Kristen pulled quickly into the parking lot of the recording studio, catching sight of a couple pesky paparazzi who stirred once they recognized her. She sighed, wondering how in the hell they figured out where she was, and grabbed all of her things in her hand – cigarettes, lighter, cell phone, keys – before throwing on her dark sunglasses and briskly walking toward the entrance. She heard the annoying click of the camera shutters and it sounded like black flies buzzing around her head. She scowled slightly, ignoring them and their less than entertaining questions about her personal life. Creeps.

Once inside she scoped around looking for some indication of Joan or Cherie, and when there was none she asked the receptionist if she could sneak out back for a smoke. She stood against the brick, inhaling slowly, brushing her shaggy, black hair out of her face. She felt her phone vibrate in her hand and she held her cigarette between her lips limply while she shifted the items in her hands to look at the screen more closely. It was a text from Joan.

"Hey – running late. Sorry! Just hang out in the studio, be there asap."

Kristen sighed, taking a final drag on her cigarette before dropping it on the ground and putting it out with her sneaker. She stood there for a moment before taking another out of the pack, placing it between her lips, and flicking her lighter. She usually didn't smoke cigarettes back to back, but what the hell else was she going to do while she waited? She slid down the wall and crouched slightly, holding the cigarette between her thumb and index finger, watching the smoke filter out into the air. She wished she hadn't left her iPod in the car, but there was no way she was venturing out past those photographers again. Her cell phone rang and she looked down at the call display, smiling as Dakota's picture popped up.

"Well, hello," Kristen said, exhaling.

"I think I'm lost," Dakota said quietly.

Kristen chuckled. "Where are you?"

Dakota hesitated. "Yeah, see that's the problem."

"Don't you have GPS or something?"

"No,"

"Well, tell me where you are!"

"Uh, well, I see, uh…I see a McDonalds. And, oh! Here, the street is called Dresdale Road."

"Turn around," Kristen said, smiling. "You've gone way too far."

"Shit," Dakota said under her breath.

Kristen heard her telling someone to turn back around.

"Who is that?" Kristen asked, studying her cigarette.

"My mom," Dakota replied. "Okay, I think we can figure it out. Thanks. See you soon!"

Kristen hung up and took a long drag off of her cigarette, holding it in her mouth for a moment before inhaling and exhaling quickly. She flicked the cigarette away from her and grabbed the things, standing up and walking back inside, deciding to wait for Dakota in the lobby. She popped a piece of gum in her mouth – a habit she had picked up because Joan was always chewing gum. She smiled weakly at the receptionist and sat down in the leather chair across her desk, picking up a magazine and sifting through it. She rolled her eyes at the article titled "The Ultimate Bachelor: Team Edward vs Team Jacob."

She looked up as she saw the door open in her peripheral, and couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as she saw Dakota walk in, her long blonde hair perfectly straight, wearing jeans and a Bowie tshirt.

"Hey you," she said, smiling.

"Nice shirt," Kristen said, nodding.

Dakota laughed. "This is me method acting. Is it working?"

Kristen smiled, biting her lip. "Yeah totally."

"Where's your mom?" Kristen asked, sitting back.

"Why? Did you want to meet her?"

Kristen shrugged.

"Well, maybe when you drive me home you can meet her."

"Oh, I'm driving you home am I?" Kristen asked, smiling.

"Yes please," Dakota answered sweetly.

Kristen tapped Dakota's shin playfully with her foot. "Joan's running late," she said. "And I guess that means Cherie is too."

"Cherie isn't coming to the studio today," Dakota replied.

"Why not?"

Dakota shrugged. Kristen frowned, wondering what exactly could be keeping Cherie from this.

"I'm nervous," Dakota said, putting her hands between her knees. Kristen nodded in agreement.

"At least you've sang before," Dakota said.

"When?" Kristen asked.

"In Into the Wild."

"That was different."

"How?"

"Tracy wasn't standing right there watching me do it."

Dakota smiled. "But, you have a deep voice like Joan's. I have this girly voice compared to Cherie."

Kristen blew a bubble with her gum and snapped it. "You'll be great."

They sat there quietly for a moment, stealing glances at each other. Dakota felt painfully obvious when she was with Kristen, yet at the same time totally relaxed. She was still slightly embarrassed from her behaviour the other night, but she knew Kristen didn't care.

Kristen, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what was going through her head lately. She felt like she wanted to be around Dakota every waking moment just to make sure everything was okay. When she was in the same room as her, she found it hard to focus on anything else. She felt guilty for thinking like that, kind of like a creep. But it wasn't really about that. She just felt completely and totally normal around Dakota.

Joan waltzed in, dressed head to toe in black, a coffee cup in her hand, pushing her dark sunglasses on top of her head.

"Sorry," she said, smiling slightly as she stood in front of them.

"No worries," Kristen and Dakota said simultaneously, laughing at their timing.

"You two ready to be rock stars or what?" Joan asked, smiling.

Kristen shrugged, standing up. "Sure," she said quietly.

"You're going to have a little more enthusiasm that than, Kristen," Joan replied.

Kristen gritted her teeth, jumping on the spot and grabbed her hair in her hands. "Fuck yeah!" she yelled, laughing awkwardly at her self.

