Chapter 2:
"Who Sleeps at Sleepovers?"
"Did you see the look on his face?" Jazz laughed while pumping the handle of the Palm Woods door. "I've never seen a guy get his ego beat so quickly and so hard."
"I kinda feel bad for him," Camille spoke up as she followed the girl inside. "Being knocked out that fast, I mean. That's kind of bruising to one's ego you know?" She chuckled and settled into one of the chairs in the lobby, picking up a magazine and discarding it onto the table after a few flipped pages.
"His head needed to be deflated if you ask me," Mel said with a hint of a smirk. "I don't think I've met anyone who's so full of himself."
"Yeah but he's really sweet otherwise," Jo spoke up. "And he wouldn't be in the band or friends with the others if they didn't think he was a sweet guy."
"That's true. And it seems that he's milking this injury as well," Jazz said and jerked her chin. The girls turned in their chairs to see what she was looking at. James was standing by the counter surrounded by girls who were fawning over him and pointing at his black eye. "What lie do you think he's telling?"
"Probably that he got checked by some big, burly hockey player," Camille responded. "That could be true. He is a bit small, width wise."
Sitting at the computers Katie sighed and rolled her eyes. She thought the boys were bad, talking about girls all day. But now them? All they did was talk about James and the other boys. It was sickening. Didn't teenagers have better things to do? I that were the case she didn't want to grow up.
"What's with the face, Kid?" Mickey asked Katie. Katie looked up at the reflection of the older girl on the screen. Katie turned as Mickey took an empty seat at the computer next to her.
"Nothing," she sighed with a shrug.
"I do speak girl you know," Mickey chuckled. "So I know that 'nothing' really means something."
Katie's lips pursed and she sighed again. "I just wish I had someone my age to hang out with," she responded. "You all are great, don't get me wrong but…the boys are stupid and all Camille and Jo can talk about are the stupid boys!"
"I see," Mickey said with a small nod of her head. "Well, how about we have a sleepover? You can come over to the townhouse, I'm sure Aunt Kelly won't mind. In fact she'd probably do everything in her power to make it the most talked about sleepover ever." She looked around and mimed for Katie to move closer. "She hasn't been to a lot," she stage whispered.
"I wonder why," Katie muttered sarcastically.
"Well? I can make my famous strawberry rhubarb pie—better than it sounds, I promise," Mickey said at the look on Katie's face. "Come on. I promise it'll be fine."
"Okay," Katie finally agreed. "I'll go."
"Awesome. Let me go tell the others."
"I'll go tell my mom."
Mickey and Katie parted ways and Mickey headed over to where the group of girls was sitting, only to jump back when James slid into her path. She gave him a polite smile and regained her composure. "How's your eye?" She asked politely.
He shrugged. "Doesn't hurt anymore. And I think it brings more attention to my eyes. What do you think?"
Mickey made a face at the way he was staring at her. "I think you're freaking me out," she replied and moved past him. She placed her hands on the back of Jo's chair and leaned forward slightly. "I told Katie we'd have a sleepover tonight. You girls in? We have plenty of space and the more the merrier."
"Sorry, I can't," Jo responded. "I have a date with Kendall."
"Oh? What're you two doing?" Camille asked.
"We're having a picnic in the park," she replied.
"How cute," Mel mumbled while turning her head to hide her smile. She caught Jazz's eye and the two started chuckling. Camille lightly punched her on the arm and shook her head.
"Come on, Katie's bummed," Mickey prodded. "She feels like she doesn't have that many friends. I just want to help out. We can watch movies and play games and stuff."
Jazz wrinkled her nose. "That may not be a good idea with Aunt Kelly," she said. At Camille's and Jo's questioning looks she continued. "Y'see, Kelly wasn't exactly…popular in school and didn't get invited to many sleepovers so she'd want to take that over. Add in the fact that she is mega competitive when it comes to games. Once she gave me a swollen lip—and we were playing air hockey."
Camille cracked up as Jo smiled. "I'll come. It'll be fun to have a night away from the guys. I can tell some cool ghost stories as well. I just heard one that will scare you all so badly you won't sleep for a week."
"The same thing happens when Mom makes chili but that's for a different reason," Mel said dryly causing the girls to laugh again. "Sleepover it is. Sounds like fun."
"Sleepover!?" Carlos repeated. He, Logan, and Kendall lumbered in through the front door. Kendall swooped down and placed a kiss on Jo's cheek, causing her to beam. "I love sleepovers? Can I come? I can bring the root beer!" He started bouncing on his toes in his excitement.
