Invisible

The summer between my junior and senior years was without a doubt the best I’d ever had.

Right at the beginning of the summer, I did the ad campaign for DKNY, it was amazing. According to Mallory, I was the best new recruit they’d had for years.

It was an exhilarating experience, for the first time in years I felt like I was wanted by someone other than my mom and my sister. I received a letter in the mail stating that the campaign would be unveiled nationwide around the same time that I returned to school.

That was the only thing that worried me, would people like the pictures? How would they react? I pushed the negativity aside and focussed on the positive.

I made my way to school on the first day of my senior year of school and for once I was looking forward to school. My DKNY deal had made my confidence sky rocket, as you can guess.

The bell went as I shoved my various books into my locker; I rushed to my first lesson AP music. It was my favourite lesson, seeing as I was a classically trained pianist, our teacher, Mr Gough, always just let me play the piano every lesson.

“Okay students, today I’m afraid to inform you that we are going to be working on a pair performance this semester.” Groans sounded around the room and various people began having silent conversations with each other about possible pairing. Mr Gough put an end to it all by saying, “and also, those pairs will be of my choosing.” He ended it with a grin.

“Sir, do you have to choose?” Alex Redmond asked from the back of the room.

“Yes Alex, I do. Now, let’s put you all out of your misery.” He went on to go through each member of the class and assigned them a partner.

“Timothy and Sara, George and Willa, Jessica and…” just as he got to my name, Patrick quietly walked through the door. My heart momentarily stopped at the sight of him, he looked so handsome.

“Would you care to explain why you’re late Mr Stump?” Mr Gough asked him, tapping his foot impatiently.

“I was helping Mrs Johnson; I carried her bags for her in from her car.” He said shyly talking of our elderly librarian.

“Okay then, sit down.” Patrick’s eyes glanced all around the class, falling on the only available seat – the one next to me. He shuffled over and set his bag down on the floor before sitting down next to me, his obviously tense demeanour confusing me.

“Now where was I?” Gough started, “Ah yes, Jessica and…Patrick. Now, get started this will go towards your final grade for the year, so make it good! I want you to compose an original piece, you must make it so that it's influenced by musicians you like. And it must be completely original! Go!” he clapped twice before waving his hands dismissively.

Patrick turned slowly to me, flashing his gorgeous smile.

“Hey, so I’m Patrick.” He held his hand out very formally. I shook it before introducing myself.

“I’m Jessica, remember, we met ages ago. You bumped into me and I dropped my folder?.” I asked.

"Oh yeah...sorry about that." His face reddedned slightly from embarassment. “So…for this composition thing, what do you want to do?” he asked, almost as if he was scared of talking to me.

“Well, I’m not too sure, but first let’s sort out what instruments we can play. I play piano, and you?”

“I can play guitar, bass, drums and a little bit of trumpet.” He said finding a sudden interest in his shoes.

“Awesome. What do we want this to sound like?”

“Well, I like David Bowie, Queen, Prince, list goes on.” He chuckled.

“I have a soft spot for Bright Eyes and Jay-Z.”

“Bright Eyes and Jay-Z?” he asked, obviously amused. “That’s’ the most random music pairing, like, ever!” he laughed, this time proper belly laughs and the smile on his face was so beautiful it should’ve been illegal.