Disclaimer: Please see chapter one.
AN: I am surprised, and pleased about the response I got from this fic! My goodness. Like I said in my profile, I'll update when I can. Right now, I have finals coming up… so; Yvonnia you're not the only one who has to study. I'm right with ya! Ha ha. Thanks for all of the reviews, you guys! I MEAN IT!
For those wondering about how children might forget their fiance/fiancee from when they were kids... sometimes; you forget things you don't want to remember until you want to remember them. And even then - the brain actually doesn't let you remember what happened correctly or even completely. So if you're taking, like say... the SAT or some other test no, five years from now you're going to not really remember the whole test, just the gist of it. And even then, it might not even be accurate. (I just took a psychology class, so I've got reading materials to back this up!) When you get older, your brain kinda molds/blends memories together as to how your subconscious might want to remember certain things. It's gonna have that... gray area where your mind just fills in the blanks to make the story more "real" or exciting even... I don't really know hwo to explain it... so, without further ado, here's chapter two!
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Don't You Dare Speak About Love
Chapter Two: Feels Like Forever Since The Day
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"Hey Millie!" A little boy about the age of eight or so ran around a little girl who was about the same age and was playing with flowers in a middle of a park.
She sighed as she tried to ignore the hyperactive boy. "What do you want, Snot Boy?"
"Don't call me, that!"
"Why shouldn't I, Snot Boy?"
"It's not my name!"
"And my name isn't Millie, but you call me that anyway!"
"Come on – I thought you like it when I call you that! At least I don't call you Barfy Barbie!"
She gave him a look. "Sure, as much as I like being pushed down in wells. And I thought you weren't going to call me that anymore!"
He finally sat down next to her. "Well – like I said, I don't call you…" He saw the scowl and paused then said, "that kind of Barbie."
"Yeah, but you mentioned it!"
"So?"
"It's the same!" She threw her hands up in the air, careful not to disturb the flowers she had on her lap.
"It's not!"
"Is too!"
"Not!"
"Too!"
"Too!"
"Not!"
The boy smiled. "Glad you see my point."
"Ugh, you tricked me!" The girl slowly stood up, holding her unfinished garland of white daisies gently.
The boy merely looked at her and asked, "Where are you goin'?"
"Away from you," came the reply.
He stood up and caught up to her. "Come on, Miles. Don't be like that."
She kept on walking silently. He sighed and followed her to her house, next to his. They entered through the back, where the kitchen was. The smell of freshly baked cookies filled their noses.
"Here comes my little bee!" A pleasant woman, with beautiful brown hair up in a ponytail called from her place by the oven. "Oh hello, Jacob. Would you like some cookies and milk? I am baking my Secret Chocolate Fudge and Chunks ones!"
The boy jumped up at the invitation and quickly got the milk from the fridge, setting it down on a random counter then proceeded to get two glasses from a cupboard. He poured himself some and then was about to pour some in the girl's when she wordlessly asked for the milk. He let her take it from him and watch her pour herself some. She wordlessly grabbed two pieces of the chocolatey goodness before leaving the kitchen.
"What did you do, Jacob?"
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Jake woke up and saw a Golden Retriever with astonishing, bright, gray eyes beside him. "Oh hello, Bee." He scratched her behind the ears and she closed her eyes. He heard his alarm start beeping after thirty seconds of petting and turned it off when his pet started growling at it.
He laughed at the dog's antics and patted her on the head. "Sorry, girl. I gotta go to school today." He set some dog food that was in his room for Bee on the floor. The dog wagged her tail and licked his hand then dug in.
He went in the bathroom and stripped then got in the shower.
When he was a little kid, he woke up just before his alarm started ringing. It was a habit that he picked up from his best friend, and fiancée. He chuckled at the memory of her.
Speaking of that little bee, he had yet to hear from her. He'd been having some dreams about her lately… he was worried about her especially because of her identical cousin (as freaky as that one was). He didn't forget her. He never could. When he left Nashville when he was nine and three-quarters, his dad had to get him a dog with her eyes that he named Bee. Short for Barbie, as well as the moniker her mom had given her. He wrote her a couple of times, but never got anything from her. She must still be mad at him for leaving.
He tried going back to Tennessee a couple of times just to see her because he missed her, but his movies or press conferences were never in Nashville. And his mom hadn't given him a chance to go back to that place ever since they moved to live to Santa Monica before moving to Malibu. He had been home schooled before his dad decided that it would be good publicity if he went to the local junior high.
He paused. Why didn't he ever think about it before? His parents were his managers, with his mom calling most of the shots. Why couldn't he go back to Nashville? He and his dad loved it there.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized something. He was able to visit the first place he lived at, which was Clifton, New Jersey. He lived there until they moved to Nashville, where his paternal grandparents used to live. But for some reason, his mother had been adamant in not returning to Nashville.
