It’s possible that more stories will be added to the fanfiction section for you all to read. I’m still waiting for the author to send them to me, and hopefully that’s soon because I’m so excited for you to read them!

If you’re interested in submitting a fanfiction for the website, let me know at rebecca@jonasbrothers101.com.

Peace & love,
Rebecca

“Yes! Finally! Our first road trip!” Claire yelled.
“Claire…” Madison said.
“Okay, my first road trip,” Claire said, correcting herself. “This is going to be awesome. I mean, ALL summer… well, most of it, on the sandy beaches of LA. How cool is that?!”
“And no parents,” Hailey said. “Even better.”
“Too bad you don’t even have your permit. I’m stuck with all the driving,” Maddie complained.
“I though you liked to drive?” Claire asked.
“Ha Claire, you’re so innocent… that’s why I love you,” Maddie said. “And I do like driving, I just wanna complain.” She smiled.
“Well, let’s get packing!” Hailey said.
“I’ll see you guys later,” Claire said, heading down the block to her house. “I’ll be back by noon.”
“‘Kay, see you then,” Hailey said as she ran over to her house.

*——————————————————————–*

Why do we have to go to Nanna’s?” Nick asked for the millionth time. “We’re missin’ TRL for this…”
“And I’m missing Chelsea’s birthday,” Joe complained.
“Well, we’ll have other chances to be on TRL and Chelsea will have other birthdays. But who knows how many more days with Nanna we’ll have,” Kevin told his little brothers.
“How far away is Aspen anyways?” Nick asked. “And why do Mom, Dad, and Frankie get to fly up some time later in the week when we have to drive?”
“I don’t know. And we’ll need a car in Aspen. And I don’t know why they get to fly and you don’t,” Kevin said. “Now if you two are done asking your already answered questions, be quiet.”
“Fine,” Joe grumbled, putting his headphones on.
“Okay,” Nick said, looking out his window at the passing highway.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

“I think the turn was back there,” Hailey said.
“No Hails, I think it’s up here,” Maddie said.
“Where are we?” Claire asked.
“Rails,” Maddie replied.
“The sign said Crails,” Hailey said, correcting Maddie’s answer.
“What sign?” Claire asked.
“You ask a lot of questions,” Hailey stated, obviously annoyed.
“Let’s pull into this gas station, fill up the tank, and buy a map,” Maddie said, taking charge.

She pulled up to a pump and the three girls exited the car. Hailey filled up the tank while Claire and Maddie went inside for the map.
“This place has great service,” Claire said in a sarcastic tone.
“Shush,” Maddie said as she picked up the local newspaper. “Listen to this, ‘Two teenagers, Amy Scott and Jason Anders, gone missing while traveling to an unknown destination. They came through Marryville and were to meet some friends about 100 miles or so down the road, but Scott and Anders never met up with their friends in Hanna city…”
“Maybe we’re next,” Hailey said coming inside. “We just left Marryville.”
Claire jumped. “God, you scared the hell out of me!”
“Sorry,” Hailey said, hugging her friend.
“No one’s here,” Maddie said. She walked through the store looking for someone, but she found no one.
“Screw paying for gas. Grab a map and let’s get outta here,” Hailey said.
“Good idea. This place just isn’t quite right…” Claire said, grabbing a map.

*——————————————————————–*

“How ’bout that diner?” Nick asked.
Kevin looked in the direction where Nick was pointing. “It looks closed.”
Joe pulled off his headphones and said, “Let’s try anyways, I’m starving.”

Kevin pulled into the parking lot. The sign in the window said, ‘We’re Open’.
“Ha, told you,” NIck said, climbing out of the car and walking up to the doors of the diner with his brothers in tow.

They sat in the booth for about ten minutes with nobody coming or going anywhere in the restaurant. It was empty.
Joe sighed, and said, “Let’s go. I’m getting bored.”
“Okay,” his brothers agreed.

They walked out of the diner and over to where the car was parked. Only, the parking lot was empty.
“Where’s the car?” Nick asked.
“You locked the car, right Kevin?” Joe asked questionably.
“Yeah, of course,” Kevin answered.
“Then where is it?” Nick asked again.
“Gone,” Joe said.
“Someone stole it,” Kevin said.
“Who? There’s no one here,” Joe said.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Nick exclaimed sarcastically.
“Let’s see if they can give us a ride to the next car rental dealership,” Kevin said, pointing over at a car in the nearby gas station.

*——————————————————————–*

“The car won’t start,” Madison said.
“Huh. This is kinda like a horror movie,” Hailey said. “Deserted town. Car won’t start. Main characters lost. Hot girls. The only thing missing is the cold-blooded killer.”
Claire whined.
“She’s joking, baby,” Maddie said to Claire as there was a tap on the window.
Claire screamed and covered her eyes. “Who is it?! Freddie?! Jason?! Pinhead?!”
“No,” Maddie replied shortly.
“Then who is it?” Claire asked, still hiding behind her hands.
“Kevin Jonas,” Maddie said, a little surprised as she rolled down her window just as Joe and Nick came up behind him.
“Hey, can you give us a lift?” Kevin asked.
“No, our car won’t start. What happened to yours?” Maddie asked.
“Stolen,” Joe said.
“By who? No one’s here,” Claire said, confused.
“That’s exactly what I said!” Joe exclaimed, joyous at finding at least one person on his side.
Nick rolled his eyes at his brother, while Kevin just stared at him. Kevin then turned back to the girls and said, “Why don’t you guys come with us and we’ll try to figure out where we are.”
“Okay,” Hailey replied.

The girls got out of the car and followed the boys back to the diner.
“The sign said this place is Rails or Crails or something along those lines,” Joe said.
“There’s no Rails or Crails on this map,” Maddie said, her eyes fluttering across the piece of paper, desperately trying to locate as to where they all might be.
“I just we’ll just back track on foot,” Kevin stated.
“To where?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know… the next populated town,” Maddie answered.
“That’s Marryville,” Joe said.
“No,” Claire declared, fear in her voice. “Let’s go forward. Please.
“What’s wrong with Marryville?” Joe asked.
“We read in the local newspaper that some teens went missing and the last place they were seen was in Marryville. And she thinks, thanks to Hailey over here,” Maddie said, guiltily pointing at Hailey, “we’re the next to die.”
“Die?” Nick asked.
“You weren’t paying attention, were you?” Hailey asked.
“A little,” he replied.
“Let’s go, this place is giving me the creeps,” Maddie said, changing the subject. “We’ll head forward, not back. For Claire’s sake.”
“But what…” Hailey started.
“Zip it,” Maddie interrupted.
“But Maddie…” she said.
“No,” she said.
“What’s up?” Joe asked Hailey.
“What if the teenagers died in this town or the next on? I think we should go back to Marryville because living people are there,” Hailey said.
“That’s true, but don’t tell Claire and Nick that, it will most likely freak them out. And Maddie and Kevin will decide and by then, it will be dark… and that is not good to do. Horror movie or not, it’s not safe,” Joe said.
“Okay,” Hailey said.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

“How long have we been walking?” Hailey asked.
“Why, you tired?” Joe teased.
“Shut up,” she said, pushing him in a playful way. “What time is it?”
“Uh, 2:30,” Joe replied, checking his watch.
“That’s not possible,” Kevin said. “We were in Crails at 2:45.”
“Mine says 2:30, too,” Nick said.
“Mine too,” Claire added in.
“That’s really creepy. I mean, all out watches stopping at the exact same time,” hailey said in her horror voice.
“Huh, who would’a thunk it,” Joe said.
“Wait a minute, why are we walking?” Maddie asked. “Don’t we all have cell phones?” I’m surprised none of us thought of this earlier! Why don’t we just call for someone to come and get us?!”
“Mine was in the car,” Joe replied.
Nick pulled out his cell phone. “No signal,” he answered. As he said that, his cell phone died. “It’s dead. It had a full battery. How can something with a full battery die?” he asked in disbelief.
“Creepy,” Hailey said.
“Well, I guess that rules out that possibility. Let’s keep walking,” Maddie said, sighing.

They continued walking for a few more minutes when Nick stopped short.
“What?” Kevin asked him.
“I gotta pee,” he said.
Claire stiffened a giggle. Hailey couldn’t manage to hold hers back and started giggling like mad.
“That is so convenient,” Joe said.
“It’s not my fault!” Nick said defensively.
“Technically, it is your fault. You’re the one who drank all that water,” Kevin said.
Nick shrugged. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Go in the woods,” Joe told him.
“May I say something?” Hailey asked.
“Wait, Claire cover your ears,” Maddie said, interjecting. Claire covered her ears and could barely hear what the others were saying. “Continue,” Maddie said.
“Considering our situation, that probably wouldn’t be the best thing to do. In the movies, whenever someone goes off alone, they never come back,” Hailey said. “So might I suggest one of his brothers go with him… just in case?”
“Which one?” Joe asked.
“Who do you think?” Maddie said.
“Crap,” Joe said. “Why me?”
“Because the older one needs to stay and protect the girls,” Kevin answered, a smile forming on his lips.
“You’re really making me mad right now,” Joe said as he glared at Kevin.
“Can we hurry this up please?” Nick yelled.
Joe sighed with defeat. “C’mon,” he said, walking behind Nick.
Maddie put her hand on Claire’s shoulder, letting her know that she could uncover her eyes. Claire took her hands down and put them in her jeans pockets.

A minute later, Joe and Nick came running up.
“Why were you running?” Claire asked.
“I don’t feel comfortable discussing it in front of the female persuating,” Nick said.
“I didn’t understand a word you just said,” Hailey said.
“He said he doesn’t want to talk about it in front of girls,” Claire stated.
“Okay,” Hailey said. “Let’s keep walking then.”
A few minutes later and it started to rain some.
“It’s going to start pouring soon,” Kevin said. “We should find some place to stay.”
“And fast. My hair’s already getting frizzy,” Hailey said.
“And fast. My hair’s already getting frizzy,” Joe said, mocking her.
“Shut up, Joe,” she said, shoving him.

They came to a curve in the road and a bolt of lightning struck, followed by a loud clap of thunder, causing them to jump. After coming around the curve, they saw a hotel in the short distance. They all picked up to a run and stopped when they were inside the lobby of the hotel. No one was there. Kevin walked up to the front desk and looked at the registry book.
“No one’s checked in since July… in 1997,” he said.
“1997?” Claire asked in disbelief. She came to Kevin’s side and took a look for herself.
“Yeah. Eleven years ago,” he clarified.

They all began to look around at the lobby they were standing in. It was magnificent. Hanging from the ceiling was a crystal chandelier, the light from it cascading onto everything that lay below it’s beauty. Fancy velvet sofas and leather chairs surrounded a huge stone fireplace in the far corner. It looked like something you would find in London, England. It the situation wasn’t what it was, they all would have enjoyed staying at the hotel.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 4…

“Does anyone else hear singing?” Claire asked, breaking the creepy silence and making everyone else in the group jump. “Sorry,” she said, noticing their reactions. “But does anyone else hear singing?”
“It’s probably just Nick,” Joe said, looking up at the gold chandiliers hanging from the ceiling.
“I’m not saying anything,” Nick said, looking away from the huge window that he was looking out of.
“And besides why would be singing lullabyes in a high little girl voice?” Hailey pointed out. “I know he can hit high notes, but I didn’t think he could hit that high, anymore anyways.”
“Maybe someone just left a radio on,” Joe suggested.
“Since 1997?” Kevin asked, giving his brother a look.
“Well, it’s possible,” he said, getting defensive.
“Does anyone else hear it…whatever it is?” Claire asked again, walking back over to everyone else.
“I only hear us now,” Hailey said, sitting down on the floor.
“Well, did you hear it?” Claire asked, getting a little annoyed with her friend.
“I only did if you did,” she said, leaning back on her elbows.
“Hailey! It’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. Did you or did you not hear the singing?” Maddie asked, getting fed up too.
“Oh yeah, I heard it,” Hailey said, smiling.
“You bug me,” Claire stated, turning around and walking away from Hailey.
“Then the deed is done,” Hailey replied, laughing.

Suddenly, lightning struck and the power in the hotel went out completely. Claire screamed.
“Claire?” Maddie asked, concern ringing in her voice. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but where are you?” Claire answered.
Maddie put her arms out and started taking a few steps forward until she walked into someone.
“Claire?” she asked.
“No, Nick,” he said.
“When did you get over here?” Maddie asked.
“Before the power went out,” he said flatly.
Maddie grabbed Nick’s hand and started walking forward.
“Claire, where are you?” Maddie asked.
“Over here,” she answered.
Thunder clapped and Claire screamed again.
“Claire?” Maddie said, a little frantic. No answer came.
“Claire?!” Maddie asked again, walking faster.
“Maddie, calm down,” Nick said as he stopped, forcing Maddie to stop with him.
The lights came back on and NIck let go of Maddie’s hand. She looked around the room for Claire, and she found Claire’s body lying on the floor. Not moving.
“Claire!!” Maddie screamed, dropping to her knees beside her friends.
“Madison, calm down!” Hailey said, walking over to her friends. “She’s breathing, she just fainted. She’ll be okay; she’ll come back around soon.”
Nick and Joe looked at Hailey in amazement.
“Just because I’m a blonde doesn’t mean I’m stupid,” Hailey said, answering their looks.
“We never said you were,” Joe said, getting defensive once again.
“But your eyes said, ‘Wow, she’s more than just a pretty face’,” she replied.
Nick looked away feeling extremely guilty.
“Yeah, you should feel guilty,” Kevin said, picking up Claire and laying her down on one of the velvet sofas. He put her down and everyone was silent… that is, until the singing started again. Kevin looked around and took off after it.
“KEVIN!” Maddie screamed, running after him.
“Great,” Hailey said sarcastically. This is perfect.”
“What?” Nick asked.
“Now we are two people short. One girl is unconscious, two of the other people think this is strangly like a horror movie, and the third, I don’t even know what you think Nick. Plus, none of us can drive the car that won’t start and the one we don’t have!” Hailey said, getting louder with every word.
“Wow, you have some issues,” Joe said.
“I see a shrink twice a week,” she said, sitting down on the ground trying to relax.
“Cool,” Joe said, sitting down beside her.
“Why are they called shrinks?” Nick asked.
“What?” Joe asked, confused.
“Therapists… Why are they called shrinks? I mean, they’re not short, so why are they ‘shrinks’?” he asked, leaning against the arm of the sofa.
“Okay? Weird,” Joe said.

*——————————————————————–*

Kevin! Wait for me at least!” Maddie yelled as she tried to catch up with Kevin.
Kevin stopped running so Maddie could catch up and the two walked up to a closed door. They heard a little girl singing on the other side.
“One, two, buckle my shoe…” she sang.
Both of them leaned against the wall trying to catch their breaths. The little girl sang another song and started screaming the words. Kevin and Maddie shoved on the door and it opened slowly. The little girl stopped screaming and looked up to where Kevin and Maddie stood. She was sitting criss-cross in the middle of the room, a curly, blonde doll sitting in her lap. She was running her fingers through the doll’s hair.
“Hi, I’m Esme. Who are you?” she asked. Maddie and Kevin didn’t answer her.
“Did you like my songs?” she asked, smiling a sweet, innocent smile and cocking her head slightly to the left.
“Where are your parents?” Kevin asked.
“Not here,” she said, holding her doll’s hand.
“If they aren’t here, where are they?” Maddie asked.
“Dead,” she said. Maddie stepped back, taking Kevin with her. She pulled the door shut.
“What are you doing? We have to help her,” Kevin said.
“No we don’t. There is something about her that doesn’t sit right with me. I want to go back to the lobby. Now. Let’s go,” Maddie said through clenched teeth. A shiver ran up Kevin’s spine.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he replied.
Maddie grabbed Kevin’s hand and they took off running in the direction they had come.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 5…

Claire started waking up.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked, sitting down beside her.
“Y-Yeah. I think so. I remember what happened though,” Claire answered, sitting up.
“That’s good,” Hailey said, looking around the room. “This place is really creepy. God, I wish Maddie and Kevin would get back here so we could leave.” Hailey shuttered and rubbed her arms.
“Where are they?” Claire asked, hugging her knees to her chest.
“They went after the singing,” Joe said.
“Claire, are you sure you’re okay?” Hailey asked.
Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, leaning back against the sofa.
“Okay, did anyone else notice that it just got really cold in here?” Joe asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“A little,” Hailey said as she rubbed her arms.
“I’m freezing,” Claire said.
“Yes, but you’re just wearing a t-shirt,” Joe pointed out.
“I’m hot,” Nick said. “You can have my sweatshirt if you want, Claire.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah. You just said you were freezing and I’m burnin’ up. So if you want it, you can have it,” he answered. He pulled his white Free City hoodie over his head and held it out to Claire.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the sweatshirt and pulling it over her head.
“No problem,” he shrugged.

*——————————————————————–*

Maddie let go of Kevin’s hand and started running. Kevin was right beside her. Maddie tripped over a fold in the rug and fell to the ground with a scream.
“Ow, ow, ow, owh,” Maddie exclaimed, holing her ankle. Kevin dropped to his knees beside her.
“My ankle. It hurts. I think I might have sprained it,” Maddie said. Kevin looked down the hall, at the door, where Esme was.
“I’ll carry you,” he said as he looked back at Maddie. “You can ride on my back.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Kevin stood up and pulled Maddie to her feet and she climbed onto his back. He put his hands under her to support her and started running again. He stopped running when he reached the end of the hall.
“A dead end?” Maddie asked, putting her hands on Kevin’s shoulders.
“Maybe… Maybe we took a wrong turn,” Kevin said, confused.
“Huh? There were no turns,” Maddie said, sliding down Kevin’s back and onto the ground.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Kinda,” Maddie said, testing her leg. “Not very well, but, I can walk. You’ll have to carry me if we have to run.”
“Got it,” Kevin said. Maddie leaned against the wall.
“Now, how could we have taken a wrong turn if there weren’t any?” she asked.
“That’s just what I was thinking,” Kevin answered.
“Let’s retrace our steps and see what we find,” Maddie put in.
“Okay,” he agreed. Maddie took Kevin’s hand and they started walking.

*Ten minutes later*
“And, we come to a door,” Maddie said slowly.
“Do we open it?” Kevin asked.
“Y-Y-Yeah,” Maddie said, very skeptical about the whole situation. “Open it.”
“If you say so,” Kevin said, reaching for the gold door knob, slowly. He grabbed it and screamed. Maddie screamed too.

*——————————————————————–*

“Do you hear that?” Joe asked from across the room, making everyone else jump.
“What?” Claire asked, standing in front of the fireplace. “Why is there no wood to build a fire?”
“Shh. Listen and you’ll hear it,” Joe hissed. They heard faint screaming.
“That’s funny,” Hailey said, laughing. “That sounds like Maddie and Kevin… Wait, that is Maddie and Kevin!”
Don’t scream,” Joe said through clenched teeth. Hailey took off towards the screaming.
“Hailey!!” Joe shouted running after her. He tackled her and pinned her to the ground and flipped her onto her back.
“You’ve seen the horror movies, Hailey,” Joe said in an angry whisper. “What happened when a person goes running after the screaming? Yo’ure the one always talking about the movies. They don’t come back. They run into the room and the person screaming is the cold-blooded killer. The people are dead. Then you’re dead. Stay with the group.”
Joe got to his feet and pulled Hailey up. They screaming stopped and the lights went out. Claire gasped and grabbed Nick’s hand.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 6…

“Claire, you’re the one holding my hand, right?” Nick asked.
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Good,” Nick said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“I’m scared,” Claire whispered, burring her face in Nick’s shoulder.
“Claire,” Joe said, sounding a little far away. “We’re probably all scared out of our minds right now.”
“Joe, please tell me that’s your hand on my knee,” Claire said, freaked out.
“I don’t even know where you are, let alone, your knee,” Joe answered.
“Hailey?”
“Not me. I’m by the fireplace,” she said.
“N-Nick?”
“What?” he asked.
Claire screamed and frantically started hitting at whatever was on her knee.
“AH!! IT’S CUTTING MY KNEE!!!!!” she shouted.
The lights flickered back on. Nick looked at Claire who was holding her hand right above her left knee, crying. There was a lot of blood.

*——————————————————————–*

Kevin pulled his hand away from the door and started laughing.
“Kevin, you’re so stupid!!” Maddie shouted, hitting his shoulder.
“Sorry,” he replied. “It was the perfect opportunity.
“Just open the door,” Maddie said, shoving his shoulder.
“Okay, okay,” Kevin said, pushing the door open. The light when out when the door opened.
Great. Now we’re lost and we can’t see,” Maddie said. “Kevin, give me your hand.”

About a minute later, they heard screaming and the lights came back on.
“Let’s go,” Maddie said, climbing onto Kevin’s back. He put his hands under her and walked through the door.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 7…

Nick pried Claire’s hand away from her leg and everyone looked at her cut knee in astonishment. Yeah, her knee was cut, big time, but, her jeans weren’t. They weren’t even torn.
“How the hell is that possible?” Joe asked.
“I don’t know!” Claire cried. “Just fix it!”
“Pull your jeans up then,” he said.
“Like they’re gonna go over my knee, these are skinny jeans,” Claire said, holding her knee again.
“Then, pull ‘em down,” Hailey said. Claire bit her lower lip.
“Do you want me to see the cut or not?” Joe asked, looking at her.
“Fine,” Claire said, kicking her shoes off. Hailey helped her stand up and Claire unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off, revealing a pink pair of Happy Bunny boy shorts.
Nick walked over to the window again, knowing Claire didn’t want him to look at her.
“Dang,” Hailey said, looking at the huge cut above Claire’s knee.
Joe pulled his sweatshirt off and tossed it on the couch. Then he pulled his t-shirt off. He had a long sleeve shirt on underneath. He dug a pocket knife out of his back pocket and cut the bottom of the black Pink Floyd shirt. He dropped the pocket knife and pressed the shirt to Claire’s knee, hoping to stop the blood.

A minute or two later, he pulled the shirt away, the cut wasn’t bleeding as much. Joe cut another strip off the bottom of the shirt and wrapped it tightly around Claire’s knee. He tied it and put the remaining part of his shirt in his back pocket.
Claire stood up and pulled on her jeans, buttoned them, and sat back down, putting her shoes back on as well.
“You can come back over here Nick,” Hailey said.
But Nick didn’t hear her. He was too busy trying to figure out if someone was really standing at the edge of the road or not. He saw a figure, but with all that rain, you never really know.
“Nick!” Hailey said, a little louder.
Nick shook his head and turned around. “What?” he asked, glancing at the road again. Whatever was there, if anything was even there, was gone.
“You can come over here now; Claire’s pants are back on,” Hailey joked.
“Okay,” Nick said, sitting on the back of the couch, facing the window.

*——————————————————————–*

“Where the hell are we?” Maddie asked, resting her head on Kevin’s shoulder.
“I have no idea,” he said, stopping.
“I hate it here,” Maddie complained.
“Yeah, me too,” he said, walking down the hall. Kevin pushed open a door with his foot and walked into the main hall.
“MADDIE!! KEVIN!!” Hailey screeched, with glee, running over to them.
“You’re sure as hell happy, concerting the situation we’re in,” Maddie said, sliding down Kevin’s back and onto the floor. Hailey shrugged and hugged them. The three of them walked back over to everyone else and Maddie hugged Claire.
“Where’d all the blood come from?” Maddie asked, sitting in a leather chair and pulling her feet up to her chest.
“It’s mine,” Claire said, pointing to her knee. “Something cut me.”
“I fell and sprained my ankle,” Maddie said.
“I say Claire wins. You tripped, Claire was cut by something unknown,” Hailey said laughing.
“Yeah, but, I could trip over air and get hurt,” Maddie giggled.
“It’s true. She could,” Claire said, vouging for her friend.
Nick laughed and scratched the inside of his arms. Three gashes appeared where his fingers touched his arm.
“What the hell?” he said, putting pressure on his arm. “How does that even happen?”
Kevin walked over and pulled Nick’s hand away. Joe pulled the Pink Floyd shirt out of his pocket and tossed it to Kevin.
“This is my shirt,” he said, catching it.
“Oops. I guess I owe you a new shirt,” Joe said. Kevin shook his head and pulled out a pocket knife and cut three strips off the bottom of the shirt and tied them around the cuts on Nick’s arm.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 8…

“I’m kinda hungry,” Joe said, breaking the silence.
“You’re always hungry,” Kevin stated.
“This is true,” he agreed.
“This place is boring…” Nick said.
“Totally,” Claire agreed.
“I’m going go look around,” Nick said, standing up. Claire laughed out loud.
“What’s funny about that?” Nick asked, smiling.
“I have no idea,” Claire said, laughing so hard, tears were running down her cheeks. “Sometimes, when things get crappy all you can do is laugh.”
“Yet, you choose me to laugh at,” Nick said.
“You just happened to be the last one talking,” she said, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. Nick started laughing with Claire.
“I’m still hungry,” Joe said.
“Here,” Maddie said, digging through her purse. “I think I have something…”
She pulled out a couple of energy bars and tossed one at Joe.
“What else you got in there?” he asked, catching it.
“A lot of crap,” she said. Joe shrugged and opened the energy bar.
“Okay. I’m going go look around, see if I can find anything,” he said, standing up, and walking down the hall with his hands in his front pockets.
“I’m going to miss him,” Hailey said, fighting a smile.
“Hailey Joanne, be nice,” Maddie said, sternly.
“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Hailey said.
“Don’t sass me, little girl,” Maddie said.
“Oh, I’m so scared. I can take you.”
“And can beat you six ways from Sunday.”
“Guys,” Kevin said. “Chill.”
“Kev. They do this all the time. Don’t worry about it,” Claire said, pulling a stick of gum out of her pocket.
“Okay,” Kevin said.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 9…

“Maddie. I gotta go to the bathroom,” Claire said.
“Have Hailey take you,” Maddie said.
“No way. I’m winning,” Hailey said. Her and Joe were sitting knee to knee, forehead to forehead, having a staring contest.
“Hailey. I gotta go now,” Claire said impatiently.
“Fine,” Hailey said, pulling away from Joe. “This doesn’t mean I quit, or forfeit. We will continue this later. Let’s go.”
Claire stood up and walked with Hailey down the hall.

*——————————————————————–*

Nick walked down the hall, making sure he knew exactly where he turned and what was around him so he could find his way back to the lobby easily.
“Can you help me, mister?” a little girl asked, looking up at Nick with her big brown eyes.
She was dresses in a baby blue, lacey dress, white tights, and saddle shoes. He light brown hair fell right below her shoulders. She was holding a little doll with curly blonde hair and a lacey pink dress, similar to the girl’s.
“Sure,” Nick said. “What do you need help with?”
“I can’t find my mommy or daddy,” she said, innocently.
“I’ll help you find them,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, slipping her little hand into his. “What’s your name?”
“Nick. What’s yours?” he asked as they walked down the hallway.
“Esme,” she said, smiling.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 10…

“Where is the bathroom in this place?” Claire asked, holding Hailey’s hand.
“I don’t know,” Hailey responded, looking down a hallway.
“What’cha thinkin’ about?” Claire asked, nudging Hailey with her elbow.
“Joe,” Hailey blushed.
“Like him?” she asked.
“Hell yeah,” she said, smiling. “The more time I spend with him, the more I like. For who he is. What you think of Nick?”
Claire bit her lower lip, fighting a smile.
“You like him,” Hailey taunted.
“No, I don’t,” Claire lied.
“You liiiiiked hiiiiim,” Hailey sang.
“Okay, maybe I do like him,” she admitted. “You know you like Joe.”
“Yeah, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.”
“You ain’t a man. Although, I will say, you got balls.”
“I know,” Hailey gloated, popping her collar. Claire rolled her eyes.

*——————————————————————–*

“Should we have let them go off by themselves?” Maddie asked.
“No. I don’t think they’ll be coming back,” Joe laughed, shaking his head. “Wait, that’s not funny. That’s my little brother. And, my two new best friends. Crap.”
“Ya think?” Kevin said, hitting him upside the head.

*——————————————————————–*

“What if we can’t find them?” Esme asked, looking up at Nick with her big, pale, blue eyes.
“I’m not sure. I’m just a kid myself,” Nick said.
Esme let go of Nick’s hand, sat down on the floor with her legs out in front of her, and started crying. Nick knelt down next to her and stroked her curly light brown hair.
“Hey Nick!” Claire said from the end of the hallway.
Nick put his hand on his knee and looked up. Claire and Hailey ran down the hall.
“Why are you kneeling on the floor?” Hailey asked, holding out her hand for Nick to take. Nick looked back at Esme. She was gone.
“Um, tying my shoes,” he lied, taking Hailey’s hand and standing up. He decided against telling them about Esme. They’d think he was crazy.
Maybe I am crazy, Nick thought.
“What?” Claire asked, taking his and Hailey’s hand.
Did I say that out loud? Nick thought.
“What’d you say?” Claire asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking out loud,” Nick said as they started walking down the hall, back to the lobby. “Did you find the bathroom?”
“Yep,” Claire answered with a smile. Nick laughed.

*——————————————————————–*

“Ten bucks says they don’t come back,” Joe said, lying across a couch.
“I’ll take that,” Kevin said, pulling ten dollars out of his wallet.
“Me too,” Maddie said, putting a ten dollar bill on the table.
“With or against,” Joe asked.
“Against,” they said in unison.
“Okay,” Joe said, dropping a crumpled five and five old ones on the table.

A few minutes later, Nick, Hailey, and Claire came through the doorway, arms linked and talking.
Maddie and Kevin smirked at Joe. Kevin picked up the money and handed half of it to Maddie.
“What’s up with the money?” Claire asked, falling into a chair.
“We made a little bit. And poor, little Joey lost,” Maddie said.
“What was the bet?” Nick asked, rocking back and forth on his heels.
“If y’all would come back,” Kevin said. “Me and Maddie bet against.”
Nick glared at Joe. Joe gulped. Nick walked over and started hitting Joe.
“Ow! That was my eye!” Joe cried. Hailey started laughing.
“OW! Not there! I might wanna have kids some day!” Joe shrieked. Claire fell out of her chair laughing.
“Nick! Nick! Stop! We all know you can beat up Joe!” Kevin said, pulling Nick off of Joe and pinning him to the ground. “Claire, could you come here, please?”
Claire, who had stopped laughing, walked over to Kevin.
“Sit here,” he said, pushing on Nick’s back.
Claire shrugged and sat on Nick’s back.
“That was my kidney,” Nick groaned.
“My bad,” Claire said, moving.
“Not any better. Now I can’t breathe,” Nick said, gasping for breath. Claire stood up and sat on his lower back.
“That works,” Nick said, leaning on his elbow.
“Joe, you’re fine,” Kevin said, standing over Joe. Joe was lying in the fetal position, his hands over his head. “Nick didn’t hit you that hard.”
“But I bruise like a banana,” Joe said, still lying on the ground.
“No you don’t,” Kevin said, pulling his little brother to his feet. “You’re fine.”
Joe shook Kevin off. He brushed invisible dirt off his shoulders, pulled his short down, and sat down on the couch, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knee.
Nick started drumming his fingers on the floor. Hailey started clicking her tongue. Maddie tugged on her black hair. Kevin sat down in a chair. Claire picked her teeth with the nails she didn’t have. She bit them down until there was nothing left.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 11…

“I am getting tired of just sitting here,” Claire complained, folding her arms across her chest.
“Well, I’m getting tired of you sitting on me,” Nick said, looking up at her. Claire stood up and started pacing. Nick sat up and started rubbing the feeling back into his legs.
“We have to do something. I am going mad!” she screamed, throwing her arms in the air.
“Going?” Hailey asked.
“Please, can we just start walking? I beg of you! Please, Maddie? Just waiting out the rain is driving me crazy,” Claire whined, leaning against the wall by the check-in desk.
“Fine, if it’ll get you to shut up,” Maddie said, pushing herself out of her chair.
“Thank you,” Claire said.
“I’m coming too,” Joe said.
“Let’s all just go,” Hailey muttered. “It’s safer that way.”
“And who knows,” Kevin said as they started walking down the hall, “we might just find a way out.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Hailey muttered under her breath. Joe shoved her playfully.

