The Time of Our Lives
An Ashton Irwin AU Fanfiction
Chapter one: May 13, 2012
Summer
I stared at the red brick townhouse in front of me. I tapped my nails nervously on my backpack's shoulder strap and looped my thumb around it. The house was three stories tall with black shutters around each window. The small front yard was manicured and many different flowers and bushes and trees were planted around the yard. Ivy climbed the wall, reaching to the second-story windows. The red bricks were faded and chipped, and wind chimes hung from the ceiling on the porch. They pealed musically, but in my state of mind and being, they just grated on my nerves. I swallowed nervously and looked over my shoulder for Melissa, my social-worker.
"Should I just go ahead and knock?" I called to her from across the street. She was grabbing papers and forms from the cluttered backseat of her car.
"No, darling. You just wait for me," She yelled back. I nodded and remained on the sidewalk in front of the house. I gnawed on the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. My insides churned and flip-flopped tirelessly, making me feel nauseous. I looked at Melissa again. She was finally making her way to my side of the street. I turned around and met her halfway and commenced forward with her. We walked up to the door and she made me knock. The black wooden door opened, and revealed a smiling blonde woman.
"Hi." She greeted me and Melissa.
"Hello. I'm Melissa Smith, from the foster care facility. We spoke on the phone," Melissa held out her hand and the woman took it.
"Oh, yes. I'm Anne Marie. It's nice to meet you," Anne's grin grew wider and then her gaze turned to me. "You must be Summer,"
"That's me," I smiled tightly and shrugged. Anne stepped forward and hugged me. I hesitated before loosely wrapping my arms around her. When she pulled away, she ushered Melissa and I through the door and into the house. The front room was spacious and was very art-deco esc. There were oddly shaped, designed, and textured sets of furniture scattered about and pieces of art covered almost every surface. I immediately fell in love with the decorations and the flow and feel of the room. I felt comfortable in this room and pictured myself spending a lot of time in it. The room was void of people except the three of us.
Anne gestured to a loveseat and said, "Sit, please. You must be tired, coming all the way from Perth. I mean, what a trip! And in a car, too." She remarked.
"Oh, yeah. You have no idea. Forty-two hours in a cramped car…" Melissa shook her head as she rifled through her – well, my – papers. "Where is it?" She mumbled as her fingers flew through the stack. "I swore I- Ah! Here it is," She smiled and produced my birth certificate and then my medical records. She handed them to Anne. "We've already done all the paperwork at the facility, and her former foster parents have signed her off. These are just the essentials." She gestured to the papers that were now in Anne's hands.
"Okey-doke." Anne nodded and beamed again. My eyes wandered around the room during the silence. I recognized a few paintings; Lovers at Chi Tou by Chi Wen, Venice Twilight by Claude Monet, and The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci.
"So, your accent. Is it American?" Anne asked me.
"Um, yeah. My mom dragged me here when I was eleven. She made us citizens of Australia and then dropped me at the foster care facility. She then returned to the US and proceeded to kill herself. They tell me that she was my only family left, but that they couldn't return me to the US without any other family members there, so they kept me here in various foster homes. And that's the short version." I explained.
"My God. Why did she make you an Australian citizen?" Anne asked.
"Who knows." I shrugged.
The stairs creaked and my gaze flung in that direction. A boy, he looked about eight or nine, had perched himself halfway down the stairs. A girl, by the looks of eleven or twelve had followed him down, picked him up, and hauled him back up the stairs. I watched them thoughtfully.
"I'm sorry about that." Anne interrupted my contemplations and I turned to look at her.
"About what?" I asked.
"My kids. Harry's just so curious," Anne chuckled and I smiled.
"So that was Lauren and Harry? Don't you have another one? An eldest?" Melissa implored.
"Yes, Ashton. He's at band practice right now, otherwise Harry would be entertained and wouldn't be sneaking down here,"
"Oh, I see. And how old are they?" Melissa inquired.
"Well, Harry's-" Anne was cut off by the opening door. Four teenage boys stepped into the room. Three of them caught my eye and stared at me, trying to get the other's attention by swatting their hands at him. He didn't notice; he was busy closing the door.
"Ash," One of them said.
"Hey, mum," 'Ash', the one they were swatting at, turned around. "I brought the boys -" He stopped when he noticed me. "Oh, shit. I forgot. Sorry, mum. We'll be upstairs." He pushed a hand through his hair and came to stand beside his friends. They all studied me warily and I began to chew on my cheek again.
