Sing Your Heart Out – Chapter 7

Dedicated to niley16 - hope you're feeling better than you did when you reviewed my last chapter :)

Miley's P.O.V:

I saw and heard it all. Nobody failed to notice Nate approach the teacher's desk, mainly because the girl's in the class drool over him and stalk him constantly. And the whole class definitely heard his request. And I took great discomfort in the round of excited whispers that followed the conversation at the front of the classroom. Nor did I miss the nosey glances back at me to capture my reaction – no doubt for people to run straight out of the classroom to tell all of their friends and spread the gossip around the campus like wildfire.

The worst thing is he doesn't even look guilty, maybe a bit worried at a push. Then again he's probably just worried that he won't be able to crawl out of being my partner.

Ugh! He makes me so… mad. It's like my head needs to explode from my new-found anger and my fists are clenched tightly in an attempt to control myself and stop me from making a scene. Each and every word he spoke to Miss felt like a kick in the stomach with each attack getting more painful. HE DOESN'T WANT TO RISK HIS PLACE HERE?! How dare he. Did he even think about how it would make me feel to hear those words escape from his mouth? Well it hurt despite my desperateness to have the ability to simply shrug it off and move on without a care in the world. And it annoys the hell out of me that he affects me so much. I can't develop ANY feelings for him whatsoever, whether it's love or friendship. It would only cause me an unbearable amount of heartbreak.

"Miles, what are you daydreaming about? The bell just went – everyone's gone." Taylor whispered in my ear, nudging me and abruptly pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, um it doesn't matter. Nothing major. Come on let's go for some ice-cream or pizza or any sort of food – I'm starving after missing breakfast!" I replied with a forced smile to fool her into not worrying. Luckily it seemed to work.

"Pizza and ice-cream." Mitchie squealed, jumping up and down with excitement and dragging us out of the door.

"Um could I just talk to Miley for a second?" I heard a voice from the side of the door.

"Can't it wait? We're going for some lunch." Taylor sighed impatiently.

I looked between Nate and my friends. Nate was casually leaning against the wall looking, dare I say it, pretty hot and looking at me with almost pleading eyes. The eyes that I think I might have mentioned tend to hypnotise me. Taylor was glaring at Nate with clear annoyance in her face, Mitchie just looked anxious for my response and Shane was staring at me intensely as if to encourage me to be brave and face the music. (Oh my gosh I'm in such a sad mood that I laughed at this because the music she's got to face is a singing competition! LOL)

"Miley you can meet them in a minute. This is actually important." Nate almost ordered.

"I don't see why it can't wait until after lunch. Unless your ashamed to be seen with someone so low." I snapped.

"That's unfair. I just don't think my friends would understand. And Lucas proved me right in class."

"Funny that. I could have sworn that you were in control of your own life, not Lucas."

"Can you stop arguing with me for one second and just talk to me." Nate shouted

"Fine! Guys I'll meet you in the pizza parlour in a few minutes."

"Um Miles are you sure you don't want us to wait around the corner or something?" Mitchie asked uneasily.

"For god's sake, she can look after herself you know. And I'm not exactly going to do anything to her." Nate groaned.

"We aren't so sure." Taylor muttered and looked back at me for confirmation. I nodded my head slightly and walked in the opposite direction, signalling Nate to follow me.

"So what's so important that it can't wait for me to eat?" I asked

"Um well you see. Well the thing is," Nate stammered rubbing his neck uncomfortably, "I guess I'm trying to say…"

"Just spit it out already! In fact I'll say it for you because I can pretty much guess what this is about. You want to talk about what we're going to do about the talent show, right?"

"Yeah. I mean it's just I asked for us to swap because I figured that we'd both be happier like that but you heard Miss Hudgens. It's a no go."

"Well we've not got any other choices have we? I'm not getting kicked out of here because I don't get on with somebody. We work together and we just get on with it. End of. So can I go now?"

"Miley, you really don't understand! I can put up with working with you but there's no way I'm getting on stage and singing with you in front of all of my friends. I'd be a joke and I'd never live it down." Nate exclaimed, suddenly looking incredibly angry.

Usually I'd become scared and timid, maybe even apologise and readily take on the blame – anything to avoid a confrontation. But even though his words made me want to give up my pretence of coolness and cry they also made me angry, like I was about to burst from held in emotions that suddenly wanted to come pouring out. So I let them escape.

"Do you really think you're so above everybody else Nate because you kick around a football?! Well you aren't. You are not better than me because you have a lot of friends. And you need to start thinking of other people instead of yourself all of the time. I don't care if you get your ass kicked out of here, I certainly won't miss you. But I'm not letting you ruin it for me. So shut up whining and for once in your life step up and have the guts to stand up against your friends." I screamed at him.

