Chapter 2

Life Changing Events

"Hey Baby Brother!"

WayneWayne rolled his eyes as he closed the front door to his house. He kicked off his shoes and tossed his drawstring bag aside to the floor before walking into the kitchen where his two older sisters, Jacey and Natalie, were sitting at the kitchen counter, looking over a magazine. His upper lip curled at the greeting, having been called that his whole life rather than his real name, which he hated as well.

"How was the party?" Natalie asked, kicking her feet back and forth. "How's Girlfriend?"

WayneWayne let out a short sigh, already know that what he was going to say wasn't going to make a difference in the first place. "Hanging out was cool," He replied as he rested his arms on the end of the counter. "Like it always is when I'm hanging out with my friends." He then gave his sisters a pointed stare. "And she has a name, and she's not my girlfriend!"

"She said she was," Jacey pointed out.

"To get you all off of my back, since you jumped to the conclusion about it," WayneWayne replied. He threw his hands up into the air. "But it's not like you guys believe me anyway." He added. He leaned forward. "What're you looking at anyway?"

"Baby Magazine," Natalie said as she snatched the magazine from Jacey's hands and held it up so her brother could see. "Jacey's looking at some furniture and strollers and what not for the baby." She pointed to a picture of a crib that was decked out in a jungle theme. "What do you think about this?"

WayneWayne rested his chin in his hands as he scanned the crib that she was showing him. He tilted his head to the side and sucked his teeth before reaching out and pushing the magazine back down onto the counter. "I think that this crib, will give my nephew nightmares. Considering the fact that they put a massive tiger above his head that looks like it's going to eat him alive!"

Jacey shook her head as she took the magazine back from Natalie. "Your sarcasm isn't appreciated."

"Yeah, but you're stuck with me." WayneWayne replied with a warm smile. "Anyway, I thought that mom was going to help you with everything." He added, pulling himself up onto the counter.

"And why would she do that?" Jacey asked as she flipped through the magazine once more.

"Considering the fact that you two are 25 and 22 years old and still can't seem to figure out when not to butt into other people's business." WayneWayne replied as he pointed to Jacey and then Natalie. "It seems to me that you're going to need all the help that you can get." He reached into the pocket of his trunks and pulled out his cell phone as it started to ring. "Hello?"

"I bet it's Girlfriend," Natalie teased. "Tell her I said 'hi'."

WayneWayne gave her an odd look, his phone still up to his ear. "Dak isn't my girlfriend." He commented loud enough for Dak to hear him through the phone.

"Hm, he might as well be, they some sort of weirdo bromance going on." Natalie commented.

WayneWayne gave them the finger with his free hand as he turned back to his phone. "You see what I have to deal with day after day?" He asked into his phone, ignoring the faces that his sisters were giving him. "Anyway, is there any particular reason as to why you called me as soon as I got home?" He then strained to hear. "And is there any reason as to why there is a screeching sound in the background?"

"Because you left like two minutes before I got the news," Dak replied, his voice was louder than it needed to be. If WayneWayne had to guess, it was probably due to the fact that he had one hand over his free ear as he tried hard to focus on the phone call. "And that screeching sound is Lizzie as she hasn't stopped freaking since I told her. Anyway, you know how I auditioned for Legally Blonde? I got the part of Warner Huntington III. It's not on Broadway or anything, but it's still going to be so awesome!"

"Wow, congrats, dude." WayneWayne nodded, impressed. "Sounds like it'll be a fun show." He paused. "I'm guessing I'm the last one to know about this."

"That's what happens when you leave early," Dak replied. "It sounds really cool."

"Screw you." WayneWayne swiftly replied. "So do your parents know or…"

"Yeah, I told them, but you know them, they probably forgot right as soon as I told them, so I'm not holding my breath about it." Dak replied. "I have to go though, I need to research for my role, and if I shut Lizzie in the basement I'll at least have some peace and quiet for an hour." There was a shuffling sound and two dull thuds. "I gotta go."

"Do I want to know?" WayneWayne asked.

"No, but if you see my face on the local news for murder you'll probably have an idea why." Dak replied before he hung up the phone.

WayneWayne laughed to himself as he hung up the phone and crossed his legs as he grabbed a banana from the fruit basket sitting beside him. He looked it over for a second, reading the card that was sitting along with it and turned back to Jacey who was currently looking over different paint colors for the room.

"How many fruit baskets did you get after announcing your pregnancy?" He asked.

