Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"'Ariel, Listen to me. The human world is a mess.'"-Sebastian,

The Little Mermaid

Danny got in line at the grocery store with her water and cookies, hoping her mum would show up soon with the cart. It had only been one day since the concert, but she had already gotten quite a few curious looks from her fellow grocery store patrons. She'd just taken a swig of her tea when she saw a few of the tabloids and choked. Tears forming in her eyelids, she wiped them before looking again. Sure enough, her face was plastered all over the magazines.

"What the hell?" She gasped.

"What's wrong?" Julie appeared pushing the cart. "Excuse me." She edged by the lady behind her daughter. "What's wrong?"

"What. The bloody. Hell." Danny was so flustered that she could only thrust the magazines at her mother.

"Wh-what?" Julie stammered. There were four different magazines, and Danny's face was on the cover of all of them.

"What even is this?" They grabbed two copies of each.

"I need to go straight to Eric's. He can drive me home. He should see these. Can you please drop me off there, Mum?"

Julie had barely pulled up to the curb at Eric's place before Danny was out and running to the front door.

"Eric! Answer the dang-Oh. Phillip!" Danny's fist froze midway in the act of banging on the door.

"What's wrong?" The softhearted Phillip was always up for listening to problems.

"Look!" Danny thrust the tabloids in his face. Frowning, he led her inside and forced her to sit down while he flicked through the tabloids. Eric and the other guys rushed in.

"I heard banging, is everything—Danny—What's wrong?" Eric grabbed his girlfriend in a hug. The bell rang and Scarlett walked in. "Danny, you've got to see this." She turned on the flatscreen and flipped to the gossip channel. A split screen was showing Danny and Eric separately wearing his "Free Hugs" shirt on one side, and Danny laughing with the five boys on the other. Then pictures from the previous night's concert flashed on the screen. WHO IS DANNY WILLIAMS? The tabloids and TV screamed.

"Oh, my God." Danny was almost J-pale. "OhmiGod. Where is that picture from?"

"Someone get her water! She looks like me!" J yelled. Phillip complied.

"My point exactly." Scarlett sat down. "If you thought the paps were all over you now, just wait." Danny let out a groan.

Eric nudged her. "That's what you get for stealing my shirt."

She nudged him back. "Shut up. You're never getting that back, BTW."

Ali let out a groan. "Does this mean I'm never going to get my letterman back?" Danny gave him a look. "That's what I thought," he sighed.

"Oh my God, I am going to get so much hate." Phillip's eyes darkened and Danny wanted to bite her tongue off when she saw Eric's nervous expression, like he thought she was going to leave him then. "Oh well," she hastily backtracked. "Don't really care." She pasted on a fake smile. "Sorry to have such a panic attack, guys."

"It takes some time getting used to," Ali said, and they all nodded.

"You'd think I could get coffee without it being all over the papers, but noooo..." said Adam, and they all laughed, tension effectively gone.