TRAVELING

"MOM, WHY DO I HAVE TO GO?" Ellie asked as her mother placed her bags on the front porch.

"It will be a fun experience, besides you'll see Michael again. You two were best friends when you were younger." Ellie rolled her eyes seeing that she hasn't seen him since she was four and he probably doesn't remember her.

You see Ellie lived in California, she loved her house , the mountains, and the nice sun that warmed her skin. She was excited to be home all summer but her mom had other plans. Karen Drews was a close friend of Lucy Emmerson in high school and when Lucy's husband had to move to Phoenix Arizona both girls still tried to keep in touch.

Lucy had called Karen and told her she had divorced and was going to live with her father in Santa Carla. So Karen decided that she was going to let Ellie go spend the summer with Lucy and her boys. You see Karen had troubles at home too, Karen received a call from her so called husband and he asked if he could stop by and talk to her about their "divorce." Ellie knew that her parents were divorcing all because of her Dad loving a stripper. So Karen didn't want her to be there to see World War 3 go into action.

Ellie was sitting on the front porch with her two suitcases next to her and her music blaring. She saw a car come into view and she took her headphones out.

"Mom! Lucy is here!"

Ellie stood up and saw the car pull in the driveway of their home. Karen came out and saw her old High school buddy and gave her a big hug.

Ellie got a close look at Lucy and she was about Ellie's height 5'3, she had ginger almost blonde short hair. She was wearing a white cardigan with a blue tank top underneath along with a long maxi skirt with gold sandals with jewelry.

"Is that Ellie?" She said walking over.

She saw two boys get out from the back as she saw Lucy come up to her.

"Oh my goodness Karen last time I saw her she was only 3 years old, how old are you now honey?"

"17, m'am." Ellie says sheepishly.

"Aw honey please call me Lucy, and these are- Boys!Stop hitting each other come over here."

The two boys came over and stopped behind their Mom, one of them had dark brown curly hair, he was definitely taller than her probably 5'11 and Ellie couldn't help but think he was cute. She smiled at the two waved.

"Hi." Ellie said nervously.

"Ellie these are my boys this Michael he's actually a year older than you." She saves pointing to her eldest son .

"Hi, nice to meet you Ellie". He placed his hand out and she shook it.

"And this is my Sam, my youngest he's 13." Sam smiled and placed his hand out to and she shook it as well.

"Nice to meet you both." Ellie says.

"Well she already has her things packed and she's excited to be spending the summer with you Lucy."

Ellie gave her the best smile she could and Michael laughed obviously knowing she wasn't exactly thrilled. Neither was he, his dad divorced his mom and now moving somewhere he didn't want to.

"Michael can you put her bags in the trunk." Lucy asked her son and he nodded and went over grabbing her bags.

"Mom can I take out Nanook before we leave." Sam asked.

"Sure, just grab his leash."  Lucy told him.

Sam went over to the car and got his dog out, Ellie saw that it was purebred husky and she smiled as he brought him over. She bent down and started to pet him.

"He's so cute." Ellie says as the dog began to sniff and lick her face.

Ellie got up from the ground and let Sam take Nanook to go do his business. Karen hugged her daughter and kissed her head.

"Call me when you get there, okay?"

"Okay Mom." She says.

"Don't worry Karen, Ellie will have the best summer ever."

Lucy said goodbye to Karen and Ellie sat in the backseat with Michael and Nanook. While Sam sat in the front, Lucy asked if she wanted to sit in the front but Ellie wanted to sit with Nanook.

As Lucy started the car and drove away from Ellie's house, Ellie looked back sad that she was now going to somewhere new Santa Carla.

••••••••••

It had been 2 hours since they had left Ellie's house and they were close to where Lucy's father lived. Ellie had already like Lucy, she was the fun, caring Mom just like hers. She could already see the similarities in her and her mother. Right now they were all listening to radio and the boys kept saying keep going if they didn't like something on the radio.

"Keep going!" The boys sang as Lucy and Ellie laughed.

"Wait this is from my era, grooving on a Sunday afternoon-" Lucy tried singing but the boys weren't having it.

"Keep going." They both said.

"Alright." She turned the radio to a different channel.
"Hey guys we're almost there."

"What's that smell?" Sam asked.

"That's the ocean air." Lucy said to him.

"It smells like someone died." Sam retorts.

Ellie looked around and saw the sign, Welcome to Santa Carla! Ellie smiled and tried getting a better look at the sign but fell on top of Michael.

She blushed and said "sorry."

"It's okay." He helped her up from his laugh as Sam smirked at Michael. Michael responded by flipping him off.

"Look guys I know this last year hasn't been easy, but I think you guys are gonna like living in Santa Carla."

Michael looked at the sign and turned around only to see on the back of the billboard was a spray paint of the words "THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD."

Ellie looked at the people as Lucy drove by, some were weird, creepy, and unusual. She made a face and Michael laughed making her turn around.

"What?" She said raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing." He says still smiling and making Ellie turn the other way and blush.

Lucy stopped at a gas station and grabbed some food and snacks to eat. Ellie grabbed 2 bags of chips and a 3 sodas with her money that her mom gave her. She saw two kids dumpster diving for food and went over to them. She gave them the jumbo bag of chips and the two sodas as they gave her a grateful nod and left.

Lucy smiled at Ellie seeing her kind gesture,

"That was very kind of you Ellie." Lucy says.

"Sometimes all they need is helpful hand once in a while."

