Who Says Love Has to Be Left up to Fate?

Chapter eleven –Race to your heart

Here is a sort of Banner for this Day

Nick stumbled out of bed and stretched himself for bit before throwing a glare at Elvis. Elvis was his dog, who had ran into his bed this morning and jumped on to him and had started licking his face with his slobbery tongue. As much as he loved his dog like any other owner that was not the way he wanted to be greeted in the morning. Kisses would be a much nicer way to wake up. He didn’t have his own experience of this, but Kevin had told him it’s the best thing ever.

‘It makes mornings worth waking up to’ he had said looking at Danielle before giving her a peck.

Joe had scoffed at that and turned to Nick to said, ‘Only kisses with the promise of something more.’

So Nick stumbled into the bathroom and washed his face off, and took a look at himself in the mirror. Unlike his brothers he didn’t go to sleep shirtless and he preferred to wear a simple tank top. On removing this he looked over his torso with disapproval and tried looking at his muscles from different angles. It seemed like he’d have to hit the gym. He hadn’t been able to work out six days a week like he liked to these past few months, and he was certain it was starting to show. Four times a week wasn’t enough for the summer season, especially if he was going to hit the beaches. He promised himself that he would start as soon as possible this morning, after a nice breakfast.

He finished his morning routine and went to his guitar and started strumming it a bit trying to find a new tune. He hadn’t been able to think of anything new and it was becoming a serious problem. It had never happened to him before, well, not to such a degree. Giving up he went to find the rest of his family. The kitchen had Joe and Demi in it that were having a very animated breakfast together.

“So then I was all, oh no sweetheart, you did not just give him you phone number.”

“Did she actually, I can’t believe it.” Joe said howling with laughter.

“So what’s this about? Let me in on the fun,” said Nick, joining them with his bowl of cereal.

“I was with Nicole the other day when a hobo asked her for her phone number instead of money. And she gave it to him!”

“What? How could she?” laughed Nick.

“That’s what I said. But she was all like ‘but he was so hot in a Robert Pattinson kinda way, don’t you think so Demi?’ And I said ‘Er… NO? Honey, friends don’t let their friends date hobos.”

The boys roared and thumped the table with their fists. Demi was amazing at retelling stories; she could do all the voices and expressions perfect.

“So that’s why her phone number’s changed. The dude wouldn’t stop calling.”

“Ah, thanks Demi you made my morning,” said Nick hugging her tightly. “So what are the plans for today? It’s so nice to think that we have a couple weeks completely free to ourselves with hardly any jobs to do.”

“I know, right?” sighed Demi dreamily. It was going to be a great summer 2010, she could so tell. She just had to think back to yesterday her first day back in Dallas. It had been so much fun meeting the Jonases’ old friend Gina, and that strange girl Olive.

It had been so different with those two. She liked having other girls around, maybe she could hang out with them this summer. It wouldn’t be so bad to remove herself from the Hollywood scene for a bit and talk to some local- no – drama girls. She loved her glamour and the sparkle that she felt with all her Disney friends but this time she wanted to have a summer she had when she was younger, were you just lazed around and did whatever you felt like doing.

“Well,” said Joe hiding a smile that was trying to escape his lips. “I invited Olive over for diner, remember? That should be interesting. I can’t wait too see her fall head over heels for us again, right Nick?” said Joe smirking with Nick their award winning smile.

“Oh yeah!” Nick answered back high fiving Joe in one of their intricate hand shakes that Demi had never bothered learning. “She fell for us hard.”

“Actually,” said Demi looking disapprovingly at her friends, “I don’t think she did.” She hated when they got so big headed like this, it was bad enough that they were boys and were thus predisposition with pig-headedness but being that famous did nothing to help their modesty.

“What are you talking about Demi, she so was,” said Joe, finishing his cereal and standing to put it in the dishwasher. He leaned back against the sink and letting the sun’s rays hit his exposed abdomen. Demi tried not to stare. She and Joe would never be more than best friend, but she was a teenage girl and that was a tanned six pack.

“I don’t know but… is she even a fan? I mean did she ask you for any autographs or anything? Asked any questions?”

