PoV: Kaylee

It was around ten when I finally convinced Julia to stop driving and get some sleep. I only drove for about ten minutes before she was asleep. She had propped a small camping pillow - which she'd produced from her backpack - between her head and the window and was sleeping peacefully.

I put on some music quietly and hummed along to the sounds of my road trip music. As I drove, I found myself wondering how Mom was doing after I had ditched her. I really hope she's all right, I thought, Was ditching her the right decision? If I hadn't I would have never learned the truth about Megan, but was that knowledge and this danger worth it? I groaned, slouching in the seat, Well, I think I finally understand how characters feel in stories when they say their world has gotten way more complex.

I began to sing along quietly to the music as the song was wrapping up, "Only know you've been high when you're feeling low. Only hate the road when you're missing home. Only know your lover when you let her go. And you let her go..." The song ended and I was left with a sense of sadness.

Well, you've committed to this now, so no backing out. You are here to protect and support your little sister, no matter what those adoption papers say or don't say, I scolded myself, Mom can take care of herself, and seems a lot more emotionally functional as a human being than Meg- Julia. So this is where you are needed.

I glanced over at Julia, the streetlights giving off her a yellow glow as we passed underneath, and for the first time was able to see the strange things about her and know why they were there. Her backpack strap was firmly wrapped around her leg, and her left hand resting right on top of her backpack. She's paranoid, I though soberly, her leg is wrapped around the backpack to stop anyone from grabbing it, and her hand is resting is such a way so that it is able to get into her backpack and grab a weapon in like, three seconds.

The music continued to play, and I whispered along, still watching Julia, "Hard days but we've got one another. That's the thing about us, we've got love, love, love. That's the thing about us, we've got love, lo-"

My whisper singing was cut off as a light from the dashboard blinked on. Uh oh, I thought, trying to recognize it, I should know this, I should know this! I studied the symbol, which looked like a genie's lamp or something similar. Pursuing my lips, I spotted an exit towards a nearby town, Sandtip or something like that, and turned off the highway.

Sorry Julia, I thought, we are going to be delayed.

I drove into town and pulled into the first gas station I saw, parking the car.

I groaned, seeing that the genie lamp light was still on. I didn't want to wake up Julia, but I didn't really know what to do. Especially as I didn't actually own this car. Normally I'd either call mom, or Google it, but neither were an option this time.

Julia's eyes snapped open suddenly, her whole body tense.

"What is it?" I asked quickly.

"Wha?" She blinked a couple times, looking confused, "Oh, it's nothing. Just a nigh- dream."

I frowned in concern, "A nightmare? You okay?"

Julia shook her head dismissively, "It's nothing important. Hang on... why are we stopped?"

"Um... well a light turned on on the dashboard, so I found a spot to stop. Because I don't know what it means." I answered embarrassedly.

Julia groaned, sitting up and leaning over, "Let me take a look."

I moved out of the way for her, asking "Do you know what it means?"

"Um..." she said slowly, "well, no."

"Well, that's lovely." I said sarcastically, "What now?"

She frowned, looking around.

The gas station was mostly deserted, but it looked like the town wasn't completely asleep quite yet. A handful of cars were driving around still, but it looked like many of the stores were closed. Though the gas station was still open.

"What if we asked someone at the gas station?" I suggested, "We can make up some story about not wanting trouble our parents if we can avoid it, and ask if we need to stop driving the car."

Julia nodded, "That's a good plan. I'll do the talking though."

"Okay..." I frowned, "I've got no problems with that, but why?"

"Manipulating people is one of the things I've been trained to do well." she said quietly, looking uncomfortable, "And that's what we need right now."

Ignoring my own feelings of discomfort, I nodded, smiling slightly, "Right, I remember you using those skills quite effectively at school."

She let out a small laugh, "Yes, I did do that. It was far too easy."

"Shall we head in?" I asked, shaking my head in amusement.

Instantly she was professional in - well everything. Her posture straightened, her smile vanished, and her gaze seemed keener. She nodded, saying, "Yes, we should." And opened the passenger door.

I blinked in surprise, saying, "Okay then," to the now empty car, then followed her inside the convenience store.

The store had a grimy feel to it. I couldn't see anything that looked dirty, but it had that feel, like many convenience stores.

