windows down and your favorite song [A DC Games Summer]
Title: windows down and your favorite song [A DC Games Summer]
Word Count: 11,920ish.
Characters: selena/nick, joe/demi, david henrie and more!
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is a story of the kids at the 2008 DC Games. In case you don't remember, it was a summer of Nick and Sel, when Demi became a part of the group, when there were pictures of pool parties and man-hugs and other happy wonderful things.
Author's Note:This was started in March as a summer story, then in the midst of country hopping it became "here's a story to replace the lack of DC Games," and at this point six months later, it's become a "fuck it, take this off my hands please" kind of deal. I really like this though, it's just not the right season anymore!
Music's a huge part of this, especially the Joe and Demi parts so if you want to know what songs were meant for what: Nick and Sel's Dance, Joe and Demi's Dance, Weeeezer.
If you want any downloads just ask :)
****
Nick's pretty sure that Disney has the money to shell out for charter buses that, you know, aren't going to give him chronic back pain in the near future and he makes a mental note to bring it up in the next meeting with the exec's. He's slouched in the uncomfortable charter bus chairs next to Selena, who has briefly left her seat with Demi to retrieve the ipod that Nick may or may not have stolen out of her hands. He's got to make sure Demi's not infiltrating people's ipods with her heavy metal crap, is all. God knows the number of Black Sabbath songs she’s somehow managed to sneak onto his itunes.
Selena’s ipod is surprisingly clean, with people like Jamie Cullum and The Hush Sound coming up but she’s leaning over him, her hair falling on his shoulder so his judgement is feeling pretty clouded at the moment. It’s been a while since he’s had that feeling in his stomach though, so instead of reacting, he keeps scrolling, berating her taste in music and sometimes offering compliments along the way. Sometimes.
"The Jonas Brothers? Really, Sel? People actually listen to these guys?" he grins.
Selena laughs back, but it's the surprised "Nicky-actually-loosened-his-tie" kind. Nick's pretty sure he should be offended by that, but he doesn't blame her. After late studio hours for A Little Bit Longer and his semi-obsession with nailing his guitar riff for the tour, he hadn't exactly scheduled in playtime. But the CD's been owning the charts and tour's practically over and right now, Nick's getting paid to play sports (retakes included nonetheless) with his best friends for a week and well, he's feeling relaxed enough to throw a few jokes around.
He continues scrolling through her playlists but their banter is quickly drowned out by Joe and David Henrie. The pair have taken it upon themselves to command the front of the bus, attempting to lead a complicated round of 'We Are Family'. It had seemed like a good plan on the whole when they had detailed their coup-de-bus, except for 1) the song was clearly not made to be a round, and 2) no one really knew the lyrics, past the chorus, so despite the duo's raucus singing-turned-shouting attempt to lead the song, it had quickly dissolved. It is only after Kyle Massey begins to throw paper balls at them to step down that Joe and David decide its time to head back to their seats.
"Wheels on the Bus too good for you, Joe?" Nick grins as Joe comes bounding back to launch himself into the now vacated seat next to Demi, across the aisle from him.
"Oh whatever, Nick," Joe says good naturedly, noogying him, "these people clearly aren't as good as they are on TV. They're lucky me and David are here at these games...they're going to need some manly inspiration, right Henrie?"
David sprawls comfortably into the seats in front of them and lazily lifts his fit to pound against Joe's to say seriously, "Right, Jonas. Our ass-kicking will become legendary. We better be on the same team, dude.."
Nick watches the exchange, listening to them compare the hours spent bench pressing ("Dave there aren't even 25 hours in a day, you filthy liar") and the size of their muscles, among others. He feels himself relax a little more, and he's not going to lie: it's a relief to see Joe smiling again. After the messy "Taylor Incident," a euphemism the family had adopted to discuss the issue, Joe had been a little off, to say the least. His brother was used to being loved, and no one was more confused or hurt than Joe when hate began to be poured onto him by his fans. Nick remembered Joe's mini-depression at one of it's lower points at what he walked into on his way upstairs, after coming home from the studio. After dropping off his keys on the hangar, he discovered Joe on the couch with Demi, watching some re-run of Freaks and Geeks with his head in her lap. Demi had her fingers in his hair, and was patting his back as he grumbled, unaware of Nick's presence in the doorway, "I just don't know, Dem. You like Taylor and you haven't made hate comments on our Myspace yet. Why can't our fans be more like you?"
Demi glanced up to see Nick and rolled her eyes, as if asking for help. Nick offered a shrug and a sympathetic smile, before shaking his head and turning towards the stairs; he'd let Demi handle this one. He could hear Demi attempting to reconcile the boy in her lap ("Joe, you can't take this so seriously. Twelve year olds have the memory of a fruitfly.") even as he closed the door to his room. Sometimes, Nick wondered why Joe never thought to date Demi. He knew they had fooled around a little during Camp Rock, but when they came back, there was a little too much traveling for something real to start and, Joe need for insta-love, causing the Taylor stint, didn't give Demi any reason to stick around. Nick figured Dem would be good for Joe, though. She could talk to him in ways that even he couldn't, and Joe always has this content smile on his face when Demi is mentioned, like just her name could make him feel better. But at this rate, someone not terminally insane would fit the requirements, so Nick's thinking his standards are on the low side at the moment.
Anyways, as Nick watches Joe get pushed out of his seat when David decides to give a live preview of his physical ability, he figures these games will be a good place for Joe to get his mind off of things.
"By the way Nick, don't think that the minute we get there you can go hole yourself up in a room with your guitar," Selena says, laughing and snapping Nick out of his reverie.
"You're coming to the pool with me at least once this week buddy, and I won't take no for an answer." Her hair flips around as she turns to sit back in her seat, and Nick catches a wave of strawberry and mango and calmness and grins. This week could be a break for more than just Joe, he figures.
---
Alright, so the teams were picked and Demi's not going to lie: she's dissapointed. She's got Alyson and some of these international kids are really cool but, well, it would have been nice to be on Joe's team. It's not that she's pining over him, because she's not: Demi doesn't do pathetic. But when she met him in Canada, he was so funny and sweet and so her type that she was too surprised to put her guard up. Joe, Joe Jonas started being funny and sweet to her, and well, she was only human. He started holding her hand under the table at dinner, and walking her back to her cabin at night, and then sneaking her out an hour later to take a canoe ride, and after all the stress that came with joining the Disney ranks, Joe was just this breath of fresh air. She still remembers calling Selena after the first week of it, trying not to gush too much (since when does two hours of Joe stories count as gushing?) and waking up grinning the next morning.
Demi also remembers the week back home after filming, remembering how the Canadian woods aren't much like reality, and how phones don't magically ring, even if you stare at them long enough. So after about a month of that, she met a few guys, went on a few dates, and tried moved on. Because like she said, Demi doesn't do pathetic. Even though her debut summer tour with the boys was more than she could have ever asked for, it wasn't exactly a dream come true to travel with a crush whose two favorite pastimes are hanging out with you and kissing his blonde girlfriend--hobbies he often combined, due to time constraints. She dealt with it though, letting Joe play with her hair before shows and call her to say goodnight, trying to not wonder if he had said the same lines to Taylor before ringing her.