"Just about as much as I had gotten when I announced that I was getting married." Jacey grumbled in reply.

Being the youngest of the Dooley's, WayneWayne was more than happy to know that while he was growing up, the endless torment that his sisters brought him was going to be over as soon as they had gotten married. But he had spoken too soon as the older they got, the more they teased him. Jacey is his eldest sister at 25, but when she's around Natalie she acts like a 12 year old girl and vice versa. When she announced that she was engaged to her, now husband, Sam Nelson, the whole family was excited for her. WayneWayne was very excited as he got along with Sam quickly and liked him enough so that he wouldn't worry about the way he would treat his sister. He was even excited about the prospect that they would have a baby in the future. But now that they were actually going to have a baby, he, every now and then, wondered if it was a good thing since it was all anyone ever talked about.

But of course, that wouldn't stop his sisters from teasing the youngest sibling of the family.

"Oh, that reminds me, Dad wanted to talk to you." Natalie said as she leaned back in her chair, pulling her dark hair over her shoulders. "Something about going back to Vancouver for something." She watched as WayneWayne moved his jaw to the side. "What, do you not want to go?"

That couldn't be further from the truth. As Mr. Dooley was a TV producer that specialized in shows in the US as well as Canada, it wasn't uncommon for him to be away from home for most of the week. WayneWayne had even gone with him for a couple of the shows as he had ended up getting parts in some of the shows and movies he had been producing at the time. Because of that, Vancouver was like a second home to him. Well, third if you counted his home back in Dallas.

"That's not it," WayneWayne replied with a shake of his head.

"Aww," Jacey cooed as she reached out and ruffled WayneWayne's hair. "You don't want to leave Girlfriend?"

"Shut up!" WayneWayne shoved Jacey's hand away from his head. "If it does have anything to do with going to Vancouver, I don't know if I'm even going to go." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll just wait and see what he has to say.

"Wow, way to be 19 years old," Natalie commented as she shook her head. "Way to be a killjoy." WayneWayne flipped off his sisters once more. Natalie then gasped loudly as Jacey moved her hands to the slight baby bump that she had. "Wally Dooley! What will your nephew think if he sees you doing that?"

"He doesn't even have eyes yet!" WayneWayne defended himself. He let out a groan as he tilted his head back. "You guys are so weird!" He jumped down from the counter and headed towards the stairs to go to his room.

"It must be genetic!" Jacey called after him. "Because you're the weirdest one out of all of us!"

WayneWayne resisted the urge to throw his drawstring bag back at them as he picked it up off of the floor by the front door. Grabbing his shoes in his free hand, he bounded up the stairs to his room, kicking the door shut behind him as he tossed his stuff to his already cluttered floor. He then walked over to his dresser, grabbed some clothes, and went to take a quick shower. Once finished, he got out and wrapped a towel around his waist before walking over to the sink and grabbed onto the edges of it, closing his eyes.

The silence in the room shifted, the atmosphere felt different somehow. WayneWayne cautiously opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when his vision fixated on the steam smeared mirror. There was a pounding in his head as though blood was flowing through his body faster and harder. He felt strange; he leaned against the cold tiles, hoping that the pounding in his head would subside quickly. He then opened his eyes and picked up his hairbrush from the corner of the sink. He blinked several times at his image, his vision shifted several times between an image of himself and of… himself but a different image.

There was his image, reflected as it's always been. Short brown hair, dark brown eyes, average skin, average hair, average looks; but there was another image exactly on top of my own but slightly out of phase somehow. But then the image changed so he looked older, more tired, and more…alone. The image disappeared and was replaced by his own regular image. The hairbrush fell from his hand and he grabbed the sides of the sink to ground himself. WayneWayne closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then picked up the hairbrush and resumed what he was doing before without looking back at his reflection.

"So, are you ever going to ask Riley out or are you just going to have your family keep thinking that you're actually dating her?" Dak asked the next day at his house as he lounged around on the couch, watching TV.

WayneWayne, who was lying down on the couch opposite of him turned and gave him an odd look. "Is that the only reason that you asked me over today? Just to ask me that question?"

"No," Dak replied as he shook his head. "But it's pretty much the only reason that I invited them over today, besides the fact that Lizzie is hanging out with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney." He flashed his teeth in a smile as the doorbell rang and WayneWayne fixed him with a hard stare. "I thought it would be funny."

