Try (Austin Mahone Short Love Story / Fan Fiction)

Chapter One

Just a note, this whole story is in Austin's POV! Enjoy, cuties! :)

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Song of the chapter:
Nobody's Home by Avril Lavigne

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     Mary Kayden.

    If anyone were to say that name a month ago, I wouldn't even think twice about it. It wasn't that I didn't like her, I just didn't know her, regardless of the fact that I'd gone to school with her my entire life. It's a bit difficult to think things about someone you've never talked to. Of course, there's the rumors and the statements of those who feel the need to voice their opinion about everything that you could go off of, but that's not right. I'm not saying I never believed a rumor about someone, but I knew it was wrong.

    So, what did I know about Mary Kayden? Well, not much, but a fairly small amount. I knew that whenever she would walk through the hallways of the school, she would have a bright smile on her face. Always. I was almost positive I'd never seen her sad. I knew that she was a gorgeous girl who probably had no idea how gorgeous she actually was. I knew that her little brother's name was Devon because he was one of the star players of the junior-varsity lacrosse team. I knew that she was in my English class and she sat on the opposite side of the room. I knew that her best friend was Holly Nelson, a fairly shy girl who I'd held a few conversations with in the past.

     And that's it. That was all I could be certain about. It may look like a lot, but when you think about it, there's so much more to know about a person. I just knew the obvious.

    Then there was what everyone else said. They said she was selfless. They said she was happy. They said she was smart. They said she was the sweetest girl in the world. They said nothing but positive things about her.

     So, you're probably wondering why I never tried talking to her if she was so perfect and amazing. You're probably wondering why I didn't seem all that interested in seeing for myself who she really was.

     To be one hundred percent honest, I didn't care to get to know her. She seemed to be having a great life without me in it, so why bother?

     Everything changed on a cold, fall day in late October. Tuesday, October twenty-third, two thousand and ten, to be exact. It was the day I could never, ever forget no matter how hard I tried.

***

     Yawning and outstretching my arms, I leaned back in my desk inside Mrs. Cole's classroom to showcase how tired I was of her endless lecture about the well-known play, The Crucible. It was almost as if she was trying to forever imprint it into our brains that witchcraft was the greatest sin that could've ever been committed back in . . . Well, whatever time period it was in.

     Ally Hoffman sat beside me, having the complete polar opposite reaction to the story that I was having. The way her hands were properly folded in her lap, her head just barely tipped to the side so that her wavy blonde hair looked longer on the left side, and her eyes were squinted indicated how infatuated she was by our English teacher's monotonous voice.

      I was waiting for the phone to ring so I could get out of the classroom. My mom was going to be dropping off my English paper that I forgot to bring with me to school in the main office, so they would be calling me down at any moment. Also, I couldn't focus because I had a big football game coming up. To me, that came way before school.

      "Does anybody know another activity that was considered a sin?" Mrs. Cole asked. Before I even had the opportunity to come up with something that would save my ass if she called on me, Ally's arm shot straight up in the air, startling me slightly.

     When the teacher scanned the room with her gray eyes for any other people willing to answer besides Ally (who answered nearly every question that was asked within the day's class) and saw no takers, she narrowed her eyes in my direction, unfortunately.

    "Mister Mahone, do you have any ideas?" Her soft, yet somewhat high pitched voice echoed through the empty room. I could feel Ally's gaze on me, practically burning holes into my body. Was she really jealous that I was called on? If that was the case, I would have gladly let her answer the question right then and there.

      She knew I didn't know, but she called on me anyways. Scratching the back of my neck, I sat up a bit in my chair. "I, uh, well--"

       "I know!" Ally cheered from beside me. The teacher narrowed her eyes in Ally's direction, who sat up a little straighter in her desk and gave a soft, yet cocky smirk.

       "Dancing, not attending church on a Sunday, nudity, and for those older than the age of seven, any type of game playing," She listed in her usual nasally voice.

       Teacher's pet.

     "Good, thank you, Ally," Mrs. Cole pushed a grin, though we all knew she was aggravated by the fact that it was basically just Ally in the class since nobody else cared much. She turned to face the chalkboard where she picked up a piece of the white chalk in between her old, skinny fingers and lay the utensil over the black surface.