As everything I said sunk in, Nate's face was covered in shock at my outburst.

"Miles what's going on?" Mitchie gasped, slightly out of breath as she ran to my side.

"Absolutely nothing of importance. We're finished now. How did you get here anyway?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Okay don't be mad but we stayed around the corner because we didn't think it was best to leave you two alone. Turns out we were right. We could hear you screaming from where we were." Mitchie explained.

"It's fine, we'll go for lunch now."

"Yeah just run away from the problem like you always do. You criticise me Miley Stewart but you're not exactly perfect." Nate said, recovering slightly from his silence.

Mitchie started to respond but I interrupted her.

"Yeah, I'm not perfect but I will definitely never deliberately hurt anybody or disrespect anybody. And I certainly won't turn myself into a lie for other people. Because that's all you are Nate. I know deep down that you're not the selfish jerk that you act like but until you realise that being a horrible person isn't an achievement I'm not going to waste my breathe on you."

"Shut up! You don't know anything!" Nate whispered, clearly upset and swiftly turned and walked away before

"I know more than you think." I whispered softly to myself with a single tear rolling down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away roughly before Mitchie could notice and put on a fake smile.

I linked my arm with Mitchie's and pulled her in the direction of food. Yes, she'll definitely want an incredibly detailed explanation but it will have to wait until I'm ready to retell everything without becoming an emotional wreck.

As we got closer to the pizza parlour Taylor jumped up and shouted "Over here!" with Shane yanking her down, most likely begging her to sit down and stop attracting people's attention.

But as her friends we know that Taylor doesn't compromise for anybody, not even her crush.

"You're here finally. What happened back there? You took ageeees. And everybody's talking about some row between Nate and a girl. I'm guessing that girl is you." Taylor questioned.

"Um, it was just a little disagreement. I'll explain after we've eaten, I'm far too hungry to talk." I said, playing the event down as much as possibly. It's no big deal, right?

You keep telling yourself that Miley, but it doesn't make it true, I thought to myself. Even though I've tried desperately to tell myself that I don't fancy Nate, a part of me always has. I've just had to hide it and deny it to everyone because it's not realistic. Nate loving me can never be my fairytale ending.

Mitchie and me went up to order our lunch: a margarita pizza for Taylor and Joe to share, a barbeque chicken pizza for Mitchie and me to share and four Diet Coke's. Soon enough we were back at our table digging into our pizzas and talking about the new term and anything about our summer that we hadn't covered. I didn't enter into the conversation much as my mind was occupied. All I wanted to do was run through the words spoken over and over again. After a chance to calm down I can't believe how I reacted. I'm not usually the type of person to lose my temper but he just hit a nerve and over the past year I've just got sick of him treating me like dirt when I haven't even done anything.

"Miley you're off in a world of your own. We've just been asking you how Jackson's doing at university for the past five minutes. You were just staring blankly at your lap." Taylor laughed.

"Are you alright?" Shane asked, "Actually that's a silly question you obviously aren't because of Nate. I don't know much about what went on just then but you've got to ignore him. I'm so sorry for anything hurtful that he's said. I promise it will be a lie – you're a great girl and he's an idiot."

"Shane don't feel like you have to say sorry for your brother, because he definitely isn't feeling the slightest bit guilty. We just argued about this project. He said that he'll work with me on it but there's no way he's singing with me in front of his friends. Then I just got angry and shouted at him. Mitchie heard it all so if you want to know what was said exactly ask her because I just want to forget it."

"Well if you girls don't mind I've got to rush off and see coach before next lesson. Ice-cream on me at the end of the day to make up for my idiot of a brother." Shane grinned and ran off with a quick wave behind him.

"Miles are you sure you're okay I mean it's great that you're being so calm about it but if you feel like you can't cope we'll help you persuade school to swap you." Mitchie sympathised.

"Thanks for you're support Mitchie, I really appreciate it but I'll be fine. I'll work with him on the song – he agreed to do that. And then he can choose whether to perform with me or not. I'll prepare myself to do it with or without him. That way I'm still completing the project." I explained

"That's a great idea! But if he even says one word that's out of line tell me and he won't get away with it." Taylor threatened.

"Yeah, I'm with Taylor. If you want to rise above him despite his bad attitude and even help him out then I say good for you. But please don't let him get to you." Mitchie agreed.

I giggled at her short yet determined speech and linked arms with both Mitchie and Taylor.

"I'll be more than fine. Nate Grey is just an arrogant and self-obsessed idiot who really needs to find something worthwhile in life other than kicking a ball and being a jerk. He's not worth my tears and he won't get them." I promised.

"That's the spirit! Oooh what do we have next? I'm so not going to get used to the timetable." Taylor moaned.

