"I love shoes," Keely moaned as she and Rachael sat down in Rachael's car. She found she was getting quite frustrated with having a driver, but Keely was sat demurely in the passenger's seat after a long day of shopping.

"I know, right?" Rachael giggled, pulling out of the parking lot.

Leaning down, Keely laughed, "I'm so taking off my shoes." Without waiting for Rachael's answer, she pulled off the high heels. Honestly, after a full day of walking around a mall, her feet were throbbing.

"Where do you live? I'll drop you off."

"I live in a hotel," Keely smiled, dropping her head against the seat."But, for the moment you can just drop me off at a music store."

"You want to do more shopping?" Rachael asked incredulously.

"No," she laughed, "Well, yeah. I guess, kind of. Just drop me off when I say, you don't have to drop me off all the way at my hotel. I just need to talk to someone and I think I might walk down to the studio because Marco said he was going to be there late tonight."

"You have bags," Rachael's voice had a worried tone as she across the car over at Keely.

Keely just rolled her eyes. Rachael was an okay person, although she doubted she'd be able to handle the girl for more than a day at a time. Seriously, how much optimism can you take when it's mixed with a bubbly person? "If you don't remember, I only have one pair of shoes and you have ten bags of clothes. I can walk with one bag, or you could just give it to me tomorrow at dinner."

"I'll give it to you tomorrow," she agreed, but still had a apprehensive expression on her face. "But I still don't want you to go walking around in the dark, I mean walk in the dark all you want, but just don't do it alone."

"Rachael," she smiled reassuringly, placing a hand on her arm, but in truth the concern was starting to grate on her nerves. Usually Keely didn't mind worry about her when it was from her friends and family, but - for some reason - when it was Rachael, she started feeling overburdened and edgy, just wanting to get away. "I'll be fine, I'm not walking butt naked down a boat dock in 1743, I think I can handle this."

"Fine," she said grudgingly.

Smiling, Keely couldn't help but realise that Rachael was already getting a big-sister attitude towards her. Well, it was fitting, because most sisters didn't like their big sister's boyfriend. "Here we are."

"Keely," she said worryingly.

Now exasperated, Keely didn't bother to hid her annoyance as she leaned down to look through the car window at Rachael. "The streets are still crowded and the studio isn't far Rachael, I can handle walking on my own. I'm not hopeless."

With that, Keely turned away from the car and stormed up to where the almost falling down music store was.

Maybe she had been just a little too short with Rachael, but just because she was a couple years older than her didn't mean she could boss her around. Keely had done much more dangerous things than walk down a dark road alone.

And it wasn't as if she was going to aim for dark alleys!

Still annoyed, Keely pushed open the door to the old record store. Her aggravation passed instantly, suddenly she felt guilty.

The old man might have had seen a million customers and probably didn't care about one sixteen year old who had come into his store once. But that didn't mean Keely didn't remember how she had promised him that she would be coming into his store almost daily, so even if he could care less about her coming in, Keely would have to, she just kept all of her vows.

But her shame left instantaneously like her frustration, because just walking into a music store could sooth all of those raw edges. Most people went into churches to find peace, but Keely could find the same calm by walking into a music store, sitting in a room playing a record loudly or in undertone or having a guitar in hands and her voice.

There wasn't room in her mind to grab a record quickly and going up to talk to the old man. Instead she wandered down the aisles slowly, fingering through the voluminous music.

Falling into the trance that so commonly came when she looked at music, Keely couldn't help thinking back to her father. She'd tried to call him again, but he hadn't answered. Maybe he was just missing her by accident, because it wasn't as if she was leaving messages, and if there was one thing she knew about her dad was that technology wasn't his strong suit, he probably had no idea she'd called.

Still, it felt strange that he hadn't tried to call her. After all, he was still her father, whatever had happened in between the years since she'd be born, there was still a blood relation there.

And just like that, her mood began to drop from annoyance to sadness.

"You looking for a good album?"

Glancing up from where she was looking slowly through every record, Keely saw the old man. His long steel grey hair was pulled back into a pony tail behind his head, his dark eyes were searching and upon her and his brow was furrowed. Even with the holey faded jeans and Queen t-shirt, he reminded Keely of the old man people used to go to for answers... But not in a bad way, his eyes seemed wise and knowing.

A smile twitched on the corner's of Keely's mouth, and she answered simply, "Always."

Smiling he said, "Bottom row, far right fourth album in."

Doing as he said, Keely found the album. "Poison's Flesh & Blood, glam rock, this is what you're giving for a good album?" she raised an eyebrow as she passed him the record over the table.

"Something to Believe In," his voice was calm as he rang up the purchase. "People underestimate the band, mostly because they were a glam rock band in the 80's. But just listen to the track. I saw them play it live in '91, and even I was surprised, it's a great song if you want hope and courage or hope."

"I'll take your word for it," Keely murmured.

"So," he leaned on his elbows over the counter. "I thought you promised to be my most loyal costumer."

Wincing, Keely answered with a defensive, "I've been really busy!"

