Keely strolled past the suitcases she had piled beside the door the night before. It was six in the morning, and Maureen would be coming to pick her up at seven to go the airport. And she would be moving to New York.

Silently Keely slipped from the house, careful not to wake her father, and slid into the car that she barely used. It had been her father's when he had turned seventeen, and he had restored it so Keely could drive it when she'd turned seventeen. Yet she'd never bothered to drive it even then, Joe had always been there to drive her around, and he'd always been more than willing, but that didn't seem like an option anymore.

Thankfully, the doors to her school were open, some teacher's car was parked in the lot explaining the open locks.

She had forgotten to clean out her locker on Friday, and now Keely would have about a half an hour to clear it out before she had to get back home.

But it wasn't as if Keely had to be there to say her goodbyes to anyone. She had a feeling that her father wasn't even going to bother to get up, Haley, Tony and Sadie had said their farewells the night before. And Joe, well Joe pretty much hated her.

Sighing, Keely found her locker in the dark.

Grabbing a garbage can handle, she parked it right beside her locker before she started clearing it out.

There was the flier for the car wash that was supporting the cheerleaders getting new uniforms. Smiling, Keely flattened it out perfectly and slid it into her bad. She may not have liked being a cheerleader as would have been preferable for a captain, but there were too many memories to be throwing them away.

Along with the flier, Keely slid in a picture of her and Haley at the beach having a water fight. A picture of Haley and Keely having a piggy back war on the same day in the ocean, Keely was on Tony's shoulders and Haley was on her boyfriend of the time shoulders, his name might have been Lucas. A picture of Keely cheering at a football game, one of Tony hugging her as they got into the playoffs for the first time in seventeen years, she and Joe riding the horses down the road and the last of where you could see the horses in the background, but Joe had Keely over his shoulder and was about to throw her into the river.

As for her binders, Keely shoved them in her backpack along with the loose papers. She kept things like a necklace Tony had given her, a cartoon of a horse chasing a carrot that Sadie had drawn, a shirt that Haley had made from scratch and the seven of the CD's Joe had given her that had been sitting on the top shelf.

"What are you doing here so early Staub?"

Glancing up from where she was squatting as she tried to make everything fit in her back pack, Keely saw the football coach Mike Croft. "I could ask you the same thing Coach," she answered casually, standing up.

"I thought you were leaving today, shouldn't you be home with your family?" he asked, leaning against the locker beside Keely's.

"I forgot to clean out my locker, and actually," she said looking at her watch. "I've got to be going because I'm getting picked up from my house at seven."

"Once again, shouldn't you be home with your family?"

Looking up into Coach's wrinkled weathered wise face, Keely found herself becoming defensive. "I would think so to, but my father doesn't want anything to do with me and my best friend hates me. So, yes, I really should be home with my family, but they don't want me to be home with them." Without a thought she blurted everything out, and almost clapped her hands to her mouth afterwards in shame.

"Or could it be they want you to," he said philosophically.

"I'm not backing out on my dreams now," Keely narrowed her eyes at Coach Croft.

He raised an eyebrow, "I don't believe that's what I was saying to do," he pointed out.

Rolling her eyes, for the first time Keely was rude. "Then tell me what I should do Coach, don't give me cryptic messages. But I can't change what I want now, this is my dream. And I don't think that because I'm following them I should be ostracized by my own family. So I guess there's nothing left for me now."

Grabbing her folder and back pack, Keely brushed past Coach.

But when she got to the front doors, she was ambushed by her own reflection. Instead of the perfectly put together and cool Keely Staub that was usually a given, what she saw was the real Keely Staub.

To be sure it was a flustered and hurt one, but it was the true one. Not the one everyone else wanted her to be.

"Welcome to New York," Maureen proclaimed proudly.

They'd just past off their bags to two men who were taking them to their separate cabs. Maureen would be going home while Keely would be taken to her hotel room which would be her home for the next month before her tour started.

Feeling the overwhelming urge to laugh, Keely said, "Not quite the way I imagined it."

"Well, I didn't think it would be raining this early in the year,” admitted Maureen.

"At least I'm not a cliche," Keely murmured. Instead of the sun lit place you see when characters in television shows and movies when they see New York for the first time, the rain was thudding down with an extreme single mindedness. People driving past were wearing disgruntled expressions, honking irritably, as much from the fact they were trying to navigate through an airport parking lot as from the rain.

"That you're not," Maureen patted her shoulder. "Here's your cab honey."

Quickly, she let go of Mitchie's hand which was clinging to hers and, took a step towards the bright yellow drenched vehicle, but Maureen grabbed her arm.

"You have today off," she informed Keely. "Tomorrow I'll call your hotel for an alarm. First off, you're going to be taken to a photo shoot, just take a shower, your hair and wardrobe will be done there."

