CHAPTER ONE!
The bell for the last period of the day had just let out in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England at South Side High. Lou and I exchanged glances and sprinted out of the class room. After quickly grabbing my things from my locker, he grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowded hall ways and out the door. He finally let go of my hand and slowed down once we were about a block from the school. "Are you trying to kill me?" I asked waving my arms around but he just laughed. "And you call me the spaz," he answered pulling out a Nerf gun from his back pack and shot my nose with it. Lou laughed harder when it stuck to my nose. We met at our old elementary in kindergarten school after Sally Gonzalez tripped me while I was coming out of the lunch line. I spilled all of my lunch over both me and the boy in front of me. I began to cry I was so embarrassed, he just began to laugh. "You know, I have quite the obsession for carrots," 5 year old Louis explained giving me a snaggle-toothed grin as he pulled a carrot from his matted hair. After that he helped me pick up the rest of my lunch though he did more talking than anything. After that he and I instantly became inseparable and our friendship has only grown stronger from there.
I smiled at the memory, but awoke from my thoughts with 17 year old Louis starring strait into my eyes with his hands on his hips and a cross expression on his face. "Were you even listening to me? I just explained the plan I have for my WHOLE future and when I ask you what you think you say NOTHING?!" He exclaimed jumping around me being the spaz he always has been. "Didn't you call me the spaz a few minutes ago?" I ask. After he had finished this over dramatic rant, he then pushed a piece of my brown hair behind my ear. His hands were cold from the crisp winter afternoon. "Maybe you didn't hear me because your hair was in the way. Now, Alice, please tell me what you think?" he said smiling. But his eyes said something else. They begged me for approval. "What do I think of what?" I asked because I had no clue what he was talking about. But before he could answer, I realized that I was being dragged once again, but this time across my own back yard. We scrambled up the rope ladder like pros and into the tree house our dads built the summer before first grade and the summer before his parents divorced. I remember coming up and seeing him crying in the corner of the small house and him telling me about his parents and how they were divorcing leaving him stuck in the middle. This was like our secret place just for us and it always had been. But back to reality.
"Now what were we saying? Oh yes. What do you think about me trying out for X-Factor?"
I was shocked. Louis was an amazing singer even when he was little. He sings literally everything and to get him to shut up I have to slug him in the arm. But trying out for X-factor? I'm not sure how I thought about him leaving. What if he lost? I would never hear the end of it. Morning and night id hear him But it would make him happy. More importantly I would lose my best friend, possibly forever. Ever since he got the lead in our school's production of Grease, he had been thinking of a career in singing. I knew all that but I just never thought it would be this soon. My thoughts were interrupted by him saying:
"The Storms are coming."
"What?" I asked very confused. I looked out the window and it was still the clear winter afternoon it was a few minutes ago.
"No not outside silly," he chuckled. "Your eyes change whenever you think or are worried about something. Almost like a storm."
I sarcastically snapped and complimented him on his poetic words but I could tell he was serious and that my opinion mattered to him. "Either that or your in wonderland again," he teased. Breaking the silence, I just gave him a light nudge to the arm. "Well," I began. "I just don't want you to change and forget about me."
"Ok for one do you seriously think I would change? Man, my mom says I'm like Peter Pan. I NEVER WILL GROW UP!" he shouted as he put his Peter Pan hat on his head and showed me his best super hero pose. I almost fell out of the tree house laughing. He grabbed my ankles and pulled me back in and about tickled me to death. "And for seconds, if you fell out of this tree house I'd never forget you." We both laughed our heads off the rest of the afternoon until Louis left for home.
That night I thought about what Lou had said about trying out for X-factor. What I had told him was true I didn't want him to forget about me. He was my only true friend since I preferred hanging around him and some of the guys, than the snotty girls at school. I couldn't imagine my life without him or him as one of those pop stars him and I always had made fun of. It's not like I liked him right? I thought about that for a moment. Naw, he didn't like me and we were just friends. Finally I decided to turn my brain of and go to sleep.