Love Actually - Sam's Story

Love Actually - Before Christmas

I'm Sam, 8 years old, and my stepdad thinks that there are worst things in life than falling in love. But what's worse than the total agony of being in love?
Her name's Joanna, like my mother, who has sadly passed away some weeks ago. Same name, ironic, isn't it ? I know I should be thinking about Mum all the time, and I am. But the truth is, I'm in love and I was before she died, and there's nothing I can do about it. To me, my Joanna's perfect. Her brown and smooth hair falls on the bronzed skin of her shoulders, her piercing hazel eyes complementing her beauty. Even her voice is perfect, it's feminine but also powerful as hell! I can't wait for our school's Christmas pageant, because Joanna's going to sing in the big finale -being a famous singer, her mother taught her to sing- it's going to be fantastic.
But back to reality: she doesn't even know me name, and even if she did, she'd despises me. She's the coolest girl in school, everyone worships her because she's heaven. That's why I'm basically fucked, as my stepdad likes to say, even though he is still trying to help me:

'Ask her out?'

'No, Dad, impossible'

'Try to become her friend?'

'She hates boys'

'Kidnap her and keep her tied up in your room until she agrees to marry you?'

'It's a route I've considered.'

Dad doesn't understand that even if she was interested in boys, she doesn't have any reason to be interested in me: I'm a simple guy with no talent and nothing special that would make me be better than the others to her eyes. And I'm not as cool as the other guys of school. Well, I actually don't even know how to be cool: I should ask my stepdad, as he's quite more cool than me. He might tell me what kind of cool guys girls like:

'Well, girls love musicians, did you noticed that even the weird ones get girlfriends? Ringo Starr married a Bond girl! But you don't-'

My dad's right, girls like musicians, but as he kindly tried to remind me, I don't sing, and I don't play any musical instrument, that's obviously a tiny detail. Tiny and insignificant detail that must not be an obstacle to conquer the heart of my beautiful Joanna. If I learn to play an musical instrument quickly enough, I might join the band in which she will sing at the Christmas concert, in 4 weeks. 
Persuading my father to buy me a drum kit was kinda hard, but once I got it, I quickly set to work, convinced that learning a musical instrument would only take a few days: probably the power of motivation.

Well. The Christmas concert is now in a few days, the school director gave me a place in the band and I'm not ready at all. My dad is tired of hearing the awful din coming from my bedroom -understandable. I'm panicked, I'm going to play before dozens of people, including my stepfather and Joanna. This is going to be a complete disaster, I will be ashamed for the rest of my life. Playing drums is too hard for me, I don't understand why my stepdad keeps thinking that I will be able to play well.

"Keep practicing, Sam, you will do it. Do you think Howard became a great drummer just because he wanted to ? There's much work before being successful."

Well. I'll try.