Disclaimer: I own nothing except the chocolate bar I'm eating right now.
Oh, and the plot and Nicole. I wish I owned Freddy, though. Hahaha.
Author's Notes: I'm gonna shift POVs a lot in this chapter. Sorry if it'll be a bit confusing. Again, I'm sorry about that blonde thing. I was confused!! Lol. Thanks to all those who reviewed! ü You touched my heart! Hahaha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katie checked her watch for the enth time that morning and started tapping her foot again. Summer rolled her eyes. "Katie, would you PLEASE stop doing that?" she snapped.
Katie looked up from glaring at the vase on the table. "Well they're late!" she cried exasperatedly. Her hands clenched into fists in annoyance. She had been planning to ask Freddy out that day. The four of them were supposed to go to the mall and check out new instruments and new gigs so they could practice for the auditions for ROCKapella, the Statewide rock tour Zack was so obsessed about. She looked up at Summer, who was starting to bite her nails again despite her new French tip manicure.
"Do you think something's happened to them?" she asked nervously. "I mean, they wouldn't normally ditch us...would they?"
Katie sighed and leaned back in her chair. Her brown eyes narrowed as she scanned the crowd outside the café, trying to look for Zack's mess of black hair or Freddy's spikes. "At this point, I'm not so sure anymore,"
~*~
Beams of sunlight penetrated the blinds and illuminated the dust mites floating in the air. Freddy squeezed his eyes and turned to his side, trying to block out the noise outside. He grabbed a pillow and put it over his head, then a stabbing pain shot through him. He sat up rigidly and tried to massage his ribs.
"Finally, you're awake," Zack's voice came from his left side. Freddy turned to find his best friend propped up with pillows, looking like a truck had hit him.
"What the hell happened to you?" Freddy cried, pointing at Zack's black eye and bruises.
Zack laughed. "Oh, don't worry about me, dude. You should go look in the mirror,"
"What's that supposed to..." He stood up and stumbled to the door which he assumed lead to the bathroom. His leg hurt for some reason. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
Zack shrugged, but he looked strangely triumphant. "Told you so," he said haughtily.
Freddy's blond head appeared again from the doorway. "I can't go to school looking like this!" he screamed, voice near to panicking.
"Thought so," Zack muttered to himself. Then he told Freddy, "Don't sweat it, dude. It's Saturday, remember? We watched Ravyn's gig last night, Friday,"
Freddy finally stepped out of the bathroom and sat down at the foot of the single bed. "Last night...THOSE ASSHOLES!" He started a string of curse words and threats like "When I find those stupid gorillas I'm gonna grab my drumsticks and shove them up their ass!"
Zack laughed at the stupidity of some of the things the other boy was ranting about. Then suddenly he stopped.
"Wait. Oh, shut up for a bit, Fred." Zack rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
This time it was Freddy's turn to roll his eyes. "Gee, no, Zack. I woke up before you and I explored, remember?" he said sarcastically.
Zack threw him a dirty look. "You idiot, I woke up and then saw you moving around. I don't really remember much. Just getting beaten up then talking to...someone," He pulled his knees up to his chin and buried his face in his hands, trying to think. He remembered talking to someone and then getting into a car, and then he blacked out.
Freddy paused. He wanted to tell Zack about the girl he saw last night but maybe it had just been a dream. Or maybe he had been so close to death that he'd seen an angel? Freddy snorted at his own thought. When he died, he was sure he wouldn't be going to Heaven, if it really existed, that was.
"Wow, finally you two are awake," a voice called from the doorway.
Zack and Freddy looked up, surprised at the sudden intrusion.
Nicole smirked slightly, eyebrow raised. Zack was starting to look better but Freddy was the one who had gotten a majority of Maurice's anger. He had a large cut on his cheek and one on his forehead, not to mention bruises and a cut lip. She put the tray she was carrying down on the end table between the two beds and took a piece of bacon.
"Nicole?" Zack was the first to speak.
She swallowed first before replying. "Yep," she said, taking off the cap she was wearing. Her long golden hair fell down to her waist. "You two don't seem to recognize me without seeing my hair, do you?"
Freddy bit his lip. She was the girl he'd seen last night! How hadn't he recognized her when she sat beside him all of Thursday when she first came into their class?!
Nicole looked around the room. "Sorry for putting you guys in this guest room. I thought you two'd freak if you woke up alone or something," she apologized then sat down on Zack's bed. "You guys OK?" she asked, looking from one boy to the other.
