A/N : Hi there!... First off, thanks for all your continued support through the times when i cant write to save my life. I know i haven't been updating but the plot bunny seems to have escaped its home in my mind and gone off on its own. Ah the pain of betrayal... and i fed it so well too... anyways... I will try and update my other stories as soon as i can...this weekend itself if possible. Till then here's a little something to tide you over.

Disclaimer : Are you kidding me?... Would i be here writing this stuff if i owned anything JONAS other than my ideas for fanfiction?...

The JONAS firehouse was a hive of activity with the whole Lucas family getting ready for the 'bigger, better than the last world tour' tour. Kevin was almost at the edge of an emotional breakdown as he couldn't decide which guitars to take and which ones to leave, Joe was bummed out at the idea of leaving Stella to go on tour for two whole months but unwilling to talk to her about it and Nick, being Nick was stressing out about the tour, set lists and making sure he had everything right where he wanted it to be.

Stella had taken permanent residence inside her Stellavator – patent pending and Macy, who was documenting the whole behind the scenes, backstage, pre-tour experience for the fans world-wide, was quietly holed up in one corner of the top level with her laptop, getting the videos and podcasts ready for the JONAS website. Everyone was super excited about the upcoming tour before Tom Lucas walked up the stairs to give them some bad news.

Seeing Tom in a nervous state made Macy ask

"Dad of JONAS… Are you alright?"

"It's nothing Macy… Just… I just heard from your school boys…"

Nothing could've prepared them for the shocker that they were about to hear. When they heard that one of the boys had failed his exam, all of them including Kevin himself assumed that it was him that had failed. No one really expected Nick to have failed his Geometry exam, especially since he was quite good at math.

There was a major atmosphere of doom and gloom surrounding the whole house at the news that Nick would have to attend summer school to make up for it and so wouldn't be able to make it on the tour. The thought of cancelling the tour was weighing heavily on everyone's minds, especially Nick's since he felt responsible for the whole fiasco and couldn't stop blaming himself for letting everyone down.

Nick had always been the serious, sensitive one of the family and loved the fact that they could make so many people happy by virtue of their music which he had written. The guilt of not standing up to his responsibilities and the feeling of letting his fans down along with disappointing his brothers and parents was quite a heavy burden to bear on his 16 year old shoulders.

Forlorn as he was, he right now preferred it if he could be left alone to wallow in his bout of self-recrimination. So, silently moving towards the fire poles, he slid down them, preparing to sneak out after writing everyone a note and taping it to the refrigerator so that they wouldn't worry. Because whatever he was, he wasn't irresponsible. That was how he heard Macy talking to his father in the office and decided to find out what they were discussing.

"Dad of JONAS… Please… you must relax…deep breaths…"

Macy was breathing in and out deeply as if to show Nick's dad how it was done and to his surprise Tom Lucas was following her advice and did seem to get a little better. Again, Nick felt incredibly guilty about stressing his father out so much that he was hyperventilating. Also, there was some sort of hellish irony in the fact that it was he, Nick the-responsible-one Lucas that had caused his father's hypertension this time and it was the usually hyperventilating super fan Macy who was calming him down.

"Thanks Macy… I don't usually freak out like this. It's just that there are so many things to do… so many people to call and so many venues to cancel. The fans are going to be so disappointed and I just… I just don't know what to do first. Sorry… I shouldn't be dumping all this on you right now. You said that you wanted to talk to me about something. Is it something about the website?..."

"Um… Actually I wanted to talk to you about the tour Dad of JONAS… I… I think that if you speak with Mr. Halfner, our Geometry teacher and inform him about the circumstances, you might be able to work some way out in which you might not have to cancel the tour. Nick is usually a very good student and is in the good books of most of our teachers. I don't think Mr. Halfner should have a problem working out something that will make the tour program work."

For a second it seemed as if Nick forgot to breathe outside the office door. None of them had thought of that. If there was some way he could work around the test scores, maybe even take the test again, the band might still be able to go on tour. He wanted to jump into his dad's office and tell him to call his teacher as soon as possible but something made him stop for just a minute longer. This was Macy's idea and he didn't want it to seem as if he was barging in on it. If it worked, he could find a way to tell Macy that he knew that it was her idea and show her how thankful he was for helping him work it out.