*—————————- HALF AN HOUR LATER —————————*

“I guess that covers the first floor,” Claire said, pushing open a door. A dark wood staircase was behind it. Hailey looked up the stairs and they all headed up them. Nick pushed open the first door he saw. It opened with ease.
“Weird,” he said, walking in.
Kevin flipped the light one and they all stopped dead in their tracks.
“Oh, wow,” Hailey gasped and covered her mouth with her fingerless-gloved hand.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 12…

“This room is amazing,” Claire said, looking around.
The room had a big wooden-framed bed and a smaller brass-framed one in the corner. There was a desk against the farthest wall from them. A dark red, velvet couch with lion’s feet for legs lay against another wall, and there was an elegant coffee table in front of it. A red woven rug was the only thing on the polished wood floor.
“Wow,” Nick said, walking forward. Claire followed him.
“No!! Don’t!!” Hailey shouted, grabbing for them.
But it was too late. They stepped onto the carpet and fell through a hole that had been hidden under the carpet.
“I knew it was a trap!” Hailey shouted, mad that she couldn’t get to them in time.
“How many movies have you seen?” Joe asked.
“Five too many,” Maddie said, looking down the gaping hole in the floor. “That can’t be good.”
The remaining four could hear Nick and Claire screaming as they fell.
“How far do you think this goes down?” Kevin asked, looking over Maddie’s shoulder.
“I have no idea,” Hailey replied. “Could be a bottomless pit.”
“That’s not likely,” Joe said, looking at the hole as well.
“It could be one of those weird holes where you’re falling down, but you end up on teh freakin’ roof or something like that,” Hailey said, standing up straight.
“You have seen too many movies,” Kevin said, looking over at her.
“I know,” she said, nodding at him.
“We have to find them. If we get out of here and we leave Claire behind, her parents will kill me,” Maddie shouted, going into hysterics.
“Hailey,” Joe said.
“Yeah?” she said, turning toward him as Maddie went on in hysterics, ranting and raving about Claire and everything.
“What would they do in the movies right around now?” he asked, clenching his jaw.
“Uh…” Hailey said, turning to Maddie. She pulled her hand back and slapped Maddie across the face. Maddie shut up and everyone looked at Hailey in awe.
“What? That’s what they do in the movies,” Hailey said, hunching her shoulders.
“I never said anything,” Joe said.
Maddie slapped Hailey back.
“Yeah, I guess I deserved that one,” Hailey said, rubbing her cheek.

*——————————————————————–*

Claire and Nick screamed as they fell through the floor. The tunnel spit them both into a dank, dark, dusty room.
“Ugh, someone open and window and let some light in here,” Claire said, coughing.
“I wish I could,” Nick replied, coughing as well.
Claire stood up and brushed the dirt off her. She looked around; there wasn’t much to see.
“This place gives me the skeeves,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.
“Skeeves?” Nick asked, shoving his hands in his front pockets.
“All in all it means creeps,” she explained shortly.
“Oh. Yeah. Me too,” Nick said, dusting himself off.
“There ain’t much to see, is there?” she said,, walking over to a door.
“Yeah, not really,” he answered.
Claire grabbed the door knob, turned it, and pulled. The knob came off in her hand.
“Guess we’re stuck,” Claire said, holding the door knob up so Nick could see.
“Well crap,” Nick said bluntly.
You’re tellin’ me,” Claire said, walking back to the far wall.
“Why sit over here?” Nick asked, following her and flopping onto the ground.
“Why not?” she asked, leaning against him.
“I don’t know,” Nick said. “You confuse me. Big time.”
“I know. I do that to a lot of people,” she said, yawning.
“You can sleep. I’ll keep watch,” he teased.
Claire shoved him playfully. He shoved back. She smiled and laid down, her head in Nick’s lap.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 13…

“I’m gonna go crazy!” Claire shouted, pacing around the dank room.
“Gonna?” Nick asked, sitting on an upturned five gallon bucket. Claire glared at him. Nick braced for impact.
“I’m not gonna hit you,” she said. Nick relaxed. She thumped him on the forehead.
“Hey!” he said, standing up quickly, knocking the bucket over.
“Hay is for horses, and I didn’t hit you. I thumped you,” she said, her hands on her hips.
“What’s the diff?” he asked, standing in front of her. Nick’s 5’6″ frame towered over Claire’s 5’3 1/2″.
“A lot. This is a hit,” she said as she punched him in the arm, “this is a thump,” she said, she thumped him in the chest, “and this is a smack,” she said, smacking him across the face. “Now you know the diff.”
“Yeah. I also know you are violent.”
Claire just nodded and went back to pacing.

*——————————————————————–*

“Who wants to bet that they’re dead?” Joe asked, leaning against the wall in teh hallway outside the room.
“They most likely are,” Hailey said, sitting with her knees brought up to her chest.
“Oh, I’m so glad you care about our little brother, Joseph,” Kevin said, glaring at Joe.
“Okay, I take it back. Just stop with the eyes. It burns. I get enough of that from Dad,” Joe said, flinching under Kevin’s gaze.
“Hailey,” Maddie said.
“She was your responsibility. Not mine,” Hailey said, tying and untying her left black SuperGa sneaker.
“Touché,” Maddie said.
Anyone know what they really means?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, I do,” Hailey said, wrapping her show lace around her finger, so tight the tip of her index finger turned purple. She unwound the lace and continued to tie and untie the show, over and over again.
“If you’re so smart, then, what’s it mean?” Joe asked, smiling, thinking for once he could outsmart her.
“It’s French for ‘hit’, often used in fencing when you are hit. Also used as ‘no hit’ or ‘pas touché”. Translated in English meaning ‘no touch’,” Hailey explained. Joe looked at Maddie and Kevin. They nodded.
“How do you know that?” Joe asked, kneeling down beside her.
“Like I said earlier, I’m more then just a pretty face. Just because I’m blonde, doesn’t mean I’m a ‘dumb blonde’. As a matter of fact, not many of the so-called ‘dumb blondes’ are natural blondes. I am a natural blonde and I could outsmart you any day. As for the whole blondes have more fun stereotype, it’s a bunch of bull. I know because I have conducted many a experiment. The test results actually prove that blondes don’t have more fun. Not just because of the hair color. It’s the attitude. And the size of the female’s chest does play a crucial role in that, too.”
“Wow. I only understood half of those words,” Joe said.
“Just as I expected,” Hailey replied. “Oh, and when I talk, look at my eyes, not my breasts.”
Joe’s cheeks turned dark red and he looked at his shoes.
“I’m smarter than I look. I have a 4.7 grade point average and a 152 IQ. That’s genius IQ. Don’t underestimate me.”
Joe gulped.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 14…

“Was that window there before?” Claire asked, staring at a small window near the ceiling.
“I have no idea,” Nick said; he was busy carving a bar of soap with his pocket knife. He had an open soap box next to him and seven little animals made from the soap. He was still sitting on the upturned five gallon bucket.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, standing in front of him.
“Playing soccer,” he said, picking up another bar. “Don’t hit me. Don’t thump me. Don’t punch me. Don’t slap me. Don’t smack me. Don’t abuse me.”
“I wasn’t gonna,” Claire said, juggling a few of Nick’s soap creatures. “You got a pretty good talent… For an Italian gigolo furniture mover.”
“Okay,” Nick said, standing up and putting his knife away. “I may be Italian. And the furniture mover thing, at times. But I am not a male prostitute. Kraut.”
Wow. I’m surprised you knew what that meant,” Claire said, smiling. “As for the Kraut, I’m proud to be one. I like the German blood.”
Nick shook his head and walked over to the window.
“I think we can get this open. Hand me that hammer,” Nick said, pointing over his shoulder.
“What hammer?” she asked, looking around.
“Over on those metal shelves. There’s some tools over there,” he said, putting the upturned bucket under the window.
“You have way too much free time,” she answered, handing him a hammer and a screwdriver.
“Thank you,” he said, wedging the head of the screwdriver under the window.
“…Are you done yet?” Claire asked a few minutes later, impatiently.
“Yep,” Nick said, tossing the tools over his shoulders. Nick jumped down and stood in front of Claire.
“Ladies first,” he said.
Claire climbed up and out the window. He followed her.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 15…

Claire stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees. Nick stood up and looked around.
“What is this place?” Claire asked, looking at all the weird rocks sticking out of the ground. “It doesn’t really look like the kinda place you’d see behind a hotel.”
“Haunted hotel,” Nick said.
Claire walked over to one the stones and looked at it.
“Margret Eliza Graystone, A great mother and grandmother, 1864-1912,” Claire read. “She wasn’t that old.”
“She was 48 when she died. That’s pretty old for that time,” nick siad.
“She still died,” Claire said. “…Oh, my gosh. We’re standing in a graveyard!” Claire jumped into Nick’s arms.
“Okay. To movie scene,” he said, putting her feet back on the ground.
“Tell me about it. Weird reflexes,” she laughed.
“Let’s find everyone else,” Nick said. Claire nodded and shoved her hands in the pocket of Nick’s hoodie.

“Ow,” Claire said, falling on her face.
“What happened?” Nick asked, helping her up.
“I don’t know; I tripped over something,” she said, looking at the ground. “Was that hole there earlier?” she asked, referring to a hole in the ground.
“No,” he said.
Claire looked at the hole. It was a grave. She leaned over and looked down.
“Don’t look into it!” Nick screamed, pulling her back, and they fell to the ground, tripping over something else.
“Sorry, I forgot,” Claire said, standing up. They stood up and Claire started screaming.
“What?” Nick screamed.
“Something is grabbing my ankle!” she screamed.
Well, I can’t tell what it is, it’s too dark,” Nick said.
Claire started being pulled into the dirt. Nick wrapped his arms around her chest under her arms and pulled. They fell into the dirt, staring at the hole in the ground, that had tried to eat Claire.

*——————————————————————–*

“Where do you think they are?” Hailey asked, walking into the lobby.
“Dead,” Joe said.
“That’s what you bet with Maddie and Kevin. And you lost,” Hailey said.
“That’s true,” he said.
“I don’t think you should be betting, bro,” Kevin said, putting his hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Does anyone else hear… lullabyes?” Maddie asked.
“Should we start screaming, running, or wetting our pants?” Hailey asked.
“I might do all three?” Joe said.
“How about just a combination of the first two?” Kevin asked.
“Which way?” Hailey asked as the singing got louder.
“Hold on,” Maddie said, listening. “Well, the singing is coming from that way,” she pointed towards a hall near the front desk, “so I suggest we go that way,” she pointed down another hallway.
“On three?” Kevin asked.
“Yes. Everyone clear on the plan?” Maddie asked.
“So, I can’t pee my pants?” Joe asked with no sarcasm in his voice.
“Knock yourself out. But literally,” Hailey said.
“Okay then. On three,” Joe said.
“One,” Maddie said.
“Two,” Kevin said.
“Three!” Hailey screamed, seeing the little demon girl. They started screaming and running down the other hallway.

*——————————————————————–*

“I think we should-”
“Run like hell?” Claire asked, cutting Nick off.
“Hell, yeah,” Nick said, standing up and putting Claire on the ground.
Claire grabbed Nick’s hand and started running as something rose from the dirt.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 16…

Claire looked over her shoulder to make sure nothing was chasing them.
“What are you looking at?” Nick asked, still holding onto Claire’s hand.
“Why are we running? Nothing is chasing us. Are you sure we’re even going the right way?” she asked, trying to keep up with Nick’s long strides.

*——————————————————————–*

“Where are we going?!” Hailey screamed.
“Away from her!” Kevin screamed back.
“DOOR!!” Joe yelled, putting his arms in front of him.
To everybody’s surprise, the door wasn’t locked and the four of them went through and fell to the ground.
“That was weird,” Hailey said, standing up.
“Just a little,” Maddie said.
The door slammed shut, making them all jump.
“I still think we should continue running,” Hailey said.
“I second that motion,” Kevin said. They started running again.

*——————————————————————–*

Claire and Nick ran around a corner of the building and ran right into people. All of them fell back and started screaming.
“Why are we screaming?” Hailey asked, standing up.
“HAILEY!” Claire screeched, hugging Hailey.
“CLAIRE BEAR!” Hailey screamed, spinning Claire around. Everyone started hugging, excited that no one was dead.
“Again Joe. You lose,” Hailey said, gloating.
“You better be lucky that Claire’s on my back,” Nick said, glaring at Joe.
“I can hit him,” Maddie volunteered.
“Okay,” Nick said, smiling.
Maddie punched Joe in the arm, hard enough to make Joe cry out in pain and for Maddie to shake her hand vigorously in pain.
“Wait. What are y’all doin’ out here?” Claire asked, wrapping her arms around Nick’s shoulders and resting her head on his shoulder. Nick smiled a cocky smile.
There was a little girl inside singing,” Joe said.
“And?” Claire asked.
“The little girl that we saw when we ran after the singing,” Maddie said, holding Kevin’s hand.
“What’d she look like?” Nick asked.
“Why does it matter?” Joe asked.
“I just wanna know,” he said.
“She looked like Carol Anne from the Poltergeist,” Hailey said, sounding confused.
“Her name’s Esme,” Maddie said. “She told it to us.”
Nick instantly flashed back to earlier that night in the hallway. When he was alone.
The little girl seemed to come out of nowhere and her hand was freezing cold when she took mine. Her clothes were a little outdated and where did she go when Claire and Hailey come down the hall? Now that I think about it, she did look like Carol Anne, Nick thought, walking behind Joe.
“Maybe we are in the-”
HAILEY JOANNE!! WE ARE NOT IN A HORROR MOVIE!!” Maddie screamed.
“Yeah, Maddie’s right. And if we were, it wouldn’t be the Poltergeist It’d be City of the Dead,” Joe said.
“No it wouldn’t, nimrod. That involves witchcraft. We haven’t done any. It’s more The Changling, the original,” Nick said.
“Oh, please. This is so Horror Hotel,” Maddie said.
“It’s Night of the Living Dead,” Hailey said.
“That’s a zombie movie!” Joe screamed, throwing his arms in the air.
“Either way, you’re all wrong. This is more like The Shining,” Claire said. Everyone was quiet as they walked for a few seconds.
“Dang it, y’all know she’s right,” Nick said, finally breaking the eerie silence.
“That’s ’cause I know my horror movies,” Claire said, laughing.
“She’s not exactly right. But she’s close enough. I don’t think that our story has been a movie yet,” Hailey said. “Oh, but when we get back, we can sell it to Steven Spielberg!”
Maddie shook her head in disappointment.

“I’m glad that we’re back with everyone else,” Claire whispered to Nick, “but I wish it was still me and you.”
“Why?” he asked, whispering.
“‘Cause I like you,” Claire whispered into his ear. “I like you a lot.”
Her warm breath was enough to send shivers up NIck’s spine, but the fact that she was admitting to liking him didn’t help, it just sent more up his spine.
“So you like me too?” she asked quiety, resting her head on his shoulder and looking at him.
“How could I not like you? You’re beautiful,” he asked. Claire fought over the powerful urge to kiss him.

As they got to the front og the hotel, it started pouring, and the front door opened mysteriously asi if someone was waiting for them.
Claire slid off Nick’s back and stood in front of him. He had his hands wrapped around her waist.
“I don’t really want to go back in there,” Claire said, pushing her soaking wet, over-grown bangs out of her face.
“What other choice do we have?” Kevin asked.
“Keep walking,” Claire urged.
“In a storm?” Joe asked.
“It’s just raining,” Hailey said.
“Anything to keep us out of that hotel and away from Esme,” Claire said. They turned to walk away and lightning struck the road in front of them. They all screamed and dell back onto each other.
“Okay, that was close,” Hailey screamed over the rain and stood up. “But lightning never strikes the same place twice.”
Everyone stood up and lightning struck in front of them again.
“AH! Science has never lied to me before!” she screamed.
They ran back to the hotel and fell to the floor and the door slammed shut.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 17…

Hailey and Joe were sitting criss-cross on the floor, forehead to forehead, knee to knee again, finishing their staring contest. Maddie was on Kevin’s lap, his hands between her knees. Claire was sitting upside down on a couch. Nick was leaning again the couch Claire was sitting on, beside her feet, staring out the picture window.
There has to be something out there watching us. Either that or I’m crazy. And that’s quite possible, he thought.
The figure outside the window lifted its hand and waved at Nick with its fingers.
Nick was taken by surprise and jumped back, forgetting he was leaning against the couch and fell over it, landing on his back under Claire’s head.
Ignoring the intense pain in his back, Nick stood up, jumped over the couch, and ran to the window. He put his hands on the glass and looked out. Nothing was there. Nick looked harder and the figure, popped up out of nowhere, right behind the glass, smiling. It was Esme.
Nick screamed, jumped back and fell over the couch again. This time he didn’t get up. The pain was too intense.
Hailey and Joe, who were on the other side of the table, pulled apart from each other and looked at Nick. Claire just tilted her head down and her brown hair fell into Nick’s face. Kevin and Maddie stood up and walked over and looked down at him.
“What was up with that?” Claire asked, throwing her feet over her head and landing on the other side of Nick.
Hailey stood up and walked over to the window, looked out for a second and screamed.
“It’s rain, Nicholas,” she said, a little pissed.
“Someting was out there, I swear,” Nick said. “Someone, please, tell me I’m not crazy. Please tell me you saw her before I start crying.” He put his hands over his eyes.
“You mean Esme, outside the window? Yeah, I saw her too,” Maddie said. “You don’t have to cry.”
“I kinda do. I feel full-force on my back, twice,” Nick said, not moving his hands.
“Oh, then go ahead and cry. We’ll leave you alone,” Joe said, and him and Hailey went back to their staring contest.

Maddie and Kevin went back to where they were, a few couches away, Maddie in Kevin’s lap, his hands inbetween her legs and put her hand on Nick’s arm.
Claire crossed her legs and put her hand on Nick’s arm. Nick moves his hands. He had tears running down his face.
“Falling hurts,” he said, smiling. Claire smiled.
“Tell me about it,” she said.
Nick sat up and the tears soon stopped. Nick stretched his legs out, under the table, and Claire sat on his legs, facing Nick with one of her legs on both sides of him. Nick wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer and kissed her.
“Finally,” Claire said, once they pulled away and kissed him again and they started making out.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 18…

“What are we gonna do?” Claire asked, pacing around the lobby.
“What can we do?” Hailey asked, sitting on the coffee table.
“How should I know? You’re the expert! What do they do in the movies?” Claire asked, leaning against the wall.
“What are we dealing with?” Hailey asked, standing up.
“Esme,” Nick said from his sport on one of the couches.
“But, what is Esme?” Hailey asked, pacing.
“A demented little girl?” Maddie guessed.
“This isn’t the Exorcist…” Joe said, lying on the floor, looking up at the ceiling.
“Well, from the way she dresses and speaks. She’s pretty old,” Kevin said.
“Her hands are freezing to the touch,” Nick said.
“Her feet don’t touch the floor,” Maddie said.
“Does she have feet?” Kevin asked. Everyone looked at Kevin, utterly confused. Kevin stared back at them.
“It was just a question,” he said, folding his arms. Maddie wrapped her arms around Kevin and hugged him.
“She’s a ghost,” Claire said.

Nick started thinking, back to when he and Claire were alone. Was there anything useful in the basement? he thought, racking his brain. It was like a storage room. There was the basic things for a hotel up keep. What happened to all the people that were staying there anyway? That matters, Nick. Say that.
“What do you think happened to all the people that were staying here?” Nick asked. Everyone shut up and started thinking about it.
“Maybe Esme isn’t the only ghost,” he said as he started thinking back to the basement.

The window… we climbed out… we were outside… in… a… graveyard…
Nick could hear everyon talking to each other, but wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying.
Claire being pulled into a grave… that has to mean something… but, what?… what?…

“Zombies,” he muttered, almost inaudible.
“What Nick?” Claire asked, looking at him.
“Zombies,” he said again.
“Zombies?” Joe asked, utterly confused.
“Zombies,” Nick said, a little louder.
“Zombies?” Hailey asked.
“I think we established the fact that Nick said zombies,” Maddie jumped in.
“Claire!” Nick said, jumping up. Claire who was sitting on the check-in desk, gave him a strange look.
“Do you remember when we were in the basement?” he looked at her.
“Nickel, you’re gonna have to be more specific,” she said, putting her hands on her knees.
“The graveyard,” he tried.
“There’s a graveyard?” Hailey asked.
“Yes, now let me finish,” Nick snapped. “Remember when we were in the graveyard… something grabbed at you a few times?” He walked toward Claire as he spoke.
“Yeah,” she said.
“They were zombies,” he said, grabbing Claire’s upper arms. Claire gave him the strangest look. It started to soften and went into sheer horror.
She pulled away from Nick, and started inspecting her legs and feet for bite marks. She, thankfully, found nothing.
Nick hugged Claire and she started crying into his shoulder. He lifted her off the counter and kissed the top of her head.

“How can you be so sure they were zombies, Nicholas?” Kevin asked, standing up.
“Okay, they were undead!” Nick said, his arms still around Claire. “I have no idea what the hell they are. But, they’re there!”
Claire turned her head and looked at the side of Hailey. She thought back to the basement, looking around.
There were things we could use as weapons. Shovels, hammers, heavy things. There were a lot of things. And what’s in the rooms.

“What are we gonna do?” Nick asked.
“We’re gonna do something instead of just waiting around to be saved by someone who will never come or just wait around to die!” Claire said, pulling away from Nick.
“Dang girl, where’d this rage come from?” Hailey asked, putting her hands on her hips. Claire shrugged. They went down to the basement and Joe tried the lights.
“Nothing,” Joe said, flipping the light switch over and over again. Nick pulled a flashlight out of his back pocket and turned it on.

_____________________________________________

“Congratulations,” numerous people smiled at the Jonas Brothers as they walked through the crowd of people.
“Marcus,” Kevin smiled at their producer.
“Congratulations boys. How does it feel to know that millions of girls are out buying your third CD?” Marcus’ eyes crinkled as he smiled.

All of their minds screamed the same thing, amazing! For nearly six months, they had been working on it and it was finally out for the world to hear. With songs written mainly about heartache and girls, they all sighed. The only thing that could make this night better would be to have a girl at their sides. All had suffered from some sort of heartache on tour and just wanted a girl to understand their schedule and love them for who they were – not money.

“It’s great by the way,” a petite brown-haired girl stood beside Marcus and held onto his arm.
“Thank you,” Joe blushed as he looked at the girl before him.

Her stunning beauty and her soft British voice caught each boy off guard. Joe blushed a deep red, Kevin stuttered on his words, and Nick began to fidget nervously.

“Isabella, come on.” Another brunette girl ran to “Isabella” and tugged on her arm.
“Kit Kat, this is Kevin, Nick, and Joe.” Isabella giggled.
“Oh, um, sorry; Hello.” She stuttered as she made eye contact with Nick.

For years, he had been the object of her affection. Sure, she had boyfriends, but he seemed to take up her whole heart. She did not know what attracted her to him in the first place. The only thing she knew was that she liked him, a lot.

“Boys, this is my daughter Isabella, her friend Kaitlin, and…” he stopped speaking as he scanned the bustling groups of people below them.
“I’m Anna-Marie. Nice to meet you all,” Anna-Marie appeared out of nowhere and immediately shook their hands.
“You never stop scaring me Anna.” Marcus laughed along with the rest of the adolescents and the two twenty-year-olds.

As Demi Lovato’s newest hit “Get Back” began to play Isabella laughed. She had loved this song as soon as she heard it. It always reminded her of Joe. She did not know why, but it did.
“Bella, um, never mind.” Kaitlin sighed as she looked into Nick’s brown eyes.

“Anna-Marie, would you like to dance?” Kevin asked confidently after the awkward silence Marcus created after he left.
The third brunette nodded and accepted his hand.

“Oh, kiss me, like you mean it. Like you miss me,” Joe sang along to the music.
Isabella giggled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Joe smiled at her and began to talk to her happily. His younger brother drifted off into the sea of people. Kaitlin sighed and went to sit down at a table.

“You seem lonely,” Nick cringed at his opening line.
“Yeah, little, lonely me,” she smiled at him.
“Is it alright if I sit with you?” he quirked an eyebrow at her.
She nodded her head and plastered a small smile on her face. She never knew how normal this could be. It was not completely normal. It was not as if she was having lunch with an old friend, but at least she did not go all fan-girl over him.

He sat in the cushioned seat across from her and smiled. She was beautiful.
“Why is a beautiful girl like you sitting here all alone?” he asked.
“Oh, was that a pick up line I heard Mr. Jonas?” she laughed.

Nick felt the heat rise to his cheeks. He was not used to blushing, not around girls. He had had his fair share of girls, but Kaitlin had an odd affect on him. His heart was beating erratically and he was using the pick up lines you read in stories.

“Aww, don’t be embarrassed. It was cute,” she touched his arm lightly.
“Thanks, so, would you like to dance?” he asked nervously.
“I would love to,” Kaitlin smiled at him and got up to go to the bustling dance floor.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

“So, how are you?” Isabella asked awkwardly as Joe placed his hands around her waist when “With You” by Chris Brown came on.
“Don’t be scared. I’m good, excellent even.” He grinned down at her.
“I’m sorry, I’m just really nervous. I’ve wanted to meet you ever since you started.” She explained calmly.

She did not know how she managed to keep so calm. It might have been the fact that Joe told her to or the fact that his touch made her mellow out. She did not know, but she wanted to find out. If not know, then later.

“Thank you. Marcus never told us he had a beautiful daughter.” He winked at her.
“I preferred not to be known around there. I just don’t want people to be friends with me just for that. That’s why I only have Anna-Marie and Kaitlin who know about it. They’ve been my friends since Kaitlin’s mom got pregnant with her.” Isabella let Joseph lead.
“I know how you feel. You just want to have an honest relationship.” He whispered before kissing her lips.

Isabella wrapped her arms tighter around Joe’s neck and kissed back.

“Already a couple,” Anna-Marie laughed from behind them.
“You can’t say much either.” Joe looked at Kevin’s and Anna-Marie’s intertwined hands.
“Now for Nick and Kaitlin; Nick basically fell for her right then and there.” he laughed.
Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Life goes on, you know?” Kaitlin smiled as she told the story of her last relationship.
“He only used me to get to Bella. I’m used to it by now. She and Anna-Marie are the pretty ones.” She sighed and leaned her head against Nick’s chest.
“You are beautiful. That Jake guy lied to you,” he swayed with her.
“Thanks, but I still disagree Jonas.” She laughed.
Nick rolled his eyes. This would be a long night, but he had to convince her she was beautiful.

“Aye, no eye rolling,” Kaitlin pulled a loose curl jokingly.
“Sorry,” Nick smiled apologetically at her.
“I have to go Nick. Apparently, my friends and your brothers are dating already. I have a long night ahead of me. Call or email me sometime, okay?” she handed him a piece of paper with her information on it.
“You’re brother probably already got Anna’s and Bella’s numbers. Call me soon. Night,” she kissed his cheek before running towards her friends.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

Kaitlin walked towards her friends, her heart too light to care about how long the night would be with them talking about their nights. She had just danced with Nick Jonas… it was every teenage girl’s dream.

“Kaitlin, Kaitlin!” Anna-Marie laughed giddily as she approached her friend, Isabella, not far behind. When she didn’t answer, the two girls began to call Nick jokingly.
“Stop, stop,” Kaitlin shushed them. They laughed and followed her out to the limo.
“YOu guys are so not funny,” she shook her head smiling.
“Then why are you smiling?” Isabella asked.
Kaitlin blushed and hid her face. “Oh, I think Nick captured her heart,” Anna-Marie teased.
“Whose heart did I capture?” Nick asked as he came up behind them. Kaitlin blushed an even darker red before pushing her two friends into the black car and slamming the door.

“Hey Nick,” she smiled.
“Hey, um, I know this might sound kind of forward and all, but would you girls like to come and hang out this weekend?” Nick asked and shoved his hands into his pockets nervously.
Kaitlin turned around and opened the door. She whispered to her friends and got two very high-pitched yeses. She laughed before turning around and looking at the curly-haired sixteen year old.
“I guess that’s a yes?” he chuckled. Her heart sped up at the wonderful sound.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” she blushed.

“Kiss her already!” Anna-Marie yelled out of the sunroof. Isabella popped up next to her and shouted in approval. Kaitlin turned around and glared. They immediately sunk down into the limo and closed the sunroof.
“Sorry…again,” she turned back to Nick and blushed.
“It’s okay,” he stuttered nervously. He wiped his palms on his pant leg and stepped closer to her. Her heart stopped and restarted as he placed his hands around her waist.
“Don’t feel oblig…” she could not finish her sentence as his lips pressed softly against hers. He pulled back a couple of seconds later and looked her in the eyes.
“I don’t,” he grinned. She laughed breathily.

“Nick!” a very loud voice screamed. It was Joe.
“Nick, come on man! We need to make our speech!” he yelled until he saw his brother’s current position. “Unless you’re too busy,” he yelled, but not quite as loud. Nick rolled his eyes and let go of the girl in front of him.
“Sorry,” he muttered before running off towards his brother. Kaitlin drew in a shaky breath before climbing into the car.
“So, how was it?” Anna-Marie asked. Kaitlin merely blushed and pulled out her phone to text Nick.
‘Congrats Nick. I’ll see you this weekend. – Kaitlin xoxo‘ she pressed send and put her phone away before her friends could read the text.
Anna-Marie laughed as she received a text from Kevin.
‘Crazy kids; See you this weekend. – Kev‘ She giggled at the message before showing her friends. Kaitlin and Isabella cooed in delight as they were driven off to Isabella’s home.

“Isabella, I’m going to kidnap Alex Evans, okay?” Kaitlin laughed as they pulled up to her house. Alex had been visiting Isabella from Canada after he had a meeting for his clothing line and photo shoot. Bella laughed as they climbed out of the car and into the mildly chilly California night air. Alex flipped his hair before holding out his arms for a hug from each girl.

“Alex!” Kaitlin squealed as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Kaitlin!” he laughed back and kissed her forehead.
“What about me?” Anna-Marie pouted playfully and swung her arms around like a little girl. Alex chuckled before holding his arms out and curling them around Anna-Marie as she collapsed into him. Isabella merely stood and smiled. She and Alex had been used to seeing each other on business with her parents, but he was a whole other world for her friends. Kaitlin had always had a small crush on him and he was the little brother that Anna-Marie never had.

“Did you girls have fun?” he asked as they all walked into Isabella’s large house. The girls turned to each other and blushed. Bella nudged Kaitlin as she saw her leaning into the boy.
“What?” Kaitlin whined and sat on the couch with everyone.
“Nick…” Anna-Marie warned.
“Oh, shush. It’s not like I’m dating Alex or Nick or something.” She shook her head before smiling up at him.
“Who’s Nick?” Alex asked.
“Oh, just the Nick Jonas,” Isabella drawled.
“Seriously, shut up!” Kaitlin blushed and hid her face.
“Okay, what the heck is going on?” Alex wondered aloud.
“We went to the Jonas Brothers’ release party, met the boys, clicked, and Kaitlin kissed Nick,” Anna-Marie explained.
“Oh, like you can talk Anna-Marie. She and Kevin were…” Kaitlin trailed off, shuddering to complete it.

Kaitlin was a bit upset. But, not with her friends, but with herself. She knew that she liked Nick, more each day, but she couldn’t help the fact that she was crushing a bit on Alex. Her mind reeled as her phone rang. She answered it quickly.

Hey, can’t wait for this weekend. Do you want to make it Friday? Just you and me? – Nick

She smiled as her body and mind relaxed by his words. She texted back quickly.

Sure, where do you want to meet at?

She waited for a reply, looking at Alex every so often. She began to look at him. I mean, really look at him. She saw the boy that she’d grown to know and love – as a friend. Not the boy she saw in pictures. Kaitlin began to realize that she didn’t like Alex like that, but liked the idea of being with him. Her phone rang, interrupting her thoughts.

I’ll pick you up at your house. I got the address from Bella’s dad.. Okay, sorry for sounding like a stalker.
It’s all good. And you didn’t. Aye, is Joe going to ask Bella out?
No clue. We’ll have to work that out.
Cool. See you Friday. – Kaitlin xoxo

_____________________________________________

“Joe! Joe!” Ashly said to her best friend, Joseph Adam Jonas.
“What?!” said Joe.
“Did you hear me? Or were you too busy staring at Courtney?” said Ashly impatiently.
“Just because we’ve been dating for a week doesn’t mean I always think about her,” said Joe.
“Ummm… yeah it does,” said Ashly’s other best friend, Angie.
“No, it doesn’t!” Joe said his voice raising.
“Okay, it’s the last day of school, do you guys really want to hate each other all summer?” Ashly said.
“Hey Ashly, Jake’s coming!” said Angie.
“Really?” said Ashly in disbelief.
Jake passed Ashly and went to the most popular girl in school, Karmyn.
“Hey Karmyn, see you tomorrow?” said Jake coolly.
“Maybe,” replied Karmyn.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t even think he knows I exist,” sighed Ashly.
“Why would you care?” said Joe.
“I’m sure he does, I mean, you’re his lab partner and you sit next to him in every subject,” reassured Angie.

At the end of the day…
Ashly stuffed the last thing in her locker in her bag.
“Hey Ash,” said Nicholas Jerry Jonas.
“Hi Nick,” said Ashly. “Is Kev giving us a ride home?”
“Yeah,” said Nick.
“Where’s Joe?” asked Ashly.
“I’ll give you one guess.”
“Kay,” said Ashly understanding Nick.
They both hated Courtney. It was because of her that they never got to talk to Joe without him being distracted by her or him not being with them at all. Not only that but, she was a huge snob. Joe was blind to her snobiness.

