“Okay kids, now sing along with me. Here comes the chorus: WOOOOOAAAAH WE’RE HALFWAY THE-ERE, WOOOOOAAAHOOOAH, LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER,” Brent James tried encouraging his family to sing along with him as they drove along the freeway. 

“TAKE MY HAND, WE’LL MAKE IT I SWE-EAR,” joined in Matthew James, Brent and Sasha’s oldest child. Matthew then glanced over at the passenger next to him, smiling and laughing with his fiancée, Marie-Jean Highland, soon to be Marie-Jean James. They sat in the middle row of the family’s SUV. On the other side of Marie, Matthew glanced at his younger brother Oliver, engrossed in whatever game he was playing, headphones in. Oliver was oblivious to anything going on in the real world at the moment, and that was exactly how he liked it.

In the trunk of the large car sat two teenage girls: Lexi James and her best friend from childhood, Sadie Burroughs. Lexi just rolled her eyes at her dad’s annoying behavior, while Sadie just giggled a little. 

“It’s bad enough that there wasn’t enough room for both of us to have a seat, but we’ve had to deal with my dad like this for the last three hours,” Lexi grumbled quietly to her friend. Sadie just accepted it. She felt lucky that the James family had allowed her to come on the trip with them. Not that she was surprised. She had grown up next door to them, and she and Lexi had been 

inseparable since they were toddlers and first played together.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sadie responded to Lexi’s complaint. “But did you hear what Nick did with Sabrina?”

Cassandra James and her boyfriend Mitchell Connors sat in the back row of the SUV, ignoring everything going on around them. They didn’t relate to the older people in front of them, and the high school seniors felt they were too old to participate in whatever gossip the younger girls were discussing behind them. Besides, they were graduating in a few months, and all of that would be behind them soon. They were discussing much more important things anyway.

“Cass, I truly start to think that you’re a crazy person when you say that water is wet! Water obviously can’t be wet! Water makes things wet,” Mitchell was explaining to his sweetheart.

“Well you’re obviously not like water, because you can’t make anything wet by talking like that,” Cassandra responded.

“Oh I know for a fact that that’s a lie,” Mitchell replied with faux confidence. The comment secretly wounded his pride, but he wasn’t willing to let that show. “And I’ll be happy to prove it to you at the lake.”

“No Mitch! We can’t do anything with my parents around! They’ll be sure to catch us!”

Mitchell just looked down at his lap, wishing that it wasn’t true, despite knowing that there would be little, if any, opportunity to get it on with his girl on this weekend vacation. They would be in close vicinity with her parents for the majority of the trip. Not that that was going to stop him from trying something if he saw an opportunity.

“Come on Oliver, sing with us!” Matthew tried urging his insanely quiet and shy younger brother. “It’s fun!”

There was no response of any kind from Oliver. If he had heard his brother talking at all, he gave no sign. Even if he had heard his brother, he wouldn’t have responded. The skinny kid liked to keep to himself.

“Stop bothering him!” Marie-Jean admonished her fiancé. “You know he likes to just play his games. They’re his happy place!”

“Yeah, but this is a family vacation! We should be doing things as a family!” Matthew responded. He then reached across Marie-Jean in order to poke his brother.

Marie-Jean slapped Matthew’s hand on the way over. “Now you’re annoying me too!” she harrumphed. “Do you want to be in the doghouse for the weekend? If you do, then go ahead and keep bugging Oliver.”

Matthew decided to let it go. “Fine, but he better participate with the family once we arrive at the cabin.”

“He will”

Suddenly, a yell came from the front of the car. “DUCK!!” shouted both Brent and his wife Sasha. Lexi and Sadie immediately put their heads down, as they had been doing every time the word was shouted. They had been doing this every time they passed a cop car, hoping not to get caught with two teenagers not sitting in seats in the car.

Sadie giggled with her head right against Lexi’s. “This is so much more fun than my family vacations! It’s always just me and my parents. And they’re boring.”

“Ugh, I wish I could have a calm vacation for once,” came Lexi’s reply. “Maybe I should take your place on your next family vacation.”

