just the way you are

chapter seven: to schneadaty we go!

"brody! hogan! we need to go! now!"

bailey was standing by the front door to the apartment waiting on the two teenage boys. all of brody's and bailey's luggage had been dropped off to the tour trucks last night except for their backpacks, but the group needed to leave now so they would not be late.

"coming!" hogan bellowed from brody's room. he came out of the room pulling brody by the sleeve. the fifteen year old boy was not happy to be up at four am.

"why do we have to get up so early?" brody whined as the group of three walked out of the apartment building and next door to hogan's family's apartment. going through newsies, brody had been lucky enough to have his best friend live next door to him.

"bye hoges," bailey hugged the younger boy before moving to the side for the two best friends to have a moment.

"knock, knock."

"shut up, brody," came the response to the fifteen year old from his older sister.

"what dinosaur makes the most noise when it's asleep?" brody asked. he was sitting on the floor leaning back against his dan's legs while the cast of newsies waited for the bus to arrive to take them to tech rehearsal and previews at proctor's in schenectady, new york.

"what dinosaur, brodes?" dan humored the boy where his sister would not.

"a tyranosnorus," brody burst out laughing while dan, bailey, daisy, molly, sky, and ben groaned. josh was asleep on the floor leaning against bailey's legs. the bacon obsessed boy had been half asleep when ben and sky had dragged him through the lobby this morning to where the siblings and dan had arrived at the hotel that most of the toursies, specifically the ones who didn't live in new york, had been staying at.

"what is with you and dinosaurs?" demarius, affectionately known as dmc, had joined the group to hear the end of brody's joke.

"dinosaurs are cool," ben was the second of the group to start to go to sleep this morning. he sat himself on the floor next to brody and leaned against sky's legs and started to fall asleep. dan, dmc, bailey, daisy, molly, and sky were the only ones of their group left sitting on the couch. The girls were squished together at one end with bailey in the middle while dan sat next to molly and sky sat next to dan.

"if you're going to tell dinosaur jokes," dmc plopped himself on the arm of the couch next to daisy, "then come up with a few new ones, buddy."

bailey laughed softly. "Yeah, brodes, we need some fresh material. otherwise, we'll all be walking around with those 'tyranosnorus' groans echoing in our heads."

sky chimed in, "i'd rather hear new dinosaur jokes than have that one haunting my dreams tonight."

"very much agreed," daisy yawned, laying her head on bailey's shoulder.

"speaking of dreams," dan glanced at ben and josh who were both dead asleep. "should we wake these two up?"

"probably," molly answered as she stretched her arms above her head. "i don't like that look, skybelle. what are you plotting?"

"nothing, molls," sky grinned before turning to brody. "hey dino boy, pass me that pillow," sky pointed to where he could see a pillow covered with a camouflage pillow case. brody complied with the older boy's request.