Carpe Aestatem (original)

Chapter 46

Jenna

Two days after Zagreb, I was out like a log, snuggling Lulu and Buttons to my chest. "Good morning, zvezdica." I heard Bojan whisper into the door as he knocked.

I turned over. "Hi Bojan." I said, not getting out of the comforter.

He sat down next to me on the bed and rubbed my back. "What are we doing today?" I asked, turning over.

"We're going to meet up with my sister and play with some puppies."

I sat up. "PUPPIES?!" I said.

Bojan nodded. "And your sister?"

"Yep! You're going to like her."

I got out of bed and put on my Hogwarts Alumni T-shirt I bought at Target, a pair of my Levi's light-wash straight jeans, along with my Converse and a zip-up jacket. "What do you think?" I asked stepping out of the bathroom.

"You just need some earrings, zvezdica." Bojan said.

"But I don't know which ones will go!"

I dug into one of the drawers and brought out the box of earrings I had packed before we left on the tour. "Should I go for the paw prints, the J's, or the small hoops?" I asked.

"I think all of them will go nicely. In my opinion, I feel like you would go with the small hoops." Bojan said, kissing my forehead and stroking my hair. "Martin has some toast going, we made coffee, come out when you're ready."

My phone buzzed.

Stinker:
What are you doing today?

Jenna:
I'm meeting Bojan's sister and playing with some puppies

Stinker:
LUCKY! I'm stuck at home, practicing trumpet while you're off in Slovenia playing with puppies

Stinker:
Where are you going next week?

Jenna:
Dublin, June 4-7. We're all really excited.

Stinker:
Can I come?

Jenna:
It's sold out. Remember you, Mom, Dad and Jaz are coming on July 20 in London after your competition. Anyways, breakfast is ready, and why are you up at 1am?

Stinker:
Mittens wanted to cuddle and I picked up my phone while cuddling with her. She says hi.

Jenna:
Talk later?

Stinker:
Send me pics of the puppies!

I put my phone in my purse and walked out to breakfast. "There's the fashionista!" Martin exclaimed, pouring me a mug of coffee with toast and eggs on a plate in front of me.

"She picked it out herself." Bojan added, sipping his coffee. "I just threw something on."

Bojan was wearing a green Käärijä ESC t-shirt and some jeans with white sneakers. "Bojči, that outfit is fine. We're just playing with some puppies."

"And seeing my sister, zvezdica."

I took a bite into the toast. After we finished, I went to my room and straightened it up (I always do it back home). I then sat down on the couch with my phone blowing up with a million photos of Mittens Grant was sending me although he should be sleeping. "Jenna? Are you ready?" Bojan asked as he adjusted the gold chain he always wears, like the ring he wears on his left hand, which was from his grandmother.

"Yeah. Let me grab my AirPods first." I said, hurrying back to my room.

I grabbed the AirPods and stuffed them in my purse. "I just texted Tijana and telling her we're on our way."

We left as Ruby had settled herself onto the couch and Martin working on something. We drove to Tivoli Park. And when we stepped out of the car and walked onto the grass, two golden retriever puppies tackled me (When I saw the video of Bojan with the puppies I just wanted to snatch the puppies from the video because they were so cute). "Bojan! Help me! These puppies are attacking me!" I laughed, trying to sit on the grass but the first puppy was licking my face.

Bojan took the puppies from me and I sat up. Then I saw a woman, who was little shorter than Bojan, and Bojan waved her over. "Tijana! Over here!" He shouted.

The woman walked over, and Bojan stood up. "Tijana! How are you?" He asked in Slovenian.

"I'm doing wonderful, how are you?" She replied.

The puppies were now tackling me again. I managed to pry them off of me. "Jenna, this is my sister, Tijana. Tijana, this is Jenna."

"Uhh...hi! I only speak English, sorry." I stammered as one of the puppies trotted over to me.

"Don't worry, you're fine! Where are you from?" Tijana asked while the second puppy was biting my finger.

"I'm from the US. Nashville." I said.

"When did you get to Ljubljana? I heard that you got chosen by my brother's band to join them on their tour."

"We got here May 15. Actually, we started our journey on May 14 because of the time difference between Slovenia and Nashville. So we flew from Nashville to Chicago, then from Chicago to Warsaw, then from Warsaw to Ljubljana." I explained.

I winced a little bit because the puppy was biting too hard. "Thankfully my cat doesn't bite too much."

"You have a cat? What's its name?"

"Her name is Mittens. She's a tuxedo domestic shorthair. And two years old." I said, pulling up a recent picture of Mittens sleeping right next to my guitar back home.

"Aww, she's so cute!!" Tijana replied, scratching the forehead of the first puppy.

Both puppies eventually trotted over to Bojan, and Tijana and I were free to talk. "What's your favorite thing about Nashville?"

"Definitely the amount of music-related places we have. And Taylor Swift spent her teenage years there, which got Nashville really well-known. Some of the venues we have are the Station Inn, and the Grand Ole Opry."

"Didn't you and your band play there?"

"We did, for our send-off concert the Thursday before we left. Which was the same day Joker Out qualified for the Grand Final. We were at dinner before our soundcheck when that happened. Were you in Liverpool then?"

"I was."

While Bojan was playing with the puppies, Tijana ans I were talking about random things; tour life, funny stories about her and Bojan when they were little (she told me about the one time she tried to make frozen rolled dumplings but they came out in one big one), and I asked for suggestions for our band name. "We're trying to come up with names for our band." I explained. "And the issue is that we can't think of anything."

"Do you have anything that resonates with you and your friends?" Tijana asked.

"Well, the four of us love music, and the cool thing is that all four of our birthdays are within a month of each other. I was first, then Sam, then Olivia, then Avery." I said.

"You could have something related to that."

"I'm just not feeling it. I do want to have a suggestion related to this tour, though."

Tijana was a huge help on creating a list of band names. I know we'll come up with a name soon.