Chapter 4: Singing a New Tune

Nicole gets off her plane and looks around, she doesn't see anyone that looks like the people Hannah showed her in the pictures, so she sits down on one of the rows of chairs near her. She waits for a few minutes before she sees a blonde haired man running toward her.

"PIMP DADDY!" She hugs him, laughing.

"Hey Hannah, I'm sorry, New York rush hour traffic on a Friday." He hugs her back, lifting her up so her feet are dangling a foot or so off the ground.

"Enough said."

"So come on! Let's get you home before your mother has a heart attack from 'Hannah-deprivation' as she liked to say, all, summer, long." He dragged out, referencing her annoying complaints that she missed Hannah too much., as they started to walk toward the exit

"Why didn't she come to pick me up?" She asked, hoping her mother wasn't one of those work-aholics types that she would barely ever see.

"Kenny made her lay down a new song, and she can't seem to get the note right or something, and anyway they have her locked up in the studio."

"Kenny?" Hannah left whoever 'Kenny' was out.

"Kenny... her manager since forever? Remember?"

"Ah.. Of course I do. Momentary lapse of memory, I guess."

"Whatever kiddo, get in." He motioned to a silver BMW. It had a navigation system, but it wasn't 'pimped out' like most of her dad's cars.

They got in and his cell phone rang and he immediately flipped it open, and started to talk to what sounded like his agent or something.

It wasn't long before they arrived. They took the elevator to the top, it was glass and you could look out at the city, it looked funny from that high up. They stopped at the top floor and got out. She followed Lucas through a door that was labeled 'Penthouse' on a small card. She took a good look around and noticed it wasn't flashy or new wave or whatever, it was a simple place that made you feel welcomed, it wasn't cold or uninviting like some people's houses.

"Alright, you want to say hi to your mom or get food first?"

"Say hi to mom! Definitely."

"Okay, lets go." Nicole followed him down a hallway, and she passed Hannah's room, her mother's room, two bathrooms, and Lucas's room. She mentally thanked Hannah for the idea to make maps of their houses.

They stopped at a room that the door was a little thicker, and there was a red light over it, that wasn't lit. They walked through.

She saw a door immediately to her left, and farther down the wall was ½ glass and ½ recording equipment. To her right there was couches and chairs and empty food cartons.

"Hey guys." A man said that was switching knobs on the equipment board up and down.

"Hey, Kenny." Lucas said, sitting next to a woman she recognized to be her Aunt Taylor from a picture, and a blonde haired man she didn't know.

"HANNAH! Oh, my gosh! How awesome was camp? Any hot boys?" Taylor asked, giving her a quick hug. "And look, you got a killer hair cut! It's rockin! I love it!"

"Umm.. Lets see. Camp was great, but I didn't get to see any of the boys, we weren't allowed near them, and my friend cut my hair."

"Yeah, well, it's a shame you didn't get to see any of the guys." She reminded Nicole of Brooke, just a lot crazier. She looked out the glass, and saw another room with microphones and speakers and stuff. She saw a woman walking toward the door on her left through the glass. She turned to see her mother.

"HANNAH! OH MY GOSH! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" She hugged her.

Nicole was crying now, not wanting to let go of her mother.

"Oh, baby, what's wrong?" She asked wiping away a tear.

"Nothing.. It's just.. I haven't seen you.. In a long time. And I missed you so much."

"I missed you too!" She said, pulling Nicole into a hug again.

"So does this mean that we are done recording?" Kenny asked.

"Yeah, it does." Haley said simply.

"It's not like she was going to hit the note anyway." The blonde man next to Lucas spoke up.

"Shut up Chris!" Her Aunt Taylor warned. She realized that he was Chris, and from what Hannah had told her, Aunt Taylor and him are engaged.

"Sorry Babe." He mumbled.

"Anyways," Haley continued on. "I thought we could unpack and then make some Mac and Cheese and watch reruns of I Love Lucy."

"Sounds good." Nicole realized now where her love for macaroni came from. They walked back out the door, unpacked all of her clothes and then Haley made them the food and then she got her DVD of I Love Lucy from the cabinet and they settled down to watch. About halfway through Lucas came and sat with them, who was currently pigging out on Oreos.

Nicole wondered if they had these types of nights often. If they did, she wasn't sure she'd ever want to switch back. Her mother seemed so kind and loving, and down to earth. Nicole noticed that she smiled a lot, she blushed when Lucas would tease her, she was really smart, and from what her Uncle Lucas had said, she pretty much sucked big time at sports. They both had said that they'd rather sit here hanging out then go out to some high profile party, which Nicole couldn't help but smile at. Her Uncle Lucas seemed pretty awesome, he wasn't at all like most of her dad's teammates, most of them were stupid jocks that always thought about girls.

Nicole wondered if Hannah loved their father as much as she was loving her mother.

THANKS FOR REVIEWING. I had to babysit my cousins(pain in the ass!)and when i saw the comments i felt so much better! Thanks guys.