Infinite

One Day

𝄆 ♫♪ 𝄇
'Take a step into the light
Let your wildest dreams take flight
Take the time to love your life'
I don't think I understand
All the things they keep sayin'
But one day
One day I will
𝄆 ♫♪ 𝄇

Marietta Halloway was one of the few people in the world that preferred going to school than holidays. It was the way she dealt with the struggling home she lived in. And, she loved learning and surrounding herself with people her own age. For the last year, Marietta, known to her friends and family as Mari, had felt lost. Her best friend's mother had passed and she didn't know how to move on or what to do.

Her best friend's mother was the third person she'd lost in her life. First, it was her birth mother at the age of two. She didn't lose her to cancer or a drunk driver or watch her take her last breath on her deathbed. Mari was forced to live with the fact that she and her father were not enough. A year later, her father married her step-mother, and thirteen months later she ended up with a half-sister. A full four years later, after struggling for nine months with cancer, her father was the second when he succumbed to the wishes of the Grim Reaper and his life ended one sunny morning in July.

Mari couldn't complain, though, not when her step-mother tried her absolute hardest to provide for not only her but her half-sister, Sofia. And if her father left behind something for Mari, she had no idea about it; they were living in a townhouse with three bedrooms—one for each of them in colors they loved.

"Sofia, Mari, can you please come down and help with dinner?" Mari's step-mother, Laura Halloway, yelled up the staircase. They're both expected to help with setting the table and cleaning any dishes that were produced while making dinner. It wasn't common for there to be many dishes, but Mari always took care of them while Sofia set the table and took care of clearing the table afterwards.

"Laura, Sofia is at Katie's house for the night," Mari reminded her. Laura remembered, since she made food that was good reheated in the microwave. Walking tacos was what she made, actually, and a favorite of both girls. Although Laura was Hispanic, she knew how to make more than just Mexican food. Almost every night touched on a different culture, and both Mari and Sofia were thankful they weren't reduced to figuring it all out for themselves.

"I know. I made taco meat for walking tacos." Mari nodded. "I am planning to have some food later, so you don't have to set the table or take care of the food. I can do it all later."

"Got it." Mari took a bag of chips, crushed them up, and put in sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and a spoonful of refried beans and headed up to her room to eat it. Mari's room, decorated in light blues and silvers, was immaculate. She always thought it was better to have a clean room so she could have a clear head when she went to sleep. Whenever Mari opened the door to Sofia's room and saw the layer of clothes—quite literally—on the floor, she nearly had a heart attack and couldn't do any more than shove the items that needed to go in the room on the floor and ignore the entire thing.

"Mija, I have to go out to meet with a customer. Don't answer the door. No one should be coming here at this time." Mari wanted to spit in her face that she wasn't anyone's mija, especially not Laura's. But, she held her tongue since that was the woman that had raised her since she was three.

"Got it, Laura." Mari took this as her one chance to relish in the emptiness of the house. It wasn't uncommon for the house to be nearly completely silent, even with the three ladies living there, but she wasn't able to sing out as much as she'd like to or play piano without headphones. Music was the one thing that made her feel free, like she didn't have to hold back any part of her to please someone else.

Mari shifted her focus from a book she was reading for summer homework to the piano which was the only thing not in a shade of sky blue or shiny silver. Though, with the number of stickers that had been added to it over the years, there wasn't an inch of black outside of the ebony keys. Every sticker was of her own design, and she treasured the fact that she had made every single one. They ranged from mandalas to doodles of animals to places she dreamed of going to. There were three that symbolized the family she had—her father, Laura, and Sofia—but those were the only people that had managed to make it onto the piano over the years.

Mari's fingers settled on the keys, starting to play the first chord, a C Major chord, of a song she was in the process of writing. They shift through the other three chords before she starts to sing along.

She sang about having no idea what to do with her life, but being okay with that. People had always told her that she needed to take her chance and go after her dreams, but Mari had always been okay with going a little slower. Taking a little longer to achieve all of that.

Mari's final note pierced the air, echoing through the house, before stillness surrounded her and her heavy breaths. "Yes!" She continued to play around with the melody, singing the words over and over again until they were perfect. It transitioned from a song where the subject was questioning their purpose in life to embracing the fact that they were taking their time in finding what it was they wanted to do. She chose a rising melody and static harmony line to highlight the fact that society disapproved of the fact that the subject didn't know what they wanted to do, but they didn't care and were happy about it.

Although she'd felt lost since her kind of best friend's mother had passed, music grounded her. This time, she felt free. Nothing could hold her down. Nothing could hold her back from what she was destined to do.

"Mari, can you please keep it down?" Laura yelled from the main floor.

Mari sighed. Maybe some things could hold her back. She didn't even notice her step-mother had arrived until she yelled at her. Either way, she still smiled and cheered internally at the fact that she finished a song. She'd only done that twice in the last year, but she was still as happy as when she made any other song, if not more. Her black hair glimmered in the fading sunlight as she put on headphones and finished off the last few notes and wrote them down on the sheet music in front of her. She couldn't wait to start school the next day, and especially couldn't wait to see if her kind of best friend would actually acknowledge her presence or whether she would ignore her just like she had with Carrie when they fell out. Carrie wasn't a bad person, just misunderstood. But wasn't that how most villains were?

The outro was another thing she had been struggling with, but she eventually reworked and rewrote the chorus to show the character arc of the person she was singing about—herself. Though she hadn't reached that place herself, she knew she would eventually.

Mari managed to merely whisper the words, no matter how much she wanted to belt them out as loud as she could. It was the perfect way to end the song, with just the right words and the beautiful chords to match it. She knew if she didn't talk too loudly or sing at louder than a normal speaking volume, Laura wouldn't know she was singing or talking.

Quite frankly, since her father died, the house had been far too quiet. And she paid the price whenever she wanted to write or play music. Every moment of every day in that house was the same, no matter what had happened at school or at work or with their friends. Mari was counting down the days until she could be free from the household of her step-mother.

Only seven hundred days. Two years. That's how long she had to survive her step-mother and the crazily quiet household she ran. Little did she know that three ghosts and a CD were right around the corner.

Author's Note: AHHH! Another JATP Fanfiction? Yes. Is this book (or, I guess, series of books) going to be extremely long? Another yes. Is it still going to be amazing? Of course. I can't wait to see what you all think of this series. I have so many plans for all four of them that I feel like I'm might burst. That being said, please vote and let me know what you all think in the comments. And don't worry, I won't just focus on Luke and Mari (though they are the main focus), I plan to do little tidbits of other relationships as well (like Willie and Alex). The next chapter will be up in a few days, so make sure to add this to your library so you get updates about it. All the best, MistyRider921.