EDIT: December 4th, 2011
I went back and changed the character names, so now it is characters from MR, with less of my OC's. If you are confused as to who is who, just ask, PM or leave a review, and I'll clear it up. ENJOY!
fHope everyone had a great first few weeks of school - school started like... two weeks ago for me, so yeah. For any new readers, this story WAS rewritten, so I hope you enjoy it. For those who were reading the previous version of Love, Life and Music, this one will be very similar, with of course some minor changes. Tell me what you think! :)
Oh, and Microsoft Word is being a bitch at the moment, so until I find out what/where the product key is, I'm typing all of this on FF. So if there are any spelling mistakes please forgive me, because I can't spell for shit.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the characters used in MR, or the songs that will be used throughout the story. They all go to their respective owners.
Max POV
"Yo, Max! First day back, if your ass isn't down here in thirty seconds, I'm leaving without you." Iggy yelled up the stairs.
"Ah don't get your tighty whities in a bunch, I'm coming." I said. Grabbing my bag, I spared a glance in the mirror. I wasn't really into fashion, as Nudge would be happy to agree to, but I had to say I looked good. Sliding down the banister, I jumped off at the last second, landing on my feet and throwing my hands over my head. Iggy clapped, laughing at my performance.
"I'd give it an eight, but since your little crack about my underpants – I wear boxers, by the way – I'm giving you a solid seven. Congratulations, Maxine. Now let's make like bananas and split." Glaring, I ushered him out of my house.
"Iggy, baby, we've been over this: You're not funny. Hate to break it to you." I patted his shoulder. He looked down at me, not for the first time, and shook his head.
"Yeah, I am. You just don't wanna admit it."
We headed to the bus stop, sitting down on the grass. It was warm out, even at 8:00 in the morning. "Remind me again why you're so excited to be going back to school, I mean, it's just another year."
His blue eyes shined in the sunlight. "It's not just another year! We're juniors this year. That's like… the second most ultimate place to be. And besides, it's a total chance to scope out some fresh meat." He winked, and I let out a shudder. Fresh meat to Iggy just meant new girls he could go out with.
"Okay, Ig. Promise me you won't go molesting some freshman. Please." Iggy shrugged, readjusting his guitar case slung over his shoulder.
"Okay," he held up a hand. "I, Iggy Ride, swear not to molest any freshman. Boy Scouts honour." He put a hand to his heart. I looked at him curiously, raising an eyebrow.
"You were a Boy Scout?" He shook his head, his sun-kissed strawberry blonde hair falling into his eyes. "Then your word means nothing to me, does it?" He winked at me, clicking his tongue, standing just as the bus came up. We got on, taking a seat in the back. "Where's Fang?" I asked, a few seconds into the ride.
"He left early, something about meeting Lissa. I took very little interest to the topic, to be honest."
"Totally understandable." I said, watching as he pulled out his iPod. He handed me an earphone. I took it, giggling at the Justin Bieber song that blasted through the speakers.
"Dammit Angel." He scrolled through his list, settling on Maroon 5. "Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe…" he hummed softly.
I took the time to study Iggy at the moment. His hair had gotten redder, going from the mostly blonde with reddish tips that it was last summer, now it was blonde, but with highlights from too much time in the sun, and a few splashes of light brown from where he had gotten lowlights. He had gotten a tan, something I didn't manage to accomplish this summer. His eyes were brighter, definitely, resting at a deep seawater blue. He looked older, kinda.
Iggy was definitely the tallest of our group, at just over six feet. Fang, his twin, was next at a little under six feet. I was short, at five-foot-six-and-a-half.
As the song changed, I realized we had already been on the bus for the lengths of two songs. Some rap song with Nicki Minaj played, something about Freddy and Nightmare on Elm Street. Iggy had his eyes closed, his head leaning back on the seat. I smiled, pulling out a pen from my bag. Uncapping it, I looked at it.
"So sorry," I leaned forward slowly, lightly sticking the pen up his nose. It tickled whatever hairs he had up there, effectively making him jump. He glared at me, but I just smiled innocently. "Who me?" He rolled his eyes. As the school came into view, I pulled out my schedule.
"I forgot I had gym today. Dammit." We got off the bus, Iggy with his guitar case in hand. I looked around, seeing a whole bunch of new faces.
