Traveling to a completely different place in the world has always attracted me. Going to a place where no one knew a thing about you and your past, that is what appealed to me the most. Now, when someone had offered you a chance to stay for a while in a country like England, would you pass that up? I surely wouldn't have, that is exactly why I'm packing all the things I would need right now in my dorm room.
I was a student here at a prestigious school to increase my knowledge and skill to work in the tough world of fashion and journalism. Well the main reason that I wanted to work in those two fields was because of my love of music and media. I was a major in the arts, to make it simpler; I was real good at writing, drawing, painting, graphic design, and music, basically anything in those genres.
One day I was creating a picture in paints of a portrait of my best friends when the phone had rang. I had looked at the call display and saw that it was one of my best friends, Caryn.
"Ashy Baby, remember when we were younger, you used to rave to us about how you wanted to travel across the ocean?"
"Yeah…" I said drawing out the last syllable. I didn't exactly understand was she was getting at.
"Well look out London cause here comes trouble!" She exclaimed happily.
"Caryn, I still don't get what your saying," I told her confused. If she was looking at me she would have laughed at my confused face.
"Boy Ash, sometimes you are to slow for your own good. What I'm trying to tell you is that you finally get that chance! I have already booked out flights! Four first class tickets to England baby!" I was stunned. I lost all feeling in my arms which caused me to drop my paints in a clang. If I didn't make myself breath I would have fainted. "Ashley, you still alive, Hun?"
"Caryn pass the phone," I could hear my other friend Sasha say on the other line. "Ashley, you dead Mon?" Sash asked with a horrible Jamaican accent. I could picture her smile at the inside joke we have.
"Yeah, man," I said with the same horrid accent.
"We get to go to England! Rock on! Oh and Ash, can you open the door, I kinda forgot my key again," I just shook my head and hung up the phone. I slowly made my way towards the door and opened it only to be devoured in a tackle hug courtesy of Sasha.
"Love you too babe, but right now you are like crushing my spleen," She smiled sheepishly and helped me up.
"Leah babe, what the heck did you do here?" Rebecca said gesturing to the huge black splat on the floor from when I dropped my paint.
"Well you guys caught me at a bad time when I was working on your portrait so that is what happened," I told them whilst I patted my clothes down.
"Well that's good, I thought you just had a huge accident on the floor and it happened to be black," Sasha said with a relived sigh and jumped onto my bed.
"Ew," Caryn exclaimed and went directly towards my closet.
"What are you doing?" I asked her confused. I walked up behind her with a raised eyebrow as to why she was pulling all my clothes out and folding them into a suitcase of mine.
"Well what does it look like I'm doing? If I don't pack your things you are going to be a mess when you have to put everything in a bag or box last minute,"
"I don't procrastinate!" I said in my defense.
"Ash, this portrait you are painting of us is due tomorrow, and you only started on it this morning," Rebecca said gesturing to the canvas.
"Yeah, but you see, I work well under pressure. That is where all my great works come from. Plus my speed at what I do allows me to do things last minute, take your shirt that your wearing, if I do remember correctly, you asked me to make you the perfect halter top ten minutes before a date you had, then you wouldn't have looked stunning and attained that second date you had with him," I pointed to her teal halter top.
"Yeah, but sadly that date didn't really last long," She opened our fridge and grabbed a bottled water.
I just sighed at her negativity and turned my attention back to Caryn who somehow managed to dump my entire closet neatly into one suitcase.
"Whoa, how the heck did you do that?" Sasha said reading my mind.
"Well I actually fold clothes so that it fits," She rolled her eyes and moved on to my dressers.
"Wait, aren't you supposed to pack your things also?" I asked a little confused.
"Yeah, but you see, that is where Catrina comes in," she smirked.
Catrina was a girl that has been following ever since grade school. She would do anything for us just so that she would be accepted into our little circle. Now I was the one in the group that wasn't mean towards her and asked her to serve me hand and foot, but she did get on my nerves.
"That is mean, smart, and a real bad idea,"
"How is that possible? A smart thing, yet it's a bad idea," Caryn asked me a little confused.
"Well did you ever think that she would take some of your things or like look through all your personal things?" Rebecca clarified, understanding what I meant.
"Crazy dog on a pole," Caryn muttered angrily.
"See! I'm not always dumb!" Now, I was meant to jump up, point, and stick my tongue out at her… but things don't always go as I plan them. I did jump up, but slipped on some of my paint and landed hard on my rear end.
"Smart…" Caryn muttered sarcastically.
"Oh shut up," I walked over to the dresser and took a new pair of shorts and walked into my bathroom.
"So how long exactly are we going to be staying in England?" Sasha asked.