They walked to the school parking lot to find Kevin’s car in the furthest spot in the lot. When they got to the car they were surprised not to see Kevin in the car, but Joe and Courtney making out.
“Joe, can you drop me and Ashly off at home?” said Nick breaking the silence.
Joe looked like he just woke up.
“Sure,” said Joe as Nick and Ashly got into the car.
“But Joey…” whined Courtney.
“Court, we just have to drop them off,” said Joe.
Courtney turned towards Nick and Ashly, glaring at them.
“Joe, where’s Kevin?” asked Ashly.
“At home. He agreed to let me borrow the car for me and Courtney’s date,” said Joe. They rode in silence.
“Thanks Joe!” said Nick.
“Bye Joe,” Ashly said.
Courtney was whining again so Joe couldn’t hear Nick or Ashly.

They walked inside while Joe and Courtney rode away.
Immediately, Ashly ran up to Nick’s room and grabbed his guitar from it’s stand. She sat on Nick’s bed while strumming the tune to one of her songs. Naturally, the lyrics came spilling out.

I don’t think you know my name
I’m the invisible girl
Trapped in thoughts about me and you
I don’t know where to take this
Can you give me a clue, what should I do

And I’m standing here, patiently
And I’m waiting for you to see, me
Toss my hair, my intriguing stare
Everything that should make you care
But I’m the invisible girl

So many times you looked my way
I’m the invisible girl
That you have just not ever seemed to see
I wish you’d open up your eyes and see me for me
And all we can be

I’m not no J Lo or miss Spears
I’m just the girl who disappears
Every time you walk my way
I just don’t know what to say

Go to the beach and run through the rain
Stretch beyond your reach. Take a
Flight to Spain
Can’t you see how great it’d be
If you could just only see
I’m not the invisible girl

“That’s really good,” said Nick.
“Thanks,” said Ashly.
Suddenly it hit her. Nick was the only guy in her life who saw her as a person and really understood her.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2: Teach Me How To Play ‘Heartbreak’…

“What do you do when you know your friend is in a bad relationship, but when you tell them, you’re afraid the person they’re in a relationship with will hunt you down?” said Ashly. “Or worse, your friend abandons you?”
“Joe doesn’t abandon people like that,” Nick said. “You’ll have to force him to swear secrecy for the other part.”
“I never said it was Joe,” argued Ashly.
“Ash, I’ve known you for seven years,” Nick replied calmly. “…And we both know Joe’s relationship issues.”
“Is he still dating that Courtney girl?” asked Paul Kevin Jonas Jr.
“You should know… you let Joe borrow the car for his date with her,” Nick said.
“He just said ‘for a date’. He never said who it was with,” Kevin explained. “You guys got time?” He asked, raising his guitar.
“Yeah,” Nick and Ashly said in unison.
“Are we learning tablature?” Nick asked excitedly.
“Yeah,” Kevin replied.

One hour later….
“Is this right?” asked Ashly referring to her guitar.
Suddenly, they heard the door open and close.
“Do you think that’s Joe?” asked Kevin.
“I’ll go check,” Nick said.
“I’ll come with you,” said Ashly.
They walked down the stairs and saw Joe sitting on the couch.
“Hey Joe!” said Ashly.
Apparently Joe wasn’t alone. As Joe turned around, Nick and Ashly saw Courtney with him.
“I think it’s time for Courtney to go home,” said a calm voice.
“Hi, Mr. Jonas,” Ashly said. “Would it be okay if I slept over?” Ashly knew this would tick off Courtney.
“Sure,” said Mr. Jonas.
“Bye Court,” said Joe apologetically as Courtney angrily got up and ran out the door, slamming it behind her.
“Dad,” whined Joe, “were you ever a teenager?”
“Yeah,” said Mr. Jonas, glancing at Nick, “and you spend too much time with that girl anyways.”
“But, Ashly’s a girl and she’s over here all the time!”
“I thought she was your friend,” Mr. Jonas replied calmly.
“She is, bu-“
Nick cut him off, “She’s mine and Kevin’s too.”
“And mine too!”
“Frankie!” said Ashly.
“Ashly!” Frankie said running up to her for a hug. Ashly picked him up. Mr. Jonas saw that Joe could tell her was fighting a losing battle and walked into the kitchen.
Suddenly, Ashly’s phone rang. She put Frankie down and reached for her phone.

“Hello?”
“Hey! Ash,” said Angie’s voice, “I’ve got to tell you something… something that I just realized five minutes ago.”
“’Kay, hold on,” said Ashly. She ran up the stairs and into Nick’s room. She saw that Kevin was still in it.
“Is it okay if Kevin knows?” she asked quickly.
“Sure,” said Angie.
“What is it?” Ashly asked.
“I think… I think I love someone,” Angie said breathily.
“Who?” Ashly said excitedly.
“Nick Jonas.”
Ashly stood up from shock. “…Seriously?”
“Yeah, he’s always so nice to me and he’s so cute!”
“Wow, it’s kinda strange having one friend liking another.”
Kevin stood up and said, “Who likes who?”
Ashly knew Nick probably was keeping Frankie busy and that Kevin would keep her secret.
“Angie likes Nick,” whispered Ashly.
Kevin’s mouth dropped. He managed to say, “not good”.
“Hey Angie, I gotta go,” said Ashly.
“Bye,” Angie said. Ashly hung up her phone and stared at Kevin.
“What’s not good?”
“Swear you won’t tell Nick?” whispered Kevin.
“Swear,” Ashly replied after thinking about it for a few seconds.
“Nick doesn’t like Angie,” explained Kevin.
“How do you know?”
“He likes you,” Kevin muttered calmly.
Those words hit Ashly like a bullet. Yet, she kinda liked the feeling of being liked. And Angie said it herself; Nick was nick and cute.
“That isn’t good,” said Ashly slowly.
“Please don’t tell Nick,” Kevin said urgently.
Ashly’s phone began to vibrate.

“Hello?”
“Ashly?” said Ashly’s mom.
“Yes Mom?”
“Are you going to come home?”
“Oh, can I sleep over at Joe’s house?”
“Sure, just make sure to come back to get your things.”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye,” replied her mother. Ashly hung up the phone and turned towards Kevin.
“I’ve gotta go home to get my stuff,” said Ashly.
Kevin gave her a quizzical look.
“I’m sleeping over,” said Ashly. With that being said, she ran out of the room and down the stairs. She stopped at where Nick was sitting, watching T.V. Something was missing.
“Where’s Joe?”
“He said he needed something and left,” said Nick without taking his eyes off the T.V.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, bye.”
Ashly walked out the door, then stopped, suddenly staring at Courtney’s house. What if Joe went to Courtney’s house?
Ashly ran across the street onto Courtney’s porch and crouched down. She was surprised not to see Courtney and Joe, but Courtney and Max making out. Max was Jake’s older brother. She quickly ran to her house, which was next to Nick’s house.

Ten minutes later…
Ashly came out of her house with clothes for tomorrow in her duffel bag along with a toothbrush, toothpaste, her pillow, and her journal. She arrived at the Jonas house and knocked on the door. Nick answered.
“Hey, took you long enough,” he said.
“You’ll never guess what I saw,” Ashly said as she stepped inside.
“Let’s go to my room,” said nick. They walked up the stairs and into his room. Ashly told Nick what happened.
“Courney and Max. Who knew?”
“Strange isn’t it,” said Ashly as she got up and got her guitar. She began strumming it to a song she just wrote.

Jenny called me up and said she likes Johnny
But yesterday Johnny said yo, I like Bonnie
Even though we all know he likes Tiffany

Vicky called me on a three way with Cici
And she told me Anthony likes Rissi
Allie’s got another thing for Jeffery
Which really bugs me cause she knew that
He left me
Ho-oh-oh-oh-oh

Who likes who
Everyday it’s someone new
The halls are filled with voices whispering
Who likes who
Doesn’t matter if the rumor’s true
All the fun is in the mystery… to me

Ho-oh-oh-oh-oh

I saw Conner at the movies with Brittany
When he should’ve been there with Whitney
So tonight I’m gonna hit up Steven
And let him know, Brittany’s cheatin’

I was on myspace when Keegan dropped in
And he told me everybody’s still talkin’
Stacy and Devan are together
This gossip goes on forever (Phew! You’re telling me!)
Ho-oh-oh-oh-oh

Who likes who
Everyday it’s someone new
The halls are filled with voices whispering
Who likes who
Doesn’t matter if the rumor’s true
All the fun is in the mystery… to me

He likes you and she likes him
You can call it a game that everybody wins
Moochi likes chachi
Sarah likes Wit
And Kip likes Lafanduh
And Jimmy likes…Skip?
[Spoken]
Oops!

Who likes who
Doesn’t matter if the rumor’s true
All the fun is in the mystery… to me
Ho-oh-oh-oh-oh
Who likes who
Everyday it’s someone new
The halls are filled with voices whispering
Who likes who

“You don’t know anyone named Jenny or Johnny,” said nick.
“The names got changed, so you don’t know who I’m talking about,” Ashly said playfully.

 _____________________________________________

Chapter 3: Time To Burn The Cloak…

The last day before school…
“So, you guys think you can fix my problem?” asked Ashly.
She was done being invisible. She had put up with it since third grade. She wanted to be the life of the party, not a wallflower.
Angie and Lauren looked at each other. Lauren was Angie’s older sister.
“Yes,” Angie said.
“The first step would be to make you stand out in a good way,” Lauren said, “I mean your personality’s perfect, but your looks….”
“…Could be amazing!” Angie said excitedly.
“So, when do we start?” asked Ashly.
“The question isn’t when, it’s where,” said Lauren. Lauren was in beauty school and Angie knew Ashly always wanted to stand out.
“We could go head to toes or we could go order of importance,” said Angie.
Ashly didn’t like people analyzing her, but if it got Jake to notice her, she was up to it. Ashly liked Jake since she was fourteen years old. She didn’t even know why, she just did.
“I think we should go head to toes,” Lauren said.
“What first on the head though?”
“Hair!” said Lauren rushing out the door.
Ashly turned to Angie and cocked up an eyebrow.
“What?” Angie exclaimed. “At least she’s gonna help!”
“Where’s she going?”
“The hair salon,” replied Angie. Ashly gave her a worried look.
“It’s her last year at beauty school.” Those words calmed Ashly down.
Soon, Lauren was back with two large bags.
“I thought you said the hair salon,” Ashly said.
“Oh, I went to ULTA. It’s a salon and a cosmetic store,” Lauren said.
…Then the makeover began.

Two hours later…
“When do I get to see what you’ve done to me?” questioned Ashly.
“After, we update your wardrobe,” said Lauren, pulling out her phone.
“What’s going to happen to my old clothes?” Ashly asked Lauren.
“Were’ going to sell them and use the money to buy the new stuff,” Lauren replied with the phone to her ear.
“Hey Ernie, I’ve got some used clothes for your store,” said Lauren. “Okay, bye.”
“Your ex-boyfriend has a clothing store?” Angie asked her sister.
“If you count eBay as a store,” Lauren replied with a bored tone.
“Is he coming?” Angie asked.
“He should be here in five minutes,” Lauren explained. They spent the five minutes telling Lauren what she missed by going to beauty school.
“So now you like Nick?” Lauren asked her sister.
“Yeah,” Angie replied, blushing. Suddenly, a car pulled into the driveway. Lauren left to go talk to Ernie. Twenty minutes passes until Lauren got back.
“Ash, can you lead us to your house?”
“Sure.”
They gave Ernie all of Ashly’s clothes and went back to Angie’s house.
“So, how much did we get?” Angie asked.
“275 dollars,” Lauren stated.
They got into Lauren’s care and rode to the mall.

Three hours later…
“Can I see what I look like now?” Ashly asked impatiently.
“Yes!” said Lauren and Angie in unison. Ashly went into Angie’s room and looked into her full-length mirror.
“Oh my god!” she exclaimed. Her platinum blonde hair had bronze highlights and was cut into a razor cut bob, her eyebrows were plucked, and she was wearing…makeup.
“Wow, I love it!” Ashly screamed. Lauren and Angie walked up the stairs.
“Angelika, do you think that Ashly’s a hottie?” Lauren asked Angie.
“Oh definitely,” replied Angie.
Ashly felt her phone vibrate.
“Hello?” Ashly asked.
“Hey, it’s Nick. Kevin and I are babysitting Frankie. Want to come over?”
“I’ll be right there,” Ashly replied, hanging up the phone.
“I got to go babysit Frankie,” she said.
“Stay beautiful,” said Lauren, pulling Ashly into a hug.
“See you next summer!” said Ashly running out the door.
When Ashly got to the Jonas’ porch, she rang the doorbell.
Nick answered. His jaw dropped.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Lauren’s back from beauty school,” Ashly explained.
Kevin came to the door.
“Hey Ash,” he greeted her.
“Why aren’t you surprised to see her like this?” asked Nick.
“I was talking to Lauren on the phone,” Kevin sighed. He opened the door and let Ashly in.
“So, where’s Joe?”
“At Courtney’s house, ‘studying’,” Nick replied.
“Bye guys,” said Kevin calmly.
“Wait, where are you going?” Nick asked, confused.
“I asked Lauren out and she said yes.”
Kevin walked out the door into his car. Ashly walked over to the couch and sat down.
“So, what do you want to do?” Nick asked her.
“Wanna watch a movie?”
“Sure,” Nick answered.
“Finding Neverland?” said Ashly grinning. It was both their favorite.
Yeah!” he said, plopping onto the couch. Ashly put the tape into the VCR. By the time the movie was halfway through, Ashly was practically in Nick’s lap. She was clingy during movies. Nick was used to it and he liked it.

At the end of the movie…
“Hey Nick, who’s your friend?” Joe asked.
“Ashly,” Nick replied, confused as to why Joe asked a stupid question.
“Whoa!” Joe exclaimed. His backpack soon landed on the floor.
“Hey, how was studying?” Ashly asked Joe.
“Fun,” said Joe with a dreamy look on his face.
“You know school hasn’t even started yet?” asked Nick.
“Yeah,” said Joe.
“Nick, wanna go play guitar with me?” Ashly asked.
“Sure,” Nick replied as they both got up and walked upstairs to his room.
“Joe is still oblivious,” said Ashly.
“To what?”
“Courtney cheating on him,” Ashly whispered. “Wanna hear my newest song?”
“You know I do,” said Nick.
Ashly started to sing.

Yeah, she said (she said)
Get outta my way cause I’m goin’ somewhere
This is not where I wanna be
You can say what you want
You can tell me I’m wrong
La dee da, la dee dee

Get off of my back, stop sayin’ that
Cause I’m not afraid of heights
I may never get where I’m goin’
Yeah, but then again I might

You can’t get inside my head
Can’t be my safety net
I’m standing on the edge, yeah

I know it’s a long way down
But you can’t walk the wire
For anybody else
I might hit the ground
But at least I’ll have a story to tell
She said, I gotta find out for myself

(She said, she said, she said)
She said, get outta my space
And remember this face
Cause it’s not who I wanna be
Oh, at the end, oh the day
I got something to say
La deed a, la dee dee

Somewhere, nowhere, don’t care, anyplace but here
Oh, if ya don’t believe in magic
Then watch me disappear

You can’t get inside my head
Can’t be my safety net
I’m jumpin’ off the edge, yeah

I know it’s a long way down
But you can’t walk the wire
For anybody else
I might hit the ground
But at least I’ll have a story to tell
She said, I gotta find out for myself

(She said, she said, she said) she said
La la la la la la, La la la la la
La la la la la la
Oh la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la

I know it’s a long way down
But you can’t walk the wire
For anybody else
I might hit the ground
But at least I’ll have a story to tell
She said, I gotta find out for myself

I know it’s a long way down
But you can’t walk the wire
For anybody else
I might hit the ground
But at least I’ll have a story to tell
She said, I gotta find out for myself

She said, she said
Get outta my way cause I’m goin’ somewhere
This is not where I wanna be

“You’ve got skills, Ash,” said a too-familiar voice. She looked up to see Joe’s gleaming eyes staring at her.

 _____________________________________________

Chapter 4: You’re What I Go To School For…

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL…
“Angie, I think I’m gonna puke,” Ashly told her over the phone.
“You look great today,” Angie said energetically.
“Kay,” said Ashly after hearing a honk, “Joe’s here. He’s finally picking me up instead of Courtney. By the way, I’ve got to tell you something in homeroom. Bye!”
“Bye,” Angie replied.
Ashly hung up her cell phone and ran out the door.
“Hey, where’s Courtney, Joe?” Ashly asked him.
“She wants some space,” Joe told her.
“Wow, that’s a shocker,” Nick exclaimed from the backseat.
Joe turned around and glared at Nick.
“Joe, stop light!” shouted Ashly.
Joe slammed on the brakes. They barely made it to the light.
“This is what happens when you don’t keep your eyes on the road,” said Nick.
“Like you would know,” Joe snapped back.
“Joe, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he replied angrily. Before Ashly could say anything, Joe pulled into the parking spot.

“Hey, Ash!” said Angie. Then she put on her flirty voice, “Hey, Nick.”
“Angie, you say hi to my little brother, but not me?” exclaimed Joe.
“Oh, Joe… I thought you were with Courtney,” Angie said.
“She wants space,” said Ashly trying to think of an excuse. “Hey, I love your shoes!”
“Ewwww… girl talk!” said Joe as he walked away from them.
“Okay, what’s it really about?” Angie asked.
Ashly looked deeply into Angie’s eyes and took a deep breath.
“Courtney’s cheating on Joe.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you know Max?”
“Jake’s older brother? He’s a stud. Courtney should dump Joe.”
“You’re nice.”
“Well, he is!”
“Whose side are you on?”
Angie started fidgeting.
“Ummmm… is this a bad time?” said a voice Ashly never thought would be talking to her. She turned around to see Jake.
“No,” Ashly said twirling her hair between her fingers.
“Well… are you doing anything Friday night?” he asked her.
“I’ll get back to you,” Ashly replied coolly. She looked back at Nick. His jaw dropped.
“Okay, let me know if you’re free,” he said winking. He walked towards his group of friends.
Ashly stared at Nick.
“Hello?” she asked him.
“What?” said Nick, snapping out of his daze.
“You still there?”
“Yeah,” he said, rushing away.
“You sorta made your move with Jake, so I’m gonna make my move with Nick,” Angie said.
“Okay,” Ashly said, “good luck!”

LUNCH…
Ashly sat down next to Joe who was looking depressed. Soon after that, Angie joined them with Nick.
“Can we talk outside?” Angie said.
“Sure,” Ashly replied. They both got up and left the cafeteria.
“What is it?” Ashly asked her.
“I made my move and he said sure!” said Angie excitedly.
“Awesome!” Ashly said half-excitedly. She was confused though. She thought Nick liked her, not Angie. So, why had he said ‘yes’ to Angie, when he liked her?
“Can we go back to the table now?” Ashly asked Angie.
“Okay,” Angie replied. They walked back to the table.
“So Joe, why aren’t you with Courtney?”
“I told you! She needs space!” Joe practically yelled.
“Okay, gosh Joe!” Ashly said.

AFTER SCHOOL…
Ashly was walking out to Joe’s car when she heard Nick call her name.
“What?” she asked, turning her head.
“Don’t ride with Joe. I’ve got a plan to get him to see Courtney’s cheating on him.”
“What is it?” Ashly asked.
Nick whispered it to her. She smiled. It was so good, it had to work.

When they got to the Jonas house, Nick handed Ashly a copy of Courtney’s house key.
“Wait, you’ve got to give Joe the key,” said Ashly, “I’ve got to make sure Courtney and Max are there.”
“Oh yeah,” said Nick as Ashly ran out the door and across the street. She was glad to see that there were bushes right in front of the windows. Also, the window’s curtains were pulled aside.
She ran into the bushed, pulled out her phone and called Nick.
“Is she there?” he asked.
“Yeah, and Max,” Ashly answered.
“Joe’s pulling up right now. Bye, Nick,” Ashly said calmly.
They both hung up and Ashly saw Joe go inside. Five minutes later, she saw Joe emerge. Ashly quickly checked inside and they were still making out on the couch.
She quietly got out of the bushes and went inside her house. …Only, the moment after she got in, she ran right out again. She went over to the Jonas house and let herself in.
Instantly, she saw Joe sobbing on the couch, went over and hugged him.
“What happened?” she whispered.
“Courtney’s cheating on me. I broke up with her,” he said through sobs.
Ashly’s phone started to ring and she saw it was Jake.

“Hello?” she said into the receiver.
“Hey, are you free?” Jake asked.
“Oh yeah,” she said, feigning disinterest.
“I’ll pick you up at 6:00,” he said.
She hung up her phone and ran upstairs, got her guitar and ran back down the stairs. She started singing Ashlee Simpson’s lyrics:

Like a grain on the beach
Like a star in the sky
Far too many to count with the naked eye
They won’t see y

Go ahead, walk on by
You don’t know I’m alive
Maybe one day you’ll find
You should open your eyes
You don’t know me

You’re the one who looked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible
And you’re the one who walked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible

Little things adding up
Try so hard not to rush
Giving in, letting go, of the world we know
They won’t see you

Force it down, lose the taste
They all think it’s a waste
We don’t need to believe every word they say, no
They don’t know me

You’re the one who looked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible
And you’re the one who walked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible

It’s so easy to be lost
But maybe you’re not lost at all

Do you recognize me
Do you know who I am
Do you see me now
Do you see me now

You’re the one who looked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible
And you’re the one who walked right through me
Now you’re saying that you knew me
When I was invisible
I’m invisible
I’m invisible

“You should try to get discovered,” Joe said.
“Seriously, you’re really good,” Nick added.

 _____________________________________________

Chapter 5: Interference…

FRIDAY…
“Angie, I need you over right now!” Ashly yelled into her phone’s receiver.
“Okay, calm down,” Angie said.
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye,” Angie said calmly.
Only minutes later, Angie was honking at Ashly from her mom’s silver minivan. Ashly ran down stairs and out the door. When she got in, Angie told her that they were going shopping.
“We’re here,” Angie said when they got to the mall. They ran inside.
“We’re only buying one outfit,” ordered Angie.
“Why are you telling me that,” Ashly asked.
“I’m telling myself that. So, he’s told you where he’s taking you, right?”
“Yeah, the beach,” Ashly said.
“Eww… he’s not very original. Oh well, let’s got to Wet Seal.”

AFTER THE SHOPPING TRIP…
“Come on out!” exclaimed Angie.
“Fine,” said Ashly.
“You’re gonna get him good. Oh wait, while I remember,” Angie said taking out her phone, “Hey Nick, want to come to Max’s back-to-school beach party? Cool, bye.”
“So, what time is it?” said Ashly, changing the subject. “Jake should be here any moment.”
Suddenly, Ashly heard a honk. Angie looked out the window to see Jake.
“He’s here! Go get him!” Angie told Ashly energetically. Ashly said bye and ran out the door.
“Hey sexy, ready to go?” asked Jake.
Something about him made her feel uncomfortable.
“Yeah,” replied Ashly as she got into his convertible. They drove to his beach house.

AT JAKE’S BEACH HOUSE…
Ashly lookef for Nick and Angie everywhere, but they were nowhere to be found. She had given up and called Nick.
“Hey, Ash,” said Nick.
“We’re in the water. My phone’s waterproof,” he replied.
“Okay, I’ll be right over there,” Ashly said. Then, she realized that she had leather boots on. “Second thought, come over here?”
“Okay,” Nick said. He walked over to where he saw Ashly talking to Jake earlier.
“Hey Nick!” Ashly yelled to him.
“Whoa, Ashly, you look amazing.”
“Ashly, will you dance with me?” Jake asked.
“Sure,”Ashly said. She made sure that she had Jake’s back to Nick and mouthed ‘sorry’ to him.
A slow song came on; it was “Far Away” by Nickelback. As Jake started to sing the song to her, Ashly’s heart began to melt.

This time, this place
Misused, mistakes
Too long, too late
Who was I to make you wait
Just one chance
Just one breath
Just in case there’s just one left
‘Cause you know
You know, you know

That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you’ll be with me
And you’ll never go
Stop breathing if
I don’t see you anymore

On my knees, I’ll ask
Last chance for one last dance
‘Cause with you, I’d withstand
All of hell to hold your hand
I’d give it all
I’d give for us
Give anything, but I won’t give up
‘Cause you know
You know, you know

That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you’ll be with me
And you’ll never go
Stop breathing if
I don’t see you anymore

So far away
Been far away for far too long
So far away
Been far away for far too long
But you know, you know, you know

I wanted
I wanted you to stay
‘Cause I needed
I need to hear you say
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I forgive you
For being away for far too long

So keep breathing
‘Cause I’m not leaving you anymore
Believe, and hold onto me, and never let me go

Keep breathing
Hold onto me and never let me go

They broke apart and Ashly felt a tear slide down her cheek. This was the first time a boy had showed he had feeling for her.
“Want to go on a real date sometime?” Jake asked her as he wiped the tear from her cheek.
“I’d like that,” Ashly said smiling.
“Well,” Jake said, taking a breath, “want to go on a walk and watch the sunset?”
“Sure,” Ashly replied.
They walked along the beach until they found the perfect place to sit and watch the sunset. As the sun began to set, they leaned in and kissed.

ONE MONTH LATER…
“Oh my gosh Nick! You don’t have to be so angry! It’s just one cancel,” said Ashly. It was Jake and her one month anniversary and she told Nick she’d make up for their Friday night movie.
“You’re so cute when you’re angry,” Angie observed.
“Gag me,” said Joe. He was sick of being a third wheel. He needed some action.
“Then, I love being angry,” Nick told Angie while kissing her on the cheek.
Ashly rolled her eyes. She thought that Nick and Angie were together too much. She and Jake didn’t spend that much time together. They decided that too much togetherness could ruin the relationship. But, Angie and Nick were inseparable.
Joe glanced at Ashly.
“We’re gonna go sit somewhere else so we don’t puke on you.”
“Okay, bye,” said Angie. Nick only looked apologetically at Ashly, like he knew Ashly knew that he liked her.
They got up and walked over to a deserted table. Ashly picked up a banana peel, threw it to the side, and sat down.
Joe mixed his food, slowly, with his fork. Then he glanced up at Ashly.
“Hey Ash, that nerd’s checking you out,” Joe said referring to Jake.
Ashly flirtily pushed Joe and waved to Jake.
Jake gave her a wink and glared at Joe when Ashly wasn’t looking.
“He’s such a great guy,” Ashly gushed.
“He’s a great actor too,” Joe said sarcastically.
“Shut up,” Ashly said. The bell rang.
“See you, hunny bunch,” Joe said, mimicking Jake.
“Bye sweetheart,” said Ashly, laughing.
Little did they know that Karmyn was eavesdropping on the two of them. She misinterpreted them. She pulled out her cell phone and texted Courtney, her best friend, that Joe was dating Ashly.

MEANWHILE…
Courtney’s mouth dropped when she saw the text. She was shocked. She couldn’t believe that Joe and she broke up and he started to date ASHLY. She thought that he could do better than that. She thought that Ashly was going out with Jake though.
“Hey Courtney, what’s up?”
Courtney looked up to see Jake. She grinned. Her plan was perfect. She was going to get Ashly back for stealing her guy.
“Hey Jake, are you and Ashly still dating?”
“Yeah.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Courtney, showing Jake her text message from Karmyn.
Jake looked at it with concern in his eyes.
“You know what? I gotta go.”
“Bye Jakey.”
“See you,” Jake said as he walked away.
Courtney turned to watch him walk away and said, “You will be mine, Jake. You will.”

It was a matter of minutes until Jake caught up with Ashly.
“You could have given me dignity.”
“Hey Jake… What are you talking about?”
“The dignity to break up with me before you’d…”
“I don’t want to break up with you!” Ashly said, confused.
“You’re dating JOE!”
“No, I’m not.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I like you too much. Wait, who told you I was dating Joe?” Ashly asked.
“Courtney.”
“She lied.”
“Okay.”
“See you tonight?” Ashly asked, flirting.
“…Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Bye.”
Jake grabbed Ashly and pulled her into a kiss. As soon as she pulled away, she turned and saw Nick. …Jaw dropped.

AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL DAY…
Ashly was chasing another Jonas boy.
“KEVIN!”
“WHAT!”
Ashly started laughing. Kevin was in confusion.
“I need a ride.”
“Where can I take you on this Friday afternoon, miss?”
“The Jonas mansion, sir.”
Suddenly, they heard screaming coming from the school. It was Nick.
“WAIT! FOR! ME!”
Kevin and Ashly started laughing instantaneously. They all rode to the Jonas house. Ashly’s phone rang, suddenly.
“Hello?” said Ashly. It was Jake on the other end.
“I have to cancel.”
“Why?”
“…Because my fam and I are going to Hawaii for the weekend.”
“Okay.”
“Love you,” said Jake.
“Bye.” And with that, Ashly hung up.
“Jakers?” said Nick.
“Yessers. Mind if I stay at your guys’ house tonight?”
“Stay at your own house,” said Nick sarcastically, “gosh!”
“My parents are having their annual bowling tournament.”
“Oh, with Aunt Bertha?”
“Yeah.”
A chill went down everyone’s spine.
When the got to the Jonas house, Ashly ran to her house. She had to get there before Aunt Bertha got there. But someone was there already. It was a bittersweet reunion.

 _____________________________________________

 Chapter 6: Mistakes My Mother Made…

“Hey, cuz!” said Ashly’s cousin, Juliet.
“Juliet,” Ashly said, “what are you doing here?”
“Aunt Bertha brought me. I’m staying for the weekend,” Juliet stated. “Won’t that be fun?”
It was her cousin. …Her boy-stealing, perfect cousin. The cousin she loved and hated for so long. It was impossible to hate her. Except for Ashly. Juliet had been better than Ashly at everything. She made it look so easy too. When Ashly liked a boy, Juliet would snatch him with a bat of her lashes. A toss of her hair. A smile, a laugh, ONE LOOK.
“Yeah, you going to the tournament?”
“That depends, are you?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to spend the night with my friends.”
Oops. Wrong thing to say. Now Juliet will steal them like everyone else. Ashly would do anything and everything to make sure they never meet.
“Ooh, I’m in!”
“Nevermind. You’re family, I’ll cancel.”
“No, no. Are these the Jonas boys?”
Oh no. Who told her? She can’t give away her best friends. No.
“No, It’s ummmm…. Amy.”
“I don’t know her.”
“Neither do I,” Ashly said to herself. “Whatever, let’s go.”
“Hello? The tournament’s in two hours. Stop rushing, gosh. Show me the Jonas boys!”
“Who told you about them?”
“Your mom. DUH!”
“Why do you want to see them so bad?”
“THEY ARE BOYS!”
“Whoa. Okay, let me see if they’re home. I think they went on vacation,” said Ashly, taking out her phone.
“They’re home,” Juliet replied reassuringly.
“How do you know?”
“They’re coming over here. They are fine …And they’re checking me out.”
Ashly swore under her breath. There go her best friends, out the window. By then, the doorbell rang.
“Let me get it,” Juliet said, jumping from the couch.
“Fine,” said Ashly, blowing hair out of her face.
Here comes creepy flirt fest. This is what she heard:

“Hey, who are you?” it was Joes voice.
“I’m Juliet. You must be Romeo.”
Ashly’s face distorted. This was nasty. What was Juliet thinking?
“Where’s Ashly?”
“Who cares? I’m here now. Sweep me off my feet, boy. What are you waiting for?”
Ashly couldn’t help but laugh. She walked to the door before her cousin got into it.
“Hey Joe,” Ashly said, laughing.
“You don’t let me have any fun,” Juliet said.
“Is she coming?” asked Joe.
“Depends. Can you handle her?” asked Ashly, gesturing to Juliet.
“Sure.”
Wrong answer.
“Okay, let me get her,” Ashly replied. “Juliet, wanna go to the Jonas’s house?”
“Sure!” said Juliet, running with her duffel bag.
“Be right back,” Ashly said. She returned with her duffel bag. No one was there. “Thanks for waiting for me,” she said.

She walked into the Jonas house to hear laughter coming from the family room. They were all surrounding Juliet, who was holding a photo album.
“There we are in kindergarten. Ashly wouldn’t go anywhere without me… or her package of diapers.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Ashly could feel tears. Her friends were lost, they were stolen. She ran into Nick’s room and grabbed her guitar. The words came trembling out…

You got the hottest shoes
You got those Jimmy Choo’s
You never get the blues
It’s always all about you
Wake up late, no time to waste
Better check that phone
There’s a club too close

Where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity
I think you lost it in the Hollywood Hills
Where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity
Can’t buy respect, but you can pick up that bill
Pick it up, pick it up
It’s all you got, it’s all you got
Pick it up, pick it up
Cause money makes your world go round
Money makes your world go round

Always with Mr. Right
But then you have a fight
Run into your friend’s ex
He’s happy to be your next
Tomorrow’s paper’s coming out
So kiss him fast, watch the cameras flash

Where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity
I think you lost it in the Hollywood Hills
Where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity
Can’t buy respect, but you can pick up that bill
Pick it up, pick it up
It’s all you got, it’s all you got
Pick it up, pick it up
Cause money makes your world go round
Money makes your world go round

You’d show up to the opening of an envelope
Who does everybody care about where you go
It’s not news when you got a new bag
It’s not news when somebody slaps you
It’s not news when you’re looking your best
Come on, come on, come come on, give it a rest

Pick it up, pick it up
It’s all you got, it’s all you got
Pick it up, pick it up
Cause money makes your world go round
(where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity)
Money makes your world go round
(where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity)
Money makes your world go round
(where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity)
Money makes your world go round
(where’s your, where’s your, where’s your dignity)
Money makes your world go round

“I take it, you’re not happy,” said a voice that she wished to hear more …a voice that was filled with trust. It was Nick’s. He never let her cry. Never.

