Chapter One
'So, let me get this straight: your… our… mother put me up for adoption due to the fact that she was already struggling to provide for you and your sister, but never told you until now?' Danny nodded. 'and you came to find me now because she only just told you?' another nod.
'Honey, we never told you because we didn't want you to feel as if we loved Sarah more than you' My mum explained. I got up off the couch and began pacing, a nervous habit of mine.
'No, I get it. Kind of.' I muttered, mind wandering. Danny Jones of McFly was my brother. My brother. I was adopted. I was British. My thoughts were interrupted by Danny's thick accent.
'So, how old are you now?' he asked nervously. I laughed at him. I knew everything about him, but he knew nothing about me.
'I'm eighteen, I just finished school.' I paused for a second, thinking. 'Excuse me…' I said, leaving the room and pulling out my phone. I pulled up Sarah's last message and hit reply. I typed a message telling her not to worry, everything was cool and made my way upstairs and took a shower. I needed to think. I took a couple of painkillers and made myself a cup of green tea before coming back to the living room.
'So, Mel. Your parents and I have been talking and decided that, if you wanted to of course, you should come to England for your gap year' Danny said casually. I nearly fainted. That was my dream.
'Duh, of course!' I screamed, jumping on Danny and hugging him. He laughed at this, grinning.
'Pack your bags then, we leave tomorrow!' he smiled yet again before walking straight out the front door, leaving only a scrap of paper with a phone number behind.
As I moved around my bedroom I dropped random objects into my massive suitcase, mumbling to myself about what I needed. Sarah had helped me for a little while, but had moved on to a party down the street.
'Makeup, jeans, stockings, tops, skirts, trousers, sweaters, straightener, journal, books, iPods, laptop, spare batteries…' I mumbled, running to grab my trench coat (which was rarely used) from my closet, throwing that on top. 'And I'll buy the rest when I get there' I smiled, sitting on top of my suitcase to close it, and zipping it up around me. I pulled up the internet banking site on my computer and transferred my entire savings into an accessible travel account, it was starting to sink in: I was going to England, with my brother. My brother who was Danny Jones from McFly. Fuck. I fell into my bed for what I knew would be the last time for a year, and fell straight to sleep.
DANNY POV
As I got into the uncomfortable bed in the slightly tacky 'Costa Rica' motel, I smiled to myself. I'd successfully tracked down my sister after five years of searching. And to think she never even knew she was adopted! She seemed to take that bombshell pretty well. I liked the fact that she knew who I was, even though McFly wasn't even popular over here in Australia. I'd seen a picture on the wall of her and some friends at one of the few shows we've done here, and it had made me kind of proud. Somewhere, in every country of the world, someone knew who we were. That was all we wanted. As I thought about what tomorrows plane trip would bring, I drifted into another restless sleep.
I awoke to the sound of my alarm and began to pack the few things I'd brought into my backpack. I only brought carry on for myself, to allow Mel to have two checked in bags. I left the motel and walked to the small supermarket down the road to grab a coffee when I was stopped by a small girl with curly dark blonde hair and glasses, mouth turned into a perfect 'o' shape.
'Holy shit. You're Danny Jones!' she screamed, running towards me.
'Hi…' I replied, confused as to how she knew McFly. I recognised her from the photo hanging on Mel's living room wall.
"Are you Elise?' I asked, smirking. She screamed.
'How the fuck do you know my name? Oh my god oh my god oh my god!'
'Uh, I'm Danny Jones. You're friends with Mel, right?' she nodded, silently. 'She's kind of my sister.' I said, smiling. She screamed again.
'WHY DIDN'T SHE TELL ME!'
'She only found out last night. We're going to England today. Here's Mel's British phone number, call her and we can organise for you to come visit sometime.' I handed her a piece of paper with her number and waved before hopped into my rental car and driving to Mel's house. I waited outside as she hugged her parents and younger sister goodbye. I laughed as a blonde girl drove past on a small postman's bike, yelling out 'good luck!' as she went on her way. It was strange, everyone here knew everyone. So different to London.
Mel made her way to the car, throwing her luggage in the backseat and climbing into the front. Waving one last time at her parents, she turned to me and smiled.
'Off we go?' I asked, returning the smile.
'Off we go!' she exclaimed.
MEL POV
As we boarded our second plane and made our way to our seats, I gasped. Danny chuckled, and turned to face me.
'Never travelled first class before?' he asked, slyly. I shook my head violently, unable to speak.
'You drink?' he asked, and I nodded. 'You'll love it then, free drinks all flight!' he grinned, and I squealed. Fuck yes.
*Three Hours Later*
'and then I was like, no I'm not Danny from McFly! I'm Charlie from Busted! And they totally believed me!' Danny exclaimed drunkenly, I giggled.