He heard his father call and talk to his Math teacher. The moment he heard that he could retake the test and if he scored a perfect 100% on it, he could make up his grade enough for him to pass the semester and go on tour, it was all he could do to not jump up and down, screaming out loud. He settled for a quiet 'yes!' and a fist pump before running up the stairs to inform his brothers of the change in plans.

"Guys…guys…listen… I just heard dad talking on the phone with Mr. Halfner… He said I could retake the test tomorrow and if I scored a 100% on it, I could pass and that means we could go on tour. Isn't it awesome?"

The guys and Stella were seriously excited at the development and it resulted in whoops, back slaps and Kevin's five second dance party in which even Nick participated this time before Stella asked the most important question of the day

"Um… Sorry to be the party pooper guys… But how are you going to learn all that Geometry in a day Nick?... I mean… It's not like Kevin or Joe or even I could teach you all that…"

"Yeah dude… I might've passed.. but I myself got a D.. You have to like get an A+ or something"

Kevin was too busy figuring out what grade he had gotten and was totally out of the discussion. The atmosphere that ten seconds ago had been one of jubilation was again one of gloom. Nick was sitting at the juice bar his head in his hands, completely worried about how he was going to even attempt studying for the test.

And that was how Macy found them all, when she came up the stairs from Tom Lucas' office. Stella and Joe dispiritedly folding clothes, Kevin lying on the carpet, still trying to figure out his grades and Nick with his head in his hands, groaning at the prospect of studying all that Geometry by himself before tomorrow.

"Come on guys… Did you not hear?... Nick gets to retake the test tomorrow… If he aces this one like we all know he is capable of doing… the tour is back on again!... Isn't that exciting?"

Upon getting almost no reaction to her exuberant statement, Macy confusedly looked around trying to see why her friends were still being so gloomy about it.

"What's up guys?... I seriously thought you would be all pumped up about the possibility of a second chance at having the tour back on… What's wrong?"

Stella sighed when nobody answered Macy's question and made her way to her best girlfriend.

"Macy… We're all very happy about Nick getting a second chance at taking the test but it's just that he needs to get a perfect score on this test and none of us are good enough to tutor him for it. Nick getting the second chance might not be enough to get the guys on tour if there's no one who can actually get him to learn everything before tomorrow…"

Stella explained looking morose.

"Is that it?... Is that why all of you are this gloomy?"

"What do you mean Mace?... It's not like it's a small thing? What do you mean 'is that it?'"

Nick was almost pulling his hair out by now.

"Well… I don't know if any of you know… But I am in Mr. Halfner's class with Nick. And I scored an A+ on the exam…."

Nick got up suddenly from the bar stool as if he had been electrocuted. Walking up to Macy he asked almost hesitantly

"Macy… Are you saying what I think you are saying?"

"Yeah Macy… Quite bragging in front of poor Nick… It's not good manners to brag in front of people when they are nowhere near as good as you at something…"

This completely unconnected comment came from Joe upon which he received a sharp elbow into his midsection by his blonde stylist best friend/almost-but-not-quite-girlfriend (phew!... What a mile-long description! :P)

"Joseph!... Macy wasn't bragging… Don't you even have a single functioning brain cell in your entire head? Mace… Are you serious?"

"Of course guys… I am totally serious about what I said… I could tutor you for the test Nick. I really don't mind. Plus it would be totally awesome if you could go on tour because you aced the test all because of me!"

Macy grinned and winked cheekily at them before Stella's blonde form was all over her, hugging the life out of Macy while emitting high pitched squeals of excitement. Kevin was involved in another five second dance party while Joe stood around grinning at the girls.

"Seriously Macy… Thank you for offering to tutor me for the test… You don't know how much it means to me."

"It's okay Nick… What are friends for? Anyways don't thank me yet. You can thank me all you want after you ace the test and Mr. Halfner clears you guys for the tour. Now come on… Let's not waste any time and hit the books."

Macy pulled away from Stella and turned to the group with a serious expression on her usually happy face.

