Rejoice Because Thorns Have Roses

[Anna]

“There she goes again,
The girl I’m in love with
It’s cool we’re just friends.
We walk the halls at school,
We know it’s casual…” Once again, I awoke to the sound of one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. Quickly, before it woke everyone else in the room as well, I shut off the alarm on my phone and climbed out of bed, tiptoeing out of the room. It was early. People in my family tend to not get as much sleep as they should, and when the entire gang is contained in a small area and all but two of us are not morning people, it’s best to be as silent as possible.
“Hey!” I whispered, smiling at the sight of one of my brothers sitting on the couch in the living room watching music videos and eating a bowl of Corn Pops, just like he always is when I get up in the morning. He looked up from the TV that had been hypnotizing him and smiled as well.
“Morning.” He greeted. I plopped myself down next to him and licked my lips.
“Mmm, Corn Pops, my favorite!” I grinned as I scooped up a few dry pieces of cereal from the top of the pile that lay in his bowl and popped them into my mouth.
“Hey, get your own!” My brother complained, pulling the food away from me. We both laughed and he set the bowl back on his knee, where I could easily reach it. He was always pretending he was mad at me, but he very rarely was. We were super close, always had been. People always mistake us for twins; we both have the same facial features and wild hair. We were much alike in the sense that we were a little bit on the quiet side, very organized and goal-oriented, and sometimes more serious than kids are age should be, yet a little crazy at times too. The only thing that wouldn’t make us the perfect set of twins was we were a year apart, he was 15 and I was 14.
“First one up?” He glanced toward the door leading to our bedrooms.
“Always.” I nodded, leaning back on the couch and putting my bare feet up on the coffee table. The two of us turned out attention back to the television screen and watched the end of the music video that had been playing. The screen went black, and the next thing that popped up was an image of a large ship. A familiar tune started playing and I smiled, glancing at my brother. He returned the look out of the corner of one eye and concealed a grin. I began quietly and subconsciously humming along to the song we both knew too well and watched the band in the video act out their song. By the end of the song my brother and I were both singing along, full volume, and laughing when it was all over.
“That just gets cooler every time, doesn’t it?” he asked, shaking his head as he stared at the TV in awe. No, it wasn’t the first time we had done that. Ever since the video was released, the rest of my family and I got pretty excited when we saw it. It was an awesome video, we all loved it. The song was getting more and more popular, and that only meant even more success for the boys that wrote and performed it. They were three brothers, the Jonas Brothers. They were indescribable to me. They had incredible talent and their relationship with each other, their fans, and their family was unbelievable.
“I think I’m gonna go for a walk before we get started.” I decided, standing up and slipping on some nearby flip-flops. I knew that once the day began, we would be on a crazy schedule, running from place to place and not getting many breaks.
“Alright, I’ll tell mom and dad when they get up.” My brother replied. I smiled in gratitude and quietly went back to my room, where amazingly without disturbing my mother or friend, who were both still asleep, I found a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that I put on in the darkness of the room. I was used to it. When you share a room, you get accustomed to that sort of thing. I gave a small wave as I walked back passed my brother in the living room and climbed down the few steps leading to the door. I pushed it open and stepped out into the parking lot I found myself in. We must have arrived at our hotel just a few hours before, check in wasn’t until 11, so our driver settled us in the parking lot. Another thing I had become used to. I wandered around to the front of the building and walked through the busy downtown Chicago scene.
“Marie!”After just a few blocks, I stopped, hearing what I knew would come. I turned around and smiled at the girl running towards me. “Hey Marie!” She said once she arrived, slightly out of breath.
“Hey.” I smiled.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you guys are finally here! I’ve been waiting since May for this!” It was August.
“Oh wow, awesome! I guess we’ll see you tonight?” I asked. She nodded.
“You bet! Are you staying at the Hilton?” She asked, motioning toward where I had come from.
“Can’t say.” I winked, knowing it was useless, she had probably known where we were staying for at least a couple weeks. She laughed.
“Right, ok. I can’t believe you’re here and I’m talking to you!” She squealed, unexpectedly hugging me. I laughed.
“Well I should get going; it was really nice meeting you! Maybe I’ll see you tonight.” I said, glancing at my wrist and wishing I had remembered to wear a watch so I could look like I was actually in a hurry to get back to the hotel.
“Ok, tell your brothers that Kasey loves them!” She exclaimed.
“Will do.” I agreed, waving as she walked away. I smiled and shook my head as I walked back, still not 100% used to what just happened. Kasey was a complete stranger. I, nor my brothers or anyone in my family for that matter, had met or seen her before. And yet she was in love with my siblings and probably was one of those girls who wished she were me. I found myself back in the hotel parking lot, staring up at a huge bus. A security guard was standing outside the door, and he nodded at me as I walked past and opened the door. Things were much more hectic than when I had left. Everyone was up and about. Two of my brothers were arguing over who was going to get the last Red Bull. My mother was trying to stop them, without success, and probably wishing she had remembered to stock up before we ran low. My oldest brother was on the couch where I had been not too long ago watching the local news. My dad was in the corner, a hand over one ear as he tried to hear the person on the other end of the phone. My little brother and my best friend were sitting on the floor, legs crossed Indian style. She was struggling to keep him still enough to run a comb through his hair, knowing that if she let him do it himself, it would never get done on time.
“Marie, there you are!” My mom sighed. “Hurry up; we have to be at the radio station in half an hour!” I felt the bus start to move.
“Mom, I’ve been gone for 10 minutes. I’m already ready for the most part.” I shrugged, snatching the Red Bull from my brother’s hand as I walked by.
“Hey!” The two brothers who had been fighting over it yelled at the same time. I laughed as I plopped down on the couch beside the oldest and opened the can.
“Mom, she can’t do that! Tell her it’s mine!” My brother’s pleading did nothing for him, since our other brother was already on his way to the couch. Without thinking twice, he sat on me, causing me to yelp at the sudden weight. I held the can out as far as possible, hoping he wouldn’t be able to reach it.
“Thank you.” Our older brother said simply, taking it easily out of my hand without even looking away from the TV.
“Dude!!” My brother cried as he watched him take a sip. I pushed him off my lap. He caught himself just before hitting the ground and responded by grabbing me around the waist and lifting me off the couch.
“Child harassment! You’re 18, this is illegal! Don’t make me call the cops!” I yelled, kicking as much as I could with one of his arms around my legs.
“Oh, put her down! You guys are acting ridiculously. It’s just an energy drink; I’ll pick up some more during the interview.” Our mom compromised.
“Get Fruit Rollups too!” The youngest of our family added from his spot on the floor.
“Stop moving! We have to go soon and your hair’s a mess!”
“QUIET!!” We all shut up and stared at my dad, who had just hung up the phone. “We’re here. Let’s go.” He said. All the shouting and fighting stopped, and we all got up and straightened ourselves out before heading for the door.
“Ready?” Our dad asked, a hand on the handle. We all replied with a jumbled up mess of ‘yea’s and ‘let’s do this’s. Our dad smiled and pushed the door open, moving aside so my older brothers could get out first. They were greeted with deafening screams. I followed everyone out the door as we walked the short distance from our bus to the building. Before I went inside, I read one sign a girl in the crowd was holding up and smiled.

