Lemonade Mouth

TLC

Chaptered

Written by Lavender

Not owning Lemonade Mouth. If I did, Rayella would be canon.

(^^)

"Wow…that's…a really big house."

Evelyn pulled up in the driveway of said big house, and turned off the engine with a smile. "Yes, quite a place to call home." The red head woman along with her blonde sister stepped out of the car and Stella followed suit as both women walked towards the large front door. "I do love this house of yours Eve," Claire said as the front door was pushed open. "It's got all the chii flowing all the right way."

Stella summarised during the drive from the grocery store to Evelyn's home that both woman were extremely well off. Though that was mostly due to the expensive Mercedes Benz that Evelyn drove, with a personalized dashboard and a small screen behind the headrests. Nonetheless, Stella had guessed that both women were wealthy without the idea of the expensive car that they were driving in.

Claire Evans was an avid traveller along with her husband. During the previous summer her husband and herself took an Eat, pray, love tour of the world, and during her stay in India, Claire had turned into quite the yogi, though Evelyn jokingly claimed that that was just Claire's excuse to go on about chii-energy and doing excessive yoga.

Evelyn Beech was an artist. Her vocation was in painting and drawing. She met her husband, Royston Beech, when she was hired to design the new home that he had made. Of course him being an architect and her being an interior designer, they did more pleasure than business when they were together, of course that was just a claim by Claire in retaliation about the yogi comment.

To say that Stella was surprised by how the two sophisticated looking women acted was somewhat of an understatement.

But then again, she shouldn't have made an assumption that both women were snobs because they were rich in the first place, she coming from a family of geniuses was expected to be exactly like them too. Of course, she decided she'd be different; become a rockstar and get arrested for attacking security guards.

As they entered the large house, or mansion whichever seemed to have a better meaning, Stella vowed that she would never make assumptions again.

The house/mansion was more magnificent inside than it was outside. Where there were manicured lawns of emerald, here there were lush ruby red rugs splashed against the smooth hardwood floors. The lights shone just right in the room, allowing a modest view of all the furniture and all the photo-frames that lay around. Everything was immaculate and yet it wasn't intimidating, it was actually warm and comfortable, and Stella was awed by how amazing the house was.

Sure, her house wasn't exactly a dump. But this house made her house look like a box under a bridge.

"Would you like anything to drink before I introduce my son to you Stella?"

"No, I think I'm alright," Stella responded to which Evelyn nodded and gestured up the stairs. "He's in his room, and has been since Thursday night. I hope you won't mind the sickness."

"That's fine; I drink a lot of lemonade," she couldn't help but say, already thinking about her guitar and her band in association. Claire nodded approvingly. "Vitamin C is the strongest immune boaster. You should make him drink it more often so he can get better."

"Well in any case, I'm willing to pay you at least three hundred to watch him until summer vacation starts."

"Whoa; three hundred, my guitar costs only one fifty and technically I just need fifty more bucks to get it. Three hundred bucks is a bit unnecessary don't you think?"

"I will be gone for a week and as I said, he's sick."

"But I -"

"Don't fight with her," Claire interjected, patting Stella's arm. "Just go with it." With that the blonde walked into another room while Evelyn began the trek up the stairs. Stella quickly followed after her and was forced to admit that three hundred bucks was quite enough compensation to take care of a sick boy.

Once the bedroom door to said sick boy opened and Stella was standing at the foot of his bed, did she admit that three hundred bucks was barely enough to babysit a sick Ray Beech, of course, neither said as much to his mother who was already fussing with his pillows and asking if he was okay since the last time she checked up on him.

The usually haughty blonde tyrant of Mesa High; was covered in blankets up to his chin and his barely visible head was sickly pale and worryingly red at the same time. His always electric blue eyes were sunken, black rings hanging underneath them heavily. His trademark spikes of blonde were matted and lifeless, hanging over his eyes slightly and tousled roughly as if he'd been turning for days.

"Whoa…Ray, what got you, the Plague?" Stella couldn't help but ask, to which he answered in a strained voice, "What the hell are you doing in my house Yamada?" Evelyn quickly interjected, "Ray sweetie, don't try talking. Save your strength for getting better for me okay?"

Ray was about to say something in reply, but a scratching cough vibrated from his throat causing him to shake slightly as he tried to contain it.

"Oh my poor baby, haven't you gotten any better?"

"Mom, I'm fine," he was cut off again by another cough that almost made him jump out of the bed. "If fine stood for hanging-on-a-shoestring, then yeah, you look perfectly fine to me," Stella stated as she came closer to the bed to find that he looked sicker up close.

