Party Girl

By: Riley

Summary - -Companion Piece to Guess Who's Back- Now that McFly are settled in to Australia, there's one more surprise waiting for them at the club. Harry knew that by the end of the night he wouldn't be frequenting the clubs as often as he used to. *Those who have read my old Just My Luck stories will recognize the characters in it*.

Harry Judd was never one that shied away from girls, dancing, and going to clubs. He was never one that turned down a sense of 'breaking the rules' and doing his own thing. When the bad first started, he and Danny had broken Tom's house rule of not doing illegal drugs, while taking part in using pot. Now, he had used pot before the band started, whether or not his parents knew about it, and he had continued to do with when he, Danny, Tom, and Dougie had first moved in together. Why would he stop doing what he wanted to do just because he was in a band? He should have been able to do what he wanted; he had that freedom, right? Wrong. Fletch had figured out about them and their drug use pretty quickly. Harry pointed out that he had been using it before he got in the band. Then he got swiftly shot down when Fletch reminded him that if he had known that Harry smoked pot, he wouldn't have been in the band.

Except for that moment in time, Harry was one that liked to have a good time whenever he got the chance. So he was the first one to jump at the offer when, after watching TV for a while, Patrick suggested that they all get dressed up and go out to the club. Looking around for the others' approval, Harry immediately sat up, his eyebrows rising in interest. Partying? Drinking? Dancing? Having a good time? He was there in a heartbeat!

"How does this work?" Tom turned away from the mirror to face Harry, who was standing behind him, pulling a jacket up around his shoulders. Harry looked him up and down, lowering his right eyebrow as he took his appearance in. Harry slowly brought a hand up over his mouth and pressed his lips together as hard as he could, trying not to let the laughter that bubbled up his chest escape his lips. Tom's eyes narrowed as he stared at the drummer. "I didn't ask for you to laugh at me-"

"I know." Harry removed his hand from his mouth. "I'm throwing that in for free." Harry moved his lower jaw to the side and walked closer to Tom. "Uh, Tom. We're going to a club, not a formal event." He waved a hand up and down, motioning to the almost tuxedo that Tom was wearing. "You need to relax a bit. A tuxedo jacket, tuxedo pants, and a dressy shirt aren't the way to go."

"Sorry." Tom rolled his eyes, pulling off his jacket. "I haven't been to many clubs before."

"And it shows, each and every time you do go, mate," Harry said. He walked over to Tom's closet and grabbed onto the diamond shaped door handle, and pulled open the closet door. Reaching a hand in, he tugged at the drawstring light and allowed the LCD light bulb inside to light up the tiny closet. For a moment Harry was confused, wondering how Tom's walk in closet had suddenly shrank, then remembered that they were in Australia, and his excitement for going to the club was increased. "Here." He handed Tom a dark green t-shirt, and a pair of jeans. "You can keep the jacket, but things will look better with these, if you don't like that, try a button down shirt."

"Thanks." Tom took the shirt and pants and quickly got changed. When he was finished, he turned to the mirror and started to run his fingers through his hair, tugging and twisting at the strands to make spikes that stood straight up off of his forehead. Harry took the shirt that Tom had discarded and, grinning, rolled it up before snapping it forward, against Tom's ass.

"Ow!" Tom jumped backwards, rubbing his ass with both hands. Harry laughed maniacally and raced out of the room as Tom turned and lunged for him. "Oy! Harry! I thought I told you to stop doing that!"

"If I listened, it wouldn't be fun!" Harry shouted back. Still laughing, he walked down to the living room where Danny and Dougie were already dressed and ready to go as well. "Just waiting for Tom, as usual." Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "By the way, if you really want to piss him off, just make fun of his clothes."

"Shouldn't be that difficult," Danny pointed out. "Tom's clothing choices are already questionable." He bobbed his head back and forth. "To the point that I purposefully hide some of them so I can see what other crazy things he puts together."

"Cheers mate," Tom said with a scowl, walking up behind him. Danny smiled sweetly and Dougie smiled quietly. "That reminds me that I need to get a combination lock on my door because I know you can't count and that'll be sure to keep you out of my room."