But that was the tour, and now it was different. Taylor was out of the picture and didn't have a chance of getting back in it after their gloriously mature breakup, and Demi had Joe in Florida with Disneyworld, the pool, and maybe, a few plans.
"Okay, this was so not supposed to happen." She grumbles to Selena under her breath after the team scene was filmed. They're at the refreshments booth, grabbing some lemonade and discussing the unpleasant turn of events while the other kids milled around, waiting for uniforms to be handed out.
"Aw, girl, you know Joe'll find a way to follow you around anyway. I was kind of hoping for more people on my team too," Selena says. She sneaks a glance over at Nick unintentionally, which Demi sees. Selena's kind of super secretive about who she likes and it's cute, so Demi usually humors her. But they've only got a week with the boys alone, Demi decides, and there wasn't much time to play stupid.
"Sel, you know you could always make Nick jealous by going for Kevin," she grins, nudging her and winking obnoxiously.
"Um, EW? He's like five years older than me, thank you very much."
Demi spends the next few minutes informing Selena that if you can't get one Jonas you might as well find another, but her educational session is cut short by some producer's arrival with a big carboard box with a huge Soffe logo on it. Dear God.
---
David Henrie has just spent the latter half of his morning kicking ass. He's pretty used to these displays, but these mere Disney mortals are not, so he doesn't mind the staring. Not when these guns are involved.
He's hanging out in the yellow tent, sitting as comfortably as one can on a rubber blowup couch, lazily waiting for Selena to wrap it up with her team. It's weird, but even though there's no filming going on right now and there isn't a good reason for him to wait, it's become a habit hanging around Sel. She's just so chill and laidback and exactly his type, if he was into dating people who are like little sisters to him. Which he isn't, so it was too bad.
She waves goodbye to everyone, briefly hugging Sabrina before smiling at David. "Ready?" he says, grinning, feeling more relaxed already. Selena tends to do that to him, he figures.
"Yep!" she smiles back, linking her arm through the crook in his elbow, leading him out of the stadium, towards a pathway and a five minute walk back to their hotel. They walk back, exchanging stories from the day; Selena offering a reenactment of Kevin and Sabrina's ridiculous pep talks ("They say them together! With synchronized hand motions, I swear!") and David detailing the intense workout regiment him and Joe had mapped out.
"Just you wait, Sel. In a week my team'll basically Hulk Hogans wearing green shirts..."
"Whatever David," she responds smiling. She's heard his spiel enough to simply ignore. "We're all going to the pool later tonight, though. I know those muscles are practically dying to be freed from that shirt."
David nods seriously, "I'm glad someone understands these babies. And pool party!? Sweeet! I've been looking for the perfect place to put the moves on that Spanish chick on your team."
He has been, though. She smiles a lot at him and once he's pretty sure she winked in his direction. It was kind of bright outside though so the it's not guaranteed but he's a glass half full kind of guy.
"Andrea? Don't even think about it. The girl's actually nice!" Selena says, in mock horror. "And it's only been one day, David, how have you managed to already find a new chick?"
David grins. "Sel, there is no time to waste here. Hook a brother up, why don't you?"
Selena slows her pace down as they come to the side entrance of the hotel. Folding her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows, she pulls off the perfect poker face before asking, "And what do I get in return, huh?"
David rolls his eyes at this, but allowingly says, "Alright, Gomez. How does this sound: I drop a few lines with Joe about you and get him to pass on the word to Nick, and you'll have a date by the end of the week. But that's only if I get my latin lover, okay?"
Selena seems to be caught totally off guard by this, dropping the calm facade to stutter, "Um eww, Nick? I mean-- really David--I mean. But--just whatever, if that's all you got, I guess I'll have to take that. Yeah, okay sounds gre--sounds okay." She ends this long winded explanation with a noncommital shrug of the shoulders combined with multiple head nods, making her look very awkard indeed.
David watches this amusing combination for a little, before laughing and wrapping an arm around Selena's shoulder. "Ooookay, Sel. A simple "Yes David you're incredible" would've been straight, but that was pretty cute too.."
David slides his key card into the outside security check and takes a left turn down the softly dimmed hallways to walk Selena down to her and Demi's hotel room. Selena opens the door to her room and slides inside easily, leaving a big enough gap for her to lean her head out. David can hear the tv talking inside the room, the strains of a theme song siphoning through. He considers inviting himself inside but Sel looks pretty ready for him to go though, like she really needs to get something off her chest, or something. Not wanting to interfere with Girl Talk, David decides to head back to his room.
"Thanks for walking me back Dave," Selena smiles, getting ready to close the door. "Oh yeah," she says, jerking it open for a second, "you still coming to the pool tonight?"
"Girls in bikini's? I'm not going to be like 'eww no!'" David scoffs, looking at her like she just asked the most ridiculous question. "Hell yeah I'll be there!" He swings his hand up for a 'let's-get-some-tonight' high 5, but reciprocated by a surprisingly strong push away from the doorway, probably his cue to leave.
"Okay perv, we're meeting out there at 11," Selena says, scrunching her nose up like she kind of regrets inviting him, and shuts the door.
-----
"Nick can you hurry up? Everyone's gonna be gone by the time we get out there," Joe shouts impatiently, leaning against the wall of their hotel room, glancing at his wrist for about the fifth time that night, remembering for the fifth time that, yeah, he doesn't wear a watch.
"Dude, chill." Nick say, giving him a weird look as he pops his head out of the bathroom where he stands, running his fingers through his hair. "Since when do you care about being on time, anyways?"
And it's a valid point, Joe thinks. He doesn't usually make a big effort to show up any sooner than fifteen minutes after something begins, but there's something about tonight that's different. It's the pool and Joe hasn't gone swimming with his friends since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, at least. He'd gone at the gym a couple of times with Nick some mornings, but all he wanted to do was swim laps, and that doesn't even count as going to the pool if you ask him.
They finally head out after Nick grabs a couple of towels from the front desk, and start walking towards the back pool, which the hotel has closed down for them to enjoy for the night. And maybe that's not one hundred percent normal, but Joe takes what he can get at this point.
"So Nicky, gonna make a move on Selena tonight?" He grins interrupting the quiet between them, hoping to catch him by surprise. No avail though, as Nick just rolls his eyes. Fun killer. "I don't know, Joe. Remember that time, oh five minutes ago when I said 'I might ask Selena out tonight?' Not much has changed since then."
Maybe Nick did say that when Joe had asked earlier, but it wasn't five minutes ago and Joe thought he'd bring it up again in case Nick forgot his gameplan, or something. Jeez.
"Relax, Nick," Joe says, throwing his arm around his shoulder, squeezing his neck for good measure, "She'll say yes."
Nick's face loosens into a closed lip smile before looking at Joe, "Yeah, I sure hope so."
-----
She's the one who told everyone eleven o' clock and it's 11:30 and Selena's still sitting on the giant pullout bed in her and Demi's suite. She's not sure why Disney thought that they'd need a king sized bed in the living room on top of the two twins in the bedrooms but she doesn't mind. She and Demi have been sleeping on the king one the past few nights just because they can, anyways. It's the closest thing they have to a sleepover these days.
