OK. I'm not dead. I'm just in agony. Either way, exams are almost up, I'm left with just one. That means I'll have more free time now. There are plenty of things that I wanted to say to you, but of course I'm suffering from some post-exams amnesia. Funny that I mention it. But there's something CRAZY important to me. The title is from Rooney song, and I bet you know it. It's the only one song that seriously matters in this fic for me, bear that in mind. I came up with the chapter after listening to it all night long. (Too bad it can't save me and the fic from going all pathetic. I just need some whining, nvm. ;)

Kill me for errors, anything. I don't know a thing about dance schools. Kill me anyways, 3 weeks isn't that soon for update.

Big love for brittx3babee and kittydelara (yes, I'm starting to stimulate you for reviews, people.) (Pozdro Kudłaczo, uszy do góry ;D)

"Are you nervous?" Grace asked Chase, who just entered the kitchen, wearing only his night boxers.

"A little bit." he answered and started preparing breakfast for himself. Grace watched him calmly from her spot near the window, while sipping coffee.

"I still can't believe what you and your friends did on Friday. Poor Chloe."

"You like to go over and over things, don't you? That happens when you try to take control over my life." Chase answered pretty annoyed and looked at her with fake smile.

"Otherwise you end up at police-station, let me bring up one example of many."

"Mother, please, stop your speech now or you'll make us argue again. We don't want that on your last day here, huh?" he asked and turned his back on her, to find some eggs in fridge.

"At least you did right, leaving that girl."

"You're horrible! Can't you leave me alone for breakfast at least?" Chase groaned and then added unsatisfied "Besides, she has a name. Andie West. You just might want to remember that in future."

"No, I can't leave you Chase." she sighed like she was gathering all her strength. "I can't because I'm your mother and I care about you."

"Right." He shrugged only, and moved with his plate and mug to the table.

"Honestly, you're out of MSA soon and you have to think about your future career. Girls like Andie can easily get in your way at succeeding."

"I will be just fine. And I will try to get with her back. End of story." Chase said soundly.

Grace knew that for her it was the time to leave the room. She sighed once more unhappily and walked out of the kitchen. Chase was as annoyed as she was. He couldn't stand the way his mother treated him, but had to agree with the fact that he needed to think about his future very soon. Today afternoon was the first battle to take.

Blake interrupted his thoughts brutally by throwing his bag to the kitchen floor.

"You're still in a mess. Hurry, hurry!" he said.

"What? Why?"

"You're going to school with me today."

Chase looked at Blake like he was from different space-time.

"Three of us decided you're banned on your car." Blake answered and laughed at Chase's face.

"Are you nuts? How we're going to get to the Theater? Why I haven't heard earlier about this?"

"You can go with me. You should think about it before you got into trouble last weekend, Tyson."

"Right, so should I give you my keys obediently?"

"No need. I served myself already." Blake smirked and patted pocket in his jeans.

"I hate you." Chase grumbled and stood up. "Out of my way, you collaborator ." He added while trying to pass through his brother.

"By the way, I'm sure West would be pleased to hear that you keep photos of her next to Backstreet Boys poster."

"That's Breaking Benjamin, ass, and you know it. And stay out of my room." Chase threatened him with his index finger.

'

Their ride to the school was pretty quiet, as Chase was still offended with Blake. Actually he didn't like the feeling not to be the one that drives the damn car.

"You can talk to me, you know." Blake tried to ease the tension.

"I'm not particularly in the mood." Chase answered and shrugged.

"Oh, for God's sakes, you're going to get your stupid car in 3 days probably."

"That's not it. I have a weird feeling."

"Of?"

"I don't know. A feeling." Chase shrugged again. "Like something wrong is gonna happen."

"Oh right. Like loosing state competition?"

"Maybe."

"Better not. Is Fox coming to the competition?"

"Yeah, he told me he will."

Then Chase remained silent for the rest of the ride. He was about to leave the car as they stopped in front of MSA, when Blake reminded him "The whole thing starts at 5 pm. I'll be waiting for all of you one hour earlier here."

"Yeah, yeah." Chase answered quickly.

