a/n: So I fully intended to have this up by midweek… and then, by Friday. Instead, I'm just glad I got it up before Valentine's Day ended =). It is shamelessly Nacy of course, and fairly fluffy…
Disclaimer: I don't own JONAS, Disney, Sonny w. a Chance or any of the characters mentioned. I only take ownership of the plot =)
Valentine's Day
"Really, Stella? You're really going to get all 'into' this this year?" Macy looked up from her copy of Tween-Weekly to raise an eyebrow at her blonde friend. Stella had just finished a twenty minute rant, spanning from the time Mr. Morgan declared that they could leave class early (the frog dissection had most certainly not gone as planned), to their quick stops at the library to drop off some overdue books, to stopping at both Macy and Stella's lockers, and finally to the ringing of the end-of-class bell at which point Stella and Macy had slid into their seats at the usual lunch table to wait for the boys.
"Of course I'm going to get all 'into it,' who doesn't get all 'into it'?!" Stella looked as though Macy had just suggested she wear white after Labor Day, or that she shouldn't wear her latest Coach scarf to JONAS's next concert in Milan.
Macy rolled her eyes and flipped past an article on Fiona Skye's rumored relations with James Conroy, "What happened to last year's agreement that Valentine's Day is a, and I quote, 'Stupid holiday that makes me want to vomit, cry and eat lots of chocolate all at once'?"
"Things change," Stella replied deftly, pulling out a brown lunch bag and producing a heart shaped, pink-iced cookie from its midst, "Do you think Joe would like this?"
"Stells, I'm pretty sure Joe would eat anything, he's Joe," Macy retorted, scanning an article on Mackenzie Falls's eminent Valentine's special.
As if on cue Joe dropped his lunch tray to the table, noisily alerting Macy to his presence and slid into the seat beside Stella.
"I would not eat anything Misa," he remarked defensively.
"Yes you would," Nick took the seat beside Macy, rolling his eyes at his brother's antics, "Remember the Christmas party?"
"That poor fruitcake…" sighed Kevin, taking his own seat between Joe and Macy.
"Okay, okay…" Joe shook his head sadly, "I'll eat almost anything. Happy?"
"Extremely," replied Macy grumpily, returning her attention to her magazine.
There was a long moment of quiet while Joe munched his way through four of Stella's cookies, Kevin wrestled with a straw wrapper, Stella attempted to remove a stain in her skirt and Nick cautiously examined Macy who was intently staring at an article in her magazine.
"Reading anything interesting?" Nick asked tentatively, glancing at the magazine Macy was poring over. For a moment, he could have sworn it was the Valentine's issue and his heart almost stopped right there, but then he remind himself in calm mental tones that the editor had sworn that the Super-Special Valentine's Day issue of Tween-Weekly wouldn't come out until, well Valentine's Day. It was only the thirteenth, he still had some time. In all honesty he wasn't a huge fan of pop culture magazines, but knew that Macy read them to check whether or not the stories printed about JONAS were keeping true to the facts. It was an agreement she and Joe had set up after the Fiona Skye incident, JONAS would pay her subscriptions to all the best pop culture magazines, and she would do what she did best.
"Not really," Macy sighed, "I mean, it looks like Chad and Sonny have gone public about their relationship, but aside from that…"
"They went public?" Stella gasped, the pair had become acquainted with Stella, Macy and the boys through a number of big name parties; Stella in particular was a big fan of their love-hate love.
"Yep," Macy replied quickly, handing over the magazine so Stella could see.
There was another beat of silence as Stella scanned the article, breaking out into a huge grin, then Joe broke in, "So… what were you ladies talking about before we dropped in?"
"Oh not much," Macy began.
But at the same time that Stella said, "Valentine's Day." The two glared at each other over the table, the magazine sliding to Stella's lap with little protest.
"Macy hates Valentine's Day," Stella informed the group without breaking the glare. Macy deepened her scowl; her hatred of Valentine's Day wasn't something she liked to publicize, especially not in front of the boy she was kind of, sort of falling for. She had a rep to protect after all - she was supposed to be peppy and happy all the time, her weakness for Valentine's Day was pretty much unacceptable.
"You hate Valentine's Day?!" Kevin dropped his spoon into his pudding cup with apparent shock, "But, but… why?!"
Macy groaned, "It's just a stupid holiday Kevin." She didn't really want to get into it.
"Elaborate," Nick demanded quietly. She turned to him in surprise, having thought he would have been with her completely on this.
"Well, the whole holiday is just silly. I mean," she began uncertainly, but feeling like this was important, "It all starts in the morning with the outfit doesn't it?"
Stella nodded emphatically, but Kevin and Joe just looked confused, and Nick just a little bemused, which ticked Macy off just a little.