"Deeemiii," she groans, for what feels like the hundredth time in the general direction of the hallway bathroom. She hears some muffled shuffling and Demi finally comes out, stopping to spin around in front of the full length hall mirror.
"What about this one?" Demi says, glancing back at Selena. It's a simple black bikini with little gold clips connecting the strings in all the right places and seeing her like this, combing her hair like a mad person, checking to see if her hipbones show at the right angles, Selena wants to tell Demi how beautiful she is when she's not trying at all and how, despite what the rest of Hollywood thinks, she's better off not giving a shit. And it's not like Demi cares that often, it's just, catching her in vunerable moments scares Selena sometimes.
It's not really the time for a talk like that though, so instead she intones in a mock zombie voice, "It's perfect. You're perfect" and throws a towel at Demi.
Demi rolls her eyes, "Gee, thanks Sel."
"Demi, Joe would look at you in a bikini even if it was made out of, like, hamburgers. Actually, especially if it's made out of hamburgers."
"Yeah," Demi says, spinning around one last time, "You're right about the last part anyways. Let's go," she grins, throwing the hotel towel that Selena gave her in a bag.
They walk down to the back door of the hotel, where the place had been roped off exclusively for them. Nice.
Most of the gang's already there, Selena notices with a relief. It seriously sucks when you plan things and no one shows up so, yeah. Brenda and Jen are playing Marco Polo with Moises and Dylan with Moises accidentally running into walls as Marco and Dylan running into the girls, his eyes wide open. Joe and David and Cole are in the middle of a water gun fight. Selena's pretty sure Nick's supposed to be a part of it, but Nick seems to be ignoring the water gun in his hand, opting to watch with this goofy smile on his face. It's becoming more frequent, these smiles, but they still somehow manage to suckerpunch her in the stomach, put this lame grin on her face that probably makes her look like she's laughing at her own joke or something. If looking stupid is what she has to do to see Nick Jonas act like a sixteen year old more often, then hell, she'd become a part-time clown if necessary.
She drops her bag off by a pool chair, takes off her yellow cover-up, and heads over to a circle of girls that have gathered by the gate. It's mostly the Camp Rock girls; Demi, Alyson, Meaghan and a few others just standing around talking. She's kind of hesitant about walking over because, well, they're Demi's friends. It's not that they're mean to her or anything because they're some awesome girls, Selena figured out pretty quickly after a couple movie nights, but it's hard to keep up with the inside jokes and just, closeness, that filming a movie makes. Demi never purposely tries to ignore her and always invites her to their sporadic girls nights and Selena figures it can't really hurt to try to fit in, so she tries to shake off the weirdness and heads over.
"Hey Sel," Demi grins, opening up the circle and leaving a wide gap for her to stand (she has the best friend sometimes) , "I was just telling Meaghan about the ridiculous number of mouse ears we found in our hotel room."
“Oh God, yeah." Selena says, relaxing a little, because bashing Disney is the best icebreaker,like, ever. "Seriously, there were like fifteen Mouse ears on the sink, the toilet paper, the ironing boards, everything. It was cute for a while, but when we found the sign on the Bible in the drawer, it was just plain creepy,” she grins, fake shuddering.
The girls laugh along and start comparing omniscient Disney stories and everything’s going really great and she’s starting to feel comfortable when Meaghan says something along the lines of “Oh God that reminds me of that time when…” and just like that, whatever forward steps she’s made are swept away. Selena feels like an intruder all of a sudden; it’s a weird feeling, because it’s not like they don’t want her to be there or anything, she just doesn’t have anything remotely on-topic to contribute to Reminisce Hour.
“Gooomez!” She hears David shout at her from the pool with Joe Jonas offering wolf whistles, and it comes as a total relief. She quickly excuses herself from the girls and heads over to the edge of the pool, where they seem to have stopped their earlier game for pool scuba masks. She’s not really sure who brought them and she’s not sure she wants to know, but she’s glad that Joe and David are becoming this close. David’s a cool guy and even though he never complained, Selena’s got a feeling he’s happy that there’s finally someone in the business his age that isn’t, like, Jason Earles.
“What’s up guys,” she begins, crouching near the edge. Clearly she’s had too much sun these last days because she should have known that position is too much for that pair to handle, and less than a few seconds later, she’s being pulled into the pool elbows first. She can hear the boys laughing above her, sounding distant, and she easily pushes her feet off the bottom of the pool, penciling upward and out of the water.
Before she can even consider shaking her hair out or checking to make sure her top hasn’t disappeared underwater or anything, she feels David standing approximately a foot away from her face. Woah there.
Clearly the “it’s called personal space” discussion they had, maybe, last week has been forgotten and she’s considering holding an impromptu review session when David grabs her by shoulders, anchoring her in the water.
“Selena,” David starts seriously, and it takes all the strength in her not to roll her eyes, “I understand you came here to have fun and such, but we’re running a tight schedule and you are yet to land a date with Nicholas.”
His tone is ridiculous and before Selena can snort and remind him that there’s only so much she can accomplish in, like, the three hours since she saw him last, he continues.
“and let’s not forget the most important objective of tonight: hooking me up with Andrea.”
Oh. So that’s what this is all about.
“Dave I’ll introduce you tonight, okay? I can’t do much about her liking you because we all know how hard that is, but I’ll definitely make introductions.”
He seems satisfied with this and is about to go play with toys or something, but Selena grabs his arm. He was the one who brought it up, anyways, she just wants to finish the conversation thouroughly. Yeah.
“Where is Nick, anyways? I thought he was playing water cowboys or whatever you were up to earlier.”
David cheerfully ignores the crack at him (or he just doesn’t hear them anymore, she thinks) and points over to the far end of the pool, where it seems that Nick was involving Brenda Song in some pretty heady conversation. Well, Nick looked pretty into it from Selena’s vantage point, though Brenda seemed to be developing various escape routes, the way she keeps glancing at the pool’s exit steps.
“He’s plotting strategy or some shit over there,” David says, disbelievingly.
She feels herself smiling because it’s kind of really a turn on how competitive Nick is about things, the way he becomes some snarky, scarily serious person over the smallest things. Okay, maybe her taste in guys needs some reconfiguring.
“Yo Nick J!” David calls, from their perch near the side of the pool. The two red teammates turn their heads at the sound. Nick looks kind of irritated at the interruption, like their conversation could end the war if he had a few more minutes but Brenda seemed adequately thankful for it, seizing the opportunity to hop onto the concrete of the pool, heading straight for the lounge chairs before Nick could reinitiate conversation. She grins and throws a thumbs up in David and Selena’s general direction and Selena’s not sure what’s funnier: the surprising Olympic-like agility of Brenda’s escape or the confused expression on Nick’s face, like he’s not sure what just happened.
Nick swims over to the two of them, crossing the length of the pool in just a few breaststrokes. She’s always thought of herself as more of the dorky Adam Brody or Shia LeBeouf kind of girl. But Nick, with his muscles flexing after every stroke, his torso connecting to his back muscles, it’s hard to look away. Well.
“What David, I was kind of busy,” Nick says, briefly smiling at Selena before turning to David.
