Chapter 1.0

The Dawn of a New Day – er, I mean, School Year

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“Okay, that’s a rap people!” Chev, otherwise known as Mr. Director himself: Chevalier Jones, announced. I grinned as everyone started howling and wolf whistling. It’s amazing – “How these people find the energy to do that.” Jed said from beside me. He wiped whipped cream off his face – don’t ask, blame it all on the inner workings of Marty’s mind. Last week he had to “jump into a puddle of water” which basically meant that he had to get drenched with a bucket full of water and endure it for two whole scenes.

I grabbed my handkerchief and helped him with the whipped cream, “I was just thinking the same thing.” He continued to wipe his face. “Marty sure loves to make you do all the crazy things.”

He laughed at this. “That’s because the last time he made you do something crazy, it took you two hours to do it.” I remember that. I had to jump off a fence and my fear of heights did not help. That incident helped get Marty off my back though cause he hasn’t made me do anything crazy lately. By the way, Marty is the scriptwriter for “Get a life, Lily’ and this is where we film the said sitcom and I am Zayra, the lead star.

“It was scary, okay!”

Jed rolled his eyes, “It wasn’t scary. You’re just a scaredy-cat.” I threw the towel at his face and stuck my tongue out at him, which just earned another eye roll. Jed can be such a jerk and the worst part is, everybody loves him. All the girls love him, people on the set love him – even my parents love him! He’s an ass to me and me alone – apparently I’m the only one who has given him a reason to be an ass.

I threw myself on the black leather couch and waited for someone to call me to the dressing room. Normally, tapings don’t end at three in the morning but we had to film multiple episodes cause school is starting again and we won’t be able to film two episodes a week like we used to cause God knows how hectic school is.

I gulped down the last of my McDonald’s Coke float which is perfect for late tapings like this when I need extra energy. So, scientifically it doesn’t really boost one’s energy but it does the trick for me so what the heck?

As soon as I was out of the set clothes and into something more me, which in this case is a loose Rembrandt Academy zip-up hoodie over a white tank and ripped jeans but of course how can I be called a celebrity without the designer goods. Well, check the label on my heels again cause that’s authentic Manolo Blahnik and trust me, it wasn’t cheap which was sort of on the downside cause I had to buy them myself. Dad said I had already bought a pair of shoes this month – yes, rich people can be cheap.

Jed sat beside me in a matching Rembrandt Academy zip-up hoodie and jeans. We go to the same school and are in the same year level but we hardly see each other outside the studio – thank God for that! “Akon, Slim Shady, I see the one cause she be that lady.” he sang. He’s obsessed with Akon’s songs. He sings the perverted lines to me just to annoy me and everyone thinks it’s funny. People here are on his side.“Look back and watch me smack that all on the floor…” What pains me about this is that he’s actually good and he has nabbed my dream of becoming a recording artist.

“Ah! Just the two people I wanted to see!” Chev said as he sat on the coffee table. “Remember what we talked about – the big season finale.” Oh God no, please don’t remind me. “The big kiss.” I don’t exactly know how I feel about that but one thing I can assure you is that it’s negative. I don’t wanna waste my first kiss on someone like Jed – yeah I know he’s a big heartthrob and all but I honestly couldn’t care less.

Chev held onto my arm and looked at both of us, “I know this is both your first onscreen kiss so just prepare yourselves, umm… internally.”

“Emotionally.” Jed corrected. Smart ass.

“Right, emotionally. Maybe you should try kissing someone you like – you know, at school, so it won’t be so nerve wracking when we film it at the end of next month.” The end of next month. I sure hope those are gonna be two long months. “Just prepare for that and I’ll see you guys this Saturday. Keep safe, kiddos.”

For a second neither Jed nor I said anything, “Well that was weird.” Jed blurted out. “Hey, could I maybe hitch a ride with you? The car -“ As if I don’t already know! You’ve been hitching a ride for two filming in a row… I can take a clue you know.

“Yeah, yeah. Go grab your things and hurry up. Patrick’s already outside.” I grabbed my knapsack and dragged him out of the studio. He’s just too slow for his own good.

In the mini van – nope, it’s not always limos, Jed listened to his iPod and Patrick, my good ‘ol chauffeur, was busy doing his own thing so it left me with some time to think. About what exactly?

