Dreaming In Stereo

Part 5 -- Lara Louise

She flung a curving lock of dirty blond hair over her shoulder, and tussled up her hair into messier waves. Her long, slender fingers rearranged the collar of her light blue polo tee shirt, which fell off her slender body with a certain ease, like water slipping through a tiny crack in a rock. As she looked around, her hazel eyes squinted, intensified, skimming through a crowd of light blue shirts.

And then she saw Jakob, staring right back at her. Their eyes caught with a flicker of a smile and Jakob, with a quick grin at Karl, started walking up to her.

"Hey Lara," He nudged her playfully, and she slithered out of his grip.

"Jakob." It was more of a statement. "Hey."

"Come on," Jakob grinned, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her body closer to his. "Let's go."

"But class doesn't start for thirty minutes," Lara said.

"Ah," Jakob said, feigning a wise voice. "But I've got something to show you. Actually, somewhere. Come on."

Jakob grabbed her by her thin wrist and dragged her through the crowd, up and down several flights of stairs until they reached the place that he had wanted to show her.

it was a cosy corner unnoticed by the rest of the school. There, they sat, watching the flood of students rushing down the corridor, talking loudly and without a care in the world. They didn't know that there were two thirteen year old students watching them.

"Nice, right?" Jakob asked. "Lara?"

"This is really cool," Lara replied. "How did you find this place?"

"Me and my friends sort of stumbled on it, I guess. It was a couple years back. Long story," Jakob said. Maybe one day he would tell her that story.

"So... Lara," Jakob said. "What... uh... what do you like to do? Like, what are your hobbies? Stuff you do in your free time?"

Lara laughed. "Relax, Jakie. I know what a hobby is. And um... I like photography, I guess. Singing, but I don't have the confidence to sing in front of audiences."

"Cool! Me too! I love singing," Jakob said. "Except I have sung in front of other people before. What about me? Do I count as an audience."

Lara thought for a moment, as if considering it, and then shrugged, tiling her head slightly.

"I don't know. Do you play guitar, too?"

"Yeah," Jakob said.

"How about after school today I'll met you... at your place? With my guitar and we can go to the park and I'll play you a couple of songs," Jakob said. "And maybe... if you've made up your mind.. You can sing too?" Jakob asked hopefully.

"Yeah, maybe."

School had ended only thirty minutes ago, but Jakob had already changed into a red and black flannel shirt and some dark jeans. His guitar case was strapped across his back. With some persuading he'd managed to get Mikaila to lend him her longboard and now, with the longboard in his hand, standing on his skateboard, Jakob was outside the door to Lara's home. He rung the doorbell.

"Jakob!" Lara answered. She was dressed in a tie-dye tee shirt and a pair of denim shorts. "Hey."

"Hey," Jakob replied, "Ready to go?"

"Sure," Lara replied with a grin. They set off to the park.

The park was pretty noisy as they entered. Mostly, it was just little kids dressed in school uniform screaming as they ran through the play structures, slid down the slides, and hung from the monkey bars.

Jakob and Lara found a pretty good spot on the sand, which was quiet enough for them to have a conversation without it being so quiet it was eery and creepy and the entire park could hear them talking.

There, they started to talk. Not about much. Just regular stuff, like football and rumors and pineapples.

"Oh!" exclaimed Lara suddenly. "I've got a friend... his name's Ethan. He's so obsessed with pineapples, you won't believe..."

"Like, Ethan Johnson Ethan? Ethan in our year Ethan?" Jakob asked.

"No," Lara replied. "Ethan from Geelong Ethan. He's a friend of one of my bestfriends who also sings."

"Oh," Jakob said. "On the subject of singing..."

He unzipped his guitar case, propped the guitar on his lap and played a few songs for Lara, who smiled and even started to hum softly for a few of them. A small huddle of kids arrived at one point, so Jakob smiled proudly and played a whole song for them. They clapped and then scattered. Jakob turned to Lara, who was smiling. Jakob blushed.

"Hey, Lara?" asked Jakob, his face turning a deep red. "Um... I was wondering, you know, maybe if we could do this again? But like, go out?"

Lara looked at Jakob, and she smiled, but it was a sad smile.

"You're great, Jakob," Lara finally said. "But I'm not looking for anyone... like that. I just want to be friends. Good friends," She added.

"Oh," Jakob said. "Oh. Sorry, I just thought..."

"No! Don't apologise, no," Lara said. She thought for a moment and then spoke up, "Hey, you know that friend I was talking about? My best friend who's friends with the pineapple-obsessed Ethan? Well, he's on this singing show right now. He's also great at singing. I'll give you his number and Instagram, you guys should totally meet each other."

"Cool," Jakob grinned. "What's his name?"

"Chris Lanzon." 

Next chapter coming up really soon. I promise.  :) (Also, the quality of this chapter really sucks because I wrote it in a hurry, but I'll edit it later.)