CHAPTER 5

Lisbon, Portugal

THIS IS US TOUR

The next day Lanie yawned as she and Ellie stepped off the elevator.

"Up too late talking?" Nick asked.

"No." She said and handed him a thin stack of papers.

He smiled looking over them. "You sure this isn't ninety nine?" He asked.

"Dad..." She whined a bit annoyed.

"I'm kidding." He said.

"Sleep ok?" AJ asked Ellie walking over to her. He hugged her gently from behind.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Good, do me a favor and call your Mom at some point today. Alright?"

"Alright. I will." She said as he pulled away from her.

He sure had missed her.

"Let's go!" Howie shouted to the group as the van pulled up.

Later on at the Meet & Greet, they all waited standing behind the walls that separate the venue from the seating area.

"So when's the girls gonna get let in?" Gabe asked excited.

Jesse and Scott shook their heads, "So much for being discreet..." Jesse muttered.

Alaina smiled at Ellie, "Meet and greets are awesome since we became a part of them."

"Says you..." Scott muttered.

"Shut up!" Lanie said annoyed. She was a bit tired from writing all those lines and wasn't in the mood to deal with Scott's shit. She and Scott had a roller coaster like relationship. At times they got along great and at others they fought worse than Gabe and Arie.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you try and make me? Or you too much of a girl?" He asked.

"Knock it off." Jesse defended.

"Dude! Since when do you defend your sister?" Scott asked confused.

"Since..." Jesse started to say when they both got slapped in the head by Nick and Brian.

"Owe." They said.

"Knock it off, the first group of fans will be here any second and the last thing we all need is you two fighting so stop it." Nick said sternly sounding like a father.

"Whatever." Scott said.

"Scott!" Brian hissed and gave him a warning glare.

"Sorry." He muttered.

"Me too." Jesse said as the doors opened and the first few fans came in.

“That kid is slowly driving me insane. I dunno what’s gotten into him. At first I thought he was just trying to be like AJ but now… I’m not so sure.” Brian softly told Nick.

Nick nodded, “I’ve noticed.”

“Well, I gotta figure out something cause it’s starting to affect Leighanne and I.” Brian sounded upset.

“It’ll be ok Frick now slap on one of those big southern grins.” That’s was Nick’s lame attempt at cheering him up.

A few people started walking towards them; Ellie was excited yet a little scared. "What do we do?" She whispered.

"Act like one big happy family." Scott answered sarcastically

"We just meet them; say hi, small convo, picture, and autograph and then we do it with the next fan." Lanie whispered back as a girl approached them.

"Hello Beautiful. What's your name?" Gabe asked the first fan as she reached him.

Jesse who stood by him rolled his eyes. He knew they were supposed to play to the fans but Gabe often took it too far.

"Hi Jesse, I love your hair." A fan smiled as she handed him a notebook to sign.

"Thank you." He politely smiled back.

"Awe, she likes your hair Jesse." Scott teased standing next to him.

"Oh my God, Scott Littrell, I love you so much. Can I please have a picture with you?" She asked.

"Yeah." He simply said and leaned over the wall a little to let her friend get a photo.

"Is it always like this?" Ellie asked Scott once he stood up straight by her.

"Always." He replied.

"Hi, I'm not sure I know who you are." A girl told Ellie.

"I'm AJ's daughter, Ellie." She replied feeling butterflies in her stomach.

"Oh wow, that's awesome. I didn't know he had a daughter. Can I take a picture of you?"

"Sure you can." She said and smiled.

"You're doing great." Lanie whispered in her ear as two twin girls came to her.

"Hi Lanie." They said together.

"Hey girls, great shirts! Did you make them?" She asked.

They both nodded and smiled.

"Want me to sign them?" She asked seeing the other kids had.

"That'd be great." They said together again.

"How much longer?" Arabella asked Lanie.

"Shh..." Her Dad quickly cut her off. "Smile and act like you wanna be here. This is important for Daddy’s job." He told her.

"But their all being incongruous." She rolled her eyes.

Howie sharply looked at her.

"It means absurd." She explained.

"Oh..." He said turning back to another fan to take a photo. He then turned to his wife, "Do something with her."

