"Its the White House for crying out loud, you can't just drive up and ring the bell!" We had been driving for a little while so far, and David's father, whose name I had learned was Julius, had not stopped going off about how obviously crazy our plan was. To be honest though, he had a point. I had no idea what we were going to do once we actually reached D.C.
"Can't this thing go any faster?" David asked.
Either Julius didn't hear him, or didn't care, because he just continued talking. "You think they don't know what you know? Believe me, they know. She works for the President. They know everything."
"They don't know this, trust me," I said, leaning forward from my seat in the back.
"Oh, and you two are gonna educate them?" Julius asked skeptically. "So tell me something David, you're so smart, how come you spend 8 years in MIT to become a cable repair man, huh?
Okay, that was a bit of a low blow.
"Dad..." David started.
"All I'm saying is they've got people who handle these things!" Julius interrupted him. "If they want HBO, they'll call you."
David just looked at his father disdainfully, and shook his head. Somehow, I could tell that they had this argument often.
"Ellie, are you wearing your seatbelt?" David turned to look at me as I was basically out of my seat and in between them.
"Um..."
"Elaina, put your seatbelt on!"
"I'm a grown adult I don't need to!"
"Yes, you do, its dangerous!"
"We're like the only people on the road!"
"Accidents still happen!"
"Oh my woooorrrrddd," I dragged out the word as I flopped back in my seat. "Calm down mom." Just like every 'argument' we ever have, I end it with that.
Suddenly, my stomach dropped as I remembered something. "Shit," I muttered under my breath.
David looked back at me, concerned. "What? What is it?"
I looked at him, my eyes wide and scared. "My, uh, my family they, they went on vacation to Los Angeles for the Fourth, they're, uh, they're in one of the cities," I stammered out, almost in tears. "Give me your phone." I grabbed the phone out of David's hand before he could say anything, and dialed as fast as I could.
"C'mon, c'mon, answer, damn it all, answer please," I muttered, my heart racing. I clenched my jaw and fists, trying my hardest not to let any tears slip.
As soon as I heard the tone signalling that they didn't pick up, I threw the phone back at David and slumped back in my seat, staring out the window.
"Ellie, listen, I'm sure they'll be fine, they're probably already out of the city," David tried to call me down, reaching back and putting his hand on my shoulder. I just nodded mutely, still staring out the window; I didn't trust my voice right now. I didn't care if I ended up getting hurt from all of this, but I was so terrified that my family, or David, or someone else that I loved would be hurt.
We drove for a while in silence, and I was slowly able to calm down, though I was still terrified.
"Look, look at these people," Julius scoffed. "They just take, and then they go."
I had to grin, it was funny how he complained about the people.
"Yeah, yeah they're going, they're going faster than we are," David pointed out. I chuckled. "Look at this, we're in the fast lane!"
"Well I can't go faster, look they're cutting me off!" Julius shot back.
"No ones cutting you off! We're gonna get a ticket!"
"I can't go any faster, I-"
"Alright, alright, alright, I won't argue," David cut his dad off, shushing at him. "Lets just get there, as quickly as possible."
"What's the rush, huh? You think we'll get to Washington and it won't be there?" Julius asked skeptically.
David and I just looked at each other and then at his father. He didn't realize just how true his words were.

After driving for another couple of hours, I was starting to doze off slightly. I woke up when I heard David's father speak again.
"Everyone in the world is trying to get out of Washington, and we're the only schmucks trying to get in!"
He did have a point, although it made sense I suppose. Who would want to go into a city that's underneath a giant alien spaceship?
I saw David putting a disc into his computer, and immediately guessed what he was trying to do. "You know that's considered stalking, right?" I teased.
He just shot me a glare, and continued to pull up the program.
"What the hell is that?" Julius asked, finally noticing what David was doing.
"Pops, this is every phone book in America," he explained. I had to keep myself from laughing; he calls his dad 'pops', that's cute.
"What, you think an important person like Constance will be listed?"
"She always keeps her portable phone listed, for emergencies. Sometimes it's just her first initial, sometimes her nickname..." David trailed off, trying to think of what it might be listed under.
I was too busy watching over David's shoulder, that I didn't even notice the traffic coming our way.
"Oh my god!" Julius exclaimed.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, slow down!"
As we kept turning sharply, I was thrown all over the backseat.
"Why are all these people-" Julius started shouting.
"Stop! Slow down, stop!"
"Tell them, tell them! Watch out!!"
Honestly its a miracle that we didn't hit anyone.
"Ramp, ramp, ramp!!! Slow down, slow down!!" David shouted at his father.
