A bit of a filler-ish chapter, not all that important, but still fun I guess, written after a school trip to Melbourne, which are always fun =) Happy New Year!
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I woke up at around nine-thirty with tears running down my cheeks, the other girls still sleeping. There was a tiny knock at the door. I brushed the tears off my cheeks and got up, yawning my head off and opened it to find Danny.
'Up girls, come on,' he said, glancing over my shoulder at Sophie and Vanessa still asleep.
'You alright?' he asked, looking back at me. I nodded.
'Alright, time to go,' he said, shutting the door.
I went in and washed my face, got changed, rang mum, then went into McFly's room. Dougie and Harry were still asleep and Nate and Zac were eating breakfast and were very absorbed in Dora the Explorer on TV. Tom was in the shower and Danny was muffling giggles at Zac and Nate who were repeating what Dora told them to in Spanish then he decided to go and join them, all learning how to count to ten. I sat down next to Danny and put some Vegemite on a piece of toast.
'Have you ever tried Vegemite Dan?' I asked, noticing the jam spread thickly on his toast. He shook his head and continued counting to five in Spanish.
'Try this then,' I said, holding it out. He swallowed his huge mouthful and took a bite of the toast.
'Yum!!' he said greedily, taking the whole piece.
'Have you tried it?' I asked Zac and Nate who both shook their heads and took the pieces of toast I was holding out to them.
'Ugh yuk!' Zac exclaimed, racing into the bathroom, to Tom's astonishment and spat it out in the sink.
'Sorry mate,' Zac said to Tom who was wrapped up in a towel, dripping water all over the tiled floor, glaring at him.
'S'okay,' he said and waited for Nate to spit his out.
'Hey Tom! Look! It's your phone! It's out in the corridor and it's ringing!' Danny exclaimed as he tossed it out the open door.
Tom raced out and grabbed his phone, just as Danny locked the door behind him.
'Danny!!!' Tom screeched, banging hard on it.
Danny looked considerately over at Harry and Dougie still asleep and opened the door, letting Tom back in, who slapped Danny hard across the face, stormed into the bathroom then slammed the door, coming back out fully dressed. Dougie stirred in his sleep and sat up, rubbing his eyes then stretching and getting out of bed, stumbling sleepily into the bathroom yawning. He shut the door and we heard the shower on a few minutes later.
While the rest of the boys sat and talked to me, Sophie wearily tottered in, pulling a brush through her hair, Vanessa following closely behind, yawning widely. Harry woke up and took the bathroom Doug had just vacated. I made Tom try Vegemite, and he didn't like it, nor did Dougie. I made Harry try it and he liked it. We all got ready and went downstairs.
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We caught a tram to St Kilda beach, McFly taking random pictures of each other in front of the Luna Park mouth. We caught another tram to a cafe in Swanston Street. Us girls ordered lamingtons and Pavlova for the boys to try. Danny loved the lamingtons and pav, Tom liked the lamingtons, Harry loved both, Dougie liked the pav, Nate liked the lamingtons and so did Zac, although they were the only things he could eat. He wouldn't touch the Pavlova (which strangely had peanuts cut into little chunks on top....?).
'What's wrong Zac?' I asked.
'Allergic to strawberries,' he muttered, pulling an EpiPen out of his bag and showing me. I stared at him in shock.
'Are you serious?'
He nodded and put the EpiPen back into his bag.
'Right,' I said, still in shock.
'It's your birthday tomorrow, did you know that?' he said cheekily.
I nodded gloomily. I wasn't looking forward to turning a year older without my Dad being there. Danny and Dougie had both disappeared and came back half an hour later on a tram, yelling at us to get on. The tram was going to stop at a stop a little while ahead, so Danny and Dougie were chasing it and watching us at the same time. They didn't realise the tram was stopping and ran straight into the back of it, much to the amusement of everyone on the platform and us.
We rode a heap of different trams, then got off at Burke Street and crossing the road. Danny was too excited and crossed first, almost getting hit by a tram. It had to stop for him. He raced back to us looking sheepish.
'Whoops,' he mumbled.
'Danny I almost lost you!' Dougie cried, throwing his arms around Danny who uncomfortably pushed him off conscious of the people's stares all around him. Dougie pretended to be hurt. We had lunch at a pizza and pasta place in Ligar Street.
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We caught another tram back to Rod Laver Arena and went inside where everyone was setting up for the night. The boys pulled us on stage, taking their guitars up to Harry's drum riser, jamming to a song they'd thought up in the last few weeks. It sounded really cool; Dougie had mostly written it with Harry and Danny, giving Tom a break from the song writing. It was poppy, with a kinda punkish edge to it, reminding me a lot of Blink 182 and Simple Plan's music. Dougie sang most of it, like Ignorance, Tom and Danny backing him up. When they'd finished playing it, they received a standing ovation from everyone in the room.
