Better Than Pizza | REGGIE PETERS

Chapter 1: Were Those Holograms?

My alarm goes off. Time for the spirit rally. I don't want to go. My bestfriend isn't in the music program anymore. She got kicked out and she doesn't seem to want to fight to get back in. I walk over to my closet and throw on a crop-top and ripped jeans. I'm not putting a whole lot of effort into my outfit today, even though I'm seeing my boyfriend after school.

I walk downstairs to see an empty kitchen. I walk over to our front door, both of my parents' cars are gone. I'm alone... and that's just how I like it. I take out my phone and put some music on. I look in the dining room and see my boyfriend's letterman jacket on the table, folded. It had a note that said,

Hey Princess,
I came by your house last night, but your dad said you were at the movies with your mom. Just wanted to give you a hug, but since I can't be there to actually give you one, here's something that's pretty close.
Yours, Jacob

I smiled at the note. I grab my song journal and shove it into my backpack. I took the note off the jacket, grabbed everything and put it all at one of the barstools in the kitchen. I put the note on the fridge and slid a magnet over it. I opened the fridge and saw we had two things: eggs and pizza. "Cold pizza it is," I muttered to myself.

I slid on Jake's jacket and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I grabbed a my piece of pizza and put it in my mouth, so I could lock my front door. After I was sure it was locked, I walked down the steps and put the keys in my pocket. I was enjoying my pizza when Nick walked out of his house next to mine.

"Enjoying the cold pizza again, Y/L/N?"

I smiled at my best guy friend, "You know it."

He jogged down his driveway.

We were walking the short half-mile to school. We were just talking about everything that's been happening. He was telling me about how worried about Julie he was. I thought it was sweet how worried he was about her, even though he had a girlfriend. She treated him like absolute garbage, but he still was dating the most popular girl in school.

Carrie Wilson. Daughter of Trevor Wilson. The popstar that had an amazing first album, but crashed after? The rhythm guitarist for Sunset Curve before they died? Yeah. That Trevor Wilson. Not a whole lot of people know about Sunset Curve, or at least they don't think they do. His entire first album was written by Luke Patterson, lead singer of the band. Trevor stole their music.

It's not rocket science to figure out, the writing in the first album vs the writing in his later stuff is completely different. Plus, he recorded a single titled My Name Is Luke... you don't have to be a genius to figure these things out. Carrie doesn't like me. I don't like her. It's as simple as that. She doesn't like how close I am with Nick and I don't like the way she treats him.

We arrived at school and parted ways. I walked into the music room because Dirty Candy, Carrie's little group is performing at the spirit rally. Mrs. Harrison told everyone they could either go to the rally or stay in the music room to work on Music Theory for extra credit. That's where Flynn and I are right now. Bored out of our minds.

Flynn picks up a trumpet and starts playing random notes. I stand up and walk over to the piano, we start playing things at random when Julie comes running in, "What are you guys doing, and where is everyone?"

"Spirit assembly," I roll my eyes.

Flynn sighs, "We were kind of blowing it off."

I sigh too, "Yeah we weren't feeling very spirity."

Flynn sits up from her laid-back position, "You okay?"

"Not really," Julie paused, "I had this plan to play for Mrs. Harrison, hoping she'd let me back in, but I suppose I missed my chance."