Next chapter. Hope you like it...

Recap:

"You know, Mike's not - " Rachel began, as Roxy drank the diet shake.

But her sentence was cut off, because they saw the flash of a camera in their faces, and the look of one paparazzo who thought he'd just struck the pot of gold.

Roxy looked down at the diet shake in her hand, and it all came together perfectly.

Chapter Nine: That's Just How I Roll

Roxy blinked a couple of times from the flash. Rachel had noticed exactly what was going on as well, because she grabbed the diet shake and threw it out into a garbage can nearby, though some of it got on the photographer . Roxy was grateful, seeing as a huge crowd had formed around them. She noticed the photographer had vanished from sight, probably now running far away from the scene.

As the people crowded around her, Roxy heard many screaming incoherent phrases. She could catch a few words, such as "Evelynn's daughter", "troubled", and "eating disorder".

Roxy mentally slapped herself - how could she not have known something like this would happen?

She noticed she was getting somewhat separated from Rachel in the throng of unfamiliar faces, so she reached out a hand and grabbed her friend, who was now being pushed to the side.

Roxy could hear the clicks and see the flashes of several more cameras. Many people had taken out thier camera phones and were now busily taking pictures of her. Roxy used her free hand to cover her face - especially her eyes - and tried to scream to Rachel over the loud, excited chattering.

"On the count of three," Roxy yelled loudly, "try to pull us out, and then run like hell!"

She could barely see Rachel, so Roxy had to trust the girl had heard her.

"One," she began.

"Two." The people were inching closer, cramping her, and invading her personal bubble.

"Three!" Roxy felt a jolt as Rachel pulled her out of the mass crowd. As soon as she could feel the fresh air around her, and noticed there were no curious, demanding faces around her anymore, she started running.

It was like an instinct. Roxy had always been a good runner; she'd done many sports as a child, mainly swimming, and she had developed nice long legs, and strong mucsles. She had always tried staying fit, so her heart would be in a good condition to outrun the paparazzi. Roxy had developed these muscles when she'd been chased down and practically harrassed by a group of paparazzi who wanted a picture of "Evelynn Austin's daughter". Roxy had sworn she would never let that incident repeat itself, and had trained her running the past five years to prevent it.

She felt grateful she'd worn flats today - running in heels would be a pain, both literally and figuratively.

The minute she started running, Roxy let herself free. There was nothing but her mind and her legs. The rest of the world - streetlights, cars, even people - didn't exist. She dodged between trees and poles through the busy streets of Boston, noticing the crowd running eagerly behind her. Rachel was a few steps back, most likely due to Roxy's advantage in having long legs.

She didn't care how ridiculous it looked, because she didn't want to end up in the hospital with paparazzi-related injuries. She'd already landed on the magazine covers more than once, and any other big incidents would make her parents force her to come back home, which would then, again, cause more headlines.

Roxy turned a street, noticing the intersection coming up. The light was turning white, then fading back to red. No matter how eager she was to end this pursuit, she couldn't disobey traffic laws by running through a red passenger light.

Which meant she'd have to cut through the park.

Oh boy.

But it was her only choice.

"Cut through the park!" she ordered Rachel. She could practically feel the girl looking at her as if to say, 'Are you crazy?', but hoped Rachel would just trust her this once.

They neared the entrance to the park, on thier right, and in one swift motion, she hopped over the low fence. Roxy noticed the odd stares she was getting now, hoping the citizens would just think it was some marathon race.

She turned to look back and noticed Rachel had done the same. Rachel was now sprinting, catching up to Roxy. Roxy turned to face forwards again, ignoring the citizens yelling things at her. She shook all thoughts out of her head, thinking solely about getting as far away as possible.

More and more people were slowly getting curious, whipping out thier cameras as Roxy and Rachel jogged between trees. Roxy noticed that there were less people on thier tail now.

"On my command," she told Rachel loudly, "turn and run left."

Roxy waited until they neared a small cobblestone street. "NOW!" she yelled frantically. Rachel followed her orders and swerved to the right, now finally beside Roxy.

Roxy noticed her feet were getting somewhat tired and probably bruised. Looking beside her, she saw Rachel in low heels, and pitied her friend. It was amazing the girl hadn't broken her heel yet.

They continued running, although now at a much slower pace than before.

Roxy was intent on making sure nobody followed them, so they ran randomly from street to street, making unexpected rights and odd lefts.