Joe and Nick looked at each other and had to stop for a moment to think. What Demi had said was true Olive actually hadn’t mentioned it. She hadn’t needed to talk about their career to make conversation with them, which was really rare.

That’s what they talked about with everyone they first meet; themselves. Even when they first met Demi they had talked about how they were excited to be working on the movie. Yet with Olive it hadn’t been the case. There was no need to result to such basic conversation starters. She had been easy to talk to.

“Er, no we haven’t,” Demi smiled victoriously at the boys who had a look of slight shocking realization, and pursed lips as they though about how it could have happened. “Thinking about it, we talked about ‘her’, and Oreo,”

“That doesn’t matter thought because we don’t need to talk about ourselves for the ladies to fall in love with us,” said Joe defending his pride. “They just have to look at us and see our studmuffiness to fall in love.”

Demi laughed at that. It was so true, many girls did, and that’s just the way it was. “Sorry but I hate to disappoint you further boys, but I didn’t notice Olive staring at anytime, except maybe at Frankie,” she added to really hurt their ego. “Plus, I think it was you too that was doing most of the staring, if I recall correctly?” she added as the icing on the cake, as she finished her bowl of milk and left the boys in the kitchen with a dumfound look on their faces.

Oh yes, thought Demi. Olive was going to be a nice change.

Olivia’s point of view.

I stood in front the full length mirror that my aunt had graciously put in my room. It was one of those large oval ones that resembled old French Marie Antoinette style. Apparently my aunt’s favorite look since my whole room and a large part of the house was decorated win those soft pastel colors and the furniture looked old and delicate.

I tilted my head to one side and then the other. I kept doing this for a while as a frown etched it’s self on to my face. I didn’t look better from any perspective. I took one last look at my outfit and stomped my foot loudly on the floor like a little child throwing a tantrum.

Screw this, I though. I grabbed the large and obscene mirror and placed it into the twin’s room back to where it belonged. I hated mirrors. My philosophy when it came to get ready for everyday is to find one flattering mirror in your house. Get ready in front of it and then forget about it. That’s what I planned to do. But then Gina happened.

After a lovely lunch cooked and prepared by Chef Olive, I called Gina to tell her that I’d be heading over to the Jonas house for dinner. She as per usual took over the whole situation.

“Olive, that’s great. What are you wearing?” let me make me make one thing clear, Gina loves clothes. Not so much make-up and anything else. Just clothes and all the accessories that came with them. She called it her little ‘penchant’. Luckily for her she didn’t really want expensive things from outrageously priced designers. And plus she and I had discovered a secret shop in Dallas when we were in middle school.

“I am wearing my pink top, yellow skinnies and sneakers.”

“No really describe it to me.”

“Fine” I huffed. I told her how I was wearing the top my sister Marie had given me. It was a simple t-shirt with a cute cartoon of a ninja holding a bouquet of flowers and it said Ninja’s make better boyfriends. It was one of my favorite t-shirts and always made me smile when I saw it. The skinnies were your usual bright yellow kind that clung to your skin. I had on green and pink Nike Airs with a large chunky watch. I didn’t often wear watches but I was afraid of being late to my dinner date.

Wow, back up Olive it’s not a date. For one, two guys invited you and two; hello? Their family was going to be there just like yesterday. However I couldn’t help but to feel nervous. I was always in these situations. Plus I hadn’t been invited over to dinner before yesterday, I was still getting used to the idea that I might actually be making friends for once that weren’t intimidated by me, or thought I was childish. Skipping two grades didn’t really help socially.

After being urged by Gina to put some effort in my appearance I decided to start over and tried to find a hairstyle that was different than a simple pony tale. There effort. I decided to put it in a high pony tail.

I looked at my watch it was a quarter to six. I was surprised that it was that time already. I only had started getting ready a half hour ago. All day I had been in bed trying to madly finish of my story redraft before I could post it of to an editor. It was the 36th full redraft I’ve done. I couldn’t believe how much the story had changed from the very first final complete copy that I had sent of over a year ago.

