Hey people! So first things first,

Shake It Up Fan 10/14/12. Chapter 8

Your style is very good, but doesn't it be a "runther" story? Why all these subplots?

Ok, so before I answer I will just say I'm not mad or anything like that, in fact I actually think that's a good question. The reason this story has other subplots is because it's all a part of character development. I hate it when I read stories and it just seems like other characters (important ones) just disappear into the background. I myself actually used to do that but then GlitterGirl so kindly corrected my ways and because of that I consider myself to have improved in my writing skills. Basically what I'm saying is, yes this story if supposed to be focused around Runther but it doesn't mean that all the other characters are just going to disappear and go missing. You get what I'm saying?

This question also brings me to another important topic. If you haven't noticed already, this story has been moved from the Rocky and Gunther categories and has been put into general categories. This doesn't mean the story won't be centered around Ruther though. It still is, just not to the degree that some of you may like. This story will revolve around Ruther, Dece, and Tinka (though Runther and Dece will have a bit more spotlight) and not just one couple purely. And now my uber long a/n is done and you can read the chapter.

Rocky's POV

I was sleeping peacefully, cocooned in a barrier of blankets that spread warmth through my body. The house was quiet and the sunlight was just peaking in through the window. My eyes suddenly blinked open, still blurry from tiredness as I curled my toes. I had no problem with shutting them once again and falling back asleep right now…in fact, that's what I was planning on doing before the bedroom door slammed open and sent me flying into a sitting position. My once messed up vision was now crystal clear as my eyes darted towards the doorway.

"Rise and shine, girls!" Mr. Guthrie called out merrily.

"It's 5:00 AM," CeCe groaned from the bed beside mine. "This is too early!"

Mr. Guthrie simply chuckled at that. "The day is half over, girls! Get up!" He pointed to the redhead. "You will be collecting in charge of feeding the animals and you—" –he pointed to Tinka, who had just woken up. "—will be helping her."

Cece yawned, vigorously rubbing her eyes and sitting up in her half-awake state. "I thought I was collecting eggs with Elaine."

"Elaine changed her mind, your brother and his little friend will be helping instead," Mr. Guthrie explained brusquely. His eyes focused on me and he clapped his hands together.

"Rocky was it?" he questioned. I nodded in response. "You will be cleaning out the stables with that blond fellow of yours, Gunther I think."

My heart rate sped up and my palms began to feel damp. Gunther? An entire morning alone in a smelly old barn with Gunther? Knowing my luck, I'll probably end up falling in a pile of hay or stepping in some horse manure. Great, now I have an extra chance to make myself look like an idiot in front of those blue pools he called eyes, in which I would happily drown in. Maybe I just jinxed myself though! What if by me thinking that things are going to go bad will actually make things go good? Like a reverse jinx? But wait…me thinking that things will go good because of a possible reverse jinx might switch the reversed jinx and make it an actual jinx, therefore locking in the chance of me making me look like an idiot in front of—gah! What am I saying! I'm confusing myself with all this jinx stuff! Why is it that I always have to overthink things with Gunther? I can just play it safe and possibly slip in a little flirting…yeah…flirting…I can do that. I think.

"Rocky!" A pillow made contact with my face, making me squeak slightly. "You were zoning out." Way to be violent, Tinka…

Cece cackled at my disgruntled hair and gave a nod of approval to Tinka. It's great that my best friend thinks that having a pillow thrown at my face is so amusing…

"It's early," I defended myself, shoving the covers off my body. The cold air soon surrounded my body like a blanket, sucking out all the leftover warmth the blanket had left me with. I shivered, standing up from the bed and wrapping my arms around my torso. "Summer mornings are supposed to be warm," I mumbled under my breath, "not feel like I just woke up in the arctic."

"Well, I gotta go give Deuce his good morning kiss, see you downstairs," Cece spoke u, sliding her shirt over her head before slipping out the door. We've all seen each other change before so this wasn't a big deal.

"Good morning kiss?" Tinka snorted. "I thought she was his girlfriend, not his mother."

