I'm back! I honestly didn't think I'd get any further than the first chapter on this thing, as seeing that it's probably not a very interesting story in general (I'm gonna MAKE it interesting, alright?) but I got some interesting inspiration last night and decided to flow with it.

It's already deviating from what I originally wanted it to become, but hey, it also seems to be heading in a more interesting direction than before as well.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Spoken Music

A day later, and pretty much the same routine repeated itself. Stuart sat all alone at his desk, finishing up his test that he didn't complete. Really, after going home yesterday, all he did was watch a bit of TV, read a few comic books, and then went to bed. He vaguely remembers having a strange dream where an alternate version of himself was singing alongside a sadistic bassist who was desperately attempting to murder him with a toilet paper roll and a box full of string cheese, but he related it to yet another late night eating binge and didn't think too hard on it. The song he was singing during the dream, though, seemed to have a lot of meaning, so much that he even wrote down a few of the lyrics to try and find out whether or not it was a real song.

But, unfortunately, he spent too much time this morning trying to write down nonsensical song lyrics and ended up being 30 minutes late to the class room.

But that didn't matter so much since Xia wasn't here yet anyways.

The bored young man gave out a yawn and caught a glimpse of a man a little older than him, with jet black hair formed into a Beatle cut, who was sitting alone in the far right chair across from Stuart. He had seen this guy before, yes, but only for a moment or so. He typically sat there along with a young girl, blue eyes, brown hair, really cute little thing, and he wasn't ever, ever without that girl by his side for too long. They didn't seem to be romantic at all, the two barely even talked, but she just always sat next to him, almost like a moth to candlelight. And on the rare occasion that she arrived to the room before him, he made note of it to sit next to her when he did come in.

But today, he was alone. It had been a while, and the girl was nowhere to be seen. Stuart found it rather odd, to be honest.

On top of the girl being gone, the man seemed rather tense today. His leg was shaking ferociously as he stared at the screen in front of him, hunched over and leaning on the desk as a small golden Peace Sign hung in midair, suspended by a golden chain that found itself at home around his strong neck.

Suddenly, in walked, not the girl, but Xia. The man across the way from Stuart seemed almost disappointed at that fact., as his leg had actually completely paused its shaking once he heard the door open up. The moment he saw that it wasn't his friend, though, he went back to shaking his leg and concentrating upon the screen.

Stu found it very cute that the man would have such a strong connection to the girl that simply the thought of her walking in would make him calm down completely.

He decided he'd eventually share this finding with his friend.

"Ello, Saya! 'Ow are yew dis-"

"Shhh!" Mrs. Robinson hushed the loud, tall man from her seat behind the desk. Stuart lowered his voice to continue with his morning greeting, ignoring the fact that "Shhh" meant he really shouldn't be talking at all.

"Uh, 'ow are yew dis mornin', Saya?"

"Xia, not Saya." Was all she said as she logged in to her work page and began reading up for her next set of tests. Stuart, instead of reading along with her as he should have been, was instead peeking over Xia's head to see the man. He was still shaking up a storm, not even putting his hand to his mouse to switch over from whatever he was reading, surely he was done with that page by now, right?

Finally, the girl walked in, and the guy perked up the moment he saw her. Stuart sighed, maybe someday that'd be him and his little love Xia someday.

Around 10 minutes after the girl had sat down, Stu noticed that the man was now clicking his mouse to move along in the lesson, a click or so sounded each few minutes.

Stuart was soon interrupted by Xia giving a small, sarcastic giggle.

"I knew that's what she was there for." She mumbled inaudibly.

"Wot do ya mean?" Stuart whispered back.

"He's using her to cheat."

"'Ow tho'?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Why won't yew tell m-"

"SHHH!" Mrs. Robinson was fuming at the poor boy, so he decided to just be quiet until they were both finished for today.

Another hour went by, and then another, and Stuart was surprised that Xia was still there next to him. He expected that she would have left by now, as she did before, but she was still sitting there, reading the chapters at a more normal pace than she did yesterday.

Granted, she was still far ahead of him, but it was nice for him that she was slowing down, even if she wasn't doing so for his benefit.

Minute turned to hour, and hour became hours, and soon it had reached 240 minutes that they had been there. Four hours in almost uninterrupted silence. Sure, everyone took a break every half hour or so, whether to go outside and smoke or to go into the hallway and talk, this wasn't school so as long as their work got done eventually whatever they did in-between was their business. But for Xia, it didn't seem like she needed, nor wanted, a break. She was entirely focused on her work, and because of the fact that she never took a break, neither did Stu.

