“The last day in the place we lovingly call home. I can’t believe we are leaving England now. How long have we actually been here for, Kate?” I asked her as we slowly and sadly packed our things away.

“Two months? Around there. God, I’ve gotten so used to this place. I’ve gotten used to everything here, Nati. What time is the bus getting here?” I asked rhetorically and checked my own watch.

“Frank said at one. Which means we’ve got an hour to finish. We’d better hurry up. Which bag are we putting dirty clothes in?” I asked and ran around the room picking up our soiled clothing. Kate pointed to the suitcase on the couch.

“I’m finished with my stuff here. I’ll go into the bathroom and start bringing out our stuff from there,” I said and flicked on the switch in the enormous bathroom. No more hot tub baths. No more mirrors with light bulbs around them. No more double sinks. No more free samples of sweet-smelling shampoo and soap.

I gathered up my stuff and dumped it on my bed to be sorted out. Then I did the same for Kate’s things and put them on her bed.

“Anything we can get rid of? We don’t need this toothpaste. Almost out anyway,” Kate said, and chucked the almost empty tube into the trashcan.

“Two points,” I said out of habit. It was obvious; I hated leaving places I loved. I was so used to being in England. There were no large differences between England and the US. But in France, our next objective, we wouldn’t even be able to understand the people. None of us spoke French; we were all learning Spanish.

“I’m gonna go check on Liv and Sara, see if we left anything over there,” Kate said, while zippering up her suitcase. She left me alone to finish my packing.

Slowly and sorrowfully I folded the rest of my clothing, threw in my toiletries and began to pack my carry on bag. Frank had told us we weren’t going to arrive at the next hotel for a day, and we were going to be on a plane for a while.

I threw into the bag a book, my CDs and CD player, a few movies to watch on the bus and a gameboy. I opened each of the drawers to make sure I had everything.

I opened the top one and stopped short. How could I have missed the letter? THE letter, the one I received from Dave. It sat there, tattered and torn, the edges of the letter frayed. The ink from the pen on the paper was smudged and runny, from tears shed, by both him and by me. I must have read that letter a dozen times. I began to read it again.

Natalia,

What can I say? There’s nothing I can do that will make you believe in me again. I’ve lost faith in myself that I will ever win you back. My apologies cannot excuse my actions. I can only ask that you look back on the times when our lives were perfect and without fault. Look back. Remember. I love you. Nothing I do or say can ever, will ever change that. Whether I’ve messed everything up completely or not, my feelings for you won’t change. However much I deny it or try to make it look like I don’t care, I will always love you, as a band mate, as a friend, and as anything else we will ever be. Please forgive.

David.

The tears flowed once more. This boy, I never deserved him.

KATE

“Have you called your brother yet Kate?” Sara asked me suddenly. I froze and then dove for the phone.

“Thanks for the reminder. God I hope it’s not too early. What’s the time difference over there?” I asked, already dialing the number.

“Five hours. Which would make it 7:30 there,” Sara said with a smirk. I slammed down the phone and sighed. “Too early. Damn it. I’ll call them on the bus,” I said, dragging myself up off the bed. I might as well get back to the room.

“I’ll see you on the bus then,” she shouted to me as I walked into my room. Natalia got up quickly off her bed.

“Umm...help me carry these bags,” she said, quickly wiping her eyes so I wouldn’t see her tears. I studied her face and tried to think of what could have been the matter.

“Here. These are going into the storage bins under the bus. I don’t think we need them for a while,” I told the crew guys. Natalia threw a bag into the storage bin and walked melodramatically onto the bus.

“Hey Nati,” Dave said to her. She gave him a look and swiftly fell into a sleeping bunk. Dave turned to the rest of us with a confused look on his face.

“What the hell was that about?” Clint asked. I shrugged.

“Your guess is as good as mine. Are we leaving soon?” I asked and sat down on the couch next to Scott. Bob and he were engrossed a video game.

“Yes we are leaving now. Everyone has everything they need? We aren’t stopping. It is an incredibly long drive. Make sure you have everything for the night,” Sheila told us and took her seat in the passenger seat at the head of the bus.

“I checked all the rooms before we left. Everything’s taking care of,” Frank told us and sat down in the drivers’ seat. The plan was this: we couldn’t get all of our stuff through the tunnel between France and England. So instead, Frank and Sheila chartered a flight for the ten of us, plus cargo, to the top of France. From there, we pick up our new busses and get settled for the drive to Paris.

