Written By A Romantic

Chapter Two

A.N: This is for Britney's little sister, who nearly died because when she read this story the first time, there were only one or so chapters - including the prologue (I'm exaggerating to boost my own ego xD) . In my defense, I didn’t think anyone would actually read this.

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After the ridiculous lunch room scene, it feels good to be in a music class room. A pang of longing hits me in the chest when my eyes land on a fender. The old, busted up guitar reminds me of my brother's very first one that we acquired through less-than-conventional means, and inevitably my mind goes to all of my siblings, then my friends. Hell, I'm end up thinking about all the people I used to know back in Auckland; my home for my entire life until now.

Even though they called me last night and stayed on the phone till this morning, I miss my siblings like hell. I can't backhand my older brothers' through skype, or borrow their clothes and never return them, or cover my younger siblings' eyes when people start making out of TV. It's the little things that are really bugging me right now. Completing my last year of high school in the states never did make that much sense to me, and all the transfer paperwork and trying to figure out what the equivalent of NCEA is to the system in NYC proved to be another pain in the ass, but my uncle offered to take us all in and at the time I was the only one who didn't have a long term engagement like a high profile sports team or contracted jobs. I'm here for an entire. Fricking. Year. Even with the holidays, this is still the longest I've ever been away from my family, and to be honest, it's only sinking in now.

 "Hey, you okay?" Link's arm comes around my shoulder, which seems to have become a habit of his, "why the face? You don't like this class?"

I half-smile up at the lanky boy, "it's not the class. Actually, I love music class. It just reminded me of my life back home."

The sound of something dropping makes the two of us stop and wince at the sight of a cello of the ground, the strings still vibrating. The person closest to the instrument is frozen. At first I think it's because she just dropped an instrument in front of everyone in the class, until I meet her eyes. The emotions swirling in those brown depth make me frown. Betrayal. Hurt. Sadness. All aimed at Link, who's also looking at the girl, except with no real recognition of who is she. Unless the girl feels that the cello somehow cheated on her, I sincerely doubt the instrument is any more guilty than any other instrument hung up on the walls. The girl's light brown eyes lock onto Links arm around my shoulder, then my skateboard in his other hand, and harden to the point where Link protectively squeezes me a little closer to his side. Hostility is practically radiating off of her, and I'm not oblivious enough to think she's just having a bad day. Somehow, I've caught her off guard in the worst way.

 "Hello," the words seem to burn her tongue as she forces them out, "you must be the new girl, Harley."

Her jaw is rather tight, I notice, but it seems like she's completely forgotten about the poor cello, so I walk out of Link's arm and bend to pick it up, but her hand reaches out and snatches it up before I can touch it. Haawwwllllrighty then. "Yeah, that's me - well, close enough anyway." I grin crookedly while standing up. Link steps forward so he's standing next to me again, his arm taking its now familiar place around my shoulder, and I swear the girl looks like she wants to saw it off.