Adlewood Academy

Like nearly every day since the start of the semester, Mia sat down at her usual lunch table, with her two best friends beside her. Jenna was a theater major, while Annie was in dance, so they had an unlikely friendship, but they made it work the nonetheless, and there wasn’t anyone else that Mia would rather spend her mealtimes with.

She was listening to one of Annie’s corny jokes when a familiar sound came from the speakers. Like it always did at lunchtime, the school’s radio station played music in the cafeteria, which was usually selected by one of the few DJs.

When Mia heard the first note, she recognized it immediately, though it had been altered just a bit. It was the same song she had tossed into the trash can the night before. It was the song she thought wasn’t good enough, and now someone was playing it in the cafeteria for everyone to hear.

It was embarrassing, to say the least, and when Mia stood up from the table, both Annie and Jenna knew exactly where she was headed.

Stomping her feet against the ground, Mia turned down the many hallways until she arrived at the DJ booth. The sound proofed room had a light overhead that signaled no one was supposed to enter, but Mia didn’t care. The second she laid eyes on the dark haired boy who was manning the radio, she knew he was the one who had played her song, and she had to do something.

She opened the door without warning, and Zayn Malik’s mouth immediately dropped. As he pulled the earphones from her ears, he looked at her in shock.

“You can’t be in hear,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m live.”

“That was my song,” Mia said simply, as she threw her hands on her hips.

Zayn bit his lip, and it was like he immediately knew that he shouldn’t have played it. Mia had always been a kind girl, which was probably what made it so scary when she was mad. In the very few classes they had together in the past, Zayn had never seen her like this.

“It’s a beautiful song.”

He gave her a nervous smile, as though it would fix everything, and she had to keep herself from yelling at him right then.

“It’s not,” Mia said, as she shook her head. “Why would you play it on the radio?”

Zayn clicked his tongue to teeth, while he took a long pause. It was very clear that she was angry, and he needed to calm her down as soon as possible.

“Let me show you something.”

He turned to his computer and pressed a few buttons, before music was filling their small box. Again, it was her song, but it sounded different somehow. Within the first few seconds, Mia realized he had put one of mixes behind it.

Zayn was known for being one of the best DJs in the program, so everything he did was nothing short of remarkable. If the school officials didn’t look down on the DJ program so much, he would have a real chance at winning the Finals Showcase, but with the way things were, he had about as much chance as she did.

“What is that?”

“It’s your song.”

Mia rolled her eyes at him, while pressing her lips together.

“Right. You already knew that.” He chuckled. “I mixed something up late last night and I thought it fit with your track perfectly, so I just blended them together.”

“How’d you get my track?”

Zayn’s eyes fell immediately to the floor, while his cheeks grew red, even on his dark skin. Mia tapped her foot against the floor and waited patiently for his answer.

“Well, I, uh,” Zayn ran his fingers through his hair, before looking back up to her. “I heard you recording last night and I thought it was incredible, so when I saw you threw the disc out, I picked it up and put it on my hard drive.”

If Annie or Jenna had asked her, Mia would have said that she loved what Zayn did. It was the perfect mix of the new and the old, and it was as close to perfect as she’d ever heard one of her songs. But since it was Zayn sitting in front of her, and he’d taken the track without her permission, she refused to admit it.

“You can’t just mess with people’s stuff without them asking, Zayn.”

“I know that,” he said, as he nervously ruffled his hair. “But you didn’t want it, and you have to admit it sounds good, right?”

Mia sighed, as she titled her head back.

The proper course of action was probably to tell Zayn that she loved it, because it was true, but that was the last thing she wanted to do. He meant no harm by it, and she knew that, but she was still so angry at him for airing her song without her permission – and one she was embarrassed by, at that.

“I have to go, Zayn,” Mia said, as she reached for the door handle. “Just don’t touch my stuff anymore.”

“Mia, wait!”

Before Zayn had a chance to stop her from leaving, she was out the door and down the hallway. The last thing that he wanted was to have her angry with him, and he promised himself he’d make it up to her as soon as he went off air.