◣ 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞... ◥

❝ 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝘀. ❞

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- [✩] ; CORA HAD MIXED FEELINGS about moving from Cape Cod, USA to London, UK because it was now her Senior Year, or as the Brits call it, Year 13 and she was now in a new goddamn continent. Yes, Cora was glad that her mother was able to transfer to a better paying law firm, but in Europe?! It's more than a ways way from Cape Cod, especially from the friends that she grew up with, (even though there weren't many friends) so now, in freaking Europe, Cora would have to make new friends. Now, that's not very hard for her, but there was still anxiety bubbling under her skin at the thought of taking to new people. And don't even get her started on the initial culture shock of London, because she certainly doesn't want to think about it.

Despite her initial annoyance about the move, including the jet lag no one warned her about, the teenager was excited to see the United Kingdom in person rather than on her phone. London, even though it was very different to Cape Cod, was full of new opportunities for Cora to explore. Maybe she will use a fake accent. Or she'll go by a completely different nickname. Or something cooler than those initial thoughts.

Oh, and did Cora mention that it was only herself and her mom moving across the pond? Because now it's been mentioned. Cora's father has never been in the picture, and Serena Valencia has worked hard to provide for herself and her only daughter. Deep down, the teen knew that her mother took this big move for her and her future, but that still wouldn't stop her teenage angst from coming through every-so-often.

After Cora and Serena settled into their new three bedroom studio apartment in central London, Serena was almost immediately whisked away to her new job. That left Cora alone, at home, to unpack, which was fairly easy. Most of the items they brought over to London were things like picture frames, special vases, China that they'd never use, books, and their clothes. Oh and Cora's guitar and ukulele, she could never forgive herself if something happened to her babies. Luckily for the Valencia mother-daughter duo, furniture like couches, chairs, and beds were already provided, though they should get a better dinning table because it was a bit too small. If anything, they'd go to IKEA and get more knickknacks they needed like plates and utensils that weren't made out of biodegradable paper. Plus pots and pans, the ones the apartment provided looked old and worn.

For the next few days, since it was the beginning of summer, Serena sent her daughter to buy the pots, pans, plates, and utensils from IKEA while she was out. Cora, didn't mind this because although she loves her mother more than anything, she absolutely had no taste. She would then be given a hunk of pounds not dollars, to buy the necessary items and pay for the taxi ride to and back. Some might think that sending your sixteen and a half year old daughter into the city all alone was a bad idea, which it was, Serena knew for a fact that Cora could take care of herself.

Cora was equipped with pepper spray, a whistle, a pocket knife, and this small round thing that would scream if the tab was pulled off of it. Plus, in the words of John Mulaney, Cora has street smarts.

After gathering the pots, pans, plates, and utensils that would fit the aesthetic of their new home, Cora decided to do a little exploring of the area near the apartment. There was a bookstore across the street, which was next to a thrift store that had plenty of clothing Cora would up-cycle soon. Then at the corner of her street was a small Asian store that was ran by a very kind old woman who gave her a free packet of Hi-Chew. But about a block away from the apartment was this coffee shop that made Cora feel like she was in F.R.I.E.N.D.S because it seemed like the hangout place to be for millennials and European hipsters.

She settled into a spot in the corner, which gave her the best angle of the shop and close to the piano they had. (Yes they had a fucking piano, which was pretty amazing.) Cora then ordered a chocolate frappuccino with a croissant and a blueberry scone from the nice man at the counter. As Cora walked back to her spot, with her frap, croissant, and blueberry scone in hand, she felt like someone was staring. Cora carefully looked over her shoulder as she placed her drink down and saw a group of teenage boys on the other side of the room.

Typical. Boys. Cora rolled her eyes as she turned back around and sat down in her chair. She took off her backpack purse and placed it in the seat next to her as she began to take out several items from it: a white notebook, her pencil case, and her hand sanitizer. After applying the hand sanitizer, Cora found herself looking up again, this time staring across the room when she heard the group of boys laugh to themselves. She furrowed her brows and shook her head, deciding that it would be best to ignore the London boys and go back to the task at hand: composing a song.

A little known fact about Cora is that she's an amateur songwriter who does it for fun. Songwriting was very therapeutic for the teen, and it allowed her to let her creativity out. But since the big move, Cora hasn't been able to finish the song she started before the move. At first, she thought that it was because she was too busy to write, but now, finally having time to herself, she figured that she was in a songwriting stump.

