Happy New Year, my lovely readers! I know it's been a long wait, (UGH, school) but I actually feel production 'cause I still have 3 other docs in the manager. Which means my updates are less spaced out. I wrote this chapter with 4 scenes planned out, so the rest wrote itself. I think it'll be a good buildup to the next one, which will probably span a longer time. (Which, of course, means a longer chapter.) I'm planning on a lot of heart to hearts.

This chapter is dedicated to EmmaALewisS, Dandy-ni, puzzlepirateking, demigirl606 and DannySamLover20. Enjoy!

"Watch out for fire hydrants. Oh, and I wouldn't recommended drinking anything on your way there. A spill might be really hard to clean."

Barry looked at his brother, who was standing at the side of Stacy's car. He'd adjusted the mirrors, and was now giving every piece of advice could think of about how to care for the vehicle.

"Trust me," Barry insisted. "When it comes to this, I'm thinking like you."

Larry smiled, flattered. "Thanks." He started on his way to his own car.

Then he heard Barry call out "See you at school!" He smiled and waved as his brother drove away.

At Tara's house, Delilah's happy squeals greeted the morning. Only once breakfast was finished with did anyone think to ask what they were about. Though Rob had a clue, grinning knowingly.

"Did you see it yet?" He asked.

"See what?" Tara asked, after putting her plate in the sink.

"The music video." Delilah filled in, sounding like she was on the verge of exploding. In a good way, of course.

"Our masterpiece." Rob said, gesturing to the three of them.

"It's up already?" Tara asked, earning a nod. "That was quick."

Her phone was set down in the middle of the table, so Rob slid it over to her. "I'll drive you. You can watch on the way."

"I expected to see you sitting on the porch. Or maybe the curb." Barry admitted as he stood at Stacy's door. (More than that, he was surprised she wasn't giving her car a complete inspection.)

She shook her head. "I had to thaw out cupcakes, remember?" She held the door open for him and closed it once he was inside the house.

"Yeah, I remember." He said as he nodded. "Did you start frosting without me?"

She gave him a look that didn't match the tone she used. A tone that was perplexingly playful. "What fun would that be?" She watched his eyebrows raised and wondered what he'd think once she finished her thought. "Besides, I can't do it with as much flare."

"You have your own flare." He reasoned, following her into the kitchen. "That's the beauty of this whole thing."

She stared at him for a second, while he hands reached for the things they needed. (Everything was already set out on the counter.) "That's really how you see it?" Maybe he was just trying to make himself look good. It sounded like the sort of thing people said because they thought it was what others wanted to hear. She knew by now Barry wasn't like that.

"Everyone's got something to bring to the table." He meant in terms of the dare, but she was thinking on a different level.

She shook her head, trying not to get sidetracked from her work. "You wanna meet the world and your brother wants to hide from it."

"He's not a coward," Barry defended. "he's just cautious."

"Well, how'd he get to be so cautious when you're so confident?"

Barry blinked. "I don't know. I guess so there's a balance. Is that how it is with you and Kim?" Stacy accidentally frosted her own thumb. While she looked at it, annoyed, all Barry could think to say was: "Sweet, second breakfast." She scoffed and went to wash her thumb off. "Aw." He said, disappointed. Not only because of the little waste. He figured she'd either forgotten the conversation or wanted to drop it all together.

"Kim gets to have all the fun." Stacy answered, giving no explanation for why she thought that.

"Not anymore." Barry said with a smile.

"Oh, right." She replied, like she only just remembered. "I have to have fun now. It's a rule."

His eyes no longer had a split focus, between her and the cupcakes. They were stuck on the counter for a second. "You're not just having fun because it's a rule, are you?"

After a pause, she admitted. "No, sometimes it happens by accident."

Audrey's phone had been flooded with texts within the hour she spent getting ready for school. Every single one was encouraging and congratulatory. She suddenly wondered if she should change her outfit to match her newfound stardom.

She had already planned out what she was wearing days before, and there wasn't much time left to change it all up before she had to leave. She felt like she was settling, unlike Kim who was sure of her outfit choice for that day.

Even though only one of them had done something that had them looking like overnight sensations that weekend, both girls were about to gain a lot of attention.

"GGGG's for life!" Fans were shouting the words the went along with Gavin and Gabe's handshake through the halls, having seen their music video. The boys wore beaming smiles. They had to part ways at one point, and Gabe found Tara by her locker.

"Hey, Superstar." She greeted, catching him off guard.

"Huh." He could say the same to her. Not just because of the little game they played. Not just because of the work she did on the music video, either. Being Radio Rebel was a pretty good gig, too.