“I LOVE YOU JONAS BROTHERS!”

Yea, I’m a Jonas. Did I forget to mention that earlier? Whoops, my bad.
“Marie?” My dad whispered from the seat next to mine. I looked at him and he subtly motioned across the room where my brothers sat, headphones perched on their ears and microphones in front of their mouths. They, along with the radio DJs, were staring at me, waiting. I took the far from faint hint that they had called me over for the interview. I got up and crossed the room. My younger brother had gotten there first and taken my seat, so I stopped at the first chair I came to, Joe’s, and sat. Hey, he had deliberately tried to squish me by sitting on me earlier that day, he could deal with a smaller-much smaller-girl on his lap for a few minutes.
“Aww, talk about sibling love! The one and only Jonas Sister, Marie, just joined us and automatically sat herself on big brother Joe’s lap. How cute.” The DJ gawked. I had to force myself not to roll my eyes. My brothers, being the good sports that they are, chuckled along with the DJ at the way too normal situation. They were used to it, we all pretty much were. We could do something, anything, in our everyday lives and the world would find it fascinating, just because it had been done by the Jonas Brothers.
“So Marie, Frankie, we already talked to your brothers, but how do you feel about being where you are today?” I glanced over at my little brother who stared back at me with a familiar look, telling me to answer first.
“It’s just amazing. It seems like just yesterday we were still in Jersey, getting all excited because some lady at the hair salon complimented Nick’s voice. For them to have gotten this far is just incredible, I’m so proud of them. We’re here in Chicago today for their second headlining tour, what more could we want?” I smiled, reciting my over said answer for the one question I always got asked.
“And you, Frankie?”
“My sister said mostly what I was gonna. It’s really cool.” He said, his answer also so over said to the point where it almost felt like we rehearsed it.
“Clearly your life is far from normal. Don’t you ever miss it?” I could have asked the next question before the man even opened his mouth.
“It’s great being on the road, because in our family, your siblings are some of your best friends. Even when we were little, before this all started, Nick and I were really close. Other than him, I had one other really close, constant friend, and she’s on tour with us too, so it’s really fun.” I replied, knowing that I hadn’t actually answered the question. They don’t really care though, you give them an answer and they take it, whether it’s direct or not. The DJ looked at my younger brother. Which meant that if you didn’t want to, you didn’t have to tell the entire truth.
“I like going to different places.” He said simply.
“Alright then! Thank you guys, we’ll see you backstage at tonight’s concert! So Joe, we’ve been hearing tons of rumors about you and AJ Michalka of Aly and AJ. You wanna tell us about that?” I heard Joe quietly, so quietly that if you weren’t as close as I was on his lap you wouldn’t have heard a thing, which was what he was aiming for. I shot him a sympathetic look as I stood up and stepped back, letting him talk. Some interviewers were completely oblivious, they see a picture of one of the boys-unfortunately for him usually Joe-and a girl and instantly there are rumors, like they can’t tell the picture is clearly years old. Or maybe they just wanted to see how fairly they’d answer questions about an ex. Either way, my session was over, and I wasn’t going to hang around. I motioned for Frankie to follow and went back to where the others were sitting.
“How’d it go?” Maya, one of my best friends, asked as I sat next to her.
“Eh, same old stuff.” I shrugged. She nodded.
“What’s it like on the road, do you miss Jersey?” she asked. I laughed.
“You’ve been hanging around us too much.” I joked.
“Aww, we like her being around though.” My dad smiled, patting Maya’s knee. She smiled at him. “So girls, I want to go over the schedule with you. After this the boys have a photo shoot in front of the Sears Tower, at The Bean in Millennium Park, the Buckingham Fountain, you know, the sites. That’ll probably take a few hours; they’re going to be running around all over the downtown area. So I’ll be staying with them and your mom will take you girls and Frankie. You’ll go check into the hotel and bring whatever you need inside. You’ll have to decide with her what you do after that. We’ll all meet back at the hotel no later than 1:30, I’m going to stop and pick up some pizza for lunch on our way back. Chicago’s supposed to have some of the best pizza. Then we’re free until about quarter to 3. I’m thinking the boys will want to take that time for resting MySpace. We have to be at the amphitheater at 4, it takes a while to get there from where we’re staying so we’ll leave as soon as we can. Then we set up, have a sound check, and the show starts at 7. Tomorrow before we leave we’re going to visit some old friends that live here. Sound good?” Maya and I nodded.
“Sounds great, lots of free time.” I grinned.
“Yea, for you.” We turned around and saw my brothers coming up behind us, done with their interview.
“It’ll be fun guys, you can handle it.” My dad assured them. He looked over their shoulders to the door, waving. We looked and saw our mom coming in, a grocery bag in her hand.
“There was a little store across the street, no Red Bull. We can get some later.” She said, taking a box of fruit snacks out of the bag and tossing them to the nearest kid. Nick caught it and handed it down to Frankie, who happily tore the box open. My dad looked at his watch.
“We should get going boys; you have to meet with the photographers in half an hour.” He said. We all frantically gathered our things and said goodbye to the radio people before rushing out the doors.
“Meet back at the hotel at 1:30.” My dad reminded us, giving my mom a quick kiss goodbye. Hugs were passed around between the 8 of us and everyone grabbed a fruit snack out of the box Frankie was clutching, the candy being the nearest source of energy at the moment.
“Bye!” We all said one last time before splitting up. It was the start of one of many days of being a part of the infamous Jonas family.
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yep, another sibling fic. youd think i would start to get bored with them...anyways i have A LOT more done, but ill post tomorrow

[Anna]

