My Lucky Number is Fourteen (HSMTMTS)

11. Personal stuff?

"So, are you excited for homecoming?" Kourtney asks as we wait in the bathroom for Nini. She's taking a long time in there.

"I'm not going. I've never even been to one." I mean, by the time my freshman year of high school rolled around, I was already consumed with homework and being a year under everyone else, it just got too awkward to spend much time around them. Sophomore year was consumed by High School Musical, along with junior year, so I've just missed them all. And my high school had a seniors-only prom, so that wasn't an option, either.

"You've never been to a homecoming dance?" Kourtney asks, before diverting her attention to Nini. "You doing okay in there?"

"Too big to go down." Please don't tell me this bathroom is about .2 seconds away from flooding.

"Top ten things I never want to hear in a public bathroom." Preach, Kourt. She opens the door to the stall to reveal Nini trying to flush her homecoming dress down the toilet. "Honey, there are better ways to deal with this."

"I'm not mad, I'm empowered." Nini, I'm not dumb, and nor is Kourtney. She's still pissed at EJ, although less now because of his apology. But, homecoming is probably a painful reminder of what she never got with him. "You know what we should do? Girls' night."

"We just did Bachelorette and face masks last night." You two did. I did not.

"No, like a night on the town." I'm gonna pass. I'll spend my homecoming dance watching three more Disney movies and stuffing my face with popcorn.

"Like an Anti-Homecoming Homecoming?" Nini nods in agreement as I slip behind Kourt and overhear one thing that I wish I didn't have to.

"You're going to take me to homecoming." Gina and EJ. Never would have seen that coming. Can someone in this school not talk about homecoming? Finding the bomb shelter with its wooden piano, I sit on the bench, hoping for some kind of inspiration. A new song I can add to my songbook.

It's been forever since I've written a song, well like six months my time, but still that's long for it being my job. Well, it was my job.

"Met you at a bar after a few too many" Oh, wow, that's good. Not that it's even close to my life, but as long as there is a good story, whether it be real or fake, the song ends up good.

"Partied on the dance floor kinda funny
When my eyes met yours, oh honey
I wanted nothing more than your loving" That's a good start. Pulling out a notebook from my backpack, I write down what I just sang, with the chords I was playing as well, in a notation that I understand, but no one else can manage to decipher. Placing the notebook on the piano, I start to think of the pre-chorus and chorus.

"Don't deny the chemistry
Leave me with both sets of keys
Leave me alone when I want to be
With you
Don't deny the chemistry
Stand at the front door and watch me leave
Hang with the guys instead of me
And you

Don't deny what we're meant to be
Do-o-on't deny the chemistry" Oh, I could do this as a duet. First verse and chorus girl, second verse and chorus guy, bridge is a bounce between them, and the final chorus is both of them.

"Yes!" I whisper, not realizing someone is standing at the door as I jot down my ideas on the back of the page, before coming up with a whole story line and thinking of most of the lines faster than I can write them down.

"So, what are you working on?" EJ asks, startling me. "It sounded pretty."

"Oh, nothing really." I shrug, closing the notebook. Same notebook since 2003. My mom managed to keep it from yellowing a ton, although it's clear it's not new.