Don't Get Close

The last two days had been pretty uneventful for everyone. Lucy kept a journal, writing down the band’s activities and whatnot for her article. Serena goofed off with the guys, playing games with them and causing mayhem. The guys were glad to have a couple days off, and took it to relax and enjoy themselves. Lucy had regained the majority of her memory by now, but the night of the concert was completely forgotten. It was as if she never went. She had made new memories the past couple of days, watching their concerts from backstage. The gang had been in Chicago for a couple days now, doing shows.

Corey looked at the tour schedule, “Looks like we don’t go to Moline until the 21st.”

Serena looked up at him, “So you guys have a couple days off again?”

“Yep,” he said, smiling at her, “I say we explore Chicago today. What do you guys think?”

The guys nodded and Serena was practically jumping in joy. Lucy loved Chicago, but had only been here a few times.

“I say we go to Navy Pier,” Lucy said. It was her favorite place in Chicago, other than the zoo.

“And then the zoo!” Serena piped up, “just because I know how much Lucy loves the zoo.”

Shawn nodded, “Why don’t we go to the zoo now and go to the pier tonight? It looks better at night.”

“That is true,” Lucy said, “well what are we waiting for? Let’s go to the zoo!”

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Lucy and Serena had their arms linked, walking in front of the nine guys. They probably looked ridiculous with so many people walking around together, so once they passed the entrance they decided to split up.

“Okay, so since we all obviously want to see different things, we should probably split into groups,” Corey said, looking around at the guys.

“I wanna see the monkies,” Serena said, “who wants to come?”

Mick shrugged and Craig followed suit. Sid always had a thing for monkies, so he decided to come along too.

“Great! Let’s go!” Serena said, grabbing Craig’s hand and dragging him along while he gave the other guys a pleading look. They laughed as Mick and Sid followed behind her.

“What about you, Lucy?” Corey asked, turning to her.

She shrugged, “I always liked polar bears.”

“Polar bears it is, then!” Joey cheered, walking over to Lucy, “Who else wants to come? James?”

He looked up at the mention of his name and stared at Joey quizzically, “Uh, sure?”

Joey grinned at him. Jim had a feeling he was planning something. Not that he minded; it gave him a chance to be with Lucy, after all. The two had grown to be good friends in the past few days.

Lucy smiled and linked her arms with James and Joey before turning to the other guys, “Anyone else?”

Chris shrugged, “I’m more of a tiger person myself.”

Paul and Shawn nodded. Tigers were cool.

Corey looked between the two remaining groups, “Fuck it. I wanna see some bears!”

Lucy laughed as Corey linked his arm with Joey’s and the floor headed off in the direction of the polar bears.

Shawn shook his head, “Those guys are something else.”

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Lucy stared into the tank in front of her. She loved polar bears. They were just so…unique to her for some reason.

One of the bears swam under and almost ran into the side of the tank before it turned around, scaring Corey to death, “That’s a huge ass bear! It almost….did you see that?”

She laughed while James rolled his eyes and Joey stood, mesmerized by the bears. His hands were on the glass and he was staring in. Everyone else had taken their children away from the group because Joey was too close for comfort to them, which Corey found hilarious and proceeded to scream random obscenities until they were alone.

Lucy’s ears perked up when she heard Korn’s Word Up begin to play over the speakers. She grinned widely and started to sing along.

Yo, pretty ladies around the world
Got a weird thing to show you
So tell all the boys and girls
Tell your brother, your sister
And your mama too
We're about to go down
And you know just what to do
Wave your hands in the air
Like you don't care
Glide by the people
As they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance
Do your dance quick, mama
Come on baby
Tell me what's the word

Corey and Joey had started to sing along too. The three were waving their hands in the air and like the song said, people were staring. Lucy grabbed James’ arms and attempted to wave them around, since he wasn’t doing it himself.

Word up, everybody say
When you hear the call
You've got to get it underway
Word up
It's the code word
No matter where you say it
You know that you'll be heard

On the other side of the park, Serena was dancing around and waving her arms wildly with Sid while Craig and Mick stared strangely at them.

“This isn’t something you normally hear at a zoo” Serena stated over the music.