"Sorry Carlos but it's a girl's only thing," Mel said while patting his arm. She turned her attention to Kendall and added, "We're inviting Katie too just so you know where she is."
"That's fine. Now Mom can have some time alone to eat ice cream and watch her soaps," Kendall said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"But that's not fair!" Carlos said with a frown. "You guys get to party and hang out and we can't come."
"Carlos, it's a girl's sleepover. We're going to do each other's hair and paint each other's nails and stuff," Camille told him.
"See? A party. Well…we'll have a sleepover too! And it'll be much more fun than yours!" Carlos vowed.
Jazz scoffed. "Car, you four live together anyway. That's not a sleepover," she pointed out. Carlos pouted and she chuckled while patting his arm. "Besides, didn't you destroy Uncle Gustavo's house the last time your had a sleepover?"
"How'd you know about that?" Logan asked with lifted eyebrows.
"Read his diary," she responded. "Yeah…he's not too fond of you guys. Or 'dogs' as he says. Though I can't imagine why." Jazz flinched when a beeping sound reached her ear. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. "Oh, that's Aunt Kelly. We have to go. Sam's already there. Camille, bring Katie over any time after seven alright?"
"Sure," Camille said as she stood. "I have to run through an upcoming audition but I'll let you know when we're on our way."
The girls parted with waves to the boys and went in their own separate directions.
"What's with the long faces?" Jo asked when she noticed that both Carlos and James were now pouting.
"I want to go to that sleepover!" Carlos replied while stomping on the ground.
"I want her to like me!" James responded. "I don't get the problem. I'm gorgeous, I'm in a bad, I have a good smile, I'm gorgeous, I have amazing dances moves. Did I mention that I'm gorgeous?"
"Yeah…a few times too many," Kendall said with a nod of his head. "Well…Carlos, we can just have our own sleepover. We can…we can have it at Rocque Records to make it more authentic. We can bring video games and stuff and we have musical instruments there if we want to mess around." The bright smile returned to Carlo's face. "And you James…" James's smile faltered. "I don't know how much of you we can change."
"But we have to have a better sleepover than them!" Carlos announced. "And make them want to come to ours and then we can turn them away!"
"What are you, ten?" Jo asked with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, I thought we were going to go on a date tonight. Remember?" She lifted her eyebrows. "A picnic in the park?"
"I can do both," Kendall told her. "We'll just have the sleepover after the date. That way I can spend time with my favorite girl and my buds."
Jo's shoulders dropped and she smiled. "Good." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "I'll try not to have too much fun without you. We'll just do our usual, stay inside and watch movies and have pillow fights and do each other's nails and talk."
"What do girls talk about at sleepovers anyway?" Logan asked.
"That's for us to know…and you to never find out," Jo chuckled. She waved and kissed Kendall's cheek again before walking off.
"I must know what they talk about!" James and Carlos exclaimed in unison as soon as Jo was out of earshot.
"Guys a girl's sleepover is a sacred place where they can tell each other their feelings about people they know, their favorite actors on TV, what goes on in their lives, any stresses they have, and any other sort of confidential information they can pass along and get heartfelt and honest responses about," Logan sighed. "To figure out what they talk about is like reading a page in their diary or listening in on their phone calls. We just don't do it."
"Are we going to do it?" Carlos asked.
"Yeah," Logan sighed.
"Guys, come on," Kendall sighed. "What if we hear something that we shouldn't have heard?"
"Don't you want to know what Jo really thinks of you?" Carlos prodded.
"I already know what she thinks of me."
"But what if she's saying one thing to your face and another behind your back? What if she's dating you for the publicity? Don't you want to know if your relationship is a sham?"
"No. Because it's not a sham. I trust Jo."
"Lame!" Logan, Carlos, and James uttered in unison. Kendall rolled his eyes.
"But wait. If we're in Roque Records, assuming Gustavo let's us have a sleepover there, how are we going to figure out what the girls talk about without him trying to get us to do extra work?" James asked.
"We'd need someone to keep him preoccupied," Carlos replied.
"Only one problem, there's four of us. We need more people," Logan pointed out.
Kendall sighed. Obviously there was no reason to try and argue with them to get him out of this. Carlos wanted his sleepover and the other two wanted to hear what the girls talked about. While he would be lying to say he didn't want to know he just didn't want to invade Jo's privacy. However when it came to them sense was usually thrown out the window.
"Not a problem," Kendall sighed in defeat. "I know some people who can come with us."
"Who?" James, Logan, and Carlos asked in unison.
X
"Them!?" James, Carlos, and Logan exclaimed, pointing towards Dak Zevon, WayneWayne, and Jett Stetson.