Sam soon ran over with Nanook, looking excited.

"Mom! Look you can see the amusement park right on the beach."

"Cool, did you see anything good?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, they got tons of food and carnival rides-" Sam started to talk about it and Ellie actually was intrigued.

Lucy had filled up the tank though and telling the three to get in the car Michael however got his motorcycle out.

"Michael-" Lucy was about to protest.

"Come on Mom please we're like 15 minutes away from Grandpa's home."

"Alright."

Ellie got in the back with Nanook and watched from the back as Michael followed them to their home for the summer.

••••••••

They finally arrived to their destination and when getting out Ellie looked around at her summer surroundings. She saw the house she was staying in and actually thought it was quite nice, it felt like a cabin you would come to during the winter. But she looked at the trees and the other stuff surrounding the home and she was kind of freaked out. There were clothes hanging on the line, wooden carvings and some live stuffed animals that creeped her out.

All of them then looked at the front porch and saw a man laying on the ground.

"Dad?" Lucy asked walking towards the man.

The three kids get a closer look and watch as Lucy tries to wake her father up.

"He looks dead." Michael says.

"No, he's just a deep sleeper." Lucy says to Michael.

"If he's dead can we move back to Phoenix?" Ellie looked at sam.

"You believe your grandfathers dead and that's the first thing you think of?"

"Playing dead, and doing a damn good job of it too." He says getting up.

"Oh Dad." Lucy says hugging him.

Michael and Sam look at each other wondering what the hell was going on. Ellie just was glad that he wasn't dead.

They made their way inside the house and got to see what it looked like inside.

"This is a pretty cool place." Michael says carrying one of the wracks of clothes.

"Yeah it actually feels quite homey." Ellie says carrying one of her suitcases.

"Yeah for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

"Come on Sam give Mom a break." Michael says to him.

"What's wrong with this picture? There's no TV. Have you seen a TV? ." Sam says.

"No but who needs a Tv, there's an amusement park and a beach 15 minutes away." Ellie says placing her suitcase down.

"Hey kids, let me show your rooms and I haven't met you little lady." Lucy's father said.

"I'm Ellie Drew's, Karen's daughter."

"Ah your Karen's little girl, I remember her always trying to steal my double stuffed Oreos." He says chuckling. "She never did though."

He went up the stairs and the three kids followed him, he went to the first two rooms which were connected by a bathroom.

"Sam, Michael this is your room, you both can use the same bathroom because there are two doors that are connected." Michael nodded and went downstairs to put his stuff into one of the rooms.

Lucy's father then led Ellie to the door on the right next to the connected bathroom to the two bedrooms.

"This one is yours Ellie, you have your own bathroom and it's got a nice view of the field."

She looked inside and saw that it already had a bed, dresser, and nightstand next to the bed.

"Thank you, so much." She went downstairs to get her stuff and grabbed her first suitcase and got it up stairs. She went back down to get her second suitcase, Ellie was getting up the stairs with her second suitcase. It was heavier than the first one so it was struggle for her getting it up the stairs. She was about to drop it until someone caught it for her, it was Michael.

"Thanks that could of been a disaster."

"Your welcome, here let me help you. You already look like your struggling."

He already grabbed the suitcase, and helped her bring it to her room. He placed it down and let her unpack, he went into the room next to hers and started to unpack his things.

Sam came to his room through the connected bathroom and started to bother him.

"So you and Ellie huh?"

"What are you talking about dork." He says not looking at him, placing a poster on the wall.

"Oh thank you Michael, I love you Michael." Sam says in a girly voice making kissy faces.

Michael rolled his eyes as Sam continued,

"I want you Michael, your my knight in shining-"

Michael began to chase Sam and he screamed, Ellie comes out of her room only to see a fleeing Sam and annoyed Michael behind him.

"Mom! Mom help me."

Ellie comes downstairs and helps Lucy with the stuff she's carrying. Seeing as the boy chase each other until Sam opens the door revealing more stuffed animals, deer antlers, and horns.

"Forget the Chain Saw Massacre." Michael says, Sam starts to laugh until their Grandpa makes them go silent.

"Rules! We got some rules around here."

Lucy's father took the three kids to the kitchen and showed them around.

"The second, shelf is mine. That's where I keep my root beer and double stuff Oreos. Nobody touches the second shelf but me, I got my eye on you Ellie. For 18 years your mother tried to steal my Oreos so I have no doubts that you'll try."

Ellie laughs and placed her hands up in defeat.

"Now there's another rule around here, I want you to pay close attention. Don't touch anything."

Michael puts his arm around Sam and follows Ellie to where their grandpa was.

"Hey grandpa, is it true that Santa Carla is the murder capital of the world?" Michael asks jokingly.

"There are some bad elements around here."

"Wait a second we moved to the murder capital of the world? Are you serious grandpa?" Sam asks.

"Let me put it this way, if all the corpses were buried around here were to stood up all at once. We'd have one hell of a population problem."

"That's comforting." Ellie says chuckling.

"Great Dad." Lucy says going up to her room to drop off some of her things.

"Now on Wednesday's, when the mailmen brings the TV guide sometimes the address label is curled up. You'll be tempted to tear it off, don't you only rip the cover and I don't like that. And stay out of here." He says mentioning the room full of stuffed animals and full of animal carcasses. He was about to close he door when Sam stopped him.

"Wait we have a TV?"

"No, I just like to read the TV guide, read the TV guide you don't need a TV." He says shutting the door.