The Morning Rush

Sleep faded as Sean’s strange dream ended. Lying in bed, the teen wondered if he’d keep having odd dreams until he stopped taking the painkillers for his injuries. He briefly considered writing down each of the bizarre stories, but the details started slipping away as he attempted to recall them.

As Sean returned to reality, he started to notice small details: the way the sun shone through the partly opened curtains, the hastily discarded bra hanging precariously from the chair’s arm, and the sound of running water.

Assuming Whitney must be in the shower, Sean’s burning throat led him to roll out of bed. He needed water or juice. And with his tormentor currently occupied, he’d have peace and quiet in the kitchen.

Hobbling out of the master bedroom, Sean limped the long journey to the cabin’s kitchen. The smell of frying bacon hit the teen’s nostrils first. Next came Harvey’s loud voice. Unfortunately, Sean heard the second voice only as he turned the final corner.

“Morning, Sean!” Harvey greeted in a booming voice, which caused his daughter to wince.

“Way too early for that, Dad.”

“Want some bacon and eggs? Pancakes?” Harvey offered, gesturing to a pile of the latter on a plate.

“They’re passable. He managed to follow the box’s instructions,” Whitney commented.

“I’m sorry that I’m not Frida, pumpkin,” Harvey replied, rolling his eyes for Sean’s benefit. Then, his expression brightened. “Power’s back on! Woke me up around four or so.”

“Which is why somebody is way too chipper already,” Whitney remarked, her sulking expression the opposite of her father’s. “Internet is still out. Cell reception is also still more useless than usual.”

“Hold on, hold on, let me help you,” Harvey announced, hurrying around the kitchen island to help Sean sit on a stool. “You could’ve helped, you know.”

“That’s what his mother is for,” Whitney shot back.

“Hmm, I thought Bridget would be up by now,” Harvey admitted.

“Mom’s in the shower,” Sean revealed.

The news perked up Harvey’s face. He also checked the wall clock over his shoulder. Both teens could tell what preoccupied his brain.

“You know, I’m not sure how long we have until the others start showing back up. Maybe I should give Bridget a hand. Make sure she cleans those hard-to-reach spots,” Harvey suggested. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Pumpkin, feed Sean.”

“What? Why?”

“He saved your life for one thing,” Harvey said over his shoulder while already leaving the room.

“I’m not his indentured servant for life because of it!” Whitney called out.

“Let’s see…I’ll take a little of everything, Miss Waitress,” Sean decided before taking a long gulp of orange juice.

“I’ll take a little of everything,” Whitney muttered, repeating his words. Suddenly, without warning, the blonde bombshell swung around to snap a towel at Sean’s face.

"Oww!" the teen cried as the tip flickered perfectly to hit his left eye. "The hell?!"

“That’s for being mean last night!”

“Last night? You were mean to me all of yesterday,” Sean responded, closing his watering eye. “Dammit, that hurts. At least Lacey didn’t intentionally hit me with her scarf last week.”

Whitney’s face scrunched up in a guilty expression while Sean brought his hand up to his eye. She hadn’t meant to hit him in the eye or hurt him. However, all traces of guilt vanished when he turned his open right eye in her direction.

“You were rude last night,” Whitney stated.

"Funny, I thought I was super nice. Made you blackout. I made the sex fiend blackout. I wonder what people would think about that," Sean teased.

“You better not tell anyone!” Whitney shrieked, shooting a warning glare.

“You just blurted out that we had sex to Lacey and Ramsey!”

“Your mom did the same to her friend,” Whitney counterargued. “And don’t think I forgot about you moaning to Lace and Rammy about how I was mean to you yesterday. Snitch on me and I’ll come back even stronger in my ****. I’ll tell the whole school you abused me, and you’re stardom will be over.”

“How was I abusive? I was just paying back my little sister with a slap to the ass and a hair tug for being an obnoxious brat,” Sean stated, winking.