"Nick, I need you to get all your study material and get down to the dining table in five minutes. Is that okay?... Guys, if there's gotta be any chance of Nick doing well of this test we've got to help him in any and every way... So as his tutor for the day I want you guys to make sure that nothing disturbs him for the rest of the day till we are done with our cram sessions… All of you can continue whatever has to be done to get ready for the tour… Is that clear?"

There was a chorus of "Yes Ma'am!" from the half amused half wary group who were still not that used to Macy's sudden mood changes. Smirking at them, Macy made her way down the stairs to the kitchen to get herself a drink of water as she waited for Nick to get ready to study.

Macy was by nature a very focused and determined person. And now, all her focus had shifted from the JONAS tour to making sure Nick aced his test. She felt like it was her responsibility now that Nick did well on his test and that it would be because of her failure if JONAS couldn't tour this summer.

Already, Macy was thinking about ways in which she could get Nick to remember the more obscure laws of Geometry. Her brain was zipping along at the speed of light and by the time Nick was downstairs with all his books and notes, she had almost completely worked out their study plan.

Nick had almost been taken aback by the new intense Macy and he wasn't sure if he was comfortable with her as of yet. I mean come on, she had for so long been the JONAS super fan that passed out and injured all of them that even though she was almost normal now, the ingrained self-protective abilities sparked crazily as soon as she was near. His body was almost getting itself ready for either supporting her when she passed out or protecting itself when she hit him with something. Nick had to forcibly get his mind away from those thoughts and focus on the books in front of him.

Somehow, Macy could sense that Nick wasn't quite comfortable and so took a seat opposite to him rather than the one next to him like he expected. She was determined to get this done right one way or another and the best solution to the problem would be to make Nick feel as comfortable as possible with their little situation.

While Macy's inner fan girl was going into convulsions of joy, her outer-self managed to stay calm enough to make sure Nick was okay with it. There were still days when she could barely refrain from squealing or times when she could feel her eyesight getting darker and she felt quite dizzy when in the close company of the members of JONAS but most days she could restrain herself from behaving like an obsessed fan.

She was quite a bit better while dealing with Kevin or Joe since they had opened up to Macy a long while back and had genuinely expressed an interest in being her friend rather than treating her like an over obsessed fan girl like Nick was prone to doing. To be honest, Macy had always had a special thing for Nick of JONAS while she had been the over obsessed fan girl, which had often resulted in him being involved in much more painful altercations with her than his brothers.

Now that she saw them more as the Lucas brothers than the members of JONAS, she was appalled to notice that she had somehow along the way developed a crush on Nick Lucas, not Nick of JONAS, the internationally famous rock star and songwriter, but Nick Lucas, the cute curly-haired boy who went to school with her, who was an awesomely talented and passionate individual and one who was extremely competitive, someone quite a bit like her.

Macy had never believed that she was good enough for an internationally famous rock star that was the image of perfection for millions of girls around the world, so crushing on Nick of JONAS had been as safe as it had been obsessive. But now that she found out she was crushing on a friend, a person who she had found the hard way was not all that perfect, she knew that it was a lot more dangerous to her peace of mind and mental health than the simple crush she had had on a famous figure she could never dream of reaching.

Though Macy had calmed down her obsessive side and started behaving normally with them for the last couple of months, Nick couldn't really get himself to forget all the thing she had done while in the obsessive, compulsive phase and was still treating her as if she was a ticking time bomb he was forced to sit next to. Macy had found it hard in the beginning, losing her courage easily in the face of Nick's coldness but encouragement from Stella as well as Kevin and Joe had made her persevere.

The calming down process had had a major effect on the relationship that Macy shared with Kevin. Kevin was the one of the Lucas family who had first shown any interest in getting to know Macy. Now, Kevin and Macy were almost inseparable and were the best of friends who hung out frequently as Macy was the only one in their group who could talk to Kevin cheerfully about animals and nature for as long as he wanted to. Macy's open and sunny nature had cemented their friendship and now Kevin regarded Macy as one of his closest friends if not like a little sister he had never had.

