Aim High, Never Rest

As usual, I'm the second one up this morning, the morning after that party.

The party went out better than I originally thought. Not only did I get to perform, but I also had a good time. Who knew I'd enjoy dancing so much with someone I completely loath? Well, that's just me being Maxine Johnson. 

Nathan and Collin probably won't wake up till noon. I know that for a fact. Lazy bums.

Tyson was always the first one up because he believed it was good for your health. Plus, he thinks that sleeping would waste your time. Why would you sleep when you can be awake, doing something even more productive? I agree with Tyson on that one. 

When I entered the living room this morning, I realized that it was 9:23 AM and Tyson was nowhere to be found. He's probably by the pool studying or some shit like that. 

So I sat on the couch with my acoustic guitar resting on my lap and wrote some lyrics down on my special notebook. Being in the party last night, I found a new feeling in me. It's better to get it down before I forget what that feeling was like. 

I was fully concentrated in complete silence. This helps me think more thoroughly which would later create a super successful song. I would know from past experiences.

But little did I know that the silence only lasted for a while.  

11:45, Tyson throws the front door open and storms in excitedly like he won the lottery or something. That ticked me off.

"What?" I growled at him for making me lose focus on the melodies I was about to write. I swear, I'm about to lose my sanity living with these idiots. 

"Guess what I just did?" he squealed, jumping up and down like a fifteen year old girl who just met Justin Bieber. 

I decided to ignore him and go back to my notebook and melodies. 

I strummed some chords on my guitar to see which melodies would sound good and along with the appropriateness of the lyrics in that specific timing. Figuring some miscommunication from my lyrics to the music, I crossed some words out and replaced them somewhere else. Then I strummed again, closing my eyes to fully concentrate.

"Max, listen to me!" Tyson yelled, making me lose my train of thoughts... again.

"Tyson, can't you see I'm trying to write a song here? I swear the god, I'm going to kill you" I dropped my notebook on the floor and got up with guitar in hand. My face flushed hotly with anger. This guy just doesn't know how serious this situation is. I'm trying to write a song which would be the possible first hit song from us.

Tyson frowned, sitting down on the sofa. He took the guitar out of my hands and placed them gently by the coffee table in front of him.

"What's your stupid news then?" I rolled my eyes. This better be good. Or else...

"I talked to Bitters this morning and asked him about Palm Woods school. And guess what? We are qualified! Ask me why..." his eyes glowed with excitement at the subject of education. I had to force myself to not smile. Sometimes his excitement fascinates me but I didn't want to show him that it does. Plus, he doesn't have to know that I wasn't mad at him. Okay, maybe I'm still a little mad at him.

"Why?" 

"Well, since you asked..." I snickered at his plain stupidity. "... we got a record deal with Hawk Records so that means we are famous and ready to be in the Hollywood industry! So guess what I did?" 

I groaned loudly. When is he going to stop? Can't he see that I don't really care?

"What?!?" I nearly shouted, throwing my hands up in the air. It's so damn easy for Tyson to annoy me. It just takes two seconds of his nerdy-ness to send me to the edge.

"I signed all four of us to Palm Woods school!" he finally announced, sending his hands up excitedly.

My eyes twitched and my teeth gritted. What the hell is wrong with this dumb ass? That's the point of being out here without parents. We don't have to go to school if we didn't want to. Tyson just ruined this for me.

"I'm going to kill you!" I yelled, tackling him down the sofa, sending him to the floor. 

I stood on the couch and jumped on him, smacking him with the pillow cushion that happened to collapse with him. 

"You little bitch, I'm going to kill you!" I spat out, attacking him as hard as I could manage with stupid pillow cushions.

He whined and flinched, begging me to stop. But I'm just way too pissed to care. 

Each smack with the cushion hardened as my anger rises, thinking of all the consequences we have to face because of Tyson's stupid desire to go to school and learn.

"Max, stop!" Tyson continued begging, making sounds signifying pain. 

"Shut up!" I gritted through my teeth.

A few minutes later I hear the door open and footsteps leading to the living room.

"Whoa, what the hell is going on here? Is this really worth waking me up?"

"Collin, dude, please help me!" Tyson screeched pathetically from under me. I shook my head, hitting him with the growing anger suppressed in me.  

Arms snaked around me, pulling me off of Tyson's sorry ass. 

"Let go of me, you asshole!" I struggled. But the arms around me are stronger.

"Sit down" Collin threw me on the sofa. My head hit the seat with my legs hanging off, nearly falling. 

I sat up from my position to see Collin helping Tyson up.

"Maxine, what the hell?" Tyson screamed, exasperated. 

"Screw you!" 

"Chill guys! Now Maxine, what happened?" Collin sighed, running fingers through his messy bleach blonde locks. He clearly showed signs of being annoyed. Well, I'm angry so he better not patronize me.

"This idiot signed us up for the Palm Woods school!" I pointed my index finger at Tyson accusingly.

Collin's annoyed expression suddenly changed to mirror mine. 

We eyed each other, nodding. He reached down to pick up the cushion I left on the floor as I grabbed the other one beside me.

As if on cue, we charged at Tyson, making him lose balance. He fell to the floor again, giving Collin and I a huge advantage. We repeated the action I performed before Collin woke up and stopped it. 

The beatings continued for about two minutes until the loud ringtone for my phone saved Tyson's ass. 

I got up, walking over to the coffee table to pick up my phone. The ID wasn't familiar to me but I decided it has to be important so picking up would be a good thing.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Maxine Johnson?" a woman asked in thick British or Australian accent. 

"Yes?"

"I'm Rebecca from Hawk Records, and Hawk asked me to deliver a message to you" my face lit up at the mention of Hawk Records.