Along with the icy white color that hung on his face, and the unhealthy color of red that lay just below the surface, there was an almost blue and green tint coloring it as well. It was a bit more subtle a color then when you attend a pie-eating contest and then take a trip to Six Flags; though it made it bluntly obvious that all was not well with Mesa High's most feared.

"Now Ray sweetie, this is Stella Yamada," Evelyn stated, as if the past interaction between the two teenagers didn't happen. "She's going to be taking care of you until you get better while I help Aunt Claire in Albuquerque."

It was wrong to want to laugh at the situation, but Stella couldn't help but suppress a smile. Ray was being talked to like a five year old.

The Ray Beech, front man of band sensation Mudslide Crush, feared social ladder topper of Mesa High and king of all things relating to jerks. It was extremely laughable to his most adverse enemy.

"She's here to do what?" Ray practically barked, but was immediately brought down by a burst of coughs.

Seeing the distress that was painting Evelyn's expression, Stella was at Ray's side, pulling him into a sitting position and patting his back gently. His coughs weakened and stopped altogether leaving a restrained heaving of breath by the sickly blonde.

"Alright do you feel anymore coughs coming up?"

"I'm fine," he grumbled, though his back was rim-rod stiff where Stella's hand was resting. "Okay, okay, I'm just asking for your mom's sake," she stated with a roll of her eyes. "So Mrs. Beech, what exactly is Ray sick with?" She asked, though by the way his shirt was practically plastered to his back by sweat, his coughs and his worrying color changes, Stella figured it was probably nothing more than a violent fever.

"Just a fever, quite bad too," the woman answered, her lips pursed in thought. "You know what Stella; maybe we don't need your services after all. I mean, I can take care of Ray, I can visit Claire when we go to Albuquerque in the summer."

At that Ray began his coughing again. Stella remained behind him, patting his back and saying, "Alright; just cough it out…"

When it ceased, the blonde said, "Mom its fine go with Aunt Claire. You promised to pay Stella already didn't you?"

"Well yes but I -"

"Then it's fine," Ray stated, surprising Stella immensely. "Wait a sec, are you actually agreeing to me staying here and helping you?" While his mother once again contemplated leaving Ray to go with her sister, the blonde answered Stella in annoyance, "It's not the finest option I have, but it's either her or you. And she's been breathing down my neck since my temperature went up a degree."

"Okay…I guess…I guess I can agree to it," Evelyn said with a frown, though not hearing the reply of her son. "But baby are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Just leave me the medicine and I'll be fine," he grumbled, wanting to lie down again due to the room spinning around him. Stella saw the colors on Ray's face deepening in hue and as soon as Evelyn left the room, she quickly asked, "Do you feel like hurling?"

He groaned. "Don't mention it, or I'll end up doing it. Just let me lie down alright?"

"It's better if you throw it up; keep it in and you'll feel worse."

"Great, so you're a doctor now?"

"My dad's one and I've got two younger brothers with a pension for getting sick."

"I'm not doing that."

"Yeah, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yeah you are."

"No, I'm…" Ray's face started to change to an unsettling color of green and he shot out of his bed like a cannon. A door to the left of his bed was thrown open as he hugged the white toilet and emptied out the contents of his stomach with groans and curses. Stella was crouched beside him on the bathroom floor, rubbing his back.

Shakily, Ray reached for the silver flush and he leaned away from the toilet bowl as the water began to swirl and gurgle.

He sighed exhaustedly as he leaned against Stella, her hands keeping him from failing over. "Your dad must be a bad doctor and your brothers must be fakers. I feel like total shit." She snickered. "Yeah, that's the after-effect. Your stomach's obviously grateful though." Ray let out a groan as Stella helped him stand.

Still weak from the only physical thing he'd done since Wednesday, he didn't care that he had to have an arm draped over Stella's shoulder while she had to wrap her arm around his waist. He told himself that neither would have willingly admitted to being in any physical contact with the other. But of course that was just him telling himself, what he felt was something else completely, and nausea wasn't one of them.

Somehow Stella managed to successfully drag him back to his bed before she decided that he could use some cleaning up.

"Okay then big guy, you're going to do what I say and you won't complain because it's for your own good. Get it?"

"What makes you think I'll do what you say?" He argued, though weakly. "Because it's either me or your mother," Stella responded with a smirk as she walked back to his bathroom.

