Lemonade Mouth

Playing Mr. Nice Guy

One-shot

Written by Lavender

My first LM one-shot with my favourite pairing, Rayella (see even their shipping name sounds cool), hope you enjoy!

I own no one from Disney's Lemonade Mouth

(^^)

Stella Yamada, lead guitarist of band sensation Lemonade Mouth, feisty revolutionary and vegetarian.

She was the strongest person you'll ever meet. No one could talk down to her without getting a mouth full of Mel's lemonade in their faces, just ask front man of Mudslide Crush, Ray Beech.

Some people of course, knew that Stella was just protective of people, fiercely independent and out-spoken. These people were her band mates, Olivia, Wendell, Charlie and Mo, even their temporary new band member Scott knew.

Of course, he was at the butt of her temper when Mo once again caught him with Jules.

Most people would think that Stella Yamada was unstoppable, untouchable. Imagine Mesa High's surprise when the guitarist started changing color whilst walking to class on Monday morning; from her slightly faded tan to the reddening of her eyes.

Rumours began to spread about what was wrong with her.

"I heard that she's taking drugs. She's looking sick because of withdrawal."

"I heard that she was performing solo and the crowd didn't like it they dumped water on her!"

The girl in question was suffering from too big a headache to care what anyone was saying, and she really wasn't in the mood to be hen-pecked by either Olivia or Mo, nor was she in the mood to deal with Ray Beech, but today was definitely not her day.

Ray Beech was to put it mildly, the bane of her existence. He was the most annoying, self-righteous prick she'd ever met, and speak of the devil he ran into her in the hallway and decided to see how far he could push their argument today.

Inwardly she groaned. Would it kill him to be considerate today and just leave her alone?

"So Yamada, I heard that you're showing withdrawal symptoms," Ray began, halting Stella's movement to her next class.

"The only thing I'm withdrawing from is the urge to punch you in the face."

"Oo, touchy today I see," Ray stated as he started circling her stationary form. "Where's the rest of the Lemon Heads?"

"Wherever they are, I'm envious."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, 'coz at least they aren't in spitting distance of you," Stella said, and at the word 'spitting' she gave him a look, which reminded him of her first attack on him with Mel's Lemonade. He smirked nonetheless.

"Come on Yamada, is that all the fight I'm getting out of you today," he prodded as he bent down to whisper in her ear, "because I'm damn sure I can riled you up more than this."

"Oh you're getting there," she responded as she crossed her arms nonchalantly as if his very presence wasn't bugging her in the least, though inwardly it definitely was.

"Am I? Hmm, doesn't look like it," he circled her again and lifted her chin up to look her in the eye.

The specks of gold dancing in her large brown eyes always caught his attention when they argued. The flecks of gold in her eyes would light up with determination and fire and he enjoyed seeing the fireworks going off in her eyes.

Every time they happened to cross paths, there would be the usual war of words and that spitfire would usually get her way. Ray didn't like admitting it, but Stella was a good opponent, and his past time of watching the fireworks go off remained a favourite hobby of his.

Ever since she came, he had something to do other than play around with the cheerleaders, kick ass at sports and rock out with his band Mudslide Crush.

Before her arrival, everyone bowed to his will. He ran Mesa High and anyone with enough brain cells would know not to get in his way.

No one still messed with Ray Beech and his boys, which was why no one bothered to stop him when he came up to her in the hallway.

His initial annoyance with her only mounted with the Rising Star competition.

Scott abandoned him. But that was okay, because true to Scott's nature, he was taken in quick once again by Jules. All Ray had to do was display his former friend's unfaithfulness to Mo, and Scott was crawling back to him.

But Lemonade Mouth started with Stella, and their popularity as a band annoyed him immensely.

What annoyed him even more was the exchange of words he always had with the band's leader. Ever since their first little argument in the hallway after Rising Star, Ray felt the need to get into fights with her as often as possible which was why he was standing in front of her today, watching the fireworks go off even though he already noted how sick she was starting to look.

Baiting a sick fire-cracker was not a good idea, but he was, admittedly a fear inducing jerk. But then again, why would he want to be the Nice Guy?

She stared at him, preparing herself to fling as many insults as possible. "Take a picture Beech, it'll last longer," she stated, her minty breath caressing his tanned face.

"I could say the same to you Yamada," he retorted, noticing how her eyes were examining his face, as most girls did when he came up to them.

"Don't you have a cheerleader to mess with or something?" she asked grabbing his hand to release her chin. Though she wouldn't admit it, but due to their different heights, it hurt her neck a bit to be looking at him from so close an angle.