"Well, as long as we want to. Daddy has a loft in a highly populated area in London and has left it to me seeing as he doesn't even want it anymore. And seeing that my birthday is in a few days, he gave it to me as an early birthday present,"
"Caryn, I hate you right now," Rebecca shot jokingly.
Caryn comes from a wealthy family, well we all do, but whatever Caryn wants Caryn gets three times better. Both her parents are big business people. They also come from families with old money. Our parents are all connected, all friends, which is how we know each other.
We have known one another since we were in diapers. We know almost everything there is to know about each other. We even know relatively what the other is thinking. But we all have different takes on what we want with our future.
Caryn wants to dance her life away. Her parents said that she danced before she could walk. She had the perfect body, wide smile, flowing blond hair, and bright green eyes that caught the attention of the judges at auditions. Never in her life did she not get the part.
She is also very out there. Never afraid to make her voice heard. Boy is she obsessed with the opposite gender. It's almost like all that she thinks about is boys, dance routines, and how to make herself look absolutely red carpet perfect- with the help of me being her fashion, hair, and make up team.
Rebecca wants to be a writer or a psychologist. She is a very deep and hilarious personality. She is the one that you come to with your problems, or when you wanted to smile. Her long waves of auburn, sweet brown eyes, polite smile, average frame was what made everyone trust her and open up.
She could never hurt someone; she was just too kind hearted. She is the opposite of Caryn; she is shy and tends to keep things to herself.
Sasha just loves to make noise. You can't shut her up! Well, most of the time. She is extremely talented with music both writing and playing. Singing is her downfall though. She isn't so strong in that field. She's my concert buddy. We never go to a concert with out the other. We promised each other that at the very first one we attended. We're geeks like that. She's a very attractive girl with her platinum blond hair with a black under dye, bright smile, honey brown eyes, and fit stature.
She is never one to shy away from a challenge or to try something new. Basically the reason she gets hurt a lot, but she just smiles and bares it.
Then there was me. I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do. Well I do, there is just more than one thing I wanted to do. Sure I wanted to be an artist, but it was a hard road to be known. The money wasn't much when beginning. I wanted to be a photographer, but the down side was the same as being an artist. I also wanted to work in media, being both behind and in front of the camera. There's a long list that I have kept in the back of my mind as to what I wanted to be. I had so many jobs that I wanted, it was hard to choose one. Plus my priorities keep changing, so it's a little hard to decide.
Unlike the girls, I came from a Spanish/Asian background while they came from European families, so I was bestowed with the olive skin and the dark hair. But it never stays just one color. Being as creative as I am, I have multiple colors in my hair. Blue, purple, pink, magenta, and fuchsia were the current colors in my hair at the moment.
"Okay, so the plan is that we leave the day after tomorrow. We send everything off today and finish our last assignments and hand them in tomorrow. All our parents already know of our little expedition so we don't have to worry about them," Caryn informed us all. We were all currently sitting around my dorm sitting room eating ice cream and pizza. We had all finished getting me all packed up, there were a few things here and there, but other than that everything was packed up.
"This is all so fast, but I can't wait," I said.
"So what do suppose English boys are like?" Caryn inquired with a dreamy look on her face.
"Boy crazy!" The rest of us muttered and hit her with a pillow.
"What? Can't blame me for liking some eye and arm candy,"
BUZZZZZZZZZZZ!
I shot up from my bed and slammed the alarm off. Today was the day that we leave. I really am looking forward for the whole trip; it's just the early wake up time that I hated.
I groaned and dragged myself into the bathroom. Looking at myself in the mirror was horrifying. My hair was all over the place! I peeled my pjs off and stepped into the shower. When the water had first made contact with my skin I shrieked. It was freezing cold!
"Well I'm awake now," I thought bitterly to myself then started to lather myself in soaps.
Once the shower was done, I decided to change into something out there, yet still had the hot look. I put on a tight black tank that showed the bottom of my belly button piercing, I put on a pair of black flared jeans, and put a pink and black studded, and hung some chains off my belt loops. Very punk rock chic. To continue on with the whole look, I put the heavy eyeliner and different shades of pink eye shadow. I just straightened my hair and left it to hang over my shoulders. For accessories I just had on a bunch of black gel bracelets, silver studs in my ears, and a studded faux leather wristband.
There wasn't a lot that I had to do today. Last night we had all sent all of our things to the loft, the only things we had here were our carry on and purses.
I yawned and walked into the kitchen. I poured myself some coffee to try and wake myself up. I was about to fall asleep on the kitchen table when the familiar soundings of 'Misery Business' blasted from my pant pocket.
"Sasha, what do you want?" I spoke groggily into the phone.
"Ash, get your lazy butt up! You have to hand in your works in to the professors, they are here and waiting you know," She said too cheerful for six in the morning.
"Ugh," was all that I said before I hung up and walked back into the main area. I pulled on a MCR zip up hoodie I bought at a concert of theirs, pulled on my black chucks, and walked to my room.
