The Spill Over

[1] It's Only Natural.

TUGGIN' & PULLIN' ON MY LITTLE HEARTSTRINGS

: : chapter 1 : : 

Song of the chapter is DNA by Little Mix.

To the side is Gabriella Miller, played by Ashley Benson.

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Sixteen-year-old Ashley O'Connor stared at the school in front of her as she stood next to her brother, Shane, awed at the prestigious aura the school held. She looked over to her parents, who paused their conversation to smile at their children, while they unloaded her luggage from the rental car.

"You okay there, Pipsqueak?"

Ashley looked over to her right to see Shane smiling down at her in an unusually gentle manner. "Yeah," she breathed out. "I suppose so. I hope so."

He squeezed her hand tight. "It's gonna be okay, believe me."

"I wish," she said softly. "I'll miss you, Shane."

"I'll miss you too, Ash," Shane replied softly as he pulled her towards him and hugged her hard. "And I swear I'll kill any guy that dares to hurt you or even look at you. You'll stay away from guys, right?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "I wonder how you'd manage that" she commented with a small laugh while trying hard to calm her insides, which kept contracting themselves out of nervousness.

Shane grimaced. "No, really Ash, guys nowadays are arses."

"Guys including yourself?"

Shane went red. "Let's not talk about me," he said muttered almost incoherently before continuing to speak. "Ash, promise me one thing."

"Which would be?" She folded her arms before turning around to shoot Shane a curious look.

"You'll tell me everything about whatever's going on with you, no matter what it is," he said solemnly whilst looking Ashley in the eyes, "and I mean everything."

"Shan—"

"Promise me that you'll do this?" he interrupted.

"Promise," Ashley said finally. She couldn't deny her brother anything because no matter how much she claimed to have had the life annoyed out of her by Shane, she still loved him to pieces and would do anything to make him happy.

A couple of minutes later, a security guard went over to where the four were standing next to their car in front of the entrance to the main building of the school, where the Dean's office was located. After a short conversation with Vince and Linda O'Connor, the security guards proceeded to help the family carry Ashley's luggage towards the reception area.

"Jesus, Ash, what have you put in here?" Shane asked, wheezing, as he lugged one of his sister's suitcases as they trailed behind their parents and the two security personnel.

"Shut up and walk," Ashley said with a good natured laugh as she poked Shane in the sides.

"Yes ma'am," he said with a groan.

As Ashley trooped down the hallways of her new school, along with everybody else, she felt extremely overwhelmed by every sight and smell. She loved the fact that Oakridge had a more welcoming, homely look to it, as compared to her previous school which had an extremely professional feel to it. The walls held all sorts of posters advertising after school clubs and sports, urging the students to sign up for them. There were colourful posters all over the place that held pictures of members of a few clubs- yet another promotional technique for the clubs. There were bulletin boards, pictures, newspaper articles and random pictures and jokes pinned or pasted along the walls, all throughout the corridors.