Road Trip
Rob Marney
Draft 1: Oct 5 2004

Explanatory Note
In the end, Lia wakes up and it was all a dream. Actually, just kidding. There is no explanatory note.

Main Plot
Who: Lia, Rick, Colin, Becky.
What: Road trip!
When: Shortly after Lia joins the school.
Where: In Rick's white van, Lia in rear passenger seat.
Why: To see 8832 in concert, also Becky dragging Lia up by the bootstraps.
How: All at Becky's urging, of course.

Flashback 1
Who: Lia, Rick, Becky+friends in background
What: Lia and Rick dance around the real issues
When: Maybe a week before the main plot.
Where: Lunch at Hancock High.
Why: Shows Lia's conflicted emotions towards Rick and guys and other people in general
How: Straight-up dialogue, with a little action.

Flashback 2
Who: Lia, brother Remy, Becky over phone, everybody over IM
What: LJ and IM-age, deciding to go on the road trip
When: Later that day (from Flashback 1)
Where: Lia in her element, at home in front of the screen
Why: Basically more fleshing out of Lia's character.

Question: What happens at the concert?
Answer: I don't know.

Question: Where's the beginning, middle and end?
Beginning: Intro, of course. Middle: We gradually get more info on Lia as the story progresses, until by the time they get there we have a good knowledge of her character - insecure, in danger of losing all her friends, etc. Mutant powers don't even factor in - rather, Rick is just hiding something that could be anything from pornography to line dancing, and Lia has no idea. 
End: There has to be some resolution with Becky's end and Rick's end, plus something else. The concert??

Question: What happens at the concert?
Answer: The obligatory fight scene: JT and the rest of 2339 get involved in an onstage riot, with a much tougher crowd than they anticipated. Rick now has a total excuse to act protective, and Colin fills in the wingman slot for Becky. Someone gets hurt, and Lia has to save him - they drive to the hospital, and the story ends as it began - in an important car ride - but this time Lia sorts things out in her head.

Question: How does this fit into TI as a whole?
Answer: I'm not sure how the chapter structure will work, but it'll definitely be long enough to work as a separate chapter, providing some much-needed input from Lia (and if necessary, I can rewrite Chapter 8 to be third-person limited as well, going with the character theme) before she becomes aware of her powers, so we can better grasp the change that is now central to the novel: the awakening of untapped potential in everyone in their own way.

Other short story possibilities: the story of Tao and Lily, Lia's LJ entry in chapter 9, lots of inbetween/TI2-related stuff. Mainly, I'm planning to do my second short story on Lia's new personality once she becomes a mutant.


Road Trip
Robert Marney, 10.11.04
Cross-referencing with my LJ will reveal that this draft was written in the computer room of a certain Laura Wagner.


Forgotten in the back seat of Rick's old gray minivan, Lia Chin leaned her head against her seatbelt and let sleep wash over her. Pull in, pull back. Voices from further up. "Maybe that CD was in my other case. Let me check." "Yeah, you go do that. I gotta keep my eye on the road." The snow clouds had left the sky, leaving it a flawless crystal blue all the way to the distant hills. Idly Lia's eyes traced the grades of color along the edge of her window, blue-gray to gray-blue. She snuggled closer to the edge of the seat. The tide came over her and her eyes closed, just for a second. It was so warm under the black shirt and the overshirt and her favorite purple sweater her grandma had given her for Christmas and the big comfy jacket. The sky peeked out from behind a long row of trees outside the happily rumbling van. Last Christmas had been wonderful. Pull in, pull back.

* * * *

"John Hancock High School," read the sign out front. "Welcome Back Students!" it said below, and "Go Minutemen!" on the other side with a picture of a generic soldier - the school mascot, Lia supposed. It felt odd to be going to Hancock High. Lia had always thought of Hancock as a name rather than a place - the school Becky attended, with some vague indication that it was near her house. Winter break had just ended, and most of the kids were settling back into their normal routine. Instead, Lia had spent the break moving into a new house, much closer to the firm where her father worked and much farther away from all her friends.

Come to think of it, thought Lia as she got out of the car with a backpack loaded with unlabeled binders and perfectly sharpened pencils, maybe the move wasn't all that bad. She hadn't had many friends worth keeping at her old school, much less any boyfriend material. As long as she was perfect, maybe the attraction of being the new girl would even work to her benefit. Plus, as Becky had so cynically pointed out, her parents would be more understanding if her grades suffered for these few weeks. "How far do you think that'll reach?" she'd replied cynically. "A B-plus?"

Becky talked at her in a stream as she approached the door, telling her facts about how the school worked: how long classes were, how to act around various teachers, how to leave the building if you wanted to skip class. Lia didn't pay attention to that last one. She wasn't the kind of girl who'd miss a night's assignment, much less skip class entirely. Despite the heaps of assurance Becky had piled on her ever since she'd broken the news that they'd finally be going to school together, as well as her own desperate self-reassurances, Lia couldn't shake her feeling of dread as the massive double doors of the main entrance approached.

As she entered, nobody gave her a second glance. Hancock had over two thousand students, so one more or less would go unnoticed, in the halls at least. Thank God for small favors, thought Lia. Becky tugged at her arm, waving excitedly at the clock: "It's almost time for class! Where are you headed, Lia?"

7:58, read the hall clock, and from the speed of the pedestrian traffic around her and the nervous edge to Becky's energetic demeanor, school started at 8 sharp. Lia stopped to pull her schedule out of her backpack, just to make sure. Her mother had made her memorize everything ahead of time, but double-checking never hurt anyone. "AP US History," read Lia. "Room 115."

"Really?" asked Becky, astonished. "That's right over here! Let's go!" Becky marched off through the crowd, looking back excitedly. Lia put her schedule back in her day planner and hoisted her backpack over one shoulder, then started off.

Before she could get to the room, though, she heard a dull thud and a yelp of surprise from behind her. Lia turned around to see a long-haired boy in a black trenchcoat bending down to pick up his books and school supplies, trying to dodge the pounding feet of everyone rushing to class. She paused in mid-turn, her heart pounding with the decision to help the boy or get to class on time. "Come on!" said Becky, a touch annoyed.

Lia rushed back to the boy in the trenchcoat, bending down and picking up a stray pencil. "Are you OK?" she asked, with a tinge of worry in her voice only partly out of concern for his welfare.

A harsh voice growled, "Watch where you're --" and stopped as the boy turned his head to look at her. The withering expression on his face faded instantly and he scooped up the rest of his books without looking at them. "Thank you," he offered lamely, not taking his suddenly scared brown eyes off hers. "I'm fine."

He scooped the pencil out of her hand, and the two straightened up. Lia found she had to crane her head back more than usual. The guy was broad-shouldered and nearly a foot taller than she was. He looked like a football player, Lia thought, except for that huge coat and the hair he wore in a messy ponytail. She looked down quickly, but to her surprise, he extended a hand and said in a much nicer tone, "I'm Rick."

Automatically, she shook his hand. A surprisingly gentle grip for someone with so brash a demeanor. "I'm Lia. Sorry about hitting you with my backpack. Did you get everything?"

"It's all right," Rick answered. He glanced over her shoulder and waved at Becky, now hovering over Lia's shoulder. "Hey there, Becky. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"No," snapped Becky, "Lia and I planned to have a picnic lunch outside the new computer lab. See you later, Rick." She took a firm hold on Lia's arm and dragged her across the hall to class just as the bell began to ring.

