Jam-ming together

Chapter one

Ally's POV

I was in Sonic boom, cleaning the counter top – well trying to, as Trish was sat on it reading a magazine. I rubbed my temples, I do that when I am stressed out, I was having writers block with Austin's new song. He wanted to try a ballad, I love ballads but I have gotten so use to writing dancy pop songs that I can't seem to get one out anymore.

"Trish, could you please move? I am trying to clean here." I Said shaking my spray and cloth at her.

"But cleaning is soooo boring; you should relax and read Cheetah Beat!" Trish said shaking her magazine at me in return, it was easy for her to do that she seemed to have an endless supply of jobs – at least two a day, every day!

I was contemplating Trish's new headband, it had a book stuck to the top of it... Shoot I still have to read 'A Tale of Two Cities' for my book club by Friday!... when I heard a big crash behind me. I turned round ready to shout at Dez and Austin for breaking something. But it was just Austin, no Dez – weird.

"I'm so sorry Ally, I just fell down the stairs." Austin said pointing to our practise room, where we write all of his songs. He looked slightly guilty, but, no instruments seemed to have fallen and broken…or been covered in food.

"Hey, Austin where's freckles-mc-no-brain?" Trish said, she had obviously noticed that Dez wasn't here either.

"Dez is picking his cousin up from the air-port" We had all got used to Trish's name calling for Dez, and didn't correct her anymore – she just got angry, and she is a very scary and angry person.

"Dez has a cousin?" I asked, this was more interesting then cleaning, as I put away my cloth and spray.

"Yeah, Ben, I think, from England." Austin asked before jumping up onto my previously clean counter.

"Ooh. An English boy!" Trish exclaimed, prodding at her magazine. "My horoscope says I am going to have an exotic romance!"

"Erm Trish, that's for a Taurus. You were a Libra last time I checked." I said squinting at the glossy page. Trish turned around mumbling to herself, it sounded like she said kill-joy.

"Well Dez told me he is bringing his cousin straight here to meet us." Austin said, sending Trish into a flourish of playing with her hair and re-doing her make up.

"You could have said this earlier." Trish shouted at him whilst yanking her headband off her head.

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About Half an hour later, I had just finished selling the Tuba – yes, the one that had once housed Dez's sandwich, gross! Dez bounded into Sonic Boom. And Trish went up to him and grabbed his ear, dragging him over to the counter.

"Trish, Let go of me, What have I done?" Dez was screaming.

"Why didn't you tell me your cousin was coming to town?" Trish asked threateningly.

"I don't know." Dez whined, before yanking his head out of her grip and yowling in pain.

Trish turned and smiled at me, she was planning something, I just knew it.

"Ok so tell me Dez, is your cousin cute?"

"Eww, how would I know?" Dez exclaimed and started to pretend vomiting.

Before Trish could pressure Dez with any other awkward questions, I asked Dez; "So where is your cousin?"

Dez visibly became relieved at being saved from Trish, "Oh, they are coming here now, look!" Dez said pointing to the door, as a tall, ginger teenager walked through it. This teenage boy was definitely cute, not my type, but cute. And Trish thought so too.

"Him? He is so cute!" Trish pointed to the guy as he walked past us and towards the guitar display.

"No, he looks nothing like he could be related to me!" Dez exclaimed, "That is my cousin, Benjamin come over here!"

A girl with really long brown curly hair, wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans, a multi-coloured tutu and a T-shirt with an owl on it, turned round. She would have almost passed for normal, if it wasn't for the fact she had half a water melon on her head, and what seemed to be the other half under her arm. This girl skipped over to us, and handed Dez his half of the water melon – which he put on his head as well, like a new sort of fashion trend.

"Thanks for holding onto my watermelon hat, Benjamin." Dez said to this strange girl. "This is Ally, Trish and Austin!" He pointed to us each in turn before opening his backpack and pulling out three British flags, and giving us each one.

