The Sound Of Silent Birds

Eleven

Hey :)

I stared at the small crumpled paper that had been thrown at my head seconds before looking up at our back facing English teacher. It couldn't hurt.

Hey, what's up?

I turned and placed the paper on Andy's desk, smirking as he flicked his eyes to look at me. I raised my eyebrows as a cheeky smile crossed his handsome features, as he scribbled in black ink.

Wanna come to band practise with me?

I looked at him with my 'you sure' look and he just chuckled and nodded slightly. I bit my lip as I wrote YES in rushed cursive.

"Miss Simms?" I lifted my head quickly, neck cricking in the process, to look straight into the eyes of Mr Read, our English Teacher. I rethought the last five minutes of class I had paid attention to, did he ask a question? Think, think, THINK!

"Yes?" I internally face palmed, that was quite literally the worst possible answer I could give, and even if I had not realized my mistake his face gave it away quite easily. Andy coughed beside me and my eyes followed his to the board where the question 'WHAT MAKES A BOOK A CLASSIC? WHAT TYPES OF BOOKS BECOME CLASSICS?', thank god, I gave him a grateful smile and turned back to the expecting teacher. "Um, it all chokes up to time and attention, if a book is well loved then it is usually well shared. If enough people love, read and share a book then it will never quite be lost, this may make it a classic in technical terms but there is no real formula behind what makes these particular books special. They just are. I guess it is simply luck of the draw." I smile as the entire class looks to me, eyes growing as Mr Read struggled to find a come back.

"Okay, you proved your point, however I expect your full attention from here on out. Understood?" I nodded weakly, trying not to laugh as Andy smiled like a dork. For a second I thought I almost heard a small 'that's my girl' but I could not be sure.

"Don't overthink things so," I whispered looking down, mentally scolding the butterflies in my stomach. It was that feeling, again.

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"Hey," I placed my tray next to Maddie's, signalling for the guys to come sit with us which, of course, they did.

"Hi," she spoke faintly, once again taken aback by the group of dark haired dudes that took up the remaining seats on our table. CC sat across from me with Jake on his right, they seemed to be discussing which bass made Ash look cooler, while Ashley tried to tell them he had already picked his guitar. Jinxx then sat next to Maddie giving her a small smile before digging into what looked like spaghetti as Andy slipped in next to me.

"... no dude, of course... the black ones cooler though... nah, not that into the grey..." I smirked as Ash rolled his eyes, looking to me in defence. I simply shrugged and took a long sip from my coffee, enjoying the small shiver in gave me, before speaking up.

"I think Ash should use what he wants, plus I haven't heard you play yet," with that all the boys turned to look at me, exchanging a few snickers and smirks, as Andy looked away. I shifted, "what?"

"Nothing, nothing, we actually got to go to practise about," CC looked to his watch, "right now, you wanna come?" I nodded my head furiously, causing them all to laugh. We all picked up our trays and stood, I gave Maddie one final wave.

"Bye," was all she managed to squeak out.