Under The Surface

Chapter one

The early morning September sun glared through the neighbourhoods of Long Beach, New York. At a small cosy house at the end of the street, the warm sun slowly peered through the bedroom window and onto the face of Aisyah Chen. The light of the morning sun complimented her brown skin. The peaceful morning was brought to a halt as a sharp knock came from the door, followed by a voice which said "Aisyah, time to get up, I don't want you late for your first day of senior year". Aisyah jolted up in surprise. "I'll get ready now Papa". She gently rubbed her eyes and slipped on her White puppy slippers. As she opened her bedroom door she peaked down the hall towards the kitchen and saw her baby sister, May, giggling while munching on a piece of toast. Aisyah smiled and headed towards the bathroom. She turned the taps on the bathroom sink and waited until the water ran warm before taking a handful to her face. She grabbed a face towel to pat her face dry and gazed into the mirror. She took her hair out of the buns she put it in before she went to bed. Her black hair fell into ringlets around her face. She ran her fingers through it to remove as much knots as she could . She moved the shorter pieces out of her face and pinned them with Bobby pins. Aisyah made her way back to her room to get dressed. The Autumn chill of September had really started to settle in. She dug around in her closet until she found plain black jeans and a turtleneck in her favourite colour, Lavender. She slipped on a pair of black socks with pumpkins on them, before grabbing her school bag and making her way to the kitchen. The kitchen had the strong scent of bacon and eggs and toast, which had been lingering around the house for some time. As Aisyah walked in, taking a breath, her stomach rumbled. Her father looked over his shoulder at her and raised a plate full of food to her face with a warm smile. "Here you go. Eat up you have a big day". Her eyes glanced down at her food. An omelette with sourdough toast, her favourite. She eagerly began shovelling the food down. As she ate she looked around and noticed her Ma hadn't joined them. "Papa..." she began. He looked up from cleaning May in her high chair. "Where's Ma?". He got up from his seat next to the high chair and walked over to the counter where Aisyah was sitting. "She's actually had some really good news, she's been promoted to manager in the salon, so we'll have more money this year."He said with a warm smile. "But that does mean she has to get there a few hours before opening and sometimes stay after closing." Aisyah grinned happily at the news. "That's awesome, Pa!" She exclaimed as she happily embraced her father. He looked down at his watch and said "Oop, we don't wanna be late now do we?" Aisyah put her dishes on the sink and went out to the porch to put her shoes on, while her father got May out of her high chair. Aisyah opened the front door to the crisp morning air. She scooped up her old converse that used to be white, but are now covered in drawings and random quotes from theatre in black sharpie, and sat down on the porch step to put them on. Her father came out with May and slipped on some old Uggs. He put May in her car seat and they drove off.

In a different neighbourhood, a girl sits in her Silver Toyota Camry, waiting for her friend. She has dark brown eyes, and dark red hair that's tied into low pigtails. She's wearing beige corduroy pants, a sage green crewneck sweater and a blue and white school sport team jacket that had her name "Naoise" printed on the back. She tapped her feat to the music on the radio while she adjusted her "Swim Team Captain" badge on her jacket. She glanced towards her friends house again, waiting for her to walk out. The front door of her friends house swings open as her best friend, Alana Browne, walks out. Naoise shook her head upon seeing Alana. She winds her window down "Jeez Lana, what took you so long?" Alana paused in the middle of her yard and placed a hand on her hip. "Naoise....it's fall, obviously I'm gonna take longer, I want my Pinterest to pop off. I'm totally gonna take pics on the grassy area with all those trees." She said as she got in the passenger seat. Naoise turned to her friend "you mean near the theatre room, right?" "Yeah, that's it! It looks so aesthetic during fall. I wish we would've planned matching outfits, we could've had such cool pics for your Insta!" She whined. "But to be honest I don't know how a "fall aesthetic" photo would fit into your Insta, you've already got a theme with all those underwater pictures you take." Naoise nodded, eyes focused on the road. "That's true. Still would be cute to take fall pics in matching outfits though." Alana squealed in excitement. "Yay! What outfit should we wear? What do we have that's matching?" Alana began flicking through photos of them on her phone, trying to find any matching outfits they had. "Naoise tilted her head, but her dark eyes still firmly on the road. "What about those plaid overall thingys we got over the summer?" Alana turned off her phone and stuffed it into her pocket as she said "oh my gosh yes! That's perfect! Should we take them tomorrow?" Naoise nodded "Yeah, I have a swim team meeting early though so it'll have to be during break." "SWEET!" Alana beamed as she turned up the radio.
Naoise gently parked up into the student parking lot, Alana immediately got out, bouncing with excitement. "There's practically nobody here, which means there'll be nobody in the background." She said in a giddy voice. Naoise smiled while getting her school bag and gym bag from the backseat. "I wonder why nobody's in, I can't even hear the choir kids today." She said, puzzled. She took her car keys from her jacket pocket and locked her car as they walked off towards the theatre room.