Finally, after about five minutes, they ended up in a small shop-like district, and Roxy let herself collapse on one of the benches. She sighed, massaging her feet through the thick material of her shoes.

"Well," Rachel said casually yet sarcastically, gasping for breath, "that was fun." Roxy shot her an apologetic look.

"Sorry for causing all the trouble."

Rachel waved her hand in the air.

"No problem," Rachel said. "I mean, it's not everyday you get chased through Boston by a horde of maniacal papparazzi, nearly break your foot because of your two inch heels, and then step in pigeon crap. I'm looking forward to doing that again."

Roxy held her nose as she noticed the icky white-yellow thing on the bottom of the strappy heel.

"Man, that smells bad," Roxy said, her voice coming out all nasally because her hand was blocking the ability for her to talk normally.

"Trust me," Rachel said, "it doesn't feel any better."

Roxy looked around once more, making sure no one was following them, before she decided to stand up and move over to a shop window, Rachel hopping awkwardly on one foot behind her.

"So," Roxy said, "what do we do now?"

"I honestly don't know. Maybe hijack a bus and drive it down to Mexico? Get engaged in a car chase involving three angry police officers? Assist a bunch of criminals in a drive by shooting?" Rachel suggested. "There's not much we could do now that would top that."

Roxy sighed and opened her cellphone.

"I don't even know where the hell we are. Let's just call someone to pick us up."

"Oh, yeah," Rachel muttered underneath her breath. "Now you decide to play it low."

The shiny silver Convertible pulled up fifteen minutes later. Roxy noticed, to her dismay, that a familiar blond head was in the driver's seat.

"You decided to call Will!?" she asked angrily, staring at Rachel. "Of all freaking people."

"Oh, shut it," Rachel said. "He's the only one who was available, and he already owes me a favor from a few weeks ago."

Roxy sighed. This was so one of the worst days of her life.

She watched carefully as Will got out of the car and walked over to them. He looked them up and down, all tired, angry looking, Rachel only wearing one sandal and holding the other in her hand, and Roxy's blond curls flying everywhere.

Noticing his questioning look, Rachel said, "Don't even ask." A smile twitched at his lips.

"Wasn't going to," he replied.

Roxy walked passed him to the other side of the car, opened the door angrily, and sat down in the leathery interior. It was nice and air conditioned, something she needed after running a few kilometres.

Will started up the car as soon as Rachel was safely in.

"So," he said innocently, "you seem like you've had an interesting day."

Roxy glared at him, hoping he could see it in the mirror. Rachel only snorted lightly.

"You wouldn't believe it if we told you," she said slowly. "Just ask no questions and drive."

Will seemed to take her seriously, because he turned on the radio and silence remained for the rest of the ride (apart from the musical stylings of Britney and such).

As soon as they arrived back on campus, Roxy practically jumped out of the car and headed towards the dorms, really only wanting to sleep. She was in a delicate mood at the moment, as most people would be after suffering such inconveniences, and all she really wanted was to float off to LaLa Land, where all her worries would disappear.

She saw that wouldn't be possible, however, as Will began walking along with her and Rachel, instead of heading towards the boys dorms as he should.

"Thanks again," Rachel said wearily, as Roxy tried to unlock the door quickly as possible with the key Rachel had given her.

"No problem," Will said. "I owed you one anyways. I guess now we're even."

"Sure," Rachel shrugged, as Roxy finally heard the satisfying click of the door, meaning it had unlocked.

Immediately, Roxy headed towards the bathroom. Grabbing fresh clothes, she stripped and entered the shower, letting the hot water relax her muscles. She washed her hair lightly, rinseing only once instead of the usual two times. After applying conditioner, Roxy stepped out of the shower and towel-dried her hair and body. She pulled on the faded blue jeans and plain white T-shirt, smiling at her relfection in the mirror. Combing through her hair a few times, she felt satisfied and decided to go hit the hay.

When she stepped out of the bathroom, she noticed Will was sitting on a leathery white couch, engaged in a lively conversation with Rachel. The latter seemed to have cleared all signs of pigeon feces from her expensive-looking sandal.

"Hey," she greeted Rachel and Will, although mostly Rachel. The TV was lightly turned on to a news network.

"Hey," Rachel replied as Will nodded his head. Roxy let herself sink into the armchair beside her friend.

"Well, I'm tired out," she declared. Rachel nodded in agreement.

"Can't say that wasn't interesting though," she replied, her somewhat foul mood from before now gone. "You know, I knew I was going to have fun when you came around. So far, you haven't disappointed me. Keep up the good work."

