The Not-So-Average Life of Emma B. Jackson [COMING SOON]

Chapter 1: Karaoke in the Park

Special thanks to Ganna99 for the INCREDIBLE cover. Thanks, love!! <3

            “You’re seriously going to write at a time like this?”

            I looked up from my notebook to see Ella, my best friend, standing above me. She had her hands on her hips, her head cocked to the side, her eyes boring into me, demanding to know how I could possibly not be paying total attention to her as she attempted to sing the entire Phantom of the Opera soundtrack in five minutes. And I say attempted because, a) Operas are, like, impossible to sing, b) There is no way you could sing all of The Phantom of the Opera in five minutes; it’s, like, a two and a half hour movie, and, c) Ella is completely and totally tone deaf.

            “Okay, okay, sorry,” I said, reluctantly closing my notebook. My writing was the only thing that made me the least bit special, and I wasn’t even all that great at that. “Knock yourself out.”

            “Okay, ready?” she said, bouncing on her toes excitedly.

            “Any day now!”

            She opened her mouth, and, taking an exaggeratedly gigantic breath, burst into the first verse of “Think of Me.”

            Now, I don’t know if you’ve seen The Phantom of the Opera, but those of you who have will know what I mean when I say that she sounded a lot like Carlotta when she croaks. Imagine, like, a gasping frog or something. That’ll give you a pretty good idea of Ella’s voice, except she was about a gazillion times louder than any frog will ever be.

            We were sitting in the middle of a little park that’s right in between our houses. We live on opposite sides of a gigantic neighborhood, so we always met in the park whenever we hung out. Ella was so loud, everyone in the park turned to stare at us.

            And here’s what makes Ella so remarkable: she didn’t care. She’s the sort of person who makes a total fool out of herself on a daily basis, but she doesn’t even care when people stare. She’s loud and obnoxious and certifiably insane, and everyone knows it. Her looks make her stand out, too; she’s larger than most girls our age, which makes her really hard to miss. Everything from her loud, high-pitched voice to her hilarious facial expressions to her tendency to shout out really stupid stuff screams for attention. Even her name is totally different: Ella Baehr, pronounced bear. Most people just call her by her first and last name, assuming “Ella Bear” is just a nickname. She’s the total opposite of me; she’s extraordinary.

            Honestly, the only real reason that she and I became friends is our music taste. Ella is the only person I’ve met in my entire life who listens to the same music that I do, which is basically a little bit of everything. Everything from Lana Del Ray to the SwanLake soundtrack to classic rock to Katy Perry to, you guessed it, The Phantom of the Opera. And, besides our similar music taste, she really needs somebody quiet like me to balance her out.

            A little old lady came up to me. “Is everything all right? Do I need to find an ambulance?”

            Ella stopped abruptly. I held back a laugh. “Oh, no, we’re fine. Ella was just… singing.”

            The lady shook her head, turning away. “I’ll never understand music these days,” she muttered as she walked away.

            Ella and I looked at each other for about three seconds before bursting into laughter.

            “Oh, my God…”

            “She thought you were, like, dying!” I said between fits of laughter.

            Ella laughed even louder. Her high-pitched, somewhat squeaky laugh echoed throughout the park.

            “Oh, God, I can’t breathe!” she squealed, wiping a few tears from her eyes.

            “Um, excuse me?”

            Ella whirled around to see a middle-aged woman tapping her shoulder.

            “Uh, yeah?”

            “You’re disturbing my children!” she snapped. “Please, stop being so… loud!”

            Two pitiful-looking children were laughing and playing nearby. They didn’t look the least bit “disturbed.” The only one who seemed bothered was the lady.

            I coughed, trying to cover up my laugh. “Sorry, ma’am. I’ll keep her under control.”

            She sniffed. “Thank you,” she said tightly, turning to walk away.

            Ella giggled. Then, I did, too. Soon, the two of us were trying as hard as we possibly could to not laugh loudly. We didn’t want to disturb that lady’s children, after all.

            After our little laughing fits, I pulled out my notebook and began scribbling frantically.

            She paused. “You’re writing again?”

            “This is material for my novel!” I snapped.

            She rolled her eyes. “You’re, like, obsessed with writing.”

            “Yeah. So?”

            “When are you gonna let me read any of it?” she asked for about the bajillionth time.

            “Uh, never?” I said, almost a question.

            You’d never expect it, but Ella loves to read. She reads almost as much as me, which is saying something, because I can start reading a novel a 9:00 and finish before noon.

            She groaned. “That’s not fair!”

            I rolled my eyes. “Once I’m published and wildly famous, you can read it.”

            She sighed. “Fine.”

            “Look, I gotta go. Mom wanted me home before five, and you should probably go home before somebody calls the police on you for being a public disturbance… again.”

            “Oh, whatever. That was an accident!” she said, laughing. “Besides, I wasn’t being that loud…”

            I stood up, heading to my house. “Yeah, you were.”

Author's note:

This story isn't going to really be updated for a while. I want to work on #tourlife first, so after I finish that story, I may work on this one. But I'm not really sure. I'm not sure where this plot is going, so I may not ever write it at all. I don't know. 

I'd love any comments, though!

I love you!

Jackie <3