Surfing the Sound Waves

*1* It's My Life - Bon Jovi

"It's my life

It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever

I just want to live while I'm alive

It's my life

My heart is like an open highway

Like Frankie said

I did it my way

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life"

I woke up to the room-shaking first notes of "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi, on full blast. I fell out of the covers and quickly shut off my alarm.

After sifting through dozens of cardboard boxes, as nothing of mine had been unpacked yet except for my mattress, I pulled out some acceptable clothes for the first day of school.

As I started to walk out of my new bedroom, I turned on my heel back inside. Might as well make it feel a little more like home in here. Struggling with the huge box, I set up everything then stepped back to admire my decorating skills.

On the table across the room sat my silver laptop and my entire editing set. There, I thought to myself, Now it'll be ready when I get home.

I proudly stepped out my bedroom door and and down the stairs for breakfast before the first day of school. Quickly, I stuffed my face with a banana and a bowl of cereal. With my leather backpack slung over my shoulder, I stopped before leaving through the front door and stared at the wide mirror in the entryway. I looked myself over once more. 1, 2, 3, 4 poorly concealed zits across my face, and dark black, shaky eyeliner ringing around my gray-blue eyes. My dirty blonde hair hung limp around my face, with my bangs still somewhat sticking up in the air. Grabbing a black beanie with the words "CAN U NOT?" inscribed on the rim, I pulled it over my head. Then I turned out the door, thinking to myself, Well, this is about as good as it's gonna get.

Outside in the driveway sat my junker car that I brought here from Minnesota. Bright reddish maroon, with rust along the edges and a huge dent in the side, my old pickup truck was definitely not a charmer. We had hooked up XM radio into it, but that was really the only perk of it. Nevertheless, I was stuck with it, no matter how much I hated it.

Pulling into the Malibu Coast High School parking lot, I scanned the area out for my assigned parking spot. I was one of the few sophomores with a license, so I got a really far back space. But I parked it there, and headed inside. I got to my first hour class, English, without acknowledging anybody. Earbuds in, I started to work on a new mix on my school laptop until the bell rang and the teacher came in. The first three classes went by quick. English, Biology, Government. Most of the classes I actually wanted to take were later in the day, after lunch.

Lunchtime was the time I had been dreading. You had to be careful where you sat for the first day, because that's where you're stuck. The MCHS lunchroom was actually outside, with a bunch of tables set up and a food truck. Definitely cooler than the ones back in ol' Minnesota. But as I carried my backpack through the winding tables outside, I could definitely notice the very obvious groups set up. First the goths on the left and the computer nerds on the right. Next came the obnoxious, idiot jocks on the left and the music junkies to the right. I would've sat with the junkies, but their table was completely full. Then, right in the middle were obviously the populars. On the right were a group of prissy girls with their sparkly lip gloss, too-tight leggings and showy tops. To the left were a group of guys that I actually wasn't sure were the populars, because they weren't paying attention to the popular girls at all. A group of guys laughing at something one of them said, a few caught my eye. One with blondish hair and a backwards SnapBack. Another that seemed slightly quieter with a band t-shirt. Next to him was a tall guy with brown hair that seemed to be the source of the joke. And next to him was a tall, tan guy with dark brown hair and obvious muscles, wearing a dark pair of Ray-bans. I figured they were probably annoying jerks, and I kept moving.

After walking past every table outside, I found one that was completely empty, so I sat down figuring this would be better than nothing. Again, I plugged my earbuds in and opened up my laptop to work on the mix I was doing just for fun. Luke Bryan's "Play It Again" with a few lines of Little Big Town's "Pontoon". Not many people knew I loved country. It was kind of my dirty little secret.

Messing around with a few of the sound waves and pitches, I nibbled on the ham and Swiss cheese sandwich I had packed. I sat back, listening to what I had put together so far, and looked around at the area around. Overall, it was a pretty cool place. The tables were scattered across the dark blue concrete with the little reflective pieces in it, kind of like what was in the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame. To the side of it all was the beat-up food truck. Above the area was a steel catwalk that led to a stage in the air. But what really caught my attention was what was in the corner of the stage. One of the biggest DJ sets I've ever seen. There were probably things it could do I'd never even dreamed of. Oh, how I desperately wanted to go up there and try it out. Maybe I could DJ a school dance, and then I'd get to try? Yeah, that should work. I need to remember that.

What I had gotten done so far on my mashup had finished playing, so I turned back around to my laptop. But when I turned around, I wasn't expecting to see a pair of dark Ray-bans staring back at me.