Julia stepped up to the counter, looking timid. The woman at the counter had light brown hair, a fair skin tone. She looked exhausted and more than ready to go home.

"Excuse me?" Julia began to speak very hesitantly.

"Yes, how can I help yo- oh?" The lady changed what she was saying mid-sentence after seeing who her customers were, "Isn't it a bit late for you two to be out?" she asked, not unkindly.

Julia winced slightly, but noticeably, "Um, well, you see, we need some car help. This light turned on, and we don't know what it means and," she gulped, and it seemed like she was holding back tears, "We aren't supposed to have the car, and if we call our parents we'll be in huge trouble, but we just wanted to go for a drive! And now this lights is on, and we don't know what this issue is, and, and," she began to cry quietly, looking embarrassed.

I was completely shocked and amazed by her performance. The person I was seeing seem completely different from either the teenage girl I'd gotten to know or the crazy spy person I'd been hanging out with for the past few hours. I'd seen her acting skills before, but this somehow seemed... different, and more real.

The woman paused, looking like she was thinking quickly. I worried that she would tell us to just call our parents and we'd be completely screwed, but that didn't happen.

"Let's go take a look," she said, locking up the cash drawer quickly, making me realize how suspicious this must look. We left the store, Julia holding the door open for us, and I noticed how that meant that she left the building last. She has more tricks up her sleeve than I would have ever guessed, I thought, opting to focus on the skills she was displaying rather than the horribleness of our situation.

We approached the car and I turned on the engine, causing all of the lights to turn on, including the genie lamp.

The woman sucked in her breath, then bit her lip thoughtfully, "Girls, I'm sorry, but you should probably face the music and call your parents. That light means that you have high oil pressure. It's good you guys stopped driving, keeping going could have been disastrous. Anyways, if you want to be sure the vehicle stays in working order, it'll likely need some work. I know a really good auto body shop in town, and it's nearby, we could probably get the car over there, and hopefully, your parents could meet you there, but this car isn't going anywhere for a while."

I gulped, looking at Julia uncertainty, then back at the woman, "Really? What if you are just telling us this so that we go and tell our parents that we borrowed the car? You probably just want us to get into trouble so that we'll eventually grow up into 'Upstanding citizens'," I made finger quotes at the end, trying to play up the rebellious teenager stereotype.

Julia glared at me but it then faded away, a faint smile on her lips as she looked at me and the woman.

The lady nodded, "That's a reasonable assumption. It's what I would have thought, oh, 10 years ago?"

I blinked in surprise, "You... did stuff like this?" I vaguely waved at the car.

She smiled ruefully, "Yes, I broke my parent's rules. Any opportunity I could, actually. But there are times where you need to bail and let the adults deal with issues, such as a car that really can't drive that doesn't belong to those who were driving it when it decided to fall apart."

My eyes widened in fear, she knows we stole it! How?

Julia butted in, stepping forwards, "So... you're saying, um, that we can't fix this on our own?" her eyes were wide and fearful as she turned to me, "Anna, I... we need to call mom and dad. It makes the most sense, we can't deal with this on our own!" She had her head totally turned to face me so that when she mouthed, Play your part, The woman couldn't see her lips moving.

I guessed at what Julia could mean by that message, assuming I'd read her lips correctly, and stuck to my stereotype, saying, "No, we don't need our parents! We can fix this on our own, come on! We don't need... adults to fix, well, anything! We are independent people!"

Julia shot back, "Do you know how to fix a car? You didn't even know what the light meant! Why do you always insist on being independent? It never works!"

The convenience store lady stepped in again, "Listen to her, Anne, is it? You may be an independent capable person, but there are some things that you can't do till you are the age of majority. Believe me, I tried to break those rules too, and well, look where it landed me. I'm working an overnight shift at a dingy gas bar and store."

I groaned, "Ugh, fine! Where is this auto body shop?"

"I'll give them a call if you'd like," she volunteered.

"Yeah, that works," Julia said, "We will call the parents while you do that," she glared pointedly at me as she pulled her phone out.

"Fine," I grumbled again, confused about what Julia was plotting.

"All right," The woman said, "Want to make the call from inside?"

"No, we have a pretty pathetic phone plan, we'll get a better signal out here," Julia said quickly.

"Very well, I'll be right back," she said, then walked back to the store.

