~PART ONE~

Chapter Nine:

The Part Where School Begins

The day finally came, the first day of school! Apparently switching the calendar back to July at Midnight didn't work, (Never trusting Yahoo! Answers AGAIN! And now I owe Mary $5!) The Alarm clock sounded at 6:30am and I sleepily flopped my hand around on top of the clock till I hit the button. I hoped that if no one had time to respond to the alarm we would just stay asleep and I wouldn't have to go.

Mary on the other hand, thought differently and woke me up not even a minute later (God I hate her perfection sometimes!). She shook me roughly as she usually does; I would have gotten up then, if I wasn't being forced to go to a Private School! Not just any stupid Private School, NO, so Fancy, Prestigious, world famous Private School for the Arts. I didn't wanna go! I wanted to go to Public School! But no, why should anyone care about what I want! Ms Whimsnap didn't care! Daddy didn't care when I told him I didn't want to accept the offer! Grandmother and Chrissy wouldn't listen; Even Mary told me I was being juvenile and foolish for not taking the offer (not that it mattered because dad accepted for me!).

"All I'm gonna say is this," I announced at the breakfast table. It had been awkwardly silent because the whole house had heard the 'Epic Battle' between Mary and me about making me wear my School Uniform. (Looking back I am very impressed as well as ashamed of myself for the extent of this battle,) She literally chased me around the house slowly forcing an item of the uniform on one at a time. "Everyone in this house had better sleep with their eyes open tonight!" I threatened. Nobody took me seriously, nor did I really expect them too. They were all use to my empty threats, I made them as often as Mary used to, according to grandmother.

I debated 'accidentally' spilling my breakfast on my uniform so I could get out of going. (I only had one at this time that Jordyn had given me), I guess I forgot to see if a certain someone was listening in my head because at that moment Mary said to me. "Don't even think about it Selena Abigail Banks! If even one drop of food falls on that you will regret it! And I will make you wear it to school no matter what had 'spilt' on it, don't think I wont!"

Daddy sighed. "Selly, come on. Please be reasonable. People took great lengths to get you this; it would be rude to do this after how much work they put in. Besides I cannot get you into Public school till next semester."

"Who's fault is that?" I muttered under my breath.

"The Point Is, All you have to do is a semester, if it is That Terrible and Awful you can switch next semester. Deal?"

"Do I have any other choice?" I asked hopefully.

Mary shook her head. "Absolutely not!" she said bluntly as father nodded in agreement.

I thought for a moment. "Well, I could always drop out…" I began as a joke, but one that was placed at the wrong time, because both Daddy and Mary gave me a really intense look.

"No, you cannot!" they said in unison.

"Selly please, have your attitude fixed by the time you get home." He asked me. "I have someone important coming to dinner tonight and I would like ALL of you to help me make a good impression.

"Who is it?" Christianna asked curiously. "A Client or a Co-worker?"

"Something like that…"

Grandmother tried to hide it, but I could see her knowing smile. Something told me this wouldn't be work related. But what could it be?

Mary too looked as if she knew something that I didn't, but instead of a knowing smile, she bit her lip and stiffened. As if she was trying to hide her dislike of whatever this was. I was very confused.

What's going on Mary?

Nothing.

Don't lie to me Mary! You know I hate it when you do!

How dare you accuse me of such a thing!

Don't even try that, did you forget that I KNOW when you're lying thanks to that damn bird resting upstairs!

I know, and I wish I could tell you. But I have been sworn to secrecy by your father and I need you to respect that!

Fine then, I will. I lied as I began to hack into Mary mind to find out what was going on. Only Mary caught me and to get me to stop. When no one was looking, she picked up her fork and poked herself, the same location where I had my mark.

And because of that "connection", whenever one of us felt pain, we both did. Like If I broke my arm and couldn't move it, Mary's arm would feel as if it was broken and be unable to use it without causing great pain.

Only I happened to have the added bonus of extra pain because when she poked herself with the fork there. It was as if I poked myself with the fork there, so I felt the pain of being stabbed with a fork where my mark was. And that mark usually felt like hell to begin with, imagine being stabbed with a knife & times it by 2 and you'll get the idea of what it felt like.

The stinging caused my eyes to water, and the agony was unbearable. I clutched my chest, Grandmother Jane looked at Mary with subtle accusation and Father looked at me concerned. Mary gasped, as I muttered some very, well… unrepeatable words to Mary as she ushered me out of the room. Once alone, I began to yell at her.

"Holy… What the hell...Why would you…goddamnit!" I moaned miserably as the pain slowly subsided.

"I'm sorry; I didn't realize the extent of the pain that would occur."

"Oh, well if you didn't mean to cause me THAT MUCH pain by STABBING US WITH A FORK, then that's a totally different story!" I muttered sarcastically.

After a few minutes, we went back into the dinning room where grandmother had already given an excuse for out sudden outburst and departure.

At 8am, Jordyn, Milo and Kevin were at my door. I said my goodbyes and tried one more time to get out of going (failed obviously), they (being Mary and my dad) both lifted me up, each one holding an arm, and carried me to the door. There they handed me forcefully to Kevin and Milo, as I kicked and flailed! I did not like being treated this way.

"Take her!" Mary said, brushing her self off from the marks that were where my 'dirty' shoes had been kicking her.

