WHEN THE SNOW COMES DOWN IN TINSELTOWN
CHAPTER ONE
I sighed in relief as I finished writing my answer about the frontal lobe of the brain. I glanced up to the clock above the door just in time to see it tick over to 2:57. I's finished my Biology midterm with three minutes to spare. I couldn't wait for this day to be over. I couldn't wait for the week to be over; the end of the week was also the end of the semester which meant two weeks of vacation for Christmas and New Years. Technically the semester would end at the end of the week, but half - if not more - of the students wouldn't even show up tomorrow because today was the last day of midterms so there was really no point in coming to class for the rest of the week.
The school would be split into several groups by tomorrow; the kids whose parents would have them picked up early because they cared, the kids who would stay to the end of the week and then have someone pick them up because their parents cared about their education and would insist they stay for the rest of the week, the kids who would be picked up at the end of the week because it was a necessity and their parents were keeping up appearances, the scholarship kids who would be going home to their loving family and jealous siblings, the scholarship kids who would be staying here for the holidays, and then there was me... The kids who would be staying here because their parents were too busy to even have them around for the holidays. For me it had been like this for the last six years ever since my Mom died; Dad had just sort of checked out of the parenting thing, he dropped my and brother Jackson off at boarding school and devoted his time to his music career. The only time he actually spent time with us was during the Summer when we had to leave school, and even then it was strained and awkward. Jackson was lucky enough to have turned 18 and graduated two years ago, I heard from him about as much as I heard from Dad.
"Pencils down!" Miss Kunkle announced about two seconds before the bell rang. As soon as the bell rung no-one cared what Miss Kunkle said as they dropped their pencils and picked up their bags, getting out of the room as quickly as possible.
"Hey, Miles." I stopped at my locker to shove my books in and three of my best friends were there already since their classes were closer and all our lockers were together.
"I can't wait to blow this joint." Caitlyn commented as we started walking. Caitlyn Gellar was one of the scholarship kids who would be going home for the holidays; we met when she started here in 10th grade last year and she was my new roommate.
"Lucky." I muttered under my breath, as far as I knew I was the only one of my friends who would be staying this holidays.
"At least you don't have to be a prop in a campaign." The friend who greeted me spoke again; Lilly Truscott is the daughter of a politician so her and her little brother Joel spend their time away from boarding school being paraded on stage to make their father look like a family man.
"Oh, my God!" The fourth one in our group is Sarah Armstrong - more commonly known around school as Saint Sarah because she's the most selfless person in the world - stopped us all in the hall and we all followed her gaze, stepping back against the lockers and holding our breath. The reason? Shane Gray!
Bad Boy rock star who got caught drink driving right after his bands tour finished and the courts sentenced him to good behaviour here because it's the most secure and strict school in the country. He'd only started here two weeks ago, but he already had a reputation for rule breaking and trying to escape. We all gave him a wide berth in the hallway as he stalked past, his head down with his dark hair falling in his eyes and his hands shoved in his pockets.
"I heard he has a tattoo and nipple piercings." Lilly commented as we all watched him pass.
"He's only seventeen." I shook my head. "Don't you have to be eighteen for that?"
"Oh, please, he's Shane Gray, he probably bribed someone to do it." Caitlyn rolled her eyes as we started walking again, headed back to our dorm house. "Or forged his parents signature... It's not that unheard of." She shot a pointed look at my and I blushed, my 16th birthday was less than a month ago and I'd forged my Dad's signature to get myself a birthday present.
"I haven't seen a tattoo." Sarah cocked her head in confusion.
"I heard it's South of the equator." Lilly hissed like it was a secret.
"What do-" I started to ask, but Lilly just gestured down towards her waist, making me shut up and flush.
"Wouldn't that hurt?" Sarah asked, furrowing her brow, I had to agree with her; Lilly was intimating that Shane had a tattoo on or around his crotch and I'd always understood that to be a very sensitive place to boys.
"Hello, Pretty Ladies." A male form came up behind us and threw an over both Lilly and Caitlyn's shoulders.
"Oliver!" Both of my friends screwed up their faces and Caitlyn shrugged him off, moving away.
"Who am I to walk away from four Chica's like you?" Oliver grinned, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Hey, you're in Gym with Shane Gray, right?" Caitlyn asked him as he got more comfortable with his arm around Lilly. "So, you guys, like, shower together?"
"You make it sound gayer than gay." Oliver rolled his eyes.
"We just want to know if he really has a tattoo down there." Caitlyn shrugged innocently.
"Okay, not that I'd ever look - 'cause that'd be creepy on so many levels - he doesn't even show up to Gym anyway." Oliver raised his hands in submission.