I made my way outside and took in the warm summer air. I walked along the sidewalk past really large extravagant houses and gated estates. When I reached the Jonas’s home I was relieved to see that I hadn’t gotten completely lost, as a large amount of the houses looked similar to each other. I went up to the gate and buzzed the intercom to enter. I was happy to see that I was let in without as much drama as last time and made my way towards the front entrance.

The swung open before I could even press the door bell, let alone compose myself. Demi stood in front of with a large smile on her pretty face. “Hey! Good to see you again, come on in. We were just about to start eating. What’s that you’re holding?” she said pointing to the platter I had carefully carried over.

“It’s dessert, I thought it would be rude not to bring something.”

“Oh, that so nice! Come on through to the kitchen.”

“It’s really seems like you live here.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re really close.” Said Demi as she led me throw to the dinning room where the Jonas were all sitting and had just started eating. I looked at the table there were two empty seats obviously one for me and one for Demi. I was about to greet everyone and say hello when Frankie spoke up. He had a large smile plastered on his boyish face and he looked at me as he said,

“Hey Olive. I saved you a sit next to me. Come I have so much to tell you.”

“Frankie it’s been less then 24 hours since I was here, what could you possibly have to tell me?” I said laughing and taking a seat. Frankie was too much. I said hello to everyone at the table and they said welcomed me as well. I turned to Nick and Joe last and tried to not stumble over my words as I looked over to them.

They were sat down at the end of the table and me at the top. And though there were so many people between us I couldn’t help but to notice their presence, every movement, every word rang loudly in my ear.

“Hello, again,” I said politely to both of them, “thanks for inviting me over.”

“No problem” said Nick with a slight nod of the head, in a very cool way.

“Yeah, well we’ll go out for a walk afterward.” added Joe, not really looking at me but at his plate. It frustrated me when he avoided my gaze. Deciding to focus on my food and not the boy that was captivating my heart I mumbled out of habit;

“Bon appetit,”

Demi who was sitting next to me gave me a strange glance and so did everyone at the table. I quickly looked back down at my plate and clear my throat, “I- I do that back home, sorry it was out of habit.”

Danielle shock her head, “No, no we don’t mind we just forgot you were French. That pretty interesting, I love France.” She said sweetly.

“I love France too,” I said smiling back slightly and trying to loosen up. Why was I acting so shy, I was doing fine yesterday? Than again, Gina was there to keep me in check. Frankie looked at me and a small frown appeared.

“Olive what’s wrong, with you today?”

“Oh, “the tone of his voice was slightly accusing. I looked around and saw that they were all eyeing me as well. “I wasn’t able to sleep last night, at all. I am just tiered.” I prayed they would all just leave it at that, because I was in no mood to explain that I was feeling confused about my attraction to two very attractive male singers at the table.

He shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating quietly while I did the same. I searched my head for an interesting topic, when Demi who was sitting next to me said, “Hey I’m liking you outfit today, nice colors. I like Ninjas too,” she said referring to my t-shirt.

“Why, what does it say?” asked Nick curiously trying to lean in to see it better.

Looking at him I said suggestively, “Ninjas make better boyfriends,” I held his gaze before looking back at Demi and saying, “and it is so true.”

“That’s not possible,” said Joe, “Rockstars make better boyfriends” in a challenging tone.

“Well I wouldn’t know that, would I?” I answered by in the same tone, “but I doubt it and I don’t know any one who would disagree”

“Ohhhhh,” said Kevin in exclamation, “she is so dissing you two. Are you going to let her get away with that?”

“No way!” said Nick getting fired up in this little arguement we were having, “Dani tell her being the boyfriend of a rock star is better.”

Dani quickly winked at me before saying, “Sorry guys, I knew I was destined to be with Kevin when he made the burning up video and was a ninja.”

“Proof,” I said proudly, “That ninjas make better boyfriends.

“W-what!” said Joe getting riled up, “No way, I refuse to let you think that.”

“Until I date either a Rockstar or a Ninja I wouldn’t be able to say for sure,” feeling courageous I looked at Nick and Joe, “would you know where I’d be able to find some?”