"Think about it!" She demanded, jamming her straw into her milk carton angrily, "You're supposed to wear Red or Pink to represent love or whatever, two colors that don't go really well together and really only fit the moods of happiness. When you're single on Valentine's Day, you're supposed to be all depressed, right? So you don't want to wear pink or red or whatever, but you have to. Cause if you wear black or dark colors then you're viewed as depressed or that loser who is alone on Valentine's Day and is trying to make a statement against the holiday. No one wants to be that loser."
"So you're saying you hate Valentine's Day because you have to wear red?" Kevin asked slowly, not sure that he'd understood Macy's minor rant.
"No, she's saying she hates Valentine's Day because if you're single it's a day that makes you feel sad, because it's celebrating all the couples, giving them liberty to shove it in everyone's face that they're ridiculously happy," Nick corrected him quietly.
Feeling that he'd pretty much hit the nail on the head, Macy grinned at him, raising her milk in a toast to her comrade, "And 'cause it's so commercial."
"I see," Kevin nodded, then bit his lip, "So should I cancel the carnation order I placed for you?"
Nick and Macy did a spit take in near perfect unison, spraying Stella and Joe with Chocolate Milk and Capri Sun.
"Nick!"
"Macy!!"
"Oops…"
"Sorry…"
"Ew," Stella remarked, wiping her face with a paper towel, but returning her attention to Kevin almost immediately, "You bought Macy flowers for Valentine's Day?" she demanded quickly. Macy couldn't help but notice how Stella's eyes darted back and forth between Nick and Kevin.
"Uh, yes?" Kevin eyed the blonde with a mix of confusion and fear.
"Why Macy?!" Stella leaned in for the metaphorical kill, eyes flashing, as if the girl in question wasn't sitting next to Kevin at that very moment.
"Oh, are you worried I forgot about you?" Kevin laughed, obviously sure of his conclusion, "Don't worry, the school is selling them to raise money for Panda saving in China. Who can resist buying flowers for Pandas? So I bought a bunch for all of you!"
"Oh," Stella slid back into her seat dejectedly, and beside Macy, Nick unfroze and relaxed.
"I think I'll be fine with the Panda carnation Kevin," Macy giggled slightly at the thought of getting a Valentine, even if it was just one from Kevin, somehow the promise of even a little something made the next day seem a little less foreboding.
For a long while the group passed the time in their time in their usual fashion. Kevin doodled pandas playing piano on the edges of the calculus homework he was supposedly doing; Joe and Nick debated the order of the Boston set list for the following weekend; Macy pretended to study her English vocabulary for her test the following period, every so often offering some advice to Nick and Joe or reminding Kevin that those problems were due eighth period. The only oddity was Stella, who, instead of arguing with Joe over silly things, sketching outfits on the napkins or gossiping via text, was completely absorbed by Macy's magazine.
Nick and Joe had just finished agreeing on their first song (Just Friends) when Stella spoke up; her eyebrows were raised, and she was flashing the last page of the magazine at her lunch mates.
"You so didn't tell me you were doing an article with Tween-Weekly," she accused, shooting death eyes at her boyfriend. Nick, who had been scribbling the order in his notebook, jerked his head up in time to see his own face sheepishly staring back at him from the glossy pages under the heading "Nick of JONAS Takes on V-Day!!"
"I didn't!" Joe cried, cowering back in his plastic chair, looking confused and frightened in equal measure.
Macy too looked confused, "You guys didn't tell me you were doing an interview… how am I supposed to fact check when you don't even give me heads up on interviews!?"
"We did an interview?" Kevin blinked up from his drawings, "Really? Cause I don't remember any interviews since that one where I accidentally let the parrot out of the cage and well… you know. This isn't that interview is it? I thought we paid them off?"
Nick thought that really, this was probably the best point to interrupt at, so he cleared his throat and spoke up, "We didn't do an interview," he gestured at the magazine, "I did."
"You did an interview without me!?" Joe demanded, "In my magazine?"
"Your magazine?" Macy raised an eyebrow at the middle brother, but Nick ignored her.
"Anyway, I gave Tween-Weekly a Valentine's Day interview, but that's not supposed to come out till tomorrow, so, I don't know what that is," he gestured at the magazine, hoping really hard that he didn't know what it was, that it wasn't his article.
"A conspiracy," Kevin stated surely, nodding as if he had seen many conspiracies in his years and could recognize one on sight.
"Or aliens, pod people? Fake Nicks?" Joe suggested eagerly.
"Let's leave Randolph out of this, shall we?" Stella snickered pointedly.
Macy shot her another glare and didn't try to hide her annoyance when she spoke, "Or, it could just be a pre-release copy of the Valentine's Issue."
"How'd you get one of those?" Nick demanded, he hadn't thought she had that much access.