Harry and Dougie laughed as Danny scowled and Tom smirked at him. Harry shook his head and raised an arm, pointing towards the door. "So, are we going to go or what? The Jacksons said to be ready in ten minutes, and thanks to Tom being so…clothing challenged, I figured they would have been here by now."

"Hello, they have two girls that need to get club ready," Danny pointed out. "Meaning, tight dresses, high heels, glossy hair, and perfect makeup." He smile morphed into a lewd one, rapidly raising and lowering his eyebrows. He then wiggled his fingers before pointing to the side of his wrist as if to the face of a watch. "It takes time."

"Right and your getting slapped in the face time and time again will take time too," Harry reminded him. He pretended to think about it, pressing a finger to his chin. "Or would you prefer a water gun blats to the face just like early this morning?" Danny scowled for a moment, then shrugged, seemingly unbothered by it.

Harry rolled his eyes, shaking his head. Harry always wondered how Danny was able to go through life with a smile on his face and with not much in his head other than music. He was always teased for being a ladies' man that did nothing but run away from commitment and flew from girl to girl, but he always had a smile on his face. However, he always seemed to be able to let things roll off his back and not bother him. He had only seen Danny get angry twice, once being when he was about to attack someone that spoke badly about his band and threw cream on Tom, the other time he had seen him get angry was when his father had come back for a short period of time while they had been working on their album with Jake, wanting to break into the American market.

The door bell rang and Dougie turned and walked over to answer it. He pulled the door open and took a step back, almost getting blasted in the face by the side of the door. Patrick, who had pushed the door open, grimaced, his eyes widening when he saw the bass player crumple to the floor with a sound that was reminiscent of a baby's wail.

"Pat, how many times have I told you not to open the door like that?" Riley scolded, placing her hands on her hips as she followed him into the house. "It's bad enough that you shoved the door lock through Sydney's sinuses, but you already made Noah completely forget the last two weeks from hitting him in the face this morning."

"I told you I was fine," Noah mumbled, reaching up a hand and pressed his fingertips to the bruise that was barely visible underneath his fringe. "It didn't hurt that much and, besides, who cares if I don't remember getting a song to number one last week? I mean, we have so many already, what's one more?"

"You guys look great," Harry said, looking over their clothes. Patrick and Noah had followed Harry's own advice, wearing long a long sleeved button down with a black vest and black jeans and a dark grey vest over a white t-shirt, and black jeans respectively. Riley and Rhuben, who had changed their mostly tomboy style over the years, were both wearing black jean skirts while their tops varied; Riley's a red and black loose fitting top that showed off her midriff, the sleeves held holes to show off her shoulders, Rhuben wearing a off the shoulder purple top with a tight fitting black tank top underneath. "Very much in tune with your whole black theme," he added with a light laugh.

It hadn't been that long ago that he had constantly heard them explain their joke; 'you can't be a darkelement without having black as a favorite color'. Back then he thought it was a joke, but it actually made a lot of sense with the pain and torture they had gone through, they all gravitated towards the darker color of the spectrum.

"We wouldn't be us without it, would we?" Rhuben pointed out. She placed her hands on her hips and swung her head, moving her hair out of her face. "Syd is kinda gutted that he can't come with, but being twelve he's not allowed in the club, but he's just as excited about the surprise as you guys should be." She grinned, causing the four boys to exchange worried glances.

Harry knew that smile could mean a lot of things. Being the drummer of his band and her being the drummer to her band, they spent a lot of time together, working on drum fills and working through parts of songs that they were having trouble with—though it was ironic that they felt their best friend from each other's band was the guitarist, Tom for Rhuben, and Riley for Harry—so he got to know her very well. And whenever she, or any of her siblings, got a smile on her face that had an air of mischief along with it, though when McFly and the DarkElements were around each other, it was nearly impossible for it not to happen, they knew to be on the edge. The last time Harry remembered that smile, it was only hours before he had been forced to go on stage with a fat lip and hardly able to talk, which was the result of a moon bounce-dodge ball competition gone wrong.

Who knew what was going to happen this time. Being put in a social situation, like going to the club, it shouldn't be that big a deal. It had to have been an actual surprise, much like the layout of the house and being able to spend time with some of their best friends while making an album was going to be.

