s m i l e

6: brave

Natalie's POV:

About two days after the meltdown I had in Brendon's car, Brendon decided that we should play with the fans a little. The plan was for Brendon to do his normal periscope while he had the band over, and I would just hang out like any ordinary day, as it really was just an ordinary day.

Dallon and Dan had arrived earlier, and Brendon briefed them on the plan. Kenny couldn't make it, because he had something to do with his family.

"Hey there Nata- what in the heck are you doing?" Dallon said, walking up to me. I was in my room, standing on my bed, pillows and blankets spread out on the floor behind me. I was trying to learn how to backflip. Brendon said he did it a lot at shows and stuff and the fans went crazy for it, so I decided that would be a fun thing to do to mess with them. Then suddenly, Zack appeared behind Dallon.

"Whatcha doin'?" he said, scratching his beard. His sudden appearance made me and Dallon jump as neither of us knew he was there.

"Jeez, you scared the crap outta me." Dallon said, holding a hand to his chest.

"I'm trying to learn how to do a backflip, do you guys want to help?" I asked playfully.

They both looked at eachother, shrugged, and said "Sure."

So they stood on either side of me, arms out to catch me if I were to not have jumped hard enough to do a full rotation, and waited.

"Okay, kid. All you have to do is jump backwards. But make sure you push off hard enough to finish the flip, or you might land wrong and hurt yourself." Zack said, before letting me know him and Dallon were ready for me to jump.

I pushed off, leaned back, and shut my eyes, immediately regretting what I had just done. I felt Zack and Dallon's hands lightly brush my back as I went over them, and before I knew it, I had landed. On my feet. Without injuring myself.

"Holy shit." I said as I opened my eyes. I had an immediate rush of adrenaline and was ready for a second attempt.

Dallon shot me a glare as I covered my mouth, realized that I had accidentally cussed. Then he gave me a big smile and shook his head.

"You are just like Brendon. I swear, if I didn't know any better, I would think you were his biological daughter."

I giggled at his words but quickly made them get back into position as I attempted another flip, and another, and another. I had landed each one perfectly, which told me I was ready to do it on my own. So I did, and again, landed it perfectly. I decided that I was more comfortable around them now, even though I had just met them like a week ago. We went downstairs to meet Brendon who was sitting on the couch.

"Scopin'!" he said, before waving us all to go outside to the backyard with him. He hadn't gotten me on camera yet, so I took a moment to fix my hair and make myself look presentable. I walk outside to see Brendon lounging around in a lounge chair, Dallon and Zack sitting around him and answering questions about what they were doing or calling them random names. I walked over and sat next to Brendon on the chair to look at the chat, when he pointed the camera down at my face, and I watched the chat explode. So many comments of people asking who I was, if Brendon had a kid and just now found out about it, if he was babysitting, and so many other crazy things. Apparently Brendon's fans didn't think of him as the type to adopt, as I only seen a few comments about it. Brendon didn't reply to anything as he kept on his conversation about something dumb they wanted to do as a prank on Kenny. I looked toward Brendon and waited until they were finished speaking so I could ask Brendon something.

"Hey, Brendon? Do you want to see something new I learned earlier?" I asked with a goofy grin on my face.

He gave me the same goofy grin back, and I saw the chat explode again, talking about how cute he was and about how we looked exaclty alike.

"Yeah sure! Go ahead." he said as he turned the camera to the back.

I stood in front of the camera and climbed up onto a chair, making sure it was sturdy. Both Dallon and Zack gave me a worried look, but I waved them off as I knew they just didn't want me to get hurt. I sprung off the chair, just as I had done in my room before. I leaned back and landed the flip, wobbling a bit this time. The chair was a little shorter than my bed, so I wasn't used to jumping on it. The boys clapped, and as I sat back down I looked at the chat. It was mostly comments saying things like 'wow' or 'brendon taught her well' and some like 'aww just like her dad', and I assumed that the last one was from people who thought I was Brendon's biological daughter. Dallon apparently saw the comments about brendon 'teaching me well' and made a pouty face.

"Hey, it was me that helped Nat, not Brendon."

"I helped to dumbass." Zack chimed in.

It took a minute, but Dallon realized what he said. He let out a slight 'oh crap' before looking at me apologetically. I just sat there, not knowing what to do. Brendon decided that it was best that he end the livestream before anyone else spilled anything. We didn't really want to introduce me to the fans, because both Brendon and I weren't ready for everything that came along with it.

"Nice one, Dallon." Brendon said flatly. You didn't seem angry, but he definitely wasn't happy with Dallon.

"I'm really sorry guys, it just slipped." he said, looking sad. I gave him a big hug and motioned for Zack and Brendon to join. This is my new family. I wanted to make sure they all knew that I loved them.