"Fresh meat," Iggy stated triumphantly. I scoffed, looking around for someone I knew. "Zach and Josh are over there." I followed his hand to where he was pointing. Sure enough, the two of them were leaning against the wall. We went over to them, and both of them hugged me.
"It's been so long, how was your summer?" Josh asked. I told him, droning on about how boring it was, but how lucky I was to get to spend it with Fang and his girlfriend. They both caught the sarcasm in my voice. "Speak of the devil," I spun around, seeing Fang and Lissa approaching. I rolled my eyes, setting on a half-fake smile.
"Fang!" I ran towards him, and he barely had time to move his arm from around Lissa before I ran into him.
"Hey, Max. Nice to see you too."
I smiled. Fang looked older too. His hair had been cut, so his bangs fell over his eyebrows, a few strands falling into his dark eyes. He put his arms around me, and I felt his abs through his shirt.
"You've been working out," I noticed. He pulled back, a small smile on his face.
"Yeah, wanna see?" I nodded, watching as he lifted the bottom of his shirt and flexed.
"So that's a… what? Five and a half pack?" I held back a laugh. He dropped his shirt, lifting one shoulder.
"I'm working on it, leave me be." I laughed at him, turning back to our small group. Everyone looked older: Zach had dyed his hair, so now it was brown with blonde streaks, bringing out his bright green eyes. Josh was born blonde, but at the moment, most of his curls had been dyed neon blue.
"Josh, what's with the hair, man?" Iggy asked, smothering a laugh.
"I was at a party, we were playing TOD, and now my hair is blue. Fill in the blanks."
"You know, I'm almost sixteen, Denis." A familiar voice was saying. "I totally think you should've let me drive. I mean, someone has to teach me." I spun around.
"Den-Den, Nudge! Over here!" The curly haired girl turned, running over to me, her arms out. After all the greeting, and Josh retelling his hair story, the bell rang.
"I'll see you third period." Nudge said, examining her arms. "I got the weirdest tan this summer. I'm like, light brown here, then it's darker here." She pointed to where her skin was two different tones.
"So, I've been patient," Iggy said. "But does the best friend get a hug? I haven't seen you all summer!" Nudge spun around, a smile on her face.
"Well, of course." Then she jumped, like literally jumped, into his arms. I pulled out my schedule, looking at my first class. The seven of us — eight if you counted Lissa, but she was busy trying to devour Fang's face— compared our schedules. I had English first with Iggy; then gym with Fang; then music with Josh, Zach and Fang, and finally Art with Iggy and Denis. Nudge and Iggy had Science together third period, and judging by the look Lissa gave me, she was in Fang and me's gym class.
Fun… NOT!
As Iggy and I parted, off in the direction of our first class, he let out a long breath. "Oh thank God!" he said, gulping in large breaths of air. "I honestly think if I'm around her and her rancid perfume for one more second, my nose will fall off."
"I know, right!" I agreed, rubbing the heel of my hands against my eyes. "My eyes are actually burning. How does Fang deal with that?"
"When you figure that out, let me know."
As of the last week of school last year, Fang and Lissa had become a 'thing'. Iggy, as Fang's twin, thought it was more of a 'fling' then anything serious, but after two weeks, he had thought Fang was crazy. In my honest opinion, Fang could do way better.
Like maybe dating Godzilla. Or maybe the little troll that lives under the bridge.
The freaking shark from Jaws would be a huge step up from the evil witch he's seeing now.
If my point hadn't already been made clear, I highly dislike her.
She doesn't like me either, as made very clear by the way she's always glaring at me and flipping me off when Fang isn't looking. Normally, Fang would ask for Iggy's opinion on something like this, but not this time. Iggy hates her too, even more then I do. Everyone does, and therefore thinks Fang is a complete idiot.
"Screw how he deals with the smell," Iggy said as we walked into homeroom. "I want to know how — and why — he deals with her. I mean, even Angel hates her. And I didn't even think Angel could hate anyone." Angel was their little sister. She was the most adorable little girl in the world.
Class started soon after, but Iggy and I weren't really paying attention. By the way he was drumming his fingers on the desk, mouthing out words to himself, I supposed he had a new favourite song, either that or he and the guys just finished writing one.
