sheffield? where's that?

oblivion is bliss

I sighed and looked up at the grimy ceiling. It was cracking along the side of the wall and had some interesting stains splattering the grey tiles. I shifted around on the tough sofa, trying to get slightly more comfortable.

The common room was mainly empty except for us. There was a girl tapping away at the computer in the corner, looking very determined at whatever she was writing up and then two boys in the opposite corner seeing how far they could shoot elastic bands. The occasional elastic band slapping against the wall and frantic keyboard clacking was slowly driving me insane.

I crossed my legs in a final attempt to stop fidgeting around and prevent the pins and needles crawling up my leg.

"Right so when you divide that by that, then after that you have to square this?"

"Jesus, Gabby. Yes. For the last time, yes."

The rain poured down in sheets outside the window, forcing us to stay inside during the lunch break. We had made a habit of walking to the hill behind the school during lunch and setting up camp there for the mere hour we had to eat and chill out. But with this ridiculous British rain, we were locked in.

Nick was messing around with the water machine by the wall, seeing how slowly he could pour water in to his cup. Gabby and Lucy had decided to get a crack on with their homework, motivating some of the others to start on their own things.

Alex was lounged over one of the loveseats, his legs hanging over the side and his back resting against the other side. He was doodling or, maybe writing something down in his black notebook.

"Well, this is boring." Matt declared from his spot on the ground, where he had spent about 10 minutes doing carpet angels and humming the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

"No shit, Sherlock." Jamie muttered, flipping through a very thick geography book.

"The rain isn't that bad." Nick made his way to the window to inspect the weather, holding his nearly overflowing cup tightly.

"At the rate that it's raining, we should start building bloody Noah's Ark 2.0." Elise shrieked from beside me. She hadn't said a word since we sat down so she made me jump with how loud she said it.

Alex looked up and laughed to himself at my reaction, before closing his notebook and pushing it down in to the bottom of his back pack.

"Well, we're not going to waste free time going mental in here are we?"

"Where else are we supposed to go?" I piped up.

He stared at me for a second and then stood up to announce to all of us in a mockingly deep voice.

"Follow me, young ones."

Everyone rolled their eyes at his theatricality, but followed his orders. He led us down the hallway, us walking behind him in a pack. We must've looked so ridiculous, all 9 of us trekking through the school. We made our way in to the music room and I understood what he was getting at.

The boys messed around on the instruments for a bit before practicing some new material and then going back to old material, and carrying on back and forth, back and forth.... until Nick played an impromptu good riff. Seeing them build a few notes in to what had the potential to be a big song was like watching magic happen. It all blended together so well.