter.

      "Jessica! Stop that right now and apologize to your brother!"

      "Sorry, Zac," she muttered, sticking her tongue out immaturely before turning back to her window.

      "Now, there is nothing wrong with being homosexual. Its merely a choice, and they have every right to make that choice," Walker said reasonably.

      "Hey, I don’t have a problem with it as long as they aren’t hitting on me," Taylor spoke up, having pulled his headphones off in order to participate in the conversation. "As long as they realize I’m straight, then that’s cool. But of course, people like Mark took it a bit too far."

      "That’s nice to hear, Taylor. Mark is the exception…homosexuality is nothing to be…scared of. They’re nice people. And most are very willing to respect your wishes and leave you alone if you-" Diana began.

      "Don’t swing their way," Isaac finished with an innocent smile. Diana looked back at him, but didn’t say anything. That conversation was over.