~Natural High 3~

Chapter 3-When the sun shines again (back to 3rd person)



Section 1: Never Saw The Light



After the signing, The boys all went back to their hotel(The Holiday Inn) and the girls went back to Jennifer and Amanda’s house. They all were so thrilled with the day they each had.

Amanda’s mother, Mary, died when Amanda was only 12, and since Jennifer’s mom and Mary had been best friends, Amanda had moved in with Jennifer when she moved to New Jersey 2 years ago.

“He -- he hugged me!” Jennifer stuttered as she ran her fingers down the Dream Street poster hanging on her wall.

“Pretty much all of us got hugged!” Amanda said happily as she brushed her blonde hair into a pony tail.

“Greg hugged me!” Brooke rubbed in. Amanda gave her the evil eye and Brooke added, “Twice!”

Amanda got up, grabbed a pillow, and playfully started hitting Brooke. Of course, Brooke played back with her own pillow.

“Stop it you two!” Jennifer yelled. Amanda went to hit Brooke, and Brooke ducked, so she accidentally hit Jennifer. “Now your dead!” She laughed as she grabbed her own pillow and joined the fight.

The girls continued to laugh as they ran around the room hitting eachother with pillows (or ‘Bags of Feathers’ as Amanda calls it). But Cecilia sat at her window and read her book that she had paid for as Jesse stared at her with his to-die-for smile!

“It didn’t matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them,” She had a tear going down her face as she read this line. Don’t ask me why she cried as she read that, I don’t know, but I can tell you why she cried ...


Poor Cecilia had a secret. She had never kept a secret from these girls of which she had grown up with, but this secret was one that even if she tried she couldn’t bare to let out because it hurt her so much just to say it. She lifted her head up to the sky as the second tear fell from her eye.

“Star light ... Star bright ... the first star I see tonight ... I wish I may ... I wish I might ... Please let me have my wish tonight ..” she sobbed as she stared at the one star that stood out to her, “I --- I don’t want to hurt anymore.” she cried. But she said this all in a whisper. She then leaned her head against the wall and fell asleep.

“Sessy?” Brooke whispered as she looked at Cecilia, who now had laid her head on the pillow that was on the same couch.

“She’s out cold. Let her rest. She didn’t seem too happy after we got home.” Jennifer told Brooke.

“Yeah, she looked like she was gonna cry after she got that call from her mom!” Amanda added.

“Do you know what happened?” Brooke asked the two. They both shrugged their shoulders.

Not long after, as the clock read 3:02am, the girls slipped into bed. Jennifer and Amanda had fallen asleep quite quickly, but Brooke laid awake. She stared at Cecilia wondering what was wrong, but nothing had come to her at the time being that would leave her sleeping next to a window with a tear down her face. Brooke closed her eyes and fell asleep to the rhythmic pattern of the clock ticking. And until the light shines through and into everyone’s eyes making them rise from their sleeping areas, she won’t know what was wrong with Cecilia. But if she did, would she fall asleep to the sounds of her own tears falling?



Section 2- Losing Touch



“Sleep good, Matt?” Chris asked as he brushed his morning hair.

“No!” Matt mumbled as he ran a comb through his own hair. “Nice hair, by the way!” he teased as Chris’ hair was all puffed up.

“Thanks!” Chris said sarcastically as he pushed Matt out of the bathroom and slammed the bathroom door shut. Matt groaned cutely as he laid down on the hotel bed and reminisced the dream he had that night. He tried and tried to remember the details but all he remembered was the basics:

Matt has girlfriend, meets new girl, girl likes him, he likes girl, girlfriend and other girl have fight, but Matt ends up with both girls.

He smiled as he slowly closed his eyes. Suddenly..

OUCH!!!!! OWWW!! DAMMIT!!! Matt yells as he grabs onto his side and jumps up to a sitting position on the bed.

“You can’t sleep! We’re going home, now!” Frankie laughed.

“You hurt my ribs, you retart!” “Its called playing around. All I did was use a freaken wrestling move on ya, calm down!” Frankie said as he slowly rose off the bed. “Well it still hurt like a dog!” he yelled in much pain.

The clock read 6:22am. They all had school that Tuesday morning, so the producer decided to leave early so they can make it on time. Greg sat at his laptop, making the buddylist for his new screen name.