“Then say goodbye to England. I’m damn glad we’re away from all that,” Clint said bitterly. I felt all the pain and trouble from England already melting away as we backed out of the driveway and headed for the airport.

SCOTT

I hate flying. I hate flying over water. Oh god...

“Scott, do you think you could let go of my hand for a second?” Kate asked me gently. I gave her a look of panic.

“It’s just that I can’t feel my fingers,” she said with a slight smile. I loosened my grip and she pulled her hand away from mine.

“Sorry. I hate heights,” I told her.

“No shit. I think next time we need to pump you full of tranquilizers first.” Kate reasoned. I nodded my head and grabbed her hand again as we flew into some turbulence.

“Jesus Christ! Our father, who art in heaven, hallo’ed be they name...” I began to pray that we wouldn’t crash to a watery grave below.

“So! Scott, love, when we get to firm ground, I think the girls and I are going to call our families. We’ve been thinking it over. Since we can’t go home for Thanksgiving, we’d like to send our siblings tickets here to spend it with us. What do you think?” Kate asked me. I nodded my head and clenched my eyes shut as the plane dipped through the clouds.

“Wonderful. Can’t the damn pilot steer? Are you sure he’s gone through school for this?” I questioned her. Kate pointed to her hand.

“Fingers. Yeah,” she said and I loosened my grip again. “Super! Then, hopefully, we’ll be able to get everyone here. That will mean my brother Joe will be here. Olivia’s sister Kara, brother Kevin, and cousin Julie will be here too. Sara’s older brother Dan will be here provided he can get away from college. And I’m not sure about Alex and Jesse,” Kate said, talking to herself. God knows I wasn’t really listening to her speak.

“Um...who are Alex and Jesse?” I asked her, trying to get my mind off the incompetent amateur pilot.

“Those are Nati’s stepbrothers. One from her mother’s marriage, one from her father’s. Alex...God that’s gonna be an interesting vacation with him here,” Kate said. She stared at me for a moment and then spoke again, slowly deliberately.

“He’s a lot like you actually,” she said. Her eyes widened. “He better not be coming.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked her, not caring whether she insulted me or not. As long as I could hear her soothing voice before I died.

“Oh, um. You ask Nati when we’ve reached France. Yeah, um, you ask HER,” Kate said to me. She leaned back on the plane.

“OH MY GOD!” There came a shout from the back of the plane. I tensed up against the scratchy polyester seats.

“WHAT?? Oh Jesus, we are gonna die. Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee...” I began to pray again.

“There’s something on the wing! Some...thing!” Nati said in a horrified tone, but a laughing face. Bob started cracking up. Liv looked ready to kill her.

BOB

“Good lord! Praise the earth!” Scott shouted out when we finally landed. He bent down on his knees and kissed the dirty runway.

“Ok, love, get up. You’re gonna ruin your khakis,” Kate told him and helped him up off the ground.

“Over here you guys. Get onto the bus. The crew guys are loading our stuff into the storage. Make sure you have what you need ok?” Sheila told us. I took Sara’s hand and led her over to the tour busses, all shiny and new.

“I’m going to sleep. That flight was emotionally draining,” Clint said. He sauntered over to a bunk, lay down and drew the curtain across.

“I love it on the road. Much better than staying in a hotel,” Sara said with a sigh of happiness. I could care less. Either way you still had no privacy.

“I think I’d like to take a nap too. Wanna come?” I asked Sara. She threw down her bag and nodded.

“Sure. I’m exceptionally tired from having to get up so early,” she murmured followed me into the master bedroom. I shut the door and smiled evilly.

KATE

“So Dad, who’s going to be driving the whole way to Paris?” Scott asked his father. I rolled my eyes.

“Not you,” Frank answered him with a smile. Scott stamped his foot and began to whine.

“Awww, Dad! Come on! I promise I won’t crash the bus again,” he said with impact. Frank gave him a look. Liv looked at me with pity in her eyes.

“Again? Yeah, so what happened last time I allowed you to drive a bus?” Frank asked his son. Scott whimpered and hung his head.

“I crashed it into a tree... But that was a long time ago Dad! I’m not that stupid anymore!” Scott mewled. Nati opened her mouth. Oh, all the things that must be running through her head.

“Yeah, come on Scott. We wanna see you crash the bus again. That was fun!” Dave said with sarcasm.

“Shut up, smartass,” Scott retorted. He turned back to his father, who was trying to concentrate on steering the bus.

