CHAPTER TWO

Ten meters away from Reagan's house, the car completely broke down with the garage full of needed equipment already in sight.

The engine stopped working entirely and they had no choice but to get out of the comfort of their air conditioned bus and push it uphill with the temperature reaching beyond 30 degrees.

Reagan was tasked (she offered the help) to guide the direction of the bus from the inside so there were seven men in total who pushed the bus and she couldn't blame them for being upset.

But the most displeased one, by far, was Jack. The moment the bus reached the garage, Jack backed away from it and hastily took his jacket off with labored breaths. He then plopped down onto the front steps of Reagan's house, pulled out his phone, and glared at it as if he had a personal vendetta against the device.

First, he held the device at arm's length, extended his hands, then brought it above his head, then back down to chest level. He repeated that at least twice, not softening his glare for a second, before he whined, "You have got to be kidding me." He then directed his attention to Reagan and held his phone up for her to see, "There's no signal?"

Reagan paused and blinked at him. Not quite sure how to answer him before she shrugged and said, "Sorry?"

She wasn't really sorry. Especially not when Jack groaned and frustratedly stomped into his bus, making his curly hair bounce on his pompous head.

Her father must've heard the commotion because only seconds after everyone has settled, he tentatively opened their front door and blinked at the school bus parked on their driveway.

Reagan understood his confusion.

"Hey, dad," She greeted, walking up the steps to their front door, "These kind but strange travelers are lost and in need of a mechanic 'cause they're obviously a lucky bunch of lads."

"Hey!" Logan interjected but followed it with an amused laugh, "We're not strange."

"Well," Ronald Wallace shrugged, "For some reason you're lost here in Redwood, Oregon of all places and that counts as something strange to me."

Reagan's father laughed good-naturedly as Greg held up a hand to him, "I guess when you put it that way, we are strange. I'm Greg Paul, this is my son Logan, and his five friends over there inside the bus."

As Greg said this, Reagan glanced at the bus and laughed. If their plan was to have any involvement with the wilderness—which she assumed they did, they were heading to Redwood after all—she knew they would be terrible at it based on the way they couldn't even stay outside their bus for longer than a minute.

Greg explained to Ronald their current predicament, many apologies in between, and Ronald nodded along before offering to look at what's wrong.

So her father pulled out a trolley to roll under the bus before giving her the task of preparing refreshments for their unexpected guests.

After a few minutes of squeezing fresh lemons, Reagan walked out of their front door with a tray of biscuits and cold lemonade.

"How's it going, Dad?" She asked as she placed three empty glasses and a pitcher of said lemonade near where Greg, Logan and her father huddled.

"Well," He said, the worry and confusion apparent on his face, "I think they'll be here for a while, kid."

Reagan nodded (best she can while holding a tray full of snacks and more glasses of lemonade), laughing to herself after picturing the grief on Jack's face when he found out.

She climbed onto the school bus after two knocks on the opened door and proclaimed, "I come with food!"

It was Zach who sat up immediately and looked at her with the most thankful expression, making it look like she was offering him her life and not a bunch of stale snacks.

"Thank God," He groaned, "Corbyn's finished any last drop of food we have on the bus two hours ago and I am beyond starving."

"Hey!" Corbyn defended, "Sue me for being a growing teenager."

Nonetheless, Corbyn stood up to move some plastics bags that was on the seat in front of them to free up space and Reagan smiled gratefully as he offered her the seat.

"You idiot," Zach replied while taking the tray from Reagan and placing it on the seat beside her, making it easy for everyone to reach, "We're all growing teenagers."

Reagan laughed at that and takes a biscuit for herself.

"So Reagan," Jonah started as she passed along a pack of wrapped Oreos, "Any reason you were sittin' on the edge of a cliff about a mile away from your house?"

"If you have anything you want to talk about, I'm here for you," Zach said, trying to mask his sarcasm with solemnity (the effect ruined by the cookies he had in his mouth) before Corbyn smacked the back of his head muttering idiot.

"Uh," She let out a laugh, "Nothing like that. I was reading."

"A mile away from home?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Okay, in my defense, the view from that spot is magnificent."

"Can't argue," Jonah said supportively, "I've been wanting to get down from the bus and take pictures for about an hour now. The scenery is amazing."

"Right?" Reagan replied, eyes wide, but before Jonah could further gush about the landscapes, Daniel piped up.

"See, at least we got something good out of getting lost."

"If you don't mind me asking," She coughed, "How did you get lost? I mean, never had to use a map around this place, but I'm pretty sure the roads aren't that hard to follow."

