Adopted by Phan

Chapter 41

Jay's P.O.V.

Waking up the next morning was difficult, I was still exhausted and my leg was cramping, causing me to groan. Looking across the room I saw Louise still asleep in her own bed, her hair sprawled across her pillow and the bed covers in a mess.

Behind me the door creaked open and I looked up to see Phil, his hair similar to a birds nest, standing in the doorway.

"Mornin' Jay, you good?" I nodded, kicking my leg into the air to try and get rid of the cramps.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling like crap so that's a plus. My head's fine" He looked over at Louise and then back into his own room, at Dan I assumed.

"Do you want to come in here? Dan's already awake." I shrugged, and then realised that my crutches were half way across the room, where Louise had put them I assumed.

"Yeah, but can I have my crutches please? They're over there." I pointed at them, swinging my legs out of bed and landing on the floor.

He handed them to me and I followed him into Dan and his shared room, only to see Dan buried underneath the covers, the top of his head barely showing and the television blaring in front of him. It was playing the morning news and there wasn't much interesting on it, so I ignored it.

"Hi Dan." He looked up, only showing his eyes and then disappeared again, at least until Phil fell onto the bed beside him.

"Come on, get up, get up, get up, we've got a panel in like two hours and I don't want to be mobbed!" Dan poked his head out again, glaring at both Phil and me.

"We're having breakfast downstairs by the way and then we're being escorted to Vidcon, I was told last night." Louise was standing in the doorway, smiling a little and watching Dan procrastinate getting up.

"Why do you know all of this?"

"I ask Dan, I ask."

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Breakfast was okay, it was like a buffet thing and you could help yourself to whatever you wanted.

We ran into the group of boys that we saw the night before on the walk to Vidcon, which was less than five minutes. We were surrounded by people in a black uniform, security guards, and it made me very nervous.

I saw a few of them up the front of the group and one of them waved and even though I tried to wave back, I couldn't really because I was still balancing on my crutches. Mark and Jack were with us too, we had all left at the same time and had all ended up in the same group, which there were multiple of.

We went in the back of the building and immediately found ourselves back stage, and were then escorted into a room where we were told the timetable for the day. Louise had said that she would stay with me when Dan and Phil were doing their panels, and were then notified that they would be doing three over the days that we were there.

"Okay everyone, I know some of you may know the timetable already but there have been some last minute changes. The Sidemen, your panels are at 11:30 today and then 4:15 tomorrow, Mark, Jack, Ethan and Tyler are at 10:00 and 3:30 today and then at 9:45 tomorrow and Dan and Phil you guys are at 12:30 today and 11:00 and 2:30 tomorrow."

Louise was writing the times on the back of her hand and I was watching the reactions of the others. The Sidemen, I assumed it was them, were high-fiving and one of them was whistling loudly, while two of them stood back, shaking their heads.

One of them, a darker skinned and short boy waved at me and I waved back. He pointed at his forehead, in the two spots I knew were bruising from the two falls I'd had. I shrugged and then mimed falling over, almost actually tripping over my crutches again.

When I steadied myself I looked back over at him and he was holding his stomach in laughter. I then did something that was considered very rude with my hands and he did the same back, only to be stopped by his friend standing beside him.

Phil had seen me pull the finger and shook his head despairingly, whispering to Dan. Dan looked at me and gave me the thumbs up, only to be given a friendly punch by Phil.

"Don't teach her bad habits Dan!" I then did something else with my fingers that would only be considered rude if you were back on the streets, but the boys eyes widened and I froze.

He came closer and I got a better look at him, he was probably 5 foot 8 at the most, around 21 or 22 and his black hair was falling in his eyes.

"How the hell did you know what that meant?" He shrugged.

"I've seen it around and I just guessed. How did you know it?"

"I guess it's what comes from living on the streets for 4 years." He looked shocked but I was used to being brutally honest, so I shrugged it off.

"Jay!" I turned.

"Yeah?"

"You coming?" Both Dan and Phil were standing in the doorway and Louise was standing up to join them, so I fastened my grip on my crutches and stood, nodding goodbye to the guy I'd been talking too.

"See ya 'round?"

"Sure."

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"We've got like 10 minutes until our panel, shouldn't we back stage already?" Phil was looking down at his phone, which sure enough read 12:20.

"Wait what! Yes you should back stage! Run! I'll take Jay with me, now move!" Both Dan and Phil bolted off down the hallway, pushing past several different people with hurried apologies.

"I can't believe them sometimes, come on we'll watch from backstage." I fiddled with the tag hanging around my neck, every YouTuber had one so they could get backstage and somehow, through so many hoops, I had been given one.

Behind the stage, the main stage which was where all the big panels were, was hectic. People were rushing around with bags and speakers and microphones and there was a hubbub of noise, almost drowning out Louise's voice when she tried to speak.

"They're over there, look." She was pointing at the entrance to the stage, where both Dan and Phil were standing while being fitted with microphones attached to their t-shirts. They had planned to do a meet-up later that afternoon, after the panel and lunch.

There was loud cheering and clapping from out below the stage and then 7 boys filed off the stage in a single line, all of whom I at least recognised. It was the Sidemen, the ones we had seen earlier in the morning and the ones at the table the night before.

A few of them waved at me and I nodded, watching as someone went out on stage with a microphone.

"And now presenting, Dan and Phil or Dan Howell and Amazing Phil!" Phil gave me one last wave before disappearing past the curtain out of sight and onto the stage.

Both Louise and I crept closer, there was a wooden box sitting beside the curtain and I sat on it, I could see the panel but not the audience, and the audience couldn't see me. Perfect.