“Little sister? Don’t throw my prediction back at me,” Whitney said, tossing a plate of food in front of him.

"Yep, I might like having a little sister that owes me. You can wait on me hand and foot from now on," Sean laid on the teasing. "Another glass, please. I sure am parched from making you feel good last night."

“Get it yourself!”

"Too bad for you. I'll have to wait for a better sister option to come around. Maybe Lacey can play matchmaker for my mom based on the guy's kids."

“Hey, I’m serious!”

“I’m serious. I mean it,” Sean mocked in a poor imitation of her voice before eating a piece of bacon.

“My dad just rushed off to stick his big cock in your mom’s needy pussy. Don’t think that’s ending when we get back to town,” Whitney insisted. Then, she rolled her eyes as Sean coughed on his bacon while a slightly sickened expression formed. “Seriously? You better stop acting like that. I don’t need Dr. Sean acting all Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde about his mom's sex life. So it’s gross when she has sex with my dad but not with you?”

“It’s weird all around. I’m also not sold on your future-telling powers, Bratadamus,” Sean said. “And don’t tell anyone else about it. My mom doesn’t need people gossiping even more than they will.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone. I respect your mom too much to do that,” Whitney declared before wavering. “But once the divorce is finalized, anything goes.”

“Don’t you think it’s going to get even weirder if you start lobbying for our parents to get together after telling the world we had sex?” Sean challenged.

“You’ll have screwed plenty of other girls by then. I’ll have Nosy Nectar running daily articles about you,” Whitney vowed, opening the fridge to grab the juice container, which she slammed down near Sean. ”However, I’d recommend not telling Newt what happened while he’s driving you to school tomorrow. I’m pretty sure he’d faint.”

Sean shot the other teen an incredulous look. First, Whitney was all over the map. She didn't want him to tell anyone after she already did. Then, she brought up his telling Newt. The second reason for his expression came from the prospect of Newt driving him to school.

“Newt’s not allowed behind the steering wheel of my car. JoJo will have to drive us to school,” Sean assumed. “I’ve already nearly died enough for the rest of this school year.”

“Oh, so you’re going to make JoJo chauffeur you around for the next six weeks? That’s not nice. What if she has her own life to live?”

“I’m not going to make her do anything. JoJo’s done with soccer. However, if she is busy, Peyton will be around for a few weeks. Maybe even Brandy…maybe,” Sean said about his flighty aunt. “And we don’t know if I’ll be laid up for six weeks. I need to see the doctor again for more tests when the swelling goes down.”

Sean added a few mutterings about hoping he wasn’t laid up for that long and about the Babybees.

“I trust your mother’s prediction. And I wouldn’t be dismissive of my helpers. They might be your lifeline for the next couple of months. Well, I think most of the Babybees have driving licenses…uh, I think they do. Aargh! I guess I’m going to have to ask,” Whitney admitted. “I’m not carting you around.”

“I can only imagine how poor of a…wait, do you even have a license?” Sean questioned, suddenly recalling gossip he’d heard about Whitney in the past.

“Yes, I do!” Whitney proclaimed. However, her tone came across as too forceful, and Sean’s expression showed that he’d picked up on it. “Fine. I got my driver’s license last summer.”

“Last summer?! Did you wait until you hit eighteen? Wait, was there a reason you couldn’t get one before you turned eighteen?” Sean rattled off his questions as he imagined what sort of trouble Whitney had gotten into.

“No, I could’ve gotten it when I turned sixteen. Do you think I’m a juvenile delinquent or something?!” Whitney wagged her finger at Sean’s non-verbal response. “I didn’t need to know how to drive. Bud’s employed as our driver, and Frida likes to take me places. Plus, I have friends who drive.”

“I’m sure there is an excuse besides Miss Primadonna being lazy,” Sean said, realizing he already knew what buttons to push.

“Lazy?! I have a super busy life!” Whitney screamed.

