More Than a Band

One thousand, one hundred and twenty students attended Ashton School, ranging from eleven year olds up until eighteen year olds. The school site was divided up; you could find the first year classes at the front of the campus and the further into the school grounds you went the higher the year classes went. Senior students were located toward the further back of the campus.

Six hundred and forty two steps to reach her form class, however that wasn’t her destination. She had been called to see Mrs. Morrison, the music teacher of Ashton School. Recounting her footsteps meant three hundred and sixteen steps until she reached the music teacher’s office.

Ali knew about random facts like these, she had stored it in her mind when she had transferred to England from America. With that being said, it was also all completely pointless information because quite frankly, she didn’t care.

Three years, sixty two days, four hours and thirty seven minutes and counting, that’s how long she’s been living in England for, she had transferred in when she had started high school. After divorcing her father Ali’s mom had wanted a change of scene, having managed to get a job here her family had settled in. Her mom had never finished high school so it was hard to get a good job and moving had taken most of her saving.

Ali worked part time to help her mom out; her goal was to complete high school with the highest marks she could get in order to get into the Oxford, that way Ali could get a good job to help her mom support herself and her younger sister.

Today however, Ali was walking through the halls of school, bee lining for a certain office with a piece of paper in her left hand. Once there Ali paused at the door, she lifted her free hand up to her chin length dark hair and ran her fingers through it in a quick nervous manner. Ruffling it up and only stopping when she had stepped inside the disarrayed office.

“Alice, you made it, great!” A voice stated, distracting the younger girl from inspecting the messy office space.

“Ali,” The younger girl spoke up, her vivid blue eyes staring at the teacher in front of her, “I’d prefer to be called Ali,” she explained.

“Oh right, of course,” the teacher laughed, shuffling her paperwork around as if looking for something.

“With all due respect Mrs Morrison, why am I here? You’re a music teacher, I’ve never taken music as a subject before,” Ali stated, confusion written on her face. Ali was an academically inclined student, taking Statistics, Biology and Physics.

“I understand Ali but I’m hoping you can help me, the other day I was walking past one of the study rooms and I heard someone singing,” Mrs Morrison explained, “it took me by surprise when I peered in to see you. Has anyone every told you that you have a lovely voice?”

Ali blinked, she hadn’t been expecting that kind of question, “I’ve only ever sung for my mom and sister,” Ali replied warily, wondering where this was going, “but yeah, they tell me I have a nice voice.”

“I know this is a long shot but some of my students in my class are struggling to find a singer for their group,” Mrs Morrison gave an uneasy smile as Ali deciphered the teacher’s words.

“You… want me to join their group?” Ali asked, her eyebrows crinkled together, ready to shoot down the idea.’’

“I would appreciate it if you went to one of their meeting at lunchtime today and heard them out,”

“I’m not really interested Mrs Morrison,” Ali stated curtly.

“The group are going to enter into Play it Live, it’s a competition coming up in a few months, if you win, which I believe the group could do, there’s a prize,”

“What kind of prize?” Ali asked, she admitted it pricked her interest now.

“500 pounds for the winning band,” Mrs Morrison smiled now, pleased to have gotten Ali’s full attention.

“500 pounds, that’s roughly 125 pounds each?” Ali’s heart picked up pace at the thought, “Okay, okay, I’ll go to this meeting,” without another word Ali turned on her heel, throwing a quick wave over her shoulder and leaving the office. If they won she could save her share of the winnings to help go toward her University fees, which was good enough for Ali.



“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ali breathed out as she had stepped into music room three. Her eyes landed on three figures. Joey, Izzy and Reed. They were all in Ali’s year so she at least knew of them.

“Babycakes? What are you doing here?” Reed spoke, breaking the silence; he was in Ali’s form, a tall, lanky guy with brown hair and brown eyes. Reed was a jokester and never took anything seriously which pissed Ali off a bit because even though he never took his subjects seriously he still managed to get pretty good marks in all of them. He also had a habit of nicknaming people, for instance Ali was nicknamed “Babycakes” for some reason and she had long given up on telling him to stop calling her that.

“You needed a singer didn’t you?” Ali replied, flicking her eyes between her peers.

“But aren’t you like a nerd or something?” Joey asked, giving her a doubtful stare.

“If by nerd, you mean I study and take my classes seriously then yes, I’m ‘like a nerd or something’” Ali replied, rolling her eyes at him.

Joey grunted in reply, when Ali stepped closer to the group she saw a football at his feet and he was subconsciously rolling the round ball around. Joey was on the football team, Ali had never been to a game before but she heard from other classmates that he was pretty good.

Ali took a seat next to the only other girl in the group, Izzy. They made eye contact for a moment before they both looked away from one another in disinterest. Izzy spelled trouble and it didn’t take a genius to figure that out, she was hard to trust because she was usually the one to start rumours and arguments between others.

This group came from completely different backgrounds; this would either work well or end up in a complete and utter disaster.