"Please, she is yours!" My dad said as he put on his work coat and picked up his briefcase.

I'll admit, it wasn't that bad. But still not what I wanted so I made sure to be at least half miserable to keep everything in balance. The morning was pretty good; I had History, Music Instrumental (Which is what they call Music Class without any vocal work), and English. That afternoon I had Drama, Vocal and my open course was writing (which had units for Film and TV/ Stage and even a unit on Writing Music Lyrics).

When I got to lunch I met up with Jordyn and the guys. Milo sat next to me. "How's the Prep School working for you cos'?" he asked me.

I rolled my eyes, "its ok, you seem to forget that I went to on back in NYC, so it's not as If I don't know how these things work. Jordyn sat next to me, and Kevin sat on the table in front of us. "Too cool for the stool?" I asked sarcastically.

Milo and Jordyn laughed lightly as Kevin chuckled. "Nah, I just like to be comfortable when I eat, and I can not be comfortable sitting on the bench.

"I see." I said as I took a bite of my lunch.

Lunch passed and I had Drama, which was fun. Then after Drama is when the REAL drama started, so to speak. I had Vocal with Kevin, so I sat next to him. When our teacher came in the class silenced, not out of fear though, out of anticipation. I didn't get much of a chance to get a look at her because she came in and sat down at the baby grand near the front of the class and began to play.

Beautiful music filled the classroom as she began to play "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin for the Musical 'Funny Face', as she sang along. Her voice was as wonderful as her piano playing. She played the last note and the classroom exploded with thunderous applause, Even I was cheering because of how wonderfully she had played and sung. She stood up from behind the Baby Grand and took a bow. She was tall, with long, brunette hair. Her eyes were a dark brown and they gazed at the class gently. She addressed us with a Floridian accent (although I am still unsure what type of one). "Hello and welcome, for those of you who do not know me, I am Ms. Bronson, Ashlyn Bronson. Yes, I am one of those teachers who doesn't care if her students know her first name. Welcome to Music: Vocal…" The class began and I'll be the first to admit this, please don't hate me but, Ms. Bronson's One class was better than ALL of the classes at Dowsley. COMBINED! (Please don't hate me Dowsley; I still love you but… IT WAS BETTER!) About 5 minutes left in class remained when it all would begin; Ms. Bronson suddenly called for everyone's attention. We all immediately fell silent and stopped what we were doing. "I almost forgot, it's that time again. Time for the National Youth Artist Music Competition, or as it's more commonly known as "the NYAM"" she said pronouncing it as "Nye-am" "And this year you are all eligible to enter. I will be handing out an information sheet for all those who are interested. Please return the attached form to me by next Friday afternoon to be allowed to enter… Although, I am going to give you the same warning I give every year to those who enter, Do not let the game get the best of you, I know you are all thinking 'I'm not that foolish to get sucked into this', but then again; so did all of the others who got sucked into this game. I will not deny that this competition has the ability to change your life dramatically, just don't let it change you…." Ms. Bronson was cut off by the bell, and our class headed for the door as she handed out the papers to everyone as they left. Kevin turned to me. "this again… you going to enter?" "Huh? Oh I don't know? I was never one for competition. I've been known to put my head in the game a bit too much at times…, just ask my nanny…" I said remembering 'Operation: Scary Mary' back from New York I felt something grab my arm as I headed out the door. "Huh?" I turned to see the hand belonged to Ms. Bronson. "Hello, Ms. Banks, I was wondering if I might have a word with you?" she asked me sweetly with her Floridian twang. "Um…sure?" I said walking back into the classroom, quickly thinking in my head of any thing I may have done to get me in trouble on the first day. Because being at Dowsley taught me that when a teacher asks to see you after class, it's never good. Ms. Bronson walked over to me and sat in her desk. Before she even said a word I instantly found myself blabbing out: "I swear I didn't do it, but if I did I didn't mean to… I'm trying to be good this year…" I said awkwardly. "Whoa, whoa. Selena I think you misunderstand why were here. You're not in trouble." She said fighting off a grin at my crazy outburst.
"Oh," I said weakly. "I see, sorry, years at Dowsley have taught me otherwise." "That's partly why I wanted to talk to you, not to sound strange but I have taken the liberty of looking into you a bit, I have found you to be rather interesting, if I may say so." She said getting up from the desk and walking in front of it and sitting on it's ledge. "Me? Why?" I asked stupidly. "Well, you definitely caused some curiosity when you were accepted only last week, after we had stopped accepting students for this year back in March. Plus you had a very strong recommendation from Yolanda Whimsnap, her opinion is held quite highly here." "Why is that? I mean she runs a school in New York, why would I school in London care about her opinion?" I asked feeling stupider by the minute. "Well her grandfather founded this school…" she said simply. "But that is beside the point; you have had quite a story so far. And from what I hear, you are very musically gifted yourself." "I wouldn't go that far, Ms. Whimsnap has been prone to exaggeration." I said feeling my cheeks go red. "Is she? Do you mind setting the record straight for me?" she asked, I was about to respond when she silenced me. "Not that way… she handed me a piece of sheet music. "That way." She said leading me to the baby grand. I was hesitant. "But Ms Bronson, I haven't been able to practice for a few months due to the overseas move… I'm out of practice…" "play." She commanded in a teacher voice and I fell silent and began to play the song…