The second surprising result of Macy's normalcy around the brothers was her budding friendship with the bonus JONAS. Once she had lost her freakiness around his older brothers, Frankie had started to appreciate having a sporty older sister kind of figure around the house. He loved playing games with Macy and had started insisting on having her babysit him whenever his parents had to go out even if his brothers were home, not that Frankie ever needed to be looked after by somebody he insisted.

The fact that Macy was an awesome babysitter, had formed a strong bond with Frankie very quickly, that she was extremely reliable and always followed the rules made her quickly the first choice for the Lucas parents whenever they needed someone to look after Frankie. Not only had that endeared her to Mrs. Lucas, but Macy had also offered to help out in the kitchen whenever she came over, whether it was to hang out with Stella and the guys or to babysit Frankie. She had always put things away properly and cleaned up after herself whenever she babysat, which was more than Sandy had been used to, living as she was in an all-male household.

Though Macy had successfully developed these strong bonds with so many people in the Lucas family, not one person knew of her relationships with the others. Macy didn't feel like broadcasting that she had made friends with Kevin or frequently babysat Frankie or was on quite good terms with the parents for fear of the brothers feeling as if she was trying to worm her way into their inner circle of friends. She told herself that maybe someday when they started thinking of her as a real friend, they might come to know of the real her but till then, they could go on thinking what they wanted about her and she couldn't be bothered about it. And by 'they', she mostly meant Nick.

Macy had long ago given up on Nick Lucas ever looking at her in a way other than as a fan girl of JONAS. She was resigned to the fact that Nick would never think of her the way she felt about him and that she should stop hoping for anything from that quarter of she was to leave it behind and make any progress with the rest of the group.

The day she had decided to give up on her JONAS obsession had been the day she had decided to give up on one of the brothers too. With each poster that had come down from her bedroom walls, each photograph and piece of memorabilia that had been boxed up, she had hardened her resolve. She had given up presidency of the JONAS fan club but had retained control of the website though she had told no one about it. She knew that neither Stella nor the Lucas brothers ever visited the website or found out about the club meetings. To her surprise, there had been one person from the family who had asked her about it and it had been Frankie.

To her intense embarrassment, Macy had found that everyone in the family other than Nick himself knew of Macy's crush on him and had at different times spoken to her about it. At every occasion she had alternately threatened, cajoled or convinced the person involved to not letting Nick know in any way about it. She didn't want the tenuous thread of friendship that had just started developing between them to snap due to his assumptions of what she expected from him, and their relationship.

Macy knew that she was blowing this way out of proportion and that she was giving one Nick Lucas too much importance in her life. But sadly, she also knew that first loves were often that way. The heart wants what the heart wants and heart had set its sights on the curly haired singer songwriter since the day she had first laid eyes on him.

Sighing, Macy quickly interrupted her trip down memory lane before the person in front of her could sense it and proceeded to talk Nick through what they were hoping to achieve during the course of the day.

Though Nick was intensely thankful for Macy's offer to tutor him for the exam, he had been quite apprehensive of her behavior towards him as he settled in front of her with his books open between them. He didn't think he could bear it if he had to spend the whole day dealing with her fan girl behavior. But to his surprise, not only was Macy acting perfectly normal, she also got quite irritated with him when she found that he was either not paying attention or when she felt that he was being deliberately obtuse.

More than her behavior towards him, what surprised Nick more was Macy's behavior towards the other people in his family. He knew that Macy was Stella's best friend but he hadn't known that she was that close to his brothers and parents too. They had just started tackling the pesky laws and axioms in Geometry when Kevin slid down the fire pole and flopped into a seat next to Macy with a plaintive expression on his face. Deciding that whatever Kevin's problem was wasn't more important that Nick's test, both Nick and Macy continued their study session after acknowledging the older brother. But Kevin wouldn't have that. He sighed loudly, putting up an even more pathetic expression on his face

"Kev… Is something wrong?" Macy asked almost resignedly

Perking up, Kevin launched into his problem description in a remarkably detailed ramble

"Well Mace you see… You told us before coming downstairs to take care of whatever has to be done to make sure we're ready for the tour… And now I have a major decision to make because I have to choose just three guitars out of my collection and I don't want to leave behind the rest of them… I don't know what to do… How do I choose three of them without offending the rest of my beautiful ladies?"

