Sequel: Amped Up: Why Is My Name Jason? ›
American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?
Love Song
“Garrett! Madison! Stop picking on your brother!” I yelled at Kevin’s two eldest kids. They were picking on Jason like they normally do. They were six and already were they picking on each other…well, mostly on Jason. I felt sorry for the kid; Jason was born last and had the most time to bond with his mother. Now she was dead. I rolled my eyes as the triplets roamed around the park. Since Amanda died, things just haven’t been right for the Jonas family, particularly Kevin. Because of that, I can understand why Betsy wants me to make sure that her brother-in-law writes a song about Amanda for the brothers to sing.
When the sun began to set, I knew that I should probably get Garrett, Madison, and Jason back to Kevin. Plus, I also needed to find out whether Kevin had done as Betsy asked him to. So, I walked the triplets back home to make sure that everything that was supposed to occur while Betsy was gone. The triplets went in first and I saw them run through the dining room and into the kitchen. Obviously, they were hungry. I soon spotted Kevin sitting at the dining room table with a mandolin and a piece of paper sitting in front of him. He was obviously writing the song for Amanda. “I miss you, Mandolin,” he said quietly.
I laughed. “We know, Kevin.”
Hearing my voice, Kevin looked up. I walked in the door and came into the dining room. I leaned up against one of the chairs in the dining room. “What’s up, Chloe?”
“Well, not only did I come by to drop off the triplets, but I came to see how you were doing while Betsy’s away on her honeymoon. You know, despite the fact that she’s six years younger than you, Betsy worries endlessly for you since Amanda’s death seven years ago.” I shrugged.
“I know,” Kevin nodded.
“So, have you written the song that Betsy asked you to write, the song that she wanted written for her older sister for the Jonas Brothers to perform?” I asked him solemnly.
He nodded. “I have.”
“You have?” I inquired.
“Yes,” he said.
“What’s it called?” I wondered.
Kevin grabbed the music he just recently wrote from off the table and thrust it in front of me. He seemed rather proud of the song and what it meant to him. I can understand why when consider the fact that she’s been gone sine 2009. That’s how long she’s been dead and that’s how long Kevin has missed the woman he fell in love with. Just by the song he wrote for her, I could tell that Kevin missed her too much. It was evident by the words he used. He referred to her as his true love. Now, if he considered Amanda to be his true love, that was really saying something, mainly that there was no other woman in the world that he would love as much as her. “It’s called A Mandolin’s Heart,” he told me.
I smiled. “I’m sure she’d love it.”
“I’m sure she would,” Kevin replied quietly as he looked up to the sky. I can only assume that Amanda was in the room watching over him. Of course, I really can’t be sure about this since Betsy is the only person who can see Amanda’s ghost. Maybe I could find out if Amanda ever showed herself to all of us. But, that probably isn’t going to happen.
“So, will this song be ready for recording soon to make it onto the new album?” I asked him, passing the sheet music back over to Kevin. I glanced over at the mandolin that was sitting on the table and wondered why it was there. For years, Kevin had refused to play Lovebug because of the fact that he played a mandolin in that song. The song reminded him too much of Amanda. So, why was it that Kevin had the mandolin sitting on the table if he refused to do play the mandolin in Lovebug? That just didn’t seem to make very much sense. “Plus, do you intend on playing the mandolin that you have sitting there on the table in the song? That really doesn’t make much sense when considering the fact that you refuse to play Lovebug because of the mandolin that you play in that song?”
Kevin looked back at the mandolin. “Oh, that. It’s actually Mandolin’s. Betsy hid it from me. I’m not really sure why, but she did. Anyway, I just wanted to test the song out on a mandolin. The song is going to remind me of my dead wife anyway. So, I decided that I was going to try this out. I’m not really sure though. I might still be leaning towards my guitar though. Right now, I think it’s best for me to put my wife’s mandolin back where Betsy hid it. She doesn’t know that I know where it is or that she even hid it away. Sometimes when Betsy isn’t around, I take the mandolin out so that it will remind me of the woman I love. It was Mandolin’s one reminder of what brought us together: my brothers calling her a musical instrument. Now, as for whether the song will be on the next album, I’m really not sure. I’d have to talk to my brothers about that one,” Kevin said.
“Oh,” I said. “So, how was it that you were able to find something that Betsy hid from you? I’m assuming that Betsy must have hidden the mandolin from you for a good reason.”
