49 right, 52 left, 23 right.
I look left, right and behind me.
No one.
I check once more, even leaning back a bit to see if there's anyone inside a classroom or behind the locker rows.
Not a soul.
Coast is clear.
I slowly lift the latch and pull it towards me. My locker is messy and I hate that. I never have time to clean it. I'm always trying to dodge my adoring fans. When my eyes finally land on my lunch, I hear a loud slam followed by voices, 4 to be exact. Uh-oh. Here they come…
"Hey, Austin," I hear a few yards behind me.
I try to ignore them. 'If you ignore them, they'll go away. If you ignore them, they'll go away. If you ignore them, they'll go away.' I tell myself to somehow make me feel better.
I was wrong.
"Oh, Austin. We know you can hear us…"
I don't say anything. I don't know why. I know it's fruitless.
I grab my lunch and am about to walk away to the cafeteria when he grabs it out of my hands, causing me to turn around, and smashes it. He throws it back into my locker and slams the door. Catching the back of my shirt in the process, making me, too, have to stand against the locker wall. I could just slip out of the over shirt I'm wearing over my actual shirt to layer, but I don't. It would just make matters worse.
"Listen, Austin," he says leaning a little closer to make sure I get the message, "I'll let you go this time, but I better not catch in my halls again or I'll—well, you know."
All I do is nod.
"Good," and with that, he saunters away, quickly followed by his posse like a bunch of puppies. I love puppies, really, but they really do look like a bunch corgis (1) following bacon.
I reach behind me and put in my combination. This has happened so many times, I can do it backwards. I get it open, surprisingly faster than when I'm facing it, and I inspect my lunch. Now that I can actually look at it, I can see it's completely flat. Like a pancake. I like pancakes, but not ham-sandwich-oranges-chunks-and-Capri-sun ones. It's also soaking wet. I ring it out and about a cupful of liquids come out. Great. Just great. I close my locker, throw my lunch away, and start towards the double doors.
I walk into the lunch room, and over to the table with my friends. Truly, the only seven people in this entire school who sees any good or worth in me.
"Hey, guys," I greet glumly, putting my head in my hands.
I'm met with almost simultaneous "Hey, Austin"s.
"Hey, Austin?"
"Yeah, Dallas?" I look up in front of me at my brown haired, brown eyed friend.
"Are you OK?"
"I guess. Cory (2) got me before I could avoid him, so now my lunch is ruined. And I was really looking forward to it. I had cookies!"
"Well, I just so happen to have cooked something this morning..."
"Really!"
"Mm-hm. You want some?"
"Of course!"
He looks both ways then puts a Tupperware chafing dish on the lunch table. He unfastens the clips holding the cover to the plate. Once it's open, I'm met with the smells of yellow cake, brown sugar, and most importantly, pineapple (3).
"Pineapple Upside-down Cake!"
He nods.
"How did you get this done before school? Do you know how long it takes to bake?"
"Actually, yes, I was the one that cooked it."
"It takes, like, three days!"
"Austin, that's an Easy-Bake Oven."
"Oh."
Just then our friend with black, spiky hair and green eyes dawning his forest green cloak (5), like he always does (4), walks-up to our table and gruffly takes his seat on the end.
"Hey, Lorne (4)," the girl with wavy light blond hair and grey eyes (6), whose sat next to him, greets.
"Hey, Calie (6)," Lorne responds, upset.
"Lorne, if you stopped wearing your cloak to school, you wouldn't get beat-up as much," I say. I know exactly why he's upset.
"Hey! It's cold out! And while everyone else is freezing their noses off, I'm nice and toasty warm."
"But this is the third time this month alone it's needed repairs."
"What!" shrieks our friend with fluffy brown hair and grey-blue eyes (7). She's sitting on the same bench as Lorne, but on the other edge, right next to Dallas. "Hand it to me."
Lorne obeys, hands the cloak to Calie, then to Dallas, then finally to the one who requested it.
She sighs and gets something out of her bag. "You're just lucky I happen to have needle and thread."
"'Happen to have'? exclaims Lorne, "Alexandria (7), you always have needle thread!"