“Nick,” David says, ignoring his tone and at this point, Selena thinks that David just ignores anything that doesn’t love him, “You should know that absolutely no one cares about these games except for you and Steve Jobs.”
“Um, Steve Jobs?” Nick says, apparently choosing to decipher his words than respond to them, “That’s Apple, Dave…did you mean Michael---“
“I meant what I said, Nick,” David glares, as if he’s disappointed in Nick, and it’s just too much for Selena to take, this exchange. “Now you listen up. Stop being a douche and come play with us.”
“Um.” Nick looks over at Selena, as if for confirmation of what David just says, and there’s really nothing Selena can do but shrug her shoulders. Because yeah, David did just say that. Oh an apparently, Joe Jonas has some kind of sixth sense to the word 'play' because all of a sudden he's appeared by David's side.
"What's up guys?"
"Joe, we're about to get a game of Ultimate Chicken going. You in?" David says, nodding seriously to his right hand man.
"Dude, yeah." She watches briefly as Joe swims over to Demi, and bows so low in the water that his head goes underneath before saying, "Demetria, will you be my lady in this battle of Chickens?" Demi water-curtseys and climbs on his shoulders and they circle the pool, rounding people up for the game. She forgets how in sync Joe and Dem can be sometimes.
Everyone's already started gathering in the center of the pool, pairing off quickly as Joe becomes increasingly serious about launching Demi-sized bombs at late-comers. She sees David glaring at her and she's not sure she can deal with this for another night, so Selena heads on over to Andrea.
"Hey girl, you know David right? He's looking for an Ultimate Chicken partner and I thought you guys would be good together." She winks at Andrea and even though Andrea has a kind of exasperated look, she heads over to David anyways. Selena sees David light up when Andrea mention something and before he practically torpedos underwater for her to climb on, he shoots a big grin Selena's way. Whatever, she figures, it was probably going to happen at some point, knowing David.
By the time she's gathered her bearings again, almost everyone's got a partner. Dylan and Cole pair off with Anna Maria and Alyson while Meghan grabs Roshon and it's starting to look like everyone's already found someone and Selena's starting to freak out a little because dear God, how many times can she get stuck with Jake Austin as a sympathy partner and---
"Hey Sel, want to be my partner?"
Nick's standing really close to her and his hair's still forming little ringlets on his forehead and he's smiling at her like he's not sure if he really wants to be doing this. Her stomach does a weird turning thing and before she can overanalyze what that means, she grins back and clambers onto the shoulders that he bent down for her to climb on to.
They walk over to the center of the pool, Nick holding her legs tightly, like he's scared that the slightest movement will send her careening or something. She's got a pretty good sense of balance but she threads her fingers into his hair as a safety precaution. She has some hardcore disney games to participate in the next morning, okay.
The game gets started pretty quickly after Jason Earles goes through the rules in about five seconds. Selena's pretty sure all she caught of it was "No clawing, off the shoulders means out, and--okay maybe a little clawing," but hopefully everyone got the jist.
Maybe there's too many people in the game at once, but the next two minutes of Selena's life seem to flash in front of her eyes. There's a lot of Nick not being so careful with her in his arms any more, a lot of "SEL! TO YOUR RIGHT! NAIL HIM" anda few more scratches than she intended. Somehow, it's down to her and Nick, Cole and Alyson, and Joe and Demi by the end, while the rest have encircled them in the pool. Nick's decided to go for strategy than immediate action, and is whispering a lot of words up to her that sound suspiciously like wiffleball terms than anything else while Selena just goes for whoever's closest. The combination of those two things seem to go pretty well for them though, because all of a sudden Alyson's falling down and it's just Demi versus her.
It's the funniest thing the way the boys' attitudes change when it's brother v. brother. Joe's yelling in this growling voice that's supposed to be intimidating, shouting insults that are definitely not Disney appropriate. About halfway through one about Nick's ability to win and the size of his junk, Nick rolls his eyes and looks up at Selena.
"Okay, let's kick his ass now, Sel, " he says, with this half smirk on his face, like he heard the results ahead of time and news flash: they win.
Selena and Demi begin wrestling, and she's pretty sure that they aren't even trying to hard because her stomach hurts so bad from laughing and the boys are just yelling at eachother at the top of their lungs and everything's escalated to this point of she hasn't had this much fun in forever. She doesn't know how they do it because she's laughing so hard but her and Demi make eye contact after a little and Selena winks because she's pretty sure Dem knows what they need to do. They both yell a few times, throwing in some "Woahh!"'s and "No, anything but this!"'s while falling (for realism) and splash into the water at the same time, forcing a tie.
Seconds later when they resurface, Joe and Nick have already rounded on them.
"You've got to be kidding me Selena! A tie?!"
Nick's actual anger would probably be more effective if Joe's "HOW DO YOU EXPECT US TO WIN AT NATIONALS IF YOU PULL SHIT LIKE THIS" didn't overshadow him so much. And Demi's equally loud "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NATIONAL ULTIMATE CHICKEN" didn't help the moment much either, so Selena can't help herself; she grins and puts her hand behind Nick's neck.
"Sorrrrry, Nick," she says, pouting her bottom lip a little and she's not sure how this does the trick, but Nick's face relaxes a little and he sighs dramatically before taking a step closer to her.
"Whatever, Sel." He smiles and they probably look really stupid smiling like this but Selena can't seem to stop. Joe apparently doesn't enjoy the moment as much, because she hears him grumbling before he yells from the corner where he and Demi have floated to.
"Hey Nick! Stop acting like such a douche and ask her out!" Joe's voice somehow manages to echo across the pool and it has this odd effect; half the kids (whom Selena makes a mental note to send thank you gifts to) start talking louder to cover the awkward silence while the others choose to just stare at the two of them.
"Oh my god," Nick says, closing his eyes as if he can't believe that just happened. Selena can feel herself beginning to blush and seriously, whatever progress she made to furtively dating Nick Jonas just went out the window. She was seriously going to kill Joe. Or at least make Demi cut him off.
"Um, wow---how awkward," she hears herself say, and honestly, at that point she just wants to dissapear, because Nick couldn't look more embarrased. "I can't even believe he would think---"
"Sel? Do you want to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?" He cuts her off, and it's the best interruption in the world. He's nervous and flustered and it's not Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers talking to her right now, it's Nick and she's probably grinning big enough in this moment to scare him away, but she can't help herself.
"I mean, Joe wasn't the most romantic segway into it but I figured---"
"Yeah," she says, "I'd really like that."
He says that he'll call her and they have that awkward moment where they kind of stand and smile at eachother for a while before she can't stand it anymore and swims away to tell Demi. She doesn't get very far though, because David stops her in the middle.
"You're welcome, Sel!" David says, with this look of utter pride on his face, like he just won a spelling bee or something.
"Um, what?"
"I told Demi to tell Joe to tell Nick to ask you out! And it worked like magic, didn't it! You owe me big time for this, Gomez." He grins down at her, like he's expecting a blue ribbon and she can't even believe it.
"David, I am going to kill you."
She doesn't mean it though, because she can't be holed up in jail or anything tomorrow. She has a date to be at.
