Same Band... New School... New Species?!

Same Band...New School...New Species?! - 21

We got on the plane. We actually made it with no sign of anyone from the school. Still it wasn't until we took off and were a good ten minutes of flight away from Rome that I started to relax. The guys all fell asleep relatively fast. Apparently they hadn't slept a wink after I'd been kidnapped, so they were more than I little knackered.

"What are we going to do when we get back?" I asked, looking at Nix. I was sat in between him and Lyle.

"Go back to the loft, tell the press fancy school wasn't for us and carry on like usual," he told me, eyes serious. "This was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us, but it changes nothing."

"It changed everything!" I whispered furiously, looking away from him. "I'm not human Nix. My parents were murdered."

"For all we know all our parents were murdered," Nix grabbed my cheeks and turned us both so we were facing each other. "Crys, you can't let this get to you. Yeah, it's a hell of a discovery, but nothing has changed."

Tears welled in my eyes and I tried to pull my face away, but Nix didn't let go.

"Crys, look at me."

I kept my eyes on the armrest, refusing to look him in the eye. Nix was always there for all of us, like a sort of big brother/father to us. But he couldn't understand what I was going through. There was just no way you could understand unless you've been through it yourself.

"Crys," he sighed, lifting my face until our noses were touching. I blinked in surprise and met his eyes. "We've always made it through no matter the situation. We'll be fine, all of us, including you."

"Okay," I nodded, choosing to believe him. I needed to believe that it would be, just for now at least.

"Good," he smiled reassuringly, letting my face go.

He straightened himself out in his chair and closed his eyes. Nix would never admit when he's tired, he'll just go to sleep. I needed comfort, to not feel alone, so I shuffled over and started to put my head on Nix's shoulder, then I froze. Nix was still pretty badly bruised from beat down and I didn't want to rest my head where it might hurt him. Instead I shuffled to the other side and dropped my head against Lyle's shoulder. He twitched, then settled just before I drifted off.

"Crys," Lyle was calling me. "Come on Crys, get up."

"Hmm?" I stirred in my half asleep state.

"We've landed, time to go," Nix said from my left.

"Oh," I yawned and opened my eyes.

People were already filing by from the cabins behind us. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, yawning again. We stood up and grabbed our luggage out of the overhead lockers, then made our way off the plane.

We got through the baggage pick up, put everything on trollies and made our way to the exit into the main terminal. The first person I saw was Renni, our manager, in front of a miniature sea of reporters. The second one of them caught sight of us, all attention was directed our way.

It's not like we weren't used to this, so we all plastered on smiles and let Nix walk forwards. I've never particularly liked reporters, but they're just a fact of life with our profession.

"Rose Quartz! Rose Quartz! Why the sudden decision to come back to England?!" they all seemed to be shouting at once. When reporters that knew us called 'Rose Quartz' they were really calling out to Nix. They knew by now that he answered all the general questions, if they had anything specific they called us out specifically.

"Posh schools just really weren't our thing," Nix laughed and of course the reporters laughed right along with him.

"Was it a group desciscion?!" one guy called.

"Did you get expelled?!"

"What was your favorite part of Rome?!"

"In that order," Nix grinned. "Yes, it was a group decision, we weren't expelled and I can't speak for everyone, but my favorite part was the food."

More laughs.

"Lyle," one woman wormed up close. "Did you get any inspiration in Rome? Are there any new songs to look forwards to?"

"Yeah," Lyle nodded. "In fact three are being written at the mo."

"Crystal," a guy practically shoved his microphone into my nose. "How about any Italian romance?"

All eyes were suddenly on me, I knew my brothers were fighting a laugh.

"Nothing like that I'm afraid," I laughed. "I'm still holding up for the right guy."

There was a collective 'awww'. I didn't have to fake a smile that time, their cheeziness was hilarious.

"Now that's enough," Renni walked out in front of us. "Rose Quartz are exhausted from their trip, we'll be getting back to you on those potential new songs."

With that we grabbed the trollies again and followed Renni through the crowd of reporters to the vans waiting for us outside the doors. I half wondered where Darren Cross was, I hadn't seen him since we got off the plane and split up to find our luggage.

We dumped all our stuff in the hollowed out van. Someone had already had our instruments put in there.

"Okay, see you guys at the loft," Renni smiled, getting into the driver's side.

Then we started piling into the other van, well actually we only got to opening the door, then froze. Darren Cross was sitting in the back seat like he'd been there the whole time.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ink asked calmly, too calmly. He was pissed.

"I thought we agreed that I'm tagging along," Darren Cross said, looking Nix straight in the eye.

"Yeah," Nix sighed, looking around at us. "Let's go."

"Nix-" Sparrow started.

"What?" Nix looked him.

They locked eyes for a long moment, then Sparrow looked away. I wished I knew what was going on in Nix's head. Usually, alongside Ink, he was the last one to trust anyone. Let alone let anyone get so close to us. It had always been us vs. everyone else. Sure, we made friends outside the band, but in the end they really weren't that close. It was strange that Nix was so trusting of Darren Cross.

"Let's go," Nix said again, a final tone in his voice.

I decided it was better to just go along with it then start any fights, so I climbed into the van. In our van, there are two chairs in the back, three bean-bags along the side with no door and plush, fluffy carpet everywhere. Usually all of us sit except Lyle, he likes to lie on the carpet and write.

Now it wasn't as casual as usual. I started to take the seat next to Darren Cross, thinking that no one else was going to end up sitting there. As I started to sit an arm looped around my middle and pulled me back. I didn't even have a chance to blink before I was dumped into a beanbag in between Ink and Frost. I looked between them, but didn't see anything. Nix took the seat next to Darren Cross and Sparrow and Lyle sat on the carpet after Lyle closed the door.

"So," Darren Cross seemed very pleased with himself. "Where are we going?"

"To our loft," Nix said, sounding tired.

"We don't have any spare rooms," Lyle pointed out.

"Are there any other apartments where you are?" Darren Cross asked. I wasn't sure how I felt about him, but in the back of my mind I wasn't sure that I trusted him enough to have him living around us. Even if Nix trusted him, there was always the chance that Ink was right and Darren Cross was a spy. We knew virtually nothing about him...

"There's a flat a floor down from us," Frost said. "But the whole floor is expensive."

"That's no problem," he shrugged.

"Fantastic," Ink didn't even try to hide the sarcasm. I couldn't say I didn't agree.