Chapter 12

"Okay, let me do the talking."

The trip up to this hotel took only a few minutes but this was due to the older girl's insanely fast driving. The hotel looked fresh and new-built, standing atop a large, steep hill. Situated across from it was a petrol station and car wash. If you faced the gas station, then on your right you would see more concrete road, more houses and more vehicles trundling along to the motorway; if you looked the other side the view of the small, busy town lay ahead of you, not exactly breath-taking but it had a cosy feel to it for some strange reason. In the distance a large steeple rose out of the tangle of numerous shops and houses along the old high street. After a few seconds of staring around them to see the size of the girls' small hometown, the band had been herded into the foyer of the new hotel. The smell of fresh paint had instantly hit them suggesting that there was work being done at that moment. It wasn't the most pleasant smell in the world; yet the band found it strangely soothing, as if the scent would bring them back to 'normal' world.

Claire marched up to the main Reception desk and began to confer with the Receptionist quietly; Julia stared around her anxiously. Her hand curled into a fist every few seconds and her arm twitched, unnoticed by the paranoid girl. A few minutes later of standing around waiting for the verdict, Claire thanked the staff member and trudged along back to the awaiting group. Instantly by her expression there was something wrong; not something drastic or catastrophic but not like it was 'National Candy Day' or something like that. She reached them, sighed and shook her head in disbelief.

"Well…" she began slowly, trying to word what she knew. "They've got some rooms for us. Some of us would probably have to share but…"

The others sighed in relief when they noticed her tense up and wriggle her shoulders uncomfortably.

"The problem is…they only have the two rooms for us. Which would mean we'd have to share with you guys. And we're not allowed sleeping bags up there, company policy or something like that."

Her voice trailed off as she stared down at her shoes. Julia slumped and her face dropped.

"You are kidding me?"

Claire glanced up at her friend's depressed look.

"I wish."

The guys looked at each other in question.

"Umm, we don't mind if we have to share," Pete piped up. The others nodded in agreement. "I mean it's not like we haven't shared with people before. Besides we don't really care; we know you girls are good at your jobs and you're the ones that are keeping us out of trouble, so—"

"So it's cool and there shouldn't be any awkwardness in the whole sharing thing, we're fine with it," Patrick broke in. Claire's eyes flickered upward and met his for a millisecond. Both looked away just as quickly; but not fast enough for the others.

Joe grinned and ruffled Patrick's hair playfully.

"Hey watch it! Tender area!" Patrick grasped his head and ducked away from Joe who stared at him puzzled. He looked at Julia who shrugged back, equally amused.

"Okaaaay…moving on," Pete cleared his throat. "So how would we share rooms? Out of curiosity."

Claire and Julia swapped sideways glances confirming their ideas of sleeping arrangements, without a word.

"Well, it'd have to be two of you guys and then one of us to each partner. We can't have like three of you in one room, then us two and the other one of you guys. How do we know you wouldn't get kidnapped or ambushed by avid fans?"

"We don't mind who you'd rather stay with, as long as we get a room somewhere."

"And fast. This whole mission's gonna start making me crawl up the walls."

The guys nodded at that statement – this whole situation was going to turn them insane soon.

Claire nodded, sealing the deal.

"So we're okay to share? 'Cause I'll go get the rooms now."

She departed and talked to the Receptionist once more. They swapped key cards and credit cards before shaking hands. Claire motioned for them to follow her to a miniscule elevator, only just big enough to fit all six of them in there.

"Top floor," was all Claire said as they travelled up to their next destination. The elevator dinged as it shuddered to a halt on the highest floor of the warm hotel. Dragging their backpacks with them, the girls led the way down a long curving corridor to their new hotel rooms, Rooms 74 and 75. The doors clicked open simultaneously with the help of the cards revealing their new home for however long it took to straighten this whole mess out.

The rooms were identical and freshly made, obviously cleaned this morning; a door right next to the main door led into a well-lit gleaming bathroom. In the main room lay a large double bed covered in a thick quilt, a large sofa big enough to hold someone lying down, a bedside table and a chest of drawers with a basic T.V connected to a free view box. Julia threw her bag next to the bed and stared round in approval.

"Well it's not the Hilton or the Radisson…but it's all good."

"Where'd you go to those hotels then?" Joe asked out of curiosity, sitting gingerly on the bed and bouncing up and down, no doubt testing the quality and comfort of the bed; he'd had to steal it before the other person did.