****
Part Two Here!
Word Count: 11,920ish.
Characters: selena/nick, joe/demi, david henrie and more!
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is a story of the kids at the 2008 DC Games. In case you don't remember, it was a summer of Nick and Sel, when Demi became a part of the group, when there were pictures of pool parties and man-hugs and other happy wonderful things.
Author's Note:This was started in March as a summer story, then in the midst of country hopping it became "here's a story to replace the lack of DC Games," and at this point six months later, it's become a "fuck it, take this off my hands please" kind of deal. I really like this though, it's just not the right season anymore!
Music's a huge part of this, especially the Joe and Demi parts so if you want to know what songs were meant for what: Nick and Sel's Dance, Joe and Demi's Dance, Weeeezer.
If you want any downloads just ask :)
****
Nick's pretty sure that Disney has the money to shell out for charter buses that, you know, aren't going to give him chronic back pain in the near future and he makes a mental note to bring it up in the next meeting with the exec's. He's slouched in the uncomfortable charter bus chairs next to Selena, who has briefly left her seat with Demi to retrieve the ipod that Nick may or may not have stolen out of her hands. He's got to make sure Demi's not infiltrating people's ipods with her heavy metal crap, is all. God knows the number of Black Sabbath songs she’s somehow managed to sneak onto his itunes.
Selena’s ipod is surprisingly clean, with people like Jamie Cullum and The Hush Sound coming up but she’s leaning over him, her hair falling on his shoulder so his judgement is feeling pretty clouded at the moment. It’s been a while since he’s had that feeling in his stomach though, so instead of reacting, he keeps scrolling, berating her taste in music and sometimes offering compliments along the way. Sometimes.
"The Jonas Brothers? Really, Sel? People actually listen to these guys?" he grins.
Selena laughs back, but it's the surprised "Nicky-actually-loosened-his-tie" kind. Nick's pretty sure he should be offended by that, but he doesn't blame her. After late studio hours for A Little Bit Longer and his semi-obsession with nailing his guitar riff for the tour, he hadn't exactly scheduled in playtime. But the CD's been owning the charts and tour's practically over and right now, Nick's getting paid to play sports (retakes included nonetheless) with his best friends for a week and well, he's feeling relaxed enough to throw a few jokes around.
He continues scrolling through her playlists but their banter is quickly drowned out by Joe and David Henrie. The pair have taken it upon themselves to command the front of the bus, attempting to lead a complicated round of 'We Are Family'. It had seemed like a good plan on the whole when they had detailed their coup-de-bus, except for 1) the song was clearly not made to be a round, and 2) no one really knew the lyrics, past the chorus, so despite the duo's raucus singing-turned-shouting attempt to lead the song, it had quickly dissolved. It is only after Kyle Massey begins to throw paper balls at them to step down that Joe and David decide its time to head back to their seats.
"Wheels on the Bus too good for you, Joe?" Nick grins as Joe comes bounding back to launch himself into the now vacated seat next to Demi, across the aisle from him.
"Oh whatever, Nick," Joe says good naturedly, noogying him, "these people clearly aren't as good as they are on TV. They're lucky me and David are here at these games...they're going to need some manly inspiration, right Henrie?"
David sprawls comfortably into the seats in front of them and lazily lifts his fit to pound against Joe's to say seriously, "Right, Jonas. Our ass-kicking will become legendary. We better be on the same team, dude.."
Nick watches the exchange, listening to them compare the hours spent bench pressing ("Dave there aren't even 25 hours in a day, you filthy liar") and the size of their muscles, among others. He feels himself relax a little more, and he's not going to lie: it's a relief to see Joe smiling again. After the messy "Taylor Incident," a euphemism the family had adopted to discuss the issue, Joe had been a little off, to say the least. His brother was used to being loved, and no one was more confused or hurt than Joe when hate began to be poured onto him by his fans. Nick remembered Joe's mini-depression at one of it's lower points at what he walked into on his way upstairs, after coming home from the studio. After dropping off his keys on the hangar, he discovered Joe on the couch with Demi, watching some re-run of Freaks and Geeks with his head in her lap. Demi had her fingers in his hair, and was patting his back as he grumbled, unaware of Nick's presence in the doorway, "I just don't know, Dem. You like Taylor and you haven't made hate comments on our Myspace yet. Why can't our fans be more like you?"
Demi glanced up to see Nick and rolled her eyes, as if asking for help. Nick offered a shrug and a sympathetic smile, before shaking his head and turning towards the stairs; he'd let Demi handle this one. He could hear Demi attempting to reconcile the boy in her lap ("Joe, you can't take this so seriously. Twelve year olds have the memory of a fruitfly.") even as he closed the door to his room. Sometimes, Nick wondered why Joe never thought to date Demi. He knew they had fooled around a little during Camp Rock, but when they came back, there was a little too much traveling for something real to start and, Joe need for insta-love, causing the Taylor stint, didn't give Demi any reason to stick around. Nick figured Dem would be good for Joe, though. She could talk to him in ways that even he couldn't, and Joe always has this content smile on his face when Demi is mentioned, like just her name could make him feel better. But at this rate, someone not terminally insane would fit the requirements, so Nick's thinking his standards are on the low side at the moment.
Anyways, as Nick watches Joe get pushed out of his seat when David decides to give a live preview of his physical ability, he figures these games will be a good place for Joe to get his mind off of things.
"By the way Nick, don't think that the minute we get there you can go hole yourself up in a room with your guitar," Selena says, laughing and snapping Nick out of his reverie.
"You're coming to the pool with me at least once this week buddy, and I won't take no for an answer." Her hair flips around as she turns to sit back in her seat, and Nick catches a wave of strawberry and mango and calmness and grins. This week could be a break for more than just Joe, he figures.
---
Alright, so the teams were picked and Demi's not going to lie: she's dissapointed. She's got Alyson and some of these international kids are really cool but, well, it would have been nice to be on Joe's team. It's not that she's pining over him, because she's not: Demi doesn't do pathetic. But when she met him in Canada, he was so funny and sweet and so her type that she was too surprised to put her guard up. Joe, Joe Jonas started being funny and sweet to her, and well, she was only human. He started holding her hand under the table at dinner, and walking her back to her cabin at night, and then sneaking her out an hour later to take a canoe ride, and after all the stress that came with joining the Disney ranks, Joe was just this breath of fresh air. She still remembers calling Selena after the first week of it, trying not to gush too much (since when does two hours of Joe stories count as gushing?) and waking up grinning the next morning.
Demi also remembers the week back home after filming, remembering how the Canadian woods aren't much like reality, and how phones don't magically ring, even if you stare at them long enough. So after about a month of that, she met a few guys, went on a few dates, and tried moved on. Because like she said, Demi doesn't do pathetic. Even though her debut summer tour with the boys was more than she could have ever asked for, it wasn't exactly a dream come true to travel with a crush whose two favorite pastimes are hanging out with you and kissing his blonde girlfriend--hobbies he often combined, due to time constraints. She dealt with it though, letting Joe play with her hair before shows and call her to say goodnight, trying to not wonder if he had said the same lines to Taylor before ringing her.