"Well, that's just what you get for being friends with a future fashion designer." She flips her hair.
"Hey, Max (8)!" The girl sitting across from Lorne says. She has straight, strawberry-blond hair with red streaks and hazel eyes (9).
"Yeah, Lizzie (9)?" Max responds with as he leans forward to look at her (he's sitting across from Alexandria). He has spiky, dark brown hair and blue-green eyes (8).
"Know what this is?" she picks up her are notebook, which she's been drawing in this whole time, and faces it towards Max as she leans forwards a bit too.
"Lizzie, don't doubt me."
She just playfully rolls her eyes at him.
"It's the season six poster for Supernatural!"
"How'd you know it was season six?" Dallas asks.
"Because Sam has a snake on his arm. That's not something you forget."
"Fair enough. You are the Pop Culture King"
"And don't you forget it!"
"You know, Lizzie. That's a really good drawing." I say.
Everyone at the table agrees with me.
"Yeah. Hey, would you mind if I kept that?" Max asks.
"Not at all," Lizzie rips it out and hands it to Max, "Here."
"Thanks!" Max says while admiring the picture. "I swear, this is the best picture of this I've seen. Even more than the one I have as my binder cover, and that's a printout (10)!"
"Really?"
"Mm-hm. In fact…" Max reaches under where he's sitting on the bench and pulls up his backpack and sets it on his lap. He rummages through it for a bit, and then pulls out his binder. He takes a paper out of the clear sleeve and puts Lizzie's picture in instead. He turns it towards her, "Ta-da!"
"Wow! Thanks, Max!"
"No problem!"
"Hey, Calie?" My absolute best friend speaks up. All of the people are my friends but we've always been slightly closer. He has red hair that covers his forehead, just like mine and Dallas's, and blue eyes.
"Yeah, Dez?" Callie questions.
"What's 372 divided by 60?"
"6.2," she responds without even having to think. "Wait, why?"
"See, my camera says I have 372 minutes left of filming time left. And I wanted to know how many hours that is."
"Aw!"
"Wait, what's on there?" Alexandria asks, finally done with Lorne's cloak, "Here," she says as she hands it back to him.
"Thanks, Alexandria," Lorne thanks as he puts the cloak back on.
"No problem. It's good practice. So, anyway, the camera?"
"Oh. Just some footage for my Film Festival entry."
"Cool," Dallas praises.
"Thanks."
"Hey, do you guys ever wonder what we're actually going to amount to?" I ask.
I'm met with groans from my whole table.
"Not again, Austin!" Calie grumbles, throwing her head back.
"Not another one of your pessimistic moments!" Max complains.
"For such an optimistic guy, you sure are pessimistic a lot!" Dez states.
"What?" Now I'm really confused.
"You always do this! We love you and all, but you can get really depressed at times!" Lizzie explains…Sorta.
"What? Every teenager goes through this. It's just a part of life!" I defend.
"Yes, but you pretend you've got no future! You do! We all do!" Lorne speaks.
"Sorry. But, seriously, what do you think we'll be when we're adults?"
"Well, if what we're geeks of has anything to do about it," Alexandria starts. We're all geeks of something, as our bullies say. Which, by the way, aren't just the popular kids. We're bullied by the entire school. "Then I'll be a fashion designer!" she brags.
"I'll be a well-known artist!" states Lizzie.
"I'll be a world famous cook!" sees Dallas.
"I'll be a game-show host! What else are you supposed to do with the knowledge of everything pop culture!" rhetorically questions Max happily.
"I'll be a mathematician" dreams Calie.
"I'll own Comic-Con!" exclaims Lorne excitedly. He reaches his hand toward Max, which he hits with his own in a high-five.
"I'll be huge director!" Dez holds his hands up as if reading a marquee.
"What about you, Austin?" asks Dallas while motioning to me with his chin.
The whole table choruses with exclaims of 'Yeah!' and 'What about you?' or both.
"I don't know," I mumble.
"What? How do you not know?" questions Lizzie
"I just don't know. You guys all have these great talents and all I have is just some mediocre one."