_____________________________________________

 Chapter 7: Forbidden Love…

“No, she’s doing it again.”
“Let’s go to the roof,” said Nick, holding his hand out.
“Let’s,” said Ashly, taking his hand.
They climbed out the window and onto the roof, bringing two guitars with them. Ashly told him all about Juliet.
“Wow, she’s got it in for you.”
“I love her, though.”
Ashly started strumming her guitar. The guitar she had for ages. She started singing what she felt…

That’s how much I love you
That’s how much I need you
And I can’t stand ya
Must everything you do
Make me wanna smile
Can I not like you for awhile
No…

Then Nick started…
But you won’t let me
You upset me girl
And then you kiss my lips
All of a sudden I forget
That I was upset
Can’t remember what you did
But I hate it

Ashly:
You know exactly what to do
So that I can’t stay mad at you
For too long, that’s wrong

Nick:
Girl, I hate it
You know exactly how to touch
So that I don’t wanna fuss and fight no more
So I despise that I adore you

Both:
And I hate how much I love you, boy (yeah)
I can’t stand how much I need you (I need you)
And I hate how much I love you boy (ooh)
But I just can’t let you go
And I hate that I love you so…

Nick:
And you completely know the power that you have
The only one that makes me laugh

Ashly:
Sad and it’s not fair how you take advantage of the
Fact that I
Love you beyond the reason why
And it just ain’t right

Nick:
And I hate how much I love you girl
I can’t stand how much I need you
And I hate how much I love you girl
But I just can’t let you go
And I hate that I love you so

Both:
One of these days maybe your magic won’t affect me
And your kiss won’t make me weak
But no one in this world
Knows you the way you know me
So you’ll probably always have a spell on me

That’s how much I love you
How much I need you
That’s how much I need you
How much I love you
That’s how much I love you
How much I need you
That’s how much I need you
I need you

And I hate that I love you sooooo….
And I hate how much I love you boy (hey)
I can’t stand how much I need you (I can’t stand how much I need you)
And I hate how much I love you boy (yeah… ohh)
But I just can’t let you go (But I just can’t let you go, no)
And I hate that I love you so
And I hate that I love you so… so…

Ashly looked up at Nick. He wasn’t making eye contact.
“Ashly?”
“Yeah, Nick?”
“I love you. I always have…”
“I love you, too.”
“I don’t love you just like a sister. I always will love you, Ashly Paulina Eringko.”
Ashly knew Nick was serious. He was whenever he used her full name.
“I know you meant it like that. I love you, too, Nicholas Jerry Jonas.”
“You know the hill, the one a few blocks away?”
“Yeah…”
“I think we should go there,” Nick suggested.
“Me too,” Ashley agreed, blushing.
Nick grabbed Ashly’s hand and they jumped off the roof onto the trampoline. They landed gracefully.
They ran to the Hill of Serenity. The hill was named that by Joe a long time ago.
“Wow, it seems bigger, now. I don’t know why, but it does,” shared Ashly.
“Yeah, it does. Greener too…”
“Shut up. It’s just you. It’s totally brown,” Ashly argued.

They walked up the steep hill. At the top was a lake, surrounded by sand.
Ashly plopped down on the sand. She was soon joined by Nick on the ground who sat right behind her. Ashly put her head in his lap and looked up into his brown eyes. She wondered how blind she had been. Then, it hit her.
“Nick…”
“What?” he asked.
“What about Angie?”
“Jakers?”
“I don’t want to hurt them,” Ashly said.
“You just solved your own problem.”
“What about us, then?”
“We’ll be together in spirit,” Nick said peacefully.
Ashly stood up and pulled Nick up too.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
Ashly put her arms around Nick’s neck and began slow dancing with him and singing her own song.

I’m not alone
Even when we’re apart, I feel you
In the air (yeah)
I’m not afraid
I know what you’re thinking
I can hear you everywhere

Some people say it’ll never happen
And we’re just wasting time
But good things come when you least expect them
So I don’t really mind

We’ll be together, come whatever
Not just staring at the stars
Just remember
That no one else can tell us who we are
We’ll be together, so don’t ever stop
Listening to you heart
Cause I can’t turn my off
Oh (yeah, yeah) oh

I can’t pretend
This is a rehearsal for the real thing
Because it’s not
And I know we’re young
I can’t help feeling what I’m feeling
And I won’t stop

Some things are meant to be and will be there
When the time is right
Even those I know that
I swear I wish you were tonight

We’ll be together, come whatever
Not just staring at the stars
Just remember
That no one else can tell us who we are
We’ll be together, so don’t ever stop
Listening to you heart
Cause I can’t turn my off

Oh yeah
I like what happening to me
Oh yeah
Nothing else to say
Oh, oh yeah
Somebody finally got to me
Carry me away

We’ll be together, come whatever
Not just staring at the stars
Just remember
That no one else can tell us who we are
We’ll be together, so don’t ever stop
Listening to you heart
Cause I can’t turn my off
Oh oh yeah, yeah
(we’ll be together, come whatever, come whatever, come whatever, come whatever)
Ah oh

I’m not alone
Even when we’re apart I feel you

After dancing, Nick and Ashly returned to their original position on the ground. Ashly dozed off minutes later.

The next morning, she found herself in Nick’s room, in Frankie’s bed. She looked across to Nick’s bed. He was looking at her in an admiring way.
“Morning, Sunshine!” said a voice into the hallway.
“Joe!” they said together. They tackled him.
“Guys, guys! Stop!” Joe said laughing. Nick got up and went downstairs. Ashly stayed and looked at Joe.
“Where’s Juliet?” she asked.
“She left.”
“Why?”
“We couldn’t find you.”
Ashly stood up and ran downstairs and out the door. She found her cousin with her bags on the doorstep. She had tearstains and puffy eyes.
“Hey, what are you doing here?’ Ashly said as she sat next to Juliet.
“I’m waiting for Aunt Bertha to pick me up,” Juliet answered.
Shivers went down their spines.
“Why would you want to be with Aunt Bertha when there are three hot guys next door?”
They broke out laughing.
“I’ll call Aunt Bertha later Now I’ve got me some flirting to do,” said Juliet, getting up. Ashly pulled her back.
“You know, I’ve always been jealous of you,” she admitted.
“Me? You’re the one with the Jonas boys living next to you.”
They ran to the Jonas house.
“Hi girls,” said Mrs. Jonas.
“Hi, Mrs. Jonas,” they greeted.
“The boys were wondering about you.”
“Good to know.”
“Bye girls.”
“Bye.”

Ashly ran and tackled Joe, again.
“What did I do now?” he asked.
“I don’t know, this is fun,” she answered.
Joe got up with Ashly still hanging onto him. She repositioned herself on him.
“What the heck? Fall!” exclaimed Joe. She obeyed.
“Gosh Joe! Temper, temper!”
“Hey you guys wanna go to the soccer game?” Nick asked.
“Depends, is it cold?” Juliet asked.
“Why does it matter?” Nick responded.
“So then we can cuddle.”
Ashly rolled her eyes.
“See you guys later,” Kevin said, walking by.
“Kevin! Where are you going?” Ashly asked him.
“Hot date. With Lauren,” he answered.
“How’d you score that bro?” Nick asked.
“Your boring brother has moves,” Kevin replied, slyly.
“How’d you know, I call you that?”
“Easy. Gotta go,” Kevin left.
“Soccer game?” asked Nick.
“’Kay,” Ashly was the only person who responded.
“I don’t know, I think I’ll stay here,” Joe said.
“Me too,” said Juliet, moving toward Joe.
“Maybe I’ll go to Angie’s…” he said, considering another option.
“Me too,” Juliet said, agreeing with him.
“Bye. Joe, stay away from my girl, “Nick said protectively.
“Yeah, you have other choices,” Juliet said.
Ashly rolled her eyes. Is this yuck-fest ever going to end?
“See ya guys,” said Ashly as Nick and her left for the soccer game.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 8: Soccer Isn’t The Only Thing Being Played…

It was breezy and chilly out. Even for November.
“Wow,” Ashly leaned towards Nick, “who’s winning?”
“I have no idea,” replied Nick with a laugh.
Ashly walked to the nearest person and asked them.
“We’re not,” Ashly told Nick.
“Do we ever?” Nick told Ashly.
In the distance, they could hear laughter. Nick looked in the direction that the laughter was coming from. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Ashly, why’d Jake cancel yesterday?” he asked.
“He’s in Hawaii… why?” Ashly replied, looking up. She saw the answer to her question.
It was Jake… holding hands with Karmyn. He was with Courtney. Joe, Angie, and Juliet. Nick squinted and saw them too.
“What the heck?” he yelled. He was deciding whether or not to get them. Ashly already made it.

“Hey Jake, how was Hawaii?”
Jake saw Ashly and suddenly he looked uncomfortable.
“Was the flight long?” Ashley was raising her hand.
Nick had to stop her. He started running, but it was too late. She had slapped Jake.
Ashly was fighting back tears. “Jerk!” were her last words before running back to her house.
By then, Nick caught up with her. He put his arms around her protectively.
“Wait, Nick! What are you doing?” said Angie.
“Taking her home,” Nick said before continuing to walk with Ash.
Angie replied, “You’re still my boyfriend, right?”
When Nick ignored her, she ran away crying.
“Oh my gosh, she can be such an idiot,” Nick observed.
“I know, but she helped me out. She’s the reason I look like this,” Ashly sobbed.
“I loved you before you looked like this. Always.”

Before long, Joe and Juliet were behind them.
“You know, you didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend,” said Juliet in an annoyed tone.
“And I didn’t know he was supposed to be in Hawaii either,” added Joe.
“If we knew that we wouldn’t have hung out with him,” Argued Juliet, Even though we had a great time!”
“Not helping Juliet,” said Joe. He sounded genuinely sorry.
“Gosh, you know you love me!” Juliet told him.
“No, I don’t,” Joe said as he ran to catch up with Ashly.
They got to Ashly’s house. Ashley was reminiscing on the million of memories she had running though her mind. Through these two memories she realized something.

December 24, 2005:
“Ashly!” screamed Joe. He had been gone for two weeks at his grandma’s house.
“Joe!” Ashly missed Joe to death. They were reunited after what seemed like forever. They ran into each other, Ashly was expecting a hug. But Joe being Joe, had to mess up feel-good moments. He tackled her, but instead of tickling her like usual, he stared deeply into her eyes.
“I missed you like crazy. I love you,” he said. Because of this they both became uncomfortable.
“Joe, your hair is really messed up,” Ashly said as she laughed.
“I love you like a sister for the record. Anything else would be nasty.” They laughed.
Ashly pushed Joe off of her, got up, and threw a snowball at him. It hit him in the face.
“Oh man, that’s cold!” he yelled as he ran at her, picking her up.
“Joe, put me down!”
“Rawr!”
“Joe, you’re not a dinosaur. Get over it,” Ashly said laughing. They both smiled.
“Starbucks?” said Joe.
“You read my mind.

They dove to the nearest Starbucks, ordered, and left the store.
“You know what goes great with coffee?”” Ashly asked Joe.
“No,” he answered.
“New York. Times Square?”
“Ashly,” Joe said. “Men don’t go to shopping establishments.”
“Since when are you Mr. Macho Man?”
“Now.”
“Joseph Adam Jonas, I don’t care if I have to steal your keys, tie you up, shove ou in the trunk of your car, and drive away.”
“I’m only joking. No need to make hostile plans,” said Joe.

So, as Ashly wanted, they drove to Times Square. It was such a beautiful scene – the Christmas tree was so big Ashly couldn’t see the top, there were so many Christmas light that the sky seemed like daytime even though it was evening, and there were many people Christmas shopping. Ashly tugged on Joe’s arm until Joe followed Ashly to right uder the tree. They looked up to see snow falling. Ashly looked at Joe, he looked back. “Wow, I could not have asked for a better Christmas Eve,” said Joe, leaning into kiss Ashly. They kissed and it was the most beautiful moment in her Christmas history.

Days after Joe and her were uncomfortable around each other. After than, things were back to normal.
Ashly always remembered this because it was the first time she realized that she did love Joe… completely and irrevocably.
But of course, Joe was oblivious and fell in ‘love’ with Courtney. And he became no more than a best friend.

December 31, 2005:
“New Years is in five minutes! Get Nick and Ashly!” said a very excited Frankie jonas.

Nick’s room:
There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don’t got a lot to say
But there’s something about her
And you don’t know why
But you’re dying to try
You wanna kiss the girl

Yes you want her
Look at her, you know you do
It’s possible she wants you too
There is one way to ask her
It don’t take a word, not a single word
Go on and kiss the girl (kiss the girl)

Shalalalala
My oh my
Looks like the boy’s too shy
Ain’t gonna kiss the girl
Shalalalala
Ain’t that sad
It’s such a shame
Too bad, you’re gonna miss the girl
Go on and kiss the girl (kiss the girl)

Now’s your moment
Floating in a blue lagoon
Boy, you better do it soon
No time will be better
She don’t say a word
And she won’t say a word
Until you kiss the girl (kiss the girl)

Shalalalala
My oh my
Looks like the boy’s too shy
Ain’t gonna kiss the girl
Shalalalala
Ain’t that sad
It’s such a shame
Too bad, you’re gonna miss the girl

Shalalalala
Don’t be scared
You better be prepared
Go on and kiss the girl
Shalalalala
Don’t stop now
Don’t try to hide it how
You wanna kiss the girl
Go on and kiss the girl
(kiss the girl, oh, ohnoo…)
(Kiss the girl, kiss the girl)
Lalalala, lalalala
Go on and kiss the girl
Lalalala, lalalala
Go on and kiss the girl 

Shalalalala
My oh my
Looks like the boy’s too shy
Ain’t gonna kiss the girl
Shalalalala
Ain’t that sad
It’s such a shame
Too bad, you’re gonna miss the girl

Lalalala, lalalala
(go on and kiss the girl)
Go on and kiss the girl
Lalalala, lalalala
(go on and kiss the girl)
Go on and kiss the girl
Kiss the girl
(kiss the girl)
Go on and kiss the girl

“Nick, thank you so much for teaching me how to play this,” thanked Ashly.
“3… 2… 1! Happy New Year!” they both overheard from downstairs.
“You know, in New York City the people kiss the person next to them,” explained Nick.
“Can you still act like you’re there without going there?”
“I think so,” said Nick as they leaned in to kiss.
“Hey guys, want some spark-“ started Kevin. He said that they were lip-locked and left.
This night, Ashly knew she loved Nick.

Present:
“Ashly? Are you alright?” They walked in front of Ashly’s house.
“No, Angie’ll be there,” explained Ashly.
“What’s behind that logic?” asked Joe.
“She thinks I’m with Nick and she is going to badger me about it. My mom would let her in. She knows we’re friends,” Ashly told Joe.
“Okay, our house it is,” answered Nick. They all turned to go to the Jonas house and went there.
“Joe, your room’s across from mine, right?” Ashly said.
“Ash, I’m not a stalker. I don’t look into other people’s houses,” said Joe suddenly uncomfortable.
Ashly ran to Joe’s window, cracked open the shades, and sure enough there was Angi reading her magazines and pacing.
“She couldn’t be anymore predictable,” said Joe standing next to Ashly.
Suddenly, Angie looked out of the window and glared at Ashly.
Joe and Ashly waved. Angie stormed out of Ashly’s room.

Minutes later, the doorbell rang. Ashly sprinted down the stairs and answered the foor to Angie’s tears.
“How dare you?”
“Me? How dare you?!”
“What did I do? You’re the one who stole my boyfriend!” Angie asked in disbelief.
“What about you? You knew Jake told me that he went to Hawaii!” Ashly said, her face turned red with anger.
“Yeah, like you sobbing into Nick was any better.”
“I thought you were my friend,” said Ashly.
“I guess I’m not. By the way I dated Jake for the last two weeks. He’s a great kisser.” Ashly couldn’t believe it.
She cheated on Nick… with Jake? What happened to everyone? What about trust? Nick would be crushed. She was about to close the door in Angie’s face when Nick came up behind her.

“Angie, can you come with me?” said Nick, grabbing Angie’s hand and led her upstairs to his room. Ashly trailed them.
At the top of the stairs she was joined by Joe. They walked into the room. Nick was facing them, which was a relief cause if Angie was facing them she would have told them to leave.
Nick had his guitar out. He looked like he was about to sing her a song. Ashly couldn’t bear it. Was he going to take her back after she betrayed him? Before she knew it, he started singing:

This has been no walk in the park
I feel like we have fallen apart
Open up your eyes girl and see
How wonderful this love could be

Hold on tight
It’s a rollercoaster ride we’re on so
Say goodbye ‘cause
Cause we won’t be back again
Up and down
You’re all around
Say goodnight and goodbye

Lala la la la lalalala

You say you didn’t mean to break
My heart but girl you did, I’m over it
Adieu to you and all your games
And all your crazy friends
This is the end

Hold on tight
It’s a rollercoaster ride we’re on so
Say goodbye ‘cause
Cause we won’t be back again
Up and down
You’re all around
Say goodnight and goodbye

Lala la la la lalalala

Well girl, I’m sorry for disappointing you
But I’m done
With being up and down and pushed around
No more

Hold on tight
It’s a rollercoaster ride we’re on so
Say goodbye ‘cause
Cause we won’t be back again
Up and down
You’re all around
Say goodnight and goodbye

Hold on tight
It’s a rollercoaster ride we’re on so
Say goodbye ‘cause
Cause we won’t be back again
Up and down
You’re all around
Say goodnight and goodbye

Angie’s jaw was dropped.
“Jake was a better kisser anyway,” Angie said quickly. As she said this, Ashly glanced at Joe and winked at him.
They knew how to piss Angie off almost too well.
“Well, I have to disagree with you there,” interjected Ashly.
“How would you know that Ashly?” said Joe. He sounded a little too fake.
“Should I test my theory Dr. Jonas?”
“Yes, you should, Dr. Eringko,” replied Joe.
Ashly walked over to Nick and kissed him. He started kissing back. Ashly stopped earlier than she would have liked.
“Yeah, he’s a much, much better kisser,” stated Ashly.
Angie was in disbelief. She left.
“That song was really good. When did you write it?” asked Joe.
“Right as we got into the house.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Ashly, you should go into acting cause you sounded like you actually wanted to kiss him. Wait, you didn’t act, did you?” said Joe.
Ashly glanced at Nick. He nodded.
“Joe,” Nick stated. He stopped dead. He started playing his guitar. Ashly started singing.

That’s how much I love you
That’s how much I need you
And I can’t stand ya
Must everything you do
Make me wanna smile
Can I not like you for awhile
No…

Then Nick started…

But you won’t let me
You upset me girl
And then you kiss my lips
All of a sudden I forget
That I was upset
Can’t remember what you did
But I hate it

Ashly:
You know exactly what to do
So that I can’t stay mad at you
For too long, that’s wrong

Nick:
Girl, I hate it
You know exactly how to touch
So that I don’t wanna fuss and fight no more
So I despise that I adore you

Both:
And I hate how much I love you, boy (yeah)
I can’t stand how much I need you (I need you)
And I hate how much I love you boy (ooh)
But I just can’t let you go
And I hate that I love you so…

Nick:
And you completely know the power that you have
The only one that makes me laugh

Ashly:
Sad and it’s not fair how you take advantage of the
Fact that I
Love you beyond the reason why
And it just ain’t right

Nick:
And I hate how much I love you girl
I can’t stand how much I need you
And I hate how much I love you girl
But I just can’t let you go
And I hate that I love you so

Both:
One of these days maybe your magic won’t affect me
And your kiss won’t make me weak
But no one in this world
Knows you the way you know me
So you’ll probably always have a spell on me

That’s how much I love you
How much I need you
That’s how much I need you
How much I love you
That’s how much I love you
How much I need you
That’s how much I need you
I need you

And I hate that I love you sooooo….
And I hate how much I love you boy (hey)
I can’t stand how much I need you (I can’t stand how much I need you)
And I hate how much I love you boy (yeah… ohh)
But I just can’t let you go (But I just can’t let you go, no)
And I hate that I love you so
And I hate that I love you so… so…

“Ummm… wow…” said Joe. He ran off to his room.
“What’s up with him?” asked Kevin walking into the room.
“Ummm… Nick and I are sort of together now,” said Ashly.
“Wow, good for you. But what about Angie?” Kevin asked.
“I dumped her. She cheated on me. No big deal,” replied Nick.
“Well, I’m going to check on Joe,” said Kevin leaving the room. Soon, he returned.
“Joe’s gone,” he said worriedly.
“I know where he went,” said Nick. “Is his guitar missing?”
Kevin checked and confusedly answered, “yeah.”
It hit Ashly. She knew where Joe was too.

 _____________________________________________

*Note: No I don’t have a little sister named Abby, but I do have a 7 year old cousin named Abby. Who is a hard core JONAS fan in the making. I don’t live in Hollywood (I wish I did, don’t you?). This story takes place in Hollywood, CA, 8 years from now, when the Jonas Brothers are more popular than ever and the boys are much older.

Kevin is 29, married for a year and a half now and is starting a record company with his brothers and dad. Joe is 27, in college, (I know what your thinking: they should be out of college by now, but they took a couple years of tour before going) and has the best girlfriend he ever had, my cousin Lauren (who in the story is not family). Nick is 24, and looking at college. And now it’s just little Frankie, who isn’t so little now, he’s 16 and in high school (duh!) and is best friends with my “little sister” Abby. Abby is Frankie’s age and has been his friend seen they moved to Hollywood. Now I know you want to know how old I am and what not; too bad, I’m telling you. I’m 21 in the story and Nick’s girlfriend (Yes!), but that’s not what the story’s about. It’s about Abby and Frankie and that’s all I’m saying. So I hope you have a good idea as to who the people are, and where they stand in the story. 

_____________________________________________

 Chapter 1…

“Come on Abby or we’ll be late for school,” Frankie yelled to his best friend from outside Abby’s house.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming, geez, why are you in such a rush to get to school,” Abby said quickly, grabbing her backpack and opening the front door. As she opened it, Frankie fell to her feet. He was leaning against the door and when it opened, he lost his balance.
“I told you the last time this happened, don’t lean on the door, “Abby said as she helped her best friend up.
“Yeah, well that was a long time ago, I forgot,” Frankie said brushing dust off his pants and trying not to look stupid.
“No it wasn’t! The last time it happened was about three weeks ago,” she said, walking off the porch and down the driveway. Frankie caught up with her and they walked to the end of the driveway.
“It was not three weeks ago, it was longer than that,” Frankie said.
“Yes, it was. Remember when my cousin Eve was here and you fell and blushed cause we laughed at you,” she said with a I-know-I’m-right-just-say-it look.
“Okay, you were right, it was three weeks ago,” Frankie said, getting the hang of the answer that Abby wanted. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t say sorry; the only damage done was to the door step,” Abby said as she started to laugh at the image of Frankie falling again.
“Stop it,” Frankie yelled, knowing what she was laughing at.
“Okay, I’ll stop,” she said trying to stop. Abby stopped laughing when the bus pulled up to pick up Frankie and her.

After getting on the bus and putting their booksacks on the shelf above their seat, the bus took off.
“Guess what I do next Wednesday?” Frankie said, starting a new subject.
“What?” Abby asked.
“My mom and I are going to get my license.”
“I thought it was a family thing that your dad takes you? He did it with your brothers, why not you?” Abby said, a little confused.
“It’s not a tradition; my dad just likes being there to see his boy growing up,” Frankie said.
“Well, why isn’t he going to be there?”
“He’s going to be with Kevin and Nick finishing something up for the company.”
“Where is Joe going to be?”
“Classes, he’s got some big test he can’t get postponed, and they can’t get the meeting pushed back ether.”
“Poor you, not going to have your dad there. Hey, can’t you get your thing pushed back?”
“No, I tried, they’re full. If I did, I’d have to wait till next month. I don’t mind having my mom there; I don’t care who it is as long as I get my license.” “Cool, good luck.”

As the bus pulled up at the school, Abby had a feeling that something odd would happen. Abby got off the bus and spotted her best friend, Lorin, standing by the tree they always hung out by. Abby turned to call Frankie to come too, but he was walking toward his friend, Max. Abby walked over to Frankie and told him goodbye and that she’d save him and Max a seat at lunch. Frankie nodded and waved as Abby took off to go meet Lorin. But what Abby didn’t know was that Frankie got the same feeling that she got as he was getting off the bus.

_____________________________________________

 Chapter 2…

Abby daydreamed all through her first three classes. She was thinking of that feeling that she had as she was getting off the bus, and wondered what it meant. In her last class before lunch, she found herself drawing little hearts with “A.M. loves ?”. Only by waking up from her daydream did she realize what she was writing. Who could this “?” stand for? Were the odd feelings she had earlier have something to do with this sudden want to draw hearts and I love someone without the person’s name? Whatever it was, Abby tried to push it out of her head, but had no luck.

Abby was glad when the bell for lunch rang. She thought maybe with some food in her, she could think clearer and find out what was with the odd feelings and the doodling. As Abby put her last book in her locker a big hand slammed it shut, causing her to jump a little. The person the hand belonged to laughed a little when he saw her jump.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” said the deep and calming voice of the person.
Abby know just who it was. “What do you want Luke?” Abby turned to face him and saw he had on one of his “school-know” smiles: the smile that all the guys want to have, and all the girls love and would die to have him smile it at them… all but Abby and Lorin that is.
“I just came to ask you if you wanted to come to my Back From The Holidays party this weekend? You can bring Lorin and your friend Frankie. But if they don’t come, the only one that’s going to be sad at the party is you, and if you’re sad or don’t come, I’ll be sad. So I don’t think you want to say home or be sad if your friends-“
“Luke, what did you really come here for?” Abby said cutting him off. “I know you just don’t suddenly have the need to be my friend. I don’t know if you hurt yourself during the holiday, but something had to have happened to make you forget that you and I aren’t in the same circle.” Abby started to walk away until Luke was in front of her again.
“I’m not joking; I really want you and your friends there. It’s not some prank where you and I hang out a lot and I pretend to like you so I can make fun of you… I swear.”

Abby stared at him. The odd truth was that something in Abby’s gut told her that she kinda wanted to be friends, too.
Or maybe it’s because I need food more than I thought, she said to herself.
“I don’t know, I’ll talk with Lorin and Frankie and if they want to go, I’ll let you know.” Abby finally replied. She flashed Luke a fake smile, turned, and walked away.

Abby was late to lunch because of her talk with Luke, and instead of Abby and Lorin saving Frankie and Max a seat at lunch, Lorin, Frankie, and Max saved Abby a seat.
“Sorry I’m late guys, you’ll never guess who stopped but my locker after class…”
“Luke Halls,” they said in unison.
“Yeah, how did ya’ll know that?” Abby said, confused.
“Word travels fast when it involves people like Luke,” Lorin said. Lately Lorin know everything about Luke. Abby was beginning to think she wasn’t the only one under the spell of a Luke Halls smile, and that her best friend was starting to have a little crush on the popular guy. For the rest of lunch Abby stared into space, thinking of what Luke had said, the crazy things she felt all morning, and who her mystery guy could be.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

Abby finished her lunch in what little time she had and then made a quick trip to her locker to grab her book for Lit. Frankie was waiting at the door to class when Abby came around the corner.
“Hey,” she said, tapping his shoulder, surprising him.
“Hey, so what did Luke want before lunch?” Frankie asked as they walked into class.
“I’ll tell you after class; I really need to pay attention. We have that test Friday and I need an A,” Abby said while putting her book on her desk.
“Okay,” Frankie replied, knowing she would tell him after class like she promised.

As hard as Abby tried to pay attention to her class, her mind would always drift to the subject of the odd feelings and the new like for doodling. All this blanking out made Abby really want the day to end.

After class, Abby told Frankie what Luke came to talk to her for. Even if Luke was popular, and even if people at that school had no concern for the privities of the people in it, if you were popular, you had privities. Abby knew that, and that’s why she kept the words of her and Luke’s conversation under wraps. But she also knew that rumors were going to start as to what the conversation between the two of them was about. She knew some were going to be about how Luke and her might be dating or how Luke really was playing a prank on her, but Abby told her friends to disregard the rumors if they heard them and to tell her if there were some that she wasn’t thinking of. Abby was ready for the rumors to start so she could answer them before they got out of hand.

As Abby and Frankie got off the bus, Abby saw the black Jeep in the driveway and her eyes widened. Abby knew who the car belonged to and ran the whole way back to the house, Frankie calmly walking to the house shaking his head and laughing at his best friend.

Abby opened the door as fast as she could, dropping her book sack at the door.
“Samantha!” she called from the bottom of the stairs. She could hear a door open and feet running across the hall. Someone came around the corner of the hall and was in full view from the bottom of the stairs. At the top of the stairs stood Abby’s older sister Samantha. When Samantha looked at Abby, she started running down the stairs screaming her name.
“Abby!” Samantha got to the bottom and quickly scooped up her little sister in a huge hug. “Oh, I missed you soooo much Abby; I’m never leaving again.”
Samantha put her little sister down on the ground. “Good, ’cause I will not, I repeat, NOT, let you,” Abby said as she hugged her sister again.

Samantha saw Frankie standing in the kitchen and tried to sneak up on him, but right when she was going to strike, he turned to face her, a cookie hanging from his mouth.
“Dang,” Samantha said. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to ear from someone’s kitchen without asking?” she said, shaking the cookie in his mouth that he wouldn’t let go of.
“Yes,” he said after he took a bit out of the cookie and chewed it.
“But it’s still rude,” Nick said, coming out of the background at which he was in, but not seen.
“Nick!” Abby yelled, running to him and giving him a long hug.
“Hey Abby. What’s up?” he said while hugging her.
“Not much,” she said as she let go. “So any luck with colleges?”
“No, not really,” he replied.
“I keep telling him he should come to school with me, but noooooo, he sad he didn’t want to,” Samantha said with a mocking look on her face.
“And I still stand by that,” Nick replied.
“Oh yes, of course. You know why he doesn’t want to?” Samantha asked her sister and Frankie.
“No,” they answered.
“Nick here doesn’t want to go because he doesn’t want to have a girlfriend who’s in her third year of college and have him only be in his first year,” Samantha said a little angry.
“Hey, that was between you and me, okay,” Nick said.
Samantha put her hand over her mouth and with a gasp, she said, “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Forgive me.” Sam then climbed onto a chair and put a hand on either side of her face and continued, “Oh poor Nick, he’s so afraid to go to school with his girlfriend, but yet he’s a pop star about to start a record company… poor, poor you.” With a sigh she put her hands on her hips.
“Ha ha, very funny,” Nick said as he put an arm around Sam’s waist, helping her down.
“I know, right?” she replied.
Samantha kissed Nick on the cheek and walked over to her little sister. Samantha put an arm over her shoulder and pulled her up the stairs.

Samantha, Abby, Nick, and Frankie spent the rest of the day hanging out. Abby went to bed early, but Abby didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know what.

_____________________________________________

 Chapter 4…

After not getting a wink of sleep the night before, Abby wasn’t really up to another day of school, but she knew she had to go if she wanted to do good…. and, her mom would never let her stay home if she wasn’t sick.”

“Get dressed fast and I’ll bring you to school,” Samantha called from outside Abby’s door.
“Okay, be right there,” she said going up to her closet. Abby got out one of her favorite outfits one of her many Jonas Brothers concert t-shirts and one of her Arizona Jean Co. jeans and her black converse – a normal look for her. She walked to the bathroom and put on her make-up and fixed her hair.

Sam walked into the bathroom and took a note of her sister’s look and approved. “Cute, so very cute. You have learned much from me, young Grasshopper.”
They both laughed at the way the two of them faced each other and put their hands together to bow like they were in China.
“I miss this,” Abby said.
“Well, we get along better now that we dont’ see each other everyday and when we do see each other, we’re spending that time catching up,” Sam said, giving her sister another hug.
“I know, I just miss when we would spend all day together fighting, and then at the end of the day, be best friends,” Abby said.
“Yeah, I miss that too,” Sam replied, as she and Abby walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs to the kitchen.

After breakfast, Abby finished getting ready for school, she and Samantha were about to leave when there was a knock at the door.
Frankie, Abby said to herself. Abby ran to the door and let him in.
“Hey Frankie, would you like a ride to school? I was going to give Abby one,” Samantha asked.
“Sure,” he said. Nick had walked in the door as Frankie was answering Sam. He hugged Abby and then walked over to Sam, giving her a kiss.
“Hi,” he said, “are you ready to go? We have places to go and people to see.”
“Yeah, is it alright if we stop by Abby’s school to drop them off?” Samantha asked, pointing at their younger siblings.
“Sure, but we don’t have time to stop, so we’ll just slow down and you two just jump out, okay?” Nick said with a big grin on his face. Samantha laughed and slapped Nick playfully on the chest.