Sean slowly brought another bite to his mouth while he watched the blonde’s glare morph into a frown. Suddenly, Whitney opened a pair of drawers before she found what she wanted. Pulling out a paper pad and pen, the queen bee wrote a header. Sean leaned forward to read it upside down: To Do List.

“Let’s see…I need to know which Babybees can drive and which ones have access to a car. Oh, I also threatened to find Newt a girlfriend. I guess I can bring Lacey in on that chore. Shit, I need to set up a rotation for the Babybees' caregiving. Not to mention I have to decide which girls you need to fuck. Damn, this will be a lot of work,” Whitney said, frowning while she jotted down each item.

“Don’t you usually delegate this stuff?”

“Cat isn’t going near any of this! Not after she jumped the line by fucking you before I did. Oh, that reminds me.” Whitney wrote down a note about punishing her co-captain. “You better not even think of warning Cat. She doesn’t need to know that I know.”

Sean threw up his hands at the very idea. Caterina scared him even more than Whitney.

“Alright, I can trust Roxie to drive you. Yumi and Katie are iffy. They might need a co-pilot or navigator assigned to ensure they keep their eyes on the road,” Whitney mused.

Sean's heart sank as he realized he'd screwed up. Whitney might not only run his sex life but his whole life for the near future.

“You better move back here,” Rachel ordered, breaking her hug with Lauren.

“It’s their college choice,” the brunette replied, gesturing to her three children.

The drowsy Rogers triplets stood in the Witzler Hotel’s lobby while saying goodbye to the offspring of their mother’s friends. The Arbor Corners’ contingent was checking out and heading home. Phoebe Fawcett and Dove Flavin watched as Phoebe’s brother, Paxson, teased Virgil Lago about just arriving. The sixteen-year-old had barely appeared during the New Year’s Eve ball and only for dinner on New Year’s Day.

“I keep telling you that you need to be more sociable. And talking shit to other gamers online doesn’t count,” Ariana scolded her younger half-brother.

“Dad says you’re too sociable,” Virgil shot back.

“What does that mean?”

Addison rolled her eyes as Shelly and Cookie laughed. Everyone knew that her stepdaughter had a wild reputation. The former classmates swore they would get together again much quicker the next time around. The promise wasn’t half-hearted for once, as Addison pointed out that they’d return from Thirsty Gulch in the summer for all the high school graduations.

“Also, if Ariana does her internship in Honey Hollow, we’ll make an extra visit. My parents don’t see Virgil enough,” Addison added.

“Didn’t Bridget say something about Ariana staying at her house this summer?” Shelly asked.

“She did, but that was before her and Leonard…”

“Oh, right. They could sell their house because of the divorce,” Cookie realized.

“No way. Bridget’s not getting rid of her house. She loves her neighborhood,” Gabby declared, joining the other three women. “Leonard will just have to take a buyout of that asset. I see it happen all the time.”

“That’s right! You do have a job, Gabs. Doesn’t seem like it,” Shelly teased her younger cheersister about her real estate career.

“You know they do wonderful things with green screens and CGI these days. Are we even sure that’s Shelly on the TV screen, Cook?” Gabby questioned, challenging her mentor for a better comeback.

“Keep me out of this. I had enough of your so-called family squabbles in high school,” Cookie said.

“What happened to the Sugarbee?” Gabby queried, noticing someone missing.

“Naomi and Nikki left already. She had to pick up Noah from Jack’s,” Cookie explained about her friend’s son and his father. “Dove thought about going with them but decided against it. There’s still occasional drama between Naomi and Jack.”

About a dozen feet away, the Rogers triplets triple-teamed another dancer.

“Seriously, you should visit Regal Crest before we graduate,” Loren begged Delilah. “Please!”

“Just claim it’s for a visit to Doxton College,” Rowan suggested.

“Yeah, we’ll show you around Thornapple Academy instead,” Lex plotted, rubbing his hands together. “You can help put some rich bitches in place with your moves.”

