Across The Stars

Chapter 1.

"Sixty-one cents and your receipt. Have a lovely day." I say with a smile.

"Thank you. You too." The gentlemen says before taking the bag from me.

I watch as he heads towards the entrance of the music store, holding the door open for Astrid.

"Are you going to play something for me, Anna?" She asks as she removes her sunglasses.

I smile at the kind old woman who owns this store as she waddles towards the storage closet.

"The piano hasn't been tuned yet. The tuner called to reschedule for tomorrow. Something about a crisis at one of the high schools and an untuned piano which they need for a concert." I say with a sigh.

"That's too bad." Astrid says. "I love when you play for me."

"If you want, once I get off you can come upstairs with me and I'll play for you."

"No, no. I don't want to intrude." Astrid gushes.

"You own the whole building!" I protest.

"Its quite alright, dear. Really." Astrid says before disappearing into the closet.

I shrug and lift the records off of the counter that I had just finished cleaning before maneuvering around the shop to put them back in their rightful places.

I started working at The Music Inn almost four years ago when I moved out of my parents' house.

Usually, when a child leaves home, it's to spread their wings. They go off to school, get married, get a job, or maybe all of the above.

But in my case, my life was anything but usual.

Let me rephrase that.

Being the daughter of Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Josephine Langford was anything but usual.

My parents had an epic love story.

They fell in love on a movie set, faced the ups and downs of an overly exposed relationship, and have managed to be happily married for almost twenty years with the perfect daughter.

Oh, and Beau too.

My parents have been through hell and back to get to where they are today.

But I wanted no part of that hell.

I wanted to be my own person.

My parents, bless their hearts, were willing to pay for the expenses of music school much like they've paid for everything else in my life.

However, I was almost twenty-two and I took my music very seriously.

I didn't want my parents' fame to interfere with my chances of having as fair of a shot as anyone else.

I wanted to be told whether I was good or not based on talent alone instead of my birth name.

Usually, when I did gigs, I performed under the surname Star.

It helped conceal my identity for the most part, but the fact that I was the spitting image of my mother didn't help.

My mother used to play piano for me when I was a baby. Even before I was born, according to her.

I fell in love with the piano and I've been playing for as long as I can remember.

I begged my dad to take me to piano lessons when I was old enough, but we had to have an instructor come to the house.

It didn't bother me much then as it does now, given that it was just the idea of being taught how to play the piano.

But now I release how sheltered I've always been, until I up and left.