Faults, Scars, and Guitar Strings

Chapter 31 - Part 2

"Hey guys," Maria smiled at us. "How was your summer?"

"Great!" I smiled. "How was yours?"

"Amazing," She smiled back, "I went to New York again and worked for the same place I've been working for two summers now. It's incredible and they have the best clothes! I got you something too. I'll give it to you after school."

"You got me something? You didn't have to."

"I know, but it screamed Kayla and I had to. What's the fun in working at a clothing store if you can't get the clothes with a discount?"

I laughed, "Then thank you. You make a great point. I cannot disagree."

"You're welcome," she said. "What about you Dylan? How was your summer?"

He put his arm around me, "I've been following this beautiful girl around."

I blushed, "Dylan."

He chuckled, "No my summer was good. I traveled with Kayla while she did her music thing. It was fun."

"Your parents let you travel around with her the whole summer?"

He nodded, "They were hoping I would do something more educational, but they knew it was what I really wanted to do. The idea of watching me mope around all summer was a great bargaining chip."

"You're lucky," she said.

"What about you?" he asked. "Your parents let you go to New York every summer don't they?"

She laughed, "Touché. After the first summer my parents saw how happy it made me so they started saving up so I could go more often. Where did you two go? I knew you were touring, but I didn't look to see what places you were going to."

"It started with interviews and performances here then we traveled to different places in the US like Illinois, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and New York. Then we traveled out of the country to Europe to promote my music there. That's pretty much where it ended though. It couldn't be a full world tour because I had to return to school."

"Which one was your favorite?" Maria asked.

"I loved France and Britain," I told her. "We stayed there the longest out of the other countries in Europe and it was so beautiful. I definitely want to go there again. I could only see so much with the schedule I had so next time I want to see even more of it."

"My favorite was France too," Dylan said, "We had a lot of extra time to explore the cities while we were there, or at least more so than the other places we went. It was relaxing."

"It was," I agreed. "I would go there again in a heartbeat."

We couldn't continue the conversation anymore because our teacher came in and the final bell rang. We spend the class time getting to know each other, which is a new thing our school started doing this year. After all the bullying the last few years the principal thought it would be good for the students to get to know each other more and to be friends rather than the bullying starting up again. One of the major problems last year was the fact that nobody truly knew who anybody else was. We assumed and spread rumors before asking and it caused the bullying to spread. This was an idea I created to attempt to stop all the assumptions.

Once class was over Maria and I went to our next class and Dylan went to his. We have the next class with a few other members of Danes Over Bullying. I think Maria was pleased to see that Jack was in our next class. They've been dating since last year, but not a lot of people know. They started seeing each other before Dylan and I started seeing each other. They are always secretive about it, but it's sweet. Jack leans over and whispers things in her ear during class and he will hold her hand under the table. It's sweet to see her happy. I didn't expect them to be so low key about it at first. Dylan and I, and even David and Lolita, are so out in the open about it because of the fame. Paparazzi follow us around for pictures, but with Maria and Jack they don't even admit they are dating most of the time. They completely avoid the words girlfriend and boyfriend even though everyone knows they are dating. If I had a choice, it might be nice to have that type of relationship because they have all the privacy in the world.