“She did,” Kevin said, the mandolin in hand. “The gift, you see, was Joe’s idea; it was more of a joke gift at first. Eventually though, Mandolin came to love that gift because it was the one gift she received from me. My guess is that Betsy was asked to guard that mandolin with her life. When we moved into this house so that Betsy could help me raise my kids as well as start a family of her own, I saw where Betsy did the mandolin. So, then, whenever Betsy would go out, I’d take the mandolin out of its hiding spot in order to remember my wife. Before Betsy got back though, the mandolin would be back where it needed to be. Now, if you don’t mind Chloe, I need to go put this back. Despite the fact that Betsy isn’t going to be back for awhile along with Teddy, I need to put it back. One of my kids knows about the mandolin. I know they do. So, I have to go put the mandolin back so that none of my children know about the fact that my knowledge of the mandolin’s location is helping to keep me from getting over my wife’s death. Not that that’s the only thing that has kept me from getting over her death, but it was a good portion of it. My kids also had something to do with my not being able to get over her death.”
I nodded as Kevin went upstairs to hide the mandolin. The fact was that I was probably the only person who knew that Kevin had Amanda’s mandolin and was using this as a way to remember his dead wife. Ultimately, it also kept him from getting over her death, so much so that he would probably start ignoring his own kids as well. It would probably be Jason based solely on his luck with Garrett and Madison and the way they treated him. Jason was going to have it rough just as Kevin was sure have a hard time dealing with the fact that Amanda Lynne (Weimar) Jonas died on November 5th, 2009, which was about nearly seven years ago. Both of them were going to have a tough time deal with the fact that Amanda was but a mere ghost and they couldn’t really be a whole family.
While Kevin was busy putting the mandolin away in its hiding spot, I kept a close eye on the triplets. Something told me that Garrett and Madison would be pestering Jason. Of the three, Jason always seemed to be outcast, like he was different from his brother and sister. I could only imagine what his life would be like in a few years when he reached his teenage years. Now, those would be killer for Jason. He would be a moody teenager by that point and there was really no telling as to what he might be like at that point in his life. From the things that Betsy had told me over the years about Amanda, she had only a few friends. Not that Amanda ever mentioned any of them to her sister, but no one can really have no friends in their life. Everyone does. Plus, Kevin was known to be a loner when he was about thirteen. So, Jason, it seemed, was bound to be the Jonas kid that had to deal with everything that was going on. He was already closer to his mother anyway.
“Hey, Chloe, did you ever tell that guy you like that you’re in love with him?” Kevin asked once he came downstairs without the mandolin. “I think that this guy might want to know about that.”
“Not a chance!” I exclaimed.
“Why not?” Kevin asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Because I can’t bring myself to do that. You, Nick, and I are the only ones who know of this. The two of you are the only ones that I can really talk to about this. Joe would spill my secret and, if Betsy knew of my dilemma, you and I both know that she would just try to play matchmaker with the two of us the way she did with Joe and Kyra.”
“True,” Kevin said. “But, you still do need to tell him. The boy needs to know that you’re in love with him. If you don’t, you will never know what might have happened.”
I groaned, knowing that Kevin was only trying to help. But, the fact was that I couldn’t really tell my crush about this. He and I were way too close for me to even risk telling him about it. And, if I’ve mentioned it once, I’ve mention it a thousand times: he’s extremely popular. I guess you could say that he is as girl-crazy as his elder brother was before he found the woman he wished to spend the rest of his life with. When that happened, his little brother—my crush—became the girl-crazy one. It probably didn’t help much that his last name made him so popular. Every girl in the world—me included—wished to be his girlfriend. The only difference between me and all other fan girls in love with him was that I had known this boy since I was nine years-old. Any guesses as to who this mystery boy is? If you said Franklin Nathaniel Jonas, you’d be right. I was in love with my best friend, something that only Kevin and Nick were aware of. Joe and Frankie knew nothing of this and that was the way it was going to stay. My love for Frankie was to remain unrequited until I could find a way to tell Frankie about this.
One of these days though, I knew I was going to tell Frankie about all of this, but that was not right now. Kevin and Nick had tried to get me to tell him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. “I’m not going to do that, Kevin. Maybe someday I will, but that is definitely not today. So, if you don’t mind, I need to get back home. And, please don’t speak of this anymore because I am not going to tell Frankie that I’m in love with him.”
“Whatever, Chloe. Of course, if Joe should learn that you’re in love with our youngest brother, your secret will be out. Joe has rarely ever been able to keep a secret and, when he has, it was only because of who the secret was for. The only reason that Joe ever kept that secret was because it was for Betsy and he knew how much it meant to her for this secret to be kept. There’s really no guarantee that Joe is going to hide this for you, particularly since it has to do with our youngest brother and the fact that he’s going to realize it sooner or later,” Kevin said. “Frankie will learn the truth eventually, you must know that.”
