I am so horrible. I was supposed to 'evenly disperse' this (that's the exact wording in my mental plan) story over a few weeks, just to get it out there before I started on the good stuff. Unfortunately, I went review crazy and just wanted to put all four finished chapters online. After this chapter, the updates will be coming WAY slower. And also, after this chapter, A.J. will have met all four of the guys, thus beginning the whole romance aspect. But not to worry, it won't be all that. Because I think a complete romance is actually quite boring. I don't think I have anything else to ramble on about so…here's chapter four!
Jeanie's mother continued to stare at me, her eyes flitting around my features, but never making it quite to my eyes. If she would, she would immediately recognize that I had the same exact ones as her daughter did. I knew she would never make the connection, but still.
"I must have met you before…" she mumbled, tucking a squirming Jeanie more tightly into her chest. "You look so familiar."
Ringo narrowed his eyes at the woman, but didn't say anything. Clearly, he thought she was off her rocker. He knew why she wouldn't know me…at least, not in this decade. I wondered if he knew who she was yet.
"I don't think so. I'm from America." I explained. She flinched at the harshness of my inflection compared to the softness of hers. I wish that Mom had handed down a bit of the light accent that she still retained.
She cocked her head, reaching out and fingering one of the corkscrews that was popping out of my head. She smiled distantly. "Huh. You remind me so much of the old country. You have an Irish look about you, America."
That was the honest to God truth. I was one hundred percent Irish, and I got lots of comments like that over the years, especially when I was growing up and was a freckly mess. "Well, my mom was born there, and my dad's parents were immigrants."
She nodded, still in a daze. It was silent for a moment, until Ringo cleared his throat awkwardly. This made her jump, and she looked like she had finally snapped out of it. She laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not usually like that. I just…never mind." She slapped a hand on her forehead. "Where are my manners? Thank you so much for saving my daughter. She's mature for a two year old, and likes to play hide-and-go-seek."
I smiled graciously. "Oh, really, it was no problem. My name is A.J. by the way."
"Maggie Mae." Jeanie twisted in her arms again, turning around to have a good look at us. She giggled at something behind my back, and I turned around to see Ringo making a silly face. He blushed when he saw me looking, immediately dropping the look.
"Nice to meet you." I nodded at her. Ringo nudged me discreetly in the back, so I introduced him, too. "Oh, and this is Ringo Starr. Er, I mean Richard Starkey. He's the drummer from-"
"I know who he is," Maggie Mae cut in. Now I knew where her daughter knew this. But from the look on her face, Maggie was anything but a fan. "John Lennon still with ye?" This was directed to Ringo.
He looked confused at her hostile stare, but he went on anyways. "Well, yeah. I mean, I only joined up a little while ago. I could introduce ya if you'd like."
"I don't need an introduction, thank you very much," Maggie Mae sneered. The atmosphere was suddenly charged, and we could feel the Irish woman's anger all around us. See, I wasn't the only one that didn't like John. Even Joanie was scowling into the crowd.
Abruptly, Jeanie's mood changed. She started wiggling excitedly, waving her fat little hands wildly. I turned to see who she was greeting, and I found a disgruntled George standing next to Ringo's stool, his face a bit flushed.
"Maggie Mae, Jeanie, what are you two doing here?" His tone was intense, and, unlike Joanie, he did not seem happy to see them here at all.
Maggie sighed, fanning herself a bit with her hand. "Jeanie decided to play a game. She knew that the Club was a place Mammy didn't like to go." She ruffled Jeanie's locks a bit, way calmed down.
"You know if John sees you in here, he'll be really upset. We don't want another episode." Why was sweet George being so…mean? Wasn't he supposed to be the nice one?
Maggie Mae gave a weak grin. "No, no we don't. It would be better if Paul didn't-"
At the mention of his name, Paul turned around. In truth, I had forgotten he was there. He was talking to two new girls, both of whom seemed totally enraptured. I didn't know how long they had been there, and I wondered why he hadn't looked like the rest of the people in the place when Maggie had stormed over here. Apparently, he had extreme focusing skills.
