Stone's Dream
Chapter 3

It wasn't even past noon the next day when Lindsy dragged herself out of her room. She squinted her eyes against the bright glare of sunlight and made her way to the lounge. She stood and stared at the people in the kitchen. Joey slept sitting at the counter, his face in an empty plate. Lance and Carrie sat, still slightly dazed but awake int he booth. Only Amber seemed coherent enough to brew coffee for those who managed to crawl out of bed. Amber finished setting up, stretched and yawned before leaving the kitchen. She walked past Lindsy, patted her on the shoulder and went to her room. Lindsy sat in an empty chair and passed out again.

In the morning of the following day, Amber woke up to find Indigo snuggled up in her blankets. She spoke to the dog as if she expected it to answer back.

"What are you doing in my room? Are you my pet? I don't think so." her words didn't carry the harshness it had in the past weeks. She even reached down and patter the dog in the head. "You are jsut like your owner, you really need to make up your mind. Either you hate me, or you want to be friends, but you can't have both. That would be considered jealousy." Things had been like this since the whole mess got started. Deeo down none of them meant to be mean, but it was how they were expected to act. "Too bad the script's been ripped to shreds." Amber said and rose from her bed. She threw on her robe and headed for the kitchen, Indigo trailing at her heels. She skirted the edge of the lounge where Chris and Jc were talking annd went into the kitchen to get some breakfast.

"So what are we going to do since we don't have another concert for a few days?" Jc turned the page in a magazine and waited for an answer.

"I think we're going to Lance's. The girls really want to see the place for whatever reason they give us." Jc snickered at Chris. he had hears of the wild, boastful storied Cassi had told everyone at the party. "But what are we going to do?" Jc meant for just the guys. Chris shrugged.

"Well, I hear he just got a new pool table and a foosball table. Not to mention some awesome pinball machines."

"Cool. At least there'll be something fun to do."

Unpacked at Lance's, the four girls had traveled away from the house with the secret bags and cases that they never opened when anyone else was around. Once they had selected the perfect spot, they freed their practice weapons from their casings. Wendy had decided on this bit of action, Lindsy and Carrie needed training very badly in her eyes. She had taken Lindsy to train with her sword, but Lindsy couldnt' handle the force Wendy was dealing her. Wendy cut down on her blade one last time and Lidnsy dropped to one knee under the pressure. "You win! I give!" Lindsy stuck her sword intot he ground and used it to gain her feet. Wendy shook her head.

"You are really bad. I don't know why I picked you when I could have had a better fight with Carrie and her daggers." Lindsy sat near her bag and carefully put her sword away. Amber came over from where she had been watching and challenged Wendy.

"Hey, Wendy, you and me, two swords vs. my one." Wendy grinned from ear to ear.

"Now those are my kind of odds. What do you hope to prove?"

"That's I'm still faster than you." Wendy narrowed her eyes at her opponent, but she took up her fighting stance with both swords in hand. Amber raised her one and waited for the signal. Carrie stopped throwing her daggers into a nearby tree and come to join Lindsy.

"Tired?" She asked over the clash of metal. Lindsy leaned her head against the tree she was sitting under.

"She kills me totally. Everything hurts." Carrie knelt down and put her weapons away.

"That's too bad, and I had good news to give too."

"What?"

"Well, Blue's coming to join the tour." Lindsy cringed just a little. The tought of a snake on the smae bus as her made her a bit queasy.

"Good thing the seven of us have to share the big bus. I don't want to get any closer to that smake than I absolutely have to." Her eyes followed the battle that raged. She could never move as fast as Amber was, she was practically dancing to the beat Wendy's swords made on her one.

"I thought you liked snakes."

"To a point. As long as there's solid glass between me and it, I'm fine." Lindsy got to her feet and began walking back to the house. Carrie remained sitting, she was going to see this battle to the end.

Settling down in the Jacuzzi, Lindsy zoned out listening to Pink. But one thing kept turning around in her mind. Carrie had told them what had happened at the hotel before she and Amber had apologized. 'Now we know whatever happened to Baby Jane. Someone else else got into the driver's seat and put the pedal to the metal.' Lindsy really wanted to be alone with her thoughts, but providence wasn't being helpful today. Justin came strolling in and found her there.

"Mind if anyone joins you?"

"A little." She couldn't just say 'no' to him. He came over to her anyway. His hands felt good on her aching shoulders as he started massaging them.

"You must have had a tough day, I could see the knots in your muscles from across the room." She laughed softly, enjoying the moment. "you want to know something good?"

"I already have good news today, but I can always stand a bit more."

"We're heading out for Tennessee the day after tomorrow. I can't wait to see my family again. And I bet they really want to meet you."

"Don't you know I'm not the kind of girl you take home to mother?" Justin bent down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Are you now? Well, I'm just going to have to watch you very carefully, aren't I?" this time her got it right and kissed her on the lips. Joey, of course, chose this moment to walk in on them.

