War? Check.

Chapter 1

Richard looked down at me. He's four years older than me, so he was a lot taller at the time. I'm still slightly shorter, but we're mostly on equal footing now. Wait, we're going too off-topic. I looked back up at him. He picked a bit of fluff off my t-shirt. I squirmed.

"Hold still, you." He grinned.

"Really? Was that necessary?" I moaned.

"I want you to make a good first impression, that's all."

"You sound like Mum. Honestly, nobody will care!"

"You sound like dad. Come on, let's go." He patted me on the back.

I walked with him to the receptionist. She looked up and winced, like she smelled rotting fish.

"Name?" She said distastefully.

"Ma'am, I want to sign Max Shinobu. Do you need a middle name as well, or-"

"No, that's enough." She said quickly. She eyed Richard from head to toe, from his backwards red cap, to his bashed biker jacket, to his scuffed denim trainers. "What's your relationship to him?"

"I'm his brother."
"Passcode?"
"Zodiac."

The receptionist sighed. "Fine. I'll let you in."

Richard smiled. "See you later, musician. You'll rival- er- what's his name... ugh, my brain has broken down- Nevermind. Point is, break a leg." I waved goodbye.

I walked in. It was like a theatre with no stage. Blue chairs surrounded a wooden floor, making a large rectangle. Despite the immense amount of chairs, everyone was sitting on the floor. I plopped down in a corner, pondering for the thousandth time whether my saxophone case was yellow or green. An overly smiley woman walked up to the front. "Hello, class! Today we-" She noticed me. "Have a new student! Please, come up to the front, dearie." I didn't particularly want to, but I also didn't want to know what she would do if I refused. I shuffled to the front. She grabbed my hand and started shaking it faster than my poor noodle arm could keep up with. "Wow, what a strong grip!" She said, despite me knowing for a fact I didn't have anything even close to one. "I'm Hannah, dear. Welcome to my saxophone class! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?"

"Uhhh..." I began. "I'm Max. I'm eight years old. I like reading, and, umm... saxophones."

"Very good. Go sit down then." Hannah said. I ran back to my spot. "Now, everyone, I think we should show our new student what we played last time. How about..." A hand wearing a red beaded bracelet shot up. "Ah, Rosie?" Rosie got up and grabbed her saxophone. Her hair was in a messy bun. She wore black circular glasses and a yellow jumper with a pink collar peeking out underneath. She started playing. Wow, she's good. Really good. I thought. She finished and smiled.

I sat in the hallway at the break we were given about twenty minutes afterwards. I was by myself, but I didn't really mind. Just me alone with my chicken mayo sandwich and my thoughts. Sounds depressing, but, in reality, I'm just that easy to distract. Rosie walked over to me.

"Hey! Are you lonely?" she asked. I shrugged. "Well, I am, so good luck trying to get rid of me!" She smiled. And, yes, indeed I couldn't get rid of her, but I didn't want to. She became my best friend after that- and according to her on numerous occasions, it was mutual. A lot of people thought she was my girlfriend. We just laughed, and then I proceeded to say I liked someone else anyway. Rosie always jokingly asked if it was my crush when we were about twelve, a girl named Kokona (Kokona never asked... for reasons that I'm not elaborating on). I then said: "You don't even know this person." and left it at that. Although she did flirt with me once as an April fool's day joke, but that didn't count... Well, I hope it didn't.