Zac grabbed the remote control out of Carter's hands and switched to Mtv. "Look there's that chick you look like."
"Who?"
"That Marissa chick."
Carter tilted her head to the side. "What show is this, and why are they running naked through a basketball court?"
"Senseless Acts of Video. They take things they see on tv and they do them for real."
Carter laughed. "Oh yeah, that'll give parents something to argue about." She paused to watch the naked chick with the short brown hair run across the screen. "She doesn't look like me."
"Yeah she does. You two are like... the spittin image of eachother."
Carter rolled her eyes and looked over at Justine who was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Zac enjoyed hanging out with Justine, but she always sat on the sidelines. "Ok, Justine, do they look alike."
"Yeah." She nodded.
Zac stood up and grabbed Justine by the hands, pulling her over to the couch. He pushed Carter over and sat Justine next to him. "You gotta stop sitting so far away from everybody."
Justine smiled. "Sorry."
"Ok ok." Carter sat on the floor in front of Zac and reached up to grab the remote from him. "Ok we're watching what I want to watch."
"It's my house."
"I'm stronger." Carter smiled up at him.
Zac frowned.
Carter switched the channel a few times until she saw her new favorite band, M2M. "OOH!"
Zac rolled his eyes. "Not again. We saw this video like, 5 minutes ago."
"That was a different channel."
Zac watched the video for a few seconds before he tapped Justine's shoulder. "She looks like Carter."
"DOES EVERYBODY LOOK LIKE ME?!" Carter yelled, smacking Zac on the leg.
"No, but she does."
"Which one?" Justine asked, looking back and forth from Carter to the tv.
"The one with brown hair."
"That's Marion Raven."
"You sound like her too."
Justine sighed. She couldn't understand why, but everytime, over the past three days, she was with Carter and Zac, she felt a flaming hatred toward Carter. The worst part was, she couldn't understand why.
Melissa walked out of Zac's kitchen with an apple in her hand. "Hey what's up peoples?"
Justine looked at Zac. "Do you guys just... trade houses as you please?"
"I dunno," Zac shrugged, "It's been like this since we were babies. It's like, it's just one big house and we all live here. Our families are that close. There's even a door in the basement that leads to next door, and another one that leads to nowhere."
"Huh?"
"This house was part of the underground railroad." Carter grinned, very proudly.
Melissa looked up at the ceiling when she heard a loud thudding noise. "Is Taylor playing naked ceiling twister again."
"I CAN CHECK!" Carter jumped up from the floor. She stopped, turned around, and sat on Zac's lap quickly. "Are you coming to Dillie's tonight?"
"Yup, Justine's muh date, right, Justine?" He asked, looking at her.
"Hell yeah." She blushed. "I mean, yeah sure."
Melissa sighed. "I need a date."
"Can't help ya there, Mel. Ask Todd." Carter laughed and got up again. "Ok I'm gonna go catch Taylor in the act." She grinned and ran up the stairs, taking them 2 at a time. She found Taylor sitting on the floor, staring at his twister mat that was now glued to the ceiling.
"No luck?"
Taylor looked up at Carter and blushed. "I just don't think it's possible."
"Probably not."
Taylor smiled when he noticed she was all ready to sing. She was wearing a dark maroon skirt that reached her knees and a black tanktop with marron flowers swirled around the waist. "You look very pretty."
Carter grabbed his hands and pulled him up. Then she put her arms around his waist and her head on his shoulder. "Would it be ok with you if I didn't sing tonight?"
Taylor pushed her back an inch so he could see her face. "You don't wanna go out?"
"No, I wanna go out, I would just rather concentrate on you." She smiled.
"You can concentrate on me after you sing. You know that."
Carter sighed. "Yeah I know. It's just... You know Justine? That girl that I 'secretly' hooked up with Zac?"
"Yeah, she's really nice."
"I know she is. And she's really cute too. But, I don't think she likes me and whenever I'm around, she doesn't have fun with Zac. I really want Zac to be happy and have a girlfriend that he can love, but that's not going to happen if I keep getting in the way. So I figured the two of us could sit at a table... and they could sit at a table... and Meli could sit on the floor."
Taylor laughed. "I think Isaac's gonna invite her over to watch movies or something. But, you're going to get on stage and sing, make 200 dollars, then we're going to sit with Zac and Justine, and have dinner."
Carter sighed. "If you insist." She smiled.
"I was walking down the street one day.
Then I saw you I didn't know what to say.
Your eyes were shining your smile was so kind.
When I saw you I wanted you to be mine.
Maybe I don't have the blonde hair you like.
Or maybe I don't have eyes like the sky.
And I'm not sure if I'm the girl in your dreams.
But I can show you what love means."***
Carter almost whispered the last lines of her last song with so much emotion and feeling, that tears filled her eyes. She finally put her guitar behind the curtin of the stage, and climbed down to sit with Taylor, Zac, and Justine, to have dinner.
The audience cheered for almost 2 whole minutes as Carter blushed in the shadows of their booth.
"You're really good." Justine smiled, sticking a piece of her pizza into her mouth.
