What To Do?

March 15th

Jake woke up from his sleep to hear the 'delicate' sounds of Sasha's Tool CD playing on the speakers. Which surprised him for a couple reasons: one, Sasha rarely awoke before Jake did, and two, it implied that Sasha was in a darkish mood. While Sasha was artistic and moody, this WAS officially the first day of Spring Break. Jake figured Sasha would be on cloud nine.

"Hey," Sasha said, coming in from the bathroom. He was wearing black wide-leg jeans and a Black Sabbath shirt. Sash also had traces of the dark eyeliner on. Not good signs.

"Are you feeling okay?" replied Jake, stretching from the bed. He yawned. "What time is it anyway? Ah didn't figure Ah'd see you up 'til noon."

"I'm feeling fine," Sasha answered shortly. He went to his art desk and hunted for a certain notebook - not the sketching pads, but the notebook he kept up with that contained Gang news. "Just got a lot of work to do today. I made some calls - we're all going to meet up at the treehouse at noon. That's three hours. Let's get going."

"Okay." Jake watched Sasha exit again and shrugged to himself. Probably Sash just had a lot on his mind. He went and switched out Lateralus for his Bryan Adams CD. Sasha was sure to get over his funk once everyone in The Gang was together.

Sasha claimed his usual treehouse spot in the beanbag, keeping to himself as the others arrived. Finally, everyone except Paige had shown. Their faithful leader rubbed his hands together. He might just have to begin without her.

But then Paige appeared in the door, rushing over to him with the energy of a six year old. She leaned in to whisper in his ear, and Sasha grinned. "You're kidding me. Yes. Do it."

So Paige left again, shutting the door behind her. Sasha stood, calling everyone's attention.

The Gang grew silent, with the exception of Garland, who was making a techno beat noise with his throat. He saw Sasha staring at him and shut up.

"I've called this meeting to discuss this following week," Sasha began. "As you know, today is Saturday. This weekend, all of next week, and the following weekend are hereby declared as Tooler High Spring Break. We, my friends, must find something to do. To start the festivities . . . "

Sasha pointed his finger and everyone looked to the back. Paige opened the door and came back in - holding the hand of Connie Williams.

"Oh my God! Connie!" Mariah squealed and ran back to her. All the original Gang rushed to Connie, crying out in their excitement to see her. It had been just over nine months since Connie's departure.

Felix, Genesis, and Arizona lagged behind. They'd heard of Connie, who had been in The Gang since it's forming and moved away a couple months before the three of them came into town. Not one of the them had ever met her, though.

"Connie, come here," urged Morgan. "Come meet the new guys."

So introductions were made and everyone sat back down - not before the other original members chorused their surprise with Connie's appearance. She had lost every trace of fat she'd once complained about, had tossed her glasses in for contacts, and had grown out the blonde hair into shoulder-length curls. Connie looked really, really good.

Sasha grinned. For the first time since he'd awoken (maybe the first time in a couple weeks), Sasha felt himself lifting from the mood he'd been in. "So with that being said, I'd like to discuss this week. What shall we do, guys? We've talked a little off and on about doing a road trip of some sort. Has anyone come up with better plans than that?"

"I can't," Felix said instantly. "I'm leaving for New York Monday morning."

"That's right," said Garland. "And Gen, aren't you going somewhere with your family?"

Genesis nodded. "Spring Break's always big for my family. My parents take vacations and we always go somewhere. This year it's Disney World since we're so close to Florida. Sorry, guys."

"You can count me out too," added Arizona. "I head back to Paradise Valley on Tuesday to be with my friend Samantha for the rest of the week. I won't be back until Sunday night. Her mom bought me a ticket."

Jake looked a little disheartened. "Gee, it won't be the same without you guys," he lamented. He and Felix had been hanging out a LOT lately, and since Mariah and Arizona had gotten to be such good friends he found himself hanging out with Arizona pretty regularly too.

"Aw, look at it this way," answered Genesis. "You guys will get to be together all week, just the original Gang. I'm sure you guy have a lot of catching up to do with Connie. Don't worry about us."

"So where to?" asked LeeAnne. "I really need this trip, guys, I've got to get out for a little bit."

Garland rubbed his temples. "Alright, think vacation, think Spring Break . . . "

Connie giggled. She'd missed Garland. "Better get comfy, guys, this could take awhile."

"WE could go down to Disney World," suggested Paige. "That would be fun."

Sasha made a face. "Yeah, but it would be really expensive and it's kind of far for us to drive. That's at least ten hours in the car, Paige."

"How about Atlanta then?" asked Mariah. "Six Flags, stuff like that?"

Everyone pondered for a minute.

"I've got it!" yelled Garland. "Dude, this is the *perfect* idea. I just saw a big news thing a couple weeks ago about that new Mall of Georgia they opened up. It's supposed to be like ten stories tall, with a bunch of arcades and teen dance clubs and a megaplex movie theater and stuff. It's right over by that new theme park, Every Man For Himself. There's a huge steel roller coaster in that theme park and the prices aren't supposed to be high until summer because it's still on it's opening discount or something. It's about four hours away from here, but I bet we could get a couple hotel rooms or something. It would be so perfect!"

"Oh yeah, it *did* just open," echoed Jake, nodding his head. "Remember, Sasha, we saw the billboard for that over by your mom's doctor's office?"

Sasha smiled. It sounded like a plan to him. "What do you think, guys? Are you up for it? You think the parents would go for it?"

Mariah giggled. "I've come to realize that my mom doesn't *care* what I'm doing as long as I'm with you guys."

Everyone else chorused their agreement. The only one who thought he might have a little trouble was Morgan, but LeeAnne was sure that between her mother and Arizona's mom, Mrs. Chonce could be convinced. Everybody went home to get permission and funds. They had thirty-six hours to plan. By Monday morning, The Gang could start Spring Break.

*

*

*

(A/N: Hey Guys!!! I'm REALLY excited about this story, I can't wait for feedback! This story was the first time I ever got to take The Gang and roadtrip them! Just for your information, if there IS a 'Mall of Georgia', I don't know anything about it. The one that this story's set in is purely fictitious, as far as I know. Also, the town The Gang lives in (Tooler, Georgia) is made up and copyright of me. Okay, that's all. Over and out)