The next morning, Laura was waken up by a cough from Wade and she turned to look at him. His nose looked a little red and he looked miserable. Laura slowly slid out of his grip from his arms being around her waist and she stood up to get her things packed and ready to go.
She got in the shower and finished quickly in case Wade would wake up. When she walked out, Wade was sitting there with a box of kleenex and watching t.v. Laura walked over to him with her hair damp and her clothes now on her body. "Hey, are you ok?"
Wade looked up with drowsy eyes, smiled and nodded. It always amazed him at how quickly she could move from either being mad at him, or being a friend directly to the protective, caring, motherly mode with him. "I'm fine."
"Let me take your temperature."
Wade shook his head. "Not necessary."
"Yes it is."
Laura went and got a thermometer and sat down by Wade. "Come on, it won't hurt, I promise."
"Yah, I'll believe that, remember when we used to play doctor? Yah, that was scary with you being the nurse and me being the patient, that's why we never played that again."
Laura smiled and stuck the thermometer in Wade's mouth. "I'm a lot nicer now, I don't bite like I did back then."
Wade started to mumble something but Laura pushed his shoulder. "Don't, we want an accurate reading."
Wade rolled his eyes and slumped his shoulders as the thermometer beeped. Laura took it out and smiled. "Maybe you shouldn't have practice today."
"Why?"
"Because, your temperature is up a little bit."
Wade sighed quietly. "Oh."
"Maybe you should cancel."
"I have to have it, we're leaving on the buses today to start the tour hun, I can't do that, the guys can always use a little practice, and besides, we'll be on the bus for a little bit until we get to the first point of the tour."
Laura shrugged and raised her eyebrows. "You shouldn't do it, but this is you and I'm not going to stop you, although I should, and your mom would be happy if I did, and it wouldn't be that bad of an idea because-"
"Laura, I know you seem concerned, I'm fine though."
"Uh huh."
"Really."
Laura rolled her eyes. "I know, I'm just playing, but I'm going to get my stuff together, do you want me to get your stuff together or anything?"
"No, I'll do that myself."
Laura smiled and zipped up her last bag. "Alright, well, you can get in the shower if you want, it might make you feel better."
Wade shrugged and stood up. "It might help, but I think I'll just get my stuff together, no one on the bus will mind my stench, right? Besides, I'm going to become all sweaty and nasty eventually, as some people would like to say."
Laura shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Wade hugged Laura and smiled. "You're so kind."
"I know that, did you sleep well?"
Wade grinned at Laura knowingly. "Yep, sure did, see you did too."
Laura smiled up at him and sighed. "I felt bad, I was kind of being stupid, and it's probably going to be the only bed I have for a while, so I figured what the hell, it's just that we're so much older now, and back then it wasn't that big of a deal when we were just kids, and I guess I read into it too much, maybe."
Wade had no problem with her sleeping in the bed he was in, but that was him, it might not have been Laura's feelings. "Yah, maybe."
Justin soon was woken up by the sound of his alarm clock ringing through the room. Without thought at all, he reached over and hit the snooze button and went back to sleep.
In about another ten minutes, his alarm clock went off again. This time he didn't bother with the snooze button. He pushed the alarm clock on the floor causing it to become unplugged. He didn't want to get up only because he knew that today was going to be a hard day, they were going to be working especially hard today because the tour was starting in two days.
After another few minutes, there was a soft knock on the door. Justin growled and put the covers over his head. When the knock got louder, he put the pillow over his head also to get rid of the sound. When the knocking didn't stop, he stood up and rubbed his tired eyes after stretching the tiredness out of his body. He slowly padded across the floor to the door that was now vibrating from the violent knocks.
Justin yawned and opened the door to find Natalie standing there, short as ever, with an angelic look on her face. She stood with her hands behind her back, rocking on her heels and smiling. "I was told to come wake you up."
"By who?"
Natalie sighed. "Well, Wade and Laura happened to come down to my room, because Laura wanted to make sure I was going to be on her bus, and Wade said that you needed to be up, considering we're leaving pretty soon and no one else would have waken you up, so Laura suggested that I come down here and wake you up, no clue why, but then JC came up to me and said that I didn't have to, but anyways, enought of that, wake up, you look awake, now I think I'm going to go and make sure that I have everything that I need, because it's going to be a long trip, and if I forget anything, I doubt I'll be able to get it back, ok maybe I should shut up, I'm sorry."
"Oh... figures...oh, and that's ok, you can talk... I usually am the one who rambles, but that's alright, there's room for change around here, but anyways, I'm going to get ready then, I guess, thanks for getting me up."
Natalie smiled gently. "Sure thing Curly."
Justin tilted his head before going inside and closing the door. Curly, how did she know that? It would get to him for a while. Maybe she acually liked him enough to find out things like that. Sure it was an old nickname, but hey, she knew it. It was too soon for him to be thinking about things like this about Natalie, but he knew that and he was going to try to keep away from that.
After throwing on some clothes, Justin walked down to the lobby where everyone else was and they all got escorted to the bus that was secured off where everyone was ready to et ready to go. The security guards took his bags and threw them in the bus. All of the guys family members were standing there waving them off and telling them the goodbye's.
Laura and Natalie immediately just went on the bus and relaxed, and soon after, Wade and three more people showed up. One of them was Steve, Joey's brother.
He went to the back room where Laura, Natalie and Wade were sitting, watching t.v. Steve sat down by Wade nodded his head. "Hey Wade, what's up boy?"
Wade gave a shrug. "Nothing really, how long are you going to be traveling with us?"
"Not too long, but most of the tour, probably."
"That's cool..."
