"Ready?" Justin asked.

Mackenzie looked up at him and nodded. "Yes."

They grabbed their tests, ready to flip them over. "We want A's!" they chanted, and turned the tests over, reading their own grades, then the others. "Hey!" Mackenzie shouted.

"What?" Justin asked.

"How'd you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?" he said.

"Get a hundred percent," she said, looking down at her own D minus.

"He started by getting all the answers right, Macky. A concept you have yet to embrace," her mother broke in.

"Darwin's stupid," she muttered. "That whole evolution thing just doesn't hold water with me."

"Darwin's not stupid," Justin said. "He had some pretty valid points. Like the natural selection thing, and survival of the fittest...and you know, this test was harder than most."

"Justin, you're defending a rather dead English naturalist. Does that present a problem to you?" Mackenzie said dryly. "And I said that I was sorry."

"Okay, okay you two. God, I feel like I'm babysitting sometimes. Macky, you can retake the test if you want, in two days," her mother said.

"I'll help you study tomorrow," Justin said.

"Okay," she said. Mackenzie's mother turned to exit that part of the crew bus. "Oh, and Macky, you might not want to refer to Darwin's evolution theory as a pure crock," she said, and turned to leave.

Justin started laughing and Mackenzie looked at him and slowly started counting to ten. "You actually said that?" he asked through his tears of laughter.

"Yes I did. So shut up about it."

"And coevolution is..."

"When two or more species evolve in response to one another," Mackenzie answered the question triumphantly.

"Good. I think that we're all set to go," he said. "And exactly forty-five minutes to soundcheck," he said.

"Cool," she said. They got up and walked to the north end of the large park, where they came in.

"Hey, which way?" she asked. "East or west?"

Justin shrugged. "I don't know. That way?" he asked, pointing to the right.

Mackenzie shrugged. "That's as good a direction as any." So they started off in that direction.

About twenty minutes, when they were getting into a "bad" part of town, Mackenzie said, "Umm, Justin? Something tells me that this isn't the way back to the ampitheater."

"Really?" he said sarcastically. "What tells you that?"

"Um, I don't know, maybe WHY THE WOULD YOU BE PLAYING IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD?!"

Mackenzie yelled, stopping all traffic it seemed and she calmed down. "Let's just turn around."

"Good idea," he said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in one direction.

"Justin, I could be wrong, but I think we're lost," she said. "We were in a hurry to get out of the bad part of town, and we are, but now we're lost," she sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face.

"We're not lost, Macky," he said, scratching his head in unadmitted confusion. "This way," he said, pulling her in another direction.

Mackenzie checked her watch. "Justin...I hate to tell you this, but you have twenty minutes EXACTLY until sound check, and if you're not there, there's going to be hell to pay. We should ask for directions."

"We're not lost," he insisted.

"Yes, we are," she said.

"No, we're not," he said.

"AAAAAUUUUGGHH!!!" she screamed. She looked around her, and went up to an old man sitting on a bench about ten feet away, and asked him in slow english how to get to the venue. When he started yelling at her in rapid German, and started to shake his umbrella at her, she ran back to Justin, and literally jumped up and into his arms, her arms around his neck. "Remind me never to do that again," she said. "He was scary."

Justin put Mackenzie down, and said, "Thumb. You're supposed to pity me for that one. But you're right. I think hell has frozen over," he said.

She glared at him. "We are lost. Now if-"

Justin looked at the passing bus, and he said, "Why don't we just take a bus?" he asked.

Mackenzie looked at Justin. "Do you have any money?" she asked.

He checked his pockets. "Nothing that would be of monetary value here."

"There's your answer," she said. "Now, let's get serious. What are we going to do? Neither of us speak enough German to make enough sense or hold an intelligent conversation, and my language is Spanish. Do you know where they said the hotel was, like street or something?"

Justin shrugged. "I just remember that we headed north from there when we were walking towards the park

Mackenzie thought for a minute. "Where are we?"

Justin looked at her. "Isn't that what we've been trying to figure out for the past...long time?" he said.

