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Chapter 37


Everyone at school was still ignoring me, but now they were staring at me. If no one had the guts to say anything to me, I could live with that. The only person who said something was Tyler. Chelsea was still out of school, spending her the next few days at the courthouse instead.

He grinned at me when he sat down, “so, how are you doing today?”

“Fine,” I shrugged, “nothing new. You?”

“Oh you know, I just went to buy a new notebook for my math class and walked by the magazines to get it…and saw this,” He pulled out the magazine and I scowled. He laughed, “You didn’t tell me you wanted to be famous.”

“I don’t want to be famous. I didn’t know they were going to put me on the cover.”

“That’s still really cool Ally, it’s Rolling Stone.” I wanted to roll my eyes; I knew it was Rolling Stone. Everyone kept saying that like it was a big deal. But it wasn’t to me. Brian and Howie called me congratulating me and like Alex, said they expected some co-writes on their album when they all went back into the studio in December. BJ dropped by with a box of cookies and gave me a hug and told me that it was about time another Carter made headlines.

“It’s just a magazine; I don’t see what the big deal is…”

Tyler rolled his eyes, “that’s because you grew up with your Dad being on the cover of this magazine. But to everyone else, it’s a huge deal.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek, “But I’ll shut up about it if it makes you uncomfortable.”

I looked at him gratefully, “thank you.” It felt like he always knew the right thing to say.

“Let’s go out on Saturday night, that cool with you?”

I grinned, “Definitely.” And then that was the end of that.





Chelsea freaked out when I showed her the magazine cover. She had come home from court and flopped herself down on my bed.

“I hope your day went so much better than mine.”

I shrugged, “Tyler asked me out for Saturday.”

She sighed, “You two are so cute together, I can tell already. For once, I’ll live vicariously through you, how’s that sound? Infinitely better than my day. ”

“Not really, everyone keeps mentioning this…” and I took the magazine out of my bag and tossed it on the bed.

At first she just stared at it, but then she gasped as she picked it up, “Holy shit Ally! You’re on the COVER!”

“I know,” I frowned, “isn’t it horrible?”

She snorted, “Horrible is not the word I would use.” Then she looked up at me, “although, I can see why you think that. You hate attention.”

I shook my head, “I hate unnecessary attention. I didn’t do anything besides be Nick Carter’s daughter to get on the cover of this stupid magazine. Even Tyler said something to me about it.”

She flipped through the pages and grinned when she landed on the article, “God you look hot Ally.” She laughed, “You totally wore those clothes to school that day, I remember, because I thought it made your boobs look good.”

“Shut up,” I whined. I wanted to drop the subject, “How is court going? You didn’t come home last night…I was worried.”

She frowned, “I was with my Mom. We’ve talked and decided that when Nick gets back, I’m going to move out and back with her.” She smiled at me, “She’s in therapy and she was actually being a mother to me last night.” Then she shrugged nonchalantly, “I miss her. I don’t know if we could ever have a relationship like you and Nick have, but I’d be stupid not to try right?”

I nodded. I agreed. Because of Nick and I, and the love that we had shown Chelsea throughout this horrible part of her life, she knew that it was possible for a parent to love their child in such a way that didn’t result in a horrible outcome. If I were in her shoes, I’d try anything to find it too. I didn’t even want to think about the person I’d be if I had Jen instead of Nick. It was like Chelsea had two Jen’s in her life and she knew that one of them had the potential to be a Nick.

“It’s almost over,” the hope in her voice brought tears to my eyes.

“Yeah,” I smiled and hugged her, “it’s almost over.”





I sat in front of Nick’s computer just as he texted me. I opened Skype and smiled when I saw his face. “Hi,” It was so good to see his face.

“Hey,” he grinned back, “How are you?”

“Good.”

“You look like you were just crying, everything all right? Did Chelsea finally come home?” I nodded. When he called me last night, I had told him that Chelsea didn’t come home, and he started to worry, but said she was probably with her mom, which had been true. “How is she?”

“When you come home, she’s going to move back in with her mom. She spent the night with her last night and she really wants to try and build their relationship again.”

“That’s good,” he smiled, “She needs that.” I nodded in agreement. “So, are you the most popular girl in school yet?”

I scowled at him, “No, they stare at me but they’re still ignoring me, thank God, but Tyler busted out the damn thing at lunch today.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I didn’t think it was a big deal because I grew up with you being featured in things like this all the time. But it’s a big deal to everyone else.”