As they got in the car, Abby had a feeling today was going to be great.

_____________________________________________

Allie Coleman screamed as her eleven year old self ran terrorized by the snake Joe Jonas was chasing her with. “Allie your such a dork it’s just a measly snake” as fourteen year old Joe Jonas threw the multi-colored snake on the ground and walked inside laughing. That was four years ago.

 _____________________________________________

 Chapter 1…

Allie Coleman looked around the plain that she was riding on her way to live with the (so called) Biggest-Brat-Of-All-Time Joe Jonas. Her parents had forced her to move to L.A to live with the Jonas family because her parents were getting transferred to Italy and they wanted Allie to live in the United States so they ship her off to the worst possible place with Joe Jonas.

Allie looked out of the gray plane’s window. The clouds moved by in slow motion. She was so ready to get there. Allie pulled out her journal and wrote:

Well the interior of the plane is just intriguing. It has leather seats and a little pouch for your cups & food items. I feel like I might blow up b/c I mean whose parents transfer them their junior year in high school. UGHHHHH my parents are evil. Why just why did they have to get transferred to Italy? I mean yes, I did say I wanted to stay in the U.S of A., but still. I mean JOE JONAS, my mortal enemy. We are total opposites and I bet now he is really creepy looking and all. I MEAN HELLO, NOT GOING TO BE FUN. Oh yeah dad, “It will be an adventure”… a scary & disappointing one.
My best friend Kate said, “Well hey now, you know how boys act.” I DON’T FREAKING GIVE A CRAP HOW JOE JONAS ACTS. We haven’t even talked since we were, like, 11 freaking years old. UGH UGHH UGH UGHH UGH.

Allie put the pencil down and huffed; she fell asleep minutes later. She awoke to the plane stuttering to a stop. She scooted up and took a deep breath. Allie looked out the window as the L.A. airport formed.

Allie was getting butterflies in her stomach; she didn’t know why, but she was kind of happy because she got to start all over. In a new city. In a new state. Where nobody knew her. Where no one knew her as the kid who sat in chocolate and everyone thought it was… well ya’ know. Thinking about it, she was getting nervous.

The plane stopped and everyone got up. Allie got her bag and stood up like everyone else. She hated Joe Jonas and was moving in with him. Great, she thought as she walked down the long corridor. Deep breaths, she thought. Take deep, deep breaths.

She entered a crowed room and looked around trying to find the Jonases. As she turned, she bumped into a guy about three inches taller than her.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” Allie said picking up her bag.
“Oh it’s okay. I am on a tight schedule and trying to find someone,” Joe said looking into her green eyes.
“Oh I am too; do you know if the Jonases are here?” Allie said trying to avoid eye contact.
“Yeah, I’m Joe Jonas,” Joe said sticking out a hand… then it must’ve hit him. “Allie!!” he said as his eyes widened.
“Joe!!!” Allie said. She couldn’t believe what she saw. The evil punk she once knew had turned into a guy who could be an Abercrombie model.
“So I see you have changed,” Allie said as she reached for her guitar case. Then Joe bent down and picked it up for her.
He said, “Let me carry this,” meaning the guitar. She smiled weakly. Allie was really tired. Then she saw her green bag and reached for it, but at the same time Joe stuck his hand out, and for a second their hands touched and sparks flew.
Allie said, “I got this one.” Joe smiled and said, “Whatever you say.”

They walked out to the blue convertible where Kevin sat and looked up. His mouth dropped at the sight of the girl he had seen four years ago. She had changed A LOT. Her head finally was the right size and she had lost a lot of weight. Plus her hair was nice and she didn’t fiddle with it every waking second, well as far as he could see.

Kevin flipped the trunk up and said, “Hey Al, do ya remember me?”
“Yeah, you two liked to terrorize me,” Allie said huffing.
Joe and Kevin laughed. Allie giggled and said, “Not funny.” She walked to the trunk and threw her bag in the car.
Joe said, “Do you play?” as he looked at the guitar.
“Yeah, but I mainly love to write,” Allie replied as Joe put the guitar in the trunk. Kevin closed the trunk and walked around to the front.

Joe opened the door for Allie. She slid in. Joe got in beside her and shut the door. Kevin gave him a look saying, Why in the world are you sitting back there and not up here? Joe jutted his chin up as if to say, No reason. Allie was clueless. They pulled out of the parking lot.
Then Allie said, “So where do you guys go to school?”
“We go to Franklin High,” Joe said looking into her green eyes. They drove for a while and then they pulled into a Starbucks parking lot.
“I need coffee, I will be back,” Kevin said. He jumped out of the car, and ran inside the building, leaving Allie and Joe alone. Joe turned to Allie and said, “Listen, I’m sorry I terrorized you when we were younger, and I wont try to trick you anymore, I promise.”
“How can I trust you?” Allie looked at him and saw it in his eyes he was trying to say sorry.
“I don’t know, but I promise.” He held out a hand.
“Okay,” she replied, shaking the hand.

Kevin came back with a cup. “Okay, I am better now,” he said as he opened the door.
“Kevin it’s like a thousand degrees here. Why in the world do you need a drink that’s hot?” Joe said.
“It’s just my instincts to like coffee,” Kevin replied turning on the car.
“Okay,” Joe said putting his hands up in defeat.
“So Allie, what grade are you in?” Kevin asked.
“Well I am fifteen and I am s’posed to be in tenth, but I skipped a grade,” Allie replied her blue and green braces gleaming under the California sun.
“So you’re smart,” Joe said in a jokingly matter.
“Nah I just got all A’s in all advanced classes because I am stupid,” Allie said in the same jokingly matter. Joe and Kevin both laughed.

Five minutes later they were on the highway that overlooked the ocean. Allie’s jaw dropped. She knew California was supposed to be pretty, but it was AH-MAZING. Joe noticed the look on her face and said, “Have you ever been to the ocean before?”
“Well yeah, but not in California. I have lived in Germany, Ireland, England, and Australia all on the beach, but not like this,” Allie replied without taking her bright green eyes off of the water.
“You’ve lived in Germany, Ireland AND England?” Joe said shocked.
“And Australia,” Allie pointed out.
“Dang, you are so lucky,” Kevin said.
“Hardly,” Allie said with a snort.
“What do you mean?” Joe asked staring at Allie.
“Well, it’s like once you live in one place, finally getting used to everything and all the new friends, you have to move again,” Allie explained.

Kevin turned the car into a neighborhood called Cherry Blossom. The houses were huge. Kevin turned onto a street called General John Payne, then another called Akin Court. He pulled the car into a giant circle driveway. Allie’s jaw dropped once again.
“OH MY GOSH, YOU LIVE HERE?”
Joe laughed and said, “Yeah we do.”
“Joe,” Kevin called from the trunk, “stop flirting and help me with her luggage.” Allie didn’t notice but Joe shot Kevin a dirty look.

The three walked up to the two glass front doors and they opened. Nick was standing there holding them open for Allie and his brothers. They walked in and Allie’s jaw dropped for a third time. If she thought the outside was beautiful, the inside of the house was gorgeous.
Allie noticed Mrs. Jonas walking toward her with her black/brown curls bouncing off her shoulders as she walked. Mrs. Jonas walked up to Allie and hugged her.
“Hi Mrs. Jonas,” Allie said.
“Oh Allie, call me Denise,” she said, letting go of Allie to get a good look at her.
“You are so beautiful! Let me show you to your room.”

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

Denise led Allie up a flight of marble stairs. Then she turned right and walked into a room. The room was as big as Allie’s apartment that she had lived in. It was perfect. The window was giant and had green curtains with hot pink polka dots. The bed was king-sized with a green comforter and hot pink sheets. The walls were painted green with hot pink polka dots and in a softer pink, “Allie” was written on her wall. There was also a green and hot pink polka dot couch and a wooden desk opposite the bed.

“Wow you went to a lot of trouble just for me,” Allie said admiringly.
Denise smiled and said, “Nonsense. I needed something to do, and getting to do something girly was good for me.”
Allie hugged her, then ran and jumped onto the bed.
Denise laughed and said, “Well I have to go and start lunch. What would you like?”
“Oh, I don’t care,” Allie said a little embarrassed, she would eat anything if she were hungry.
“Honey, I have all boys and they don’t care… so what will it be?” Denise replied with a stiff laugh.
“Um, a chicken cutlet sandwich with mayo would be great,” Allie said thinking it through thoroughly.
Denise smiled and replied, “Sure thing.” She walked out of the room and left Allie to herself.

Allie sighed. This wonderful room was all hers. Joe knocked on the door and brought in Allie’s luggage. He grinned at the sight of her with pillows over her long body.

“Hey what’cha doin?” Joe said, sitting down on the couch.
“Nothin’ really,” Allie replied looking into his brown eyes.
“Well,” Joe said standing up and clapping his hands together, “why don’t I take you to see the California shore?”
Allie plopped up and answered, “sure” in an eager voice. “Can I just change first? I’m kind of hot in these clothes,” she said, looking at the bathroom hooked onto the room.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Joe said, smiling.
“Well, give me some privacy,” Allie said in a joking annoyed tone.
“Al, you’re living with four guys now, there’s no privacy,” Joe replied, grinning.
“Fine then, I will change in the bathroom,” Allie said grabbing her bag.

She walked into the bathroom and locked the door. Allie grabbed her brush and pulled her hair up into two high ponytails. Then she put on her bathing suit in case they were going in the ocean. She then put on a tight green Cami with low-rise green gym shorts over it. She grabbed her green sandals and walked out. She looked over at Joe, who was standing beside the bathroom door, and said, “Okay, let’s go.” Joe took one look at her, and he couldn’t stop looking. He didn’t know if he liked her yet, but she sure was pretty.
“Mom!” Joe yelled.
“Yeah?” Denise said from the kitchen.
“Me and Allie are going out and I am showing her California,” Joe smiled, looking at Allie’s dirty blonde hair.
“Okay,” Denise yelled back sweetly.

Joe and Allie walked out to the blue metallic convertible. Joe opened the door for her and she said, “Why thank you, kind sir.”
Joe grinned and replied, “Your welcome, kind maiden.” They both burst out laughing. Joe turned the car on. It purred.
“So are you excited to be in Cali, the sunshine state?” Joe asked, backing out of the drive way.
“Yeah, but I miss all my friends back in Kentucky,” Allie replied, turning up Radio Disney.
“Well at least you have a new friend here,” Joe said, tearing his eyes from the road to look at Allie.
“So who might that be?” Allie said grinning.
“Me, you idiot,” Joe said, rolling his eyes.
“Sure, we’ll see how that works out,” Allie said, looking at the clear blue water. Maybe this isn’t going to be sooooooo bad, Allie thought to herself. She smiled.
“What?” Joe asked defensively. They both grinned and drove in silence for about thirty minutes with the exception of the radio.

They finally stopped and Joe got out. He came over and opened the door for Allie. “Thanks” was all she could think of as she looked out onto the ocean shore. It was one of the prettiest things she had ever seen.
“So Joe, are we just going to stand here or can we go walk on the beach?” Allie asked eagerly.
“Let’s go in the water,” Joe replied taking his shirt off and throwing it in the car.
“Okay, well, I’ll race you… let me just take off my shirt because my mom would kill me if I ruined it,” Allie said as she took off her shirt. “Okay,” he replied. She turned around and Joe was already running toward the shore.
“Hey,” she said as she took off after him.
“Ha, it’s a good thing I am a fast runner,” she yelled as she caught up with him.
“Wait Allie!” Joe screamed after her as she passed him. He ran up behind her and slid his arms around her waist causing them both to fall.
Joe fell on top of her.

 _____________________________________________

Unfortunately, JonasBrothers101 hasn’t had very many good fanfic submissions in the last couple of months and we need your help! If you’re a writer and you’re interested in posting your story on the site for everyone, email me at: rebecca@jonasbrothers101.com. Just send me the name of your story and brief summary of what happens in it; I’ll let you know more information from there.

Some rules for submission: 
1) PLEASE don’t write in text talk (i.e: u, nvm, brb).
2) ONLY 1st or 3rd person accepted. No 2nd person writing, thanks.
3) All first time fanfic writers like to write about themselves and the celeb (which is okay), but PLEASE don’t make it so elaborate that it’s totally unreal and stupid.
4) If it’s your 2nd fanfic, please don’t write about yourself.
5) PLEASE have originality and don’t write a story that sounds like other people’s (that’s plagerism!)
6) It can’t have the same title as someone else’s story.

Thank you in advance!

I tapped my pencil on my desk, staring up at the clock and completely ignoring my teacher; much like the rest of class. It was the last day of school, and frankly, no one really cared much what the teacher had to say, so we tuned her out. My eyes followed to arm of the clock as it ticked along, 10, 9, 8. I looked over at my friend Carly and she mouthed the numbers with me. 7, 6, 5, 4, the rest of the class was counting too and it appeared that the teacher gave up on trying to cram useless math equations into our brains. 3, 2, 1, everyone screamed and threw our papers into the air and started dancing around the class, and then…

“Miss Stewart, I’m sorry if my class is boring you, may I offer you a pillow, or perhaps a napkin for that drool on your chin?” I raised my head off my arms and looked around, half of my classmates were laughing and the other half looked like they felt bad for me. I guess I would feel the same way too, considering that our math teacher was one of the most vicious teachers in the school, if of course I wasn’t the one getting in trouble.
“No, ma’am,” I replied sheepishly and sat back up in my chair.

I had been dreaming about the end of school, and soon it would actually be a reality, well, minus the dancing and paper throwing. Unless of course we wanted to be assigned a detention from Mrs. Manning on the last day of school. So for the rest of the period I tried my best to keep my eyes on the blackboard instead of on the inside of my head. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the last school bell rang and our class emptied faster then the school cafeteria on mystery meat days.

I walked across the hall and opened my locker, only to see the three most gorgeous guys ever staring at me. I took the tape off my locker size Jonas Brothers poster and folded it carefully into my backpack. I then took the rest of my magnets, pens, and books and placed them in my bag as well. When my locker was completely empty, I walked up the stairs to meet my best friend Chelsea in the Junior hallway of the high school. I spotted her as soon as I reached the landing because she was wearing her signature hot pink shirt, picked out for her by moi last Christmas.

She ran over to me breathing heavily, so I thought it best not to interrupt her when she was getting ready to announce something big.
“Omigosh Jeannette, guess what????” she said quickly.
“What?” I answered just as fast.
“My sister Janelle got us onto the Hannah Montana set this afternoon!”
I started to cheer, because next to the Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana was my favorite singer, but Chelsea cut me off.
“That’s not even the best part, she got you and audition for a part on the show!” she said.

I was speechless, I loved acting and had starred in many of my schools productions, but to imagine myself on stage with Hannah Montana was like a dream come true.
“Are…are…you…sure?” I stuttered.
“Of course I’m sure,” she replied. “You deserve it; you’re an Ah-Mazing actress!”
I thanked her repeatedly as we walked out of the school and into the parking lot. The pressed a button on her car starter and I heard her mustang start somewhere in the parking lot. Chelsea was two years older then I was so she already had her license. We reached her car and climbed into it. The leather seats burned my back and thighs, but I didn’t complain. Chelsea popped in the newest Jonas Brothers CD and backed out of her parking space.

Chels and I have been friends for as long as I can remember; same thing goes with our moms. Even though she’s two years older, she looks my age and we have more in common then you can imagine. And as for her sister Janelle…gosh, don’t even get me started. She’s beautiful, blonde, and knows all the right people. Even though she has the looks and potential to be an actress, she prefers to work behind the scenes. Like right now, she’s working on the set of 3 or 4 of the Disney Channel shows, so I’m guessing that’s how she scored me and Chels passes into today’s auditions.

As we were driving along the highway, Chels took the CD out mid song and turned to me with a serious look on her face, which could only mean one thing…gossip was heading my way.
“My sister said that she heard rumors about a special guest that will be appearing on Hannah Montana. Someone who has already guest starred, but did such a great job they were bringing them back,” she said.
“Them?” I asked her.
She nodded a grin spreading across her face.
“No way, no way, no way, no WAY!” I screamed making the driver of the car next to us look over. I giggled and then turned back to her.

She answered my question before I could even ask it.
“Yes, the rumor is that the Jonas Brothers are coming back to the show,”
“But they were just on it, like what, last week weren’t they?” I said.
“Don’t forget, this show isn’t going to air for a couple of weeks.”
I nodded in realization, still at a loss for words. “Chels, you’re giving up a chance to audition and be on a show with the Jonas Brothers, for me? You’re the best friend I could ever ask for!”
She smiled and turned back to the wheel, leaving me with my thoughts.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

Deciding that the outfits we had worn to school would be appropriate; we headed straight into the city of Los Angeles, for the audition. When we parked and walked to the back door where a security guard stopped us. We simply told him that Chelsea’s sister worked on the set, and he let us in. She rushed over to us as soon as we walked in the door. Kissing us both on the cheek she led us by the hand to meet some people.
Once we met what seemed liked half the crew she stopped, turned to me, and said “Jeannette, you’re going to follow this hallway and go into the second door on your left. Your lines will be waiting for you, along with a make-up artist and hairdresser to touch you up your look before your audition. Oh, and before I forget, Hannah will stop in before you go on to go over your character a bit!”
She smiled like nothing she had said was surprising and walked away. I turned to Chelsea and we whisper squealed. She waved good-bye and found a seat at the front of the set.

I followed Janelle’s instructions and found my way into a small dressing room. My lines were waiting for me just as she had said, by a couch. I plopped down and started committing them to memory. Ten minutes later I had them down (told ya I was good) and was saying them in my head as my hair was being brushed and my lashes were being touched up with mascara. There was a soft knock on the door and a gold boot stepped in soon followed by the rest of Hannah’s body. She introduced herself, as did I, and sat down on the couch next to me.
“Okay, well as you might already know by your script, Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas are the guest stars on the show. The part your auditioning for involves getting very close to them, which considering how dang cute they are, shouldn’t be a problem,” she said laughing. She then mentioned a few quick auditioning tips and left me to my lines.

Fifteen minutes later I walked off the set with a huge smile of satisfaction on my face. I had beaten out the other four girls for the part and would be returning tomorrow to actually film. Chelsea and Janelle ran up and congratulated me, but we were soon interrupted by one of the stage managers.
“Ms. Cyrus wishes to see you miss. Your friends are welcome to accompany you as well,” he said. I thanked him and shrugged to the other tow. We followed him to a larger version of the dressing room I had been in.
“Straight thru to the back Miss,” he said motioning towards a door in the back of the room. Walking in the direction he had gestured we reached the door and opened it.

Inside the room it resembled a lounge, with a fuzzy couch, a TV, and a soda machine. Miley was walking around the room, no longer in her Hannah costume, collecting her belongings. When she heard us enter she looked up and smiled. Then she turned and addressed me directly.
“Jeannette, you and you’re friends will take the company limo to the amusement park across town. There you will get to know the Kevin, Joe, and Nick, that way you’ll be more familiar with each other tomorrow. Sound good?”
“Um, YEAH!” Chelsea and I said at the same time. We all started laughing until the same stage manager who had shown us this room knocked on the door. Miley opened it and he told us that the limo was waiting. Janelle and Chelsea ran ahead but I stayed behind for a minute.
“Miley, this is beyond real and I just want to thank you,” I said.
“You should be thanking yourself, I mean, I saw your audition and you’re amazing. I just hope you have a good time with the boys. But trust me, that shouldn’t be hard with how dang cute they are!” she replied. I waved goodbye and made my way out to the limo.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

The limo was waiting outside the door where we had entered from.
“I’ll follow you guys in Chelsea’s car, that way we don’t have to come back for it. And tomorrow we can all come back together for Jeannette’s roll on the show. That’s when I’ll pick up mine,” Janelle said. Chelsea and I were only half listening because neither of us had ever been in a limo before, and were having too much fun checking it all out. She left to go find the car, and we got situated inside of the limo. Inside was a fridge and when we opened it, we found it stock full of Pepsi and tons of other things. I pulled out a Pepsi and flipped on the TV mounted on one of the walls.

The time flew by on our way to the amusement park because we were having so much fun exploring the limo. By the time we got there, we had discovered four hidden compartments with various things inside. One including what looked like some Miley’s spare costumes for the show. The chauffer opened the door for us and we stepped out into the blinding sunlight. Now it was really starting to feel like summer.

Before the chauffer drove off he handed us our tickets to the park and passes so we could skip the lines.
“Kevin, Joe, and Nick will be waiting for you outside of the Seafood Café” he told us. Janelle joined us and the chauffer kindly handed her her ticket and pass as well.
“Have a pleasant day,” he said smiling and then climbed back into the stretch limo and drove off. Following the crowd, we got into line and handed the man in the booth our tickets. He stamped them and told us to proceed into the park. One of the first food stores we saw was the Seafood Café so we walked over and sat down on a bench outside of it.

“I wonder where they are?” Chelsea said.
“Don’t be so impatient, they’ll be here soon,” Janelle responded to her sister. They momentarily glared at each other and then turned away.
“You’re right, we’ll be here soon,” said another voice behind us. Surprised, we turned around and were staring into three pairs of gorgeous brown eyes.
“Hey guys, or should I say girls. I’m Joe,” “I’m Kevin,” “And I’m Nick!” they said.
“Oh, we know who you are,” Janelle said confidently. Chelsea and me were too stunned to say anything right at the moment so we kept quiet.

Janelle introduced herself, to the three of them, though I couldn’t help but notice she was staring directly at Kevin. Finally, our voices came back to us when Joe asked us for our names as well.
“Uh, um, my…my names Chelsea, but you can call me Chels,” she answered back, giggling slightly when Joe smiled at her. Nick then turned to me, blushing slightly when I smiled at him.
“And you name is?” he asked.
“Jeannette,” I said looking deep into his big brown eyes. After a few seconds of silence, Joe quickly changed the subject.
“Well,” he said rubbing his hands together, “Which ride do we all want to go on first?”
“Doc Oc’s revenge!” Nick and I both said at the same time. We looked at each other and started laughing.
“Sound good to everyone?” Kevin asked. Once everyone had nodded, we set off towards the biggest upside-down ride in the park. It was slightly awkward because no one wanted to walk too close to each other. Once we reach the line it would be a bit easier considering we were one behind another.

We took the line to left, showing the man standing in front of it our passes. He unclipped the rope blocking the line and let us all pass through. The people in the line next to us, looked upon our group in awe. I couldn’t tell if it was because they wished they could skip the line like we were doing, or if it was because we were with the best boy band in the country, or maybe even both. No one else appeared to have passes like ours, so we were able to walk through the entire line without pausing once. When we got to the front, we saw that there were two people per row. Without even saying a word, each person locked eyes with the person we wanted to sit with. It surprised no one when Kevin and Janelle were together, Joe and Chels were seated next to each other, and Nick and I both shyly sat down in the two remaining seats.

In the two rows in front of us, I could hear Janelle and Chels both chatting away with the boys, so I turned to Nick and tried to start a conversation.
“So…umm…what’s up?” I said nervously.
“Nothing much, we just got done with the new album and…”
“Oh my gosh, it was Ah-Mazing!” I said to him.
“Thanks!” he said laughing.
“My favorite song is S.O.S. I think that it’s so cool that you wrote it all by yourself. But sad at the same time, because you had to base it off something real,” I replied.
Looking back into my eyes, he said softly, “But for now, I’m not worried about that!” I blushed and so did he.

In the seat in front of us, Chelsea turned around and said, “If you two are done flirting with each other, would you mind buckling up so we could start the ride.
“Oh right, sorry!” I mumbled back. Nick and I both pulled down our shoulder harnesses and clipped the seatbelts into their holder. Before I could say another word the coaster lurched forward and started slowly climbing up the hill. My hand tightened on the handlebars until my knuckles turned white. I had been on this ride only once before and it still made me nervous thinking about all the loops and corkscrews. Nick turned to face me.
“Are you alright?” he asked. I swallowed hard and nodded. He smiled to me and gently touched my hand as if he was saying it would be fine.

He placed his hand back on the handlebars just as we reached the top of the hill. The coaster tipped forward and everyone put up their hands as we went through the first loop. In the air, Nick’s hand brushed against mine, but I didn’t mind one bit. My fingers intertwined with his and we were holding on tight to each other’s hands as we went around and around the track. We didn’t let go until we reached the end, and we only did so we could unclip the shoulder harness. The four others seemed very happy when we got off the ride too, so I couldn’t help but think some more hand holding, or flirting had went on.

We walked down the staircase and into the gift shop attached to the ride. The first thing you see when you walk into the store is the multiple screens with the ride photos. I spotted me and Nick’s photo before he did and pointed up at it.
“Look Nick,” he followed where my finger was pointing and started blushing. In the picture we were laughing and holding hands. When I looked around I saw that Janelle and Chelsea’s photos were quite similar. The rest of the afternoon was tons of fun. We filled up on cotton candy and popcorn until we felt like we might explode, and probably rode every big ride in the park at least twice. Around 7 o’clock I got a call from the chauffer saying that he was at the front gate.
“We’ll be there soon,” I told him.

“Well, our ride is here,” I told the boys quietly. They asked if there was any way we could stay later but I shook my head sadly.
“Okay, well we’ll see you on the set tomorrow Jeannette, and hopefully you two will be there too,” Kevin said.
“Definitely,” Janelle and Chelsea answered simultaneously. All three boys smiled.
“Yeah, and maybe we can hang out again after filming,” Joe said. We all nodded in agreement and waved the boys goodbye. But I stopped Nick before he could walk away.
“Nick, I know we just met today, but you are one of the most fun people to be with. And well, I like you…a lot,” I told him. He just kind of, stood there in silence.
After a few awkward moments, I quickly said, “It’s okay if you don’t feel…” but he stopped me before I could finish. He pulled me into a tight hug and kissed me gently on the cheek. When he pulled back his cheeks flushing with a pinkish tint.
I blushed too and softly giggled, “Well…uh…” I muttered. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow…”
“Uh…yea sure!” he replied. We both smiled and then waved good-bye again. I ran to catch up with my two friends ready to tell them what had just happened. ‘This day just keeps getting better and better’ I thought.

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Chapter 4…

I practically ran back to the limo, after checking that the boys were out of sight first. When I climbed inside I only saw Chelsea and was momentarily confused, until I remembered that Janelle had come in a separate car. But I figured Chels would tell her every word I said anyway, so I didn’t really matter.
“What happened?” she asked me excitedly before I even slid across the seat across from her.
“Well, I told him that I really liked him and then we hugged and he kissed me on the cheek. It’s not much, but that’s okay. I get to see him tomorrow anyway; maybe something more will happen then,” I said.
“Hey, that’s better than me and Joe. I mean you can tell he likes me and I’m sure he knows I like him, but both of us were too nervous to make the first move. And by the sounds of it, nothing big happened between Janelle and Kevin either.”

The ride home was unnaturally silent, because both Chels and me were thinking about what had happened. The chauffer dropped Chelsea off at her house and then drove down the street to my house. I waved goodbye and told him I would see him tomorrow afternoon with Janelle, Chels, and the boys. When I got inside I was my mom had asked how my day had went. I gave her a brief summary of my day, leaving out the parts were we all flirted with the boys, and then headed upstairs to my room. I switched on my Mac computer and opened up my email. It said I had 2 new messages. The first was from Chelsea saying how much fun she had today, and said that her and Janelle would be at my house tomorrow at 9 to take me to the set. The next email was from someone I didn’t recognize. I opened it up and read:

To: JBgurl812@hotmail.com
From: SingerBoi234@yahoo.com

Subject: Fun Day

 Hey Jeannette,

It’s me Nick. I had so much fun today with you and you’re friends. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow on the set and then to hang out again afterwards. My bros and I already planned out the afternoon starting with lunch, but it’s a surprise so you’ll have to wait to see. Well, goodnite…don’t let the bed bug bite. =]

Signed,
Nick J

To: SingerBoi234@yahoo.com
From: JBgurl812@hotmail.com

Subject: Can’t Wait

 Nick,

Tomorrow sounds like tons of fun, and I’m totally pumped to shoot some scenes with you and Miley tomorrow. Also super excited to see what you guys have planned for me, Chels, and Janelle. C ya soon. Nite!

Jeannette

After immediately responding to Nick’s email I closed my laptop and set it back on my desk. I changed into pajamas and then walked over to my closet to pick out something to wear. Technically it didn’t matter, because for most of the day, I would be in the outfit chosen by the show’s stylist, but I needed to look cute for hanging out with the Jonas Brothers afterwards. I settled on a pink polka dotted halter-top, a jean skirt, and matching pink leggings. For the shoes I grabbed my gold ballet flats thinking that it gave the outfit a nice touch.

Now I was finally ready for bed, so I put my Jonas Brothers CD in the stereo and climbed into bed. Looking at the poster I had of them next to my bed, made me think about what a fun day we had had. I pulled my blanket up and closed my eyes. I was asleep before the chorus of “Hold On” was even finished.

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Chapter 5…

My alarm was set to go off at 7:30, that way I would have plenty of time to get ready before Chelsea and Janelle were going to pick me up and take me to the set. But, I had subconsciously smacked the snooze at least twice and didn’t end up waking up until around 8:10. Finally realizing what time it was I smacked the off button and rushed out of bed. I pulled the door open to my bathroom and walked in. Looking in the mirror I saw that I had bead head, and my mascara had run overnight. ‘After my shower I’ll look better’ I thought out loud.

Fifteen minutes later I stepped out of the shower and into the steamy bathroom. Wrapping a towel around my body and hair, I re-entered the bedroom. I pulled my outfit off the hanger and quickly dressed, and then threw my hair into a low side ponytail. Overall, I thought I looked decent considering how pressed for time I was. I ran downstairs and grabbed a Granola Bar from the pantry. Glancing at the clock I saw that Chels would be here with the car momentarily. I kissed my mom goodbye and waved goodbye to my younger brother. “Give Dad my love,” I told her, for he had already left for work.

I sat outside on the step just as the red mustang came around the corner. Standing back up, I straightened my skirt and climbed into the car.
“Did you get an email from Nick,” Chelsea questioned, “‘cause me and Janelle each got one from Joe and Kevin?”
“Yea, I did actually, he told me what we were doing today was a surprise but that he couldn’t wait to see me on set,” I responded, blushing at the thought of it.
“Pretty much what Kevin told me!” Janelle said from the back seat.
On our drive down to the set, we talked about how lucky we were, and how many girls would kill to be in our places. Today, we greeted the security guard at the front door with a smile and a wave of our On Set Passes. He opened the door for us warmly welcomed us back.

I followed Chelsea to the seats while Janelle left in the opposite direction to go clock in for work. Before my butt even touched the chair, Miley rushed over to us.
“So,” she said eagerly, “How was it yesterday?”
“Beyond amazing,” I said happily, “Thank you so much for introducing us!”
“No problem, I thought you guys would have fun. And from what I hear, you guys are hanging out again tonight?” Chels and I nodded.
“Well, even though I’d love to sit here and gossip about boys, I actually came over here to tell you something…both of you!” she said taking Chelsea slightly aback.
“Jeannette, your wanted in the hair and make-up department to go get ready. I’ll go with you in a minute, but first,” she said turning to Chelsea, “You are invited to be an extra on the set, you don’t have any lines but you will be seen on camera.”
Chelsea eagerly accepted and then waved us off. Miley linked her arm around mine and we burst into her newest song “Life’s What You Make It” while skipping down the hallway to get ready for the scenes.

Later On…
“Hey ya’ll, I want you to meet my cousin Cheyenne. She got the singing talent like me, and by the sound of our last family reunion, she’s the only other one in the family!” Hannah said to Lilly and Oliver.

(Audience Laughter)

“Aw thanks Hannah, but your way better then I am!” Cheyenne replied.

“Okay, well if you think that, then I guess you don’t want to perform onstage with me tonight with…”

“Us!”

(Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas enter from stage right and join Hannah and Cheyenne aka. Jeannette)

“Oh-My-Gosh! You…but you’re…THE JONAS BROTHERS!” scream Lilly.

“That would be us,” the boys answer laughing.

“So you want to do it Chey?”

(Turning to look at the encouraging faces of the three boys standing next to her, Cheyenne nods slowly while smiling)

“And…Scene!” shouted the director from the side of the set, “That was great Miley, as usual, and Jeannette…you’re a natural!”
Blushing slightly, I thanked the director and looked around for the boys who were already walking towards us.
“Well I guess I’ll leave you guys alone then,” Miley said to me slyly and walked away to her dressing room, while Janelle and Chelsea walked up to join us from opposite sides of the set.

“Well, we’re all taking you somewhere different tonight, to…well, get to know you on a little more personal level,” Joe said to the three of us.
“You guys ready?” Janelle and Chels quickly answered yes but I shook my head.
“I gotta go get changed,” I told them.
“You guys go ahead, I’ll stay here and wait for Jeannette, or should I say Cheyenne!” Nick said.
I playfully slapped him on the shoulder and while he acted like he was hurt, I ran off to my dressing room.