But that was the tour, and now it was different. Taylor was out of the picture and didn't have a chance of getting back in it after their gloriously mature breakup, and Demi had Joe in Florida with Disneyworld, the pool, and maybe, a few plans.
"Okay, this was so not supposed to happen." She grumbles to Selena under her breath after the team scene was filmed. They're at the refreshments booth, grabbing some lemonade and discussing the unpleasant turn of events while the other kids milled around, waiting for uniforms to be handed out.
"Aw, girl, you know Joe'll find a way to follow you around anyway. I was kind of hoping for more people on my team too," Selena says. She sneaks a glance over at Nick unintentionally, which Demi sees. Selena's kind of super secretive about who she likes and it's cute, so Demi usually humors her. But they've only got a week with the boys alone, Demi decides, and there wasn't much time to play stupid.
"Sel, you know you could always make Nick jealous by going for Kevin," she grins, nudging her and winking obnoxiously.
"Um, EW? He's like five years older than me, thank you very much."
Demi spends the next few minutes informing Selena that if you can't get one Jonas you might as well find another, but her educational session is cut short by some producer's arrival with a big carboard box with a huge Soffe logo on it. Dear God.
---
David Henrie has just spent the latter half of his morning kicking ass. He's pretty used to these displays, but these mere Disney mortals are not, so he doesn't mind the staring. Not when these guns are involved.
He's hanging out in the yellow tent, sitting as comfortably as one can on a rubber blowup couch, lazily waiting for Selena to wrap it up with her team. It's weird, but even though there's no filming going on right now and there isn't a good reason for him to wait, it's become a habit hanging around Sel. She's just so chill and laidback and exactly his type, if he was into dating people who are like little sisters to him. Which he isn't, so it was too bad.
She waves goodbye to everyone, briefly hugging Sabrina before smiling at David. "Ready?" he says, grinning, feeling more relaxed already. Selena tends to do that to him, he figures.
"Yep!" she smiles back, linking her arm through the crook in his elbow, leading him out of the stadium, towards a pathway and a five minute walk back to their hotel. They walk back, exchanging stories from the day; Selena offering a reenactment of Kevin and Sabrina's ridiculous pep talks ("They say them together! With synchronized hand motions, I swear!") and David detailing the intense workout regiment him and Joe had mapped out.
"Just you wait, Sel. In a week my team'll basically Hulk Hogans wearing green shirts..."
"Whatever David," she responds smiling. She's heard his spiel enough to simply ignore. "We're all going to the pool later tonight, though. I know those muscles are practically dying to be freed from that shirt."
David nods seriously, "I'm glad someone understands these babies. And pool party!? Sweeet! I've been looking for the perfect place to put the moves on that Spanish chick on your team."
He has been, though. She smiles a lot at him and once he's pretty sure she winked in his direction. It was kind of bright outside though so the it's not guaranteed but he's a glass half full kind of guy.
"Andrea? Don't even think about it. The girl's actually nice!" Selena says, in mock horror. "And it's only been one day, David, how have you managed to already find a new chick?"
David grins. "Sel, there is no time to waste here. Hook a brother up, why don't you?"
Selena slows her pace down as they come to the side entrance of the hotel. Folding her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows, she pulls off the perfect poker face before asking, "And what do I get in return, huh?"
David rolls his eyes at this, but allowingly says, "Alright, Gomez. How does this sound: I drop a few lines with Joe about you and get him to pass on the word to Nick, and you'll have a date by the end of the week. But that's only if I get my latin lover, okay?"
Selena seems to be caught totally off guard by this, dropping the calm facade to stutter, "Um eww, Nick? I mean-- really David--I mean. But--just whatever, if that's all you got, I guess I'll have to take that. Yeah, okay sounds gre--sounds okay." She ends this long winded explanation with a noncommital shrug of the shoulders combined with multiple head nods, making her look very awkard indeed.
David watches this amusing combination for a little, before laughing and wrapping an arm around Selena's shoulder. "Ooookay, Sel. A simple "Yes David you're incredible" would've been straight, but that was pretty cute too.."
David slides his key card into the outside security check and takes a left turn down the softly dimmed hallways to walk Selena down to her and Demi's hotel room. Selena opens the door to her room and slides inside easily, leaving a big enough gap for her to lean her head out. David can hear the tv talking inside the room, the strains of a theme song siphoning through. He considers inviting himself inside but Sel looks pretty ready for him to go though, like she really needs to get something off her chest, or something. Not wanting to interfere with Girl Talk, David decides to head back to his room.
"Thanks for walking me back Dave," Selena smiles, getting ready to close the door. "Oh yeah," she says, jerking it open for a second, "you still coming to the pool tonight?"
"Girls in bikini's? I'm not going to be like 'eww no!'" David scoffs, looking at her like she just asked the most ridiculous question. "Hell yeah I'll be there!" He swings his hand up for a 'let's-get-some-tonight' high 5, but reciprocated by a surprisingly strong push away from the doorway, probably his cue to leave.
"Okay perv, we're meeting out there at 11," Selena says, scrunching her nose up like she kind of regrets inviting him, and shuts the door.
-----
"Nick can you hurry up? Everyone's gonna be gone by the time we get out there," Joe shouts impatiently, leaning against the wall of their hotel room, glancing at his wrist for about the fifth time that night, remembering for the fifth time that, yeah, he doesn't wear a watch.
"Dude, chill." Nick say, giving him a weird look as he pops his head out of the bathroom where he stands, running his fingers through his hair. "Since when do you care about being on time, anyways?"
And it's a valid point, Joe thinks. He doesn't usually make a big effort to show up any sooner than fifteen minutes after something begins, but there's something about tonight that's different. It's the pool and Joe hasn't gone swimming with his friends since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, at least. He'd gone at the gym a couple of times with Nick some mornings, but all he wanted to do was swim laps, and that doesn't even count as going to the pool if you ask him.
They finally head out after Nick grabs a couple of towels from the front desk, and start walking towards the back pool, which the hotel has closed down for them to enjoy for the night. And maybe that's not one hundred percent normal, but Joe takes what he can get at this point.
"So Nicky, gonna make a move on Selena tonight?" He grins interrupting the quiet between them, hoping to catch him by surprise. No avail though, as Nick just rolls his eyes. Fun killer. "I don't know, Joe. Remember that time, oh five minutes ago when I said 'I might ask Selena out tonight?' Not much has changed since then."
Maybe Nick did say that when Joe had asked earlier, but it wasn't five minutes ago and Joe thought he'd bring it up again in case Nick forgot his gameplan, or something. Jeez.
"Relax, Nick," Joe says, throwing his arm around his shoulder, squeezing his neck for good measure, "She'll say yes."
Nick's face loosens into a closed lip smile before looking at Joe, "Yeah, I sure hope so."
-----
She's the one who told everyone eleven o' clock and it's 11:30 and Selena's still sitting on the giant pullout bed in her and Demi's suite. She's not sure why Disney thought that they'd need a king sized bed in the living room on top of the two twins in the bedrooms but she doesn't mind. She and Demi have been sleeping on the king one the past few nights just because they can, anyways. It's the closest thing they have to a sleepover these days.