"Hi, I'm Benjamin, but please call me Jam!" The Girl said in an obviously British accent. She put her hand out to us, but we were all staring at her in confusion – this girl was called Benjamin and had a water melon on her head. Her smile faltered a bit. "Oh, Ok just a second." She plopped a big pink rucksack down onto the counter, before taking her watermelon off her head. She pulled out a Top hat with a huge pink flower on it, placed it on her head – then lifted three jars out of the rucksack.

She turned to face us and said, "Oh my dears, and old chap! Pip, pip Cheerio, how about we grab some kippers from the local chippie for our din?" whilst wiggling her eyebrows. Austin Burst out laughing, and put out his hand to shake hers.

We had just recovered, me and Trish, from our shock. She had one more longing glance at the other guy, before facing Jam.

"Nice to meet you Jam!" Trish said in an overly sweet voice, the one that she normally uses for sarcasm.

"You too Trish, please don't pull my ear." Jam said giggling and glancing at Dez who abruptly laughed. As Trish glared at him.

"I made you all some jam, Dez told me so much about you; in-between telling me about his turtle…did you know he can ride a tricycle?" her eyes were shining as she said this, there was no question about it, she had to be related to Dez – she was just too weird not to be.

"Here is pickle and raspberry Jam for Ally, Pancake and maple syrup Jam for Austin, and blackcurrant and pepper Jam for Trish!" she handed out the handmade Jam to us; they actually looked pretty good, despite their weirdness. "My bestest Jam, for Dez's Bestest Friends." She was smiling manically at us; it was a bit scary really.

Trish opened her jar and stuck her finger in, and licked it gingerly. She turned to the girl and smiled at her. "This is the best Jelly ever!" Trish exclaimed before putting her finger back in for more.

"Oh I forgot, you call Jam, Jelly" Jam pondered this before frowning, "My name is Jam, not Jelly" then her face clouded over in confusion. Dez grabbed her shoulder's and shook her.

"Sorry, my cousin is so smart she seems to over think everything!" he said before his face clouded over as well, Dez and Jam stood next to each other, and both stared at the wall – probably both in the same world.

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Austin's POV

Ok I must admit I was expecting a dude, Dez had described his cousin as a bout the same height as me, with awesome style and loving video-games. And I guess he didn't lie, but he could have mentioned that his Cousin was a GIRL! And a cute one at that. Benjamin- JAM- seems cool, she is staying at Dez's so I guess we will be hanging out a lot, at least she isn't overly girly and has a sense of humour.

"Yo, Dez!" I shouted to my best friend as I walked into his bedroom, where he was trying to get his turtle to sit on a tricycle.

"Yo, Austin!" He screamed at me, he has been eating taco's…mmmm…tacos. My stomach growled quite loudly, and I heard a small giggle. I turned round to see Jam sat wiring up Dez's Video game; she appeared to be attaching a pink sparkly controller next to Dez's red one.

"Yellow, Austin." She said pointing at me t-shirt, I was wearing my lucky yellow one – we were about to play a Zaliens video game marathon (minus Zaliens reloaded – that game totally sucks!).

"Erm Yeah?" I was a bit confused.

"Austin, don't you understand? Yellow is your favourite colour, so she is telling you she is your friend. It is also a warning colour, telling you about your impending doom as we are gonna kick your butt. And it rhymes with hello!" Dez said like it was obvious, "Sorry cousin, he isn't as intellectually advanced as we are"

I stared at him like he was a Zalien, ha ha, get it Zalien?

"Austin, where's your controller?" Jam asked with a smile, a manic one that reminded me of Dez when he first went on a trampoline.

"Just a sec," I put my bag onto Dez's Bed, and pulled out my controller – it was Gold, Ally Got me it for Christmas. It was definitely my favourite present.

