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Going Camping - Chapter 4

"Are we there yet?" I whined, for about the hundreth time that hour. The glare I received from Kevin said that he wanted me to drop dead. He wasnīt alone. I had barely regained from the venom filled eye my older brother gave me when three unison voices could be heard from the back.

"SHUT UP!"

Apparently the rest of my brothers wanted to see me dead too, or even worse kick me out off the car. I sulked. Nothing could be said to change the feeling I had deep inside. Kevin thought I was nothing but an annoying brat when all I wanted to do was to have a small talk with him. Ask him some simple and common questions. Ok I might had been a bit off when I asked him why he never shaved his armpits and why he always locked himself in the bathroom late at night.

But who else could I ask those questions too? The other guys were way too busy tending to their own stuff.

AJ had been reading in a magazine all the way when he wasnīt busy listening to some groovy music in his earphones. When I had tried earlier on to talk to him he had ignored me like I was air and then I had turned my hopes to Brian only to find out that he was way too busy in trying to find out how high up we were and what would happen if we were to drive off the road. In my darkest moment I felt an evil urge to reveal the truth. The only thing that would await us was Death. Yet I refrained to do so since Bri was always pretty cool with me and he was my best friend. Howie, who had taken the middle seat, was the only one that could have paid any attention to what I was feeling and how bored I had been the whole trip, if he hadnīt been too engrossed in reading that book of his. That left me to only one person: Kevin.

With a deep sigh, after all it sucks to be so unwanted, I decided to take the situation in my own hands and for myself find out where we were and how long it would be before we would reach our designated camp. Grabbing the map from the seat I folded it out in front of me and started my search in finding the place where we were going too. It wasnīt all that simple since every name looked about the same and there were mostly mountains and rivers.

"Glama? Is that even a name?"

"Huh?" Kevin who was fiddling with the radio didnīt ever bother to turn his head at my direction instead he muttered, "Why are you asking that?"

"Because it says so here." I pointed at the map. "Itīs spelled Glama with two strange dots over it. Weird" I shook my head "Is that the place that weīre going to?"

"No. Never heard of it." A deep sigh could be heard. "God Nick were do you get all thse stupid que.." He stopped suddenly, turning his attention towards me. "Where did you get that?" His finger was pointing rudely at me.

"From the back-seat. Why?" Man is this something to be worked up for? I couldnīt believe my ears.

"Because that is Brian's job!" he shouted as he grabbed the map from me tossing it back to Bri. A few scolding words followed towards my best friend and soon the map was in the back in my friend's hands again.

I felt puzzled. How can something so small cause something so big? I might add that Kevin had designated Brian to be the map reader for this trip, he and only he had the great honor to find out where we were going. This was probably due to that Kev and Bri were cousins, and he wanted someone of his own blood to handle such a delicate task. There was no way he would have trusted anyone else. Howie, or Sweet ', was out of the question since IF he EVER messed up, there was not one chance that Kevin would even raise his voice to him. As a matter of fact; Kevin have NEVER yelled at him! Strange huh? Me and AJ that's another story. He says that I am illiterate, or something like that, and we would end up in the Arctic pole! Yeah..like you can drive there! The reason for not trusting AJ I donīt know. But Iīm sure he has his reasons.

I sighed.

This trip was starting to get long and boring and all I wanted was to get to that place so we could put up the tent before it would turn too dark outside. Glancing at the clock I noticed that we had been in the car for more than seven hours so it was no wonder that I was fed up with it all.

"Are we not there yet?" This time it wasnīt me who was asking the never ending question and I waited for Kevin to blow at the person who uttered that like heīd done with me before. To my big and annoying surprise I heard how my big brother answered Howie in a nice tone.

"I donīt know. But I donīt think itīs going to be that long. Think you can manage?"

I about dropped dead! If that had been me he would have yelled so loud that the hair of my skull as well as the rest of the guys owuld have blown off. Now he was just being sickly nice. I looked at him in disgust.

"Good," AJ muttered from his side of the seat. "I gotta take a leak."

Waiting for at least a tiny bit of a complaint I glanced at Kevin who said calmly and patiently, "I'll stop at the next gas station. Ok?"

"'K."

< Just in that very moment my stomach made a loud growl. Hunger was starting to remind me about being all empty, you know after the latest incident, I was craving for food. After biting my fingernails for a while, hey what else could I do? I took the courage to ask Kevin if we could stop at a diner or some other place. You know like where they had pizza.. Just as I was about to open my mouth, Brian felled the comment.

"Iīm hungry. When are we stopping to eat?"

Waiting for good ol' Kev to blow a fuse I shrugged away in case he would spit in his anger. But nothing like that came. Instead he answered his cousin very friendly that he was hungry too and that we would soon stop to get some food. I stared with an open mouth. Could this be really happening? Kevin nice while driving a car? With us in the back-seat?

Could someone please pinch me and tell me if Iīm dreaming?

Seeing that neither of my broīs were treated badly I took my chance. The hunger pains in my stomach too hard to ignore. On top of everything I had to take a bathroom break too since God knows how long it would be until we would be back to civilization. I was also dying to stretch my legs. With that in mind I opened my mouth to ask when we would stop the next time even if part of me told me not to do so. The result could be too explosive.

"Kevin?"

Nothing.

"Kevin? Kev?"

Grunt.

"Kev are you listening?" This time I asked a bit louder in case he didnīt hear what I was saying.

"E..uh..yes?" A strangled reply like he was mustering all the strength he had not to blow me off.

"I wanna ask you something."

"Ok." He was gaining even more will power to stay calm..

In the corner of my eye I noticed AJīs amused _expression as if he was waiting for something to come. Brian on the other hand shook his head in an attempt to warn me and Howie just looked at me like he was thinking, "Oh my what is he going to ask now?"

Ignoring this I took the courage to ask, the in my mind simple and innocent question, "When are we going to stop?"

I donīt know if it was in my tone, the words I said, or the fact that it was me that was saying them cause he didnīt answer nearly as nice as heīd done to the others. Instead the explosion, which would have made a nuclear blast pale in comparison, came!

"Nick how many times have I told you and..yadda yadda yadda." I stopped listening when he was going over and over again how immature and annoying and hyperactive I was and how I was getting on his nerves. He didnīt even stop when Brian screamed that we were going to drive off the deep slope if he didnīt turn his attention back to the road. Howie did his best to calm Kevin while AJ was watching the scene play up in front of him with a huge grin on his face.

It was bad Iīll tell you that

Pissed as well as hurt I turned my attention back to the road. There was no way I was going to argue with that old grouch if he was going to treat me like bird poop. If he wanted to bash me, fine, but I wasnīt going to sit and take it like I was some kind of criminal. In my book I had done nothing wrong, besides asking him one or two or maybe hundred questions, and I couldnīt for my life figure out why I was on the top of Mr. Richardson's hate list.

Just when I thought I was left to fight the justice on my own I felt a hand squeezing my shoulder. "Donīt let him get to you." Brian whispered. "Heīs just being a grouch."

I nodded. B was right. Kevin could be really bitchy at times and it felt good that someone else besides me was on my side. Feeling renewed strength I decided that the next opportunity I had I would tell Kevin that I didnīt appreciate him nagging at me when I hadnīt done something wrong. That is if he didnīt punch me out first!