I accept any form of criticism as long as it is constructive, as I only aim to improve my writing.
For the record, I do not own any music mentioned in this story unless I state otherwise, and any characters or events mentioned that bear resemblance to any reality other than my own thoughts and experiences is entirely coincidental.
Now that that’s out of the way: the story!:D
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Chapter One – Who Are You?
“And today was a day just like any other.” ~ I’m Ready by Jack’s Mannequin
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If you had told me when I was fifteen that I’d be right where I am today, I probably would have laughed and told you that you were insane. Today, however, I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world.
I guess everything changed the first time I saw him…
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It started as a day about as dull and dreary as they can get. The monstrous, towering clouds blocked out most visible sunlight, and as a result it appeared more like the middle of the night than the early morning. From inside you wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was absolutely freezing; the four hundred or so girls standing outside were dressed in their usual attire of too-short skirts and blouses with the sleeves rolled up. I however, clutched onto my scarf and coat as if I feared they might blow away with the sheer force of the winds.
After waving goodbye to my younger sister Kerry, I scanned the crowds of people huddled close together in what must have been an attempt at keeping warm. I quickly located the average height, auburn-haired girl who was also known as my best friend, Rose. She was standing aside from the others in her own silent protest against the swarm of pupils most likely discussing their various summer “relationships”.
As if she was aware that I was looking at her, Rose glanced in my direction and sprinted towards me at lightning speed, only stopping when she had managed to tackle-hug me.
“Autumn!” she squealed. “Oh my God, I missed you! How was your summer?!”
“Uh… Rose,” I gasped for breath as she hugged me tighter. “You know exactly how my summer was; you were there most of the time!”
“Oh, right,” she blushed slightly and let go.
I glanced nervously at the looming building a few yards away.
“Shall we go in?” I suggested anxiously.
Rose nodded shakily, her face sombre.
--
The first day back at school after the two-month summer break was usually bad enough; new timetables, new teachers, sometimes new pupils you tried to be nice to until you realised they were as annoying as everyone else; but this day was much worse. This year, we were starting the work for the GCSEs we would be taking the following school year, which meant we would be in completely different classes than we had been in previously. There was a five out of six chance that Rose wouldn’t be in my form class, and that was not worth thinking about.
We both slowly made our way through the building; past the dark, dingy classrooms which were only made slightly better by the various wall displays that had been crafted by the hundreds of pupils at this school. After what seemed like an eternity, we had arrived at our destination: the assembly hall. The room was filled with about a hundred or so pupils chatting to each other while waiting for the teachers to arrive and sort us into our classes.
The chatting ceased almost immediately once our intimidating headmistress appeared in the doorway. She swiftly walked onto the stage located at the far end of the room, and without even stopping to address us, launched into a large list of names. Lost in my own world, I was soon brought back to reality when I realised my name had been called.
“Autumn,” Rose nudged me. “That’s you.”
It took less than a second for me to realise that I was in fact, not in Rose’s class after all. We were being sorted into our classes by surname, and since Rose's surname was Hewson and mine was Martin, there would be no chance of us being in the same class this year.
“Oh,” I responded quietly.
I made my way over to the group of people that would now be known as my classmates. I recognised most of them – some had been in my class before, others I had seen about the school – including Jonny, who I had been friends with since I was born, as both of our fathers worked together.
I smiled politely at him as I took a seat. I couldn’t help but glance at Rose, who had just been given her own class. I was comforted by the fact that it contained a few friendly faces in it. I smiled at her reassuringly as I waited for us to be taken to our form rooms.
--
Before I knew it, I found myself seated beside Jonny in one of the nicer classrooms, a bright room filled with several potted plants that were often used for science experiments. There were also several multicoloured posters attempting to teach pupils how the digestive system works. The bright walls appeared even brighter as it seemed the sun had finally moved out from behind the now disappearing clouds.
I was lost in a conversation with Jonny about whether or not Iron Man was a better superhero than Batman, when he strolled into the room.
He was not, by any means, the most attractive person I had ever seen before. But there was something about him; maybe it was the way the light reflected off his sandy brown hair and dazzling blue eyes, or something about the way his hair curled which gave him a just-got-out-of-bed look. Whichever it was, it had me completely and utterly transfixed. He briefly glanced in my direction, and I turned bright red, as if I was a young child who had just been caught pinching cookies before dinner.