We took a very sudden right, throwing me all the way to the left side of the car, and drove straight through barricades, breaking them.
"We made it!"
"More or less," I grumbled as I sat back up.
David looked impressed, probably just shocked that we weren't killed honestly. "Nice driving pops," he marveled.
Julius just nodded, keeping his eyes on the road this time.
David looked back at me, smirking. "That's why you wear your seatbelt," he teased.
I glared at him. "Shut up," I grumbled. "I'll tell you where you can put your seatbelt."
He just chuckled and turned his attention back to his computer. He kept typing, with seemingly not luck.
"Not listed?" his dad asked, peering over at his laptop.
"No, uh, not yet," David muttered, focusing still on the laptop. "I tried C. Spano, Spano C....try spunky..." he trailed off, typing in Spano, Spunky.
I raised my eyebrow, leaning forward again almost out of my seat. "Spunky?" I asked, trying not to laugh.
"College nickname," he said dismissively.
"Its cute," his dad remarked. I laughed at that.
The computer beeped; no luck for spunky either.
"Did you try Levinson?" Julius asked, looking over at David's laptop, and mildly freaking me out cuz this is like the 10th time in the past couple seconds that he's taken his eyes off the road.
"Uh, no, she didn't take my name when we were married, why would she...what are you talking about?"
"Try it," Julius insisted.
David just shot him a disdainful glance. "Here, look, watch." He typed in Levinson, Constance, probably expecting it not to work.
I had to chuckle when I saw a number pop up, but at the same time it sort of bothered me.
"Eh, so what do I know?" Julius remarked sarcastically.
I honestly had to think that its kinda rude for her to have her number listed under that; I mean first of all she didn't even take the last name when they were married, then she divorced David (I'm assuming she was the one that divorced him, as he seemed so broken up about it for so long), and yet she still put her number under his name; it just seemed like kind of a bratty thing to do, I don't know.
By this time, we has finally pulled up by the gates around the White House. I was surprised by how many people were here, protesting. What, why were they even protesting, were they protesting the President staying in the White House? That seemed awfully dumb to me.
David had his phone up to his ear, but it didn't seem like anyone had answered yet.
"So do you wanna ring the bell, or should I?" Julius asked David sarcastically.
I leaned forward, grinning, and raised my hand. "I wanna ring the bell!"
Julius just laughed at me, and David rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore me.
I could hear the busy tone coming from David's phone. "Oh, I think she's using it," he said, taking the phone away from his ear.
Well no duh, David, its literally the busy tone, that's what that means.
"What, its busy?" Julius asked. Well I guess stating the obvious just runs in the family then.
David looked out the window, looking around to make sure no one was directly watching us. "Yeah, but I can use her signal to triangulate her exact position in the White House," he explained, putting a doo-hickey that I don't remember the name of, on the roof of the car.
"Oh, yes cuz that's not suspicious looking at all," I retorted, rolling my eyes. David just glared at me (he does that a lot, I've noticed), and turned back to his laptop, beginning to track her signal.
"Wait, you can do that?" Julius asked, astonished.
"Yeah...all cable repairmen can do it," David replied, his attention still on his laptop.
Julius looked back at me for confirmation. I just shrugged. "Well I mean, theoretically, yes we all know how to do it but, realistically, we're not all creepy like David, so we generally avoid doing it," I said, patting David on the head as I called him creepy.
He swatted my hand away. "Stop that!"
Julius and I just laughed at him.
After a moment, the laptop beeped, signalling that it had found where the signal was coming from.
I peered over David's shoulder at the laptop's results. "That should be..." I looked around at the White House, trying to picture it in relation to the map on the screen. "That should be around that window." I pointed to a window slightly to our left.
"Okay pops, try and get us as close to that window as possible," David instructed, dialing on his phone again.
"Now, don't hang up Connie," David said as soon as she (finally) answered the phone.
There was a pause, and once again I couldn't make out what she was saying on the other line, but once again, it didn't really sound the happiest.
"Do me a favor, walk towards the window," David instructed, getting out of the car. He beckoned for us to follow his example, so Julius and I got out and stood next to him.
"You do realize how actually creepy this is, right?" I asked David with my eyebrows raised.
He just waved his hand at me, shushing me. I rolled my eyes.
"You'll see..." David responded to whatever Connie had said on the line. I saw the curtains of the window I had pointed at open, and a face peer out.
David began to wave, and I followed suit. "Over here, see us?" David asked.
I could see through the window that Connie had taken the phone away from her ear, and then she suddenly walked away from the window.
I frowned. "Is that a good or bad sign?"
David just shrugged. "We'll find out, I suppose."