Alexandria's Answer (Ben Bruce Fan Fiction)

Chapter 1 - Not The British Average

School was the thing I hated the most. I truly felt it was a waste of my life. All the people were the same and if you dared to be different you get condemned for it. You see, this was my crisis. People were scared of me because I didn't follow the guidelines of what a normal kid is portrayed to be. Who wants to be normal anyway? There's no fun in that at all. Plus, you are more likely to be remembered when you are different and not sink into the background, but like most things, that has its good and bad points.

I fumbled around in the girls bathroom clumsily, as I fixed my hair that always seemed to go out of place somehow. It was winter, and the frosty breeze made people look more unattractive than usual so today, I couldn't care less.

I slid out of the purple door, into the social area to find kids bustling in and out of the doors, others stood around as if they had all the time in the world. They stared at me like I was some kind of freak, but I'd rather be a freak than popular any day. Avoiding the group of boys, I steeped out of the social area and out into the school yard. I wasn't even going to risk going through the corridors. You're lucky if you get out alive! People can be so oblivious to other peoples feelings.

I listened carefully to the sound of my Dr Martens shuffling along the gravel as I fixed my tie that was blowing frantically in the wind. I watched my tired, cold classmates strolling to their lessons. They all looked the same, they all said the same things. For once I would love it if something different happened.

Slowly, I followed the concrete path towards the reception, just wishing my feet would move me faster towards the warmth that I desired so much. My legs climbed up the small steps unhurriedly as if they weighed a tonne but in reality I was literally weightless.

Floating along on my calm and careless ambiance, the school bell rang frightening every part of me. Don't these people have ears that work? Gosh... That thing was so loud, I'm surprised the receptionist could hear at all. It left me slightly deafened as I banged the palm of my hand against my head trying to regain my hearing.

"Excuse me?" I heard an unfamiliar voice uttering behind me, causing me to turn. Before me stood the new kid. Allegedly a "Bad Boy" but he seemed pretty innocent to me. There was something I liked about him. The way he stood out... The way he wanted to be different. As you can tell, I loved that. I stared in awe at his flawless sight, becoming less articulate by the second. His shoulder length brown hair was the nice kind of messy and was partly scraped back into his grey beanie. His blue eyes shot out at me like a lightning bolt on a stormy night. The way his spider bites moved when he smiled. Finally I realised just how long I had been staring for and dragged my eyes away reluctantly.

I stiffled out a nervous laugh the same time he did. I could feel my frostbitten cheeks burning with a blush of embarrassment. Why did this always happen?

Finally, he found the urge to speak, "Can you show me where the music rooms are?" he asked with a smile less timid than the last one, "You look the type to be well into music" he added with his perfect British accent.

I nodded with a smile, "Sure, I'm on my way there now and thanks... That's a big compliment" I lead the way down a brightly lit corridor, gliding along with the smell of disinfectant that stuck in your lungs no matter how hard you tried not to breath it in.

He followed me obediantly down a staircase to the bottom floor where the music and drama rooms were kept. Silence was amongst us for a few moments, I was never good at communicating though.

"So uhh... What's your name?" He asked, turning the corner with me as faint raindrops become audible as they crashed against the windows.

"I'm Alexandria" I answered keeping my eyes to the ground because I knew I would get lost in his eyes again.

"Can I call you Alex?" he asked like most people usually did. There was something I didn't like about the name Alex though, it was too common whereas Alexandria was slightly more unique.

"No just Alexandria" I stated firmly, trying to warm my hands up desperately.

"If you insist" He sighed making me feel guilty, "It's a beautiful name... Alex" he grinned as I rolled my eyes. Please not another flirt. I had enough of that from my friend Cameron... There was just something that got on my nerves about flirts.

"I mean it!" I pushed with an immature giggle, trying to hide it with my hand. I pointed over to his music room and watched his face turn neutral as I turned to walk away.

"Alexandria..." He called me, "Thank you" He smiled genuinely, showing his perfect white teeth. I just couldn't help but smile back as I let myself into my music room.

Four tired faces stared back at me as I let the door slam behind me with no care at all. I could tell I was going to get some crap for being late... It was worth it though.

"Late... again" one my friends pointed out as he brought himself tiredly to his feet. The way his legs wanted to reject his body weight made it look so agonising but then again he had always been a bit of a Drama Queen. This here was Danny. Danny Worsnop to be exact. He was the singer for the band that I was managing. We had known each other for a long long time but I was always annoying him somehow for the silliest of reasons, that's just how our friendship worked. He stood before me, letting his leather jacket fall off his shoulder sloppily, fixing his black hair quickly.

"Look... I can explain" I staggered out in surrender trying desperately to avoid Danny's icy glare. If he stared any deeper, I swear he would pierce a hole through me.

"I'd like to hear this one" he chortled with disbelief as he folded his arms. Honestly, it hurt me when Danny treated me like this, I did so much for him but he never really considered any of it. I was always in the wrong and that's the way it stayed.

"Danny man... Give her a break" James commanded with a relaxed tone as he stood beside me, making Danny back away. He was the drummer or "droomer" as he pronounced it. James was really tall which was an advantage at this stage. He was usually the person that stuck up for me and probably my best friend., although Sam and Cameron were great friends too. Sam was the shy one out of all of us and he was the bassist, I tried so hard not to let him fall into the background because he got overlooked too easily. I genuinely cared about him. Cameron however was almost the total opposite. He was a ladies man. He could talk his way out of anything because he was good with words. That's why he helped with the lyrics I wrote for Danny. Cameron was also the rhythm guitarist, we were still searching for a lead guitarist good enough for this band.

 Cameron pushed a comfy chair towards me lightly, letting me delve into his chocolate brown eyes for a spilt second. I pushed all my weight onto the chair tiredly as my legs sprawled out in front of me. "I was helping the new kid get to class" I admitted, "Ben, right?" I asked myself more than anyone else as I searched my brain of memories to confirm. The new kid is usually the centre of attention for the first week or two so I had heard quite a bit about him.

The room fell silent for a couple of minutes which made me pray that Danny would just let this one go... After all, Ben was a pretty cool kid. The quiet ticks of the school clock were so loud compared to everything else around us. Instruments were everywhere to be seen. Guitars, Basses, a Drum Kit, discarded microphones and a few keyboards. I felt so safe and secure in this atmosphere. The windows were condensated and almost opaque from the contrast of the music room compared to outside. Faintly, I could hear the sound of Sam's teeth chattering nervously as we let the silence continue on.

"Sorry I doubted you" Danny mumbled almost inaudibly as he paced the floor before me mulitple times. For once my body fell into "rejection mode". I finally realised just how badly Danny treats me. I don't feel I deserved any of it. Maybe this was the change I had hoped for, for so long.

"You've doubted me one too many times" I muttered, watching my friends nodding as if they were backing me up. 

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Hope you enjoyed! And btw, the girl in the photo is Alexandria :)