He had to find out why. But, later. He had school to go to.
As he got out of the shower and got dressed for the day; he remembered a girl from his classes who didn't treat him like a celebrity at all. He smiled.
She was something else. And her name was Miley, such a pretty name. He should know – it was his best friend's. She would have been pretty too, if she didn't scowl so much. She actually reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place his finger on it.
She was smart, and funny. He couldn't wait to get to know her.
He finished drying his hair with a towel, combed it and let it sit. Then he picked up his stuff and went downstairs. His mom was cooking breakfast and his dad was at the table, reading a newspaper and drinking tea.
"Good morning, Jake." His dad said, setting the paper down. "I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to talk with you yesterday, how was school?"
The tension between his parents was weird. It was like they fought, again. It's been happening a lot lately, ever since the Zombie High producers said that they will be hiring Hannah Montana as his love interest for an episode.
He didn't know why they would fight about that. She was a fellow teen star – and from what he read; she was a good one from Nashville. She must be home schooled (and had strict parents – which wasn't a far off reason for her not to be out) since she was a kid, because he had never seen her. Then again, Nashville was pretty big – even if people knew everybody.
Realizing he had yet to answer his dad, he cleared his throat. "It was fine, dad. A little crazy – since a good number of girls were tailing me pretty much everywhere. Oh, and yeah – which one of you gave This Week in Hollywood the go?"
His parents exchanged glances. "Must be the agency. Which one did they send?"
Jake made a face. "Bree Young Zhusdan Takahashi Samuels."
His dad made the same face. "Ewww."
His mom clapped her hands before turning her attention back to cooking. "That girl is a good reporter. She'll give you great publicity!"
Father and son just shook their heads.
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Jake got to school and was immediately swarmed by girls. He pasted a smile on his face, and let them bombard him with questions, answering and replying with all the cheerfulness his mom drilled into him ever since adopting the name Jake Ryan. Nobody ever called him Jacob anymore… and he missed it; if only because there were a lot of good memories attached with it.
He inwardly sighed when the adoring and beady gazes everybody shot him got a little tiring. It was fine, but he had a reason why he was in school.
Okay, so he told his parents that he agreed – going to school with normal kids will be good publicity for him as long as he doesn't do anything negative like slack off with work or commit unexcused truancy.
But inside – he just wanted a chance to be a normal kid again. Ever since turning into Jake Ryan – he didn't feel normal anymore. His mom never let him get close to make good friends with anyone; and actors his age were still friends with theirs.
In a way, he was actually jealous of Hannah Montana – who finally came out with one of her non-celebrity best friends in the latest issue of Tween Magazine.
The girl herself was as secretive as Hannah was – was never heard to say anything that will allow her to remain in the spotlight. Traci Van Horn commented in one of the articles that "Lola wasn't like Nicole Richie at all. She's a sweetheart, even if a little odd."
The thought made him think about Miley's friends, Lilly and Oliver. He would love to have friends like them. Maybe he could, he was growing up after all – his mom can't stop him from making friends at school.
Maybe she was right about a couple of kid actors like him and his fans, but that didn't mean she was going to be right about the few kids at school who looked at him somewhat normally. Well, Lilly looked at him adoringly – but that was expected. Oliver was turning normal lately; and even glared at him a couple of times. He suspected it was because of Lilly.
And Miley… well. She was something else.
Speaking of her, she just left her locker. Inwardly, he sighed. He had to talk to her and get to know her. She was someone he didn't want to be on his bad side. He couldn't explain his attraction to her or why exactly he didn't want her mad at him. He just didn't want her to be so cold to him.
Actually, if he didn't know any better. He'd say that she hated his guts for some reason he couldn't fathom. She glared, scowled and stared daggers at him at every given chance. She would be quite pretty if she didn't
Oh well.
He opened his own locker (which he didn't realize was right next to Miley's) and winced. It sounded like it needed oil. He needed Mr. Bram – wait, he specifically asked to be called Tony… so he needed Tony to take a look at it.
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He rounded the corner after English class with a fraction of his fan club in tow. While inwardly rolling his eyes, he wrapped up some lame joke he was telling them. 'Good grief!' He thought. "…So I said, 'No, Mr. Trump, you're fired.'" He quickly faked a pleased smile and a fake chuckle when everybody else laughed at the joke.
'Okay, how to get rid of these guys?' He almost groaned at the thought; but he had to do this, he needed to regroup. "Hey, do you think one of you guys can save me a seat in the cafeteria?"
Every body scrambled to do as he said.