"Bella!" Leigh softly hissed behind Howie's back.

Arabella leaned back and met her Mom’s gaze, "What?"

"Fifteen extra minutes at bed time to read if you’re good for the rest of this meet and greet."

Aries’ eyes grew large and she turned back to the fans with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Bribery?" Leighanne teased.

"If it works..." Leigh trailed off as she and Leighanne smiled for a photo.

"Scott seems to be ok?" Brian quickly asked his wife who glance down at him.

"Yeah, don’t worry so much." She replied as a fan came up to them.

"You guys are so cute together." She told them.

"Thank you." Brian gave her his cheesy southern grin.

"Don't even try to out smile me dawg." Nick teased Brian making a fan giggle. "My smile is better right?" He asked her.

"It's a wonder you ended up with a son as mature as Jesse. You know that?" AJ told him shaking his head.

After what seemed like forever the meet and greet ended and it was time for the sound check party.

"That wasn't too bad." Ellie smiled.

"You did great. I'm proud of you." AJ told her as they all stood around.

"Thank you."

"I made out pretty good." Gabe smiled looking over the scraps of paper in his hands. Each of them held a phone number.

Scott wanted to say something but decided against it. "Now what? Do we really have hang around for sound check party?" He asked instead.

"Yeah! I don't wanna hang out here, it's boring." Arie agreed.

"Never mind then..." Scott said.

"What do you mean?" Arie asked

"It'll be hell frozen twice over, before I ever let myself ever agree with you or anything to do with you for that matter." Scott explained.

Arie’s eyes filled up, all she was doing was agreeing with him, she wasn't being a know it all or a smart ass this time but she looked away before anyone could notice, "Fine, if that's how you feel I'll never agree with you again. Even if I do agree with you I won't voice my opinion. So there!" She said running away and towards the backstage area.

Leigh sighed, "I'll go and find her."

Lanie shook her head, "I know you're a jerk and that we all get annoyed by Aries’ brain but...did you really have say that? That was just cold."

Jesse nodded, "I agree. I don't get you sometimes, last night you basically told us to be grateful for our little sisters. Then today, you’re cold to Arie. It's like she agreed with you then suddenly you change your mind? Why do you stuff sh... Stuff like that? It's not cool man."

Scott stood silent.

Gabe sighed, "I'll go and help find her to make sure she's alright. I know most of her hiding spots for when we're on tour.” He then turned to Scott “Dude, if I find her crying...I'm kicking your sorry little..."

"Gabriel!" His Dad cut him off.

"Butt; I was gonna say butt." Gabe said walking away.

"Scott go help find her." Leighanne gently demanded.

"Why?" He asked hard.

"Because it's your fault she ran off." Brian explained in a not so calm tone.

"Who cares?" He rolled his eyes.

"Scott just go help find her damn it! I'm ‘bout over hearing you talk to your parents like that!" AJ snapped looking as though he could breathe fire at any Moment.

Ellie looked at him strangely as Scott walked away silent.

"Sorry, I'm just getting sick of his attitude." AJ told Brian shaking his head.

Brian nodded, "It's fine; remember our unwritten rule to help with each other's kids? But I'm sorry too; I dunno what’s gotten into him."

"Hormones." Nick jumped in.

Meanwhile the search for Arabella continued.

They searched high and low. Even Gabe was having trouble finding where she went.

"Come on Arie!" Scott huffed as he walked down a dimly lit hall.

"Leave me alone!" He heard a small voice shout. He looked all around him but saw no one.

"Arabella?" He questioned.

"I said, leave me alone." The voice said again. This time he heard where it came from. He walked over to a group of large, black, rolling crates and moved a few of them. There was Arie, sitting hugging her knees. She didn't even bother to look up at him. "Arie, everyone's been looking for you. You're parents are worried sick." He told her walking close.

Arie finally looked up at him. Her eyes were red and puffy.

'Shit.' He thought suddenly feeling bad. He hadn't meant to make her cry. He just got sick of her little girl crush on him sometimes. "Arabella, I didn't mean to make you cry." Scott said.

"Then why did you say what you did? It really hurt my feelings." She told him.

He took a deep breath and sat down next to her on the floor.