Macy shrugged, "You tend to have connections when you've been such a high profile fan for so long… I might not be crazy anymore, but the head editor of Tween-Weekly still sends me my copies a day or so early so I can "scoop" the other sites."
"Nice," Stella commented, turning her attention to the article in question.
"Wait, Stella…" Nick faltered, it wasn't that he didn't want her to read the article, it was just that, the timing, the order - it was all off. Nothing was going to plan. It was only the thirteenth!! He was supposed to have a full extra day here.
"Shh," she shushed him waving her hand flippantly, totally absorbed.
Sensing a lost battle, Nick turned his attentions to the clock. There was still a good fifteen minutes left in lunch, but perhaps he could will the bell to save him. Of course it was to no avail, and as his heart joined the butterflies in his stomach he saw Stella look up from the magazine, eyes wide and smile scarily triumphant.
"Oh Nick…" she sighed, smiling happily, "That is so…"
"What?" Macy looked between Stella and Nick anxiously, "What's it say?"
"Here," Stella smiled wider, "I'll read it aloud for you."
"Stella!!" Nick cried, shocked, "No!"
"You'll thank me later," she tossed her hair over her shoulder and cleared her throat before beginning at paragraph three, "When asked about his plans for Valentine's Day, Nick was rather evasive, saying that he has plans, maybe. Now this reporter was hardly going to take that for an answer, so we delved a little deeper, leading the young singer to explain that his Valentine's Day plans all hang on the feelings of a certain young lady… the certain young lady who, apparently, has been the sole source of inspiration for several of JONAS's best numbers."
Stella coughed pointedly, then continued, "When asked about his number one girl, Nick's eyes took on that dreamy-eyed look that could make any girl's heart melt. According to him, mystery girl is, 'beautiful and graceful,' but also 'adorably klutzy whenever she sees him.' She's athletic, and able to trash talk with the best of male athletes but never gives any reason to doubt the fact that she's a girl."
Stella made another pointed cough, this time accompanied by a head jerk in Macy's general direction before finishing, "Now Readers, this last bit he said was just so perfect I had to break all the rules and quote directly. In summarizing his girly girl, Nick said, 'She's my number one fan. And I'm in love with her.' Now isn't that just… so sweetly blunt? I know. Really I do. So, mystery girl, looks like you've got one third of JONAS all set to be your Valentine… do us all a favor and spread the love?"
The table was so quiet, Nick could here every detail of the conversation Van Dyke was having one table over. Macy was sure her heart had stopped, that Stella had misquoted, but based on the fact that Nick's face was red and eyes intent on what remained of his lunch, she thought that maybe, Stella just might have been telling the truth.
"Joe!" Stella broke the silence, speaking quickly, leaping to her feet and grabbing the boy's wrist with one hand and her bag with the other, scooting the magazine back over to Macy with one elbow, "Library, math, studying, now."
"But, but…" Joe shot a desperate look back at the other three but followed his girlfriend anyway. Macy seized the magazine and reread the last article to herself, and then again, and again…
Kevin looked between Nick and Macy for a few seconds before laughing, "Okay, this is way too awkward. I'm so going to the library too, at least they just fight…" he chuckled, throwing his stuff into his bag haphazardly, "See you guys!"
After Kevin's form had completely disappeared, Nick forced himself to look at Macy, who to his surprise was half smiling.
"So," she began slowly, "You have your eyes on a mystery girl?"
Seizing on the only somewhat awkward route, Nick chuckled slightly, "Uh, yeah, she's pretty special really."
"Really?" Macy smiled at him, scooting her chair a little closer, "Because I heard a crazy rumor that Nick of JONAS might just have his eyes on me…"
"Really?" Nick forced another laugh.
"Yeah," she nodded seriously, then smiled before continuing, "And while the dormant fan-girl in me is positively dying over that, the girl in me is kind of more concerned with whether or not Nick Lucas has his eyes on me."
Nick's heart leaped back into place, beating loudly and erratically, "Well," he began, smiling to match her, "I think I can exclusively reveal that both stories are one hundred percent factual."
"Well then…" Macy leaned in and kissed him. If bliss had a name, Nick thought quietly, it would be Macy.
A few minutes and a few kisses later, the bell rang, startling the pair.
While they arranged their belongings Nick asked the money question, "Still hate Valentine's Day Miss Misa?"
She laughed coyly, moving to leave, "Well that's still tomorrow, isn't it? So ask me then… though how you're going to top this Mr. Lucas, I'm very interested to see." Laughing she skipped off down the hall, near colliding with Stella. As Nick watched the blonde tug (his) brunette off, he smiled another big smile but then thought a bit about what she'd said… wait. How was he going to top this?
a/n: So I know it wasn't great… somewhere in there I made a complete POV switch, and I don't really know how that happened. All the same, Happy Valentine's Day! Reviews = love