Present.

Montrose, NY

"Next!" said the man in the room. Every month, the boys at the orphanage had to have kind of a meeting with the person from the Child Services Department. The person will ask them about when they will be ready to be adopted.

Most of the boys in the orphanage wanted to be adopted, but not for Evan and his buddy, Peter. They wanted to wait for their real parents to take care of them. Not some foster parents they never knew. And every month, they will said the same thing about them don't want to be adopted. They've been doing that for eleven years.

As Peter left the room, Evan asked him, "What did he want? What did you say?"

"You know, same old junk. New guy."

"My name is Mr. Jeffries. I'm with the Child Services for the state of New York." Mr. Jeffries said to him while looking at the file he was checking on. "Okay, Evan, born December 17th 1995, legal adoption to New York Children's."

Suddenly Evan heard this sound from the wind chime outside the room that was very soothing to his ears. He loved music. Always has. It was just that he never played any musical instruments before. Then Mr. Jeffries started to whistle with his lips. How did he do that?

"How long have you been here, Evan?"

"Eleven years and sixteen days." Mr. Jeffries found himself staring at Evan. Eleven years and sixteen days? He's been counting?

"I've been counting," he said when he knew what's on Mr. Jeffries mind.

"That's a long time."

"How did you that?"

"Do what?" Mr. Jefferies asked confusedly. Then Evan tried to whistle, but he couldn't.

"Well, I'm just imitating the wind chime. So, Evan, you don't want to be placed with a real family?"

"I have a family."

"Yes, you do. I mean, you have parents and all, but they don't live with you."

"Not now."

"But still, you don't have contact with them."

"Yes, I do." Through music.

"You do?" But it's not stated here that you have contact with them. "What, did they call you? Come and visit you? Send-"

"I…I don't want to be sent away."

Mr. Jefferies nodded understandingly. "I understand. You see, there are a lot of children who are scared that if they leave their first home, their parents would never be able to find them. Right? But see, my job is to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen to you. So there's nothing to be scared of."

"Thank you," he said.

"I'm gonna do something I never do," Mr. Jeffries said as he wrote his own number on his calling card. "This is my number, if you ever need to talk to me about anything, you call."

Evan took the card with pleasure.

Mr. Jefferies continued, "Think about what I said too. There's a whole world out there with millions of wind chimes."

"I know," Evan said, grinning while wiping his tears away.

"You can go now."

"Mannix said that we will never see our real parents again," said Peter as they sat on Evan's bed.

"Mannix is a big liar."

"I know, but what if he's right? What if they don't ever come? I mean, I don't even remember what my mom looks like, you know?"

"Well, if they don't find us, we'll just have to go find them."

Eleven years earlier.

New York, NY.

Louis and Lyla slept together on the couch soundly after a romantic night together. That was until Marshall and the band found them, took pictures of them sleeping, and pop champagne on purpose to wake them from their beautiful sleep. "Morning! How is it going?"

"Oh my god!" Lyla was so embarrassed. She was the only female up there that was surrounded by men that she never knew, except for Louis. Louis too, looked embarrassed and she was sure that he was mad at the guy who wakes them up. "I have to go."

"Let me walk you home," Louis volunteered but of course, as much as she wanted to say yes, she can't. Not only she didn't come home last night, but walking with Louis to her hotel room would make her dad go crazy.

"No! My dad is waiting at the Sherry, I…I haven't done this before. I'm in so much trouble!" As soon as she stood up to leave the place, Louis immediately grabbed her hand. And for the first time, she could actually saw Louis' eyes. They were big and blue. They were so beautiful.

"Hey, meet me here at ten o'clock, by the arch." He said while pointing at the famous Washington Square Park's arch.

"Go on, put him out of his misery, and say yes!" Marshall interrupted accompanied by the laughter of the rest of the men.

"Say yes." Louis said to her, so softly only she could hear. Lyla couldn't help herself from smiling before leaving the place.

"I take that as a yes?" They both smiled and Lyla opened a door and left.

"You are gonna be in so much trouble!" Lizzie said. Lizzie always knew about Lyla's over-protective dad and how he'll react if he finds out about this. "You should at least left your dad a note!"

"Yeah, ransom note!" Dad must've thought that she was kidnapped or something. "You know what, I don't even care! I just had the most incredible night of my life! Taxi!"

