Disclaimer: I don't own Big Time Rush or any songs or musicians mentioned! I do own OCs, the plot and the original places.
A/N: Heya! Sorry for the long wait. School and life is hectic! But I think everything is going good and is just going to settle down from here. Also I changed the timeline because it wouldn't make any sense if it took place in 2013. So the year is now 1976 so Hannah would have been put on Anne's doorstep in 1964. I will edit that in the previous chapter soon.
Thank you so much for all the reviews, follows and favourites! Seriously, I can't stop smiling at the reception of this story. Thank you so much guys! :D
Also a special shout out Pink Princess 777! We have been friends before I wrote the story and I think she really deserves a shout out. Go check out her stories! And sorry I haven't gotten around to reading your one shot yet. It's been months! But I hope this will make up for my lateness along with a soon review.
UPDATE: Guys, I wrote this again because I wasn't happy with the last one. It is quite different so please read again.
Chapter 1: Roots
A fourteen year old Hannah Mickelson tapped her pen against the kitchen table, which she was working at. She had been given an essay for homework titled Roots for talking back to a teacher that was subbing for her usual History teacher, Ms Jenkins. Every time she thought about the sub, her eyebrows would furrow together, her green eyes would narrow and her hands would clench into fists.
She brought her pen down to the page and began to write, the blue ink flowing over the blank page: Roots
The kitchen phone started ringing, interrupting Hannah from her blank thoughts. She got up from her chair and headed over towards the phone. She held it up to her ear, "Hello?"
"Hi, Hannah," said the familiar chirpy voice on the end of the phone.
"Hey, Ash," Hannah replied half-heartedly, a frown on her lips. She could hear the noise in the background of people chatting and the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was being played. She could have been there.
"When are you coming to The Rock?" Ashley asked and Hannah could almost see her twisting the wire that connected the phone to the dial.
Ashley Brown was a hippie in nearly every way. Having not experienced a normal childhood, Ashley was kind, generous, childlike, innocent, a vegetarian and considered the 'weird one' of their group of friends. Paradoxically, she was also known in the group for having the best street smarts after Hannah. Ashley had long blonde hair that was parted in the middle and the top part of her hair was clipped at the back leaving a few strands of hair framing the sides of her face. Her eyes were a bright and vibrant hazel and were always bubbly.
"I don't know," she replied sadly, shaking her head and sighing. Her brows knitted closer together, her green eyes narrowed and her fists started to tighten. "That mother fucker, Mr Jenkins gave me a fucking essay to do and I have God damned writer's block."
"Well, you're good with your adjectives," Ashley commented in a teasing voice causing the brunette to roll her eyes good-naturedly. "Anyways, that's not the Hannah Mickelson I know! The badass Hannah Mickelson would say ''screw this'' and rebel and come down to The Rock to hang with her friends and help them win The Beatles Trivia Quiz cause she knows everything about them! Now, come on, where's that spirit?"
Hannah took a second to mull over her friend's statement before she leaned against the wall, which the phone was mounted on, and her green eyes started sparkling with devilment and her famous smirk came out to play, "What's the prise?" she asked mischievously.
"Yes!" came the cheer of reply from Ashley. "Great, I'll see you in a few."
"Bye-bye," Hannah said before hanging up the phone.
Hannah went over the kitchen table. She ripped a sheet of paper from her refill pad and quickly scribbled down a note:
Mom,
Gone to The Rock. Dad called and said he wasn't able to have us at his this weekend but he said he can have us over sometime this week. He said for you to call him. Mom, call him. I know you won't but you better. He's usually good at having us. Don't resent him. Also, Cassidy went shopping for groceries and the twins are over at Molly's.
Love Hannah x
P.S. Cynthia's payment is due. It's 20 dollars for the next five weeks. Remember to pay it. I really want to keep up my music lessons. Someday, I promise, I'll pay you back somehow.
Hannah grabbed her empty backpack it was empty because all its contents were spilled out on the table and placed it on the chair. She packed up her refill pad and pencil case. Who knew when inspiration would strike? That's why she carried a small notebook and pencil around with her at all times, mostly for music reasons. The brunette put on her coat and her bag before heading out the door of the house, locking the door behind her.
It was a cold October day as Hannah Mickelson into the town of Esterwinter, a small town in Minnesota. There was a soft breeze blowing causing fallen leaves to get blown around and for the brunette's hair to become a little out of shape.
Her hair was long and brown and cascaded around her face in the form of gentle curls. Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green that twinkled with happiness as she walked to her destination. Her makeup was subtle, pale foundation, beige eye shadow and rose pink lipstick, but no amount of makeup could cover up her rosy red cheeks, which looked so delicate and pretty in contrast with the paleness of her skin. Her eyebrows were plucked into perfect arches. But that was only because Hannah plucked them constantly plucked them every day. If she didn't they'd become monstrous caterpillars.