About three years ago Fang, Iggy, Josh, Zach and Denis had got together and formed a band. It used to be just them getting together and mess around with a few random songs, but then a teacher had heard them, and voluntold [1] them to play in the talent show. They did, and then decided that they actually really liked doing it. They started playing around school, at assemblies and whatever gig they could get around town. Last year they got really serious about their music, and started writing songs. Denis, Nudge's brother, played drums, and he was freaking beast at them. Zach mostly played bass guitar, but I've seen him mess around with the drums once or twice. Josh stuck to guitar, mainly acoustic but he did have his blood-red electric one. Iggy and Fang were co-singers/lead guitarists. Fang was mostly vocals, but he and Iggy would switch places sometimes for songs that suited Iggy more. In my opinion, backed up by almost everyone else's opinion, they are awesome.
"Max?" I blinked out of my thoughts, seeing Iggy's hand waving in front of my face. "Class is done, and you were totally spacing." I smacked his hand away, standing and picking up my stuff. "Where'd you go?" He asked offhandedly. I looked at him.
His eyes were on some brunette girl talking to her friends. When she made eye contact with him, he winked. "Ig, what did I say about freshies?" I scolded. He looked at me, his eyebrows raised.
"You said no molesting," he stretched out the word. "And I won't. You said nothing about going, talking to her… possibly getting her number."
"Iggy—!" he was already ready off in the direction of the girl. I watched him for a second, as he read over her schedule and pointed in different directions.
"He lasted longer than I thought." I nearly jumped at the voice behind me. Spinning around, I saw Fang standing there. "I would've thought he would be at it before classes started." I nodded, falling into step with him. He took my arm as we pushed our way through the crowded hallways.
"How was your summer?" He asked, glancing down at me.
"It was okay; spent a lot of it with Ella. I got to see Ari too."
"That's cool, the last time I saw him he was like six." We reached the music room, seeing Josh and Zach waiting outside. They were talking in low voices, so Fang and I didn't bother to disturb them. We slid down the wall, waiting for the bell to ring.
"I was going for Chinese for lunch. You in?" He asked me, pulling out a pen. He wrote something down on his hand quickly, then clicked the pen and put it back in his bag.
"Oh definitely…" there was this young looking girl walking up to us. She was defiantly a freshy, judging by the map she had in her hands.
"Are you lost?" Fang asked, looking up at her. She sort of jumped, not realizing he was there; she nodded. Fang stood up, taking her schedule from her. "Okay, you're not in the right wing. Your class, 237, is on the other side. Just go all the way down this hall, then make a right—"
"Left. Go left." I corrected.
"—left and then down that hall. At the second right there's this set of stairs, go up, then your class is the first door on the right." The girl thanked him, walking off down the hall. Our teacher, Ms Levi, arrived, letting us into the class. We all sat down: Josh on one side of me, Zach on his side; Fang on my other side. We did this whole 'Intro to Music' thing, then played musical chairs. Yes, you heard me right, 11th graders playing a game mostly for six year olds. After that, we actually did do something school related.
Gym was a little more entertaining… or sickening, depending on which way you look at it.
Sure enough, Lissa was in our class. And she turned up wearing these short shorts and a bag shirt that had clearly been cut at the shoulders and at the bottom, so it showed part of her stomach. She waved to Fang, who was pointedly ignoring her, as well as the looks she got from other guys. The teacher blew his whistle, and everyone dropped to one knee.
"Fang, will I be seeing you on the team this year?" Fang looked up from where he was lying on the ground.
"Why of course. All of you would miss me, and I can't let that happen, can I?"
Fang was on the basketball team. Or… he was last year and probably will be this year too. Iggy was also on the team. Fang was also on the soccer team for like a season one year, but decided he hated it; and then last year he had played football, but then an accident with his shoulder had him away from the game forever. He was also on the track team, cause he was just that fast.
Iggy does track too, along with football and baseball. Unlike Fang, Iggy loves playing soccer, but didn't want to actually join the team. All in all, the two of them make a killer team, in pretty much anything they do. Which is probably why they are so popular.
