Loren walked into the cafeteria and searched for her best friend. It took some quick talking to get Eddie to agree to her going early. She used the best friend card and knew he couldn't object. The same body guard was sitting a table over, but this time he wasn't even pretending to be a student.

"Mighty Mel," Loren said as she dropped her books on the table. She was shocked to see Mel sitting alone at a table reading a book. Is this what Mel had been doing lately since Loren hadn't been around? Guilt instantly washed over her.

"Hey," Mel said. "What are you doing here?"

"I want to talk to you," Loren said. "I need to sit through History today, so I thought I'd come early so we could catch up. You didn't answer your phone last night."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," Mel said as she closed her book. "What's up?"

"I was about to ask you that," Loren said. "How'd it go last night?"

Mel was surprised to hear Loren address her about her problems. Mel had been used to hearing about Loren's issues lately. She didn't expect to have Loren show up to school early just to talk to her. It felt nice.

"I don't know," Mel said. "I mean, I might consider college but – "

"Not just that," Loren smiled. "The guy with the dark hair."

"Oh yeah, him," Mel said. "He was there."

"And?"

"He asked me out for coffee, but I said 'no.'" As Mel told Loren what happened, she felt better about her decision.

"Okay," Loren said being noncommittal. "What about Adam?"

"What about him?" Mel said. "He at least talked to me this morning. He wants me to drive him home so we can talk."

"That's a good sign," Loren said holding out hope.

"Yeah, I guess." Mel wanted a change of topic. "So, what's a house with two rockstars like?"

"The same as any other house," Loren said dropping her eyes. "Except I need a bodyguard."

"Nothing else on the wacko?"

"No," Loren said frustrated. "It's like I'm a sitting duck waiting for him to make his next move."

"Next move? What was his last move?" Mel asked.

"You know," Loren said. "Hey did I tell you my dad texted me last night?" Loren didn't want to discuss the stalker with Mel. It would make it too real, and she wasn't ready for that yet.

"Really?" Mel asked. "What did he want?"

"To see me," Loren said. She then added, "Again. He says he's going to be in town this weekend."

"Where does he live?"

"In Las Vegas, but my mom says he also has a house here. Can you believe him?" Loren asked getting upset. "He shows up at MK uninvited when I already had so much going on, and now wants to try and reconnect. There's no way that's happening."

"Of course not, Lo," Mel agreed.

"Trent can just keep himself in Las Vegas for all I care."

"Trent?"

"Yeah, he doesn't deserve to be called 'Dad.'"

"Right, because his name is Trent," Mel said.

Mel played it off as if that was what she meant. She now realized why Adriana did not want her to tell Loren about that phone call she had overheard yesterday. Adriana's mom was with Loren's dad. It made sense now. Adriana must blame Loren's dad, and therefore Loren, for her mom's apathy towards her. So now she had to decide if she was going to tell Loren. She owed it to her as a friend to tell her.

Loren looked up and saw that lunch was almost over. She needed to talk to Adam before she left for the day. She had History with him and hoped he got to class early so she could ask him a favor.

"Hey, I'll talk to you later. Remember, you need to come by Eddie's Friday night and get me ready for that gala."

"Of course," Mel said, glad for the change in subject. "I want you to blow up all the celebrity gossip pages."

"With your help I will," Loren said. She blew a kiss to her best friend and left for History class. Mel stared at Loren as she left, followed by her bodyguard, and decided maybe Loren didn't need to know about Trent. She clearly didn't want any interaction with him, so there seemed to be no point in telling her.

"Hey, Nora," Eddie said as he walked into MK. He didn't see Papa Max around, which was perfect because he needed to speak to her alone.

"Hi, Eddie. You just missed your dad."

Eddie hugged Nora looking perplexed, "He left you alone?"

"No," Nora said as she tilted her head to the right. There was a man Eddie recognized as one of the bodyguards he had used in the past sitting in one of the booths.

"Ah, good," Eddie said. He hesitated for a second and then said, "Listen, I wanted to talk to you about Loren."

"Sure," Nora said.

Eddie sat down in the booth with Nora. He didn't know how to start the conversation. Part of him felt guilty for talking about Loren behind her back, but there seemed to be no other way to get to what was bothering her.

"Is there something bothering Loren? I mean, besides this whole stalker thing?"

Nora seemed surprised by Eddie's question. "I'm not sure what exactly you're wanting to know."