Hannah walked happily along with her backpack on her back. Hopefully, her five best friends would help her or have some ideas. Leo was probably the one she should go to first.
Leonard "Leo" Smith was generally sweet-natured, often clumsy and socially awkward taking the characteristics of the stereotypical "hot nerd." Sometimes he did have good sense of humour. Leo had the childlike need to always be right. Leo, despite being socially awkward, dated a considerable number of girls. Most of his dates were disrupted or completely ruined once his paranoia or geekiness got the best of him. He had deep set coffee eyes that were framed with black glasses and has brown locks that were cut like the classic Beatles' "mop top" haircut. He thought he looked like George Harrison. Hannah didn't particularly agree, than again she thought she looked like the brunette and green eyes Farrah Fawcett with her hair cut.
She arrived at The Rock in less than a couple of minutes, it was central of the whole town so it never took her very long to get there. When she opened the door to the diner, the sound of Silly Love Songs by Wings greeted her and the scent of tasty food waft up her nose while the warm air heated her body. She closed the door behind her and spotted her friends by a nearby table.
"Hi, guys!" Hannah said cheerfully as she threw her bag and back down at the wall before unbuttoning her coat. Her friends had chosen a table with a booth that could fit three and four chairs.
The booth was occupied by her friends Adam Davis and Ashley Brown while three of the seats were taken up by Axel Hyde, Emily Davison and Leonard Smith.
Adam Davis had lustrous brown hair that swished softly whenever he spoke and that shaped his face perfectly to show off his perfect cheekbones and flawless complexion. His chocolate brown eyes were left exposed and any girl foolish enough or not strong enough would drown in them, leaving them weak and powerless. Although, he was the perfect picture of a guy, he lacked in brains making him the 'pretty dumb boy' of the group. His good lucks and success with girls made him somewhat self-absorbent but he was loyal to his friends and his heart was mostly in the right place.
Axel Hyde was best known for his wise-cracks and his sardonic attitude, which provided a defence mechanism. He often taunted and teased his friends, usually in good nature, but was the most mocked and impersonated for doing this. He couldn't stand awkward silences or moments and always had to tell joke while enduring one. He was sweet though and helped his friends in any way he could, even if his rich, party animal parents didn't want him anywhere near them. His eyes were a piercing deep blue and often referred to them a lot when he was trying to impress a girl. He had soft, wavy, brown hair that sat on top of his head showing off his cute button nose.
Emily Davison had dirty blonde, shoulder length hair, baby blue eyes and lightly tanned skin which she inherited from her Greek heritage. She was a spoilt daddy's girl but was not a brat and the more she hung out with the gang the more she was willing to sacrifice her allowance to spend time with them. The other day her friends helped her through cutting up her four credit cards when she became in debt to her father.
"Hi!"
"Hannah!"
"Finally!"
Hannah smiled as she threw her bags to the side and slipped into a chair, "So what did I miss?"
"Not much," Emily replied, a frown present on her face. "Axel just ridiculed me liking Captain and Tennille again."
Hannah rolled her eyes when she heard this and formed her hand into a tiny fist before hitting Axel square in his shoulder triggering a girlish squeal to escape from the curly haired boy's lips. He rubbed his burning shoulder while glaring at Hannah and enduring the chuckles from Leo, Ashley and Adam. A bright beam replaced Emily's miserable frown.
"This is why you're my best friend," Emily admitted truthfully before taking a sip of her coke through a red straw that was in a red can. "That and the fact you have really good music taste and fashion sense and you're stronger than Axel!"
Adam chuckled, "Everyone's stronger than Axel," he said and the gang except Axel laughed in agreement.
Axel sulked playfully, "Feeling very loved, 'friends'."
"Aw, come on, you know we love you," Ashley said with a smile and watched as Axel's sulk turned into a small smile and a nod.
"Anyways, guys, can you help me with my essay Mr Jenkins gave?" she asked through gritted teeth and her brows furrowed, eyes narrowed and hands formed fists once again and the mention of the snob. "It's a hard topic and I have writer's block."
Leo nodded eagerly and raised his hand, "Sure, I'd be happy to help!" He slowly retracted his hand from the air as he suddenly became very aware that all his friends' except Hannah's eyes were on him and not in a good way. He coughed before scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, "What's the subject?" he asked timidly.
"Roots," Hannah replied bluntly and placed her refill pad on the empty table.
"That's easy," came the reply of five people in disbelief.
Each friend called out their idea and Hannah scribbled it down. She tried hard not to mockingly ask how they had a lot of good ideas. Hanging out with Axel did have a lot of disadvantages, sarcasm wise. But seriously, this topic made her dumbstruck while even Adam, who she did love dearly and always supported, had plenty of ideas.