Now he just laughed, "I would expect, rock star. Did you really think you'd have time to run down and come here everyday?"

"I guess not," she admitted. But started laughing at his expectant look. "Okay, I'll tell you. I've had a three day marathon of photo shoots, which are surprisingly not that bad, even though I think I had to change ten times each day. I went to the U2 concert with a few friends."

"Who are you going on tour with?"

"Ah... don't laugh, but Marissa James and N.S.R," she felt cowardly about how scared she was to tell him so.

He just raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," Keely settled in to talk to him. "I met the boys from NSR, and they're actually nice, well... mostly, even though their music is kind of crap. So, I just started hoping that this tour would be over quick. But then they introduced me to Marissa James, and we became really good friends, even though her music is worse than theirs.

"But she convinced me to do some recording with her, and I re-wrote almost the entire song, so it's actually good now. Plus, NSR is helping me record my album, well a third of the band is along is and they asked me to do a duet with them. Convincing me that they didn't like the sound they had right now that they only had that sound from necessity. But I said I would only do it on the condition that I would get to listen to the song first."

"So have you heard it?" he enquired.

Feeling taken aback, Keely said, "Actually no, I haven't. But a third of the band that loathes me was in the studio recording the guitar track. Another third is going to be there late, so I thought I would go check it out."

"And which third would that be?" he asked interestedly.

"Not telling," she grinned easily. "I think I'll listen to the album tonight and then come down tomorrow to tell you if I agree."

"Don't you have to go to school on Monday?" his voice was suddenly stern as he stared her down.

Laughing, Keely patted his shoulder before taking a step back. "First of all, I have to remind you, rock star. But I had a 4.0 grade point average when I was in Bellingham and have been doing the work online."

"Then come on down, rock star, if you're not too busy."

Smiling to herself, Keely pushed out the door. Something To Believe In was it? Did she need something to believe in? The smile she'd been wearing for the past few days hadn't exactly been a mask, but it hadn't been as happy as when she first arrived. But she did love it down here, and this was one of her biggest secrets. And - though she felt unbearably guilty - Keely did not regret for a moment moving down here and leaving all of her family behind. It may seem heartless, but that was how she felt.

Maybe she did regret not calling her friends everyday, but she was busy, and they hadn't called her either.

But the thing she was most worried about was her father. Leaving Frank had been bad enough, but he hadn't went to call her or anything, and this was breaking her heart slowly.

Abruptly miserable again, Keely felt her head drop as she moped down the road.

"Hey," she pushed open the studio door.

"Oh, hey!" Marco's voice went from flat and surprised to joyful at the sight of her, and he gave her a long searching glance. "I didn't think you were coming today."

No stains or embarrassing things, Keely decided looking back up to him. Seeing as her glance down had only lasted seconds, Marco didn't notice the gap before she answered him.

"I didn't think I was either," Keely admitted, boosting herself up on the table before swinging her long legs around so she faced him. "But," she smiled down at him. "Since you were in here all day with the grim reaper, I thought I would come and cheer you up, maybe buy you a burger or something," she nudged him in the knee with her black covered toe.

He just gave her a silent look.

"I won't insult him anymore," Keely held up her hands. "And I apologize for that one," she promised, "What were you playing?"

"Some Led Zeppelin," Marco shrugged.

She frowned slightly, "I thought Seth was lead guitar."

Marco just shrugged, "Yeah, he is. But I play a little, I'm not even half as good as him, but I can hold my own when it comes down to it."

"Well, don't leave me hanging," Keely grinned, "Play me some Jimmy."

Smiling, he leaned down over his guitar so Keely couldn't see his eyes anymore. In the first bar, Keely recognized the song Over the Hills and Far Away. Smiling as he played, she couldn't help but start singing, it was one of her favourite songs after all.

'Hey lady

You got the love I need

Maybe more than enough

Oh darlin'

Darlin', darlin'

Walk a while with me

Many times I've loved

And many times been bitten

Many times I've gazed along the open road-

Watching the door open, Keely cut off abruptly even though Marco continued playing.

"Hey man, you never told me what you wanted. So I just grabbed you a cheeseburger, I thought maybe we could keep recording. Because I have a date tomorrow with Rach-"

Having stared at the door, the smile was still bright on her face as she sang, but it fell when she saw who it was.

Like in the restaurant, Keely's and Seth's eyes were in a perfect straight line. Once again, it was as if when one of them looked away they would both fall, and this sensation was terrible to have between the two, because even though the need flowed between their eye lines in such a steady stream, the hatred was there as well, flowing just as potently.

"Uh... this is awkward," Marco said from his seat.

"Have fun with my girlfriend?" he asked scathingly, he was the first person that broke the eye contact.

Repressing the rub a hand over her heart, Keely responded with, "Well, she needed someone to hang out while you were hanging out with your boyfriend." It felt as if there was a knife in her heart, and it was twisting slowly in her chest, and Keely couldn't understand why.

"Hey," Marco interjected insulted, "He was with me all day."

"Not you, honey," assured Keely, smirking broadly as she patted his shoulder. "It would be before he met up with you, Rachael tells me he doesn't have any staying power." That might have been a blatant lie, but it worked for her.