I shrugged. “Whatever.” I merely left the Jonas/Geiger home, heading back home. I knew, of course, that Frankie would eventually learn that I was in love with. For right now though, that wasn’t going to happen. When I got back home, I went straight to my room and put on Just Friends, for obviously reasons. My thoughts turned to Frankie and what I hoped the future would hold for the two of us, if I could ever bring myself to tell him the truth.
When the sun began to set, I knew that I should probably get Garrett, Madison, and Jason back to Kevin. Plus, I also needed to find out whether Kevin had done as Betsy asked him to. So, I walked the triplets back home to make sure that everything that was supposed to occur while Betsy was gone. The triplets went in first and I saw them run through the dining room and into the kitchen. Obviously, they were hungry. I soon spotted Kevin sitting at the dining room table with a mandolin and a piece of paper sitting in front of him. He was obviously writing the song for Amanda. “I miss you, Mandolin,” he said quietly.
I laughed. “We know, Kevin.”
Hearing my voice, Kevin looked up. I walked in the door and came into the dining room. I leaned up against one of the chairs in the dining room. “What’s up, Chloe?”
“Well, not only did I come by to drop off the triplets, but I came to see how you were doing while Betsy’s away on her honeymoon. You know, despite the fact that she’s six years younger than you, Betsy worries endlessly for you since Amanda’s death seven years ago.” I shrugged.
“I know,” Kevin nodded.
“So, have you written the song that Betsy asked you to write, the song that she wanted written for her older sister for the Jonas Brothers to perform?” I asked him solemnly.
He nodded. “I have.”
“You have?” I inquired.
“Yes,” he said.
“What’s it called?” I wondered.
Kevin grabbed the music he just recently wrote from off the table and thrust it in front of me. He seemed rather proud of the song and what it meant to him. I can understand why when consider the fact that she’s been gone sine 2009. That’s how long she’s been dead and that’s how long Kevin has missed the woman he fell in love with. Just by the song he wrote for her, I could tell that Kevin missed her too much. It was evident by the words he used. He referred to her as his true love. Now, if he considered Amanda to be his true love, that was really saying something, mainly that there was no other woman in the world that he would love as much as her. “It’s called A Mandolin’s Heart,” he told me.
I smiled. “I’m sure she’d love it.”
“I’m sure she would,” Kevin replied quietly as he looked up to the sky. I can only assume that Amanda was in the room watching over him. Of course, I really can’t be sure about this since Betsy is the only person who can see Amanda’s ghost. Maybe I could find out if Amanda ever showed herself to all of us. But, that probably isn’t going to happen.
“So, will this song be ready for recording soon to make it onto the new album?” I asked him, passing the sheet music back over to Kevin. I glanced over at the mandolin that was sitting on the table and wondered why it was there. For years, Kevin had refused to play Lovebug because of the fact that he played a mandolin in that song. The song reminded him too much of Amanda. So, why was it that Kevin had the mandolin sitting on the table if he refused to do play the mandolin in Lovebug? That just didn’t seem to make very much sense. “Plus, do you intend on playing the mandolin that you have sitting there on the table in the song? That really doesn’t make much sense when considering the fact that you refuse to play Lovebug because of the mandolin that you play in that song?”
Kevin looked back at the mandolin. “Oh, that. It’s actually Mandolin’s. Betsy hid it from me. I’m not really sure why, but she did. Anyway, I just wanted to test the song out on a mandolin. The song is going to remind me of my dead wife anyway. So, I decided that I was going to try this out. I’m not really sure though. I might still be leaning towards my guitar though. Right now, I think it’s best for me to put my wife’s mandolin back where Betsy hid it. She doesn’t know that I know where it is or that she even hid it away. Sometimes when Betsy isn’t around, I take the mandolin out so that it will remind me of the woman I love. It was Mandolin’s one reminder of what brought us together: my brothers calling her a musical instrument. Now, as for whether the song will be on the next album, I’m really not sure. I’d have to talk to my brothers about that one,” Kevin said.
“Oh,” I said. “So, how was it that you were able to find something that Betsy hid from you? I’m assuming that Betsy must have hidden the mandolin from you for a good reason.”
“She did,” Kevin said, the mandolin in hand. “The gift, you see, was Joe’s idea; it was more of a joke gift at first. Eventually though, Mandolin came to love that gift because it was the one gift she received from me. My guess is that Betsy was asked to guard that mandolin with her life. When we moved into this house so that Betsy could help me raise my kids as well as start a family of her own, I saw where Betsy did the mandolin. So, then, whenever Betsy would go out, I’d take the mandolin out of its hiding spot in order to remember my wife. Before Betsy got back though, the mandolin would be back where it needed to be. Now, if you don’t mind Chloe, I need to go put this back. Despite the fact that Betsy isn’t going to be back for awhile along with Teddy, I need to put it back. One of my kids knows about the mandolin. I know they do. So, I have to go put the mandolin back so that none of my children know about the fact that my knowledge of the mandolin’s location is helping to keep me from getting over my wife’s death. Not that that’s the only thing that has kept me from getting over her death, but it was a good portion of it. My kids also had something to do with my not being able to get over her death.”
