You Don't Know Me

Fifteen Minutes:Part 1

"You can't be unhappy in these," She announced.

Then she started a little tune: 

'I put my sunglasses on

My yellow sunglasses on'

That's how it started. I think I came up with the next lines. 

'And I think of you

And all the things you do

And it doesn't matter any more because...'

Nell laughed and joined in:

'I've got my sunglasses on.' 

Rose strummed a new tune in her guitar to go with them. It was quite different this time: fun, silly and catchy. Not Angsty at all. And not like that folky, moody number she'd been working on earlier, which had been starting to worry me. 

We liked the lines, so we sang them again, and Jodie even added a little harmony. It was something we often did when we were all together. We'd been doing it so long we even had a band name. In fact, several. We call ourselves the Powerpuff Girls. Or the Cheerios( Jodie's favourite breakfast food), or the Manic Pixie Dream Girls ( Rose's Idea), or the Xtremes, but only if Rose is wasn't around- she is a stickler for spelling. Jodie would chose the music. Nell was our lead singer. Rose was makeup and instrumentals. I was wardrobe and catering. 

It had been like that since Jodie, Nell and I were in primary school together. Rose joined us later, when she arrived in my class at St Christopher's. We'd get together... we'd sing. We didn't normally write our own stuff, though: we were more of a cover band. But that day Rose had her guitar out and Nell looked really funny in those glasses, and the words and music just seemed to flow. They weren't Shakespeare, I admit, but they made Jodie smile and that was enough.

Rose reached over to her bedside table and grabbed a notebook from it. She always has one lying around in case she's inspired to write something, as you do. I used to think of myself as a bit of a poet, but she is the real thing.  

"How does the third line go again?" She asked.

"Are you writing it down?" I was flattered. She'd never written my words down before. 

"It's great, Sash! Really catchy. Except I'm not sure if I've got that line right." 

"I can only remember it if I sing it," I said, suddenly realizing this was true. "I know- why don't we just record it?" I waved my new iPhone at her, thinking this would be a perfect chance to get a new app. The phone was the most beautiful present I've ever received and I was a little obsessed. 

Rose agreed, curious, and I found a recording app. We worked out some extra verses, then tried the song out, all clustering round the phone, not sure where the mic was. It sounded OK, but a bit tinny. It was totally working as a therapy for Rose's gloomy mood and Jodie's heartbreak, though.

Rose dug out the microphone she uses when she's recording her own songs and miraculously, also an adapter to fit my phone. We sang it once more, in harmony, then played it back. Suprisingly, we didn't sound too bad.

"That phone's amazing, Sash," Nell said. "I know- why don't I video us on it, too? Can I?" 

Great idea, I said. Go for it. We don't have time now, but why don't we have a band get-together on my birthday? We can dress up, like we used to in the old days, and make loads of videos. It'll be hysterical. 

Hahahahahahaha. 

So we do. 

My birthday is three weekends later, on the last Saturday of summer. I invite them all over for a sleepover, and bring home a selection of spare dressing-up clothes from my Saturday job at the vintage shop. 

Mum cooks us Thai green curry for lunch, because I'm turning sixteen and it's the most sophisticated thing we can think of. Then we nip upstairs to spend the afternoon dressing-up as our favorite pop stars, because we haven't totally mastered maturity yet. Not in secret, anyway. Not when it's just us.

Highlights include our Abba interpretation. Jody as Katy Perry, and Nell as Kylie Minogue, in gold sequin shorts and a white hoddie. She could practically be Kylie: It's uncanny. Rose does a long, sad Irish ballad, not entirely entering the spirit of things, but it's beautiful. I am olden-days Britney Spears, in a mini-kilt and half my school uniform. We are also, If I say so myself, quite brilliant as Girls Aloud.

'Sunglasses' is last. We mime the audio version we recorded in Jodie's room. By now we're getting tired and I'm half ready for bed. 

It's the perfect end to a perfect day. We eat warm brownies and homemade popcorn. We watch two Twilights back to back in our pyjamas and go to sleep at about five a.m., peppered in brownie crumbs, all huddled in a heap under our duvets in the floor.

Precisely four days later, my iPhone disappears. 

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Hey! hope you like the first ever chapter of "You don't know me" 

Love ya all! xxx 

P.S i don't know why it is only 2 pages... in the book it was around 4 pages... :(