Howdy! So I'm updating now because I don't think I will be in the next 3 days or so...I've a busy weekend :D
Plus Niamh D said each time I update she'll update sooo BRING IT ON NIAMH!! now you have to update 4 times :P[DANNI]
The meet and greet went well except for the fact that Sierra kept giving Nate the flirty eyes. He looked up at her once and gave her the funniest look.
Everyone eventually formed a line and began to get their stuff signed. We took this as our cue to leave.
"Hey, do you think your brothers roadies brought the drum set off stage yet?" Zack asked with a sparkle in his eye.
"One way to find out." I said walking up to Jason.
"Hey, we're gonna be in the auditorium while you sign stuff." I whispered in his ear.
"Okay but don't be too long. We've gotta get home soon." He whispered back.
I could feel the glare on my back as I left the room.
We walked to the stage when we went through the doors we noticed that the roadies were just sitting around the place and no instruments had been moved. I recognised one roadie. He was over at our apartment a lot.
"Hey Paddle." I waved. He turned and waved back.
"Hey Pipsqueak!" I sent him a pretend glare. I hated that nickname he gave me. Hell I preferred Lil Gray to Pipsqueak and that is saying something.
"Haha what brings you here this evening?"
"Well we just wanted to see if you guys put the instruments away yet and since ye haven't we were wondering if wee could use um before you did."
"Sure knock yerselves out on one condition," he replied. I groaned. Ugh he always had the worst conditions and always ended up with me playing something on guitar for him.
"You guys sing that song you were working on last time I was over." See what I mean? Always has something to do with me playing something for him.
"Okay," I turned to the guys, "He's talking about Weightless."
They nodded and we began to play
Manage me, I'm a mess I wanna be laughed at I wanna feel weightless Now I'm stuck in this fucking rut If I could just find the time Maybe it's not my weekend Make believe that I impress I wanna feel reckless I wanna feel weightless If I could just find the time Maybe it's not my weekend This could be all I've waited for Maybe it's not my weekend Maybe it's not my weekend
Turn a page, I'm a book
Half unread
Laughed with, just because
And that should be enough
Waiting on a second hand pick me up
And I'm over, getting older
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here
That every word
By design
Turns a head
wanna live it up, just because
Cause that would be enough
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here
(I've Waited, I've waited for)
And this could be everything
I don't wanna dream anymore
But it's gonna be my year
And I've been going crazy
I'm stuck in here
But it's gonna be my year(it's gonna be my year)
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere(go nowhere)
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear(everything I fear)
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here
I took notice of a little girl in the middle of the auditorium. I jumped off stage when it was finished. I jumped over the seats to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked sitting on the seat next to her.
"Yeah, I'm just waiting for my sister," she sighed. Her eyes looked a little puffy.
"Were you crying?" she nodded. "Why?"
"My sister took my meet and greet pass to meet Connect 3." I couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. How could a sister be so mean? This girl seemed like the sweetest kid ever.
"What's your name and who's your sister?" I sounded a little angry.
"Emma. My sister's Sierra." She replied. I felt the anger boil up in me. Of course this had her name written all over it.
"How old are you?"
"It's my birthday today. I'm 7." She sighed. Okay this definitely had Sierra written all over it. Ditch your sister on her birthday to go to a meet and greet that her sister won. Then I had an idea.
"Well since your sister took you're meeting and greet pass. I guess you'll just have to settle meeting the band on your own." I smiled. I saw her eyes light up.
"Are you serious?" she asked shocked. I simply nodded.
"We can say it's my birthday present for you." she jumped up and hugged me. I told her to hop on my back and I'll give her a piggyback. I brought up to the stage.
"Hey guys, meet Sierra's little sister, Emma." I introduced her and informed them it's her birthday.
"Hold on so." Justin picked up a guitar and began to play happy birthday to her.
I shot me a smile and mouthed a 'thank you'.
"So, you ready for a birthday present you'll never forget?" I asked her when we were walking down the corridor.
"Yes!" she cheered. I laughed and knocked on the door of the dressing room.
"Come on in." they called out.
"Stay here with Sam and Alex for a sec." I told her before going into the room.
I opened the door to see that Jason was sitting on the couch talking with Hayley. Nate was playing his guitar and Shane was listening to his IPod and Mitchie came in from the green room with Shirley. He looked up at me as I walked in and took the head phones out.
I smiled at them. "Hey big bros of mine." I said sweetly
"Uh-oh. What did you do?" he asked me sitting up straighter.
"Okay well there's this cute little girl outside, and I was wondering if you guys will meet her. You see I found her in the auditorium by herself and it's her 7th birthday and her sister ditched her to go to the meet and greet with-" I rambled before Jason spoke.
"What's her name?"