"Don't forget to take your crew t-shirts from the dance studio!" Blake shouted after him, but Chase was gone already. He quickly jogged into the school, scanning through the crowd in order to find someone from MSA crew. He was about to give up on it, and retry after the first lesson, when he stopped dead in his tracks. Chase was pretty sure that for a second his heart have stopped. At the other end of the corridor Andie was talking to some guy from school rock band. It was rather obvious that he was hitting on her, and she was giving in. The very next moment Chase felt a light poke on his arm, to find Moose at his side.

"How's your toast?" Moose asked, apparently being in good mood.

"I think I got my hopes up stupidly." was the only reply from Chase. Moose looked into direction that Chase's stare was at. Before he could say something Chase added "Could you tell her that Blake is taking us to the competition at 4 pm?" and after this question he disappeared somewhere. Moose sighed slightly and made his way to Andie.

"Can I borrow her for a sec?" Moose asked the guy, while forcing a smile, and grabbed her by arm to the side.

"Chase made me tell you that we're going to the Theater around 4 pm with Collins."

"Can't he tell me this himself?"

"First of all, you two aren't talking, do you remember? Secondly, I think he just went somewhere to stick his heart together again after seeing you in here. Are you tryin' to make him beg on his knees for your mercy in front of everyone, wearing only sackcloth?"

Andie frowned upon these words. Sackcloth sounded nice.

"I did nothing wrong." she answered, as they started to walk for her English class.

"Right." Moose answered not convinced much.

"Chill out, OK? I'm just playing around with him, like he did with me."

Moose shook his head.

"I don't think he tried that hard to get with you earlier, just to play with you. But hey, that's just my opinion." He said and left her, cause the bell for lesson already rang.

Feeling even worse than before, Andie followed people to the class, her mind a complete blank.

'

Around 3:30 the crew seemed to be still in dispersion. Andie had nothing to do, so she was waiting for everyone else, sitting at the front steps. Soon she was joined by Moose and Sophie.

"I can take some of you in my car." Sophie offered as they sat down next to her. Andie nodded, not answering. She was listening wordlessly for a couple of moments to Moose and Sophie, who's been playfully arguing over the competition. Then she heard some very girlish laugh. Soon she saw Chloe with three of her friends standing in front of her. Her hair was in beautiful shade of blond and black, but she seemed to accept the fact.

"Good luck bitch, you'll desperately need it." Chloe said, heading for her car, clearly going to Theater too. Andie stood up quickly.

"You did not just said that."

"I did."

"Take it back."

"In your dreams."

Andie was about to kick some sense into her lousy butt, but some strong hand stopped her. Chase quickly removed his hand from her arm and spoke up.

"You." he nodded at Chloe "You out of my sight."

Chloe recognizing his bad mood disappeared in one second. Chase on the other side walked over to Moose and gave him a bag with a couple of crew t-shirts.

Andie was furious. Since when he was able to rule everything.

"I wanted..." she started to say, but he interrupted her.

"I know what you wanted." he responded not looking at her.

"It's none of your business if I want to kick her ass."

"It is as you're about to go to state competition."

"Yes, but my opinion counts in here."

"I wouldn't really care." he answered harshly for last time.

Andie kept watching him madly, but he definitely cut off the conversation.

"Missy saves the day." Moose said to himself, noticing that the Latin girl just arrived.

"What's wrong?" she asked Andie, feeling the weighty atmosphere.

Andie just shrugged and sat down on the other side of stairs. In that case Missy sat down next to Sophie and asked her quietly the same thing.

"They just had an argument." Sophie whispered back.

"Oh, right. Now we're getting somewhere." Missy said and Moose looked at her surprised. "I prefer if they fight, than go all silent. This silence drives me crazy." she added shrugging.

"Weren't you on her side?"

"I'm at no one's side if they both act freakin' infantil."

They heard unhappy sigh from Chase, who's been pacing at the pavement, and immediately stopped the topic.

'

Blake stood right next to Chase, while most of them were watching Simon's group perform behind curtains.

"Well, I should be happy if they win, right?" Blake summarized.

"Oh, shut up. I hate the fact that we're the last ones in this thing." Chase answered, noticing that these girls used probably every cheerleader trick they ever knew.

"Chase, don't talk to me like this." Blake warned him, but realized that after a couple of seconds his gaze found Andie, and turned into pretty sad one. He got closer to his brother and whispered into his ear a question.

"Still no progress in there?"

"There is a progress. Just backwards one." Chase whispered back shrugging.

"Is she that stubborn?"

Another shrug.

"What? You give up?"

"I guess so."

