1: Not-So-Clumsy Mistake

*Author's note: This is a revised version of a story that I found on . I have edited this story into my own words. The original author reached chapter 34 3 years ago and then disappeared off the face of the interwebs. It was just so good that I had to finish it, which I am in the process of doing so. Here's the URL for the original story: .com/stories/510620/to-my-favorite-liarpatrick-stumpto-my-favorite-scarchapter-01not-so-clumsy-mistake

The steaming water splashed against your face and cascaded down your shoulders and your back, making you shiver. You let loose a sigh of contentment. Taking a shower was the highlight of your life; there was no better feeling in the world to you. If someone was in the bathroom, you'd go by any means to kick them out just for an hour underneath the hot water, and it quite literally took you an hour. It was your time to be alone. It was your time to think, to not have to worry about anything.

As it did every time you showered, the water suddenly turned icy. You sighed, turned off the faucet and wiped your wet face with your hand. Another day of school. Reaching your dripping arm from behind the curtain, you grabbed your soft blue towel, smothering yourself in it and taking in a deep breath. Just another day.

Once you dried off, you changed into your usual school uniform: a white button-down shirt, black sweater, black skirt, and a black tie. Yes, the perfect way to individualize yourself. 
Perfect, you thought sarcastically. You then dried your mousy brown hair, pulled it back in a high ponytail and made your way downstairs. There you found your mom and stepsister, Katelyn, waiting for you by the door like they do everyday. Only today you could sense the tension in the air. Ignoring their glares, you pulled on your black pea-coat, grabbed your bag, and headed out the door.

"Julie, get in the car," your mom called after you stiffly when she noticed you walking down the driveway. It was daily routine that she drove you to school, but today you were in no mood to be around her. You were both seething from the argument you'd had the night previous.

Your whole life you've been confined to being the "good girl." You constantly received pressure from your mom and her husband Doug, as well as all your teachers, to be the best student you possibly could. In combination with you work ethic, you had become the top student in your year since the fifth grade. And then there was the whole ordeal with the stupid piano. You'd bee forced to take piano lessons every weekday after school since you were twelve. On top of that, your mom always forced an extra three hours of practice time. You had become the official pianist of your chorus and band at your private school. Something inside you told you, screamed at you, that this was not how a normal teenager should be living her life. You were going insane with this life and you knew you had to do something to break free of it.

Summers and weekends were the low points of your life. You were seriously lacking in any form of a social life, so these days were nothing special for you. Often times, you dwindled away the hours finishing up homework in advance or practicing the piano even more. So what would anyone expect a girl your age to do in that situation? Obviously not what you ended up doing... God were they pissed at you.

One day towards the end of summer when you were at your best friend Courtney's house, you decided to be just a tiny bit rebellious. You were dinking around on Courtney's computer in her room, and you dared to go to a website that your parents would have slaughtered you for going to:
. You'd never even watched MTV before, although you knew too well of what it was. You knew it was once a great music channel that had long since fallen to despair, but your mom had always forbidden you from ever watching it. The fact that it was banned was enough to make you irrevocably curious of it. As you sat on this site, just taking in all the links and headlines, you got this horrible need to disobey your mom. You needed to rebel against her ridiculous rules. You saw an advertisement that seemed to know you like an old friend. It read: "Are you someone who feels confined? Do you want to crawl out of your forged shell? And are you in the Pennsylvania area? Well then, CLICK HERE to be MADE into a rock star." 
The link seemed to glow knowingly at you, daring you to click. Eagerly, you pounded your index finger on the mouse. Your eyes grew with the thrill of it all. You sent them an in depth essay about your life and how you've always wanted to change it. And what eventually happened? You got a callback. The producers talked to you about how they've narrowed it down to seven girls in your area and that they wanted you to send them a videotape of yourself. Overwhelmed, and yet scared, you decided to not tell your mom about it and had Courtney help you make the tape. You sent it three months ago. And? Nothing happened.

Eventually you got over it and decided that they chose someone else…Until last night. Your mom had answered the phone and it was the executive producer, Tasha. She told your mom that, after numerous extensive meetings, they'd chosen you to be on the show. They'd be at your house on Saturday to set up and start filming. Completely oblivious and thinking it was a prank call, your mom told you about it over dinner, laughing hysterically. Too bad her laughing turned into angry screaming when you told her it was truth.

She started screeching. She gave you the usual speech about how you're throwing your life away and that MTV is trash. Blah fucking blah, you had thought bitterly, trying your best to ignore her. You took your chance during a brief break in your mom's speech, and for the first time in your life, you stuck up for yourself. You stood and shouted back about how this was your life, about how you had always been the good girl, never doing anything for herself. Tears of frustration and anger welled in your eyes as you begged for her to understand that you needed to be a normal teenager for once. That you were done living life as her puppet. She was stunned into silence, but not for long. You could see the ferocity welling up within her. Before she could start the next barrage of shouting, you retreated to your room.

"Julie! Get in the car!"

You were almost to the end of the driveway. "I can get there on my own, thanks." Bitterness oozed from your words.

"Stop being so childish, Julie. Besides, you'll be late if you walk." 
Her tone was flat.

You hesitated then climbed into the backseat, throwing your bag next to you. You avoided eye contact by staring out the window.

* * *

"Cytosine with Guanine, Adenine with Thymine."

You stared blankly at your notes. Your pencil was moving as fast as your biology teacher, Mr. Hannay, was talking. Your hand started to cramp and you gave up on taking notes. You threw your pencil onto the desk and rubbed your temples. You looked across the room at Courtney who had her cheek leaning on her hand, nodding off, drool smothering her chin.

"-along with the process. Oh!" Mr. Hannay looked away from the board for the first time since class started and noticed the clock. "The bell's going to ring soon and there's no homework, so just sit tight and uh... Contemplate life."

Score! One day of Bio down, only a million more to go. Awesome. You watched the clock along with the other students who had managed to stay awake. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The bell rang as everyone jumped up, most awakening from their nice naps. You anxiously scooped up your notebooks and headed out the door.

"What the hell was he talking about?" Courtney asked, popping up next to you.

You sighed and stretched. "No idea."

"Well then it must be hard if even you, almighty Julie, didn't understand it." The both of you made your way downstairs and to your lockers, which were conveniently right across the hall from each other. "So, how did your mom take it last night when she found out you're going to be on TV?" she practically shouted for everyone to hear. A few people to stopped and looked at you.

You quickly slammed your locker closed and ran over to her, looking over your shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear. "Fantastic. Why don't you let the whole school know?"

"Well don't you think that people will notice when you have cameras following you around school next week?"

"I was sort of hoping they wouldn't..." you said, feeling a bit awkward and looking down at your feet to avoid her glares.

She laughed, closing her door. "Oh! Did you find out about who your coach is going to be?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," you said. "No. They didn't even mention a single thing about my meeting the coach. I guess that part's at least real, the reaction to meeting the coach." You shrugged. "Whoever it is, I hope she's nice."

"And I hope she's easy on you since you have no idea how to play guitar," she added sympathetically. She then burst into a fit of giggles. "That's probably got to be the best part about this whole thing! Ah, man. You playing guitar? It's like a cat eating dog food."

Call me a safe bet; I'm betting I'm not.