He threw them a, "Thanks!" as they left. Outside, he looked like he was perfectly alright. Inside, he was about to tear his hair out. 'Okay, breathe in and out.'
It worked. And then he saw Tony and Miley at his locker. His locker???
"Oh, Tony!!!" '…You shouldn't have done this!'
"Jakey!!!"
He didn't want to sound ungrateful or ungraceful about declining the gift so he tried to put the three parts of Polite Rejection. The first was, "I just asked if you could get the squeak out of the door!" You state the point of the favor you asked. The second part… "This is above and beyond!" demonstrates how the person granting the favor went overboard by actually complimenting him or her. And the last, "Give me some love!" To buffer the incoming but veiled rejection; one must do something nice for the person such as saying, "You the man."
That should have made the person happy and speechless.
Too bad, it didn't work because the janitor said, "No, you the man!"
'Oh, boy.' "Oh no, you the man."
"Oh no you -"
Saved by Miley. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Greeeeeaaat! Now who the man who knows where my locker is?!"
Jake stopped dead. "Wow, is this your…" He looked at his great locker. How come he never knew that her locker was right next to his? Then he looked back at the girl. She had such a great expression on her face.
It was a mix of everything. She was cute when she was angry. Her eyes were flashing, and fired up. It also looked like she's trying not to lose control of her temper.
Kinda like someone he knew before but couldn't put a finger to it. As he mulled it over – as well as tried hard not to drool over the SWEET locker he had, he completely missed how the janitor told her, "Don't sweat it, Millie."
Jake, however, looked back just in time to hear her say, "It's Miley!"
He had to give her credit for not letting expletives lose like one guest star he could name. He was pretty appalled by the way Tony just said, "Like it matters."
But… he was distracted by the iPod!!! That was the latest in the series! It can play movies, store files… wait, was that 80 GB worth of memories?
Oh, that was TOO MUCH! He's gotta do something, anything to stop this madness. But, oh – maybe he'd keep just for the day… but there must be something he could do for the one person who saw him differently from his idol worshippers!
He turned away from his GORGEOUS sound system and saw Miley being led by Tony with a black trash bag. "Hey, Miley!"
They both stopped. He quietly signaled Tony to leave them alone (which he did, perks of being a movie star who acted like a Prince) and walked up to her. "Look, I feel bad. I don't really need all that room – there's more than enough space for the two of our stuff... and even Lilly's and Oliver's." He smiled at her.
She wasn't impressed. "No, thanks; besides." She held up a bag of cheese. "I gotta go reset the traps." She turned to go.
"Come on, Miley. I know we're not friends or anything like that – though I hope we could be friends. I'm really not a bad guy and I hope I could get the chance to show you that. Look, I'll help you set the traps; but please share a locker with me?"
He met one of the iciest glares he had ever encountered. Oddly enough, it was the exact same stare as his childhood friend had given him just before he left. He couldn't help but be frozen in his spot at that moment like he couldn't help it back then.
He didn't know how he looked like then but she closed her pretty, yet cold eyes and sighed. "I can't believe I'm goin' to do this…"
He was about to ask what she couldn't believe she was going to do when she beat him to it, "Okay. I'll share a locker with you..."
He smiled at the small victory.
"But you have to set the traps by yourself." Her eyes lit up mischievously as she said it.
He still smiled, and took the bag from her hands. "Okay, deal!" Setting a couple of mouse traps was a small price to pay. He liked that impish look on her. It made her look really familiar, and it also sent him back to simple times.
He could use a little familiarity right then. As well as simplicity.
He missed going home without a reporter or two tailing his every move.
He missed being able to go outside and have fun without having to worry about tripping and ending up on the front page of some cheap tabloid because of it.
He missed Aunt Grace's Secret Chocolate Fudge and Chunk Cookies.
He missed Nashville.
He missed the days he ran underneath the sun, with the wind slapping against his face and breathing in the scent of daisies, the trees and the grassy earth.
Most importantly, he missed his best friend.
If he looked really hard at the girl fixing her stuff inside his… well, their locker, he could actually see his best friend in her.
They were both as sassy as can be. They had the same facial structure; doll-like and all that. The same brown hair that were either braided in the same braids or let loose, cascading down their backs. And they had the same spirit, almost.
This girl just lacked the warmth and pure innocence his best friend had. Miley was just a little too detached. A little stoic, as if she has been shutting a piece of her away from other people.
As he thought about this, Jake became convinced of one thing.
Maybe he couldn't go back to Nashville and to the Barfy Barbie. But he sure could make friends with the one person who was most similar to her that they could be the same person inside out… and bring some innocence and warmth to Miley Stewart's life in the process.