Stepsisters

Chapter Ten

"Ashton! Ashton, over here!" a reporter called. She had tracked the famous singer Ashton Richards to his apartment in California.

Ashton looked out his bedroom window. It was very early in the morning. He had woken up half an hour ago to text his girlfriend, Chloe. He knew that she knew about the time difference from New York to California,  so he was surprised when she texted him so early in the morning. But he understood why when he Googled his name. There were rumors about him dating Chloe's stepsister, Ella.

Ashton called for his parents. Although he was famous, he still lived with his parents, because he was only seventeen, and he loved his parents.

"What is it, Ashton?" his dad called sleepily from his bedroom.

"The media is here," Ashton said.

His parents got up and went into Ashton's room. They found Ashton looking out the window.

"What is it this time?" his mom sighed. She fully supported Ashton's famous life, as he had wanted to be a singer since he was little, but she hated the media.

"Rumors that I'm dating Chloe's stepsister," Ashton said. She seems to believe it, too, he thought. He understood why Chloe didn't fully trust him. Or anybody. She had to hide from the world because they beat her down constantly. They beat everyone down, but it was harder for people that were always in the spotlight. This caused her to hide her emotions and to not trust anybody. This made Ashton upset though, because he had always been there for Chloe.

"I'll deal with this," his mom said. She went downstairs to go argue with all of the reporters.

"I wish I could go visit Chloe," Ashton said to his dad. "I know she's only been gone for three days, but she'll be at her stepfamily's house for the rest of the week. And after that, her tour..."

Ashton's album didn't release until October, so his tour wasn't until next summer. Chloe's album had released in May, so her tour started next week, the first week of July.

"You must miss her," his dad said. "She'll be gone until..."

"September," Ashton answered quietly.

His dad looked at him. "Why don't we go visit her, then? She's in New York, right?"

"Yes," Ashton said. "Are you serious?"

"I am," his dad said. "Not only will you be able to see Chloe before she leaves for her tour, but also, it will throw the media off."

"This is great!" Ashton said. He couldn't wait to see Chloe again.

"We'll leave as soon as we can," his dad said.

Back in New York, Rachel sat in the editor's office at Seventeen. She couldn't decide whether she was in trouble or not. The rumor had caused lots of visits to Seventeen's website, but Chloe Haywood had said it wasn't true on Twitter.

Finally, the editor called Rachel in. She was frowning. Rachel took that as a bad sign.

"You're fired," the editor said. Rachel's heart started beating erratically. The internship she had worked so hard for her entire life, ruined by her little sister in seconds. "Here at Seventeen, we don't spread rumors. What is that teaching our readers? Not to mention that the rumor was completely untrue. Chloe said it herself on Twitter this morning. Plus, Ashton is in California right now. He wasn't in New York with Ella yesterday. You're fired, Rachel. I thought you knew better."

Rachel took all of her stuff and left the building, quietly crying. She had worked so hard for this, and now it was ruined. Ruined by her own sister.

Maybe she could get an internship at another magazine. A lot of other magazines were taking the rumor as truth, and also spreading it like wildfire. Maybe if they found out that it was Rachel who reported the rumor...

But Rachel didn't want to work for those kinds of magazines. She wanted to be the kind of journalist who was honest, ethical, and only reported what she knew was the 100% truth.

"Wait!" the editor called from behind Rachel. Rachel turned around. "It turns out that Ashton Richards was spotted in New York a minute ago. Maybe your rumor is true after all."

Rachel was shocked. Wasn't Ashton in California? Maybe not. She walked back in to the building with the editor. She had her internship back.