"I got a lot going on in my life. I just kinda only think about me. You bug the shit out of me sometimes. I wasn't thinking about you when I said what I did. I was only thinking about how pissed I was." He explained.

"I don't mean to perturb you. I just wanna be more like you because you're cool and people like you. I want people to like me too." She told him sniffling a bit. His confused look made her add, “It means annoy.”

"Oh well, people like you Arie. You just do things that bug people. I mean, like, if no one liked you then no one would have gone looking for you."

"If people like me then why don't you guys ever let me congregate with you?" She looked up at him.

"Well for one thing, you use words like perturb and congregate. I mean, none of us talk like that. It gets annoying. Plus we're all older then you. We like different things and we can do a lot of things you can’t.”

"Like have you own rooms?" Arie asked.

"Yeah, like that. It's not that we don't like you. We just don't have much in common with you." Scott was finding with no one around it wasn't too bad talking to her. He just didn't want it to become a regular thing. "I mean how much fun did you have when your parents made you play with Mason that one time Kevin came to visit us? He's like, three or four years younger than you."

"None at all. He's so less mature then I am." She rolled her eyes thinking about it.

"Well, that's sometimes how you make us feel. We know you don't mean to... it just happens. Fact of life, ya know?"

She nodded, "I'm sorry."

"It's cool..." He trailed off briefly. "Oh yeah and about Gabe; Well big brothers aren't supposed to let people know how much they actually do love their younger siblings. It's an unwritten rule. Trust me."

She nodded again. It made sense.

"So uh... ready to go back?" Scott asked her.

"Yeah, ya know, you actually are a rather nice boy." She smiled.

"Well do me a favor and keep that a secret." He said standing then helping her up.

She nodded again, "I have one question though..." She asked softly.

He sighed, "What is it?"

"Am I still not allowed to agree with you?" She asked still soft.

Scott looked down at her as she looked up at him with her big brown eyes that looked sore, red and puffy.

He felt bad again. "Only if you really agree with me and you’re not just sayin’ it because..." He trailed off. He wasn't gonna say it aloud.

"I'd only ever agree with you because I agree with you, I would never agree with you if I didn't agree with you." She replied simply.

Scott nodded, "Okay then."

 "So we're okay?" She asked feeling nervous by her question.

Scott looked around to see if anyone was around but the area was empty. "Yeah, we're good." He nodded, "Now, let's go before I get my ass kicked by your brother."

Arie smiled and hugged him quickly and ran off.

He sighed, "Wait up! We can't lose you for a second time in a row!" He said annoyed running after her.

Arie ran back out into the Meet & Greet area with Scott running up behind her, "See? I found her."

Leigh quickly hugged her, "Thank GOD you're okay! I don't know what I would've done..." Her voice trailed off.

"I'm fine." Arie said as her Mom let go of her.

"Did he say sorry?" Brian asked her.

Scott stiffened a bit, he never actually said the words, but he prayed that Arie wasn't in a word picky mood.

Arie nodded, "Yep, he apologizes to me for the first time ever."

Scott rolled his eyes, "It's not like I don't ever say the words..."

Lanie shook her head, "I'm glad you're okay, I was really worried when not even Gabe could find you." She said hugging the younger one.

"I found a new spot to hide." She replied rather proudly as Lanie pulled back.

Gabe shook his head, "No more new spots. Everyone was worried." Him especially, sure his little sister was annoying as hell and they fought worse than cat and dogs but that didn't mean he didn't love her, not that he'd ever tell her that but still.

"Sorry..." She said softly.

Gabe looked at her more closely and noticed her eyes that were still red and puffy. "Did he make you cry?" He asked getting pissed. No one other than him was allowed to make his sister cry or even hurt her feelings.

"Uhh...a little bit..." She said looking away. She didn't realize her eyes were still that noticeable but she had cried a lot.

Brian shook his head upset and he asked, "You actually made her cry?"

Scott didn't say anything. He felt bad enough about it; he didn't need everyone making a big deal outta of it.

"I warned you…" Gabe went to punch him but got held back by Nick and AJ.

"Told you he cares." Scott whispered to Arie now that everyone was looking at Gabe.

Arie smiled inside, 'He actually cares!' She screamed in her head.