I felt something bump on my knee. Irritated, I looked at what it was. It was Jed’s knee. Why the hell is he sitting so close anyway? “Will you please distance yourself from me. I can smell you.”

He grinned. “It’s Giorgio Armani, like it?”

I scowled at him. Who cares? Even if it’s a million dollar perfume, as long as it’s on Jed it smells rotten. “Hardly,” I pushed him to the other side of the car seat. “Stay there.” He rolled his eyes at me and went on “serious” mode. Jed, Jed, Jed… I used to have a crush on him – yeah, I can’t believe it either but he is the Best Teen Male Star. God, I just can’t imagine kissing him! It seems so disgusting! This is gonna be my first kiss and I sure as hell know nothing else is gonna come up in two months time.

“I see you winding and grinding up on that pole,” I looked at him and it was another one of those “I’m singing dirty lyrics to you to annoy you” things.

I cupped my ears, “La la la la la… I’m not hearing this!” I do this every time because the singing disturbs me. He flashed that lopsided grin of his, “Since you were too busy thinking about that kiss I just thought I’d entertain myself.”

Did I mention that’s his intelligence is really creepy?

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I have no memory of this morning whatsoever. All I know is that I was forced to part with my sweet, sweet bed. Insert big heavy sigh here. I worked my butt off last night up until this morning, I’m damn tired, I feel like fainting and I still have to get my ass to class. Life is so unfair. I just hope I won’t fall asleep somewhere in between the chaos of today. God knows how important it is to be alert for the first day of school, especially for my third year in high school. Help me.

I slipped the school’s regulatory v-neck cardigan over my blouse and tie hoping that I didn’t look hung up. Hoping to look decent was close to impossible with the heavy baggage under my eyes. Oh hell, I just need to give a “normal person” impression.

My roommate and bestest friend, Wintry, poked her head into my bedroom and asked if I was ready. Yes, I am aware that the word “bestest” cannot be found in any dictionary because it is grammatically incorrect but I just feel that it’s appropriate in this scenario where I have three other best friends and Wintry just happens to be the best among these best friends. Now is there a word for that? Didn’t think so. “Lets get going.” I grabbed my purple tote and locked the door.

We found the others hanging around the little stone bench outside the Monet dorm building. It’s where we always meet up and where you’ll constantly find Heather alone while waiting for all of us to finish up.

Naturally, Heather was there staring off into space with her iPod popped into her ears while Schianne and Gen bickered over what they call the “style points” of Gen’s new expensive earrings. Typical behavior right there.

“Is that the new Ms. Marc bag from Marc Jacobs?” It’s like 6:30 in the morning and she’s already throwing labels around my face. At first I didn’t know if Gen was referring to my bag or Wintry’s but as soon as I was within a feet from her, she grabbed my tote and examined it. “Oh my God! It’s so much cuter than I imagined.”

“And of course, who else would have it but little miss “Best Female Teen Star” for Candy magazine.” Schianne pointed out. And to think I wasn’t even planning on telling her that. “With a whooping total of 1437 unique votes.” Leave it to Heather to remember something that minor when she can’t even remember the name of the sitcom I’m in – which she watches religiously every Friday!

As soon as we entered the main school building, we headed straight for the class list while there were still a few people roaming the halls. I remember what happened to me last year - I had to fight my way through the crowd of people looking at the list. They only had to look at one name for crying out loud! I guess I’m just frustrated, it took me a good ten minutes to get to that list last year and yet here I am now just cruising over to it. No crowd. No noise. No nothing.

“No way!” Wintry exclaimed and note that very evident exclamation point. I know all of us being in one class is a big deal but it has happened before.

Gen turned around with a huge smile on her face, “We’re classmates with the entire h-crowd. Can you believe it?” Oh come on, they’re just a bunch of guys who according to their opinion are certified “hotties.” This might be a big deal to them cause we’ve never been classmates with any of these guys but they’re not even that impossible to reach anymore, not since one of them became Gen’s boyfriend and another one became the school paper’s chief editor.

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There was no one in the Class C room so we took it as a cue to catch up. “I heard you were beat up this morning. They said you looked like you had something worse than a hangover. I was at the theater fixing some stuff for the program this afternoon so I wasn’t able to witness any of it.” Not that Wintry hasn’t had her fair share of my hangovers but I guess this was different in a way cause it was work-related. Listen to me, a fourteen year old ranting about work-related stress. Weird.

