Stone's Dream
Chapter 1

"What?!" Lindsy roared as she leaped from the sofa. She loomed over Justin like the proverbial Angel of Death. He scrunched down in the cushions to make himself as small as humanly possible.

"I just said that I thought the chick in the green and fur outfit was hot." He had been telling her about his adventure on Coney Island for the third time. Lindsy sat on top of him, successfully pinning him in his seat.

"You go me up at five in the morning to tell me that?"

"Well, it's six now."

"What about me?"

"You'd look fantastic in fur."

"Really? Well too bad, I'm not that kind of girl."

"Please?" She had been moving in for a kiss, but he had ruined the moment. They sat there staring into each others' eyes with their noses touching.

"No." Lindsy tired to get up, but Justin pulled her back down into his lap and proceeded to tickle her.

"Please?" He had her gasping with laughter, but she managed to get out one word.

"No!" Amber came out from the bunks to do her early morning routine. She was singing softly to herself and was oblivious to the two people fighting on the couch. Justin and Lindsy quieted down until they noticed the headphones attached to her ears and the CD player clipped to the waist of her pajama bottoms. "It's okay, she can't hear us. She must have woken up from a really good dream to not even see us here." Lindsy said as Amber readied herself for some exercise. Indigo ran up to her and jumped on her back. She laid down immediately, and Amber began doing push ups, using the dog as resistance weight.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because she only ever sings 'You're a God' after she's had a dream about the guy she's in love with." Lindsy wasn't ready to tell him the real reason to why Amber liked that song so much.

"The priest? Hasn't she gotten over him yet?" Justin was doing that weird face he always made when something didn't agree with him. he didn't wait for Lindsy to answer, not that she wanted to. "Do you think we should move to a different area of the bus?" He asked while getting up from the sofa.

"Are you shy?" Linsy retorted and pulled him back down on the couch.

"God! Get a room before you both make us all sick!" Joey said as he walked into the lounge. Justin and Lindsy went right on with what they were doing, which was making out on the couch. Amber finished her exercise, and Indigo jumped off her back. She stood up and finally realized that there were other people in the room. She raised an eyebrow to Justin and Lindsy and walked into the kitchen area, followed by Joey. She laid the played on the table and went about getting breakfast together. Joey said and waited. 'Well, she's not the most sociable perso in the world, but she cooks like a dream.' Soon the smell of eggs, bacon and pancake batter cooking drew almost everyone into the kitchen. Lindsy tried to pull away from Justin to go eat, but he kept pulling her back down.

"Justin! A person can't live on love alone! I'm hungry!"

"I know that, but which is more important, food or making out with your boyfriend?" She pretended to ponder the question. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling as if the answer was written there. Then, she leaned down and gave him a kiss.

"Food." She said and went to the kitchen to get some before everyone else hogged it all. Wendy greeted Lindsy and handed her a plate.

"Grab what you can before Joey eats it all." Justin came in and beat her to the punch, piling up food on his own plate. He sat and patted the seat next to him. Lindsy went, and they shared the one plate. Justin commented as he ate.

"Poor Jc and Chris. I bet they don't get this kind of treatment." Lindsy nodded in agreement. She picked up a piece of bacon and waved it in the air.

"Yeah, thank God for Amber, or we'd all starve!" Wendy muttered about how she could cook but wouldn't cook for any of them. "That's what I'm talking about. Amber's being generous by cooking for all of us now." Amber checked the last of the eggs before sliding them onto the buffet plate that everyone picked food from. She smiled at her friends and then wrinkled her nose at them.

"Don't start thinking I'm a personal cook for anyone. I'm just cooking now because I like people to enjoy my food. I haven't had to cook for anyone else since..." Amber fell silent and went back to work, frying up some more bacon and using the last of the batter to finsh her pancakes off. Lindsy and Wendy exchanged glances. They knew how that sentence ended.

"Whaw's whaw wit wooks wike wo we." Joey tried to say through a mouth full of food. Everyone glared at him. Wendy wiped her mouth with her napkin and left the kitchen, totally disgusted.

"Joey, chew and swallow before you speak. That's sickening!" His cousin covered her mouth, so she wouldn't spew everywhere. Joey swallowed what he was eating whole. Lindsy cringed behind her napkin.

"Sorry. I said, 'she looks like she's a professional cook to me.'" Then, he took another big bite out of his breakfast. Lindsy pushed her plate away and stood up.

"You're a pig, Joey. I've just lost my appetite." Suddenly the bus stopped, and everyone was thrown forward. Justin and Joey slammed into each other and Lindsy and Amber got a taste of carpet. Wendy crawled in to see if everyone was still alive.

"Uh, is something burning?" She asked as the smell of burnt fabric filled the bus. Amber raised herself off the floor and groped along the counter top for a dish towel. She picked her pan off the carpet.

"Yeah, the floor's on fire." Lidnsy nearly jumped up from the floor.

"What?" Even Carrie and Lance, the late sleepers came crawling in from the bunks.

"Not really. The pan just scorched the carpet a bit." Amber rose from her knees and placed the pan in the sink. James, their bus driver, ran back to check on them after sitting in his seat, dazed and confused.

"I am so sorry! Is everyone all right?" Worried about all of them, he went around and checked each one personally.

"We're fine, we should be glad the rest of our caravan is in front of us, and there's no one else on the road this early in the morning." Justin struggled to get out of the booth, but Joey was in his way. "What happened?"

"I... I don't know really. It all happened so fast, and it was very strange." The four women had gathered by the sink.

"Define strange." Carrie said and fixed her pj's so they were more comfortable. She had a feeling of what he was going to say. She felt a familiar presence all around her.

"well, it looked like a girl. I couldn't see her very clearly, but she was covered in a white glow. She disappeared or someting when I looked away to step on the brakes. I thought I hit her."

"Did you say a girl?" He nodded, and Amber raced ff the bus followed by the other women. No one bothered to follow them. They stood outside in their pj's, looking out at the road. The sky was still dark, and they couldn't even find a trace of the girl James said he saw.

"This has to be a sign!" Wendy nearly danced around on the road for joy.

"We're getting closer." Carrie looked the where the sky was beginng to lighten with dawn's first light.

"Actually, no. I feel we're getting farther away from her." Amber leaned against the bus. Lindsy did the same.

"I don't care. I say the farther we get, the better off we are."

"What is your problem?" Amber asked her. She shoved her hands in her shorts' pockets.

"Don't you realize that after we find her and finish training, we're going to die?" Wendy looked at Lindsy with exasperation.

"Where have you been? We'rve transformed before. Training is done, both of our identities have chosen to co-exist."

"That doesn't matter! We don't even know if we're going to win! I don't want to die!" Lindsy was ready to cry, but Amber clapped a hand over her mouth before she got any louder than she slready was. Carrie came over to help comfort her friend.

"None of us are going to die if we stick together and get stronger."

"Risks and gambles make life interesting. You should take one sometimes instead of betting on a sure thing." Amber was doing her philosophical thing as she walked to the front of the bus.

"Yeah, maybe I will. Come here!"

"What are you going to do? Hit me agian?"

"You're not funny!" Lidnsy stormed passed her onto the bus and all that could be heard was the surprised yelp of a puppy. The others slowly climbed back on the bus and didn't speak to each other for the rest of the trip.