Lovestruck (EDITING)

2: Nice of You to Join Us ✔︎

My mom pulls up to the side of the road, too far from the school, and I have to walk a fair distance before reaching the heavily graffitied asphalt driveway of the building I wish I never had to return to.

Here I am, on summer break, when I should be anywhere else, coming into school for band rehearsals, all because I had to choose the most time-consuming extra curricular activity. You see, our school has this ridiculous and outdated policy, intended to get the students to "commit to school life": no extra curricular, no graduation.

As I make my way down the driveway and around the back of the building to enter the music room, I pull out my phone and study its small screen. There's one new message from Shana so I open it.

*I'll meet you at the school after. What time do you finish again?*

I pause outside of the classroom to type my response.

*12, I'll see you then*

Before entering the class, I glance at the time displayed on my phone. 8:36 AM. I'm late, but no one will notice. I'm the 4th clarinet, for god's sake, no one will notice if I keel over and die mid-practice.

"SKYE!" As soon as I step into the room, a cloud of intense perfume hits me before I'm basically tackled by a blur of pink and purple.

It's Danielle, I realise, after my eyes adjust. The tiny saxophone player with sparkly green eyes and mid-length, curly brown hair, is the only person I'm remotely friends with in the band. We tend to stick to each other like glue so that we have someone to talk to and to sit with on bus trips. Other than that, we really have nothing in common. She reads Cosmo and tacky romance novels and cries over flippy-haired boybands. I've never really understood her much, but I don't need to. It's not like we spend a lot of time together, so I smile at her and let her wrap her small arms around me, hugging me too tightly.

"Hey Dani," I give her the most convincing smile I can manage at this hour as I toss my bag onto the floor by the classroom door and head to the storage room to take one of the used clarinets out to borrow. It may be gross, but there's no way I'll pay for an instrument of my own.

"How has your summer been? I can't believe I havent seen you in a month!" She's following me now, watching me as I open the clarinet's case and put the instrument together, impatiently assembling it by twisting each part into place.

"Yeah, it's been a while... My summer has been good... yeah," I attempt to put together a sentence as my eyes scan the busy music room for dishevelled, dirty-blonde hair and blue eyes. Dani giggles and grabs my hand, dragging me into the busy performance room, and sits with me in the front row of clarinets, continuing to chat to me about her "amazing" summer.

"What's up with you?" Dani's question catches my attention and draws me from my silent search for him.

"What? Nothing's up with me." I finally turn to look at her, taking in her bright pink tank top and purple accessories. An interesting choice, but not out of character for Dani. She's always been... colourful.

"You're all distracted and weird today." She draws her perfectly threaded brows together in concern.

"No I'm not," I shake my head, attempting to focus. "I mean, I'm just not used to being up this early, that's all."

"Whatever. Well, as I was saying, it's weird that we haven't seen eachother in so long. I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm a changed person! I told you about my summer job at the pool, right? I can't remember. Anyway, there's this super hot guy..." She proceeds to tell me about her summer which sounds like the plot of a low budget teen romance movie and I pretend to listen intently, smiling and frowning at the appropriate times, while my eyes continue to scan the room at every opportunity.

"Okay, everyone take your seats! We've got a lot to get through today, I want everyone in the performance room now!" Dani's summer story is cut short by Mr. B calling us to our seats. I'm almost thankful for an escape from her narrative of the five weeks that could be made into a book trilogy, until I realise that escape means three hours straight of band practice.

Dani smiles sweetly at me, as if apologising for the cliffhanger, and heads to the row of saxophones further back in the room, carrying her instrument with ease despite it being almost as big as she is. I sigh, forcing a smile back and turning to face my music stand in front of me. The room fills quickly with chatty teenagers carrying ridiculous instruments and I watch the door for him with no results.

"Alright, alright, everyone settle down. We can discuss our uneventful summer breaks after rehearsals. Nick, please get everyone tuned quickly so that we can begin." Mr B closes the door and tosses a small tuning device to the skinny, dark haired boy in the front row who nods his head nervously, dropping his instrument to the floor and quickly making his way around the room, helping each person to tune their instrument to perfection.

I pick at my nails impatiently, a childhood habit, and find myself glancing at the clock every few seconds until the performance room door swings open and there he is.

Landon Reed.

Late, as usual, he sports a dark grey t-shirt and black jeans, and time seems to slow as he pauses in the doorway to take in his surroundings. He sighs and runs a hand through his mess of blonde hair before swinging the door shut behind him and, drumsticks in hand, strides towards the drumkit at the back of the room.

"Mr Reed. Nice of you to join us," Mr. B looks slightly irritated by his lateness but Landon just nods, his lips curling into his trademark smirk as he takes his seat at the back.

Realising I'm still staring, I force myself to look away and focus on the music stand in front of me. But I can't ignore the butterflies coming to life in my stomach, making me want to giggle and throw up at the same time. After what feels like a lifetime, Nick makes his way back to his seat, returning the tuning device to Mr. B, and picks up his instrument once again.

"Okay, looks like we're all set to go. So, I hope you've all had a relaxing break, but that's over now, so let's get started..."

The remainder of rehearsals drags on for what feels like years but eventually comes to an end just before 12pm. When we finish our ninth runthrough of "80s Hits Mashup," Mr B closes his sheet music, seemingly satisfied with our work, and there's an audible sigh of relief from every student in the room.

"Good work today, everyone. I'll see you on tuesday at 8:30, and I expect you all to be on time," Mr. B eyes Landon at the back of the room before waving his hand towards the door, dismissing us.

I sit for a few seconds as people rush past me, pretending to be busy packing up my belongings so that I could maybe get his attention as he walks past, but my plan is ruined when Dani grabs my hand as she walks past, pulling me from my seat and out of the room. I look back at Landon but he doesn't notice. He's talking to Taylor, the pretty dark haired girl who plays the piano and, I make a mental note, has a boyfriend. I turn back, shaking the pathetic thoughts from my head and follow behind Dani back into the music room.

"We sounded so good today! I'm really looking forward to our performance night," She beams at me, packing away her instrument in its case as I return mine to the storage room and close the door.

"Yeah, me too," I smile and walk over to retrieve my bag from its place on the floor on the opposite side of the room. I pull my phone from the small front pocket and see a new message from Shana.

*I'm out the front!*

I quickly toss my phone back into my bag and pull it over my shoulder.

"Alright, I've gotta run. I'll see you on Tuesday, Dani," I fake enthusiasm for our next rehearsal with a smile before basically running out the door towards freedom.

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Helloooo! This chapter is a lot longer than the first chapter and it may be a bit boring right now, but don't worry we're just getting started! Please keep reading and leave me a comment telling me what you think of the book so far :)

fancyauthor xoxo