"C'mon, guys," 'Ash' said and guided his friends up the stairs.
"That must be Ashton," Melissa watched the boys go and I watched my shoes. My rugged and beat-up combat boots looked foreign against the clean and polished hardwood floor. I could feel my cheeks burning, and I could still see the looks on their faces.
"Yes. And again, I'm sorry about my child. Those were his bandmates," Anne explained.
"Ah. Well, since all the paperwork and the introductions are basically done., why don't we start the tour?" Melissa suggested.
"Great." Anne smiled again.
We first went up the stairs and down a hallway that consisted of six closed doors. A lot of clamor came behind one of them, but the hallway was silent otherwise. Family photos were hung on every surface, all in matching black frames. As we moved down the hall, the people in the pictures became older until they were the people I saw that day. Anne led us to one of the closed doors; the one right across from the noisy room. She reached for the handle and turned it, pushing the door open.
"This is your room," She told me. I entered the small room and sat on the bed. It was firm but soft – the perfect combination. I stood and moved around my setting; opening the doors of the small wardrobe, testing the ceiling fan, looking out the window at my view of a neighbor's house. I liked it. I smiled at Anne and Melissa to show them that I approved of the room.
"And once you're settled, I'll take you to a department store and you can decorate it however you like," Anne said. It was one of the best sentences I'd ever heard. I'd hadn't gotten to decorate, or even have, my own room since I was eleven. We then went to the bathroom, and Anne showed me my 'shelf' where I could put all of my bathroom supplies. Then the living room, which was decorated much like the front room. We didn't go up to the attic, but we did go down to the basement where the washing machines were. We then went back up the stairs and into the kitchen, and then the music room. Drums, a grand piano, and three guitars – one bass, one electric, and one acoustic – were all set up. A microphone sat around each instrument and there were speakers set up all over the room.
"This room is soundproof, just FYI," Anne told us. And then we went back to the front room, where Melissa and I said our goodbyes.
"I think you're going to be very happy here, Summer," She whispered in my ear as we hugged each other.
"Me too." I smiled.
"Goodbye and good luck." She grinned at me as she pulled away. She shook Anne's hand again and then departed. Anne closed the door behind her and then turned to me.
"I want you to actually, formally meet your foster brothers and sister," Anne told me and gently ushered me up the stairs. She knocked on the door across from mine, and then on the two next to it. Three forms emerged; Ashton, Harry, and Lauren, and I immediately felt out of place. The butterflies in my stomach went insane. Ashton was tall with shaggy brown hair and bright green eyes. His smile was wide and friendly, just like his mother's. Harry looked like a miniature version of his brother, and Lauren was a beautiful girl with brown hair and smiling eyes. I looked nothing like them; they were bronzed and well-built, and I was a pale redhead with skin problems and anxiety. They were a beautiful, happy, friendly, united family, and I was the blemish in the family photo.
"Ash, Harry, Lauren, this is Summer. She is a part of our family now, and I want you to treat her like so," Anne gestured to me, and I waved awkwardly at the group. Ashton stepped forward and enveloped me in a hug. I stood stiffly in his embrace until I wrapped my arms around him. His warm body melted my nerves and anxious spirits, and I hugged him back with a little more feeling. When he pulled away, I felt cold and scared again, and I didn't want to let him go.
"I'm Ashton, but call me Ash," He beamed goofily at me and I grinned shyly back.
"Summer."
"I'm Lauren," The girl also smiled at me. "And this is Harry," She placed a hand on her little brother's head.
I nodded. "It's nice to meet you. Thanks for taking me in," I addressed the entire family and shoved my hands in my back pockets.
"Oh, no problem. When Melissa told me the condition you were living in in that other house, I knew I had to get you out of there." Anne told me, and I smiled at her.
"Well, thanks." I watched my shoes again, but grinned.
"Hey, Ash. What about this?" A voice came floating from Ash's room and then a sequence of guitar notes came after.
"Guys, I'm a little busy. Just give me a second," Ash poked his head into his room and told his friends to be quiet. Instead, they got up and came out into the hallway. The three boys who had stared at me before now regarded me with smiles. The tallest, blondest boy held out his hand.
"I'm Luke," He said, and I shook his hand.
"I'm-" I started to say my name, but was cut off.