"She doesn't seem herself. I thought maybe it was about her dad," Eddie said.

"She seemed to get over that," Nora said.

"Get over what?" Eddie asked.

"Trent showing up at MK," Nora answered.

Eddie was really confused. Loren hadn't told him anything about this.

"She saw him?" Eddie asked. "I meant the texts. When did that happen?"

"Oh God," Nora said, "She didn't tell you?"

Eddie saw disappointment in Nora's eyes as she shook her head. He could swear she even started to tear up.

"Nora, please tell me what happened."

"Eddie, Loren should really tell you – "

"I've tried to ask her," Eddie said clearly aggravated. "She keeps saying she's not ready to talk about it. But Nora," he continued pleading with her, "How can I let her suffer inside? I want to help her."

"I know you do, Eddie," Nora said squeezing Eddie's hand. She let out a sigh and began to tell him about Trent showing up the night of Loren's performance at MK.

"She was already dealing with so much," she paused and smiled at Eddie. "Even though you weren't there, she said that the only thing getting her through everything was thinking about your strength and how you had helped her through her past performances."

Eddie smiled. Those words warmed his heart.

"Trent had no right to show up that night after being nonexistent for 14 years. It wasn't fair, and it broke my heart to see her like that."

"So what happened?" Eddie asked.

"She told him how she couldn't trust because of him. How she always expected the worst to happen or for good things to go bad. And it's true, Eddie. She can't seem to fully enjoy things because she is always waiting for the bottom to come out from under her."

"Even me," Eddie said not having to ask.

"That's why I was so worried when you two started dating."

Eddie started to speak, but Nora interrupted him, "I know better now, but I will always protect my little girl."

"I know," Eddie agreed.

Nora put her hand on his shoulder. "I think she's afraid that if she comes to rely on you too much, you may just leave."

"I would never do that," Eddie said.

"I know," Nora answered. "And she knows that too, deep down, but through no fault of yours you did leave once. She was devastated. I had never seen her like that. You need to remember that this is a fear that has been with her way longer than you have. It's going take time to change her mind."

"It's starting to make sense now," Eddie said. "I guess she hasn't told you that Trent texted her and wants to see her this weekend?"

"No, she hasn't," Nora said with a humorless laugh, "And she probably won't."

"She won't even discuss these things with you?"

"Not if she thinks it's going to cause me pain. She'd rather suffer herself than burden anyone else."

Eddie thought back to a conversation he had many weeks ago at Loren's house. Loren was explaining how she got started writing music. She was reluctant to share that it was the pain of her father leaving that led to some of her most moving lyrics because she didn't want Nora to hear how much it really hurt that her dad walked out on her. Loren only shared the story when she was sure Nora was out of earshot.

Nora must have misinterpreted his silence, "Please don't think that this has anything to do with her not trusting you or loving you, Eddie. She does love you, and I'm so happy you're in her life."

"Thank you, Nora," Eddie said as he hugged her. "And I know Loren would never keep anything from me to be manipulative. But I need to find a way to break down her wall."

"She'll let you in," Nora said. "Just give her time."

"Thanks," Eddie said as he got up to leave. He wondered what carrying all that burden must feel like. Eddie always felt better talking out his problems. Sometimes just giving voice to dilemmas seemed to make them less daunting. Loren felt the need to carry everything on her shoulders and always with a smile on her face. Somehow he needed to show her that he was willing to accept some of her burden and that he was here to stay.

"Adam," Loren said as he sat next to her in History class, "I need your help."

"Oh, sure," Adam said.

Loren wondered at his reaction, "You sound like you expected me to say something else."

"No, it's nothing, I just saw you talking to Mel at lunch," he said sheepishly.

"Is there something you want to know?" Loren asked.

"No," Adam said. "What do you need?"

"Can you find out who is behind a website?"

"Like who runs it?"

"Yeah," Loren said.

"That's not too hard, but . . ."

"But what?"

"A lot of times people will use aliases or false names. And why do you need this?"

"Adam, I have to swear you to secrecy. Not even Mel can know."

"Hmpf, really no worry about me telling her," Adam said. Loren ignored the bite in Adam's comment. She really hoped that they could work out whatever was going on between them.

"I need you to find out who runs the ' ' web site."

"What for?"

"It could be a lead into this wacko stalker guy," Loren said.

"Well then shouldn't the police or Eddie- "

"No, Adam," Loren stressed. "You promised to keep it a secret."

