Broken Strings

DISCLOSER: The characters in this story are completely from the authors own imagination, and any name or character likenesses are purely coincidental. 

Hey, so this is my first fic, so please, be gentle with me, will you? ;) This is just the prologue, but I do have the first chapter written, I just want to see what kind of response I get before posting more, there's no point if no one reads it, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. It's called Broken Strings. Hope you like it!

Prologue 

My name is Amelia Bell or Mia as I'm more often known as. I've always loved music. It was like a sanctuary to me, feeling the beats pulsate through my veins just made me feel alive! My parents divorced when I was 6 months old, and my dad raised me, picking up the slack from my mother's total disappearing act. He started teaching me the basics to guitar when I was just three. I got my first acoustic on my seventh birthday, and my electric followed a few years later. By the time I was fifteen I could tackle songs by Jimi Hendrix and Eddie van Halen. The day before my seventeenth birthday I watched my dad play in a club. The way his hands moved across the frets was magical, with such speed, yet perfect grace and accuracy. On my seventeenth birthday, my father died. 

It was really sudden, no one expected it. It was so quick, the wrong place at the wrong time. A victim of a drugged-up lunatic wandering the streets with a knife. The police told me he was a hero, trying to help a woman who was being sexually assaulted. The woman herself came to the funeral, told me in kind and quiet words how sorry she was, and how brave my dad was for helping her like that. And then life went on, people went back to school or work on the next day, a Monday, instantly forgetting about my dad's existence. Me? I was pulled out of school, away from all of my friends and family and sent half way across the country, to New York to live with my mother. 

The taxi I was in pulled up alongside a cute little house, white picket fence and everything. I sighed. I didn't like this. I was used to living with just my dad, in our crummy two-bed apartment and living off tips. This was the home of a family with a steady income, which - don't get me wrong - was absolutely great, but I had a horrible feeling they might be slightly snobbish. I got out of the taxi and paid the driver before slowly ambling up the driveway and knocking on the red door, which was answered almost immediately, by the woman I had only seen from pictures, a man in his early forties and a girl that could only be about fourteen or fifteen. 

Laurie Jones, formerly Laurie Bell and my mother, is an unusual woman. She wears floaty tops and flowers in her perfect hair. My mother is beautiful, but I look nothing like her with my dark skin and hazel eyes. The only likeness we have is our hair colour and texture, both brown and curly. She remarried just a month after she official divorced my father, when I was one. And along came Alison, my 'perfect' fifteen year old sister. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the lot. And all topped off with a terrible music taste. My step-father - Michael, I discovered, is heart-breakingly beautiful. I could see what attracted my mother to him. His whole face just screamed charisma, unlike my nerdy, but adorable father, who was only comfortable with a guitar in his hands and an adoring audience in front of him. The three of them made the perfect family, and then I came along, my small bag of clothes in one hand, my adored red Gibson les Paul in the other, and my dad's acoustic stung across my back. No doubt ruining their picture perfect family. 

My mother stepped forward, and smiled a warm, kind smile at me. 'Amelia?' she asked, taking a small step towards me. 

I nodded and gulped. 

Laurie smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. 'My goodness, look at you. You are just gorgeous.' She gasped. 'My beautiful little girl, I've missed you so much!' she exclaimed, before pulling me into her arms and hugging me tightly. 

I patted her back awkwardly, not sure how to respond to that comment from the woman that abandoned me. 

Laurie pulled away from me, still grinning 'Isn't she gorgeous Michael? Oh Mimi, you have to meet Ally. Alison, come here darling.' Alison didn't move, glaring openly at me. 

'It's Mia.' I said, speaking for the first time. 

'Pardon?' she asked, looking slightly confused. 

'It's Mia, I repeated. No one calls me Mimi. I hate it.' 

She blinked. 'Oh. Ok. Well, I'm sure you've had a busy day... So how about a quick tour and then I'll show you to your room, and you can settle in and unpack...' her eyes flickered to my very small rucksack that had a pair of jeans and two shirts in. along with the jeans, top and jacket I was already wearing, along with my red converse, this was all I had, and my guitars of course. 'Come with me, Mim- Mia.' She smiled warmly a me again, and led me through the house, showing me the large living room, which opened out into a dining room with a large oak table in it, the adjoining room being the large kitchen. She took me up the stairs, pointing out the room she shared with Michael, Alison's room, the guest room, then finally my room. 'Your room has an adjoining bathroom with Ali's, so you don't have to use the main bathroom - unless she's hogging the bathroom.' She chuckled fondly at her daughters antics. 'I'll just leave you be then, ok? Dinner's in two hours.' 

I walked over to the large white bed and sat down slowly, taking in the room. It was big, like huge big. At least compared to my tiny room when I lived with my dad... The walls were painted a sort of soft lemon colour, and there were matching cushions on the bed. I walked over to the large window, and checked out my view. It overlooked the garden, which over looked a pond. It was rather beautiful, I had to admit it. 

Tomorrow, I would be starting my first day of school at Newham High, a private school no less. Another unsettling change. I was used to the busy and bustling public school, Alcott High school, where drugs were common, and it was easy to skip. I returned to my bed and stared blankly at the wall, a lone tear slipping free. 'God, Dad. What have you landed me in? I miss you...' I whispered to no one in particular, feeling comfort from the only thing I recognised in this strange place, myself.