"Paulie!" Jeanie squealed, reaching her arms out to the boy. His big eyes immediately went to her, and he allowed a brief smile. Then, his eyes traveled up to Maggie Mae. They hardened instantly.
"Paul, I-" Maggie started, but Paul had more important thoughts.
"You should go," he said quietly. They stared at each other for a moment, and finally Maggie looked back to me with a resigned groan.
"I'm sorry, A.J. Seems I'm no more welcome here than I was last year. Til we meet again!" she called over her shoulder, toting Jeanie away. The little girl stared over the woman's shoulder, waving at us. At the same time, all four of us waved back.
As soon as they were gone, the atmosphere was almost unbearably tense. I peeked a look at Ringo, but he looked just as puzzled as I felt. Finally, I allowed myself to look at Paul. He nearly gave me a heart attack when I found that he was staring straight at me.
"A word, all of you?" he whispered in a deadly low voice. It gave me chills down my spine.
Wordlessly, we followed him back into the room that I had started my night in Liverpool in. He shut the door, then made his way over to a chair, sitting down and rubbing his temples. When he looked up, his eyes were troubled.
"Will somebody explain to me why she was here?"
I exchanged another look with Ringo, and was relieved that he too still seemed to be on the same page as me.
"That little girl, Jeanie, was running around, so A.J. rescued her and brought her back to the bar so she wouldn't get trampled," Ringo remembered. "How do you know the Irish bird?"
Paul hesitated, glancing at George. George turned to me, clearing his throat. "What we're going to tell you right now is EXTREMELY classified. You are not to tell this to anybody. And you will NOT mention anything about Maggie Mae OR Jeanie to John. That goes for you, too, Rings. Is that understood?"
We both nodded, and suddenly I got a bad feeling in my stomach. I didn't think I wanted to hear this. Was my grandmother the song inspiration for Maggie Mae? I really hoped you wasn't, because as much as I could believe that, I didn't want it to be true.
"Maggie Mae Fitzpatrick is a girl we met about three years ago. She was just leaving Ireland, and she was only eighteen years old. We found her on the road, just coming back from Germany. Naturally, being the good, kind-hearted people we were…ahem, are…we took her in. Things heated up between John and her, and they had this sort of relationship thing going. Well, I don't know exactly what happened, but the next thing we know, Maggie's pregnant and it's not John's baby. She told him after a concert one night, and he blew up. It was bad, one of the worst I've seen with John. He told her to get the hell out, and to never come back. Heaven knows what she does now, but I hear she's got the quickest hands in England, and she's pretty well off. She's a little sneak, Fitz is."
Paul finished his speech, confirming my fears. Well, not the whole being pregnant thing, but everything else. I had no idea what to say. You just don't want to think of your grandmother as a sneak that the Beatles nicknamed 'Fitz'. It's just not right, you know?
Ringo frowned, clearly thinking this over. "Why was John so mad? I mean, they can't have been together for too long, if everything happened in the last three years. He doesn't usually get too hung up on birds, anyways, does he?"
"John said that he reckoned she was The One. He said that he could imagine his whole life with her, and he would never look back if he did marry 'er. In short, he was mad in love." I looked to George, and he confirmed this with a slight dip of his head, his thick black hair falling into his eyes.
John Lennon could have been my grandfather. But then again, it was probably better that he wasn't, seeing as I hated him and all. Still though, it was rather shocking news. I closed my eyes, shaking my head slightly. So she wasn't married to Robert yet; she had cheated on John with him. You know, I would have found my grandma so much more interesting if she had told me stories about frolicking with my idols instead of just going on and on about 'the old country'.
"That's some deep shit right there," I finally mumbled, opening my eyes. All three of them cast amused glanced my way. "What?"
"Ah, silly A.J., nothing. What I'm wondering most is how you two know Jeanie, and how she seems to know exactly who you are, too." Ringo had a point. I hadn't been listening so much to the Beatles side of the story as I was to my family's part.
George immediately blushed a deep red. "I…I babysit sometimes for her. But that's only when I REALLY need the money, and it can only be when John's gonna be away for a long time. Used to be Paul, too, but then it just got too difficult so I told him about it. Jeanie loves us to death, and I don't think Maggie trusts too many other people." He looked down at his shoes.