Macy appeared to actually be giving it some thought while Nick once more had his head in his hands while trying to restrain himself from growling out his impatience. After about half a minute of silence while Kevin patiently waited for an answer from the two of them, Macy finally turned to him with a smile lighting up her face

"Well Kevin… Do you have any favorites that you take along with you all the time?"

"No.. Not really… It's not like I can actually tell you I have a favorite even if I did. How would the rest of them feel if they found out that I had a favorite guitar huh?... Tell me?"

"O…Okey… Well then… Do you remember which ones you took with you on your last tours?"

"hmmm… Lemme think… I think it was Juliana, Leslie and Marianne in the summer tour and Amelia, Janet and Lucille Junior for the fall concerts…"

"No dude… I brought Lucille Junior… And I broke Lucille Junior last time at school remember? I think you brought Delinda for the fall tour… yeah remember?... You played her in Dallas and freaked out when you couldn't find her afterwards?"

"Delinda? Are you sure?"

"Of course I am sure Kevin!"

"Sheesh!... No need to get all worked up Nicky!… Okay so there you go Mace… Juliana, Leslie, Marianne, Amelia, Janet and Delinda… Ok Nick?... They were the ones I took with me on last year's tours. Why did you wanna know?"

"Okay… I am just going to pretend that I didn't hear that conversation and the fact that you call your guitars by female names doesn't freak me out just a little bit… Deep breaths Macy… Keep it together…."

After a couple of deep breaths during which Kevin and Nick looked at her apprehensively, she turned to them again

"Well… I just thought you could have like a rotation system in which you could choose guitars that you haven't already taken along on tours. The ones that haven't travelled might like it better to go with you right?... You could maybe give De..Delinda and the rest of them a little break this tour and take three of the others that haven't travelled with you for a long time. That way all of them will get to go out with you and see different places…"

"Wow Mace! You… You are a genius!... I never thought of it like that. Of course the ladies that haven't been on tour deserve to come along this time. I am totally fair if nothing else… I am gonna go tell them this and get them ready for when I am gonna choose the lucky ladies that get to come along with me on tour… Thanks Macy… JONAS totally owes you for this"

With that excited comment, Kevin jumped up, caught Macy in a tight hug and ran to the fire poles, trying to shimmy up one with all his strength before giving up and running up the stairs excitedly.

Macy turned to see Nick shaking his head while smiling that half smile that still made her knees watery. Sternly telling herself that her first responsibility now was to JONAS and she could squeal and fan girl all she wanted later when they were on tour, Macy turned back to the books and started quizzing Nick on what they had covered till then.

Macy knew that Nick was an intelligent guy and all he needed was the right atmosphere and the motivation to do something and he would most probably be able to do it himself perfectly. The motivation had already been taken care of owing to the JONAS tour. And Macy had created the atmosphere that he needed so that he could concentrate on his studies to the exclusion of everything else. Soon, they were literally flying through lessons and Macy decided that they could handle taking a break for half an hour or so before getting back to tackle the rest of the syllabus for the exam.

"Nick… We're about halfway done and it's only been about three hours since we started. The rest of the stuff is going to get a little boring and stretch quite a bit so I guess it would be best if we take a break now and tackle the rest of it later. How's that for you?"

"Wow Macy… I never thought I could get it done so easily and so fast too… You're an awesome tutor Mace… Thank you so much for doing this…"

Nick smiled at her brightly before slipping off the stool and running up the stairs to probably make sure that his brothers weren't totally destroying everything he had so carefully prepared for the tour in the name of packing. The bright, face splitting smile that he gave her, was so unlike the usual Nick who never revealed more than half a smile at anything and I mean anything, that Macy was struck dumb for about half a minute before she gathered her scattered wits and proceeded upstairs to join everyone else.