Blake couldn't ask why, because it was the moment when the current dance finished. The audience applauded loudly. Everyone from MSA crew put on their crew t-shirts and got on the stage when the director of the show let them on. The whole sequence of the dance was very blurry for Andie. She never had such a big and serious audience. Also Chase didn't help her mentally at all. In his steps he was all perfect and accurate, but she could feel how much in pain he was while moving around her. They both knew they were very angry with each other, but that fact just intensified their moves, as well as their need for one another. She wouldn't know why it happened so fast, but finally they we're left alone at the stage, ending the dance with calm part of salsa. Andie now was in dress and Chase in black shirt, as both of them threw away their t-shirts earlier. At the end of the dance he grabbed her strongly, so she finished while being literally at him. They heard the audience clap again, but as once before, Chase held her still.

"You drive me crazy so much." he whispered.

"You did say that some time ago, and look what happened." she replied and got out of his grip. They bowed to the audience and left the scene. Before anyone could interrupt them, her grabbed her by waist once more and lead to the wall.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Chase asked sincerely.

Andie looked him in the eyes.

"Why you did this to me?"

"Oh, come on, it's pointless. You know I want you back." he said and bend down over her, so their faces were millimeters away.

"Are you sorry?"

"Are you?"

"Chase, Andie, dammit, come here!" they heard Blake shout from stairs. "This gentleman wants to speak with you." he added and intoned his voice meaningfully. Chase didn't want to, as he was close as hell to get Andie back, but she pushed him off herself.

"We'll talk later, you better believe me." Chase warned her as they followed Blake. Upstairs they found Blake talking with a couple of people. Some tall and old looking man came to them.

"Very interesting, very. I heard that you did the choreography yourself." he said in polite voice.

"Almost. My brother helped us a little." Chase answered and noticed that Blake was looking at him carefully.

"Andie, right?" the man turned to her, and she nodded. "Are you finishing MSA this year?"

"No, sir. I just got there."

"She will finish it in two years." Blake cut in.

"Ah, too bad. Impressive, though. And what about you, junior Collins?"

"I'm out this year." Chase said. His heart jumped just a little, because he realized that it was some famous dance teacher from New York, that Blake told him a couple of times about.

"Would you be interested in audition for Juilliard?"

Chase's eyes grew louder at the name of the school.

"I mean you still got to do some serious work, but I'm pretty sure that this audition would be just a formality. Although, if your group wins today, do the paper work and you're in."

"Thank you, this is an unbelievable opportunity." Chase replied quickly.

Andie watched the three of them start a conversation about dancing. She knew the school they were talking about was in New York. What's they point of giving up her hopes for him again?

"Excuse me." she said politely and backed out to find Missy. She went downstairs again, found the crew in corridor. But there was no Missy.

"Have you seen Missy?" Andie asked them.

"I think she was talking to Tony Fox near the entrance some seconds ago." Hair answered.

"Thank you." she said and headed for the entrance. There she found both of them, talking vividly, flirting obviously also.

"Emergency." Andie squealed to her.

"What?" Missy asked like she didn't get what Andie said to her.

"I'm giving into him." she answered through her teeth, so Tony wouldn't hear what she said.

"Well that's good, eh?" Tony laughed. "Relax, it's not like I don't know what you're on about, girl."

"Chicka, if he truly loves you, there's nothing to wait for." Missy said kind of dizzy.

"What? What are you talking about? I don't know if he loves me. But you were about all this crap 'we deserve respect' and so on..."

"Chill, Die." Missy cut in her words and put her hand on her shoulder. "We do. But we deserve to love. Let's not complicate that."

Andie kept staring stupidly at Missy and Tony, then she understood.

"OH. Ooh. OK. But how?" was the only thing she could ask.

"Your blondie arranged some matching here."

Then Hair came for them.

"Let's go, they're about to give away the scores." he said smiling.

As they reached the audience Andie's thoughts were in the biggest chaos ever. She cursed in mind at her naivety. She didn't want to win the stupid competition at all, because that would ruin everything. Everything that was ruined already. Andie was listening the tall man, she met earlier, who's been talking about dances on the stage.

"Finally, here are the three winners. The third place goes to the Vet's group from the Private School of Dance in Baltimore. The second goes to... the Blondies from the Maryland School of Arts."

The MSA crew couldn't not chuckle at their name.