I pulled my messenger bag over my head and took hold of my duffle bag and canvas. I took one last look at my room and bid it a good bye before locking the door and making my way to the campus.
The sun hadn't even risen yet. It was cold and dark. I just walked into the art wing and walked into my visual arts classroom. Mr. Patterson was there and gave me a polite yet tired smile.
"So you really are leaving," He said quietly as I handed him my canvas.
"Yup, but I wish we could have taken the later flight. Early wake up calls aren't my forte," He just chuckled and bid me a bon voyage- for all of you who don't know French, that means good trip.
I went to my computer arts teacher and handed him my CD, delivered my photographs to my photography professor and handed whatever else to the others. After everything was good and handed out, I had a few minutes to spare, so I had made my way to the on campus café and got myself a cappuccino and muffin fix.
"Ashy-Lyn we don't have time for you to eat! Let's go! The ride is here!" Caryn exclaimed poofing out of no where and dragged me out of the café with me still holding onto my coffee and muffin and my bags over my shoulder.
"Caryn, you make me wake up at four in the morning to get ready, then at six get Sash to call me to hand in all my semester end projects and expect me not to be all cranky. I think I deserve to have a little break before I explode from the early morning over load," I snapped grumpily at my friend as she dragged me across campus to the parking lot.
"Well we don't exactly have time to waste. The flight leaves in thirty minutes, you can sleep on there," She said quickly and opened the door.
I could see the girls in there with bright smiles. I just groaned and sat down. They were all morning people, while I was here with the grumpy morning syndrome. The driver had taken off and we were on our way to the airport. The minute I was about to fall into a small nap we had reached the airport gate.
"Here come the airport hassle," I sighed and walked through the surprisingly busy airport.
Now, I don't want to bore you with all the standard airport workings, so let's just skip right to the plane ride?
So, after being harassed by the airport staff, I had finally made it to my seat. I wasn't near any of the girls, that put a slight damper on things, but the guy I was sitting beside wasn't so bad. He was some good eye candy, and maybe I could possibly lie on his shoulder when I fell asleep. I had a cheeky smile on my face, but when I saw the guys head turn I quickly removed it and looked through my messenger bag.
I pulled down the tray thingy and set my laptop onto it. It was a blue Mac, I loved this baby. It had a wireless internet connection, which I loved. I hooked up my turquoise I-pod Nano into it and began to charge it.
I turned I-Tunes and started to play a little Son of Dork, a British band that had broken apart not to long ago. I sang along with some of the lyrics to Eddie's Song while I looked through and edited a couple of my pictures making a few pictures of the girls and I have the heavenly unnatural glow.
Then I just started to goof off, I wasn't that tired anymore. I have a little site on the internet where I take pictures that people send me and change them to exactly how they want them. So I took a picture a girl had sent me and made it look as though it was an old photo of this guy was in a dark room and only a spot light was the only source of light.
Another request from the same girl was multiple pictures that she wanted to look as though it was a flashback, make it look like there were feelings tied behind. I even added a few lyrics I had heard once before, "When she falls asleep, the air she's breathing is for you". I don't exactly know who sung those words, but that is what I thought would go perfectly with the pictures.
"That is really good," The guy beside me complimented. I just smiled at him and couldn't help but notice his accent and slate blue eyes. They were simply gorgeous.
"Thanks but this really isn't that good. All I did was basically just cut and past a few things together," I tried to hide the slight blush I held by putting my hair in my face. I'm not used to being complimented.
"It's better than what I can do. If I tried- well let's just say that it wouldn't look half as good as yours did," He smiled. Now his smile is utterly contagious, there was no way that I couldn't smile in return.
I turned back to my computer and emailed the pictures to the girl then opened a window and looked through every shot I took the last few weeks of just the city landscape in black and white. I began deleting the ones that were a little out of focus and blurry but then paused at a picture I took in sepia tone of a guitarist at a local club just playing a set. Gazing at the picture, you could definitely see his love and passion for music.
"That's a beautiful shot," He said nodding to my computer screen.
"It's one of my favorites. I just love that you can basically see his love for the music,"
"So you're a photographer, yeah?"
"Somewhat," He had a confused look on his face, I just smiled and explained. "I was going to school for photography, but then I had also gone so that I could enhance my art skills, and writing. I have done almost everything and still have no clue what I should do for a living. I want to be a photographer, but then I also want to be an artist, writer, designer- there are too many things in this world," He chuckled but nodded in understanding.
"I wanted to be so much, but then found my calling,"
"And what was that?"
"Music,"
"Ah, good pick," I smiled then realized something. "I never caught your name, I'm Ashley Martinez," I introduced with a smile.
"Danny Jones," He smiled taking my hand to shake.