"Emma, so will you guys meet with her? Please?" I pleaded.
"Yeah sure. It's terrible she was ditched on her birthday. Send her in." Jason smiled.
I smiled at them and went to open the door.
"Emma, meet Connect 3 or as I like to call um the bozo's I live with." I said bringing her into the room.
She was star struck barely saying anything. Nate stopped playing and walked over to her,
[SHANE]
"Hey Emma. We hear from Lil Gray, it's your birthday." Nate said bending down to her level. She nodded her head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Danni shoot Nate with daggers. She always did hate that nickname.
"Did you get much?"
She shook her head.
"I got tickets to your concert and meet and greet tickets but my sister took them." she said sadly. I could feel my heart breaking, how could someone be so ruthless to take another person's birthday present. I then remembered something in my bag that she could have.
I walked over and took it out. I usually had a few in case of times like this in meet and greets.
"Here you go." I said turning around and giving it to her. It was a small teddy that wore a Connect 3 hoody. I took a pen and signed the back and handed it to Jason who passed it onto Nate when he had it signed.
He handed it to her and she smiled a 10,000 watt smile.
"Thank you! This is officially the best birthday ever." She hugged us then.
"Anything for a girl as cute you." I smiled at her. Just then Tina walked into the room with a camera.
"I heard we had a birthday girl with the band. How about a picture sweetie?" she asked.
Emma smiled and nodded her head. We all got down and posed for it.
"Wait," she said. She ran to the door where Danni and her friends were. "Will you guys be in the picture?" she asked them.
They looked shocked at first but all smiled and nodded. They joined us in the room.
"How about a funny pose picture?" Zack suggested. And we all laughed.
"Why not two pictures a normal and a funny?" Tina suggested.
After the pictures were printed, Emma smiled brightly. She had managed to drag Mitchie,Shirley and Hayley into the photo too.
"So, did you want us to be in picture?" Sam asked. I was after getting good with Danielle's friends names, so good I deserve a prize!
"Because when you get famous I'll be the first person to have a photo with you."
Danni laughed from the corner she was in.
"Looks like we have our first fan. Emma maybe we should get you home." She said.
Emma nodded and smiled sadly.
"Thanks for the best birthday." She said before waving goodbye.
When we arrived in home, Danielle beat us there. She was sitting dropped jaw on the sofa.
"Whoa," I laughed "what happened to you?"
She just pointed at the tv and rewinded it. She was watching Hot Tunes which wasn't like her at all.
"Connect 3 certainly are full of surprises. Today at their concert in their hometown they had two surprises for the crowd. Surprise one was a new song unlike their usual stuff. They said 'the music that inspired the song reminded them of the music they fell in love with'. This leaves us to question, are they unhappy with the music they play for their fans or is this they're way of them saying they want out of the music biz?"
A small clip from the concert with our song was played and stopped abruptly.
Both surprises tie in together. The new song was dedicated to a girl named Danni, their little sister. But she isn't so little."
The picture of us hugging her on stage was shown up on screen.
"No in fact she is a sixteen year old girl. She seems so familiar doesn't she? Well we discovered she so happens to be the mystery girl seen out with the boys in the public eye. But why introduce her to the public now? Why has she been in the dark so long? Or is she using their fame to get her own? She's seems like such an angel especially talking to this little girl who was left behind but as they say looks can be deceiving."
She switched off the tv and stood up.
"Err…emm.." was all she said before walking into her room.
We sat just looking at the now blank tv screen. Jason was the first to break the shocked silence.
"How could they say that about her!" he exclaimed jumping up. "They don't understand! She wouldn't use us for our fame!"
I felt a little doubtful. Would she? Isn't it everyone's dream to become famous one day? Would we be a pawn or a stepping stone in her plan to get famous?
I shook my head instantly feeling guilty for thinking that. She wouldn't. I know she wouldn't.
Suddenly Nate's phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and gulped.
"Uh-oh," he said. I've only ever seen Nate react like this once or twice. And each time it was because of our label's president, "Mr. Dickenson."
Speak of the devil.
"Dude ANSWER IT!" I said. He nodded and put it on loudspeaker.
"Hi Mr. Dickenson." We said quietly.
"Hello boys. Do you know why I'm calling? Let me tell you why. I just watched Hot Tunes, maybe you've heard of it." I winced knowing the worst was going to come.
"First off, would you like to explain what song you were singing?" we exchanged a glance. Who was going to be the first to speak? I sighed and pointed to me.
" I got us into this." I mouthed to them.
"Well sir, we thought maybe we could change up our sound a little."
"Without consulting me first?" he sounded ticked off.
"Well it was an experiment, you see. We wanted to know if the fans would go for the new sound and they would. We wanted to have our facts ready for you, sir." Nate explained.