They saw Audrey coming toward them and couldn't help but offer her the same greeting. "I can't believe this." She said, in the happiest way. "Someone asked for my autograph!"

"I'm not surprised." Tara told her.

"Hey, guys, look at this." Gavin said as he came back into view. He held out his phone. A picture was on the screen, of the band's logo written over and over on construction paper.

"Where was this?" Tara managed to squeak out. The wall, or whatever was behind it, was completely covered in the design, along with messages written by fans.

"My locker." He replied. The group's celebration was almost cut short.

"Hey," Stacy called out, heels clicking as she rushed through the hall. There was an understandable edge to her voice, given the opportunity she'd missed. Audrey almost felt like hiding. Until she finished her sentence. "good job."

The boys smiled thankfully, while the girls could only exchange glances. They wondered if she was addressing all of them. And how she could effortlessly carry so many cupcakes.

The twins came around then. Barry had another container of cupcakes, but some were already missing from his. He handed some out to the others, and asked Larry and his dare partner. "So, how does it feel to be famous-adjacent?'

Stacy chuckled. "When I'm prom queen, I won't have to settle for famous-adjacent."

"Hey, where's Kim?" Larry asked. He sounded concerned because, up until the dare happened, it was rare not to see her at Stacy's side.

Tara was the first to give an answer of any substance. She was arguably the most observant of the bunch, since she didn't typically have as much to say. "I… think that's her." She answered, pointing to a girl the crowd in the hallway parted for.

A girl in plaids, stripes, polka dots and mismatched socks. Her shoes were the same because she hadn't purchased any new ones recently. Strange looks were sent her way when she started her walked down the hallway, but soon the expressions softened. People wore smiles that matched hers.

Most of Tara's friends wondered why Kim was dressed that way. She wasn't about to judge, given what she stood for, but she still didn't understand it. It was definitely a change of pace from Kim's usual style.

In fact, she looked less like herself and more like Larry, who was staring with his mouth slightly open. Until his brother gave him a nudge.

"Well, that's-" Stacy began, before Barry interrupted.

"Different."

"I know," Kim said, jutting her chin out in Larry's direction for a second. "looks better on him."

Larry laughed in reply. "I think you might be my competition." He countered. "One trip to the mall and you're a mismatched fashionista." He didn't notice his brother smirking beside him.

Or Audrey's comment, which was more of an inside joke only Tara knew about. "You got all that at the mall? It's a good thing you didn't get a haircut."

"That wasn't the point of this," Stacy said, remembering the phone conversation she had with Kim. "was it?"

"No," Kim clarified. Then she looked back at Larry, and explained: "it's my way to say sorry."

He nodded slowly. "Message received." When Barry nudged him, he continued. "I forgive you." Like before, he didn't notice the impression his words made on the others. Stacy in particular.

By lunchtime, Barry handed out all his cupcakes.

Stacy only had a few left to give out, but she assumed that most of the kids who accepted them only did so because they didn't want to pass up free food. She'd left the rest in the faculty fridge so they wouldn't lose their freshness.

When she was down to her last cupcake, she recognized someone sitting by himself. She wasn't sure of his name, but she remembered him because he took a remote control car to school. And she'd kicked it over in a fit of anger.

She walked over and placed the cupcake in front of him, wordlessly. When he gave her a shifty-eyed glance of confusion, she figured she had to explain herself.

First, she had to make sure Barry wasn't watching. If she'd done this just to bolster her image, it wouldn't count.

"Consider it a peace offering." She told the boy.

He smiled and stuttered through a thank you.

"Don't mention it. Really." This was her attempt at an apology, not a way to earn more votes.

"I like the blue frosting." He told her.

"It's my favorite color." She said, wondering why he still hadn't taken a bite. He'd cleaned his tray; so maybe he wasn't hungry.

A thought crossed the boy's mind, and though he was almost afraid to voice it in light of recent events, he asked: "You don't mind if I… regift this, do you?"

She was soft of of offended, but shook her head. "Not as long as I'm forgiven." Despite how honest she sounded, the boy didn't believe her.

He barely got to where he was going before he turned around to ask her one last thing. "You really want this, huh?"

Being prom queen wasn't just a dream. It was a mission. Stacy nodded. "I wanna earn it, too."

"...Best of luck." He wished as he went off again.

She watched as he placed the cupcake on another table, in front of a girl. Stacy realized she recognized her as well. (A girl who could teach knew thing or two about doing good for goodness sake.) She was the one who left carnations for everyone on Valentine's Day. And she was pleasantly surprised by the treat she was presented with.

Stacy found herself smiling. Another happy accident.