"What's funny is the fact that I have a better chance of getting a date, when you keep getting turned down by Rhuben." WayneWayne replied as he sat up and grinned at Dak evilly. "Over, and over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and-"

"I get it." Dak interrupted his best friend. "But it doesn't matter, because I know she likes me too. It's just a matter of time."

WayneWayne wasn't kidding, almost as soon as Dak had met Rhuben Jackson-McGuire, he fell for her and wasn't scared to make it known. He flirted with her a lot, and most of the time it didn't seem like she was receptive to it at all, while other times she seemed to be flirting right back at him. But every time he asked her out, which was almost as long as he had known her, she continuously turned him down, without seeming to even think about it. Usually, people would understand at that point and take the hint, not wanting to strain things anymore. But Dak was the kind of person that never gave up on anything until he was completely sure that there was no way that it was going to happen. It was like his dream of becoming an actor, many people had told him that his dream would never come true, but it had so far.

"Are you sure?" WayneWayne asked as he held up his fingers and wiggled them. "Because I don't think I got to the actual amount of times that you've been turned down yet." He got up off of the couch and followed Dak to the foyer. "I think I have about 100 more."

"Why am I friends with you?" Dak turned to WayneWayne.

WayneWayne just smiled in reply before shoving him forward. After having met the teen icon, he had asked himself that question many times. It didn't take long for WayneWayne to figure it out; it was because they were somewhat outsiders of their large group of friends. They hung out the most while BTR hung out together, Jo, Camille, and Stephanie hung out together, and you could hardly pry the Jacksons apart from each other (although they would never admit it).

Dak reached the front door just as his parents came down the stairs. WayneWayne looked them over and saw that they seemed to be very dressed up. He looked at Dak out of the corner of his eyes, but Dak didn't show anything on his face; he mad sure that it was completely neutral. WayneWayne didn't call him out on it. He knew that Dak was embarrassed at the fact that his parents weren't really around a lot, it didn't seem like they cared about their kids that much either. So he didn't let anyone know about it, but he had told WayneWayne, knowing that he wouldn't tell anyone else.

"So, who do we have here?" Mr. Zevon asked as he straightened out his tie. He gave the twin girls a smile and they gave a short wave in reply.

"Ah," Dak quickly moved to his parents' side as he leaned against the banister of the stairs. "Mom, Dad, you remember my friends?" He motioned over to WayneWayne, Riley, and Rhuben.

Mrs. Zevon looked up and gave a peculiar smile. The best way to explain it would be by saying that it looked like her smile was plastic, or that she had too much Botox injected into her face. The corners of her mouth barely turned up, but she smiled so wide that all of her teeth and gums were showing. "Oh, yeah, I remember, Wally, Raleigh, and…" she looked at Rhuben, her smile disappearing. "I'm sorry; I don't think I know your name."

Rhuben's eyes widened and her eyebrows raised at the same time that Riley's eyes narrowed, both being done in offense. WayneWayne made a face, sucking in a quiet breath as Dak looked like he wanted to disappear right then and there.

Talk about embarrassing. WayneWayne through to himself as he made sure to look anywhere but at Dak's parents.

"No," Dak shook his head quickly. "It's WayneWayne, Riley, and Rhuben." Dak corrected her. "I've told you before." He paused. "Remember?"

"Right, right," Mrs. Zevon nodded. "Sorry. So busy with casting jobs, I have names all over the place, you know how it is." She tapped her husband on the arm. "Honey, we have to go, more interviews to go to, more people to see."

"Of course," Mr. Zevon replied. He opened the front door, pushing his wife outside before he followed her. "Don't wait up, we'll be back later. There's dinner for you and Lizzie in the fridge." The two left the house quickly.

"Sorry," Dak gave a nervous laugh as he turned back to his friends. "My parents aren't great with names." He commented.

"They're casting directors, Teen Icon," Riley blurted out a second after Dak finished his sentence. She stepped up to him and grabbed his face. "I've known you for four years and they've been calling me Raleigh, for four years!"

"At least they think they know your name." Rhuben replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

Dak reached his hands up and placed them on Riley's cheeks, squishing them together so her lips puckered out, like she was doing to him. "Riley?" He asked, his voice muffled.

"What?" She replied.

"Let go of my face." Dak said.

"You let go of my face." Riley countered.

"How about before you both claw each other's faces off, we just go watch TV or something," Rhuben commented, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jean jacket. Her eyes had returned back to its normal size, but she still seemed a bit perturbed about what had just happened. "Can you boofheads handle that?" She asked and Dak and Riley let go of each other's faces before moving their jaws back and forth to get some feeling back in their faces.