Lia looked over her shoulder to see Rick still standing in the hallway, waving at her with a quirky half-smile on his face. "Can I come to the picnic?"

In room 115, the teacher looked disapprovingly at Lia from her desk in the front of the class as she entered. "Should you be in here, young lady?"

"Y-yes," Lia stammered. "I'm Lia Chin, I just moved here, I..."

"All right," said the teacher. "You can take a seat over there, by the bookshelf. Come to me after class and I'll explain what you need to do to catch up." She paused briefly, watching Lia rooted to spot. "Come on, class has already started!" Lia moved.

It was a very long walk across the room to her desk. The last time she'd been this nervous was at the violin recital in eighth grade, and then at least she was wearing a dress and not this ugly shirt. What had she been thinking when she put it on? Thirty pairs of eyes bored into her back as she sat down, turning her face away to hide her embarrassment.

Lia gave up trying to learn the names of her classmates after about the fourth one. She had never been good with names for some reason, unless they were in a book she had to read for class. Fortunately, the boy next to her was half-asleep. Probably didn't even know she was there. As a pair of cheerleader types stood up to give a presentation on the presidency of James K. Polk, Lia tucked her hair in behind her ears and pulled out a sheet of paper to start taking notes. She felt like the only one.

* * * *

A gentle touch on her shoulder stirred Lia awake. She opened her eyes just a crack and saw her best friend Becky leaning over her. Becky had shed her coat, and her outfit was warm but still managed to reveal that impossibly slim, tiny frame. With her other hand she brushed freshly trimmed black hair out of her eyes. Apparently Becky was having trouble adjusting to her new haircut. Maybe she should stop leaning forward. She stopped talking and Lia had to ask Becky to repeat whatever she had been saying. "I said, we stopped for gas. Do you want to go to the bathroom?"

"Come on, stretch your legs, why don'tcha? Can't stay inside all day!" called Rick's friend Colin from somewhere over Becky's shoulder, laughing at his own joke. He could be sitting in the seat in front of her or already at the gas station door for all she knew; his loud, raucous voice made it impossible to tell. Everyone knew when Colin had entered the room.

Sighing, Lia sat up straight and moved to open the big sliding door. She managed to move it about six inches in her groggy condition. From the high-pitched laugh behind her, Lia knew Becky was pantomiming her motions. Rick's soft, lower-pitched chuckle joined her as Becky drew out the joke. Lia reached for the door handle again, but Rick had already pulled it open and stepped aside to make room for her exit.

The act of standing up and the cold breeze running through the brightly lit gas station put a shiver down Lia's spine. She was definitely awake by now. "Thanks," she said, glancing at Rick before looking around her.

"We're just getting some gas," Rick explained. "We aren't that far from the concert hall."

"It's gonna be a party and a half!" exclaimed Colin, coming around the other side of the van. "Aren't you excited?" He grabbed Lia's hands and did a little dance, waving them up and down."

"Take it easy, man. She just woke up."

"Yeah, I know. I just don't want her falling asleep to the sweet, sweet sound of JT and his awesome guitar solos, is all."

The two laughed and headed for the convenience store. Lia wandered over to where Becky was standing. It did feel good to stretch her legs.

"So, what does the poet laureate have to say about this gas station?" asked Becky. "A critique of postmodern structural design? Neon signs enfolding the boundary between order and chaos?" The girl's sarcasm was irrepressible.

"Do you really want to know?" Lia asked. It would feel good to get out of Colin's world for a minute, but even Becky didn't always want to hear what she had to say. Poet laureate, bah. She never should have shown Becky that school publication from sixth grade giving her that name. It didn't mean anything anyway.

Becky protested, "Of course!" with just enough seriousness in her voice to convince her. Lia nodded, and leaned her head back against the side of the van. The metal was cold, but her hair served well enough as an insulator.

"I've been thinking a lot about water imagery lately," she essayed tentatively. Becky nodded. "In the van, we're not driving, we're swimming along the paths of the sea, watching the silent landscape pass. You three, you're the fish, swimming and darting around each other, looking for food and nipping at each other with little verbal bites." This brought a laugh. Lia closed her eyes. "This gas station, I don't know. The gas stations can be coral reefs, built up on the bottom of the ocean, collecting dirt and getting lots of traffic."

"So what does that make you?" asked Rick softly, somewhere close to her ear. She hated it when he snuck up on him like that. It was nice that he was listening, though. Surely that counted for something.

"I don't know," Lia said, opening her eyes and drawing back a little. "Are we filled up yet?"

"Yeah," said Rick, moving around to the driver's side and patting the hood. "I guess it's time to get going." He sandwiched himself to get through the door and closed it sharply behind him.

Becky turned to Lia and rolled her eyes. "Oh, the drama! Will Lia and Rick be able to salvage their relationship? What happens when Rick meets Jane in the checkout line? I can't stand the suspense!"

Lia didn't say anything, but her look was murder. Becky shut up and got back in the car. Colin was already inside, munching on a chocolate bar he'd picked up. Lia took her seat next to Becky and they were off. It didn't take long for Lia to zone out Colin's banter in the seat in front of her and Becky's cute little laughs to her left, then start trains of thought of her own. First off, it didn't make any sense for Becky to be a darting fish when the van itself was a fish. Unless it was Jonah and the whale. The van was certainly big enough to be a little whale.

* * * *

Becky had first breached the subject at lunch on Tuesday. They were all sitting at one of the dining hall tables: Lia and Becky, Rick, Colin, and a willowy redhead whose name Lia couldn't recall. Lia was just beginning to get comfortable with being Becky's new best friend, and Rick didn't seem all that bad either.

for some reason, Lia could remember little details from that day, like the sandwich she was eating that her mother had meticulously prepared as always, or the way Rick had complimented Becky on her new, stylish haircut. Becky asked out of the blue, "Have you guys heard of 2339?"

"Sure!" responded Colin. Lia chimed in with her own assent, making sure to do it after Colin so she wouldn't be the only one to speak up.

Rick answered, "What the heck is 2339?" like he didn't care. Lia was sure he was just having a bad day. He was under a lot of stress, after all. She took another bite of her sandwich and watched Becky pick at her salad. Green salad with no dressing, of course.

"Remember the crazy guy on TV who said he was from the future?" Becky waited for the nods before continuing. "Well, it turns out he was just doing it as a publicity stunt for his new rock band. I hear they put on a great show, with time machines and weird synthesizer effects and everything. They pretend they're from the year 2339; that's where the name comes from. They do this fantastic cover of 'Mr. Roboto' that's been all over the radio lately."

Colin and the redhead apparently tuned into the same radio station Becky did, so they went at it for a while. As it turned out, Colin (who had a serious crush on JT, the front man) had heard that they were doing a concert in Washington that weekend, and wanted to get together a group to go. Meanwhile, Rick and Lia held a side conversation on their own musical tastes. Lia was thrilled that Rick not only knew about the cutting edge of European metal, but was willing to talk about it in front of her.

"So, Rick, you want to make this a road trip? Whaddaya say, we can get our groove on at the fabulous 2339 concert this weekend! Bring a friend!" Colin winked significantly at him, and Lia couldn't shake the feeling that they were talking about her. What was with everyone? Just because she and Rick spent a lot of time together didn't mean that he had a crush on her. Everything was fine.

