Chapter One: Change
Josh slid into his regular seat in Chemistry 4402, grinning like he had just won the lottery.
"You're awful smiley this morning, Nickels." Alix said looking over at him. "Who'd you lay last night?"
Josh rolled his eyes at her. "For you information, I am smiley because I totally ached my biology exam this morning."
"Seriously, No one looks that happy over the nervous system."
"If you must know, I did go out with Sybil last night, but it did not go that far thank you very much! Some of us have morals."
Alix raised an eyebrow, "Sybil?"
"You know her?" Josh asked surprised. He wasn't aware the two girls knew each other.
"No, but you kissed a girl named Sybil?"
Josh rolled his eyes. He should have figured. It was a Drake kinda answer. Alix (pronounced Alice) and Josh had met the year before when Josh moved into his apartment. She lived next door and he ran into her during one of his many trips to and from his apartment. Well, it was a little more awkward than that. Josh literally ran into her when he was carrying a box and almost broke her foot. To say he was sorry he brought her his fudgie-boo brownies, which he quickly re-named, fudge supreme. A few days later they found out that they shared the same chem. class. They became close friends over the semester. Since they lived next door to each other they ended up walking to and from class together, getting coffee most days. After a while they started hanging out. She was witty, funny, and incredibly smart. Josh really enjoyed his time spent with her, most of the time. She was quiet the smart aleck and some times she reminded him so much of his brother sometimes, it scared him. They never dated, they talked about it a couple times, but she just reminded Josh way to much of Drake, and well, they were just better off as friends.
"You know," Josh pulled out his note book and pencil, preparing for class. "Sybil is a perfectly fine name."
"Yeah, for my grandmother." Alix snorted.
"I think it's pretty." Josh said, slightly annoyed. "It's from the Greek word sibylla which means prophet."
Alix started at Josh with a mix of horror and amusement. "How do you know that? Why do you know that?"
"Like you don't know random trivia."
Alix scoffed. "Not like that."
Josh looked at her. "What's the radius of the earth?"
"3961.3 miles but that's not random!"
"Oh yeah," Josh laughed. "Because you never know when someone is gonna mug you and demand to know the radius of the earth."
Alix gave him a look of annoyance. "Ok, so it's a little bit random. But I got it from Jeopardy!"
"Jeopardy is not an excuse. Everything on there is completely random."
"Ok you got me there." Alix glanced at her watched. "I hate how this professor is always late." She muttered. "So how was your date?"
Josh smiled. That was one of things that made Alix different from Drake. At the end of all the harassment and bantering Alix actually cared about what happened to Josh and how his dates and things went, and she always made a point to ask and listen. "It was nice, really nice. We went to see that new Dustin Hoffman movie, then got coffee. I really enjoyed myself."
"So you gonna ask her out again?"
"Yeah, I think I will." Josh smiled at her and Alix laughed. Their professor finally came in and the two friends turned to the front of the class.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Drake pinched the bridge of his nose; if he had to listen to one more argument from Toby and Steve he was going to kill something or more likely someone.
"Will the two of you just SHUT UP!" His band mates all looked at him in surprise. "We're all getting sick of each other. Trust me I can't stand any of you at the moment, but we only have two more shows left. Let's try not to kill each other until after the tour?" Toby and Steve glared at each other one more time before Steve went to the back of the bus where the beds were, and Toby to the front in the kitchen.
Drake sighed and leaned his head back on the coach. "They are going to kill each other."
Eric laughed. "Probably, but we knew that in the beginning. They never got along, even in high school."
Drake groaned. "Why are they both in the band again?"
"Because your not gonna find a better bassist or drummer."
"Unfortunately." Drake said rubbing his forehead.
Eric cocked his head to the side, giving Drake a worried look. "You ok dude?"
"Yeah," Drake sighed. "I just have a head ache."
"That's like the third one this week. Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, it's stress. When this tour is over and we get a break for two months, I'll be fine." Drake stood up and stretched. "In the mean time I'm gonna crash for a bit." He headed to the back of the bus and his bunk. The last three years had been hard on all of the band members. They had seen almost every major city in the US and Europe over the last three years, but Drake could count the number of times he had seen his family on one hand.
It was a hard transition going straight from high school to rock star, a lot harder than he ever thought it would be. MajorMadMusic Records had discovered his band Rusted during their senior year of high school. Sure Drake had been 'discovered' before, but this was real this time. They offered him and his band and record deal and a tour and all sorts of other stuff that he had lost track of over the years. Drake had wanted to drop out of high school and sign right away but his and the other members' parents made them wait till after they graduated. They signed the contract at the big after party in the park. That was one of the best nights of his life, he scored the record deal and said good bye to school, forever, all in one night. He has felt on top of the world.
