Sing Your Heart Out – Chapter 3
Nate's P.O.V:
As I lay down on the bed in my room for the next few months I grabbed my football and repeatedly threw it up and caught it. Truthfully, I'm feeling kind of lonely. I always do on the first day of school but I'm not going to tell anybody that. In fact if I'm going to be brutally honest with myself I would like to have somebody I could confide in and be the real Nate with. But it's my fault. I've pushed away my brothers and I made the wrong kinds of friends last term. Now I'm stuck with empty-headed bimbos known as the cheerleaders and boys obsessed with kicking a ball around and getting the hottest girls. The only dude I can trust is Lucas, my best friend. But even he doesn't know half of what I'm feeling and the truth is I don't think he'd understand.
As I thought back to the start of the day I groaned in anger. Not at Shane, but at me. How could I be so stupid as to block out one of the few people that genuinely cares about me and wants to help me? All Summer I'd been arrogant and hard-hearted, completely isolating myself from my family and instead choosing to party with my old friends and random girls and becoming the nightmare son from hell. But surely that's not a crime – I was only out having fun. That's what every 15-year-old male does!
But I was in the wrong this morning. I shouldn't have poked fun at Shane because of a crush on a girl especially as he's really serious about her. And I definitely shouldn't have then taken it out on his two other friends, that Miley and Mitchie. Especially because they aren't even that bad, I only say it because the bitchy girls that I hang out with say it – probably just jealous that they have to try to look stunning while Shane's friends naturally look good. Oh God what am I saying?!
They caused this trouble, without them Shane and me wouldn't be disagreeing so much. The car ride had been amazingly awkward and my Mum kept looking anxiously between Shane with his unusually unsmiling face and me mirroring his expression. The tension in the car was almost unbearable – even our little brother Frankie could sense it and didn't speak a word throughout the journey and choosing to play on his games console all the time, muttering one word answers to Mum. When we stopped for lunch (a picnic on the roadside) we just glared at each other and made cutting remarks across the blanket and then when we arrived at Hartbridge none of my friends were here and we weren't allowed up to our dormitories. I got stuck with Shane and his two friends Taylor and Mitchie. They weren't too bad but after awhile Miley arrived and I felt like such an outsider sitting on the bench that I went for a walk and eventually I could find my room. I'm betting Shane noticed my quick disappearance and would instantly guess why – another thing to add to the Nick Gray black book.
I threw the football at the wall in frustration and ran my hand through my thick curly hair groaning in frustration.
"Whoa! Dude what's up? Let it you man you can't keep all that anger inside, especially not for football. You'll injure someone." Lucas exclaimed with wide eyes, starting to slowly approach me.
"Hey man, it's alright I just got into a little argument with Shane earlier and was just letting off steam. I'll be okay in a while."
I smiled slight to reassure him and got up to hug him. Yeah, maybe if somebody were watching they'd see it as girlie. But I don't care. Lucas and me are like twin brothers – we like the same things, think the same things and are on exactly the same wavelength. We truly understand each other. He knows what goes on in my head – he just chooses not to ask me about it, he knows I'm not ready to talk about it.
"Hey how about we go check out all the sports facilities? Coach told me that we were getting new gym equipment so that we can work on our strength. And I'm sure the football pitch is going to look amazing!" I said my enthusiasm slowly building up.
"Yeah good idea! Maybe we could even try it out. I'll challenge you!"
"Lucas don't be silly, you know I can beat you at ANYTHING." I boasted running out of the room with Lucas quickly following me shouting protests all the way.
As we got to the exit of our dormitory block the dinner bell rang loudly and we both groaned and quickly put our hands to our ears. Just our luck to be right by the bell when it went!
I turned around to Lucas with a look of pure disappointment on my face. "That bell sure does know how to pick its moments, huh? We'll go check everything out later, maybe with a few more of the lads. I'm sure they'll be interested."
"Yeah good idea but come on, you don't want to be late on your first day back. Imagine what Mr Moorstone would say. He'd have a field day with you, immediately thinking up a ten minute lecture for us!"
I laughed at the thought of it but then quickly picked up my pace to catch up with some other people. Safe in a big group and all that.