"Yeah, but you're more fun."

"Oh, so now I'm your entertainment?"

"Since you got here," he informed with a smirk at the arching of her brow.

"Yeah well, I'm not in the mood to entertain you today, so," she pushed him away from her and walked unsteadily down the hallway. Next thing she knew, her head hammered painfully and she staggered into the lockers.

"Yo Yamada, what's the matter?" Ray was beside her as she clutched her head painfully.

"I'm fine."

"Bull."

Everything went dark and the next thing she knew was at home. Her head still ached considerably and suddenly the lights turned on. She groaned and rubbed her closed lids. "Someone turn off the sun..."

"Stella?" Olivia and Mo were at the bedside in a heartbeat, though where they came from she wasn't entirely sure. "Stella what happened?"

"I think I'm sick," she mumbled, and rubbed her one eye. "Is it me, or is really bright in here?"

Mo glanced over her shoulder and commanded, "Turn off the light Charlie!"

"Oh right!"

"I'll get ya some juice," Wen stated, where he came from was a mystery to her, and just as he turned to exit the room Stella let out a rough cough that vibrated from her throat. "And cough medicine, got it!"

Olivia touched Stella's burning face and quickly stood. "I should get you a cold compress...or should it be a hot one?"

"Hot one," Ray stated, his hands shoved into his jean pockets. Stella tried to sit up, but was immediately pushed back to a lying position.

"Stella what happened?" Mo asked.

"I don't...know..."

"I told you already," Ray reminded. "She got a fever and passed out."

"But where'd the fever come from?"

"Went camping before my dad left for his cancer seminar," she answered, her voice hoarse, "Andy and I fell in the river beside our camping site."

"Wait, your brothers went camping?"

Stella's younger twins brothers were nothing like their sister. Where she rocked hard on her guitar, they were making their own toys out of recycled ice-cream buckets.

They stayed indoors as much as possible, and the idea of Stella's admittedly nerdy brothers, sent Charlie into a fit of laughter but at the looks that were being sent by both Mo and Ray, he quickly shut his mouth with a mumble of, "Yeah...camping..."

"It's okay. I didn't believe it either when they asked me to come. Apparently they were looking for new specimens to study or something..."

"Wow, guess being a loser runs in the family." Ah, and there the quiet Ray Beech has left the building.

"My brothers have three times your IQ, I wouldn't be talking if I were you," Stella shot back as she tried to sit up on the bed again despite Mo's protests that she should just remain resting. "I'm fine, I've been lying in here for hours." She paused and then added as an afterthought, "or days...I'm not really sure...it felt like a couple of hours..."

"So you went camping on Saturday?"

"Yeah, we came back Sunday night."

"But how come you didn't call?"

Stella bit back another cough and shook her head. "I had my cell-phone in my pocket when I fell in the river. Dad bought me another one when we got back, but I haven't charged it yet. Besides, I only got home now..."

Mo frowned. "Stella, you've been at home for the last four days."

"Whoa...I've been out for four days? Well...that's new."

"Hasn't anyone been taking care of you since Ray dropped you home on Monday when you fainted?"

"Dad went to that seminar thing on Monday morning and mom." She frowned in thought. "Ray, was my mom around when you brought me home?"

"Yep."

"And your brothers?" Mo continued.

"Eh, they're around but I haven't seen 'em either," Stella answered with a shrug and a grimace.

"Stell?"

At the worried look marring Mo's face, Stella waved her off. "I'm fine. Just a killer headache is all..."

"Well, we'll give you some medicine and you can get back to sleep," Mo said as if she were talking to a child which elicited an eye roll from Stella.

"I'm sick, I'm not an invalid."

Olivia re-entered the room with a hot compress "Okay, so this goes on your forehead, you'll need to sweat out your fever."

"But I'm fine."

"Either way, this goes on your forehead," Olivia stated ushering Stella again into a lying position. "I got a thermometer as well," she continued and before Stella could argue that it wasn't needed, Olivia stuffed it into her mouth. When it beeped she pulled it out and nodded. "Alright, so your temperature isn't that bad, but what else it wrong?"

Stella rubbed her mouth with a sigh as she held the cold compress to her forehead. "Headache, sore throat and coughs; that's it."

"Alright, so I'm going to get you some Chicken Soup while Mo, Charlie and Ray will get started with the school stuff you missed."

"What is Ray doing here?"

"I'm your Chemistry partner," he answered.

"Oh lovely, and which god pray tell, did I piss off in the past life to deserve that?"

"Stella you should be thanking him for coming. Mr. Lewis wouldn't let Wen take the assignments for you so Ray had to come over."