Everyone laughed will Nick and Joe eyed each other. I waited to see what they would say when Frankie said to me, “Olive I have been meaning to tell you, I’ve decided to be a Ninja when I grow up.” He said trying to sound impressive. The whole table roared with loud happy laughter as Frankie blushed crimson and pouted as he realized everyone had seen through him.

We all restarted to eat with me in a much lighter mood I was able to talk to Dani and Demi and really get to know them more, all the while maintaining a constant conversation with Frankie who was as chatty as ever. I brought out dessert and was supper happy to see that they all enjoyed my apple pie.

Towards the end of the meal Oreo woke up from her make shift bed Joe had made with his sweaters, coats and jackets, and came bouncing towards Joe before she noticed me and making bee-line for me.

“You are so not her favorite,” said Nick to Joe, as Joe sent me evils from down the table. I childishly stuck my tongue out at him and patted Oreo sweetly.

“That’s two points for the girls,” said Demi “I knew we’d get more poned points with you on our side, Olive.”

“Thanks,” I said back simply clearing up my plate. “I didn’t mean to get him so annoyed,” I turned to look at Joe, “but it’s so easy.”

We finished up and got ready to go on our little walk. “Where are we actually going? I haven’t really explored the neighborhood yet. Is it nice?” I asked to no one in particular.

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Nick slipping on a cap and sunglasses like all the others except the two married couples who weren’t going out. “It’s quiet enough.”

“Opps,” I said looking at the covered up teens around me. “I didn’t think of bringing my sunglasses with me or a cap. its smart thinking the sun is so bright today.” They all looked out each other strangely before laughing at me shaking their head in wonder.

“Olive,” said Demi. “We are trying to not be recognized when we going out.”

“We don’t want silly little 16 year olds following us madly around,” added Joe stepping out. That comment double hurt. Not only did I feel stupid for not realizing their true intentions but Joe had called 16 year olds silly and little. I was a sixteen year old, what did that make me.

“16 isn’t so bad, it’s just one year younger than Nick. “ I said defending myself.

“Yeah but that years younger than me, and even Nick agrees that that’s the point in a girl’s life when they are the craziest.”

“What! Why?”

“All our past girlfriends went a-wall around that time. Sixteen is officially an off limit dating age.” Said Nick going out the door as well. I looked at their leaving figures in disbelief. I turned to Dani, Kevin and Demi looking for some sort of support. They wouldn’t let such an insult slide, where they?

“What is it, it’s not like you’re 16 Olive?” Demi said seriously, “You still got a chance with them.”

Wait a second, why were they all thinking I wasn’t sixteen for? I didn’t understand, but right now admitting I was a silly sixteen year old didn’t sound too good, so I shrugged it of and grabbed a pair of black sunglasses Demi handed me. Apparently they had a lot to spare, I wonder why? We went out and ran to catch up with the boys that were already down the streets. Joe who was holding Oreo like it was a precious jewel and turned to Demi, Frankie and me and said, “Finally you slow pokes caught up, come on we’re going to the hill.”

“What where’s that?” I asked running up to them. I was eager to find out where I was going to spend me first day out with my new friends. If you could call them that, I wasn’t sure if we were close enough to even be simple friends.

Nick looked at me an amused smile parting his sweet lips. I couldn’t see his eyes through his dark shades, but I could tell they were smiling as well. He ruffled my hair and said, “It a clearing on top of a small forest. Not a lot of people go there, so we go there often. You know you look like and excited puppy, even Oreo is calmer than you, who even skips now- a-days?”

I stopped short at his last comment and looked down at my feet, I hadn’t realized I had been skipping, it’s something I only did when I was in an extremely good mood. “Lots of people skip, Nick. People that still know how to have a life and have fun,” I said and went on skipping with even more emphasis.

Frankie and Demi laughed and joined me, by linking their arms with mine. We went on skipping the three off us laughing loudly and attracting strange glances from people all around. Nick and Joe tried to slow down to pretend that they weren’t with use, but I didn’t care. Right now I was having a lot of fun with Frankie and Demi. After a while we reached a trail that headed up towards a slopping forest.

“I bet I can beat you up there, “said Frankie challenging me and standing up to his full height. Which still wasn’t that big.