“Come on!” Jesse yelled to him. “Your school might start at 8:30 but mine starts at 8:00! Get your lazy ass of the computer!” “I’m so sorry, your highness!” Greg joked as he packed his computer back into the bag it was in. “I’m not kidding, Greg!!” Jesse screamed back as he grabbed his own luggage and started out the door. “Neither am I, Jester!” Greg yelled back with a smile.

“Come on!” Jesse let out, right before the door shut behind him.

“Come on!” Greg mimicked to himself as he picked up his own bags and headed out the door.

It was now 6:45am and Chris had just finished doing his hair. He jumped into the van (not a limo) that was outside for them and sat next to Matt.

“Your hair just got messed up!” Matt said as Chris ducked his head to get into the van.

“What?!?” Chris yelled as he hopped to the front seat and looked at the mirror.

All the other boys laughed as Chris noticed nothing was wrong with his hair. “Dork.” Chris said as he leaned back into his seat as the van began to drive out of the hotel. He leaned his head and looked out the window remembering his dream.
br> His had to do with that Brooke girl from the mall. Of course he sees pretty girls everyday on his job, but this one was stuck inside his head. In his dream, he had picked Brooke up from her house, and they went out to a movie. At the movie, (which they didn’t pay attention to) they talked about everything! Friends, family, food! Then he walked her back to her house that night, and they shared a kiss. He went to turn around to head back home, but she had pulled him into her house and started up the steps. He obviously followed. She led him up to her room and she took his jacket off and threw it on the floor as she pulled him toward her kissing him, then she pushed him onto her bed. And that was the moment that he had waken’ up.

Whenever dreams are at their best, you always wake up! There is never an aexception to that rule! He smiled and continued to stare our his window.



Section 3-When the sky grew dark


“Don’t you two have school?” Brooke asked Amanda and Jennifer.

They both looked at eachother and laughed, “So?!” Cecilia bounced out of the bathroom that morning as if nothing had happened the night before. “You aight, Celia?” Brooke asked her.

“Peachy! Thanks!” She said with a smile as she plopped down onto the couch and tuned to, ‘Ed Edd and Eddie’. “This show is the shizney!” she laughed.

“What time is it? 10:30am! We are not watching cartoons!” Amanda laughed as Cecilia playfully threw the remote to her. “How about ...” Amanda said as she scanned the buttons with her thumb. “7!”

“What the hell is on channel 7 at 10:30?!” Jennifer laughed.

“Well obviously nothing good!” Brooke laughed as she noticed the news was on. But then they heard something that had gotten their attention ....

“Today, there has been a tragedy here in the heart of New York City. As you see here, there has been a catastrophe killing many, and hurting more! Now when you look here, you will notice 2 planes crashing into our own Twin Towers. Then not long after, they fell to the street, killing many innocent citizens. Also in Washington, another high-jacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, although it still stands, our country is under attack..”

“Holy Mother of God!” Jennifer said as the cup of milk in her hand fell to the floor, shattering into a million pieces.

“What are you talking about?! Holy sh**!” Brooke corrected as she plopped next to Cecilia on the couch.

“Wait ... wait!” Cecilia shouted as she stood up from her chair pointing at the screen.

“What?!” Amanda asked as she saw Cecilia’s face turn completely pale. Cecilia ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. And no she wasn’t crying. Lets just say, she got sick.

“You alright, Celia?” Brooke asked with concern as she leaned against the door.

“Dra-- Dra--” Cecilia stuttered.

“shhh! Take it slow, Sessy!” Brooke soothed, “breathe in and out!” “Dream Stra - Street was driv-driving ba-back home toda-today!” Cecilia stampered.

“NO!” Brooke yelled as she ran into Jennifer’s computer room.

“What the hell is she doing, now?” Jennifer whispered to Amanda. Amanda shrugged her shoulders as she followed Brooke into the room, Jennifer not far behind. They didn’t know what she was up to this time.

“Come on you slow computer!!” Brooke yelled as she whipped through the keys on the computer.

“What are you doing?!” Amanda yelled.

