“We’re here!” Deniz exclaimed, finally turning his attention back to me and off of Mitchel. I smiled at him, even though I was beginning to get a tad nervous.
“I know, D!” I said excitedly.
“You have a rubber band?” He asked me. I gave him a confused look but slid one off of my wrist. I always had spare hair bands, just in case.
“Can I ask?” I said as I handed it to him.
“I hear its hot outside.” He shrugged and pulled his straight black hair into a low pony tail. I laughed and rolled my eyes.
Everyone started to stand up from their seats so I figured we were getting off of the bus. I got up and followed Deniz down the steps, smiling at a camera that was placed by the door on the way to the ground. We ran over to an area where some odd man was standing.
“Deniz,” I whispered to my friend as the guy was talking. “Who is that?”
“Oh, um, I think his name is Brian Stepanek.” He answered pretending to listen to Brian.
“What’s he from?” I asked curious to who exactly he was.
“Um, Cody and Zack’s Life That is Sweet. Something like that.” He said shrugging.
“Actually, it’s The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody.” A males voice said from behind me. I turned around quickly to find the boy from the bus staring back at me. “Hi I’m Joe.”
“Um, hello?” I said still a little startled from the way he surprised me a few seconds earlier.
“I like your accent.” He smiled at me and my heart just about stopped. I was probably blushing but I didn’t want to think about that.
“Thanks.” I said simply, with a small smile. I had a feeling he was a big flirt.
“No problem…?” Joe said, asking for my name. I opened my mouth to answer, but Deniz cut in.
“Hey, Emily, do you mind if I go over there with Mitchel?” He asked pointing to the brunette boy who was smiling and waving over at him. I once again opened my mouth to reply, but before I could Deniz had ran over to Mitchel. An angry look covered my face, and I had forgotten Joe was still standing there until he put his hand on my shoulder.
“Ooh, that sucks. Looks like your boyfriend ditched you.” he said with a look that said ‘what a shame but I’m actually glad he did that’.
“What? No, no, no. Deniz is not my boyfriend!” I said sternly. “I mean, yeah he’s a boy and he’s my friend, but that’s all!” I said trying to convince him, but the look on his face told me that he didn’t believe me.
“I saw you guys holding hands when you got on the bus. Oh and you sat together and talked practically the whole time. You gave him one of your hair bands and you guys look like your pretty close.” Joe said with an eyebrow c.ocked.
“That doesn’t mean we’re together, which we’re not!” I whisper-screamed at him. Then I thought for a second and continued. “Wait, you were watching me?”
“Joe Jonas!” Brian yelled. I guess he had started calling out players that were on the different teams while I was talking to Joe.
“Aw, I wish we could finish this conversation but that’s me.” He said sarcastically and ran over to the other side to join what was the green team. I sighed and scanned the teams that had been picked so far. On the green team there was of course Joe, but I also saw Chelsea standing next to a couple other stars that I had seen on the bus but didn’t know. The other team that had already been chosen was the red team. I noticed that Deniz was on that team along with the boy that seemed to be his new best friend, Mitchel. There was also a cute curly haired boy that looked a slight bit like Joe. That boy was standing next to a girl that Chelsea had mentioned on the bus. I’m pretty sure her name was Julia. As I was looking at all the teams I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Emily, he called you!” Alyson whispered loudly. I woke up from my daze and thanked her quickly and ran over to my team with a smile planted on my face, for the cameras that is. I came over to my team and slapped their hands like the other people had done. I got to the end of hands and looked up at the face of the person I had just high fived. Joe.
“Hey, looks like we can finish our conversation.” I smiled at him playfully. He rolled his eyes and sighed, but he smiled when he did it.
“Ah, yes. Where were we?” He asked me and put his hand back on my shoulder.
“Well I believe you had basically said you were watching me?” I said and raised one of my eyebrows.
“David Henrie!” Brian shouted and a brown haired boy came running over towards Joe.
“Hold that thought.” Joe said and gave the boy a big hug. I couldn’t help but laugh and I knew I could use that against him. After David and Joe released each other, David walked over to his spot and Joe turned his attention back to me.
