Chapter 2 ~ Denial
The ride to Tiera's hotel room was quiet. She was so busy looking out of the window at everything, neither Mr. Weasley, Fred, nor George wanted to interrupt her. They were just amused at how excited she could be to see every little thing. They realized then how much they'd taken for granted.
Thankfully, they got up to Tiera's hotel room without any major problems. When she closed the door she saw the three Weasleys looking around and understood how she must have looked on the ride there.
"What's this, then, KJ?" Fred asked, gesturing towards the television set.
"That's just the TV."
He looked at her, unsure of what she meant, so she pushed the "power" button on the remote control. Her three guests jumped as the screen came to life. She just smiled and watched briefly as "Total Request Live" came back on from a commercial break. She had found that in that hotel she could watch MTV. It was a pleasant surprise, and she'd taken advantage of it as often as she could.
Just as she was opening one of her large bags, however, she heard Carson say, "I know you've all been waiting on the news about Tiera."
He waited for the screams to die down before continuing. "We've been alerted that, unfortunately, she's gonna *have* to postpone the end of her tour."
Some "Awww . . ."'s sounded, and Carson smiled. Tiera (having met Carson a few times) could see that he was about to say something that was very entertaining to him.
"Now, I'm sure you all wanna know *why* Tiera's postponing the last month of her touring." He paused, holding back a laugh. "It seems she broke her ankle *and* her arm falling down some stairs in the hotel she's staying at in London. Apparently the bellboy went into shock."
Tiera began to laugh. "Oh my gosh. Not only is Frank full of it--he's *made* of it."
Carson continued, though some snickers were still audible in the background. "I thought that news was appropriate for this time, since, once again, our lady, Tiera, is number one with 'Precious Mirage.' And since we have enough time, we're gonna play the whole video for you!"
Tiera's mouth dropped open--along with three redheads who were also in her room, watching--as she watched herself on the television. It really was the beginning of her video for "Precious Mirage," and she blushed as she saw herself lounging in a chair by a large swimming pool in the rather revealing swimsuit her stylist had found for her.
They watched as she started to sing playfully, lowering her sunglasses to look up at the camera through her long eyelashes.
"I like boys. I could have any one. I like boys. Cause boys are lots of fun!"
George gave her a sidelong glance, smirking, as she turned red. Tiera watched herself stand up and begin to walk, a posse of guys in swim trunks around her.
"I don't think I'm anything extraordinary. When I look in the mirror all I see is me," her reflection sang with a shrug. "Sometimes I might act on the contrary, but it's all a front to hide my insecurity."
Then Tiera noticed something else on the screen. The stats for her video.
"Oh my gosh. *Oh my gosh.*"
Fred turned to her. "What's wrong?"
"I--Nothing, it's just--I'm--I've been number one for the past 12 days!"
"That's good then?" George asked.
Mr. Weasley was glancing alternately at her and the television. He wore a half-frown, half-smile, though she wasn't sure how he managed it.
"It's great! I--I didn't think I'd ever get to the top five, much less number one! And for *twelve* days!" She let out a squeal. "Ooh, I could just kiss someone!--But I won't. Don't say a word, George."
"I wasn't gonna say anythin!"
"You were thinkin it!"
He let himself grin. "Well, okay. But I wasn't gonna say it!"
She rolled her eyes. "*Mhm.*"
Finally, she got back to packing her things as they looked around. A few minutes later, she tapped Mr. Weasley on the shoulder tentatively. He was examining the phone on her bedside table.
"Quite amazing, how things can work without magic, isn't it?"
She smiled and waved toward the bed where her four bags were lying. "Yeah. Um, I'm all packed, so . . ."
"Fred, George, come on, then," he called, picking up the largest bag, then directed the twins to the other large bags. "You carry those two."
They had picked up her bags and given her looks that somehow made her certain she was helpless to stop them. Shaking her head, she picked up her smaller bag and headed toward the door.
On the way back to the Burrow, George remembered something that he'd forgotten amidst all of the other excitement.
"Say, KJ?"
"Yeah?"
"When you were . . . talking . . . into that . . . thing, you said that . . . 'it wasn't another joke,' right?"
"Um . . . My cell phone? Yeah, I said that."
"Well . . . What did you mean by that?" he asked, smiling.
"Um . . . Well, see . . . I kinda . . . like to play pranks on people and um . . ."
"Go on."
"Well, I sort of made him mad last time I played one, cause it was on him."