Freddy ran a hand through his hair self-consciously. "I need hair gel," he said quietly.
Nicole laughed. "You're just like my little brother. He doesn't go out of his room without fixing his hair,"
"Fred's different." Zack stated, and Freddy almost beamed at him were it not for his following sentence. "He doesn't get out of BED without his hair fixed." He and Nicole laughed.
Freddy glared at him. He was flirting! He was FLIRTING!! Summer would freak if she found out. But then, he reminded himself, Zack had denied that he felt anything for Summer. Whatever.
"Anyway, here," She dug into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out two small vials. "You should put this on all your bruises. Especially you," She handed one to Zack, pointing at the bruise on his cheek. "If you guys run out you're always welcome to come back here,"
"Where is here, exactly?" Freddy asked as he caught the vial she tossed him.
Nicole shrugged and, leaning back, rested a hand on Zack's knee. "My dad's house. The village is just a few blocks from the school so now I live with him,"
"Where did you use to study?" Zack asked curiously.
"Manhattan School of the Arts and Technology," she replied shortly.
"You're from New York?" Freddy asked incredulously the same time Zack cried, "MSAT!?"
Nicole sighed, as though she had been expecting that from them. "My mum lives there and by some stroke of luck I got into MSAT. I got bored after grade school there, so I moved in with my dad and younger brother. Well, that and my mum wanted me to try out for Julliard," She shrugged and slid her cap back on.
Freddy and Zack stared at each other in awe. They would never have expected someone like her to be so, well, experienced. This explained how good she was that night at the club.
"You guys should eat breakfast. The driver can drop you guys off wherever you want to go. I called your parents and told them you were sleeping over. Don't worry, I just said that you felt like it, but you have to explain when you get home tonight." She stood up and smoothed down the creases on her jeans. "Anything else?"
"Why are you helping us out?" Zack asked, eyebrows drawn together in suspicion.
Nicole raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. "You two are members of School of Rock, right? Or was I confused and saved the wrong people?"
Both boys laughed slightly. "Yeah, we are, but why?" Zack pressed.
Nicole sat down beside Freddy, who turned a bit red, which made him look sickly because of all his injuries. "You're my classmates, I'm a fan of your band, and..." She paused then smiled slightly in her trademark minx-like way. "both of you are hot, what can I say?" She started laughing, ignorant of the fact that both boys were blushing.
"Oh shit," Freddy hissed, touching the cut on his forehead. He stared at the fresh blood on his fingertips, wincing.
She stood up. "Come with me, I have something so that that wont scar."
Zack exchanged looks with Freddy then shrugged. "Whatever, man,"
~*~
Katie groaned as he lifted an arm out from her blankets to turn off the incessant beeping of her alarm clock. Her fingers clumsily knocked over a glass of water in the process. She flipped onto her back and raised a hand to cover her eyes from the early morning sun. She groaned again, biting down on her red lips as she recalled the dream she had that night.
They were at the mall, the way they were supposed to be that day. Summer was wearing an absurdly bright pink dress and was singing in a high, pitchy tune, accompanied by Zack on the guitar. He was, curiously enough, wearing a tuxedo with a large pink rose. At that point, Katie turned around to find Freddy staring at her, wearing a battered sweatshirt that she knew he loved. Freddy took her hand, making her do that body-blush thing no one seemed to be that aware of. After all, she seldom blushed, and the only time she ever did was whenever she and Freddy were in close contact with one another. And now they were.
Freddy lead her to an escalator, and they rode up. Katie peered down and saw that the floor below them had vanished, as did the ceiling. Now the sky peered down at them, stars innocently twinkling and illuminating the little swirls that had appeared in the very fabric of the setting. In the center of the swirls it seemed like all the memories Katie had with Freddy were playing.
The whole time the escalator kept going up and up.
Katie stared at the back of Freddy's head. "Where are we going?" she asked him, feeling slightly giddy as she noticed that he hadn't let go of her hand.
He looked back at her, blue eyes more intense than she'd ever seen them, and she felt herself drowning.
The dream Freddy was now leaning towards her. Three inches.... Two inches.... Their faces were an inch apart; so close that Katie could feel his breath on her lips.
"Kaye, I-"
Then the Goddamn alarm went off.
Katie cursed under her breath then sat up. She finally hit the snooze button on her alarm clock, glaring at it as if she could mentally send it flying across the room and slam against the opposite wall. She gave up after a few seconds and ran a hand through her waist-length auburn hair.
