It turned out Peter's offer was a great deal. Zac went in with Jess to go over her contract, paragraph by paragraph, explaining what everything meant. She accepted about ninety percent of what the contract stated, and the other ten percent Zac negotiated with Peter until Jess was completely happy. Jess was going to try to write all of her own material (she hadn't done a lot of it before), and that would take place while she went on tour with Zac.
The tour started in late March and would go through the summer until the middle of August, spanning the entire country and parts of Canada. The album was even bigger overseas but with Ginger due in September, Zac didn't want to risk being out of the country when his child was born. Kris and Taylor were coming with Zac, Ginger, and Jess just because Ginger needed Kris and wherever Kris went, Taylor followed.
"No!"
Zac grabbed the notebook out of Jess's hands. It was the second week of the tour and Zac had done a number of highly successful shows. To make it seem as though Jess wasn't there just to do one song, Zac had her playing back-up guitar. Taylor played the piano when Zac needed a piano, and Ginger and Kris sat right offstage watching every night.
"Zac, give it back!" Jess climbed over Zac to grab her notebook back. She'd been writing every day since she got a record deal, and so far she wouldn't let Zac read any of it. In the back of the tour bus was a big couch that Jess had been sitting on, writing, and Zac got so fed up with not being able to read any of it, he decided it would just be best to grab it from her.
"No, I want to see what you've been writing!"
"It's not good enough."
"So? I let you read my writing when it was still bad. I don't expect it to be Shakespeare, Jess. You're just starting this."
"Give it back!"
"No!"
"Taylor!!!" Jess yelled. "Zac took my notebook!"
"I don't care!" Taylor yelled from the front of the bus. Zac gave Jess a look and settled on another couch, opening up the notebook. He expected to be really bad, knowing how his writing was when he started, but was completely blown away when he saw what she had down. Flipping through the pages, he found she'd covered half the notebook in lyrics of complete passion over everything she'd been feeling since she was aware that she could feel. She talked about love, about her big brothers' fame, how alienated she had become when she was just a little girl, and how she couldn't get away from being the little sister of the MMMBop boys, no matter how hard she tried.
Jess eventually got tired of sitting and waiting for Zac to say something, so she got up and left, leaving Zac alone with her notebook. While he started his music career because he loved singing, Jess had something to prove. She wasn't who everybody thought she was, and her lyrics proved that. She had about two dozen completed lyrics in there and about a half dozen uncompleted ones. As he read them over and over again, he grabbed a pen and marked off the fifteen he liked the most and by the time he was through, he had the music set in his head to at least three.
He'd been there a half hour without realizing it, and upon looking at his watch he grew a bit embarrassed. He got up and walked to the front of the bus. Ginger and Kris were playing cards at one table, while Jess and Taylor were talking at the other, Jenny on the floor creating havoc with a coloring book.
"Oh, you are alive," Jess said. "So, tell me, how much does it suck? How much did you change?"
"Absolutely nothing," Zac said, sitting down next to Taylor and across from Jess. "It's brilliant."
"Nuh-uh," Jess said, giving Zac a look of disbelief.
"It is! It's the best I've seen in a long time." He put the notebook down in the front of Taylor. "Taylor and I will help you with the music."
"I will?" Taylor asked.
"Read it. You will." Jess put her head down as Taylor opened the notebook. "Oh, come on, Jess. It's not bad."
"It's personal, though," she said into her arms.
"Oh, shut up," Zac said. "If you're going to record these songs, the entire world is going to hear! The least you could do is not be shy when your big brothers read it. I don't care." Taylor pointed something out to Zac and he jumped a bit. "Oh, I don't like that."
"What?" Jess asked, picking her head up.
"How about," Zac said, taking the notebook and scratching out a word, "instead of saying 'fuck,' let's say�uh�let's just take out the whole line."
"See? It's personal."
"The whole world doesn't need to know what that bastard of a boyfriend of yours did to my little sister," Zac mentioned, giving Jess a look. Jess looked at the notebook.
"That wasn't even my boyfriend," she said.
"Okay, okay, that's too much information!" Zac said. "Move to the next song!" Ginger laughed from across the aisle. "What are you laughing about?"