     Mentally groaning to myself due to the fact that we would all have to wait at least fifteen minutes before she finished writing whatever she had to write on the board, I rested my chin in my hand. She wrote so slow because she insisted on using cursive. Cursive is usually the faster way to write things between that and normal printing, but not with her. Each and every word had to look like it was a scripted font on Microsoft Word, though she probably had no idea what a font was.

     Just as she began writing the word "sins" on the board, my eyes wandered over to the window. I looked at the leaves that covered the ground like a sloppily made multicolored quilt. Though I would much prefer the sun and going to the beach, I still enjoyed fall. There was something about it that just made me happy. Maybe it was the fact that homecoming was happening or maybe that Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were right around the corner, but I really liked it.

   The wind picked some leaves up off the ground and carried them to different places of the schoolyard. The almost bare branches on the trees swayed back and forth slightly. The afternoon sky held a blue-gray palette, giving the entire scene an overall eerie feel.

      The telephone by the doorway rang, causing me to break away from my trance. I watched as Mrs. Cole sighed due to the fact that her teaching was being interrupted, just like she always did, and she set her chalk down on the shelf, clapped her hands together to remove any dust, and made her way to the door at her usual slow pace.

      Growing fidgety, I bit my lower lip and gathered my things, knowing that the call was for me.

     Finally, she reached the phone and took it off the receiver, held it up to her ear, and acted as if whoever was calling wasn't a bother at all. After she said her greeting, she scanned the room with her gray eyes searching for the person they were asking for: me.

      God, just hurry it up! I thought.

      "Yes, I have her," She stated, placing her hand on her hip, leaving a pause. "Oh my, that's awful." Pause. "Yes, I'll send her right down." Pause. "Not a problem." Pause. "Bye."

       Her? Man, I know she's old, but she must've lost it. Last I checked, I'm a guy, not a--

      "Miss Kayden, if you could please step out in the hall for a moment?" Her soft voice demanded. I studied the older woman who seemed to have sympathy for the girl she was calling down: Mary Kayden. I barely knew the girl, but she sure was beautiful. I knew that other guys thought she was cute and pretty, but I wasn't one of the ones who went after her.

      She had dirty blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders, fair skin, and brown eyes. She was sort of short from what I could tell, but almost everyone at school was shorter than me. There were very few people who were taller.

        Swinging my head to the right, I looked over at the girl with the puzzled expression walk up to the front of the room with a slight hint of hesitance. It was clear to me that she didn't know whether or not it was for something good or bad. I immediately assumed good because that girl had never done a single thing wrong in her life. She was nearly perfect.

       Sighing, I slumped back down in my chair and rolled my eyes due to aggravation. All I wanted was to get out of there. I didn't want to sit through this stupid lecture about sins anymore. Luckily for Mary, she could leave.

        The next thing I knew, Mrs. Cole shut the door and walked back in with her eyes on the ground. Instead of going back to the chalkboard, she sat down at her desk. It seemed like she'd forgotten that she had a class in session with her. That was until she looked up. "Class, you have the rest of the time to yourself. Use it as a free period and use it wisely." 

       Free period? Sins were just the most important thing in the world a second ago. What happened to Mary?

       Truthfully, I wasn't worried about what happened to her all that much considering my thoughts were consumed by when the office would be calling me down to pick up my paper. It's not that I didn't care about what happened to her, but I just didn't know her all that well to be in a panic.

       I noticed some whispers coming from all different parts of the room. In the front left corner, I caught the words "party," "tomorrow," and "alcohol." Considering it was coming from the people who everyone stereotyped as the "druggies." All they cared about was the next time they could smoke their pot and arguing about how marijuana should be legal. Personally, I didn't care for it either way. I tried it at one of the parties after a football game last year and it was something I didn't care to try ever again.

       Anyways, from the front right corner, I heard the people who were typically known as the "teacher's pets." I often wondered why Ally insisted on sitting by me instead of with the rest of her "kind." Rumor said she was interested in me, but it really didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. She was all over me sometimes and I didn't really want anything to do with it. Anyways, they were talking about The Crucible.

     As for everyone else, I didn't bother listening into their conversations. Not even my friends' mattered. I just wanted to leave.

        Get me out of here. Just please, get me out of--
 
        Rrrring! Rrrring!

        My attention directed over to the phone and then to Mrs. Cole, watching her as she stood from her desk to get to the phone, but not fast enough for my liking. When she finally reached the phone, she placed her hand on her hip and looked down at the white floors. I couldn't hear what she was saying but when her eyes searched the room and then stopped at me, I knew it was finally my turn to leave.