“They just got here. They’re downstairs. Got stopped by a couple of fans.” I announced, snapping my phone shut and pushing a stray strand of hair out of my face. It automatically fell right back, what I get for hanging upside-down half way off the bed. The sound of groans filled the room. We had been waiting for my dad and brothers for nearly an hour. Needless to say, they were late and since they were put in charge of picking up the pizza, we were all starving.
“A couple meaning…?” My mom asked, having learned a long time ago that ‘a couple fans’ could very well be a couple…hundred. Maya hopped off the chair where she had been sitting and pushed the curtain on the window aside.
“See for yourself.” She said, moving out of the way so we could see.
“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, giving a sad attempt to flip backwards off the bed. My mom raised an eyebrow at me. “Gosh. I meant gosh. Sorry. But seriously, look out there!” I insisted, joining Maya at the window. Paparazzi was everywhere, mixed in with about 30 screaming girls who had somehow all been in the area at the exact moment it was made known that the people walking into the hotel lobby were the Jonas Brothers. Or maybe they just followed them here. I saw my brothers wave goodbye as our dad and body guard, Big Rob, hurried them along. Minutes later, there was a knock on our door.
“It’s us.” We heard our dad say in a hushed tone. Our mom opened the door and four very tired looking men entered the room, collapsing onto various chairs and beds. Nick didn’t even do that much, dropping to the floor next to the air conditioning and laying his arms and head on top of it, a satisfied smile on his face.
“How’d it go?” Mom asked sympathetically, tapping Nick’s arm to get him up and pointing to the free space on one of the beds.
“Exhausting. We ran all over this freakishly large city in jeans and jackets. It’s like 100 degrees out there, and that’s without the heat from all the lighting for the photo shoot.” Kevin said.
“I need some sugar.” Nick mumbled, wiping sweaty curls out of his eyes and pouting like a little kid.
“I need some aspirin.” Joe added. “There were fans. Lots of them. Which is awesome, but add unbelievably loud screams to hot weather and exhaustion…ugh.” He shook his head, like he was reliving the morning in his mind.
“Well we got something for you guys.” I said. All three boys sat up immediately and stared at me with amused and impatient looks. I laughed and was tempted to keep teasing them for a while, but got up and went over to the bag sitting in the hallway. I heaved a 12 pack of Red Bull out of it and 6 eyes lit up like a child’s on Christmas morning. I took out three and tossed one to each of them.
“I’ve been waiting for this all day.” Nick said to no one in particular, opening the can and taking a huge sip. Joe held his next to his face and closed his eyes, rubbing the can with one hand.
“I missed you.” He sniffed, pretending to cry.
“You guys are such dorks.” Maya and I proclaimed at the same time, laughing after.
“Hey, you try living our day today.” Kevin said defensively.
“With no sugar!” Nick added.
“You guys realize that Red Bull isn’t the only source of sugar in this world?” I asked.
“Yea, you can eat fruit.” Maya grinned, staring directly at Kevin.
“Like bananas.” I added.
“You know, that sounds like a good idea. I think we’ll start doing that.” Joe smirked. Kevin rolled his eyes.
“Whatever.” We all laughed. As the boys finished the last of their drinks, Nick stood.
“Ready?” He asked.
“Yep.”
“Let’s go.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Go where?” Our mom asked, stopping them from walking out.
“Fans.” Nick replied simply, shrugging.
“You’ve only been here for 10 minutes! Wouldn’t you rather relax?” None of them answered our mother’s question. Instead, they all exchanged glances and shrugged. They wanted to stay, all of them. I could see it in their eyes.
“There are a few girls that followed us around all morning. Since our first stop on the photo shoot. They stood out there in the heat as long as we have, just to meet us. We couldn’t stop earlier to say hi, so before we came up we told them to stick around and we’d come back.” Joe explained.
“Yea, we thought maybe we’d bring them some cold drinks or something. It’s the least we could do; I mean I’m sure they had other plans for the day. Then we showed up and they wasted the entire morning for us.” Kevin added.
“You need to eat something.” Joe rolled his eyes. Maya and I exchanged glances as we watched the scene in front of us. You do not roll your eyes at our mom. Everyone knew that. Hands went onto hips and eyebrows were raised as she waited for something to come out of her son’s mouth.
“It’s not a big deal! We’ll be fine!” Big mistake, Joseph. Maya and I were trying hard not to laugh at this point.
“Excuse me?” Our mom asked, using just as much tone and attitude as Joe had.
“Uh, what he means is…we can eat on our way to the venue.” Kevin said, jumping to the rescue. Our mom’s eyes softened.
“Wouldn’t you rather spend time with...” I swear she had been about to point to me and say my name, but she caught herself. “Your family?” She finished. I looked at Maya. She shrugged. We were spending all day tomorrow with each other, and mom was usually proud of the boys for wanting to spend time with fans. My brothers’ eyes all widened, as if they just remembered about something. Nick bit his lip, Joe sighed, and Kevin looked clearly distraught.
“Hey Marie, you wanna come with us?” Joe asked. I looked to the rest of my family. My dad nodded. I shrugged.
“Sure I guess.” I agreed, getting up and slipping my shoes on. “You guys are too nice to these fans.” I laughed as we headed out the door. I knew they were tired. And if I was hungry, they must have been famished. But rather than admit it, they just smiled and led me out the door, calling back to the others that we’d be back soon. We stopped at the vending machines at the end of the hall and got a few sodas before heading downstairs. Once the doors opened, I peeked out.
“No one, let’s go.” I said once I saw that the lobby had been cleared of fans and paparazzi.
“They should be by the back entrance.” Kevin instructed, even though we were all headed that way already. At the door, I stopped with my hands on the handle, ready to push it open. I looked to my brothers, who were waiting a couple feet back.
“Do it.” Joe nodded. I went outside and three girls sitting on the curb beside the building looked up, took about half a millisecond to realize who I was, and gasped.
“Oh my god, hi!” One exclaimed.
“We were just starting to think you guys wouldn’t show up.” The second added.
“Well uh, here I am.” I shrugged, trying to sound like I was disappointed about something.
“Wait….where’s Nick, Joe, and Kevin?” The third girl asked as all of them looked over my shoulder at the closed door.
“That’s what I was going to tell you. They sent me down here to tell you that they weren’t going to be able to make it.” I watched as the girls’ faces fell and almost felt bad for them. “But they send their love and said to tell you thanks for the support. And don’t forget, their album just came out. If you haven’t already, go get it.”
“That’s…that’s all they said?” One girl asked. I nodded. “Oh.” Was her only response. I heard one girl mumble under her breath that she missed her cousin’s birthday for this, and that all the boys cared about was selling CDs.
“Like OMJ, is that MARIE JONAS?!?” I smiled as I heard the high pitched scream coming from a familiar looking boy running up from behind the girls. They spun around and gasped, beginning to jump up and down in excitement. Nick and Kevin, following close behind carrying the drinks, laughed.
“OMJ?” Kevin asked.
“Oh my Jonas!” The girls all shrieked together.
“Yea man, get with the terms.” Joe laughed.
“Oh my god, you totally had us thinking they weren’t coming Marie!” One of the girls laughed as the three of them attacked the boys with hugs.
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Kevin assured them, passing out the sodas. I moved away and waited as they talked to the fans. We were there for a good 15 minutes before we decided we had better get going. The girls hugged all of us before they left, and we headed back inside and got to the elevator before anybody spotted us. Kevin pressed the button for our floor and we rode in silence for a few seconds. My brothers kept exchanging weird looks, like they were communicating in some nonhuman way, which wouldn’t surprise me actually, but I ignored it. Suddenly Kevin spoke.
“Uh…Marie?”
“Yea?” He didn’t say anything, and I looked up questioningly at him. He gave a small shrug.
“I love you.” He concluded.
“Me too, remember that.” Joe added, putting an arm around my shoulders.
“We all do.” Nick smiled at me.
“Um…random much?” I laughed. It was sweet, but I wasn’t used to it. Whenever I spent time with my brothers, we were all crazy and care free. One on one with them it might get serious ad heartfelt, but all together it was madness. They all gave half smiles and small shrugs; I could tell they weren’t all that happy with my reaction. I wasn’t either.
“Just thought you should know.” Kevin said. I smiled.
“I do know. And I love you guys too. Now let’s go eat, ok?” The disappointed looks were replaced with huge smiles and my brothers returned to the boys I knew.
“Yea! I’m starving!” Nick exclaimed as we exited the elevator.
“Me too, dibs on sausage!” Joe called.
“All of it? So not fair! I get some too!” I argued.
“Not if I get there first.” Kevin said and started to run.
“Dude! No way!!” Joe yelled, running after him. Nick and I looked at each other and shrugged before following.
“On three.” He whispered as we jogged behind our older siblings. I nodded. “One…two…three!” I accelerated enough to be able to jump onto Kevin’s back, causing him to slow down and stumble. Nick ran beside Joe, moving closer and closer to him until he was forced into the wall. We laughed and ran ahead, high fiving each other along the way. The door to our room swung open just before the four of us reached it, and our dad waved us inside as fast as he could.
“We heard you kids all the way down the hall! What was going on out there?” Our mom asked as she got up to collect used paper plates and throw them away. We exchanged glances.
“Oh nothing.” I said, deciding for the group that our fight over a few slices of sausage pizza would be kept between us. Maya and Frankie smirked, maybe not knowing exactly what happened but sure it wasn’t just ‘nothing’.
“Well hurry up and eat, we have to get ready and go soon.” Our dad told us. We all grabbed paper plates and looked at the food in front of us. A few pieces of cheese were left, along with pepperoni. There was one empty box sitting left open on the table, traces of sausage that had fallen off the pizza lying in it.
“No more sausage?” Nick asked. I giggled. The race down the hall, although not nearly as big as some of our disagreements, was completely pointless. They usually were though. Joe looked at us and winked, grinning as he put pizza onto his plate.
“Sweet, I was hoping for pepperoni anyways.”