Mitchie shrugged her shoulders and started rummaging around in her bag. With no result she impatiently tipped her bag upside down and her books landed in a pile on the ground with a heavy thud. We hadn't quite got round to putting our books in our desks.

"Miss Torres! Stop right there. Is that any way to treat your school books? Am I taking that as you do not want to learn?" we heard a voice thunder from a window.

"Umm no sir, I just couldn't find my timetable." Mitchie called up looking incredibly cross by now. Unluckily for her it had to be the head teacher watching.

"If I am correct you were not in a few lessons this morning. I will not bother to go into that matter any further and I will rely on Miss Hudgens to deal with you in the appropriate way. However Mitchie, you will probably find that you simply weren't given your timetable. So for goodness sake pick everything up off the floor and do not do it again!" he called as he walked away from the window, trying to keep a straight face.

"Ugh! Now I feel like a plonker." Mitchie whined

The bell rung, signalling the end of lunch and I pulled Taylor and Mitchie along to our classroom. May as well try and make a better start to the afternoon than the morning.

Nate's P.O.V:

Well that went well. I don't know why I even tried to talk to Miley. Some instinct just sort of told me that she deserved more than me going behind her back and swapping partners or whatever. I wanted to talk to her about it and to make her understand. All I did was cause more upset. I want to get to know Miley and I want us to be friends but the universe seems to be making it very clear that it's not possible. Maybe we're not meant to mix. But something tells me that I should keep trying to win her over.

There's just something alluring about Miley. I knew from day one that she wasn't like other girls – she was special. But I could tell that she was also dangerous. She was unique and shy so she was made fun of - being associated with her wouldn't be a smart move for me. So I decided to follow the crowd and it became a habit to be mean to her. I settled for the fact that I could never have her and I couldn't be around her. Sometimes I'd even approach her to be a jerk just so I could look at her. I hid all my feelings from everybody including Shane and I became the person I am today.

But then last night happened. I got a chance to know Miley. The more time I spent with her the more mesmerised I became by her beauty and her personality. I saw the real her – sweet, funny, intelligent and so much more. She's got it all. But what kills me is that I can't have her. I can't make her happy because I'm too scared.

I know that I should just forget about her and concentrate on other things but after the small glimpse of what my life could be like with Miley in it I'm not sure that it's going to be an option.

I've well and truly screwed up any progress with her now though. I was finding it hard enough to explain to Miley and she just seemed so unaffected by the situation, like she couldn't care less. So I became irritated and words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them. I told her that I would never perform with her and look like a loser. I could see the pain in her eyes as they started to well up. But then all of a sudden she was screaming at me. And her words hurt me more than anything had ever hurt before. My whole body became frozen in a state of disbelief at the explosion from the girl standing before me.

I struggled to keep my barrier and be strong but I could feel myself falling apart. So I turned and walked away before anybody could witness me breaking down.

I tried to avoid bumping into any of my friends; I just wanted to be alone. But Lucas was looking for me and sure enough he dragged me to the football pitch to have a quick kick around. At least I can play decently without much concentration because my head was definitely not in the game.

I wanted to be early to the class so that I could sit down and have my earphones in before Miley, Shane, Taylor and Mitchie could arrive, as I wasn't expecting a nice welcome. But Lucas had other ideas as he insisted that we played until the bell went off.

By the time we got to the school buildings I knew most people would be in class. And my prediction about the reaction to me was also correct. Everybody glanced up and I could see everybody's faces. Miley refused to look me in the eyes, Mitchie and Taylor were glaring at me, Shane just looked disappointed, the footballers just looked confused as they quickly found their seats and the rest of the class looked between Miley and me with interest. Great!

"Alright guys, quieten down! Miley, Mitchie and Taylor here are your timetables, I'm sorry I forgot to give them to you. We're off timetable again this afternoon because Mr Moorstone is taking your year's requirements very easily. Firstly we are going to get each and every one of you signed up for a minimum of one club or at least deciding between a few possibilities. Once we have everybody sorted we can relax until the break."

The class cheered at the prospect of not much work. As I looked around the class I realised that picking a club was going to be fairly easy. Most of the lads will join all the sports clubs and most of the girls will pick cheerleading. I can't help but wonder what Miley will do. She could dance or cheer if she wanted to but she doesn't seem like the confident type that happily flaunts their body. It's refreshing to meet a girl that doesn't want to.

"You've got ten minutes to talk about it with your friends and decide what you want to do. Then I'll ask you all." Miss Hudgens called and signalled for us to move to sit with our friends.

The next ten minutes were so boring as we all just chorused "Football!" and then talked about any old rubbish. I used the time to go off into dream world again and I could faintly hear Lucas talking to somebody about fit girls in our year.

