The early morning sun was sweeping through the windows of the band room, and I was thankful that my first period was band. The classroom was empty, no one wanting to spend their ten minutes before the bell sitting in the stuffy classroom. But the emptiness brought me peace, and I knew that I could take time to practice before the classroom started filling with students who didn't really care for the musical arts.

I took my seat in an empty chair, and placed my instrument case on my lap. I opened the case soundlessly, and look down at my shiny silver flute. The flute was the sixth instrument that I was trying to master, and throughout the weeks of starting the small, gracefully instrument, I could say that I was doing extremely well for a beginner. It was always sad for me to think that people just took musical classes for an easy grade. Music is my life, and I honestly don't know what I would do with myself if I didn't spend my days practicing and learning.

I took the three pieces of the silver instrument out of the case, and gracefully put them together. The lean flute appeared before my eyes, and a wave of giddiness washed over me. Quickly, I placed my empty case down on the tile floor, and grabbed my sheet music from my bag, which was leaning lazily against the leg of the plastic chair. At the top of the printed paper was the title Amazing Grace. I placed it on the music stand that stood before me, and read the title over again, cringing at the sight.

I had nicely asked my band teacher for a more advanced song, but she told me that even though I felt some cocky, I had to do the learning correctly. She always told me the same advice every time I started learning a new instrument. The only way you can learn how to play is start simple and progress at whatever speed towards the final line. Even though I knew she was right, that still didn't take away the longing for something harder.

Slowly, I lifted the flute to my thin lips and before I started playing, I took a deep breath. As the air filled my body, I drunk in the silences, the emptiness, and the sun of the early morning. The loneliness of the morning would soon be filled with the sweet music of the beautiful flute, and once the graceful sounds breezed through the air, all the negative emotions would disappear.

Once I was filled with enough air, I opened my lips into a small circle and let the air start moving through the instrument. The sound of the high-pitch flute filled the room, and I watched my sheet music closely as I moved my fingers to match the notes on the page. My body untensed, and the very familiar song filled my ears. My body danced along with the beautiful piece, and as the song continued on, every bone under my skin felt as light as a feather.

As the song continued, I felt the stress from yesterday disappear. The memories of headaches, death, and screaming leaving my train of thought. Reality seemed to sink away and I knew as long as my thoughts were focused on the sheet music in front of me, the world beyond the thin white piece of paper would never return. Even though I never wanted to return the fading reality, I knew I would have to go back once the song came to a close. So I savored the moments, the minutes of beautiful melodies and timeless pitches. I savored the moment of peace that would soon slip easily through my fingers.

Just as I got to the bridge of the piece, the door suddenly slammed shut and the sound sent a wave of panic through my body. My shoulder immediately tensed, and the instrument quickly fell away from my lips. A headache started to build inside my head as I turned to see who had interrupted my time of peace.

My eyes widened as I looked to see a boy leaning against the door, holding it shut with the weight of his lean figure. The boy had light brown hair, pretty light blue eyes, and the classic build of a lacrosse player. I knew instantly who the teenage boy was, and a pitch of annoyance moved through my tense body. The boy before me was the famous freshman, Liam Dunbar, who transferred here from another school and was now the new freshman star of the lacrosse team.

Steve couldn't stop mumbling about the boy last night, and how he heard the bones snap in the freshman's leg when Scott McCall had thrown him over his shoulder. My eyes quickly moved to the boy's leg, and there was no cast protecting any broken bones, so I guessed quickly that Steve was being overdramtic, which was normal for the sophomore boy.

Liam looked someone breathless as his blue eyes landed on me. I titled my head at him, looking at him sideways with a sharp glance. Jocks were always annoying and immature, they were good at sports but that made them think that they were good at everything else. I expected the young transfer student was going to fit right in with that stereotype.

When the boy didn't say anything, I asked, "Can I help you?"

Liam blinked a couple times, getting his bearing before responding, "N-no. I'm sorry I interrupted your practice, I didn't think anyone was going to be in here."

A wave of surprise went through me when I heard Liam's apology, it was shocking to see a jock have manners. "It's fine," I said, "I needed to work on my transition to the bridge anyway."