"So my listeners at Hoover High were so inspired by what went down at Lincoln Bay, they had a full on flash mob at lunch today…."

Radio Rebel wrapped up her segment, and Tara realized how hungry she was. Especially since Cami sat there, putting away a salad.

"I'm gonna order something from Sub-O-Rama." She told Gabe. "Do you want anything?"

She could tell that didn't sound appetizing to him, but she wasn't sure why. "I'm craving pizza." He told her.

"I don't think they serve pizza at sub shops." He had to laugh. He'd never been teased by someone so shy. "I could go for pizza." She decided. The only reason she was settling for subs is because they delivered, and that meant she didn't have to risk being found out by the twins.

"Cool. We could hang out with Kim and Larry. They're working right now." Gabe informed.

"Oh, great." She said with a smile. That meant she had nothing to worry about. Since he put her mind at ease, she didn't notice the look of suspicion that had entered Cami's eyes.

The bell above the pizzeria door alerted Kim and Larry to the presence of their friends. (He was sweeping, for third time that day. She was poised behind the counter, ready to take orders.)

They were presently surprised when Gabe and Tara walked in, but even more so to see that Audrey, Barry and Stacy were in tow.

"I can't believe you're actually here." Barry admitted to his dare partner.

"You said I should treat myself, right?" Stacy reminded him. She walked up to the counter, sharing a smile with her best friend.

"Your usual?" Kim asked. She nodded. "A regular slice and six breadsticks, coming up." At that point, Stacy turned to the rest of the group. They had just chosen a table to sit at.

"What do you guys want?" Stacy sounded impatient, but mostly everyone thought she was joking.

"You're treating?" Barry asked.

"Why not?" She didn't say this with an audible shrug. It was like she was asking why he thought there was a problem with it.

"... It's not really fair, is it?" Tara chimed in, surprised she managed. Stacy might have been trying to be nice, but she still sounded scary.

"Not with how much I can eat." Barry said.

"Fine then. You buy your own food, and I'll treat everyone else."

"You don't have to." Audrey insisted. She'd already had one friend buy her something out of the blue. Not that she could consider Stacy a friend. This seemed like a way to get votes.

"Why don't we all just split the check?" Gabe suggested.

"Sounds fun!" Kim suggested.

"Fun?" Stacy echoed, from the seat she found next to Barry.

"Yeah, we can all order different things and share, too."

Barry saw one big problem with this. "If my brother takes a break to eat with us, I don't think he'll be able to handle that. It sounds like a mess of fingers and food." He was just looking out for his twin, but it sounded like he was calling the shots.

"I'll be alright." Larry insisted, propping the broom up against a wall behind the counter. "Forks and knives were invented for a reason. He joined Kim and his other co-workers, to help with the cooking. First, he took down all the orders.

While waiting, Stacy took out her phone. She held it up, poised to take a picture. The rest of the group at the table wondered if she realized they were in the shot. She snapped the picture regardless.

Barry laughed. "What're you doing?"

"Sending this to Gavin." After all, she was front and center in the shot.

"Won't that just make him feel bad about not being here?" Gabe asked, though she'd already pressed send.

"Aw." Audrey sympathized. She turned to look over at Larry and Kim. "Maybe we should've wait 'til your shift was over and visited him at w-"

She was interrupted by the sound of metal crashing to the floor. A bunch of napkins flew out of the dispenser. Larry abandoned his post and went to sweep them up. "I got it," Gabe insisted. "it was my fault anyway."

Larry knew that. He'd witnessed it.

He hadn't meant to. He'd only caught it out of the corner of his eye. It was the kind of thing that was hard to ignore. From where he stood, it looked like Gabe had knocked the napkin dispenser over on purpose.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure." Larry told Kim, as they were locking up for the night.

His answer seemed to stump her, which was the reverse of their usual situation.

"But why would he do that?" It was a rude move. Something that only created more work for people. Gabe's actions made everyone forget what they were talking about. Larry thought that might have been the goal.

He shrugged. "I was hoping you could tell me." He said as they made their way to the parking lot.

"What do I know?" The way she said this, she wasn't tearing herself down. She was just so lost on the subject.

"You know more than you think you do." Larry had noticed that since he partnered up with her on the dare.

"Maybe he's just clumsy." Kim said. Then, with a laugh, she finished her thought. "He is to napkin dispensers as you are to lamps."

Larry smiled, but responded in a low, lost voice. He didn't get it either. "It seemed pretty deliberate to me."

"Well that's… weird."

"Do you think it means anything?" He asked as they reached the car.