After the ten minutes were up Miss called people's names and they answered with their chosen clubs. All of the boys chose football as most of the football team are always put in one form. Out of the girls Lily and Alex decided on cheerleading/ dancing as they come together. Scarlett and Isabella joined the performing arts club. Holly and Claire are already members of the science and maths clubs. Annoyingly Miley, Taylor and Mitchie asked to let Miss know their decision at the endof the day. From what I could hear Taylor wanted them to do cheerleading/ dancing together while Miley and Mitchie wanted to do something like creative writing or performing arts. Out of the three I'm interested to see them in cheerleading/ dancing.

The lesson dragged on even more as Shane wandered off to the girls and the boys just started talking about parties, girls and football again. Yeah, that kind of conversation is interesting sometimes. But trust me you soon get tired of hearing the same old thing daily. Lucas seemed to notice there was something up because he isolated himself from the group to sit with me and was trying to get it out of me but I refused to budge and in the end satisfied him with promising to tell him at the end of the day.

Soon enough the bell went for the short break before a final two lessons. I decided to go back to my room for a bit to get some peace but that wish was shattered when Lucas came with me. It doesn't take a genius to know why. Sure enough as soon as we were in the privacy of our room he started shooting the questions at me.

"Soooo, what's up?"

"Honestly it's not much. Just Miley. I stopped back to talk to her at lunch but it turned into her shouting at me." I explained

"Whoa! She seriously shouted? Dude, it's just a guess but I don't think she's your biggest fan."

"Way to state the obvious man."

"I'm only trying to help. Don't let her get to you Nate. I know it probably doesn't solve the problem but there's tons of girls that drool over you."

"Yeah, you're right… IT DOESN'T HELP WITH THE PROBLEM! Miley's the girl I've got to work with and she hates me. What makes it worse is it's my fault! I deserve it."

"Um I'm going to leave you alone to think. Just to let you know I'm here for you whatever, I know I haven't been nice to Miley either but if you're going to try to get on with her for the project I'll do it with you. And maybe you should just try the simple way. Say sorry. Give her flowers. Don't make excuses like you probably have done." Lucas advised with a grin and walked out the door.

Well I for one didn't know he could be so sensible or deep. I laughed to myself and walked back to the classroom. Lucas had definitely helped. I felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I know one of my friends will support my whatever my decision is and I am starting to form a plan to get Miley to give me a chance. After all, I've decided to work with her and do the decent thing. Now I just need to make sure we work well.

A smile crept onto my face at the though of my strategy to win Miley's approval, earning me some confused looks from people walking into the room.

"Hey guys, everyone here?" Miss Hudgens asked while glancing around the room, "Okay good. I've just been informed that juniors have the next two periods off to join up with their project partners to bond and get to know each other so that they will work well together. Please guys we're trusting you to act responsibly and actually do what is asked of you – not use the time to goof off with your friends."

Oh man this spells disaster!


AN: I am SO SO sorry! I completely forgot to update! What with my dance show and my last week of school and getting ready for Christmas it slipped my mind. But thank you all so much for the reviews!

I want you guys to decide what club/ clubs Taylor, Miley and Mitchie join but i do want them all in one together :) So tell me in a review what you want them to decide!! I have got tomorrow as a relaxing day so please review and you may just get a new chapter VERY soon :D

Review replies:

terzo - thank youuu :) here's the chapter. i hope you're getting more readers - GUYS READ HER STUFF!!

niley2009 - them working together will come very soon & I'll try not to disappoint!

JazzyxNileyxFizzle - haha feel bad for them both :P and thank youu for all your reviews.

kiisuke379 - don't worry you are going to see Niley developing as a friendship (and maybe more ;] ) and i don't need amazing reviews just a loved it, update soon would be just as great :D

niley16 - aw i hope you're feeling better now. this update is officially for you. I'll right it at the top right now. Wait you'll have already seen it. Okay then - this explains the dedication to you :P

Niley23 Alex - here's the update. and thank you so much, you ALWAYS review me! :)

3 - thank you so much. & here's more Nate's P.O.V

NikkyJonas - thank you. haha you picked up on the stubbornness! and thank you for the good luck in my exams - i got straight A's and an A* in English :D only bad one is D in ICT because my teacher basically said if i fail he doesn't mind :P

Modena - hope Miley's reaction didn't disappoint, and i hope you enjoyed this chapter. tell me what you want to see next chapter!!

ganda87 - thank you for the suggestion i really appreciate it. i've had Nate as jealous earlier on but only a bit - he's going to get a lot more jealous and possessive when the storyline develops.

Sarah - thank you so much, that's really nice but somehow i doubt it - there's some amazing writers on here!

Right it's time to say goodbye and goodnight because my Mum is going to go crazy at me soon for still being up, especially because i smashed one of her new mugs today :S

Hope you liked it :)