"Well, I don't know much about music, but I think it sounded good," Liam said sweetly, and I felt a small smile dance across my lips. I wasn't going to lie, but transfer was stupid hot, but there was no way that I was going to be one of those girls that falls to their knees to get a stupid jocks attention.

I nodded my head, "Thanks."

A beat of silence fell between us before Liam asked, "What's your name. I-I mean, I've seen you around before, but--"

"Avalon," I said, interrupting his light nervous ramble, "Avalon DeForest."

"Oh, your Steve's sister, right?" Liam asked, putting two and two together.

I nodded, not liking that I'm known for being the sophomore lacrosse players younger sister, but I guess it was better then being known as the crazy girl who spent three years in Eichen House.

"I'm Li--"

"Liam Dunbar," I said, interrupting him a second time, "I know who you are."

"You do?" Liam asked, his checks turning a light red.

"Yeah, the whole freshman class is taking about you," I stated, "They say that your gonna be the next star athlete of the lacrosse team, and that you transferred from some other school. Everyone is already fangirling over you, and it's just going to get worse after the season is over. But I guess that's life for a classic jock."

"Classic jock?" Liam asked, glancing at me with his pretty blue eyes.

"Yeah, a classic jock," I said, "You know the guys that play sports then get everything they want handed to them. Because you know these guys play sports so they are more important than everything else in his stupid school."

Liam cracked a smile, "Wow, is the band geek jealous of a jock?"

"No! You better take that back!"

"Okay, okay," Liam said, putting his hands up like he was getting arrested, "I take it back, but you know, not all jocks are like that."

"Like who?"

"Me."

"You?"

"Yeah," Liam said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Prove it then," I asked.

Liam's blue eyes widened, "Like right now."

I laughed at his awkward expression.

"I can't prove it right now," Liam said after my mocking laughter fell silent, "But I will prove it at some point, you can count on that."

"Sure, sure."

"I mean it," Liam said before suddenly stumbling back against the doors, his face suddenly becoming pale. I got to my feet, and instantly started over to the transfer students. A worried expression came across my face as Liam started to break out in a nervous sweat, and his eyes were widening with panic.

I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him, and whispered, "Hey, Liam. Are you okay."

Liam nodded his head roughly, and mumbled quickly, "I'll see you around."

