The Next Big Thing [#Wattys2016]

Chapter Nine

"Rivalries are a thing here. A big thing. While a person can have the most loyal friends at Hawking, but you can also make many enemies, if you're not careful. And sometimes, you just can't help but make enemies, because sometimes, people just don't like you. While this happens in a normal school, the people that hold grudges are your worst nightmare, especially if they become famous, they can completely ruin your chances of being famous if they have a lot of power and influence. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. So, if I were to give advice, it would probably be something along the lines of be careful who you interact with here, it could make or break your future career."

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"Na... na, na, na... na, na, na, na, na, na," Athena sang as Monte played his guitar, "Na... na, na, na... na, na, na, na, na, na, oooooooooooooooooooooooooh."

Monte strummed on his guitar very fast for the ending of the song, and both smiled. Both were very happy with the results of the song so far, especially Athena. They had gotten all the instrumental work done, and it had turned out great. It was fun, but also had it's moments where it was slow and serious. The only problem was, they needed lyrics. They had both talked about making it an instrumental, as they were allowed, but they agreed that the instrumental wasn't strong enough to do what they wanted, and the song was designed with lyrics in mind.

"That was amazing!" Monte exclaimed, "I didn't even know you could hit that high of a note."

"Sometimes," Athena said, "I got lucky; most of the time I sound like a dying whale."

"And what does a dying whale sound like?" Monte asked.

"I would demonstrate, but we have work to do," Athena told him, both smiling, "More specifically, lyrics."

"Ah, yes, lyrics," Monte said, "Do you have any ideas?"

"Unfortunately no," Athena said, and thought for a moment, and then looked back at Monte, "Stop staring at me! I can't work under pressure like this!"

Monte held his hands up in surrender, and turned away, looking at everything else in the room, trying to avoid looking at Athena, while also trying to come up with a song topic. He finally turned back to Athena, who met his gaze, and rolled her eyes.

"Oh," she sang, "Ya know, I don't have a clue what to do. The lyrics aren't coming to me and I hope they are to you. And now you've got a grin that's got to go. This whole thing is going really slow. We can't keep wasting time. And I'm running out of rhymes."

"But that doesn't matter, 'cause I'm hearing your laughter," Monte sang, as Athena laughed, as he picked up from where she left off, "And I don't care that we're procrastinating, though this is kind of aggravating. We should really be moving along, and start writing our song."

Monte stopped, and both had smiles on their faces, and Athena had stopped laughing. Monte never failed to make her laugh. He was always able to make her smile, even when she was stressed or feeling down. She had to say that Monte was one of her best friends here, the other one being Wren. She liked to just be around him, and ever since they had paired up on this project, they had grown a lot closer than they had been before. They worked really well together, both discovered.

Finally, the bell ran, and everyone packed up their instruments, and began to leave the room. Mr. Samuels had already left the room before the bell rang, as he had a meeting, which should have been ending around then. Athena began to follow Monte out, but was tapped on the shoulder, and when she turned around, she saw Rowan standing there.

"Hey, Athena, can I talk to you?" Rowan asked, putting on her most serious, yet innocent, face.

Athena turned back to Monte, and nodded, "Go ahead without me. I'll be there in just a minute."