[Anna]

Eyes widened and jaws dropped. There was a temporary silence as we all admired the rare even that just took place. I looked over to my brother, who was on the ground below me, staring at me like I had just made Camilla Belle appear in front of him in thin air.
“Oh, poned!” Joe yelled, breaking the silence. Maya burst out laughing.
“You should have seen your face Nick! Looks like we have a new wiffle ball champ!” She exclaimed, playfully pushing my still in awe brother. I smirked and handed the plastic bat to Kevin, who had been waiting for his turn behind me.
“Loser runs after it.” I winked, sitting on the edge of the stage and waving Nick away. He shook his head in disbelief and began jogging to where the ball had landed. Not the earth shattering event you were imagining? Well, no one had beaten Nick in days, this was his game and he, according to him and only him, was a beast in it. Especially lately. When he was beat, it certainly wasn’t by me.
“Where was it?” Joe asked when he returned. Nick shrugged.
“5 rows behind mine. I’ll get you next time.” He said, tossing me the ball. I jumped down from the stage to pitch for Kevin. Yea, this is how we spent our time while we waited for the concert to start. We lined up and hit wiffle balls. After you bat, you pitch, and whoever between you and your pitcher had the closer hit retrieves. It was simple, but time consuming and never had the same outcome, so it was good enough to keep us occupied for an hour or so. After a few more rounds, we decided to give up and see how things were going backstage. We passed various sound people and other crew members until we found our way to the rooms where our family and the rest of the band were waiting. Our parents were talking about something or other and Frankie was kneeling in front of a small table writing something in a workbook. I mistakenly let out a quiet gasp and looked beside me at Maya. Her eyes were bigger than usual as she watched my little brother and I knew she had forgotten too. Homework. I saw Nick bite his lip out of the corner of my eye.
“You guys didn’t…?” He asked quietly.
“Oh like you did?”I snapped back.
“Actually he did.”I glared at Kevin. Those were the last words I wanted to hear out of his mouth at that moment.
“Oh man, this means…” Nick started to mumble, but Joe jabbed his elbow into his side and stopped him.
“Girls, Frankie is just about finished with his assignments for today, and Nicholas turned his work in hours ago. Looking through your books, I see neither of you have written a thing yet, and it’s just about time for the concert to start. Which means no school work is getting done today. Again.”
“Dad, we’ll do it right now. We’ll stay in this room until it’s done, even if it means no concert. I promise.” I pleaded, speaking for my friend and myself. Both my parents turned away and quietly discussed something. When they faced us again, my dad was frowning and my mom had sadness in her eyes.
“Boys, I think the guys are playing Guitar Hero next-door, why don’t you go join them for a bit?” My brothers nodded and went to find their band mates in the next room.
“Girls, if you remember, I used to sit with you both at the same time every day and watch while you did your work. You hated it.” My mom started. I remembered. No matter what was happening, that was school time for Frankie, Maya, and I. Even if it meant missing something huge. “You guys convinced me that you were responsible enough to get everything done each day on your own time, without me nagging you to do it every two seconds. Your brothers have been doing fine with their end of that proposal.” I sighed.
“Mom, do you know how hard it is to do homework when you’re constantly on the go? My brothers are worldwide superstars for goodness sake! Everywhere I go, there are people breathing down my neck watching my every move. Isn’t that enough to deal with? Besides, it’s not like I learn much from these little packets they send us and try to call ‘state of the art homeschooling’.” I complained. My mother exchanged a look with my father.
“We’re glad you feel that way, honey. Now would you two just please try to get as much done right now? When it’s time for the concert to start, you’re more than welcome to stop and join the rest of us.” The two of us sighed and nodded, taking our places on the floor next to Frankie.

