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this is for you emily!!!!!!!! no more after this!!!!!!!

Chapter Seven

Life got back to normal right away for Justin, and he loved it. It was like he had never left, well, almost, if he went outside the small town he would be mobbed by fans. Justin though, had a trick up his sleeve for that.

He and Matt wanted to spend a day out on the city, so, the night before he had come up with a plan.

He bought new shiny, dark, sunglasses, found his grungy baseball cap, put on some old jeans and a t-shirt that advertised "The Canter County Baseball Tourney".

"Meet Dylan Trust." said Justin, grinning at Matt "Is it good enough?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah. I think. Keep the glasses on, and the hat too, your hair is a dead giveaway. Now lets get going. I don't want to get stuck in traffic."

*~*~*

"I'm going out, Mom!" called Ella "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, honey. Go ahead."

Ella jumped into the car, not even sure where she wanted to go. She just wanted to get out and get away from everyone and everything. She knew that sounded harsh, but, these days she was starting to loose it.

Ella had no money. Though there was fifty cents under the passenger seat in the car. Fifty cents. What the heck could that buy? Well, it wouldn't get her Justin Fairway tickets, that was for sure.

Ella turned off the highway into the heart of the city. It was wicked hot and Ella was feeling so awful she felt she would die if something nice didn't happen.

She drove angerly down the packed roads, wondering what she was going to do, when a huge crowd caught her eye. Hundreds of people were lined up outside a small ice cream shop. Curious, and having nothing better to do, Ella pulled over on the side of the road and called out to a lady waiting on the curb.

"Ma'am, what's going on?"

"You don't know?" said the lady, sounding surprised "Well, this ice cream shop is giving away a pair of Justin Fairway tickets, you know, to his big home-coming concert!"

Ella's heart skipped a beat. "What? No! How?"

"Well, apparently on every cup of ice cream there's a little sticker, you just got to peel that off, and it will tell you if you're a winner or not underneath. Better hurry, honey, if you want a chance at winning them. Nobody's won yet, but the marked cups are going fast."

"How much are they?" asked Ella, desperately

"Fifty cents. Not bad huh?"

Ella grabbed the two quarters and flew out of the car.

*~*~*

"Man is it ever hot!" said Matt as they waited at a red light "And of course Dad hasn't fixed the AC on this junky truck yet."

"I don't care what we do, Matt, I just need to get out of this car!"

"Hmmmm..." said Matt, looking out his window, "What about we get some ice cream?"

"Sure. Whatever. Where do you want to get it?"

"What about over there? It looks very popular."

"Sure. Why not?"

Matt parked the truck, and the two boys jumped out into the hot parking lot and headed to the mile long line.

"I'm Dylan, remember?" whispered Justin, pulling his cap down lower "The last thing I want today is a wild crowd of fans begging for autographs on their ice cream cones."

"Yeah yeah." said Matt, then he stopped short and gave a whisle. "This must be the best ice cream in the world! Just look at these people!"

"Sheesh." said Justin "You'd think they're giving away gold or something."

They jogged to the end of the line, but when they got there, they bumped into a young girl, who looked hot and tired. She was clutching two quarters in her hand, and was looking inpatient.

"Oh! Sorry!" Justin and Matt both said at once. Justin nodded, "Go ahead. Ladies first."

The girl laughed and shook her head. "No. No. You were here before me, it's only fair you get your chance first."

Matt and Justin looked at eachother. Chance? It was just ice cream!

*~*~*

Ella felt all jittery inside waiting for her turn. She tried to forget all about Justin Fairway and think of other things, but that was very hard to do. She took a glance at the two guys who had bumped into her, they weren't like the usual annoying guys she met.

"They must be very nice" she thought "To offer me their place in this mile long line. But it's only fair they go first, since I got here after them."

The line moved slowly, but it was moving. Ella began to feel sick. She tried to force every thought of the concert out of her head. But it was so hard!

Ahead of her, the two boys were complaining.

"What the heck!" cried the one with the dark sunglasses "I'm sure that that dude just cut in line!"

"Me too" agreed the other "But I'm not going to go tell him. He's jacked!"

"Why did we choose this place again? I didn't come to the city to wait in line for twenty hours."

"Yeah, I know. I haven't seen a line like this since the county fair. And I thought that line was long, it looks short compaired to this."

*~*~*

"Only four more people to go, then it's our turn at long last." said Matt

"This had better be some simply amazing ice cream." said Justin looking at his watch, "We've been in line for no less then forty-fiveminiutes. No joke."

At last it was their turn. "Strawberry, please." said Matt "And my brother, Dylan will have, uh, what do you want?"

"Oh, I've been thinking about it for a long long long time." said Justin laughing "Chunky Monkey please, with jimmies and whipped cream and a cherry and some hot fudge and..."

"Ok, ok, some Chunky Monkey for the chunky monkey." said Matt

Justin rolled his eyes and the girl behind the counter handed them their cups of ice cream. There was nowhere to sit at the tables it was so crowded, so Justin and Matt were forced to cross the parking lot and eat there. Matt at once dug into his, but Justin read the side of the bowl and laughed, then he peeled off the sticker.

He halted. "Matt! Hey! Matt!"

Matt groaned. "What?"

"Hey, Matt! I just won a pair of tickets to my own concert!"

Matt chocked. "What?"

*~*~*

Ella ran across the hot parking lot to a group of tables where several people, including the boys she had met, were. She slid into a chair, bit her lip, closed her eyes, and tore off the sticker. Her heart was beating a million miles an hour, she didn't dare look, but she knew she couldn't wait forever. She gulped, took a deep breath, and looked down.

"Sorry!" Read the printing under the sticker.

Ella felt tears in her eyes.

*~*~*