      She hung up the phone and slowly approached me, everyone else's attention on their conversations rather than her. I didn't know why she didn't just tell me to go. She didn't need to come over to me.

           Placing a hand on my desk, she looked down at me and bent down a little closer. "That was the office. Your mom dropped your paper off."

           I nodded and stood up from my chair, but she stopped me by resting her hand on my back. "Would you mind taking Mary's things down with you?"

            Not thinking anything of it, I simply nodded again and strolled over to her desk, picked up her notebook, pencil, and binder, then headed out the door.

             On my way down to the office, I took note to how quiet and empty the halls were. Towards the end of the day they were like this because most teachers wouldn't allow students to leave considering we'd be let out of school soon enough. But of course, I was an exception because the office called for me.

         Finally I reached the office and opened the door, stepping in the air conditioned room that seemed to be even quieter than the empty hall. A brown-haired woman sat at the front desk and she was browsing her computer-- for what, I don't know. There was a door on either side of her; one for the principal's office on the left and the other for the guidance counselor on the right. I just went straight to the lady on her computer.

            "Hi, I was called down because I had something dropped off," I stated, resting a hand on the dark brown desk that was covered with papers, pens, and other office supplies like staplers and tape dispensers.

          She looked up at me over her black framed glasses with a soft smile. "Austin Mahone?"

           I nodded.

          "Here you go," she said, picking up my essay and handing it to me. I sighed in relief and turned towards the door, but then stopped when I remembered I had another reason to be here other than for myself.

        "I also have some things for Mary Kayden . . ." my voice tracked off when I placed her belongings on the desk.

         She nodded. "Oh, thank you. Would you mind taking them into Mr. Harper's office for me?"

        "No problem," I shrugged. Mr. Harper was the guidance counselor, so I made my way over to the door on the right which was closed.

         Why is Mary in there? I wondered.

       Knocking on the heavy wooden door, I bit my bottom lip and held the books at my side. After waiting only a couple of seconds, the door softly opened to reveal the tall man with dark features, wearing a light blue buttoned up shirt and black pants. His face was sympathetic but it held a smile as well.

        "Hi, uh, I have Mary Kayden's things," I declared, holding them up to him to take. For some reason, my eyes wandered to the left just slightly only to land on Mary. She was crying-- hard. Her hand covered her mouth and her other rested in her lap. Though I didn't have any connection to her at all, my stomach flipped. Seeing her cry wasn't something I'd ever expected to see. I'd never even seen her sad before.

          I swallowed hard and looked back over at Mr. Harper, my eyebrows tilted downward just slightly. "Is she okay?"

          I don't know why I asked it or what even gave me the urge to, but I did. I probably shouldn't have because I knew for a fact it wasn't any of my business, but it came out of my mouth before I could even think about any of those things.

         "She'll be fine," he said, his voice soft so she couldn't hear. "Are you a friend of hers?"

        Should I say I am? I thought. Then I can know what's wrong. I am curious to know, but it would be wrong.

         "Yeah," I responded slowly, the word rolling off my tongue with much hesitance.

          God, why did I say that? I'm so stupid.

         He nodded and turned to the girl crying in the chair behind him. "Mary, I'll be right back. I just have to step out for a moment."

        I looked back over at her and as she looked up to Mr. Harper, I caught her eye. She looked confused, but that quickly left when the sadness came back to her and she looked down, tears falling down her face. The door closed and the next thing I know, Mr. Harper is pulling me to the side. I looked at him, wonder filling my eyes.

          "Mary's going to need you for the next couple of months," he stated softly. I didn't say anything, I just waited for him to continue. "Her parents-- they were killed this morning."

           "What?" I gasped, my voice sounding more shocked than I would've imagined.

          How did this happen? How is she going to deal with this? Where is she going to go? She can't live in a house by herself. Who did it? And most importantly, why Mary?

           Thoughts of that nature swarmed my head, my body practically radiating sympathy.

           "Her father killed her mother and then committed suicide shortly after. They haven't told us why, but I'm sure that was left out for a good reason," He paused, but my eyes fell to the floor and I felt sick to my stomach.

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A/N: NEW SHORT STORY! I've been working on it since the summer and I really love it. It's a late Christmas present for you guys.. Hope you like it! :)

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