Chasing Dreams

Chapter Five - 'Of Challenges and Bonding'

Chapter Five –‘Of Challenges and Bonding’

It was safe to say that the plan to get Ollie and Lacey to sort out their differences had failed. Since the night of the ball Lacey had been avoiding everyone but Jenny and three of the four boys had heard Lacey cry herself to sleep. The boys didn’t know what had transpired between the two other than the garbled shouting they’d heard when they’d been eavesdropping but they knew enough to know Ollie was the cause of Lacey’s sadness. Jenny had been more successful, after many hours of crying and muffled words, she’d finally managed to get the truth from Lacey.

Jenny had been livid when she’d learnt of the unpleasant things Ollie had said to Lacey. She’d wanted to march straight up to him, give him a piece of her mind and kick him where it hurts. However, Lacey wouldn’t let her; she said she didn’t want to cause unnecessary fighting, so they talked of other things. Jenny raved about how good Lacey’s second story was and how much Ian had enjoyed her use of fact and fiction. Apparently they were currently designing her website that would act as a sister site to the bands, where she could directly post her stories. She need only to email the stories to Ian for the go ahead before she could post.

Jenny told her all about the preparations for the tour and that the tour bus was almost ready. Lacey would be accompanying the boys on their tour bus, whereas Jenny would be riding in one of the crew buses.

Lacey was grateful for the growing friendship with Jenny as it was helping her keep sane and keeping her from feeling too lonely. Lacey had always been someone who got on well with others. She had a small base of best friends surrounded by a wider community of acquaintances. However, with the tension hanging over her from her interactions with Oliver, she was glad to have Jenny.

Another good reason for staying in her room was that Monica was visiting. She’d heard enough of her nasally laughter in the last few days to unconsciously cringe every time she heard the noise. She was trying not to draw judgement but when someone is unpleasant to you at first meeting; it is rather hard not to think of them negatively.

At least the other boys were as annoyed by Monica’s presence as she was. Bradley was especially unhappy as it seemed that while Ollie was allowed to have Monica over, he wasn’t allowed to invite his girlfriend Elena around.

Lacey hadn’t seen Jenny today and doubted that she would. Today was the day they officially started their tour. They had two shows in London before they moved on but would be returning at the end of the tour to have their final performance in London’s O2 arena. Lacey had been busy packing, it was surprising how much her clothes had travelled in the time she’d been with the boys. Her suitcase was considerably heavier than when she arrived – a fact she blamed on Jenny and her obsession to dress Lacey – and she was struggling to lift the suitcase off her bed.

“Looks like you need some help” said Jack, appearing at her door.

“Jack! I didn’t realise you were there” she replied.

He chuckled “so do you need some help?” he asked.

“Please, it took me about half an hour to close it and I’ve been trying to move it but I can’t seem to!”

Again Jack chuckled “I see Jenny got to you then!” he said as he easily lifted the suitcase off her bed and onto the floor.

She smiled “now I know who to go to if I need something heavy lifted” she said teasingly.

He blushed “so are we going to see more of you on tour?” he asked.

Lacey looked down at her feet guiltily realising she hadn’t been making a good impression.