Rick, to everyone's surprise, not only agreed to go, but wanted to drive. "I've never taken it on a long trip, and you'll have plenty of room back there, I assure you." With that, there was no refusing it. The trip was on, and everyone promised to ask their parents if it was OK.

That night, Becky worked Instant Messenger like a switchboard operator, coordinating everyone's schedules, buying tickets, and calling parents if necessary. Becky's mother was on the school board, and she could put on a good face when she needed to, so she had a good reputation among parents no matter what she ended up doing. She confided to Lia in private that she had engineered the whole thing so that Lia could get to know her friends Rick and Colin better. Personally, Lia thought the rumors that she and Rick had a thing going on had infected Becky, too. But Lia went anyway, against her better judgment.

Still, Lia considered, there must be some kernel of truth behind what everybody thought about her and Rick. He had been acting odd toward her lately, after all. So the next day at lunch, when Becky and Heather were commiserating about the ridiculous amount of homework their psychology teacher assigned, Lia asked, "Rick, what shoes am I wearing?"

"Dark blue sneakers," he answered unthinkingly, "with black laces. Why do you ask?"

He figured it out a second later. "I'm sorry. It doesn't mean anything. I just notice things about people. It's nothing, really." Lia waved it off with a smile and a joke, but inwardly she wasn't so reassured.

That night, Lia called up Becky and asked what to do. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out, babe," Becky told her. "Rick is obviously head over heels for you. Sooner or later he's gonna ask you out. If you like him, say yes!" It wasn't what Lia wanted to hear.

* * * *

The concert was packed. The four got there with enough time to get quite close to the stage, and the excitement charging the air could have charged Becky's Hello Kitty cell phone many times over. Sandwiched between Rick's bulk on her left and Becky's boundless energy on her right, Lia could do nothing but wait for the show to start, huddled close to conserve her personal space. Lia had always hated being touched by people, even her parents, so after a half-hour had passed, she started thinking that maybe she shouldn't have been to this concert in the first place.

Before Lia could walk all the way down that train of thought, the band arrived and the crowd's answering roar took her up and swept her along with it, a mob of sound. JT was all over the stage in an astronaut getup, encouraging his fans and working them to a fever pitch. When the roar died down, the keyboardist, a bottle blonde who went by Berry, took off her spacesuit to reveal a form-fitting outfit of glittering spandex. She flipped her hair and the crowd went wild again. Lia and Rick shared a skeptical glance, as if to say: Are we the only people who aren't crazy about this band?

JT, out of his spacesuit now, took a star-shaped guitar out of the hands of one of his crew, but instead of starting the first chord, he grabbed the mike. "Is everybody ready to have a good time?" he shouted. "Yeah!" the crowd responded in unison.

"Now," continued the lead singer, "you may have noticed that we have no security at this concert." Laughs rose up from the audience, some skeptical, some wise to his show. "This is not because we're too poor to afford them, although we would certainly appreciate it if you guys would buy our CDs. It's because the last three hundred years of history that you guys haven't gotten around to yet have taught us all how to fight!"

This must have been a new thing for this concert, Lia reasoned, because even Rick was absorbed, watching JT's spiky, fire-engine red hair bob up and down as he manhandled his microphone. Becky elbowed Lia a little too strongly and shouted over the crowd, "Isn't this great?" Lia forced herself to smile.

On stage, JT continued, "If anyone wants to mess with 2339, they'll have to go through me first. We may just be forced to bash a few heads in. Purely for self-defense, of course." On Becky's other side, Colin stood enraptured. Lia found the whole thing hard to believe, but she had to concede the man was a good showman.

"Now, I think you guys are ready to rock!" JT paused, again, for another cheer. "This one I always love to open with. The Shakespeare Electronica Company would sue us for copyright infringement if we ever played this in the twenty-fourth century, but it won't be out for another two hundred years here in 2003! So let's get rolling!" With that, he struck an opening chord on his guitar, and the show was on.

After a couple songs, Lia was forced to admit that 2339 wasn't entirely lame, and by the time ten o'clock rolled around, she was having as much fun as everyone else, dancing and clapping to the beat of their latest single while Becky shouted out all the lyrics. Lia had almost forgotten about Rick's presence, and actively ignored it even when it did turn up.

Midway through one of JT's long and heavily distorted guitar solos, Lia and Becky were roughly pushed aside by a group of kids their age she didn't recognize. Their shaved heads and cold stares alone should have been enough to get them passage, Lia thought, intimidated. The leader shouted something Lia couldn't hear in an angry voice.

The music stopped, and JT grabbed the mike. "This gentleman here says we bombed his website last week. Is this true?" he asked innocently. The more hardcore fans yelled out "Yes!" in response. 

Lia pulled Becky back to the ground and asked in her ear, "What does it mean to bomb someone's website?"

Becky answered quickly, without taking her eyes off the drama unfolding onstage, "2339 gets all their fans to visit stupid sites he finds as much as possible to run up their server costs, make annoying posts on their forums, doing some hacking if they can. These guys are from last week, they're some lame white supremacist gang from Baltimore or somewhere."

By now, the cheers from the audience had become laughter, as JT and the group's leader traded insults. Suddenly, one of them pushed the man over the edge, and he leapt up onto the stage, his arms stretched out for JT's throat. His followers streamed up after him, yelling incoherently.

JT quickly reached for his microphone before it was knocked off its stand, and announced, "Don't say I didn't warn you!" before casting it aside and readying himself for the attack. Behind him, the rest of the band switched to an uptempo, action-movie beat as if nothing were going on, while Berry left her keyboard and stepped out to join JT in the front.

In his haste to get where the action was, one of the younger members of the gang knocked Lia over completely. He was gone onto the stage without looking back. The ceiling whirled and Lia found herself on the floor, wondering distantly what had happened.

Rick was instantly at her side, hauling her back up with his strong arms and brushing the dirt off her face where it had hit the floor. "Lia! Are you all right?" Lia didn't respond. He shook her gently, dragging her away from the stage. "Are you OK?"

Lia managed to get her eyes open, and kept them open this time. "I'm fine, Rick," she answered distantly. She paused, and added as an afterthought, "Thank you for asking." Rick didn't know what to say, so he just continued to hold her up until her legs found the floor again.

On stage, JT ducked to dodge the gang's leader delivered a vicious punch to his solar plexus, then shoved him off the stage and into the crowd, who backed out from under him so that he landed on his back. Berry, swinging a microphone stand like a baseball bat, brought down one assailant at the knees and cracked another on the side of the head. From there, it was chaos. Some fans rushed for the exit, some cheered on the band, some just called someone on their cellphones.

It took Becky and Colin a moment to notice that Lia was gone. By the time they realized what had happened, Rick already had the situation well in hand. Lia, by now mostly sensible, half-suspected that Becky had planned this too. Rick would be awkward around her for weeks, she mused dismally. Someday she would exact proper revenge on Becky. For now, though, she just wanted to get out.

Colin protested volubly, but as Rick pointed out, if Lia had actually been hurt, they didn't want to wait until whenever the concert ended to find out. So they left, halfway through the concert. Lia looked back to the stage once, but couldn't see anything. As Rick dragged her back to the parking lot, Lia's only thought was, I never expected to become the center of attention.