"It has to mean something." She agreed, sitting in the passenger's seat. "Maybe Gabe and Gavin are in a fight and that's why he's avoiding him."

"I hope not." Larry said as he started the car. "It'd be a shame… if this dare started new friendships but ended old ones?" It came out like a question because he started to think about it. How this dinner was the most he'd seen of his brother in a while. Everything else was either an argument, some sort of safety drill, or a routine that had begun to get old.

"Yeah." Kim breathed back. Though she was thinking about her own old friendship, she asked: "Are you and your brother okay?"

They drove along slowly. Which spoke less about how cautious Larry was and more about how scared this discussion made him. "We're not… we're not like we were." He admitted. They were no longer attached at the hip. She frowned at this, until he finished. "But we're not hopeless."

"None of us are hopeless." She told him, since she needed to hear that just as badly as he did. "And I think… doing things all together, like having dinner, really helps." They were at a red light, so he turned to glance at her. Her smiling eyes were faced toward the road ahead of them. Which seemed fitting. "It's good to keep at this and… important to remember why we bothered to try."

"Why did you?"

"At first it was for the same reason you did." She told him. "I just wanted to prove I could do it. Make a decision for myself. And I'm still working on that." The way he saw it, she was doing a pretty good job. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smile get wider. "I like that I can still make friends. It's not as easy as it was before. Kids are their full selves 'cause they don't know how to be anything else. So, whether people like it or not, they get the-" She searched for the words that would impact Larry the most, and continued. "unsafe, unsanitary version of someone."

Unfortunately, all that did was confuse-and disgust-him. "The… what?"

"Ya know! The one with quirks and fears." He still had plenty of those. He didn't see how people could lose those things as they got older. He also didn't see that Kim wasn't done talking. Until she went on. With words that turned the food that was still digesting in his stomach into pits. "And… sadness." He wanted to look over at her again, since her tone had changed so suddenly. He couldn't, because they were still driving. Aimlessly. "At some point, you start to feel like you have to hide all those things. So… you pretend you don't have them."

His next question to her hit pretty hard. "Is that what happened to Stacy?"

Her answer hurt even worse. "I think it happens to all of us."

He pushed at his bottom lip with his thumbnail. She could bet if he was conscious of that, he'd stop. "I don't like that."

"Me neither. That's why I'm such a fan of Radio Rebel. She knows who she is, and she's not afraid to tell anyone." He gave her a goofy look in reply. "Secret identity aside!" She said, laughing.

He laughed back, and Kim suddenly quieted. "What?" Larry probed.

"I still don't get why Stacy hates her so much. It's fine not to like someone. Why does she have to ruin it for the people who do?"

Once again, he had no idea how to respond. Except to say: "What do you mean?"

"Stacy basically gave Principal Mareno the idea to expel Radio Rebel." She explained. She watched his eyebrows lower.

"...Really?"

She nodded. "Hey, can we make a little… pit stop?"

He was upset about what she just told him, but glad she thought of something else to say. "Sure."

That exchange led them to the nearest pharmacy, where she found herself a package of rice cakes. (He waited for her in the car, thinking the whole conversation over.)

Kim set her rice cakes down on the counter. While the cashier rang her up, she thought of something. "Hey, what do you have that's good for treating eczema?"

Gavin and Audrey were having another game of catch, under 'stadium' lights. "So a life of fame will be like the life of a vampire for you." Audrey supposed. "You can only come out at night."

He laughed. On a serious note, he was hoping it wouldn't be like that. Where he was standing helped remind him that he didn't want to lose himself under the lights. "I'm the same person. I'm not looking for people to love me just 'cause I can play."

She was surprised the ball landed in her glove, hearing that. "I'm sure that's not how it is. Not for the people you love."

He wasn't so sure of that, and told her why. "I love my fans, too."

"It's not the same level. You're a star to your family and friends 'cause you look out for people. And you're… thoughtful."

At this point, he caught onto what she meant. "Like how you're a star to your friends and family 'cause you're loyal and you help them bring out their inner hyena?" He stressed the last word by forming a claw with his free hand.

"Exactly." Audrey answered under a laugh. After a pause, she said. "But it must be exciting. You and the guys are scheduled for an interview with DJ Funky Mac this Sunday." She reminded Gavin. "Then you get to upgrade from your best friend's garage to an actual stage."

"And that's...amazing," He agreed. "but I like the garage."

She nodded. "'Cause it's safe. The only time people actually see you in there is when he leaves the door open." That was no way to get the message of their music across. To stress this, she added: "Hyenas are wild." As a way to encourage him to venture out into the world again. Like he did with the music video. She was glad she had that advice to give. It made her sound like her normal self, which was something he'd been missing for awhile.