"Austin, what are you talking about? You're the best singer I know!" Dez exclaims.
All my friends murmur with agreement.
"Thanks. But it's not like I can really make a living out of it."
"Why not?" asks Lorne.
"Cause you can only make it by being related to someone in the biz. And I don't have anyone. My only shot is getting married someone. Like that's going to happen. I'll never make it big."
"Well, hey, not if you and Ally Dawson get together," Dallas suggests.
"Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I may have a crush on her, but it'll never happen. She's on the other side of country, as in L.A."
Scene Change (it wouldn't let me say it in just characters. Sadness...)
Lights! Camera! Action!
That surrounds me every day. Everywhere I go, people follow me, ask for autographs, paparazzi everywhere. Although, I guess that's what I get for being the hottest TV/movie actress. It's fun, it really is, all the kids that look-up to me, that I can help, but still, it's not all smiles. I still long for the days before…
The movie star life isn't all what it's made-up to be. It's not all glamorous. I have to wear an insane amount of make-up (I barely like wearing make-up in the first place), anytime I'm not shooting, I'm doing school work (I barely have time to write), and I have practically no privacy. On top of that, and this something I really hate, I never know who truly likes me, and who's just pretending. Because I'm famous, a lot of people use me. Whether it be pretending to be my friend or a crush, it's always the same. Lies. I guess there really are good actors in California (11). I only really have one friend, and she's my manager. I would think she would be lying and using me to piggyback to the top, but even when I was at my lowest she was there. Even when no one liked me, she was right by my side. When was I t my lowest? That was the first 13 years of my life.
Until I was 13, I lived in Miami, Florida. I was bullied by everyone. The popular kids at school, the nerdy/geeky kids at school, the neighborhood kids, sometimes my friends, sometimes (but very rarely) even my cousins. Everyone. Since my friends bullied me too, I stopped hanging out with them. Why would you want to be friends with someone who is one of your tormentors? Because of that, I was fair game. I couldn't go 5 minutes without being hurt physically or emotionally. Well, one day while I was getting my worst pummeling of my life (and probably a few other lives as well) I heard a loud, demanding scream. The kids looked up for half a second, startled by the unsuspected outbreak. When they saw what made the noise, they scrambled as fast as they could away from me. I looked up to see who my savior was and I saw a girl. But I had seen this girl before. She had black hair that was curlier than you would think was possible and was somewhat muscle-ly. She reached a hand down to me to help me up and I took it, surprised. No one ever wanted to help me. She helped me over to a bench and helped me administer first-aid to myself. As she was doing that, she introduced herself as Trish but I already knew her. In fact, I was a little scared of her. She was tough and loud and I'm weak and quiet. There was defiantly something off putting to me about the pair of us. But, if she was willing to help me up and help my injuries, she can't be all bad, right? That was how we first met. After that, she became my friend. Well, best friend, really, because I had no other friends. I still got hurt and bullied but she always stopped them before they got to hospital level. My family quickly accepted her as one of their own. We were like her second family. So, when we took a trip to L.A. on vacation, naturally, she came with us. I've always written and sang songs. And Trish (as well as my family, but she always the most) was really supportive of it. One day as we were stopping for lunch, I started singing one of my songs, and I guess some agent was stopping for lunch too. He came over to me and Trish, who were dancing like maniacs, and introduced himself and asked to sign with me. I was about to say yes (with my parents' permission, of course) but Trish started talking and sweetened the deal even more. We asked my parents, they said yes, Trish became my manager (who else would be!), and I became famous. And from then on, it was History. No, seriously, I got put on a TV show called History. I play one of the main characters. It's been on for quite awhile. If I was put on at 13 and I'm 16 now…you can do the math. I've been in a few movies too. Trish is really good at what she does! No kidding!
"Hey, Al!" I hear behind me as I was walking down the hall towards my dressing room.
"Yeah, Tri!" I turn around. Trish and I have better nicknames for each other but everyone else doesn't like them, so we don't use them in any of the studios.
"You are going to love me!" Trish speaks confidently. She's caught-up with me so we start walking again.