Their first CD Rusted Silhouette that August and it reached number four with in its first week and settled at number one two weeks later. They were almost instantaneously famous. Drake had always had people faun over him, but being famous brought it to a whole new level. He couldn't go anywhere with out some one freaking out and screaming. Don't get him wrong, he loved it, still loves it. It's just, once in a while he would like to go back to being able to cruise the mall for girls with out girls swarming him. It's hard to date when girls are constantly crawling over themselves to see you, not that it's that much different that high school, just a little more intense.
And the traveling. It was awesome at first, but living out of a tour bus and hotel rooms got old really fast. Drake missed sleeping in the same bed every night. He missed sharing a room with just one person instead of three. He missed his family, a lot. Sure they got to say good bye, but the sudden fame, and touring and press releases left him little time for anything but the band. It's been over three years since he and Josh had graduated high school. Josh was a senior at William and Mary and Drake had yet to make it to visit him on campus. He talked with his mother and Walter and Meagan almost every week but he only really saw them at holidays, and even then it was usually just for a day or two before his manager whisked him off to some charity event.
He was ready for a much need break, they all were.
Drake had talked his band manager into letting the band go home and relax for a while after they finished up their tour. Their last show was November 20th, and they wouldn't be meeting together as a band till January 10th. Nearly two whole months. Two blessed months where Drake could be just Drake and not the Drake Parker. He planed on visiting Josh for a week or so, then going back to New York and actually unpacking the apartment that he just bought and not leaving it until he flew to San Diego for Christmas with the family. Two blessed months to himself, with no schedule or crazy band manager breathing down his neck. Two months where he could just be himself.
Drake laid in his bunk staring at the ceiling. He wasn't going to sleep, he knew he wasn't. He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and hit number two speed dial. The phone rang twice before the person on the other end picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey Josh."
Josh was silent for a few seconds as he registered the voice. "Hey Drake." Drake felt saddened that Josh didn't recognize his voice right away. It just went to show how much they talked anymore.
"What are you up to?"
"Walking home from class. Haven't talked to you in a while. What have you been up to?"
"Really busy lately, we're on the final leg of our tour. Dude when I wanted to be a rock star I never thought it would be this much work! Like I actually have to work work!" Drake groaned.
Josh laughed. "Everything takes work Drake."
Drake sigh. "Yeah I know. It's just been non-stop ya know? We went on tour, then made that CD, and now we're back on tour again. I just feel like I haven't stopped. We had two back to back shows, and like 8 million interviews last week. I have lost count how many states I have talked and/or played on the radio or TV in the last three days."
"Yeah I saw you guys on Regis and Kelly a couple days ago. You were really good, as always."
Drake smiled at his brother's complement. "Thanks. So how are you doing?"
"I'm okay. College isn't much better. Where are you playing next? Speaking of which, where are you at the moment?"
"We're some where in the Dakotas, we have a show tomorrow night in Seattle, then we play in LA next Friday. Mom, Dad and Meagan are gonna come up and see me." There was an awkward pause as both boys thought about how Josh had yet to see his brother play a concert. Josh felt bad. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Drake, it was just that, the only time Drake had played even remotely close to William and Mary Josh just happened to be having dinner with the president of the university. And you don't blow off eating dinner with the president of the university to go to a rock concert.
"Cool," Josh said after a few seconds. "Tell them I say hi."
"Will do. How's Virginia?"
"Cold. It snowed last night."
"Cool. I like the snow."
Josh snorted. "You only like it because you don't have to walk 20 minutes across campus in it."
Drake laughed. "I still like the snow. Hey when do you go on break?"
"Couple weeks. Why?"
"Well our tour wraps up next week and we were thinking of taking a little time off. You know re-coup from the tour. I thought you could come up to New York and visit. Maybe I could even introduce to some girls. You do remember what girls are right?"
Josh rolled yes eyes. "Yes, Drake! I'm at school, not dead!" He sounded annoyed but was smiling.
"I've seen the way you get wrapped up in school work. If you're studying for a big exam a girl could walk into the room in nothing but her underwear and you wouldn't notice."
Josh ignored his brother, no matter how right he was. "Hey, I'm home and got homework to do before I go to work, so I'm gonna talk to you later."
Drake grinned, momentarily ignoring his brother. "And who knows if you've even have a chance with a girl without me there fronting for you."
"Goodbye Drake!" Josh snapped his phone shut, some things never change.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Ok so this is my first D&J fic so feel free to tell me if I got anything wrong. I'm trying really hard to keep them in character, let me know how I'm doing! Please review!