Half an hour had just flown along as everyone was having a fun time preparing for the upcoming tour. The guys had practiced a couple of songs and worked some more set lists out and Stella and Macy had succeeded in packing a couple of more trunks full of back up outfits, especially for Joe since he was the most prone out of the brothers to running his one-of-a-kind Stella made outfits by either spilling something on them or tearing them. They had been having so much fun chatting and teasing each other that no one had noticed that Frankie was sitting in one corner of the huge bedroom looking a bit forlorn and left out.

Macy, who was busy folding more clothes for Stella to pack, turned to ask her something when she noticed the fourth Lucas brother dejectedly watching everyone having fun from his out of the way corner seat. Leaving the clothes for Stella, she went around to the young boy, deciding to find out exactly what was troubling him and whether there was something she could do to make him feel better.

"Hey Frankster!... What're you doing here?... Are you bored?"

"Hey Macy… Yeah… I am a little bored… When it comes to JONAS, my whole family goes crazy and I kinda get left out of the loop cuz neither do I belong in the band nor do I help mom or dad out with the organization or anything. I just feel kinda useless you know…. I mean hanging out with Big Rob is fun for some time but after a while even that gets old and most of the time I have nothing to actually occupy myself with during the tour"

Macy wrapped her arms around the younger boy, comforting him while she thought of ways to get him interested and things to keep him occupied during the tour. She was glancing around the room, desperately hoping for some inspiration to hit because she loved the kid like her younger brother and she didn't want him to feel left out or like he wasn't important. Just as she was about to sigh and give up on it, her eyes landed on her laptop and video camera equipment and she brightened up.

"Frankie… I have a proposition for you…"

You would think a ten-year old wouldn't understand big words such as those but Frankie was no normal ten year old. He was Nick's brother for gods' sake and Nick i-am-three-points-shy-of-genius Lucas had himself agreed that Frankie was far cleverer than him.

Frankie didn't appear too eager at the idea yet because he didn't want Macy to pity him or feel sorry for him.

"What is it?"

He asked her a little suspiciously.

"Well… You know how I like to keep the JONAS fan site updated regularly?"

At Frankie's nod she continued

"And you know that I am not gonna be able to come along on the tour right?... So I won't be getting videos and updates of news from all the venues or from the JONAS jet or the tour bus… So… My proposition for you is this… Would you like to work for me and help me update the site by providing me with videos and news from the different venues?... You'll probably be so busy recording videos for the site and mailing or messaging updates to me that you wouldn't have any free time left… What do you say?"

It was almost beautiful watching the happiness sweep across the serious little boy's face as he almost jumped up and down in glee at the prospect of actually having some responsibility this time around

"You're going to be very serious about it Frank… You are going to be the only link between JONAS and the fans all round the world for the next couple of months. I will only be able to upload whatever you send me…. So what do you think?... Will you be able to do it?"

Frankie's chubby little arms had wrapped Macy in an uber tight hug as she heard his muffled words sounding from somewhere near her waist

"Thank you Thank you Thank you Macy… You're the best… Of course I'll do it… And just you wait… I'll do my job so well that you'll want me to do this for you all the time. I am gonna send you awesome videos and news bytes and recordings and so many other things Macy… You're gonna love this."

A slightly evil expression crossed his face and he said

"I'll also be sending you all the blooper videos and lots of embarrassing moments of the members of JONAS forever captured on videotape… Oh Yeah… I am gonna have so much fun this time…. World tour here I come!"

Before she could stop him, Frankie gave Macy another tight hug and raced of complaining at the top of his voice as to why they had to wait another day before they left for the tour. The rest of the family, who weren't used to Frankie being enthusiastic about leaving on tour, was left astonished and quite speechless. Nick, who had been watching and listening to Macy deal with his younger brother, was left speechless for quite another reason. He had never expected the excitable and always on edge Macy to take the kid so seriously, nor could he have thought out such a perfect solution for Frankie's problem. He had to admit it. Macy Misa had just solved more than one problem when she had gotten Frankie interested in the tour and its preparations. He would have to deal with Frankie being in his face with a video camera for the rest of the tour but he felt he could manage if it kept his brother happy.