“Scott. No. But Kate, get over here. Scott’s gonna teach you how to drive a bus,” Frank said surprisingly. I picked up my head at the mention of my name.

“What? Did someone call me?” I asked.

“Yeah, get over here. I’m teaching you how to drive a bus. Can you drive standards?” Scott asked. His father pulled over to the side of the road to let me take the wheel.

“Um...you’re joking. Haha. Yeah, a little. Well, I know the basics of it. I just don’t usually have to,” I told him and sat down in the comfortable driver’s seat.

“First of all, get into first gear,” he said, taking Sheila’s seat next to me. I struggled to move the huge stick shift. Scott put his hand over mine and moved it into first gear. This was going to be a fun lesson.

CLINT

“Hey, Kate, you’re doing well. You’re a pretty good driver,” I told her. Kate beamed as Scott rolled his eyes.

“Thank you very much, Clint. At least someone here thinks I do well,” she said, directing her voice towards Scott. He had been slumped in his chair sulking after Kate had been driving smoothly for fourty minutes.

“Kate! Watch out!” he suddenly exclaimed and jumped out of his seat. Kate slammed down on the brakes, sending everyone tumbling out of their seats.

“What the hell was that?” Nati shouted. A thud rumbled the whole bus. Kate’s eyes widened. I held back a snicker.

“Oh... my... God...” she whispered and raised a hand to her mouth. She looked like she was going to cry.

“Wait here. I’ll go check the damage,” Scott said gently and got off the bus. He returned looking a bit pale.

“What is it Scott?” Dave asked him. Scott turned to Kate and tried to keep back a smile.

“You ran over a squirrel!” he said, near laughter. Kate hit him in the stomach.

“That’s not funny! I’m going to hell now! I killed something!” she said, almost crying. Scott looked down and tried not to laugh.

“Kate. You killed Earl, the Christmas Squirrel,” Nati said. She glanced at the grief-stricken Dave.

Suddenly a shriek came from the back of the bus when Dad and Sheila were. All five heads whipped around to see Dad and Sheila storming into the master bedroom where Sara and Bob were.

“Get out! Throw on your clothing and get out!” Dad’s voice rose above the strains of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

“Jesus Christ. Did I just hear what I just heard?” Nati said, eyes wide and mouth gaping. A slow nod came from Scott’s head. I walked a little closer to the interrogation in the back of the bus.

“Bob, Sara, get dressed and come out here this instant, or else. I want to talk to you,” Dad threatened. He turned to us. I sat down just in time to look casual.

“And Clint, the rest of you. You come too. We want to speak to you as well. Get everyone out here,” Sheila said. Her voice was so stern. I had never heard her like this before.

We cautiously took our places on the couches. Sara and Bob tiptoed out from the master bedroom with their tails between their legs. Sara's hair was messed up, and so was Bob's.

“What happened?” Kate whispered to Sara as Dad went to wake up Liv and get Dave.

“Frank caught me with my shirt off,” she answered sullenly.

“When is it ever on?” I accidentally said aloud. Sara’s head whipped up and I could see the fury in her eyes. She was already embarrassed; I shouldn’t have said that.

Once everyone had congregated, and Dad and Sheila calmed down, the interrogation began.

“I’ve called you together, for a very important reason. It’s not hard to notice you eight have become very close, some closer than others, and that’s wonderful. You are very mature and professional people; I don’t doubt that for a second. But it has become a problem lately. Some of you have formed relationships, and while Sheila and I are perfectly ok with that, under the circumstances, that is not the best thing to do. Having inter-band relationships jeopardizes the careers of both your bands. If something ever went wrong, like an unexpected pregnancy or a jealous fan, then that could be the end of Nine-Lives and the Moffatts,” Dad winded out his speech. I couldn’t face him. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. So many things I wanted to tell him. I’d never kept a single thing from my parents before. But if I told him everything that had happened... Oh I just can’t.

Sheila continued where my father left off. “We’re not saying that your relationships have to end. We’ve tried that before, and while with some of you it has worked, with some of you it has not. We can’t tell you what to do anymore. You aren’t little children that we can boss around. You’re going to do what you want, no matter what we tell you,” she stopped to take a breath, and then began again.

“We aren’t very happy with some of the choices you have made, but we can’t make those choices for you. You have to make your own mistakes and learn your own lessons. That’s why we aren’t going to force you anymore to be little children. We don’t like it, but we can’t do anything about it. Just be careful with your decisions. Think things through and be ready to take responsibility with what you are doing,” she ended the speech.

