The Story Begins Here: NYU School Campus

Ashton was texting Seth. "No," he reassured her. "Seth's....on....a road-trip...with Connor." Ashton's eyes widened. "Oh no. This isn't good." He grabbed his book and glanced back at Alexis. "I'm gonna run back to my place and see if I can figure out what the hell Seth wants me to do. You coming?"

Alexis licked her lips and gave a quiet sigh to herself, grabbed her book, phone and guitar case, standing up. "Yeah, sure."

"C'mon!" Ashton said hurriedly, leading the way back outside as he buttoned up his coat and stuck his book in a pocket on its inside.

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Alexis looked up at Luke as she walked by him. "I dunno- making out with someone last I saw." She replied, shivering and bit down on her bottom lip. "She really isn't my friend anyway so."She shrugged.

***

Connor headed down the street, grumbling and rubbing at his ear, wondering if Piranha took a chuck of it.

"Everybody needs a friend like that," Luke pointed out truthfully. "Just to remind them that life isn't a damn job interview all the time. You won't die if you cut loose and screw up a bit along the way."

He glanced behind him when he caught Lola's voice, and grinned a little as he recalled the zoo escapade several months ago.

Damn, had that been several months ago?

"New York Shore?" Ashton snickered. He mused a moment. "New York Beat!"

"Oooh! I like that! Good idea, yeah we can follow them around with cameras. I mean we have everything we need. Romance, crime, comedy! We'd be a freaking hit!" Lola said thumping Ashton on the shoulder, her heels clicking on the concrete as she walked across campus she came across an ice patch.

Her leg twisted and she fell down with a yelp, "Ah damn it!" She cursed sitting up on her butt, she tried to get back up but her ankle protested, she let out a sigh and looked up at the boys and Alexis, "Well there goes my figure skating career." She snorted.

"Yeah I guess so." Alexis replied, glancing up at him. "You can go back and talk with them, it's not like I'm all that interesting. I mean- they... seem like they are having more fun so.."

Luke glanced at Alexis - and then spun when he heard Lola's yelp of pain. "Crap."

Ashton was squatting beside her. "Shit, hopefully it's just a sprain," he said, reaching out a hand to help her up. Luke frowned and headed back to them.

"Can you stand?" he asked Lola.

Lola grabbed Ashton's hand getting up slowly letting out a sharp breath, she was sure it was just a sprain. Stupid her for wearing pointy heels in the winter, but hey she liked cute shoes. "No need to fuss over lil ol me, boys." She said in a western accent, and laughed. "I'm fine just a sprain probably." She limped as she attempted to walk, holding onto Ashton's arm to stable herself.

Alexis frowned and looked back. "You okay?"She asked, stopping in her steps again.

"Why do girls wear shoes like that?" Luke wondered aloud about Lola's terrible footwear choice. "Is looking good worth having your feet freeze or break?" He resumed walking, as did Ashton.

Ashton grinned down at Lola. "You know, about that reality-TV show, we should somehow include a dance number, I'm sure Jake would appreciate it."

"Beauty is pain dahling." Lola replied to Luke, then shot a glance at Ashton, "Oh my god yeah! I could totally choreograph it too, that is if they don't have to amputate my chicken leg, well... chick leg. Without these shoes I'm 5'4"." Lola smiled broadly.

"Oh I'm fine Alexis, this wouldn't be the first time I've done this. Being friends with Jake for so long, its like you pick up his damn clumsy wavelength." She snorted, then looked back to Ashton.

"Yeah it would be like Jersey Shore meets Glee... except there would probably be more cursing, and we'd probably end up in jail taping half the things we do, but that's what makes good TV!" She said nodding.

"There'd probably be a lawsuit once people find out who's been stealing their wedding cakes," Ashton mused, grinning as he thought about this.

"Or climbing in their windows after demon cats," Luke added, recalling Evelyn mentioning the first time she'd seen Jake's crazy side.

"If it were a musical, would they all wanna play themselves? I mean...some people might not wanna." Ashton frowned. "Like, Evelyn, I can't see her being up onstage re-enacting her psychotic romance, although I'm sure she'd be down to re-enact all those concussions she gave Jake. Seth though..."

