A Little Less Obvious

Something that Jack noticed Michelle does a lot of was talk on the phone. Even when she was with Zack she was on her phone. It seemed like when her phone rang, everyone else came second to it. He'd asked Jake about it once, but Jake shrugged and claimed that he never paid much attention to find out who it was. But he did say that Drew would know. The thing is that Drew is not fond of Jack, at all.

Jack thought that that could possibly be another reason why Michelle didn't like him. He didn't know why Drew didn't like him, but he knew that if Drew didn't approve, than Michelle wasn't going to even look the guy's way. He figured all he really had to do was get Drew to like him, and then ask about the person on the other line.

Or he could ask Nicole. She was always nice to him, probably because he was close with Jake. But she liked him nonetheless, so she could possibly tell him. But when he asked her, she just said she wasn't too sure. Then she told him to ask Drew, that he might know. So much for Nicole and Michelle being best friends, right?

So since Drew was friends with Rian, he figured he could get Rian to ask Drew about it. And after he did, Jack thinks that Rian has to be the dumbest person ever. Rian had asked Drew who Michelle was talking to, because Jack wanted to know. He gave Rian the silent treatment for 3 hours after that.

Fed up with Jack's constant complaining, and stating that it really wasn't a big deal, Jake told him to suck it up and just ask her himself. And that made Jack want to slap him. If he wasn't so head over heals for her, and extremely nervous around her, then he would've. Hell, he would've already kissed her, or more.

But when Jack finally does gather up the courage to ask her, he feels retarded. He feels extremely ridiculous even. He had thought she was talking to a guy back home, a boyfriend possibly, when she was just talking to her best friend since diapers, and Annabell Lee. He thought it was stupid that he thought she had a boyfriend, because she likes Zack, and he knows that, no matter how painful it is to admit.

Jack knew all about Annabell Lee. Once, when Nicole was out to dinner, and he and Jake had been messing around with his laptop, Jake had gotten a phone call that instantly brought tears to his eyes. Before he didn't really know the meaning behind the band name. In interviews he had seen of them (though he was mostly creeping on Michelle) they always skipped the band name question, saying it was too personal. But when he let Jake cry on his shoulder, he really understood why.

The members of Annabell Lee, either 17 or 18 at the time, had gone with Jake's mom, a children's doctor, to her work one day. There, they met the cancer patient Annabell Lee Rose Sunden, who at the time was only two and suffering from leukemia. Things happened, and the band that was already formed changed their name to Saving Annabell Lee and half their profits went to Annabell's medical bills that her parents couldn't pay just by themselves. Jake had become closest to the little girl and her family, and when he had found out from the girl's mother that she might not make it, he cried, and cried, and Jack was there to tell him everything would be okay, and it was, and Annabell was stronger, and fighting her sickness.

Their only motivations for constantly being on the road are their fans and the fact that Annabell loves the music they make.

Jack had only gotten to talk to the little girl once, and as far as he knows, she's the smartest four year old out there.

"Hey Jack, could you help me with this?" Nicole asked, distracting him from his thoughts.

"Sure," he replied, grabbing the merch box from her hands as she grabbed a smaller one, most likely filled with bracletes or necklaces.

"So, do you still like Mitchy?" Jack had noticed that Nicole had been absolutely the only person allowed to call Michelle that. Not even Drew was allowed to, so no one else tested their luck.

At first, Jack was confused about how she knew, but then he realized that Jake told Nicole everything, even if he wasn't supposed to. That meant that Michelle would know, and Drew would know. There were no secrets between that group of friends, and he was pretty positive that Michelle knew of his infatuation of her.

"Uh, yeah..." he trailed off. Nicole had always intimidated him. She was nice, but she was fiesty, and willing to hurt people mentally and physically. So he figured that if she didn't approve of him liking her, then he was screwed.

"That's cute," was all she came back with.

They placed the boxes down on the inside of the merch tent as Janice, their merch girl, put everything up and away.

"Do you, uh, think she likes me?" Jack asked. Nicole's a very blunt person, and never beat around the bush. So Jack asked her, because he knew he was going to get an honest answer.

"No, she likes Zack."