"Nick! No! Switch over. NOW!"

Joe glared at his brother, reaching over to try to wrestle the remote from his younger brother. It didn't work as well as it should have but the channel changed even if he had ended up on the floor without the remote.

"Relax, man, she's not on yet."

"Any minute now, though," Joe retorted, brushing off his shirt as he settled back into the couch, shooting a quick look at the amused faces of his parents.

The whole Jonas family - minus Kevin and Danielle - was sitting at home waiting for the result show of Dancing with the Stars to start up again. Now, normally this would not happen because it wasn't the kind of show they watched even when they had the time to. But this was special.

"Come on..."

Joe strummed his fingers against the armrest of the couch, nervous energy flowing through his body. He was nervous for Demi. Demi Lovato, his best friend, who was playing live on Dancing with the Stars for the first time. She'd called ten minutes ago, slightly freaked out but really mostly excited about performing again.

- - -

"Oh my gosh, I'm really here."

"You're really there. How is it? Stressed?" Joe smiled at the pause before she answered in the negative. "Liar."

Her laughter rang through the phone and he knew she'd relaxed. It wasn't the nervous laugh she could get sometimes, but a real, genuinely happy laugh that always made him laugh too.

"Okay fine, you're right," she admitted. "Everyone's like freaking out. There's so many people here. I think the dancers are more nervous than me, though. Cause it's like judgement time for them or whatever. They're just kinda rubbing off on me, it's funny."

Joe chuckled. "Yeah, I remember that. But as soon as you get out there it will be awesome. And you said Cody was there too."

"Yeah," he could almost see her nodding, a smile on her face, "he came back here to wish me luck and flirt a little with his old partner. She's so much fun. And her boyfriend like totally acted possessive with her when Cody came. I don't know, it was just hilarious, he was flirting like mad even with her boyfriend around."

"I can see that," Joe laughed, waving away Nick. "So who's dancing for you, you never said?"

"Oh it's so awesome, oh my gosh, it's Benji Schwimmer!"

The excitement in her voice made him smile even as he tried to ignore the jolt in his stomach at, what he liked to call, her fangirl-voice. He let her ramble on about the dancer - the Swing-guy from So You Think You Can Dance, who had some really cool moves if he had to be honest - until she had to go.

"They're calling for me now, I'm going on soon."

"Have fun, Dem, and just rock it. It's just like tour. We'll just be watching you on TV and not backstage."

Demi laughed again. "Not helping..."

"Sorry, but just have fun, okay?" he apologized, making a face at Nick's wild gesturing. "And Nick says good luck." He paused when Frankie ran into the room, shouting. "And Frankie too."

"Awesome."

"Plus Mom and Dad," Joe laughed as his dad came around the corner, shuffling Frankie out the door again, gesturing to himself. "I bet Kevin wishes you good luck too, but he's out with Dani again. We're TiVo-ing it for him. He'll watch later."

"Oh good. No pressure or nothing." Her laughter made him smile again. "Now I really gotta go. Oh my gosh. Bye."

- - -

"Come on, Dem, just like tour," Joe muttered as the first notes of "La La Land" rang out. Unconsciously he started to sing along with her, frowning slightly when he realised she had to sing the censured version. He smiled when her nerves faded into adrenaline and her voice lost its nervous quality.

"Tell me do you feel the way I feel..."

He couldn't help but smile widely at the screen. Her voice really had matured a lot since they'd recorded the song and now it showed. Her soul came through and Joe had to admit he liked her "new" voice more.

Clapping silently along with the live audience, he knew he had a goofy smile on his face as her powerful voice belted out the words. She was amazing.

He laughed when he saw that Cody was giving her a standing ovation to the right on the screen as the final note rung out. He would have done the same. Nudging Frankie's shoulder, he kept his eyes on the screen as Demi happily thanked the audience and applauded the dancers.

"She was great, wasn't she?"

Joe nodded in response to his mother's words, smiling fondly as Frankie immediately started to talk about the "super awesome" dancers instead of Demi's performance.

"I need to learn how to turn like that," he offered when Nick looked at him a little too long. No need to tell his family how much he focused on Demi instead of the dancers. From what he saw, though, Benji Schwimmer was good. Flexible. He could probably do a bunch of crazy tricks.

"Tell Demi we thought she was great, would you, honey?"

Pulling out his phone, he nodded absent-mindedly to his mother. He felt her touch his shoulder briefly as she passed him. The TV supplied background noise as he typed out a text message.

Message sent to Demz gurl.

He snorted. He really needed to change her name on his phone. It was so lame. But whenever he made an attempt to change it, he would see her impish smile as she gave his phone back to him, the new nickname in his phonebook instead of "Miss Demi" as he'd put originally.

- - -

Ty! I nearly culdn't sing. Amzing dancers... So hyped. Sel's laughing @ me. Daddy was proud.

Joe grinned and immediately typed a response.

Like bonnie - killed it w/o a gun. U'll pass out soon. Xo

- - -

He'd wondered briefly if she caught the Bonnie & Clyde reference in his text the night before (stupid Nick and his stupid History assignments), but when he woke up to Nick and Kevin's smirking faces and was handed a phone with Demi's Twitter account, he realised she had.

Goodnight! ........ Like Bonnie and Clyde, Let's find a ride, and ditch this town.

"I hate school," he professed, trying to keep the smile off his face, tossing Kevin's phone back to him. "Especially when I'm not in it and I get second-hand learning."

Nick laughed at him and Kevin patted him on the shoulder. "You're just educating dear Demi, nothing wrong with that."

"Shut up, man."

It took about fifteen more minutes before he couldn't keep away from his phone any longer. Ignoring Nick's amused look, he typed up another message and watched it sending.

What does wall-e, obama, dwts and stevie wonder have in common?

It took a while before the answer came, but when it did, he grinned.

Why, At last, miss etta james. Ur a spaz. Wanna c wall-e?

Shoving his phone in his pocket a minute later, Joe located his shoes, shades and beanie, taking the stairs two at a time. He passed Nick and Frankie playing with Elvis in the kitchen, shouting at them he was going out.

"Say hi to Demi!"

Ignoring Nick, he snatched the keys off the dresser and managed a wave at his mother who just smiled at him.

B there in 10.