I hadn’t set my alarm. I wanted to sleep in the next morning. The night before had been crazy. The concert was amazing, the boys did a great job and the crowd loved them. In the middle of the performance, they called Frankie and I on stage and unexpectedly told us in front of thousands of fans to pick any song of theirs, new or old. Once we had decided, we heard the band start to play the song, and my brother and I realized we had been brought on stage to perform it with them. That hadn’t happened in years, and even back then it was pretty rare. The five of us had a great time, and the audience got really into it. Needless to say, I was tired the next morning, but there I was, wide awake at 8AM on our day off. I got up and got passed Maya in her bed as quietly as possible. I climbed over piles of clothes and open suitcases and duffle bags until I reached the wall, and I knocked on it softly 3 times. The way it worked for us in hotels was we all partnered up the same way we do at home, Joe and Kevin together, Nick and Frankie together, Maya and I together, and finally mom and dad together. We had connecting rooms, always in the same order. The oldest boys were on one end, next to our room. Then came Nick and Frankie, since everyone knew once Nick or I was awake, there was no going back to sleep. No one wanted either of us coming through their rooms early in the morning to get to each other, so our parents made sure we were always right next door. Finally on the other end were the adults, right next door to their youngest son, just in case. He was only 7, and although he wouldn’t admit it, he still got nightmares once in a while and was kind of freaked out by thunderstorms. Finally I got the response I was waiting for, an imitation of the knocks on the wall I had done, telling me that Nick was awake. I went to the door connecting our rooms and pushed it open, entering the boys’ room. Frankie was still sound asleep in his bed, and Nick was laying in his flipping through channels on TV. I took a seat beside him and grabbed a pillow from behind him to use.
“Anything good on?” I asked. He shook his head.
“I can’t believe it’s our last day.” He murmured. I turned away from the TV and stared at him.
“Last day of what?” This was close t the last stop on the tour, but it wasn’t over yet. Nick stared back at me for a second, then shook his head.
“Nothing.” He said quickly. He looked upset about something. My brother was good at a lot of things, but keeping secrets wasn’t one of them. Especially in the morning after he just woke up. He just didn’t think before he spoke.
“Nicholas, tell me what’s going on right now.” I demanded. The entire family had been acting strange the last couple of days. He shrugged.
“I just meant it’s our last day in Chicago. I like it here, that’s all.” He said. As much as the statement was true, it was a total lie. That wasn’t all, and we both knew it. I didn’t give up staring him down. He would cave, he always did. Finally, he sighed. “You’ll see. Later. I want to tell you, really. But I promised mom and dad I wouldn’t. We’re gonna be doing a lot of stuff today, you know, family bonding type things? Just…stick with me, ok? Please.” It was an odd request, but I agreed and he hugged me. “I love you.” Something was up. Something bad was going to happen tonight and I didn’t like it.
“Love you too.” I replied, trying to think of a way to get him to spill the secret. Just before I could say a word, the phone rang.
“Hello?” Nick answered it on the first ring, before it could wake up Frankie. “Morning mom…yea, I’m up…15 minutes? Alright, we’ll be ready…you too, bye.” He hung up the phone and got off the bed, tossing a pillow at Frankie as he walked over to an open suitcase on the floor to get his clothes ready for the day.
“Hey!” I heard our brother mumble, shifting in his bed.
“Hey nothing, mom just called, room check in 15 minutes.” Nick’s response earned a tired groan from Frankie as he reluctantly got up. Every morning, once it was about time for everyone to get up, our parents called each of our rooms to wake us up, and then came door to door to make sure none of us went back to bed. Nick straightened up, his clothes and toothbrush in his hands, and got a look on his face that would have been accompanied by a light bulb above his head if this were a cartoon.
“Go back to your room and find your school stuff. Wake Maya up and get her to do it too. I’ll stall mom in here before she gets to your room, just be working on it when she comes in, ok?” Now it was my turn to groan.
“It’s August, we shouldn’t even be started on school yet!” I whined.
“It’s your own fault for getting so behind, just do it. Trust me, if this works, you’ll be thanking me later.” Nick guaranteed, grabbing me around my wrist and dragging me back to the door to my room.
“If what works?” I asked, but he had already pushed me through the door and closed it tightly behind me. As much as I didn’t want to, I followed his advice and got out all my workbooks and convinced Maya to join me. About 20 minutes later, there was a knock on our door and my mom came in.
“Good morning.” She said, quickly glancing around the room.
“’Morning!” We replied, busily reading and writing.
“Wow, I guess Nicholas was right! You girls did get up early to do your work! I’m impressed!”
“Yea, well, we might as well get it over with early, right?” I gave a small shrug, and my mom smiled.
“Well take a little break and get dressed, we’re going to have everyone meet here in 10 minutes to go over the plan for today.” And with that, she was gone.