"Lyla!" Thomas yelled. Oh no, he's angry. "Where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought you were kidnapped!"

She knew he would say that. He'll never change. Should she tell him about Louis? Maybe not. Not know. "Dad, I was with…Lizzie. We were having some girl's night out and…it was so late at night, so I decided to sleep there."

"Where?"

Oh, oh…um…well actually I slept on a couch with Louis, not Lizzie…"Dad, I really have to go to the bathroom right now, so we'll talk later okay."

"Lyla! Were not finish talking yet!" She shut the bathroom door and began to think about the excuses she should say to her dad about last night and about how she'll going to go to meet Louis this ten o'clock.

Louis sat at the Washington Square Park in front of the arch just like he promised. Lyla and he were supposed to meet there by ten o'clock, but he was there by nine. And he waited, and waited and waited while staring at the picture of the two of them taken early this morning by his brother. Deep inside him, he was glad that Marshall took the picture. At least he got the chance to see her face.

The band wasn't happy at the moment because they were supposed to take a plane to be on their next concert. But Louis wasn't going anywhere. Not now, when he had found his one true love. "Louis, she ain't coming." He knew that Marshall just wanted to cheer him up, because it was almost eleven o'clock and Lyla still wasn't there.

"Oh man, one girl?" Steve who was his drummer tried to light up Louis' mood by making fun of him. Yeah man, one girl. And this one girl will always be in my heart no matter what happened.

"Come on, we're gonna miss the flight!" Nick, the bass player started to lose his patience.

Where are you Lyla? Please let me see you.

Lyla stepped out of her hotel room like a ghost. So quietly, she barely touched anything except for the floor and quickly left the room while dad was in the bathroom. Yes!!! I'm going to see Louis again!!! I've never felt this way before. Am I in love? While Lyla was so busy with her own feelings, suddenly she felt as if someone was following her from behind. She was so shocked and terrified when she saw her dad looking at her with such anger. "Lyla! Where do you think you're going?"

"Dad! Let go of me!" She was hurting when her dad clutched her hand so tightly.

"You are not going anywhere! Why are you acting like this? We have a flight to catch and you are coming with me!"

"No!"

"Lyla!" She stopped struggling when she felt a slapped on the side of her face. "You are coming with me! Do I make myself clear?" Thomas Novacek then called Chris to pick up their luggage.

For the first time, Lyla had never felt so sad. Her dad never gets physical by slapping her before. And she would do nothing but to obey her dad. Then, she realized something. How long she's gonna suffer like this? She's not a child anymore. Should she be a daddy's little girl for the rest of her life, no? Not if she's gonna do something about it. "Dad, I'm sorry. I'm not going with you."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me." As soon as he finished, she quickly ran away and left her dad.

Louis can't wait any longer. He decided that he wanted to go find Lyla himself at the Sherry. He ran and called for a taxi. But of course, he was in New York. The traffic always jammed. So, he was running again not bothering his brother who had started yelling and chasing him down the street. "Louis! Louie!!!"

"You are not going anywhere! Lyla!!!"

"Dad, I'm not going with you!" She was finally out of the hotel. All she has to do now was to take a taxi and go to Washington Square Park.

"You listen to me! Don't you dare walk away from me!"

"NO!!!"

Louis stopped from running when he heard Lyla screamed. But he couldn't find where her voice came from. Then he saw her. "Lyla! Lyla!"

She quickly turned away from her dad and found herself looking at Louis. Oh Louis, help me. "Get in the car right now!" Lyla understood his father's face. If she didn't do what he told her to, he's gonna hurt Louis, and she wasn't gonna let that happen. How could you do this to me, dad? How could you? Louis, I'm so sorry…I have no choice. I must go. I'll never forget you Louis, I promise.

"Lyla!" Louis called her again. Louis thought that Lyla was walking towards him, but instead, she entered a limousine with a man he was sure was her father. He felt really rejected. How could her? How could she leave me? I thought we had something special? Oh no…please don't go. Come back…

"Louis!" Marshall was already there and he saw Lyla left. "Remember what Da used to say about princesses, ha? They're always looking for their prince. And you ain't no prince brother!"

I don't care about what Da said! "How would you know? What am I gonna do now?"

I want Lyla. I only want her. She's my princess, princess of my heart.