I Remember

First Day of School

A week later, it was Sunny's first day at Mesa Grande High School. She joined her parents and grandfather downstairs for breakfast. "Good morning," she smiled.

"Good morning, dear," Derek smiled. "Ready for your first day at your new school?"

"As I'll ever be," Sunny smiled.

"We made your favorite, Mexican unsweetened chocolate chip pancakes with sausage patties," Lucia smiled.

"Gracias," Sunny grinned.

After breakfast, Lucia dropped her daughter at Mesa Grande. "Have a good day, mija," she smiled.

"Okay," Sunny grinned. Carrying her backpack and new violin case, she entered the building.

After homeroom, Sunny went to her first class, band class—but to her dismay, Beebe was there, too.

"Sunny, we meet again," Beebe grumbled.

"Hi, Beebe," Sunny groaned.

"You've already met?" a sandy blonde girl asked.

"We met at the mall," Beebe declared. "Apparently, my mother pointed out her grotesque wardrobe and that her name is Sunny—and then her daddy came and looked like he was going to hurt us."

"You're lucky my grandfather wasn't there when you did that," Sunny told her. "If he was, he would've had the guts to physically hurt you because he's really protective of me and my mom."

"Why?" Beebe asked.

"He says we remind him of my grandmother—she died from a gas leak when my mom was only five years old," Sunny replied.

"Aw, that's too bad," a cute boy with dark brown hair sighed. "I'm Miguel by the way."

"Nice to meet you," Sunny blushed.

"What instrument do you play?" Miguel asked.

"I play violin—the talent runs in the family," Sunny said. She opened her violin case to reveal a purple violin with the Corona crest from the Disney Princess movie Tangled. "What about you?"

"I play clarinet," Miguel replied, taking out his clarinet.

"Well, I play flute," Beebe declared. "Miguel really loves when I play the flute."

"Beebe, we never met before," Miguel pointed out. "Also, I never even heard you play."

Beebe was so embarrassed. "Of course, I would've said that if I actually did play the flute for you," she said sheepishly. "By the way, what do you think of my new bangles and my new necklace?"

"They're very nice, Beebe," Miguel declared.

Suddenly, the music teacher came in. "Okay, class, take your seats," she said. "I'm Dr. Gutierrez, and I welcome you to your freshman band. I'm going to take attendance, and then I'll randomly ask each of you to play your instruments for the class." After taking rollcall, she said, "Okay, let's start with Miguel Sanchez."

Miguel stood before the class and played his clarinet, and he was beyond great. When he finished, the entire class clapped.

"Thank you, Miguel," Dr. Gutierrez smiled. "Now let's listen to Beebe Chowdhry perform."

Beebe proudly came up before the class and smugly said, "Watch and learn." She played "Swan Lake" on her flute very beautifully. When she finished, everyone clapped.

"Thank you, Beebe," Dr. Gutierrez grinned. "Okay, how about Sunny Bishop?"

Sunny stood before the class and played "I See the Light" from the Disney Princess movie Tangled, and the beautiful music mesmerized everyone—everyone, except Beebe.

"My goodness, that was beautiful," Dr. Gutierrez smiled.

"Gracias," Sunny smiled back.

"Okay, now for Zoe Lash," Dr. Gutierrez said.

Zoe was the sandy blonde girl who was talking to Sunny earlier, and she stood up before the class to play her dulcimer. For the rest of the class, Beebe didn't pay attention to the rest of her classmates play their instruments—she didn't like how Sunny showed her up like that.

After class, Sunny met up with Miguel. "You played a great jazz tune on your clarinet, Miguel," she smiled.

"Thanks, Sunny, and you played your violin beautifully," Miguel smiled back. "By the way, I love your necklace."

"Gracias," Sunny blushed. "It was my grandmother's."

Little did Sunny and Miguel know that Beebe was spying on them, and she was very jealous.

"So, do you like music?" Miguel asked.

"I love music," Sunny beamed. "In fact, my parents just opened a new music shop in the local mall. Would you believe my mother taught me to play the violin before I could even walk?"

Suddenly, Beebe butted in between Sunny and Miguel and boasted, "That's the same with me. I've played the flute since I was only a day old."

Sunny was a little weirded out—she wondered if Beebe was telling the truth or exaggerating, but she didn't know what to say. "That's great, Beebe," she said awkwardly. "Well, we'd better get to our next class." She took off, leaving Beebe disgusted.

Later, during lunch, Beebe stopped Sunny—and with her was a boy with blonde hair. "Sunny, good to see you again," she smirked. "Have you met my twin brother, Cusco?"

Cusco haughtily went up to Sunny and took her hand. "Well, if it isn't the Oklahoma farm girl," he smirked.

"Very nice to meet you, Cusco," Sunny said awkwardly, taking her hand back. "But I'm no farm girl—I just grew up in Hugo, Oklahoma. Of course, my family did take a lot of trips to farms."

"Cute," Cusco declared. "So, I hear your family owns a music shop."

"Yes, Music to My Ears," Sunny confirmed. "The location of the shop is pretty big, so we're trying to come up with new instruments to display in it."

"So, you've already met Beebe and Mother at the mall last week," Cusco said.

"Yes, and I have no idea what is up with your mother—she just stares at me the minute we meet, and my father has to scare her to death to make her stop," Sunny declared. "If my grandfather had been there, he would've scared her into fleeing the country. I remember when I was being harassed by a boy at my school back home, and Abuelo punched him in the eye so hard that he lost his sight in that eye. Anyway, I'll see you later."

That night, at dinner, Sunny told her family about her day at school.

"I'm glad everything turned out fine, Sunny," Lucia grinned. "I hope those twins haven't been giving you a hard time."

"Well, they wouldn't get off my back, but hopefully, it'll blow over," Sunny declared.

But it didn't blow over like Sunny had hoped. Beebe and Cusco just kept bothering her, especially about their mother, and they wouldn't stop. Sunny didn't even know what Lorelei had against her—Sunny did nothing to her or Beebe.