"I don't know why, I just feel I'm better off staying in the same room I was born in." Autumn sang the beginning line of Not Today with power and confidence. Sure, she was nervous standing in front of such a large audience but she was used to it. She sang the rest of the song, the drummer getting the last beat perfectly; a round of applause sounded. She smiled, bowed slightly and made her way off stage. Heading towards the snacks and drinks bar, she accidentally bumped into someone and got hot coffee spilled down the front of her white t-shirt.
"Are you serious? I have to wear this tomorrow as well." She groaned more to herself than the person who had bumped into her.
"I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to. I should watch where I'm walking more often." Autumn looked up at the babbling girl who was still apologising and squinted her eyes, taking in long blonde hair and deep brown eyes.
"It's fine," she giggled, "I have plenty more white t-shirts. What's got you in such a state anyway?" The girl stared at her. "Not a fan of conversations? Okay-"
"Oh no I am I just, why are you not angry? I just spilt hot coffee down you."
"It doesn't bother me; it was clearly an accident therefore no hard feelings..." she searched for a name tag on the girl's shirt but found none. Looking down, the girl realised what Autumn was looking for,
"Oh, my name's Leone." Autumn nodded. "Mine's Aut-"
"Autumn. Yeah you're kind of a big deal around here." Leone chuckled to herself.
"Ah yes well I shouldn't be much longer." Leone looked up.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I'm going to try and focus on my GCSEs more, so I'm quitting" Autumn said it quietly, scared that someone might overhear.
"You're quitting?" It felt like Leone shouted it, so Autumn shushed her.
"Yes, but you're the first one to know. Can I trust you not to tell anyone? Please?"
"Oh. Of course. But do you not like your job? I'd give anything to be you. Well, I'd give anything to be able to sing as well as you to be honest. You're amazing up there." Autumn giggled.
"Thanks. Of course I like my job, I just don't see myself doing this in the future. I want to be a teacher, not a singer. Besides, there's too much responsibility being a singer. All those fans looking to you for new music or march on the constant. I'll miss the gigs, but not that part." Leone looked at her in disbelief. "Oh, I'm not saying the fans aren't amazing, it's just they always want new things. I love my fans, but there are a few that just aren't- Oh I'm digging myself a hole." Leone nodded and they smiled at each other.
"Well I should be on my way, gotta get back home before midnight."
"Oh okay then, well it was nice meeting you."
"Yes, you too. I hope we see each other more often." And with that, Autumn scuttled off to find a ride home.
*********************************************************************
1 Week Later (28th January 2018)
Her sword came swooping down on the dragon's head, but just as it did so she got torn from her dream by a persistent Ed Sheehan singing A Team and slowly getting louder. Reaching over, she hit the 'stop' button on her phone alarm and turned over. Why 7:00am? Why couldn't it be 9:00am instead? Surely the teachers would prefer a lie-in too? Then she heard her door creak open and groaned when there was sudden light - her mum had opened the curtains.
"Time to get up, it's your first week back in school since the first week of January." Autumn groaned again, but reluctantly rolled out of bed and traipsed past her mum to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and her eyes widened in shock. Her long, luscious brown hair was sticking up in every direction possibly. She sighed and climbed into the shower.
After she had dried off, she got her dreaded uniform out of her wardrobe. She slipped into it and double-checked her room to make sure she had everything she needed and headed downstairs. Looking at the time, she silently cursed because she was late. She packed her school bag and tied her laces as quickly as she could and grabbed her keys, gave her dog a quick pat on the head and headed out the door. She cursed again and turned back around-she forgot her headphones. She couldn't go to school without them and checked the time again. 8:05am. Great. She was going to get a late if she didn't walk quickly. Snatching her headphones from the side, she made her was out the door for the second time that morning and hit shuffle on her playlist.
Once at school (just on time), she paused her music and headed to her form room. Finally reaching the room, she plonked herself down next to a random girl who was reading. The girl didn't look up as Autumn faffed around with her bag, getting her planner out and still didn't look up when the register was called and answered quietly when her name was called. And so she had a name - Sam. Autumn was about to ask Sam what her next lesson was when the bell rang. Sam snapped into action as soon as it sounded and rushed out of the room, as if she was on a mission. A mission to get to her next lesson as quickly as she could by the looks of it. Autumn sighed and picked up her bag, looking at the back of her planner to see what lesson she had to make her way to next. Music. Smiling to herself, she briskly walked to the Music block and climbed the stairs two at a time. She loved Music. It was her favourite lesson. Not needing to line up outside the room, she made her way inside and looked at the seating plan on the board before sitting next to a boy who was deep in conversation with the person behind him.
"Hi. I'm Autumn." She introduced herself to the boy quietly and he turned to her.
"I'm Tyler." After saying this, a plump lady waltzed into the room and they both turned to the front after exchanging friendly smiles. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad. Autumn thought to herself.
The rest of the day flew by, and she found out that Tyler was in her History and French as well. By lunch, they had become friends and Autumn was invited to sit with him at lunch. She gratefully accepted the invitation (break had been quite lonely) and spent the whole hour watching Tyler talk to his other friends. One of whom was quite familiar. It was Leone. They exchanged knowing looks when Tyler introduced them to each other, but didn't say anything. Another familiar face was Sam and Autumn got a ghost of a smile but nothing more. The last person to be introduced was Ryan. He introduced himself.
"Hi I'm gay. Oh whoops. I meant to say Ryan. Guess that was the fastest coming-out I've ever done." The rest of the table laughed. Autumn decided that she already liked them all and hoped she would become friends with each of them. Her last lesson was Photography and, thankfully, Sam was in it with her. They were doing a photo shoot inspired by someone called Melinda Gibson and, after getting changed into more casual wear, they roamed the school taking different headshots of each other. Autumn had changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a white and black striped blouse with three inch heels and a deep red beanie. The group she was with loved her outfit so much that most of the photos were of her.
Finally, it was the end of the day. It turned out that the group lived quite close to each other. Ryan was the first to get home, then Tyler, Sam and finally Autumn got home whilst Leone had to carry on some. They had all arranged to meet again at the Starbucks nearby in an hour and so Leone had asked if she could walk with Autumn as they lived nearest to each other.
Thankfully, Autumn hadn't had to change back into her uniform and so all she had to do was hang it up and freshen up a little. She took the beanie with her as it was still quite cold outside and made her way to Leone's house.
A/N This was the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, if you spotted any mistakes then please comment them so I can fix it! Thanks for reading :D
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