Quickly as I could a wiggled out of the outfit provided for my scene, which was actually pretty cute, and changed back into the outfit I had worn this morning. Wiping off the excess amount of make-up that been applied earlier a slipped back into my flats and ran right back out the door. Even though I had changed as fast as femininely possible, Nick teasingly questioned what had taken me so long.
“So where are we going?” I asked, changing the subject.
“You’ll see,” he said pulling out a bandanna from his pocket as he did.
“What are you…?” I said but he cut me off and tied it around my eyes.
“Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly as I squirmed, “I got you!”
And with that he slipped his hand into mine and began leading me off to who knows where.

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Chapter 6…

Being trapped under a blindfold with only a hand leading you was kinda creepy, even if it was the hand of the cutest boy in the universe. “Okay, we’re here!” Nick said after what seemed like forever. He walked behind me and took off the blindfold finally allowing me to see the sun again. In front of me sat a small, white golf-cart.
“A golf-cart?” I asked.
“Yea, hop in,” I did as he said and climbed into the seat next to him.
We started driving as he explained, “You see, I’m not old enough to drive yet, so I uh…borrowed this from one of the maintenance guys on the set. But that’s not the surprise…this is,” he told me as we turned the corner.

Nick had stopped the car in front of the set’s golf course. Looking down I saw what the real surprise was. On the grass lay a red and white checked blanket and a picnic basket. There were also vanilla candles scattered in the grass surrounding it.
“So? Uh, too much?” Nick asked nervously.
“Nick, this is probably he sweetest thing a guy has ever done for me…its perfect,” I told him hugging him tightly. He returned the hug and gave me another kiss on the cheek like yesterday. If only I had turned my head, maybe it would have been on the lips.
‘Well, lets not rush things!’ I thought to myself.

Leading me once more by the hand, we sat down on the soft picnic blanket. He opened up the basket and pulled out a variety of foods and drinks, but my favorite part was when he pulled out a giant bag of gummy worms.
“Oh my gosh, those are like, my favorite candy ever,” I told him, snatching the bad away from him. Laughing, we started tossing them into one another’s mouths and keeping track of who got the most points. He beat me, but only by two gummy worms.

We both lay back on the blanket, “Ya know, I’ve never felt so relaxed around a guy before…but you…you just make it so easy for me to be myself,” I told him turning around to face him.
“Well,” he said, looking directly into my eyes, “If you were anything but Jeannette right now, I wouldn’t want to do this,” he said, leaning in. WE inched towards each other until our lips finally met. I had kissed guys before but never like this. When we finally broke apart all Nick said was “Wow!” I blushed and looked at my watch. We had already been here for an hour and a half.

“Dang,” I muttered to myself, “We gotta head back or else I wont have a ride home!”
“Already,” Nick asked sadly.
I nodded and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly I whispered in his ear “Don’t worry, we’ll definitely be hanging out again.” And with that I kissed him softly on the cheek as he had done to me twice before. We stood up and collected the things, bringing them back to the golf cart. About five minutes later we pulled back up in front of the studio.
“I had so much fun Nick, thanks! He blushed and leaned towards me again. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I kissed him just as passionately as before. Suddenly we heard a whistling behind us and turned. Joe, Chelsea, Kevin, and Janelle had gotten back tot eh set before us and had just walked out the doors.
“Bye,” I said blushing and quickly pecked him on the lips again.

“Would you look at that,” Joe said playfully as I ran to get Janelle and Chels, “Young love!” I smacked him on the arm.
Joe gave me a smile and said he was only teasing. I returned the smile and waved goodbye.
Leading both of my friends by the wrists, I pulled them into the limo to tell them about my afternoon and to hear all about theirs.

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Chapter 7…

The rest of the summer seemed like a blur to me and me friends. I was invited back onto the Hannah Montana set sometime in late July and filmed another episode with Miley. The Jonas Brothers didn’t guest star this time, but Nick came to keep me company. By now it had spread between all of our friends that me and Chelsea were practically dating celebrities, but to me it didn’t seem that way. Nick just seemed like a really cool guy and I was definitely falling in love with him.

It was the last day before school and Nick and I were sitting in front of an ice cream parlor, sharing a cotton candy flavored shake. “Mmm, this is really good. I would have never thought to try cotton candy ice cream!” I said to Nick.
He laughed and said, “It’s been my favorite ice cream since I was like five, but my brothers don’t like it. Whatever though, never changed my mind about it,” I smiled at him and took another sip.

“Before I forget,” Nick said to me, “I have something for you!” Slightly taken aback I waited while Nick took off his solid white gold watch. Taking my hand in his, he slid the watch onto my slim wrist and fastened it.
I looked up at him shocked, and he said, “This is sort of a promise gift. I want you to know that this symbolizes us. I know it’s kinda cheesy, but I really, REALLY like you Jeannette and these past few months have been the best. This should tell you and everyone who sees you wearing it that we are truly a couple now,” and with that he kissed me gently on the cheek and pulled me into a tight hug.

After all of that I just couldn’t handle it, and a tear slid down my cheek. I didn’t know if it was out of pure joy or sadness. This was the nicest thing any guy had ever done for me, but I also started school tomorrow and probably wouldn’t see Nick for a really long time. Wiping the tear from my eye Nick promised me we would see each other as often as we could. Smiling again, he laced his fingers around mine and he walked me back to my house where Kevin and Joe were waiting in the car. I waved goodbye sadly to the two other boys and blew Nick a kiss. The car drove off and I walked back into the house. I ran up to my room and cried into my pillow for the night. My mom knew me well enough not to bother me except to bring me up some comfort food; chocolate chip cookies [freshly baked] and a mug of hot chocolate. I thanked her and feel asleep soon after.

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Chapter 8…

The next morning my alarm went off at five-thirty and a smacked the off button. I didn’t feel much better then I had last night but I looked down at the watch hanging around my wrist and smiled. I thought to myself that maybe I shouldn’t be so mopey. I still went out with Nick, and had spent almost the entire summer with him, but I just wouldn’t see him as often now. I guess I was more disappointed then anything else, so I tried to perk up as I walked into my bathroom and quickly showered. After my shower I searched my closet for the perfect back to school outfit. Normally I would’ve picked out my outfit the night before, but since I hadn’t been feeling my best I had put it off.

Eventually, I settled on a plaid pleated skirt with black capri leggings, a cute black baby tee with the words Attitude Alert in rhinestones, and black wedges. This outfit wasn’t anything like my previous first day of school outfits, but I thought I looked really cute. I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail and put a pair of silver hoops into my first hole. Walking downstairs I checked the watch and it said that I had about ten minutes before the Chelsea would be here. I grabbed a cereal bar and plopped down at the kitchen table. My mom smiled and said, “I like that outfit hun, very cute for the first day of school!” and as my dad walked in he commented, “And the shirt is dead on!” Laughing I walked outside and sat on the step.

She pulled up a few minutes later wearing a modified version of the pink shirt I mentioned before. It looked like she had cut the sleeves and airbrushed her name onto the front. Overall, her outfit was super-cute and totally her. I slid into the leather seat beside her and we gave each other a half smile. I could Chelsea felt sorta like I did, because Joe went to the same school as Nick, somewhere else in New Jersey. It would be easy to visit them because they only lived about 20 minutes away, but with school starting it would be difficult to plan dates.

The ride to school was silent except for the radio playing a Kelly Clarkson CD. We pulled up at the front of the school ten mintues before the first warning bell was set to ring. Chels told me she would pick me up here after school and she headed off to go chat with some of her now-senior friends. I walked up the steps and saw my other friends Meagan and Brittany, so I headed over to where they were standing. When I reached them, I was flooded with a sea of questions about the Jonas Brothers and how it had been being on Hannah Montana [Disney Channel was big around here]. I answered their questions happily until the bell rang.

Inside the school I found my new locker and stated putting my new schoolbooks inside. All of a sudden my friends gasped, but before I could turn around my eyes were covered by someone. I heard the person shush my friends; they giggled and fell silent. “Guess who?” said a very bad impression of a girl’s voice. I wracked my brain and tried to think of people.
“Brandon?” I guessed.
“Nooo,” answered the false girl voice.
“Scott, Connor, Josh?” I continued guessing. Again, I was wrong. Finally, getting frustrated I raised my voice and impatiently said, “Then who the heck is it?” The hands slid off my eyes and I turned around.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Standing in front of me was Nick, grinning slyly. I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, as I pulled back he kissed me just like he had the previous day.
“But how?” I questioned.
“I wanted to surprise you, and it was so hard not being able to tell you last night when you got upset, but I think it was worth it,” he answered. I smacked his arm and pretended to be mad. He grinned again and told me that Joe was here too and that they were staying here until graduation. They had convinced their mom to transfer them and she had eventually given in.
“How long have you known you were coming to Bristol?” I asked him.
“About a month,” he answered laughing, “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, but you’ve gottta know it was hard for me.”
“Okaayy,” I said and kissed him again.
“I’ll see you later,” I told him.
“Sooner then you think I heard him mutter as he walked away. Rolling my eyes and grinning, I walked in the other direction to go find my pre-calc class.

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Chapter 9…

Nicks Point Of View:
‘This is so boring,’ I thought to myself as I sat, stomach growling, in my chemistry class.
“When’s lunch?” I whispered to the girl next to me. She turned, shrugged, and then said, “Here, this is from my friend Jessica,” and passed me a note. Confused I looked at the girl next to her, and saw her wink at me and give me a little wave. I faked a smile and turned back to my desk. I opened the note and read it…

Hey Sexii,
I was just wondering if you wanted to sit with me and my other friends at lunch today. I know that you’re already famous, but why not become popular on your first day too? I’ll see you after class.
- Jessica

This note kind of shocked me and I had no idea what to say. Looking back over at Jessica, who was twirling her blonde hair around her finger and writing what looked like “Mrs. Jonas” in her notebook, I shuddered. “I have a girlfriend who I switched schools for. No preppy blonde chick was going to change that,” I whispered to myself.
I quickly scrawled “Sorry, already got plans” on the back of the note and discreetly passed it back across the row. Jessica opened the note and looked horrified. I felt kind of bad, but it was true. Jeannette had already invited me to eat with her outside by the fountain with Joe and Chelsea and I was so not going to miss that. I hadn’t seen her all day, and only had two classes with her after this one. ‘Oh well, I’ll apologize to Jessica after class,’ I thought.

About ten minutes later the bell rang and I grabbed my bag off the floor. Jessica rushed out of the class without a backwards glance and I knew she must really be one of the hardcore JB fans. I saw her run to her locker and I jogged over to her.
Tapping her on the shoulder I said “Look, I’m sorry if your upset, but I came over here to tell you that…” but she cut me off. “I know that you like me Nick; otherwise you wouldn’t have followed me over here. And you really must be the shy one of your brothers to say no to this,” motioning her hand up and down the sides of her body. I didn’t smile at that, so she seemed to get a little discouraged, but nonetheless she stepped closer until we were inches away from each other. “But I can change you Nick, with me, you wont have to be shy!” And with that she stepped even closer and planted a kiss on my lips.

Pulling away from her I looked around and the sight I saw sickened me. There, on my right side was Joe, Chelsea, and worst of all Jeannette standing there tears falling fast down her cheeks. Sensing that Jessica had gone to far she backed away, slammed her locker shut and hurried down the opposite side of the hallway. Chelsea rushed up to Jeannette and hugged her tight glaring at me, while Jeannette sobbed into her shoulder. Then I saw Joe walking towards me looking madder then I had ever seen him in my life. Putting both hands forcefully on my shoulders he slammed me up against the locker.

Checking to make sure none of the teachers had heard he turned back to face me, heavily breathing down my neck.
“How could you do that to her, HOW?” he practically whisper yelled at me. I know that he would have been louder if we weren’t in a school hallway. I stammered, but he cut me off.
“If you know what’s best for you, then you’ll go to lunch, not talk to Jeannette in any of you shared classes and meet me and Kevin in the car after school, but don’t bother trying to explain yourself ‘cause you messed up big time bro!” With that he walked back over to the girls and put a comforting arm around Jeannette’s shoulders and slipped his other hand into Chelsea’s. They walked silently away, and except for the occasional chatter that could be heard from the cafeteria as I walked in the other direction, I felt completely alone.

Jeannette’s Point Of View:
“Omigosh, I still can’t believe you guys transferred schools for us,” I said to Joe as we headed towards Nicks chem. class to surprise him. But Joe had fallen silent ahead of us, and Chelsea asked him what was wrong but following his gaze her mouth dropped open. I looked from Joe to Chelsea and then down the hall to what they were staring at. Standing in front of a group of lockers, Nick and some preppy blonde girl were kissing. Nick pulled away from her and looked up. When his eyes met mine, they filled with horror and he looked like he wanted to run over and explain. But nothing he could say would change what I saw. The tears were already falling and I turned to Chelsea who pulled me into a tight embrace. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes and cried even harder was Joe running over to Nick and pinning him forcefully against a locker.

“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening,” I repeated in my head as Chelsea still held me like any good friend. “When I open my eyes, it’ll be just some stupid thing I thought I saw,” But upon opening my eyes, all I saw was Joe walking angrily away from Nick who looked about ready to cry himself. Joe put a comforting arm around me and led me away from Nick.
Once we reached the fountain Joe reassuringly said, “Don’t worry! I’ll have a nice long talk with him later, and if you want I’ll make sure you never have to see him again!” I nodded, barely taking in what he had said and allowed him to lead me to the lunch to get something to eat.

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Chapter 10…

After lunch, which for me consisted of a chocolate pudding cup, I said goodbye to Chelsea and Joe who both had history next. I thanked them for being there for me and quickly wiped my eyes. Doing my best to look normal, and like nothing had happened; I caught up with some of my friends and we walked to Language Arts together. This was going to be hard considering I had class with Nick, and knowing our teachers love for alphabetical order in the class, would probably end up near him. (My last name is Hudson.)

When we got into the class I saw that Mr. Samuels had labeled our desks and sure enough, when I looked in the second row I saw that ‘Jonas’ and ‘Hudson’ were in fact sitting directly beside each other. I slid into my seat and got out my notebook like the board in the front of the room said. Copying down the materials I would need for the rest of the year, I didn’t look up even when I saw Nick slide into the seat next to me. When I was sure he was looking down as his notebook too, I stole a quick glance over. His face was as pale as ever and he looked like he might never smile again. I diverted my eyes almost immediately so he wouldn’t catch me looking at him. I don’t think I would ever forgive him, but seeing him so upset was horrible.

The chatting throughout the classroom was silenced we Mr. Samuels stepped in front of the class. “To start off today’s class, I want to talk about a really important part of all of your writing that you will be doing. And that would be emotion. Now can someone give me a few examples of some emotions that we all feel?” I raised my hand and responded easily to his question when he called on me. “Anger, sadness, depression…” I said and Mr. Samuels nodded to each one and then turned back to the class when I finished. “Alrighty, now who can give me a few more?” he asked, and looking at his seating chart he said “How about you Mr. Jonas?” Looking nervous, he answered “Regret and confusion,” looking more to me then to the rest of the class. I turned away, not daring to loom at him. There was no way I was forgiving him that quickly.

Nick sat back down and I focused my attention once more on the teacher, not daring to glance sideways again, even though what I was listening to couldn’t be any more boring. We were assigned a simple writing task that would take up the rest of the period. I was almost finished my essay when something landed in front of me. It appeared to be a folded sheet of notebook paper. Opening it, I immediately noticed that it was an apology note from Nick explaining that what I had seen was not at all what I thought it was. I barely got past the first sentence when I got so angry again that I crumpled up the paper and threw it back onto Nick’s desk.

I felt no regret for what I had just done because none of Nick’s apologies were going to work. Nick looked sideways at me when the crumpled sheet landed in front of him, a look of depression on his face. I turned away and felt the hot tears burning in my eyes again. I wanted to forgive him, and I wanted to believe that there was a simple explanation for what I had seen, but I couldn’t bring myself to listen to all that. About five minutes before the bell was set to ring, Mr. Samuels stepped back in front of the class and asked for our attention.
“Now, I know that we have some very talented people in this class and in this school, so I encourage you all to join in the back to school talent show tomorrow afternoon. There wont be any auditions, but you have to check in with me today if you want to enter so I can limit our entrants,” he told us. The bell sounded overhead and he said “That is all. You are now dismissed!” and everyone rushed out of their seats.

I flung my bag onto my shoulders not even bothering to look at anyone, and left the class. Before I left though, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Nick was amongst the students entering the talent show.
“Whatever,” I said out loud and hurried off to my locker before next period, “He probably has something arranged with his brothers, if they ever forgive him that is,” I thought as I slammed my locker shut.

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Chapter 11…

It was almost the end of the day and I was sitting it my history class, listening to my teacher drone on and on about rules and regulations. Deciding to distract myself, I began to dig through my bag and see if there was anything I could do in there. I spotted my sketchpad and pulled it out of my bag, but as I did, I heard something fall to the floor. Nick, who was sitting next to me in this class as well, heard it too and turned around to see the source of the noise. Ignoring his gaze, I saw that on the floor next to my leg was a white gold watch. I picked it up and Nick’s eyes followed my hand, as if waiting to see what I was going to do with it. I was very tempted to just drop it back in my bag like nothing happened but I still couldn’t rid my mind of the mental image from earlier. Fighting back tears as I did, I faced Nick still not looking him directly in the eyes, and handed him the watch. The look on his face was a mix of sadness and confusion, but he took it and turned away from me.

For the rest of the class, neither of us chanced a glance over at each other, and we stayed completely silent. At one point though, I couldn’t hold back my tears and two slid down my cheeks. I knew that Nick saw this, even if he pretended he didn’t, and he looked like he was ready to comfort me. I turned the sketchbook and myself slightly sideways, so I wouldn’t even be facing him and allowed more of my tears to fall. The bell rang and I took as long as possible to get my stuff. Nick saw that I didn’t want him to talk to me at all, so he sadly walked out of the class, only glancing back once.

I went to my locker and took out the books I would need for tonight, and was soon accompanied by Chelsea. “Are you okay?” she said, obviously noticing my red, puffy eyes. I nodded and forced a smile to her, and then followed her into the parking lot. Though, when we reached the school steps Joe and Kevin both walked over to us and gave me a hug. I reassured them that I would be okay and they smiled.
“I know you will be, you’re a tough girl,” Joe told me. I hugged him once more and then went with Chelsea to the car.

Nick’s Point Of View:
After I talked to Mr. Samuels about possibly doing an act for the talent show I dropped my books off at my locker, and headed out the main entrance. As I walked down the steps, I saw Jeannette hug Joe goodbye and climb into Chelsea’s red mustang. Sadly I walked down to the bike rack where Joe was and sat down next to him. While we were waiting for Kevin to come pick us up I tried to talk to Joe. “Joe? Can I tell you something? Please!” I said. Joe turned to face me and nodded, obviously still miffed about what had happened. I began to explain what had really happened at the lockers earlier, and he just sat patiently listening.

Finally, when I had finished, Joe said quietly “Well, if all that is true, then I forgive you little bro, but you might have some trouble convincing Jeannette of that. All we saw was you locking lips with another girl when you were supposed to be meeting us for lunch,” I nodded knowing that everything Joe said was true. But that’s why I had another plan. I began to tell him about something I had planned for the talent show tomorrow, and he agreed he would help however he could. I could tell he wanted to help Jeannette become happy again too. When Kevin pulled up we told him what we were planning on doing.
“Look, I’m sorry guys, but I got to move into my dorm tomorrow. I might not be there for the actual performance, but I can guarantee that I’ll be there for a little something afterwards, and I think I could get Janelle to come too!” We pulled out of the parking lot and continued to talk about tomorrow.

Jeannette’s Point Of View:
On the way home I told Chelsea what I had done during history and she told me that it was the right thing to do. “Keeping the watch just would’ve made it harder,” she said. I nodded and put in an old Jojo CD; I was so not ready to hear Nick’s voice again. Chelsea dropped me off at my house and told me that she would call me alter if she could. She waved goodbye and I walked inside. I avoided my mom as I walked in because I didn’t want an interrogation right now, and climbed the steps to my room. The only time I came downstairs was for dinner, and even then, I stayed completely silent. Sensing that something was wrong my mom asked me, but I told her I didn’t want to talk about it.

After dinner, I helped clean up the dishes and then returned to my room. When I got there, I switched on my laptop and opened my online diary. It’s sort of like a blog, but the only people who can read it are the one’s who I personally invite. I wrote all about today, which brought tears back into my eyes, and then invited Chelsea to read it. Even though she already knew about my day, she always tells me to invite her to read my emotional entries.

Around nine o’ clock I walked over to my closet to pick out tomorrow’s outfit, knowing that if I didn’t do it now, then I would forget. I pulled out a pair of black stone washed jeans, my pink pumas, and a hot pink collared shirt. “Good enough,” I decided and changed into my pajamas. Even though it was really early, I had had a tough day and I needed my rest, otherwise I wouldn’t be ready to face school again tomorrow. I climbed into my queen size bed and pulled the covers up to my chest. That night I dreamed that I was falling and falling, which is pretty much how I had felt all day.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 12…

That morning I woke up late again so I had to grab my shower and dress at practically light speed. When I was finished, I only had five minutes left so I didn’t eat any breakfast, and instead left the house early. Feeling like I needed to cool off some more, I took a walk down to Chelsea’s house. When I got there she was just getting into the car to pick me up anyway. She smiled and motioned for me to hop in. When I did, she started a conversation about what we would be doing this weekend. Joe was taking her to Six Flags and had invited me to come. I graciously declined and turned back to the window. Knowing that it was better to leave me alone, she gave me a one armed hug and turned back to the wheel.

That morning at school our classes were only 15 minutes each because of the back to school talent show that would be taking place all afternoon. In the middle of lunch, all of the people participating in the talent show were called down to the auditorium for a quick rehearsal. Once again, I saw Nick amongst the people entering, but I did notice that Joe wasn’t with him. I knew that something was up, but I was too frustrated with him to care.

About five minutes before the talent show was set to start, everyone was filed in by grade. Finally, when Principal Burns got everyone to quiet down, she began her speech. “This year, we have some fresh new talent that I think you will all enjoy. But just to let you all know; this talent show is not for a prize, but just to show the school what talent we have within our walls. Now, without further adieu, let the show begin!”

The first act was a bunch of skanky seniors doing a dance to Baby Huey’s new song “Pop Lock and Drop It”. A lot of the other acts were just as dumb; including a freshman playing her violin, and a geeky sophomore who I think was in my history class last year, doing a rap about math. I spent most of the show talking to my friend Carly, until I heard Principal Burns announce Nick…AND JOE! The room fell dead silent. Most of the girls in the school were obsessed with Jonas Brothers, and I know that half of my guy friends tried to imitate them, so this was kind of a big deal.

Carly, who was the only other person who knew about what happened with Nick and Jessica, looked at me uncertaintly. I shrugged and turned back to the stage. While Joe and Nick were getting everything set up I silently slid my cell phone out of my pocket and created a message for Chelsea saying “????”. Seconds later my phone buzzed in my hands. I opened it and read it. The screen said, “Surprise! U’ll find out more l8ter!”. Of course, it was just like Chelsea to not tell me what was going on. Looking on stage, I saw that Joe still didn’t look particularly happy with Nick, but something had obviously went on for him to consider performing with him. Five minutes later, all of the amps and microphones were set up and Nick walked up to the microphone. “Sorry Kevin couldn’t be here right now, but he’s getting moved into his college. It won’t be the same without him, but I think we’ll manage,” and with that Nick started playing the opening line to number six on their album; ‘Still In Love With You’.

“I know that I did something that really messed things up with someone I’m so close to…or used to be anyway. But I want to apologize and let her know that, well, I love her!” Somewhere behind me I heard someone stand up, everyone turned around and even Joe, Nick and Jack stopped playing. “I love you too Nick,” screamed the preppy blonde girl I had caught kissing Nick. She started walking up the aisle, and sensing danger, Carly slowly slid her foot out a few inches. Jessica tripped over her foot and fell face first. Carly slid her foot back into her spot before anyone even noticed what she had done. Looking defeated Jessica straightened up and ran out of the auditorium, and not a single one of her friends even followed her.

“Anyways…” Nick said laughing slightly, “This one goes out to Jeannette!” My cheeks burned red like they had in the beginning of the summer, when I first fallen for Nick, and I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know how much I had forgiven him yet, but he definitely deserved another chance. Carly nudged me playfully and pushed me into the aisle. I even thought I saw Mr. Samuels smirking in the back with the rest of the teachers. As I walked towards the stage the first verse started:

She was all I ever wanted,
She was all I ever needed and more.
But she walked out my door,
Yeah, she went away…
Left my heart in two,
Left me standing here,
Singing all these blues!

(Whoo)

By that point I had reached the front of the auditorium so Joe stretched out his arm and pulled me on stage. He gently pushed me towards Nick and joined in for the chorus.

You left without a single word,
Not even sorry!
It mighta hurt worse to hear you say,
I’m leavin goodbye.
But your smile still makes my heart sing,
Another sad song,
I can’t forget it, I won’t regret it,
Cause I’m still in love with you!

Nick wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and continued singing, but because I was feeling so much better, I did something I would’ve never normally done…I took the microphone from Nick and started to sing myself. I heard all my friends in the audience clap, and looking over at Joe, he smiled at me, urging me on.

We had fun under the sun,
And when winter came I’d be his angel.
We were so in love,
Then he went away.
Left my heart in two,
Left me standing here,
Singin’ all these blues

(Yeah)

Nick, who still looked mildly surprised, finally came to his senses and joined in with Joe and I for the chorus.

You left without a single word,
Not even sorry!
It mighta hurt worse to hear you say,
I’m leavin goodbye.
But your smile still makes my heart sing,
Another sad song,
I can’t forget it, I won’t regret it,
Cause I’m still in love with you!

(Nick’s guitar solo)

Looking at Nick, he nodded again, letting me sing this part as well.

I don’t know what hurt worse baby,
Seeing you with her or being alone,
On my own.
I know she doesn’t love you baby,
Not like I did, oohhh,
What’s the point?
You’re not listening…anyway!

Joe and I both stepped back for Nick to have this part of the chorus to himself.

You left without a single word,
Not even sorry!
It mighta hurt worse to hear you say,
I’m leavin goodbye.
But your smile still makes my heart sing,
Another sad song,
I can’t forget it, I won’t regret it,

There we ended the song short, and slowed it down a bit. For the last line, Nick and eye faced each other and sang it in perfect harmony.

Cause I’m still in love with you!

_____________________________________________

Chapter 13…

The rest of the students practically erupted with applause. The three of us smiled at each other and then back out into the audience. For the first time, we noticed two people who hadn’t been there at the start of our performance. It was Kevin and Janelle! Standing up with the rest of the students they started chanting “Encore, Encore, Encore!” and one by one everyone else joined in. The three of us shrugged and Joe said “Hey, why not?” Then he turned back to the auditorium and asked them to quiet down. “We’ll do ONE more song for you guys, but only if you do something for us. Help me get my older brother Kevin on stage with us!” Most people looked around, but once they spotted them, started chanting his name. He jogged up onstage and grabbed an extra guitar from the back. That’s when I started to think they had planned this. Laughing, I tried to walk back to where my friends were but Nick grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Come on, sing with us. You can do my part with me!” Nick said to me. I shook my head, saying that it was their song, and that I wasn’t a part of the band. Joe saw what was happening and said one last thing to the audience. “How many of you want Jeannette to stay up here and help us out with another song?” The applause was almost a deafening as before, so I had no choice but to stay. I took my place next to Nick and he handed me an extra mic.

“This one is called Hollywood!” Joe screamed and Nick and Kevin simultaneously started playing the opening notes. The song couldn’t have gone better and I had so much fun. It had been a while since I had actually sung for an audience, but now it made think that I should join back up in the schools women’s choir. Our fellow students wanted more, and were acting like this was a true JB concert, which in a way might of actually seemed like it was, but we had run out of time. The principal thanked us, and the rest of the people who had participated, and then dismissed us. We walked off stage and practically had to hide from the mob of fans that had come after us. Once we had escaped them we went outside. Kevin and Joe headed for the car along with Janelle and Chelsea leaving Nick and I to talk in private.

“Look Jeannette. What you saw was not really me kissing that girl,” Nick started. I leaned against the railing of the steps and listened while he continued, “She came on to me during class and asked me to come with her to lunch, but when I told her no, she got really upset. I followed her to her locker, but only to apologize, and then…well, she kissed me thinking that I was coming over for something like that!” Nick said, finishing his explanation all in one breath. “Well, do you believe me?” he asked. I leaned in and kissed him, and when I pulled back, asked, “Does that answer your question?”

Nick laced his fingers in mine and we went to go find out rides. We found the two cars parked next to each other towards the back of the school parking lot, and the people inside were just chatting away. Looking closer at the car Kevin had always picked them up in I noticed that it was actually the car from the Mandy video. I kissed Nick goodbye and waved to the other two.
“After today, you might have to let me sing with you guys!” I said playfully to the boys, but I couldn’t help but notice that as they drove away Joe had a funny look on his face, as if that wasn’t such a bad idea.

 The End

“Alright, you guys wanna hear one more song?” Nick Jonas shouted at the huge crowd in front of him. A gigantic roar came from the crowd.
“I can’t hear you!” he shouted again. Everyone screamed and jumped around, but three girls in the front row particularly stood out. Nick noticed these girls jumping and screaming wilder than the others and he chuckled a little as he and his two brothers, Joe and Kevin started to play Year 3000. He saw the girls jumping and singing along, and just generally having a good time. Nick smiled as he sang. He loved seeing his fans having a good time.

“Alright guys, thats all for tonight, and we better see you all at the meet n’ greet!” Joe shouted at the crowd. Everyone filed out to go stand in line at the meet n’ greet.

Nick, Joe and Kevin ran backstage and each took a bottle of water and finished them within seconds. They sat down and relaxed a bit before they had to go out to meet everyone. They could hear outside the fans yelling, “WE WANT THE JONAS BROTHERS! WE WANT THE JONAS BROTHERS!” They loved meeting fans, but when it was this many people, it got a little tiring answering the same questions over and over, but they never got tired of hearing the compliments. It was also pretty cool to see how emotional and excited some people would get when they met them.

“Hey guys, did you see those three girls in the front row that were screaming and jumping around, and pretty much acting like insane monkeys?” Nick asked his brothers.
“Uh, dude they were pretty much all like that,” Kevin answered.
“Yeah, but these ones were even more… jumpy than the others,” Nick replied.
“Oh yeah, I think I saw them. They were funny. Why do you ask?” Joe said.
“No reason…”
“Okay guys, the fans are getting pretty restless. Time for you to come out and meet the adoring public,” their uncle said. The Jonas Brothers headed out to meet everyone. Nick was particulary excited to meet those three girls…  

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

“Wussup guys?!” Kevin shouted at the HUGE lineup of fans. A loud cheer came from the crowd as they got ready to meet the Jonas Brothers. First in line was the three Nick had seen in the front row. He smiled as he sat down.

“Hi I’m Sammi, and these are my friends Laura and Katie,” one of them said.
“We are your biggest fans and this is SO amazing that we finally get to meet you!!” the one introduced as Laura said, handing them a poster to sign. Nick thought they seemed like really nice girls and they were pretty cute too. Especially Sammi. She and Katie also handed them posters to sign. As they were signing, Sammi asked if they were all single.

“Yep as of now, we are all single,” Joe said. “Well Kev just got over a pretty nasty breakup but-”
“Joe!” Kevin cried, whacking him. Sammi giggled a little, but then got serious.
“I’m sorry Kevin… so Nick, all the rumors I heard about you and Miley Cyrus aren’t true?” Nick practically choked on his own spit.
“Me and Miley? HA, heck no.”
“Oh EXCELLENT!” Sammi shouted. “Uh I mean.. good to know..” she said with an embarrassed smile. “Well we better get a move on, lots of people in line.. but first can just get a quick picture?” Nick smiled and said of course. He put his arm around her and posed for the picture.

“Alright thanks you guys!” Katie said as they all gathered their posters and left.
“Heh, cute girls,” Joe said
“Yah, especially Sammi,” Nick added. Joe and Kevin looked over at him with goofy grins on their faces.
“OOOOOOOOO! Somebody’s-”
“Joe stop!” Nick said whacking him.
“Okay, what is with the whacking tonight?” Joe asked.
“Well you just happen to have a VERY big mouth,” Nick stated quite plainly. Joe gave him the evil eye and greeted the next people in line.

Back with Sammi, Katie and Laura:
“Oh my gosh! I cannot believe we got to meet them!!” Sammi yelled.
“Yeah I know it’s so exciting! And quit yelling,” Katie said.
“Maybe I want to yell. LET THE WHOLE WORLD HEAR IT! And did you notice that Nick Jonas actually put his arm around me?”
“Yeah we know Sam… and so does the whole world. You know he probably does that for everyone he takes a picture with.”
“Katie… you are such a RUINER!! Oh well nothing can bring me down on my perfect day,” Sammi said as she twirled around, nearly tripping. Laura and Katie just laughed and kept walking.

