Forbidden Love 3

Falling Fast

Disclaimer

I only own Hannah Montana in my dreams. However, I do own everything that you don't recognize. Tee hee.

Chapter #8

Shop Like Money's No Object

"Mrs. Oken?" I asked.

"This is she."

"Can I talk to Owen?"

"Owen's busy at the moment." She said sternly, as if I should have known better, and hung up. Rude much!

FALLING FAST

It was Saturday afternoon, the weekend after my grounding began. I'd spent most of the day locked up in my room, trying to get through an English reading. After suffering through almost half of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I'd given up for the day. Now I was lying lazily in our hammock, playing Tetris on my cell and listening to my iPod. The day was unusually cold, so I was curled under a light blanket with only my right leg showing to rock me by pushing off the wall.

Suddenly, my game was broken by a text message from Traci. It read:

Hannah!! MAJOR CRISIS!!

I sighed. The last time Traci had texted me with a crisis it was because she didn't know what to say to Zac Efron. Sometimes, that girl made me crazy. Still, she was my friend and I texted back.

What's wrong?

She replied almost instantly.

Can't find a good bathing suit, help! Am Shady Grove Mall.

Wow. Crisis. Still, I replied dutifully.

Am grounded, but I'll see.

With a sigh, I took off my headphones and flipped off the hammock. "Daddy?" I called, walking into the house. He looked up guiltily from a piece of chocolate cake. "Can I go to the mall?"

"You're kind of grounded, Miles." He replied, obviously relieved not to be being punished for excessive calorie consumption.

"I know, but its Traci. She's not gonna quit bugging me until I help her. It's just finding a bathing suit. Anyways, we need Hannah to be spotted out at malls and stuff right?" That was true. He'd been getting on my case not two weeks ago for not being spotted being "average Hannah" hanging at malls. A girl can't only be spotted singing, it's not natural.

"Fine." He sighed, knowing a lost battle when he saw one. "I'll drive you. We were going to meet Heather and Lily for dinner in a couple hours anyways."

"Thanks daddy!" I replied, stealing a quick bite of cake.

"Yeah, yeah, go get dressed." I sprinted upstairs while texting the good news to Traci.

FALLING FAST

Twenty minutes later I was wondering into the mall, wigged and hidden behind large-lensed sunglasses, although there was really no need. Shady Grove was our celebrity-mall. All the stores were high-end, and very few stores were ones you'd find in average malls. It was small, half-open half-building and as eco-friendly as they could muster. Everything shone; nothing was dirty in any way. It was almost eerie. But, it was cool. Merely walking in I'd already spotted Ashley and Vanessa walking into a store together, behind them was Zac looking hoodwinked and annoyed as he lugged their heavy bags. Stifling a giggle, I made my way to the store Traci had told me she was in.

"Hey Hannah!" she called from the racks of bathing suits. I wandered over to her. She was holding up two suits, one bold and rainbow-striped, the other a light yellow with a flirty ruffle. "I just don't know." She said seriously, shaking her head.

"Why don't you try them both on?" I suggested the obvious. She nodded, grabbing a couple more off the rack.

"Good idea." She led me to the row of changing stalls, pointing to one next to hers. "I found a couple you might like too." She told me. Sure enough, there was a small pile on the low bench.

"Oh Trace, I don't need a bathing suit." I whined, dropping my purse outside the stall.

"Come on, I feel so bad for dragging you out." She pleaded, turning on her too-useful puppy dog eyes.

"Oh fine." I sighed, closing the door behind me and looking at the piled of suits. I chose a red-white-and-blue piece with stripes and stars first. Very patriotic. The outfit would have looked a little dark, maybe edgy with my brown curls, but the straight blonde locks made it seem sweet and innocent, perfect for America's little pop star princess.

"Let me see!" Tracy called. I opened my door to find her holding her cell, pretending to take pictures like paparazzi. "Over here Ms. Montana!" she joked, waving a hand. I laughed and twirled, showing it off.

"Whaddaya think?" I asked, striking a pose.

"Cute!" Tracy squealed, placing the phone down. "Mine?" she struck out her own pose, then another. It was the yellow suit, which looked good with her black hair and brought out the blue in her eyes.

"Runway worthy!"

"Really?" she asked, disbelieving.

"Totally." I nodded, "And look! A runway just for us!" I joked, pointing to the short hall of stalls in front of us. At the end was a set of three floor-length mirrors and some cute chairs. I gave her a gentle push forward, and she began to strut. I followed behind her, blowing kisses and waving to the invisible crowd. As the end we posed and cheered for each other, setting ourselves into a fit of giggles.

We continued to model our possible purchases, finally settling on three each. Just as we were leaving, my cell went off.

"Daddy?" I asked, picking up.

"Hey Hannah." He greeted, "we're meeting for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in ten minutes, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." I answered, stepping away from Traci, "as Hannah, right?"

"Right." He told me, "no better way to get the best seat than to be a famous pop star." He laughed.

"Everyone here's famous too." I reminded him with a laugh. "I'll be there."

"See ya later Miles." He said before I turned the phone off.

"Traci, my dad wants to meet me for dinner, and it's all the way across the mall, so I better go." I told her.

"I'll come with." She told me, "I need to go across too, there's this ice cream store on that side and I've heard one of the servers is very cute." I laughed and we headed across the mall. It was fun to be "normal" and "famous" at the same time.

Author's Note

So I thought it would be fun to have her as "Hannah", but still be as a normal teen. Also, to show that she really isn't being punished all that badly. Plus, this kind of sets things up for later. Ooops! Said too much. Anyways, the story plan has been expanded to 26, 27 with an epilogue, so this is maybe a third of the way through, where before it would've been nearly half-way! I swear, the work of an author is never done…

My grades are goin' dooooowwwwwwn. No more writing for me. Haha. I'll still write! Remember, I'm writing this ahead of time! Like, I wrote this chapter way back in the first week of March! Eeeep! Well actually I'm writing it now.. but I'm guessing it'll come out around May or June? Maybe July! Wow, that's a long way away! I could have my permit by then! Scary! (for everyone else, not me!)