Macy was not at all turning out to be what he had expected. Nick had for so long put Macy in this neat fan girl box in his brain and had expected her to contentedly sit there while he led his super organized life in peace but he should've known that that was exactly what she wouldn't do. She had broken out of her box spectacularly and was now occupying more and more of his mind which was refusing to think about any other topic. Realizing that he had just spent five minutes staring at her like an idiot, Nick shook himself and went back to organizing and re-organizing the different set lists.

After a further half hour, when Macy and Nick returned to the dining table to continue studying for his exam, they were appalled to find a profusion of cameras, recording equipment, tapes, disks and flash drives piled high on the table and taking up almost every other flat surface in and around the dining counter at the firehouse. And coming from amidst all the high tech gear was Frankie's voice, placing an order for some spying equipment over the phone. He was ordering a pair of night-vision goggles and some high resolution infra-red and high speed cameras along with some remote bugging devices.

Nick almost shuddered at the monster that Macy had possibly unleashed and shrugging at her, proceeded to get his books out of Frankie's way while he still could. Pulling Nick by his hand, Macy took him outside the firehouse

"Come on Nick… I don't think we're gonna get any studying done here… We could… If you don't have a problem with it I mean…"

"What is it Macy?... Go on… What did you want to say?"

"It's just that you need to study for your exam and I don't know if you'll be able to study here so I just thought… Maybe you could come over to my house and we could get some studying done… It'll only just be my mom there so it'll be much quieter…"

She trailed off awkwardly. Had it been any other day, Nick would've cheerfully refused. But seeing as he had no other option, Nick also awkwardly nodded his head and after informing his mom of the change in plans, Nick and Macy headed over to her house which was just around the corner from the firehouse.

As they turned the corner, there was an uncomfortable silence that enveloped the two, unconsciously making Macy walk faster towards her house as if getting there would lessen the awkwardness between them. Following her, Nick could only hope that he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life by going alone to Macy's house.

From the outside, the house appeared to be a nice, normal brownstone, quite cheerful in its appearance due to its cherry red door and the window boxes that contained bright flowering shrubs. As they went up the driveway and climbed up the steps that lead to the door, Nick was almost tempted to turn around and run back to the comfortable familiarity of the fire house around the corner. Too late for that he realized as Macy opened the door, inviting him inside shyly as she called out to her mother.

"Ma… I'm home… And I've got a friend here"

A pleasantly plump middle aged woman who looked like an older version of Macy herself came towards us, smiling widely at her daughter. There was a rapid exchange of sentences between the two women in fluent Spanish as Nick stood around trying to look as if he didn't feel too out of place. After having assured of whatever she had been asking of her daughter, Mrs. Misa turned her smiling face to Nick and welcomed him warmly into their home.

"So… This is the boy huh mija? I have heard so much about you Nick and your band… What is its name? Jonah?..."

"Mamaaa…"

Macy whined in the background while Nick successfully stifled the smile trying to erupt onto his face before answering his friend's mother

"It's JONAS Mrs. Misa…"

"Hmmm…. You are Macy's friend Nick and you'll always be welcome in our house. So feel free to ask for anything if you want… And make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you Mrs. Misa… You have a very nice house…"

The pleasantries would've gone on for atleast a bit longer if Macy hadn't interrupted their conversation

"Mama… Nick has to study for a big exam tomorrow… I have offered to tutor him for it so I am going to take him up to my room and we're going to be studying for some time…. Is that okay?"

At her mother's assurance in the affirmative, Macy invited Nick to climb the stairs in front of them. Just as she turned to go up the stairs herself, Macy turned to her mother again

"Just call me down when you need help with dinner ok mama? Don't try to do everything yourself… You work yourself too hard… Let me take care of dinner tonight…"

This was another facet of the Macy mystery that Nick had never had the opportunity of witnessing before. He had never seen how Macy interacted with people other than the Lucas family or Stella. He knew that she had a lot of friends at school and was also quite popular with the teachers. He knew that she was Stella's best friend and that she was a very good friend to their stylist, helping her whenever needed and never once picking a fight or arguing about anything that Stella did pertaining to JONAS, trusting in her friend's judgment. Though he knew all this, somehow he had never paid enough attention to Macy to even notice how she acted around people when she was not being a fan girl or best friend.

