Disclaimer - See Chapter One

Note - Glad you guys don't know where I am going with this. One word: patience. :)

Inspire Me

Chapter Two- Just Groceries?

Remember the face Summer had when she found out what 'groupie' meant and confronted Dewey? Well, just the sight of it made Freddy want to turn on his tail.

He didn't want to be the recipient of that look. No sir, nuh uh. BUT, he really needed and wanted to practice. How else would he get new drumming techniques?

So he stood his ground and pleaded with the tiny brunette. "Please, Summer? I'll even give you your birthday present early if you asked! And another one on your birthday so you can't complain about the propriety of giving you your birthday present early!"

She looked more troubled.

Neither of the two were aware of their audience. Marta, Tomika and Alicia finished storing the mic and the cables in the equipment closet and quietly spied on the two. They looked at each other and all whispered, "No way!"

"No, Summer couldn't possibly be crushing on my cousin." Marta hissed at Tomika.

"Why not, Blondie?" Alicia whispered. "They have the whole badass harbors feelings for the goody-two-shoes thing going on."

"Besides, haven't you noticed how Summer and he are close to each other and the way she's so understanding of his behavior?" Tomika added.

The trio hushed up when they heard Dewey coming from the other room with Lawrence and Ned. They watched El Capitano spot Summer and slap his head.

At the sound of his slap, the little girl turned on him with The Face. "Mr. S!"

Dewey braced himself before braving that face once more. The times he had that face turned on onto him never meant well, unless he can do some quick thinking and avoid upsetting her more. But this time, he did something wrong. He had forgotten about what day it was.

"Okay, Summer. I'll have Ned drive Freddy home-"

But the real Mr. Schneebly interrupted him, "Dude, no can do! Car is in the shop, remember?"

Dewey and Summer conducted a staring contest. Lawrence looked on in confusion.

Then Marta's phone started beeping. She opened it and saw a text message from her dad. "Hey Fredmeister, Dad's not going to be picking me up for another twenty minutes. If you want, you can practice till then and catch a ride with me."

"I would, but don't you remember, Martster? You guys have dinner reservation? Uncle said to remind you about that."

Marta groaned. "I wish you didn't." She grabbed her backpack from the floor and went to the bathroom with Tomika and Alicia in tow. Only Ned, Lawrence, Dewey, Summer and Freddy were left in the room.

"Tink, why can't you give me a ride?" Freddy asked, crossing his arms as he surveyed one of his best friends. "I know you don't have any weekly appointment on Tuesdays. You didn't have a problem with giving me a ride last week. Did I do something wrong?"

Summer looked at Dewey with pleading eyes.

Ned spoke up at this point, "Summer, why can't you just tell the band? I'm sure they would be okay with it. I mean, you're working really hard. And you've been doing really great in your past sessions. It'll be cool if they knew what you've been up to, you know."

"Yeah, Tinkerbell." Dewey piped in, glad someone could help bail him out of the awkward place he was in. Then added in a low voice before she could say anything, "Or if you really don't want everyone to know, a select few would do. Like Freddy and Lawrence for instance."

The Face went away, and she seemed to mull over their propositions. Then she sighed and said, "Ok, let's go."

Meanwhile in the bathroom, the backup singers were discussing the pros and cons of having couples within a band while Marta finished dressing up for dinner.

"Pro - you guys have the same schedule." Tomika said as she watched Marta let down her hair from her ponytail and brush it.

"Con - you guys don't get privacy." Marta countered as she sat on the bathroom floor in front of Alicia who sat on the tub.

"Pro - the thrill of sneaking around." Alicia took Marta's proffered hair ties and started braiding her hair.

T - "Pro - you guys understand the work load, and know each others' routines."

M - "Pro - you guys are close with one another."

A - "Pro - you guys love music."

T - "Pro - you guys get to be together most of the time."

M - "Pro - you've known each other for a while."

A - "Con - if you guys fight, ill feelings toward one another may affect your performance as part of the band."

"I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt about that." Tomika said as she helped Marta pack up her belongings. "I mean, we're already practicing how to be professional right now. Whatever happens outside of the band, barring death of family, sickness and the like, it shouldn't affect our performance. So if that happens we have to put it aside come practice or show time."

