AN: Annnnnddd we're back, folks! Sorry that this took me so long. A lot of real life stuff was happening and I got inspiration for a bunch of oneshots, some of which have been posted and some of which will be posted before too terribly long. Chapter 4 is the shippiest chapter yet, so people who don't like Petunia and Larry together...I'm so sorry.


It was day one of songwriting lessons, and Larry couldn't mask his anxiety. Bony fingers drummed anxiously on the dull black of the piano stool as worrisome thoughts began to plague his mind. It was a silly idea. He shouldn't have offered. She was probably going to blow him off, anyway. Just like every other pretty girl he made plans with. Not that he thought this was a date. And yet, it's not like he didn't want to date her, should the option arise…

Great. He was already sounding like a stuttering buffoon in his own inner monologue. This was not going to go well. He considered leaving, honestly. He could come up with a reasonable excuse for why he bailed, he figured.

But all of that changed with the soft noise of ballerina flats on the floor just a few feet away. She was put together differently than the other times he had seen her. Gone were the glitter and high heels, her hair now tucked neatly into a braid, as she donned a blouse and jeans as opposed to the other outfits he'd seen her in so far. She had came prepared – arms full with a notebook, pen, sticky notes and highlighters. Within moments her dazzling green eyes connected with his, making him feel just a little dizzy, as she nodded and let out a small "Hi."

Larry sat in silence temporarily. Why was he so attracted to her? Where did this power she had over him come from? She was nothing like any of the other girls he'd ever harbored feelings for. If anything, he expected to feel this way about her bandmate, Vicki. But yet, it was Petunia. It was Petunia in all her redhaired, freckled faced, gangly glory. She wasn't anything he was usually attracted to, and she was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen in his life. "Hi." He finally answered, his voice cracking despite the greeting only having one syllable.

Long, spindly legs took short, uncertain strides towards where he sat before she joined him on the bench. She smiled softly, eyeing her hands rather than making eye contact, as she asked "So, where do we start?"


"What do you think they're doing right now?" Vicki asked, pausing from the ongoing brushing of her hair. Making sure her hair was soft and fluffy was her favorite thing to do when she was bored. Well, other than baking, but she didn't exactly have an oven or ingredients to bake with on the road.

Megan would have rolled her eyes had she not been putting on mascara at the time. "I honestly couldn't care less."

"It just seems so weird, ya know?" Vicki continued, despite Megan's obvious disinterest in the subject. "Like, how do you teach someone how to write a song?"

Megan tried to stifle her laughter, but it came out as an airy snort. Eventually, she was able to subdue the laughter to ask "You really think that's what they're doing?"

"Well, yes." Vicki replied, her eyebrows scrunching down a little in confusion. She wasn't at all sure what Megan was implying, but she knew that Megan knew something she didn't. "Why?"

"Didn't you see how they were looking at each other?" Megan asked, still giggly, "Songwriting is the last things on both of their minds. I wouldn't be surprised if his tongue was down her throat already."

"Pssshhh…" Vicki rolled her eyes, now back to brushing her hair. "Yeah right. I mean, obviously Petunia was drooling over him, but why would he want her?"

Megan merely shrugged as she dropped the mascara in favor of a plum colored lip liner. "Love works in mysterious ways." She offered vaguely.

This time it was Vicki's turn to snort in suppression of a laugh "Love? Really? You think someone who looks like he does could be in love with someone who looks like her? There's no way he's even interested in her. You or me, yeah, but Petunia isn't exactly pretty."

Megan was about to smack a bitch. "There's a lot more to being interested in someone than their outward appearance."

"Says the girl who's been doing her makeup for forty five minutes." Vicki mumbled, rolling her eyes. "Look, okay, I shouldn't have said it like that. It's not that she isn't pretty, it's just, she's like, normal people pretty. And celebrities date people who are celebrity pretty."

"Like you?" Megan asked, doing her best to keep her face neutral. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say someone's jealous."

The taller of the two scoffed. "Me? Jealous of Petunia? You're kidding, right?"


The room they sat in was small, and the piano was awkward and in the corner. However, it was the only place in the venue where they could sit and have this meeting, and Petunia was certainly not about to complain about their forearms brushing together every now and again. His arms had more muscle than she would've given him credit for.

"So, when it comes to song writing, there's two things you really gotta think about." Larry began. "That's style, and content. Obviously the two gotta match a little. But you can play around with them." He lifted his hand to play a couple chords "These are your basic pop chords, so maybe you could try work around them!" he suggested, smiling brightly. Turning to Petunia, he then asked "Do you play any piano?"

"A little." She nodded "I mean, I took lessons for years. But Megan, she can really play."

Larry turned to her, and told her, his voice soft – even softer than he anticipated "Just because she's better at it doesn't mean you're not any good."

"Thanks." Petunia replied quietly, still having not made eye contact the entire time.

Larry nodded, smiling a little, before shifting in his seat and turning towards the piano once more. "So, maybe we could work on content first. What are you guys like? What do you like to do? Do you want to be all boy crazy or should the first song be about something else? These are all very important things to consider."

"I hadn't considered any of that." Petunia admitted. "Well, how do you usually narrow it down?"

Larry shrugged, causing their forearms brush by each other's again. Petunia had bite down on her bottom lip to contain her giddiness. "Oh, well…." Larry trailed off in thought for a little bit. Come to think of it, he wasn't exactly sure how he picked a subject for a song. "…I guess it's always come naturally." He admitted with another small shrug, pretending not to notice Petunia's cheeks reddening while wondering if the same was happening to his own. "I suppose I just write about whatever's on my mind. Whatever I'm feeling. Whatever's going on in the Boyz' lives."

"And the rest of the band let's you do that?" Petunia asked, her eyes now widening in bewilderment "They let you know about their personal lives enough that you can write about it?"

