Not having been sure about anything to do with the shopping trip that was coming, Keely sat in the rental car, savouring the last moments of warmth as she looked up considering at Marco’s house.

Her knowledge ended with the time and place she was supposed to show up. She didn’t know if she was supposed to drive all the women or go in a car with them, not to mention what mall they were going or where that happened to be. Apparently Dave hadn’t thought to bring her a car with the necessity of all tourist, a GPS, and it was ending with her being very lost. Finding her hotel the night before had been a journey. After an hour, and swallowing her pride, she’d called Seth to give her directions as she drove.

Pulling in a sigh that was riddled with nerves, Keely leaned into the backseat, snatching up her white knitted toque and with one last look at the house, crammed it onto her already messy hair. Shoving out of the car, she quickly skipped through the almost knee high snow in her slip on sneakers.

At the door she skidded to a stop, knocking on it hurriedly.

But when it didn’t open instantly she fell back onto her heels, hopping lightly from foot to foot in the chilly weather that crystallized her breath in front of her mouth. She quickly rubbed her hands together, blowing on them wishing vainly that she’d worn more snow worthy shoes than the sneakers.

Not having done laundry the night before, not wanting to go out to find a laundry mat, Keely had opted to create a makeshift wardrobe that was somewhat lacking against the snow covered ground and clear skies. In a pair of ripped jeans, an open hoodie beneath her jean jacket to show the black Ramones shirt with a scarf twined around her neck, she was wishing for a few more layers by the time the door opened.

Still when she spun around, she made a sound of surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Colton grinned happily, leaning against the door with his hand on the door handle. “You’re so nice to me sometimes.”

Rolling her eyes, Keely hugged her arms around her stomach. “What I meant was, what are you doing here, at Marco’s house?”

“Organizing a whole freaking concert.”

“Huh?” she asked confused, still shifting restlessly.

However, before he could answer, there were exclamations of happiness from within the house, clearly female exclamations. Jolting in shock made her realize how unused to women she was becoming, sure, she saw them all the time at the concerts or in town, but still the majority of her time was spent in a bus with three boys. It was a rather nerve racking thought. With that in mind, Keely peeked around Colton to see the horde of mother’s making their way down the hall.

But that was when the nerves from before kicked into high gear. Not only was she not a big fan of shopping – something Haley had always thought was her biggest fault – but she was going shopping with three women, and she was far from being accustomed to women in general at the moment, who were the parents of her closest friends and people who’d she’d only spent a few hours with the day before.

Yeah, Keely felt that was worthy of a few butterflies.

“Hi sweetie,” called Liz happily, brushing past both of them, pinching her cheek as she passed.

Wincing slightly, Keely rubbed her cheek looking back to an amused looking Colton, she doubted she’d ever get used to the pinching of the cheeks. But she only had a few moments of those thoughts before her attention was grabbed elsewhere.

“I’ll see you in a few hours,” announced Heather, stepping up onto her tip toes to kiss her son on the cheek.

He looked down at her with a face that made Keely bite her lips together, trying to hold back laughter, a boy could only look at his mother with that pouting face. Anyone else, he’d get the shit kicked out of him. “Can I come?” he asked in the little boy’s voice.

“No,” Heather replied easily, patting his cheek.

“But Keely gets to go,” he whined.

In response she sent him an enormous toothy smile that made him narrow his eyes.

“It’s a girls shopping day, honey, you had your chance to be a daughter, you came out with a penis.”

That time Keely couldn’t help but as she let out a loud laugh, half in shock and the rest in pure hilarity as Colton looked at his mother with wide eyes. Spinning on her heel, she took a step back so she was in pace with her immobile friend while Heather moved out of the door with Linda.

“Too bad you came out with a penis,” she told him, her voice trembling with giggles.

Colton closed his eyes. “I never wanted to hear those words from my mother’s mouth.”

Feeling much more relaxed, Keely tapped him lightly in the back of the head before moving forward as she grinned broadly. “I’ll see you later,” she called over her shoulder, following the women down to the driveway.

