Chapter Two : : Peace Greetings
I remember that dream as though I were still in it. I’m kinda crazy obsessed with this girl. And oh, what indescribable features she has; I notice something new about her in each dream. Like the way her deep brown highlighted hair moves when she walks. Or how her breathtaking brown eyes glisten in the twilight of the evening. She’s exceptionally extraordinary, with flawless features, and I’m searching for her, desperately.
My first encounter with the mysterious girl was of course in my dreams (she visits often). I stood beside her, dazzled by her very presence. Nick was explaining a project that we were apparently working on… actually more like discussing some subject, but I really could care less about what he was saying. I distinctly remember thinking about what I would say to her next. This teenage girl had me tongue-tied within our first formal meeting… it was remarkable. She began to speak, taking control of our meeting, and although I can’t remember the words, I remember how they made my insides melt. She looked toward me, and without hesitation to the dazed look on my face, she began listing off instructions that I needed to follow.
She finally noticed that I had not been paying attention at all to the words she was speaking, so she called my name trying to get my attention. ”Joe Jonas” she distinctly hissed at me. I then took a step forward, standing tall above her, and replied back in a somewhat surprisingly seductive whisper, ”Kaitlyn Renee”.
She was at a loss for words, and we stood in that unfamiliar place motionless, caught in each others gaze. A girl with golden curls called us, and I regretfully looked toward her with an inquiring look. When I turned back to Kaitlyn, she was gone… not wanting anything to do with me again… or so it seemed.
The dream ended there, and I knew two things: one was that Kaitlyn was more than an acquaintance in the dream, and two, I was supposed to be in love with this girl. I know it might not have seemed like that to anyone else, but that’s because they couldn’t feel the feelings that I felt. Nor could they understand the indescribable and complicated emotions that I was experiencing. It was only our first meeting… at least I think it was. Anyways, I will never forget the way I looked at Kaitlyn… and the way she looked at me was like… wow.
Of course this is all part of a dream, the first one if you couldn’t remember, and I thought nothing of this dream until I had another. Even when the second one came along, I thought it was all a mere coincidence that Kaitlyn Renee had been in both dreams.
The second dream wasn’t anything big or interesting… in that one the two of us were inside a small coffee shop drinking coffee. We were talking, and holding hands I think at one point…. it was awhile ago, so that would explain the vague-ness of the dream.
Once I had the third dream in a row with this same beautiful girl, I finally said something to my curious brothers. It interested them as much as it did me, and Nick also mentioned something about a couple dreams he had been having too. We were both apparently having dreams about these supposedly unrealistic girls, but they seemed like so much more than that. They are real, and they are out there somewhere unaware that two members of the hottest band are having dreams about them.
“So Joe… Do ya wanna tell me about your dream? Or do I get to go first?” Nick asked pulling me out of my trance.
It took me a minute to gather all my scattered and distant thoughts. I hated it when they stopped me from my day dreaming.
“Is he even awake?” Kevin asked. Sometimes I tend to daydream with my eyes shut (but not that often).
“Yeah… I was thinking,” I said, my eyes still shut.
“So I guess I’ll go first,” Nick proceeded.
“Today’s going to be awful,” I wined, ignoring Nick’s earlier comment.
“So, we were at some place for a concert, and—“ Nick was cut off by me and my lack of self-control.
“They’re here Nick, we’re going to be so close to them, but we can’t do anything about it.” I angrily vented.
“What do you mean?” Kevin asked calmly
“I don’t know… but what if our girls are here at this concert tonight? We won’t be able to do anything without causing confusion or chaos,” I explained.
“How do you know they’ve not already been to a concert… or even if they like us?” Kevin yet again quizzed.
“Dude, who doesn’t like us?!” Nick sarcastically added, which broke the tension that had accumulated.
“I’ve just got this feeling…” I chuckled.
“Okay, is it my turn now?” Nick asked, annoyed.
Kevin and I both gave him permission to begin the story-telling…. in this case, dream-telling.
“As I was saying… We were at some concert hall, and we were on stage talking about some weird occasion that seemed really important and special to Miranda (this was Nick’s girl… she had naturally curly blonde hair, and loved to talk and laugh to no end… or so he describes) and there was another girl there with her waiting to be announced on stage.”
“Oh! What did she look like?!” I interrupted.
“Ahhh… Well she had brown hair-“
“How tall was she?” I was beginning to get excited as usual, he told us before of a girl with brown hair, but could never recall anything else. I mean what if this is Kaitlyn in Nick’s dream… that is a sign, and nobody would convince me otherwise.
“She was pretty tall, possibly taller than I was,” he confessed. My heart skipped a beat, I don’t know why my dreams had this much of an effect on me… it was crazy.