Her lips curled into a frown and then took an angry bite out of her croissant. She drank from her frap, which was really good, very chocolate-y, and pushed her pen behind her ear. Cora already had a beat for the song and a melody, which in her own opinion was easier, but coming up with the lyrics was a lot harder.

She continued to stare down at the page that had scribbles of words slopping written over one another and decided to rip the entire page out and start fresh. Now, in hindsight, when Cora went over to the recycling bin, this might not be the smartest idea, but it felt right. The anxiety that was building under her skin was now gone when she saw the clean lined paper inside of her notebook and grinned to herself. Every now and then she took a sip from her frap and a bit from whichever carb was closest as she scribbled down some ideas the song could be about.

Now this was a tactic that worked best for Cora whenever she wanted a "plot" for a song. She would look around whatever room she was in, pick something, write it down in the middle of the page, and draw lines coming off of it and write down whatever words or thoughts first came to her with the essential idea. Cora learned this from her English teacher, Mrs. Houde, who contributed for her love of songwriting.

So far, her page looked like this:

COFFEE - boys - croissant - scone - table - spoon - boys - laughter - pining - chaos - avengers endgame - ice cubes - london - loud - boys - chains - piano - boys - boys - converse - crying - baby - clouds - boys

From the ongoing theme, it looked like Cora's new song was going to be about the male species. She partially blamed this on the group of teenage boys around her age from across the room. They kept laughing and throwing their napkins at one another, which was funny, but fucking distracting. So she wrote down "BOYS" in thick-block letters with red ink at the top of the next page and underlined it several times.

Boys, Cora laughed to herself at the topic of this song. It always came back to them. Last time Cora had dated a boy was in freshman year when she realized she was in fact pansexual, meaning that gender didn't really matter for her when it came to people. In Cora's own words "as long as you weren't an asshole and have human decency, there is a possibility I will date you." It's an oversimplification of what she was really looking for in a relationship, but who's to say she's currently looking for a relationship?

"Go on then Lou! Play us something!" one of the teenage boys suddenly said in a rather loud manner. Cora was very close to chucking her half-eaten scone at his head in an effort to shut them up.

"Yeah, c'mon mate! Make this place a little more lively!" another called out, causing a few other of his friends to cheer on.

Cora looked up curiously, wondering which of the boys would play the piano. "Alright, alright, calm down." one chuckled, slowly raising from his seat, and holy shit he's cute!

Now Cora has seen her fair share of good looking people in her sixteen and a half years of living, but holy shit this boy just takes the cake. As he walked away from his friends and over to the piano, Cora got a better look at him. He looks tall, she thought. He had chiseled jaw and kind-looking eyes that briefly connected with hers, and the poor girl swore she thought her heart fluttered. From the looks of it, his dark brown hair was styled, probably with gel or mousse, whatever it was, Cora was glad hair product existed.

Cora silently sat in her spot, turning ever-so-slightly to watch the attractive boy play the piano. She listened as he played an upbeat classical piece. She knew it was by Mozart, but she couldn't remember the name, but he played it very well. Cora was amazed at how well he was playing the piano, seemingly an expert by her standards. The rest of the patrons inside of the coffee shop seemed to share Cora's astonishment, because of how silent and attentive everyone was as the boy played the Mozart piece.

During the amazing performance, Cora was able to take a small clip of the boy playing, wanting to show her friends later and brag about the cute boy at the coffee shop who could play the piano. When it ended, the coffee shop erupted in cheers and gave the boy a round of applause. Cora was impressed and clapped as well. The boy smiled sheepishly, his face growing red as his friends howled from their own spot across the shop.

"Thanks," he meekly thanked the audience as he walked back to his friends who were grinning like madmen and patting his back.

Cora quickly took the pen from behind her ear and started to scribble down some lyrics that suddenly came to her. As she wrote, she reordered her frap at least two times, the last time with two pumps of espresso. Her mind was whirling with ideas too fast for her hand to write, but excitement filled her bones. She's never written a song this quick or had lyrics that literally popped into her mind all at once.

Who knew all it took to spark some inspiration was a cute boy that could play the piano?

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author's note.

so this chapter was m e h, mostly a filler, but at least it's something. and yeah, ok so cora & louis kinda met but not really. but hey, at least the story is progressing ;)