He gave her another look. "Would you care to enlighten us?"
"Well . . ." She giggled. "It's kinda a long story . . ."
"Come on, KJ, just tell us," Fred said, also smiling.
"Well . . . Okay, so I have a meeting with my manager, Frank, right? And I just . . . happened to get there early. And I just happened to have a few . . . things with me, that I thought I ought to put to use. So I did. Only, he didn't know it, and when he found out--"
"What'd you do?"
"Um . . . Well, first, he tried to open the door but the door knob wouldn't turn, cause *somehow* vaseline had gotten all over it and it made it all slippery," she said with an angelic look. "Then he started pounding on the door, so I opened it and sat back down.
"He started to walk in then, but he walked right into a big piece of Seran wrap that *somehow* had got taped on the door so you couldn't see it. His face got really red, and he tore it off, then he came in and sat down in his chair, makin a face like this--" (She imitated what Frank had looked like, reminding Fred and George of Professor Snape. They laughed.) "And then he picked up his phone like this--" (She began to demonstrate, knowing they weren't really around telephones much.) "And he put out his finger like this, and pushed the button for Line 3, like I knew--well, like *someone*musta known--he'd do, and then he tried to move his hand and it wouldn't go. Cause *somehow* there was superglue on that certain button. Then he put the phone up to his ear like this, and got this funky grossed out look on his face like this. Cause for *some* reason, there was butter on the part where your ear goes. He yelled at Linda (That's his assistant.) to get in there and clean everything up. Then he yelled at me to go back to the studio and--" (She exaggerated his tone of voice.) "We'll talk about this later, young lady."
Then Tiera started laughing along with the others again, remembering Frank's facial expression. A few seconds later, the car stopped and she realized that they were back outside the Burrow.
About ten minutes later, she found herself in Ginny's room. That was where she'd be staying. Ginny was helping her unpack and they'd been silent for a few minutes.
"So you and Harry, huh?" Tiera asked casually.
Immediately, Ginny's face turned bright red. "W--what?"
"Well you like him. Right?"
She stuttered for a second as Tiera waited for an answer, holding back a grin. "How did you . . .?"
Tiera finally smiled impishly, reminding Ginny of Fred and George in an odd way. "I have my ways. You wanna talk about it? Cause I mean, you really can't talk to any of your brothers about it, and I know you're not gonna talk to him."
Ginny stared at her for a few minutes more as Tiera kept unpacking. Then she sighed. "It's just, he's so . . . so . . . *him*." She sighed again. "I know, that sounds stupid, but--"
"No it doesn't." She smiled. "I understand what you mean."
Ginny smiled, but then she began to look upset again. "The problem is, he only thinks of me as Ron's little sister. He--"
"No he doesn't."
"What?"
"He doesn't just think of you like that. He thinks of you as his friend. Not only that, but I saw him looking at you earlier."
The redhead had started to look more cheerful until the latter comment. "Oh, come off it."
"*Really.* Anyways, I see you're not going to listen to me at the moment. But you'll see."
"Sure I will, KJ."
"Keep your eyes open, Ginny. Kay? And don't be afraid to be yourself around him; I've made that mistake before. Trust me, it *is* a mistake."
"Thanks, KJ."
"No prob. Hey listen, I'm gonna go find Harry. I need to talk to him."
"You're not gonna say anything, are you?" Ginny asked suspiciously.
"No, I won't. Though I think maybe you should."
Tiera had no idea where to go to look for him. She couldn't find anyone to ask, either; Ron was out de-gnoming the garden (Apparently he'd gotten in trouble while they were gone. Tiera hadn't asked what he'd done.), Mrs. Weasley was wrapped up in a book and she looked as though if someone interrupted her reading she'd have a heart attack, Mr. Weasley was gone, and she didn't want to go back and ask Ginny. She finally just walked along the hall to find which doors were closed--that would narrow it down for her.
Suddenly, there was an explosion in the room she was just coming up to. She jumped, startled. Knowing that must be the twins' room, she knocked. George opened the door a second later. Seeing Tiera, he smiled; she couldn't help but smile back.
"Hello, KJ."
She laughed. "Hi George. Um . . . Do you think you could tell me where to find Harry?"
"Oh, yeah, he's in the room next door."
She laughed again. "So close. Okay, thanks."
"Anytime," he said with a wink.
As he closed their door, she started toward Harry's door. He opened it a minute after she knocked, looking cheerful.
"Hi KJ."