Can I just say? AWWWWW! That was so cute! THAT was the George Harrison that I always thought I knew. And how adorable that Paul helped, too! George looked down at me sheepishly, and I gave him my most proud look. "That's so sweet!"
Both currently ashamed boys looked at me in surprise. Why was it so weird that I thought them cute for that? Didn't all girls like when guys showed their sensitive side? Or was that a new millennium thing? Seriously, what was wrong with the girls from the sixties. They somehow thought that boys with more grease in their hair than there was in bacon were hot, but a sweet boy was weird. This was clearly a screwed up generation.
"Er…why?" Paul wanted to know, awkwardly rubbing his burning face.
"Just because, you know, John didn't-doesn't-like her, but you still helped her out. So what if it's for money? It's the thought that counts." They still stared at me funny, so I just shrugged. "The girls I know would eat that shit up."
George smiled, shaking his head. "You do have quite the pottymouth, you know. A girl-"
"So now you wanna get sexist?" I cut in, raising my eyebrows and making my best 'Nuh-uh, oh-no-you-didn't' face. George put his hands up and backed up, making Paul chuckle in appreciation.
"You really aren't like other girls, A.J." He shook his head, but more in wonderment than in shock. I basked in the glow of his happy grin, and stood up a little straighter. I don't know if that was meant to be a compliment, but I sure as hell was going to take it as one.
Suddenly, we heard footsteps outside the door. Someone knocked sharply, and a frustrated and tired John stomped in.
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you four!" he yelled, running a hand through his thick hair. Seeing him, I suddenly felt a surge of exhaustion, and I found that I was almost too tired for my legs. I staggered a bit, surprised at my sudden tiredness, and fell into George.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, grabbing me and steadying me quickly. My skin felt hot where he had touched me, and if I wasn't so tired I would have been blushing times a trillion.
Paul studied me for a moment, then turned to John. "What time is it, anyways?"
John shook his head frustratedly. "Too late to pick up a girl."
"That late?"
"Oh, shut up," George muttered, "we've already got a girl. And speaking of sleeping with birds, where's this one gonna go?" I started to lean on the spot a little bit, my eyes drooping. George put his hands on my arms, holding me in place. I was at the point where I couldn't even process what they were saying anymore, instead just hearing words and alternating voices.
"Well, obviously we're gonna have to take her back to our place," Ringo said, and I could just make out him glaring at John.
"The girl can hardly stand! How do we expect to bring her back?" John asked, his tone cold.
I sort of heard someone say something, then felt George's hands leave me for a moment. I began to panic, thinking that I would fall right over, when I felt another pair of big, strong hands steady me. Then, I was scooped up into someone's arms, as easily as I had lifted Jeanie earlier. Slightly scared, I tried to pry my eyes open enough to see who was holding me.
Paul winked at me. "I won't drop ya. You're as light as a feather."
I groaned, not able to hold my head up anymore, but REALLY not wanting to put my head onto his shoulder. But, eventually, I gave up, nestling my head in the warm hallow between his shoulder and his neck. I heard the boys laugh at me, but at this point I didn't care about anything but sleeping.
"Fine, but she's not sleeping in my bed," came John's indignant voice. Even in my semi-asleep state, I still wanted to throttle him. Yes, I said throttle.
I don't remember a thing past that, and I must have been SO out of it. I woke up feeing pissed, because John Lennon had broken his promise; I was definitely NOT in my own bed.
Believe it or not, there was a purpose to this chapter other than telling a story about John's ex-girlfriend. I really wanted to introduce all the boys, so that A.J. (along with you) could get to know them on a personal level. I may have failed in re-creating them, so don't be to mean if you want to get that message across to me (cough, cough, REVIEW, cough). The next chapter won't be for a while, because while I was editing these four chapters I completely abandoned the other three stories I'm writing at the moment. So, REVIEW, and the number of reviews I get for this chapter will determine the rate at which I get my lazy butt moving and write another chapter. Get ready…get set…and REVIEW!!!