"I already do, so what's with the confusing confidence?" I ask, but I can't help but smirk-smile and a raise one of my eyebrows a bit.
"Well, guess who just got to be in a movie with Lucas Grabeel (12)?" She asks.
"You got that?" I incredulously question.
"No. But I got something better!"
Most people would be upset that someone would kid like that, but Trish knows me really well so if she says she got something better than hanging out with my favorite actor (12), it must be pretty sweet. "What?"
"Well, being the amazing manager I am, I scored a trip to Miami in time for the county fair."
"Really!" The county fair isn't as lame as it sounds. I would explain more if I wasn't so dang excited.
"Yep!"
"Yay! I love you!" I hug her.
"See? I told you!" she hugs back.
Some guy passing by gives a weird look so we're forced to let go.
"But, unfortunately, I couldn't get it just as a trip. It will be a meet and greet," Trish continues.
I fake shrug keeping my hands up, "Hey. Miami's Miami."
Things To Do:
(1) I happen to know Corgis like bacon. I have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. His name is Joey. Not the reason of my user name, but it inspired the person who came up with it.
(2) Character I made up. Also, in case you didn't get it (I don't know if it was obvious enough or not), he's the one from the hallway.
(3) I've never had this dish in my area before so I don't know if it smells like this or not, so sorry if it doesn't.
(4) He is a character I made-up. I just really like the name Lorne. Although, there's a character in Angel named Lorne. He was a demon that could see your future but only when you sang so he owned a karaoke bar. Yeah...My character isn't a demon, just for the record.
(5) My sister wore a cloak in high school but she didn't get beat up or anything. In fact, some people were jealous. Or, at least, I'm gonna pretend like it.
(6) She's a character I made up. You pronounce her like you do Kali. See, I really like how the name Kali sounds and I didn't know how to spell it until my other sister told me how but I had already written this so I decided to keep it. I like it better spelt "Calie" than "Kali". But that's just me.
(7) She is also a character I made-up.
(8) He's a character I made up.
(9) Also a character I made up.
(10) I don't have the season 6 poster for Supernatural on my binder. I have the promotional/sneak preview thingy-ma-jigy pictures for season 7, episode 1 of Doctor Who, "Asylum of the Daleks". It's the one where it's the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are surrounded by all those Daleks (mostly gold but there were a few red) in the _. Although, I also have a photo booth picture of me and my cousin on there too, so...
(11) OK, Californians, I know for a fact that you guys are not all liars. I happen to know so very honest people in California. So, please, don't be offended. I don't mean that in any way rude or offensive.
(12) Lucas Grabeel is actually my favorite actor. He plays Ryan Evans in the High School Musicals and Toby Kennish in Switched at Birth (which, if you are one of the few people that don't know, Bay Kennish, on there, is played by Vanessa Marano which is the real-life sister of Laura Marano who plays Ally Dawson). My second favorite actor is probably Gig Morton. He plays Derby on Mr. Young.
Disclaimer:
I do not own Austin & Ally, Capri-suns, Easy-Bake Ovens (we actually don't own one), Tupperware things, Supernatural nor it's season 6 poster, Comic-Con (though, I do kinda wanna go. I just don't like crowds so I'm torn), or Lucas Grabeel. Although, if you think about it, it would be really creepy if I owned Lucas Grabeel.
JoeyJar99's Message:
So, hunters, what do you think of this story? It was inspired by LFO's song Girl on TV (see how I cleverly named my story) and a little bit of Allstar Weekend's song Here With You. Both songs are great and I suggest you listen to these songs, along with a few others. By LFO, I think you should also check out Summer Girls (which I'm making a song-fic of for my sister) and by Allstar Weekend, I suggest Come Down With Love (which is probably the one you recognize), Dance Forever, A Different Side of Me, and, my jam, Journey To The End Of My Life. I don't know why I like this song so much, I just do. I really like the line "In your face or understated" because, well, how many song say "in your face" in the lyrics? Hmm?
Please tell me if I should continue this story or not!
Later. Over-and-Out. Live long and prosper.
