The Lying Serpent

Chapter Twenty: Starstruck

"I swear, you're worse than Jessica from Starstruck!" I exclaimed, hitting Ryan in the shoulder with my bottle.

"'I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I've never been out here without someone telling me directions, and well, you're just as bad as I am with maps from what I can tell," Ryan defends himself.

"Yeah, well I can at least own it! How many times did you refuse to stop at a shop to ask for directions?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. We should've asked for help."

"Nuh-uh, you should've asked for help. I'm gonna call Nita, she's good at directions."

However, it seemed that we were just as bad at receiving directions through the phone then we were at following them ourselves. After twenty more minutes of failed attempts to find the campsite with Nita's help, Nita told us to stay put and that she'll be there within the hour.

Night had fallen, and it was chilly out. Despite this, I grabbed a blanket and laid it out on the hood of the car, before jumping on it.

"What are you doing? Who said you could jump on my car, Linda?"

"I did. Come on, when do you ever get to see the stars this bright? Let's live a Tumblr life, just for a night!"

With a groan, Ryan got out of the car and joined me on the blanket.

"I used to watch the stars all the time with my Dad. Before he had to leave, I mean. We'd drive out every summer to this hill far in the country. We'd have a picnic there in the afternoon and at night we'd just lie down and stare at the stars."

"I bet you miss him, huh?"

"Yeah, but it's ok. I've gotten used to it."

"You shouldn't have to."

"It's alright. Truly," I add to his unconvinced expression.

"Ok..."

"What about you? What's your family like?"

"My parents are still together. I have a younger sister. And a dog. Her name's Poppy and she's a Lhasa Apso. My mum writes and my dad's an architect. I live in an average two-storey house in a quiet neighbourhood."

I laughed. "You sound like you're filling out some sort of application form. Your mum's a writer? What has she written?"

"You probably haven't heard of her books. She writes adult fiction."

"Oh. That's still pretty cool though. I've always wondered what it'd be like to be an author."

"Are you any good at writing?"

"No," I replied, fiddling with the hem of my top. "Not really. I just enjoy it, you know?"

"That's utter bullshit," came a voice to my left.

I bolted upright, looking around only to see Nita.

"Oh it's just you," I sighed in relief. "Don't do that, you scared me!"

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, as I was saying, that's utter bullshit," Nita stated.

"What's 'utter bullshit'?" Ryan quoted.

"That she's bad at writing. Have you read her work? It's amazing. She's just a modest little shit."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "It's not amazing. It's mediocre, at best."

"Mediocre?" Ryan asked.

"See what I have to deal with? Little Miss Nerd here tries to convince us she's bad at writing, then uses words like mediocre! Anyway, Ryan you should totally read her work. She's actually a good writer."

"Wait...how long were you standing there?" I asked, curiously.

"Only long enough to hear how you wanna be a writer and how your work is bad, when in actual fact, it isn't. So, you guys ready to go?"

"Yup," Ryan and I said in unison.

"Creepy," Nita muttered.

"I call shotgun!" I raced to the car.

"Ok, whatever, lemme just talk to Sam. He's gonna drive my car back," Nita said.

Five minutes later we were on the road, Nita driving and Sam tailing us in her car.

"You know, now that I think of it, wouldn't it have been easier for Nita to drive in her car and we just follow her?" Ryan asked from the backseat.

I glanced at Nita and her eyes flicked towards me, a smile in them.

"That wouldn't have worked," she replied, amusement laced in her tone.

"Why not?" he asked.

I sighed. "Because one time we were driving out to Ley's bach and I was tailing Nita. I ended up losing her at the traffic lights and took a wrong turn. She had to come back and get me."

Ryan chuckled, shaking his head. "Wow, you really are hopeless. To be honest, I think you're Jessica, I'd be Christopher."

"Um, no, you're Jessica."

"No way! I'm Christopher, as if you're as cool as he is. Jessica is the damsel in distress, Christopher is her amazing, cool and hot knight in shining armour."

"Christopher has weird hair! Ok, so I love the movie, that doesn't change the fact Christopher had weird hair. Plus his face looked sorta fake in that movie. Also, who says I'm a damsel in distress? Plus Jessica is awesome, ok? Don't you remember her amazing speech on how the media portrays celebrities?"

"Ok, I admit that was cool, but she was sorta annoying."

"In what way?"

"I don't know, she complained a lot. She seemed highly strung."

"So? She's still amazing. And Christopher wasn't any better, he pretended he didn't know her!"

"Well, he was told to by that film director dude!"

"He didn't have to follow through with it!"

"Can you two shut the fuck up? In case you didn't notice it's like 9pm and I'm trying to drive in the dark. It's a little hard to see! And you two have been shouting, actually shouting in this fucking car about Starstruck?" Nita screeched.

"Sorry?" I replied timidly.

"You better be. By the way Ryan, Jessica was way better than Christopher," Nita added.

I grinned, and Ryan groaned in dismay.

"No she was not!" he growled.

And for the rest of the ride we debated who the better character was.

+++

A/N: Here's your update! Yes, I love Starstruck, it's one of the best DCOMs in my opinion. I have some of the songs on my phone, along with some HSM, Camp Rock and Descendants songs hehe. This is just a bit of a filler chapter, hope you enjoyed! Deds to FangirlQueenXoxo because maybe if i dedicate something to her the heavens while smile down on us all and hit her with beams of motivation and inspiration (or maybe because I'm a horrible person who wants some new books from her but who knows aye?) Until Friday peeps!

~ Mel