"So let's get going then, no point in having your surprise wait," Patrick said. He grinned, his eyes flashing as well.

Harry held up his hands. "Hold on a minute, mate, does this have anything to do with anything that could potentially embarrass us?" He then turned and pointed to the leader of McFly. "And by 'us' I mean Tom? Because we like to embarrass him, but when it comes to something in the public eye, you know how pissy and anal retentive he can get."

"Excuse me for caring about the way the public sees our band," Tom said. He waved a hand. "If you want to throw that all away, that's fine by me. Everyone's replaceable." Harry's smile faded and he could feel the color draining from his face. Tom smirked at Harry's sudden discoloring.

That had been what happened when he was trying out for the band, Harry remembered. It was down to him and one other drummer and the other drummer definitely had more experience than he did for drumming. He was that close to being the one that wasn't going to be in the band, and if he hadn't been in the band, he wouldn't have made the best friends…the not-so-real brothers he had ever had. Harry did his best to downplay it whenever it was brought up, but he did actually get bothered by the thought of not being in McFly.

He sometimes laid awake at night wondering about it; what would have happened if he didn't get into the band? He would have been angry at himself for a while, wondering if he could have practiced harder, or had a better personality, or did…anything different to get in. He would have gone back to school, back to the people that would have made fun of him for getting so worked up over the audition; he probably would have been bullied all over again. He probably would have played cricket as long as he could before he went pro and before he got to the point where he would retire early. He would do nothing but eat, sleep and breathe cricket and while he enjoyed the game, he knew it wasn't him…it wasn't something that really stimulated him as much as drumming did. It bothered him, at times, that Tom was able to hold that over his head, it just showed how much he really did care about the boys and the band, no matter how hard he tried to show it.

Not that he was unfeeling, just that he wasn't always so happy to explain or show his emotions. He was a great person for anyone else to talk to, as he believed that talking about things always helped, he was a hypocrite in that aspect.

"Touché, mate." Harry placed his hand on Tom's shoulder and squeezed. "But don't think I won't try to get back at you for that. I just need to wait for the right time." Harry squeezed Tom's shoulder harder, enough to have Tom finally crack and let out a mixture of a screeching cry of pain and a laugh, backing away from Harry's outstretched hand.

Harry grinned and lowered his arm.

He always had to win.

Tom, Harry, Danny, and Dougie followed the Jacksons out of their rental house and split up, climbing into Riley's and Rhuben's cars. They drove to the club, The Basement, and once they arrived, were quickly whisked inside, past the long lines of club goers that were waiting to go in. Harry was momentarily surprised that the Jacksons hadn't been stopped by fans once they arrived inside, he was used to camera flashes and momentary blindness nearly everywhere he went, when he went out. He could barely go out without wearing some sort of a disguise just to have time to himself. Being in a different country, where he wasn't nearly as known was comforting.

"So?" Dougie threw his hands up in the air, practically screaming as he tried to be heard over the music. "What's this big surprise that you were telling us about?"

"All the booze you can drink, mate! On us!"

Harry heard the American accented voice behind him, obviously trying to sound Australian. Before the sentence had been finished, the speaker had collapsed in giggles and another person's laughter mixed in with it as well. Harry turned around and his eyes widened for a moment before a calm, confident expression slid over his face. Genevieve 'Gen' Charlier and Jacqui Guhl stood behind the four boys, holding onto some sort of mixture that was already half empty. It had been so long since the two had been seen as well; after their work in American had ended, their conversations had lulled as well. Gen went back to her home in Canada and Jacqui had gone back to her home in New Jersey. Harry felt a smirk tug at his lips, taking over the confident smile he just had.

He was in his element at this point, and though the initial feeling of shock of seeing the two girls—who had also been graced with the quality of time, something Harry was highly aware of as he took in their dresses, makeup, and heels—still had a tight grip on his stomach muscles, he was doing his best to downplay it. Tom, on the other hand, was trying—trying being the keyword—to strike up a normal conversation with Gen, whom he had grown very close to while they were in the US, though he was hemming and hawing more than anything else. Gen, on the other hand, appeared to be as polite as ever, which caused her the nickname 'Gentle' from Riley and Rhuben, and was talking to him cheerfully.