Dakota giggled.

"That's more like it," Joan said, turning on her heels. They followed her into the studio, their hands brushing against each other, their hearts beating quickly as they tried to keep their cool. That was far more difficult than they had ever expected.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Joan said as they ate lunch together, surveying the response on Kristen's face.

Kristen shifted slightly in her seat across the table. "Shoot."

"What's going on between you and Dakota?"

Kristen laughed nervously. "What?"

"It's just that I have noticed this kind of vibe between the two of you. It's hard to ignore."

Kristen ran her hand through her hair, perplexed. "Are you serious?"

Joan nodded, slowly, sipping her water.

"N-nothing. We're friends. She's 15!"

Joan chuckled. "Okay, okay. I'm just askin'. Sorry, it's none of my business, anyway."

Kristen sat back in her chair, arms across her chest.

"I'm sorry if I've offended you," Joan said, reading Kristen's body language.

"You haven't," Kristen replied quickly.

"It's okay if you've thought about it, you know," Joan said, breaking the silence that fell between them.

Kristen shot her a daring look. "Thought about what?"

Joan looked at Kristen, a crooked grin creeping across her lips. Kristen just started back, knowing exactly what she was talking about but not daring to communicate it.

"Joan, c'mon," Kristen said quietly, leaning forward. "It's not like that."

Joan nodded. "Okay," and she left it at that.

Later on that evening, Kristen sat in her room trying to master the guitar chords Joan had shown her earlier. She had to play while they filmed and had been studying video after video of Joan playing in order to get it just right. She heard her phone vibrate and looked over at it. It was a text from Dakota.

"Hey. Whatcha up to?"

Kristen smiled slightly and typed back.

"Trying to master these songs. You?"

"Nothing. Bored. Randomly craving ice cream. Interested?"

"Hmm. Maybe. Can we get PinkBerry?"

"Totally. Pick me up?"

"Be there in 20."

Kristen put her guitar down and grabbed a hoodie off the back of her chair. She glanced at herself in the mirror quickly and ruffled her hair, throwing the hood over it, shoving her feet into a pair of sneakers, and dashing out the door. She pulled up to Dakota's house and debated whether she should go to the door. She decided to be polite and go in to get her. She knocked on the door, shoving her hands in her pockets as she waited. Moments later, the door swung open and Dakota stood there, a smile on her perfectly made up face.

"Hey," she said cheerily, grabbing her jacket and closing the door behind her.

"No one home?" Kristen asked as the walked to the car.

Dakota shook her head. "Just me."

"I wanted to meet your mom," Kristen joked.

"Why do you want to meet her so bad?"

"I dunno. I guess I wanna see how far the apple falls from the tree," Kristen stuck out her tongue, climbing into the driver's seat.

They drove quietly listening to music. Dakota sifted through Kristen's iPod.

"Don't judge me," Kristen said, glancing over at Dakota.

"You have way more music than I do!" she said, scrolling through the endless lists of artists. She selected a new song, and put the iPod down beside her.

"You like The Smiths?" Kristen asked, slightly surprised.

"I love Morrissey," Dakota replied, sitting calmly in her seat.

Kristen smiled to herself, happy that Dakota had picked this song. They wove through traffic, sitting quietly, letting the song tell its story. Dakota snuck her hand slowly underneath Kristen's as it rested on her leg at a red light. Kristen wrapped her fingers lightly around Dakota's tiny hand, never taking her eyes off the road, afraid that if she looked her in the face, it would ruin the moment. She could feel Dakota's eyes on her and a warmness flooded her cheeks. She let go of her hand as the light turned green, putting it back on the wheel, instantly wishing she had just kept it there. Dakota retreated her hand, placing it in her lap. Kristen looked sideways at her.

"You're cute," she said, pulling into the parking lot.

Dakota blushed, looking at her hands. "Thanks."

She cut the engine and turned to look at her. "Joan asked me something fucking weird today," she said.

Dakota frowned. "What did she say?"

Kristen hesitated for a moment before letting the words tumble out of her mouth. "She asked me if there was something going on between us." She laughed awkwardly.

A coy smile spread across Dakota's face. "Something like what?"

Kristen shrugged. "I don't know. Something like, that we have a crush on each other," she felt more and more uncomfortable talking about it, wishing she hadn't brought it up.

Dakota's face went bright red. "A crush?"

Kristen ran her hands through her hair. "Yeah, I told her she was being weird. But, like, I just don't know why she would say that."

Dakota shrugged. "Maybe we do."

Kristen flicked her eyebrows. "We do?"

Dakota turned slightly. "It's innocent. I'm only joking." She reached for the door and Kristen grabbed her arm, locking eyes with her.

"Dakota, we're just friends."

Dakota's eyes widened slightly, a look of confusing on her face. "Yeah, I know."

"You're only 15," Kristen added.

"And what if I wasn't?" Dakota asked softly.

Kristen stared at her for a moment. "But, you are." She let go of her arm, and turned quickly, getting out of the car. She walked around, the front, grabbing a cigarette out of her back pocket. Dakota sat there for a moment, confused about their conversation, before getting out of the car and following Kristen's smoky scent into the shop. She wasn't sure if the conversation was good or bad, but either way it was certainly replaying over and over again through both of their minds.