“DREAM STREET IS OK!!!” Brooke yelled with her arms in the air as she ran to the bathroom. She repeatedly banged on the door screaming “Dream Street Lives!” ‘til Cecilia opened the door with a bright smile on.

“OK. And I thought I was obsessed!” Jennifer said.

“You are!” Amanda giggled as she nudged Jennifer. They all laughed.



Section 4- Traffic Jam


“What’s with all this traffic?!” Jesse yelled from the back seat. There was bumper to bumper traffic on the highway “I need to get to school!”

“Why the hell do you wanna go to school?” Matt asked.

“I have to!” Jesse snapped.

“We are Pop stars! We don’t need to do anything!” Frankie joked.

“Yeah Jes, you make it sound like you’d rather be learning then having girls all over you!

"Are you gay?!” Chris joked as well. Frankie high-fived him.

As the 14 year old’s green eyes blazed, he said “No!”

“Fine!” Matt yelled back, waking poor Greg up from his nap.

“What?!!!” Greg yelled as he lifted from his dreaming position.

“You have a little something on your face.” Matt pointed out to the black mark on Greg’s face and laughed.

“That ain’t little!” Greg yelled as he pulled out a mirror from his bag. He looked down where he was sleeping and noticed the black pen he was writing with earlier was leaking and had dripped all over his cheek. “It ain’t coming out!” he yelled. He poured some water from his water bottle onto a shirt that was in his bag and scrubbed hard onto his cheek, only making his cheek black AND red.

All the guys laughed as he sat there scrubbing harder and harder. ‘Til he finally gave up, “I’m not going to school!!!” he yelled.

Then the driver turned around and said “You wouldn’t have been going anyway!” Then turned the radio up ...

"Right now, most of the roads to New York City and out have been closed. The same goes for Washington D.C. .."

The boys listened closely as they heard the radio talking about their own city, New York.

".. A tragedy has happened here in Manhattan .."

Chris' eyes went wide open! “Thats where I live!” he thought to himself.

".. The twins of the sky, also known as the Twin Towers, have created a chaos on the streets. Starting at 8:50am a plane had flown into the first tower, making it fall completely over. Not long after, the same happened to the second Tower. This may be World War 3! God Bless our nation, and be safe!"

All 5 boys were dumbfounded. They had no idea what to say. Especially Chris. He had actually lived in Manhattan, so he was the most speechless one of them all.

"Oh God!" Matt said, now being completely serious.

"Do you think anyone we know got hurt?" Frankie asked looking toward Greg, who had completely forgot about the mark on his cheek.

"Probably not, that happened in Manhattan! We don't really know anybody from-" suddenly he stopped and looked toward Chris. Chris' thoughts were completely out the window as he looked at the cloud of smoke filling the sky like air.

"You OK dude?" Jesse asked him as he leaned over toward Chris, but the boy just lost all senses as he thought about what he had just heard. "Yo?" Jesse repeated.

"Leave him be, I would be pissed if that happened in Westchester, and you would too!" Matt said to Jesse.

"I know, your right." Jesse said as he leaned back into his chair and sunk into it.

On the ride back to Jersey (to get away from New York at the time being) Frankie and Greg both fell asleep, Matt had went in the back with Greg and Frankie leaving Jesse and Matt to listen to music, and Chris never spoke a word. He had fallen asleep, aswell, but he didn't. Meaning, as he stared out the window, he day dreamed, but didn't really sleep.

He saw Brooke. That’s all. He saw him and Brooke on the beach together, both of them smiling and laughing as they fooled around in the ocean and played one-on-one volleyball on the sand. All these things made him smile inside, but on the outside, he just stared into space with all his senses numbed and buried somewhere inside him.



Section 5- Viva La Dream Street


“Dream Street is fine! They are still alive!” Brooke squealed as Cecilia slowly made her way out of the bathroom.

Ring

The phone then began to ring, and Brooke picked up the phone and yelled “Dream Street Lives!!”

All the other girls sat on the blue, cushioned couch and went back to cartoons. It was the only thing on other then the news.

“Oh. Sorry Mrs. Gordan. Heres your daughter.” Brooke said as she handed the phone to Jennifer who was now hysterical.

“Hi, mom! Sorry ‘bout Brooke!” Jennifer laughed as she sat down in the chair by the desk and curled the telephone wire around her finger.

