Sometimes the people we meet
change us (forever

Tom's POV:

Here I was five years after McFly broke up trying to get my life back in order. I was returning to school to get my degree in music education. I wasn't prepared to go back. I figured being a rock and roll star people would recognize me and I hated being recognized. I wasn't too keen on going back to school either. I wasn't a big fan of going back to university, but in order to get a job I needed a degree. No one cared that I had experience with music. No one cared that I had won several awards or that my band had several albums go platinum.

I intended to get through school not meeting anyone or becoming friends with anyone. I was here strictly on business. But that's when I ran into her, literally.

I was rushing to my piano class hoping not to be noticed. I pushed my Volcom baseball cap lower on my head so I could barely see. I glanced up at the door I was passing in the music wing of the university. The next room was going to be the room my class was in. I kept going until I walked into something. My piano book fell out of my hands and my hat was knocked off my head. I bent down to pick up my belongings but my eyes met a pair of hazel eyes instead. They were more gorgeous than anything I had ever seen. I couldn't look away, until she did. She looked down and picked up her books. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"I know what you mean. First day of class you don't want to be late," she giggled.

"Yeah, I said absently. I looked up at her again meeting those hazel eyes. "Uh, I'm Tom," I smiled meekly at her.

She stood back up holding her books against her chest. "Courtney," she replied sticking her right hand out to shake mine. Her hands were soft like a baby's bottom. Her grip was professional, not too tight, but firm. "We better get in there before the professor freaks." She smiled as she turned to the door.

She pulled the door open and held it open for me. I grabbed the door and leaned in close to her catching the scent of her perfume. She smelled sweet, like roses. We both entered the room and luckily the professor wasn't there yet. We choose seats on the opposite sides of the room from each other. I watched her as she slipped her headphones on and started to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I watched her fingers barely touched the keys and how beautiful her hands looked as she played. There was only one other person that I had ever seen play with such intensity as she did: me, several years ago. I tried not to watch her but it was like a car crash: you don't want to look, but you can't help yourself. You want to look and nothing at that moment can stop you. Except for the fact that she noticed I was staring at her. She smiled and I whipped my head around to face forward again.

I spent the rest of the class trying to watch her, but not watch her at the same time. I didn't want her to think I was some kind of freak. I was the closest person to sane that I had ever met. There was something about her that I just couldn't let go of. Maybe it was the she smiled: teeth showing but not all as if she was hiding a secret that you were dying to know. Or maybe it was the way her side bangs fell over her left eye as she was playing and she would try to blow them out of her face. Maybe it was the green sparkle she had hidden in her eyes that you could only see when the sun hit them. I didn't know exactly what it was that kept me looking back at her. I knew from the moment that I ran into her, she was going to make a big difference in my life.