Roxy smiled faintly.

"I have to go get a drink," Rachel said suddenly, noticing the tension between Will and Roxy. "All the running made me thirsty."

Roxy wanted to hit her. She knew Rachel was only leaving so she and Will could get an opportunity to talk in silence. However, Roxy didn't want to have that talk.

"So," Will said awkwardly.

"Umm...yeah," Roxy replied.

"I heard about Mike," Will looked at her intensly as he spoke.

"Oh God," Roxy said, mentally slapping herself. "I swear, I didn't do anything. I'm not even kidding. It was all him."

"Relax," Will replied, smiling. "I know Mike; he tried hitting on my sister a while back, and she already had a boyfriend. I thought I taught him not to do that again, but I guess I was wrong."

"You...you have a sister?" Roxy asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Her name's Alison. She's a sophomore," Will answered. That was interesting. Roxy always thought he was a single child. "What about you?"

"Umm...I have a younger sister too, but she's not even close to high school yet. She's back home...in Malibu."

"Oh," Will said, ending the conversation.

"Hey, are we okay?" he suddenly asked. Roxy looked up at him in surprise.

"Okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "You've been avoiding me a bit. I waved to you twice in the halls earlier today, but you didn't wave back."

Roxy thought over; she didn't remember him ever waving to her. Then again, she'd been so worried and caught up in the whole Mike-Charlotte thing that she hadn't been paying attention to anything around her.

"We're great," she responded, trying to ignore the awkward feeling. The truth was, Roxy had a huge crush on Will, and she knew it. She wanted them to be more than "great" - "spectacular" or "wonderfully amazing" perhaps, or anything like that.

"Good." Will said, smiling genuinely. Roxy tried to return the smile as best as she could.

"So, since we're great," he said casually, "I was wondering if you wanted to be my date to homecoming." Ah yes, homecoming. In every teen movie she'd ever seen, homecoming was always the glorious night where the girl met her prince and they kissed romantically and danced and lived happily ever after. It was the basis for all the happy ending crap, the place where the entire school would see the geek and star player of the team announce thier love for each other. It was also completely fake. Life never had those kinds of moments. That was one of the principle reasons Hollywood was so fake, and why Roxy hated it so much; it gave thousands of nerdy yet smart, unpopular, and sometimes even bad-looking girls false hope that the golden boy of thier school would run up to them in front of everyone and give them their forever wanted make-out session and fifteen minutes of fame. It was more likely that the guy would push past the girl and make her fall to floor, ruining her dress, while he was rushing to go suck face with his girlfriend.

It was Roxy's most hated Hollywood teen night next to prom.

Will noticed her far away look. "We'd go as friends, of course."

Roxy's smile fell when she heard the word "friends." There it was again, the stupid hint that they could never be romantically involved, that he didn't like her in that way. What could she really expect? Everyone thought she was a tabloid-infesting, attention-seeking, rich, selfish, snobby wild child.

"Aren't you going with Veronica?" There was, of course, the problem: Veronica. She was a raging bitch and everybody knew it. Roxy ddn't want to see what would happen if Veronica found out. oon, everyone would also know (or rather, falsely believe) that Roxy tried to make a move on her best friend's boyfriend. Roxy didn't want to further confirm thier beliefs by making a move on someone else's boyfriend, nor did she want to see what would happen if Veronica decided to spread it to the whole school. After all, people would rather side with the bitch than the "slut".

"Umm..." Will said oddly, "we're kind of not...together...anymore."

"So you broke up?" Roxy asked excitedly.

Will nodded. "She was a bit overbearing."

Yeah, sure. If overbearing meant "bitchy".

"So, I decided to ask you," he said. "Unless someone else already did."

Roxy shook her head.

"No," she said. "I guess we could go as friends." After all, it wasn't like anyone else was going to ask her. They all probably thought she would cheat on them. And she really just wanted a night to relax and have some fun.

"Okay," Will smiled brightly as he spoke. "I guess I'll pick you up at seven."

"Sure," Roxy replied. "Umm, just wondering, but why do you even have to ask someone?"

"I'm QB on the football team," Will said. "Coach wants us all to have dates. Most of the guys went with cheerleaders. Coach thinks it'll raise school spirit, but he's probably hoping it'll motivate more people to come to the dance and after party with their dates."

Roxy smiled, turning to the TV. She used the remote control to turn the volume up a bit, then relaxed in the chair. She let her mind go off, listening to parts of the announcers newscast.

