Heart It Races

The Texas air, still warm in September, blew my hair around as I walked into school. We had just gotten off of summer break three weeks ago, so everyone was still getting aquatinted with their classes. I had German II first period.

As I walked inside, I wrapped my hair into a bun to keep from perspiring, due to the weather outside.

The bell rang just as I entered the classroom, taking a seat in the back row behind Claire, a girl I occasionally talked to.

"Please get out your German books and turn to page 23." The native German spoke, causing the class to groan.

*****

The bell rang and I navigated to Digital Media, my last class of the day, because being a senior I had eighth period off. I enjoyed the class thoroughly, learning how to put clips and videos together to tell a story was fun, like writing a book but visual.

"Alright! I need you guys to start thinking of short film ideas! Next week we are starting a new project! No more than four people in a group!" Mrs. Prescott announced from her desk.

I took note of her words, making a mental list of all the people who could potentially be in my group. We did nothing the rest of the period, per usual, and I anticipated meeting the new strangers who were probably already occupying my house.

Finally the bell rang and I found myself walking to the parking lot to find my car, the orange '78 Ford Pinto my dad had got me for my sixteenth birthday, I loved it.

It roared to life the Blink CD I had been listening to on the way playing loudly as I pulled out of the school and on to the road home.

The sky was a beautiful blue shade contrasting fluffy white clouds perfectly to create a cartoon like atmosphere. Despite most assumptions, Texas wasn't the deserted wasteland everyone imagined it to be. Texas was beautiful, complete with flourishing green trees and bright fields of grass, thanks to all the rain we'd had over the summer. There were a few clusters of wildflowers along the road Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes, I'd have liked to stop and pick a few, maybe take some pictures, but I was too focused on getting home.

I pulled into my driveway seeing an unfamiliar SUV, confirming that they were in fact here.

I got out, leaving my backpack in the car, I wouldn't be doing any homework anyway.

When I walked in the normally calm air was filled with yelling and forceful curses coming from upstairs. They definitely weren't working,

Before going to see what all the ruckus was about I went to the kitchen to grab a drink, only to find a brown headed boy grabbing a slice of pizza from one of the four boxes on the counter, his back to me.

I opened the fridge to grab a can of Sprite, which must have got his attention because he turned around.

"Oh hey! You must be Adam's daughter! I'm Ashton!" He smiled giggling lightly.

"Yeah, I'm Aspen, nice to meet you." I smiled back.

He left the room not even glancing back for a second, dampening the idea I had conjured about us being friends.

"Well aren't you coming?" He questioned sticking his head back around the corner.

I let out an airy laugh which doubled as a sigh of relief answering him as I followed excitedly behind to the game room.

"Oh, hey kiddo! How was school?" My dad asked looking up from the video game.

Ashton sat down on the couch next to a boy with blonde hair who was on his phone, another, with dark brown, almost back hair, and tan skin sat on the couch with my dad, while the last sat in one of the two recliners.

"It was alright." I told taking a seat in the other recliner.

"Guys, this is my daughter Aspen, Aspen this is the guys."

I shook my head at his attempt to sound cool, waving to them as they introduced themselves.

"You go to Richmond right?" Calum spoke up.

"Yeah!"

"We're going there next week, well, except Ashton, he's too old. Maybe you could show us around?" Michael inquired.

"Yeah sure, that'd be cool!" I grinned at him. "So, have you guys actually done any work today?"

"The first step to songwriting is getting comfortable with your group." My father stated gesturing to the TV as if to say 'that's exactly what we are doing'.

"You want to play a round?" Calum asked holding the controller out to me, having been defeated.

"Oh God no! I'm terrible at that stuff!"

He laughed "You can't be that bad."

"She really is terrible" My dad piped.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Well it's the truth!"

Calum passed the remote to Luke.

They were all focusing on either the game or their phones causing me to absentmindedly stare. All of them were so tall with ridiculously long legs. Ashton was cute, with his inviting personality and larger than life smile, Luke on the other hand was a little quieter, I assumed he was just one of those people who are not very vocal until you get to know them. Calum seemed fun, excited about life, and very funny, his big brown eyes had been lit up since I met them. Michael was interesting, not quite as talkative as Ashton but not as quiet as Luke, his hair was bleached with a black stripe giving him a skunk-like look different from all the others. His light stubble and pierced ears gave him a "bad boy" look his personality didn't live up to. His vibrant eyes were trained on his phone as he ran a hand trough this colorful hair. He glanced up at me, and our eyes met, bringing a blush to my cheeks as I looked away.

Michael's POV

I pretended to focus on my phone, but my mind was still reeling. The moment I saw her it was like all the air had been completely sucked from my lungs.

Other than the video game, the room was rather silent, it sounded safe to steal a quick glance her way. I looked up from my phone, surprised when her green eyes met my own. She looked away, but I couldn't, her dark hair falling to her shoulders in waves was the perfect contrast to her skin, only slightly tanned, from the summer I assumed.

