Lovely.

So far, I had been in school here for only three days, and I already wanted to shoot myself.

The kids here were all the same. They all lacked ambition, and even though everyone talked about getting out of this stupid town, few ever did.

There was literally nothing to do here. School served as a distraction; something to do from eight in the morning until two o'clock to waste some time that would otherwise be spent doing absolutely nothing anyway. And once they got home, they just sat on their porch and smoked. Literally all of them did. And if they were feeling bored? Well, they invited their friends over to do the same thing.

Clearly, there were only two options here if you wanted to have fun; smoke alone or smoke with friends.

I almost felt like Hannah and I were the only ones who were different. Neither of us smoked, and we liked to do "nerdy" things in our spare time like read books or write stories or draw or listen to actually good music (not this country crap that everyone else here seemed to love wholeheartedly).

I thought for sure there would be more people like us here.

Then again, should I really be surprised? It's Missouri, after all. They should really rename the place "Hopeless".

That's all there was here; hopeless, wasted youth that would inevitably grow up to be blue-collar working, chain-smoking adults who would raise their children to be the same exact thing because it's all they knew.

Now, don't get me wrong; a lot of the people here were actually super nice. But is it sad that that's all they have to offer?

I'm not trying to be mean, honest. I'm just telling the truth.

However, suddenly, my phone started blaring "Besitos" by Pierce the Veil, which meant that Hannah was calling me.

"'Ello, buttercup," I answered as got up and started to choose my outfit for school.

"Whassup, Georgie?” she replied as my hand found my favourite pair of torn-up skinnies. I quickly laid those out on my bed and searched for a shirt.

“Not much, lovely,” I said, debating on whether I should wear my striped tank top or my floral one. After a few seconds, I realised that the floral one would look best with the shoes I was planning on wearing, so I laid that on my bed on top of the jeans.

“Oh yeah, and OH MY GOSH, COME DOWNSTAIRS AND OPEN THE FRONT DOOR RIGHT NOW.”

“...Alright,” I laughed as I descended the stairs, absolutely bewildered. “Any particular reason why?”

“BECAUSE I HAVE NEWS!” she exclaimed as I flung the door open. When I saw her, I ended the call and put my phone back in my bra. (Don’t ask.) She was quite literally bouncing up and down, and I raised my eyebrows, wondering what the hell could make her this excited at six-thirty in the god-damned morning.

“Is this ‘news’ really urgent enough to make me rush downstairs while still in my jammies?” I laughed.

“Yes!” she stated very matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes.

“Well, in that case, come inside. I still have to change, but once you’re done telling me this... news, we can walk to school together.” I led her upstairs, took the clothes off of the bed, and walked over to my bathroom (conveniently attached to my room).

Once I was in, I started to change. “So what’s your news?” I said loudly so she could hear me.

“My brother’s coming back soon!” she said excitedly as I started to pull my skinny jeans over my legs.

“Really? That’s great!” I replied as I jumped around, the only true way to put on skinnies.

“Yeah!” she yelled. “I mean, it’s only for like two weeks, but I haven’t seen him in like five months, and I miss him terribly. Oh my god, this’ll be so much fun! He can give us rides to school, and we’ll have jam sessions on our back porch... ugh, you’d love him, Georgia. He’s awesome once you get to know him.”

“Sounds amazing,” I smiled as I emerged from the bathroom. I slid on my Doc Martens, put on my peacoat, and gathered my things. After all that, we were out the door at about six forty, a new record for me.

“So when is he coming?” I questioned as we began the long-ish walk to school.

“Either tonight or early tomorrow morning,” she responded. “But it’s Friday, so either way, I’ll be able to see him right away and won’t have to wait ‘till after school. Oh, and do you want to sleep over? I really want you to meet him. You guys will get along great. I can tell.”

“Sure,” I said. “So, what’s your brother like?” I really wanted to know. She never said much about him other than the fact that he was nineteen, gave her a Justin Bieber poster as a joke, and toured around all the time.

“Well, he’s in a band of sorts,” she told me. “He’s pretty musically inclined. It started when he couldn’t play tennis ‘cause of an injury. My dad gave him Beatles and Beach Boys records to listen to while he was recovering, and he never looked back. Ever since then, he’s been obsessed with music. He taught himself how to play guitar and plays some other instruments, too. But... yeah. That’s him in a nutshell.”

“He sounds... cool,” I admitted. I didn’t want to say “unlike any boy I’ve ever met”, because I hadn’t met him yet. “What’s the band? Would I know it?”

This question seemed to make her nervous. “Um... no. He’s, uh, getting famous, though.”

Something told me she was lying, but I didn’t want to call her out on it. Besides, knowing Hannah, she’d tell me eventually.

“Alright,” I said disbelievingly. “Well, it looks like we’re at the school now. And in record time, too.”

“Yep,” she said. “We’ve got like forty-five minutes to chill.” So we sat by a shady tree and started talking about things that weren’t her brother, and she seemed to grow considerably calmer.

And surprisingly, things went back to normal.

Until Saturday morning, that is.