“What were her eyes like?”
“I don’t know, Joe. I wasn’t really paying attention, and it wasn’t that detailed,” Nick said disappointing me. The dreams I had were always very clear, I just assumed that his were too.
“Oh… right… continue,” I advised him as I tried to act as though I wasn’t disappointed.
“So we announced them to the stage and they took the mics. Then they totally got the crowd going. It was really cool,” he added with a laugh. “Then we began performing, and the two of them were still on stage…. This is the crazy part; they started dancing to the music, to one of our songs. We were laughing and having so much fun. And we were even doing some of the dance moves too, and so was the crowd! Miranda and her friend were totally amazing. Then after that we were backstage, and I remember putting my arm around her waist and congratulating her on the amazing performance.”
“Wow, that’s pretty wicked,” Kevin said smiling. I, however, remained unmoved by the dream… though I have to admit that it sounded pretty cool.
My brothers took notice to this, and one of them asked, “Hey, dude, what’s wrong?” asked Kevin.
“I don’t know! I just don’t want to do anything today… please don’t make me!” I begged.
“We’ve got a concert tonight, and have we ever cancelled a concert? … No.” reminded Kevin.
“Kevin, Nick… this girl is going to be at this very concert tonight… I can feel it. If I see her, I’m gone. I’m not going to let her slip by… I don’t care what anyone says.”
There was a long silence as they thought through thoughts, so they wouldn’t ignite the barrel of gun powder that symbolized my emotions. “Be rational,” Kevin sighed, “and don’t scare her to death… that would create some complications...”
Ha ha, yes! Kevin was on my side, and certainly Nick would follow. I was jumping around on the inside, but I had no energy to replicate the actions to the outside for all to see. Instead all I showed my brothers was a smile, and that was all. There was peaceful silence that followed the end of that conversation, but to my despise, it didn’t last long.
“So Joe, we never did hear anything about that dream of yours,” Kevin enthusiastically stated. “Wanna tell us about it?”
I sighed deeply, “Well… I don’t really remember it. All there really was was this stupid peace sign, and that’s all.” I normally wasn’t like this… I love peace signs – they’re pretty wicked. My brothers took notice.
“Chill Joe, don’t need to take your anger out on us,” Kevin barked.
I stayed silent for pretty much the rest of the time. I wanted to sleep, no: I wanted to dream. Listening to music wasn’t helping much, but luckily the ride wasn’t too horribly long. Four hours could go by quickly when you were laughing, having fun, and in the mood to do those kind of things. I was not in that mood; everything was so long; taking forever. Though looking at my cell phone clock every ten minutes didn’t help. I would normally say we were at the stadium in no time, but that would be lying because the trip seemed to take forever. Mom came into our bus hangout and began giving us instructions.
“All right boys… We’ve got a sound check party in an hour. You have to sign a guitar for some fans, and then take pictures with them. And if you’re up for it after that you can go sign things for all the girls who are probably already lining up outside those doors. Then you’re free until eight o’clock when you go on,” Mom cheerily instructed.
Nick, Kevin, nor I even acknowledged our poor mother.
“Boys… is something up?”
“Mom… my dream girl is going to be here. I’m not going to get to meet her though, wouldn’t that make you unhappy?” I said. Denise as some call her, was very close to me… I told her about most of my dreams. She understood everything that was going on, and had advice on it all. She would sometimes even make suggestions on what I should dream about next. I love my mom, and I’m sure once I find Kaitlyn Renee, she will be so welcoming and wonderful; the perfect mother-in-law for my fantasy bride.
“Joey,” she said holding her arms out for a hug, which I gave her along with a kiss on the cheek. She took a seat next to me to begin the council session. “You can’t let her get in the way of living your life… at least not at this point. Once you meet her, that’s a different story, but for now, honey, just stick to the now. Don’t let dreams rule over reality… then you wouldn’t live.” She combed my hair with her fingers. “You’ll know the girl when you see her, and if it’s meant to be… it’s meant to be.”
Doesn’t she have powerful words? I began thinking about what she had said and Mom was right. Duh, of course, she was always right. Nick watched me as my mind turned itself inside out for more memories of dreams. I was beginning to remember one but Dad called.
“Kevin, Nick, Joe?! Is your mother back there?” he questioned. All of us exchanged glances among each other.
“Be there in a sec honey!” She called back. Then she turned back to our trio, “C’mon boys, lets get you ready for the concert.” Mom left, and the three of us followed her to the stadium and backstage. We were forced into makeup and into and then we had our hair done. All this for a concert where everything won’t really matter at some point, and then the sound check party began.