"Deeemiii," she groans, for what feels like the hundredth time in the general direction of the hallway bathroom. She hears some muffled shuffling and Demi finally comes out, stopping to spin around in front of the full length hall mirror.
"What about this one?" Demi says, glancing back at Selena. It's a simple black bikini with little gold clips connecting the strings in all the right places and seeing her like this, combing her hair like a mad person, checking to see if her hipbones show at the right angles, Selena wants to tell Demi how beautiful she is when she's not trying at all and how, despite what the rest of Hollywood thinks, she's better off not giving a shit. And it's not like Demi cares that often, it's just, catching her in vunerable moments scares Selena sometimes.
It's not really the time for a talk like that though, so instead she intones in a mock zombie voice, "It's perfect. You're perfect" and throws a towel at Demi.
Demi rolls her eyes, "Gee, thanks Sel."
"Demi, Joe would look at you in a bikini even if it was made out of, like, hamburgers. Actually, especially if it's made out of hamburgers."
"Yeah," Demi says, spinning around one last time, "You're right about the last part anyways. Let's go," she grins, throwing the hotel towel that Selena gave her in a bag.
They walk down to the back door of the hotel, where the place had been roped off exclusively for them. Nice.
Most of the gang's already there, Selena notices with a relief. It seriously sucks when you plan things and no one shows up so, yeah. Brenda and Jen are playing Marco Polo with Moises and Dylan with Moises accidentally running into walls as Marco and Dylan running into the girls, his eyes wide open. Joe and David and Cole are in the middle of a water gun fight. Selena's pretty sure Nick's supposed to be a part of it, but Nick seems to be ignoring the water gun in his hand, opting to watch with this goofy smile on his face. It's becoming more frequent, these smiles, but they still somehow manage to suckerpunch her in the stomach, put this lame grin on her face that probably makes her look like she's laughing at her own joke or something. If looking stupid is what she has to do to see Nick Jonas act like a sixteen year old more often, then hell, she'd become a part-time clown if necessary.
She drops her bag off by a pool chair, takes off her yellow cover-up, and heads over to a circle of girls that have gathered by the gate. It's mostly the Camp Rock girls; Demi, Alyson, Meaghan and a few others just standing around talking. She's kind of hesitant about walking over because, well, they're Demi's friends. It's not that they're mean to her or anything because they're some awesome girls, Selena figured out pretty quickly after a couple movie nights, but it's hard to keep up with the inside jokes and just, closeness, that filming a movie makes. Demi never purposely tries to ignore her and always invites her to their sporadic girls nights and Selena figures it can't really hurt to try to fit in, so she tries to shake off the weirdness and heads over.
"Hey Sel," Demi grins, opening up the circle and leaving a wide gap for her to stand (she has the best friend sometimes) , "I was just telling Meaghan about the ridiculous number of mouse ears we found in our hotel room."
“Oh God, yeah." Selena says, relaxing a little, because bashing Disney is the best icebreaker,like, ever. "Seriously, there were like fifteen Mouse ears on the sink, the toilet paper, the ironing boards, everything. It was cute for a while, but when we found the sign on the Bible in the drawer, it was just plain creepy,” she grins, fake shuddering.
The girls laugh along and start comparing omniscient Disney stories and everything’s going really great and she’s starting to feel comfortable when Meaghan says something along the lines of “Oh God that reminds me of that time when…” and just like that, whatever forward steps she’s made are swept away. Selena feels like an intruder all of a sudden; it’s a weird feeling, because it’s not like they don’t want her to be there or anything, she just doesn’t have anything remotely on-topic to contribute to Reminisce Hour.
“Gooomez!” She hears David shout at her from the pool with Joe Jonas offering wolf whistles, and it comes as a total relief. She quickly excuses herself from the girls and heads over to the edge of the pool, where they seem to have stopped their earlier game for pool scuba masks. She’s not really sure who brought them and she’s not sure she wants to know, but she’s glad that Joe and David are becoming this close. David’s a cool guy and even though he never complained, Selena’s got a feeling he’s happy that there’s finally someone in the business his age that isn’t, like, Jason Earles.
“What’s up guys,” she begins, crouching near the edge. Clearly she’s had too much sun these last days because she should have known that position is too much for that pair to handle, and less than a few seconds later, she’s being pulled into the pool elbows first. She can hear the boys laughing above her, sounding distant, and she easily pushes her feet off the bottom of the pool, penciling upward and out of the water.
Before she can even consider shaking her hair out or checking to make sure her top hasn’t disappeared underwater or anything, she feels David standing approximately a foot away from her face. Woah there.
Clearly the “it’s called personal space” discussion they had, maybe, last week has been forgotten and she’s considering holding an impromptu review session when David grabs her by shoulders, anchoring her in the water.
“Selena,” David starts seriously, and it takes all the strength in her not to roll her eyes, “I understand you came here to have fun and such, but we’re running a tight schedule and you are yet to land a date with Nicholas.”
His tone is ridiculous and before Selena can snort and remind him that there’s only so much she can accomplish in, like, the three hours since she saw him last, he continues.
“and let’s not forget the most important objective of tonight: hooking me up with Andrea.”
Oh. So that’s what this is all about.
“Dave I’ll introduce you tonight, okay? I can’t do much about her liking you because we all know how hard that is, but I’ll definitely make introductions.”
He seems satisfied with this and is about to go play with toys or something, but Selena grabs his arm. He was the one who brought it up, anyways, she just wants to finish the conversation thouroughly. Yeah.
“Where is Nick, anyways? I thought he was playing water cowboys or whatever you were up to earlier.”
David cheerfully ignores the crack at him (or he just doesn’t hear them anymore, she thinks) and points over to the far end of the pool, where it seems that Nick was involving Brenda Song in some pretty heady conversation. Well, Nick looked pretty into it from Selena’s vantage point, though Brenda seemed to be developing various escape routes, the way she keeps glancing at the pool’s exit steps.
“He’s plotting strategy or some shit over there,” David says, disbelievingly.
She feels herself smiling because it’s kind of really a turn on how competitive Nick is about things, the way he becomes some snarky, scarily serious person over the smallest things. Okay, maybe her taste in guys needs some reconfiguring.
“Yo Nick J!” David calls, from their perch near the side of the pool. The two red teammates turn their heads at the sound. Nick looks kind of irritated at the interruption, like their conversation could end the war if he had a few more minutes but Brenda seemed adequately thankful for it, seizing the opportunity to hop onto the concrete of the pool, heading straight for the lounge chairs before Nick could reinitiate conversation. She grins and throws a thumbs up in David and Selena’s general direction and Selena’s not sure what’s funnier: the surprising Olympic-like agility of Brenda’s escape or the confused expression on Nick’s face, like he’s not sure what just happened.
Nick swims over to the two of them, crossing the length of the pool in just a few breaststrokes. She’s always thought of herself as more of the dorky Adam Brody or Shia LeBeouf kind of girl. But Nick, with his muscles flexing after every stroke, his torso connecting to his back muscles, it’s hard to look away. Well.
“What David, I was kind of busy,” Nick says, briefly smiling at Selena before turning to David.
