Falling Star

Planning a trip

The television was glowing in Zara's flat, but she was in the shower, leaning on the wall with the water raining on her, she had her eyes closed as she was trying to control her breathing, she was trying so hard not to breakdown, she didn't want to show any weakness, she wanted to be strong, but the past few weeks were starting to take it's toll on her, even though she had her manager and her friends, she felt alone, she held a hand over her mouth and felt like crying but then her buzzer went, she stood up and stepped out the shower and wrapped a towel around her and went to see who was buzzing her, the camera showed 6 faces all trying to peer in, this did make her laugh. She pressed the button to speak through to them
"What are you guys doing?" Dawn held a white bag up
"Noodles!" JJ held another bag up
"Wine!" She smiled and pressed the button to allow them in. She watched as they all pushed through, moaning who was standing on who's foot or elbowing them. She quickly got dressed and opened the door to allow her group of friends in. Dawn and JJ both made Zara sit down as they went to the kitchen to plate the food up and pour the alcoholic beverage. Tina had put a circle of cushions on the floor around Zara's coffee table and soon they were all around the table eating and drinking and laughing. Brandon had switched the T.V off and covered it with a blanket, telling Zara not to watch the show they were suppose to be on. After a good ten minutes of everyone trying to use chopsticks with only Zara and Dawn being successful, and everyone else robbing Zara of her plastic forks, Tina picked up her wine and looked to Zara
"So what did Alexander say?" Zara nodded as she swallowed her mouthful and sat crossed legged
"He's trying to find a way to get proof, to show I have never been racist to her" Chelsea sighed
"Zara there's something I need to tell you" Kai shook his head
"Chelsea, don't" everyone looked at the pair but Chelsea looked to Kai
"I have to tell her" Zara nodded
"It's ok Chelsea, you can say it" Chelsea put her food down and took a big, deep breath and looked at Zara
"I've been asked if I want to become one of Precious's dancers" no one spoke "they asked me this morning when I was at the studio before anyone arrived" Dawn frowned
"And you turned them down right?" Chelsea didn't speak "Chelsea!" Chelsea played with her fingers
"I'm sorry but I couldn't refuse" Dawn stood up
"Oh yes you can! You go 'no thanks' see it's not hard!" Zara got up and put a hand on Dawn's arm
"Dawn it's ok" Dawn sighed "look I understand everyone is on edge but please don't turn on each other" she turned to Chelsea "Chel's its fine, you do what you need to do" Chelsea nodded and they all sat down and finished their dinner but only the rustling of the containers, the slurping of noodles and sipping of wine was filling Zara's flat. JJ looked to everyone and then remembered a joke.
"Why did the number 6 runaway from the number 7?" They all looked at him "Because 7, ate 9....get it?" They all tried to stifle their laughters but Brandon, he laughed so hard he fell on his back and then no-one could contain their laughter, everyone was smiling again and Dawn told JJ his joke was embarrassingly bad. Once all the food was eaten and the wine was drunk everyone was in a more jolly mood, but the T.V was still covered and that's when Zara had to ask Brandon
"Brandon, why cover it?" and pointed at the T.V. Brandon stood next to her as everyone helped clear the food away and made room to play twister.
"That way you're not tempted to turn it on" Zara nodded
"Ah. I see" Tina joined them
"Hey Zara?" Zara turned to Tina, she saw the concerned expression on her face "what are you going to do? It's been nearly a week and all your work has been taken off you and I saw on the national news page that ZMG have released a statement that they are investigating Precious's accusations against you" Zara nodded
"Yeah that's all true but can we call her Tiffany, she's not exactly a precious person" Brandon nodded in agreement "and I've been thinking, maybe I should go on sabbatical" Brandon and Tina looked at one another then at Zara, Brandon spoke first
"Are you sure?" Zara just nodded and Tina held Brandon's arm "where will you go?" Zara shrugged
"Like I said it was just a thought, not got that far" Tina released Brandon to hug Zara as Dawn and JJ arrived back carrying more wine and Kai had the games. Kai raised an eyebrow
"What's going on?" Tina turned to the friends as Brandon hugged Zara
"Zara is thinking on going on a sabbatical" they all looked at her, Zara took a breath
"It might be for the best, that way you guys can find work rather than have it taken from you and then you don't have to worry about me" there was silence but then Dawn hugged Zara
"If you want to do it, then I support you, just promise us you'll come back" Zara nodded
"I haven't actually decided much yet" JJ banged his hands together
"Come on guys less sadness and tears and more wine and games" everyone started to get Twister ready, Chelsea asked to be the board controller and the game begun, it was normal at first but soon everyone got twisted and after 30 minutes of twisting fun, Zara, JJ, Tina and Kai had fallen, leaving Brandon and Dawn battling it out. JJ and Tina were shouting encouraging and motivational words but everyone else was laughing until Brandon fell so all those that lost took a shot of Zara's special cherry vodka whilst Dawn replaced Chelsea. The second game ended quickly because Kai slipped and knocked everyone down except for Tina, so again all the losers took another shot, everyone was getting ready for the 3rd game with Tina replacing Dawn when Kai spotted a box and picked it up
"Hey can we play this?" They all saw he was holding up 'pin the tail on the donkey' everyone laughed but JJ had an idea.
"Zara" she grinned at him,
"Yyyyessss" he chuckled at her clearly the wine and vodka was getting to her.
"Have you got your world map?" She nodded
"In my room it has pins from everywhere we have been" she tilted her head "why you asking?" JJ got up
"Come on everyone" he took Zara by the hand and dragged her with everyone else in tow to her bedroom,
"Good job I keep it clean" Kai threw an arm around Zara
"What you hiding?" She shook her head
"Nothing you should know about" they all stumbled into her room and JJ pointed to the map
"Use this and the tail from the game to pick a place for your sabbatical" everyone else cheered and Zara smirked
"JJ, you genius" he rubbed his knuckles across his shirt and smiled
"Oh I know that" he turned to Dawn "sweetie would you grab the game and Zara's vodka please" Dawn hurried to grab the game for the use of the tail and also the vodka to aid JJ's plan "so Zara will take a shot, we will blindfold her, spin her round a few times, hand her the tail and she will pin it somewhere on the map" Kai looked at the map
"What if it lands in an ocean?" JJ smirked and raised a finger as Dawn arrived with the tools
"the closest country; will be her destination" Tina looked at all the pins
"She should avoid places that know her" Dawn nodded as she got the shot ready for Zara
"That means she should go to either Asia, Africa, Australia or Russia" Zara shrugged
"It don't matter, I'm dying my hair, getting colour contacts and plan to wear my glasses more so I should be unrecognisable" Dawn handed her the shot
"You have thought about it more than you led on" Zara knocked the shot back and pointed to something on her nightstand
"Chelsea, pass me my mask" Chelsea saw a black silk sleep mask and grabbed it, and handed it to Zara, she slipped it on and started to giggle "ok now what?" She felt a few pairs of hands and they forced her to spin,
"One, two, three" Zara was laughing soon they got to ten and someone placed something in her hand, she could here everyone laughing as she tried to make her way to the wall with the map, she felt rather dizzy but she couldn't stop laughing, she held her arms out and soon found the map, she touched the tail in her hand to make sure the pin was there. She took a big breath and thruster her arm with the tail to her right and pushed the pin and then lifted her blindfold, the tail was pinned in the Yellow Sea area. She turned to JJ who walked up next to her and looked at which country was closes to the pin and JJ pointed to the country it was closest to, as JJ turned around to tell everyone, Zara removed the tail and picked up one of her pins and pushed it into South Korea