"Well, yeah." Larry stated, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Because to him, it was obvious. Painfully so. "They're my bros. We're friends. They tell me that sorta stuff all the time, and I tell them, and we all write songs about it. I mean, you're friends with Megan and Vicki, right?"

Larry could tell almost immediately that he had just asked the wrong question. Her face blanched, as her eyes moved to focus on her now trembling hands in her lap. He felt his stomach twist in a knot of guilt – nausea overcame him in a wave far larger than he'd expected. He had no idea something so seemingly simple would cause her so much distress. More than anything, he wished he could go back and stop himself from opening his mouth. He'd gone and ruined everything, just like he knew he would.

Amidst Larry's troubling thoughts all swimming around in his head - a dizzying hurricane of guilty thoughts and feelings – Petunia's quivering voice cut through the storm like a heartbroken beacon of light "They hate me."


"You are jealous of her, though." Megan stated factually. It was beyond blindingly obvious to her that Vicki also had the hots for Larry. At first, it had confused her. Megan didn't really see the appeal in Larry. She supposed it was because he was tall. Truthfully, it's the only thing she could work out. Well, that and the celebrity status. But Megan knew she'd have enough of her own status one day in the very near future, so she never felt the need to flirt with fame.

Vicki couldn't believe what she was hearing. In what world was she ever possibly jealous of Petunia? After all, she was prettier than Petunia was. Smarter, too. Petunia was a better singer, but she was the better dancer, so on the talent level they evened out.

Amidst these thoughts, Vicki paused, momentarily. She was doing it again. She was tearing down other girls to build herself up. In this instance, it was Petunia. It was something she had done for as long as she could remember in order to feel better about herself. It was awful and vindictive and she knew it, but sometimes she couldn't help herself. After all, it was one of the only ways she knew of to build her own self confidence.

"Look, even if I was jealous, which I'm not," she replied, now pointing her hairbrush at the other blonde as though it were a weapon. "She probably isn't even allowed to date him. Ellen probably put something in our contracts about it. You know, celebrities only usually date for the publicity."

Megan sighed dramatically, tossing her head back. "The heart wants what the heart wants, Victoria. Mere contractual obligations will never stand in the way of true love's fire."

Eyeing Megan carefully, Vicki mumbled "Don't call me Victoria, it's weird." Before going back to brush the cascading golden tresses, doing her best to banish all thoughts of the previous conversation, in hopes of carrying on as though it never happened.


Meanwhile, Larry was having the equivalent of verbal diarrhea – he couldn't get the nonstop flow of apologetic words out fast enough. He knew he was going to screw this up somehow, and now he had. "I'm so sorry let's just pretend I never said anything I am I'm sure they don't hate you who could hate you I barely know you and I think you're wonderful…"

He was cut off by Petunia, green eyes now rimmed red from the salty tears threatening to break out. "They do. They hate me. I don't even know why."

"I'm sure you're wrong." He spoke quietly. Unbeknownst to the redhead beside him, his hand ghosted over hers, as he wondered if holding it would help or hinder the situation. He fidgeted, and one of his abnormally long fingers gently poked the backside of palm. She didn't recoil at his touch, which he took as a good sign. Daringly, he softly laid his hand on top of hers. "Not everybody gets along all the time. That's normal. But, gosh, you're so sweet, Petunia. I can't imagine anyone hating you ever."

The moment was bittersweet. On one hand, she was finally letting out all the negative feelings about Vicki and Megan that she had bottled up since she met the pair almost eight month prior. On the other hand, Larry's hand was on hers, and he was being the most genuinely sweet person she'd ever seen. Her voice, quiet and wavering, soon attempted to defy him "You don't even know me."

"Sure I do. At least a little." He smiled, slowly moving moving his thumb back and forth across her pinky finger. Her fingers were tiny, he'd noticed. Long, like his, but thin and fragile. "You're Petunia! You're in a girl group and you're a really good singer. You took piano lessons for years and you wrote a song once when you were in high school for a class project. And you're way too hard on yourself. You keep comparing yourself to the other girls but you shouldn't. Cause you're the kindest girl I think I've ever met in my whole life." A blush crept onto his face as he found himself voicing something out loud that he immediately wished he would've kept quiet. "Not to mention the prettiest."

Her eyes fluttered to the piano keys in front of her, blinking rapidly as she told him. "Thanks. But you don't have to say that to make me feel better."

"I wasn't." he stated bluntly. Surely she knew, didn't she? That she had him absolutely enthralled? That whenever she was around he couldn't take her eyes off of her?

What came next – a dismissive laugh – only made him feel unsettled. "Don't be silly." She started, her voice light, kind, but woefully weighed down with years of insecurity. "I mean, you've met Megan. You've met Vicki. Compared to them I'm…"

She was cut off, but gosh, his lips fit so perfectly on top of hers that she didn't mind. She felt dizzy, her heart pounding faster than she would have ever conceived possible.

"…still the prettiest." He finished for her, a smile poking through the hesitant look on his face. He was terrified that he overstepped a boundary. Gosh, he'd thought he'd ruined things before. He'd opened his mouth, ready to discuss what just happened. To ensure that she was okay with it. And maybe – in his wildest dreams – dare to ask for another. He'd even let out about half a syllable when suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Petunia, we have to get you ready. You're on in an hour!" came Ellen's voice from the doorframe.

Nodding, she got up, gathered her things, and followed Ellen out the door without another word.

Meanwhile, Larry remained seated on the piano stool, dumbfounded. Eyeing the blank sheet music, he realized they never got to writing anything. A part of him was surprisingly okay with that. Another part, however, had the sneaking suspicion that this might come back to bite him – perhaps in more ways than one.