I nodded as Kevin went upstairs to hide the mandolin. The fact was that I was probably the only person who knew that Kevin had Amanda’s mandolin and was using this as a way to remember his dead wife. Ultimately, it also kept him from getting over her death, so much so that he would probably start ignoring his own kids as well. It would probably be Jason based solely on his luck with Garrett and Madison and the way they treated him. Jason was going to have it rough just as Kevin was sure have a hard time dealing with the fact that Amanda Lynne (Weimar) Jonas died on November 5th, 2009, which was about nearly seven years ago. Both of them were going to have a tough time deal with the fact that Amanda was but a mere ghost and they couldn’t really be a whole family.
While Kevin was busy putting the mandolin away in its hiding spot, I kept a close eye on the triplets. Something told me that Garrett and Madison would be pestering Jason. Of the three, Jason always seemed to be outcast, like he was different from his brother and sister. I could only imagine what his life would be like in a few years when he reached his teenage years. Now, those would be killer for Jason. He would be a moody teenager by that point and there was really no telling as to what he might be like at that point in his life. From the things that Betsy had told me over the years about Amanda, she had only a few friends. Not that Amanda ever mentioned any of them to her sister, but no one can really have no friends in their life. Everyone does. Plus, Kevin was known to be a loner when he was about thirteen. So, Jason, it seemed, was bound to be the Jonas kid that had to deal with everything that was going on. He was already closer to his mother anyway.
“Hey, Chloe, did you ever tell that guy you like that you’re in love with him?” Kevin asked once he came downstairs without the mandolin. “I think that this guy might want to know about that.”
“Not a chance!” I exclaimed.
“Why not?” Kevin asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Because I can’t bring myself to do that. You, Nick, and I are the only ones who know of this. The two of you are the only ones that I can really talk to about this. Joe would spill my secret and, if Betsy knew of my dilemma, you and I both know that she would just try to play matchmaker with the two of us the way she did with Joe and Kyra.”
“True,” Kevin said. “But, you still do need to tell him. The boy needs to know that you’re in love with him. If you don’t, you will never know what might have happened.”
I groaned, knowing that Kevin was only trying to help. But, the fact was that I couldn’t really tell my crush about this. He and I were way too close for me to even risk telling him about it. And, if I’ve mentioned it once, I’ve mention it a thousand times: he’s extremely popular. I guess you could say that he is as girl-crazy as his elder brother was before he found the woman he wished to spend the rest of his life with. When that happened, his little brother—my crush—became the girl-crazy one. It probably didn’t help much that his last name made him so popular. Every girl in the world—me included—wished to be his girlfriend. The only difference between me and all other fan girls in love with him was that I had known this boy since I was nine years-old. Any guesses as to who this mystery boy is? If you said Franklin Nathaniel Jonas, you’d be right. I was in love with my best friend, something that only Kevin and Nick were aware of. Joe and Frankie knew nothing of this and that was the way it was going to stay. My love for Frankie was to remain unrequited until I could find a way to tell Frankie about this.
One of these days though, I knew I was going to tell Frankie about all of this, but that was not right now. Kevin and Nick had tried to get me to tell him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. “I’m not going to do that, Kevin. Maybe someday I will, but that is definitely not today. So, if you don’t mind, I need to get back home. And, please don’t speak of this anymore because I am not going to tell Frankie that I’m in love with him.”
“Whatever, Chloe. Of course, if Joe should learn that you’re in love with our youngest brother, your secret will be out. Joe has rarely ever been able to keep a secret and, when he has, it was only because of who the secret was for. The only reason that Joe ever kept that secret was because it was for Betsy and he knew how much it meant to her for this secret to be kept. There’s really no guarantee that Joe is going to hide this for you, particularly since it has to do with our youngest brother and the fact that he’s going to realize it sooner or later,” Kevin said. “Frankie will learn the truth eventually, you must know that.”
I shrugged. “Whatever.” I merely left the Jonas/Geiger home, heading back home. I knew, of course, that Frankie would eventually learn that I was in love with. For right now though, that wasn’t going to happen. When I got back home, I went straight to my room and put on Just Friends, for obviously reasons. My thoughts turned to Frankie and what I hoped the future would hold for the two of us, if I could ever bring myself to tell him the truth.