Reluctantly, Alicia and Marta agreed and went out of the bathroom, finding the room empty. "Where did they go?"

They looked around and found a note in Dewey's scrawly print. 'Went to Costco. Lock up when you're done.'

Tomika shrugged, "No wonder Summer was flipping. She doesn't want Freddy to know that she's been the one in charge of grocery shopping and forgot to get him some Reese's last time."

"So..." Freddy said as he pushed the shopping cart around Costco, and grabbed a box each of Reese's Cups, Crunchy M&M's and Orbit whitening gum in spearmint. Dewey and Ned were checking out an electric guitar and an electronic piano that were on sale. "Since Dewey proclaimed you a groupie, you started taking vocal lessons?"

"Yeah," Summer told him as she grabbed some Swedish Fish, Crunch, and Lawrence grabbed some Hershey's Almonds Bar, Babyruth and Three Musketeers. "I mean, I figured I wasn't good at singing - but I never thought I was horrible at it. I'm not deaf. I can hear Tomika, Alicia and Marta poke fun at me when they think nobody's listening to them gossip." She and Larry dumped the items in the cart. "It was kind of embarrassing."

Lawrence looked at Summer. "Eleanor Roosevelt once said, Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. Back then, you thought you sang well. Now you're just trying to make that thought right. Who cares what everyone else says. I think you're doing the right thing by taking vocal lessons. By learning, you are progressing. My piano teacher told me that."

"Thanks, Larry." She smiled at him then she turned to look at Freddy who started beating the cart handle with his drumsticks. "You don't seem surprised, Freddy. Why is that?"

"Well, for one thing, you have perfect pitch. You play the clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone and French horn excellently, always in tune."

"And the other thing?"

"Errr... your mom had invited the band for lunch a couple of weeks back, right? I snuck in your room on a dare to find your diary - not that I didn't have to snoop much. It was quite easy. By the way, we love you the way you are - even if you are a teacher's pet which you're not even much of nowadays." Summer looked ready to smack him when he held up his hands, "Wait-wait! I only had to know what you wrote about in the last entry you wrote. So chill, I didn't read the whole thing. ANYWAY, I found a bunch of books like Solos From Musicals For Kids and Daffodils, Violets and Snowflakes, which I hate to break it to you, Tink, are both sucky names."

"Ha ha, you're a hoot, Alfred Ethan Jones."

"Hmm, Alfred?" Dewey asked as he and Ned came up to them with some first aid material like Advil, Tylenol for kids, Bengay and Band-Aid. "Never would have thought your first name's Alfred . I expected Frederick."

Freddy groaned and shot Summer a look. He knew it was a bad idea to tell her about finding her diary. What she didn't know is he climbed the tree into her house to read more of it.

She merely smiled back. "I think that serves you right for pilfering for my diary in my room without my permission."

Ned looked at his watch. They needed to be at Summer's vocal lesson in a half hour so he interrupted Freddy and said, "Okay we still need to get some Cup-A-Noodles, sliced mushrooms in the can, corn in the can, milk, Nestea, Nathan's Hot Dogs, Lean Pockets, Steak EEZE, Gatorade, water, Charmin', Bounce, coffee, sugar, cream, Campari tomatoes and batteries. Lawrence, can you get the noodles? Dewey, can you get the canned produce? Freddy go get the Lean Pockets, a box of Steak EEZE and the hot dogs. Summer could you get the batteries, you know which ones we need the best. I'll head off with the cart for the Gatorade and the water. We'll meet at the back where the drinks are and stuff."

They headed off in separate directions but before Freddy rushed to his, he brushed by Summer and said in a low voice, "You were lucky, Summer Autumn Hathaway. But don't worry, I won't blab out your middle name." Then he ran away before she could retort.

They all met up by the toilet paper and paper towel section. Each dumped their loot in the cart.

Ned listed off, "Larry and noodles?"

"Check."

"Dewey, corn and mushroom?"

"Double check. And I got the sugar, Nescafe and Coffeemate too."

"Freddy, NHD, Steak, and LP?"

"Check, check and check."

"Summer and batteries?"

"AA check, AAA check, 9V8 check, and D cell batteries check."

"Okay, let's go get the milk, Campari tomatoes and some sushi and get out of here."

