Summer Heat

The black Volkswagen Transporter jumped and jolted as it drove along the badly-paved B-Roads that lurked between the peaks of the Scottish Highlands. The GPS had cut out around 10 miles back due to lack of signal, and Isaac Grant, a broad sandy-haired man with a short scruffy beard was sat in the driver’s seat swearing loudly with each sharp corner and pothole. Classic rock could just about be heard from the stereo, creating the impression of a far-off jukebox and giving a barroom feel to the interior of the vehicle.
The back of the vehicle wasn’t unlike a bar room either, the amount of stockpiled alcohol and playing cards meant one of two things. A barroom or, even worse, teenagers. Unfortunately for the van (and its newly beer-stained carpet), the latter was true.
On the two wheel arches in the back of the van sat the two girls of the group, each with different brightly coloured hair. The unfortunately named Sara Sparks, currently seated on the right wheel arch of the van and listening to her iPod via a pair of vivid blue earbuds, had the most exciting of the hair with a rainbow of colours. Her headphones matched her eye colour, and was, undoubtedly, her favourite of the colours. She was tall, slim, and used this to her advantage by sprawling out as much as possible just to annoy everyone else in the van. It worked.
On the opposite wheel arch to her sat Fay Addle, a quiet young girl around the age of 17 with bright red shoulder-length hair. She had soft pretty features and bright green eyes, and was also listening to her iPod via a pair of pink earbuds, although not taking up as much space as Sara, which was rather easy to do.
Finally, there was Mark Hunt, draped across a battered green leather armchair that the group had commandeered from the side of the road a few months ago. It was torn in a few spots, but it was functional at least. Mark, on the other hand, was barely functional right now. He’d got very little sleep recently due to the heat of summer, and was attempting to make up for that now, although the constant bumps were keeping him awake and flicking his brown hair into his eyes. He’d meant to get a haircut before the road trip but never had. He usually had nightmares when he slept in a moving vehicle, but screw it, he needed this. He sighed and closed his eyes.

“Dude.” Mark opened his eyes. He liked Isaac’s Irish accent, but it had the habit of appearing at the most inopportune times.
“Yeah?” he half-yawned back, hoping to get the point across. No such luck.
“Do you have any f****n’ idea where we are?” When he wasn’t around his girlfriend back home, Isaac had a habit of swearing a lot. It annoyed Fay, but Sara seemed okay with it. Of course, Mark’s natural reaction to this, as somewhat of a social chameleon, was to do the same. He slowly rolled over and leant forward between the front two seats to get a better look out the window.
“S**t man, I don’t know.” They were on a small hillside road that was barely much more than gravel. On their right was the hillside, covered in pine trees, and to their left was a sharp drop down to a loch below. “We could be anywhere in Scotland right now and it’d look the same.” It was sunny for a change too, the country was currently experiencing a heatwave, although that probably wouldn’t last for long.
“Yeah, no s**t. Last time we even passed a car was about 5 miles back.”
“Do you have any idea what county we’re in?”
“The Cairngorms. There was a big granite sign a few miles back, around about's the time the last car passed us.”
“The Cairngorms is a national park, you twat, not a county” Sara suddenly piped up from the back. The two men gave each other a look and silently agreed to ignore her.
“Don’t we have a map around here somewhere?” Mark raised an eyebrow as best as he could, and then remembered that he didn’t know how to. He gently un-contorted his face in the hopes that Isaac didn’t notice.
“Yeah, the bloody GPS.” He gave it a gentle slap to emphasise the point but it continued to smugly show the “No Signal” error message anyway.
“Great” Mark mumbled and slipped into the passenger seat, letting the sun beat down on him.
Isaac grinned and looked at him for a second before diverting his eyes back to the road. Mark already knew there was a dirty joke incoming. “Hey man, do you know why women have legs?”

In the next few miles, the scenery changed very little. Trees, trees, and yes, more trees, all of the while the dark waters of the loch glittering below them to their left. The land flattened out slowly at first, and then all at once it seemed as if a small village appeared out of nowhere, welcoming the van into its pleasant embrace of bricks and less neglected tarmac.
“Can we stop?” asked a small voice in the back. Fay had apparently turned off her iPod and was now sat in the armchair, a book sat open in her lap. "I need to pee..."
Isaac smiled briefly over his shoulder and gave a small nod. Sara yawned. Mark yawned back more. The van screamed as the brakes were applied and Sara fell off the wheel arch and onto the carpet.