Light up the Sky

A couple weeks later, as I was packing my last bag, someone started banging on my front door.

"I'm coming!" I shouted, dragging my suitcase and book bag behind me. I opened the door to four smiling faces that looked entirely too happy at 7 in the morning.

"Morning, Hanna!" Alex chirped as he grabbed my suitcase and headed back out to... the giant tour bus that was parked outside of my front door. It looked so out of place, parked on my little side street, that I nearly had to pinch myself to convince myself that it was real.

"Am I really doing this right now?" I whispered to myself as I followed the boys to the bus, where the rest of their crew was waiting. After introductions were finished, Jeremy led me past the lounge and towards the middle of the bus, where the bunks were. He pushed open the curtains on one on the very bottom and slid my suitcase in at the foot of it, then tossed my blankets, sheets and pillow in after.

"I saved you a bottom bunk." he said with a shy grin. "Figured that your first tour should be comfortable."

I flashed a small smile in return and threw my book bag in as the bus started to roll, beginning our long journey to Austin, Texas, the first date of Warped.

---

"Where are we right now?" I asked the next morning as I walked out into the bus's lounge, dressed in basket ball shorts and a tight tank top. Everybody stopped to stare for a second, causing my face to turn bright red. I hated being stared at, being the center of attention, even for a second.

"I think we're somewhere in Nebraska." Josh said as he turned his attention back to his laptop. "We're gonna go somewhere for breakfast soon. We've got a vote going on for Waffle House or Denny's. Wanna be our tie breaker?"

"Denny's?" I said, cringing as half of the bus groaned. Jeremy did a little touchdown dance, then wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me up off my feet. I made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a scream and turned bright red again. As I heard Jeremy laugh, I seriously considered whether dying of embarrassment was at all possible.

---

Ten minutes into breakfast with the band and crew, I realized just how loud they could get. Already, a waitress had come over to tell us to quiet down, but we were slowly reaching the limit again. The rest of the people in the restaurant were starting to give us annoyed looks, which I ignored as I stared down at my camera and fiddled with its settings. I just hoped that the waitress would hurry up and bring their food, to give them something else to occupy their mouths.

"Hey Hanna, take a picture of me!" Alex said, giving me an overly wide smile. I chuckled and snapped a quick shot of him, then one of each of the guys in turn. Might as well get into the groove of photographing them, since that was what I would be doing every day for the next few months.

Once everyone finally finished eating and terrorizing the good people of Denny's, we piled back into the bus for the last leg of our journey to Utah. I somehow ended up on the couch between Jeremy and Kevin, while the rest of the band alternated between playing angry FIFA matches and cheering the players on. During a rare quiet moment, Jeremy turned to me, his usual smile still lighting up his face.

"You're awfully quiet." he said as he nudged me gently with his elbow. "Aren't you having fun?"

I nodded and said, "I guess I'm just a quiet person."

He laughed and said, "We'll break you out of that, trust me. Also, I hope you have some shorts somewhere in that suitcase of yours, because with these jeans, you're gonna melt."

He grinned at me and tugged a couple times on my jeans. As he turned his attention back to the TV, I sighed softly, wondering yet again what exactly I had gotten myself into.