It was pretty clean for a boy's bathroom, she noted as she searched the cupboard underneath the sink for some cloths, which she soaked in the sink

"Alright then you," Stella said as she re-entered Ray's room, bucket and cloths in hand. "Off with the shirt," she commanded, getting him to cock a brow at her. "Aren't we getting a bit ahead of ourselves here Yamada?"

She snorted. "Dream on Beech, it just so happens that you stink and even for three hundred bucks I wouldn't stand you smelling like vomit and sweat."

Ray rolled his eyes and peeled off his faded blue ARMY t-shirt, dropping it on the floor as he sat on the edge of his bed.

Stella pretended to ignore the rippling muscles and toned physique of the arrogant Mudslide Crush front man. But of course, even in his sick state, he noted the longer than necessary look-over of Lemonade Mouth's leader.

Nonetheless, she dropped one of the cloths she gathered from the bathroom and gently wiped the still tanned skin of one Ray Beech. She started at his shoulders, casually ignoring the way the water made a teasing route from one slope of muscle to another, and down the length of his forearm. Stella carried on in this way in silence, moving swiftly from one part of his body to another.

Somewhere along the line, Ray's body seemed to anticipate where Stella would wash next, his muscles tensing for only a moment and then relaxing at her quick featherlike touch. Whenever her skin made contact with his accidently, a whole rash of goose-bumps appeared, though Stella told herself that it was probably due to the different temperatures that his skin did that, from the cool of the damp cloth to the warm of her own body temperature.

In order to reach his back, Stella had to sit behind him and that she did.

His tan back contained the same amount of taut muscle and fine bone and Stella wondered why such a jerk had to be graced with such a form. It was unfair to all the nice guys out there. She shook her head.

Her cleaning had resumed and finished, and she left the room fast enough to make Ray smirk.

Yes he was conceited and no, he didn't miss the way her eyes were trying not to roam all over his half-naked form.

He marvelled that even someone who hated him seemed to still find something appealing about him, even if she wasn't so happy about it.

Though still slightly dizzy, Ray managed to get to his dresser and grab a clean shirt. He didn't like to admit it, but it was cold in his room, which wasn't good for someone who was feeling sick enough as it was.

With as much mustered dignity as possible, Stella returned to Ray's room and helped him lie back down again. Obviously he didn't like being treated as if he were sick as he swatted her hands away and proceeded to lie back on the bed, pulling the blankets over himself as he did so. Stella, never the one to accept pay for something she didn't do, helped to fix the blankets atop him and then pressed her palm to his forehead.

"Huh, you're still burning up…"

"I feel fine."

"Yeah you said that before you threw up," she reminded, looking at him thoughtfully. "Feel anything else; hot, cold, cramped, nauseas, thirsty?"

"Just let me sleep," he demanded, suddenly feeling himself itch uncomfortably. "Now what?" Ray grumbled to himself, his collarbone starting to sting from his nails' attack. Stella grabbed his hand to stop him and she shifted his shirt away from his skin which was already starting to dampen with cold sweat.

"Uh Ray, have you ever had Chicken Pox before?"

"What?" he demanded; feeling another itch on his arm and on his thigh. Stella grabbed both hands and clutched them with hers atop his many blankets. "Chicken Pox; did you have it before?"

He snorted. "No."

"Then congratulations, now you do."

To be continued

So yeah…that's chapter two.

I really was overwhelmed by the number of reviews I received, I definitely didn't expect it, so here's to all the amazing people who reviewed chapter one:

Everybodyelse07: I'm Filipino too :) And thanks for the correction; I don't know anything about guitars...

Doubt But Never Regret: Soon enough for you? Haha

Christian Sunday Valentine: I'm glad you like:)

Elle: You're too kind ;)

Destinydream13: I wish I knew where this story goes -_-"

SaguaroCactus: Hopefully this chapter was to your liking, I had no idea where I was going with this...

Booklover51089: Sweet, I'm glad you think so!

iStoleYourBlueMoonIceCream: XD

roxybaby528: Yeah I don't think anyone's mentioned it before, but I kinda figured since they both played on Disney...

airyfaerie99: Poor Ray, I should say...his poor ego will never recover XD

Madelines: I think I get high on sugar...somewhere in that state of being loopy my ideas come xP But I'm glad you liked it, and hopefully it does entertain as planned.

Lizzy Awkward Turtle: TURTLES! I LOVE TURTLES! They like...snap...hah-hah...I'm glad you liked!

Send me another one to tell me how this one went via review

Thanks for reading!

Lavender