The Great Escape

AN. So this is a brand new idea I got about two months ago, and since then it hasn't left me alone. It was begging to be written and now I've gotten round to it—hopefully you guys like the idea as much as I do, and enjoy! :)

Chapter One – Wild Young Hearts

ASHLEY

An uneasy silence was beginning to set in the car, and Ashley was the first to notice the change in mood. The laughter and the general excitement at the start of the road trip was now dying down; being replaced with the bitter truth that no-one wanted to accept but had to.

With each mile passing by, the place known as home was simply becoming another memory; perhaps a place to look back on and think "wow, do you remember being there?" The situation was all too surreal, all too bittersweet.

"So this is really it." A voice from one of the back seats confirmed shakily.

She felt her grip tighten on the steering wheel, but refrained from rolling her eyes. "For God sake, Eve, don't ruin the mood. This is the start of something new; why not enjoy it?"

"I will when you do," retorted the brunette, and she could see the glare being aimed at her through the mirror. "I'm not like you; I can't listen to whiny rock music and then suddenly feel better."

A remark was on the tip of her tongue, but she quickly swallowed it down, naturally reverting back to her old habit of keeping to herself. Instead she focused on the road, fighting with her all might not to make an illegal u-turn and head straight back home.

In all honesty, Ashley didn't "suddenly feel better" about this road trip like Eve—her so-called friend—had proclaimed. She was simply a professional at not sharing her emotions, and more importantly, being the strong one for her friends' sake. There was a wall put up in front of her to block certain things out and keep certain things in, and that was just how she liked it.

Nobody, not even her best friend sat beside her, had been able to break the walls down.

Of course, that was on the inside. On the outside, however, she lived up to her punk-rocker look; sarcasm to the fullest, ridiculously critical of music and having a particular type of fashion sense just being a few of her traits. One would assume, on first impressions, that she was fairly confident in herself. She certainly brought out that factor with mischievous blue eyes and a familiar curve of a smirk on her full lips.

But to those who knew her best, which would most likely be her family and the friends surrounding her now, she was far from confident at times. She put up a barrier whenever there was something serious to be talked about, and she was never one to show how scared and lonely she really was.

"So anyway," was the playful voice that broke her train of thought, "how about some music to get us going?"

She glanced over to her best friend and couldn't help but smile. "Fine...oh, but none of that crap you like to call music."

"That would be nothing Britney Spears-wise, Mickie!" Bubbly as ever, Maria giggled from the back seat. "Trust me. I learnt from that mistake last week."

"Look, it just wasn't funny when I said I was going mad over what to pack in my suitcase and you had to go and blare out You Drive Me Crazy. Unacceptable; I had that song stuck in my head for hours after that."

"Maybe you just need a sense of humour." Eve remarked, playing with her perfectly curled locks.

"Maybe you need to keep your mouth closed." She shot right back.

"Okay, okay." Mickie held her hands up, as if calling an invisible truce. "We'll play Ash's music first since she's driving, and then take it in turns."

The three girls eventually agreed, staying silent when the brunette grabbed a pile of CDs from the glove compartment.

It was comforting to know that despite a new start their routine hadn't changed as of yet.

Mickie often acted like the mother of the group in tense times like these, calming down the girls and calling an end to every argument, no matter how serious. Maria was the girl who knew how to make everyone feel better, simply because of her lovely personality.

Admittedly, Ashley and Eve didn't have particular roles as they were the ones who always started the arguments in the gang. Their relationship was different; fused together through mutual friends, but held apart by obvious differences. The other girls had suggested at one point that they really liked one another deep inside, but were too chicken to admit it. Predictably, they had gotten a scoff in response.

"Happy slash fun songs," muttered Mickie, eyeing the custom title on the CD cover. She teased, "Wow Ash, you actually have non-suicidal songs in your collection?"

"Shut up, you know I do."

The brunette giggled to herself as she slid the CD into its slot, seemingly content with her choice. A moment later, Fall Out Boy's I Don't Care shot out the speakers, bringing, for the first time since the start of their road trip fifteen minutes ago, a unison of cheers from the girls.

The song, as far as they were concerned, was their anthem. Even Eve, the dance hall queen, could admit to finding the lyrics perfect to her status.

As the girls began to sing along—in horrible voices no less—Ashley focused on the road. Or at least she tried to. Thoughts of saying goodbye to her mom, dad and brother were already settling into her mind as memories, only to be remembered at significant times.

It should have hurt her to know that she could block things out so easily, and in a small way it did, but she had yet to realize it.

For now, she was following her mother's encouraging words, ignoring the pang of sadness she felt in her chest when she walked away from her home to look forward to college instead. She was starting a new chapter of her life; that was it.

"Hey." Mickie nudged her softly, prompting her to look away from her solid gaze ahead. "This is going to be fun, yeah?"

"Tons." She answered eventually and offered as best of a smile as she could muster.

Her best friend squeezed her hand once, as if to reassure her of something, before bursting into song again.

A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips, but disappeared just as quickly. "I'll say this once and once only," said Ashley over the noise, her dirty-blonde curls bouncing on her shoulders as she sat more upright. "If anyone, Eve, wants to stop, Eve, to go to the bathroom, Eve, and re-apply make-up, Eve, then say so now. I'm only stopping once...Eve."

The Latina muttered in response, "Jeez, someone overdosed on PMS this morning."

She found herself back to gripping the steering wheel in a death grip again, her knuckles turning white with the effort. She was only able to relax when the All-American Reject's Move Along followed the first song. With the choice of music in her control for now, the journey would be just fine.

