Disney Dream

The next morning I woke up as soon as the alarm Mom had set went off. Since I was up before Anna I showered and was dressed and ready before she even got out of the bed. Because I didn’t feel like sitting around the room waiting for her I made a cup of coffee in the little pot and then went out on the balcony to see if there were any animals roaming the grounds.

While I was standing there, leaning against the ledge I heard the door of the balcony of the room next to ours open. I ignored it and took a sip of my coffee.

“Good morning,” I heard a male voice say. I turned to look over my shoulder to see if he was talking to me. I couldn’t believe it. Joe Jonas was standing on the balcony next to mine. And he was smiling at me, and talking to me. As I told myself many times if I were to ever encounter this moment I kept calm and blinked my eyes twice to make sure it was really him in front of me. It was.

“Morning,” I said, smiling back at him. He stood up and walked over to the railing separating our balconies.

“I’m…” he said, sticking his hand out for me to shake it but I held a hand up to stop him.

“I know who you are,” I said, smiling again and shaking his hand. “I’m Stephanie Mitchell.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said with a laugh. “Are you a fan?”

“I think that’s a bit of an understatement,” I said, looking down at my coffee and blushing a little. He laughed again and pointed to my camera.

“Nice camera.”

“Thanks,” I said, lifting it up and pointing it towards him. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all!” He said, striking a pose and making a goofy face.

“Now that, is a beautiful picture,” I said, pulling it up to show him.

“Definitely a keeper,” he said, holding it up and pointing it towards me now. “Your turn!”

“Ah! Okay, um…” I said, looking around the balcony before spotting a giraffe out on the grounds. “Anyway you can get the giraffe in the shot with me?”

“Let’s see,” he said, backing up on the balcony turning diagonally towards the Savanna. “Got it!”

“Awesome,” I said, turning my body partly towards the giraffe and making a surprised face.

“Perfect,” he said looking at it before handing back the camera.

“Oh don’t I just look lovely,” I said, shaking my head. “So uh… if you don’t mind my asking… what are you doing down here?”

“We just needed a vacation,” he said, jerking his head towards the door to the room. “The whole family is here. Even though we’re not affiliated with Disney anymore we still love it here.”

“Very nice. How long are you here for?”

“Just a few days. Then we’re going on one of Disney’s cruises.”

“Which line?” I asked, grabbing one of the chairs and pulling it over towards the rail.

“The Dream,” he said, doing the same.

“You’re kidding!” I said, my eyes widening.

“What?”

“We are too. This is too weird,” I said, setting my coffee down and shaking my head.

“Why’s it weird?” he asked with a laugh.

“Because my sister and I have been fans of your family for… God… almost seven years now and had never met you. Now our hotel room is right next to yours and we’re going to be on the same vacation for the next week. This is not real.”

“I think it’s kind of cool,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I just had a crazy idea.”

“Oh boy,” I said, letting out a sigh.

“Since we will be on the same vacation for the next week, why don’t we hang out? Your family and mine. Would yours mind?”

“Wow, I don’t know,” I said, taking a deep breath. “First off when I go in there and tell them they’re never going to believe me. Second we have like this whole dining plan with reservations and everything so I don’t know if you guys do or not…”

“We don’t. They told us to give the restaurants we choose at least an hour’s notice. I’m sure my family wont’ mind eating where you guys have reservations at,” he said, smiling at me.

“The luxuries of a celebrity,” I said with a laugh and he smiled again. “The real question though is would your family mind?”

“Well, you seem pretty chill and so far so good, I like you. And I have a pretty good judge of character. So if I like you, they’ll like you. And I’ll probably like your family. So I think we should do this.”

“What about, fans that might be here. With my family around won’t that be weird if someone gets pictures of our families together and they’ll wonder and…”

“I mean, yeah that could happen and everything,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But, I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“ Let me… um… let me talk to my family and see what they think. It might take some convincing from your family, if they don’t mind that is,” I said, standing up.

“I’m sure they won’t,” he said, standing up as well. “I’ll go talk to them while you talk to yours.”

“Sounds good. Wish me luck,” I said, pausing outside the balcony door.

“Good luck,” he said with a smile, opening his door and stepping inside.

I smiled to myself and took a deep breath before opening the door. When I got back in the room, Anna was still in the bathroom. Mom was checking the weather and Dad was putting his shoes on.

“Uh, is she still in the shower?” I asked, setting my camera on the table. My heart was beating a mile a minute because I was so nervous.

“No she’s just putting her make-up on,” Dad said, rolling his eyes.

“Are you alright?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to talk to you all,” I said, walking towards the bathroom. I walked in and saw Anna applying her eyeliner.

“What’s up?” she asked, looking at me through the mirror.

“I need you to come out there so I can talk to all of you,” I said, leaning against the doorframe.

“Can it wait five more minutes?”

“Not really.”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh, setting her eyeliner down and following me out of the bathroom. She sat on the bed and our parents turned to look at me.

“Ok this is going to sound really crazy but just, trust me,” I said, holding my hands up.

“Steph, what’s going on?” Dad asked.

“While I was out on the balcony waiting for everyone to be ready so we could go someone from the room next door came out and started talking to me and it was Joe Jonas,” I said really fast and in one breath. I looked at my parents and my sister and they were completely silent. All of a sudden Anna let out a loud laugh.

