"You must be G- Gracie - er?" The tall male teacher asked looking down at a piece of paper
I shook my head as I slowly walked in the room, "Gray like the color and then -er at the end. I know it's kinda weird."
"No such thing, I'm Avalon and I'm a guy, of course, you'll call me Mr. Pala." He said pointing to a seat next to Everett
I sat down slowly and didn't make eye contact.
"So as you can see this class didn't generate a lot of interest, but due to the school spending a hell of a lot of money on this room, they still kept it. So I'll tell you a little bit about myself." Mr. Pala started as he sat on a stool
"My name is Mr.Pala to you, Avalon outside of school. I've been writing and producing music for a while, I own a recording studio downtown, and I'm here to educate the future singers and producers of the future. I have three brothers, my parents divorced when I was six but they co-parent great, I'm married to the love of my life and we have three little girls named Sicily, Sydney, and Savannah - yes they're all named after places. Um, Miss. Johnson tell me a little bit about yourself." Mr. Pala went on
"My name is Grier, one sister, two brothers, but I'm probably closest to my sister." I started
"So your sister is kinda like your best friend?" He asked
I nodded, "Definitely, she's probably the only person who knows everything about me. The way our rooms are set up, she's right across the hall so if I have a problem at two in the morning, I'll go into Holland's room. Oh, Holland is my sister."
"I've danced since I was young, it was honestly always my sweet escape. So yeah."
Mr. Pala grinned, "Now Everett, your turn."
"My name is Everett, I have one sister, I live with my parents and my dog. I'd always been the quiet kid who was always pushed to the side. This summer I wanted to change all of that, I started to work on myself. Not just physically but mentally and creatively." He spoke
"So you basically got really freakin' cute? That's what all the girls have been whispering all day. Does he look better, Grier? Wait have you two been going to school together all this time?" Mr. Pala wondered
I nodded, "I mean I personally always thought he was a pretty sweet kid, looks only last so long. We've been going to the same schools since sixth grade."
"We've never spoken though other than we were in the same science group in seventh grade if you remember." Everett spoke
I finally turned my head and made eye contact.
"I remember." I confirmed
Mr. Pala grinned, "So you've never spoken before this class?"
We both shook our heads 'no'.
"Different circles." Everett said lowly
Mr. Pala stood up, "I'm gonna grab us some donuts from that place up the street, don't tell, I'll be back in ten. Talk to each other, feel free to walk around."
We watched as he walked out of the classroom and into the oblivion.
I stood up and walked to the instruments.
"What do you play?" Everett asked as I could hear him getting up
I touched the huge grand piano, "Piano, guitar, I dabble in the ukelele. You?"
"Same, minus the ukelele. Electric, acoustic?" He asked me
"Both." I responded as I picked up the electric guitar that was already hooked up
I strummed random chords as he observed
"Gonna play Teenage Dirtbag on that thing?" He teased
I looked up, "Oh my gosh, you heard me this morning."
"Yeah, the whole block kinda did. Nice lyric changes." He commented
I looked at him, "I'm not ready to elaborate on that one yet.
Everett nodded, "I understand. Are you gonna sing or something?"
"I mean, I haven't sung in front of anyone other than my family before." I proceeded reluctantly
Everett sat down at the piano a few feet away, "You sing, I will too, just not at the same time of course."
I rolled my eyes too, "Fine but not the whole thing. Don't look at me."
"Never thought I'd be saying this to Grier Johnson, but you're so weird." Everett commented as he turned around
I had a smug smile on my face, "Thank you."
I began playing and eventually started to sing.
"You've got a hold of me don't even know your power." I sang
I continued to sing 'Mercy' and I prepared myself to stop after the chorus.
"Would you please have mercy, mercy on my heart." I ended
Everett started clapping, "You're really good."
I put the guitar down and then put my hair in a ponytail, "Thanks."
"What are you gonna play for me?" I asked him
"I wrote this one, you can look at me, doesn't really affect me." He said facing the piano
Alright, flex on me then.
I grinned, "Do your friends know that you do all this?"
He nodded, "Yeah, but of course no one at school does. I wrote this over the summer, because I dated this girl who was really superficial and only used me for sex and my looks."
"That's brutal, does she go here?" I commented
"She's closer than you think." Everett murmured as he started to play the piano
I listened as he played and sang.
Dear God, he had such an angelic voice.
On top of that, he was such a good songwriter.
I clapped, "You're good."
"Thanks, Grier." He smiled
Mr. Pala came back with a dozen of donuts, we ate donuts, walked around the classroom, and the best part of the classroom was the recording studio.
