GODS AND MONSTERS ↝ P. LAHOTE

[11]

Lark sat outside on the front step of her house well before sunrise, with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and her knees brought up to her chest, waiting for the van to arrive and anticipating the day ahead of them. Now that the news had officially decreed Seattle as being "safe" again, Lark, Leonora, Alicia, Paul, Embry, Quil, Jared and Jacob decided to pack up one of Jared's family's vans and drive in for the day so they could show Lark around the city before her brother flew in from Boston later that evening.

Though, with a three and a half hour drive, and Leonora's insistence that one of the small, local diners in town was the best place to get breakfast, it required the group to be out of Forks by six o'clock that morning.

Lark watched with a smile as the van finally pulled into her driveway, flashing its lights at her in the darkness. The girl shook her head with a grin, crossing to the vehicle as Quil slid open the side door, revealing the three rows of seats inside.

While Jared drove and Leo sat in the passenger seat to keep him company, Quil and Jacob took up the first row of seats and Alicia and Embry sat cuddled up in the very back, with the former snoozing on her boyfriend's shoulder. Paul was left sitting in the middle row, greeting Lark with a sleepy smile as she climbed in next to him, and Quil slid the door shut again, signaling to Jared that they were good to go.

"And, we're off!" Leo cheered as soon as they made it onto the highway.

"Nora, it is way too early to be this excited." Jacob groaned, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his head against the window in an attempt to slip back into unconsciousness for the duration of the ride.

As soon as the van was out of Forks and heading for Seattle, most of the passengers had managed to fall asleep, all except for Jared, of course, Leo, Quil and Lark. Embry had drifted off before they made it out of Lark's driveway, his head resting peacefully on top of Alicia's, Jacob managing to pass back out a couple minutes later, and a soft snoring sound to her left alerting Lark that even Paul had fallen back asleep.

"And then there were four," Quil murmured, shaking his head as he surveyed the rest of the passengers.

"Let's play a road game!" Leo suggested, bouncing up and down in her seat.

"How about the alphabet game?" Lark suggested. "Where you go from a through z, finding the letters on road signs and license plates."

Jared took a sharp turn onto the next road, causing Paul to shift a bit in his sleep. The boy leaned to the right, his head landing on Lark's shoulder, where he lay still, continuing to snore softly. Lark couldn't help the smile that grew on her face and the soft chuckle that threatened to escape, though she remained still, not wanting to wake them up. Instead, she used her free hand to grab the blanket on the seat next to her, and she quickly draped it over both of them so he wouldn't get cold.

"Pssst!" she whispered, in an attempt to get Leo's attention. "Leo!"

Leo turned around to look at Lark, her jaw dropping as she took in Paul's sleeping figure. A chuckle escaped her lips, and she quickly turned back to her bag sitting on the floor, rifling through it until she pulled out a Polaroid camera.

"Smile!" Leo whispered back, and Lark gave a thumbs up with her free hand that wasn't currently held down by the sleeping Paul, shooting the camera a cheesy smile.

"He actually looks kind of..." Quil trailed off, searching for the right word. "...cuddly." He shook his head. "I don't believe it."

One by one, the group members trained their attention back onto the road, searching for the letters in the road signs. Quil was the first one to finish the alphabet, and after he won Leo suggested a game of I Spy, even going so far as a riveting round of Punch Buggy, and one by one a few other members of the group began to wake from their slumber, Embry being first, shortly followed by Alicia. By the time Jared had pulled into a parking garage in the city, Quil nudged Jacob a few times to wake him up, and Lark began to do the same with Paul.