Part 1: Magical

Chapter 6: Fun with dilemmas

Dove's P.O.V

    "You sure this is a good idea?" Rue asked uncertainly buckling herself in the backseat.
    "What? Driving?" Jazzmine asked checking her review mirror.
    "Yeah. Couldn't we just walk or something?"
    "Nah. Besides, we can't let anyone take my car. Mimzy, take the I.L. Rue, you take the M.P.P."
    "Sure." Rue said taking the map-like device in her hands.
    "Then we're off!" Ginny exclaims as Jazzmine pulls off the rest stop area and back onto the highway. "Next stop, the Fairy Extravaganza!"
    About an hour of driving over hills, bumps, and winding roads later, I could hear Rue asking in a tremulous voice "Lee-Ann, can you take this?" and Lee-Ann's response "Heck no, Jazzy gave it to you. It's your job to tell her when the next turn off is not mine."
    "Please? My eyes need a brake." Rue begs, her face an ashen pale color.
    "Fine." Lee-Ann grumbles as she snatches the device out of Rue's hands. "But your getting it back later."
    About five minutes later, I hear "Here, your turn." and turn around to see Lee-Ann shoving the device back to Rue. "I feel that it's just the typical 'I have people around me so I'm gonna share the duty because I don't want to' thing." Lee-Ann grunts crossing her arms over her chest.
    "It's not that," Rue states weakly. Lee-Ann faces her to counter the comment but stops and just stares at Rue. "Reading in the car always makes me-" Rue swallows hard and the M.P.P. falls from her hands clatters on the car mat beneath her feet. "Carsick."
    This news has to sink in each of our brains for about ten seconds before understand what she's saying. Now it all makes sense! This is why Rue suggested walking or flying, asking for a rest stop...why she looked so much happier while we were taking it, not intentionally messing up the directions, all the nervousness, and even she asked Lee-Ann to take the M.P.P. It all clicks together. Why didn't I figure it out sooner?
    "I knew it!" Lee-Ann shouts hitting her fist in her open palm. "YOU DIRTY LITTLE LAIR!"
    "Why didn't you speak up?" I ask.
    "I-I didn't want to tell you right away because I'd thought you'd make fun of me for it." Rue says softly.
    Makes sense. I tell myself, but a part of me still wished she'd said something so we knew ahead of time. Since Mimzy is sitting next to Rue, she starts rubbing Rue's back while Rue struggles not to be sick.
    "Don't you have any medicine or something?" I ask.
    "I do, or, at least I did." Rue says before holding her breath struggling not to hurl. "My mom forgot to refill the prescription because she's got my five younger siblings at home to take care of."
    "Just don't think about it." Ginny said quickly. "Or just stick your head out the window."
    "I don't know if-" Rue starts but a hard bump from behind cuts her off.
    Wait. From behind? Another hard bump from behind makes Rue cringe. Jazzmine and I look in the rear view mirror.
    "Hey Ginny?" I call.
    "What?" She asks.
    "Who's that behind us?"
    Ginny rolls down her window, sticks her head out, and says that it's a lime-green car with purple headlights.
    "Who'd have a car like that?" Jazzmine asks.
    Our answer was revealed when the driver drove past us honking the horn. There's at least three other girls inside. Lee-Ann hisses "Delia."
    "Who?" Mimzy asks.
    "Delia Growthworth. She's that blue haired girl that kept looking at you like you were a bug. She's a two-faced, rude, filthy, and violent girl. Someone you don't want have any ties with Mimzy."
    "Um, okay."
    Delia honks her car horn again before hollering, "Why don't you get a new car Jazzy, it's a hunk of junk!"
    "Well at least mine's more eco-efficient, smarter, and better looking than yours!" Jazzmine hollers back.
    Delia rams into Rue's side of Jazzmine's car before speeding away laughing. One of Rue's hands flies to her mouth and becomes tense.
    "Jazzmine! Pull over! Pull over!" Lee-Ann shrieks. "She's gonna blow!"
    "I can't! We're on the interstate!" Jazzmine responds her voice choking in fear.
    "Rue, stick you head out the window!"
    "She can't! There's to many cars behind us! Rue! Just hold on, I'll pull over first chance I get!"
    "I'll-I'll try."  Rue says in a tremulous voice.
    Sure enough a half hour later, the first chance we got to pull over, Jazzmine took it. It was a good thing too because the second Jazzmine put the car in park, Rue unbuckled herself, opened the car door, and started retching.
    Well, at least Rue's car sickness stopped for the time being I thought to myself with a sigh, relaxing in the passenger's seat a little. We all glance at each other before looking back at Rue. She's half-sitting half-leaning out the open car door, one hand gripping the door handle while the other one holds her hair out of her face. Even though I can't see her face, I could hear her swallowing and taking shallow breaths in her best attempt to calm her stomach.
    "You alright Rue?" Mimzy asked softly, carefully picking up the M.P.P. off the car floor.
    Rue didn't speak.