Katie swung her feet onto the shag carpet and yelped, forgetting that she had spilled water there. She cursed again then made her way to the bathroom to take a cold shower. A very cold shower.
'This is as good as it's ever gonna get,' Katie told her reflection 15 minutes later, sizing herself up.
All her life all her friends treated her as 'just Katie'. Just one of the guys, just another face in the crowd, just a band member, just a friend. She cringed at the last one. Was that how Freddy saw her? As just a friend? Would she always be just his friend and never his girlfriend?
Katie slumped onto the floor with a sigh. She buried her head in her hands, damning herself to hell. Why did she have to do this right now? Why did she do this at all!? It just made her feel so invalidated, if that was even a word. The fact was that Freddy would never go for a girl like her. He went for, well, girls. Girls who wore too much make-up and cared too much about their hair. Girls who had perfect bodies and perfect faces but had zero beneath it all. And the painful fact was that they only went for Freddy because they thought he was the same as them.
They didn't like him because he was smart; something he'd been trying to hide since 4th grade when their English teacher had embarrassed him in front of the class by saying "Frederick, you're a modern-day Homer!" And they sure as hell didn't like him because he was funny. Funny enough to get her from crying her eyes out to laughing her ass off like that time in 3rd grade. She could go on and on about Spazzy McGeek, but the truth was it really wasn't any of that stuff that made her like him so much.
'Like?' she teased herself.
'Fine, fine. I LOVE HIM!! Satisfied?'
"Oh my God," she said aloud. "I'm talking to myself now! Arrgh!" She yanked her hair and hit her forehead repeatedly on her knees. "I hate you for doing this to me, Freddy!" she screamed, fists hitting the floor in helpless retaliation. She was shocked to find herself crying like this. And over Freddy, for God's sakes!
Finally getting a grip, Katie stood up and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Big brown eyes stared back at her, slightly puffy and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
"That's it!" she told herself. "No more little miss nice Katie!"
~*~
A/N: did you like it? Aaargh!! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make Katie seem like a total nutjob, it's just I wanted to show how much she loved Freddy and how much she hates not being able to show it. To all you Katie fans out there, I'm sorry!! Don't worry, I love her too!ü
Author's Notes: I'm gonna shift POVs a lot in this chapter. Sorry if it'll be a bit confusing. Again, I'm sorry about that blonde thing. I was confused!! Lol. Thanks to all those who reviewed! ü You touched my heart! Hahaha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katie checked her watch for the enth time that morning and started tapping her foot again. Summer rolled her eyes. "Katie, would you PLEASE stop doing that?" she snapped.
Katie looked up from glaring at the vase on the table. "Well they're late!" she cried exasperatedly. Her hands clenched into fists in annoyance. She had been planning to ask Freddy out that day. The four of them were supposed to go to the mall and check out new instruments and new gigs so they could practice for the auditions for ROCKapella, the Statewide rock tour Zack was so obsessed about. She looked up at Summer, who was starting to bite her nails again despite her new French tip manicure.
"Do you think something's happened to them?" she asked nervously. "I mean, they wouldn't normally ditch us...would they?"
Katie sighed and leaned back in her chair. Her brown eyes narrowed as she scanned the crowd outside the café, trying to look for Zack's mess of black hair or Freddy's spikes. "At this point, I'm not so sure anymore,"
~*~
Beams of sunlight penetrated the blinds and illuminated the dust mites floating in the air. Freddy squeezed his eyes and turned to his side, trying to block out the noise outside. He grabbed a pillow and put it over his head, then a stabbing pain shot through him. He sat up rigidly and tried to massage his ribs.
"Finally, you're awake," Zack's voice came from his left side. Freddy turned to find his best friend propped up with pillows, looking like a truck had hit him.
"What the hell happened to you?" Freddy cried, pointing at Zack's black eye and bruises.
Zack laughed. "Oh, don't worry about me, dude. You should go look in the mirror,"
"What's that supposed to..." He stood up and stumbled to the door which he assumed lead to the bathroom. His leg hurt for some reason. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
Zack shrugged, but he looked strangely triumphant. "Told you so," he said haughtily.
Freddy's blond head appeared again from the doorway. "I can't go to school looking like this!" he screamed, voice near to panicking.