Back with the Jonas Brothers:
Nick couldn’t stop thinking about Sammi. He had only briefly met her, but she seemed like the kind of person he wanted to know better. If he had only asked for her number or something. Oh well, there would hopefully be other opportunities to meet her. Little did Nick know how right he was.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

“I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!” Sammi cried as she leaped around the house. ” I WON, I WON, I WON! OH MY GOSH I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, I WON!!” She collapsed on the floor still yelling, and almost crying.
“What did you win Sam?” her parents asked.
“I…won…” she paused to take a breath. “A trip to LA to spend a day with the Jonas Brothers!!” she cried, letting out a huge scream afterwards. She re-read the letter saying that she had won. She could bring two friends. Sammi picked up the phone and called Katie and Laura.

“Hello?” they both said at the same time.
“Whoa.. that was cool guys.. but anyway guess what? I won a trip to LA to spend a day with the Jonas Brothers!!”
“OHMIGOSH THAT’S AWESOME!” Katie yelled.
“Yeah you’ll have to bring us back pictures or something!” Laura said.
“That won’t be neccesary because you guys are coming on the trip with me!! It’s for me and two friends!”
“You’re kidding right?” Katie said.
“Nope! You guys are coming with me to meet Nick, Joe and Kevin!”
“Ohmigosh! That’s so awesome! When are we going?” Katie asked.
“One month today. HEY! We need to go shopping for absolutly, gorgeously, stunning outfits for the day we meet them!” Sammi exclaimed.
“Yeah, oh my gosh, we do! Off to the mall!” Laura said.
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys there in a few minutes?” Katie asked.
“Yep. Bye for now,” Sammi said hanging up the phone. She let out one more excited shriek before running to her room to get her purse.

Back with Jonas Brothers….
“Hey guys, you know that contest where we spend a day with a fan?” asked Kevin.
“Oh yeah! Have they picked a winner yet?” Joe asked.
“Yep. Her name is Sammi, and we are meeting her in a month.” Nick gasped. Sammi had won! It probably wasn’t the same Sammi he had met though. It was a fairly common name, but he had a feeling that it was the one he had met a few weeks ago. He really hoped it was!

Nick found it kind of strange that he was feeling the way he was toward her. I mean, he had only met her for like a minute, but there was just something about her. Maybe it was that smile; the smile that had never faded away throughout the entire concert. Whatever it was, Nick knew he liked it. He really hoped it was her that had won the contest.

One Month later…
“Gate D43 please board your plane.” Sammi, Katie and Laura all jumped up and ran over to get on the ariplane that would take them to L.A. They were SO excited. They sat down in the seats, and watched the whole safety demonstration. After the demo, Sammi took out her iPod and started listening to Hello Beautiful by, of course, the Jonas Brothers.

“You know that Nick Jonas will so be singing this song to me when we meet them,” Sammi said to Katie and Laura.
“Why… was that part of the contest?” Katie asked.
“No, but he’ll eventually fall in love with me because I am so irrisistable, and then he’ll sing it to me as we watch the sunset together.”
“Keep dreaming Sam.” Sammi shrugged her shoulders and enjoyed her music.

With the Jonas Brothers…
“Hey Nick, you excited to meet that fan today?” Joe asked his little brother.
“Yeah I guess. When are we going to the airport to pick them up in the limo?” Nick asked.
“Ummm about one hour. You know we have to disguise ourselves right?”
“But then they won’t recognize us!”
“Trust me, if they are hardcore Jonas fans, then they will!”
“Well then the disguises aren’t very effective are they?”
“GUYS!” Kevin shouted, interupting their pointless argument. “SHUT UP. We won’t be needing disguises! We’re sending our limo driver with one of those signs with her name on it.”
“Oh,” they both replied.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 4…

Sammi, Katie and Laura stepped off the plane and looked around a bit. They could hardly beleive they were in Los Angeles. And within a couple hours they would be meeting the Jonas Brothers. Not wanting to waste a minute more, they hurried over and collected their luggage. After that, they spotted a guy holding a sign with Sammi’s name on it. He took them outside to a limo parked in the parking lot. Since the windows were tinted, it was hard to see inside, but Sammi could swear she saw a curly haired head moving around.
“Oh my gosh, are the Jonas Brothers in there?!” Sammi asked the limo driver.
“Yes they are,” he replied, while stuffing suitcases in the trunk.
“Lemme at em!” Laura screamed while lunging forward toward the vehicle. Sammi and Katie held her back so she wouldn’t break anything. They suddenly heard laughter from inside the limo.
“See now they are laughing at you!” Sammi said.
“Yeah they already think that we’re losers,” Katie added
“Sorry guys,” Laura said with a small smile.
“Yeah you should be.. MOVE OVER!!” Sammi said running over to the door. She pulled on the handle, half expecting it to be locked. It wasn’t and the door flew open hitting the small car beside them, and slightly denting it.
“Oh drat,” Sammi said. She looked over at Katie and Laura, and they were laughing hysterically. She’d just completly made a fool of herself in front of the Jonas Brothers. She looked inside the limo and there they were… Nick, Joe and Kevin all sitting there looking amazing. Of course, they were laughing at her, but all the same it was them. Sammi just stood there with her mouth wide open. After they stopped laughing, Katie and Laura were doing the same. Joe stepped out of the car and bowed. Then he said, “I am Joe Jonas and these are my brethren Nick and Kevin.”
Kevin stepped out of the car next. “Brethren? Woooww… I’m sure you already know, but it feels funny not introducing myself. I’m Kevin and the love-sick puppy in there is Nick.”
“Love-sick puppy what?” Sammi said, clearly confused. Nick shot Kevin a look.
“OH! Uhhmm… nothing.. nevermind…” Kevin said, trying to correct his mistake.
“Nick, get out here!” Joe called. Nick timidly stepped out of the car.
“Hey.. I’m Nick.” he said.
“Well hi Nick, Kevin, and Joe. I’m not sure if you remember, but we were at your concert in Kentucky. (and no, I don’t live in Kentucky, I just like saying it. KENTUCKY hehe) We were the first ones in line at the meet n’ greet..” Laura said.
“Oh yeah! I remember, you were the ones that asked if Nick and Miley were together!” Joe said.
“Yeah! That was us! That’s awesome that you remembered us,” Katie said.
“Yeah, we couldn’t really forget you if we tried..” Kevin said looking over at Nick. Nick started to blush, but turned away so no one would see. When he turned he saw a HUGE group of fourteenish year old girls. One of them looked over at him and screamed.

“IS THAT THE JONAS BROTHERS?!?!?!” All the other girls looked over and started screaming as well.
“OMIGOSH YES IT IS!!!”
“Do you have your camera?”
“Yeah! Come on everyone, lets go get autographs!” They all started running over. Nick’s eyes widened, and he turned to his brothers and the girls.
“Guys! Get in the limo and FAST!”
“Why?” Joe asked. Then he looked over and saw the group. He leaped into the limo screaming, “PROTECT YOURSELVES!”
Everyone jumped in the limo and shut and locked the doors. The crazed fans started banging on the doors and windows, shouting for the brothers.
“Maybe we should give them their autographs,” Nick suggested.
“NO WAY! Did you see that group? We’d be here all day!” Joe said.
“Yeah besides, these guys won a contest and we should be spending the day with them, not signing autographs,” Kevin pointed out.
“True. But how do we get out of here?” Nick asked.
“WILLIAM!” Joe shouted, indicating the driver. “DRIVE!”
“I can’t unless you want me to kill your fans!” William said.
“Aww what are we gonna do?” Nick asked.
“I have no idea,” Kevin replied.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 5…

“You guys this is ridiculous!” Kevin shouted.
“Well you do something then! I ain’t going out there!” Nick shouted back.
“Hey I have an idea!” Joe yelled over the noise. “I brought my disguise just in case.” Nick rolled his eyes.
“Did you seriously? And just in case of what?” he asked.
“Yes I really did. And I don’t know why.”
“Okay well what are you going to do with it?” Katie questioned.
“I’m gonna dress up in it and go shoo the crowd.”
“Okay well hurry up!” Kevin yelled. Joe dug under his seat, and came up with a plastic bag. He took out sunglasses, and a police suit.
“Where the heck did you get a police suit?!” Nick asked.
“My closet. I think I used it for Halloween a couple years ago.”
“Good thing the windows are tinted otherwise you’d get attacked when you went out there!” Laura said. Joe slipped the costume over his clothes. When he was done, carefully opened the door, stepped out and quickly closed it.

“AHEM Ladies… LADIES!!!” he said in a deep voice. The crowd quieted down a little.
“OKAY. Those people you saw are not the Jonas Brothers,” he said. Kevin slapped his forehead.
“Please tell me he did not just use that to make them leave,” he said.
“Yes it is! I saw!” one of the girls cried out.
“Yeah, I recognize the Jonas Brothers when I see them and that was definitely them!” another shouted. Joe had no idea what to say next.
“Um, yeah okay it was them, but they are kinda busy today and unfortunately don’t have the time to give you all autographs. However, next Saturday, they will be having an autograph signing at… Wal-Mart,” he replied, making an excuse.
“They are?”
“It wasn’t on their website!”
“That’s because they are on their way to schedule it right now! That’s why they can’t give you guys autographs right at this time. Now if you could all please go away in an orderly fashion…” Joe said. The crowd slowly moved away, and there were a lot of unhappy faces. Joe got back into the limo. Nick and Kevin just stared at him with angry looks on their faces.
“What? I got rid of them didn’t I?”
“Autograph signing at Wal-Mart next Saturday?!” Kevin shouted.
“Joe, we’re going to a baseball game next Saturday!” Nick exclaimed.
“Oh right.. oops. Then we’ll say it’s been cancelled due to Kevin getting the runs,” Joe said with a small smile. The girls and Nick burst out laughing.
“JOE!! You idiot, we are NOT saying that!” Kevin shouted.
“Fine then we’ll just say that it’s been cancelled,” Joe said. Kevin gave him one more evil glare then turned to the girls.
“So, I guess it’s your guys choice what we do today,” he said.
“Oh! Um, we didn’t really have anything in mind, so… I guess we could just drive around until we see something interesting,” Sammi said.
“Okay sounds great! WILLIAM, DRIVE!” Joe said.
“Drive where?” William asked.
“I don’t know, just drive..” Joe said.
“…okay then,” William replied. They backed out of the parking lot and just drove.

About 15 minutes later they arrived at an abandoned house.
“Oh hey, lets go in there!” Laura said.
“Are you serious?” Katie asked.
“Yeah, we win a trip to spend a day with the Jonas Brothers and you want to go in an abandoned house?” Sammi said.
“Well yeah. It looks neat and we could play sardines or something.”
“Wait… what’s sardines?” Joe asked.
“Oh it’s when one person hides, and the rest have to spread out and fine them. Once they find the person they have to hide with them. The last person to find them loses, and is it for the next round,” Katie explained.
“Oh cool, that sounds fun! Lets go!” Nick said.
“This has got to be the weirdest thing I have ever done with a fan,” Kevin said. They ran up to the door and knocked, just in case it wasn’t abandoned. No one answered so they walked in and yelled, “HELLO?” Still no one answered, so they explored a bit. It was a two level house with a basement, but nobody wanted to go down there. It was all carpeted, but there was no furniture to be seen.
“I guess I’ll be it first,” Nick said
“You hide, while we all count,” Sammi said.

Everyone went into a room that they had decided would be the “counting room”. They all counted to sixty together, then came out of the room to look for Nick. The first one to find him was Sammi.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 6…

“Hey,” Sammi said quietly.
“Hi. I guess you’re the first to find me,” Nick whispered.
“Yeah I guess so… Do you like being famous?”
“What?”
“Sorry that was a bit random, but do you enjoy being recognized and having to give your signature to practically every person you come across?” Nick had to think about that one. Of course he loved performing, and having fans was about as cool as anything. But he did quite often wish that he was just a regular guy, who went to school, and could just hang out at the mall with his friends.
“To tell you the truth, most of the time I love it, but sometimes I wish I was a regular guy who gets to go places and have fun without being attacked by screaming girls.”
“Yeah, I can see how that might get irritating after a while.”
“To be honest, I kind of envy you guys. What I would give to be able to go to the mall, or to an amusement park without having to wear a disguise or something.”
“Oh yeah! You guys probably have to disguise yourselves wherever you go! That would suck, I would hate that.”
“Yeah, well, you get used to it after a while,” They sat in silence for a little while after that. Not really an awkward silence. Just silence. Sammi could hardly think of anything else to say because she was in aw that she was sitting next to and TALKING to Nick Jonas, who she had admired for what seemed like forever. Nick wasn’t saying anything because he felt weird talking to her. He did have one question that he had to know the answer to.
“Hey Sammi, do you have a boyfriend?” Nick said quietly. He turned the slightest shade of red after he asked that. Sammi grinned.
“Nope! Never had one.. well I guess I sort of came close once, but it just didn’t work out,” she said.
“Oh really? What was his name?” Nick asked.
“Justin. But enough about that what about you? You still single?”
“Yeah, but I kind of have my eye on someone,” Nick said. As soon as he said that, he knew he had probably chosen the wrong words, and now Sammi would think that he liked someone else.
“Oh,” she said dejectedly. Nick opened his mouth to say something and barely got a sound out before Kevin came in.
“YES! I’m not the last one! ” he shouted in a whisper. He sat down right in between Nick and Sammi.
“Thanks Kevin,” Nick muttered quietly so Sammi wouldn’t hear.
“Oh oops sorry!” Kevin whispered back. Nick just rolled his eyes. After a couple more minutes, everyone had found them. They played a few more rounds, but Sammi and Nick never wound up together alone again, so Nick never got to tell Sammi what he was about to before Kevin had barged in.

After a while they got tired of the game and all just sat in one of the rooms and talked. They talked about what school was like for the girls and was touring was like for the guys. They also talked about some of the craziest fans that the guys had met. After a while they realized how late it was.
“Okay guys, this has been so incredibly fun, but it’s getting late, and tomorrow we have an evening concert… so we kind of need to sleep,” Kevin said.
“Oh okay. Well look for us at your concert okay?” Laura said.
“Will do!” Joe said smiling. As Kevin, Joe, Laura and Katie were saying their goodbyes, Nick pulled Sammi to the side.
“Hey, you guys are gonna be here for another week right?” he asked.
“Yep,” she answered.
“Okay well I was wondering if maybe, um, tomorrow you’d like to go to this amusement park nearby here. With me,” he asked looking down at his feet. When he looked up at Sammi she was smiling.
“Sure I’d love to! Would it be everyone or just us?” Sammi asked.
“Well as soon as my brothers find out that I’m going to an amusment park, they’ll come whether I like it or not,” he replied. Sammi giggled.
“And if you’re all going, then it wouldn’t be very fair to my friends to just leave them at the hotel, while I’m with the Jonas Brothers.” Nick smiled and said, “Okay then we’ll pick you guys up at your hotel?”
“Yeah but you’ll probably need the hotel phone number,” Sammi wrote the number on Nick’s hand, because there was no paper anywhere. “We’re room 705.”
Nick laughed. “I think that I’ll be able to remember that easily,” he said. Joe looked over and saw Sammi writing on Nick’s hand and said “OOOh… exchanging numbers are we?” Sammi blushed and Nick told him about the amusement park.
“Oh amusement park, I’m coming!” he shouted.
“See, I told you,” Nick said to Sammi.
“Yes we’re all going if you guys want,” Nick said. Everyone was very excited about it.
“Okay well we really have to go now, so lets go call William to get here with the limo,” Joe said. He took out his cell and called William and asked if he could come pick everyone up. He was there within five minutes and they all drove off to the hotel that the girls were staying at. The girls took out their luggage which was still in the trunk from that morning.

They checked in and went to their room and went to bed almost instantly. But they didn’t go right to sleep, they stayed up for a while talking.
“Hey Sam, you know that Nick totally likes you right?” Katie asked.
“Yeah it’s completely obvious,” Laura added.
“Pfft, doubt it. Why would he like me?” Sammi said.
“I don’t know, but he does.”
“Guys, no he doesn’t. That could only happen in my dreams.”
“Dreams come true all the time.”
“Yeah, and he was the one who asked you if you wanted to go to the amusement park right?”
“Yeah so?”
“Oh my gosh he totally likes you!!”
Sammi rolled her eyes, “Whatever guys. Goodnight.”

_____________________________________________

Chapter 7…

Ring Ring! It was 11 AM and the phone was ringing in the girls room.
“OH MY GOSH, ANSWER IT!” Laura shouted from beneath her bed covers. The phone had awaken her and that didn’t make her very happy. Sammi got up and answered it.
“Hello?” she said sleepily.
“Hey it’s Nick,” a voice said on the other line.
“Oh Nick! Hey!” Sammi said brightly.
“I didn’t wake you guys up did I?” Nick asked, sounding worried.
“Um, yeah kinda but we needed to be waken up anyway.”
“NO WE DIDN’T!!” Laura yelled. Sammi covered the mouthpiece on the phone and told Laura to shut up.
“Okay, well what time will you guys be ready for us?” Nick asked.
“Probably about an hour and a half. Is that okay?” Sammi asked.
“Seriously it’ll take you guys that long?” Nick said.
“Um, hello, 3 girls, one bathroom? This ain’t gonna be pretty,” Sammi said.
“Okay we’ll be there at about 12:30,” Nick said, laughing.
“Okay, bye,” Sammi said, hanging up.
“Guys, get out of bed and get ready NOW!” Sammi shouted at Katie and Laura.

*1 1/2 Hours Later*
The girls ran outside to the elevator, where Katie and Laura fought over who got to press the buttons, then made their way down to the lobby then outside. They saw the bots in a sports car, all wearing sunglasses and hats.
“Very cleaver disguises guys,” Katie commented, smiling.
“Yes, we know. The best out there,” Joe replied.
“Okay everybody into the car!” Kevin said.
“Uh, I don’t think that we’re going to fit. There are six of us and only five seats,” Sammi pointed out.
“Oh… Uh oh. Nick get in the trunk!”
“I don’t think so!” Nick replied.
“Okay then, you guys are gonna have to squish into the backseats,” Joe said, climbing into the front seat. Kevin got in the driver’s side and Nick, Sammi, Katie, and Laura all got into the back seats. It was very squishy and uncomfortable, but they managed. Kevin drove them off to the amusement park. When they got there, they paid and went in. It wasn’t very busy, so the boys didn’t have to worry so much about crazed fans.
“What do you want to do first?” Nick asked Sammi.
“Ummmm…. I think I want to go on that!” she exclaimed, pointing to a huge roller coaster.
“Okay awesome! Lets go!” Nick said.
“WAIT!” Katie yelled. “There is no way I’m going on that thing!”
“Okay well what would you rather do?” Kevin asked.
“I think I’d rather go on a water ride, it’s kinda of hot,” she replied.
“Okay, I’ll come with you, while those guys go do the coaster,” Kevin said. Katie smiled.
“Okay we’ll meet you guys here in an hour okay?” she said.
“Okay bye,” Joe said, anxious to get on the roller coaster. They separated and headed to their different destinations. Nick, Joe, Laura and Sammi all took their place in line. It looked like it was going to be about a forty-five minute wait. This was probably the biggest attraction at the park.

*40 minutes later*
Katie and Kevin had gone on one of the water rides about three times already because there was hardly any line for the ride. They were soaked, but they didn’t care, it was a fun ride.
Joe, Nick, Sammi and Laura were the next in line to get on the coaster. Joe was probably the most excited,he was jumping around like a little kid.
“JOE! Geez, calm down! Look here it comes!” Laura said. The roller coaster pulled up to the loading place and they go on. Joe and Laura in one car and Sammi and Nick in another.
“I’m so excited, this coaster looks awesome!” Sammi exclaimed. Nick didn’t get a chance to reply because it started moving. It went up and down, and had loops and curves and just went all over the place. Sammi was screaming almost the entire time, but it wasn’t from fear, it was from excitement. When it was over, Sammi, Laura and Nick were all smiles, and Joe just looked sick.
“You okay Joe?” Laura asked.
“Yeah… I’ll be fine,” he replied. They met up with Katie and Kevin and went on a few more rides.
“Are you hungry?” Nick asked Sammi, after they had finished a ride.
“Uh, a little I guess,” she replied.
“Wanna go get some ice cream? My treat,” he said.
“Okay!” Sammi said eagerly.
“We’ll catch up with you guys later!” Nick said, taking Sammi’s hand and leading her over to the ice cream stand. Her eyes widened at the huge list of flavours she had to choose from.
“I’ll get a Strawberry Cheesecake cone,” she told Nick.
“That sounds good, I think I’ll get one too,” he said. “Two regular strawberry cheesecake cones please,” Nick told the cashier. He paid then handed Sammi’s cone over to her.
“Thank you!” she said, taking a big lick of her ice cream. After they finished, they went over to the Ring Toss.
“Ooh, I’m good at this one,” Nick said.
“Seriously? Ring Toss is impossible!” Sammi stated.
“Watch this,” Nick said, handing the person working there a dollar. That bought him three rings to toss. He got two of the three rings around.
“Wow…” was all Sammi could say. She had never actually seen the ring toss be done. She had always thought it was rigged or something. Nick won a stuffed puppy.
“Here, it’s for you,” Nick said, giving the puppy to Sammi.
“Aww! Thanks!” she said, quickly hugging Nick. They walked around for a bit until they finally found the rest of the group. They all went on a couple more rides together.
“Hey guys look, the sun’s about to set!” Joe pointed out.
“We should go on the ferris wheel!” Kevin suggested. They all ran to the ferris wheel and got in line. The line was extremely short and it didn’t take long at all to get on. Nick and Sammi were in a seat together, as were Joe and Laura and Kevin and Katie. They had timed it pretty well; the sun was just setting when they got on. The ferris wheel stopped to let someone on, and it was beautiful. Nick looked down at Sammi. When she looked up at him too, he didn’t turn away. They just sat there looking into each other’s eyes.
This would be the perfect moment to kiss her. The sun’s setting and everything is so perfect. Nick thought to himself. He started to lean down. Their faces were mere inches apart when they suddenly heard, “OOOOOOO!!” from above them. They both looked up and saw Joe and Laura looking down at them, grinning. They high-fived, clearly pleased that they had wrecked what would’ve been a beautiful moment, then leaned back into their seats.

Nick and Sammi just turned around and looked at the sunset again. They were both stunned at what had almost happened, but they were both wishing it had happened. The ferris wheel started to move again and the moment had officialy passed.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 8…

“Hey Nick, that was fun today wasn’t it?” Joe asked his younger brother.
They were back at their hotel room. Nick just glared at Joe, then turned on the tv.
“Hey what did I do? Don’t get all mad at me because you didn’t have fun,” Joe said.
“Oh no, it’s not that, I had an awesome time,” Nick replied.
“Well then what are you glaring at me for?” Joe asked, confused.
Nick gave him one more look, but this time it had more sadness than evilness. Joe threw his hands up in the air.
“Okay, I didn’t do- Ohhhhh…” he said, finally realizing what was upsetting Nick.
“You’re mad because I wrecked your little moment with Sammi on the Ferris Wheel!”
“What did Joe do?” Kevin asked, coming into the room
“Sammi and Nick were about to kiss when Laura and I were like ‘OOOOO’ and wrecked the moment,” Joe explained, not seeming the least bit sorry about what he had done.
Kevin looked over at Nick with a small smile on his face, and raised his eyebrows. Nick blushed and turned to the tv.
“Aw Joe. Why did you do that?” Kevin asked.
“Well…I…uh…” Joe stammered. “It’s a little too soon for a kiss after two days of knowing each other isn’t it?”
“Well maybe, but seriously. He might never see her again, and it was just plain mean to do that.”
“Well don’t blame it all on me! It was my idea, but I was kidding when I said it, but Laura just kept going ‘YEAH LETS DO IT!!’” Joe said in a mock girly voice.
“Whatever Joe. Nick, why don’t you give the hotel they are staying at a call and see if she wants to go out on Friday or something?” Kevin suggested.
Nick kept his eyes glued to the tv.
“Yeah. Sure. Later.” was Nick’s reply.
Kevin turned off the tv.
“HEY!” Nick shouted.
“Go call Sammi,” Kevin said, pointing to the phone.
“Okay, okay,” Nick said, getting off the couch and picking up the phone.

With Girls…
“Sammi, I can’t believe you and Nick almost kissed!!” Laura said.
“Yeah, and we would’ve if it hadn’t been for you and Joe,” Sammi said angrily.
“I told you, it wasn’t my idea!” Laura exclaimed.
“Yeah, but you encouraged it, didn’t you?”
“Well. Yeah. But come on, I couldn’t say no to Joe Jonas!”
“Oh my gosh, you can’t be serious Laura,” Katie said, stepping into the conversation.
At that moment, the phone rang and Sammi ran to get it.
“What?” Laura asked.
“You’d actually be willing to wreck your best friends dream just so you could have a laugh with Joe Jonas?” Katie said.
“Well when you put it that way…”
“In what way can you put it so it sounds good?”
“I DON’T KNOW! Listen, I know it was a stupid thing to do, but that’s probably Nick on the phone anyway.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well listen to her. She sounds completely different.”
Laura and Katie both stopped aruging and started eavesdropping.
“Oh yeah, I’d love too!” they heard Sammi say. Then she giggled in a REALLY girly way.
“Okay yeah, that’s Nick,” Katie concluded.
“That’s not fair, why does she get the celebrity in love with her?” Laura asked.
Katie shrugged then turned to Sammi. She had just hung up the phone.
“Guess what!” Sammi asked excitedly.
“Uh, lets see… You’re going on a date with Nick Jonas!” Katie predicted. Sammi raised her eyebrows.
“YEAH! Wait…how did you know? Were you eavesdropping?!”
“Noooo…” Katie and Laura both said sarcastically.
“So when is it?” Laura asked.
“On Friday. Our last night here. They had concerts and stuff every other night,” Sammi replied.
“Oh cool. What are you guys gonna be doing?” Katie asked.
“I have no idea. Nick said it was going to be a surprise. I don’t think he really knows either, but whatever we do, I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
“Yes, I’m sure it will be,” Laura said.
“Well, I’m going to bed. Goodnight all,” Sammi said.

The next couple of days were spent sightseeing and of course, shopping.
Wednesday night was the Jonas Brothers concert the girls went to. They had about third row seats this time. The boys came on stage and started performing Hold On.
When Nick searched the crowd, and finally found Sammi, Katie, and Laura, he almost laughed out loud, as he was singing. They were acting almost more insane than the first time he had seen them, about a month ago.
They played a few more songs and then they started Please Be Mine. Nick found Sammi and sang the entire song to her. She started tearing up, but didn’t quite cry. At the end of the song, he gave her a smile and she smiled back. They played a few more songs, and then the concert ended.
“Thank you everybody for coming and we hope to see you all at the meet and greet!” Joe shouted to the crowd.
Sammi, Katie and Laura decided not to go to the meet and greet, because they didn’t really want to wait in line, and besides, they had just spent two whole days with them, so really, what was the point?
Thursday and Friday went by pretty quickly and then finally it was Friday evening. Time for the date.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 9…

“AHHHHH!!! You guys, I’m so nervous!” Sammi said, a couple hours before Nick was supposed to come and pick her up for their date.
“Calm down Sam. It’s not gonna be any different from those first few days, except of course, this time it’s an actual romantic DATE,” Katie said, trying to be reassuring
“KATIE! You’re making me even more nervous, don’t do that!” Sammi cried.
“Well!” Katie exclaimed.
“Katie, we need to make her look gorgeous, so she’ll feel more secure,” Laura said,
“Okay, you do hair and makeup and I’ll do wardrobe,” Katie replied.
“You guys, I can do it myself!” Sammi exclaimed.
“Nah, we’d rather do it,” Laura said. Sammi just glared at her. Laura first took out a brush and started brushing Sammi’s hair. Then she started to curl it, so it was in really loose curls.
“OW! YOU BURNED ME FOOL!” Sammi yelped when Laura accidentally got Sammi’s ear a bit. Laura held back a giggle.
“Sorry ‘bout that…” After Sammi’s hair was up to Laura’s standards, she started on makeup.
“OUCH!! You just put eyeliner in my eye! You’re doing terrible at not hurting me,” Sammi exclaimed.
“Well if you would stop twitching your eye every time the eyeliner comes near, I wouldn’t get your eye!” Laura shouted back.
“I can’t help it! I hate it when other people do my eye makeup.”
Laura finished up her makeup and smiled.
“I did well.” she said. Then Katie cam in with the clothes she had picked. After Sammi changed, she was ready.

 *——————————-With JB——————————-*

“You guys, I’m really nervous,” Nick said,
“Aw come on. You can do it you ladies man!” Joe exclaimed
“Yeah, what have you got to be nervous about?” Kevin asked.
“Well, for one thing, what if the media is there? It’d be all over the magazines and stuff that I have a girlfriend. And she isn’t really my girlfriend yet, it’s only a date.”
“Wear a disguise,” Joe suggested. Nick rolled his eyes at him.
“I can’t wear a disguise on a date you dimwit.”
“HAHA dimwit…” Joe said, bursting out laughing.
“Wow, okay then,” Kevin said. Turning to Nick, he said “Nick, do your best to stay away from the media, and if they ask questions, only give them the truth, or close enough to it.”
“Thanks Kev, you were a much bigger help than dimwit over there.”
Hearing the word dimwit again, Joe burst into another fit of hysterics.
“DUDE! It’s not that funny, calm down!” Kevin yelled at Joe.

6:00 Date time…
Sammi was sitting in the hotel room, watching TV, when she suddenly heard a knock at the door. She got up, quickly checked her hair in the mirror and then opened the door. There, standing in the doorway stood…William?
“Uh, hey William… where’s Nick?” Sammi asked, confused.
“He’s very sorry, but he had to wait in the car because that big group of Jonas Brothers fans you guys saw a few days ago was outside your hotel, and he didn’t really want to get attacked,” William explained.
“Okay, understandable,” Sammi said.
They walked out to the limo. Sammi opened the door and sat beside Nick.
“Sorry I couldn’t pick you up at your door, but the big group of fans-”
“It’s okay Nick, William told me and I understand.”
“Okay good,” Nick said, smiling. They started driving.
“Nick? Where are we going?” Sammi asked.
“You’ll see…” he replied mysteriously. After about 20 minutes, they arrived at Montebello’s.
“Here we are!” Nick announced.
“WOW! Are you sure? This place is really expensive!” Sammi exclaimed.
“Yep, this is the place,” Nick replied.
“Whoa,” was all Sammi could say as they walked into the restaurant. It was the fanciest restaurant Sammi had ever been in. Nick smiled. He found it kind of funny how amazed she was.
“Good evening sir, do you have reservations?” the waiter asked Nick.
“Yes I do. It should be under Jonas,” Nick told him. The waiter looked through the list.
“Ah, there you are. Right this way please,” he said, leading them to a table in the far corner. It had a red table cloth and one candle in the middle.
Wow, this is REALLY romantic!! Sammi thought to herself. They sat down and opened up the menu.
“WHOA! There’s like nothing under twenty dollars in here!” Sammi exclaimed. Nick laughed.
“It’s okay Sammi, get whatever you want!”
“Okaaaayy.”
“I think I’m gonna get steak,” Nick said.
“Of course you are,” Sammi said, still studying the menu. Then the waiter appeared.
“Can I get you two some drinks?” he asked.
“I’ll have a Pepsi,” Nick replied
“I’ll get Iced Tea please,” Sammi said.
“Coming right up,” the waiter said.
“What are you going to get?” Nick asked.
“Uh… I’m thinking a burger. I always get burgers everywhere I go,” she replied.
“Nice.” The waiter came back with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. Sammi and Nick told him their order, and then he left.
“I hope this doesn’t take too long, I’m hungry,” Nick said. Suddenly they saw a flash from behind them.
“Oh no,” Nick said, turning around. He saw a reporter, crouching down, taking pictures.
“Just ignore him Nick,” Sammi said.
“But this is going to be all over the magazines!”
“Whatever. Let them think what they want to think, and besides it’s only one guy.”
Sammi spoke too soon. Within 5 minutes, there was a huge crown of reporters, and flashes going off in every direction.
“Okay, this is not good,” Nick said. 