'I'm sure they did. Excellent story.' I nodded at the flight attendant when she asked if I wanted another. She passed me a glass and I turned to face Danny. Three hours in and he was already wasted. I could only imagine what the next 20 hours would be like unless I forced him to sober up. I slid my headphones into my ears and turned my attention to the tv screen, playing the back to the future trilogy. I handed him a set and he complied, settling to watch whilst he sobered up.
*10 Hours Later*
DANNY
I watched Mel as she slept beside me calmly. I could never sleep on planes, which sucked, but I've learned to live with it. She'd taken her makeup off and tied her hair up before settling and grasped her iPhone protectively in her hand. The in-flight movie had switched over to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two, which I had been barely paying attention to and my iPod had died. I grabbed Mel's canvas carry on bag and searched for one of the three iPods she had brought with her. I grasped a purple iPod nano and pressed play. The Beatles, The Used and Blink 182 where the first three songs to play on shuffle. Judging by her music taste, the guys would love her.
MEL
I awoke just 20 minutes before the plane landed. I made my way to the bathroom, freshening up and re applying a small amount of makeup. I smiled at my appearance and walked back to my seat, thinking about what would happen when we landed. I really didn't know what was planned for me, whether I would be staying with Danny or in a hotel, who was picking us up, when I would meet the other guys, if I ever would. Not that it mattered, Danny was my brother and that was all that really mattered. Would I meet my mother? My sister? Would I get a job here, or would I study? Would I see a concert? We fastened our seatbelts as the flight attendants informed us we would be landing now and I braced myself. I hate planes, especially landing.
After the landing, we collected our carry on baggage from the overhead racks and made our way off the plane. Customs passed quickly and we collected our luggage from the carousel.
'So, brother of mine, how exactly is this going to happen?' I asked, smiling.
'Well, Charlie is picking us up from the airport as the guys are in the studio right now. I'll take you back to my house, and we'll get you settled into your room before making our way to the studio to meet the guys. Not before stopping at Starbucks of course.' He replied. I sighed with relief. This was going to be perfect.
'Awesome! So I'll be meeting the rest of the guys today I assume?' he nodded, and I grinned.
'I love the fact that you're a fan.' He chuckled, probably thinking I was a massive fan girl or something. I was too tired to prove him wrong.
'yeah, thanks. Home now.' I said sarcastically. That's when I saw him coming towards us, tall and muscular with a slight tan and dirty blonde hair. The typical 'tall, dark and handsome.' Charlie Simpson was walking towards me. It hadn't clicked in my head that Danny had meant Charlie Simpson. He was hugging my brother. He was hugging me. I was weak at the fucking knees. How was this happening? What the fuck.
'Hey, I'm Charlie.' He smiled at me. I grinned.
'M-Mel.' I replied, holding out my hand. He shook it, and Danny laughed.
'A fan of Busted too are we?' he asked between laughs.
'Fightstar more so, but yes.' I replied, staring at my shoes as if they were the most interesting things on earth.
'It's nice to meet fans,' Charlie said, 'it makes me feel as if I'm making a difference.' At least he was nice about it. Danny just teased me.
'Well, you do. By the way, you're the cause of a lot of sexual frustration in a friend of mine.' I winked, and he too began to laugh uncontrollably.
'My sister in law loves you too. She's still convinced you'll show up on her doorstep and whisk her off to England.' This only caused more laughing between the both of them.
'So, are we leaving now or something?' I asked as if this were a completely normal thing to do, we were in a completely normal situation and I was not in the company of two very famous musicians. They both nodded, composing themselves, and pulled me towards a black Jeep. I laughed when I saw it, remembering many trips to and from school in a red version. We threw our shit in the back and jumped into the car.
DANNY
As we drove along we chatted about how Mel had come to find out about to British bands in a country like Australia, where we had no publicity. The conversation continued until we came to the house, and Charlie left as quickly as he had come. I grabbed Mel's bags and we made our way into the house.
'Fuuuck.' Mel whispered as she walked in, seeing the sheer size of the hall.
'Wait until you see your room. Dougie decorated it for you!' I smiled mischievously. She groaned.
'It's going to be pink, isn't it?' I nodded, sadly. 'Fuck.' She replied.
I took her upstairs to the spare room which had been decorated for her. The walls were bright pink, decorated with posters of blink 182. She smiled at this, and I was glad that she liked them. A lizard tank sat in the corner and contained Zukie, Dougies pet lizard. She gasped upon seeing him, and turned to face me with a questioning look on her face. 'He thought that, if you were a fan, of course, you'd see that as a way of welcoming you. He's weird' She giggled and muttered an 'okay then' before moving towards the white bed, with a fully white quilt set. She placed her bags down and turned to face me.
'To the studio?' she asked.
'To the studio.' I replied.