As they neared the top of the stairs, Macy directed him to a door to their right and again a nameless fear took root in Nick's stomach. He had heard so many horror stories of Macy's room from Stella. The countless JONAS posters, the pictures, the complete CD collection, infinite pieces of JONAS memorabilia or JONAS-abilia as Macy liked to call it… The life sized mosaic… Dear God! What had he gotten himself into?

Bracing himself, Nick took a deep breath and entered the room and promptly got his breath knocked clear out of him. The room he had entered couldn't be Macy's room but still there was no way this wasn't her room. It was too… too Macy to be anyone else's. The room he had entered and belatedly realized he was staring at with an open mouth, was very, very different from what he had been expecting or rather dreading when he had opened the door. Yet, it was exactly what he would've pictured Macy's room to be like had he heard no horror stories about it from Stella.

The walls were a cheerful buttery yellow with free form designs in different shades of blue and green along the walls. Some were abstract and some signified proper shapes. Music notes, birds, fish, plants, flowers, and even some cartoon characters peppered her walls. The ceiling was affixed with day-glo stars in different sizes and colors. There was an old but lovingly maintained wrought iron princess bed painted white straddling the middle of one wall with a matching dresser in one corner. The other corner was dominated by a study table and chair with a display case at the back filled with countless trophies that Macy had undoubtedly won in her years as a star athlete for her various teams. Beside the study table a door was set into the wall which he guessed led into Macy's closet.

Beside the bed on one side table was a huge stereo system with a cabinet for CDs and music underneath. There was also a long low trunk on the far corner of the room which was filled chock full of athletic equipment. There were posters of various sports stars and idols of Macy's and some music groups, no pictures or posters of JONAS though.

The wall near the display case had a felt board that was filled to overflowing with pictures. There were pictures of Macy in uniform, in her normal clothes, one in a formal full length gown (he couldn't help but wonder when that had been taken… And he also couldn't help but notice that she looked beautiful in it) pictures of her family, her friends, lots of photographs of her and Stella, some of her and Kevin, a few of her with Kevin, Joe and Frankie, one or two of her and his parents (when had that happened?).

There was however one picture taking center stage at the display board and that was one of all of them which had been taken on Macy's birthday. Nick and his brothers hadn't known about Macy's birthday till they had gotten to school so they had helped Stella, albeit under threat of polyester pants for the rest of the millennium from the stylist if they didn't, stage an impromptu party at the cafeteria. Stella had already brought Macy a gift and Macy, being the girl she was, hadn't expected her idols and friends to even be there for the party, had been more than happy to just have them there, singing 'Happy Birthday' for her. Thinking back at how they had treated Macy, when she had remembered all their birthdays and even given them gifts, Nick felt more than a little guilty.

He especially, had written Macy off as just some fan girl who went crazy over their music and passed out whenever she came within two feet of them. True, Macy might've been that at some point of time but she had never been just that person. Now, Nick was slowly coming to realize that there was so much more to Macy Misa. She was an awesome friend, a super fan, a great daughter, a responsible babysitter, a matchless athlete and an all-round good person who liked to have fun in life and made sure that others were having fun along with her. She needn't do a lot of the things she did, but the fact that she did them anyway made her the person she was… selfless, generous and good natured.

Now as Nick stood gaping at her room, Macy smirked slightly as she walked past him to the side table and turned on the bedside lamp.

"Surprised?... To not see your face staring back at you from countless posters?... Isn't that what you were getting your ready for when you stopped outside the door?"

Her query was slightly sarcastic but lacked true sting as she turned and gestured to the bad and the study table.

"Take your pick Lucas and let's get down to studying so that you can ace the test tomorrow and get going on your tour…"

Something in the way she phrased it and in the tone of her voice made him look up sharply but she was already busy in setting out his books and making sure they had enough paper and pencils. Deciding to tackle this, whatever it was after studying for the exam that was going to decide his fate and the fate of their world tour, he got on the bed beside her, drifting back into the world of Cartesian co-ordinates.

A/N : Hope you liked this one people... there's just gonna be one more chapter... i might upload it today itself... so keep reading and review to tell me whether you liked it or not