"What are you doing here?" Dougie asked, pointing at the two of them. From the look on his face, it appeared that he would have thought that the two of them were aliens that had suddenly transported over to the land down under. Harry wouldn't put it past him anyway, it would be one of the least worrying things he had heard Dougie ramble on about. "Shouldn't you be in America or something?"

"Don't question it, dude," Danny said with a smile. He put his arm around Rhuben's shoulders. "All of us have a chance of being lucky in love, again. Why knock it?"

Rhuben responded by elbowing him in the side, causing Danny to let out a grunt and drop his arm. "Probably because you have a good chance of being beaten?"

Jacqui giggled, moving a hand up to cover her mouth before moving her dark hair from her face. "That's what she said."

Riley, used to her friend's antics, raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Jac-Jac, she said 'being beaten' not 'beating off'."

"Yeah, but I made you say it," Jacqui pointed out, causing the group to laugh. She turned to Harry and her smiled widened before she brought her umbrellaed drink up to her mouth and taking a sip. Pulling the glass away, she tilted her head, further removing her hair from her face. "How've you been, Harry? I see you haven't had Tom's head explode from anxiety yet."

"A pity really," Harry replied. "I think it'd be something the fans would pay to see." He placed a hand on his chest. "I know I definitely would."

"I don't know about that," Gen said, coming to Tom's defense. "I think watching him finally stand up for himself would be more entertaining. Besides,"—she waved a hand, a charm bracelet sliding up her wrist—"the band would fall apart without Tom there, you have to admit."

"Really?" Dougie looked Tom up and down. "I'd like to test that theory." The evil grin that crossed his face, which worried Harry a little bit from the malicious intention that radiated from the bassists body, caused Tom to take a large step away from him.

"Do it and die," Riley warned. "We're supposed to be having a good time, mate. Don't muck it up with your half-baked schemes."

"And, if you couldn't guess it yet Jacqui and Gen are our surprise," Noah said, raising his voice as loud as he could to be sure he was able to be heard over the music. Out of his brothers and sisters, he was the quietest one, usually watching compared and taking in things, rather than voicing his opinion unless it was needed. But that didn't mean he could get as loud and crazy as the others when they were all put together. "After hearing that you blokes were going to be here in Aus, we flew them out for a couple of weeks for a vacation and to have some fun."

And fun was what Harry indeed planned on having. As their group branched off to get on the dance floor or start drinking Harry found himself looking over at Jacqui a lot. He would never particularly consider himself a ladies' man, compared to Danny, but years ago he had found himself very attracted to her. The fact that she was always so energetic and crazy and blurting out things that other people usually kept quiet always made him laugh. She was always fun to be around and could keep up with the guys with their crazy antics though she had goals of her own; she was a dreamer and loved to sing just as much as she loved to watch Disney movies and go to movies. Harry plopped himself at the bar and ordered himself a drink, something to loosen him up and watched as his friends talked and danced with each other.

Harry's eyes drifted over to Jacqui and he watched her with fascination. She had everything; the looks and the personality, with dark hair and eyes but with a bit of an innocent air about her. He knew that not to be true, as she made 'that's what she said' jokes quicker than anyone else could recognize the double entendre in a simple sentence. He normally had no problem with talking to girls; however, he had been working up the nerve to talk to her that night. To really talk to her. He waited as a few guys would come up and talk to her, wondering if it was the time for him to swoop in and 'save her' if need be, but she always said something to them with a smile and the guy would walk away. That was when she wasn't with one of the Jacksons or talking to one of the boys. Not that he minded, he just wanted to try and talk to her alone.

Christ, since when I have been this nervous? Harry couldn't remember. When he had been around her, when they were younger, things were simpler, they were just having fun and while the two had flirted with each other pretty extensively, there wasn't a lot that had come out of it. They had kissed a couple of times and went on a couple of dates and he had gotten close to the point where he wanted to ask her out in a more…serious way, to want to work towards a committed relationship…but they had left before he got the chance to. They kept in touch, however with passing time and distance, things seemed to sizzle out.