Just 10 short minutes later, our quiet, empty room was filled with noise and people. That quick transition happened a lot with this family.
“Ok guys, listen up.” The chattering stopped and our dad continued. “Since you all did more than your share of complaining of the heat yesterday, we’ll go to a few different air conditioned places today, as well as the beach.” That surprised me.
“The beach? Is that such a good idea?” I absolutely loved beaches, but you take the Jonas Brothers anywhere where there’s guaranteed to be a lot of teenage girls and have them take their shirts off, you’re asking for chaos.
“There are lots of small beaches here. You and Maya love the beach. We’re going.” My mom insisted. I shrugged. I wasn’t going to argue with here there.
“We’ll also head over to the Field Museum, probably first. They have dinosaurs there, Frankie you’ll love it.” Frankie flashed a toothy grin.
“Cool.”
“We’re going to a friend’s house for dinner tonight, until then, it’s up to the girls and Frankie what else we do.” Maya and I exchanged glances.
“What about the boys? Shouldn’t we do something they want too?” Maya asked.
“Oh no, it’s ok. Whatever you guys want.” Kevin nodded.
“Yea, it’s your day today.” Joe agreed. We shrugged.
“Alright then!” I laughed.
“One more thing boys, we want as little fan encounters today as possible. Marie, Maya, maybe you can help them with some disguises?” My mom asked, looking desperate. She was probably remembering the last time we let my brothers pick out their disguises. They went out in their usual clothes, which to say the least weren’t that casual. Added to huge sunglasses, their outfits only drew more attention to themselves. Maya and I looked at each other and nodded, not even having to tell each other what to do.
“Let’s go.” I ordered, taking Kevin and Joe’s arms and leading them to their room.
“You too. Frankie, you’re coming with us.” Maya said, doing the same with my other brothers and disappearing into their room.
“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got. Go get some clothes, and remember, it’s summer. So no skinny jeans, ok?” I rolled my eyes for emphasis and plopped myself down on the perfectly made bed on the neater side of the room, clearly belonging to Kevin. I waited as my brothers gathered up their things and had them line up in front of me for approval. I loved having control over them.
“Joe, that t-shirt is going to be way too tight on you, go get a new one. You aren’t dressing up as the Jonas Brothers, guys; you’re dressing up as teenagers.” I sighed as Joe walked away and motioned Kevin forward, instantly shaking my head. “The scarf has gotta go. Find some shorts or something and a plain old t-shirt. And sneakers, for heaven’s sake!” Kevin rolled his eyes, making it clear to me that the power I had over him was only temporary. Once Joe returned, fully dressed just as any regular 18 year old boy would be, I looked him over and shook my head.
“Now what?” He complained.
“I’d still recognize you as Joe Jonas!”
“But I am Joe Jonas!”
“Sit down.” I ordered, pushing him back into a chair. “Wait there.” I quickly went back to my room, grabbed some bobby pins, and returned to Joe. He got a horrified look on his face.
“No way!” He said, standing up and backing away from me. I pushed him back down.
“Yes! Fans would recognize that hair on you anywhere!” I explained, pinning his long air up against his will. As soon as Kevin came back after changing, he laughed.
“I look ridiculous.” Joe said when I was done, glaring at Kevin.
“I know. That’s why you’re gonna wear a baseball cap to cover up the pins.” I said simply, biting my lip as I turned away, waiting for the explosion.
“What?!? Oh nuh-uh, no way, sorry kid, not gonna happen!” Kevin only laughed harder.
“What’s so funny? You’re wearing one too!” I grinned, watching his expression change. Now it was Joe’s turn to laugh.
“Marie! We don’t do baseball caps.” Kevin tried to reason.
“Exactly the point.”
“But…we don’t even own any!”
“There’s a gift shop downstairs, I’ll pick up a couple.” I shrugged.
“But…” Kevin sighed and shook his head, cutting Joe off.
“Dude, it’s tonight. Just wear the hat.” He said softly. Joe didn’t look happy about the idea, but nodded. There was that mentioning of tonight again. Rather than worry about it, I went down to the lobby to buy the finishing touches of my brothers’ outfits.

[Anna]

Throughout the day, my family kept acting weird. If we were doing something and I was with Joe, Kevin, Frankie, or Maya, Nick would drag me back to him.
“I thought you were going to hang out with me today.” He would say, using the guilt card on me. This would usually be responded to with an annoyed “she’s my sister too you know” from one of the older boys. After a while I realized they had been doing the same with Frankie and Maya. Even mom and dad were acting weird. In the museum, Frankie would get all excited and start running ahead, getting in trouble with the staff a couple of times. Our parents let him off easier than they normally would. It lasted all day.
“Hey Marie, you want a piggy back ride?” Kevin asked me while we were walking toward the beach. I looked at him weirdly.
“Why would I?”
“You always do.” He shrugged.
“Kevin, I haven’t begged you for a piggy back ride since I was 10.”
“Oh…well I always said no, which was pretty mean of me. I can make it up to you now.”
“Maybe some other time.” I replied, starting to get really suspicious. Once we were at the beach, it got worse.
”Let’s have a rock skipping contest!” Joe exclaimed, taking my hand and pulling me along as he ran toward the water.
“You know I can’t skip rocks.” My answer seemed to surprise him.
“I thought I taught you that one time when we were on vacation in Florida! Remember?”
“I remember you were about to teach me. Then you saw a hot girl in a bikini and decided you’d rather teach her instead.” I rolled my eyes. Joe gasped.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I just left you there like that! I was 13, I was young and stupid. Forgive me?” He pleaded, pulling me into a hug. Normally if he had done something like that, he’d start laughing after a second and the joke would be over. But he didn’t laugh, he was serious.
“Um…sure?” He offered to teach me then, but I said no thanks and walked away, joining my parents on the huge blanket we had laid out in the sand.
“The guys are acting really weird.” I said.
“How so?” My dad asked, looking concerned. I shrugged.
“Nick’s all obsessive over me and Maya, Kevin’s offering to do things for me nonstop; things I wouldn’t ever have asked him to do in the first place. And Joe’s kind of clingy too, and any time he does something the least bit wrong, he acts like it’s the end of the world and begs for forgiveness.” My mom smiled.
“They just want to spend time with you, honey. But we have to go soon, could you call the three of them over?” She asked. I nodded and got up. When I came back with my brothers, she waved me away and asked me to tell Frankie and Maya to start getting ready to leave. As I walked away, I very faintly heard my dad talking to the boys. I could have sworn it was something like ‘cool down a bit, you don’t want them to remember you as some kind of psychopaths.’ Remember? Why would today be my last memory of them? Maybe I just misheard him.
“Guys, we’re leaving.” I said once I reached the water where my brother and friend were splashing each other. When we got back to the others, they were silent. No more talk about remembering each other or anything. They actually looked kind of down about something.
“Let’s go, we’re expected in half an hour.” My mom said, gathering up our things. As we made our way away from the vacant beach and back to civilization, our dad announced travel arrangements. We weren’t taking the tour bus, since our parents for some reason didn’t want us to get recognized at all that day. They said they wanted the boys to be focused on family instead of fans. They didn’t argue. Instead we were taking two taxis. Dad, me, Nick, and Maya in one, and mom, Joe, Kevin, and Frankie in the other. Nick seemed thrilled about our group, and dad nodded at him with a smile, showing he had put us together on purpose. Joe and Kevin, on the other hand, looked at Maya and I sadly for a moment.
“Come on, they’re best friends. If we could put you guys and Nick with all three of them, we would have.” I heard mom whisper to them. They nodded and turned to Frankie.
“Alright, we get to ride with Frank the Tank!” Joe exclaimed, giving our brother a high five. A cab pulled up to the curb and my group got in, waving goodbye to the others while they waited for the next one to come. Nick insisted on sitting in the middle of Maya and me. He talked nonstop the entire ride, usually about nothing at all, which wasn’t like him.
“What’s going on with you guys today?” Maya asked quietly after nearly 25 minutes of listening to my brother speak. Nick stopped, bit his lip, and looked at each of us sympathetically before turning to Maya.
“They’re sending you home.” He whispered, pain present in his voice. He squeezed her hand and turned to me before she could say anything back. “And they’re making you…”
“We’re here!” My dad announced, cutting Nick off. The three of us looked at each other and reluctantly got out of the car. Maya was going home. It was a definite shock, and I couldn’t imagine why. The tour was almost over; why not just let her finish it? It did explain the odd behavior though. The boys were clingy today because they knew she was leaving, they’d miss her. And I guess they were just trying to be extra nice to me because she was my best friend and they figured I’d be really upset. And I was.

