Thanks for reading. I hope you liked the last chapter. I will try to post a new chapter as often as possible and will never leave more than a week between chapters. I hope you'll like what I write and don't forget to review.

-faithforwingss


Chapter 2

Ella

Snapping back to reality I walked down to the second floor. I first knocked on May's door, and then went to April's. I stood in the middle of the hallway between both doors and hollered at them to wake up. I got my normal response, low sinister sounding grumbles, and walked the rest of the way to the first floor.

I started my daily chores for the morning. I cleaned up any mess from the night before, which there always was, and started the task of making breakfast. It wasn't as easy as it sounded though. Finding non-fat, low carb, no gluten organic food was hard enough. Try making it and having taste yummy

Just as I was finishing up the girls walked in. They looked identical, as always. Both of their hair was in matching side ponytails and they had on matching pink dresses. Still half asleep they sat down at the kitchen counter waiting to be served.

After handing both plates to them I tackled the job of cleaning up the clutter in the kitchen at super speed so I could fit in time to do a load of laundry before school. You would think with all the money Merissa had she would just hire maids and cooks. But why would you want maids and cooks when you had me.

"Bye Elliekins, see you at school!" April called mockingly.

I wanted to scream. The girls were just so mean sometimes and I wanted a break. April knew how much I hated nicknames. I hated when people tried to abbreviate or shorten my name, it was my biggest pet peeve. The only person I ever let call me by a nick name was my father. I growled unable to do anything else.

Just as I was about to make myself an omelet or a bowl of cereal I heard a horn beep outside the house. I grunted loudly. No breakfast for me. I quickly grabbed a granola bar and slung my backpack over my shoulder. Throwing on my shoes I ran out the front door.

Diana sat in the driver's seat of her hot pink jeep, twirling her fingers through her hair. As I opened the side door she quieted the radio and turned her head towards me far too bubbly for it being only seven in the morning. I envied her ability to be so smiley.

I met Diana my first month as a junior at Los Angeles Prep, home to the rich and snotty. LA Prep was actually pretty average for a private school, except we didn't have to wear a uniform. We had a pretty small student body and all of the average high school cliques, jocks, nerds, and drama geeks. Two words made us stand out from the rest of the schools though.

Nathan James.

Nathan was an average spoiled rich boy student. He had loads of friends, good grades and a decent family. Basically, He strutted down the halls without a care in the world. When he was senior he landed the lead in the oh-so-important school play, Hairspray.

At opening night, of course, he nailed it. The tech club at school had recorded the performance and posted it on line. Hitting every note and being the most believable, perfectly amazing Link, Nathan became an instant YouTube sensation. One day, out of the blue he got a call from Spinner Records.

Throughout the rest of his senior year he worked on his album and kept attending school. Apparently no one knew that he was working with Spinner until he announced his album, Unbelievable, in June right before graduation. Again, he was an instant success. By the time he was officially done high school everyone knew the words to his songs.

I wasn't actually at school when Nathan went there. Diana was though, and I heard all about it. She was a sophomore in the play with him. She would tell me a hundred times about how great of a singer he was and how she was so glad he became famous so everyone could hear his beautiful voice.

I sighed. Some people had it so easy.

"Morning Ella! "Diana practically screamed.

Ugh. "Morning" I mumbled to her in a very unconvincing tone.

"Okay grumpy. Don't bring me down. I am in a great mood an I refuse to be brought down by the likes of you." Sticking her tongue out at me she turned the radio back on and started the ten-minute ride to school.

We sat in the car in silence, which was fine with me. I wasn't feeling to talkative anyway. Instead I just sat and listened to the steady beat of the music. I started to tap my foot and hum along to the song quiet enough so Diana wouldn't notice. As far as she was concerned I hated music.

After a couple songs played The Breaking Point blasted from the speakers. My heart started pounding in my chest. The lyrics slowly filled the car and I felt like I was drowning. Frozen in my seat I could feel my breathing speeding up. I remained strong and silent, braving the song.

Diana nodded her head back and forth and in her tone deaf voice sang the lyrics at the top of her lungs. I watched her fingers tap endlessly on the steering wheel until they stopped in a quick second. Diana's hand slapped the radio off and she turned to me with a frown on her face.