    "Better be." Lee-Ann mumbled slouching down in her seat in. "She's been whining about how sick she was feeling for the past half hour while we were stuck on the interstate  because of the dumb traffic down here."
    "Stop complaining, it's not her fault." Ginny reminded her.
    "Oh that's right, her mom forgot to fill her medicine." Lee-Ann stated bitterly crossing her arms over her chest.
    Jazzmine began to repeatedly banged her head on the top of the steering wheel of the car in pure annoyance at the bickering. It was already bad enough that we didn't know what building the event that was called the Fairy Extravaganza, an event of some sort for us fairy newbies telling us the lay-down of the rules at the Fairy Academy.
    Rue gave a small cough while Lee-Ann snorted in attempt not to laugh.
    "Should we start driving again?" I asked Jazzmine hesitantly.
    "Give her a minute." Jazzmine muttered, resting her head on the steering wheel.
    I glanced at Jazzmine then back to Rue, who spit. She hesitated a little bit before pulling herself back in the car and closing the car door before swallowing again. From behind the driver's seat, Rue took a tissue and blew her nose in it.
    "Let's get going before she pukes again." Ginny urged Jazzmine glancing at Rue. "I mean, we can't be late you know."
    "She's still a little car sick I think." Jazzmine breathed as she combed her blonde hair with her fingers in her best attempt to keep her anger toward the situation at bay. Then quickly added, "I'm sorry Rue."
    Rue looks at us and is about to respond when she gives a strained burp.
    "Oh no, she's going again!" Lee-Ann stated as she broke into laughter while Rue opened the car door again, leaned out, gagged, and started retching again. When she finished, she coughed once then spit out any remainder of vomit that may've been left in her mouth. Swallowing hard, she pulled her self back in, but left the car door open. Rue still looked a little sick to her stomach. I heard her gulp.
    "Here, give her this." Jazzmine said nudging my shoulder with her elbow as she handed me a large, clear, plastic Ziploc bag. I nodded and handed it to Rue, who responded with a small "Thanks." and closed the car door while putting the bag aside.
    "Let's get the show on the road." Ginny said as Jazzmine started the car up. But even as Jazzmine put the car in reverse, backed up, and pulled back onto the interstate, I had a feeling Rue would be encountering more car sickness.
    Sure enough about fifty-five minutes of road-winding, steep hills, and bumpy roads later, my suspicions were confirmed. Rue made a small gagging noise. I turned my attention toward her. Rue had the bag open and was clutching both sides with a death grip.
    "It's okay Rue," Mimzy was saying to her, rubbing her back in small circles. "Just let it go if you have to."
    Rue's pale face seemed to show that she restraining herself from up heaving. Can't say I blame her. I'd be pretty uncomfortable about puking in a moving vehicle too.
    "Oh come on! If you're gonna puke, you're gonna puke." Lee-Ann was saying as she gave Rue a hard smack on the back, causing Rue to give a small startled squeak of alarm. "Right now, would you rather being puking, or eating lefse?"
    Just as we went over a relatively large bump, Rue leaned over the bag and threw up. Ginny bopped Lee-Ann on the back of her head with her hand.
    "OW! What I do? What I do?" Lee-Ann cried out, rubbing the spot where Ginny had hit her.
    "P-Please don't s-say that." Rue begged Lee-Ann pulling her head up for air.
    "What? Puking, or lefse?" Lee-Ann asked her quizzically.
    One of the two words Lee-Ann had said must've triggered a reaction in Rue, because Rue leaned over the bag and up heaved again. Ginny again smacked the back of Lee-Ann's head.
    "Will you shut up!" Ginny snapped. "You're making it worse for her than it should be!"
    "One of the two words you're saying is-" I started but Lee-Ann cut me off.
    "Okay...puking." Lee-Ann said, waiting for Rue to react. She didn't, but her face looked like she was still restraining herself.
    "Lefse." Lee-Ann said.
    Rue's face lost color and reacted almost immediately. She leaned over the bag, dry heaved once before squeezing her eyes shut and up heaving again. Ginny pulled out a paper from behind my seat, rolled it up and began to repeatedly smack Lee-Ann on the head while screaming "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
    "EVERYBODY BE QUIET!" Jazzmine screeched in anger above the noise within the car. I pressed my back to my seat and stared at Jazzmine, startled, while the noise ceased. Besides Rue's ragged breaths, there was pin-point silence. In a quieter tone, Jazzmine stated that, "I'd like to get there with everybody in one piece. Is that so much to ask for?"
    We all shook our heads.
    "Good." Jazzmine said firmly glancing back at Ginny and Lee-Ann in the rear view mirror with a death glare. Her eyes soften as she addresses Rue. "Rue, it shouldn't take us much longer to get to the Fairy Extravagansa. Do you think you can hold on?"
    "I-I, I think so." Rue says softly.
    "Okay then. Let's go."
    As we continued our way over, me on the occasion glancing at Rue, all I can think is, Oh what fun we have with dilemmas.