After a few false starts they were on their way to Belinda’s place. Taylor’s driving left something to be desired. Zac and Thayet cowered close together in the back seat, terrified. Tay swerved all over the road at nearly twice the speed limit, pounding the accelerator with reckless abandon. He was having the time of his life. Red lights were ignored, pedestrians' rights scorned, and the brakes largely forgotten until they reached Belinda’s, where Tay stomped that particular pedal down with a sickening crunch, and the passengers were thrown violently all over the car. They double-checked the strength of their seat-belts as they started up again with a jolt and a lurch.
Belinda, looking sporty in a plain blue T-shirt, blue checked shorts and white running shoes, however, was not in the least scared. She was too busy gazing with admiration and love at Taylor, whose plan for impressing her with his driving had certainly worked. His face was bright red and droplets of sweat rolled down his face from exertion. BelindaÕs eyes followed them, intrigued. She longed to reach out her hand and wipe away the little drip that persisted in clinging to his chin, but she was too shy, so she contented herself with gazing at Taylor, her eyes full of love, as they sped along the wrong side of the road in the warm Miami Beach night.

Meanwhile, Isaac was dressed in a fake leopard skin coat and a pink beanie with sunflowers on it to disguise himself. He zoomed frantically along behind the convertible containing the four love-struck young people, on his 7 year-old sister Avery's little pink Barbie scooter She had insisted upon bringing it to Miami Beach. Ike was glad she had brought it, now. It was of use to him. He was insanely jealous of Taylor and Zac, especially Taylor. It wasn’t fair that they were going out on dates with groovy chicks and he, older and much more sophisticated (not even Isaac himself was blind enough to say “better looking”), was stuck at home, watching re-runs of Barney. The saddest thing was that he knew they were re-runs.
Anyway, he had decided that Belinda would be his. He was madly in love with her, she appealed to something raunchy and animal deep down inside him, and he had to have her, hold her, kiss her, possess her. He would do anything to achieve this. Absolutely anything. He would even have drunk Yakult, if it would have furthered his cause. As it wouldn't have, he didn't.
Anyhow, he had thought of a plan. A good plan. A foolproof plan (or so he thought). And that plan was the reason he was now scooting (you know, what you do on a scooter) along behind Thayet's convertible at a frantic pace. He was going to follow his brothers to the restaurant and sabotage their evening. He was going to embarrass Taylor so much that Belinda would want nothing more to do with Tay, but would start going out with him, Isaac, when he casually walked into the restaurant at an opportune moment and showed everyone how superior he was to his sniveling little, disgustingly talented, good looking and charming younger brother. He was especially out to get Taylor, but he wouldn’t exactly start weeping if Thayet decided to dump Zac too, for that matter.
All in all it was a fiendish plan, and one very typical of Isaac.
He pulled into the parking lot of the Shark Cafe restaurant, leaving his scooter double-parked in front of a blue pick-up truck. He snuck around to the back door of the restaurant and positioned himself behind the rubbish bins, thinking that the smell seemed familiar. Then he remembered. The rubbish bins smelled exactly like his suitcase back at the hotel. He breathed in the disgusting fragrance. It calmed him and seemed to give him the patience vital to his plan...

Thayet’s convertible swerved sickeningly into the parking lot, coming to a screeching halt in the nearest parking space, and leaving a set of the biggest skid marks known in the history of the world. Tay whacked on the hand-brake as they shakily climbed out of the car. Zac and Thayet were shaky because fearing for your life makes you shaky, Belinda was shaky because she was so much in love it was scaring her, and as for Taylor, he was shaking with triumph. He was sure he had impressed Belinda. Now maybe she would start to look upon him as more than a friend! Tay turned to Thayet.
“I’ll drive on the way back, if you want,” he offered.
“Noooo!” Thayet and Zac moaned in unison.
“Okay,” allowed Taylor cheerfully. He was in a good mood, remember.

[ 4 ]