*Emily’s POV*

“Emily! Guess what?” Deniz yelled excitedly, waving a paper in the air.

“Calm down, what is it?” I said trying to keep people from staring at him. Deniz was a good friend of mine. Probably one of my bests. He starred with me on Australia’s version of As the Bell Rings. Being about the same age, him 17 while I was 18, we had become close. But definitely only as friends.

“Look at this letter Michael gave me!” He yelled again and shoved it in my face. Michael was our director. I grabbed the paper out of his hands and looked at it quickly.

“Just tell me the important part, there are a lot of words on here!” I said, beginning to become quite curious to what was so exciting about it.

“Here,” Deniz pointed to his name half way through the second paragraph. I pushed a lock of my dark hair behind my ear and began to read the paper quietly to myself.

“Deniz Akdeniz is requested to be apart of the Disney Channel games in America.” I stopped there with a big smile on my face. It was both his and my dream to go to America and the fact that he got to go made me so excited for him. I immediately engulfed him in a huge hug. “Deniz this is incredible! You get to go to America!” I smiled still hugging him. When we released each other he grabbed the paper out of my hands.

“That’s not all!” He said excitedly. That’s not all? What else could there be? Deniz took his pointer finger and traced a sentence that was in the third paragraph. I didn’t quite understand at first but then I saw something that made me go from confused to excited all over again.

“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed, my accent sounding extra thick, “I’m going too?!”

“Yep.” He nodded and I hugged him again. “And they’re considering you for a new American television show!” Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, Deniz said it. My blue green eyes lit up and a huge smile made its way to my face. I was going to America.

After breaking the news to my family and friends, I was packed and totally excited to leave for the good old U S of A. Deniz and I hopped on the first flight we could get tickets for and after an excruciatingly long flight, we were there. Disney took care of our housing arrangements for the time being, considering we didn’t really know anyone here and didn’t know where to go. After a few days of getting used to the feel of things in this new country, it was time for the games.

“I am mega excited! How about you?” Deniz asked for what had to be the hundredth time today. I rolled my eyes.

“Yes D, I’m just excited as you are. I just keep in on the inside.” I said to him smiling. He just chuckled.

“Oh, hey. The bus!” He said pointing over my shoulder. I turned around as the Disney Channel games bus pulled up and opened its doors with a clinking sound, almost as if it were welcoming us aboard. “After you.” Deniz said gesturing me to get on. I took a deep breath and took a step forward.

“Wait.” I stopped suddenly.

“What is it Em?” Deniz asked me, obviously confused. I put my left hand out towards him, signaling for him to grab hold of it.

“Let’s do this together buddy.” I laughed. He smiled and grabbed my hand.

I stepped through the doors of the bus and onto the first step, then second, and you know what comes next. I looked around at the unfamiliar faces. I didn’t recognize anyone, and silently thanked God that Deniz was with me. I was looking for an open seat but my eye had found something else. Near the back of the bus was probably the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen in my 18 years on earth. He had wavy dark, dark brown hair and a killer smile. As I got onto the bus I could have sworn I saw him smile at me, but once I was fully on followed hand in hand by Deniz, I saw the boy’s face drop. Almost as if he was disappointed. I shook the thoughts from my head and found a seat near the front and promptly sat down with Deniz right next to me.

Deniz and I talked almost the whole way to wherever it was we were going. We occasionally introduced ourselves to a few other Disney stars that were seated near us. Some of the people we talked to the most were Chelsea Staub, Alyson Stoner, and Mitchel Musso who all are from America. Deniz befriended Mitchel quite quickly, bonding over Mitchel’s brother’s band, Metro Station. While they chatted about that, I talked to Chelsea.

“So, you’re from Australia? That’s so cool!” Chelsea said as if she were excited about something.

“Yep, born and raised.” I smiled.

“Oh and I absolutely love your accent! You probably get that a lot, though.” She grinned and pushed a piece of her blonde hair out of her face.

“Thank you, but considering I’ve been in Australia my whole life, I was never really told that before since this is how almost everyone sounds there.” I laughed.

“Ohhh.” She paused and turned around, glancing at the dark haired boy I saw when I got on the bus. “Joe’s going to love it!” She said as she turned back around.

“Joe?” I asked not knowing who she meant.

“Yeah, Joe Jonas. The one back there with the longish dark hair.” She said pointing directly at the guy I hoped she would. “You see him?”

“Yeah, I see him alright.”

“Well, he adores accents. Him and his brothers even have a song named after Australia.” Chelsea smiled at me as she told me and I couldn’t help but smile back. He likes some things about me before I even met him. “Cool.” I said just as the bus stopped moving. I glanced out the window. We had arrived.