"Thanks. Meli said you can sing too."
Justine nodded. "I try."
Carter held Taylor's hand under the table tightly as she stared into a corner of the club.
"What's wrong?" He whispered into her ear, worried.
"That guy over there has been watching me ever since I came in and went backstage."
Taylor looked over at the man and laughed. He had wavy blonde hair that fell behind his ears. And from what he could see, his eyes were so green, they were frightening. "Car, everybody has been watching you."
Justine shook her head. "You know, I've noticed it too. It's starting to get freaky."
Carter let go of Taylor's hand and pushed her chair out. She stood up and brushed off her skirt. "Well, I'll just have to figure out what he's looking at."
Taylor laughed. "You know more about her than I will ever know." He said to Zac while watching Carter march over to the unknown man. "Is she always this strong and... take care of herself-like?"
Zac nodded.
They watched Carter talk to the man for a few minutes before she slowly pulled a chair out and sat down.
"Uhm..." Taylor raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah that'll show teach him to not stare at you." Zac laughed.
5 minutes later, Carter came back to their table and sat down. She set a tiny card down in front of her, on top of her food.
"So, what did he want?" Taylor asked, grabbing her hand under the table.
"Uhm. That guys's name is Mike Daily. He's uhm... a uhm... record producer... and uhm... he just pretty much offered me a uhm... uhm...."
"Record deal?" Zac finished her sentence.
"Yeah. One of those."
Taylor nudged her. "Dude, you gotta do that. That's your dream."
Carter shook her head. "No it's not."
"Huh?"
Zac sighed. "Carter doesn't want to sing for money. The only reason she's doing this is because her family is broke."
"Oh."
Carter put her elbow on the table and put her chin in her hand. "So what do I do, call him up and say no, or go back over there and say no."
Taylor let go of her and turned so that he was facing her completely. "Neither. You call him the minute you get home and find out what to do to make this happen."
"Why?"
"Because you could SO do this!! You could be famous and be known by the world as Carter Porter, greatest single/guitarist on the planet. Why the heck wouldn't you want that?"
"Because, yeah being famous would be great and I've joked about being Carter ANABELLA for a long time, but I don't want to do it. Not like this. And not now. I like my life. I like being little old, non-famous, hardly even known in her own city, Carter. I like who I am. And I'm proud to say that. I don't want to end up as somebody else's image of the perfect girl."
Taylor sighed. "You wouldn't HAVE to be anybody's image but your own. So why not go over there and accept? Why?! Do you realize how lucky you are?! Do you know how many people spend their entire lives playing at rinky dink little clubs for 5 bucks a night just so they can get their voice and music out there? You can't turn this down! You can't be nobody forever when you have the ability to be a huge star!"
Carter stared at him for a long time before pushing her chair out again, walking away, and disappearing out the front door of the club.
"Great job Taylor." Zac glared at him. "Are you aware of how bad that sounded?"
"What?"
"You just called her a nobody. There's no insult worse than that."
Taylor's jaw dropped open. "Shit, I did, didn't I?"
"Duh."
Taylor jumped up and ran out the door after Carter, prepared to chase her home. But he didn't have to. She was standing outside of the club with her back to the brickwall. A scene that seemed like dejavu, only in reverse. Last time they were outside like this, Taylor got punched in the stomach by a drunken stranger. "Carter, I'm so sorry..." He began, pushing a piece of hair out of her face.
"You don't think I want to be somebody?"
"I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I just... I'm jealous."
"Of what?" Carter finally looked at him.
"When I was little, I used to want to be famous so bad. I'd sit at our piano and play and pretend I was actually playing for somebody. But that oppourtunity never came for me. I was never in the right place at the right time like you were. And I never looked that damn good in a skirt."
Carter laughed and put her head down.
Taylor lifted it up with his finger. "Do this for me. Please? That way you'll never have to say that you had the chance, but chickened out."
Carter sighed.
"Please, Carter. I want this for you. Call me a selfish booger but I want to be able to say that my girlfriend is Carter Porter."
She laughed. "I'd go by Carter Anabella."
"Go by whatever the hell you want. Just do this. You'll regret it forever if you don't."
Carter nodded. "Ok. I'll call him tomorrow."
Taylor hugged her and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Good. Now let's go back and eat before Zac eats everything on the table."
They laughed, held hands, and walked back inside.
They never noticed Gabi walk by then at least three times, taking in their conversation. She stopped in front of the club and waited for her friend, Mike, to come out. He came out finally, smiling, and gave her a hug. "Well, it's all set. That's it right?"
"Yup. Now all we have to do is wait for her to call 'you'... get her heart broken because there is no 'you'... and the nget pissed at Taylor for pushing her to do something she never wanted to do. Then, they break up, and I'm free to make my move."
Mike smiled and ran his finger across her cheek. "And how am I getting paid again?"
Gabi smiled and kissed his cheek, seductively. "We'll decide that later... after I see results."
***Girl In Your Dreams, written by Marion Raven, performed by Marion Raven and Marit Larson of M2M
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