"Man, we've missed the flight." Justin groaned, looking at his watch. He was leaning on the hood of the car. "It wouldn't be that bad if we had a place to stay."
"Yeah," JC agreed from his spot on top of the car's trunk. A large suburban came to a stop near them.
"Having some trouble, guys?" Beth teased from her driver's seat. JC looked up in mild surprise.
"Yeah, two flat tires." Joey told her. "we missed our flight."
"No problemo, just hop right in," Ariel said, opening her door. "You can stay at our place."
"You sure? We wouldn't want to impose." Lance asked, but his expression was hopeful.
"Sure!" Tiana called from inside the car. The guys pulled their luggage out from the back of the rental car and hopped into Beth's car.
"Are we there yet?" Justin asked loudly from the back of the car. They were already on the way to Beth's house. Lance was talking to the rental car company about picking up the car.
"Shut up!" Ariel growled. "Put in some music, Beth! Please?" Beth nodded, putting in a cd into the cd player while she drove. Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass" came out of the speakers. Beth, Ariel, and Tiana sang with the song.
"You guys don't listen to us?" Justin asked.
"Who do you think we are?" Ariel shot back, "obsessed teenyboppers? No offense, Karrie."
"None taken." Karrie said, who was also moving her head to the beat. Marie was the only silent one out of the whole group because she had fallen asleep.
"They call me Cowboy, I'm the singer in black! Throw a finger in the air and lemme see where you at!" Ariel sang loudly.
"Hey! Hey!" Beth sang, the two of them cracking up.
"Do y'all live together?" JC asked Tiana over the music.
"Yeah, well, except Karrie. She lives with her family but they live only about ten minutes away." Tiana told him, then grimaced when Kid Rock's song ended and The Bloodhound Gang's "Bad Touch" came on. "Change it!" She begged when Chris, Joey, and Justin began singing it behind her. Ariel laughed, "Alright, Tiana," She agreed, changing the song.
Moments later, they arrived at the house they shared. "Big isn't it?" Karrie asked Justin smugly. He was gawking at the house. It was two stories tall, with a large frontyard and driveway.
"You're college kids, aren't you? How can you afford a place like this?" Chris asked.
"It belongs to my parents," Beth told him, "they moved to San Diego and since I wanted to go to school here, they let us have the house to stay in."
"That's awesome." Lance commented. They all piled out of the car, but it was difficult to see because it was so dark. Beth fumbled with the car keys, looking for the house key, but it was hard for her to concentrate with JC standing near her.
"Ah! Here it is," She said triumphantly, unlocking the front door. The guys carried their luggage inside.
"Hey, there's a couple of messages," Ariel told them, pressing a button on the answering machine.
"Beth? You there?" A male voice asked. "I just wanted to know if you and the rest of the girls are going to be there tomorrow? Well call me back if you can." JC felt a surge of unexplainable jealousy.
"Ooh, it's Rick!" Tiana said excitedly, listening to the voice.
"Who's that?" JC asked.
"My brother," Beth explained, turning on the living room light. JC felt immediately relieved.
"Her amazingly cute brother!" Tiana added, slapping Ariel and Marie a high-five. Beth only rolled her eyes and made a gagging gesture, causing JC to laugh.
"two of you guys can take the spare bedroom," Ariel told them, "and there's a bed in the couch in the living room and one in the den. Oh yeah, there's also the couch in the library, right Tiana?"
"Yeah, 'cept that one doesn't have a bed," Tiana told them.
"I call the bedroom!" Justin called. Chris echoed him, and they left to go to the room.
"I'll take the living room," Joey said.
"I got the den!" Lance promptly claimed.
"I guess that means I've got the library," JC said, picking up his duffel bag and heading towards the room that Ariel pointed to.
"Don't tell me you guys are going to bed already!" Marie commented, laughing. "the night is still young! We've got movies, cable, and a pool."
"Can I stay over Ate Celeste?" Karrie begged, her brown eyes pleading with her cousin.
"Ask Ate Beth," Celeste told her, plopping down on the couch.
"Please Ate Beth?"
"Alright," Beth agreed, "But call your dad and mom to tell them, kiddo." Karrie smiled and dashed upstairs to use Beth's phone in her room.
"Why did she call you 'Ate'?" Joey asked, curious.
"Well, see it's a sort of Filipino tradition. Celeste and I are Karrie's older female cousins, so she calls us 'Ate' just like she would an older sister. If it were an older male cousin or brother, she would call him 'Kuya'"
"Oh, that's neat." Lance commented. He picked up the remote and turned on the television.
"Yeah. So who's hungry?"