Seth opened his mouth, but closed it again, lost for words while Marco couldn't help but laugh.

Getting his laughter under control, Marco looked back up at Seth, who still seemed mute after the 'burn!' - in the words of Michael Kelso - done by Keely. "Seth you're just going to have to go out with Rachael later, because Colton can't make it tomorrow to help with the recording. So you're going to be here helping, I think we're going to do the duet vocals, right?"

"Once again," Keely rolled her eyes, "I told you from the start I 'might' do the song. I have to hear it first."

"It's a terrible song," Seth interrupted rushing.

"You wrote it!" Marco laughed. Keely looked at him with narrowed eyes, she'd thought he might feel awkward in the middle of the tension between her and Seth, but he actually looked like he was enjoying himself. "Anyways, I'll play it for you tonight, you wanted to grab a burger right?"

"I brought us burgers," Seth snapped, looking frustrated.

"Yeah," she ignored him, "I'll even buy you a burger, you deserve it after a day with him."

"Standing right here," put in Seth.

But Keely disregarded him yet again. "Oh yeah!" she exclaimed, she sent a sweetly dangerous smile towards Seth. "Rachael asked me to go out with her tomorrow, and told me to bring someone with. Since you're one of my only friends that's in New York, and I assume I need a guy, I thought to ask you."

"I'm going out with Rachael tomorrow," Seth said suspiciously narrowing his eyes towards her.

"Well, I assume we're all going out," she smiled coldly.

"Yeah, of course I'll go," Marco grinned. "But," he said checking his watch, "Right now I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in a few and we'll go out."

In moments he had gotten out of the room, but somehow Marco never even made it look like he was rushed. Keely couldn't help but notice that the annoying member of the band watched Marco through narrowed eyes.

Rolling her eyes, Keely hopped off the table, for once landing gracefully on the stilts that were strapped to her feet. For a moment she was proud of herself, but then she saw Seth shaking his head at her.

"What are on about now?" she groaned tiredly.

"I want to know what you're doing," he countered.

That just made her groan again, there was even a headache beginning to throb behind her eyes. Just people with the idiotic boy was making her sick, literally. "Oh am I questioning every little thing that you do for no reason?" she snarled sardonically, "I'm so sorry!"

Seth glowered at her, crossing his arms over his t-shirt clad chest. "Why do you want to hang out with Rachael so much? I don't-"

When he cut off abruptly, Keely arched an eyebrow at him, taking a step forward unconsciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he scowled.

Not easily deterred, being stubborn was a Staub family trait, she took another step forward. She'd at least want to know the truth about something, was that too much to ask? "What's your problem with me? What have I ever done to you?"

"You're hiding something," he snapped, "And I'm not fond of liars."

That caused Keely to blink. She wasn't really trying to hide anything, but that also didn't mean she was going to spill every little secret she had to these boys, even if she happened to like some of them. She wasn't going to tell them about her mother dying, her father - not to mention her best friend - hating her.

But she hastily regained her composure, and used it to prod him - not too lightly - in the chest. "So what if I am? You guys aren't exactly spilling your guts to me either!"

He opened his mouth, but the door opened causing him to close it abruptly.

Keely almost groaned. The one time she actually wanted to hear what he had to say!

"Hey you want to go for that burger now?" Marco asked brightly, seeming unaware to the tension clogging the air.

Casually, she brushed past the angry Seth in front of her, smiling warmly at Marco as she slipped her arm through his. "So what burger place were you thinking?"

- Here we go! It's a new post, yay!

Who likes the old man? I totally want a record store like that in my town, well, I kind of do I guess... It's called Krazy Bob's LOL! It's actually pretty cool, so many records there. The only thing is that there's a lot of video games and things and I've never even owned an nintendo thing or whatever they're called 0.0 People find that shocking, I don't know why...

Song on the side is by Led Zeppelin, it's the one she sings while Marco is playing. I really love that song. Wow, I feel very in sync today, I'm wearing my Led Zeppelin shirt. Although it's a Led Zeppelin || shirt and this song isn't from that album, but whatever.

As for the picture, well it was one that I had in the photo album for this story and it just seemed to fit.

Anyways I pretty much rewrote this chapter, what I had there before didn't really make sense to me anymore.

Advice... Sleep my kiddies. Because if you don't, you might be so bored that you go outside to watch the sunrise. And while you're sitting on a fence looking over the fields to see the sun rise over Mount Baker, some stupid person might decide that's a good time to scare you, and you don't hear them because you're listening to Bethoven so loudly. And when they do scare you, you might just scream and fall off the fence onto dewy grass.

Yeah, not so fun. And yes, I listen to a lot of classical music. Although I usually do it when I'm thinking about the plot for Here's To The Night, it just fits better, oddly it's either classical music or really hard rock for that story. For this story, I usually listen to classic rock, and for Gimmie Shelter I listen to really obscure alternative bands that no one never seems to have heard of.

See! I do have a system!

Wow, that was one really long note... Grapes are good, go eat some grapes.