Before meeting the girl, he'd take short breaks outside to smoke a cigarette or mess around on his smart phone every time he felt the need to, but now he felt the need to stick by her for that one little moment where maybe, just maybe, she'd need his help with something, and it'd become an excuse to talk to her.

For now, that moment hadn't happened, but he was sure of himself that it would eventually happen, if he just stayed here and didn't get up, not even for a cigarette or a quick yet frustrating round of Cloppy Horse.

And then rather abruptly, she rose up from her seat, grabbed her little black bag from under the chair, and headed towards the desk to sign out.

He didn't even see her close out her testing screen! And yet she was already near the door, shooting him a quick glance as she opened it and removed herself from the room. He quickly followed in her pattern so as to catch up to her, hoping to finally find out what she meant during that whole conversation they had earlier in the morning.

But after he finished signing out and made his way out the door, he didn't see her, at all. He headed down the hallway and descended the stairs, his long legs moving as quick as they could without sending him tumbling down the concrete steps, and ended up at the end right next to the exit without any major injuries, much unlike the last time he went down a staircase that fast.

He placed his lanky hand upon the metal push bar and with a little strength, pushed it open to invite a cool breeze to come upon his skin from the sweet December air. He forced his body to move fully outside, mentally noting to himself that he really should start wearing his jacket, and then he looked left and right to try and find the girl he had, for some reason, come to know as his friend. He saw her small figure off in the distance to the right of him, getting further and further away as she headed towards a fence that came around the border of the AEC property.

Without too much thought on what he should do right then and there, he decided to follow, not too closely so that he'd have to run to catch up to her, but just enough so he could see exactly where she was going.

He saw her jump up over the fence, and then continue on into the forest beyond the fence, almost disappearing instantly into the brush. Stuart was entirely confused at this point, why was she going into a forest? Maybe her home was right beside the woods? He wasn't really sure, but he did know that if he didn't speed up at least a little, he'd lose her.

Once he was sure she was out of earshot of hearing him running towards her, he picked up his pace and made it to the fence rather quickly. He jumped over it without a lot of difficulty, although he did end up falling flat on his face and getting a few cuts in the process.

After taking a few little stickers off of his face and fingers, he raised himself up and brushed the dirt from his pants. He looked around, curious as to which direction she went, and scratched his head, realizing that maybe following a girl he's only known two days into a forest was probably not the best idea he ever had. And now, despite being two feet from the AEC parking lot, he felt lost.

But suddenly, he heard music. Guitar strumming, to be exact. It seemed to be coming from his left, but it was quite faint, so he knew he'd have to walk a little way before finding the source. Wait, was that Xia playing? Maybe, he wasn't really sure yet.

He followed the pretty, strumming sound of the guitar and got a little excited as it kept getting louder, because that meant he was going in the right direction, and even if he did get lost while looking for the girl, at least he'd find her, and if they couldn't find their way back together, then at least they could repopulate the earth together. Wait, what?

Ah! There she was. He saw her in a small, round clearing, leaning up against a big tree as she held her guitar close and strum away with her tiny, feminine fingers. She seemed so engrossed in the music she was creating, she didn't even notice the tall, slender, blue haired man who was peeking at her from behind a tree a few feet away from her. He stared at her intensely, but it was a different type of stare from the one he did in the class room. This stare was, not one of infatuation or unconsciously not realizing that he was staring, but out of admiration. Yeah, he knew of a lot of people who could play guitar, he admittedly even took a try at it once or twice, despite not being very good, but this girl here did it differently, she seemed to not simply play the guitar, but she was one with the guitar. She didn't tell the guitar what to play, the guitar spoke to her and told her how to play it, how to make the strings speak for it. Almost like a secretary, really. And she was the most beautiful guitar secretary Stuart had ever seen.

Things went on like that for about 15 minutes, and not once did she see him standing there. Eventually she got up, put the guitar under a black tarp that seemed to just appear there, grabbed her little black purse, and left the area, heading behind the tree she was leaning on and continuing onward. Stu decided that he had enough of being a creepy stalker for the day, and instead of following her more, he let her be and went back to the parking lot to get in his car and go home.