“We always race each other up the hill, winner tickles the loser.” explained Demi. She looked really nice today, especially in this natural light, her natural dark thick hair glistened and framed her smiling face. We were having such a blast together it was unbelievable. I knew that some how were quickly becoming good friends.

“You’re on!” I exclaimed feeling pumped up and full of energy. I was running on a hundred percent happy juice. “Who else wants to try me?”

“You feeling pretty confident for a girl aren’t you?” jabbed Nick, eyeing me up. “I’m in, you better not lose or let me win because I am actually to best tickler here. Or the worst depends how you look at it.”

“I can’t run with Oreo in my arms” said Joe, “or else Olive you’d have seen me beat Nick by a mile.”

“Right,” said Demi, “positions everyone. Joe you count us in, ‘kay?”

He nodded his approval and stood back as he watched us line up. I looked up at the hill, and I gulped. It was really steep and quite a long way up. But I really wanted to win, and Nick to loose. No need to explain the motives behind that, they are pretty self explanatory. I looked at Demi and she gave me a thumbs up which I mimicked before I notice Frankie whisper something to Nick. Now what were they up to?

“On your marks, get set, go!” shouted Joe, and Oreo barked her improvement just after. It was so cute that we all had to let out a quick laugh before charging up towards the top. I was going faster than I expected and thought I was doing well before I saw that Nick was a good couple of meters ahead of me.

I desperately tried to speed up, and my feet pounded the dead burning ground.

Half way up, I was gaining on Nick and Demi was falling slightly behind. Frankie was surprisingly fast on those smaller legs and was just behind me. Another burst of speed.

I managed to run passed Nick, but I could have sworn I saw him look back at Frankie and slow down. I tried to stay focused and made it to the top first and victorious but seriously exhausted. I whooped and raised my arms in the air as Frankie came in second and Demi third. Nick came up fourth looking like he had a sort of limp. However I could tell it wasn’t a real one because it kept changing sides.

“Olive, didn’t I do great, I was better than you expected right? Nick was a whole lot slower than me.” So this was what it was about, letting Frankie look good. I nodded at Frankie amused by his enthusiasm and high fived him several times. I turned to Demi and threw the water bottle that I had kept in my bag after I had a sip, I also handed her my camera and said

“Here film this, it’s going to be so good.” She winked back her reply before turning it on as I turned to Nick. I raised my eyebrow at him and he shook his head. Out off Frankie’s hearing range he whispered to me;

“Come on Olive, we both know who would have won if this had been a good and honest race. I was beating you by a mile at the start.” It’s true he had been. He had been incredibly fast and his run looked really athletic; He must often go running.

“Alright, than this is for letting me win,” I lashed out on him and tickled him with the best techniques I could. He sounded surprised for a second before his knees gave out and he started trashing on the floor. His abdomen was hard and toned which made it easier to find the tickling spots. He was gasping for breaths between his fits of laughter, and I could help but to join in. His laughter was contagious.

“Ha-Ha, bet you though you were the only one capable of tickling. Well let me tell you something, it’s one of my best skills.”

“You- you consider tickling a skill? He huffed. Trying to put me down while I had the upper hand wasn’t so smart. I tickled even harder and moved down to his thighs which achieve a large howl of laughter. However now that I wasn’t working on his torso his arms weren’t pinned to the ground any more he was able to grab at me and fight back.

He flipped my onto the ground and started tickling me to at full force, and I tried my best to fight him off the top but he was much stronger than me and kept me pin down to the ground, as he worked his hand all over my tickling spots.

I was laughing like a hyena and so was he and for a moment I forgot how intimate we were getting, until at one moment I caught his eyes and realized that this had gone on for much longer than it probably normally did.

He must have notice because he suddenly slowed down and stopped to look back at me down at me. We watched each other as we caught out breaths my chest rising off the ground and my heart beating at lighting speed.

I wasn’t so sure that it was all due to the tickling, more likely because his face was just inches from mine and his body right on top of mine which he had used to fix me down. I looked back at him wondering what he was going to do and what he was thinking, looking down at me so intently.

He just kept on gazing down at me with deep gaze that I was slowly being mesmerized by.