Jam stood up to take my controller and plug it in, and that's when I saw what she was wearing: A blue and red checked shirt, a pair of white converse with blue laces and a knee length princess dress – and I mean an actual princess dress, kids costume style, all pink frills and glitter- she had topped this off by wearing a large tiara balanced between two huge pig tails of her hair, honestly I didn't know anyone could have that much hair" it was twice as wide as Trish's, waist length and seemed to consist of every type of curl and wave possible. Maybe she was a bit more girly then I had thought, but this definitely proved she was related to Dez, no one else would willingly go out in public dressed that strange.

"Nice Dress?" ok, that just kind of came out, I was wondering why she was wearing it – anyone would be. Teenagers just don't go out dressed like that of their own free will.

But she didn't answer; she had picked up Dez's turtle and began feeding it popcorn. Instead Dez answered. "Dude," he stretched out the dude really long. "My cousin is a princess today, get it right!" With that Dez finished setting up the game, and we all started to play. Surprisingly, Jam wasn't actually that bad at it – of course her high score didn't even come close to mine, but that's because I am awesome, yeah.

Dez paused the game, just as I was about to win. He placed a hand over my mouth and whispered "shhh, the kangaroo is about to eat peanut butter." I glanced at him weirdly, but he didn't notice – he was staring at Jam, who was playing with Dez's stuffies. She casually shoved a kangaroo into a peanut butter jar, then stood up and bowed towards us. Ok maybe this family was strange.

"I have always wanted to be a princess, you know?" I personally didn't know, I have never wanted to be a princess or any part of royalty, unfortunately for me… "This is my favourite crown, it was once owned by my sisters, best friends, goldfish's, pet dolphin's, eldest uncle's, poptart's, queen. It is very special. But I would give it away for a chance to be a princess for a day…" She glanced sadly down at the lump of metal in her hands.

Dez just started bawling hysterically, "That was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard." He grabbed my shirt and blew his nose into it. I flicked my hair away from him. I was thinking…well she is Dez's cousin, and there is no way we can play Zaliens with Dez crying – been there done that and have actually gotten the T-Shirt.

I smiled my best smile at Jam, "Well I do like your crown, so grab your bag." She didn't question me, just smiled at me and started skipping off to get her bag, the large pink rucksack from yesterday. I picked Dez off my shoulder, "Dez, come on we are gonna go see my parents." I said, he smiled like nothing had happened.

"Can I jump on the beds, again?" I didn't answer him just pulled him down stairs, where Jam was waiting.

Twenty minutes later, we were walking into 'Moon's Mattress Kingdom' my mum spotted me and regally waved before coming over to us, and placing a ridiculously corny crown on my head.

"Oh my little Prince" she gushed before squashing me into a hug and grasping my face, which she then turned to face Dez and Jam. Dez squealed and ran over to the King sized mattress display, but, Jam sunk into a deep curtsey.

"Your highness." Jam said in a level tone, the sanest voice I had heard her use so far.

"You may rise." My mum said smiling, not many people took her 'place of royalty' seriously.

And this is where my plan comes in, I released myself from my mother's grasp, and walked over to Jam. I slung my arm around her shoulders, which was quite hard because of her hair.

"Mom, this is Jam" I took a deep breath and counted to three, before plastering a huge smile across my face. No one knew about my plan. "She is my girlfriend." I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to experience what happened next. But nothing did, except Jam was embraced by my mother – this was just too embarrassing.

But it got worse, my mum linked arms with my 'girlfriend' and started to announce "Isn't this lovely, my Prince has finally found a princess. One he deems worthy to meet the King and Queen." And this is when Jam froze and turned on her heels to face me. I was expecting her to ask me why I had just said she was my girlfriend.

"You never told me you were a Prince Austin." I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding. Jam broke away from My mother, and happily skipped over to me. She reached up and straightened my stupid crown, then leaned in to hug me. "Thank you" she whispered in my ear before, straightening her back, eyes shining. Threading her arm through mine, we began to walk down the ludicrous red carpet; the one that lead to the thrones and my parents.