Here is the next chapter.
And.... I really like comments... so... yeah.... haha
…three…
“I’m tired of this” Natalie said as she tossed her biology work book to the other side of the table.
“Can’t I just copy yours Nick? Like we used to do back in elementary school?”
“You mean when I would do your math homework and you would do my spelling worksheets?” Nick asked looking up from his workbook.
“That is exactly what I was remembering” Natalie replied. “You do my biology and I will do your history. And we can find a way to split the math and English too.”
“I don’t think it will work Nat” Nick said with a sigh. “As much as I would love that, I think our handwriting is too different now. And plus, I think we would get caught when I knew absolutely nothing about history for the test.”
“And you might get caught by the tutor who just over heard that” Rachael, the tutor, said walking into the room.
“You know we were just kidding” Natalie said with a laugh. “Come Rach, we are just a good bunch of jokers. You know we would never cheat.”
“And that’s why you and Nick missed all of the same problems on this worksheet” Rachael said with a smirk as she held up two sheets of math work, with the same grade written across the top.
“That’s all me” Natalie quickly admitted when she saw a look of concern flash across Nick’s face. “I stole Nick’s paper and copied the answers. Rachael, you know that I know this stuff, it is just far too time consuming.”
“Are you willing to prove that?” Rachael asked. She received a questioning look from Natalie and continued. “Quiz time. Show me that you really do know this stuff.”
“No problem” Natalie said as she grabbed her pencil and calculator and started working on the quiz in front of her. She completed the first problem and moved onto the second. She worked her way through the worksheet with ease and completed the problems within thirty minutes. She put it on the edge of the table and opened her biology workbook and continued working on that assignment.
“Good job Natalie” Rachael said after she finished grading the quiz. “I guess you really do know how to do this stuff. Let’s just, not cheat any more okay?”
“I will just try not to get caught anymore, how about that” Natalie reasoned with a giggle.
“Good job to you too Nick” Rachael said, ignoring Natalie’s comment. “How much more of your assignments do y’all have left for today?”
“I have some history left” Nick said looking over his school work in front of him. “Not too much though.”
“And I have some of this biology left” Natalie answered.
“Well, it’s time for you to get to sound check” Rachael said to Nick, “So just try to get the rest of it done before we start tomorrow. And Natalie, you too, but if you need help with it I can help you for a bit if you want.”
Just as Nick was packing up his school work, Joe walked into the room. After announcing that it was time for sound check he walked towards Rachael and kissed her softly on the lips.
“Gotta go” Joe said enthusiastically as he jumped up and down a few times while making his way back to the door.
“Good luck babe” Rachael said as Joe made his way back out of the room.
“I will pack up your stuff if you want” Natalie said while giggling at Joe. “We don’t want to keep your brother waiting.”
Nick winked at Natalie, silently thanking her for her offer and walked out of the room and towards the stage. Natalie stayed true to her word and packed all of Nick’s stuff up in his bin, leaving his history packet out, and then put all of her stuff in her bin. She carried them out to the bus and quickly found Rachael’s bus and put the bins in their proper place on the bus.
Rachael stayed on the same bus as some of the other people who worked for the Jonas Brothers, like their public relations manager and the director of catering. All of the school work stayed on that bus as well, except for when they worked on it backstage at the venues.
Natalie walked off of the bus and headed back towards the arena to watch the boys perform their sound check. After sound check they had a radio interview and then they went into lock down. They put on another amazing performance in front of a sold out crowd, just like they did every night.
“That show was amazing!” Joe shouted as he ran onto the tour bus. “You hear me Nat Bat? AMAZING!”
“I hear you Kangaroo” Natalie fired back, with just as much enthusiasm. “It was WONDERFUL!”
Once the entire family made it onto the bus, it pulled out of the underground parking lot at the venue and headed for the hotel in the next city. Frankie said goodnight to everyone and asked Natalie to tuck him into bed, which she happily agreed.
“Good night Frankie” Natalie said as she stood next to his bunk after tucking the blankets in around him. “Sleep tight” she dropped a kiss on his forehead and then closed his curtain and walked back towards the back lounge of the bus.
Nick Joe and Kevin were sprawled out across the couch, leaving no room for Natalie. She wasted no time in walking straight for the couch and laying down across all three boys. Her head rested on the arm rest next to Nick and her feet laid across Kevin’s lap. Because this was an almost daily occurrence, their glance didn’t stray from the television as they watched the sports scores scroll across the bottom of the screen.
A few hours later, Big Rob walked to the back of the tour bus and woke up the four people sleeping on the couch.
“We’re at the hotel guys, let’s go” Big Rob said and they stood up and stretched briefly. “There are several fans in the lobby, so be careful.”
As they loaded off of the bus Big Rob stood extra close by Natalie, because although the fans reached out and grabbed at the boys, Natalie tended to get lost in the shuffle sometimes because she wasn’t well known to the public and was often thought of as a fan. Nick stood on the other side of Natalie and wrapped his arm protectively around her.
The fans were not overly aggressive and so they stopped to sign a few autographs and take a few pictures, while Natalie continued walking towards the elevator. She rode the elevator to the seventh floor and walked towards Mrs. Jonas.
“Boys signing autographs?” she asked as she found Natalie’s room key.
“You know it” Natalie replied as she took the key card from her. “They really like their fans don’t they?”
They shared a laugh before Natalie continued, “What room is everyone else in?”