“Or maybe my parents would let you tag along, like I’m doing right now! Then it would be just you and me!”

“And your parents.”

“Okay honey, now coming up you’ll need to take the next exit off of the highway,” Sasha instructed Brent.

“You got it honey.” Brent took the exit, and the road started winding back and forth, through a thick forest. “Look at that scenery! It’s so green everywhere! We must be getting close!”

“Not much farther, just a few miles,” replied Sasha.

“Did you say we’re getting close?” asked Cassandra from the back. “I really have to pee!” 

“Yes, we’re almost there.”

Soon, the family pulled up to the cabin.

“Gosh, it’s even prettier than the photos!” Sasha exclaimed.

“I don’t care right now! I just hope it has a bathroom.”

“Dear, would you mind getting out and putting in the code to the garage?” Brent asked his wife.

“Of course.”

Sasha got out and went to put in the code. The garage door started opening. Brent pulled the car in, then put it in park. “Alright kiddos, we’re here. Everyone out, time to enjoy a wonderful weekend before spring break ends.” 

“Let me out!” asserted Cassandra, rushing into the house to find the nearest bathroom. Everyone else got out of the car at a leisurely pace, stretching their cramped limbs. 

Everyone filed into the house, taking it in. It was sparsely decorated. As they walked in, there was a main room in front, with a simple couch and some chairs around a television on the far wall. There were four rooms, two on either side, attached to the main one, with jack and jill bathrooms between each pair of rooms. Just around the corner sat the kitchen.

“Wow what a nice place,” Brent said. “Okay kids, grab your things and we’ll assign rooms to stay in.” Everyone went back to the car and started grabbing their bags to bring inside to the main room. “Now didn’t the owners say they were going to greet us?” Brent asked his wife.

“Yes, yes they did, let’s see if we can find them.” The pair walked towards the kitchen, looking for a back door to see if the owners were in the back. As they entered the kitchen, they noticed two sets of clothes crumpled on the floor and two glasses on the counter. Obviously the owners were here, but they didn’t know where.

“Now why is there a pair of clothes lying on the kitchen floor and two glasses out on the counter? This is definitely going to be part of the review,” Sasha complained to her husband. 

“Where did the instructions say the laundry room was?” Brent asked Sasha. He didn’t want this to dampen his wife’s mood so soon into the stay and was eager to get the problem solved quickly. “I’ll just take these up there and get them out of our way.”

Sasha pulled out her phone to find the instructions. “Up the stairs and through the door behind the game room.” Brent picked up the clothes and started up the stairs, while Sasha grabbed the glasses and placed them in the dishwasher. She looked out the back door, trying to see if the owners were outside, but couldn’t spot anyone. “That’s odd,” she muttered to herself. They were nowhere to be found. She shrugged her shoulders and decided it didn’t matter. They probably just forgot or something. She wanted to begin her vacation.

She went back inside to find the family waiting around, wanting to get their rooms set up for the weekend. “Matthew and Marie-Jean, you two will share this room, and Oliver will be on the other side of your bathroom,” she instructed. “Lexi and Sadie, you too will be sharing a room with Cass on the other side of your bathroom. Mitch, you get the couch.”

“Why does Mitch have to be on the couch?” Cassandra asked. “He should be able to sleep in a bed like everyone else.”

“Because he sure isn’t sharing a bed with you,” came the reply. “And I think that he’d rather he couch than to try and share with Oliver.”

“Yes ma’am,” Mitchell said, not wanting to get on his girlfriend’s parent’s bad side.

“I don’t care where I sleep, but can I hook up the switch to the tv?” Oliver asked.

His mother just looked at him and sighed, “Sure honey, go ahead.” Oliver went straight to work getting that set up. Everyone else went to their rooms to get settled in before starting their vacation.

Brent walked down and entered the room, coming up to his wife. “The master bedroom is amazing, and so is the master bath. The game room has air hockey and foosball. There’s a small boat to the lake, and the backyard has a volleyball net. This place is wonderful! This is going to be a great weekend!”