She was still smiling by the time she reached the group, but then the smile slid slowly from her face as she looked at Linda. Her blonde hair falling straight around her face with her unsmiling mouth, and that severe line didn’t change when their eyes met. Keely couldn’t help but wonder if the expression was because of her, after all she could remember the woman smiling and laughing with the rest just the day before.

Since she felt no love for the woman, it was only fair that Seth’s mom felt the same lack of feeling towards her, wasn’t it?

Awkwardly Keely pulled on the ends of her black knit scarf, but didn’t look away from the blue eyes.

“You brought your car?” asked Heather abruptly, making Keely finally break the contact.

“Yeah...” answered Keely lamely, forcing a smile onto her face.

Liz shared a look with Linda before proclaiming, in her usual bubbly manner, “Well then I’ll go with you and give you directions!”

This time the relieved grin that slipped onto her mouth wasn’t forced, Keely was just overwhelmingly grateful that she wouldn’t be locked in a car with Linda. It might not have been her place, but she couldn’t help the anger that came into the pit of her stomach when she simply looked at the woman. And being locked in the car with her? Yeah, that wouldn’t be a good idea.

The drive to the mall wasn’t bad at all. Unsure of what the woman beside her considered good music, Keely opted for the safe route, and played the only NSR album that she owned, their newest.

But it wasn’t until she’d parked and pushed out of the car that the shopping day really started.

Linda had her arms folded with her foot tapping impatiently. “That car is rather attention grabbing, don’t you think? Are you trying to be noticed by the press?”

Keely blinked at her for a moment, was the woman really taking a go at the rental car she was driving? But then she began to grind her teeth together as the annoyance set in. Snatching her bag from the back seat, she sent the woman a sweet smile without showing her teeth. “Your son was the one that wanted it,” she told her in the falsely sugary voice.

And it continued on that way through the shopping trip.

Throughout anything that they did, Linda kept up a steady stream of snide comments. Usually they were about the rumours that the paparazzi loved to spread about her lately, or something along the lines of wanting to gain attention – although those words were never actually said, just allusions to it. And all Keely did was return in a stiff voice, the fake smile painful as she gritted her teeth.

Because what else she could really do? Even if it wasn’t Seth’s mother, she’d always had a hard time snapping at people who were literally her elders if they didn’t happen to be snarky lying television hosts. But it did also happen to be Seth’s mother, and even if she felt no respect for the woman, she couldn’t exactly tell the woman to go to hell. It would put a bit of a damper on their friendship.

It was at the post office where one of such events happened, Liz and Heather having wandered away to look at stamps or something of the sort. Keely was handing the last box to the girl behind the counter – inside said box being the insanely expensive purse she’d bought for Haley that was apparently fashionable and held an autographed photo of Marissa James as well as one for NSR – when Linda thought it would be a good point to start in on her again.

“So you don’t feel the need to go see your family at Christmas, do you?”

Hearing the emphasis on ‘your’ Keely’s chin snapped up, her eyes holding the woman’s blue gaze steadily. So her new tactic was to make her feel unwelcome? But she bit back the words that leapt to her lip, speaking of how if she wasn’t family, then Linda could never be after everything she’d put her son through.

Instead she’d only replied in a frostily polite voice, “I have to be back here for the studio by Boxing Day. There just isn’t enough time.”

Yet the woman didn’t let up, it appeared to be becoming her mission to make any relation that could have developed between them be animosity. “It’s the twenty third, I’m sure you could make it work if you wanted,” she observed before pausing. “Or do they not want to see you?”

Hearing the words come from another person made Keely feel as if the breath had been stolen from her very lungs, forcing a breath to sweep out of her lips. But although she felt as if she should be stumbling back a step from the force of the words, she just tightened her fist, tapping it jerkily against her jean clad leg as she stared flatly back at the woman.

“I’m on well enough terms with my family,” she retorted, meaning for the emphasis on her words to come out.

And it didn’t improve from there.