"I am so sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Please forgive me."

Giving me her most apologetic look she looked at me with false sympathy. She held one hand under her chin completing her puppy dog look. I groaned internally. The exaggerated apology was so typical Diana.

"It's fine. Please just get both hands on the wheel and pay attention to the road."

"K," she said. Every hint of sadness was gone from her voice.

There wasn't time for any more conversation because we had just pulled up in front of the school.

I was a junior when I started at L.A. Prep. After my father's death I just couldn't face my classmates at my old private school. I left behind every one of my friends, never contacting them again. They would text me on occasion or leave a comment of my Facebook page, but eventually got tired of me not answering and quit trying.

There weren't many places I could go relatively close that offered the same educational opportunities, so I was stuck. Merissa didn't care either way as long as I had my own means of getting their and didn't spend money. I decided I would just have to toughen up and brave school with the girls. They had totally ignored me the remainder of the summer, but I was determined not to let that get me down.

When I walked into the school that first day, I knew that everyone was going to know that my father was Aaron Lucas. Everybody reacted differently when they found out. Some would become all crazy and pushy, asking for autographs. Others would become shy and avoid looking me in the eye. I just hoped that people could get over it fast so I didn't have to deal with Aaron fans staring at me all the time.

To my surprise I wasn't as tortured as I thought I would be. The first week of school I had people coming up to me all the time, being overly friendly at first only to ask some rude question once they thought I was buttered up enough. Like that would work.

Once it was apparent that I would not be divulging any big Hollywood secret the students moved on to berate the twins. They didn't mind like I did. It was them who had told everyone about my father anyway. April quickly became the queen bee at school with May her second in command.

I breezed through the halls basically unnoticed for the rest of the month. I was still a little shook up and being alone actually helped me deal with things. That was, until I was approached by Diana at my locker. She had on extremely tight jeans and a pink shirt with ruffles down the front. Her silver pumps added to her crazy tall height. She had hair blond, but not the golden blond California look, the pale snowy kind of blond. She used one hand to twirl the ends of it, which were dip dyed pink and the other was extended in front of her.

As casually as possible I took her hand in mine, giving it a quick shake. I was very cautious of her upon our first meeting. It was hard to tell if she was yet another admirer or is she was just a person trying to be nice to me. Either way I was going to have to say something eventually.

"I'm Diana Abrahams," she stated simply.

"Ella Lucas," I said back.

Diana gave me a funny laugh. "Yeah I know. Everyone knows who you are." She spread her arms out wide as if to show the extent of knowledge people had about me. "You and your sisters are all the school talks about anymore."

The twins were not my sisters and I did not like anyone insinuating the fact. "April and May are not my sisters!" I snapped at her.

A strange look passed over her face. I couldn't quite place it, hurt, maybe surprise. I was immediately guilty. I knew it wasn't her fault. Diana couldn't have known that it would bother me to call the girls my sisters. I took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

"Sorry. I didn't mean for that to come out as harsh as it did."

Diana gave me a small nod and continued, "Well, I was just wondering if you'd want to go to Artie's with me."

Artie's was the diner down the street from L.A. Prep. I overheard numerous conversations about students meeting there after school. Of course I had never been invited to go with them unless they expected some sort of juicy secrets from me. So I waited for her to add a 'but' to the offer.

"So…are you going to go with me or not," she asked impatiently.

After thinking for a few more seconds I finally answered. "Sure."

Now, more than a year later I still hung out with Diana. We had a weird relationship. There was no real emotional attachment between us and I knew that she was not really a caring, sympathetic person. As odd as it sounds, I liked things like that. Since Dad died I kept everyone I met at arm's length, it was easier that way. That's why our friendship worked out so well.

"Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod!"

Diana's screaming woke me from my daydream. My eyes darted to her in the driver's seat. She was stopped in the middle of the parking lot. Her shaking hand held her sparkly cased IPhone. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes went back and forth as if she were rereading something on her phone over and over again.

"Diana?" I asked pleadingly. "Are you okay?"

Diana didn't answer me and I was afraid she was having a heart attack or something. I lifted my arm and started poking her. Again she didn't respond, so I started poking her harder. When that didn't work I leaned into her ear and cleared my throat.