_____________________________________________

Chapter 10…

“Nick, is that your girlfriend?”
“Nick, could you please tell us the name of the unidentified girl?”
These were the kind of questions being thrown at Nick. Sometimes a reporter would ask Sammi who she was and why she was on a date with Nick.
“Sammi, this is getting hard to ignore,” Nick said, trying to take a bite of his steak, but getting stopped when an unfortunate reporter lost his grip on his microphone, and it flew right into Nick’s fork, knocking it out of his hands.
Nick picked up the microphone and hurled it into the crowd.
“LEAVE US ALONE!” he shouted.
Sammi and Nick winced when they saw the microphone fly right into a reporter’s stomach, winding him.
“Wow, I can just see the headlines now. Nick Jonas trashes sweetheart reputation and gets violent,’ Sammi said.
“Okay, this is ridiculous, come on,” Nick said, He grabbed Sammi’s hand and they ran to the washrooms. Nick went into the men’s and Sammi into the ladies. (OBVIOUSLY)
The male reporters followed Nick and the female followed Sammi.
“AH! It’s a bathroom! You can’t come in!” Sammi shouted, trying to shut the door.
After a few minutes of trying to push the door shut, Sammi just stopped pushing suddenly and the door flew open and the reporters all flew to the ground.
Sammi ran past them all, and just as she came out of the bathroom, Nick was running out of the guy’s bathroom.
“Okay so what do we do now?” Sammi asked.
“I just called William and he said he’d be here soon.”
“You called William in the middle of that mob?”
“No, I texted him. I managed to get the door shut, and I texted him really fast because I knew, I’d never be able to hear him over the noise, and he texted me back, and then I heard a crack, so I thought the reporters were gonna knock down the door, so I opened it, they fell, I ran and that brings us to here,” Nick said, now breathless.
“Look there’s William!” he shouted, pointing outside. They booked it outside and into the limo.
“Oh. My. Gosh. That was insane. I am so sorry for all that,” Nick said.
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Sammi replied, and then she sniffed.
“Are you crying?!” Nick asked, surprised.
“No,” Sammi said, wiping away tear.
“Yes you are! I wish people would mind their own business. They just totally screwed up our date,” “I know, it’s not fair at all,” Nick said, pulling Sammi into a close hug. They pretty much stayed in that position until they arrived at Sammi’s hotel. They both stepped out of the limo.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye for a while, isn’t it?” Nick said.
“Yeah I guess so.”
“Look, again I’m so sorry about tonight…”
“Don’t be sorry, I had fun. At least we got to spend time together right?”
“Yeah. I’m kinda excited to see what kind of articles are going to be written about this anyway.”
“Me too! And Nick? Thank you. For everything…”
“Anything for you,” he said. They hugged for quite a while, until Sammi pulled away and said “I guess I better go pack and stuff, out flight is at 12:00 tomorrow. You’ve got my email and phone number right?”
“Yeah. Make sure you call me when you get home okay?”
“Of course. Well, good bye Nick.”
“Bye.”
She ran off towards the hotel, and Nick watched until she was out of sight. Then he got back into the limo and drove off.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 11…

“Dude! You’re back early. How did it go?” Joe asked, the minute Nick stepped into the hotel room.
“It was okay,” Nick replied.
“Okay? Just okay? What happened?”
“Well we literally got attacked by the papperazzi and then they followed us so we couldn’t go anywhere else and then on the way back Sammi actually started CRYING-”
“YOU MADE HER CRY?!” Joe exclaimed.
“NO! She was just upset because she has to leave tomorrow and we might not see each other for a really long time and- Aw. This sucks…”
“Did you at least kiss her?” Kevin asked.
“No. I guess I got to nervous.”
“Aw that’s terrible.”
“I know, now if you don’t mind I’m going to bed.”
“Hey remember we are going to the baseball game tomorrow!” Joe reminded Nick.

*—————————-With Girls—————————-* 

“SAMMI!” Katie and Laura screamed, when she stepped in the door.
“Why are you back already? It’s only been like an hour and a half,” Laura said.
Sammi told them the same story that Ncik had told his brothers.
“HE MADE YOU CRY?!” Laura exclaimed when Sammi got to that part of the story.
“No. I was just kinda overwhelmed, and it was our last night here and I probably won’t see Nick again for a while,”
“Well did you guys at least kiss?” Katie asked.
“No,” Sammi sighed.
“Why not?” Laura asked.
“I don’t know…”
“Okay well you guys, we need to pack now,” Katie said.
They packed all their stuff, except the stuff the needed for tomorrow. Then they went to bed.

*————————–With JB—————————-* 

Nick had a hard time sleeping that night. He kept thinking about what he could’ve done differently during the date. He kind of regretted chucking the microphone at that reporter. …but most of all he wished that he had kissed Sammi or at least asked her to be his girlfriend officially.
He tossed and turned for hours until he finally went sleep. But even that didn’t last very long, because he was awaken by a very loud bang.
He got out of bed to see what the noise was. He walked out to the kitchen part of the hotel. There he saw Joe picking up the toaster he had just dropped.
“Joe? What are you doing with the toaster?” Nick asked
“Making toast,” Joe replied sleepily.
“Why are you making toast at three in the morning?”
“For the butterflies.”
“What butterflies…?”
“The ones that will eat my big toe if I don’t feed them toast.”
At this point, Nick was really confused. He stood there in confusion for a minute until he realized that Joe was sleep walking. And sleep talking.
“Okay Joe? Go back to bed.”
“NO!!!!!!!” Joe screamed.
“SHHHH!!” Nick said putting his hand over Joe’s mouth. Joe swatted Nick’s hand away.
“But the butterflies are in my bed!”
“Nope they are all gone, I saw them fly away.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah sure, just go back to bed.”
Joe crawled back in bed and was completely asleep in seconds. Nick went back to bed as well, and actually fell asleep pretty fast.“Hey Nick. Nick wake up!” Joe said. Nick groaned and rolled over.
“The butterflies are gone Joe!”
“Huh?”
“Oh. Is it morning?”
“Um yeah. It’s 10:30 and the baseball game is at 12:30 and we are leaving at 11:30 so we can get there nice and early and stuff so GET UP!”
Nick got up and got ready. Soon it was 11:30.
“Okay guys! Let’s go, William’s waiting for us outside,”Kevin said.
They went outside and got into the limo. They started on their trip to the stadium.
“Geez Nick. Why do you look so tired?” Kevin asked
“Well I had a tough time getting to sleep last night and as soon as I did, Joe dropped the toaster and woke me up,” Nick explained.
“I WHAT?!” Joe exclaimed.
“You were sleep walking and was making toast for the butterflies that were gonna eat your big toe if you dind’t give them toast,” Nick said. Joe and Kevin burst out laughing.
“So THAT’S why you were talking about butterflies this morning when I woke you up!” Joe said.
“Yep. Hey William, are we driving by the airport by any chance?” Nick asked.
“Yeah we are. Why?” William replied.
“No reason..” Nick said. Joe and Kevin looked at Nick with goofy grins on their faces.
“What?” Nick asked.
“Nothing…” they replied. Soon Nick could see the airport coming up.
“Kev, what time is it?” Nick asked.
“Ten to twelve,” he replied.
“William! Turn into the airport!” Nick ordered.
“Why?”
“Don’t ask questions, just do it!”
William made a tight turn into the airport parking lot.
Nick hurridly got out of the limo and ran into the airport. Kevin turned to Joe and asked him if he knew what Nick was doing. He didn’t know, so they ran in after him.
Nick quickly checked the schedule thing and found out that the flight leaving for Kentucky was at gate C21. He ran through the airport to get to C21, with his brothers close behind. When he finally reached gate C21 it was 12:00. He saw Sammi just getting in line to board the plane.
“SAMMI!!!” he yelled. She turned, saw Nick, and ran up to him.
“Nick! What are you doing here?” she asked.
Nick said nothing, but leaned down and kissed her. It wasn’t too long or too short, it was just right. They pulled away and leaned their foreheads against each others.
“If I asked you to be my girlfriend, would you say yes?” Nick asked.
“In a second,” Sammi replied and they kissed once more.
Joe and Kevin stopped running and just stared.
“Whoa. Did he just do that?!” Joe asked.
“Yeah,” Kevin said in disbelief.
Sammi and Nick pulled apart.
“Okay, I’ve really got to go now, my plane’s gonna leave without me,” she said.
“Okay well bye. And I promise you we’ll see each other again soon,” Nick said.
They quickly hugged, and then Sammi ran off to catch her plane. Joe and Kevin walked up to Nick.
“Good job lil’ bro!” Joe said giving Nick a pat on the back.

 The End

Abby woke up and listened to the song playing on her radio alarm.

Poor unfortunate souls…in pain…in need. This one longing to be thinner, this one wants to get the girl, and do I help them? Yes, indeed! Those poor unfortunate souls…so sad…so true. They come flocking to me crying “will you help us, pretty please?” and I help them? Yes, I do!

It was one of her favourite songs and she lay there until it was done. School had just started the day before, but she was in an unusually good mood. She sat up, put on her slippers, and went downstairs for breakfast with a dreamy smile on her face as she recalled the dream she had just woken up from. She sat down at the table and stared off into space; lost in her thoughts.

“Hello? Earth to Abby!”
“What? Oh, sorry.”
“What’s up with your face?” said her younger brother, Ricky.
“Shut up,” she said, trying to ignore him.

When she was finished her cereal, she ran upstairs to get ready. She opened her closet and scanned her clothes: she cared more about her appearance today. Finally, she picked out a cute pair of jeans and her favourite top. She threw them on and brushed her hair. Instead of throwing it in her usual ponytail, she curled it, and put it up in a pretty clip. She put on her make-up and pulled out her black heels that she had got on sale at Le Chateau last week.

She ran out to the car where her dad was waiting for her. Her brother and sisters could walk to school, but Abby was in high school this year and had to get her dad to drive her. He was usually grumpy in the morning and didn’t even notice that Abby smiled the whole way there.
“Thanks Dad.”
“See you later Honey.” She stepped out of the car and jogged up to the big building. She saw her best friend Jenna and walked up to her.
“Hey Jenn!”
“Hey Ab! How’s it going?”
“Good, you?”
“Good. Hey… you look different today. Did you have another one of your dreams?”
“Maybe”, Abby said with a smile.
Jenna laughed. “Well, you can tell me about it later, but I gotta go now and meet Joel at his locker.”
“Ok, see you later.”
Abby turned around and walked to her social studies class. It was one of her least favourite subjects, but even that couldn’t put her in a bad mood today.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 2…

Abby turned into her classroom and sat down in her desk. She was early and pulled out a piece of paper and started doodling hearts with things like “NJ + AL” written in them.

Finally, the last student filed in and the bell rang. Instantly, Mrs. LeBlanc jumped up. “Good morning, class. Today…” she was cut off by a knock at the door. Abby didn’t even look up from her drawing until she heard the principal’s voice: “I have a new student for you.” This sounded very familiar to Abby. She soon realized that it was from her dream Before she had time to think, in walked a curly-haired boy, who looked about 5’7”. Her jaw dropped and she quickly covered up her paper. It was Nick Jonas, her biggest crush! He was one of the Jonas Brothers, which was her favourite band. They weren’t very popular where she lived, but she didn’t care.

The principal left the room and Mrs. Leblanc read the paper he gave her. “Well, good morning, Nicholas.”
“Hi.”
“Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.”
“Ok. Hey, I’m Nick Jonas. And I just moved here from Wyckoff, New Jersey.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jonas. You may take a seat by Miss Lathman.”

Abby could feel her face go red as Nick walked up to the desk beside her. What was she going to do? The guy who she always said she was going to marry was going to sit beside her for the rest of the semester What would she do if he started talking to her? She’d get tongue-tied She was grateful when the teacher started talking again. Abby had a plan: as soon as the bell rang, she’d grab her books as she could and run out to her next class. She was smart and brought her math books with her. If she was lucky, she’d get out before he had a chance to say anything.

The bell rang and she started to go through her plan. She grabbed her books as fast as she could, jumped up out of her seat, and bumped right into Nick, knocking the books out of both of their hands. Abby felt like slapping herself.

“I’m so sorry,” she said crouching down trying to pick up the mess.
“No problem. Accidents happen,” he said as he stood up.
They walked out of the classroom. She tried not to look into his gorgeous brown eyes.
“I’m Abby.”
“I’m Nick.”
“I know,” she said feeling a little awkward.
“Oh, right. I forgot about my little thingy in front of the class.”
She giggled, trying not to sound flirty. “Well…actually…I knew before.”
“Oh, you a fan?”
“Yeah, have been for awhile,” she said feeling even more awkward.
“Cool. There don’t seem to be many around here. It’s kinda nice not being recognized wherever you go.”
“So, what’s you next class?”
“Math.”
“Sweet! Me too!”
“Great! I’ll walk you there.”

They walked into the classroom and sat down.
“So, I see you’re a Christian too,” Nick said noticing the icthus around Abby’s neck.
“Yep,” she said with a smile.
“Awesome. My dad got a job pastoring here and that’s why we moved.”
“That’s awesome!”

After math, Abby had Science and Nick English. They walked to their different classes disappointed.

At lunch they sat together. They talked about their families, churches, and music.

“Hey, Nick. I see you’ve made a friend,” said Nick’s older brother, Joe as he sat down.
“Yeah, this Abby.”
“Hey, Abby. How’s it going?,” Joe said smiling at Abby.
She blushed. “Hey, not much. You?”
“Not much. Well I should get going. See you later.”
“Bye,” Abby and Nick said at the same time.

“So, you wanna come over after school?” Nick said turning to Abby.
“Sure! Wait… I better not. You guys are probably really busy with unpacking and stuff.”
“No, actually we’re almost done; we got here a few weeks ago, so most of the stuff is out of the way.”
“Okay, let me just call my mom.” She pulled out her purple cell phone and dialled her home phone number. She put the phone up to her ear.
“Hi Honey.” Her mom had caller ID, so she knew it was her.
“Hey, Mom. Can I go over to a friend’s house after school?”
“Sure. Who?”
“Nick. He’s new here.”
“Alright. Just be home by 9.”
“Thanks! Love you.”
“Love you too Honey.”

“So she said ‘yes’,” said Nick, sounding hopeful.
“Yep, I just gotta be home by 9.”
“Great!”

Just then, a girl walked up. She looked over at Nick. It was Melissa Fegley. She was one of the flirtiest girls in the school.
“Hey, I’m Melissa,” she said, twirling a lock of her hair.
“I’m Nick.”
They talked as Abby rolled her eyes.
“So, maybe we can get together sometime,” Melissa said, batting her eyes.
Nick paused. “Nah, I think I‘ll pass on that one,” he said looking at Abby.
Melissa walked away, rolling her eyes at the rejection.

“I’m guessing you don’t like her,” Nick said to Abby.
“No”, she said. “I used to be friends with her… but… you like her until you get to know her. Then you realize how snobby, mean, self-centred, and…evil she is!”
Nick laughed. “Evil? Ok…whatever you say.”
“Anyway, let’s get off the topic of her,” Abby said.
“Okay. What’s your favourite animal?”
“Llama!” she said with a big smile on her face.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 3…

Later on…
Nick and Abby walked out to the front of the school where Joe was waiting.
“Hey, Joe… Abby’s coming home with us.”
“Cool. Mom will be glad to finally have someone at our new house.”
A few seconds later, Nick and Joe’s older brother Kevin drove up in a blue convertible.
“Hey Kevin!” the three of them said simultaneously.
“Okay, now that was just a little creepy.”
They all laughed and Nick introduced Abby.
“Nice to meet you, Abby,” Kevin said, “Are you coming over?”
“Yeah, Nick invited me.”
“Cool.”
They all got in the car and drove away to the Jonas household.

They parked the car in front of the house and made their way up the walkway. They opened the door and Kevin was the first to walk in.
“We’re home,” he shouted.
“Hi boys! How was school?”
“Pretty good”, said Joe.
“Awesome! I brought a friend home,” he said, smiling at Abby.
“Oh, good!” She came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel. She held out her hand to Abby. “I’m Denise Jonas,” she said with a smile.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Abby Lathman.”
“Are you staying for supper?”
“If it’s alright with you?”
“Good.”

“Come on, let’s go down to the basement,” Joe said.
The four of them walked down the long staircase into the big basement. Abby looked around the huge room. There was a drum set, a keyboard, several electric and acoustic guitars, a TV, and two couches.

“Have a seat, fair maiden,” said Joe gesturing to one of the couches.
“Why, thank you, kind sir,” she said with a grin.
They all sat down and Kevin picked up one of the acoustics and started to strum.
“Hey… would you guys mind playing something for me?” she asked, hopeful.
“Sure, what do you want to hear?” said Nick.
“Anything.”
Nick walked over and grabbed another acoustic and sat down. He strummed as he sang.

Hello beautiful
How’s it going?
I hear it’s wonderful in California
I’ve been missing you
It’s true

But tonight I’m gonna fly
Yeah tonight I’m gonna fly
Cause I could go across the world
See everything and never be satisfied
If I couldn’t see those eyes

Hello beautiful
It’s been a long time
Since my phone’s rung
And you’ve been on that line
But I’ve been missing you
It’s true

But Tonight I’m gonna fly
Yeah tonight I’m gonna fly
Cause I could go across the world
See everything and never be satisfied
If I couldn’t see those eyes

Abby gazed into his eyes as he sang. She was entranced. They finished the song and waited for her to say something. She finally realized where she was and remembered what was going on.
“Thanks,” she said with an embarrassed smile.
“No problem,” they said.

Just then, Frankie came in and jumped on Joe.
“Come on. Let’s play Xbox, Joe!” Joe stood up to hook up the system. Frankie realized there was someone else in the room and hid behind Joe, shyly.
“Who’s that?” he whispered to Joe.
“That’s our friend, Abby.”
“Hi,” Abby said, waving at Frankie. He smiled and took his video game controller and started to play with Joe.

“Dinner!” Mrs. Jonas called.
“Yay! Food!” Frankie said, jumping up and running upstairs.

Mr. Jonas said the Blessing. They talked about random things like what it’s like to go from living in the USA to living in Canada.

After supper, they went back down to the basement and Joe and Frankie resumed their game. Kevin and Nick let Abby use one of their guitars and taught her how to play “Hello Beautiful”.

“Hey, let’s go for some ice cream,” Abby said after awhile. “I know a pretty good place.”
“Yeah! Ice cream! Can I come too? Pleeeease?!” Frankie pleaded.
“Sure, little bro,” Nick said smiling at his little brother.
They walked a few streets down to get the ice cream.
“Hello, new comers…and Abby,” said the cashier.
“Hey Carson!”
Abby and Carson were neighbours and knew each other pretty well.
Abby got cookies ‘n’ cream, Nick got cotton candy, Joe got chocolate marshmallow, Kevin got rocky road, and Frankie got triple chocolate. They all went outside to enjoy their ice cream, and then went to the park so Frankie could burn off some energy.
After the park they drove Abby home.

Abby walked in the door and ran upstairs to her room. She burst in and flopped on her bed. She was on cloud nine. She had never imagined something like this would ever happen to her. She lay on her bed and replayed the day in her head. Just then, her phone rang. She looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Jenna.
“Hey, Jenn!”
“Where were you today? I couldn’t find you anywhere!”
“Sorry…it’s kind of a long story.”
“I’m listening…”
“Okay, so remember I said I had another dream? Well in my dream Nick and Joe Jonas started going to our school and Nick had most of the same classes as me! And the weird thing is…is that it came true!”
“Uh-huh. And you were hanging out with Nick all day. Yeah…whatever. Now seriously, where were you?”
“I’m serious! Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you tomorrow at lunch!” Jenna laughed at her friend. “Okay, I can’t wait to see how this ends. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye.”

Abby was excited to show her friend that it actually happened. She walked over to her computer and signed into MSN. She saw that her friend Chelsey from her old town was online.
Abby ~*~*~ Best day of my life! says: Hey Chels!
Chelsey rocks your socks: Hey! How was today the best day of your life?
Abby ~*~*~ Best day of my life! says: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Anyway, I should be going to bed. Ttyl
Chelsey rocks your socks: Ttyl.

Abby turned off her computer, got into her pj’s, put on “It’s About Time”, and got into bed. She listened to the Jonas Brothers and, somehow, knowing them made her love their music even more than already did. She went to sleep, dreaming of what could be the next day.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 4…

The next morning Nick met Abby at her locker and they went to their classes together. At lunch, Abby waited for Jenna.

Jenna came up to the table that Nick, Joe, and Abby were sitting at.
“Oh my gosh! You weren’t kidding! Ok, that’s seriously creepy!”
“What is?” Nick asked.
Abby explained about her dream and how it happened almost exactly like she dreamt it.
“Wow…that is really creepy,” Joe said, “Are you, like, psychic or something? What am I thinking?”
“Ummm…I have no clue. I’m not psychic, it was just a coincidence.”
“I know…anyway…do you guys wanna hang out at the mall after school?”
“Sure. Paul – I mean – Kevin can come too,” Jenna said. She wasn’t really a fan, but she had always thought Kevin was cool.
Joe, Nick, and Abby laughed at her.
“Paul? Why did you call him Paul?” asked Nick, still laughing.
“Because she likes the name Paul,” Abby answered.

Abby and Nick hung out after school everyday that week. Sometimes Joe, Kevin, and Jenna came along too, but every chance she got, Abby was alone with Nick. As she hung out with him more, they became closer and she started to like him more. It was starting to be more than just a high school crush. But she couldn’t tell him. She didn’t no if he felt the same and it could ruin their friendship and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 5…

One day, Nick didn’t come to Abby’s locker. He always met her at her locker and she wondered where he was. She decided to go to his locker. She wasn’t prepared for what she’d find there. When she got to his locker, Melissa was there…and Nick was kissing her! Abby just looked at them for a second and ran away into the girls’ bathroom. Her heart was broken. She wasn’t mad – they weren’t going out. She was just sad. She had always thought that someday he’d fall for her and they’d end up together. But maybe not…maybe Nick was destined to be with Melissa.

Abby avoided Nick for the rest of the day. She couldn’t at him, she knew that if she did, she’d start crying. She ate her lunch in the bathroom, to ensure that he wouldn’t see her.

At home, Abby was laying on her bed crying when the phone rang. She tried to stop sobbing so she could answer her phone. It was Nick.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Ab. Where were you today? Anyway, I gotta tell you something. The craziest thing happened today…” She cut him off.
“Sorry, I gotta go.”
“Oh…ok…well…see you tomorrow,” he said, obviously disappointed.
“Bye,” she said and hung up.

*Flash Back*
Nick was at his locker, getting his books and was about to go to Abby’s locker. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Melissa.
“Why are so interested in Abby? You should be interested in me.”, she said, sounding annoyed.
“Okay, number one, I’m not interested in Abby! She’s, like, my best friend! And number two, Why should I be interested in you? Anyway, I gotta go.”
“Why? Is your girlfriend waiting for you?”
“She’s NOT my girlfriend!”
“I could be.” With that, she pushed him up against his locker and kissed him. He tried to get away, but couldn’t without hurting her. Finally, he got away and ran as fast he could.
“Meh,” Melissa thought to herself, “At least I got a kiss out of it.”

Abby didn’t go to school the next day. She told her mom she wasn’t feeling well. Instead, she stayed home and looked at pictures and videos of her and Nick and listened to every Jonas Brothers’ song she knew.

Finally, there was a knock at her bedroom door. “Great,” she thought to herself. She really didn’t want to see anyone. If it was her mom, she wasn’t going to talk about her problem. If it was Nick, she’d have to cry.
“Come in,” she called. It was Jenna. Abby let out a sigh of relief…if she told her, it might help her feel a little better.
“Are you ok? Your mom said you weren’t feeling well.”
“That’s my alibi,” she said, trying to smile, but not succeeding.
“Then…what’s wrong?”
Abby look at her best friend for a few seconds, and then burst into tears.
“He…kissed…her…” she said, between sobs.
“What? Who?”
“Nick…kissed Melissa.”
“Oh…you still like him? I thought that you were just really good friends and that you didn’t like him anymore.”
“I’m a good actress,” Abby sniffled. “Please don’t tell anyone… especially Nick. I don’t want him to know how I feel about him.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t. But Nick wanted me to tell him why you weren’t at school today. What should I tell him?” Jenna said.
“Just tell him I’m not feeling well… because…technically, I’m not.” Jenna gave her friend a hug. “Are you coming to school tomorrow?”
“Well, I don’t really have a choice, so yeah.”
“Ok, I’d love stay here with you, but I have to go baby-sit.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“See you.”

_____________________________________________

Chapter 6…

The next morning, Abby got up and didn’t have any effort. She felt like just going in her pyjamas, but decided she’d get ready like she did every other day. She didn’t want Nick to think anything was different because she didn’t want to have to explain.

She barely acknowledged him in class, and it really confused him. He asked Jenna what was going on, but she wouldn’t tell him anything.

At lunch, Abby was sitting by herself, when someone sat down.
“Are you avoiding me? You really don’t seem like yourself,” Nick said.
Abby was silent. She could feel a lump in her throat.
“Can you at least talk to me and tell me what I did wrong?”
“Nick, I really don’t want to talk about it…at least not right now,” she said, her eyes brimming.
He sat there for a few seconds in silence, and then left without a word.

A few minutes later, Joe came over and sat down.
“Abby, what’s wrong? Why are you avoiding Nick?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Please? It’s really hurting him to be avoided and not knowing why. We asked Jenna, but she won’t tell us anything.”
“Good.”

Joe walked back to the table where Nick and Jenna were.
“Well?” Nick said.
“She won’t tell me anything.”
“Come one, Jenn. Please tell me.”
“I told you, I promised her I wouldn’t say anything. But if you want, I can talk to her and see if she’ll let me tell you.”
“No, that’s ok. There’s no use,” Nick said.

After school, Abby was at her locker when Nick walked by.
“Hey, Nick… can I talk to you?”
“That’s what I’ve been wanting you to do all day!”
Abby stared at the floor. “I saw what happened the other day.”
“What?”
“You and Melissa.”
“Oh, that! That’s what I was going to tell you about the other day on the phone. But that doesn’t explain why you were avoiding me,” Nick said, oblivious.
Abby hugged him. “You’d understand if you were a girl.” She walked away.
“Girls don’t make any sense,” he thought to himself. “Hey, wait!”
Abby turned around and slowly walked back to him.
“I didn’t kiss her; she kissed me. She was all like ‘I should be your girl friend’. It was messed up.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, relieved.
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t go out with her. I know you don’t like her. So, anyway, I gotta go. See you later.”
“See you tomorrow,” she said, confused. Didn’t he figure it out? Or does he just not care? She tried to ignore her confusion, and just go on with her life.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 7…

It was early January and the Jonas Brothers had just finished the Jingle Jam Tour.
Nick was in the basement, drumming as hard as he could. He did that when he was mad.
Kevin and Joe came downstairs to see what was wrong.
“Dude, are you ok?” Kevin asked.
“Fantastic!” Nick snapped.
“What’s wrong?” asked Joe.
“Confusion.”
“About what?” asked Joe.
“Girls.”
“Well, sorry man, but girls always have been and always will be confusing.”
Nick was silent for a few minutes. “I think I might be falling for Abby.”
“Oh…and that’s bad because…?” said Kevin.
“Because she’s my best friend. It could wreck our friendship if I told her and she doesn’t return the feelings. And I can’t just keep my feelings a secret forever. It’d drive me crazy.”
“Well, she’s managed to do a pretty good job,” Joe said.
“Excuse me?” Nick said, obliviously.
“Dude, she’s liked you ever since…forever,” Joe explained.
“What? How do you know?”
“Well…it’s kinda obvious…and Jenna slipped one day and told us,” Kevin said.
“Really?” Nick said, jumping up. “Now I just gotta figure out when to tell her.”
“I’d wait till Valentine’s Day,” Kevin suggested. He was the king of romance.
“That’s a great idea!” Nick ran upstairs to plan out what he was going to do for her on Valentine’s Day.

A few weeks later, Nick met Abby at her locker like he did every morning.
“Hey, do you wanna go hang out on Friday?” he asked her.
“Isn’t that Valentine’s Day?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d love to!”

Later, Abby met Jenna in the library.
“Oh my gosh! Nick asked me to hang out with him on Friday.”
“Really?” Jenna said with a giant smile on her face.
“Yes! I think it’s just as friends, but I don’t care. I can pretend it’s a date and that he’s my Valentine.” The girls giggled like excited little girls and walked away.

Finally, Friday came. Abby went through the whole day with a smile on her face. At the end of the day, Nick came over to her locker.
“Get dressed up for tonight,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“Just do it. I’ll pick you up at five.”
“Alright, see you then.” She was curious with what he was planning.

She got home and ran upstairs as fast as she could. She had a shower and then looked at what she had in her closet. Finally, she picked out her favourite indigo dress and laid it on her bed. Then she focused on hair and make-up. She got dressed and put on her shoes. She looked at her clock: 4:55. She put on her earrings and necklace, grabbed her purse, and headed downstairs.

The doorbell rang. She opened the door and Nick was standing there in a pale pink dress shirt and black dress pants. He was holding a bouquet of pink roses.
“Here, these are for you,” he said, handing them to her.
“Oh, wow! Thank you so much! What exactly are we doing tonight? I thought we were just hanging out.”
“You’ll see.” He covered her eyes and led her outside.
“What are you doing?” she giggled.
“Okay, you can look now,” he said as he took his hands off her eyes.
She opened her eyes. “Oh my gosh! You got a limo!”
“Yep,” he said, smiling at her excitement.
“You rock so hard!” she said, giving him a big hug.

They got in the limo. “I can’t wait to see what you have planned next,” she said with anticipation.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 8…

“Oh my gosh! We’re not eating here, are we?” Abby said as they pulled up to the fanciest restaurant in the city.
“Yes, we are.”
“I can’t believe you!” She kissed him on the cheek. He got out and opened her door for her.
“Why, thank you, Mr. Jonas.”
“You’re very welcome, Miss Lathman,” he said, taking her hand.

They went in and sat down at the table reserved for them.
When they finished eating, Abby looked up at Nick.
“You didn’t have to do all this Nick.”
“I know, but I wanted to,” he said with a smile.
“You do know that my birthday’s tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, which is awesome because I get to do something special for you tomorrow too,” he said with a big grin on his face.

They left the restaurant and went for a walk. Abby was “smart” and only brought a jean jacket, so Nick gave her his jacket. “Abby…I want to tell you something.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you,” he said, looking into eyes.
Abby paused and looked into his eyes. “I love you too.” They stood there, looking into each other’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity and then they kissed.
After walking around for a couple hours, they went back to the limo to take Abby home.
“I’ll pick you up at one tomorrow,” Nick said.
“Okay, see you then!” she gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked up to her house.

She went into her room and called Jenna.
“He gave me a bouquet of roses, and he got a limo! The he took me to Giovani’s!”
“No way!”
“Yes way! And then we went for a walk and he told me he loved me!”
“Oh my gosh! I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks. And he said he was doing something special for my birthday tomorrow too! I wonder what he has planned?”
“Ummm…me too,” she said awkwardly. “Well, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye,” Abby was suspicious, but ignored it. She knew tomorrow was going to be awesome.

The next morning Abby got up and had a shower. Nick hadn’t told her how to dress, so she decided to put on a soft yellow top and white skirt: casual, but dressy at the same time.

He picked her up at one like he said he would, but this time there wasn’t a limo, it was just Kevin’s car. Abby was kind of glad he hadn’t done anything extravagant again. Kevin dropped them off and they went to see a movie and then went out for supper at a less fancy restaurant.
They went for another walk and Nick led her up to the big community centre.
“Why are we here?”
“You’ll see,” Nick said, winking at her.
He put a blindfold on her and led her into a huge room.
“Ok, you can look in 3-2-1…now!” He pulled off the blindfold as someone turned the lights on and everyone jumped out and yelled “Surprise!”

_____________________________________________

Chapter 9…

“Nick! Did you plan this?” she said, ecstatic.
“Maybe,” he answered with a grin.
Before Abby could say anything else, Nick ran up to the stage where Joe and Kevin were waiting.
“Hey, Everyone. I’m Nick Jonas and I’d like to dedicate this song to the birthday girl.”
He picked up a guitar and started to play.

“Take my hand tonight
We can run so far
We can change the world
To anything you want
We could talk for hours
Just staring at the stars
They shine down to us

You know when the sun forgets to shine
I’ll be there to hold you through the night
We’ll be running so fast we can fly… tonight
Even when we’re miles and miles apart
You’ll still be holding onto my heart
I promise you we’ll never be apart
I know
We’re inseparable

We could run forever
If you wanted to
I will not get tired
It’s cause I’m here with you
I keep singing this song
Until the very end
We have time… it’s ours

You know when the sun forgets to shine
I’ll be there to hold you through the night
We’ll be running so fast we can fly… tonight
Even when we’re miles and miles apart
You’ll still be holding onto my heart
I promise you we’ll never be apart
I know
We’re inseparable

I will give it up
Never let you fall
Cause you know
We’re inseparable
I will give it all
Just to show you I’m in love
Yeah you know
We’re inseparable

Even when the sun forgets to shine
I’ll be there to hold you through the night
We’ll be running so fast we can fly… tonight
Even when we’re miles and miles apart
You’ll still be holding onto my heart
I promise you we’ll never be apart
I know
We’re inseparable.”

He kept his eyes on her for the whole song.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 10…

When they finished the song, Nick came off the stage and Abby ran up to him and gave him a giant hug and then kissed his lips.
“Come on,” he whispered, “I want to give you your present in private.”

They went outside. Nick took a small box out from his pocket.
“Here. I know it’s kind of soon, but I want you to have this.”
Abby opened the box. Inside was the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. It was amethyst and diamonds in white gold.
It was engraved: “I love you, and always will.” She put the ring on her finger and kissed him again. Kevin came running outside.
“Come on, you two love birds. Everybody’s waiting for the birthday girl.”
They smiled at each other and walked into the building, hand in hand. It was a dream come true.

The End