Scott and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows in surprise. Who are you and what have you done with our parents?

“We’re going to go now, and continue the drive to Paris,” Dad said and urged Sheila to the front of the bus. The eight of us sat in shock at the previous occurrence.

“Wow. Well, ok,” Liv said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Natalia coughed.

“Do you think they knew?” Nati asked aloud. Sara glanced at her.

“About what?” Dave asked. God that boy is slow.

“About Liv’s pregnancy,” she said, a bit annoyed at Dave’s ignorance.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I hope not,” I said. I bit my lip and squeezed Liv’s hand. “First of all, I’m dying to know how this all of a sudden came about. What did you guys do?” I asked the subdued Sara and Bob. Sara kept her head down and so Bob spoke for her.

“Well, um, we were kinda fooling around. Sara had her shirt off and I was just in my boxers. When the bus stopped, Dad kinda fell against the door and it flung open. We hurried to get out of view, but he saw us and yelled at us. That’s pretty much it,” He said, cheeks bright red.

“Oh,” Kate said in surprise. I guess she had thought something different.

“So what are we going to do about our new found freedom?” I asked. Liv gave me the evil eye.

“That was really inappropriate Clint,” she said. I opened my mouth to object.

“I didn’t mean any harm! I just wanted to know what we were going to do about all this,” I said, still stinging from the accusation.

“Well what else can we do? It’s not as if we’re in trouble. In the event that someone gets pregnant,” Scott said, eyeing Olivia. “We need to be there for each other. But what can we do so we don’t have this problem?”

“Not have sex at all,” Kate said without blinking an eye. Bob and I winced simultaneously. Dave just sat there and so did Scott. Neither have done anything; they wouldn’t know the feeling.

“Well, we can do that…you’re on the pill right Kate? So am I. I know Olivia isn’t. Nati are you?” Sara asked. Scott’s mouth dropped.

“Is that true?” he asked Kate, who slowly nodded her head. “Oh Jesus Christ. I’m too tired to discuss this,” he said, resting back on the couch and massaging his temples.

“Liv why aren’t you?” I asked. I think she should, just in case.

“It’s a form of abortion that I don’t approve of,” she said with a huff. I gave her a look like she was crazy.

“But you’re approving of pre-marital sex? Yeah that’s balanced,” I answered her. She growled at me.

”Moving on…” Nati said. She had been silent this whole time. “I’m not. I don’t need to be. I don’t care to be. It doesn’t affect my views on life, I just don’t give a fuck,” she said in a monotone voice.

“Right…well. Is that in the literal sense or merely hypothetical sense?“ Dave quipped. Ohhhh, beat down. I feel the tension in the room. Natalia glared at Dave with hurt in her eyes; and I didn’t say anything, but I noticed her hands were shaking.

A silence took over the group as Dave and Natalia continued with their stare-down, both with a look of hatred and confusion. Sara shook her head. Oh god, not again.

It was Sheila who, unknowingly, finally broke up the mute battle. “Ok, we’re almost at the hotel. We’re gonna go in, unpack and go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day. We’re going to tour France. The tour guide is coming at nine AM sharp.”

No one answered and so she walked back to the front. Natalia suddenly jumped up and walked very calmly, but quickly back to the master bedroom. Kate ran after her, but the door was slammed in her face.

NATALIA

“Wake up! Wake up!” Bob bellowed through the door of the hotel room. Sara stirred in her sleep and turned over. I had been awake since six thirty. I couldn’t sleep. Before, when I couldn’t sleep, I could call him up and he’d coax me to sleep. Or we’d go for a little walk through the hotel very early in the morning. But not anymore. Not anymore.

“Ugh...Can you go kill him for me, Nati?” She asked, barely awake and stumbling towards the bathroom to take a shower. I nodded and took my coat. Leaving the hotel room, I crossed the hallway to the other room. I couldn’t remember whose it was. It had been too late for me to remember.

Banging on the door and leaning against it, I slowly wiped away the tears that had taken up permanent residence in my eyes. “Let me in. Please?” I shouted to the inhabitants, thinking Kate would let me in.

“It’s open.” I turned the handle and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me. I broke down in tears and fell down to the floor in a wet and exhausted mess.

“What the fuck...?” I looked up and saw Dave bounding over a bed to get to me with confusion written across his face. My intuition told me to run to his arms and bury my face in his chest. But instead, I jumped up and jerked open the door to escape before he could reach me. Running down the hallway to the stairwell tears blurred my vision and his voice still rang in my ears.