[Anna]

As we approached the front door of the house, you could sense sadness in everyone. Even Frankie, who had no idea what was going on. I guess he just realized that the rest of us were upset. He was good like that. It seemed like it was taking years for the door to be answered. I heard a quiet sniff next to me and looked at Maya. Her eyes were glassy as she stared straight ahead. I reached for her hand and gave it a tight squeeze.
“It’ll be ok.” I mouthed, careful not to let my parents see. She nodded and wiped her eyes, putting a smile on her face as the door opened.
“Kevin! Denise! We’re so glad to see you again! Please, come in!” The woman said a bit too cheerfully. “Robert, Austin, the Jonas’ are here!” She called once we were all inside. The house looked so much bigger from the inside. Smelled nice too. I heard two sets of footsteps coming from two different directions. The first to arrive belonged to a man, obviously the woman’s husband. The second was coming much slower, as if reluctant. When they finally made it down the stairs and we saw who they belonged to, I swear my heart skipped a beat. Cliché, I know. I felt Maya pinch my arm from beside me, and she subtly raised her eyebrows when I glanced at her. I replied with a small, quick nod. There was no denying it, the guy was hot. Joe cleared his throat, looking down at us. I guess it had been obvious we were staring.
“This is my husband Robert and our son, Austin.” The woman introduced. The man gave us a warm smile, Austin just nodded. He probably had much better things to do than have dinner with us. I bet he was really popular and had tons of plans for tonight, because that’s just the kind of guy he is. But he cancelled them all for us. How sweet is he? What am I saying?? As I came back to reality, I realized dad had introduced us. I gave a polite ‘hi’ with the rest of my family. Suddenly Robert invited my parents to join him and Lydia, who I guess was his wife, I had missed it when dad told us her name, in the kitchen. He told Austin to show the rest of us around.
“Sure. Come on.” Austin agreed. I didn’t hesitate to follow and neither did Maya. I saw my older brothers exchange glances. Maybe we were a bit obvious. Austin led us upstairs and stopped in front of a closed door.
“The bedrooms are up here, there are more downstairs. Bathroom’s down there.” He paused to point down the hall. “Anything else you want to know?” When we shook our heads, he shrugged and opened the door we were standing in front of, moving aside so the rest of us could go in. It was clearly his bedroom. We all found a place to sit or stand and my genius self decided to be first to break the awkward silence.
“You know, I was born in Dallas, Texas. Like Austin, Texas?” You have got to be kidding me. Austin nodded politely, probably just dying to point out how pathetic that was. Nick got up and walked past me.
“Smooth.” He whispered as he passed. “Nice guitar.”
“Yea, it is. Mind if I check it out?” Kevin asked.
“Go ahead.” Austin said, getting up to hand my brother the guitar. Kevin began playing and Austin bobbed his head along to the song.
“Stairway to Heaven. Nice.” Austin grinned.
“I play guitar too.” I saw Maya give me a look out of the corner of my eye. Probably telling me to shut up. Why couldn’t I just sit there and be quiet like her? Kevin laughed. I knew he wouldn’t be able to help it.
“Right. I tried to teach her years ago, she’s hopeless.” Thanks a lot, Kev. I glared at him. Austin laughed.
“Well maybe I’ll be able to teach her.” He said, smiling at me. I blushed. I shouldn’t have blushed. Why’d
I blush? I heard Austin chuckle, just barely, but enough to notice. Nick must have noticed my embarrassment, he usually did, because he mentioned something about the guitar to Austin, bringing his attention away from me. As he, Nick, and Kevin got into a heated discussion about whether or not it was tuned properly (only Nick could get people into such an ‘important’ argument about something that didn’t make much of a difference to him in the first place. Gotta love him.), Joe crossed the room to where I was sitting.
“Stop trying Mar.” he whispered, smirking.
“Seriously, you’re making yourself look like an idiot!” Maya added, joining us.
“That was Kevin’s fault!” I argued. “It’s like he’s completely clueless!” Joe shook his head.
“Kevin knows exactly what he’s doing. And trust me, I've been there and he can do a lot worse than that." It was true, and that was exactly what I was afraid of. I shrugged.
“Well what difference does it make anyways? It’s not like we’re ever going to see him again after today. Might as well make the best of it!” Maya pointed out, fixing her hair with a slight grin on her face. Joe didn’t respond, instead just looked down and kind of shrugged.
“Dinners ready.” We all turned and saw Robert poking his head through the door. We filed down the stairs and I noticed on the way that the house honestly was huge. I counted four bedrooms on the top floor, including Austin’s, and he had said there were more in the basement. To say the very least, the entire building was beautiful. It felt like we were in a mansion. We met with the adults in the dining room and sat at the long, narrow table. Still, just like they had been all day, my older brothers seemed to be fighting over the seats next to Frankie, Maya, and I. Our mom shot them a look and they quickly took their seats, Kevin took an end seat beside Frankie, and Joe sat in the next seat, followed by me, Nick, and finally Maya. We all talked as we ate, Lydia continually asked Frankie and I about what we liked to do, and Robert and my dad discussed the rest of the tour and what we had planned for after that. My mom asked Austin a lot about his school and what there was to do for fun around here. The entire time my brothers and even my parents, though they tried to hide it, seemed extremely upset. Maya didn’t say a word and only picked at her food for most of the night. I was more mad than sad, and I still didn’t see any reason for her to go. Once everyone had finished eating, rather than clear the table, Lydia, Robert, and Austin stayed put.
“Thank you both so much for having us tonight. That was delicious.” My dad smiled.
“And your home is absolutely lovely!” My mom added. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist throwing it in.
“It is, I could seriously live here!” I laughed. The comment earned both my feet to get stomped on. I glared at my brothers. They glared right back. What had I done? I was only being nice.
“We’re glad you like it sweetie.” Lydia smiled at me. There was a short silence.
“Girls, Frankie, there’s something we’ve needed to talk to you about.” My mom said quietly. Maya and I glanced at each other from where we sat. Mom took a deep breath. “The Chicago Public school year starts in a couple of weeks.” She said more cheerfully. “Austin is going into 8th grade, just like you Marie!” I nodded.
“Cool.” Where was she going with this? Finally she sighed and shook her head. My dad took over.
“Education is very important kids. All three of you are way behind where you should be, and it’s only going to make all the years to come harder. Especially for you, Marie, going into high school next year. The transition from 8th to 9th grade is very difficult curriculum wise. You said yourself you don’t get proper education with home schooling.” I didn’t like where this was going. “You all need a little time to catch up and get a better education than you are now.”I saw Frankie look up at Kevin and Joe confusedly, but I had a pretty good feeling what was going on.
“This is very hard for us kids, remember that.” Mom said. She looked like she was holding back tears.
“Maya, we’ve contacted your mother. You’ll be going home and attending your old school again this year.” My dad said softly, putting a hand over hers. She bit her lip and nodded, refusing to look at any of us in the eyes. I knew she’d start crying if she did. “Marie, Frankie…” My dad sighed and took a moment to collect his thoughts. “Kids, you know we don’t want to do this. We don’t want to keep any of you from staying on this tour. But we have to think of what’s best for you. We’re moving on to Wisconsin tomorrow. You two are staying here. You’re going to attend Austin’s school this year, just to get you caught up. As soon as school ends, you’re coming back to stay with us. It’ll be easier since you won’t be behind in any of your subjects.” He paused to see our reactions. Even though after piecing the events of that day together I had somewhat of an idea what was happening, I didn’t handle myself well at all. I got up, sending my chair staggering behind me.
“I can’t believe this.” I grumbled, not saying anything more. I shot my parents a fierce glare, something that had always been clear we were never to do, and ran. Not the best idea in someone else’s house, considering you don’t have any idea where you’re going. I went up the long staircase and stopped in the middle of the hall, staring at five different closed doors. After a moment of contemplating which room to go in, I heard footsteps coming towards the stairs. I quickly went to the farthest door and opened it, slamming it shut behind me. I found myself in a brightly painted room with old posters on the walls and faded stickers all over the dresser. A few teddy bears and other stuffed animals sat at the foot of the bed, which was perfectly made and looked like it hadn’t been slept in for years. I could fix that. I flopped onto the bed, suddenly feeling sick. All I wanted to do was bury my head in my arms and cry. So I did. I ignored the knocking that soon came to the door, but listened carefully as I heard it open to try to figure out who had come in. Probably Nick. Hopefully Nick. The person didn’t say anything, simply walked up to the bed where I was laying and sat on the edge, beginning to rub my back gently. I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes shut to stop the tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Nick?” I asked, my voice muffled from having my head covered up. The voice that replied surprised me.
“Nick’s waiting in the hall, Marie.” It said softly. I looked up. Austin.
“Oh…” Was all I could think of to say. He shifted so that I could sit up all the way.
“Pretty close to your family, huh?” I nodded. “Especially your brothers?” Another nod. “I don’t blame you, they seem like good guys. I was the same way with my older sister.” He had a sister? Was the same way? “This was her room. It’ll be yours now.” Was her room?
“She…I’m sorry.” I whispered, not able to talk due to slight freaking out. Austin looked confused, then laughed.
“No, no, she’s away at college.” He clarified. I let out the breath I had been holding, relieved. “But it’s kinda the same situation you’re in. Maybe to a different extent, since you’re with them 24/7, but I’m away from my sister for most of the year.” I nodded. He had a faraway look in his eyes. This must have been hard for him. “I guess what I’m getting at is it’s not all that bad. Your parents already made plans to come visit any time they were in the area, and for holidays and birthdays. And our school isn’t actually too horrible most of the time; I think you’ll like it. Plus, 8th grade goes fast with graduation and all. Don’t be mad at your parents, alright? I know it’s hard to believe, but they’re only looking out for you. And they aren’t leaving you here alone; you have your brother, right?” I shrugged; keeping my head down, refusing to give in and think it was no big deal. “Right? Come on, we’ll get through this.” He said softly, squeezing my hand. We’ll get through this. How terrible is it that I almost didn’t care-at least as much- that my family was just leaving me here only because it meant I’d be living with this incredibly cute, incredibly sweet guy? I smiled and he grinned. “There’s her smile. Come on, let’s go downstairs. Remember, you can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” I smiled and so did he. “My sister used to tell me that.” He shrugged sheepishly.
“I like it.” It was true, too. Why look at the down side of things? Austin grinned.
“I thought you might. Let’s go.” He said, standing up. He put an arm around my shoulders as we walked out of the room and I wiped my tears. Austin had said Nick was waiting to talk to me in the hall, but he must have gone back downstairs. We went down, and I couldn’t help but think of stories I had seen on the Internet that fans had written about my brothers. Only in this story, instead of the girl moving in with the Jonas, the Jonas moves in with the boy. He was just a rose on the thorn of her life. And her story would have a happy ending.

