Day 9: Texas Boarder – Car: 11:30pm

The performance for Mitch's family had gone down without a hitch. Britney was still a bitch though and not getting any easier, they had the day off tomorrow and they'd figure out a fix then.
     Avi was driving and a semi-sleepy Kevin was navigating from the middle seat in the row behind. Kirstie was in the seat behind the passenger, so if Avi turned he could see her, she was sound asleep. Scott and Esther were asleep in the back row, Scott against the window and Esther had slipped to lean against him. Mitch was of course in the front seat, and asleep also. Kevin wished he was asleep, but someone had to navigate, he'd been nominated.
     "I reckon I'm the worst one to be navigating," Kevin sighed, pushing his glasses up to rub his eyes.
     "How do you figure that?" Avi asked.
     "Because I'm in bed by nine asleep by ten past and up at five-thirty. I hate these late nights, late mornings."
     "Yeah, I mean I don't mind them," Avi shrugged,
     "That's because that's the kind of person you are, not that there's anything wrong with that. But for me, all the changes, staying up late, being tired all the time, it's stressing me out. I just don't have time for my class work and that's not okay!" He whisper-yelled, so as not to wake anyone up. "We've only just gotten to the end of the first week."
     "Yeah and we have a day off tomorrow, you'll get it done then," Avi tried to reassure him.
     "That's easy for you to say though Avi, all this counts towards your final grade, you don't have the same stress that the rest of us do. Besides, Scott wants to arrange a new song tomorrow," he rested his head on the shoulder of Mitch's seat, looking at Avi.
     "Well I don't know about Scott but Mitch and Kirstie want to get some work done too, even I have a little bit. So I'm thinking we all focus on school work solidly Until I'm finished, we take a break to start a basic arrangement then you four take it in turns to fine tune it with me. So there would always be three or two of you, depending on Scott, that's doing work. And at any point if someone feels they can't do anymore for the arrangement then they do their school work, simple," Avi smiled.
     Kevin nodded along slowly, seemingly satisfied with that plan, "Okay, we can try that."
     "Awesome," Avi nodded too and Kevin told him to turn off at the next exit.
     "So," Kevin started then turned checking that everyone else was definitely asleep.
     Avi waited patiently for what his best friend had to say.
     "Avi, have you talked to Kirstie about what happened in High School yet?"
     "Shhh," Avi hissed.
     "They're asleep," Kevin said with the patience he'd mustered.
     "I started to," he said quietly.
     "What stopped you?"
     Avi shrugged, "I just couldn't do it, I'm not ready to tell her."
     "Why though? You did nothing wrong," Kevin asks in a caring tone.
     "Because it's embarrassing, and it makes me look so stupid that I continued to believe her and fall for her tricks when everything and everyone was telling me I shouldn't."
     Kevin wanted to say more, but he knew he shouldn't, especially not while Avi was driving, he didn't want to upset his best friend any more than he already had.
     "I tried, I really did," Avi spoke after a deep breath. "I went to Kirstie with every intention of telling her, I did tell her though that there was stuff I wasn't ready to share because in my mind I wanted to see how the first piece of information went over. It went over semi-okay and that's because it went downhill afterwards," he kept his eyes straight ahead.
     Kevin cocked his head as he listened, "What did you end up telling her then?"
     "That I've never..." he stopped and waited for Kevin to assure him that the others were still asleep. "Done it before, and she was totally understanding about it, even relieved it seemed. But then somehow we got on about attractiveness and what she didn't use to like about me. I definitely wasn't going to tell her the rest and then she almost coaxed me into spilling, but in the end I couldn't tell her. I'm such a wimp," he hit the steering wheel.
     Kevin placed a comforting hand on Avi's shoulder: to tell him to calm down and that he was absolutely always there for him.

Day 10 of Tour: Oklahoma – Day Off

Esther and Kevin were chilling out or semi doingclass work (Kevin) in the room that Esther, Kirstie and Mitch were sharing forthe couple of days they were in this area. The two of them were just chatting;Esther laid out on the sofa and Kevin in the arm chair when Scott barged intothe room.
     "Avi's in the sofa bed!" he panicked.
     "So?" Esther raised an eyebrow, Aviliked to sleep, big deal.
     "So, you know that big ass gapthat's there when you pull out the bed?" The blonde asked but didn't wait fortheir reply, "I dared him to go in there and let us shut the bed on him, thebed doesn't fit back in but it's jammed. He's stuck!"
     Esther jumped into action and Kevinstarted laughing uncontrollably. Esther ran ahead of Scott and they rushed intothe other room, Kevin eventually followed because he had to see what was goingon, he would never let Avi live this down.
     They enter the room and Kirstie was pulling on the fold out bed with allher might, "I'm so sorry baby, we're gonna get you out!" she yelled, pulling,but it didn't budge.
     Mitch was at one end of the sofa,peering in, too scared to put his hand in to find a catch because the wayKirstie was pulling he could lose a finger. "Is there like a couch cuttingservice we can call?" he asked in a panic.
     And Avi can be heard calling outfrom inside the couch, this was very alarming to Esther and so she took charge.
     "Kirstie, stop pulling, the lastthing we want to do is break the couch, I don't think we can afford to replaceit. And we all need to calm down so we can concentrate and find a solution."
     "I want to get out!" Avi shouted.
     Kirstie dropped to her knees beside the endshe knew his head was at, "We're gonna get you out I promise, and then I'mgonna give you the biggest hug you've ever gotten, just stay calm, Esther wantsus all to stay calm."
     "That means you need to stay calmtoo Kirstie," Esther told her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her to move.She knelt down in Kirstie's vacated spot. "I think you'll need to suck in, we'llpush it down and it should pop open," she explained the plan to her brotherthat she was pretty sure was hyperventilating.
     "How would that even work!" Heshouted, not at all convinced of his sister's plan, and not at all calm likeshe wanted him to be.
     "Just do as I say," she snapped asshe stood. "Kevin, stop laughing," she gave him a look that doesn't make himstop, "Well I wanted Kevin to push down on the sofa since he's probably thestrongest but Scott can do it since the hyena won't shut up."
     "I'll help Avi out," Kirstiesuggested, standing again at the end of the couch when his head would be.
     "Yep sure," Esther rolled her eyes,because that was a totally unnecessary job since Avi was damn well desperate toget out he probably wouldn't need help, but whatever. "Okay Avi, take a deepbreath on three and Scott you push down," she told them.
     Scott got into position and Esthercounted, "One, two, three."
     They heard Avi's intake of breath and theclick of the sofa as Scott pushed then pulled it out into a bed. Avi sat up andKirstie jumped into the hole with him, pulling him up the rest of the way andinto a tight hug, not letting go, even when Avi expressed his want tocompletely get out of the sofa.
     Esther looked down into the holethat Kirstie and Avi were standing in, "Oh my god you morons! That's carpet!"She pointed at the floor beneath the seat, and the other three came to have alook too.
     "You mean we could have just liftedthe sofa up and he could have crawled out?" Scott asked, totally embarrassed.
     "I can't even deal with this,"Esther commented as she leaves the room.
     "I was on the carpet!" Avi said inshock. "The goddamn carpet!"
     Kirstie hugged him tighter, "There,there, you're okay now."    

A/N: Gott keep it fun sometimes :D

Hannah