“Autumn?” I heard Jonny ask.
“Huh? Oh, sorry, I must have drifted off,” I mumbled.
“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing to the slightly-attractive person I had just been caught staring at, who was now talking to our form teacher, Mrs Connor.
“I think that’s the new guy,” Jonny replied. “Apparently he moved here from London. Poor guy, imagine moving from London and ending up here.”
I laughed in response, sneaking a glance at the new-guy from the corner of my eye. He was tall - at least five foot eleven - which was huge compared to my rather petite size of five foot two. His uniform was relatively messy in comparison to mine – his shirt was untucked, his top button was undone and his tie was rather short.
There was no more time to be spent dwelling on the appearance of new-guy however, as right after he had taken a seat at the back of the classroom, Mrs Connor decided that now was the time to distribute our weekly timetables to each of us. There was a flurry of pupils attempting to shout over one another, as everyone tried to discover who was in each of their chosen subject classes.
Jonny extended his hand and reached for my timetable. He quickly scanned it and then passed it back to me, saying; “Looks like you’re in my English Lit class as well.”
I sighed. That meant I would be without either Jonny or Rose in my Spanish and Music classes. I silently hoped that Rose was in my Home Economics and English Literature classes, while cursing her for choosing French and Art as subjects. I made a mental note to talk to her later.
--
Once we had been given the anticipated lecture about making sure we worked hard this year and didn’t screw up, we were sent to our first classes of the school year. Unfortunately for me, that first class was Spanish.
I quietly entered room fourteen, so as not to draw attention to myself, and took a seat at the back of the room. I scanned the sea of faces and to my dismay found that I had only ever spoken to one of the members of the class before. And that was not a pleasant memory.
I began to construct a way of surviving three hours of Spanish lessons a week, when new-guy appeared once again. He briefly surveyed the room, and for reasons still unknown to me, sat down in the seat right next to me. He looked at me with his sky-blue eyes and smiled; revealing a set of pearl-white teeth. I was just about to introduce myself, when I was interrupted by our teacher, Mr Leighton, strolling into the room with a smile on his face.
“¡Hola clase!” he announced. “Before we start taking down loads and loads of essential vocab that must be learnt unless you would like to fail your exams, we will begin by introducing ourselves!”
He started at the front of the room. I learned the names of everyone, information about their families and pets, and other useless things such as their hobbies, only to forget everything I had just learned roughly thirty seconds later.
“This year is going to be fun,” I muttered to myself.
After a blonde-haired girl called Jessica had finished speaking, it was my turn to chat to the class. I nervously stood up and began speaking in scattered Spanish.
“Hello, my name is Autumn Martin,” I spoke, as I heard a snort coming from the person beside me. I glared at new-guy and swiftly continued talking. “I am fifteen years old, and my birthday is on the fifth of August. I have long, straight and brown hair, and brown eyes.”
I continued talking about my family and hobbies until Mr Leighton finally moved on to new-guy.
“Hello, my name is Noah Jacobs,” he said flawlessly. I couldn’t help but notice that he spoke with a scruffy English accent, like he was from London. This was confirmed when he said; “I was born in London on the sixteenth of July, and I am fifteen years old. I have a sister called Amy; she is ten, and a step-brother called Joseph; he is seven and very annoying. I play piano and guitar, and in my spare time I love listening to music and watching TV.”
Once he had finished, I asked Noah what exactly I said that was so amusing.
“Nothing really,” he replied casually. “Just the name ‘Autumn Martin’ makes you sound like a deluded Coldplay groupie, that’s all.”
“And what is wrong with Coldplay?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“What’s right with them?!” he ranted. “They won’t stop singing the same damn song! Clocks or Speed Of Sound? Which one is it?! I honestly cannot tell! And have you seen Chris Martin? What a twat!"
He paused. "He’s not as bad as Bono though, I mean…”
He trailed off when he saw the look on my face, which must have been bright red with fury.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry.” He had a look on his face that was a cross between mortification and regret. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s fine,” I responded, and preceded to ignore him for the rest of the lesson.
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:D:D *dances like a lunatic*
Try ending the sentence after 'Rose', and then, 'she was standing aside...'
