Jace

{11}

"This really isn't necessary," Katherine sighed. She was perched upon her top bunk as Louis and I gathered and moved Jacelyn's stuff from her bus to our own.

"It's necessary," I replied to sharply for anyone to take kindly. Because the bunks were built in even numbers, our bus contained six. We had used the spare as a separate storage compartment in the previous time but now Zayn, Harry, and Niall were cleaning it out and finding space for the stuff it held to make room for Jace to stay with us.

There was a knock on the open bus door and Harry popped his head in. "We're done."

Louis threw a suitcase at him and together, we hauled all of her stuff over in one trip.

"What do we do with it?" I asked once we stood in front of her new bunk on our bus. Louis shrugged, and then dropped his entire armful carelessly on the bed. Laughing, we followed suit.

Jace had left to go find Madison almost as soon as we got back from our walk. I begged her not to and offered to have one of us come along but she refused and ran off without another word.

"Wow so sweet guys." We turned at the giggle. I smiled when I saw she was back safe.

"You know," Louis bounced back to sit on her new bunk. "Only the best for my favorite little dancer."

Louis' phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. The caller ID said it was from Eleanor. His face fell and he pressed ignore, shoving it back out of sight and looking up with a fake smile.

"Don't you wanna get that?" Jace asked.

He shrugged. "It can wait."

"Lou what's going on with you?"

"I'm just not in the mood to get screamed at." He refused to make eye contact and shrugged with a blank expression.

"What?"

"C'mom guys lets go," he changed the subject quickly. "Our flight leaves soon." He was out the door before anyone could say anything else.

*

"Jacelyn get back here!" Niall raced after a giggling Jace as she streaked down the airport. The security were going crazy to keep the paparazzi and fans at bay while we boarded the plane. Madison and Katherine walked behind us with plastered fake smiles on their faces and doing a princess wave with one hand and holding a carry-on bag with the other.

"Jace!" I yelled. She spun around, double-strapping it with her black backpack that bounced on her back when she ran. "Lets talk to some fans before we board!" She smiled and Niall offered to piggy-back her back to us. She gladly excepted.

"Jacelyn are you and Niall dating?" Someone asked. My jaw clenched and I hoped no one noticed. Harry did, by the way he gave me a sideways glance.

"Naw were not," she said back, autographing something for the fan.

A paparazzo pushed his way to the front. "Where'd you get that scratch from?"

"I fell on a bunk when I was messing around."

Didn't even miss a beat.

I was thoroughly surprised when I realized how much more the fans seemed to like Jace than the other dancers. They asked for pictures with her almost as much as with us and I even saw a group of girls with homemade shirts saying 'I'm With The Dancer' and a picture of her at the bottom. They even had fake clip in blue streaks in their hair. She laughed aloud when she saw them.

"Jacelyn! Jace look over here! I'm a ballerina!" A girl about fifteen years of age was jumping up and down and screaming.

"Hey," I nudged her shoulder with my own and pointed to the girl.

"Hey!" She waved. "If you're the ballerina then you wanna talk to Katherine, not me." She smiled and then, following the request of a girl near the front, hugged on to me tightly for a picture. I held her close so there was no space in between us. She smelled like her PINK perfume, the one with the red cap.

"Alright guys don't we have a plane to take to 'Murica?"

"Did you just call it 'Murica?" I leaned my neck back to look her in the eye without letting go. She looked up at me.

"Yes. Yes I did. I can say that because I'm American and I live there when I'm not with you bozos. Now, carry me!"

She picked her legs up and clung to me like a monkey. I grunted with her sudden weight and laughed before hoisting her up to my left hip.

"Only for you Jace.. Only for you."

"Hey," Louis complained. "You never carry me!"

"Face it Lou," Jacelyn smiled as our group started to move toward our plane. "He obvi just likes me better!" He chuckled and picked her backpack off of the floor, hitting her with it slightly, and then slung it over his shoulder alongside his own.

"Where are we landing for the first show there?" Madison asked. She didn't take her eyes off of the way I was holding Jace once. I bounced her up further on my hip and held her tighter, giving Maddi a look between a glare and protectiveness. Don't touch Jacelyn.

"New York!" Niall said loudly, fist pumping as we finally boarded the plane.

"Hey didn't you go to ballet school there Kat?" Jace wiggled down from me and I reluctantly let her go.

"Yeah," she scoffed. "It was awful."

"Awful?" Asked Harry, he took the seat next to her on the plane.

"I was roommates with a girl who put smashed shards of glass in her rival's pointe shoes. I literally had to buy a safe and put my shoes in there whenever I left the room without them. And if the coaches thought we didn't work hard enough we wouldn't get the normal amount of food for the day."

"That's terrible," Jace cringed.

Zayn sat next to her before I could get there. "Is that why you're so skinny?"

"No," Katherine turned to gaze out the window and shoved earbuds in her ears, refusing to talk about it anymore. She was in fact, very very skinny. Her collarbones poked out, her ribs were clearly visible if she was wearing a tight tee shirt, her hip bones protruded extremely far out, her arms and legs looked as if they would snap at any moment. We exchanged glances at how worked up she got when he mentioned her weight.

I sat next to Louis, across from Jace and Zayn, and Niall sat next to Madison. We talked and slept and watched movies and ate most of the flight. With only two hours left Jace poked Zayn awake.

"I'm cold."

He smiled and rubbed his eyes, hugging her from the side and rubbing her arms to get rid of the goosebumps. "Here," he pulled a black sweatshirt from his bag and gave it to her. After struggling to get it unstuck from her head, she managed to pull it on. It was large on her. Very large. Coming to about her upper thighs. Smiling gratefully, Jace brought her feet up under her and turned on her side so she was in a little ball. She plugged earphones into her phone and closed her eyes.

I've never felt so jealous of a sweatshirt in my life.

{Soooooooooooo I hurt my hip in dance. To be more specific I've got a hip labral tear that may need surgery. My mom told me to wait about a week to see if maybe it was misdiagnosed and if its just a sprain but if not then I'll have to get surgery to repair it but ill probably wait till after December because I have to perform Nutcracker and then in January is my birthday and ahhg this is just not a good time for this! But on the plus side if I do get surgery then ill write a lot in the hospital:)

xx.

Cassie}