"Yeah, okay I will. So what do I do with the information?"

"Just give it to me, and I'll take care of it."

In truth, Loren had no idea what she was going to do with the information. She was taking this one step at a time.

Loren walked back to her locker with her shadow of a bodyguard following her. She couldn't get used to the stares from the other students. She felt like a freak show. Maybe coming to school even for tests was a bad idea. She had to acknowledge that she was feeling less and less like a teenager.

"So are you at the studio all week?" Mel asked walking up to her.

"Yeah," Loren said. "We're gonna try and convince Jake and the record label to let us record together."

"Really?" Mel asked with a big smile. "That would be awesome! Are you doing "One Day at a Time?"

"I don't know; we haven't ironed out the specifics," Loren said as she closed her locker and prepared to leave. "You'll be the first to know of course."

"Of course," Mel agreed.

"Hey, good luck today," Loren said sincerely. "Call me; I don't care what time and tell me what happened with Adam."

"Okay," Mel said.

"If you need to come by Eddie's, do it. You have an open invitation."

"I'm not going to interrupt you two – "

"Mel!" Loren laughed shocked. "That's not all we do."

"I just meant I didn't want to bother you, but damn that was a quick reaction," Mel laughed. Mel sobered for a second and asked, "What are you going to do about your dad?"

"You told her?" Adriana said coming up behind them.

"Told me what?" Loren asked.

"Hey, Aid," Phil said walking up. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Loren noticed that there was tension between Adriana and Phil. She hadn't had a chance to ask Melissa how it was working out with them living at the Sanders' house and with Adriana pregnant. Adriana looked nervous as she dismissed them and left with Phil. Phil smiled at Mel and then turned and walked away with Adriana.

"What is that all about?" Loren asked.

"Something about her mother," Mel said. That was partially the truth. "She wants to go live with her while she has the baby. I don't see how that's going to work seeing as she wants nothing to do with her."

"No one deserves that," Loren said.

Mel agreed. She felt a pang of regret that she was never able to connect with her biological mom, Beth. She had to have comfort in the fact that at least she tried.

"Hey, what did Adriana mean by –"

"Hey beautiful," Eddie said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a squeeze.

"Eddie," Loren said surprised. She turned in his arms and he gave her a kiss. "What are you doing here?"

"Picking up my girl," he smiled. "Hey, Mel."

"Hey, Eddie," Mel said. "So, I'm gonna get to my next class. Some of us aren't rockstars and need to actually be here."

"You are a true rockstar. Mel," Loren said.

"In my own mind I am," Mel laughed. "See you guys later. I'll call you tonight, Lo."

"Come over if you need to," Loren assured her.

"What was that about?" Eddie asked. The hallway was getting emptier as the late bell rang. The few students who had seen Eddie did a slight double take, but it wasn't chaotic. Everyone knew that Loren was dating Eddie, so it wasn't too strange to see him at the school. All the attention still made her uncomfortable.

"She's having issues with Adam; I don't know," Loren said. "But hey, seriously, why are you here inside the school?"

Eddie narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. "Can't fool you, can I?" Eddie laughed. "I just wanted to talk to some people and figure out what happened the day of the fire drill."

"What do you mean?" Loren asked as she started to walk to the front of the school. "I told you what happened."

"I know you did, babe," he said as he grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. They were now completely alone walking through the hallway. Eddie nodded to the bodyguard, and he discreetly left them alone.

"I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a dry run for something else."

Loren got a little nervous. "And what did they say?"

"They said that it had come up last week that they hadn't had a fire drill all semester, so they decided to do one this week. Only they were surprised it was on Monday. The principal had advised to do it tomorrow."

"So do you think it had something to do with me?" Loren couldn't look Eddie in the eyes. If he figured out that the fire alarm was a ruse, would she be able to tell him everything that happened?

"No, it just seemed like they got their wires crossed," Eddie said. He led her outside to his waiting car. He slammed the passenger door shut after she slid into the passenger seat. He hesitated only a minute thinking about what he was going to do next. The truth was that the front office was trying to figure out why there was a fire alarm at all. One had not been scheduled. Loren's reaction told him she was hiding something. There were two minutes unaccounted for in her day. The fact that she couldn't meet his eyes and had scratches and bruises told him the alarm was a ruse to get to Loren. Now he needed to figure out a way to get the truth out of her.