“Nick,” David says, ignoring his tone and at this point, Selena thinks that David just ignores anything that doesn’t love him, “You should know that absolutely no one cares about these games except for you and Steve Jobs.”
“Um, Steve Jobs?” Nick says, apparently choosing to decipher his words than respond to them, “That’s Apple, Dave…did you mean Michael---“
“I meant what I said, Nick,” David glares, as if he’s disappointed in Nick, and it’s just too much for Selena to take, this exchange. “Now you listen up. Stop being a douche and come play with us.”
“Um.” Nick looks over at Selena, as if for confirmation of what David just says, and there’s really nothing Selena can do but shrug her shoulders. Because yeah, David did just say that. Oh an apparently, Joe Jonas has some kind of sixth sense to the word 'play' because all of a sudden he's appeared by David's side.
"What's up guys?"
"Joe, we're about to get a game of Ultimate Chicken going. You in?" David says, nodding seriously to his right hand man.
"Dude, yeah." She watches briefly as Joe swims over to Demi, and bows so low in the water that his head goes underneath before saying, "Demetria, will you be my lady in this battle of Chickens?" Demi water-curtseys and climbs on his shoulders and they circle the pool, rounding people up for the game. She forgets how in sync Joe and Dem can be sometimes.
Everyone's already started gathering in the center of the pool, pairing off quickly as Joe becomes increasingly serious about launching Demi-sized bombs at late-comers. She sees David glaring at her and she's not sure she can deal with this for another night, so Selena heads on over to Andrea.
"Hey girl, you know David right? He's looking for an Ultimate Chicken partner and I thought you guys would be good together." She winks at Andrea and even though Andrea has a kind of exasperated look, she heads over to David anyways. Selena sees David light up when Andrea mention something and before he practically torpedos underwater for her to climb on, he shoots a big grin Selena's way. Whatever, she figures, it was probably going to happen at some point, knowing David.
By the time she's gathered her bearings again, almost everyone's got a partner. Dylan and Cole pair off with Anna Maria and Alyson while Meghan grabs Roshon and it's starting to look like everyone's already found someone and Selena's starting to freak out a little because dear God, how many times can she get stuck with Jake Austin as a sympathy partner and---
"Hey Sel, want to be my partner?"
Nick's standing really close to her and his hair's still forming little ringlets on his forehead and he's smiling at her like he's not sure if he really wants to be doing this. Her stomach does a weird turning thing and before she can overanalyze what that means, she grins back and clambers onto the shoulders that he bent down for her to climb on to.
They walk over to the center of the pool, Nick holding her legs tightly, like he's scared that the slightest movement will send her careening or something. She's got a pretty good sense of balance but she threads her fingers into his hair as a safety precaution. She has some hardcore disney games to participate in the next morning, okay.
The game gets started pretty quickly after Jason Earles goes through the rules in about five seconds. Selena's pretty sure all she caught of it was "No clawing, off the shoulders means out, and--okay maybe a little clawing," but hopefully everyone got the jist.
Maybe there's too many people in the game at once, but the next two minutes of Selena's life seem to flash in front of her eyes. There's a lot of Nick not being so careful with her in his arms any more, a lot of "SEL! TO YOUR RIGHT! NAIL HIM" anda few more scratches than she intended. Somehow, it's down to her and Nick, Cole and Alyson, and Joe and Demi by the end, while the rest have encircled them in the pool. Nick's decided to go for strategy than immediate action, and is whispering a lot of words up to her that sound suspiciously like wiffleball terms than anything else while Selena just goes for whoever's closest. The combination of those two things seem to go pretty well for them though, because all of a sudden Alyson's falling down and it's just Demi versus her.
It's the funniest thing the way the boys' attitudes change when it's brother v. brother. Joe's yelling in this growling voice that's supposed to be intimidating, shouting insults that are definitely not Disney appropriate. About halfway through one about Nick's ability to win and the size of his junk, Nick rolls his eyes and looks up at Selena.
"Okay, let's kick his ass now, Sel, " he says, with this half smirk on his face, like he heard the results ahead of time and news flash: they win.
Selena and Demi begin wrestling, and she's pretty sure that they aren't even trying to hard because her stomach hurts so bad from laughing and the boys are just yelling at eachother at the top of their lungs and everything's escalated to this point of she hasn't had this much fun in forever. She doesn't know how they do it because she's laughing so hard but her and Demi make eye contact after a little and Selena winks because she's pretty sure Dem knows what they need to do. They both yell a few times, throwing in some "Woahh!"'s and "No, anything but this!"'s while falling (for realism) and splash into the water at the same time, forcing a tie.
Seconds later when they resurface, Joe and Nick have already rounded on them.
"You've got to be kidding me Selena! A tie?!"
Nick's actual anger would probably be more effective if Joe's "HOW DO YOU EXPECT US TO WIN AT NATIONALS IF YOU PULL SHIT LIKE THIS" didn't overshadow him so much. And Demi's equally loud "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NATIONAL ULTIMATE CHICKEN" didn't help the moment much either, so Selena can't help herself; she grins and puts her hand behind Nick's neck.
"Sorrrrry, Nick," she says, pouting her bottom lip a little and she's not sure how this does the trick, but Nick's face relaxes a little and he sighs dramatically before taking a step closer to her.
"Whatever, Sel." He smiles and they probably look really stupid smiling like this but Selena can't seem to stop. Joe apparently doesn't enjoy the moment as much, because she hears him grumbling before he yells from the corner where he and Demi have floated to.
"Hey Nick! Stop acting like such a douche and ask her out!" Joe's voice somehow manages to echo across the pool and it has this odd effect; half the kids (whom Selena makes a mental note to send thank you gifts to) start talking louder to cover the awkward silence while the others choose to just stare at the two of them.
"Oh my god," Nick says, closing his eyes as if he can't believe that just happened. Selena can feel herself beginning to blush and seriously, whatever progress she made to furtively dating Nick Jonas just went out the window. She was seriously going to kill Joe. Or at least make Demi cut him off.
"Um, wow---how awkward," she hears herself say, and honestly, at that point she just wants to dissapear, because Nick couldn't look more embarrased. "I can't even believe he would think---"
"Sel? Do you want to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?" He cuts her off, and it's the best interruption in the world. He's nervous and flustered and it's not Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers talking to her right now, it's Nick and she's probably grinning big enough in this moment to scare him away, but she can't help herself.
"I mean, Joe wasn't the most romantic segway into it but I figured---"
"Yeah," she says, "I'd really like that."
He says that he'll call her and they have that awkward moment where they kind of stand and smile at eachother for a while before she can't stand it anymore and swims away to tell Demi. She doesn't get very far though, because David stops her in the middle.
"You're welcome, Sel!" David says, with this look of utter pride on his face, like he just won a spelling bee or something.
"Um, what?"
"I told Demi to tell Joe to tell Nick to ask you out! And it worked like magic, didn't it! You owe me big time for this, Gomez." He grins down at her, like he's expecting a blue ribbon and she can't even believe it.
"David, I am going to kill you."
She doesn't mean it though, because she can't be holed up in jail or anything tomorrow. She has a date to be at.
****
Part Two Here!