Keely nodded, trying to take in all the information as Miss Jones rattled it off. "After that find time to grab something for lunch because you'll have an hour break. Then you'll be taken to a stylist, she'll perfect your look for your tour. You'll be taken to the recording studio immediately after the stylist. I'll meet you there as well, we'll go over a rough draft for the songs going on your debut you album, but remember it's a rough draft," she warned. "What we decide then may not necessarily be on the album in the long run."

"I get it," Keely murmured.

She was already feeling dizzy from her chock full day tomorrow.

"By then it should be about five thirty," Maureen had barely paused for Keely to get the words out. "And you'll be taken back to the hotel where you will get ready for dinner with the three people that will be helping you record your album on the road and while you're in New York."

"I got it," Keely assured her.

But, once again, Maureen overrode her. "I'll be emailing you the plan for tomorrow, now you should go, and enjoy the rest of the day, because tomorrow your work starts."

"Okay," Keely laughed, gently prying Maureen's hand from her arm and walking to the cab. She smiled easily at the cab driver before putting in her headphones, she just needed to listen to music right now.

Because it would relax her jumping heart.

"Thank you," Keely murmured when the cab driver placed her bags in the hotel lobby. He left with a nod towards her, because he'd already been paid by Maureen.

She was checked in by an overly friendly hotel manager, who seemed determined that her month long stay at his very fancy hotel would be the best she had ever lived, but Keely sincerely doubted this.

After handing the man in uniform that had brought Keely's bags up to her room a five dollar bill in tip, Keely was finally alone.

Wandering around her room, Keely was honestly amazed. The hotels she had stayed in with her dad were nothing compared to this, they were lucky if they got two rooms with two beds, though most of the time they would just have two beds stuffed into the same room with a hopefully clean bathroom.

But here, it must cost a fortune for her to be staying here for two months.

There was a small kitchen, but there was a large wooden varnished table in the middle. A giant television, a place where Keely had a feeling she would put her laptop, it was an end table the same colour as the dining room table. The furniture in the room also looked very comfortable, but what caught Keely's eye was the staircase.

The two staircases to be exact. On either side of the room, the staircase started and led up - following the wall in a curved pattern - to the upstairs.

Keely ran up the stairs in a hurry, excited to see what was at the top. And almost sighed in delight. There was a giant king sized four poster bed, covered with thick luscious pillows and blankets in a deep red. Though it was tempting, Keely didn't jump onto the bed, instead she opened the door to the right side of the bed and started thanking god literally, but silently, in her head.

This bathroom must have been bigger than her room at home. The bright white tub was the size of a jacuzzi, there was a shower with clear glass around it. The skin was shinning marble as well, like the tile throughout the bathroom.

Seeing as there was a full length mirror in Keely's amazingly huge closet, she decided on changing. Because - at the moment - she was wearing what she thought of as her airport clothes, and Haley would most likely be ashamed of her if she walked around her first day in New York looking like this. The outfit consisted of straight legged navy sweat pants, a black spaghetti strap that didn't quite reach the top of her pants and a black zipper hoodie.

Once again, Keely fell back on another outfit Haley had designed. She was wearing a loose low cut white tank top with a black pattern on the front, along with skinny black jeans, black cropped leather jacket and her high heeled knee boots with black bracelets on her wrist.

Feeling satisfied, Keely perfected her hair. Eventually she had it with barely a wave and her bangs swishing out to the side

"Miss Staub!"

Surprised at being called Miss Staub instead of Keely, Keel or Staub, it took Keely a second to turn around. And when she did, Keely saw it was the hotel Manager, Mr. Todd Englis from his name tag. "Yes Mr. Englis?" she asked surprised.

"You're not going outside are you?" he enquired looking outside at the slight drizzle with loathing eyes.

She couldn't help but laugh. "Mr. Englis," Keely was still snorting. "I'm from Washington, it sincerely isn't even raining out there Sir."

Sighing, he handed her a large black umbrella, "Well, if you insist on going out Miss Staub. Here's an umbrella for you, we don't want you getting sick on your first day in New York."

"Thanks," she smiled. "And please don't call me Miss Staub, just Keely."

As she wandered out the doors, she couldn't help but marvel at the loathing the people already seemed for rain in New York, after all, she hadn't thought it was supposed to be a completely dry city. Keely was sure it rained there quite a bit.

But she shoved the thoughts from her mind as she shoved upon the door, and was hit by a blast of down town air.

- There we go, Keely's first day in New York City. I'm very excited now, it's really getting into the story at this point.

Advice... don't give your older sister a riddle and laugh at her when she can't figure it out, even if you really don't like her. And especially don't make a comment about not knowing a person needed an IQ over eighty to figure out the riddle. Because she'll literally punch you in the face. Yeah, not a big fan of my older sister over here.

Anyways, hope you liked it, vote/comment because it'll make my day!

Oh, and does anyone have a suggestion for a name for an older guy, that's kind of a complete and utter asshole? I'm drawing a blank for it right now -_- It's annoying.

Hope you liked the chapter!

The picture on the side just makes me think of what Keely would have looked like as a child haha!