"Hilton up in Maidstone, Radisson down in Egypt." She daydreamed, a vague smile appearing on her face. "I liked Egypt…they had a bar in the pool. Then again I did get crushed trying to play water polo. First and last time might I add!"

Joe laughed at her humorous honesty. She grinned back and began unpacking her backpack for what she would need that night.

Claire entered through the slightly ajar door, shouldered by Pete and Patrick.

"We should all stay in one room until we go to sleep I think," she started with a frown. "I'd feel safer if we did that. At least then we know who's here, who's where and what we're doing."

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Should we unpack now or try and do something to kill time?"

Claire pondered, pushed her phone out her pocket and inspected the time. Her face lit up curiously.

"Weeeell…"

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking…"

"Oh go on, there might be something good on!"

"Psht! Yeah sure there will!"

"Aw c'mon don't be so pessimistic, I heard they did the place up and there are new owners now. Plus they opened the small screen again, got an extension and they've got another screen round the back. Apparently Mrs Hay in Business liked Ania's scope project so much she sent it in."

"Figures," Julia said in an obvious tone. "She always was the sane one on our row. Correction, the only sane one in our class, I mean…well you were there. It was like they'd let the zoo have a day trip to school. Every day."

"Well if Ania's was so good, maybe we should check it out. C'mon, it could be fun!"

"And what about the guys, what do they wanna do?"

The girls rounded on the band; they frowned back thinking of any entertainment that would get rid of time.

"Haven't got a clue," Pete shrugged. "What's your idea Claire?"

She beamed in delight.

"Well there's the cinema down town, 'bout a five or ten minute walk from here."

Julia sighed in defeat; she bolted out the room and returned less than 30 seconds later with Claire's laptop, powering it up as she wandered back in. She frowned at Claire who grinned back like an 'angelic', mischievous child. Julia rolled her eyes and nudged Pete to move over so she could sit on the bed. Reluctantly he got up and started toward the free half of the sofa; he growled as Patrick whipped in there quick and flashed him a smile, strangely similar to the one Claire had just given Julia.

"Alright," came the low grumble of Julia. "Choices for tonight are: Scary Movie 5, Eclipse or, BLEURGH!" She pulled a face as if she were in pain and disgusted by something. "High School Musical 5! They made a fifth one, seriously? That's just painful to hear!"

"Hey who wants to see High School Musical 5?" Pete asked with mock-joy.

Julia glared at him and gripped the laptop harder.

"You're lucky this is Claire's laptop," she threatened quietly. "If it had been mine I wouldn't have cared if it got broken on your thick skull. As long as you end up in pain."

Everybody laughed loudly; Pete pretended to cower but failed miserably as a fresh wave of laughter made him buckle and clutch his stomach, his rumbling laughter causing stitches already. Julia sighed and rolled her eyes only just managing to refrain her lips breaking into a wide grin. She folded her arms and tapped her foot, staring into the distance. When they had all simmered down she looked back down at them with one eyebrow raised.

"You can go see High School Campsical all you want, Petunia." The guys grinned sideways at each other at the sound of Pete's new, feminine name. "I on the other hand don't mind seeing Scary Movie 5 or Eclipse. Rather see Eclipse though, it's the penultimate day of it being in the cinema so it'll pretty much be empty tonight. Plus the last Scary Movie was a bit rubbish, jokes too predictable."

"Yeah, if ever you want a critic's opinion on a film," began Claire, rolling her eyes as if she was used to this, "Go to Julia or Ania. Both seen millions of films ("Especially horrors!" piped up Julia) and took Film Studies as an A level. They're like the geeks of films!"

"First off, it's more like a bi-jillion films, and b) she's a dork, I'm the nerd."

"Whatever Julia, Eclipse then?"

She was addressing everyone in the room about the film choice. Patrick nodded thoughtfully and the rest put their thumbs up. Claire smiled.

"Good choice."

She checked her wallet as Julia stared at the slowly shutting down laptop…

"You okay there?"