“I don’t know about that,” Delilah replied, laughing. “I might need to bring backup if you’re looking to cause trouble.”

“You can bring Rory!” Loren pointed out.

“Maybe. Her dad might be willing since it’s a prestigious school, and if my mom and dad are with us,” Delilah hedged about the possibility.

“Sienna’s visited a few times. You could bring a whole group. Fletcher’s always a blast, and we’d love to show off the newest town hero,” Lex said.

“I don’t know, Jo. Do you think our Sean would like to be surrounded by rich snobs?” Jared asked, nudging JoJo.

“Why are you asking me? Whitney’s in charge of his life now.”

The soccer star’s response brought a round of laughter. Some out of amusement, others more sympathetically.

“Say, weren’t you all planning another trip to check out Zurbrugg?” Dove asked, meaning the Honey Hollow crew.

“I think so,” Delilah replied, glancing over at JoJo. “Beyza is interested. Rory is probably leaning toward Breakwater because of the drama program. As for the other Sugarbees, Breakwater is the Zuccaro family’s school. So Yelena is probably headed there as well, and Jasmine will follow them. Tandy’s almost certainly joining her sister down at Vapor Valley. Rosie is either going with her or staying around the area.”

“Iona’s got scholarship offers from big-name schools, but she loves to have fun. She’d be up for a visit to Zurbrugg. That’s if there is a reason to go,” JoJo said, hinting at Jared.

“Bethany’s definitely attending Zurbrugg with us next year. So I bet she’d be down for a visit,” Jared said, referring to his neighbor and closest friend.

“We should plan a group trip,” Delilah suggested.

Nearby, most of the mothers waited as their husbands went to pull their cars into the packed semi-circle driveway. Spotting Ramsey in the Stratton’s sedan, Rachel motioned for Skye to get ready. After a final round of goodbyes, the red-haired MILF sighed and sent a message.

Finn entered the kitchen with damp hair. Serinda and Sanna looked up from the plates with beaming smiles. The two sisters wanted to absorb every moment they could with the cousin they didn’t see enough. Also, they’d been chatting about their plans for covering all the crazy events from their trip. Backup plans needed to be created in preparation for whatever punishments their parents issued for their part in the **** prank.

Peyton enjoyed watching their planning session while picking at a piece of toast. She wasn’t thrilled about her friends’ lives being treated as a reality show. However, she could tell the girls didn’t mean it as an insult. Next to her, Trey watched with appreciation as Tenille placed a fully packed plate in front of him. His eyes widened at the assortment of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and sausages. Thrilled to have the younger guests, Cecelia had gone all out with her breakfast this morning. Finn noticed this and vowed to come around with his friends more often before classes started back up. He worried about his grandparents feeling lonely.

“No!!!” Lana screeched, coming up from the basement while staring at the phone message.

“Do you always have to be so melodramatic?” Lacey complained, closing the refrigerator.

“Everyone is checking out of the hotel. Mom’s dropping all our stuff off at our house. She said we have exactly one hour before she’s leaving for Wasp Lake,” Lana relayed.

“What?! One hour?! I need to shower and change!” Lacey squealed, her head on a swivel as she suddenly felt overwhelmed.

Finn shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't in a rush since he planned to drive his car back to the cabin. Plus, he’d taken his shower a few minutes earlier. Peyton started to shrug before she recalled what she needed to do. Nate, his cousins, and Zaylie weren’t going to the cabin, so they weren’t in any hurry. The lack of urgency from the others didn’t sit well with the petite redhead.

“We gotta go!” Lacey exclaimed.

“Crap. I need to pick up my mom’s car from the parking garage,” Peyton remembered.

“No big deal. I can swing you by the Witzler before heading to the Strattons,” Finn said, picking up a piece of bacon.

“No big deal?! I need to get cleaned up!” Lacey yelled, slapping the food out of Finn’s hand. “I can’t go all around looking grungy.”