Ideas for the New Ending, 10.13.04, 0333h
Rick and Lia must somehow be put in an embarrassing situation together
Becky and Colin must cook up something between the two of them
It should end with a bang
Rick and Lia decide the concert is lame, so they go outside. They're in DC, so they try to find somewhere to go and have a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, Rick has locked himself out of his car, and so the two are stuck. Tee hee. In the big denouement, one of them finally confronts the other (prob. Rick) with their feelings for each other. Their relationship for the rest of TI is established (a truce, with a sprinkling of Anji). The concert ends, and Becky and Colin come out, obviously having way too much fun. Colin hands Rick his car keys, and Becky gives Lia a wink. Where it goes from there, in the ending sentence, is anyone's guess.


Road Trip
Robert Marney, 10.12.04


Forgotten in the back seat of Rick's old gray minivan, Lia leaned her head against her seatbelt and let sleep wash over her. Pull in, pull back. Voices from further up. "Maybe that CD was in my other case. Let me check." "Yeah, you go do that. I gotta keep my eye on the road." The snow clouds had left the sky, leaving it a flawless crystal blue all the way to the distant hills. Idly Lia's eyes traced the grades of color along the edge of her window, blue-gray to gray-blue. She snuggled closer to the edge of the seat. The tide came over her and her eyes closed, just for a second. It was so warm under the black shirt and the overshirt and her favorite purple sweater her grandma had given her for Christmas. The sky peeked out from behind a long row of trees outside the happily rumbling van. Last Christmas had been wonderful. Pull in, pull back.

* * * *

A gentle touch on her shoulder stirred Lia awake. She opened her eyes just a crack and saw her best friend Becky leaning over her. Becky had shed her coat, and her outfit was warm but still managed to reveal that impossibly slim, tiny frame. With her other hand she brushed freshly trimmed black hair out of her eyes. Apparently Becky was having trouble adjusting to her new haircut. Maybe she should stop leaning forward so much. She stopped talking and Lia had to ask Becky to repeat herself. "I said, we stopped for gas. Do you want to go to the bathroom?"
"Come on, stretch your legs, why don'tcha? Can't stay inside all day, girlfriend!" called Rick's friend Colin from somewhere over Becky's shoulder, laughing at his own joke. He could be sitting in the seat in front of her or already at the gas station door for all she knew; his loud, raucous voice made it impossible to tell. Everyone knew when Colin had entered the room.
	Sighing, Lia sat up straight and moved to open the big sliding door. She managed to move it about six inches in her groggy condition. From the high-pitched laugh behind her, Lia knew Becky was pantomiming her motions. Rick's low chuckle joined her as Becky drew out the joke. Lia reached for the door handle again, but Rick had already pulled it open and stepped aside to make room for her exit.
The act of standing up and the cold breeze running through the brightly lit gas station sent a shiver down Lia's spine. She was definitely awake by now. "Thanks," she said, glancing at Rick before looking around her.
"We're just getting some gas," Rick explained. "We aren't that far from the concert hall."
"It's gonna be a party and a half!" exclaimed Colin, coming around the other side of the van. "Aren't you excited?" He grabbed Lia's hands and did a little dance, waving them up and down.
"Take it easy, man," Rick said. "She just woke up."
"Yeah, I know. I don't want her falling asleep at the concert and missing the sweet, sweet sound of JT and his awesome guitar solos, that's all."
The two laughed and headed for the convenience store. Lia wandered over to where Becky was standing. Her legs felt like they hadn't been used in days.
"So, what does the poet laureate have to say about this gas station?" asked Becky. "A critique of postmodern structural design? Neon signs enfolding the boundary between order and chaos?" The girl's sarcasm was irrepressible.
"Do you really want to know?" Lia asked. It would feel good to get out of Colin's world for a minute, but even Becky didn't always want to hear what she had to say. Poet laureate, bah. She never should have shown Becky that school publication from sixth grade giving her that name. It didn't mean anything anyway.
Becky protested, "Of course!" with just enough seriousness in her voice to convince her. Lia nodded, and leaned her head back against the side of the van. The metal was cold, but her long hair served well enough as an insulator.
"I've been thinking a lot about water imagery lately," she essayed tentatively. Becky nodded. "In the van, we're not driving, we're swimming along the paths of the sea, watching the silent landscape pass. You three, you're the fish, swimming and darting around each other, looking for food and nipping at each other with little verbal bites." This brought a laugh. Lia closed her eyes. "This gas station, I don't know. The gas stations can be coral reefs, built up on the bottom of the ocean, collecting dirt and getting lots of traffic."
"So what does that make you?" asked Rick softly, somewhere close to her ear. She hated it when he snuck up on him like that. It was nice that he was listening, though. Surely that counted for something.
"I don't know," Lia said, opening her eyes and drawing back a little. "Are we filled up yet?"
"Yeah," said Rick, moving around to the driver's side and patting the hood. "I guess it's time to get going." He sandwiched himself to get through the door and closed it sharply behind him.
Becky turned to Lia and rolled her eyes. "Oh, the drama! Will Lia and Rick be able to salvage their relationship? What happens when Rick meets Jane in the checkout line? I can't stand the suspense!"
Lia didn't say anything, but her look was murder. Becky shut up and got back in the car. Colin was already inside, munching on a chocolate bar he'd picked up. Lia took her seat next to Becky and they were off. It didn't take long for Lia to zone out Colin's banter in the seat in front of her and Becky's cute little laughs to her left, then start trains of thought of her own. First off, it didn't make any sense for Becky to be a darting fish when the van itself was a fish. Unless it was Jonah and the whale. The van was certainly big enough to be a little whale. How had she met Rick and his lumbering van, anyway? It must have been about three weeks ago…

