"I feel like a monkey in a zoo." I said to my best friend Melissa as I walked down the hallway noticing that the dreary white walls that were turning yellow had posters plastered all over them about upcoming events or summer plans. I was starting my last week of high school ever. However my full experience was far from over, there was still one monumental event that had to occur not including my graduation, senior prom. As I proceeded down the hallway I realized how different school was now, and it had nothing to do with me almost being out of there, but more due to the fact that high school was no longer my world. In the past few months my life had changed so drastically that I never would have thought that something like this could have happened to anyone, until it happened to me.

You see, Loren entered her idols, Eddie Duran, songwriting contest and won. If that wouldn't have been enough then her and Eddie started dating, which she was skeptic about this at first because she knew Eddie was in a vulnerable place after his breakup with his ex-cheating model fiancé, Chloe Carter. However she got over her fear and became Eddie's new leading lady. About a month after they started to officially date, Eddie disappeared. Everyone thought that he was dead; including Loren, because his car was found containing a body the car had exploded after it ran into a tree. The body was too badly burned to identify so Loren had to wait for the DNA test to come back to know for sure. But when it came back negative she knew that the man that she loved was still out there somewhere. And at her first concert Eddie showed up causing Loren to stop in the middle of one of her new songs as she was performing. Then after the show Loren meet Eddie back up at their secret spot so they could talk before Eddie had to leave again because he was accused of pushing Chloe off of a terrace causing her to fall into a coma that she recovered from. So Eddie was wanted by the police and as Eddie was saying good-bye to Loren a police car pulled up and he was arrested then released shortly after by Chloe's statement saying that he was innocent. Then Eddie surprised Loren and when to his place, where she had stayed for the past couple of days, then they went on to a plane to New York because she had another concert the next day.

It was now the Monday after my trip to New York which turned out to be completely amazing, but mostly because Eddie was there and I was finally able to be with him. Even though that they had only known each other for a while they have the deep connection that even they couldn't explain. The past weekend Eddie and told me that he loved me and I told him that I loved him too and wanted to spend all the time in the world with him. But that wasn't really possible when I still had a week left of school.

I really didn't want to be at school now, not only because I was now famous and had a huge fan base and been playing concerts on different coasts already actually that had nothing to do with the fact. I was never the type of person, who was going to brag about what's happening in my life, but all the questions about Eddie were getting ridiculous and all that I really wanted to do was write songs. I wasn't able to go more than five minutes with her hearing some people talking about it or having someone flat-out come up and ask me. 'Was Eddie really in jail? Is he out? Did he push her?'

See, the announcement of Eddie's innocents hadn't occurred yet because as Eddie said it, he wanted to come back from the dead with a bang.

Now I had no idea what that meant only that it meant Eddie was plotting.

"Yes, but you are the most wonderful, talented and pretty person in this zoo." Melissa replied as she was smiling and waving at all the people who were staring in our direction. She stopped at her locker and opened it while she was speaking which snapped me out of my train of thought about Eddie. I turned to give Melissa a look before replying to her statement.

"This is just so crazy," I said as I leaned against the locker besides Melissa's and began to look around at the people for the first time and saw all of their eyes staring at me and they quickly turned their focus away when they realized that I noticed. "And these people, I've known for years and now suddenly everyone is scared to talk to me, it's just strange."

Melissa replied with her face in her locker as she was clearly looking for something. "They are just stunned to see you in school that's all, I mean with everything that has happened to you in the last week; it's the last place they would expect you to be." She found her school books for her morning classes and turned to look at me as she shut her locker.

Right, I thought, they didn't know that the charges against Eddie were dropped. "I wonder when Eddie will let everyone know." I said looking down to the floor, talking quietly and twirling my thumbs.

"Oh I have a feeling that he won't wait too long." Melissa replied, and seeing that I had raised my head and was eyeing her curiously continued "I mean I know he doesn't want to stay the bad guy in everyone's mind for too long." She added.

"You're right." And with that the bell rang for first hour and I said goodbye to Melissa before heading to class. As I entered the room everyone was talking about two things; Eddie and the prom. To be honest I hadn't even thought about going to prom. It just seemed too insignificant considering everything that was going on. I just sat down at my desk and started to take my notebook out when two girls who I had barely seen, let alone talked to came up to my desk.

"What's going on with Eddie? Is he going to stay in jail?" one of them asked. Well, at least they aren't dogging the bullet like most people, I thought. I sighed deeply and the two girls looked at me intently waiting for a reply, but it never happened because the teacher walked in and started class just as I was about to speak. The two girls went and found their seats, clearly disappointed in my failure to answer. I on the other hand was relieved because I had tried to think of an answer for that question but nothing came to my mind, so I would always just try to change the subject which made everyone around me know that there was something going on that I wasn't saying.

The same thing happened in my next few classes, from the moment I walked into the rooms I could feel the looks people gave me and feel the tension that arose because of it. I was relieved when the bell rang after fourth period telling everyone that it was time for lunch, but more importantly, time to see Melissa and tell her about how strange of a day it had been. As I was thinking about what I was going to say I realized that this will be most of my days from now on, and I will never truly be just Loren Tate, a girl from the valley once again.

I walked out of the doors and into the courtyard, and sat down where Melissa and I always eat lunch. This was the only place that made it seem like that we were not in school because it was outside and surrounded by gigantic trees and there were a few scattered picnic tables but most people just sat on the luscious green grass and leaned on an old tree. I found the picnic table that we always eat at and as I sat down on the faded wooden bench I couldn't help but think about what Eddie was doing now, probably working on a new song or sleeping. I grinned at the thought of Eddie being back at his apartment playing the piano waiting for me to go there after school. I grabbed my lunch out of my backpack and began to eat while waiting for Melissa. I was facing the doors back into the school and saw her come out with a huge energetic smile on her face.

"What's going on with you?" I asked as Melissa was approaching the table.

"Oh nothing, just seeing you here is so weird now that you are all famous and all." Melissa replied.

"Why is everyone saying that?" I asked a bit annoyed. "I'm still the same person I was before, I haven't changed at all."

"Nope, no change what so ever." Melissa replied in a sarcastic tone and I couldn't help but smile.

Melissa and I continued to talk about our morning and after about ten minutes of this we looked around and saw more and more people coming out into the courtyard and noticed that all of their eyes were on a shiny black limo that had just pulled up in front of the school. I stood up as well, and for the first time that day I closed my eyes relaxed and took a deep breath; I was glad for once that all the attention wasn't on me. However this moment of relief quickly vanished as I opened my eyes and recognized the person coming out of the limo. My jaw dropped with surprise and the rate of my air intake dramatically increased. I would have known those deep brown eyes anywhere, and not to mention his handsome face that had been recently shaved and it looked like he just received a haircut. I started to breathe normally again and rolled my eyes as I realized what Eddie had meant when he said he wanted to come back with a bang.

Authors note:

Dis clamor: I don't own Hollywood Heights or any of the Characters, just this plot line!

Okay, so this is my first FanFiction, like ever. I'm sorry if it sucks, but if it doesn't and if anyone likes it please let you know and I'll keep writing! I've had this idea in my head for a while! This chapter is more of a background story then the other ones are going to be, unless it's necessary Haha! Oh and I hope that it's not confusing that all the background information is told in 3rd person, but the rest is in Loren's point of view! Well now that I got that out-of-the-way please read, review and favorite. Also I'm open for ideas and I would love to know ways to make this story better, or different story ideas too! Thank you!

andbeyond