Five Year Break

Every teenager dreams of the day that they are able to leave the house and go to college. The day they would finally be on their own; to be the sole person responsible for themselves; to finally not have to answer to their parents. They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. College was the ultimate time of freedom. It was the four years between living at home and living in the real world. They finally had a choice, they could choose to study their asses off for four years, or they could party the four years away. It was completely up to them on which path they would take.

College was hard enough for a normal person, but for a person of his status, it would be even harder. His brothers and family had warned him against going to college, but he hadn't listened, this is what he wanted, so this is what he was going to do. His family was concerned with what would happen to the band while he was away at school. He had told them that the true fans would still be there after four years. And if not, they would get new fans. Nick knew that this was the right time to do this; Joe wanted to pursue acting; and Kevin and Danielle had just gotten married and wanted to start trying for a family. So as far as Nick was concerned this was the perfect time for him to go to school. It was something he had wanted to do, so nothing was going to stop him.

When Nick was looking at schools the year before, he had fallen in love with Northwestern University. He loved the atmosphere in Chicago; it was a busy city without being overly busy like New York was. He would have loved to go to NYU, but he knew that it was a risky move because he would get recognized more often, and it would be harder for him to concentrate on his studies. The campus at Northwestern was so nice and just exactly what he was looking for. Nick knew everyone expected him to study Music theory or something music related, but his heart was set on majoring in English. He loved writing and he would take any chance he could to better improve on his writing skills.

It was finally move in day, and he couldn't believe the day was finally here. He actually had butterflies in his stomach. He could go on stage every night and perform in front of thousands of fans every night, but moving in to college was sending him into a state of perpetual fear. The back of the Tahoe was packed with everything he would need for his first semester at Northwestern including his entire family.

They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the Tahoe. Nick's mom had tears in her eyes and was holding on to Nick's arm with a death grip, not wanting to let her baby boy go. She knew that for the next semester the only one of her sons that would be home every day would be Frankie, so it was hard for her to let go of Nick. Joe was standing off to the side away from the family, not wanting to say goodbye to Nick. Nick was Joe's partner in crime, his best friend, and he didn't know what he'd do without Nick there to banter and fight with every day. Joe was truly the most hurt one out of the whole family about Nick's decision to go to college, because he felt that Nick was leaving him forever. He feared that Nick would find a girl, fall in love and completely forget about his older brother leaving him alone with Kevin; and Joe wasn't very fond of Kevin. But not many people were since he met Danielle. Kevin spent all his time with her, and almost never did anything with the family unless it was work related or required. He was planning a wedding and getting ready to start a family, so no one could really blame him, but it still really hurt that he was leaving them out of everything. Joe just felt left out of the whole situation; he was the only one that didn't have any big plans for the next year or so. They had all three agreed that they would record an album during this year, because everyone knew they couldn't take an actual break. But Joe had his reservations; he was terrified that it wouldn't actually happen, and he wouldn't have anything to fall back on. And that scared him so so much because music was all he really had besides family; and now he didn't even have his family. Sure, he could peruse acting like he wanted to, but he knew he wasn't a good enough actor to do anything that wasn't Disney related and he wanted to get out from underneath the reins of the Mouse. He didn't want to have to be the perfect star, he wanted to rebel, he wanted change.