"Jake would so love being on stage, he got a kick out of being in a play when we were in high school. But as for reenacting concussions. We can't tell him. His reactions need to be genuine. Oh god as much as Seth would destroy any theatrical production, but we do need him to be Jake's psychotic wing man or whatever. It wouldn't be the same without him. I guess I'd have to be in it since Seth convinced me to help steal Nova." Lola snorted, remembering her lovely acting job at Evelyn's.

"Ah." Alexis smiled a little, teeth chattering and listened in. "And it'd be a mess to clean up after a foodfight scene- at least that's how I keep hearing Connor and Seth's bromance started." She added.

"How many did they have?" Ashton demanded, aghast. "And what is with them and 7-Elevens? Last time I went there, both their faces were up on the Wall of Shame!"

Luke chuckled and blew out a breath, which turned to frost in the cold around them. He noticed Alexis shivering and said, "Let's keep moving, it's getting colder. But um...you'd need a James," he reminded Lola.

"Ooh yeah the antagonist pretty boy, would James want to be apart of our production? The fan girls would no doubt love him." Lola commented remembering about all the fights him and Jake got into over Evelyn and such.

"I dunno, James seems like a turtle, hiding in his shell when it comes to that stuff." Alexis commented.

"You definitely do not know him then," Luke said, greening. "Attention is like James' first true love. He'd definitely get up onstage...but I don't knwo if he'd want to do it alongside Evelyn and Jake. Not for a long while."

Ashton frowned. "Well, who knows, maybe by the time we get this put together he'd be over all the shit that went down and we can have us a modern-day La Boheme set in New York City!"

"And after you gain all the money for the poor extras, right?" Alexis smirked some.

"Of course, always remember to thank all the little people. First rule of being a big time celebrity." Lola nodded, smiling at Alexis.

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Evelyn didn't say anything in response, because she was afraid she'd just dump her fries on Jake's head. So she simply waited until Jake parked, and just ahead of them, Seth's silver car was already parked and empty, next to Ashton's car.

Everyone else must have gotten here before them. Evelyn unzipped her seat belt before the car stopped moving. The instant Jake parked, she threw open her door and stepped out.

***

Seth was stumbling along in knee-deep snow and snickering as he reached down to ball up snow. He turned and flung it - at Lola's face. He threw his fists into the air, hollering in victory, "SCORE!"

Ashton laughed and Luke strapped his guitar case across his shoulders, balling up a large clump of snow and flinging it headlong at the back of Jesse's head. "THREE POINTS!"

Jesse shook his hair out, and grabbed a huge clump of snow and threw it at Luke's chest. "Bring it on Giraffe!" He hollered.

Lola spluttered and spit out she reached down picking up as much snow as she could and tackled Seth, "EAT SNOW FAIRY!" Antonio who had been nearby slipped on some slush and fell on top of Lola and Seth.

"OH SHIT!" He shouted, his arms flailing about everywhere.

Ashlee giggled and snuck up on Ashton with a snowball in her hand and jumped onto his back giving him a snow noogie, "VICTORYY!"

***

Jake walked out of his car, locking his doors. He blew out a huff shaking his head at Evelyn, there was an SUV parked next to his car which had snow on its roof, he picked some of it up and threw a snowball at Evelyn, "Oh lighten up."

Luke and Seth were momentarily tangled in a knot of arms and legs. So their rebuttal time took a moment.

Seth charged up and caught Antonio in the chest in a forward tackle, toppling backwards with a yell. "CHAAAARGE!"

Ashton, stumbling, shrugged Ashlee off as he went down on his knees with a yelp. He rolled and ended up at Antonio's feet, so he rolled some more and knocked down Lola in his path. "KNOCKOUT!"

Luke was coughing up snow, and he spotted James standing there dry so he ran up behind him and smushed snow into his hair.

***

Evelyn, already having rounded the front of Jake's car, squealed in surprise and spun around, snow trickling down her shoulders, eyes narrowing. "Lighten - YOU NEARLY KILLED US!" she yelled in response. She grabbed some snow off the hood of the SUV and flicked it at Jake's face. It splattered against his hair.