"Sure, what should we do?" I found myself being uncharacteristically excited. It's a strange feeling, really.

"Hawk wants you guys to be by the studio at 5:30 so he'll have a limo pick you up at Palm Woods by 5:15. Is that a convenient time?" she asked.

"Of course it is. We'll be there!" I exclaimed, eying the guys on the floor. They gave me weird looks, watching me act unusually happy. Don't blame the idiots at all.

"Alright, we'll be looking forward to seeing you guys!" Rebecca said. 

"Yep" and I hung up. 

"Maxine?" Tyson got up, pushing Collin through the process.

"Hawk will send a limo here at 5:15" I explained, nearly squealing.

"Cool, what are we doing?" Collin asked with enthusiasm. 

"I don't know, jackass, we'll find out when we get there!" 

"I was only asking. No need to be mean about it" Collin held his hands up defensively, turning away from me.

"So you idiots go wake Nathan up. I'm going down to the pool to write a song" I picked up both pillow cushions on the floor and handed one to each of them. They carried devious smiles on their faces, knowing exactly what I mean.

I nodded at them, picking up my notebook and guitar before walking out the door. 

When I got to the lobby, Jo Taylor was at the other side of the elevator. 

I was planning on ignoring her but she had to talk to me.

"Maxine, right?" extremely irritated, I nodded. Dude, I'm Maxine. It's not that hard to remember it so stop asking me what my name is! 

I gestured for her to continue, not even answering her stupid question.

"I remember you as the girl who danced with my boyfriend and performed at the party" she said with a small smile forming her lips.

I nearly dropped the items in my hands at that.

"Kendall is your boyfriend?" I gaped at her, extremely shocked. Jo Taylor is one of the top celebrities in Hollywood at this moment with her high rating show, New Town High. How could she be dating that intelligence-lacking idiot? 

"You could say that" 

"You can do so much better" I mumbled, brushing past her to head for the pool. 

When I finally got to the pool, I chose a beach bench to sit on. Of course, I chose the one farthest away from the sun. I'm the palest kid in the world and I embrace this trademark. You can't even pay me enough to get a tan. That's how much I embrace my paleness.

After I adjusted myself in this atmosphere, I looked around the pool to see if anything could be pegged as distraction. I was pretty satisfied with what I saw. Guitar Dude sat on a few benches away, silently strumming his guitar. It's quite relaxing for me, really. 

Some kids are swimming in the pool but they weren't making that much sound. I swear, most of these kids are even more mature than the bums I live with. 

So I finally picked up my guitar and placed them on my lap. Ideas finally flowed in my head as I tried to grasp onto them to create music. 

I spent almost two hours writing and just simply relaxing. That's the atmosphere and time I needed to finish an amazing song. The guys are going to be blown away by my creation. I mean who wouldn't? My way with words are the best. I make the best metaphors and connections. No one can deny that after they read my lyrics.

"Max!" I nearly jumped out of my skin at someone's loud plead of my name. I was all relaxed and calmed until this kid came along.

James was the one that interrupted me. Don't these people get the message that I hate being interrupted at my Maxine-thinking time? 

"What, James?" I asked, placing my guitar to the side. 

"Since you hate everyone, can you help me?" he smiled innocently, blinking his eyes hopefully.

What was that supposed to mean? Should I be offended? Whatever.

"What do you need help with?" I sighed, crossing my arms in question.

"I think I'm interested in Carley but I'm not sure. Everything I see about her is so positive. I need to know something that's not so positive. Can you please help me?" 

"So you like her but you want a negative opinion about her?" I clarified, almost scoffing.

He nodded.

"Idiot" I mumbled.

"Please" he begged desperately.

"Fine"

He leaned closer to me, taking up all my personal space. I pushed him back harshly and thought about what I thought of Carley. To be honest, I didn't know about her that much. What was James really implying? Just because I'm not an ass-kissing idiot doesn't mean I'd be full of negative comments. People don't know me at all.

"She's too nice. That annoys me. The other day, she complimented my voice and it's so damn obvious that I already know. There, can you leave now?" I asked, dropping the politeness that was supposed to be put into those last four words.

Shrugging, he left for the bench on the other side of the pool with the most provided sunlight. 

How annoying and ignorant can people get?

I sat on the bench for about ten more minutes before getting off. I walked past Guitar Dude and I suddenly wanted to talk to him. He's always so calm and collected, keeping to himself commonly. And none of us know anything about him, starting from his name. So maybe talking to him will give me some inspiration to take on all the nuts in this town. Plus, it'll be nice to make some friends who aren't idiots.

Yeah, so I sat down on the bench beside him.

"Hey, Guitar Dude!" I greeted, trying to sound as enthusiastic as I could manage.

He looked away from his guitar but kept strumming the strings delicately. 

"I just want to talk. It's like everyone here is insane and just blinded by their own ignorance. There's only so much someone like me can take, you know?" I started, crossing my legs on the chair, Indian style. 

Guitar Dude listened to me complain about people and he didn't judge me. And he didn't seem frightened of me. He's just like... chill about everything. I respect him for that.

"You know what you have to do? Just go along on the ride. Everything happens for a reason. Everyone acts the way they are because that's who they are. If you can't accept people for who they are, there's nothing more you can do about it. You have to let go and relax a bit. Maxine, you are too tense. Push out all the negative energy in you and inhale the positive ones. It'll make living easier" he said inspirationally. The silent music in the background did calm me down for a bit. So what Guitar Dude just said wouldn't be that hard, right?

Should I listen to him? What he just said does sound reasonable but it's so hard to accept people for who they are because no one's willing to accept me for who I am.

At least it's always nice to know that you can talk to someone remotely sane when there's too much going on around you.