"Hi Harry," she said with a smile. "Listen, um . . . I was wondering if we could talk."
"Sure. Come on in."
She entered and they sat down on his bed. "I was just . . . Well . . . neither of us have any other family, right?" He nodded. "So . . . I was thinking . . . I don't wanna lose touch with you. And . . . I'd kinda like to get to know you better before I have to leave again, ya know?"
He nodded again. "I'd like that."
There was a pause and she laughed. "Well . . . Ooh! Idea."
"What?" he asked, laughing.
"The great chocolate bar of truth."
"What?"
"It's something I read about that these two girls made up. Anyways, what you do is you take a great big Hershey bar, and you each get a side of it. You take a square for every question you ask, so you get as many questions as there are squares on your side. Thing is, you *have* to answer each question honestly, and you only get as many questions as there are squares on your side."
"That's strange."
"I know," she said, laughing again. "But it's a good way to solve arguments. Since we aren't solving a problem, we could ask more questions, though, once we run out of chocolate, if we wanted to. That way we'd have already gotten started and stuff."
"All right." Another pause. "You have any chocolate?"
"Oh! Oops. I forgot about that. Yeah, I do; just a sec."
With that, she walked out of the room and down the hall. The door to Ginny's room was open, so she just walked in and grabbed the king size candy bar she had stashed in her bag. She'd had to sneak it past her nutritionist. Then she hurried back to Harry's room and sat down beside him, placing the candy bar between them.
He shook his head. "Girls."
"Hey! You know you love us."
"Whatever you say."
"You wanna go first?"
"Sure." He broke off a square of chocolate, but had to think about a question for a minute. "What do you think we should call each other? Cause we don't know how we're related."
"Um . . . I really don't know. What do you think?" she asked, breaking off a square.
"I don't know either."
She smiled. "Well if you don't think of anything, I'm just gonna start calling you my brother until you do."
"That's fine," he said with a smile. "As long as I can call you my sister."
"Deal."
"Birthday?"
"Same as yours, except I'm a year older."
"Really? How do you know?"
"I know a lot of things."
Twenty minutes later, Tiera picked up the last square of chocolate. "You like Ginny, don't you?"
This caught him by surprise. "What?"
"Shall I repeat the question?"
He stared at her, then stuttered for a second, like Ginny had done. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You have to be honest, remember?"
"She's Ron's little sister!"
"Your point is? You still like her."
He was speechless for another few seconds. "Well . . . maybe just a little. But if you dare tell anyone, I swear, I'll . . . I'll . . ."
"You'll what? Blow me up like you did your Aunt Marge? Don't look so surprised--I told you, I know a lot of things. Besides, you're not allowed to do magic outside Hogwarts, remember?"
"I'm not even gonna ask how you know. But I can do other things."
"Yeah right. Like what?"
"Like make you admit you like Fred."
This time it was Tiera who was taken aback. "W--what? I don't like Fred. Not . . . like that."
"Course you do, you were starin at him the whole time he was there."
"I was not."
"And he's the only one you let touch you other than me."
"Well . . . Okay, so you have a point there. But I don't know why I do that. Normally it's just kinda a reflex to move away, and . . . I just . . . didn't then."
"You like him."
"No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do."
"Harry, no I don't!"
"Tiera, yes you do."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Not."
"Too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do too."
"Ha! You do." He saw her mouth drop open. "I know that trick, KJ. Can't fool me. Besides, you just admitted it."
"But you said yourself it was just a trick. I don't!"
"You do!"
"Don't."
"Do."
"Don't."
The door opened and George peeked in. "You two are getting a bit loud in here, aren't you? What's the problem?"
They exchanged glances. They both had ammunition against the other--and they didn't want to use it just yet.
"Nothing," they said at once.
George shuddered. "Now I know how everyone else feels when me and Fred do that. It's creepy!"
Tiera laughed at him. "Just a little. Usually it's cute."
"Really? I'll have to tell Fred you said that."
She looked at him suspiciously. "Why?"
"Well, have fun arguing." He started to close the door, but halfway he opened it again. He looked at Tiera. "Oh and by the way, you do."
Then he closed the door. Tiera's face turned dark red and Harry started laughing. She hit him.
"Oh shut up, Harry."
When George re-entered his room, Fred looked at him questioningly. "What was that about?"
"They said it was nothing."
"You're not gonna tell me, are you?"
"I will if you admit you like her."
"What?"
"Tiera. You like her--admit it."
"I do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."