There came a chorus of 'yeses' and Claire sat back relieved. They were sitting about the halfway mark in the cinema, refurbished just as Claire had foretold. Pete sat at one end with Patrick next to him and Claire on the right hand side of Patrick. In the seat next to her was Andy followed by Joe and then Julia on the aisle seat. Claire leant across Andy and Joe to talk to her quickly but she was cut off when she saw her friend's expression; she sat rigidly, her shoulders tense, her face turning slightly white. She looked furious, paranoid and anxious all at the same time, and her hands gripped the ends of her chairs arms the knuckles visibly going white as a few people began to take random seats across the almost deserted cinema. Claire got up quickly, swivelled round and jumped over the top of her seat and onto the empty row behind them. Hurrying down to her friend, she saw Julia give a fleeting glance around the cinema and her hand twitched.

"Julia," Claire whispered when Julia knew it was her. She kept her voice low so that no-one could hear their conversation. "What's up? You look like you're about to attack someone."

Julia ground her teeth and gripped the arm of her chair; she was in danger of ripping it off soon if she wasn't careful.

"This was a stupid idea," she hissed out the side of her mouth. "Yeah we all needed a break but seriously, the cinema? What were we thinking?" She lowered her voice so even Claire had trouble hearing her. "I mean what if someone knows we're here and comes in after us? We can't fight them without protecting the guys and everyone else in here. And I mean what if someone was able to phone us and we can't because we have to turn mobiles off? This was a stupid, stupid, dumb idea!"

"Julia, cool it. Just relax okay? We'll be fine. If they did show up, (highly unlikely might I add) then we would have to complete our main, primary objective: protect Fall Out Boy. Besides, the guys know what sort of stuff to do now; haven't you noticed them watching us? They're learning how to defend and move quickly from 'studying' us. In fact they're getting free lessons…look just relax okay, the film will be over before you know it and we'll go straight back to the hotel the minute the credits show. Good with that?"

Julia breathed in and out slowly and looked up at her friend.

"Free lessons? The jammy buggers…"

Claire slapped her hand over her mouth to smother her giggles and ran back to her seat as the cinema attendant wandered through with his torch. Julia forced a nervous grin, trying hard to remember how to breathe in and out calmly.

There was raucous laughter and loud unnecessary swearing as a small group of four teenage boys came sauntering through, hands in their pockets, swinging from side to side as they made their way up the aisle. Julia and Claire swore under their breath as the teens swaggered up the stairs, talking too loudly on purpose. Other people gave them filthy looks as they carried on to the back. As they clambered up still swearing (even more than Julia – although there were four of them) they glanced round and spotted the unimpressed band and the glaring girls. They smirked and halted next to their row, taking in the six of them and looking Claire and Julia up and down. The guys willed their selves to stay in their seats to stop from yelling at the teens in the girls' defence; if they tried anything with the girls these idiots would be out cold in less than ten seconds.

"You alrigh' darlin's?" one yelled in a gruff voice. His friends guffawed behind him. Claire rolled her eyes and turned the other way; Patrick looked at her sympathetically and rolled his eyes with her. The two grinned at each other secretly.

"Aw don't be like that babes! Wha' bou' you love?" The teen leered at Julia. Joe frowned and shifted closer to her protectively; she glared back at the teens with a stone cold look.

"Keep walking unless you want someone waiting outside for you thickheads later," she snarled back at him. He blinked and swore at her before carrying on up the stairs, followed by his pathetic cronies. Julia gritted her teeth furiously and tried to remember how to breathe again. The lights suddenly dimmed completely and the cinema grew silent. There was the usual bustle of people turning off their phones, the long wait through the adverts for other films 'coming to a cinema near you'.

"Ooh, we should see that!" Claire whispered excitedly to Patrick, who grinned back and nodded in agreement. After the adverts were over the opening credits rolled across the screen; everyone shuffled to get comfortable for the film, with the girls swinging their legs over the empty seats in front of them copied by the guys.

The film started and it kept everyone entertained for a while. However it was only about half an hour into the film that it happened.

The girls had all but forgotten about the idiotic teenage boys behind them in the very back of the cinema. They had finally gotten bored with the movie and were now talking rapidly amongst their selves, still loud enough for the whole cinema to hear. As Bella Swan made a serious statement in the film, one of the boys burst out laughing and whispered loudly, "Oi, look at his text! What's he o' bou' mate?" Pete ground his teeth and repeated to himself 'do not attack, do NOT attack'. The talking suddenly dwindled to a silence making the six itch to turn around and investigate. And then it hit Joe. Literally. The teens laughed again at their oh so funny prank of throwing spit balls and popcorn at the six tense, angry people ahead. Joe sighed as he felt something lodge in his hair again; his brilliant hair was obviously the main target.