“You should have seen her. We went through so much trouble getting her out of bed and all she did at the caf was sleep again. If we weren’t ourselves we would’ve left you there with your mouth hanging wide open.”

I punched her on the arm, “So what if I had my mouth open. I bet it wasn’t that wide!” It’s no use denying it – they’re already shown me proof.

“Well, it was wide enough for me to feed you some baked macaroni. You tell us to go get you food and you don’t eat it, I just couldn’t let it go to waste so I fed it to you myself.” Gen said. “Do you even remember any of the things that happened this morning?”

“Not really.”

They burst out laughing.

Schianne slapped me on the arm – she does that when she laughs, “Figures, not once did you open your eyes at the cafeteria and your eyes were so tiny when we were walking to the caf and back to the dorm. I should’ve known cause then I would’ve done something totally evil to you.” Remind me never to work myself out to the point of unconsciousness ever again.

“Oh, Beyonce, Beyonce. Oh, Shakira, Shakira. Come on, sing with me Zayra! I know you love this song.” As much as I would love to, the room is filling up and I just don’t feel comfortable singing in front of an audience. How crazy do I sound? I’m around an audience twenty four seven. I should be used to it by now. Plus I aspire to be a singer. “Ay! Lets not kill the karma. Ay! Lets not start a fight. Ay! It’s not worth the drama for a beautiful liar...”

While Gen was singing her heart out and even trying to imitate the Shakira and Beyonce moves, I felt the whole room’s attention divert towards the people entering the classroom. The h-crowd. First comes Gen’s boyfriend, Marco Drake, then in comes Cedric Briar followed by Nathan Milton and finally, Jed Lockhart.

Yep, you heard me right. Jed Lochart. I told you he goes to my school and lo and behold, he’s a member of the h-crowd. I mean, he’s cute and he’s a teen star so why in the world wouldn’t he be in the h-crowd?

Marco came over and said hi to all of us then gave Gen a peck on the cheek. Gen smiled back at him and she drifted off to their little lovey-dovey la la land. She wasn’t like this before, she was usually stuck up and snobbish – like there was no other person in the world besides her. I wonder what’ll happen to me when I get a boyfriend.

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Mr. Amoroso, our awesome adviser, like I said is a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Awesome. He’s not strict or loose, he’s just somewhere in between which is perfect since I don’t need an adviser scrutinizing my every move this year cause I hear junior year is hectic. This year’s report card is the one we’ll be submitting with our college application so you can just imagine how important this year is.

After checking the attendance, Mr. Amoroso started to give me these weird questioning looks. I started to check if I had something on my face and turns out he just recognized me from the sitcom. This was actually the first time a teacher has acknowledged me – sure the principal has but with a teacher it just seems different - it’s not that they don’t know I’m a celebrity though, they just don’t give a damn about it. “Well, I wish you kids a good year. Start it right and end it right. I hope each and every one of you in Class C shines this year especially with two stars in our midst.” He gave me and Jed a wink and went on his way to handle some stuff for the program.

As soon as he was out of the door, we just stared at each other in silence. Well, not entire silence cause we could hear music blaring from Heather’s earphones. It was funny in a way but I didn’t want to laugh – I have to keep it in. Shit.

As soon as I started laughing the whole class joined in. “Well, that was weird.” Cedric said from one corner of the room. You know, so far, I’m liking this class. Everyone’s okay and they look like people I’d get along with – not that I’ve met people who I wouldn’t get along with but none of them seemed too reserved, too evil or too uptight. No thugs or snobs in this room, just plain decent people.

“So, who wants a bite of my sandwich?” Cedric asked, holding up a clubhouse sandwich with one hand.

Well so much for that thought.

Derek raised his hand up in the air, “I want a bite!” Cedric bit into his sandwich and stuck his tongue out at Derek, “Well tough luck man. This is all mine.” He took a big bite of the sandwich and looked triumphantly at Derek who just shook his head sportily.

I heard someone giggle near me. It was Wintry. From looking at her giggling, I had this flashback and I remembered that she used to have a crush on Cedric sometime during the start of our last school year.

