Carpe Aestatem (original)

Chapter 56

Avery
The next day

We were in the hotel restaurant, eating breakfast, getting ready to go to the interview. "Hold up, I just got a text from Éirevision. They are letting us know that they're meeting us at Whelan's instead of their studio." Bojan said.

"What? We're going to Whelan's TWICE?!" I asked, almost dropping my piece of toast.

"And we're flying back to Ljubljana after the gig tonight." Jan explained.

"And you're going to Finland tomorrow." Jenna added, pointing to Bojan. "I'm gonna miss you."

"Me too. It's only for four days. Look on the bright side, you'll be with Martin for that time!"

"Yay!" Jenna squealed.

I still haven't met Martin yet, but from what I've heard from Jenna is that he's really nice. He was Joker Out's bass player until October 2022 and they got Nace shortly after. Hmm...if I get the chance, Martin can help me improve on the bass! "We have to finish up. It's a 20-minute walk from here." Jan said, checking his phone.

"Whelan's?" I asked.

"I have no idea why we booked this place. It was closer to Workman's but farther from Whelan's. By just two kilomters!" Jure said. "Anyways, Guinness anyone?"

"Jure, it's 9am. I don't want a Guinness at this hour. Remember how drunk I was with just ONE PINT."

"I remember."

When we were at Workman's two days ago, David and Cal got me a full pint of Guinness, and it was so good. But I chugged almost the whole glass and I got drunk. Mom would have grounded me for eternity. I was a little bit hungover, but not too badly. Not as bad as Cassie would get. And then Cassie texted me.

Cassie:
How was the gig?

Avery:
We haven't had it yet. We're going to an interview at Whelan's, go back to the hotel, then BACK to Whelan's for the soundcheck and the gig. And I had my first Guinness two days ago.

Cassie:
Were you drunk?

Avery:
A little bit. I kind of lost my mind. Had a small headache when I woke up the next day. It went away by the time we got to yesterday's interview.

Cassie:
Good. Mom says hi. Love you so much, Birdie

I put my phone back in my pocket and bit into my toast. "Are they going to interview us?" Jenna asked nervously.

"They're not planning to. They might ask for your help though."

"Oh, okay." Jenna replied as she put her phone back into her fanny pack.

Within five minutes, we were out the door, heading to Whelan's. "Why does it have to be 20 minutes away?" I asked.

"It's on the other side of the city, and we were stupid enough before we announced we had two gigs, we got a hotel before we sold out Workman's. And when we aold that out, we booked Whelan's after we booked the hotel, and they had a massive suite for all nine of us." Nace said as we were walking down the street.

About seventeen minutes later, we were on Wexford Street, looking for Whelan's. I had to remind myself no Guinness as I would maybe get a small pint tonight. I do not want to get drunk again, as we would be flying back to Ljubljana tonight. "Whelan's...this is it." Bojan said.

Mark followed us all in. There was a stage in the front with a little bar and seating area to the side. There was a cute little bar, a little less space than the one at Workman's the other night. "Why is it so small?" Olivia asked as she set down her backpack by the bar.

"I don't know." I replied.

"Hold on...does David's family own this place? His last name is Whelan..." Sam pointed out.

"No. I don't think so, at least." Bojan replied as Jenna was dragging him to the stage. (If someone has an answer pls let me know ASAP because I don't know)

About five minutes later, three people: two men and a woman, walked in. "Are you Joker Out?" The woman asked.

"Yes, we are." Bojan replied.

Jenna had broken free from him and put in her AirPods. She was probably listening to Måneskin, which usually calms her down. They headed up the stairs towards the roof. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"Up on the stairs. Wanna come?" The woman asked. "Wait...are you that band from the US they picked?"

Jenna, please. You're the frontwoman of all of us, I thought. "Oh, we are. We're just not performing for Dublin and the UK tour." Jenna explained as we walked up the stairs.

The walls by the staircase were decorated with lots of band posters, colorful artwork, and for some reason, a piece that looked like a license plate in the US (Yes when I watched that interview I saw something that looked like a US license plate). Believe me, I was in awe of the art. "Wow, these pieces are so cool!" I squealed as the camera got turned on.

"Are we ready to roll?" One of the tech guys said.

"Yep!"

The interview was really fun. They got to play a few games. One of the, was a "this or that" type of game, and the other was that they got a country's flag and they had to sing that country's ESC song from this year. Everything went smoothly untill we got to the Austrian flag. As they were singing 'Who the Hell is Edgar', Kris said, "That's not the Austrian flag."

"NO NO NO NO NO NO." Jure, Nace, Bojan and Jan sang. (Fun fact: my English teacher has a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe in her classroom because she teaches an English course for seniors with mysteries and true crime and when I first saw it the class after meet the teacher night, I was like 'Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe')

"No, it is the Austrian flag," Bojan argued.

Kris pulled up a picture of the Austrian flag on Google. "No, the one with the crest is Vienna, not Austria."

They finished up, and we were about ready to roll. "Are you four up for an interview?" Their tech guy asked.

Oh crap. "Uhh...sure!" Jenna said. "Give us a few minutes."

Jenna pulled all of us aside. "I wasn't expecting this!" She said.

"You okay, Jen?" Sam asked. "Do you really want to do this?"

"I don't know..."

"Do you want me to get Bojan for you?" I asked.

Jenna shook her head. "I just want you three right now." Jenna cried. "I don't know if this was the best decision."

"Jenna, it's going to be okay. The boys were fine, the hosts are really nice, nothing could go wrong."

"We're American. Literally no Irish people know us, besides Wild Youth."

"And the hosts."

"True. But it's our first interview outside the US!"

"It's not going to be that bad." Olivia said.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this."

The interview went really smoothly.