WayneWayne noticed and placed a hand on her shoulder, noticing that she stiffened for a quick second, but relaxed a second later. "In their defense, you guys do have some masculine sounding names. It's not easy to remember."

"Whatever," Rhuben mumbled as she pulled her shoulder away from his grasp and led the way to the den. "So…" she paused as she sat down in one of the chairs. "What did you invite us over here for? What are we doing?"

"I don't know," Dak shrugged and scratched his forehead. "To watch movies."

Riley gave him a suspicious look. "We just watched movies yesterday." She pointed out. She turned and looked at her sister, widening her eyes, and Rhuben lowered her eyebrows in reply before narrowing her eyes as well.

"We were also looking at Dak's fan-mail," WayneWayne jumped in, knowing that they were having one of their silent conversations. It was weird to watch, as they could have a very long conversation and understand each other just by their facial expressions. But when it came to them having a silent conversation and knowing it was about you, just made you feel very uncomfortable.

"Any cool gifts?" Rhuben asked. Dak moved aside to make room on the couch for her and she sat down on the far end as Riley opted to sit in an empty chair. "All we usually get are a bunch of cookies we can't eat and stuff for Ping-Pong."

"Nah, it's been pretty light this week," Dak commented as he motioned to the stack on the table. "I think most of it went to NYC," he leaned forward and picked one up. "This one was pretty interesting though." He said and tossed it to WayneWayne so he could read it and pass it around.

Dear Dak,
I'm so in love you with, you, but you would never know it. You don't know I exist, but I know everything and anything I need to know about you. I'm that big a fan. I know your birthday, the time you were born, where you were born, your favorite color, your family members' names, your pets' names, and what you favorite subjects in school are. No one can say that I'm a bigger fan of you than I am. I love you so much and I wish that one day I could meet you. I think I'm going to one of your dates on tour, but as of now I'm not sure. I can't wait until the day we meet; it will make my dream a reality. Love you Dak!
-Melissa

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone say the word love; so many times in a letter before." WayneWayne commented as he handed the letter over to Riley, who quickly read it, and then handed it to Rhuben. "Kind of weird."

"It's just a fan, there's nothing wrong with it." Rhuben commented with a shrug, crossing her legs as she tossed the letter onto the table. "No harm, no foul."

"So you're telling me that you have gotten letters like this before?" Dak asked as he waved the letter in the air, before re-reading it. WayneWayne smirked as he held his hand over his mouth, trying not to let it show. Geez, I seriously never knew that jealousy was that easy to see.

"Probably 7 out of 10 letters that we get are like that," Rhuben replied with a nod. "Contrary to popular belief, they mostly go to Patrick and Noah though." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her face void of any emotion. "No need to be jealous."

"Who said I was?" Dak shot back.

"You can see it in your body language, Dude," Riley replied, lying sideways in a chair. "Plus, it flashed over you face in a second."

"Wow," Dak laughed sarcastically as he leaned back. "Way to kick a man when he's down."

"You're not a man until your balls drop." Riley then turned and reached out her foot, lightly tapping WayneWayne's arm with it. "You're quieter than usual, what's up?" She sat up straighter. "Is it your sisters that are bothering you or is it something else?" Her face showed concern.

While Dak had a thing for Rhuben, WayneWayne found it very cliché to end up falling for her older twin sister. But it was something that he could help. Shortly after he had been humiliated by BTR as well as being known as 'the orange one' on the Ziggle Zaggles, Riley had bumped into him in the mall and immediately recognized him as the one that tried to push her friend out of the band. Being the kind of person that cared about other people's feelings before herself, even spreading herself too thin on that fault, she wasn't mad that he had tried so hard to get a job. She easily recognized, due to her intuition (a Jackson Curse), that he had just been desperate to get a job and went the wrong way about trying to get it. After talking to Dak about it, she went to her siblings and convinced him that he was a good guy, and then they went and convinced BTR that he wasn't as bad as they had originally thought. From that moment on, their friendship grew to the point that he had a hard time not thinking about her. Not the obsessive point that Dak did about Rhuben, but still enough. It also didn't help that the first time that she had met his family; they immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was his girlfriend. When he tried to tell them that it wasn't true, and it was obvious that they didn't believe him, she jumped in and said that they had been dating for a couple of weeks.

