"Lindsey, get your lazy ass up. You need to get ready."

These were the first words Lindsey Weir heard as she was abruptly woken up by one of her best friends, Kim Kelly. Lindsey sat up from where she had been sleeping on the floor of her friend Laurie's van and pushed her mousy brown hair out her face. She felt a little embarrassed looking at Kim, whose long, blonde hair looked perfect already, even though she had been waking up with massive bed head for weeks already and Kim hadn't seemed to give a crap.

"It's already eleven, you need to get ready," Kim said giving her an impatient look, "You need to get on the bus in 20 minutes if you want to make it home on time. You parents will freak if you're late."

"Oh, right," Lindsey said, still not completely awake, "Thanks Kim."

Lindsey stood up and stretched as Kim left the van. She looked at her reflection in a cracked, dirty mirror and sighed. She has fallen asleep in what she had been wearing the day before, jeans, a plain, wrinkled t-shirt, and her trademark army jacket. She had been doing this for quite a while now, so she was really shocked, but she reminded herself that she would need to stop doing it now that she was going home.

Lindsey groaned out loud at the thought of going home. Over the past few weeks she had been travelling with Kim and a few of her casual "Dead Head" friends, following The Grateful Dead around the country and watching them perform. Her parents of course didn't know this, she told them she was going to an academic summit that she had been accepted to at The University of Michigan. So even though Kim and the Dead Heads were still going to be taking off soon for another week of travelling, Lindsey's two week "summit" was up, meaning she had to go home.

Lindsey got changed into some "respectable" clothes that a well, educated young lady would wear (in other words, clothes her parents would approve of) and ran her hair through her fingers. She didn't worry about finding a brush in the disaster of a van, because she had told her parents that she would be waking up really early, so it would be believable if she got off the bus with bed head. She reviewed the stories she would tell her parents about the "summit" in her head one more time as she packed her things, then hopped out of the van to join Kim.

"Man this sucks that you have to go home," Kim said taking a swig out of a can of Faygo, "This is going to blow without you here."

"Yeah, well, you could always come home with me Kim," Lindsey joked.

"Pfft, yeah, that's going to happen. Anywhere is better than at home with my psychopathic mother," Kim said rolling her eyes. Kim's home life was miserable to say the least, and the only reason she had even come with Lindsey in the first place was to get away from her parents for a few weeks, "Plus, what are your parents going to think if I get off that bus with you? I'm not exactly "Academic Summit" material. They'd be suspicious."

"Yeah, I know. But it's going to be a drag without you until you get back.I mean yeah, I can hang out with the guys, but it's not going to be the same."

"If I were you I'd hang out with Millie until I get back," Kim shrugged as she referred to Lindsey's prudish friend from her days as a Mathlete, "Really drive it home with your parents that you were being a "responsible young woman" these past few weeks. Then when I get back we'll hang out with the losers again and everything will be back to normal."

"Wow, that's actually a good idea Kim."

"Yeah, well, if there is one thing I'm good at its pretending I'm not screwing around and disobeying my parents. Not that they even believe me when I tell the truth anymore. Now come on, Laurie and the others are down the street getting some food. We gotta go say goodbye and get you on that bus."

Lindsey walked with Kim down to where Laurie and the other Dead Heads were eating, which was on the way to the bus stop anyway, and said their short farewells. Then the two bolted to the bus stop, getting there just as the bus was pulling up.

"Alright Linds, see ya in a week," Kim said giving her a quick hug. She wasn't one for long goodbyes.

"Right, see ya Kim."

Lindsey turned to get on the bus, but was stopped when Kim grabbed the sleeve of her army jacket.

"Um, do me a favor and check up on Daniel for me, will ya?" Kim said, referring to her ex-boyfriend that she broke up with just before the school year ended, "Just um, see how he's been doing. I don't really care, but I don't want him to like, end up in a ditch somewhere or anything. God knows he can't take care of himself."

"Right Kim, don't worry. I'll check up on him for you," Lindsey laughed.

They two girls smiled at each other and Lindsey got on the bus to go home.