It was like a mini real one.
"So kids, I'll see you tomorrow. For the rest of this week, we're just gonna be working on getting to know the parts of what it takes to make a great label before we dive into assignments." Mr. Pala ended just as the bell rang
I grabbed my things and walked quickly out of the room.
I practically ran out of the music room to the gym for dance practice.
And I left the real 'Grier Johnson' in there as well.
-
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was the same routine.
School, dance practice, dance practice for the dance studio, homework, shower, and then I slept.
The second Everett and I walked into Mr. Pala's class it was like we were best friends, but in all of our classes we didn't even talk or acknowledge each other.
For instance, we had religion studies and English together, yet we never spoke a word together.
"Are you going to the back to school dance next week?" I asked him as I sat at the piano
He shrugged, "Jude and Finley wanna go, but I'm still thinking about it."
Jude.
That really struck a bell, because I started to play a little bit of 'Hey Jude' on the piano.
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better. This is awkward because I don't know the rest of the chords." I sang and played random keys at the end
Everett let out a small laugh, "Funny, I sang that for him one birthday. Never took you for a Beatles girl."
"Not surprised." I sighed
"What are you up to tonight?" I said getting off the subject of it
Everett sat down on the yoga ball, "I have to work from five to eleven, then I'll probably go home and crash. You?"
"You're probably gonna think less of me, so let's just say I'm going to the movies with Holland or something," I said not making eye contact
He scoffed, "You have to tell me now."
I looked up at the time, "Actually, I don't."
Saved by the bell.
I grabbed my things and sprinted for the student parking lot.
Holland met me at my car and we started our drive home.
"Can you take me to Ella Griffin's house tomorrow night?" She requested
"Ella like Everett's sister?" I clarified
Holland nodded, "Yeah, she's really cool. We're gonna have a sleepover with her, Kennedy, Lexi, and of course me."
"What happened to Addison, Hannah, Stella, Paisley, and Ariana's friend group?" I asked my sister
"We're still friends, we're getting ready to the back to school dance next Friday together. I wanna expand my horizons with other people plus Ella, Kennedy, and Lexi and I have a civics project that's due Tuesday anyway." Holland explained
Something that I admired about my sister is that she was so friendly, open, and charismatic, she could be friends with anyone.
When I got home, I chilled downstairs with my parents for a while, cleaned my room up, I took a shower, put on some makeup, and some nice clothes.
Around eight Julie picked me up and we headed to James' house which was only ten minutes away from mine, give or take.
By the look of the driveway, everyone was here.
James always held his parties in the backyard so his house wouldn't smell of weed and he could throw the bottles of alcohol into his neighbor's trash or into the woods behind his house.
Everyone was sitting around the fire pit, sharing a joint or a bottle of beer.
"Hey." I said walking in and closing the gate behind me
"Wassup Johnson!" James' friend, Xavier exclaimed
I sat down on James' lap, "The sky, Xav."
I gave James a kiss that lasted about twenty seconds before everyone started yelling 'Get a room'.
"What are we drinking tonight?" Julie asked sitting in a lawn chair
"Beer, James is hogging the Jack Daniel's bottle, and of course we got vodka." Daniel said tossing me a beer
Only one and I'll be fine.
As I drank the beer so many things were going on. James was kissing on my neck, I was probably getting second hand high, everyone was yelling as they played drunk Uno as I called it, and then one beer turned into two.
"I'm cutting myself off after this one." I promised myself as I hit Julie's Juul
Then there was James who was on his fourth one on top of the Jack Daniels and Vodka.
"I love you, I love you." He said to me over and over again
I felt like he only really loved me when he was drunk or high.
"Gross." Scarlet commented
Xavier stuck his tongue out, "Scarlet, won't you share about your summer fling that you refuse to talk about. We all know that guy had you struggling to walk for weeks."
She scoffed, "Let's talk about virgin mary over there who might finally get some dick."
"I agree." James nodded as he dropped an empty can of beer
I could feel his hand creep between my thighs and slowly work his way up.
"Not when I'm drunk." I slurred some of the words
But he kept going.
"James, chill." I groaned
Then he practically gave me a mammogram.
"James!" I roared hopping up
"You selfish, tease! We've been dating for months, it's not normal not to give your boyfriend some pussy!" He argued back
I pulled out my phone and opened the Uber app.
I slowly walked away without saying a thing.
"Dude, say you're sorry." Julie yelled
I could imagine his smug look.
"Not to worry, Jules. She'll be back like she always is." He spoke
It's just the alcohol talking.
I ran to the black car that had an Uber sticker and I cried my eyes out.