I started laughing and then immediately felt bad. This was part of mine and Tinka's relationship. She would make a snappy (but true) comment about one of my other friends so I'd start laughing, and then immediately have guilt wash over me. Right after that, I usually found some way to stick up for my other friend, getting the feeling of remorse lifted off my shoulders in the process. Now don't get me wrong, Tinka and Cece were the best of friends as well but I guess the offhanded remarks were just a part of their dynamic.

"Don't be mean," I replied. "They're cute together."

"Cute? As in they make you want to throw up? Yes. Cute as in two puppies in love? No," Tinka retorted, pulling on a pair of skinny jeans.

"Well…if you think about it, Deuce is kind of like a puppy," I countered. I started to dress myself up.

"You mean in the fact that he follows Cece around and pretty much stops at nothing to get to a food-filled table or the fact that he eats nonstop and chews like an animal?" Tinka smirked, knowing she would get me there.

"It still wasn't nice…"

"Whatever." She sighed, grabbing my wrist and tugging me towards the door. The blonde pulled me down the carpeted hallway, down the wooden stairs and straight into the kitchen. She pushed the door open to reveal a joyful Mrs. Guthrie, humming some way to a perky tune while she slid some fresh off-the-grilles pancakes onto two separate plates. How anyone could be this happy at five in the morning was a mystery to me but yet there was Mrs. Guthrie, smiling like she had just won the lottery. A half-asleep Ty was sitting at the table, his plate already filled and a glass of orange juice threating to slip right out from his hand and spill its content on the table. Next to him was Gunther, smirking at my brother's expression when Tinka went over and smacked the back of his big fat head.

"Good morning girls," Mrs. Guthrie greeted, setting the two plates filled to the brim with food down in front of us.

"Morning," Ty greeted with a mouthful of eggs. Tinka rolled her eyes, giving him another smack on the back of his head.

"Chew, swallow and then talk," she scolded, annoyance relevant in her tone. "I hate it when people talk with their mouth full."

"Yeah dude," Gunther added, turning to me as a smile spread across his lips. "Morning Rocky."

I blushed, "Morning."

"Good morning everyone!" CeCe sang out when she entered the kitchen. Deuce was right at her flanks, their fingers laced together as they made their way to the table.

"Ooh! Pancakes!" Deuce practically shouted, almost running his girlfriend over to get to the stack of food Mrs. Guthrie had just put down on the table for him. Oh Deuce…

"Puppy," Tinka murmured, pushing a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

I can't flirt. I'm like flirting impaired! My brain cannot function in a normal way when I try to flirt! Like right now, when Gunther and I were walking to the barn I tried to compliment him, but in the process of attempting to do so, my stupid big foot just had to get caught onto the pig pen's fence and I ended up falling face-first into the dirt.

"You okay?" he had said, obviously suppressing the urge to laugh. I nodded pushing myself up from the ground and wiping the dirt off my pants.

"Yeah, I'm good," I replied, hopping that my face wasn't as red as I thought it was. He handed me a broom and picked up the dustpan I had dropped.

"Sweeping time?" he questioned, jerking his head towards the barn. I nodded, taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly.

"Sweeping time," I confirmed as he pushed the barn doors open. One look at the floor and I knew we'd be spending more than just this morning in the barn. With the amount of caked-on dirt the floor had…we might even need to get a jackhammer.

"Uh…Rocky, I think we might need a shovel," Gunther mumbled, walking over to a fairly sized dirt pile.

"Or a bulldozer…" I muttered, earning a slight chuckle from him.

"Okay, so I guess we should just take the horses out one by one and take the stables one at a time?" Gunther suggested, setting down his broom.

"Sounds like a plan," I said with a smile, putting my broom down next to his.

Now when we got the horses out of their stables, I didn't expect it to be squeaky clean, but I did expect it to look like it had actually been cleaned in the last five years! I've been to the city dump and not once have I ever seen so much dirt and crap (literally) in one area!

"So why don't we take care of the uh…" Gunther's voice trailed off as he racked his brain for the correct word. "Horse droppings."