“I’m guessing you didn’t hear about New York, then?” Jennifer’s mom, Grace, had said.

“No! We did.” Jennifer corrected as she placed her feet on the desk.

“Well, you sounded so happy. Well, anyway. Diana said that since you all can’t make it to Rehearsal in New York tomorrow you will have rehearsal in the state. She is there too, and is going to stop over today. You and Amanda get your things and I guess Cecilia and Brooke will have to go buy some more clothes or borrow some of yours. But I have to go right now. Love you. Kisses! Bye!”

dial tone.

“Thanks mom?” Jennifer whispered as she hung the phone back up.

“So what are we doing today?!” Cecilia asked as she scooped some cookie dough into her mouth.

“Rehearsal!!” Jennifer shouted.

The girl hadn’t had Rehearsal in over two months because everyone was on vacation over the summer. They all loved rehearsing with their choreographers Diana and Jake.

“YES! Jake’s coming!” Brooke shouted. Her and Jake were buddies, so she wanted to see him.

“She only said Diana, though.” Jennifer said sadly.

“Damn” Brooke said.

“Where are we rehearsing, though?” Amanda asked with wonder on her face.

“The studio is up by Celia’s house!” They used to all sleep by Cecilia’s house, and then the next morning, walk to the studio - it was only 3 blocks away.

“Diana is coming here!” Jennifer bounced up and down.

Cecilia smiled but never said anything, and all though she was the happiest of all of them right there, you wouldn’t have been able to tell.

“Celia! Aren’t you excited?!” Brooke screamed at her with a huge smile on her face, “We get to go to rehearsal without getting crap from your mother first! Plus, we have Dream Street music to dance to, aswell!”

Cecilia got up and started yelling, “Rehearsal!!!” And everyone followed. Then Cecilia slowly snuck back into Amanda’s room (where her bags had been) and took out her Dream Street CD. She noticed something jammed in between it. So she opened the case and found a little note inside. She picked the note up and looked around her to see if anyone was there.

She slowly opened it and her face went confused when she read,

“Meet me online at 5:00pm on 9/11/01 ill be under XxGFRxX 85”

‘That’s today!’ Cecilia thought to herself. ‘But who the heck could have gotten this into my Dream Street CD? There isn’t a name on this!’

“Yo, Celia! Diana is here! Get your cute butt out here!” Jennifer joked as she passed by the room.

“Coming!” Cecilia yelled as she closed her CD and pushed it into her bag. But she took the note, folded it up, and put it in her book, Cider House Rules- John Irving. Then picked herself off the ground. She let out a sigh before walking in the living room with the others.

______________________________________________________ “Do you guys have your jazz shoes?” Diana asked Cecilia and Brooke. Whenever they practice they must use their jazz shoes.

“Well, no!” Brooke said with a depressed face on.

“I have my jazz sneakers in my bag.” Cecilia said with a smile.

“Go grab ‘em! Hurry up!” Diana laughed as Cecilia ran in and out of the room.

She sat down and quickly tied them.

“Well, what am I supposed to do, then? Can I use my sneakers?” Brooke asked.

“No! Jazz sneakers and sports sneakers are totally different, Brooke! I guess just use your socks!”

“Fine!” Brooke said with an attitude as she rose from the ground and helped Jennifer and Amanda move the furniture out of the crowded basement so the girls could practice there.

“GFR?” Cecilia thought aloud as she now rose from her spot on the floor and headed toward everyone else to dance.

“5 ... 6 ... 5 6 7 8” Diana counted down.

The music blasted and the girls danced their hearts out. They rehearsed for 3 and a half hours, with four 5 minute breaks in between. They were obviously exhausted.

As the clock struck 2:00pm, The girls all fell into the couch in the living room and flipped through the channels as they blasted Dream Street in the stereo.

“Good rehearsal,” Diana started, “Thursday at 12:00, I’ll be back. You guys have that gig on Friday, so we need to practice.”

“Gig?” Amanda asked. All the other girls were just as puzzled, so they looked up to Diana.

“Your mother didn’t tell you?” The tall, young woman replied as her dark brown eyes stared at Jennifer. “On Friday you all have a small gig I arranged in Southern Jersey.”