"Hey Pax, did you ever watch that movie on Netflix I told you to watch?" Adam asked, calling her by something that was obviously not her name.

"You mean that weird one with the animal masks where they all fucking die and it's a terrible ending leaving you to sit there and think of all the other things you could have been doing while you were watching that godforsaken movie?" She spoke hotly glaring at him.

"Yeah that one! Did you like it?"

"Does it sound like I liked it?"

He chuckled.

"Wait are you guys talking about that movie Kaboom?" Calum questioned.

"Yeah, have you seen it?"

"Yes, it's terrible!"

"Juno Temple is cute though." She added

"Extremely." Calum agreed

I wanted them to talk about something else, I wanted to hear what she would have to say about another movie or song or anything, but they didn't.

Aspen's POV

About an hour had elapsed since Michael had caught me staring at him and we were all warming up to each other quite well. The five of us were sat in the game room, Ashton on the ground, Luke in a recliner, and me, on the couch in between Calum and Michael, the movie About A Boy playing in front of us. My dad had left, running to get a few things they would need to start work tomorrow.

It was near the middle of the movie when I began to get hungry. It was about 5:00PM and I hadn't had lunch because I had to go retake a Pre-Cal test.

"I'm going to make food. Do you guys want some?" i asked standing up.

A chorus of "yeahs" erupted through out the room, and then Michael spoke "Do you need any help?"

"Sure"

He followed me down the steps and into the kitchen.

"Popcorn or cookies?" I pondered aloud.

"Why not both?" He suggested.

"Good call!" I agreed grabbing the cookie dough from the fridge.

Michael put the popcorn in the microwave while I placed the pre-squared dough on a cookie sheet.

"So with a dad like Adam you have to have incredible music taste." Michael inquired.

"I'd like to think so." I smirked at him hopping on to the counter.

"What bands do you like?"

"Well, I really like Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili Peppers which I obviously picked up from my dad, Pixies are pretty great too, love the Killers, the Strokes, the White Stripes. Blink-182 is amazing love them too. Blondie! Absolutely love Blondie! I'm a big Pierce the Veil fan and I like All Time Low and Mayday Parade too, you'd think I'd like Sleeping With Sirens also but for some reason I just can't stand them and I don't know why. Then there's Cartel I really like them, along with Death Cab For A Cutie, A Day To Remember, Ed Sheeran, I've really been enjoying Jonny Craig as a solo artist lately, you know he used to be in DanceGavinDance. I really like 80's pop music, and I'm not a big Beatles fan although Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds is and always will be one of my favorite songs and- Sorry I'm talking really fast, I really love music"

He gave a throaty chuckle, "No no! Go on! It's perfect!"

"What bands do you like?" I turned the attention to him.

"Hmm... Well, I also really like Blink, the Rolling Stones are great too. Metallica, Def Leppard, Green Day. All Time Low, Mayday Parade, and Pierce the Veil are all good bands as well."

I applauded him jokingly on his musical variety.

"So what roll do you play in the band?"

"I mostly play guitar, but I do sing a little."

"That's cool."

The oven beeped signaling it was preheated. I moved to jump off the counter, in order to put the cookies in but Michael motioned for me to stay put, sliding them in himself.

"Do you play any instruments?"

"Not really, my dad tried to teach me guitar, and then piano, but all I can manage is a few chords."

"Oh! So you're one of those people!"

"One of what people?"

"A quitter."

"I am not!" I defended myself although his verbal attack was obvious banter.

"If you weren't then you'd know how to play."

"Well maybe I- maybe I... Like being a quitter."

"Maybe you do." He shrugged leaning his back against the portion of counter next to me.

"So your parent really just let you guys fly all the way across the world alone, completely unsupervised?"

"I wish! But no, Luke's mom came with us, she's pretty cool though."

It was silent between us for a moment.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your um, family situation?"

The question didn't startle me. There were certain things in life that just were the way they were and there was nothing that could be done to change them, and I didn't see the point in being awkward or ashamed of something that was out of my control.

"It's fine if you don't want to answer, it was a stupid question I shouldn't have-" His face began to turn red with embarrassment.

"No! No! You're fine! It doesn't bother me at all!" I assured. "My mom and dad got divorced when I was seven, nothing too tragic, it was undoubtably for the better so it doesn't bother me."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He stayed awkwardly.

"It's really okay." I laughed lightly.

"You're an only child then?" He asked.

"Basically yes, I have two step siblings, I've never met them though, and I don't think they really count."

"I haven't got any siblings either. I've got the boys and they're the closest thing I've got."

"Do you and your parents get along?" I asked trying to imagine Michael at home, talking to his mom as she made dinner, or sitting next to his dad as they watched TV.

"Yeah for the most part, I mean, there are the occasional disagreements but other than that we get on great."

I enjoyed having this conversation with Michael, it had been a while since I had someone my age to talk to. I could tell that we were going to be friends.