"Speaking of Wen, where is he?" Charlie asked, just as a crash was heard in the kitchen.

A few seconds later, Wen called, "I'm good!"

Forcing herself again into a sitting position, Stella called back while holding the compress to her forehead, "What did you break?"

A pause.

"Your pantry..."

"How the hell do you break a closet?" Ray asked, rolling his eyes.

"With Wen, anything is possible…Can someone please make sure he isn't trying to burn down my house?"

Olivia shook her head with a chuckle. "I'm on it." She looked at the other three, "you guys can get started."

Ray wasn't one to follow orders; in fact he usually gave them. But the sooner he left Yamada and the Lemon Heads the better.

He wasn't entirely sure what possessed him to agree to help her in the first place, but it probably had to do with the fact that he was the one who had to make sure she was in the infirmary and was safe at home that fateful Monday.

And there was also the little issue of his favourite hobby, he'd been craving a fight from her since she went MIA after her fainting spell on Monday; it got so bad that he was tempted to drop by her house for that reason alone, with or without the Lemon Heads.

"Make yourselves at home," Stella said, crashing his train of thought.

"It's kinda dark Stella, mind if I at least open the blinds?" Charlie asked, and she nodded. "Not all the way though."

Mo and Charlie were already by Stella's bedside, with textbooks in their hands. Mo seated herself comfortably on Stella's bed while Charlie leaned against it and read with as much emotion as he could, "Thou art more lovely and temperate..."

Ray, not wanting to look like Stella's person-in-waiting, made himself at home on one of the bean bags and he then proceeded to do his homework while Charlie continued to read and mispronounce the words to William Shakespeare's sonnet.

Half an hour later, Mo and Charlie had gotten through English, Math and Art.

Olivia and Wen returned to Stella's room with a plate of Dante's pizza, a bowl of Chicken Soup as promised and a few glasses of soda.

It took another half hour to get everyone to leave after all the school work had been covered. But Lemonade Mouth refused to leave their friend until after she ate and had her medicine, and Ray, lacking patience, interjected in Olivia's demands for Stella to eat her soup and drink her medicine, "Look, I want to get this whole Chemistry thing over with, you can bother her about her eating habits when I'm done and gone."

Stella frowned and so did Olivia.

"We need to practice too," Charlie added, glancing at Wen for support.

"Yeah, afterwards we can try and make Stella eat but we might as well let Ray help Stella out."

"Fine," Olivia said with a sigh. "But if you need anything..."

"I know, I know," Stella waved her off. "By the way Charlie, your other drum-set arrived on Friday so you and Wen can work out the beats for the new song, I think Liv's got the song covered though."

"Yeah, we just need to find the right flow and we've got our next song."

"Great, so Wen and Charlie will work with the beat, Liv will work out the rest of the lyrics and Mo will make sure everything gets done and the spare room remains standing when my parents get home."

When the rest of the band had migrated to the other part of the house, Stella and Ray were left to get the rest of their work done.

Stella was too sick to argue much with him, even as he sat in bed with her.

He pretended that her SpongeBob pillow wasn't cute and that the smell of Vanilla and Jasmine wasn't bugging him. The hour passed by relatively sound despite the weird feeling of familiarity that passed every time they spoke.

It seemed that the afternoon that was being spent between Stella Yamada and Ray Beech was destined for peace, but thanks to the last part of the hour when they were done with the work, that Stella the Spitfire came back with a vengeance.

Lemonade Mouth had to disperse rather quickly when they realized the time.

It was six o'clock and Olivia's grandmother needed her at home, Charlie's parents were having a family dinner, Wen had to appease his younger sister because he totally forgot that he was going to take her riding that afternoon and Mo's dad had yet to lighten up about being out of the house after five thirty.

Ray was forced to remain with Stella on the grounds that someone had to watch her until her brothers and her mom came home.

He wouldn't admit it. But Olivia White scared him when she was mad.

"You can't leave me alone with him!"

"Stella, what'll happen if you need something?"

"I can get it myself!"

"You can't even stand up without falling over."

"Oh yeah, wanna bet?" With that Stella got out of bed and stood triumphed for about three seconds before the room started spinning and she fell on Ray, who caught her.

"Stop being stubborn Yamada, it's not like I want to be here."

"Then why aren't you helping me!"

He opened his mouth to bull-shit an answer (because really, he had no idea why he wasn't fighting the fact that he'd be stuck with her for at least another hour), but Mo interrupted, "Stella please, we can't stay here with you and anything could happen if we left you alone."

