So Wrong, It's Right

Dear Maria, Count Me In

(Take a breath, don't it sound so easy? Never had a doubt now I'm going crazy, watching from the floor. Take a breath and let the rest come easy, never settle down 'cause the cash flow leaves me, always wanting more...)

For the next few weeks, the guys wouldn't stop smiling and we wouldn't stop celebrating. At band practice, Kara, Matt, Grieco and me were cheering loudly after every song, and then after practice they were always on the phone to their new management and label, trying to work tours out for after graduation. I loved seeing Alex and the guys happy, and he was writing some songs to show the label when they next went out, and I was knuckling down at school, making sure Alex kept up just enough to actually pass senior year.

I was lying on my stomach in Alex's room as he played some of his new lyrics on his new acoustic guitar while I did our final English project. This time, our project was on an author of our choice, and seen as Alex was pretty much wrapped up in the band, I'd chosen our author to be George Orwell, and the novels we were studying would be 1984 and Animal Farm, with our main theme being government control. Alex read Animal Farm, and did some notes for the project, and I read both of the novels and make our project work. When I've finished, I sigh dramatically and look up at Alex, strumming a few chords on his guitar. He looked down at, a smile growing on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "Now that you're done with that...you wanna hear a song I've been working on?" He asked eagerly.

"Sure, go ahead."I smiled, turning onto my back and looked up at Alex's bedroom ceiling before I closed my eyes when he played the first few chords.

"I got your picture

I'm coming with you

Dear Maria, count me in

There's a story at the bottom of this bottle

And I'm the pen

When the lights go up

I want to watch the way you take the stage by storm

The way you wrap those boys around your finger

Go on and play the leader

'Cause you know it's what you're good at;

The low road for the fast track

Make every second last

'Cause I got your picture

I'm coming with you

Dear Maria, count me in

There's a story at the bottom of this bottle

And I'm the pen

Make it count when I'm the one who's selling you out

'Cause it feels like stealing hearts

Calling your name from the crowd...and that's all I've got so far."

I open my eyes confused, and just stare at his ceiling for a few moments before I sit up and look at him, eyes wide. "Alexander! If that's about Maria in your History class, she might kill you you know if she ever hears it! You're making her sound like a stripper-or worse!" I yell at him, and all Alex does is laugh at me. I pout at him, screwing my eyes up and cross my arms. "Well then. I'm glad I'm a joke to you then." I huff.

Alex stopped laughing and looked at me, a smile on his face as he rested the guitar on the floor before walking over to me, standing over me and held out his hands. "Come sit on the bed and I'll tell you, okay?" I rolled my eyes and sighed at him, before letting him take my hands and pull me up, leading me over to his bed. I moved his guitar further away from us, because I'd already nearly killed it twice today, and I wasn't taking any chances. After I'd moved it safely away from me, Alex placed my hands on his lap and started massaging circle on the backs with his thumbs. He knew how much that calmed me down, and made me smile at his face when he did it, I just wondered why he was trying to calm me down. "Right, don't get mad okay? But...a few days ago in History I was paired with Maria for some stupid 'group work' task on Napolien or something, and she just turned around to me and said 'Hey Alex, I have a secret...wanna hear it?' and you know how much I'm a stickler for hearing secrets, so I was like 'yeah, sure tell me Maria' and she just whispered, 'I'm a stripper' with a smirk on her face. I swear she expected me to jump across the table or something, so when I just stared at her in shock, she just laughed, shook her head and started working."