"Oooft" I heard a girl's voice as she slammed straight into me and fell down towards the hard gravel. Instinctively my arms swooped down and snaked around her waist to stop her from landings on the floor.
"Oh my gosh thank you so much! I really couldn't deal with any more cuts today. I'm so sorry for banging into you."
I looked down to see what girl that was now probably going to be stalking me for the next term and looked straight into the eyes of Miley Stewart.
"Oh, um w-well watch where you're going next time. Alright?" I stuttered looking with alarm at Lucas who in return looked back at me in surprise.
Why was I the tongue-tied one? Shouldn't she be the one who could barely talk around the hot star football player?
She looked at me weirdly making her even cuter and replied "Okkkk, whatever. Bye!" while raising her eyebrow slowly and walking away shouting to her friends to wait up.
I walked into the dining hall in a daze ignoring Lucas' constant questions over what happened back there and sat in my old seat not even noticing the drastic change.
Lucas pulled me out of my chair and to the seating section for Hoarcross Hall, my living hall. As soon as we sat down Lucas attacked me whispering "What the hell Nate?! That chicks made you crazy and you only saw her for about a few seconds!"
"Lucas it was nothing I was just shocked that she even spoke really. I mean come on she's like one of those nerds isn't she? All last year I just saw her swotting up for her lessons or with her nose in a book. I don't even bother about fit girls, never mind girls like her." I returned as convincingly as I could.
He seemed to buy it as he laughed loudly and said, "That's the Nate we know and love!"
I heard a low gasp behind me and turned to see the one and only Miley Stewart with Mitchie Torres and Taylor Swift and Shane glaring darkly at me.
"Oops" Lucas muttered.
"Oops? Is that all you can say Lucas man? Nate you don't even know Miley and you don't even deserve to know her. So don't even bother speaking to her at all and just bother with those cheap plastic Barbie's your so fond of." Come on Miles let's go find our seats."
I looked up at Miley and felt an enormous wave of guilt when I saw that the bright excited spark in her eyes from outside the dining hall had been replaced with hurt and confusion. All because of me. I shook it off and turned back to Lucas rolling my eyes at him but secretly watching Mitchie pull Miley away.
For some unknown and daunting reason she seems to capture me and her beautiful face has the capability to mesmerise me. No other girl has ever had the honour of getting me in a fluster and it worries me that she can do this to me so quickly. I made a resolution to keep my distance from this Miley girl and focus on football and partying – just like last term.
Miley's P.O.V:
As Mitchie, Taylor and me walked away from the ice cream parlour and headed towards the dining hall I smiled brightly, thinking about the term ahead. Surprisingly everything had got a whole lot better since first arriving at Hartbridge. After walking around the school with Joe and a few of his friends I'd cheered up a lot and after an ice cream sundae from the ice cream parlour on the school grounds everything was going perfectly.
Just as we were nearly at the dining hall I looked at my elbow to see the plaster from earlier starting to fall off.
"Oh what perfect timing! You guys I'm just going to run up to our room and get fresh plasters. Tell the teacher I'll be there in a second it was an emergency. Okay?"
"Don't be silly Miles, we'll wait her for you so we can go in together. Shane will save us seats, especially if Taylor asks." Mitchie said winking at Taylor and laughing at the blush in response.
I ran up to the room and quickly replaced the plasters and rushed back to Mitchie and Taylor in record time. Things were going great until I decided to stop where I was going and run straight into someone. I closed my eyes waiting for the cold impact of the floor but it never came. As I felt two strong arms wrap around my waist and pick me up.
I opened my eyes to see Nate Gray. I gulped quietly and pulled myself together, determined not to go all shy or nervous. I wouldn't be scared and I couldn't afford to stutter – he'd think I was crushing on him! Although he does have an incredibly cute face. Wait, Miley stop thinking about him!
"Oh my gosh thank you so much! I really couldn't deal with any more cuts today. I'm so sorry for banging into you." I spoke confidently and clearly, smiling slightly at my success.
"Oh, um w-well watch where you're going next time. Alright?" he stammered in reply.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise and must have had a very weird look on my face. Nate Gray stuttering over me? Well that was new.