Julia reached into the open car, grabbing her bag, then walked towards the edge of the parking lot, away from the road with her phone out, as if she was looking for a stronger signal.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

Julia looked over at the woman, who was on the phone inside the store and waited till her back turned on us. She grabbed my arm, making me yelp, and began to sprint away. We left the parking lot in a matter of seconds, passing through some trees planted decoratively by the side of the lot, and kept going.

Julia was half dragging me along at first, then let go as I began to run on my own. She seemed to be holding herself back as to not get too far ahead of me, but even so, we managed to get a block away really quickly. However, as it was more of a sprint, by the time Julia stopped, I was completely out of breath, whereas she only appeared to be mildly winded, and that hardly stopped her from surveying the area. As she did that, I went to sit down on the curb, but she stopped me.

"Don't sit after running. You can stand, hands on hips or legs, but don't sit. It'll make any more running even harder on your body."

"Really?" I complained, "Meg- Julia, what... what... why... gah!" I took a deep breath, trying to gather myself, "What now?"

She looked surprised, "That... was not the question I was anticipating. We need to find a place to stay for the night, then we can find a new car in the morning, and be on our way."

"You mean steal a new car?"

"Well, yes. Though it may be a better idea to see if there is a bus we could take... eh, I'll figure that out once we've found somewhere to stay the night."

I nodded, "One other thing, why did you call me Anna?"

"Because Megan, Julia, and Kaylee are currently being searched for by police, especially after our car chase. They are probably all over the news, which will make our escape harder."

My mouth went dry, "That's... not how I wanted to be on TV," I noted.

She smiled, "Well, yeah, it's not the nicest way."

"Though at least I got on tv. Oh, storms! Cathy and Melissa must be so confused! Do you think they are in danger?" I began to panic slightly, wondering what my decision may have done to my friends.

"They won't be in danger," Julia assured me, "They will be questioned, but they're only witnesses."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"It's a fairly standard practice," She shrugged, "And they have no reason to hide anything they know, so it should be fine."

"All right," I nodded, trying to refocus on our own problem, "So we need to find a hotel? Wait, won't we need money?"

"Don't worry about that, I've got money," Julia began to walk away briskly, turning right and onto the sidewalk.

I jogged to catch up, then fell in beside her, "You have enough for a hotel room? How?"

"My job covers travel expenses very well," She answered casually.

"Your... job?"

"The same one that taught me how to drive, duh," she clarified.

I facepalmed, "Of course, sorry. My brain doesn't function well when I'm tired."

"I know, you've told me before. Can we focus, please? I can pay for the hotel room, I also have an ID that should work, and not alert the CIA, so we should be able to sleep without any surprises. Even so, I'll probably sleep on the floor."

I frowned at her, "Why? If your job covers "travel expenses" so well, why would you sleep on the floor?"

"So that it's harder to sneak up on me while I'm sleeping because footsteps will make the floor shake slightly. It's nearly impossible to tell from a bed, and as I also need to keep you safe, well, I'll be the door alarm."

I nodded, deciding that her wish to protect me was not worth complaining about, even though we had agreed I was the redshirt. I may need to remind her of that, I thought.

After wandering for fifteen to twenty minutes we finally found a hotel. Ten more minutes passed and we had a hotel room with one queen bed. The receptionist seemed slightly confused about two teen girls booking a room at eleven at night, but he didn't press very hard.

We settled into the room very quickly, and Julia found a section of the carpeted floor to curl up on. I tried to talk her into not sleeping on the floor, but she insisted. Eventually, I gave up and curled up in the bed, trying to stop worrying about everything that had happened.

Twenty-four hours ago I was excited about going to the Gardens. Now I'm fretting about gunmen and if my decision to join my teenage sister who happens to be a spy may have put my friends in danger. Really, I voluntarily stepped into an action movie. Oh well, plot armour, please protect me and Meg- Julia. Oh, and Mom, Cathy, and Melissa. 

A/N First NaNo chapter is here! Sorry for vanishing on you guys, but I needed to step back from this for a little while so I could stay somewhat sane. But I'm back now! And I will be writing 50.000 words of this story in November assuming everything works out! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please let me know in whatever way you wish to, commenting, voting, PMing, whatever! 

Also, it's my birthday next week! Yay! *Throws virtual confetti because less cleanup*

Well, I shall give you guys more combinations of 26 letters soon!