"Nothing, nothing," Ginger said, hiding her smile with her cards. "Was that Trevor?" she asked Jess. Jess shook her head.
"Who's Trevor?" Zac asked.
"No, it was Jack."
"Who's Jack?" Zac asked.
"Or come to think of it�it could have been Eric," Jess said, looking away to think about it.
"Who's Eric?? Isn't your boyfriend Will?" Zac asked.
"No, that was my last boyfriend," Jess said. "It's Carlton now."
"Carlton?" Zac asked. "Carlton? That's a hotel, not a name! Jesus fucking Christ, Jess, you're as bad as Taylor!"
"No I'm not," Jess said, giving Zac a look. "I didn't have sex with all of them."
"Oh my God!!"
"No, Avery's more like Taylor," Kris explained. Zac's mouth dropped.
"Avery? She's not old enough to be like Taylor!" By now both Kris and Ginger were laughing hysterically at Zac's disbelief. Taylor even had a smile on his face, holding back his laughter. "Taylor, how can you be laughing? Your sisters are having sex."
"Yeah, Zac, I've known for a while. I accept it. You obviously have a long way to go." Zac huffed and got up. He picked up Jenny.
"I'm leaving."
"You just wait until Jenny's old enough�" Taylor said, laughing.
"That is never going to happen!" All four of them were laughing at him now and he turned around, huffing, and returned to the back of the bus.
"How's my baby doing?" Zac asked Ginger, who was sitting on the couch of the suite all of them were staying at for two days. She was reading a book. It was a few weeks later and the tour was growing increasing monotonous. Ginger and Kris were both getting big and it was an exciting time for the both of them. They'd both gone for a check-up at the ob-gyn. Zac had interviews and couldn't go, which he hated, but made sure Ginger tell him everything when she came back.
"I'm just fine," Ginger said.
"Not you," Zac said, giving her a mockingly annoyed look. "My baby." After sitting down next to her, he leaned over and kissed her stomach. "What'd the doctor say?"
"Everything's fine," she said. "He's healthy, he's got a steady heartbeat and she says everything's just perfect�"
"Whoa, whoa, he's a he?" Zac asked. Ginger nodded. "We're having a boy?" Ginger nodded again. "Oh my God! What's Kris having?"
"A boy."
"Really? That's wonderful!"
"I know!" Ginger said. "Our due dates are, like, a week apart. The doctor said that since we're so close and we spend so much time together that the hormones between us are going to be just as close so we might end up going into labor at the same time." Zac paused.
"That would be weird."
"I know. But I'm so excited." Jess walked into the room, Jenny on her hip. It seemed lately Jess had been spending more time with Jenny than anybody else. It'd always been like that, though. When she met Jenny for the first time she loved being around her niece.
"How'd it go at the doctor?" Jess asked. "Kris just said she's having a boy."
"So are we!" Ginger said, a beaming smile on her face. It made Jess smile.
"That's wonderful! I get two nephews now! Hopefully they'll turn out like Zac and Taylor, you know, minus that whole not speaking for a year thing."
"What not speaking for a year thing?" Zac asked. "I don't remember anything like that happening."
"Whatever, Zac�" Jess said.
"Oh, Jess, before I forget," Zac said, "The lead singer for the opening act has laryngitis."
"So, what does that have to do with me?" Jess asked.
"I was wondering if you could�"
"No!"
"Would you let me finish my sentence?" Zac asked. Jess put a hand on her hip, waiting. "I was wondering if you could be my opening act."
"Zac, no. I don't have any material�"
"We put five songs together!" Zac said. "You don't need to sing any more than that."
"We just put the songs together. I haven't even begun to practice them yet."
"We have three days before the next show. That's plenty of time to practice. You wrote the songs. You should know them more than anybody else."
"Zac, this is a show! You need more than three days to create a show." Zac dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
"We'll throw you and Taylor out there with two guitars and the audience will eat it up. He knows the music just as well as you do and you'll do all the singing. Come on, Jess, I really need you here. I don't have an opening act and I don't have time to look for one."