* * * *

"John Hancock High School," read the sign out front. It felt odd to be going here; Lia had always thought of Hancock as a name rather than a place - the school Becky attended, with some vague indication that it was near her house. Winter break had just ended, and most of the kids were settling back into their normal routine. Instead, Lia had spent the break moving into a new house, much closer to the firm where her father worked and leagues away from all her friends.
Come to think of it, thought Lia as she got out of the car with a backpack loaded with unlabeled binders and perfectly sharpened pencils, maybe the move wasn't all that bad. She hadn't had many friends worth keeping at her old school, much less any boyfriend material. As long as she was perfect, maybe the attraction of being the new girl would even work to her benefit. Plus, as Becky had so cynically pointed out, her parents would be more understanding if her grades suffered for these few weeks. "How far do you think that'll reach?" she'd replied. "A B-plus?"
Becky talked at her in a stream as she approached the door, piling on heaps of reassurances. Despite her best efforts, Lia couldn't shake her feeling of dread as the massive double doors of the main entrance approached.
As she entered, nobody gave her a second glance. Not surprising, since Hancock had over two thousand students. The real test would come later. Becky tugged at Lia's arm, waving excitedly at the clock: "It's almost time for class! Where are you headed, Lia?"
7:58, read the hall clock, and from the speed of the pedestrian traffic around her and the nervous edge to Becky's energetic demeanor, school started at eight o'clock sharp. Lia stopped to pull her schedule out of her backpack, just to make sure. Her mother had made her memorize everything ahead of time, but double-checking never hurt anyone. "AP US History," read Lia. "Room 115."
"Really?" asked Becky, astonished. "That's right over there! Let's go!" Becky marched away through the crowd, looking back excitedly. Lia put her schedule back in her day planner and hoisted her backpack over one shoulder, then started off.
Before she could get to the room, though, she heard a dull thud and a yelp of surprise from behind her. Lia turned around to see a long-haired boy in a black trenchcoat bending down to pick up his books and school supplies, trying to dodge the rushing feet around him. She paused in mid-turn, her heart pounding with the decision to help the boy or get to her first class on time. "Come on!" said Becky, a touch annoyed.
Lia rushed back to the boy in the trenchcoat, bending down and picking up a stray pencil. "Are you OK?" she asked, with the worry in her voice colored by more than a touch of urgency.
His harsh voice growled, "Watch where you're --" and stopped as the boy turned his head to look at her. The withering expression on his face faded instantly and he scooped up the rest of his books without looking at them. "Thank you," he offered lamely, not taking his suddenly scared brown eyes off hers. "I'm fine."
He scooped the pencil out of her hand, and the two straightened up. Lia found she had to crane her head back more than usual. The guy was broad-shouldered and nearly a foot taller than she was, with hair tucked back in a messy ponytail. She looked down quickly, but to her surprise, he extended a hand and said in a much nicer tone, "I'm Rick."
Automatically, she shook his hand. A surprisingly limp handshake for someone so massive, she thought. "My name's Lia, I'm new here. I'm so sorry I hit you with my backpack."
"It's all right," Rick answered. He glanced over her shoulder and waved to Becky, now hovering impatiently over Lia's shoulder. "Shouldn't you be in class?"
"No," snapped Becky sarcastically, "Lia and I planned to have a picnic lunch outside the new computer lab. See you later, Rick." She took a firm hold on Lia's arm and dragged her across the hall to class just as the bell began to ring.
Lia looked over her shoulder to see Rick still standing in the hallway, waving at her with a quirky half-smile on his face. "Can I come to the picnic?"
In room 115, the teacher looked disapprovingly at Lia from her desk in the front of the class as she entered. "Should you be in here, young lady?"
"Y-yes," Lia stammered. "I'm Lia Chin, I just moved here, I..."
"All right," said the teacher. "You can take a seat over there, by the bookshelf. Come see me after class and I'll explain what you need to do to catch up." She turned her attention back to the rest of the class and started calling roll.
It was a long walk across the room to her desk. The last time she'd been this nervous was at the violin recital in eighth grade, and then at least she was wearing a dress and not this ugly shirt. What had she been thinking when she put it on? Thirty pairs of eyes bored into her back as she sat down, turning her face away to hide her embarrassment.
Roll call finished without Lia having learned a single name. No one even turned to look at her, the new girl. As a pair of cheerleader types stood up to give a presentation on the presidency of James K. Polk, Lia tucked her hair in behind her ears and pulled out a clean sheet of paper to start taking notes. She couldn't decide whether to be disappointed or relieved.

* * * *
	A thundering techno beat snapped Lia out of her reverie. In the front seat, Colin was once again monopolizing the conversation. “Rick, you gotta work on that handshake. The ladies will never go for you unless you give a good handshake. Think gentle but strong, not limp and fishlike!”
	“Are we there yet?” asked Becky. “I'd love to continue this fascinating discussion, but I'd be happier if we actually went somewhere. Say, a rock concert.” She opened her Hello Kitty cellphone for the twentieth time, but still couldn't get reception, so she closed it with a hurt look.
	“Oh no, Becky, you might have to participate in the conversation!” Lia jibed. “I mean, we all know that talking to people is against your moral principles, but it looks like you'll have to cave in to peer pressure.”
	“Just this once,” replied Becky with a smile. “Maybe I should take my cues from you. After all, you've only been asleep for what, thirty minutes? Now that's what I call involved.”
	Lia sniffed dramatically. “Unlike you, I have a head on my shoulders for something more than boys and shopping. Now shut up and let me sleep.”
	Becky turned her attention to more responsive prey. “Hey, Rick, are we there yet?” Lia wondered how she had ever gotten into this situation in the first place. She had never imagined she'd be skipping class for a crazy affair like this. One thing was for sure, it was all Becky's fault.

* * * *

Becky had first breached the subject at lunch on Tuesday. They were all sitting at one of the dining hall tables: Lia and Becky, Rick, Colin, and a willowy redhead whose name Lia couldn't recall. Lia was just beginning to get comfortable with moving in Becky's three-ring social circus, and Rick didn't seem all that bad either. Colin, on the other hand, had begun to get on her nerves within five minutes. That boy could give fashion tips to a hobo without breaking a sweat.
For some reason, Lia could remember little details from that day, like the sandwich she was eating that her mother had meticulously prepared as always, or the way Rick had complimented Becky on her new, stylish haircut. Becky asked out of the blue, "Have you guys heard of the band 2339?"
"Sure!" responded Colin cheerfully. Lia chimed in with her own assent, making sure to do it after Colin so she wouldn't be the only one to speak up.
Rick answered rudely, "What the heck is 2339?" Lia was sure he was just having a bad day. He was under a lot of stress, after all. She took another bite of her sandwich and watched Becky pick at her salad. Green salad with no dressing, of course. She suspected that Becky's daily calorie intake had a minus sign in front of it.
"Remember the crazy guy on TV who said he was from the future?" Becky waited for the nods before continuing. "Well, it turns out he was just doing it as a publicity stunt for his new rock band. I hear they put on a great show, with time machines and weird synthesizer effects and everything. They pretend they're from the year 2339; that's where the name comes from. They do this fantastic cover of 'Mr. Roboto' that's been all over the radio lately."
Colin and the redhead apparently tuned into the same radio station Becky did, so they went at it for a while. As it turned out, Colin (who had a serious crush on JT, the front man) had heard that they were doing a concert in Washington that Friday afternoon, and wanted to get together a group to go. Meanwhile, Rick and Lia held a side conversation on their own musical tastes. Lia was thrilled that they were so similar. Who knew Rick would be this cool? she thought.
"So, Rick, you want to make this a road trip? Whaddaya say, we can get our groove on at the fabulous 2339 concert this Friday! Bring a friend!" Colin winked significantly at him, and Lia couldn't shake the feeling that they were talking about her. What was with everyone? Just because she and Rick spent a lot of time together didn't mean that he had a crush on her. Everything was fine.
Rick, to everyone's surprise, not only agreed to go, but wanted to drive. "I've never taken the van on a long trip, and you'll have plenty of room back there, I assure you." With that, there was no refusing it. The trip was on, and everyone promised to make the necessary arrangements.
That night, Becky worked Instant Messenger like a switchboard operator, coordinating everyone's schedules, buying tickets, and calling parents if necessary. Becky's mother was on the school board, and she could put on a good face when she needed to, so she had a good reputation among parents no matter what she ended up doing. She confided to Lia in private that she had engineered the whole thing so that Lia could get to know her friends Rick and Colin better. Personally, Lia thought the rumors that she and Rick had a thing going on had infected Becky, too.
Lia nearly threw a fit online when she heard about the time of the concert: not after school, but during it. During history class, in fact. Plus, she had a huge assignment due. She'd been working on it the whole week, and she certainly didn't need any more trouble in that class of all classes. 
"Don't be silly," typed Becky. "You can call in sick and go on a fabulous trip with us. You don't really need to turn that assignment in until Monday. Let's ask Colin about it. He has your class, doesn't he?"
Before Lia could respond, Colin was online, as exuberant and as nosy as ever. "Hey, Lia!" typed Colin. "I loved those earrings you wore today. The perfect capstone to your ensemble." Lia was glad he couldn't see her roll her eyes. "What's this I hear about history class? Girl, that class is a joke. You could do that homework on Monday morning if you wanted to. Listen to Becky, it's good for your health. Well, I gotta run, the Iron Chef show starts in three minutes. Ciao!"
So Lia went, if only to get her friends off her back. Her online journal entry that night included a long, confused rant about peer pressure as well as the usual bad poetry.
The verbal catharsis must not have worked, she thought, because the next morning, she was still worrying about her and Rick. Maybe there was some truth behind the schemes Becky and Colin had been cooking up. He had been acting odd toward her lately, after all. So that day at lunch, when Becky and her friend Heather were commiserating about the ridiculous amount of homework their psychology teacher assigned, Lia asked, "Rick, what shoes am I wearing?"
"Dark blue sneakers," he answered unthinkingly, "with black laces. Why do you ask?"
He figured it out a second later. "I'm sorry. It doesn't mean anything. I just notice things about people. It's nothing, really." Lia waved it off with a smile and a joke, but the damage had been done.
That night, Lia called up Colin and asked what to do. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out, babe," Colin told her. "Rick is obviously head over heels for you. Sooner or later, he's gonna ask you out. If you like him, say yes!" It wasn't what she wanted to hear.