She looked at me and I mouthed the words, “Do you think he’s still cute?” I tend to refrain from using the word “hot” it just doesn’t sound right to me. I like to think guys I like are “cute” not “hot.” What I’m trying to say here is that I tend to lean towards cutesy-type guys, not hot guys but then again cute is somewhat synonymous to hot. Oh hell, don’t even attempt to understand me cause this is just my mind spitting shit at me.

“I never stopped thinking that Cedric was hot.” She replied in a not-so-whisper. This is definitely one side of Wintry I’ve missed. It’s time that she put her views into something else besides academics. Yeah that sounded kinda bad but hello, she’s been the frontrunner of our batch since day one – a little mind wandering couldn’t hurt.

“Ooh! Wintry thinks Cedric’s hot!” Chester who was seated behind me announced. He didn’t mean it in a bullying kind of way, it was more like an amused tone.

I sure hope this room is far from the principal’s office cause all the teasing and the howling is getting louder and louder. But what really had everybody on the edge of their seats was Cedric saying, “Hey, I think you’re hot too.” With a matching wink. Being a girl with raging hormones, I would’ve swooned when he said that and felt happy for Wintry but this is Cedric. He may be an aesthetically gifted person but he’s also a clown. A clown who finds amusement and hilarity in everything and this was just one of those things.

When Mr. Amoroso got back it was evident that people haven’t gotten over Cedric’s little spiel. How do I know this? Well, let me tell you what happened…

I wasn’t really paying attention when Mr. Amoroso ran through the standard procedures and rules of the school simply because he was being redundant. I’ve listened once and I’m not gonna listen to the same thing again. “Let’s do some trust exercises so you can learn to trust your neighbor therefore nurturing harmony in the classroom.” This isn’t sounding natural. I looked up and found him reading a sheet of paper. Figures. “Any volunteers? Mr. Briar, how about it?”

Cedric got up from his seat and stood in front of the class, “Do I catch you or do you catch me?” he asked seriously but still the whole room laughed.

Mr. Amoroso tried to contain his laughter but he just ended up sounding funny, “Actually, we’re getting you a partner. It says here that you’re supposed to pick a stranger. Guys have to do the catching and since we have equal distribution of the sexes in our class – you each have to pick a member of the opposite sex.” So who am I supposed to partner with? “Who should we pair Mr. Briar with?”

“Wintry!” everyone said all at once. I laughed at this cause I knew she wasn’t gonna be able to do it without the least bit of hesitation. We tried to do the same thing at our last sleepover and she wasn’t able to do it without pillows to catch her in case she fell.

Mr. Amoroso looked intrigued by the circumstances but he entertained it anyway, “By popular demand Ms. Soxton, over here please.” Wintry reluctantly got up her seat and joined Cedric up front. Cedric prepared to catch her but she was scared. Just like I predicted.

“Just trust Mr. Briar. You’re not gonna let her fall now are you?” Mr. Amoroso asked Cedric with a pat on the back which Cedric took as a cue to smile, “Of course not. I love her way too much to let that happen.” Now I just couldn’t suppress my laughter at that line. Wintry just had her eyebrow up and was smiling like crazy. She was either holding back laughter or getting all ticklish inside. I’m thinking both.

In the end she was able to do it which surprised me a lot and earned more teases from the class. My classmates are all so crazy it’s almost scary – what if something crush-related about me leaked out? I can just imagine what they’d do. Lord, help me get through this year alive.

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I looked out at all the students filing into the auditorium and let me just tell you that I am so not ready to face them. I was going to do both lead vocals and lead guitar – for the first freaking time! I fear that I’ll fumble with my fingers or my words and just freeze entirely.

I struggled with tying the bright blue bandana around my right hand with my sole free hand. There, got it. I smiled at my handiwork only to find it destructed by Raya, Heather’s roommate and our drummer. “I worked hard on that!” I spat.

She shook her head and laughed, “You’re supposed to tie it to your knee, dimwit.” I squinched my eyes at her, hoping that it was threatening her.

She laughed. Guess it didn’t work then.

I took a deep breath and heaved a huge sigh, “Remind me again why I’m playing lead guitar?” I asked Schianne who is a far better guitarist than me. I started playing two years ago and she’s been doing it since she was ten! Now how could I possibly compete with that?

She held up her right hand which was wrapped in bandages. “Two words: Cheerleading camp. Now can we please have some confidence, Zayra? I know you can do this.” How many times do I have to tell her – pep talks don’t work on me!

