Franklin High 2004:

I quickened my pace as the first bell rang, loud and insistent across the bleak and modern school grounds. Today was going to be horrible. After all, I was the 'new girl'. The subject of whispers and suppressed smiles, of snide comments and odd stares. Not that there was much to stare at. Green eyes, small build, deficient girlish features, dark red-brown hair, all completed with a JEW t-shirt, jeans and a well love pair of Vans. Moving to Franklin was unplanned and to be completely honest, I wanted nothing more than to take my stuff and head back to Meridian. I was snapped out of my pessimistic assertion as I collided head on with the dark haired boy in front of me.

"Crap!" I yelped. "Sorry dude."

"S'all good," he replied, dismissing my apology lightly. "I'm Zac, Zac Farro."

"Hayley Williams, the new girl."

"Like Oh. My. God!" Zac squealed, doing a prefect impression of a clichéd girl's voice. "We are totally going to be best friends! I loooove your hair by the way, sooo pretty."

"Glad someone likes it."

"Seriously though," he quickly dropped the facade. "Are you ok with getting to classes and stuff?"

"Um not really," I confessed. "I'm in 8a."

"Same here" he replied.

"Cool. What lesson do we have first?"

"General maths with Ms Quin"

"Great!" I muttered sarcastically. "My absolute favourite subject of all time"

He grinned, "Welcome to hell." The day passed in an agonisingly slow monotony of classes and introductions and I was out the door the moment the last bell sounded.

"Hey Hayley!"

I looked over my shoulder to see Zac behind me, closely followed by three other boys. I slowed and waited for them to catch up.

"Guys this is Hayley Williams. The guy with the beanie is Taylor York and the dude with the headband is Jeremy Davis."

The fair haired one, Jeremy looked a few years older than the others and he towered over me. He grinned as he noticed the logo on my t-shirt.

"Well," he stated. "She has good taste in music!"

Taylor nodded in agreement.

"Last but not least" Zac continued, "mah older brother Josh."

I glanced over to where the last boy stood and slowly took him in. His sharp attractive features, deep chocolate brown eyes, dark slightly long hair, toned muscular physique. He was hot, there was no denying that. "Hey!" he greeted me, smiling warmly.

I quickly tried hide a sudden wave of nervousness that threatened to bring my chilled mood crashing down.

"Hi..." I giggled. Complete fail.

"You just moved here right?"

"Yeah," I replied. "From Mississippi actually"

"Ha I would have stayed there, this place is the pits. Seriously dude, one day I'm going to get out of here and never come back."

"Yeah," Zac interjected. "I'm coming with."

I looked at them sceptically as my fears about the dull new town were confirmed.

"It's really that bad?" I asked

"Worse!" Josh complained, scowling at nothing in particular. "The only reason I'm still here is my family..."

"And the band" Taylor added.

"Band? As in music?"

Josh smiled again as he noticed my sudden interest. "Zac plays drums, Jer is on bass, Tay plays rhythm and I'm on lead vocals and guitar."

"Vocals?" I laughed. "Seriously?"

"Is that so shocking?" he replied dryly.

"I guess not. I play piano, guitar and a bit of drums. I sing as well... I write my own stuff."

"Really? Anything good?"

"Um... I've got:

I think we have an emergency

I think we have an emergency

If you thought I'd leave then you were wrong

Cos I won't stop holding on

So are you listening?

So are you watching me?"

Jeremy was the first to break the stunned silence that had descended.

"Woah dude, has anyone ever told you how good you are?"

"Um," I mumbled. "My Mum has but that doesn't count..."

"Well you're awesome! We need a lead..." he trailed of and looked Josh who nodded eagerly.

"Hayley," Jeremy spoke slowly, drawing out the moment as the other came to a silent agreement. "How would you feel about singing in our band?"

"Are you kidding? Of course, I'd love to!"

Things were looking up, finally.