"It's my fault," Daniel admited sheepishly, "I knew of a gravity hill around this area and I thought it was just a short drive away but then we realized we've been driving through mountains for over an hour then we missed a few turns, no idea of how to get back to the main road, and tada!" He said with a toothy grin, "We're lost."

"You knob," She laughed, "The gravity hill is an hour's drive away from here. It's definitely not a short drive from the main road."

"I didn't know that then," He argued with a chuckle, "But I do now. Didn't turn out too bad did it? Now I have food, a few hours where the bus isn't moving, and additional company because God knows I'm sick of these four."

"Hey!" Corbyn interrupted then laughed as Daniel tried to appease him with a cookie.

"Well lucky you," Reagan smiled, "Because you may be in the middle of nowhere but it's nowhere with a lot of things to do!"

"What do you do around here for fun, Reagan?" Jonah asked, his kind, ever-present smile interrupted by him taking a bite out of his cookie, "I mean, besides reading of course because that's far, far beyond our line of interest."

"I thought so," She said and laughed at the exaggerated offended expression Zach gave her. He took a bite out of his cookie straight afterwards so she continued, "Have you ever has stone oven pizza before?"

"How's that any different from the pizza we get from pizza hut and warm up with the microwave?" Corbyn asked, genuinely wondering.

"Oh, you poor soul," She chastised, "I'm going to make sure that all of you get to taste the best pizza of your life before you leave for the main road."

She felt at ease with the four kind strangers who are nothing but friendly. She had friends down in the village and some in the nearest city but they were a tightly knit community and most of the friends she had now, she has known since she was little. Frankly, they get boring after a couple of years.

It was interesting to meet new travelers and make new friends who spoke a bit differently and dressed in a strange way. Reagan liked it. She was thankful, especially now that it was their summer break and she didn't have much people to hang out with, that she's got someone to keep her company even for just a few hours.

They continued their light-hearted conversation when finally, finally, the petulant child scowling at the corner spoke up.

"So Reagan," Jack interrupted, "That's great and all but do you have any idea how long it'll take before the bus is up and running?"

"Ignore him," Jonah defended in an instant, "Something crawled up his ass this morning for some reason and no one can do anything about it."

"Oh fuck off, Jonah," Jack snarled back.

"Well," She interrupted before their little quarrel got out of hand, "Dad said it was gonna take quite some time."

"Quite some time? How long is some time, how many hours is that?" He asked harshly, putting great emphasis on the word 'some' which was almost sharper and more menacing than his glare.

"Not quite—"

Reagan was interrupted when Logan marched up the bus and scanned the group, panting. He gulped down a breath before saying, "Well, bad new guys."

"No," Jack said, moving to stand closer to Logan, "No, no, no, no, no, I can't afford bad news Logan, not right now."

"I'm sorry, bud," Logan shrugged helplessly, "But it'll take some time to fix the bus."

"How long is some time!?" Jack snapped, "How many hours is that?"

Even Logan flinched away, "Days."

Everyone turned silent and stared at Logan. This also meant that Jack was in everyone's line of sight and the way his knuckles are turning white from gripping the backrest of a seat was a sight that everyone noticed.

"What?" He asked sharply.

"The bus," Logan coughed uncomfortably, "It lost a part of its alternator, probably when we went over a speed bump down the road and it'll take four days for the replacement parts to be delivered."

"Fuck me," Jack breathed out, shutting his eyes in a futile attempt to calm himself.

"So yeah we'll be staying here for a couple of days but," He said and bounced on his feet, seeming like an attempt to enthuse everyone else on the bus, "A very kind, very generous and very hospitable family has offered us a place to eat and stay."

"Let me guess," Jack huffed out a humorless laugh, obviously unimpressed, "Reagan's?"

"Bingo," Logan said, giving him a lopsided grin. "Except there aren't enough rooms for all of us so some need to sleep in the bus."

He said the last sentence in one quick breath, probably hoping that wasn't going to be understood, but Reagan can practically see the realization dawning on Jack and before he lashed out, she stood up with an enthusiastic clap of her hands, "That's great!"

"That's the spirit!" Logan said appreciatively, pointing a finger at her, "That's my girl."

"Well. We do have quite some time on our hands, how 'bout we go see that gravity hill?"

Everyone responded with a little cheer except Daniel who fist pumped the air, overly excited, and Jack who glared at everyone with labored breaths, looking almost ready to choke the first one who came near him.

heyyyyy tysm for reading this ❤