We started with a game of dodge-ball, Fang and Lissa were on the same team, where I was on the other one. Fang sent me a look, one that told me I should run. We all got on our stomachs, then waited for the whistle. Once it went, we got up, charging for the ball. Fang picked up two, tossing one to Justin. I had a red one, and I barely had time to duck before a bright yellow flash whizzed by my head. I literally felt the breeze pass, and looking a Fang, my mouth hanging open. He flashed a smile, winking once before mouthing something.
"You're gonna die!" I shook my head, chucking my ball at him. Because I'm me, it missed him by like a foot. I saw him laugh, ducking away from another ball. Lissa must've saw us taunting each other, because suddenly there was a weak grunt, before another ball was headed my way. I sidestepped easily, avoiding the ball. Picking it up, I threw it at her, nailing her in the stomach. She screeched, stomping to the side, but stopping to whisper something to Fang.
"Watch it, Max." Brian came up to me, a green ball and a purple ball in his hands. He tossed me the purple one. "Lissa's probably got a baby growing in there. Try not to kill it by hitting her stomach." I laughed, stepping away from another throw from Fang. He looked at me and smiled, a devious smile that had me running for cover.
"She'd probably eat it!"
"But Fang wouldn't let her," he said, throwing the ball. I thought about this for a second, then an image of Fang and Lissa in bed popped into my head. Oh hell, now I have to bleach my brain.
"Then it would have a daddy that loves it. Its mom would still be a witch though." We kept talking throughout the game, and eventually I did hit Fang, about the same time he hit me. Plus side: I nailed him between his legs, sending him wobbling to the sidelines. I thought I heard Lissa ask him if he wanted her to help him make it feel better, but he shook his head, unnoticeably moving away from her.
"Slut much?" The girl beside me asked, looking disgusted. I turned to her.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it…" We got to talking, turns out her name was Kate.
She was really pretty, with long brownish-blonde hair that was currently up in a ponytail. And she was shorter than me, so that's a plus on her part. She was new, and just moved here from Canada. I could tell that much from her accent. I asked her if she'd made any friends yet, and when she said no, I offered to sit with us at lunch.
"Mind you, you might have to put up with Lissa sucking Fang's face off. It's actually really disturbing. But everyone else is cool." She agreed, then the bell rang. Fang, Kate and I ditched Lissa in the change rooms, heading for lunch.
Fang's plans for Chinese food were kind of forgotten, so we all just bought lunch and headed outside. We had our own little spot at the front of the school, and Josh, Zach and a few of the guys were already there.
There was Nudge, Iggy's best friend. She's 15, but does grade 11 science. She's black with curly light brown hair, and a strange obsession to Justin Bieber. I'm talking the nail polish, posters and locker magnets.
Then there was Denis, Nudge's brother. He's 17 and the drummer in Fang's band. Beside him was Zach, who's 16 – 17 in November – and plays guitar. Josh was there too, Zach's cousin. He was examining a lock of blue hair steadily. Iggy was lying on his back, ear buds in his ear.
"You guys, this is Kate." I introduced, gesturing at the girl beside me. Iggy's head snapped up, both of the buds falling from his ears. He studied her for a few moments, before she finally said something.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Iggy's eyes widened, clearly amused.
"I have art with you, right?" He asked after a second. Kate nodded, going and sitting down beside him. They got to talking – something about the teacher they had. I felt arms suddenly around me, lips pressing against the back of my neck.
"I missed you," A deep voice mumbled behind me. I turned around, seeing the familiar hazel eyes and dark brown curls.
"Hey, Derek." Iggy said from his place on the ground. Derek nodded at him, and I shook my head at the whole I'm-A-Guy-And-I'm-Way-Too-Cool-To-Say-Hi-So-I'm-Just-Going-To-Nod-Silently thing…
.o.O.o. .x.X.x. .o.O.o.
[1] Voluntold – verb. To be volunteered to do something by someone else, but you have no choice but to do it.
Tell me what you think, should I keep the LLM the way it is now, or go along with the new one. Personally, I think the new one would be better, but it's up to you. I hope everyone had a great summer, and if you want, leave me a review with the coolest thing you did this summer. Mine: I went to Wonderland, Canada's epic theme park, for those of you that didn't know. I almost went on Wind-Seeker: this tower-like thing that's 301 feet in the air (that's such a random number!) but it came out this year and the line-up was HUGE!