The Girl

chapter two

The legend himself, Andy Mayo, winner of three Academy Awards and author of two New York Times' Bestseller books, was standing in front of me.

"Wha... uhhh... wh... wow... " I slowly tried to talk.

"Uh hey, I'm Andy. And you must be Violet, right?" Andy greets me with an English accent.

"Ummm... yeah... what... oh... sorry, hi." I mumbled as I stuck my hand out to Andy.

Andy chuckled. "I'm sorry if I surprised you - I take it your mother hasn't told you about who I am yet?"

I attempt at talking but my mouth just opens and closes in awe.

"Violet, stop that! You're not a fish!" Mum scolds me.

My face flushes pink and I can't help but look over to my left to see Luna. She literally looks like she's just seen a ghost.

"And you're Luna." Andy continues over to give Luna a handshake but she glances at his hand and looks at me.

"I-I... I have to go... somewhere..." Luna stutters as she backs away towards the stairs.

Which leaves me standing alone with Andy and Mum.

"Uhhh, umm" I try to converse with Andy.

"Don't worry, I don't bite," He chuckles, "Please, don't be nervous around me. I really would like the oppurtunity to get to know you and I really don't think that's possible if you're intimdated by me or something."

"Uhhhh okay" I respond, still nervous.

" Well why don't we go into the lounge room and get to know each other?" Mum lamely suggests.

"That sounds great, love." Andy says with a grin.

We follow Mum into the lounge room and all sit in a circle on the couches.

"So Violet, tell me about yourself." Andy asks

"Well, there's not much to know. I'm seventeen years old, in high school. I'm in a band called 'Children of the Lost'," I say briefly with a smile, "I play the bass, piano, banjo, acoustic guitar and vocals. Not all at once, though" I add.

"Very nice. What are your favourite bands?" he asks.

"Uhh, that's hard. I love the classics, you know, Jimi, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Pink Floyd. Bands of this day in age, I like alternative music. Blink-182 are always groovy, uhh, The Killers, Grouplove, City and Colour, The Head and the Heart, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Rubens. There's too many to choose from - I could probably go on all night if I could."

"Since you guys seem to be getting on, I'll be getting some tea." Mum interjects.

"That's fine, dear. You've got quite a good taste in music. Say, you should come see my music room at my house back in the States. You'd feel right at home there. There's vinyls, cassettes, CDs, recording and producing equipment, everything you can imagine. You can make your own music there. " Andy grins at me.

I could feel my face light up with every word he said.

"Are you serious?" I ask, not believing him.

"Yeah, definitely. I'm sure your sister would enjoy that as well."

"Yeah. She would" I agree.

Mum then bursts into the room with a tray full of tim-tams, a coffee pot, a tea pot, sugar, four mugs, napkins, milk, and a cut up lemon.

"I have tea." She says with a smile as she sets the tray down on the coffee table and sits back next to Andy.

We all start grabbing what we want. I have my black tea with sugar and lemon. Andy just has a black tea while my Mum has a coffee, loading it up with milk and sugar.

"So how did you guys meet?" I question.

"Well, I was filming," Andy starts off, "and we were having a surprise party on set because it was the director's birthday. Your Mum made the cake, and while she was transporting it from the cake van to the birthday table, I may have stumbled a bit and ruined the cake."

"What are you going on about? You tumbled down the stairs and absolutely destroyed that cake!" Mum says, exasperated.

"Uhh yeah, well, your Mum went psycho at me and made me clean up the mess during lunch break. I got the party postponed two days and called in sick during those two days. I wasn't actually sick but I was helping your Mum rebuild the cake all over again. That was more grueling than acting, for sure."

"Darling, you did nothing! You sat next to me eating all the spare cakes."

I laugh, not sure if I should find it cute or grossed out by Mum's love story.

We have a 'family dinner' and Mum announces that Andy will be staying at our house for a while, since he has no filming to do.

After dinner, I decide to head upstairs to talk to Luna. She was lying on her bed, reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I swear, that's the only book she has. She has this 'deep connection' to the characters or something so, the book calms her down.

"Hey, Loony. What were you thinking about?" I ask Luna.

"Audrey is marrying Andy Mayo. I don't think I like this."

"Luna, I've been talking to him and he's a great guy. Listen, he has a music room at his house. It's basically like a library of the classic tunes but also has a recording studio in it. He invited us to see it. How amazing is that?!"

"But he's a Hollywood favourite." She says quietly

"So? He's a nice guy - I'm sure you'd love him."

"It's not that I don't think I'd like him, it's the idea of having him as my step-dad."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Think about it for a minute. The rumours, paparazzi, no more freedom. We'll become celebrities too. We'll constantly be bugged about 'how our Mum married him for his money' or who we're going out with. We won't have any privacy whatsoever. And I can't deal with that. It's all too much for me."

I guess I didn't think about that.

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thanks to everyone who has read so far - i really appreciate it. even the ones who don't vote.

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muchlove

boomboxed xx