"Thanks," He appreciated it, but his mind wasn't that far into the future. He was thinking about the following afternoon. "but this hyena has responsibilities. Like rehearsal tomorrow. By the way, thanks for setting that up."

She shrugged it off. "It was Gabe's idea, actually. We'll be there, cheering you guys on."

"Our audience of two?" Gavin mused.

"Tara can handle it." She insisted. They'd both seen their fair share of proof.

Gabe's garage was the unofficial stage where he and his band performed. It was also a meeting place, where a girl he hardly knew proposed the start of a master plan. That girl sat with him as he played.

"I've never heard that before." She said with hushed excitement.

"Neither have I." He admitted.

"It's good."

"Is there anything I do bad?" He asked with the raise of an eyebrow.

She chuckled. "I'm sure there's plenty." She watched his jaw drop.

He scoffed. "I never thought I'd hear that comin' from you."

"There are plenty of things I'm not good at either." She admitted. "I wasn't… making fun of you-" She stammered.

"I know." He interrupted, not wanting her to get worked up. "I'm messin' with ya."

"Oh." She said, still embarrassed. She tried to rid herself of that feeling by taking the conversation in a different direction. "Are you writing something new for the concert Sunday?"

After a long pause, he said. "Maybe."

"That was a tiny 'maybe'. She observed. She knew a lot about those. The kind of 'maybes' that were right next to 'no'.

"I don't wanna mess with the process." He justified, though she still didn't see what had him discouraged. She used to think he didn't get that way. "We're rising stock."

"Rising stock?" She echoed. Only then did he realize how it sounded. "You think that's how my step-dad see you? Y-you're not just… some project." She assured, upset that he even thought that way. "And if you have something to say, you should it." She used words she knew worked. "You should reach." She thought back to what he'd said in his behind the scenes segment for the music video, and wondered why she hadn't thanked him. That would have to wait til later. When he didn't answer, she tried a different approach. "Anyway, you can't just play one song."

"We have two." He knew that wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Those songs tell me what you do. I wanna know who you are."

"Then maybe that's the problem." The edge to his tone had been lost in the last few days.

"Gabe?" Saying his name was a way to get him to calm down, and hopefully open up. That's what Tara had been aiming for. She just hadn't had a lot of luck.

"Not everyone is as nice as you, Tara." If they knew who he was, they might not want to know any more. He latched onto a fear Audrey had expressed on the first day of the video shoot. "I don't wanna be the reason… we don't make it."

"You love music." He wasn't sure what she was getting at by telling him what he already knew. "That's why you play so many instruments. You love writing. That's why your pen is out of ink." She caught him trying to stifle a smile over that statement. He was surprised she noticed. "That's why you should do it." It wasn't about recognition, or keeping up an image. "You've got us. You've got people who are gonna relate to what you have to say. It shouldn't matter that not everyone is gonna be on your side."

He saw what she was trying to do. He was thankful for the effort. The sad part was, she completely missed what really ailed him. A thought he didn't voice.

But what if you leave, too?

Barry's phone woke him way before his alarm clock was set to. He rolled over, suppressing a groan of annoyance. Then he fumbled for the phone in the dark. The screen had lit up, but the vibrations caused it to fall off his nightstand before he could get it.

He found it on the floor, and turned it so the screen was facing him. Seeing the name displayed there, he was convinced he was still sleeping. It felt like a dream.

He accepted the call and put the phone to his ear, speaking in a whisper before the person on the other line had a chance. A sleepy smile graced his face. "Didn't you say you were gonna delete my number?"

"It's one of the dumbest things I've ever done."

Barry wasn't the only one speaking when he should've been sleeping. Gabe and Audrey were having a conversation of their own.

"It was dumb of me not to realize." She argued. "If I hadn't said anything-"

"I'd still be keeping them away from each other." He cut in angrily. Though the anger he felt was directed at himself.

She hadn't realized the extent of his actions. "She didn't feel like having pizza today, huh?"

"It took some convincing." He clarified. "Not much, but… it was still wrong."

Audrey saw the upside. "You're making up for it now."

He was silent for awhile, then he spoke. It made Audrey wonder if she was getting good enough reception. His voice sounded low and shaky on the other line. "Maybe this only happened because they told us what we needed to hear. Maybe… if we listened better, we'd know that other people were saying those things, too."

"And then it wouldn't mean as much?" Audrey asked hopefully.

This time, Gabe didn't hesitate to answer. "I think it would mean more..."

Thanks for reading, PLEASE REVIEW! Let me know if

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2. There are any spelling/grammar/phrasing mistakes

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