"Yeah, you're right," she said. She sat down on the steps of a large brick building. "I'm sorry. You're going to miss sound check."

"Naw, it ain't your fault," he said. "If I hadn't dragged you in different directions, we wouldn't be as lost as we are now."

Mackenzie was silent for a couple seconds. "Yeah, your right. It's your fault."

"What?" Justin said.

"I'm kidding...hey, what is this building anyways?" she said.

Justin looked up at the sign. "United States embassy." They looked at each other, and laughed.

"What are the chances?" Mackenzie said.

"Slim to none," Justin said. "And Slim was walking out the door."

They hurried inside, and with the help of a secretary, found a map and their location. They laid the map on the table. "So here's the embassy," she said.

"And here's the park..." Justin trailed off. "And here's the hotel." He was not smiling for a minute, and then burst out laughing. Pretty soon, he was on the floor laughing like a deranged Hyena.

"Justin," Mackenzie said. "I don't mean to sound like a cynical hypocrite, but what exactly about this is so funny?"

He stopped laughing enough to breath, "Would you believe me if I said that the venue was on the otherside of the block?" he giggled.

Mackenzie looked at him in disbelief. "I don't believe this," she said looking at the map. She grabbed his hand. "Then let's go. You have two minutes," she said.

He jumped up and they ran out the door, almost running over a couple very important looking people.

(Meanwhile, at the venue on the otherside of the block.)

"Where could he be?" JC said as he paced the stage of the venue. And it was a pretty good sized stage and he was moving across it pretty fast.

Lance looked up from his entertainment magazine and said, "JC, he'll be here. I think you're being a little uptight."

JC gave him a look that would have killed him. "He hasn't exactly done many responsible things lately."

Joey looked up. "What?" he asked hurridly while trying to seem innocent.

JC rolled his eyes. "Justin, Joe. Justin."

Joey nodded sheepishly. "I knew that."

JC laughed. "Yeah right. Where the hell could he be? He and Macky said that they'd be here at four. It is now-" he quickly checked his watch, "Four thirteen."

It was now Lance's turn to roll his eyes. "JC, chill, please. Before I have to do something drastic."

JC looked at him. "Justin...is...sixteen. Do you remember what you were like a sixteen?"

Lance started to talk, but Chris interrupted him. "I was venturing into the city for the first time and Daddy was teaching me to drive the tractor and run the combine without losing an arm," he said in a cheesy southern accent.

Lance shook his head. "Will the madness never end?" he asked looking heavenward.

"My point is that Justin and Macky are teenagers, and hormones can be a bitch," JC said.

"We'd know about that, wouldn't we now, JC?" Joey said under his breath.

"They wouldn't just jump in the closet. Macky would kick his ass and you know it Jace," Lance said.

Before JC had a chance to respond, a thud was heard and in came a laughing Justin and Mackenzie. Their faces were red from exertion, and they were laughing very, very hard. Somehow, JC didn't seem nearly as amused as he or Mackenzie was. "It was the funniest thing," he said. "We went the wrong way when we came out of the park, and we ended up at the U. S. Embassy which is just over there-" he stopped to catch his breath and laugh some more. "It's really funny...you'll laugh about it later," he said.

"I'm sure I will," JC said sarcastically. "Get your butt up here so we can have sound check."

Mackenzie was still laughing a little while they checked the microphones, until her mother came up behind her and put a warm hand on her shoulder. "You ready to take that test?" she asked.

"I guess so," she answered. They started to walk to a back room where she would be taking a test, and she said, "Mom, why does JC always nag on Justin?" she asked, really curious.

They turned a corner, and Carol sighed. "I'm not really sure what JC's motives behind treating Justin the way he does, but I'm pretty sure that it has good intentions. He feels compelled to protect him, because Justin's only sixteen. You wouldn't guess that by the way he acts or looks. but he is still virtually a child," she said. "By the way, you do realize that you're both still in trouble, right?" she asked.

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "Right. Trouble. As always."

Well hello T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
Tell me what in the world are you doin' A-L-O-N-E?

--T-R-O-U-B-L-E by Travis Tritt