Hey guys! RZR here! Finally I might be able to finish chapter 1 this time. Last time, I didn't even finish it. But that's besides the point. The point is that this chapter, like in the first version, starts after Alex sends some emails to his friends, letting them know about his situation, and then researches what Hollywood Arts is all about. And as always, unless it says so, the story is in Alex's POV.


Chapter 1: The Preparation

"You said the suitcases were in the garage, right, Dad?" I asked Dad. I thought he was inside the house and was about to head outside when he came in with the suitcases under his arms.

"Not anymore," he said, huffing and puffing, "did you get your clothes ready for packing?"

"Why? Are some of them being shipped down there?" I asked. Hoping that this school thing was only until summer started.

"Of course. You're going to be there for the next two and a half years," he said. My jaw dropped at those words. "Who knows, you might get a record deal due to you musical talent," he added to try and cheer me up.

"Yeah," I said, thinking, Two and a half years seems a bit long, doesn't it?

"I know it's a long time, but you can come home for Christmas and summer vacation," Dad said. Oops! I must have said that thought out loud. "And you'll also have Ari there with you."

"Joy," I said sarcastically. I was dreading this trip more and more.

"I'm glad you are starting to take a liking to this trip," Mom said, coming into my room and misinterpreting my sarcasm for actual joy, "Now get packing. We are leaving for the hotel at noon and we need to get your stuff ready. Do you have your passport and other pieces of ID with you, Alex?"

I pulled my passport out of my left back pocket and my wallet from my right back pocket. I then opened my wallet and pulled out my health card and social insurance card, both Canadian-based. I showed them to Mom and then put everything back where they belonged.

"Good," she said, "Now I take it you are taking your guitar and keyboard with you?"

"Yeah, seeing as I'm the instrumental member of the family. Can't be instrumental without my instruments, now can I?" I said, with a slight bit of anger.

"Look," Mom said, trying to comfort me, "I know you are not happy with this decision, but it'll be fun, I promise." She puts her arm around me. "Besides, you're going to be able to show off that musical prowess of yours."

"I know," I said with a sigh, "but I have some questions."

"OK. Shoot." My parents got ready for a barrage of questions.

"Alright. Question 1: Where will we be staying for the duration of this experience? Question 2: When we get to LAX, who will pick us up? Question 3: Is there a map of the school so that we know where everything is? Question 4: What about my job? And in conjunction with question 4, question 5: What about money? And finally, question 6: Will you be able to come to at least one of these shows? Because whether it's me or Ari or even the both of us, you guys are always there to cheer us on."


Hey guys. RZR here and sorry for cutting in. Now Mom and Dad are going to answer the questions like this: Mom will be answering the first two questions about placement and transportation and Dad will answer the questions about Alex's job, the money situation and a map of the school. The final question will be figured out at a later date. Once they are done with the questions, Alex will post another fake Twitter post. So stay tuned. RZR OUT!


"Well," Mom began, "on the topic of getting there and where you will be staying, here's a letter explaining everything." (How did I miss that?) She opened the letter and read it to herself. She then said, "Well, it says that someone will be there to pick you up. It also says that the two of you will be separated while you're there because there was nowhere that would take both of you together." By this point, Arianna was standing in my room while Mom and Dad were talking. Mom then turned to Ari.

"Arianna, you will be staying with a girl named Trina Vega and her family," Mom told her, "Trina has a younger sister about Alex's age." I perked up at the words 'sister', 'Alex' and 'age'. I then put the pieces together. (Trina's sister is my age so I might be able to date her if she doesn't already have a boyfriend, and seeing as I have no girlfriend, that would be no problem on my end.) She then turned to me. "Alex, you will be staying with a guy named Robbie Shapiro. He has a sister who is apparently unimportant and he's also Jewish, so don't be mean about his religion. He also spends most of his time with a puppet named Rex. But that's normal, the letter says, as Rex is part of Robbie's project at school."

Dad then started with answering the other questions. "Now that your mother has finished explaining the placement of the two of you, let's get down to other things, like Alex's job, and how money is going to work out. First, a map of the school." He turned to Mom. "Is there a map of the school in that envelope?"

She looked and said, "Yes, here it is. Oh, there's two maps here! How convienient!"

Dad looked back to Arianna and I and said, "Well, that's that out of the way. Now to Alex's job. I just got off the phone with Alex's boss and he's okay with it. And as an added bonus, because Alex is doing this on behalf of his sister, he is still gonna get paid. So that's Alex's money problem and job problem taken care of. As for Arianna, that's an easy fix, too. We will regularly send money to her through the Western Union office. So that's everything."

Sweet, I thought, saves me from having to get a job down there.

"OK," I said, "Now what about you two coming down to see us perform? What are we going to do about that?"

Mom and Dad looked at each other and then Mom siad, "You finish packing while your father and I talk about it."

"Alright," I said and then they and Ari left and I finished packing.


Twitter Mobile

Alex Lessard (drwhofan23) – Done packing and all details are MOSTLY figured out. Still bummed about having to go.

Mood: Bummed


(The next day – afternoon)

"So you're staying with us until we leave?" Ari said to Mom and Dad after we checked into the hotel for the night.

"Of course," Mom reassured her, "We'll be there until we can go no further."

"Ari, calm down," I said, "You can be hyper when the plane lands in LAX, but until then, calm down."

"All right, Alex," Ari said, "It's just that this is the first time that we are going somewhere on our own. I hope we'll be okay there. I hope..."

"Ari, CALM DOWN!" I said, almost screaming at her. I then calmed down myself and said, "Don't worry. Even though we are going to be staying in different places, we'll be together because Mom left the letter in my room when they left, so I read it. It said that Trina hurt herself before a big performance for the school two days ago and her sister Tori had to take Trina's place. She got accepted into the school after people heard her singing and thought it was phenomenal. Tomorrow will be her first day as well as ours, so what I'll do is see if Robbie won't mind being Tori's friend. Who knows? Maybe he's already thinking of befriending her. So here's what we are going to do. Since we have to go to school an hour and a half after the plane touches down, we'll go to our respective homes and introduce ourselves. Then we'll meet up at school. Then we'll be together. OK?"

"OK," she said, happy we had a plan.


So that's chapter 1. I changed the name from 'The Trip' to 'The Preparation' because I'd rather have the trip itself take up a whole chapter, so yeah, that's what's going to happen. So in the next chapter, our two talentful Canadians will take the flight of their life and we get a little fear from Alex of something. (I'm not telling you yet.) Stay tuned. RZR OUT!

P.S.: Another thing. For these first few chapters, Alex will be using a fake Twitter but now he has a username. This username will be the same on the Slap. Just wanted you to know.