PART ONE

What the hell..." Thought Craig Manning as he walked through the streets after school, dragging his feet, reluctant to return home. He leaned against a fence and closed his eyes. School may have been over, but the day was just beginning for him. Craig dawdled as long as he possibly could, and decided that he couldn't wait anymore. It was about an hour after school ended, and he was about fifteen minutes away from home. As he walked along, he heard loud guitar music coming from somewhere on the street. Looking around, he realized that the music was coming from a small shop on the corner with a neon sign glowing "open" in the window.

Craig pushed the door opened, and the bells on the top of the door jingled. He paused and looked around, he could have sworn he was in heaven. Guitars of all brands, colors, styles, and sizes crowded the walls to bursting point, and there were stacks and stacks of books and cases and cleaning supplies. Suddenly someone playing the beginning to the Simple Plan song 'perfect' shocked him back to reality.

He looked over at the counter where a girl was sitting on top, holding a Fender guitar. She had long dark hair with blue tips and strikingly green eyes. Her Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers were only laced halfway, and her jeans were covered in rips and patches of different bands, and she wore a black collared uniform shirt that read "Billy's Guitar Shop" in red stitching on the right side with a name tag underneath that read 'Alicia'. Hearing someone approach, she looked up and made eye contact with him, causing him to blush.

"Hi there, is there anything I can help you with?" She asked sweetly, gently placing the guitar on the counter, as if it were a child she didn't want to injure. Alicia smiled at him. Craig stood there stupidly, trying to come up with something to say to her and finally thought of what sounded in his head to be smooth.

"Yeah." He responded, glancing behind the counter. "I'll have a bag of medium pics in blue, a package of Elixer strings, a pack of AA batteries for my tuner, and your phone number." It wasn't until after he said it that he realized how desperate he must have sounded, and blushed again. Alicia didn't make any signs that she had opposed, or even heard what he said, and she jumped down off the counter and looked over the racks and found the things he ordered.

"Okay...so the total comes to...50." She said.

"Wait...what? I didn't order anything that expensive." He frowned and took out his wallet.

"Well, it was 15 or the strings, 7 for the pics, 8 for the batteries, and 20 for my number." She smiled at him, making him smile also. He handed her the correct amount of money and she gave him his change back. Taking a lime green sharpie from her pocket she wrote her number on his hand. "Call me any time from after school to before 10:00. Anytime is fine on weekends. It's my cell. I didn't catch your name by the way."

"Craig." He responded with a smile. "You didn't even ask earlier, you gave your number to a complete stranger." Craig smirked at her.

"What can I see, I couldn't think straight talking to someone as adorable as you." Alicia responded, Craig dropped his bag by accident, feeling pretty stupid. "And I'm Alicia by the way, in case you can't read." She said pointing to her name tag.

"I'd love to stay and talk, but I have to leave and get home before my dad..." He trailed off, almost revealing his um...at home..complications. She raised a pierced eyebrow and looked at him. "Freaks out. I was supposed to do the dishes..."

"Oh, well it was nice talking to you, and I'll be expecting your call." He smiled at her and left, the bells jingling again. This time, he didn't amble along, he ran as fast as he could so that he wouldn't be in too much trouble. Hurling himself onto his front steps and through the door, he rested and breathed heavily. He didn't see his dad, maybe he had beat him home. That would have been nice...glancing around he concluded that his father wasn't there and walked into the kitchen to get a snack. He opened the fridge to find something to eat and to his horror heard his father's voice say behind him "You're late."