I nodded, smiling stiffly. "Let's do it…"

CeCe's POV

I do not like nature! It's filled with bugs, and gross animal and I just—I hate it! Can I just start by saying that I'm a city girl? I was born and raised in the city and I'm proud of that! I'm proud of barely ever seeing a patch of grass! I love the fact that instead of the smell of manure I have to deal with the smell of car exhaust! (This, if you ask me, is way better.) I like walking five feet from my apartment building and having six coffee shops, three restaurants, and two grocery stores to choose from instead of having to travel sixteen miles into town just so I can go to some old, broken-down gas station. I'm one hundred ten percent city girl and that leaves absolutely no room for nature.

"Ew!" I cringed when we had reached the pig pen. "Why did you bring me here?"

Tinka rolled her eyes and emptied her bucket into the pig troth. The odor hits you like a ton of bricks, and just so we're clear…no. It's not a pleasant one.

"Because Mr. Guthrie gave us a job to do, and it's not like you're helping anyway so the least you can do is tag along," she replied, handing the empty bucket to me. I just wanted to go back to sleep!

"I'm tired! I just want to go to sleep!" I exclaimed, repeating my thoughts aloud as I let my head fall back as we began to walk to the barn.

"CeCe, watch where you're—"

Before the blonde could even finish her sentence, I collided with a figure and went flying back onto my butt. The bucket I was holding broke my fall…so now, not only was I on my butt but I now had a huge smelly bucket wedged into my back…joy. My eyes darted up to find a pair of green eyes staring down at me. The most beautiful deep green eyes I had ever seen in my life…

"I'm so sorry," the beautiful, beautiful boy said. "Are you okay?"

"CeCe…okay," I spluttered out. I mentally face palmed.

"She means that her name is CeCe and she's okay," Tinka spoke up for me. Green eyes looked at me and smiled.

"Is she realy okay?" he questioned with a laugh, setting down the piece of plywood he was carrying. He extended a hand and waited for me to take it.

Wait, I have a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend named…uh…it's something with a D, I know that for sure. But I have a boyfriend and this guy is nothing compared to him. I mean, sure this guy had luscious brown hair, beautiful pale skin that practically sparkled in the sun and a pair of eyes that were so deep and so breathtaking…they were like two pools of a gorgeous light green paint in the center of a clear white sea…so beautiful and—NO! I have that one guy as a boyfriend whose name I can't seem to get!

"CeCe!" That guy who was my boyfriend called out, darting over to me. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," I stuttered out, letting him help me off the ground and on my feet. "I'm all good." Deuce! That was his name! It was on the tip of my tongue all along…

"What happened? I saw you walking then all the sudden you and Wes collided—"

"Wes?" I cut him off. "Who's Wes?"

Green eyes stepped up and raised his hand. "I'm Wes. Well, I'm actually Wesley but you can call me Wes if you want."

"How do you know him?" I questioned stupidly. Deuce tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and dropped a kiss on my nose.

"We're rebuilding the pig pen together."

"This your girlfriend, bro?" Wesley questioned, his green eyes flattering a bit. Deuce smiled at me, nodding to answer Wesley's question.

"We've been together for almost three years," Deuce informed him, pressing a quick kiss to my lips. And for the first time in the existence of our relationship, I didn't want to kiss him back. Something in me had just said no. But when Deuce pulled back, I felt a wave of guilt wash over me when he looked at me with a hurt expression. I squeezed his hand and pecked his cheek.

"Yeah, three years," I repeated, looking at Wesley. Three years…

:o) Looks like there's some trouble in paradise for Dece! OK so I tried to add in a lot of Runther and I hope it was enough to please you people. I know that the Runther thing wasn't really major or anything but once I get the Dece and Tynka storylines up and going then some MAJOR Runther chappies will come into play =) So real quick shout out to SydneySanity, just cause she's uber awesome and because her stories are pure gold! Seriously though, if you haven't read any of her work (I doubt it) you NEED to check her out. Like I'm not even kidding you NEED to check her out, she's to amazing. Then there's always my lovely partner GlitterGirl who unfortunately couldn't help with this chappie but she was busy with Pretty Litter Liars it Up (GO CHECK IT OUT!) So can't blame her right? Anyway I hope you all enjoyed the chappie, and I love reviews ;)

Sweet Dreams!

-xXxInMyDreamsxXx