My name is Harp-Ashley Clarissa Phillips, but my friends just call me Ash. I was named after my uncle Harper Ashton Phillips and my uncle Clary Phillips. Uncle Harper was shot in the head and survived and uncle Clary is paralyzed.
I live with my sister,Mallory, in a three bedroom apartment. Our parents died when she was eighteen and I was eleven. They were in the military and each earned Purple Hearts I have a puppy named Writer and I attend a prestigious arts high school in Hollywood, CA.
I can never be myself, I am a lesbian who can never come out of the closet. My girlfriend of two years broke up with me when she couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't blame her, I was dragging her back into the closet with me. She and her friends called me Clef. It came from my name Clarissa, which became Clary for short. It was kind of weird being called my uncle's name but I liked when she said it. Clary eventually became Clef, partly because of my love for music and also because her name is Stef. So together we were Clef, but that just became my nickname. Clary and Stef, Stef and Clary. We were so amazing together.
"Harp, you're up!" My chorus teacher interrupted my thoughts. Maybe I should have been paying attention. "Harp, you coming?" I guess I hadn't budged. Ms. Calding was calling me to the front to perform my solo for the class to vote on. She chose me, but the class had to vote because it seemed more fair that way.
I made my way up to the front of the large choral room. I cleared my throat as I prepared to sing something a bit different than we normally sang. I was nervous, so I took a little more time.
"Whenever you're ready, Harp." She always called me Harp because she said I could sing like a thousand Angels. But today, I would be a soulful singer.
I opened my mouth and Aretha Franklin began pouring out of me. Everyone looked shocked and began whispering. A girl I had never seen before stood up and started clapping. People kind of looked around for a second before joining her. I wasn't worried about the vote anymore. I finished the soul classic and everyone applauded me. There was an anonymous voting process and the results were to be calculated later.
When class ended, people gave me tons of compliments and I felt amazing, but I wanted to find that girl.
I left the class as fast as I could without being rude and I searched for the girl. I didn't really know what she looked like, I wasn't paying attention. After about fifteen minutes I gave up and went to eat lunch.
I typically ate lunch by myself, I liked it that way. I could sit in peace and listen to my classical music.
I finished my lunch and headed to drama class. I sat in the back and pulled out the script for the play we were working on. Our teacher, Mr. Spells, gathered everyone's attention to introduce a new student. It was the girl. "Class, please give your very best warm California welcome to Seila-Grey Adams."
The class welcomed her and she made her way to the back and took a seat next to me. Seila was beautiful and had a very familiar face.
"Clef, you were amazing in chorus," she said.
Clef?! Did she just call me Clef?
"You don't remember me do you? You used to call me Shady."
Shady?! Oh God! How could I see it before. This was one of Stef's friends.
We called her Shady because of her art skills. I had a mini crush on her while I was with Stef and Stef knew it. But I loved Stef and I still do. I loved her too much to ever take a second look at Seila. "Shady! It's so great to see you. I haven't seen you since, you know."
"I know, but we'll be seeing each other a lot more from now on out."
"Have you talked to Stef lately?"
"Well, she's not the same Stef from a year ago. In one year she went from awesome Stef to married drug addict Stef. We tried to help her, but she wants nothing to do with us."
We talked all the way through drama. Today was a work day where we were supposed to be working on memorizing lines, so no harm done. I invited Seila over for dinner as a welcome to Hollywood. She was from a town over.
Seila is pronounced SAYLAH.
