1. First Glance
“Hello, Lucy. Come and take a seat,” said Ms Arden, motioning towards the piano stool with a thin wrist. I slowly walked in and put my rucksack on the side desk, rifling through numerous textbooks for my sheet music. “We’ve already started on Dark Gold,” she said with a smile.
There were only two other people apart from Ms Arden in the small music room, encircled by the ring of electric keyboards around the edge. Not much of a concert band then, I thought. One boy had very lengthy, wavy, mouse coloured hair coupled with a pair of glasses perched on the end of his slim nose. He was preoccupied with twanging the strings on his guitar with dexterous fingers which looked extremely spindly as if they were about to snap. He glanced up at me with interest.
The other boy, the boy with the slightly wavy, glossy dark golden brown hair, noble lips, a modest nose and the serene, deepest green-blue eyes like the sea, held the inevitable interest to me.
He turned minutely and gazed towards me. Subconsciously, I found that I wasn’t breathing. Something both innocent about him but yet endearing exposed themselves as the eyes scorched the suffusion on my usually pale cheeks. I hesitated slightly before silently slipping to my seat in front of the piano keys.
“This is Thomas.” Ms Arden tilted her head towards the extremely long haired boy. He stared slyly over the rim of his glasses and ran his fingers over the strings of what I could now see was a wooden bass guitar. He wiggled his fingers deftly in acknowledgement.
“And this is Josh,” Ms Arden said lightly, gesturing towards the boy with the sunburst guitar, her voice resonating over and over again in my mind. Josh. I slowly lifted my head a fraction of an inch to see that he did the same. He smiled momentarily and mouthed “hi”. I stopped breathing again. There was something warm in him, something painfully shy but yet inviting. I thought that he was the loveliest person I’d ever seen. Even lovelier than that other idiot I used to adore. The chocolate brown locks sweeping Josh’s eyebrows melted into his flushed cheeks. The locks grew to just brush his shoulders, and I noticed a very strong but graceful stature. He looked like he could protect me. However, looking back at his face was a mistake. His rose tinted lips were simply too much for me. I quickly shot a wave, a faint smile and a glance at him and turned my eyes to the music.
Surprisingly, I found that I couldn’t concentrate.
Ms Arden had to stop the rehearsal three times to go through the rhythmic syncopation beats with me. During those times, three times I sneaked a quick peek up at Josh; three times I caught him looking down at his hands and wringing his thumbs. And three times I caught Thomas looking at me eagerly, as if he wanted to help me in some way, but for some reason I found his stare a little patronising.
Then I remembered what Ms Arden said as we were just getting started.
“This will be a walk in the park for you, Thomas.” Thomas simply flashed a huge grin and waggled his bass fingers. Then I think he smiled sheepishly and looked at me, but in what way? A little confused, a little stressed maybe? Did I know something he didn’t? Aha. He was probably showing off, trying to prove to me, a newcomer, how musically talented he was. I snorted.
“Lucy?”
I swivelled around in my chair and straightened up as I finished stuffing and zipping up my music into my rucksack.
“Oh, hi,” I said meekly.
“Hi,” Thomas said.
He stood there in front of me, hunching over considerably and blocking out most of the light from the window. I could see that lunch break was nearly over, since the dinner ladies were pushing up the metal trolleys to the main school site where the big canteen was.
“Well, I’m Thomas, and I’m here, so hello!” He waved casually, as if wiping a window. I laughed nervously. That seemed to make him happier and less aggravated. I smoothed back my hair out of my eyes. He watched intently.
“So,” I began. “What year are you in?”
“Year Twelve,” he replied promptly, rocking back and forth onto the heels of his feet. “What about youuu?” he said, exaggerating his ‘u’s and pouting slightly. His hair glowed red-orange in the sunlight behind him. I found his general person comical and let out a little laugh. He grinned back.
“I’m in Year Nine.” I blinked pointedly up at him and smiled, wanting to make a good first impression. So he was about sixteen or seventeen and I was just fourteen. That would be a big enough distance for him to lose interest in that particular way, wouldn’t it? He seemed friendly enough and friends in older years always made one feel higher up in the school social rankings. For some reason, he appeared to be shocked to hear that small piece of information.
“Really, I thought you were in Josh’s year,” said Thomas, clearly astonished, who nodded at the back of Josh’s head, which was currently bending over a guitar case, and which bent down even further at the mention of his name, as if in shame. “He’s in Year Ten.”
“Well,” Thomas continued, leaning in closer, “Josh is just like that. He’s really shy, even around guys let alone girls.” At that point, Josh decided to leave the room. He picked up his guitar case, slipped into his navy blazer and drew up to his full height. He moved swiftly past us, not even saying a word of goodbye or a glance of acknowledgement. I only saw the blush in his cheeks, which was very red. Josh simply pushed the door open, looking at his feet all the time, and let it swing back shut behind him. It was eerily quiet in the room. I decided to follow suit.
“Um, I have period four up main site, so I’m going now,” I said awkwardly, leaning down to sling my rucksack onto both shoulders.
“Ohhhh.” Thomas pouted yet again and he looked terribly silly. I laughed and sauntered past him and out the door, following in Josh’s exact footsteps.
'K onto the review, or how Thomas would say it "Reveiwww" 