“You and Nick are in 707, Joe and Kevin are in 708, Me and PJ are in 715, across the hall, and Big Rob is in 716” she replied as Natalie slid her key card into the lock on the door.
“Okay. Thanks” Natalie said as she opened the door to her room. “Goodnight MJ. Love you.”
“I love you too sweetheart” Denise replied. “See you in the morning.”
Natalie walked into her hotel room and tossed her bag onto the bed farthest from the door. She quickly found her shower bag in her suitcase and pulled it out. She walked across the hotel room and into the bathroom. Natalie walked into the bathroom and turned the water on before shedding her clothes and stepping into the shower.
Natalie began to later her hair with her strawberry scented shampoo, she heard a knock on the bathroom door.
“Yeah?” Natalie questioned as she poked her head out from behind the shower curtain. She heard mumbling on the other side of the thick door, but she couldn’t make out any coherent words. “You have to open the door, I can’t hear you.”
Nick opened the door slowly and poked his head in just a bit. “I really gotta pee but Joe and Kevin aren’t in their room, and I don’t know where anyone one else is.”
“Come on in” Natalie said as she laughed and pulled the curtain closed behind her.
She continued washing her hair and she heard Nick shout a ‘thank you’ over his shoulder after the toilet flushed. Natalie continued to wash her hair and then condition it, and she started singing Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl quite loudly. A few moments later, Natalie stepped out of the shower with freshly shaved legs and hair that smelled like strawberries.
Natalie stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body. She wrapped another towel around her long blonde hair and opened the door to the bathroom. Her skin was immediately covered with goose bumps as soon as the cold air from the room hit her skin.
“Shower’s open” Natalie said as she dug through her bag for a pair of pajamas. She pulled out a pair of boxer and a long sleeved shirt and laid them on the bed.
“Is that my shirt?” Nick asked recognizing the shirt that Natalie pulled out of her bag.
“Maybe” Natalie replied in a sing song voice avoiding eye contact with Nick.
“I’ve been looking for that shirt” Nick said in shock that Natalie had it all along. “That’s my Team Hilario shirt. I used to wear it all the time. I can’t believe you stole it.”
“You shouldn’t leave it in your closet” Natalie replied with a laugh. “And I can’t help it that I love it. And it’s so soft. I love it.”
“You’re lucky you are my best friend” Nick said with a chuckle. Natalie raised her eye brow at him and he continued. “When Joe or Kevin steals my stuff we wrestle it out.”
“You’re going to wrestle me?” Natalie asked, clearly humored by her best friend’s threat. “Seriously Nicholas?”
“Well, you are in a towel and that could be a bit awkward” Nick replied. “So…. Not now. Maybe later, when you are least expecting it.”
“Just go shower” Natalie said through laughs. “Before I write OceanUP and tell them that Nick Jonas doesn’t shower.”
Nick laughed as he pulled her shirt over his head and tossed it onto his bed and headed towards the bathroom. Natalie quickly discarded her towel once she heard the bathroom door click shut. She pulled the boxers up her legs and slid the shirt over her head and then laid down on top of the blanket on her bed.
Natalie grabbed her cell phone off of the table next to her bed and scrolled through her contacts. She landed on her brother’s name and selected to send a text message.
Natalie looked at the clock on the table. Eleven o’clock in Wisconsin, means it is midnight in New Jersey She thought to herself as she quickly typed a messaged.
Happy Birthday Brudder. Love you!
She smiled as she exited out of the text messaging window in her cell phone and began looking aimlessly at the applications on her phone. She tossed her phone on the bed next to her as she heard the bathroom door open. Nick walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of pajama boxers and looked at his suitcase.
“Steal anything else of mine?” Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re gonna have to wait and find out” Natalie replied with the same raised eyebrow.
Nick laughed as he plopped down on his bed and grabbed his phone. He glanced at the screen and scrolled through his calendar.
“Tomorrow is your brother’s birthday” Nick said looking towards Natalie.
“I know” Natalie replied with a smile. “I can’t believe my big brother is twenty three. He’s getting old.”
“That is insane” Nick said. “I remember when we thought we were the coolest nine year olds ever because we got to ride with him home from the DPS after he got his license.”
“Oh honey” Natalie replied, “We were the coolest nine year olds.”
They laughed for a few minutes, remembering how the crashed Peter’s sixteenth birthday party by filling up water balloons and throwing them at people from Natalie’s window.
“Do you regret it?” Nick asked after the laughter stopped.
“Regret what?” Natalie asked as she continued to stare at the ceiling above her bed.
“Moving out” Nick said. “Leaving your brother.”
“No” Natalie answered. “I mean I miss my brother… a lot but…”
“But you just needed to get out of that house?” Nick finished for her.
“Yeah” Natalie answered quickly.
“I get that” Nick said softly. “I can’t imagine waking up in that house everyday and having it not be the same as it was.”
“Yeah” Natalie said softly. “I just…. I needed to get out of there. Out of Wycoff, out of New Jersey and just…away.”
“Well” Nick said, his voice perking up, “I love having you here. I missed you Nat. We all missed you. You are like part of our family, and it felt like a piece was missing for those years that you lived on the east coast and we were on the west coast.”
“I love that you love me” Natalie said with a smile as she turned towards Nick. Her eyes saw the HBO flyer on the nightstand and she immediately reached for the remote. “Juno is on HBO Nick!”
“Sweet” Nick replied happily. “Turn it on.”