“Wonderful. If this is how you’re going to act as a single girl, I’m going back to Arbor Corners,” Lana groaned.

“First off, your sister is merely acting like you. And second, you’re not going back to our place. Who will cook and clean for you over the next three weeks?” Peyton pointed out.

“Good point! You’re coming with me,” Lana responded.

A chime rang from Nate’s phone. Checking the incoming message, Nate muttered, “Shit.”

“Nathan!” Tenille admonished, gesturing to her younger brother.

“Sorry, buddy. I should say poopy,” Nate corrected jokingly.

“Gawd, Trey’s eight, not four,” Tenille pointed out, scowling as her brother giggled at Nate’s joke.

“And you’re ten, not fifty,” Nate reminded his younger, uptight cousin. “Whatever. We need to go. Your mom is bitching up a storm about us not being back yet. Something about you two needing to spend time with your grandparents before leaving this afternoon.”

With barely half his plate gone, Trey looked devastated at the thought of leaving the rest of the food uneaten. Watching his youngest cousin stuffing his mouth, Nate held up a finger. First, he poured a tiny amount of syrup onto a pancake. Next, he placed a couple of sausage pieces into the middle of the pancake in a row. Bacon followed, lining the sides of the sausages while Nate crumpled it. Finally, the older cousin rolled the pancake up before wrapping an additional piece around the first.

“There you go, buddy. I’m teaching you a valuable lesson about eating on the go in college. Your very own breakfast wrap.”

Peyton smiled as Trey’s eyes widened in appreciation of his cousin’s lesson. He also appeared thrilled that he wouldn’t need to leave as much food behind. CeCe chuckled at the development while Tenny rolled her eyes.

“Come on. The Trey Day Express is now boarding,” Nate announced, crouching so his little cousin could crawl on his back. “And away we go!”

Shaking his head, Red Bank opened the side door to let them exit down the driveway. His children never acted that way, but it reminded him of Nate’s uncle and Peyton’s aunt. And despite his grouching about Cassie’s friends, Red begrudgingly missed the commotion.

“Come on. We need to leave!” Lacey stressed, hugging CeCe goodbye.

“I could call Barney and see if he can drop you off. Or maybe Brandy can?” Finn suggested, ignoring the fidgety redhead while mulling over Peyton’s issue.

“Brandy’s probably hungover in bed still, and Barn did more than enough already,” Peyton pointed out before another idea hit her. She turned and ran to open the front door. Leaning out, she yelled, “Nate, you’re driving!”

“Alright!” Nate called back while pausing in the middle of the street. “Hold up. Where am I going?”

“Just get your grandparents’ car keys and get it started,” Peyton replied, shutting the door. Turning, she glanced back at Finn. “Okay, that takes care of my ride.”

“Are you sure about it?” Finn inquired, knowing how crazy Nate drove his co-BFF.

Lacey slapped his chest for asking. She wanted to leave two minutes ago. Her scowl vanished as Sanna and Serinda came over for goodbye hugs.

“It’s not that far,” Peyton replied.

The leggy blonde walked over to thank Finn’s grandparents. Then, she turned to kiss the top of Tenille’s head before kneeling for a whispered chat. Eventually, she replaced Lacey with the Bank sisters before rushing out the door.

Suddenly, Lana’s brain bulb flashed.

“Wait up! I’m coming with you!” the buxom ginger screamed, causing Finn and Lacey to question her. “Pey’s house has extra showers, and my spare clothes are in my bedroom there. I’ll drive to the cabin with her.”

“Nothing seems to change around here,” Red remarked as his favorite girl burst out the front door.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Bank," Tenille said politely. After CeCe hugged her and Red patted her, she walked out the side door.

“Hurry up, Tenny! Lana’s in the mood for a race,” Peyton yelled from across the street.

“I am not!” Lana screamed.

“Oh, I don’t know, honey. I can’t recall any of the kids being that polite,” CeCe cracked, nodding at the departing ten-year-old. “Even Cassandra.”