"Thought so," Zack muttered to himself. Then he told Freddy, "Don't sweat it, dude. It's Saturday, remember? We watched Ravyn's gig last night, Friday,"
Freddy finally stepped out of the bathroom and sat down at the foot of the single bed. "Last night...THOSE ASSHOLES!" He started a string of curse words and threats like "When I find those stupid gorillas I'm gonna grab my drumsticks and shove them up their ass!"
Zack laughed at the stupidity of some of the things the other boy was ranting about. Then suddenly he stopped.
"Wait. Oh, shut up for a bit, Fred." Zack rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
This time it was Freddy's turn to roll his eyes. "Gee, no, Zack. I woke up before you and I explored, remember?" he said sarcastically.
Zack threw him a dirty look. "You idiot, I woke up and then saw you moving around. I don't really remember much. Just getting beaten up then talking to...someone," He pulled his knees up to his chin and buried his face in his hands, trying to think. He remembered talking to someone and then getting into a car, and then he blacked out.
Freddy paused. He wanted to tell Zack about the girl he saw last night but maybe it had just been a dream. Or maybe he had been so close to death that he'd seen an angel? Freddy snorted at his own thought. When he died, he was sure he wouldn't be going to Heaven, if it really existed, that was.
"Wow, finally you two are awake," a voice called from the doorway.
Zack and Freddy looked up, surprised at the sudden intrusion.
Nicole smirked slightly, eyebrow raised. Zack was starting to look better but Freddy was the one who had gotten a majority of Maurice's anger. He had a large cut on his cheek and one on his forehead, not to mention bruises and a cut lip. She put the tray she was carrying down on the end table between the two beds and took a piece of bacon.
"Nicole?" Zack was the first to speak.
She swallowed first before replying. "Yep," she said, taking off the cap she was wearing. Her long golden hair fell down to her waist. "You two don't seem to recognize me without seeing my hair, do you?"
Freddy bit his lip. She was the girl he'd seen last night! How hadn't he recognized her when she sat beside him all of Thursday when she first came into their class?!
Nicole looked around the room. "Sorry for putting you guys in this guest room. I thought you two'd freak if you woke up alone or something," she apologized then sat down on Zack's bed. "You guys OK?" she asked, looking from one boy to the other.
Freddy ran a hand through his hair self-consciously. "I need hair gel," he said quietly.
Nicole laughed. "You're just like my little brother. He doesn't go out of his room without fixing his hair,"
"Fred's different." Zack stated, and Freddy almost beamed at him were it not for his following sentence. "He doesn't get out of BED without his hair fixed." He and Nicole laughed.
Freddy glared at him. He was flirting! He was FLIRTING!! Summer would freak if she found out. But then, he reminded himself, Zack had denied that he felt anything for Summer. Whatever.
"Anyway, here," She dug into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out two small vials. "You should put this on all your bruises. Especially you," She handed one to Zack, pointing at the bruise on his cheek. "If you guys run out you're always welcome to come back here,"
"Where is here, exactly?" Freddy asked as he caught the vial she tossed him.
Nicole shrugged and, leaning back, rested a hand on Zack's knee. "My dad's house. The village is just a few blocks from the school so now I live with him,"
"Where did you use to study?" Zack asked curiously.
"Manhattan School of the Arts and Technology," she replied shortly.
"You're from New York?" Freddy asked incredulously the same time Zack cried, "MSAT!?"
Nicole sighed, as though she had been expecting that from them. "My mum lives there and by some stroke of luck I got into MSAT. I got bored after grade school there, so I moved in with my dad and younger brother. Well, that and my mum wanted me to try out for Julliard," She shrugged and slid her cap back on.
Freddy and Zack stared at each other in awe. They would never have expected someone like her to be so, well, experienced. This explained how good she was that night at the club.
"You guys should eat breakfast. The driver can drop you guys off wherever you want to go. I called your parents and told them you were sleeping over. Don't worry, I just said that you felt like it, but you have to explain when you get home tonight." She stood up and smoothed down the creases on her jeans. "Anything else?"
"Why are you helping us out?" Zack asked, eyebrows drawn together in suspicion.
Nicole raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. "You two are members of School of Rock, right? Or was I confused and saved the wrong people?"
Both boys laughed slightly. "Yeah, we are, but why?" Zack pressed.
Nicole sat down beside Freddy, who turned a bit red, which made him look sickly because of all his injuries. "You're my classmates, I'm a fan of your band, and..." She paused then smiled slightly in her trademark minx-like way. "both of you are hot, what can I say?" She started laughing, ignorant of the fact that both boys were blushing.