I spotted Mitchie and Taylor looking at us anxiously and I decided to go over to them. Either they were worried about me and what was being said over here or they were worried over being late to the dining hall. After all, Mr Moorstone's definitely going to have a fit.
"Okkkk, whatever. Bye!" I shouted quickly behind me and ran over to them, praying that I wasn't blushing or looking flustered.
"Hey sorry about that, I didn't look where I was going again and bumped into Gray. Had to be him didn't it?" I gave a slight giggle and looked at them.
"Miles you don't like him do you? I could see you blush when you looked at him from over here." Taylor asked.
"Oh god I hope he didn't see, I so don't want people to think that." I groaned combing my hair with my hands trying to make it less messy.
"No, he didn't seem to pick up on it. He looked just as embarrassed." Mitchie laughed.
"Probably because he didn't want to be seen talking to a 'nerd'. Might ruin his reputation." I joined in the laughter and walked into the hall with them walking up to Shane who was waiting for us at the entrance.
"You guys aren't even late! But I got Jake to save you all some seats. We're as far away from the teachers as possible." Shane said with an over exaggerated phew gesture.
"Shane Gray! Miley Stewart! Mitchie Torres! Taylor Swift! Get to your seats!" we heard Mr Moorstone's booming voice, smirked at each other slightly and started to walk to our seats.
As we were walking past Nate and his best friend Lucas, I heard them talking about me. I held Shane back and Mitchie stayed with us. Taylor looked at us questioningly and we motioned for her to go to our seats. I held my fingers to my lips to tell Mitchie and Shane to stay quiet a second.
"Lucas it was nothing I was just shocked that she even spoke really. I mean come on she's like one of those nerds isn't she? All last year I just saw her swotting up for her lessons or with her nose in a book. I don't even bother about fit girls, never mind girls like her." I heard him whisper, noticing the panic in his voice.
However Lucas seemed to buy is as he laughed and replied, "That's the Nate we know and love!"
You couldn't escape the heavy relief on Nate's face that Lucas believed him and I couldn't help the gasp that escaped from my mouth. Mitchie looked at me with concern and then back at Nate with hate clear on her face.
"Oops" Lucas muttered.
"Oops? Is that all you can say Lucas man? Nate you don't even know Miley and you don't even deserve to know her. So don't even bother speaking to her at all and just bother with those cheap plastic Barbie's your so fond of." Come on Miles let's go find our seats." I heard Shane shout angrily and I let them lead me away to Taylor and Jake.
As I walked away I looked back at Nate to see him look, surprisingly, guilty. I tore my eyes away from him and tried to fight back the tears, hoping that he wouldn't see my eyes watering. I sat down and immersed myself in the conversation about New Moon, the awaited sequel of Twilight that had just been released in cinemas, desperate to forget about Nate Grey and his chocolate brown eyes.
I sighed and at that very moment vowed to myself that I would stay away from Nate Grey and focus on myself this term. I want to make my Dad proud and I want to have fun with Mitchie and Taylor. Most importantly, I want to show Hartbridge exactly what Miley Stewart can do.
AN: Okay well i really liked writing this chapter especially with a bit of Niley in it. Sorry if it's not enough for you but honestly for the story to work it's going to have to be like this :) I promise you i'm going to try and get romance in where appropriate and your going to see more Jaylor as well :D I need someone for Mitchie because i don't want her to be the only one without a little love in her life so let me know who you want her to be with!
I also want to hear some stuff that you might want to happen in the plot. Ultimately i do know where i'm going with this but i am open for little suggestions over things you might want me to include for you to enjoy the story more.
The last thing i'm going to say is a bit less positive. So i got 3 reviews which were good ones so a little thank you/ shout-out to niley16, Nikky and Niley23 Alex i really appreciated your reviews. I've got like 14 people alerting me and 8 favourites and each chapter is getting more than 100 hits. However it's really quite annoying that i could be getting more reviews. Remember it will make me update quicker and more reviews is also gonna make me want to give you great chapters. So if i don't see reviews then dont be suprised to see my next post saying that there's gonna be no more story. I love writing this for you but i'm not gonna waste my time on something that's not wanted. But now my rants over and i don't wanna have to do it again so pleaase REVIEW! x
