Once Upon A Time, Somewhere Along The Line

A/N: I feel bad for Jackson. Crappy job, family un-favourite, no-hoper. Dad who clearly favours Miley. But Jackson also proves himself in-show to come through when it really counts, and he's sorta cute, so I love him. *snuggles Jackson* This is my general idea of my headcanon backstory, elaborated on. Really depressing. You have been warned.

This begins just under a decade before the show starts, assuming that Jackson is 15 and Miley 13 in S1 (in S4 he says he is 19 - one season equals one year here). Where the show!canon begins during this story is iffy; it could start at several points, depending on your personal interpretation of Jackson. Let me know if confused.

And don't forget to review, or Jackson will burp in your room!

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Once upon a time, Jackson wasn't disgusting, lazy, or a failure. Once upon a time, Jackson and Miley had been equals. Once upon a time, Jackson made his parents proud.

The earliest Jackson can remember is first grade, going into school for the first time while Miley was at home with Mom, and Dad was still recording and touring. He'd sat down on the floor with the other kids and learned his alphabet, and as the year wore on, he learned to read. He wasn't the best, but he wasn't the worst. He was average. But Mom and Dad were proud of him, and that was good enough for Jackson.

He remembers when Miley entered school; he had just entered third grade. Mom dropped her off and told Jackson to look after her. He promised, and he showed her around and taught her some tricks he'd learned to do better in class and directed her to the shortcuts it'd taken him two years to find for himself. And for the first two weeks, Miley came and sat with him and his friends at lunch, and even though he was embarrassed, he let her because he'd promised. He'd promised Mom.

He remembers Mom's death, and how heartbroken they'd all been. How Miley had burst into tears then and there, how Dad was stoic but on the verge of tears anyway, and how he himself had been so shocked, he hadn't believed it. Until the next morning, when Mom wasn't there to make his lunch and kiss him goodbye and ruffle his hair when she was proud of him. And slowly but surely, things returned to normal. Or not normal, but a new normal, when Dad gave up his career to look after his two recently-motherless kids, and to mourn his wife and take up his new status as widower and learn how to cook and clean and be both a father and mother.

He remembers when Miley had first announced that she wanted to be a singer. And Dad had told that it was a lot of work, and not many people made it and that he was the exception, not the rule, but encouraging nonetheless. Watching her in the studio as she recorded her first single. Jackson was ten and a half, and wanted to be an astronaut or a rock star, but he didn't have the talent to be a rock star and Daddy couldn't pull any strings to make him an astronaut.

After that, everything started to become about Miley. In the early days, when she'd only released a single and then an album, Dad still made time for Jackson. They went to football games and fished and wrestled and baked. But as Miley or Hannah got more and more famous, Dad spent more and more time organising events and booking arenas and scheduling tours and writing songs, and bit by bit he didn't have time for Jackson anymore. Jackson now had to do his homework without any help, and had to congratulate himself on a good grade, and remind himself to have baths.

And slowly but surely, Jackson started to slide down the slippery slope. Forgetting to shower one morning because he'd stayed up late attending Miley's concert turned into two mornings. Then three, then four. Jackson showered on day five because Dad noticed the cloud of dust following Jackson, and lectured him to be responsible and look after himself. When he couldn't finish his homework because Dad was managing Miley's career and he didn't have time to help like he used to, his grades slowly started tumbling down. Jackson had been a Bs and Cs student, with As in his best subjects on good days (his best subjects had been PE and English). Without Dad's help and gentle encouragement, and no inspiration to work hard because Dad was so proud of Miley, those Bs and Cs turned into Ds and Fs. Certainly no more As on good days. Somewhere along the line, Dad wasn't proud of Jackson anymore. Somewhere along the line, Dad had forgotten about Jackson. Maybe because Jackson was fourteen and old enough to do this himself, but he wasn't old enough to not need his Dad anymore, even if he wouldn't admit it.

And he stopped reading (he used to love being told stories, and then reading stories) because Miley's career meant always being on the go and on red alert. And so he turned to videogames, which were short and fast and could be played on tour buses with jolts and distracting music and little space for books. Eating with good table manners like Mom had taught him turned into eating whatever was in the front of the fridge and eating fast, and eating messily because Dad never corrected him anymore whenever his table manners slipped up.

And Jackson remembers when he began working for Rico, even though Rico made every working minute hell on Earth. Parents were always proud when their kid got their first job, right? But Dad wasn't proud; he just clapped Jackson on the back half-heartedly and said "Congrats, son" absentmindedly because he was busy writing Just Like You. Yeah, Miley was just like him.

And somewhere along the line, Jackson woke up one morning. When he went downstairs for breakfast, Miley greeted him with "Oh darn, so your existence wasn't just a bad dream", and as he ate his breakfast of toast loaded with Nutella, Dad said "my boy — half human, half pig", and he noticed that most people regarded him as annoying and disgusting, and Miley regarded him as a nuisance and Dad regarded him as a failure.

And somewhere along the line, Jackson accepted his newfound role as the family failure. And he learned to revel in it and play it up, because at least it garnered him some attention, even if said attention was embarrassing and condescending and made him feel hopeless. And Jackson still loved Miley and Dad, even though they were mostly the ones who treated him like that. And Dad and Miley and everyone in general forgot that Jackson hadn't always been like that.

And Jackson met Siena, just when he'd really, truly given up hope in himself. And Siena loved him for who he was, because he was messy and slobby and disgusting and gross and a failure. Because she respected him as a person, in spite of all those things. And he loved her, because she loved him and she was neat and liked classic works of literature and pizza even though she was a model, and she accepted his very guilty pleasure of chick flicks, and because he, the personification of all things disgusting and depressing about life, had a beautiful, desirable, lovely, perfect girl interested in him.

And Jackson remembers that, somewhere along the line, he'd fallen through the cracks.