Holland Road | Mumford & Sons Fan Fiction

Chapter 1

xChapter 1x

Monday, January 13, 2003
8:34 A.M.
King's College School, Mrs. Gregory's English class


I hitch my book bag up higher on my shoulder as I walk to my seat in the very back of the room. I feel eyes on my back and nervously start scratching my arm and pick up my pace.

"Thank you for deciding to finally show up," Mrs. Gregory says once I'm sitting in my chair. I shift awkwardly and nod in her direction, avoiding eye contact.

Ben leans over to me, his brown disheveled hair falling in his face, and whispers "Where the hell have you been?"

Ben Lovett, my best friend since age 7, is always concerned about me. He thinks I'm going in a downhill spiral. I just think he's nuts.

"I slept late," I mumble while opening my worn notebook and frantically scribbling down a couple sentences to the essay I started last night but never quite finished.

"Alright, class," Mrs. Gregory says while shuffling through some papers. Finally she finds what she's looking for and grins and the stack of small slips of paper. "I have a new project for you."

A chorus of groans and sighs fill the classroom. The teacher gives a menacing look to her students and silence quickly falls over the room. "As I was saying, you have a new project. Our school has joined together with another school in Westminter and we have started a pen pal program."

At first I'm skeptic to the idea. I hear Ben mumble something about it being juvenile and I kind of see it as the same sort of thing. I already have enough things to do; I don't need to be sending letters to some stranger.

"The idea behind this," Mrs. Gregory continues, "is to encourage you all to write and connect with other people. I will give each of you a name and address of a person that has been paired with you at random. You will be sending letters to your pen pal for 3 months with one letter delivered each week."

The lady starts hobbling down each row of desks, handing the slips of paper to each student. I say hobbling because she isn't very tall and is quite round in shape. "And everyone will be turning in the letters they receive so they can get a grade. Don't worry, we won't read them, so you can write whatever you want." Then she winks which makes me feel a bit like gagging.

I scratch at my arm under my itchy jumper while the teacher places a folded slip on my desk. I slouch back in my seat and reluctantly reach for the white paper, looking to see the name of the person I have.

"I have someone named Tim Butler, whoever that is," Ben says. "Who d'you get, Marcus?"

I squint at the small print on my piece of paper. "Carey Mulligan?"

"Damn it, how'd you end up with a girl?" Ben asks. I chuckle at his remark.

"Lucky draw," I reply whilst shrugging.


{A/N}
Hello, my lovelies, and welcome to Holland Road! I hope this story doesn't end up being a let-down :/ but I will be posting the next chapter either tonight or tomorrow because why not!? It's already almost done! Meanwhile stay tuned for the epilogue of Love It ;)

Comment, like, follow, you know the drill. Thanks so much for reading, Lovelies!