'Wow guys that is so good!' Sophie exclaimed after they'd finished.
'Dougie's baby, not ours,' Harry said, throwing his drumstick at the back of Dougie's head.
'I wish I could play something, singing isn't really an instrument,' Vanessa said, scuffing her shoe on the floor miserably.
'Come here and I'll try and teach you something,' Harry said, collecting his drumstick and motioning to his drum kit, the one that had the little dice on the cymbals. Vanessa uncomfortably stood up and sat in Harry's seat, taking the sticks from him. While he set about teaching her a beat, Dougie slid next to me and put his bass strap over my shoulders, passing me his pick. Danny tried teaching Sophie and Tom found another guitar, teaching Nate and Zac at the same time. Nate had already had a few lessons before and was playing riffs way before anyone else. Tom was impressed. Vanessa had started getting the hang of the beat Harry was teaching her and Zac was learning the riff Tom showed him. Dougie sat beside me, occasionally taking my hands to show me how to play something and stretching my fingers so I could reach the frets! I could play a few simple things after a while. Nate moved onto bass, leaving me to go to Tom and learn some guitar. It was a lot harder, and I took ages to get something right. Zac teased me by sitting and playing what I was trying to learn. Tom kept putting his arms over me, taking my hands like Dougie had, showing me to play things right.
After I'd learnt a few things, I moved up to Harry, who was very successful in teaching both Sophie and Vanessa how to play some things. I took his seat and drumsticks. I tried using the kick drum, but my ankle was so sore, I couldn't do it. Harry looked at me sympathetically for a bit then got me to stand up. He took the seat once more, putting his feet on the peddles.
'Sit here Luce,' he said, patting his thighs. I awkwardly and self-consciously sat in his lap, while I played using my hands, him using his feet. It worked and I had a beat by the end of it!
'Soph, show them how you play piano,' Vanessa said after they'd finished teaching us. She shook her head quickly.
'Come on, we won't laugh, we promise, don't we guys?' Tom said and they all nodded enthusiastically.
'What do I play?' she asked as she sat at the piano on the side of the stage, slumping in the chair.
'Anything,' Harry said.
'Play She Falls Asleep,' I whispered in her ear.
She looked at me nervously. 'But what if I stuff it up? It's Tom's song, he'll think I'm awful.'
'Come on, you'll be fine, you're great at this,' I assured her.
She took a deep breath and started playing She Falls Asleep. Tom's mouth dropped open as she played the whole song perfectly from memory, singing along as well in her amazing voice. She got to the end and turned and faced their stunned faces.
'W. O. W.' Tom said in shock.
'What? Am I that horrible?' Sophie asked, getting off the chair.
'No, you're brilliant,' Tom said breathlessly, finding some sheet music in a folder and handing it to her. 'Can you play this?' he asked, pointing to a piece.
'Well I haven't tried before...' she started as she sat down. She looked over the music and began to play the piano part for We Are The Young, Bubblewrap, The Heart Never Lies and POV perfectly, then some other old classical music.
'You are so good!' Danny gushed after she'd finished. Sophie being Sophie just shrugged and smiled.
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'So who was best at guitar Tom and Dan?' Harry asked while we were sitting in their dressing room eating dinner before the show.
'I would say Nate, but he's had lessons already,' Tom said, flashing Nate a grin.
'So other than Nate, I'd say Lucie,' he said.
'Me?' I blushed.
'Yeah.'
'What about bass Doug?' Danny asked.
'Definitely Zac.'
'And drums Harry?' Tom asked.
'Hmmmm, I would reckon that Sophie was pretty good,' he said, pretending to think. Zac took my face gently in his hands and tenderly kissed me, his hand sliding to the small of my back.
'Hey, we're eating here!' Harry exclaimed.
'Don't let us stop you Harry,' Zac said, kissing me once more. We finished tea and the boys did a signing session then it was time to go on.
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It went alright, not the best, but not the worst. We all got on the bus, everyone whispering stuff to each other, low enough that I couldn't hear. I laid my head on the seat and pretended to be asleep.
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We got back and we all went swimming in the pool at the hotel. Danny and Dougie had conversations underwater and kept coming up giggling uncontrollably, then disappearing once more underwater, only coming up for air. I stayed down the shallow end, floating around in Zac's lap.
There was something about the deep water that didn't appeal to me.
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Pavlova is a kind of meringue cake usually decorated with strawberries and cream and stuff. Lamingtons are vanilla cakes rolled in either chocolate or raspberry sauce stuff, then coated with coconut. Very nice =) Please review!