Summer and Freddy glared at each other silently when they finished loading the van. She couldn't believe he knew her middle name because he read her diary. He couldn't believe she would abuse her role as Class Factotem! Calling him by his awful first name.

Lawrence looked on at the scene silently as he tried not to laugh at the two then he glanced at Ned who sat in the front passenger seat who seemed to be doing the same he is.

"Alright," Dewey roared in his usual boisterous voice. "Let's get rocking!" He started the car and the radio DJ just announced that he would be playing Foo Fighter's Best of You in a second. The tension in the back of the car dissipated and Freddy started tapping to the rhythm his ankle while Summer and Lawrence bobbed their heads to the tune.

I've got another confession to make

I'm your fool

Everyone's got their chains to break

Holdin' you

Were you born to resist or be abused?

"Hey Tink." Freddy said, catching her attention. "Why don't you sing with this song?"

She blushed. "Uhmmm, well..." She trailed off, wanting to prove she could sing, but not having the courage to. A hand touched her shoulder and she turned to Lawrence's kind face.

"If you're not ready to sing to us yet, we won't push you." He told her as he sent a meaning look to Freddy.

Who ignored it and carried on, "If it helps, I'll sing with you." He belted out the first line of the chorus horribly and Summer laughed at him. "See? Nothing to it. You're still learning, right? There's room for mistakes at the beginning. You're supposed to make them so you can become better." He looked at her pointedly as the song ended its chorus. "Come on, Pixie, sing. You know you-"

A booming, soulful voice interrupted him as her eyes twinkled with happiness. "Are you gone and onto someone new?"

Freddy's jaw dropped. "Wow." Then he grinned at her to continue as he started air drumming.

So Summer sang, bursting with confidence her friend gave her.

"I needed somewhere to hang my head

Without your noose

You gave me something that I didn't have

But had no use

I was too weak to give in

Too strong to lose

My heart is under arrest again

But I break loose

My head is giving me life or death

But I can't choose

I swear I'll never give in

I refuse"

Ned and Dewey gave each other knowing glances and did their most discreet secret handshake.

As Best of You faded and another song came on, Freddy whooped and held his hand up for a high five. "Way to go, Tink."

Summer blushed as Lawrence also clapped politely for her. "Thanks."

"You can sing! You can really sing!" Freddy blabbed, grinning like a madman and his fluffy hair looking like a massive cotton ball on his head that can make you wonder if he's a relative of Bozo the Clown. "You know what this means right, Larry?"

"What?" The pianist asked.

"The singers have some competition," Ned piped in from his seat in the front as they turned into a driveway of a shopping complex with a dance studio, a physician's clinic, and a Duane Reade.

"YEA! Competish! WHOOOO!" Spazzy McGee raised his arms in all out victory pose. "Ok, I'm done now."

Dewey parked the car and asked everybody to get out. "Okay. I know this is a dance studio." He gestured to the spot in front of where he parked. "Spazzy, shut up before you hurt yourself. As you know, there's a saying." He held up his index fingers like he did when he was "teaching" them. "It's don't judge a book by its cover. But, you … and you better keep it zipped anyway. Ai is already mad enough at me for disrupting one of her dance classes to make a show out of begging her to take pity on this poor unfortunate soul." He sniffed at the end, drawing Summer into his arms who immediately hugged him and got away. "Alright, let's go."

In a double file, they went into the establishment called Menzel Dance Institution.

Reviews

Okay… sorry for not updating quickly enough. I hope you guys liked it.

i am not a chipmunk – my first SoR reviewer:) Give yourself a pat on the back. I would do it, but I can't. Uhmm… well, just think about it this way. You know how the credits rolled at the end of the movie? Well, this is my continuation right after it - as if it never wrapped up.

Kelsey – you keep changing your username, so I'll stick with Kels or Kelsey. Ok, enough F/S interaction here for you? You understand why it seemed like F/K earlier? LoL. I hope so. Oh, come on. I don't write pregnant teen fics! It's too depressing. I like happy fics, I'm sick of being depressed by life. Anyway, I hope I cleared that up in this chapter. YAY! I'm your first flamer. I hope I won't need to do it often. LoL.

Singingblondie – did this chapter answer your question? Katie has a crush on Freddy. But... I am a Freddy/Summer shipper. I'll tell you that much.