"All right, all right�" Jess said. "God, you are so demanding! Jess do this, Jess do that. I'm not your slave."
"This is the last thing, I promise." Ginger shifted uncomfortably beside him. "You okay, baby doll?"
"Just a hard kick, that's all," Ginger said. Zac smiled. He was ready for this baby to be born. Sure, there was the rest of his tour to look forward to, but when he and Ginger were back in LA their son was going to be born. Zac looked up and Jess had already left.
"So�" Zac said, turning back to his wife. "Have you thought of a name?"
"Don't you want to name him?"
"Do you want me to name him?" Ginger nodded.
"I got to name Jenny. It seems only fair. Just make it good." He sat back and thought about it.
"Christopher Joshua," he said.
"Whoa, that was fast," she told him.
"Well, I've been thinking about it."
"I can tell. So, Christopher Joshua." She put her hands on her stomach. "Works for me. If only Kris and Taylor were as calm about this as we are. They've been fighting about names since we came back from the doctor."
"So that's where they are."
"Yeah, they locked themselves in a room somewhere and started yelling at each other. It wasn't pretty."
"I wouldn't think so," Zac said. Ginger settled back into her book and Zac continued working on Jess's music, sitting quietly next to each other on the couch. It was about twenty minutes later when Kris came in, a smile on her face. Zac elbowed Ginger and she gave him a look.
"Hey honey," Ginger said. "You look happy."
"Yeah," Kris said, sitting down. "I won."
"So you know what you're naming him?" Ginger asked. Kris nodded.
"Yeah. Anthony James."
"What'd Taylor want?"
"Tristan Julian." Ginger and Zac exchanged glances. "I know! That's what I said. I mean I know Taylor has a girly name, but I don't want our firstborn son to have a girly name as well. That has gay written all over it. Not that there's anything wrong with that� So anyway, what did you decide?"
"Christopher Joshua," Ginger said. "Zac picked it."
"I like it." She paused. "AJ and CJ!"
"Or Tony and Chris," Ginger said.
"No, 'cause then they'll be two Kris's." Ginger nodded.
"All right. AJ and CJ," Ginger said. "Speaking of which, where's JT?"
"JT?" Kris asked. "Who's that?"
"Taylor," Ginger said, giving Kris a look.
"Oh�sorry. He's sulking in the bedroom where I left him," Kris said. Ginger looked at Zac.
"Okay, I'll go," Zac said, getting up. He walked over to the bedroom where Taylor was sitting in a chair, sulking like Kris had said. While he was sulking he was also watching television. "Hey bro."
"Hey."
"So Kris told me you settled on Anthony." Taylor nodded.
"Yeah�I really liked Tristan, though."
"Tristan's a little gay, Taylor. Admit it."
"That's what she said!" Taylor complained. "I don't think Tristan is a gay name at all." Zac opened his mouth. "Don't even say it. I know both of my names are girls' names. That doesn't make any difference!" Zac smiled. "So did you and Ging decide on a name?" Zac nodded.
"Yeah. Christopher Joshua."
"Hey, AJ and CJ."
"That's what Kris said." Taylor smiled. "They're getting big, aren't they?"
"Yeah�you should have seen Ginger last time, though. Towards the end there she was so big she'd knock things over and she didn't even know." Zac sighed. "But it'll be more amusing this time around because both of them are pregnant."
"I find it so odd that they got pregnant at the same time. Did you hear that the doctor said since their due dates are so close and they spend all their time together they might go into labor at the same time?"
"Yeah. Something about pheromones or hormones or something. It's why they get their periods at the same time."
"I really didn't want to know that, Taylor. Thank you."
"Oh come on, you didn't notice they both got extremely bitchy at the same time every month?" Zac shrugged. "You are so not in tune with anything, Zac."
"And you are so gay." Taylor gave him a look.
"Anyway, Zac, did you ask Jess to do the opening act?" Zac nodded.
"Yeah. I kind of mentioned that you were going to play with her too."
"All right, whatever." Taylor stood up. "I better go get her and practice. For her own songs she really doesn't know them all that well." Zac shrugged. "We'll be around." He left the room.