Chapter 8: Banquet? What banquet?

"Hey guys," Lance said, sitting on the couch. "Have you noticed anything wrong with JC lately?"

"Anything wrong with JC?" Justin said as he frantically pushed the buttons on his controller. "The boy is dating the girlfriend from hell."

"Yeah," Chris said, then stood up with his arms raised after he had defeated Justin. "I am the Champion!" He yelled.

"No fair!" Justin called out. "Rematch!"

"No, I think I'll just keep my title." Chris said, grinning evilly at Justin. "Yeah, there's something up with him, but it's a little bit hard to tell," He said, looking at Lance, "you know how slow he can be."

"Where's Joey?" Justin asked, "I wanna beat him in Rush."

"I think he left, wanted to go meet some girls downstairs," JC said, walking into the room.

"Woah, where'd you guys go?" Chris asked teasingly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Julia asked innocently, she yawned, "well I'm going to go edit the footage for a little while. Goodnight guys, 'nite Paul." She said looking at JC, smiling at him as she left.

"'Nite Linda!" He called back, grinning as he shook his head. Chris eyed him with one eyebrow raised. "Don’t ask," JC said, sitting on the couch next to Lance.

"What's up with you two?" Lance asked curiously. JC could feel his muscles tense up.

"What do you mean?" He asked, trying to play innocent.

"You know what I mean," Lance said, "you like her."

"I do not."

"You do too."

"I have a girlfriend."

"Who's an overbearing bitch that doesn't deserve you."

"I don’t want to talk about it, Lance." JC said, getting up.

"Sorry." Lance said apologetically. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"It's alright." JC answered, taking a seat once again on the couch.

"You look tired. Maybe you should go take a rest or something. We have that banquet tomorrow." Lance told him.

"Banquet? What banquet?" JC asked, confused.

"The one for the Make a Wish Foundation."

"God, Lance, why don't you ever tell me these things earlier?" JC said.

"Sorry." Lance said, smirking. "Who's going to be your date?"

"Well, due to the short notice, I don’t know." JC said.

"Don't even think of asking Julia," Justin said from his spot on the floor. "I asked her earlier when she was editing her film." He grinned evilly at JC. JC eyed him, wondering if there was anything going on between Justin and Julie.

"Argh!" JC said, "I could call Michelle, but I don't think she'd be pleased about having to make the trip down here. I'll just go by myself, she'd be pissed if I took anyone else anyways."

"Suit yourself." Lance said, shrugging. "well I'd better go to bed. You should too JC, your always grumpy when you don't get enough sleep."

"Alright." JC said.

"'Nite, Poofu." Justin called out.

"G'nite, Justin…Hey!" He said, realizing that Justin had called him Poofu. He rolled his eyes and went to his room.

Ticket To Ride Contents | Chapter 7 | Chapter 9