* * * *

The concert was packed. The stop for gas had made them late to the concert, so they had to stand up in the back of the crowd, barely able to see the stage above the waving arms and almost unable to hear above the cheers and whistles as 2339 took the stage. 


Road Trip, 10.13.04, 1400h
This draft was written at Clemons Library at UVA, not proofread in any way. Class was at 1530.


Forgotten in the back seat of Rick's old gray minivan, Lia leaned her head against her seatbelt and let sleep wash over her. Pull in, pull back. Voices from further up. "Maybe that CD was in my other case. Let me check." "Yeah, you go do that. I gotta keep my eye on the road." The snow clouds had left the sky, leaving it a flawless crystal blue all the way to the distant hills. Idly Lia's eyes traced the grades of color along the edge of her window, blue-gray to gray-blue. She snuggled closer to the edge of the seat. The tide came over her and her eyes closed, just for a second. It was so warm under the black shirt and the overshirt and her favorite purple sweater her grandma had given her for Christmas. The sky peeked out from behind a long row of trees outside the happily rumbling van. Last Christmas had been wonderful. Pull in, pull back.

* * * *

A gentle touch on her shoulder stirred Lia awake. She opened her eyes just a crack and saw her best friend Becky leaning over her. Becky had shed her coat, and her outfit was warm but still managed to reveal that impossibly slim, tiny frame. With her other hand she brushed freshly trimmed black hair out of her eyes. Apparently Becky was having trouble adjusting to her new haircut. Maybe she should stop leaning forward so much. She stopped talking and Lia had to ask Becky to repeat herself. "I said, we stopped for gas. Do you want to go to the bathroom?"

"Come on, stretch your legs, why don'tcha? Can't stay inside all day, girlfriend!" called Rick's friend Colin from somewhere over Becky's shoulder, laughing at his own joke. He could be sitting in the seat in front of her or already at the gas station door for all she knew; his loud, raucous voice made it impossible to tell. Everyone knew when Colin had entered the room.

Sighing, Lia sat up straight and moved to open the big sliding door. She managed to move it about six inches in her groggy condition. From the high-pitched laugh behind her, Lia knew Becky was pantomiming her motions. Rick's low chuckle joined her as Becky drew out the joke. Lia reached for the door handle again, but Rick had already pulled it open and stepped aside to make room for her exit.

The act of standing up and the cold breeze running through the brightly lit gas station sent a shiver down Lia's spine. She was definitely awake by now. "Thanks," she said, glancing at Rick before looking around her.

"We're just getting some gas," Rick explained. "We aren't that far from the concert hall."

"It's gonna be a party and a half!" exclaimed Colin, coming around the other side of the van. "Aren't you excited?" He grabbed Lia's hands and did a little dance, waving them up and down.

"Take it easy, man," Rick said. "She just woke up."

"Yeah, I know. I don't want her falling asleep at the concert and missing the sweet, sweet sound of JT and his awesome guitar solos, that's all."

The two laughed and headed for the convenience store. Lia wandered over to where Becky was standing. Her legs felt like they hadn't been used in days.

"So, what does the poet laureate have to say about this gas station?" asked Becky. "A critique of postmodern structural design? Neon signs enfolding the boundary between order and chaos?" The girl's sarcasm was irrepressible.

"Do you really want to know?" Lia asked. It would feel good to get out of Colin's world for a minute, but even Becky didn't always want to hear what she had to say. Poet laureate, bah. She never should have shown Becky that school publication from sixth grade giving her that name. It didn't mean anything anyway.

Becky protested, "Of course!" with just enough seriousness in her voice to convince her. Lia nodded, and leaned her head back against the side of the van. The metal was cold, but her long hair served well enough as an insulator.

"I've been thinking a lot about water imagery lately," she essayed tentatively. Becky nodded. "In the van, we're not driving, we're swimming along the paths of the sea, watching the silent landscape pass. You three, you're the fish, swimming and darting around each other, looking for food and nipping at each other with little verbal bites." This brought a laugh. Lia closed her eyes. "This gas station, I don't know. The gas stations can be coral reefs, built up on the bottom of the ocean, collecting dirt and getting lots of traffic."

"So what does that make you?" asked Rick softly, somewhere close to her ear. She hated it when he snuck up on him like that. It was nice that he was listening, though. Surely that counted for something.

"I don't know," Lia said, opening her eyes and drawing back a little. "Are we filled up yet?"

"Yeah," said Rick, moving around to the driver's side and patting the hood. "I guess it's time to get going." He sandwiched himself to get through the door and closed it sharply behind him.

Becky turned to Lia and rolled her eyes. "Oh, the drama! Will Lia and Rick be able to salvage their relationship? What happens when Rick meets Jane in the checkout line? I can't stand the suspense!"

Lia didn't say anything, but her look was murder. Becky shut up and got back in the car. Colin was already inside, munching on a chocolate bar he'd picked up. Lia took her seat next to Becky and they were off. It didn't take long for Lia to zone out Colin's banter in the seat in front of her and Becky's cute little laughs to her left, then start trains of thought of her own. First off, it didn't make any sense for Becky to be a darting fish when the van itself was a fish. Unless it was Jonah and the whale. The van was certainly big enough to be a little whale. How had she met Rick and his lumbering van, anyway? It must have been about three weeks ago…

* * * *

"John Hancock High School," read the sign out front. It felt odd to be going here; Lia had always thought of Hancock as a name rather than a place - the school Becky attended, with some vague indication that it was near her house. Winter break had just ended, and most of the kids were settling back into their normal routine. Instead, Lia had spent the break moving into a new house, much closer to the firm where her father worked and leagues away from all her friends.

Come to think of it, thought Lia as she got out of the car with a backpack loaded with unlabeled binders and perfectly sharpened pencils, maybe the move wasn't all that bad. She hadn't had many friends worth keeping at her old school, much less any boyfriend material. As long as she was perfect, maybe the attraction of being the new girl would even work to her benefit. Plus, as Becky had so cynically pointed out, her parents would be more understanding if her grades suffered for these few weeks. "How far do you think that'll reach?" she'd replied. "A B-plus?"

Becky talked at her in a stream as she approached the door, piling on heaps of reassurances. Despite her best efforts, Lia couldn't shake her feeling of dread as the massive double doors of the main entrance approached.