"Director Collins you can be really proud cause the first place goes to the other group from your school..." the man from jury said and Andie started a mantra in her head saying 'no, no, no, no fucking no!', but otherwise, the man said these words: "the MSA crew."

She stood there, watching everyone go in euphoria, her mind in complete emptiness.

"Damn the stupid competition, damn me." she thought as saw Chase go to the stage to represented the winners. After a couple of minutes she quietly left the Theater and went for home on foot.

'

Chase was searching for Andie everywhere, but failed at this. One minute she was there, just to vanish in next one. Somewhere around the main theater stairs he met his parents.

"Honey, we heard the good news. I'm so happy foryou." said Grace and hugged her younger son.

"Have you seen Andie?" he asked.

"Yes. She's quite a good dancer. Pretty, pretty girl." Thomas said smiling.

"No. I mean, have you seen her after the show?" Chase asked again, looking around.

"I'm sorry son, I didn't." his mother said apologetically, and Chase was shocked to see the difference in her behavior. "I'm sorry also what I've said about her. After all she did help you to get to this school."

Chase's mind sped through all earlier events of the day. Then he understood. They were just about to reunion, when the whole New York thing happened. New York meant no Andie. Instead of Andie - parents. At least that was what she might have thought about.

"I have to find her."

"Go get her, son." Thomas said and patted him on back. "We're going now to the airport, take care then."

"We'll visit you on Christmas again." Grace added. They hugged him both, and let him to run.

Finally he found Blake.

"Blake, car keys, please!"

Blake turned to him, pretty surprised.

"What are you talking about?"

"I need to go somewhere, please?"

"Chase, be serious now. I need my car in a couple of minutes, and do you seriously think I go around the city with your keys in my pocket?"

"Yes?!"

"OK." Blake shrugged and took the keys from his pocket. He threw them at Chase and said "You better have a damn good reason for this."

"Yeah, right." Chase answered quickly and run out of the building. He ran to their house, as it wasn't that far from center. The worse thing was that Andie lived quite away from Baltimore center, so he had to hurry. After something like 10 minutes he reached their house and got quickly into his car. Minutes were turning into hours for him. The whole mess, both of them created, was killing him.

10:30 pm and he was already parking near her house. Chase jumped out of the car quickly, and once again that day, he stopped dead in his tracks. He noticed on the other side of the street Andie talking to Tuck, near the second one's car.

"Why are you coming home alone?" he heard Tuck ask her.

"Like it's the first time ever. Why are you here with your blokes, anyway?"

"I'm just checking that everything is okay in our district. You haven't answered my question. I'm asking you because I saw you cryin'."

"Just leave me alone, you shouldn't care anymore." Andie barked at him and tried to go away but he stopped her.

"Andie!" Chase called her. She turned to see him, and immediately her face showed fear.

"Go away Chase, I don't want to talk to you!" she shouted back. Andie was damn scared because she knew Tuck was in bad mood. She knew also that he is very dangerous then.

"You heard her, go away whore." Tuck said angrily.

Chase didn't listen to him and came closer.

"It's a thing between me and Andie, moron, so stay away." he replied and turned to the girl "I need to talk to you, Andie. Please."

"You're getting on my nerves, white ass. I had enough." said Tuck and took out his gun and pointed it at Chase. Andie's heart went dead as she heard three shots. Everything went dead slow. Tuck in one second jumped into his car and drove off. She turned her head to find Chase laying on the pavement, blood coming from his body. He must have hit his head with pavement edge when he have fallen , cause she noticed blood on his head also. Then she heard Sarah's voice from behind her.

"Oh God, what happened?! I'm going to call for ambulance."

Andie couldn't move. Finally she ran quickly to him, like understanding the whole situation.

"Oh God, oh fucking God."

'

Chase blinked his eyes a couple of times, before it adjusted to the bright light. Every face in the hospital room turned to him. He wanted to move, but he only came up with loud groan. Then he heard some sweet voice. Sweet voice, that was shouting at him.

"You ass! You stupid ass! Oh God, I so much hate you at the moment. Don't you understand when I tell you to go away, I know what I say, you stupid band boy."

His head turned to his left side. There was this pretty brown-haired girl, shouting at him, her eyes full of tears.

"Hey, beautiful don't cry. Do we know each other?"

Mwahahaha. Eek. Chase has to learn about his life again, can Andie stand it?

- JJ