That's All She Wrote || James Diamond

One Step At a Time (1.12)

The moment the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Roxy grabbed her bag and guitar and shot out to the pool. It was near impossible to get a nice lounge chair by the water on a day like today - perfect weather with just enough cloud cover to not worry about getting a sunburn. Besides, the band's first-ever media training class and interview were being held - something she was unable to assist with. Today was all about the boys and that was just fine with her. Now, she had plenty of time to catch up on her journal entries and there was plenty of time to work on her new song, tentatively called "Shot in the Dark."

While she typically journaled back in Minnesota, nothing that happened there was nearly as exciting as her adventures in Hollywood; she found her entries about her new star-studded life to be a source of joy and inspiration. The only issue she faced was the amount of time it took her to chronicle all she had been through. It was tough to do in front of the guys, but typically if they saw her book out they left her alone out of fear of messing up one of her lyrics and melodies. More often than not they tried to sneak peeks at what she was doing before she noticed and snapped it shut, maybe even giving them a good wack in the process.

Everyone needed somewhere they could let out their private thoughts without fear of judgment and her journal provided that for her. The freeform flow of thoughts, stories, or even inspiration didn't have to come in the ridged form of poetry or song lyrics though there was potential for the ideas to be used later on. Currently, she was hoping for song ideas, but all that flowed out were her current feelings toward Dak - something she definitely couldn't share with anyone else. The guys would just make fun of her and Camille and Jo were so happy with their love lives right now she'd feel bad for dragging them down with her feelings of confusion and passion for the teen idol. So, for now, the journal was her outlet.

Thankfully, she was able to get it all down before the band would inevitably come out to join her and she pulled out her acoustic guitar to strum out a few chords. When she played it out, the soft chords translated better on electric in her head but she'd head to the studio to test it out later when it was empty.

As she thumbed through her previous entries, a potential few lines popped into her head and she giddily wrote them down. It was always best when the lyrics wrote themselves.

The clock is ticking,

The world is spinning,

Our lives are passing us by...

Reading them over, she drew a line to a couple of areas where the verse might fit among the other ones she had written in hopes it would all connect later. And try as she may to not make this song about Dak, it was nearly impossible for her to create a made-up story like she did for "Any Kind of Guy" and write about that. The memory of her being stood up was intrinsically linked to "Shot in the Dark", so why was she still so interested in him when this song came from a place of pain?

"Ugh." She muttered to herself, stroking the pick in her thumb and forefinger down the strings slowly, enjoying the sound reverberating off the wood. "Maybe I should just make the first move."

A figure plopped down in the lounge chair next to her.

"Well, as flattered as I'd be, I'm not sure Camille would like that too much."

Roxy rolled her eyes as she turned to the new arrival, Logan with the rest of the band in tow. As they filed into the four seats to her left, James scoffed.

Sitting down beside her, he crossed his arms behind his head. "You should always be with a guy who makes the first move."

"How archaic of you..." She trailed off, slightly embarrassed they had heard her earlier comment. Quickly trying to change the subject, she watched as her friends settled in for some sun tanning. "Shouldn't you four be getting ready?"