That wasn't a problem now, he could feel the spark there just from looking at her, from watching her dance. Harry drank a little more, enough to loosen up even further, to enjoy the taste of the drinks, but not enough to inhibit himself, and continued to wait.

Finally, he got his chance.

She was coming back from the bathroom and headed towards the bar to get something to drink. Harry waited 'till she got close enough before flashing a wickedly charming smile her way. Jacqui smiled back and slowed her walk, changing her course towards him, when she reached his side; she perched on the empty stool next to him. Laughing quietly, she moved her damp hair off her forehead. "So? You didn't go through all the trouble of watching me for nothing, did you?"

"Oh, you noticed?" Harry mentally winced. Smooth, nice answer to that one.

Jacqui's smile widened, her eyes lighting up. "Anything in particular you wanted to talk to me about, Hazzard?"

Harry bobbed his head. "Well, I guess there's not a way to say it without coming off like a stalker."

"Being a stalker could be pretty cool though." Jacqui nodded, lacing her fingers together. "I get a guy that worships the ground I walk on, and…you get to watch me all day." Harry joined in with her laughter, suddenly remembered of all of the times that he had laughed when she used to be around all the time. Sure, most of them were sugar-filled due to the massive amounts of pixy sticks that she always seemed to have around her, but it was the same. "Anyway, I'm sure you can make sounding like a stalker charming. What with your posh upbringing and everything."

Harry modestly waved a hand. "I'm no more posh than Danny," he said. "Anyway…" he cleared his throat. "I've been watching you and I was trying to think of a million ways I could-"

"Do you want to dance?" Jacqui interrupted him. "Why waste the night? Right? And you're a young guy, I'm sure you've been around the clubs before. You need to show me how the guys in England get it done." She laughed at her own joke and grabbed onto Harry's hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor.

Harry grabbed onto Jacqui's hand and twirled her in a circle before pulling her against her chest, both of them moving to the fast beat of the song. Around them, their friends entered and left the dance floor repeatedly, stopping to catch their breaths and to get something to drink, but Harry and Jacqui continued to dance and talk with each other, cracking jokes and catching up as they did so. Finally, when Jacqui started to complain of aching feet, the two left the dance floor.

"You can use my shoes," Harry offered. He stuck out and wiggled his converse clad foot. "I mean, they're probably a bit too big-"

"-And sweaty," Jacqui added. "Sorry, but I like to make my men sweat on my terms."

Harry laughed for what felt like the hundredth time that night, his stomach muscles were telling him that anyway, and leaned against the bar, waiting for his friends to meet up. Gen, who was sitting on a stool, her legs crossed at the knee and rubbing her foot as her legs were crossed, rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Jacqui, you can't go three minutes without a dirty joke can you?"

"It's just so fun, Gen!" Jacqui put her arm around Gen's shoulders and leaned her head down onto the shorter girl's, resting her cheek on top of Gen's head. "It's just so much fun." Jacqui then sniffed Gen's hair and stood up, looking down at her. "Vanilla? I approve."

"Good to know." Gen laughed. "My life goal is to get your approval." Gen started to twist back and forth on her stool, twirling her light brown hair around her finger. "So, you two seem to be getting pretty close tonight." She gave her sweet smile as her eyes moved back and forth between the two of them. "Just like old times, eh?"

"Maybe," Harry said with a shrug. "Though I think it's better to live in the moment."

He glanced over at Jacqui, who had turned to Gen and the two were talking animatedly about something. Harry knew, in that moment, that he wouldn't frequent nightclubs as much as he used to. He wouldn't arrive back home with a handover and a girl that he didn't know in his bed. He was going to try hard to prove that he could get to the point where he could be in a commitment and, hopefully, it would be with the girl that always made him laugh.

That girl that was always the life of the party.

A/N: At this point I don't get why I haven't just put all of these together into the start of a story, but whatever. I plan on re-writing Welcome To My Life and the sequels to that story as well as doing a story/stories in current times for McBusted. I have a couple more one-shots to do first, though. I loved writing Gen and Jacqui again, thanks to Genneh and lessthanthreedougie for letting us continue to use them.

I just have one more one-shot to do about Tom, which'll have more of Gen there, and then I'll be done with them all and will start a story soon.

Cheers,

-Riles