The tabloids had a field day with that one before the Jelena thing came around a second later, and everyone forgot about it (for the time being). Now every time a magazine was around his family, WayneWayne made absolute sure that none of them would speak to the press.

"Nothing," WayneWayne shrugged. "I was just thinking about stuff." He sat up suddenly and he made a face when Riley winced and turned her head away. "Sorry," he apologized quickly.

"Its fine," she replied with a sigh, running a hand through her hair.

I still don't get how they can go through a case of abuse as badly as that and then act like nothing happened later. WayneWayne thought to himself as he lightly shook his head, his hands clenching into fists. It really makes me sick how he was able to do that to them for so long. I know they're getting a lot better now, but…it's not something that you can get over that fast.

"That reminds me," she added, lightly hitting herself on the forehead. "When are you going off to Denver? I think Big Time Rush has a couple of shows out there around the time that you are, so we could probably see them while we're out there." She whipped her phone out of her pocket and started to bring up the calendar.

"Uh, mid June to July 2nd, I believe," Dak replied as he rubbed his forehead. "I'm not really sure; I have to let my parents know as well." He raised his arms up over his face.

"You nervous?" Rhuben asked as she brought her knees up to her chest.

"I always am," Dak replied in monotone. "Only because of I've never worked with these people before." He removed his arms from his face, and looked straight ahead. "I don't know if we're going to mesh or whatever."

WayneWayne knew that that wasn't the truth, but he wasn't going to call him out on it. Especially if it wasn't something that he had told anyone else. He looked over at Rhuben and could immediately tell that she didn't believe him, but he wasn't going to say anything about that either.

"You'll do fine," Rhuben commented as she reached out and touched his shoulder. She quickly pulled her hand away, as if she had burnt herself. She tilted her head forward, as if making sure that her hair covered her face. "You always do." She lifted her head, her face expressionless at this point.

"Do you guys want a room?" Riley asked as she turned away from her phone. "'Cause I could leave if you need it." She turned back to her phone, looking confused about something as she sat up, resting her elbows on her knees. She looked up as WayneWayne stretched his arms over his head, his shirt riding up over his stomach. He lowered his arms and pulled it back down. "Aw, you ruined the view." She commented.

WayneWayne shot her a funny look as he crossed his arms over his chest. Dak laughed as he tilted his head back again. "Ladies and gentleman, Riley Jackson-McGuire, the shameless flirt."

Riley's mouth dropped open. "I'm not a shameless flirt!"

"Almost every guy I have ever seen you look at, you've flirted with," Dak commented as he slowly nodded. "More so for the fact that you don't notice it when you do it, but you just do." He scratched the back of his neck. "I can't explain it, but trust me, you do."

"Do not," Riley pouted.

"There's no need to pout because you know you're wrong," Rhuben teased her sister. Riley looked like she wanted to say something, but she just stuck her lower lip out even further. "I'm hungry," she said, somewhat like an afterthought.

"I'll find something," Riley said as she got to her feet, tugging down the legs of her shorts as she did so. She had a troubled expression on her face as she walked out of the den and headed over to the larger kitchen. Dak noticed the look and got up, quickly following after her.

"What?" Dak asked as he grabbed onto the back of Riley's pigtails and held her still so she couldn't get away from him. "I see that look on your face," he added when Riley shrugged, looking away from him. "You don't have to worry." He commented.

"I can't help it," Riley replied a one-armed shrug. "You know I'm a worry-wart."

"I buy the wart part," Dak replied weakly. "Seriously," he put his arm around her shoulders and brought her into his side in a hug. "It's fine, it's just a letter. Just a fan." He then took the opportunity to mess up her hair, surprised when she didn't move to fix it.

"Yeah, but you're forgetting what fan stands for," Riley replied, looking at him seriously. "Fanatic."

A/N: If you didn't see my tweet on twitter, this story is mostly going to be from Dak's and WayneWayne's POVs although you'll see some of my characters' POVs as well. Either that or I'll go in a circle of Dak's, WayneWayne's, Riley's and Rhuben's POVs. Or I might make each chapter split between Dak's and WayneWayne's POVs, I haven't decided yet. Hm, also, Lizzie, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney are more like secondary characters to this story, although they're still very important. Also, if anyone is confused, I see WayneWayne are more of the quieter friend than some of the others of them.

Question for you guys though, and the outcome won't really defer from the story because it can both work: Would you rather see Della and Wiley get together sooner or later? Like I said before, with this story it can work both ways. Thanks!

Cheers,

-Riles