Then he opened the door and rushed quickly into the crowded hallway.

~~~

Halfway through the day, and I was already warn out.

My head was throbbing, and my days of sleepless nights were slightly catching up with me. Loud chit-chatting filled my ears as I made my way towards the library for my free period, I had promised Edith earlier that day that I was going to help her with the math lesson, that she still didn't understand even though I gave her all of my notes.

My eyes, which were normally on the tile floor, were up and scanning the crowded hallways. A slight pitch of worry was flowing through my veins, as I tried to catch a glimpse of Liam Dunbar. After his sudden leave from the band room that morning, I had spent most of the day trying to see him again to make sure he was okay. But I don't have any classes with him, and I don't know who he hangs out with, so I was at a loss for answers. I knew that he was probably fine, but something felt off about the situation.

I wrapped my fingers tightly around the strap of my backpack as I walked through the open doors into the library. Even though I wasn't much of a reader, the library was still the best part of Beacon Hills High, and it forever will be. There were large windows, rows upon rows of bookshelves, and nice wooden tables that sat in the middle of the large room. I could see Edith from where I stood at the entrance, and her eyes were surprising glued to my notebook, the blonde-haired girl wasn't very focused on school so it made me happy to see that she was trying for once.

"Hey," I said as I sat down beside her. I smiled at my friend, but the girl didn't return it, her eyes were still glued to my math notes, "Hey, is something wrong?"

"Yeah, something is wrong," Edith said before turning the notebook in my direction, "I do not understand any of this, and I am pretty sure that I going to fail this math quiz."

I glanced at my notes, and my eyes widened with confusion. The notes definitely had nothing do with math, and even to me, they were super confusing. The notebook page was filled with numbers and letters in a random order, and I had to blink twice to make sure I was reading it correctly. But every time my eyes moved over the page, the notes on the page got more and more confusing. I tried to think back to the last couple math classes, but I remembered writing the notes, not this madness.

"Uhh--"

"And I looked through the other pages, and they're all on the last lesson so you better get to explaining," Edith said, glancing at me sharply.

I didn't answer my friend immediately, and I kept my eyes on the notes, trying to make sense of the chaos of numbers and letters. It looked like a code, and it looked like a code that I had seen before, I just didn't know where. I instantly knew that I was going to spend the next couple days trying to figure out the code on the notebook, and then of course I would have to figure out why I wrote it in the first place.

"Um, um, sorry I just remembered that I borrowed the notes from Steve," I rambled, "I think you should get the notes from Corey."

Edith looked at me sideways, but nodded her head, "Okay, I guess I can but what is that you wrote in there."

"Oh, just some code," I said quickly before snatching my math notebook from her grasp. Edith was startled by my sudden movement, and her facial expression was growing with suspicion as she glanced at me with daggers in her blue eyes. "It doesn't matter, but have you seen Liam today?"

The sharpness immediately disappeared from the girl's eyes, and a grin started to form on her face, "You talked to Liam Dunbar! When? Where? Details now!"

"Well, he can stumbling into the band room before class today, we talked for a minute then he suddenly turned all pale and sweaty, then he left," I explained, "I'm worried about him, I think something's wrong and I haven't seen him since so."

"Huh, that's weird because I saw him in english today, and he was fine," Edith said, putting the end of her black pen in her mouth, "But, was there any flirting?"

"Nope, I can promise you that," I said.

"Well, that's disappointing," Edith said, rolling her eyes, "Now, can you teach me the math because I seriously can't fail another math test."

I mimicked her eye roll, and quickly pulled out my textbook, "Okay, let's teach learn some math."

~~~

A sigh of relief escaped my lips when the final bell ring.

Finally, I could go home and relax. The headache wasn't as bad anymore, but I could still use it as an excuse to be able to sit on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and watch One Tree Hill reruns till night returned again. I didn't have a lot of homework, which I was thankful for, so I could use all of my brain power to try and figure out the code that was written in my math notebook. Suspicion had been running through my veins ever since I left the library, and no the curiosity was getting the best of me. I needed to know what this code is, and why the hell I would be writing.

The answer was on the tip of the tongue, I just needed to stand some hours searching the internet before I could put my finger on it.

I pushed my way through a group of juniors before I was standing in front of my locker. The hallways were slowly becoming empty, and I knew that I needed to hurry our my father would be pissed at my slow pace of speed. I swiftly opened my locker, and put my textbooks and notebooks inside. I shuffled through my locker for a moment until I found the two things I was looking for, my songbook and my purple math textbook. I placed those two things in my bag, and turned sharply on my heel.

I immediately bumped into someone, and a snarky comment was on the tip of my tongue before I released that Liam was standing before me. He wasn't pale, and he wasn't covered in nervous sweat, but his eyes still seemed distant. Worry filled me as I looked at him, but I covered it up with a friendly smile.

"Sorry, Avalon," Liam said, scratching the back of his neck nervous.

"You're good," I said, "Are you okay, you didn't look so hot when you left the band room this morning."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Liam answered, and he started fiddling with his fingers, "I just wanted to ask you something."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Yeah, what is it?"

"I-I w-was wondering i-if you wanted to g-go to a party," Liam rambled.

"A party? Tonight?' I asked.

"Y-Yeah, I got invited to a party at Lydia Martin's lake house," Liam said, "And I thought that this was the perfect chance to prove that I'm not a classic jock."

A smile came onto my face, and I knew that my checks were turning a light shade of red. Even though I wanted to go home, watch reruns, and figure out what the heck this random code was, going to a party at the famous Lydia Martin's house sounded like a lot more fun.

"Sure, why not," I said, grinning from ear to ear, "I'll meet you there."

That's when I walked past him, and started towards the entrance. My smile grow when I heard the excited cheers that escaped Liam's lips.