There was the time spent in the chain music store where Keely had wanted to search for music for the boys, but Linda had been tapping her foot incessantly. But still she’d managed to buy a Cream CD for Marco because she knew he liked to listen to the bass tracks by Jack Bruce, and, although it made her feel rather guilty, grabbed herself the self-titled Burn To Shine CD that caught her eye, but it also gave her an idea.

Then there was the time when she’d been searching for the Quinton Tarantino collection she knew that Colton wanted. Linda just kept complaining that she was taking too long. The same thing for when Keely had been picking out a sweater for Marco as well as belt for Colton since she knew that the boys had been trying an experiment in the bus and had broken his belt.

If it hadn’t been for Liz and Heather, the entire shopping trip would have been unbearable.

Hell, even with them it was.

The only peace she found inside that mall was when they’d been in the book store, allowing Keely to search alone. In the end, she came up with the Jim Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive, for Seth.

Even when they’d sat down for lunch at the Italian place Keely had barely released her fisted hand, her hand even shaking at points when she’d been eating. Not only had Linda been making comments that alluded to the fact she shouldn’t be there or her apparent drug use, but there had been a reporter there. And, according to Linda, it didn’t matter that they’d just sat down, it was her fault for just existing.

Liz and Heather had at least been patient while Keely answered the questions of the reporter calmly, keeping herself in check for once. Being the polite person she usually was to complete strangers as she responded to questions about everything from her the expected Seth related ones to the inquiries about Marissa leaving the tour, because apparently that was public knowledge already.

Still, at the very least, the reporter had left after she pointed out that they just wanted to eat lunch. Although it was only after she gave them a fair bit of information, or at least a fair bit of fluff that couldn’t bite her in the ass later.

And Linda’s obvious distaste for her extended to one of their last stops when they’d gone into a music store.

But at least there she was oblivious to everything else.

For a while she mooned over the road worn Stratocaster that she wanted so badly. Really, she just liked the worn look, the idea that a guitar had been through so much, played all that music with all the history and still survived to play to her about it. The only problem with the road worn collection was that they were just made to look like that; there was no real history to them. She was more than envious of the old guitars Seth hoarded.

Yet, in the end, she’d left it alone; she was getting more and more money from the shows, but didn’t mean that she had enough money for Christmas as well as brand new guitar while she kept up with the money she was saving for her father and the farm. At the music store she’d found what she’d been searching desperately for, the Burn To Shine album on vinyl along with a plain metal guitar pick.

So after the day of shopping had ended, the horrid day that it had been, Keely had finally finished her shopping day. Colton getting his movies and belt, Marco the CD and sweater, and then Seth who she’d gotten the book, the guitar pick as well as the record.

And, thankfully, she was in charge of driving Liz back to her home and left Heather with Linda.

“Linda really didn’t mean everything,” proclaimed Liz awkwardly as Keely pulled to a stop on the curb. “She’s just protective, you could say...”

Hoping that the sound she made in the back of her throat wasn’t too disbelieving, she killed the ignition, hoping to get away from the topic. The very thought of the woman put her on edge. Keely couldn’t help but wonder how much she’d grinded her teeth over the hours, she had to have lost some precious teeth. She was about to speak when Liz cut in.

“They’ll be in the garage,” Liz told her smiling.

Surprised, Keely arched an eyebrow at her. “How did you know what I was going to ask?”

She shrugged with a proud little smile on her lips. “I just did. Anyways, I’ll be going to Heather’s, so you lot don’t worry about the noise.”

Although her confusion was edging her to ask what on earth the woman was talking about, Liz just shoved out of the car, grabbing her bags from the back seat and was gone within seconds. Giving a little sigh, Keely pulled on her toque again before moving her bags to the trunk of the car, knowing that Colton and Marco wouldn’t hesitate to peek through her windows to know if they got gifts.

Even though she wasn’t sure what they were doing in the garage that would have to do with noise, Keely headed towards the plain white door on the side of the house. Unsurprisingly it opened easily.

Feeling the warmth rush forward, Keely hastily shot inside, slamming the door behind her.

But she stumbled back a step in shock before she could run into a solid body, her breath getting stolen from her as she looked up flustered.