“You guys look great!” Gen squealed as she came bursting through the backdoor with her video camera. “I told you the face stuff would work. They look tré magnifiqué!” She came at me with her camera and zoomed in on the swirls twirling out from under my eyes. I have to admit... I’m liking the swirls. Actually, I like my entire look. I love the ripped jeans, the cute graphic tee over the black long-sleeved shirt and the scribbled-on sneakers that I borrowed from Raya. Yeah, I’m definitely feeling this look.

“How about a picture before you guys go on stage?” Wintry suggested, handing her digital camera to a freshman. “Smile!”

There’s one minor detail I haven’t told you. We’re performing dead first – I know the common phrase would be “dead last” but we’re up first and I feel like dying so pardon the corniness this might bring upon you.

I leveled the mic to my mouth and took one last deep breath. I am going to do this and I am going to be awesome – hell, it’s just not working. At least I don’t have to move around the stage or anything. I’ll be staying on one spot and I am going to get over these jitters – oh who am I trying to kid? No form of pep talk is ever gonna work on me.

“First up we have my fellow Class C classmates playing “Stacey’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne. I know it’s a pretty outdated song but it still rocks so show some love for Raya Klein on drums, Schianne Flint on guitar and vocals, Heather O’Riley on keyboards and Zayra Lavoisier on lead guitar and vocals!” Wintry bellowed and the velvet maroon curtains opened up revealing a massive crowd of Rembrandt students – some in their uniform and some in … oh who cares! I’m about to sing!

As Wintry exited through the backdoor I heard some guy yell, “I love you, Wintry!” And I’m guessing I don’t have to tell you who he is but he did give everybody a laugh.

I began to strum my guitar, Raya hit the cymbals, Heather started to play the keyboard and the next thing I know Schianne’s singing, “Stacey’s mom has got it goin’ on, Stacey’s mom has got it goin’ on, Stacey’s mom has got it goin’ on, Stacey’s mom has got it goin’ on.” My cue. “Stacey can I come over after schoo-oo-oo-ool?”

“After school.”

“We can hang around by the poo-poo-poo-oo-oo-oo-ool.” Okay, so far so good. I think I could get used to this. “Did your mom get back from her business trip?” By the time the second chorus rolled around everyone started singing along and bobbing their heads.

It’s kinda funny though. How I’m singing this “guy” song. I mean, I’m singing about my desires for some girl’s mother! I must sound crazy right now. “Stacey can’t you see you’re just not the girl for me, I know it might be wrong but I’m in love with Stacey’s mom.” And here comes the guitar solo. I know it’s kinda tame but Schianne wanted to push it and give it more energy so that made me work like ten times harder than before. God, I can feel everyone’s eyes on me…can someone please give me affirmation or something?

“Yeah! You rock!”

Okay. I’ll take that as a sign that I’m doing pretty well.

As soon as the performance was over I threw myself into Gen’s arms. Hey, they were offered so I took it! “You rocked, Twinks.” I smiled at the little pet name that I never really liked until now cause then I never really understood why my mom gave me the name Twinkle but right now I feel that my name really is Twinkle Zayrann Anton-Lavoisier.

This just really means a lot to me. I got through it and I’m proud of what I did even though the performance was like less than three minutes. The important thing is that I did a good job and that’s what matters. Maybe we could really have a future in the music industry. Hey, I’ve got the connections and Jed’s done it so the idea of us actually making it big isn’t so far-fetched.

I leaned my head onto Gen while we were sprawled out on the backstage floor. There was so much commotion going on it made me dizzy. I could feel all the tire from the day coming back – it’s like I’m being drained of my energy. I’ll just lean against Gen for a minute or two, maybe catch up on some much needed “Zzz”s…

Next thing I know, I’m on my bed in my pajamas and it’s four in the morning. All I can say is that I’m really, really hungry.

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Author’s Note Wow! This is one long chapter now isn’t it? Well, don’t get used to it. I can’t always come up with more than six pages however I will set a minimum and that’s about five pages. I hope you enjoyed the story. I stayed up really late to finish it cause I was just brimming with inspiration. This story actually has a lot of inspiration so I hope it’ll be good. Anyway, tell me what you think, any mistakes maybe and some criticism – just don’t be too brutal. I can only handle so much. Lol. //