“Are you sure that’s coffee you’re drinking?” she asked as she continued to laugh.

“Don’t be an ass,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m serious! It was Joe. He wants our families to hang out this week because they’re going on the cruise as well and he thinks I’m pretty chill and he likes me.”

“He likes you?” Anna asked, raising her eyebrows.

“As a person you idiot,” I said, smacking her leg. “He’s checking with his family right now to make sure it’s alright with them if we join them.”

“What about our reservations and everything?” Mom asked.

“We can still keep them and they’ll call the restaurants an hour ahead since that’s what they were told to do. I would really, really, love this.”

“I don’t know…” Mom said, looking over at Dad who shrugged his shoulders. “I guess… Dad and I will have to talk to his parents first.”

“Ok well they might be waiting out on the balcony already so… shall we?” I asked, motioning toward the balcony doors. My heart started to beat even faster, believe it or not, as I led the way out to the balcony. I stepped outside and saw Joe waiting with his parents and I took a deep breath. He turned when he heard us walk onto the balcony and smiled.

“Hey,” he said, waving at me.

“Hi,” I said. You could sense the nerves in my voice as I walked closer to the railing, my parents behind me. My eyes settled on Mr. and Mrs. Jonas and I smiled.

“Mom, Dad, this is Steph,” Joe said, introducing me to his parents. They smiled and shook my hand.

“It’s nice to meet you,” his mother said.

“It’s… unbelievable to meet you, and also nice,” I said shaking her hand and then her husbands.

“These are my parents, Brian and Cathy,” I said, pointing to my parents.

“I’m Kevin and this is my wife, Denise,” Mr. Jonas said, shaking hands with my parents.

“Joseph suggested that our families spend this vacation together since we’ll all be in the same place this whole week,” Denise said, looking at Joe who was looking at me.

“That’s what Steph told us. I don’t want us to be a bother on your family with security and everything,” Dad said.

“It won’t be a problem,” Kevin Sr. said, shaking his head.

“Are you sure?” Mom asked.

“We’re positive,” Denise said with a smile. “And don’t worry about your reservations. I’m sure we’ll be fine eating wherever you already have planned. I’ll just have to see what restaurants they are, Cathy, so that I can call them at an appropriate time. That is, if we decide to do this.”

“Well…” Dad said, looking at Mom who shrugged her shoulders.

“Can I say something, before you decide?” Joe asked and my parents turned to him. Mom nodded her head and raised my eyebrow at him questioningly and he just smiled. “From experience, my brothers and I know that sometimes on vacations we can all get sick of each other and we long for a friend to turn to when we want to just, escape. Especially with Kevin and Dani together. And I don’t know about Steph and her sister but… that’s how we feel sometimes so I’m sure the company would be nice to have. That way we could be a large group and break off into smaller ones if somebody wanted to do something different. Plus meeting new people is always awesome,” he said with a smile. Mom and Dad looked at each other and I saw Dad nod his head and I smiled.

“Alright,” Dad said. “If you’re sure it won’t be a problem then we’d love to.”

“Wonderful!” Denise said, clapping her hands together. “Which park are your reservations at today?”

“Magic Kingdom,” Mom said. “How about we round up our families and meet in the hallway? That way we can talk on the way to the park. How… do you get there anyway?”

“We have some security pick us up in a van,” Kevin Sr. said. “I’ll call down and see if it’s large enough for all of us. There are four of you, correct?”

“Yes,” I said with a smile. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Denise said, touching my arm and smiling at me. “I’m sure we’ll all get along just fine.”

“I hope so,” I said, turning to Joe. “So I’ll see you in a minute, I guess.”

“Yeah, then I can introduce myself to you properly without a railing in the way. And of course my brothers and Dani can’t wait to meet you,” he said with a smile.

“Neither can Anna and I,” I said with a laugh, walking into the room.

“So?” Anna asked, coming out of the bathroom, her face fully made up.

“Well… we’re vacationing with the Jonas Brothers and their family for the next week!” I said. She screeched and jumped up. When she landed her eyes widened. “What is it?”

“Do I look okay? I mean, in like, two minutes I’ll be face to face with Nick Jonas finally and… oh my God,” she said, sounding panicked.

“Anna, you look fine. Come on, grab your Minnie ear head band, your camera, and your bag and let’s go!” I said, slinging my bag fully equipped with gum, my camera, and wristlet on my shoulders and grabbing my Minnie Mouse ear headband.

“You’re really going to wear those?” she asked, hovering over her headband.

“Why not? I feel way less embarrassed wearing these than I do with the hat,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Plus, they’re cute!”

“Okay,” she said, grabbing hers.

“Have everything?” Mom asked, standing by the door.

“Yeah,” I said, holding up my headband to show her. Anna and I would wait until we actually got to the park to put them on. Past experience of wearing them on transportation devices told us that it was the better idea so they wouldn’t fall off.

“Okay,” Mom said, opening the door and walking out into the hallway. I took a deep breath and looked back at Anna who looked nervous yet excited.

“Here we go,” I said to her. I took a step into the hallway and realized that my dreams were finally starting to come true.