"You guys were lucky. You know I can take your record deal away for this act of munity and not sticking to the conditions."
"Well sir, we just wanted to play music that is us. The stuff we play isn't us. We don't write it. It just a mask on who we really are. We want to be the band you signed eight years ago, when we were just teens. We don't want to be characters in a façade and if that meant taking the risk of losing our record deal we were willing to risk it." Jason said.
The other end was silent. We weren't sure if he was still there but we then heard a sigh.
"We'll start promoting the new image of Connect 3 next week. You boys are right, music is supposed to be expressing who you are not cookie-cutter-pop stars. If you guys can write roughly 16 songs within the next two weeks, we'll begin to record a new album."
I can't believe I'm hearing this. It actually worked. We got our rights back to play our music not some stupid ass writer's.
"Thank you Mr. Dickenson." We said a million times.
"Eh don't mention it. Now another reason why I called. Who is this sister?" he asked seriously.
"Well she's our sister." Jason replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Which in this case it was!
"Answer Hot Tunes questions, whyintroduce her to the public now? Why has she been in the dark so long?" he questioned.
"Because for the past eight years she's been living in a child's home and three months ago we went and got her."
"Why did you wait so long? Did she annoy you that much?" he joked. I gritted my teeth no one makes jokes about my sister and her past especially since she shone some light on it.
Nate decided to answer because if let me and Jason would shout at him for being disrespectful to the situation. Nate knew how to keep a calm head even when he was furious. He was better at masking his feelings and keeping them away from the public. Me and Jason not so much.
"Well, our old manager Vincent, kept us from seeing her. He would always create a distraction so we couldn't visit her. He would lecture us if we tried to argue to bring her back with us. He told us that we wouldn't make it far if we had a kid hanging onto us. We'd have a terrible image. We would be prime gossip. That's why Shane hit him toward the end of his employment for us." He explained. He clenched his fist so tight, his knuckles turned white.
"That's why you didn't come back for me?" a voice said behind us. We whipped our heads around to see a Danielle on the verge of crying.
"Because I would have ruined your image? Because you'd be constant gossip?" she was sounding angry.
We looked at her helplessly. It was the truth. She grabbed her jacket and keys and ran out the door.
"Danni!" I said jumping up after her.
"Mr. Dickenson we hated to cut this short but we must our sisters just after running out of the house." Nate told him staring in the same direction as me.
"Okay Nate. I want to speak further so come down to the label tomorrow and please bring Ms. Gray with you." We hung up and panicked.
"Crap guys what do we do?! She just left!"
"Maybe she'll be back in a while." Jason said full of hope. "She probably needs cooling down time maybe."
After nearly 2 hours , we felt a little bit panicky. It was nearing 2am and Danni wasn't home.
"Guys what if somethings after happening to her?" Jason said. So much for she's just going to cool down.
"Okay, don't panic" easier said than done, "You ring Jenny, Jason" I turned to Nate, "You ring Sam/Alex/Zack/Justin she could be with them and I'll try ringing Danni."
We began dialing. It rang three times and I got her voicemail. I tried it two more times with no success.
Jason walked into the room.
"Okay, Jenny said there are a few places we could try and look for her. She said when Danni's upset she'd go to the park, the mall, school or the community hall."
We all split up in hope to find her.
[[Danni]
I can't believe it. My assumption for not coming to get me was better than the reality. They were afraid that I'd ruin their image. They thought I'd be the cause of their fame failure.
I had to get out of there. I grabbed my keys and ran for it. I ran out the lobby door not caring that the paps were taking photos of me. I got to my car and jumped in and drove off to my place. My happy place.
I pulled up onto the side of my road and sat in my car crying. I heard my phone vibrating on the passenger seat. I looked at the caller ID, Danger! Flashed on screen. I didn't bother answering it. He was the last person I wanted to talk with. I just looked out at the landscape.
I was in my happy place. A place where no else knew about. It was quiet and peaceful. I looked out over the water. It reflected the sky beautifully. I tilted my head up to look at the stars against the sky's colour. It looked like same rhinestone gems scattered across a navy bit of velvet. The air was filled with the sound of rushing water coming from the waterfall ,which filled the lake, and the stream,which took excess water away from the lake to prevent flooding. The moon shone down into the water and the ripples made it seem like something out of a painting.
Now that I was calm, I could go talk to them. I stood up and walked to my car. I hopped in and drove for 5 minutes. When I got there I hopped out of the car and locked it behind me.
I walked up the small path and finally got to my destination.
"Hi, it's me. I really need to talk to you." I said.
Hmmm where did she go and who is she talking too?
Wow don't you just hate Mr. Vincent!
hehe
Review please! Try and guess where she is gone.
:P