"I thought he was meant to be on good behaviour? Doesn't that include showing up to classes?" I wondered aloud as we stepped outside the high school building and into the cool California Winter air; it wasn't snowing or anything, it never snows in California, but it was unusually cold for this part of the country.
"Hey, see you later, I have to pack." Sarah broke off from the group as we neared the dorm buildings. "Mom and Dad are picking me up tomorrow to go help deliver presents to the poor before Christmas." She beamed as she walked off. Sarah was from a rich family who were all about helping others; her parents met at a blood drive and the two of them led to Sarah who didn't have a selfless bone in her body. "Bye!"
"Ugh, I have to pack too; Dad has some stupid press thing on Friday so me and Joel are leaving tomorrow too." Lilly rolled her eyes, kissing Oliver on the cheek.
"Guess it's you and me, Roomie." Caitlyn said when Oliver ran off as well.
"Don't act all innocent, you're leaving at the end of the week too." I huffed accusingly.
"Well, if that's how you feel maybe I won't give you the box of brownies my Mom made you for Christmas." Caitlyn teased and my eyes widened.
"Brownies? I want brownies! Give me brownies!" I demanded, her Mom was a really good baker. "Where are my brownies?" I jumped on my best friends back as we walked and she laughed.
"They got here this morning, calm down, Country Girl."
"Don't you tell me to calm down or I'll go all Junior Rodeo on your ass." I threatened playfully, exaggerating my Tennessee accent.
"You watch way too much Big Bang Theory." Caitlyn just rolled her eyes.
Tinseltown
By lunch time on Wednesday at least a quarter of the school was gone already for the holidays. By Friday afternoon only about a quarter or a third of the schools population would remain - including the teachers. Since exams were over the teachers didn't seem to care what we did for the last three days of semester.
"Oooh, brownies, can I have one?" Oliver sat across me from at lunch and reached for my container of brownies from Caitlyn's Mom.
"Mine." I slapped his hand away and glared.
"Don't even try, Oken." Caitlyn snickered over her sandwich. "She's not letting them go for anything, she even slept with them under her pillow."
"My brownies." I muttered protectively, they were probably the only Christmas present I'd get from someone parental this year. Sure, my friends would probably send something, maybe even Jackson, but Dad never did. "What happened to him?" I was momentarily distracted by the arrival of the resident bad boy to the main indoor dining area of the school since it was so cold outside most of us were in the cafeteria. I wouldn't normally have taken notice except the kids closer to him had started to whisper which quickly spread and I was drawn to his form; blood! That was the first thing I noticed, both his hands had blood on them that was dripping onto te floor and he was covered in sweat.
"Dude got in a fight." Oliver guessed, eyeing him as well.
"Look at those muscles." Caitlyn hummed thoughtfully and I couldn't help but admire as well. "What do you think he lifts?"
"Bet he could lift me." I bit my lip as naughty thoughts flooded my mind. Sure the guy was a douche and a jerk, but my fantasies had nothing to do with his personality.
"You weigh as much as a feather." Caitlyn scoffed, "he could probably lift two of you."
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Shane snapped not overly loudly, but loud enough for us to hear in the middle of the room.
"Asshole." Oliver muttered, breaking the spell of Shane's body by reminding us of his personality - just another stuck up rich kid who thinks the sun shines out of his own ass. I couldn't wait to be done with this stupid school.
Okay, I'd just like to say sorry to any of you who follow What I Go To School For; I know I promised to update over a month ago and I didn't and now I'm posting this...
Truth is it started with a 2-day writers block, middled with a computer virus that wiped out everything on my computer that I'd spent years collecting and writing, and ended with deciding to take a break from writing. The break was mainly because I was pissed at my own computer for getting rid of everything - every chapter, video I'd made, photo I'd edited, story I hadn't finished, every song, even the first five chapters of the original story I'd been working on for the last 10 months... So, I just stopped writing for a while until I started going even more crazy with everything inside my head that wanted to escape.
So the first thing I did was re-write half of the 4th chapter of What I Go To School For (Junior Year). Then I kept getting side-tracked so I had to get this idea out of my head.
This story will feature just turned 16-year-old Miley at a boarding school over the Christmas holidays. Her best friend/roommate Caitlyn who was supposed to go home (because no offence or anything, but I never like Lilly so she'll be taking a backseat in this story... In fact she's already left the story). And essentially Shane will be the same as the first Camp Rock movie (except for turning into a whipped little pussy at the end when Mitchie sang) except much darker and troubled than the movie portrays ('cause come on, it's a kids movie, he can't be too dark in that).
I got the idea from a mixture of the Christmas movie Unaccompanied Minors, the movie Toy Soldiers, and the Hilary Duff song When The Snow Comes Down In Tinseltown... Take from that what you will.
I promise I will work on getting chapter 4 of What I Go To School For up as soon as possible.
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