Unable to bare their overwhelming help any longer, she politely stopped them with the excuse that she had enough, seeing that the essay only had to be a page long. Hannah beamed brightly as she tossed her refill pad into her bag. She returned into her natural occupation of being the group leader.
"Who's ready to win some concert tickets?" Hannah inquired with a great zeal and received cheers of enthusiasm from her best friends.
If they won The Beatles Trivia Quiz then they would win tickets to a Big Time Rush concert. They were one of the groups' favourite bands. They weren't their top favourite but they were up there. According to Ashley, Emily and Adam, Hannah sounded like the girl version of Kendall Knight, the leader of the group, when she sang. Hannah denied it more than a thousand times along with stating that she doesn't really sing.
When the quiz started, the group nominated Leo to be the writer as he was the smartest, therefore the best speller, and his writing was the nicest after Emily's. They all knew a good lot of the answers but Hannah knew the all. The gang cheered her on and supported her for her obsession. Sadly, they wouldn't know if they had won until tomorrow but Adam and Axel was sure they had it.
Axel and Emily walked with Hannah on the way home. Emily lived right beside Hannah and Axel needed to talk to his Dad's business, which was just past their block. The two brunettes said their goodbyes to Emily and watched her to make sure she got inside.
Axel turned his head to Hannah as he waved to Emily and flashed a crooked, concerned smile, "So how are you?"
Hannah stopped waving when her best friend disappeared behind her closed door of her house and turned to Axel, "Better. It's still hard, man. I mean, I even started looking for a job to support Mom. She can't look after herself properly now," she frowned deeply and Axel took a gentle, comforting hold on her right arm. "I used to ditch school with you guys and just spend time with music but now . . ." she shuddered jokingly. Hannah looked up at him with a playful smile and a spirited twinkle appeared in her green eyes, "I don't know."
Frank and Anne recently had gotten separated. They never had problems, since Hannah could remember, up until a couple of months ago where they were fighting continuously. They both bailed instead of trying to work it out, which was something Hannah was having a hard time wrapping her head around, although it wasn't in her nature to give up quickly or easily. But it was only a separation so she was trying to remain positive.
"Yeah, I know," Axel admitted, nodding in an understanding way. His parents got divorced when he was nine; he was going to help her through this. "So you've got my number if you ever need someone to bitch about separated slash divorced parents with."
"Love you, Axe," Hannah said with a smile as she wrapped her arms around his torso and felt his arms wrap around her.
"Love you too," he whispered gently before he let go.
Hannah grinned and headed to her house, waving to Axel as she walked. She twisted the door knob and to her luck it was open. The green eyed girl didn't want to have to go routing through her bag for the house key. She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Hannah hung up her coat and slipped off her shoes while she grabbed her refill pad and paper.
"Mom?" Hannah called as she went into the living room to finish off her essay.
"It's Cassidy!" the familiar voice called back in a sing song voice. "Mom stepped out for a while."
Hannah nodded but then realised her sister couldn't see her so she responded with a casual ok. She sat down on the couch and pulled out her green refilled pad for probably the fiftieth time that day and flipped it to the page where she wrote down her friend's ideas. Her green eyes skimmed over her whirly writing. A sigh of frustration escaped her lips and she slumped back into the couch.
Her friends had some great stuff but Hannah just didn't understand any of it so there was no way she could turn it in to an essay. Her eyes gazed over the blue ink prints once again trying her hardest to understand:
There is many meanings to the word ''Roots'' and can be used in a lot of different contexts. But all the time it has something to do with origin.
Roots are a person's background and it fills a family with pride and dignity to think about all the great things their ancestors did. It gives them the knowledge of who they are and where they came from. It defines who they are.
Roots will always be deep. You have to get to the root of the source before you can figure out anything.
No use. She threw the refill pad across the room in frustration and anger. Her green eyes followed it as it slid across the hardwood floor and hit the press where all document, photos and bits and pieces were held. The brunette stared at the press long and hard as if she was waiting for it to do something.
"Roots," she said, mulling over the word as it rolled over her tongue. She repeated the word a couple times more, with different expressions each time, until the word began to sound weird.
Maybe the reason I am struggling with this so much is because I have no idea where the hell I came from . . .
A/N UPDATE: Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed this more as a lot of you didn't review, sorry they just make my day :p but I really was unhappy with my other chapter, just didn't like it. It felt rushed. Anyway, I'll try to update this very, very soon. But I am and will be very busy these four weeks. In four weeks' time, the Christmas exams start and it is a very important and hard year for me so please support instead of rush and please don't bash my other fandoms, I love them all equally. :)
Peace ✌~ Mystery Girl 911
