Fighting (5sos) ~a_bus_fare~

15//Drawings

The next day at school, I take my seat in English next to Michael. I pull out a plain folder with a pile of papers crammed in, dog eared and ruined.

"What have you got in there?" Michael asks, flipping it open. "Stuff, I guess."

"Ooh, what kind of stuff?"

"Stuff, Michael."

"Can I see?"

"No."

"Just one look?"

"No."

"It'll only be a second. Please?"

"No, Michael."

"Come on! I'll look at it for one second, and no more." Michael pleads and I sigh in defeat, sliding the folder over to him. He opens it up again excitedly, scanning some English homework. "Seriously? Is this all you have?"

I nod, then remember something. "What's this?" Michael pulls out a crumpled sheet of paper from the back, staring at it. His eyes grow wider by the second. "Whoa! This is amazing, Ally! I didn't know you could draw,"

"Neither did I." I mumble.

"You have to show the others. Look at it!" Michael continues. "When did you draw it?" I shrug. "About a week ago. I was bored, I guess."

Then I look at the picture more closely. It is a lily with music notes coming out of the middle, sound waves behind them and a blooming flower next to it. The flowers are shaped like a G clef.

"What can't you do?" Michael asks, half-jokingly.

Make people happy.

I bite my lip and smile quickly, taking the picture back and shoving it in my folder.

I haven't heard that small voice since I was with Ryder.

*

At lunch, Michael won't stop talking about my work, putting it right in front of people's faces. "But just look at it!" He exclaims, pointing to the flower and pushing it against Calum's face. "Yes, Michael. I agree, it is pretty cool, now can you please stop yelling?"

"You never told me you were good at art," Fiona bites her apple, swallowing it down. "That's way better than what I could do." Ashton raises his hand. "I second that. I absolutely suck." Calum nudges Luke's elbow. "You know, Lukey here is quite the artist himself."

Luke blushes, looking down at his food. "Stop." Ashton nods in agreement, stabbing his fork through a carrot. "Honestly, though. He's amazing at it. You should see his drawings of-"

Luke steps on Ashton's foot, scowling. "Ow!" He yelps. He smiles sweetly, rolling his eyes. I look over at Fiona, who just shakes her head. "But anyway. We've got band practice today after school. You guys free?" Luke asks, hopeful. "Sure."

Ever since that first band practice, Fiona and I started coming every time. They were really good, and hopefully Five Seconds of Summer becomes even bigger.

"I can't come this Saturday, though." Fiona says. "I have to go to this family dinner thing with none other than my family." Michael's face falls as he slumps down in his chair. "Aw. Can I come? It'd be a great way to meet your parents." She shakes her head. "Sorry Mikey, but my parents are inviting some of their friends from work. They have to discuss "business" and they're bringing their kids too. Ugh, I have to put up with a bunch of five years olds for an hour. I can't go a minute without having the urge to throw a crying baby out the window."

The boys drop their forks and scrape their chairs back. "Remind me not to have kids with you." Michael huffs. Fiona just rolls her eyes and pokes her tongue out at the four.

"Well, remember that time when you had to babysit your little cousin? He started bawling his eyes out and you didn't throw him out the window," I point out. "And besides, kids aren't that bad." She scoffs. "Easy for you to say. You're an only child with older cousins and kids aged past ten. And you don't have to babysit them." I shrug, raising my eyebrows.

"Worth a shot." Calum takes one last sip of his water before dunking it in the trash can.