"...new hurricane down in Florida that's already taken a toll on the community, with at least 400 dead so far... police are searching for two convicts who escaped from a county jail in Louisiana...and the newest antics from Hollywood wild child Roxy Austin will be coming up soon."

Roxy bolted up in her seat as she heard her name spoken aloud on live, national television.

Oh. God.

She noticed Will was also sitting upright in his chair, and Roxy grimaced. Wow, her debut on national television had to be in the worst case scenario possible. Getting chased through a park in Boston by picture-hungry paparazzi.

Roxy turned the volume up louder.

"Rachel, get in here, you have to see this!" she called out loudly. Rachel ran into the room just as the story on the escaped convicts was done, and the newscaster began speaking again.

"And, now moving on, we go to the crazy antics of Hollywood child Roxy Austin," the reporter said. His name was apparently Lenny Fitzgerald. "Austin, who has had several bad blows to her reputation these past few weeks, gets yet another hit. The socialite, daughter of famous pop singer Evelynn Austin, and plastic surgeon Adams Ausin, was moved to a private school in Boston a short while ago. The teenagers family was hoping she'd improve her behavior since then, but it has only gotten worse. People fear Austin may be showing signs of becoming the next Britney, at just seventeen years of age."

"Here is Diane Bridges, with the whole story," Lenny said.

"Thanks, Lenny," the brunette said. She was standing in what looked like a different part of the Boston Park.

"I'm standing here at the scene of the incident, where earlier today, teenager Roxy Austin was chased through this very park, followed by several other people who had begun taking pictures of her with the camera phone," Diane said.

"So, what exactly was the problem, you ask. Well, apparently, Austin was drinking a diet shake and looking excessively thin, when a photographer shot a picture of her. Here is the picture." The screen changed to a picture of a horrible-looking Roxy, her hair messy, sipping the drink innocently. Somehow, the photographer managed to get a shot of her where she looked like her bones were all sticking out. Either that, or he photoshopped the image.

"Reportedly, Austin has been refusing to eat and has been eating minimally since she came to McCallan Prep, the school she is currently at. Paparazzo Terence Quait even said she has been using laxatives and such to force out the food." Roxy rolled her eyes. This always happened; she wasn't anorexic at all. But the same had happened to her mother a few years ago, with photographers saying she was allegedly "bulimic", when even Roxy knew her mother, who ate quite alot, was not.

"Well, after the photographer took the picture, Austin reportedly tried to get rid of him, spilling the shake on him." Not true, Roxy thought. "She then tried running away from the scene, while more people followed." As the woman spoke, they ran a horrible video of Roxy running, from a view where Rachel couldn't be seen. "Austin apparently disobeyed many rules while running, although she eventually managed to get rid of the crowd."

The picture switched back to the reporter, as they started talking about what exactly was going on in Roxy's head.

"Ugghhh!" Roxy screamed, and ran into the large bedroom, slamming the door in the process. Throwing herself on the bed, she stuffed her face in the pillow. Roxy truly just wanted to cry, but just couldn't make the tears form.

"Roxy," she heard Rachel knocking on the door. A second later, Rachel had opened it and moved to sit beside Roxy on the bed, making the bed sink lightly.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Fine, actually," Roxy said sarcastically. "I mean, how am I supposed to feel now that I'm apparently "anorexic", "psycho", and "the next Britney"? How am I supposed to feel when my sanity is practically being debated on national TV!?" Rachel gave her a sympathetic look.

"You can punch the pillow if you want," she said helpfully. "Trust me, this will all blow over real quickly, just like it always does. Besides, it happens to everyone."

Roxy raised her eyebrows. "It's not happening to you," she pointed out obviously.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Duh. That's because I'm a nobody," she said simply.

Roxy stuffed her head back into the pillow, saying in a muffled voice, "Yeah, well I hate being a somebody. We could trade, if you want."

Rachel smiled at her sadly, and just held up the pillow for comfort. Roxy gave her a thankful look. Gathering all her strength in her right arm, she pulled back and punched the pillow as hard as she could.

There was no denying it felt good.

AN: Wow, that took pretty long to write. It's longer than most chapters in this story, mainly because I wanted to start making it better and putting actual effort into it, as opposed to the first five or so chapters, which were written crappily in the span of one week. I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading. Please review if you have time, because I'd love to hear what you have to say about the story, and whether you like it or not. Also, I'm open to any suggestions, so if you think anything should be different or can improve, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll try posting the next chapter sometime soon.