"I've been alone for the past four days, and I was fine!"

"Come on Stell, we've left you alone with Ray for an hour, and nothing's caught on fire yet, you'll be fine for at least another one," Wen added.

"Can't you just make up an excuse to stay?" Stella asked in exasperation.

"You have not seen my kid sister angry," Wen responded with a shudder. "It isn't pretty."

"And my dad's already planning to throw me in the gutter, if I don't leave now, he'll come over here." Everyone in the room winced, even Ray. Since Mo and Scott had been dating for a couple of months, he understood how fiercely protective Mo's father was. When Mo's dad found out about Scott cheating (again), Scott was nursing a black eye and a broken nose.

"My mom's gonna kill me," was all Charlie said with a shake of his head while Olivia shook hers.

"My Gram needs me..."

Stella sighed as Ray helped her back onto the bed. "Alright fine, leave me in my hour of need," she said dramatically which caused Ray to roll his eyes.

Olivia spoke again, "Okay, so all you really have to do is eat and take your cough medicine. Afterwards I'm sure you'll fall right asleep and then you can go," she directed the last part at Ray who restrained rolling his eyes again.

"Fine."

Fine was usually the calm before the storm, at least in Ray's experience with the female population. Though Stella was different from most of the girls that Ray knew, 'Fine' was still a dangerous word.

She practically exploded when they left, proving Ray's point quite nicely.

"You idiot! Why didn't you put up a fight?! I didn't take you for one to take orders lying down!"

"I've chosen to be a nice guy today and I'll follow through."

She crossed her arms in a huff. "Oh, you didn't put a few freshmen in the garbage disposal today?"

"No," Ray replied, "just one."

"Oh you're a saint."

"Okay loud-mouth," he began, reaching for the cold Chicken soup on her bedside. "Eat."

She raised a brow. "And I'd do what you say because...?"

"Because the sooner you eat and drink, the sooner I can leave," Ray stated, but couldn't resist adding with a smirk, "unless you secretly want me to stay."

A flush of red colored her still pale skin, but she covered it up with a snort. "Oh keep dreaming cupcake."

"Really, cupcake? I thought I was bit manlier than a cupcake," Ray said handing her the bowl and sitting on her bed, a bit on his side so that he could still see her.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I didn't mean to deflate your ego," Stella said with a smirk. "How does fruit-cup sound to you?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of a stud-muffin." She snorted into her soup. "Yeah and I'm the equivalent of Jules."

"So," Stella began, as she ate her version of Chicken Soup, which was better called Tofu soup. "Why'd you help me?"

"When'd I help you?"

"Don't play stupid."

"Who says I was?"

"I do," Stella stated with roll of her eyes. "You helped me in the hallway and you're helping me now. I'm actually surprised that you haven't left yet."

"I told you, I'm being a good guy today."

"And I totally believe that," Stella claimed with a smirk. He grunted out a reply, which got an eye roll from the girl. "Oh come on, do you really expect me to believe that you of all people would suddenly want to be Mr. Nice Guy?"

"Hey I'm not as bad you think I am."

She finished up her bowl of soup and placed it on the nightstand. "Well considering you did expose Scott for the douche monkey that he is; I guess you really can't be that bad."

"Uh huh, anything else you'd like to add?"

"And you did forgive him for joining the Lemon Heads."

Ray shrugged. "He's been my best friend since grade school, what was I supposed to do."

She shrugged and smiled at him. "Then I guess that whole Bad Boy face is just a front huh?"

"Now hold on there Yamada, I never said I wasn't one. I just said that I'm not that bad."

"Uh huh and yet you still helped me out, twice."

"It's not a front," he stated, getting the gold flecks in Stella's eyes to glitter as she smirked at his denial.

"Sure."

"You know what? Believe what you want, now shut up and drink your medicine." He shoved the little plastic cup with the measured pink liquid towards her.

"Alright, alright," she tipped her head back and made a face. "Urgh, strawberry," she muttered in disgust.

Ray stood from the bed and took the plastic cup away from her. "Okay, so that's your fongkong Chicken Soup and your pink baby medicine, looks like I'm done here."

Stella nodded, already getting drowsy from the medicine. "Right, thanks for...well, just thanks Ray," she said, lying back down and curling into a little ball on her bed. He shook his head at her, and grabbed the ends of her many folds of blankets and tucked her in. Before he knew what he was doing, he'd bent over and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Get well soon Yamada, I miss having someone to fight with."

As he stepped off the platform of Stella's bed, she murmured loud enough for him to hear:

"Thanks for playing Mr. Nice Guy for me Ray."

FINIS