Laura looked at Natalie and nodded her head. "Guy time, maybe we should go."
Natalie stood up directly after, and right before they were going to leave, Wade stopped them. "Hey, where you guys going?"
Laura grinned at Wade in her innocent look that she always gave him. "Girl talk, while you guys have your.." Laura made quote signs with her hands. "..'guy talk' time, alrighty? Bye.."
Wade raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Alright, if you want to leave, go ahead, I'm not forcing you to."
Laura sighed. "No problem, wouldn't want to be around a loser like you anyways."
"Huh?"
"Just kidding."
Laura hopped up in her bunk while Natalie got on the other side where hers was. They both kept the curtains open and started to talk. "So, you excited for the tour?"
Natalie fiddled around with the curtain and gave a few shrugs, and looked out a nearby window a few times. "I guess, it will be fun, probably, hopefully, you?"
Laura smiled. "It better be, Wade dragged me here, so it better be worth it."
"Yah, tell me about it, so what are we doing?"
"We're driving to the first city for their show, and the stage should already be set up. The guys are going to practice on the stage, since they haven't practiced on that stage for a week, and after that, I'm pretty sure we're staying in hotels and then the next day is the day of the first show."
"What will we do then?"
"I'm not sure... but you'll be doing the guys hair, that's all I know."
"Oh, great fun."
When Laura saw Steve walk past them and up to the front to talk to a few other people and use his cellphone, she hopped out and put up a finger to Natalie. "Hang on, I'm going to go see what Wadey's up to."
Natalie giggled softly at the way Laura said 'Wadey' and watched her go back. Laura sat down by Wade and grinned. "Are you going to go to sleep?"
Wade yawned tiredly. "I don't know..."
"You really should because--"
"I know, I know. You don't have to tell me." After a pause, Wade stood up. "In fact, I think I'll just go right now, will that make you happy?"
Laura nodded and stood up. "Very, good night, I'll wake ya when we get there."
"It's only going to be like a two hour drive, it's not that big of a deal, I probably won't even go to sleep."
"Yes you will."
Laura got back up on her bunk as Wade got on another top bunk that was beside Laura's. Laura then turned to Natalie and smiled. "I'm back."
"Obviously."
"This is so exciting, the tour is practically officially started. Tomorrow is the first performance, it is going to be so excellant. The guys will most likely do great, well, they almost always do, according to all of their fans and all the jazz. But I don't know, I have to do every single one of the guys' hair tomorrow because the other girl is really sick, and I told her it was ok, and I just don't know if I could be able to fit everyone in and--"
Laura held a hand up. "Natalie, it's alright, it's the first show anyways, there are bound to be a few errors here and there, and you know what? No one will notice if their hair doesn't even look that great. Frankly, I've never seen your results, but we just met, but I'm sure you will do fine."
"Yah, I'm so sure."
Laura shook her head slowly. "Seriously, Jive wouldn't hire someone that they think would mess up and make the guys look bad. The executives are not stupid."
Natalie sighed and layed her head back down on the pillow in her bunk before turning towards Laura once more. "I probably have nagged you about this already, maybe I didn't, and if I didn't, I probably will, but.." Natalie looked back to see Wade sleeping on the couch cuddled up and she smiled back up at Laura. "But what's up with Wade?"
Laura shrugged. "Um, I wish I could tell you, but what are you talking about?"
"It's an obvious, you guys, together, not together, or what?"
Laura smiled to herself and then just coughed loudly. "I'm sorry Natalie, what did you say?"
"Um."
"Ok, to make this short and sweet. Fairytales are not my idea of fun, and the whole bestfriend deal, yah, that's just it, friend. It's nothing, and the sad thing is, I can't even think to look at him like that, it's not even worth it. I've had my boyfriends, and he's had his girlfriends. We have our lives, and when they're together, we just hang and talk, and to tell the truth, that's just about all it's ever been. And I don't intend on going further just because-"
Natalie interrupted quickly. "Ok Laura, I see what you mean. You guys don't seem good for each other anyways, if you ask me, you two don't belong together at all."
Natalie then stopped to smile at Laura's shocked, yet satisfied face. "Laura, I was kidding, but anyways, come on. Is there any attraction?"
"None whatsoever."
"Laura, just look at the boy sometime. He isn't exactly your normal guy walking on the street. His hands, from what I've seen are very nice. He's got the hair thing going on, it's great and stylin, he can dress and his face structure isn't that bad.. and-"
"Ok, I see your point, he has good hygiene, that's it. Can we get off this topic?"
"If you really want to, but, oh nevermind."
Laura sighed and layed down in the bunk and pulled the cover over her body. "Well, it's really not worth your time, and not to be rude, but you really don't know me and him that well, and I just don't see anything, like I've said, I've had my boyfriends, he's had his girlfriends."
Grinning mischievously, Natalie began to talk. "Yah, but did you have anything special with them and has he had anything special with the girlfriends?"
Laura turned away from Natalie and closed her eyes. "I've never had anything that I wanted or thought would last."
"Well, there you go."
Getting off the topic, Laura swung around and grinned at Natalie. "So, how about Lance? ERR, I MEAN JUSTIN! Anywho, so, how about him?"
"Goodness girl, what are you talking about?"
Laura smiled and shrugged innocently. "Go after him, he's a looker."
"Laura, you're trying real hard, I'm going to go to sleep."
At that point, Laura gave up and just closed her bunk curtain and sat there thinking. She still couldn't get over the fact that she was on the tour with the guys. She normally would have been home shopping, at a job or something to that extent, not on a tour bus that was headed towards a city to start probably the biggest tour of the year.