As she entered, nobody gave her a second glance. Not surprising, since Hancock had over two thousand students. The real test would come later. Becky tugged at Lia's arm, waving excitedly at the clock: "It's almost time for class! Where are you headed, Lia?"

7:58, read the hall clock, and from the speed of the pedestrian traffic around her and the nervous edge to Becky's energetic demeanor, school started at eight o'clock sharp. Lia stopped to pull her schedule out of her backpack, just to make sure. Her mother had made her memorize everything ahead of time, but double-checking never hurt anyone. "AP US History," read Lia. "Room 115."

"Really?" asked Becky, astonished. "That's right over there! Let's go!" Becky marched away through the crowd, looking back excitedly. Lia put her schedule back in her day planner and hoisted her backpack over one shoulder, then started off.
Before she could get to the room, though, she heard a dull thud and a yelp of surprise from behind her. Lia turned around to see a long-haired boy in a black trenchcoat bending down to pick up his books and school supplies, trying to dodge the rushing feet around him. She paused in mid-turn, her heart pounding with the decision to help the boy or get to her first class on time. "Come on!" said Becky, a touch annoyed.

Lia rushed back to the boy in the trenchcoat, bending down and picking up a stray pencil. "Are you OK?" she asked, with the worry in her voice colored by more than a touch of urgency.

His harsh voice growled, "Watch where you're --" and stopped as the boy turned his head to look at her. The withering expression on his face faded instantly and he scooped up the rest of his books without looking at them. "Thank you," he offered lamely, not taking his suddenly scared brown eyes off hers. "I'm fine."

He scooped the pencil out of her hand, and the two straightened up. Lia found she had to crane her head back more than usual. The guy was broad-shouldered and nearly a foot taller than she was, with hair tucked back in a messy ponytail. She looked down quickly, but to her surprise, he extended a hand and said in a much nicer tone, "I'm Rick."

Automatically, she shook his hand. A surprisingly limp handshake for someone so massive, she thought. "My name's Lia, I'm new here. I'm so sorry I hit you with my backpack."

"It's all right," Rick answered. He glanced over her shoulder and waved to Becky, now hovering impatiently over Lia's shoulder. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"No," snapped Becky sarcastically, "Lia and I planned to have a picnic lunch outside the new computer lab. See you later, Rick." She took a firm hold on Lia's arm and dragged her across the hall to class just as the bell began to ring.

Lia looked over her shoulder to see Rick still standing in the hallway, waving at her with a quirky half-smile on his face. "Can I come to the picnic?"

In room 115, the teacher looked disapprovingly at Lia from her desk in the front of the class as she entered. "Should you be in here, young lady?"

"Y-yes," Lia stammered. "I'm Lia Chin, I just moved here, I..."

"All right," said the teacher. "You can take a seat over there, by the bookshelf. Come see me after class and I'll explain what you need to do to catch up." She turned her attention back to the rest of the class and started calling roll.

It was a long walk across the room to her desk. The last time she'd been this nervous was at the violin recital in eighth grade, and then at least she was wearing a dress and not this ugly shirt. What had she been thinking when she put it on? Thirty pairs of eyes bored into her back as she sat down, turning her face away to hide her embarrassment.

Roll call finished without Lia having learned a single name. No one even turned to look at her, the new girl. As a pair of cheerleader types stood up to give a presentation on the presidency of James K. Polk, Lia tucked her hair in behind her ears and pulled out a clean sheet of paper to start taking notes. She couldn't decide whether to be disappointed or relieved.

* * * *

A thundering techno beat snapped Lia out of her reverie. In the front seat, Colin was once again monopolizing the conversation. “Rick, you gotta work on that handshake. The ladies will never go for you unless you give a good handshake. Think gentle but strong, not limp and fishlike!”

“Are we there yet?” asked Becky. “I'd love to continue this fascinating discussion, but I'd be happier if we actually went somewhere. Say, a rock concert.” She opened her Hello Kitty cellphone for the twentieth time, but still couldn't get reception, so she closed it with a hurt look.

“Oh no, Becky, you might have to participate in the conversation!” Lia jibed. “I mean, we all know that talking to people is against your moral principles, but it looks like you'll have to cave in to peer pressure.”

“Just this once,” replied Becky with a smile. “Maybe I should take my cues from you. After all, you've only been asleep for what, thirty minutes? Now that's what I call involved.”

Lia sniffed dramatically. “Unlike you, I have a head on my shoulders for something more than boys and shopping. Now shut up and let me sleep.”

Becky turned her attention to more responsive prey. “Hey, Rick, are we there yet?” Lia wondered how she had ever gotten into this situation in the first place. She had never imagined she'd be skipping class for a crazy affair like this. One thing was for sure, it was all Becky's fault.

* * * *

Becky had first breached the subject at lunch on Tuesday. They were all sitting at one of the dining hall tables: Lia and Becky, Rick, Colin, and a willowy redhead whose name Lia couldn't recall. Lia was just beginning to get comfortable with moving in Becky's three-ring social circus, and Rick didn't seem all that bad either. Colin, on the other hand, had begun to get on her nerves within five minutes. That boy could give fashion tips to a hobo without breaking a sweat.

For some reason, Lia could remember little details from that day, like the sandwich she was eating that her mother had meticulously prepared as always, or the way Rick had complimented Becky on her new, stylish haircut. Becky asked out of the blue, "Have you guys heard of the band 2339?"

"Sure!" responded Colin cheerfully. Lia chimed in with her own assent, making sure to do it after Colin so she wouldn't be the only one to speak up.

Rick answered rudely, "What the heck is 2339?" Lia was sure he was just having a bad day. He was under a lot of stress, after all. She took another bite of her sandwich and watched Becky pick at her salad. Green salad with no dressing, of course. She suspected that Becky's daily calorie intake had a minus sign in front of it.

"Remember the crazy guy on TV who said he was from the future?" Becky waited for the nods before continuing. "Well, it turns out he was just doing it as a publicity stunt for his new rock band. I hear they put on a great show, with time machines and weird synthesizer effects and everything. They pretend they're from the year 2339; that's where the name comes from. They do this fantastic cover of 'Mr. Roboto' that's been all over the radio lately."

Colin and the redhead apparently tuned into the same radio station Becky did, so they went at it for a while. As it turned out, Colin (who had a serious crush on JT, the front man) had heard that they were doing a concert in Washington that Friday afternoon, and wanted to get together a group to go. Meanwhile, Rick and Lia held a side conversation on their own musical tastes. Lia was thrilled that they were so similar. Who knew Rick would be this cool? she thought.

"So, Rick, you want to make this a road trip? Whaddaya say, we can get our groove on at the fabulous 2339 concert this Friday! Bring a friend!" Colin winked significantly at him, and Lia couldn't shake the feeling that they were talking about her. What was with everyone? Just because she and Rick spent a lot of time together didn't mean that he had a crush on her. Everything was fine.

Rick, to everyone's surprise, not only agreed to go, but wanted to drive. "I've never taken the van on a long trip, and you'll have plenty of room back there, I assure you." With that, there was no refusing it. The trip was on, and everyone promised to make the necessary arrangements.

That night, Becky worked Instant Messenger like a switchboard operator, coordinating everyone's schedules, buying tickets, and calling parents if necessary. Becky's mother was on the school board, and she could put on a good face when she needed to, so she had a good reputation among parents no matter what she ended up doing. She confided to Lia in private that she had engineered the whole thing so that Lia could get to know her friends Rick and Colin better. Personally, Lia thought the rumors that she and Rick had a thing going on had infected Becky, too.

