The Understudy (hiatus)

Chapter Two - Daniel

We'd stopped travelling. The driver had parked the tour bus in an abandoned car park somewhere in LA.

The lads and I were all in the 'living room' part of the tour bus, if you like. We'd be staying here for two days and then in a hotel for three days until we could carry on travelling. I wasn't sure why we couldn't carry on driving to our next tour destination for another five days, but I didn't feel any need to ask. I just thought that I should just let our tour manager, Dick, do his job. I would feel rather awkward asking him too, so I just accepted it.

Dick suddenly stood up from the sofa he was lying on, and grabbed a pair of keys from the table. He grabbed his jacket and quickly threw it on.

"Where are you off?" I asked, confused.

"To go pick Tydelynn up from the airport," He said, opening the tour bus door.

"Who's Tydelynn?" Will muttered from the corner of the room, not taking his eyes off his phone.

"The new band understudy. Do you not remember me telling you last week?" Dick replied, walking out of the door and slamming it behind him. A few minutes later, I heard a car engine rumble into life outside the bus and drive off.

"I hope he has the SatNav," Woody remarked, smirking.

I spent the next half an hour thinking about this 'Tydelynn'. All I knew was that Dick had said last week that we needed a 'band understudy' - someone that could fill in for one of us if anything happened. I think this idea was triggered by me, as last year I stepped on some glass in the middle of a gig and I had to go backstage to get it sorted out. Dick thought that it was unprofessional to have a little gap in the gig where the audience don't have a clue what's going on, and thought that he should employ someone to fill in for any of the band if a similar incident occurred. So say that Will broke his ankle, this understudy would come out and play bass in Will's place so that the whole gig wasn't ruined.

Dick mentioned a girl named Tydelynn Daniells who could play a vast amount of instruments and sing very well. Apparently she was a fan of Bastille too, and knew most of the songs in keyboard and bass. The only thing she couldn't do was play drums very well, but nobody's perfect I guess. She must have said yes.

I felt slightly sick. I wasn't very good with females, and I really didn't want to mess up with this 'Tydelynn' girl. I had no idea what she looked like or what her personality was like, but she was a female all the same. I seriously sucked in female company. I just hoped she would be easy to get along with.

I was contemplating whether to google her, maybe stumble on her social networks and see what she looked like and what her interests were. I almost did, but I decided that it looked a little bit creepy. Plus if any of the guys caught me doing this, I'd be teased no end.

Around two hours later, I heard a car draw up outside the tour bus. I looked through the window of the bus and out at the car. I spotted two figures around the back of the car. I noticed Dick retrieving a small suitcase and a tall girl was next to him. I think she noticed me looking out of the window so, before I could study at what she looked like, I turned away.

The tour bus door swung open and Dick strolled in with a suitcase. The girl shuffled in behind him.

"Lads, meet the understudy. This is Tyde," He announced, before heading upstairs in what I think was to dump her suitcase on her bed.

I looked at her and my breath got caught in my throat. That sounds way too cheesy for my mind, but it's true. She was really pretty.

She had dark brown hair that draped all the way down her back, stopping at just above her bottom. The ends of her hair were a pastel green, and usually I hated it when girls had neon dip dye, but this dip dye was subtle and it suited Tyde down to the ground. Her eyes were a very bright light blue, and her skin was beautifully pale.

She was wearing a pair of dark jeans, a pair of converse with the laces trailing, a t-shirt and a denim jacket.

The rest of the band introduced themselves, but I just sat there staring at her. I felt a prod in my ribs, and Kyle looked at me. I looked down, embarressed.

"Oi, Dan introduce yourself,"

"I'm Dan," I said, my voice so quiet that even I could barely hear it, and I smiled. I never looked back up though.

Tyde flounced upstairs to unpack I was guessing, and I was left thinking about what just happened. Dan, you idiot, I thought. You weird, awkward idiot. This was going to be an interesting four months.