"You all listen to music, but do you know the beautiful process of how it is made?"

Alex was bored out of his mind as Mrs. Sullivan droned on and on. He knew he was meant to be paying attention - she was going through the assessment task - but honestly, he couldn't be bothered. Music was just not his thing, even though it was a family joke that no one could sing when they shared the same last name as the King of Pop himself. He could play a few basic chords on guitar, but that was where his artistic skills ended.

"You will be put into pairs to write a song together, and to answer your question, Olivia, no, you will not decide who your partner will be, I will. These pairs are based on experience, skill and potential. Any questions?"

No one said anything. Alex tapped his knee against the table leg impatiently.

"Good. Now, for the pairs."

"Ro and Lindsey."

"Carl and Olivia."

"Luke and Daisy."

"Lillian and Alex."

"What? Who? Me?" Alex jumped at the mention of his name. He looked around hastily to see what he had missed.

"Mr. Jackson, again with the daydreaming," Mrs. Sullivan sighed, earning a snigger from his fellow classmates. He looked down, embarrassed.

"I said, your songwriting partner will be Lillian. Now go discuss how to begin."

Lillian? Lillian... Oh. She was the new girl. He looked around and saw her looking at him apprehensively, nibbling on the ends of her hair. She stood up and began to walk over to him.

This was going to be great. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lillian and Alex."

Wait, who? Lillian looked around nervously, scanning the class for her partner.

Her eyes landed on a scrawny boy at the back of the class looking at her with wide eyes. He had scruffy red hair, like, fire-truck red, and green glasses that he kept shoving nervously up his nose. She looked down and twiddled her thumbs. It was already intimidating enough being the new kid. Couldn't fate have been a little kinder to her and paired her with a girl?

But look. She got paired with a boy.

She wondered if he had any songwriting experience as she began to walk over. She certainly did. Writing songs for her was like breathing. Anything that happened to her came out through a song. She was no Ed Sheeran, but she could do a thing or two. Translating situations into lyrics was her thing.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," he said shyly.

Around them, their classmates babbled excitedly away about lyric and topic ideas, and some had already even gotten out guitars and started coming up with chords. They, however, were just standing idly by, awkwardly trying to make conversation. Lillian sighed. This had gone off to a great start.

Taking a seat, she put on a friendly smile. "What instruments do you play?" she asked cheerily, attempting to break the awkward air between them.

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "What makes you think I can play anything?"

"Well, you chose music as an option, so I'm guessing you can play something."

The corner of his lip tugged slightly. "I can play a little guitar," he said. "But that's about it. I've never written a song before and I bet I'm bogus at it. What about you?"

Lillian smiled out of relief, glad that the ice between them was more or less broken now. "I've been playing piano for nine years now," she said. "And about the songwriting, I'm sure you won't be too bad. It's just writing down what you're feeling and putting a tune to it. It's not hard."

He laughed a little. "Do you write songs?" he asked.

She smiled. "Yeah," she said. "It's my hobby."

There was silence between them. Uh oh. Had she been to forward? Show-offey? Snobby?

"I wish I had a creative hobby like that," he said, grabbing some refill out of his bag. "I just stick with my video games."

Phew, Lillian thought to herself.

"Let's go to one of the smaller rooms. There'll be less noise there," she suggested. For her, writing songs when there was even the slightest bit of noise was difficult; trying to write with this much clatter would be just impossible. 

"Sure," Alex said, standing up. She quickly grabbed a guitar and they headed out of the ruckus and into one of the small rooms.

The music block was strange at this school. It was a small white house, with one large room at the end for orchestra practice, and a handful of tiny square rooms for private tutor lessons. Every step made a creak or a groan, the doors were all squeaky, and the entire place smelt like freshly mown grass and dust. It was intriguing to Lillian. Moving from a private school in the bustling city to this little school in this sleepy town by the sea let her see things one wouldn't find in Auckland. Community. Strangers saying hello on the streets. A sense of belonging. And though it was early days, she was certain that soon she would be able call this small town of Porthallows home.

The school itself was like something you would read about in a novel. It was this town's only school; a small patch of old houses next to Lighthouse Point, with a small green sports field and a few academic milestones to its name. Other than that, it was just a speck in the middle of nowhere. She liked that. It was quaint. All of the teachers were either volunteers, young people fresh out of university or elderlies from the local retirement village.

Alex opened the door and they walked inside. There was an old wooden piano in the corner, a small amp and an electric drum kit. She sat down on the piano stool while he stood hesitantly in the corner.

"So..." he began nervously. "Is there like a process...or a set of rules to follow? Are there instructions?"

Lillian couldn't help but laugh at his question. Not in a mean way, but in an adoring way. It was strange to her how something that was so easy to her could boggle someone else's mind. Alex's face went pink. "Oh, Alex," she said lightheartedly. "There are no rules. That's the beauty of songwriting. It's maybe the easiest way of letting your mind free. Anything's possible."

They both looked at each other. A smile spread across Alex's face.

"Ok. That is most definitely going in our song."

Lillian grinned and started playing a few basic chords on the piano as a start. This wasn't actually going so bad. Maybe this odd pair would manage to scrap together a song after all. She smiled to herself as her fingers nimbly danced across the keys.

Our song. She liked how he called it that. Emphasis on the pronoun; ours.

Hello friends :D

It is currently the Autumn holidays, and I came up with this at 12:04 last night (or today? This morning?) so I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense haha

I'm really pumped for this story; and I think (I think) I've got a clear heading for where the plot's going to go.

This is so exciting it's my first not fanfiction story :D:D:D:D

As you can tell, I am very excited about this story - which is a good sign. I hope.

Thanks for reading and vote if you liked, and see you soon.

residenthobbit49 :) <3