“Hey rebel.”

Pulling in a shaky breath, she responded with a shaky, “Hi.”

Mentally she was chastising herself; the stupid crush was getting worse. But things were supposed to get worse before they got better, that was the rule, wasn’t it?

Brushing her bangs back away from her eyes, she fought back the blush, forcing herself to take account of her surroundings.

Yet she couldn’t help but take stock of Seth first, who wouldn’t? The messy hair that was sticking up more in the back, the dark grey hoodie down to the plain jeans held up by the brown leather belt. But her attention was still stolen by the black Firebird that was in his hands, she really was a musician through and through.

Frowning slightly, she looked away from him around the room. The ground was plain concrete, but she couldn’t say what the walls would have looked like, covered in poster from Led Zeppelin to Arcade Fire. There were a few ratty looking camp chairs set around, Marco sitting on them with his bass in hand. Colton was looking a little put out in the corner, drum sticks in hand but no drum set, instead just a plain box in front of him.

Only then did she remember his vague words from before, saying that Marco’s parents had been fed up with the noise so they’d set up in a parking lot, and it had been there that Maureen had discovered them.

“Ah...” she breathed, a small grin stretching across her mouth. “This is your bat cave?”

“We need a cooler bat cave,” announced Colton.

Smirking, Keely crossed her arms across her chest, moving towards the wall. “The warehouse is pretty kick ass,” she told him, stopping in front of The White Stripes poster tacked to the wall. “But this isn’t bad at all, I had a hay wagon.”

“Huh?”

Shaking her head, she spun around, decidedly ignoring the question as she leaned against the wall. “What have you three been up to all day?”

“Planning a concert,” answered Marco, wincing as he played two chords on the bass. Yet Keely already found herself distracted, watching as Seth replaced the Gibson back in its case expertly. “How was the shopping day?”

“Oh, it was lovely,” she replied vaguely before her eyebrows drew together. “Wait-what? What concert are you guys planning?”

“An outdoor concert,” Colton declared.

Keely stared at him, her nose wrinkling. “Why would you want to do an outdoor concert right now? It’s freezing outside.”

“It’s for the lost concert,” put in Seth. Her eyes automatically snapped to him, watching as he flicked a plastic pick onto one of the cardboard boxes, making her feel grateful for part of her Christmas gift to him. “People hate it when you cancel concerts, so we’re going to do an outdoor one tomorrow night for free. Anyone who wants to show up can, anyone who doesn’t, well, they don’t have to.”

“Still, you’re going to freeze your asses off,” Keely observed.

Seth smirked up at her before crouching down, opening one of the four guitar cases that were on the ground. “You are too.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I thought you’d be up for it, don’t want your fans to hate you, do you?”

Unable to help herself, Keely snorted, tipping her head back a bit. “Don’t they already hate me? I’m a bad influence.”

“Ah, but the bad influences are the most prominent.”

“Oh and who says that?”

“History; you remember the badass Johnny Cash before the gospel one, don’t you?”

With that, she couldn’t help but agree. “I don’t have a backup band,” she pointed out, “They all went home to spend Christmas with their families.”

“Could you two just get to the point?” Marco sighed, picking another chord. “Because, seriously dudes, the foreplay is getting sickening.”

Keely choked slightly, but no one paid attention.

“You’ll just play with us,” Seth said, picking up that worn Strat that she’d so admired. He’d let her play it more than a few times, but it just wasn’t the same as having her own. “It’s a relaxed concert, we won’t even write a set list. It’s like a club show.”

“Do you think anyone will show up?” she asked, gaining control of herself again. “I mean, it’s Christmas Eve and all.”

Before anyone could answer, a phone rang through the room. Keely looked around wide eyed until she saw Colton digging into the pocket of his sweat pants. “Oh shit,” he muttered, standing up, “It’s the news.” Dropping his drumsticks carelessly, he shoved up, putting the phone to his ear and speaking in a surprisingly professional voice, “Hello?”

“You mean the news channel?” asked Marco, hastily putting his bass aside in order to follow his friend who was pushing out of the garage.