He debated going after the little punks and knocking their heads together when someone else decided to do it for him. One of them aimed badly and struck Julia on the back of her head. She blinked and bared her teeth struggling to keep calm and not boil over into a temper. However when she glanced up at Joe she was able to watch as a large piece of popcorn flew gracefully through the air and stuck to Joe's hair. Somewhere behind them came poorly muffled laughter. Joe rolled his eyes and went to talk to Julia when he froze; her face, even in the darkness of the huge room, had visibly gone completely white save for her flaming, scarlet cheeks. Her lips parted slightly and a growl escaped through them. And her eyes were no longer mischievous or sarcastic or bored, the usual way the guys saw them; they were flashing dangerously and it looked as if someone had lit a black fire in them. She growled again and twisted round in her chair, holding the back of her seat with a vice-like grip.

For someone who was several rows in front and sitting quite low in her seat, to the teens this random girl suddenly seemed to grow upward above them as she fought against the random guy's restraint. She stopped for a second and flashed her burning, livid eyes in their direction.

"If you do that one more time," her voice began darkly, "I swear, I'll come up there in a heart beat, take your f***ing cartons, shove them down your throats to stop your stupid talking and then I'll throw each of you down the goddamn steps five times. That'll just be the beginning. Do one more thing and you'll wish you'd never been born."

Even though the film was still playing, someone from the other side of the cinema whooped and clapped her. The teens stared at her in shock and fury.

"You w—"

"Shut…up."

The voice of Claire rose up to them shakily as if she were trying hard not to curse like them or her friend.

"Don't think she'll do all that by herself, I'll hold you all down just so she'll get those boxes down!"

"Excuse me?"

With difficulty, the girls tore their eyes away from the equally angry teenage boys and stared up at the cinema attendant.

"I'm afraid we won't tolerate you disrupting the film, if you can't control yourselves, th—"

"It's not them!"

The supporting call was followed by agreeing mumbles.

"It's that lot behind them!"

The attendant swung his torch up and the beam fell on the disgruntled group. He nodded and beckoned to them.

"You've already been banned, I know who you are," he said to them, irritated by their arrival. They fidgeted and stood up swiftly.

"Your cinema's crap anyway, c'mon let's go this movie's a bunch of bull!"

The teenage boys started down the stairs herded by the employee. As they passed the band and girl's row they glared furtively at them all.

"You're dead for that mate!"

"I'm so scared," Pete muttered.

"Shaking," Andy snorted in annoyance.

"Go grow a pair," Patrick snapped at them.

"You lot are proper dead now."

"Like to see you try," Joe growled through gritted teeth.

Claire and Julia glanced sideways at each other and hid a grin; looked like they were going to meet their match.

The teens were led out and the cinema grew quiet once more, paying attention to anything they may have missed in the film.

"I didn't know you could get that angry," Patrick mumbled to Claire.

With her anger gone, she blushed and tried to stutter out an excuse. Patrick laughed quietly and nudged her playfully.

"It's cute in a strange way."

She blushed even more as he laughed again quietly and draped his arm over her shoulders lightly, his hand curving round to fit her shoulder. Without even thinking she automatically sighed slightly, drew up her legs and snuggled closer to Patrick, resting her head on his shoulder wearily. He blinked but decided not to say anything about it, instead concentrated on the film and blocked out the muffled snorts of laughter issuing from Andy and Pete.

"Well…"

Joe nodded thoughtfully as Julia stared at the screen not really taking in the film.

"I mean I knew you were no Mother Theresa, but that actually scared me."

She didn't move, but her fingers kept digging into her palms and then flexing out again automatically, her familiar way of dealing with her anger.

"Soooo…what was that just a girl thing? 'Cause it would explain a lot about them."

Julia frowned and turned her head to look at him in wonder.

"You don't talk to a lot of girls do you?" she whispered sarcastically.

He grinned and nodded.

"Sure, they're just not as weird as you normally."

Julia elbowed him gently and laid her curled fists on her legs, willing them to relax.

"You know what, I'm not sure why I keep insulting you, I'm genuinely terrified of you now."

He struggled not to laugh as she folded her arms and shifted away from him. He leant back and placed his arm round the back of her chair. With his right hand he gingerly gripped her shoulder and pulled her back closer before smiling down at her. She grinned back and had to force herself to look away at the cinema screen again…