Lia nearly threw a fit online when she heard about the time of the concert: not after school, but during it. During history class, in fact. Plus, she had a huge assignment due. She'd been working on it the whole week, and she certainly didn't need any more trouble in that class of all classes. 

"Don't be silly," typed Becky. "You can call in sick and go on a fabulous trip with us. You don't really need to turn that assignment in until Monday. Let's ask Colin about it. He has your class, doesn't he?"

Before Lia could respond, Colin was online, as exuberant and as nosy as ever. "Hey, Lia!" typed Colin. "I loved those earrings you wore today. The perfect capstone to your ensemble." Lia was glad he couldn't see her roll her eyes. "What's this I hear about history class? Girl, that class is a joke. You could do that homework on Monday morning if you wanted to. Listen to Becky, it's good for your health. Well, I gotta run, the Iron Chef show starts in three minutes. Ciao!"
So Lia went, if only to get her friends off her back. Her online journal entry that night included a long, confused rant about peer pressure as well as the usual bad poetry.

The verbal catharsis must not have worked, she thought, because the next morning, she was still worrying about her and Rick. Maybe there was some truth behind the schemes Becky and Colin had been cooking up. He had been acting odd toward her lately, after all. So that day at lunch, when Becky and her friend Heather were commiserating about the ridiculous amount of homework their psychology teacher assigned, Lia asked, "Rick, what shoes am I wearing?"

"Dark blue sneakers," he answered unthinkingly, "with black laces. Why do you ask?"

He figured it out a second later. "I'm sorry. It doesn't mean anything. I just notice things about people. It's nothing, really." Lia waved it off with a smile and a joke, but the damage had been done.

That night, Lia called up Colin and asked what to do. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out, babe," Colin told her. "Rick is obviously head over heels for you. Sooner or later, he's gonna ask you out. If you like him, say yes!" It wasn't what she wanted to hear.

* * * *

The concert was packed. The stop for gas had made them late, so they had to stand in the back. Lia and Becky could hardly see above the waving arms or hear above the cheers and whistles as 2339 took the stage. Colin had insisted on letting the three of them out at the entrance and parking the car himself. It had been fifteen minutes, however, and he hadn’t returned. Lia hoped he wasn’t getting into any trouble, since he would be crushed if he had to miss the opportunity to see lead singer JT in person. As it was, Rick had to keep up a running commentary on the band’s onstage antics.

“Nope, still nothing. Wait – here comes JT. He’s in some kind of suit, an astronaut suit it looks like. There’s the rest of the band, they’re all in spacesuits. JT just found a mike from somewhere. Wait, it looks like he’s gonna talk.”

JT’s voice boomed through the concert hall, and managed to be even more obnoxious than his fire-engine red, conspicuously gelled hair. “Hello out there! Is everybody ready to have some fun?” The crowd went wild, of course.

“I’m JT, and these are my cohorts from the year 2339. We’re from the future. The future… of rock!” More cheers, and laughs from the more experienced concert-goers. He apparently did this often. Behind him, reported Rick, the band stripped out of their suits to all-silver ensembles. How much more stupid could this possibly get? Lia asked herself, steadfastly refusing to be impressed. She was missing an important history class for this, so she deserved better.

Her question was answered when Becky grabbed her arm and started jumping up and down. “Look! Don’t you think that’s just the coolest thing you ever saw?” Lia brought Becky back to the floor so she could see her nod a tired assent. Even Lia couldn’t miss the giant disco ball descending from the ceiling. She shot a glance at Rick, who looked down at her and rolled his eyes. At least there was someone else who thought the latest rock sensation wasn’t all they were cracked up to be.

On stage, 2339 finally started their first song with a power chord on JT’s heavily distorted, star-shaped guitar. Colin finally showed up, and as usual, was sooner heard than seen. Apparently he didn’t just follow JT’s every move, he could sing all his songs at the top of his lungs, too. Lia thought he was having even more fun than Becky, if that were possible. “What’s this song called?” she shouted to Colin over the floor-shaking drums.

“Out of This World!” he replied. “It’s from their new album. I can give you the MP3!” She shook her head, and he quickly refocused on the band.

By the time the band’s next song had hit its third consecutive chorus, Lia was ready to do anything to get out of there. Taking off her sweater hadn’t helped the infernal heat of so many people crushed together, just mussed her hair. She poked Rick in the shoulder, or rather partway up his arm, and yelled out her desire to leave. Lia didn’t think he could hear what she said, but he nodded and leaned down to talk to Becky. With Becky’s answering nod, he took Lia’s arm and paved a way out through the crowd into the lobby.

With two or three doors between them and the speakers, Lia’s body relaxed instinctively. “I can finally hear myself think!” she sighed.

“I know how you feel,” Rick said. A short pause to open the outside door. “Maybe it’s just me,” he essayed, “but I’d think that rock would have evolved upward in the last three hundred years, not downward.”

Lia laughed. “You’re right about that one. My elementary school class play had more inventive jokes. Thanks for coming outside with me, by the way.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all. I hate feeling like I’m blocking fifty people’s vision anyway. Now, let’s go find my old gray workhorse.”

Colin had found a relatively good parking spot, but after searching through all his pockets twice, Rick was forced to admit that he was locked out. “Well,” he said hesitantly, “it looks like we’re stuck here until Colin gets back with my keys.”

“If he even has your keys,” Lia replied automatically.

“Yeah.” Rick developed a keen interest in his shoes.

Lia looked over at him as they leaned back on the wall outside the door. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that—“

Rick cut her off. “No problem. I’m sure we’ll be fine.” The silence that fell crackled with nervous tension.

After a while, he cleared his throat and adjusted the belt on his trenchcoat. “So, Lia. About the other day. It’s really nothing to be worried about.” Another pause. “I guess, um, it’s just hard not to notice what you’re wearing.  I mean, it all looks good on you.”

Lia desperately looked for a convenient rock to crawl under and die in. Her mouth opened, but she couldn’t think of anything to say, so she just turned her face away.

Rick’s hand moved to touch her shoulder, but he managed to restrain himself and launch into his next line of conversation. “Lia, I’ve heard what they say about you, and – Well, first I thought it was because you’re new, and you didn’t know anyone, so I’d –” He stopped and started again, as she shrunk further into herself. “Don’t misunderstand me, I really don’t feel like that towards you, I just thought…”

Lia turned to face him, but somehow managed not to move any closer. “I thought maybe we could just be friends?” she squeaked out.

Rick breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s exactly what I was trying to say. I was worried that you’d, well, we’ll just be friends, and if anything happens, it happens. All right?”

Lia was about to answer when she saw Becky emerge from the door of the concert hall, heading their way. “Hey, it’s Becky,” Lia said, pouncing on the opportunity to change the subject.

Becky stopped to toss Rick the keys to the van with a hurt expression on her face and called out, “How can you guys not appreciate 2339’s musical genius?” As Rick looked down to catch the keys, she gave Lia a huge wink and a thumbs-up.

“So,” Rick said, moving away from the wall, “I noticed we passed a Barnes & Noble right before we hit here. Want to check out the music section while Colin and Becky finish their concert?”

“Yeah,” said Lia, looking up at him for the first time with a smile on her face. “Let’s go.” In the doorway, Becky made frantic arm motions – Put your arm around him! Hold hands! – but Lia pretended she couldn’t see her.