“Aw, is that your boyfriend? How cute.” I said trying to sound serious, but I couldn’t hold back the small smile that was forming on my face.
“Wait, what?!” He asked as if he didn’t hear me.
“Oh you know, you guys must be boyfriend and, well, boyfriend since you hugged. Oh and you sat by him on the bus and you guys talked practically the whole time. You guys look pretty close..” I teased him, hoping my plan would work.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just because we hugged and talked and stuff doesn’t mean we’re going out!” He whisper yelled in defense.
“Hmm, doesn’t that sound familiar…” I smiled at him and the totally confused and defensive look on his face became a grin.
“You’re good.” He said smiling at me now.
“Why thank you.” I smiled back. “But back to my question. Why were you watching me?”
He grinned and lifted his hand off of my shoulder and started playing with my hair. Wrapping a strand of it around his finger and then letting it fall, just to have him do it all over again. I gave him a look questioning what he was doing, but I don’t think he noticed.
“I couldn’t help myself.” He said sweetly with a flirtatious grin on his gorgeous face. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. Luckily Joe turned his attention back to Brian, so I did too.
“Okay so go get changed then come back here so you can enter your team headquarters!” Brian said as a few girls were handing out the clothes we were suppose to put on.
After we had all changed we went into the tents. Ours, of course, was green inside and out. It looked pretty cool on the inside. There were blow up chairs and all kinds of cool stuff. My team cheered as we all got inside and found a place to sit. We talked about our team and plans for a little bit but then decided to just talk randomly for the rest of the time. I found a seat on a little green couch type thing and put my hair up into a semi-high ponytail using the other hairband that I had on my wrist. When I was done felt a hand on my shoulder. I already had an idea who it was that had decided to sit down by me.
“Aw, now I can’t play with your hair.” Joe jokingly complained.
I smiled at him. “What a shame.” I said sarcastically.
“It looks nice though. Your hair, I mean.” He smiled shyly.
“Thanks.” I smiled back. Joe grabbed something out of his pocket and quickly put it on his head. It turns out it was a green headband type think and Joe looked absolutely ridiculous. His hair was all pushed up and it made him look like he had a huge forehead. He noticed me laughing, trying to keep it to myself, and quickly fixed the band.
“Is it okay?” He asked self consciously as he messed with it. He actually pretty much fixed it but it was still sticking up a little.
“Perfect.” I said and he smiled.
“So, what’s Australia like? It must be like the coolest place ever.” He asked like he really was interested.
“Well, it’s like, like home.” I said simply. I didn’t know how else to describe it. It’s my home and that’s what I think when I hear it. “And why’s that?” I asked referring to the second part of his comment.
“Well first off, you got kangaroos everywhere. That’s insane, yet awesome.” He smiled and continued, “I hear your toilets flush backwards.” He paused again. I didn’t quite get that one but I had to admit, he looked good when he said it. “Oh and one of my favorites is that everyone talks like you. I seriously love your accent.” I smiled at the compliment but was kind of confused with why so many Americans were so intrigued by the way I talked.
“Well thank you, mate.” I said, throwing in a ‘mate’ just for the fun of it. He laughed.
“Ha, no problem. So you got any other Australian slang?” He asked me curiously and I nodded. “Okay, well tell me something that I wouldn’t understand unless I was Australian.” He smiled.
“Um okay.” I said thinking of what I should say. I loved the curious expression on Joe’s face. He looked like a little child on Christmas morning waiting to open his first prezzy. “Well Joe, you seem like a bit of a dag, but a dag that is also a pretty spiffy spunk.” I smiled after calling him a bit of a goof that was quite good looking.
“I’m not quite sure what that meant, but I liked how it sounded.” He chuckled. “Can I know what it means?” He asked hopefully. I was contemplating whether or not I should tell him when a horn sounded.
“Aw, I wish we could finish this conversation, but that’s our cue.” I smiled imitating the way he had say it earlier. I got up from my seat and walked out of the tent following the rest of my team out to the field. It was time for the games to begin.