Aisyah stepped out of her dads family wagon, and looked towards the school which seemed unusually empty. She took one last glance at her father and sister in the car and waved them goodbye. She headed towards the locker corridors to put a couple books in and then took off to the theatre room. The corridors of the school had a lot more students, Aisyah now realised it was because of the cold weather. She walked past all the students in the hallways and exited the main building, walking down the path that lead to the arts building . As she came closer, she noticed two girls taking photos under the maple trees. The girl sitting down had long beautiful blonde hair that looked soft and had been styled into loose waves. She was wearing an oversized teddy jacket and a pair of black velvet flares. She was also holding a pumpkin spice drink and posing with it. Aisyah recognised her. Alana Browne, she was a very popular student, and a very talented photographer. She took most of the promotional photos for the school and school newspaper. She had worked with the drama club a couple times, to teach them how to use the camera and filming equipment correctly. Aisyah took her eyes off Alana and her gaze fell on the girl taking the photos. Her hair blended perfectly with the falling leaves, her gaze seemed cold and empty, but her smile was warm and soft.  She was like autumn personified. Aisyah recognised her too, Naoise Davis, the school swim champion. As Aisyah got closer and closer, she met Naoise's eyes and immediately looked away. She reached the arts building and took a deep breath before opening the door to the theatre room. When she opened the door she was met with the usual chaos of the other students. She smiled while looking around the room. The theatre class had been her home ever since she got here. She looked around until she saw a thin tall boy with faded blue hair. "You grew so much over the summer, Felix." Felix looked up from his phone. "I've been texting you all morning, why do you never answer your phone?" Felix whined. Aisyah's hand sprung into her pocket to pull out her phone. "Shit sorry man, I literally forgot to check it when I got here." She laughed awkwardly. Felix chuckled. "Eh nevermind. Mrs. Gall was looking for you, she'll be back soon she stepped off to go get the posters for our production or something."
"She's made the posters already?"
"Uhh yeah, apparently we're doing a short film this year since the auditoriums getting renovated."
"Do you know what the produ-"
Aisyah was cut off by Mrs Galls loud but melodic voice coming from behind the stage.
"Welcome back, I hope you all had a lovely break. Won't one of you give me a hand with these posters?"
A wave of students walked over to Mrs Gall. She was a short chubby woman with a beautiful face. She had short, fluffy brown hair that sat above her shoulders, sparkling grey eyes and very full lips. She wore a knitted green sweater, black dress pants and black low heeled boots that made a "click" sound when she walked. When everyone had gotten a handful of posters off of her, she turned to Aisyah and Felix.
"Aisyah how lovely to see you! I trust that Felix got you caught up with everything, yes?"
"Umm mostly.... I'm just not sure what the short film is about. What film are we doing?"
"That's a great question." She began. "Everyone please listen up." The murmuring of students came to a sudden halt. "This year we were supposed to do a stage production, however due to renovations, we won't have the auditorium to perform on." There was a disappointing chatter amongst the class. "However," she continued "I have decided we put our filming equipment to good use and record a full length short film!" She beamed with excitement as she held up one of the posters. "And the movie we're doing is, The Little Mermaid!" The was a small applause amongst the class.
"When are auditions being held?" Asked a student towards the front.
"We'll hold auditions on Wednesday and they will run for 2 weeks." Miss Gall took a seat at the edge of the stage. "Now that that's all cleared up Aisyah and Felix, please come here."
Aisyah and Felix stood up in unison and walked over to the edge of the stage.
"I need you two to please go put up these audition flyers around the school, I need to teach the rest of the class how to handle the filming equipment."
"Sure thing ma'am." Said Felix, grabbing a pile of flyers and tape.
"If there's any leftover flyers please put them back in here on the desk, I should be here after this period ends anyway."
"Okay Mrs Gall." Smiled Aisyah as Felix pulled her by her arm out the door, towards the main building.