Second Chance

Chapter 1

A/N
I know I said I'd post this chapter at 8 EST but I was busy then so I am sorry that I'm posting 2 hours late. Thank you for your cooperation. Here is the first chapter of "Faith's Beautiful Music"! Hope you guys like it!

October 31, 2010

~Dream~

March 5, 2010

Roxanne's P.O.V.

"Terrible grade," Mr. Smife whispered as he slapped my test paper on my desk. "I expect more from you, Roxanna."

"It's Roxanne, Mr. Smife," I corrected him, tapping my foot on the floor in anger.

"Roxanne," he sighed, pressing his index finger on the table. "We only have two months until SAT's. If I were you, I'd start studying now. SAT scores are the only things that will help you graduate, unless you somehow get perfect on our next two tests. Please try harder."

He pointed to the grade on my paper before walking away. Forty percent. Perfect. Guess who was going to get yelled at when she got home? Me.

My parents weren't particularly bad parents but they were exactly good either. My mom was a nurse and my dad was a fireman and a part-time dentist, so we were rarely all together in the same place at the same time. My mom took night shift jobs and my dad was at the fire station every other week. This week was his week off, so he would be at the dentist until six o'clock, we would be having dinner at seven, and mom would be gone by eight. One and a half hour time-gap of punishments. But I wasn't really worried about it because I could hide in my room until I was called for dinner, then go right back to my room after. Ten minutes with my parents, avoid eye contact, get in and out as fast as possible and don't let the subject transfer to school. That was what I learned over the years.

I stared at Mr. Smife's back, giving him the middle finger under my desk until the bell rang a moment later. He spun to face us as we all gathered our things and smiled.

"I was proud of most of your grades. Others..." he looked to me, "need a little bit off help. But this year, I really feel that you all will do great on the SAT's and that several of you will do amazingly. Have a good weekend."

Weekends were mostly good. My mom worked more hours on weekends, too, and my dad would be gone this Sunday to be at the station. Tomorrow, he would probably be at the dentist, so I was almost completely free.

That had been the last class I had of the day, so after collecting everything I needed over the weekend, I followed the crowd of other seniors out of the building until someone pulled me aside.

A tall, lean figure wearing a t-shirt and jeans stood before me. Aaron.

"Aaron, what do you want?" I asked, annoyed, adjusting the bag on my shoulder.

"Party at my house tomorrow night at seven. Wanna come?" he suggested, his eyes pleading for a "yes".

"Uh...sure. I guess I can take time out of my oh-so-busy schedule to go to your little party," I giggled.

He laughed. "Cool. Come drunk. It's a lot more fun that way."

"Try stopping me," I joked and stepped around him, jogging down the front steps to my car.

I could not seem to piece together why Aaron James, of all people, would want me to go to his party. I mean, I didn't think we were friends; I always sat alone at lunch and did group projects by myself. Sure, we had a few conversations and occasionally he texted me, but I didn't classify us as friends.