Nick nodded thoughtfully, “he’s right.” I just stared at him. He agreed? “It’s normal for you.”

“I guess it is. I just feel like I didn’t do anything to get on the cover besides stand there looking pretty.”

Nick’s eyes crinkled, “It’s called modeling. Lots of girls do it.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “Yes but there’s an infinite number of differences between then and me.”

“I know, the most important difference is that you’re better than all of them.”

“No, the most important difference is that I didn’t ask for this.”

“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly, “When they asked if they could put you on the cover, I agreed because I want everyone to see you Ally. I used to hide you because I wanted you to stay my little girl forever. But you’ve proven time and time again that you’re not my little girl, that you’re an adult who can make decisions wisely and still wear her heart on her sleeve. It’s endearing, and I’m so fucking proud of who you’ve become, and I want everyone to know that.”

I blushed at his compliments. They were undeserved. “I love you Dad,” I whispered.

He flicked the computer screen and I could imagine the tip of fingers nipping at the tip of my nose, “Love you too Ally. But you know I always will.” He grinned, “You’re popular with my fans. They keep asking if you’ll join Twitter.”

“No,” I said.

“Oh come on, do it.”

“Why?”

“Because they want to talk to you,” he said. “You don’t ever really have to post anything, just do it. For me,” he frowned, “For my fans. They love you too.”

“How do I do it?” I had never gotten into the whole social media fad because I knew I’d get a lot of attention because of Nick. I didn’t have any friends so why would I need to join Facebook or MySpace? I saw Chelsea every day, why would I need to follow her on Twitter?

“Go to the website, and sign up.” He took me step by step through the sign up and grinned when I told him I was done. “What’s your username?” I heard him typing and clicking and when I told him ‘AllyCarter,’ a couple of seconds later I got an email telling me that Nick started ‘following’ me. “I tweeted at you. Go to your homepage and follow me girly.”

I did as he asked and grinned when I saw Nick’s tweet, ‘Everyone follow the most amazing girl I know, @AllyCarter, welcome to Twitter baby…’ “How many people do you think I’ll get followed by in the next twenty minutes?”

Nick laughed, “Probably a lot. Go through who I follow and follow each of the guys.” I did and a few minutes later my email inbox was flooded with alerts telling me I had a new follower.

“What should my first tweet be?” I had to admit, this was kind of fun, but I wouldn’t tell Nick that.

Nick laughed, “No idea, but Alex just tweeted at you.” I refreshed the page and grinned when I saw his tweet, ‘Ladies and gents, hell as frozen over, @AllyCarter, the 2nd love of my life, has joined twitter…’

I sent out the tweet ‘Hi everyone! @NickCarter made me get a twitter, this is kind of fun, but don’t tell him, shh… ;) Love you dad’

Nick saw it and laughed, “Click on your replies page.”

“Whoa, all these people are talking to me!” I looked through the replies, some were saying hello, some were telling me that I had an amazing father, but most were telling me how beautiful I looked in the magazine. “I had over 200 followers already!”

Nick laughed, “Look at you being popular.” I laughed and shook my head.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Am I really getting writing credits on Aaron’s single?”

He grinned, “Yes, in fact, I have your first royalty check for you.”

I think my eyes popped out of my head, “are you kidding me?”

“No, all the writers get paid for writing the song, and they get paid more if the song does well on the radio, which you know…” he smiled softly, “it just hit number five.”

“This is insane, it all happened so fast.”

“That’s fame for you. It hits faster and harder than a ton of bricks.” He gave me a pointed look, “but it can disappear just as fast.”

I nodded in understanding. It wasn’t that way for the famous people in my life, but some of Nick’s friends had experienced fame for a short while. Even Brent had experienced it, and for him, it seemed to end quicker than it appeared. Now he worked for an insurance agency, writing claims all day. I knew that Nick and Aaron were some of the lucky ones.

“How much is my check for?”

He grinned, “You’re not touching any of it. I’m putting it in your college fund.”

“Like you need help paying for my college,” I teased. “Just tell me, how much was it?”

“$3500. And I know you’re going to an Ivy League, I need all the help I can get.”

I ignored the last part. I was still stuck on the first. “$3500, just for making a few offhanded remarks?” Holy crap.

He laughed, “Kind of cool, isn’t it?” Then he winked, “Hey, if you’re not busy tomorrow night, I think you should stream the radio station out here so you can listen to your Dad do what he does best.”

I gave him a pointed look, “second best, after taking such good care of me.”

I swear I saw his cheeks pink through the computer screen, “fine, second best then.”