Ashley frowned momentarily.

That was all the journey would be. Just fine.

This...this was much more than fine.

Despite a torturous two-hour session of Rihanna and Beyonce, and despite her rule being disregarded when Eve had to make several stops, Ashley was very much in a good mood. It seemed to take forever and a day to arrive at their new college, but just the sight of it was enough for her to forgive the distance.

Their surroundings were beautiful; all four girls knew it too, having to stop in awe for a moment when they stepped out of the car to be greeted by the tall buildings in front of them. The sunshine beaming down on the statues and nature around their new hall of residence was just an added bonus compared to what they were seeing.

Everything here was so golden...so peaceful.

Yeah, Ashley was definitely going to like it here. For the first time in a while, a smile lit up her face, gracing her features.

"Ahh, this is amazing!" Mickie was the first to break the stunned silence and rushed over to the other side of the car to shake her best friend senseless. "Can you believe this?!"

Maria and Eve were already hugging each other like there was no tomorrow, and at the sight her smile grew wider.

"Hell no, I can't!" She replied, allowing herself the rare moment of excitement. "I guess we better get used to it though."

The brunette opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by Maria flailing her arms around wildly and proclaiming, "Dorms! We have to go and find our dorm!"

Two bounced forwards, leaving Mickie and Ashley to share a look that clearly meant "Well, what can you do?" before they started on their way into the building too. Having prepared for this day a million times, they already knew they were sharing a room together, as were Maria and Eve. It was a lucky set-up and hopefully one that serve them well throughout their college years.

It took approximately half an hour for the duo to get settled into their new and spacious room. For Mickie that meant: jumping up and down on her bed, bouncing around the place with such an energy that could rival Maria's and finally placing her iPod, which she refused to leave out of her sight, onto the dresser beside her bed.

For Ashley, it was more of: check to see everything was in its place and that everything was up to inspection. It was. She turned to her excited friend, stifling a giggle as she asked, "You want to come and help me with our stuff?"

"Patience young one. It can be done later."

But she merely rolled her eyes and made a start back to the car. A moment after stepping out into the sun, she realized how baggy her black lowriders and how tight her white tank top felt under the sweltering heat. She definitely would need a shower after this. Shaking out her skulls-and-crossbones top, she tried to hide the look of disgust forming on her face with the action. If there was one thing she hated, it was feeling hot and bothered.

Another thing she hated was almost getting run over, which happened just a minute later, when some maniac pulled out in front of her in (what she assumed to be) a slick new sports car. She didn't know the first thing about cars or their owners, but she was willing to bet the driver was the kind of person she would despise.

It seemed she would find out as the car came to a sudden halt, and a guy stuck his head out of the car. "Watch out, would ya?"

A frown automatically shaped her face. "I'm not the one driving like a mad man!" She replied hotly, narrowing her eyes as he smirked. "Sorry if I didn't expect a car to come charging at me."

"No problem, baby." He replied.

She simply glared, unable to stop herself from giving him the once-over from what she could see of him. He had shaggy dirty-blonde hair, green eyes and seemed—from what she could tell from the top half—to be wearing clothing of the indie rock persuasion.

Normally that would be her type, but his mouth let her down.

The unhappy young adult was relieved to see him duck his head back in and rev the engine again, and she put herself back into her task, walking over to the boot of her vehicle. Frustration helped to pull her bags out with unnecessary force, but when she slammed it back down, she had a reason for her frustration to turn into anger.

"Need any help?"

The guy was back.

Her eyes darted into the distance, where she saw the car neatly parked about two spots in front of hers. Well this was just great...an hour being there, and she was already being harassed.

"I think I've got it."

"Are you sure? It looks heavy and I'm sure," pausing, he made a not so subtle attempt at flexing the muscles under his Foo Fighters shirt, "I can help you out."

"What? So just because I'm a girl I'm not capable of carrying my own things?" He smirked further, and Ashley became a little more aggravated than she should have done. "Ugh, typical male. Well guess what, bud, I don't need your help. I'm perfectly—"

"Do you ever give your mouth a rest? I've known you for all of five minutes and I'm already wondering how the hell your friends put up with you." Another smirk later, he continued, "I'm Adam, by the way. Adam Copeland."

"And I'm not interested." She retorted.

In a certain way, she was interested though. His tattoos captured her attention, if only for a moment, along with his accent which she made out to be Canadian after much consideration.

"You keep telling yourself that." He licked his dry lips, appreciating her figure once more before adding, "I guess I'll see you around."

"Looking forward to it." She added sarcastically, only to find he was already gone.

Jaw clenched, she dragged her things through the sudden crowd of girls, and made it back to her new room about a minute later. She wasn't at all surprised to find Maria and Eve still bouncing excitedly but in their room now, and she ignored them as she dropped her stuff to collapse onto her bed.

"Something wrong?" Maria enquired, twirling her red curls with little interest.

"Nothing. I just...really hate Canadians." Ashley concluded lamely, confusing her friends like she usually did with her odd little comments.

She let out a heavy sigh and rolled onto her side, blocking out her friends' voices and trying to quell the uneasy homesick feeling in her stomach.

So there's the first official chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and please review :) If you don't—well be sure to enjoy it even if you're just putting it on alerts/faves.

So the first four chapters are going to be Ashley, Eve, Maria and Mickie, but then it should be all of them together. I've decided on pairings for Ashley and Eve already, but if you have any suggestions for Maria and Mickie then I'll take them into consideration.