[Anna]

PREVIEW!
i figured since jessica had a brilliant idea with this, id try it. maybe itll encourage force me to finish these fanfics. i tend to just keep starting new ones

I sat back and laughed to myself. Austin was wrong; the girls here weren’t nearly as obsessed as he claimed. And the Chicago Jonas concert was coming up in October, just a quick month away. Then there was Thanksgiving in November, Christmas and New Years after that. My birthday was in February, my family would come out for each. In March we’d get Spring Break, I could go home. April and May might not be all that great, but then in June I’d be done here. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad after all.
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I frowned, staring in my locker.
“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad, right?” Austin asked. I looked at him and said something real clever and sophisticated, like ‘whaaa?’ He chuckled. “I asked how your first day went.” I shook my head.
“My cell phone. It was in my backpack.” I said, pointing to my phone, sitting innocently on the top shelf of my locker.
“So? Maybe you moved it at lunch and just forgot. Let’s go, your brother will be waiting outside.” I grabbed the phone and slammed the door shut.
“Yea, you’re right. It’s no big deal.” I agreed. No big deal. Just like the Titanic was no big deal.
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I looked up from where I was laying on my bed, feet in the air and crossed at my ankles, a magazine spread out in front of me.
“Come in.” I called. Austin cautiously opened my door and smiled. I returned the gesture. “What's up?” He shrugged.
“The dance is coming up, you know.” I bit my lips to hide the giant grin threatening to reveal itself. I nodded, butterflies in my stomach. I swear my face must have been as red as a tomato by then.
“Yea, it is.” I managed to say.
“So, I wanted to ask you something…” I took a deep breath and held it, having to turn away to stop myself from letting out a squeal. I couldn’t believe myself…I’m such a girl. I heard Austin sigh and looked at him again. He was looking down, the expression on his face concentrated and thoughtful. He cleared his throat. He shook his head. “Ok, I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I shouldn’t be nervous like this!” He laughed at himself. I waited. “Do you think if I ask Nina she’ll go with me?”