Welcome to My Life

Chapter Three – The Start of the Tour

“I hate washing dishes” Riley complained as she pulled the elastic gloves off of her hands as she and her siblings left the restaurant. Their father was waiting outside, sitting on a bench and casually drinking a coffee. But the Jacksons could easily tell that he was pissed off from the way his hand shook when he set the cup down.

“Are you all ready to pack and go to the airport?” Robert asked as he stood up.

“Where’s our first stop on the tour?” Noah asked as they walked back to the apartment that they were living in.

“The first stop is up in Maine,” Robert replied, thinking hard. “Jake and I decided that we should start on the eastern side of the US, then move over towards the western side, and then go around the actually world”

“Cool!” Sydney cried happily. He rushed forward and grabbed Robert’s arm. “May we get some ice-cream before we go back?”

“No” Robert replied gruffly. Sydney turned back and looked at his siblings. Knowing that she was going to pay for it later, Riley smirked back and nodded.

“Please can we get ice cream?” Sydney pleaded his eyes wide and watery. “I’ll clean out the garage by myself this time”

“You make him clean out the garage?” an elderly lady asked as she walked by.

“Don’t do that” Robert warned through gritted teeth. But Sydney kept going.

“Please? I’ll do everything by myself this time! The dishes, I’ll mop the floors, I’ll clean my room and the basement, and the windows and the car”

“Here you are sonny, here’s some money to get yourself some ice cream” the elderly lady said and handed him two ten dollar bills. Sydney widened his eyes in thanks and the elderly lady hit Robert in the arm with her purse. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” she snapped.

“Ow! What was that for?” Robert demanded rubbing his arm. He turned back to glare at Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah, who were laughing, and they immediately straightened up and looked bored. “Fine, I’ll get you some ice-cream!”

“Thank you daddy” Sydney smiled sweetly and brushed the tears away from his cheeks.

-

“Ok, whose idea was it this time?” Robert demanded as he walked back in forth in front of his children. They were standing in a straight line, from oldest to youngest, looking at the floor. “Whose idea was it to make him cry and beg like that?”

Riley’s lips started to twitch into a smile. Before she could do anything, Robert reached out and slapped her on the cheek, causing her head to snap to the side. She rolled her jaw and slowly turned back to him, her eyes full of hatred and pure fury.

“The rest of you get upstairs, I’ll deal with you later” Robert growled.

-

“Whoa, what happened to you?” Danny blurted out later that afternoon as the two bands got ready to board the plane. He was going to ask her as soon as she and her family had arrived at the airport, but they had been mobbed by lots of fans, boys and girls of all ages. So for the past hour they were signing autographs and taking pictures, and for Patrick’s and Noah’s cases, giving kisses.

Riley forced herself not to wince as she looked at her reflection in the window. Her head was hurting and she knew that everyone was shocked by her black eye. She tried to cover it up with make up, but it hurt too much to do anything. At least after she had gotten beaten she had been able to cover up most of the cuts and bruises she had.

“I got into a fight” she replied. “I guess it’s not a good thing to call someone’s sister a whore, even if she is”

“I know what you mean” Danny said and laughed. The Jacksons stared at him in silence and he coughed and turned away.

“So, how excited are you guys that we get to go around the world?” Tom asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

“So excited!” Patrick cried jumping up and down. What seemed like an affectionate touch to Jake and McFly was actually Robert grabbing Patrick’s neck by the pressure points. Patrick tried not to wince in pain.

“Settle down,” Robert said gently. Patrick nodded and held still.

“Wow, I should try that next time” Jake said laughing to himself. He looked at his watch. “We still have about twenty minuets to board. So, I’ll tell you guys what we’re going to do. As soon as we get to Maine, we’re going to check into a hotel, and then go to a local radio station to talk about the tour”

“Cool” Riley said and everyone sat down, waiting to board the plane. She and Patrick pulled their acoustic guitars out of their cases and randomly pluck a few strings before playing a few chords.

“Hey, that’s Violence by Blink 182, isn’t it?” Dougie asked shyly. Patrick looked up at him.

“Yeah, you like Blink 182?” he asked.

“They’re probably my favorite band” Dougie replied and glanced over at Riley, who was staring at him. He struggled to continue with the conversation but looked away, shyly. “Um, what about you?”

“I’m not sure” Riley replied and looked down at her guitar.

“For me, it would probably be New Found Glory” Patrick spoke up and gave a warm smile.

Rhuben, who was listening to the conversation, tuned out as she smacked her drumsticks against the metal railing behind her. Noah grinned and started to do the same thing with his drumsticks. They knew that they were annoying their father, but they also knew that he couldn’t do anything about it.

“You the drummer of your band?” Harry asked the two of them.

“Well that’s kind of obvious” Rhuben said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Noah slapped her on the arm and she smile sweetly, although you could tell that it was forced, back at him.

“We both are, for certain songs I play the drums, and for other songs she does” Noah replied softly.

“How many CDs do you guys have out?” Tom asked curiously. Noah cocked his head to the side, biting his lower lip in thought.

“Two” he replied. “We’re working on another one right now, like we said back in the restaurant, Sydney is the one who helps us create the CD, you know, synthesizing it and everything. He’s really very smart like that”

“How old did he say he was?” Danny suddenly asked. Rhuben turned to look at him.

“7” she replied slowly.

“Where did he learn to do all of that?” he asked. Rhuben clucked her tongue.

“Here and there, he did a lot of reading when he was a baby/toddler” she replied. “Way smarter then us when it comes to the internet or any kind of advanced technology”

“Would you stop that?” Riley asked her sister, grabbing a hold of the drumsticks that were in her hands. “It’s really annoying.”

“That’s why I’m doing it” Rhuben shot back and stuck out her tongue. Riley stuck hers out in reply and shook her head.

“That’s one other thing I’d like to know, how much do you guys fight?” Tom asked.

“What’s will all of the questions?” Riley snapped, her icy blue eyes flashing.

“No reason, I just wanted to get to know you guys” he replied sincerely.

Riley looked at Rhuben in confusion. Most times, people didn’t want to get to know them, they just went ahead and spread rumors and made up things that they thought that they did. No one was ever really nice. Just because they were famous didn’t mean that they wanted to be treated differently.

“We fight as much as much as any family does” Noah replied. “Sometimes we fight more, sometimes we fight less. But it doesn’t affect our music making if that’s what you mean.” He cocked his head to the side. “Its time to board”

“How do you know?” Harry asked. He had been listening to the conversation and the fact that Noah knew something without anyone telling him was kind of creepy.

“I heard that lady over there say it” Noah replied with a nod towards the lady who was sitting behind a desk, talking into a phone. She put down her cell phone and picked up another phone.

Flight 2348 to Westbrook, Maine is now boarding. Passengers with young children please go first.

Noah smirked to himself as he grabbed his bag. “We can go first because Sydney is so young”

With that, he went ahead of the others to get on the plane, hoping that this tour will give them a chance to stay away from their father, so they didn’t have to get hurt anymore. The other band was starting to notice, and he didn’t want to get them anywhere closer to the truth.