Chapter 1

"The sun is in the sky and it is gonna be a glorious day"

It probably wouldn't be. It was only 7.00 a.m., but the clouds were dark enough to indicate a day full of rain. Bad days weren't that common in Miami, but I never minded the occasional rainy day. They made me feel comfortable.

"So pour yourself some coffee, put your clothes back on and tell me your name"

I sometimes felt like I should be born in England, or some other place where it rained more often than not. Sun just didn't work for me. My skin never tanned and I always seemed a little too hot for comfort.

"Hearts are getting broken but I guess that's what they call growing up"

"Not necessarily," I answered the guy singing on the radio.

"But don't expect result because the kids around here don't give a f…"

"Well, you got that right."
"You have to stop talking to singing people, Ally, it's weird. Even weirder than chewing your hair." I turned around to see Trish. She was my best and, never mind you, only, friend, even though she could be quite harsh and rude at times. Being rude was never in my blood, so I guess we completed each other.

I met Trish on the first day of school. I never understood what she was really doing here, because she didn't really have anything with music. The school we went to was a little different than others. It was boarding school, but with a twist. We had special entertainment classes. We still had all our normal classes, like maths and English, but we also had singing, acting, dancing and all kinds of other classes. It was the kind of school I've been wanting to go to ever since I saw Fame.

Music had always been in my family. My father owned a music store and my mom loved singing. She was never particularly good at it, but her love for music was the reason I started to love music. When I was really little, I took piano lessons. It was the only instrument I really mastered at this point. I also started singing. As soon as I learned how to write, I started writing songs.
In the beginning, they were terrible, but I kept at it and now, every once in a while, I wrote a song that I would actually be proud of. I never sang them for anyone. But that was a different story.

"People already know I'm weird," I answered Trish. "It is a lost cause, really." She shot me disapproving look but didn't argue. There was no arguing. I was right. Trish was my only friend. I was quite shy and a little eccentric. Or that's what I called myself. Most of the school preferred freaky. They never bothered me, though. It was the reason I loved being at this school. At my old school, I was always bullied, but here, ignoring me seemed to suffice. And as long as I had Trish and my songbook, I didn't really feel like I needed anyone else.

I took my backpack and pushed Trish out of our room. We shared a room since the first day of school. The room assignments were the only thing that had gotten me really nervous at the first day of school, but luckily there were rooms for two and I loved sharing with Trish. She could be quite annoying, and not to forget terribly messy, but she was fun to be around and she always left me alone when I needed a little alone time.

The day went pretty ordinary. I finished all my homework in class, because I really didn't need to pay a lot of attention: I already got everything anyway. Trish didn't do anything in class. Not that she ever did.

When we finally walked out of math, I was very aware of the smile on my face and I was even more aware of the judging look on Trish's. I ignored her. We had singing lessons and those happened to be my second favourite, right after piano of course. I sat down next to Trish. On my other side was a red headed guy. I had seen him around lots of times, which wasn't weird since I had been at this school for two years, but I honestly had no idea what his name was. I didn't know most of the names of my classmates, I realized, but I figured they wouldn't know mine either, so really, it was only fair. Our teacher, Ms. Knight, snapped me out of my thoughts. My smile faltered after she'd only spoken one sentence. Because it was the sentence I never wanted to hear.

"Up for her solo today is Ally Dawson. Are you ready dear?"
I knew she wouldn't take no for an answer. I looked at my hands, feeling the eyes of my classmates on me. Weighing my options. Weighing the consequences. And I ran.