The next day seemed to go the same. He and Xia didn't really talk, and she still didn't tell him what she meant about the guy using the girl he always sat with to "cheat", but he did make note that the guy never seemed to start doing any actual work until the girl walked in. He also noted how the girl would often lean over and point at certain things on his screen. Maybe he was using her to cheat.

The same scene ensued after testing ended as well. Stuart followed Xia out of the building, over the fence, and then he stood and watched her as she played her guitar for 15 minutes against the same tree. He didn't feel any braver today than he did yesterday, so he still didn't bother talking to her or even following her any further than he had before. So he went back, repeating the same pattern like this over again for yet another day.

Today, though, he felt as though there was a different texture to the feeling between them. She seemed upset, over what exactly he wasn't sure, he knew nothing more than her first name and that she played guitar very well, but she surely did seem upset.

She always seemed emotionless to him, so of course even the slightest sight of feeling on her face was a miracle to him, as well as a cause for alarm since it was a negative emotion she seemed to be feeling.

After she signed out and he continued in his routine of following her out to the clearing in the forest to watch her play, however, he noticed that she wasn't playing. In fact, her guitar wasn't even near her. There didn't seem to be anything under the tarp either. Did something happen to it?

But even more importantly, she was leaning against the tree, as she usually did, with tears falling from her face. The poor girl, she was crying!

But he didn't know what to do, he didn't know what to do at all. He knew that the right thing to do would be to go over and console her, figure out what was wrong and what he could do to help, but she didn't really seem like the type of girl who would like that, she was a little more of an independent soul, and Stu sure as heck knew that he didn't even know how to do that in the first place.

So instead, he just looked on in silence, his heart aching at the scene of the young girl, who, after lifting up the tarp where she usually kept her guitar, broke into even more tears after revealing that it was completely, utterly, destroyed.

Now Stuart was just confused. Why would she keep her guitar outside to begin with, and two, who would destroy her guitar?

He hoped she didn't think he did it.

Then again, she didn't seem to know that he had been watching her these past few days, so he felt safe.

Xia cried for a little while longer before she got up, grabbed her little black purse, and headed in the same direction she did every day.

Only this time, instead of going back to the parking lot after she left, he instead walked over to the tarp with the broken guitar under it, and inspected the broken pieces.

It was completely unrepairable, the only things left were shards of broken wood and dismembered guitar strings. You could barely even tell that it was once a guitar.

However, Stu did notice two letters on one shard of wood, so he picked it up to investigate it further. The letters, which looked like they had been messily burned into the guitar at one point, read "No."

No? Who would write "No" on their guitar?

But then he found another piece with yet another "O" on it, and one more piece with the letters "DLE" on it. He realized that all these pieces were connected at one point, so after a little puzzle solving, he finally got them to fit together the way that they were.

And now, they formed the word "Noodle".

Now who the heck would burn the word "Noodle" on a guitar?

After this, I got pretty into it, and already I'm almost done with chapter 3.

I kinda see where it's going, but I'd be lying if I said I know how it will end. There is so much I want to do with this and I hope any readers I gain (You guys rock btw) will stick with me on this journey through weirdness!

For some of you who may not know about the whole process of getting a GED (Many of my friends have no clue, so I'm not trying to be critical or something) basically when you first go in to get it, they'll put you through four pre-pre tests to see what grade level you're at for each subject, after this (Which will typically take two days as each test is around 47 minutes long) they'll bring you into an orientation room, where you will go over test scores and receive motivation (I did at least) to do your best. Once in orientation you'll be taking more tests, these ones typically involve jobs and mimic situations that you'd run into in a job (Our instructor once gave us a test with questions such as "If you could be an animal what animal would you be and why?" and "Who is your favorite cartoon character?" then he explained the interesting reason why he gave us that test. I'll explain it in a later chapter). These tests can be done from home but you are required to spend at least 14-20 hours in the actual orientation class room over a course of two weeks. After that, you take the GED pre-test (My scores were high on the initial pre-pre-test so they had me and some other kids go ahead and take the pre-test already) If you score high, (I wasn't expecting it so I flipped out and got a low score) they have you go and take the regular test and if you pass you can get out of there, but if you score low on a few subjects, then they put you in classes to help you on only those specific subjects. This is from my personal experience with the whole GED process and it's probably different depending on your state, so don't by any means take my word for it. I just thought a little explanation might help you get an idea of where my mind is at while I'm writing this.

The beginning chapters of this fanfic are based in the initial orientation, where they'll probably be for another week.