Welcome to My Life

Chapter Two – Food Fight

“What restaurant are we going to? I want there to be a buffet” Dougie said as he and the rest of McFly headed out of the studio.

“Yeah, so you can eat it all by yourself” Tom said sarcastically. The DarkElements started to follow, but Robert grabbed Rhuben’s arm before she could leave the room.

“What the hell was that?” he burst out as soon as they were out of ear short. Rhuben gasped in pain as he squeezed her forearm in his large hand. “Answer me, damn you!”

“I-I’m s-sorry…dad” Rhuben stammered and gasped again as he squeezed harder. “I mean sir! I’m sorry sir! Just, please stop, you’re hurting me!”

“You better watch your attitude next time, or something worse will happen” Robert said and let go of her arm. He threw open the door to the studio, fixed his composure, and strode down the hallway. Rhuben slowly followed him, rubbing her forearm as she caught up to the others.

“Hey, that’s a nasty bruise” Harry said, when he saw it. Riley, who saw the bruise out of the corner of her eye, bent her head and stared at her feet.

Her brothers pretended they hadn’t heard anything, when in reality they heard the whole exchange between their sister and their father. They stayed farther back behind the others, just incase they had to stop their father from doing something worse.

“Yeah, I hit my arm on the door coming out of the room” Rhuben replied, the lie rolling easily off of her tongue. She glanced at Riley, who blinked sympathetically back at her.

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“Ri-Ri, can we get anything we want?” Sydney asked, grabbing Riley’s hand as the two bands and their managers crossed the street to get to a restaurant. He did that whenever there was a lot of traffic. And the New York traffic was nothing to laugh at, if you weren’t paying attention, then you would probably be hit by a car in the next two seconds.
“Go ahead, but we’re not the one who’s going to clean up after you vomit, like last time” Rhuben said and chuckled.

“You can get one breakfast combo each” Robert called to his son, who ‘awed’ in disappointment.

“What kind of food do you like to eat?” Tom asked the small boy. Patrick snorted.

“What food doesn’t he like to eat, well, ones that he’s not allergic to” he said and rolled his eyes. “Once when he was four, he went around pretending to be poor so people would give him something to eat”

“I was four, how was I supposed to know it was wrong?” Sydney asked exasperatedly as McFly laughed. “You guys are always making fun of me” he said and pouted.

“No we don’t” Patrick denied.

“You do too” Sydney insisted.

“Do not”

“Do too”

“You better get comfortable; they’re going to be arguing for a while.” Noah said softly. He turned to Jake. “What’s the restaurant we’re going to?”

“It’s a great place called Logan’s, I went there when I-“

“First feel in love with your girlfriend, Ashley” Tom, Harry, and Danny said in unison. Jake blushed.

“Have I told that story a lot?” he asked sheepishly.

“No, this would be the three…four hundredth time, that’s not a lot” Tom said and gave a small chuckle. “Since we’re going to be touring together, I think it would be best if I talked to the leader of your band, so which of you three is it?” he asked Patrick, Noah, and Sydney.

“It’s Riley and Rhuben actually” Noah said and gave a proud smile.

“You shouldn’t be quick to assume something” Rhuben said coolly as they went into the restaurant. They asked for a table for eleven and waited for it to get ready. “But what would you like to know?”

“How do you guys…what’s the word I’m looking for?” Tom asked as he taped his chin.

“How do you…do what you do?” Danny asked.

“Exactly” Tom replied and slapped Danny on the shoulder. Riley looked at the two of them and smirked when she noticed that Danny had a dreamy look on his face. Rhuben must have noticed it too because she made a disgusted face and looked out the window, rubbing her bruised arm.

Riley hesitated and looked at her father, who nodded and gave her a small glare. She sighed and turned back to them.

“Well, when we perform songs, sometimes we co-write, and sometimes we write our own” Riley replied. “And then Patrick and Noah sing it, to show us what it should sound like being sung. I play music for it, to see what it should sound like. Rhuben suggests what we should do for stage presence, like moving out towards the crowd, or jumping around. And Sydney is the one who helps us record it when we make a CD”

“If you didn’t already know, we’re famous for performing our songs with instruments, and performing by singing and dancing to them,” Rhuben cut in, turning to look at Tom and Danny. “When we dance to perform, Riley is the one who decides what we wear, Patrick and Noah decide what songs we do, I choreograph our dance moves, and Sydney is the one who really gets the crowd going”

“Together, being the leaders, Rhuben and I talk to our dad to see what performances we get offered and talk to our brothers to decide which to do. We don’t decide anything without talking to everyone first” Riley concluded.

“Please follow me to your table” the waitress said giggly, and excited.

“Yay, brekkie!” Sydney shouted.

“Don’t be such a boofhead(1)” Rhuben scolded as they sat down. Noah helped Sydney into a seat; he was so small he had to sit on a phone book.

“Sorry’ Sydney replied and stuck out his tongue. He grabbed the crayons that were on the table and played a game of dots with Patrick and Noah as Riley and Rhuben drummed their forks and knives on the table, McFly chatted, and Jake and Robert talked about the tour.

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“Would you stop staring at me?” Rhuben asked Danny through clenched teeth. “It’s really annoying and really creepy”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it” Danny replied and winked at the waitress that was busing the tables near them. She giggled and hid her blushing face.

“I’m taking a guess he’s kind of a man whore?” Riley asked Harry who was sitting next to her. Harry laughed and gave Tom and Dougie a high-five.

“Even someone who has known you for only an hour can tell that you’re a man whore” he said loudly.

“And what would give you the idea that I’m a man-whore?” Danny asked innocently.

“The fact that you’ve been staring at Rhuben for…the past twenty minuets” Dougie spoke up.

‘He speaks” Danny said in fake shock.

“You’re a dag(2)” Rhuben said shaking her head.

“Rhuben” Robert said in a warning tone. She gave him an apologetic look, but her siblings could tell that it was a fake one. She picked at the carrots that were on her plate and tossed them onto the plate, to see how far they could bounce across the table. She snickered when it bounced and hit Danny in the forehead.

“Why’d you throw a carrot at me?” Danny asked slowly.

“Oh no” Tom sighed and buried his face in his hands.

“I didn’t throw it at you, I bounced it!” Rhuben replied. Danny grabbed a handful of eggs that was on his plate and threw it back at Rhuben, but it hit Riley too.

“Hey!” she cried and whipped her toast at him, her elbow hit Sydney’s cup of grape juice and knocked it over.

“My juice!” he wailed.

“Knock it off guys!” Jake called over the shouts at their table as McFly and the DarkElements threw food at each other. “You’re acting like a bunch of kids.

“We are” Patrick pointed out. Robert stood up.

“Enough!” he shouted, causing his kids to stop and sit down, their heads bent towards their laps. He turned to them “You’re going to clean this up, and pay for any dishes you broke, before meeting the rest of us outside”

“But they-“Robert cut Riley off by holding up a hand.

“You’ve been testing my patience all day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is in the newspaper tomorrow, now do as I say” he said and left the diner.