“Why do you say that?” Craig asked. It was the first thing he had said to Serena all morning.

Serena shrugged, “Just doesn’t seem like something most people want to listen to.”

Craig let it go and watched with Mick as the two maniacs continued dancing and spinning in circles with each other.

“Sometimes I wonder how old they really are,” Mick said, shaking his head. But he couldn’t stop the smile that broke through when he said it.

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James took a bite of his pizza and set it back on his plate. He looked out at the lake in front of him. It sure was beautiful out here. The sun setting over the water, the boats coming in to dock, the lights that went out along the railings.

Lucy sat down next to him, “What a beautiful view, huh?”

James looked over at her, giving a double meaning to his words, “Yeah. It is.”

She didn’t quite catch the second meaning and instead she reached over and took a bite of James’ pizza. He didn’t complain, just kept looking out over Lake Michigan. It was just the two of them at the moment, since everyone was either getting food or going to the bathroom. James noticed Lucy had put on one of the guys’ Slipknot sweatshirts, although it was hard to tell whose it was. All he knew was it was a bit too big for Lucy, but she seemed to care less. He cracked a smile.

Lucy put the pizza back and observed James. He seemed so content staring off into the lake that she didn’t want to disturb him. She thought about his worlds for a moment, he had said it was beautiful, but he was looking at her when he said it…

Mick, Joey, and Serena walked over to join the two at the table, disrupting Jim’s peace and startling Lucy out of her daze.

Serena ran over and stole the seat next to Lucy before Joey could sit down. He gave a playful glare and moved to the other side of Mick, who had already sat down.

“You guys are kinda quiet,” Serena stated, glancing between the two. Both of them just shrugged and Lucy went back to eating her own slice of cheese pizza and let James eat his.

Joey cast a knowing look in James direction. He looked at Joey, clearly confused. Joey shook his head as if to say, ‘never mind’. James shrugged and took another bite of his pizza.

The rest of the guys slowly made their ways to table and conversation returned. Mick was talking to Chris about the next gig when he noticed his fries kept disappearing. He could’ve sworn there were more there a second ago…

Serena was discreetly grabbing a couple of Mick’s fries every now and then, shoving them in her mouth and continuing to talk to Lucy with a straight face, as if nothing happened. Lucy tried not to laugh so she wouldn’t look suspicious, but when she couldn’t hold it anymore she turned to James and laughed into his arm. He looked at her strangely, but went back to conversing with the other guys.

Serena reached over to grab another fry, but her leg bumped into Mick’s, causing him to look at her and spot the fry in her hand. She stared at him wide-eyed and quickly shoved the fry into her mouth. Mick couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on her face and she tried to look as innocent as possible.

“I thought my fries kept disappearing somewhere,” Mick said, purposely staring at Serena.

She grinned sheepishly and gave him a pleading look. She really didn’t want him to be mad at her. He was rather large in size. Making large people angry was never a good idea.

Mick tried to muster a glare, but couldn’t. He just smiled at her instead, “I think you should get me more fries.”

Serena gasped, “What? All by myself? Do you want me to get kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

She glared at Corey. He smiled and went back to eating. She turned to Mick, “Will you come with me?”

He sighed. She was giving him a pleading look and pouting a bit. “Fine.”

Serena smiled and grabbed Mick by the wrist and despite his size, started dragging him back towards the main part of the pier.

Corey looked at them, clearly amused. Mick normally didn’t just let people drag him around everywhere. He must have a sweet spot for Serena to let him do that.

Corey then turned his attention to Lucy, who was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes in the sweatshirt he had let her borrow. He was surprised it actually fit her. Granted, it was a bit big, but it looked good on her. She noticed him staring at gave Corey a smile. He smiled back. He swore he could see James out of the corner of his eye, looking at him too.

Joey watched as Corey looked at James, who had a blank expression on his face. James had seen Corey and Lucy smile at each other, and for some reason he felt the need to scoot closer to her. Corey smirked at James, who wrapped his arm around Lucy. She looked at him, a bit confused, but smiled nonetheless.

Joey chuckled quietly to himself. Let the games begin.