"DIANA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

She snapped out of her crazy trance and screamed back at me. Giving me an unappreciative look she tossed me her phone. I raised my eyebrow, but she just nodded her head encouragingly. I tentatively lowered my eyes to the IPhone's screen.

On the screen was a message from Tina Whitley. Tina was also a senior. Her father worked at Spinner Records and was the one to discover Nathan James. I didn't like her to much because of the way she tried to play up her father in order to be more popular. Regardless, I read the text.

Tina: OMG! My dad just told me NATHAN JAMES is coming to la prep 2day! Some sort of contest! Should b gr8!

After reading it over I sighed. Of course it was about him. I shouldn't have expected anything actually important. Personally I didn't really like Nathan that much. It wasn't that he was a bad singer or anything, but he was just too obsessed over. Letting at one last sigh I handed the phone back over to Diana with a quick shrug.

Giving me an evil scowl Diana nearly exploded. "How can you just shrug? It is Nathan James we are talking about! He is coming back to Los Angeles Prep to announce some sort of contest! I haven't seen Nathan since we were in the play together! This is going to be so great!"

I rolled my eyes. Diana was so melodramatic sometimes it killed me. Being her friend was so hard due to the fact that she didn't know when enough was enough. Diana was still rambling on about something or another as she pulled into a parking spot and out of the middle of the parking lot. She pulled the keys out of the ignition.

"Nathan James is coming," she muttered to no one in particular. "Nathan James is coming."

I wasn't in any of Diana's classes. I was in all AP and she, well, wasn't. So I had to get through all my classes alone, which actually was probably better than being with Diana. She would talk my ear off the whole class and I wouldn't be able to pay attention.

My first class was English. It wasn't my best class but I was doing well enough. After English I had Calculus, which was my best. I was great at math. After both of those I had to head to music class.

I tried to get out of music as an elective, but I just couldn't do it. Drama was to in your face and I was the absolute worst at art. I wasn't crafty enough for woodshop and I wasn't brave enough for choir. I tried everything, but couldn't for the life of me get out of taking music class.

I walked into the music room quickly, running for a seat in the back of the room. I liked sitting in the back for the class hoping nobody would notice that I was there. Just as I was about to get to my seat, I was stopped by Miss Li.

Miss Li was a younger teacher in her mid-twenties. She was a pretty Asian lady with long black hair that she always braided to the side. She had on the same bright smile that she always wore.

"Ella," she said sweetly. "You don't have to always sit in the back of the class. And if you want you can raise your hand and perform in front of the class. I swear I won't bight." She laughed pleasantly.

I awkwardly ran my hands through my hair before quietly answering her, "I like the back."

Miss Li gave a polite nod and walked to her desk. I really liked her. As far as teachers went she was a good one.

Before lunch I had a free period. After I put everything in my locker I grabbed a stack of staff paper from the bottom of my book bag. With my favorite purple pen in hand I started for the auditorium.

No one was ever in the auditorium at this time of day. It was always a big empty room. I skipped down the aisle past rows of seats to the piano that was situated right in front of the stage. I excitedly ran my fingers over the smooth surface of the baby grand. Taking in a deep breath I sat myself on the bench and did a few c-scales to warm up.

Once I was properly warmed up I closed my eyes and let my hands start to travel up and down the keys. Setting my creative juices free the ideas started pouring from me. I kept messing around until I found a tune that I liked.

Once I got my initial idea down I was able to go on from there. I vigorously jotted notes down on the paper. I kept repeating the process. I would play until I found the notes I thought sounded good and wrote them down. Before I knew it I heard the bell, time for lunch, but I couldn't bring myself to leave. Instead I kept playing.

The melancholy music filled my mind and wouldn't allow me to leave. I played and played, loosing myself in the song. I closed my eyes again and started running scales again. I lost track of time once again as I entered a music induced trance. Then, all of a sudden I heard a door open and close, followed by a male voice.

After I collected all my papers and slung my bag over my back I scurried out of the room. Running down the hall away from the auditorium I checked my phone. It was almost time for the stupid contest announcement with Nathan James. Ugh, I thought. Won't this be fun?