Honestly, sometimes people annoy me… the girls. They get so annoying because all those teenage girls do is scream, and you can’t hear the music. I expected that at a concert, but not at a sound check party that a whole fifty people attend. Isn’t the whole point of going to a concert is for the music? Sure you can clap and holler when the song ends, but is it really relevant during the songs? I don’t understand that whole concept, and I know that Kaitlyn comes for the music; the lyrics. Not the faces, she won’t come to our concert just for us, but for our music. I wanted to go sleep when the sound check ended, but it was forbidden. Kevin, Nick, and I had to take pictures with all the people who attended the party.<br>I was in no mood to have my photo taken… and most of the pictures showed that. I looked awful; I looked tired and uninterested; distracted. And I was, but when there were small children, they made me perk up, for I love kids. Hell, I still act like one!
“Joseph,” Mom said as the painful process of taking pictures was over, “Honey, what’s wrong? Your attitude is really getting everyone down.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Joe… I’m your mother. Haven’t you figured out that I’m a mind reader yet?” She said trying to make me laugh ( I think I know where I got my sense of humor from ), and I’ll admit that I did chuckle. <p>
“Mom… I’m trying, I’ll try harder… It’s just that—“
“I know Joe, you boys and you girls. Nick is doing the same thing, but he might be handling it a bit more maturely…”
I smiled, “And when have you ever known me to be mature?” She laughed merrily and slung her arm around my shoulder, and walked me backstage.
A few other bands were there: Raised by Radio and Rooney to be exact, they were touring with us, the Jonas Brothers. They were both pretty awesome; I liked their style… it was different. So we hung out with them and of course Frankie while we waited for the clock to strike seven to begin. Raised by Radio went on first, and then Rooney was next. I was so out of it, I mean, I was usually pumped to be doing what I love for amazing fans. As I said, I’ve been really distracted…
“Joe, we have to start getting ready to go on,” Kevin said hold out a hand to help me up off the couch we had been lounging on. He helped me up.
“She’s out there… I’m doing this for her,” I said as I balanced myself on my uncooperative feet, almost falling backwards. Kevin caught me.
“Dude, ya alright?” he asked supporting me. I didn’t answer, just sighed. “Drink some water. Like I said earlier, we don’t cancel shows… besides Kaitlyn’s watching.”
He was giving me motivation. I became excited just by the very name any more, how pathetic. I sighed and took the bottle of ice water someone brought me. Our producer/manager came to bother us… ugh, he was from the record company and not very friendly.
“Hey guys, do great out there! I got something for you boys here… motivation perhaps?” he said holding up a white envelope. I stepped forward, my mind automatically assuming that it would by some miracle be from Kaitlyn, but I dismissed that thought quickly.
“Who’s it from, Greg?” I asked.
His lips curved into an evil smile, “A fan… some crazy one…” he looked down at the envelope and read what was written, “Ha. ‘We can change the world to anything we want ~ Inseparable’. How cute, this girl actually thinks she can make a difference.”
I scowled and reached for the letter, but Greg took it and put it in his expensive leather jacket pocket. We glared at each other, he had the advantage though; the letter.
“Give him the letter Greg,” Kevin said rolling his eyes at our obnoxious behavior.
“No. Only if I get a spectacular performance from you,” he said looking at me. “You haven’t been very enthusiastic today… and we can’t have that. You need to put on a happy face to keep the fans happy, and the money rolling in.” He stormed off, probably to go hit on some high school senior because that’s just the kind of person he was.
“The money… that’s all it’s ever about anymore!” I said raising my voice.
“Don’t listen to him, just focus on the concert,” Kevin advised while massaging my shoulders. I obeyed, and thought of nothing else but this concert. Yeah, that lasted about a whole two seconds; my mind quickly referred back to Greg and the letter.
Kevin pushed me toward a door, and stage crew got me ready for our big entrance. Then I forgot all about Kaitlyn, forgot all about the letters, and focused on the task at hand. I was doing what I loved; we were doing it, together. The curtain was released from the clasps it was being held in, and began to fall. Girls were going crazy. It was then our turn to make the actual entrance, we did so gracefully, and there were no slips or trips. The arena was glowing with the flash from cameras and the blinding bright lights, but I could still see all the way to the top of the stadium… most of it anyway. The music began and I was in my own little world.
Everything was going fine; I was paying attention to all the fans, giving them a show. I was still scanning the audience, every level, and I had gotten through the entire right side that I could see and she wasn’t there. I lost hope, but something caught my attention. I couldn’t make out what it was at first; my job required me to pay attention to what I was saying and where I was going. It was a sign that a girl, possibly two had made. It wasn’t a sign that anyone had ever brought to any of our concerts. On it was this gigantic, bright and bold peace sign.