"Oh shit," Freddy hissed, touching the cut on his forehead. He stared at the fresh blood on his fingertips, wincing.
She stood up. "Come with me, I have something so that that wont scar."
Zack exchanged looks with Freddy then shrugged. "Whatever, man,"
~*~
Katie groaned as he lifted an arm out from her blankets to turn off the incessant beeping of her alarm clock. Her fingers clumsily knocked over a glass of water in the process. She flipped onto her back and raised a hand to cover her eyes from the early morning sun. She groaned again, biting down on her red lips as she recalled the dream she had that night.
They were at the mall, the way they were supposed to be that day. Summer was wearing an absurdly bright pink dress and was singing in a high, pitchy tune, accompanied by Zack on the guitar. He was, curiously enough, wearing a tuxedo with a large pink rose. At that point, Katie turned around to find Freddy staring at her, wearing a battered sweatshirt that she knew he loved. Freddy took her hand, making her do that body-blush thing no one seemed to be that aware of. After all, she seldom blushed, and the only time she ever did was whenever she and Freddy were in close contact with one another. And now they were.
Freddy lead her to an escalator, and they rode up. Katie peered down and saw that the floor below them had vanished, as did the ceiling. Now the sky peered down at them, stars innocently twinkling and illuminating the little swirls that had appeared in the very fabric of the setting. In the center of the swirls it seemed like all the memories Katie had with Freddy were playing.
The whole time the escalator kept going up and up.
Katie stared at the back of Freddy's head. "Where are we going?" she asked him, feeling slightly giddy as she noticed that he hadn't let go of her hand.
He looked back at her, blue eyes more intense than she'd ever seen them, and she felt herself drowning.
The dream Freddy was now leaning towards her. Three inches.... Two inches.... Their faces were an inch apart; so close that Katie could feel his breath on her lips.
"Kaye, I-"
Then the Goddamn alarm went off.
Katie cursed under her breath then sat up. She finally hit the snooze button on her alarm clock, glaring at it as if she could mentally send it flying across the room and slam against the opposite wall. She gave up after a few seconds and ran a hand through her waist-length auburn hair.
Katie swung her feet onto the shag carpet and yelped, forgetting that she had spilled water there. She cursed again then made her way to the bathroom to take a cold shower. A very cold shower.
'This is as good as it's ever gonna get,' Katie told her reflection 15 minutes later, sizing herself up.
All her life all her friends treated her as 'just Katie'. Just one of the guys, just another face in the crowd, just a band member, just a friend. She cringed at the last one. Was that how Freddy saw her? As just a friend? Would she always be just his friend and never his girlfriend?
Katie slumped onto the floor with a sigh. She buried her head in her hands, damning herself to hell. Why did she have to do this right now? Why did she do this at all!? It just made her feel so invalidated, if that was even a word. The fact was that Freddy would never go for a girl like her. He went for, well, girls. Girls who wore too much make-up and cared too much about their hair. Girls who had perfect bodies and perfect faces but had zero beneath it all. And the painful fact was that they only went for Freddy because they thought he was the same as them.
They didn't like him because he was smart; something he'd been trying to hide since 4th grade when their English teacher had embarrassed him in front of the class by saying "Frederick, you're a modern-day Homer!" And they sure as hell didn't like him because he was funny. Funny enough to get her from crying her eyes out to laughing her ass off like that time in 3rd grade. She could go on and on about Spazzy McGeek, but the truth was it really wasn't any of that stuff that made her like him so much.
'Like?' she teased herself.
'Fine, fine. I LOVE HIM!! Satisfied?'
"Oh my God," she said aloud. "I'm talking to myself now! Arrgh!" She yanked her hair and hit her forehead repeatedly on her knees. "I hate you for doing this to me, Freddy!" she screamed, fists hitting the floor in helpless retaliation. She was shocked to find herself crying like this. And over Freddy, for God's sakes!
Finally getting a grip, Katie stood up and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Big brown eyes stared back at her, slightly puffy and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
"That's it!" she told herself. "No more little miss nice Katie!"
~*~
A/N: did you like it? Aaargh!! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make Katie seem like a total nutjob, it's just I wanted to show how much she loved Freddy and how much she hates not being able to show it. To all you Katie fans out there, I'm sorry!! Don't worry, I love her too!ü