“How Southern?” Cecilia asked.

“Seaside Heights. I did some major ass kissing to get you guys a gig there. So just be happy, k?” Diana answered.

“You mean, people will actually see us?!” Brooke yelled as her face lit-up.

“Passer-byers.” Diana corrected. She grabbed her bookbag ad headed out the door, “If you guys have anymore questions, call me or email me!” she smiled then walked out the door.

“Obsession! Performing live in Seaside!” Brooke said, imitating those guys who talk through the loud speakers.

“Who the hell is Obsession?” Jennifer said, imitating the crowd.

Amanda laughed and Cecilia smiled as she took the cookie dough out and ate another bite.

“Fatty!” Brooke yelled jokingly to Cecilia.

“Pig!” Amanda joined.

“Oink!” Cecilia laughed as she took another bite.

Section 6- U Turn


“Can’t we at least stay at a hotel that has an IN DOOR pool?!” Frankie complained as he stared out the Holiday Inn window and into a pool crowded with 8 and 9 year old kids.

“There’s no room service here either!” Matt said as he flipped through the menu. “You have to go all the way to the Lobby Cafe for the food!”

Jesse and Chris were standing in front of the mirror fixing their hair, and Greg sobbed as the mark on his face still didn’t come off.

“You guys, I’m sorry, there isn’t much to choose from right now! There are many other people stuck in the same position as you!” Lou, their producer, had explained. “In three days we are going to Seaside. I already have a room there for us.”

“Why can’t we go there now?” Jesse whined as he plopped onto one of the twin beds.

“The room is occupied until Thursday afternoon. Then we will be occupying it that night,” Lou answered.

“Oh, OK.” Jesse said. “Oh! Mint!” he yelled as he noticed the mint that was lying next to him on the bed.

“Mine!” Matt yelled as he dove onto the bed.

“No, Matt!” Jesse yelled as Matt stuck the mint into his mouth.

“Ha Ha Ha!” Matt teased as he chewed.

The boys had all sat around in the room for a while. They didn’t want to go in the pool that was being paraded by little people, and didn’t want to get up to go into the cafe, because they were all lazy bums.

Chris laid down on one of the beds just processing everything that had happened to him in the last 48 hrs. From seeing the girl that won’t leave his head, to watching the smoke fill the air of his hometown. When he tried to think of just Brooke, a cloud came over filling his head with bad thoughts of his crashing and burning city. When he tried to think of the tragedy in New York, he thought of Brooke’s safety, because she had said she was from the city aswell.

The other boys had all been hanging out on the other bed and ordered the movie “Hannibal” because it was the only movie that they hadn’t seen, or wouldn’t mind seeing. Jesse had been doodling the name Cecilia on a piece of notebook paper and at some point in his daze folded it into an airplane.

“EEW! Did you see that, Jes?” Greg said. He was so into the movie that he practically had become part of it.

Jesse said nothing. He just held up his airplane (still in his daze of looking at the ceiling) and flung it forward. He didn’t even watch to see where it landed.

“Ow!” Matt said as the plane hit him in the head. He opened the paper and read. “Cecilia ... Cecilia .. and who’da thought? Cecilia!” He was turning the paper all around as he read because the name had been written about 55 times and in different directions.

“Think he likes a girl named Cecilia?” Frankie asked.

“Nah!” Greg laughed.

“Huh?” Jesse said. He had been in the same ‘La La Land’ that he was when they were in the limo on the way to pick up his ring.

“What the hell are you thinking about now?” Greg asked, pulling his eyes away from the screen. Jesse’s eyes left the ceiling and into Greg’s eyes.

“Well?” Greg asked, because Jesse hadn’t answered. Jesse’s eyes looked down to the paper that Matt now had folded back into an airplane and flew it in the air as if it was a toy airplane.

“Duh!” Frankie said looking at Greg, “Her name is Cecilia!”

“Oh. I should’ve known.” Greg said, slapping his forehead with the palm of his right hand.

Jesse’s eyes then moved toward Chris. “You OK man?”

Chris didn’t answer. His senses were still numb. He stared at the wall and didn’t say a word.

“I’m sorry dude! It’s alot to take in.” Matt eased.

But Chris stared off into space and never heard a word that they had said.

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