"I'm Calum," The slightly darker-skinned boy told me. He beamed, showing me a set of white teeth.
"I'm-" I tried, but was once again interrupted.
"My name's Michael and I like good books and long walks on the beach," The white-haired boy said, and was rewarded with a laugh from Calum and Ash.
"I'm Summer." I said finally.
"Are you American?" Michael asked.
"Yeah." I nodded.
"Oh, that's so cool," Michael said with a chuckle and ran a hand through his black and white hair. I smiled softly and Harry and Lauren went back into their rooms. Anne moved back down the stairs and we lapsed into silence.
"So… You're Ashton's bandmates?" I implored after a few minutes and gestured to Ashton. I then shoved my hands in my pockets.
"Yeah," Luke nodded.
"What's the band's name?" I asked.
"We don't really have one yet," Ashton told me, and I nodded.
"Ash, we should probably get back to it…" Luke said, trailing off.
"Yeah, right." He nodded and Michael, Calum, and Luke ventured back into his room, after smiling at me. Ash lingered out in the hallway with me for a few minutes.
"We're writing songs," He explained awkwardly.
"Oh. Cool." I grinned softly.
"Do you wanna hear one?" He cocked an eyebrow.
I hesitated before nodded. "Yeah."
I followed him into his room and smiled at his bandmates. They were all sitting on Ash's four-poster bed and each held an acoustic guitar. They grinned back. Ash perched himself on what looked like a box of wood, and he rhythmically smacked it three times before gesturing to the floor next to him and smiling widely at me. I sat down next to him and folded my legs.
"We have an audience," Michael remarked.
"Yeah. She wanted to hear a song," Ash said, his goofy smile still plastered on his face.
"The only one we can really play all the way through, and that's an original, too, is 'Gotta Get Out'." Calum said.
"Then let's play it," Luke said. He placed his fingers on the strings and counted it off. "One, two, three, four." His fingers strummed over the strings and after about five beats, Ash began to slap the box, creating a solid drum beat. Then Luke started to sing.
"Even when the sky is falling down, even when the earth is crumbling 'round my feet,"
They paused for eight beats, then Calum's voice rose with Michael's. "Even when we try to say goodbye, and you can cut the tension with a knife in here. Cause I know what'll happen, if we get through this."
Luke sang again, and Michael joined him. "And if the earth ends up crumbling down to its knees baby, we just gotta get out, we just gotta get out. And if the skyscrapers tumble down and crash around baby, we just gotta get out, we just gotta get out…"
The song ended and they looked at each other and began to giggle. I smiled at them and Ash's gaze turned to me.
"What'd you think?" He asked. The room grew silent.
"It was really good. You guys should record it and put it on YouTube or something," I said.
"Maybe one day," Ash beamed.
"We actually already posted a cover of 'Teenage Dirtbag'," Luke informed me.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah. About a year ago actually," Calum said.
"That's cool. I love that song," I told them, and their eyes lit up.
"I have a feeling you'll fit right in with us." Michael predicted.
Ashton
"So. Summer seems cool." Luke said to me after my mom had removed her from my room to take her shopping.
"Yeah, she does." I nodded.
"I like her taste in music. Did you see the Green Day shirt she was wearing?" Michael put it. "Plus, she likes our music. And All Time Low,"
"I did like her Green Day shirt," Luke smiled at Mikey.
"Is it weird having foster siblings?" Calum asked me.
"Um, sometimes. But honestly most of the time it's just like your best friend moved in across the hall. They're usually pretty nice. But pretty messed up, too." I said.
"Do you know what year she's in?" Luke gently set his guitar onto the floor.
"I think she's in year ten, but I'm not sure," I told them.
"So that would make her, what, sixteen?" Mikey implored.
"Probably," I chuckled. "I dunno."
The boys laughed with me.
"So what do you guys wanna do tonight?" Calum asked. "Are there any good movies out?"
"Um, there's the Thor movie," Luke said.
"Guys, I don't have money for a movie." Michael ran a hand through his hair.
"We can do something else." Luke nodded.
"We could stay in and watch I Am Legend," I suggested, raising my eyebrows.
"Yes!" Calum shouted and leapt to his feet. Mikey followed.
"Do you have popcorn?" Luke asked as we made our way out of my room and down the stairs.
"I have vegemite and toast." I grinned at him.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please Review!