the love club; wilbur soot

two

"you ready for an adventure, journey?"

the little girl eagerly nodded as her uncle continued to pull her perfect black curls into a ponytail on her head. george often prided himself on being able to do journey's hair while simultaneously making it presentable.

once he finished her hair and helped her get shoes on he grabbed his backpack and hers, putting it on her back after she insisted on carrying it herself.

george had taken journey on plenty of runs into town for groceries or any other errands, so he had no reason to feel weird about taking her out of his home today. but he did. he felt like maybe he should have asked his sister for permission first before taking her to this video shoot. and then another part of him felt as though he should have told wilbur that he would be needing to bring his niece with him.

but just as he started to consider these things, he brushed it off. he was normally pretty good at making things work and later asking for permission.

george picked up journey and carried her outside to the taxi that was waiting for them. it didn't take long before journey was pulling at his sleeve and pointing at his phone. he almost instinctively opened up the minecraft app, knowing it was her favorite.

it wasn't very long before the taxi arrived at the address that wilbur had sent to george. he quickly thanked the driver and grabbed journey to carry her to the front door. they were in some sort of office rental facility and taped on one of the first walls was a sign that said "Lovejoy Recording" and an arrow pointing down the hall. george kept looking for these signs until he could hear a group of guys laughing, and used their voices as his compass.

he carefully sat down journey and guided her in by her hand into the room that the noise was coming from. it was a quite small, square room. there wasn't much else besides a camera, a stool, and the band themselves.

"george!" one of the bandmates, joe, exclaimed.

everyone instantly turned around and came to welcome him and thank him for helping out with the video.

"hey mate, good to see you! we really appreciate this. its gonna be so good and-" wilbur cut himself off as he notice a small pair of eyes and curly pony tail peeking out from behind george's leg. "well hi there, you must be miss j. is that right?"

wilbur squatted down to cut his somewhat intimidating height in half. he stuck his hand out palm first to let the little girl shake his hand if she wanted. she shyly obliged, her eyes widening when she noticed how her hand was only a fraction of the size of hers.

"i think we've met on the phone before while i was playing games with your uncle. my name is wilbur." he said with a gentle grin.

"hi." journey quietly responded.

"i'm sorry. i had completely forgot that i told my sister i would watch her today. she's really good at being quiet and-"

"its okay, don't stress about that," wilbur laughed. "she's the cutest thing and we've got plenty of guys to help watch her today while you're in front of the camera. so its okay. come over here and we'll explain our concept to you."  as wilbur started to walk away, george felt journey tugging on his shirt.

"what's wrong?" he bent down to allow the girl with hands cupped around her mouth to whisper in his ear.

"he's so tall."

the shoot was rather simple, so it did not take very long. george made everyone's job a lot easier by very rarely breaking his intense stare to camera that he was directed to do.

journey shyly sat most of the time, watching her uncle in admiration and playing with whatever props weren't being used at the moment. after a while she found herself jumping and dancing behind the camera.

after their final shot wrapped, the room erupted in cheering and everyone jumped up and danced to the song one last time for the day. george ran over to pick up journey and spun her around before placing the giggling girl on the ground to dance. she ran over to wilbur and grabbed his hands and began jumping in a circle. the much taller man laughed as he danced with the three year old, letting her grab ahold of his finger and spin like a princess.

"this is the best day." journey squealed.