"Why can't you to use your own room?" He stormed out without getting the bottle of pop he wanted. Lindsy reached out and shoved Justin toward the door.

"I want to be alond for a bit, so come back later." Justin let his shoulders slump and did as he was told. Lindsy closed ehr eyes once more and tried to get relaxed. She really didn't think two days of basic training were going to get her anything except pain.

Back on the beloved bus, the seven settled down to their own schedules. Amber was relaxing on her bunk, Wendy and Lance watched TV in the back, all while Joey, Lindsy and Justin sat up front, eating gummy worms. Carrie came in and saw the gummy worms. "Oooo! Can I have one?" She didn't bother with an answer, she simply took one and bit it in half. "Gummy, gummy, gummy!" The three sat and stared at her in silence.

"Okay," Joey said stretching out the word to match his confusion. "Who gave her alcohol?"

"It's not alcohol, silly! It's Surge!" Carrie's eyes lit up like two Christmas tree lights. Lindsy narrowed her eyes at her, she knew the only person who could have given her any pop.

"Amber!" She roared. A few seconds later, Amber came in from her bunk.

"Yes? Can I help you?" Lidnsy went over to her and yanked on her braid.

"Why did you give Carrie Surge? Don't you know what it does to her?" Amber gripped the edge of the doorway and carefully did a slow flip into the room.

"I didn't. She probably found my secret stash. I don't know how she could have found that one though." Lindsy let go of her braid.

"Why do you have a secret stash of Surge?" Justin asked her. Joey cut him off.

"You have more than one stash?" Lindsy and Justin glared at Amber. Carrie twirled around, giggling hyperly.

"Yes, I do." Amber said stiffluy. "I have my bottled of fine champagne and I have my expensive shocolate collection hidden on this bus."

"That was yours?" Joey gulped. Lindsy threw up her hands in exasperation and went to climb into her bunk. Justin scrambled after her, one could actually see the cloud of rage building up in Amber's eyes. Even Carrie faded into the back with Wendy and Lance in anticipation of the impending explosion.

Tennessee was much looked forward to, more than ever now since the Surge incident. Joey was still alive, Amber had gone into the bathroom to avoid her every impulse to kill him. She had vanished into the nearest gym the moment the bus stopped moving. Everyone else was at the venue, except for Justin who had left almost as fast as Amber had, and Carrie who was at the post office picking up her much awaited package. Lindsy was gearing up for her sound check, but she worried about Justin. 'How could he have just disappeared like that? He didn't even tell anyone he was leaving. He's going to get it after the concert.'

"Adora to the stage for sound check. Adora sound check on stage now." Lindsy hurried to the stage, but Joey stopped her.

"Are you okay? You look like you got some bad news or something."

"I'm fine, I just wish Justin would have told me where he was going." Joey nodded.

"Yeah, so does everyone else. Traci in wardrobe is having kittens because he's not here to check the final fit for his clothes. Cheer up, Cous, he'll show up sonner or later, otherwise he'll be out of a job." Lindsy smiled at him and ran up on stage before Wendy would get too annoyed. Joey's cell phone rang and he answered it, a bit on edge himself. "Hello?"

"Joe, it's me." It was Justin, and he was nervous about something. "I'm in town, and I just wanted someone to know that I'll be back in time for the show."

"Did you say you were in town?" Joey heard Justin clear his throat.

"Yeah, I met some old friends and I'm having lunch with them." Joey could tell he was lying, but he couldn't figure out why he needed to lie. He tactfully changed the subject.

"We have soundcheck in an hour."

"That's plenty of time. I'll be back before then. Well, I've got to go, thanks Joe." Justin hung up on Joey. Joey put his own phone away. 'Old friends? The only friend that still lives here is...'

"Oh, shit!"

"Oh, shit what?" Chris walked up behind him. Joey didn't feel like explaining himself to anyone, but he had to tell someone.

"J's having lunch with an old friend." Chris looked puzzled, so Joey had to explain. "Who's the only friend he still has living here?" Chris thought for a few moments. Then it dawned on him. His jaw dropped.

"Lindsy is going to kill everyone by one when she finds out!"

"That's why she isn't going to fins out. We're not going to tell anyone." Jc came up and saw the two talking heatedly.

"What's up? What are you two talking about?"

"How about, it's none of your damn... oh, Jc, I didn't know it was you. Sorry, dude." Joey nerves were fraying faster than the leg hems on his favorite pair of comfortable pants.

"We weren't talking about anything important. We're just worried that J won't be back in time." Jc knew Chris was lying and doing a poor job at it. It seemed that they really didn't want him to know so he dropped it.

"Whatever, I'm going to find Wendt and ask her to fix my mike." He left the two of them alone.

"So we're not going to tell Lindsy?" Chris looked a bit uncomfortable.

"No, not her or anyone else." They both knew that the witches, not to mention the two normal girls, would kill them both if they ever found out that they were keeping this secret.