Chapter Two

I spent the rest of the day avoiding Mason at all costs. I couldn't handle any more of what he had to say because I knew that if he got the chance to speak to me again today, then I'd crack and say how sorry I was for everything. Then I'd lose everything I'd worked so hard to gain and there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.

Tossing my hair over my shoulder, I said goodbye to Penny, Vicky and Chrissie and walked away from the exam hall. They were all waiting to get picked up by Vicky's older sister who was going to take them to the cinema and then for pizza. I, on the other hand, would be going home to practice piano, study, eat dinner and then watch some mindless television with my parents while they asked me pointless questions about my day before going to bed – exactly what I did every night after school. Other people would tell my parents that I didn't need such a structured day to day routine. They'd say that I was a teenager and I needed to have some fun, so they should leave me alone and let me do what I wanted. The old me would've told them exactly that. Then I would've stormed off outside and gone to find Mason so we could hang out and just mess around like we always would. But I wouldn't do that anymore. Not after everything.

"Well, well, well. What's the perfect Rosie Wood doing walking home on her own?" asked an all too annoyingly familiar voice.

"Exactly that – walking home on my own. Now, in case you didn't get the hint earlier, I don't want you to talk to me. I've been avoiding you all day and it would be such a shame for me to cut the amount of time where I don't have to see you short. So please go away, Mason," I said curtly before quickening my pace ahead of him. His footsteps still sounded behind me, telling me that he wasn't going anywhere any time soon, but I ignored him and carried on my walk.

"You know, I wish that sometimes you'd talk to your parents the way you talk to me these days. Then maybe I'd get to see the Rosie that I knew before. You know, my best friend Rosie. The girl that wouldn't take any crap from anyone, especially her parents. What happened to her, Rose? Where'd she go?"

"She disappeared a long time ago Mason. She saw sense and decided that being like that wasn't doing anyone any favours. Just let it go already. This is getting ridiculous," I replied and as soon as I finished the sentence, I clenched my teeth. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? I didn't want him here, surely he could sense that. He always used to know what I was feeling before I even knew it myself, why can't he do that now? Maybe because you're not you, anymore, I answered myself, but I immediately shut down that thought. Of course I was myself! I made the decision to turn my life around and not be who I used to. How I could I not be me?

"What are you trying to prove, Rosetta? Are you trying to show mummy and daddy that you deserve to be their daughter and to carry the Wood name? Do you want to know why I'm the only one that can see through this front you're putting up? Because I know the real you Rosie, but it looks like you've gotten so far into this little charade that you've even yourself fooled. But don't worry, I'll make you see sense again," Mason said. To me it seemed like he was mainly talking to himself, but since he said all those things out loud, I felt obligated to retort.

"I'd rather you didn't. I'm quite happy where I am, thank you."

"That's because you can't see the flaws in your family like I can. I see the pressure they're putting on you and I'm trying to help you. Why can't you see that?" he asked, walking a little faster to catch up with me. Right then I had never been so glad as to see my front door. Quickly jogging up the steps of my porch, I got out my keys and began to unlock the front door. Only then did I turn around to face him. He stood at the bottom of the steps, still on the path, looking up at me. His blue eyes were filled with sorrow and sympathy. He looked so much like he had on that night - the night that I decided that he would be my best friend, the night that I decided that he was the one I always wanted to watch my back. But that night was a long time ago now…such a long time ago.

"Look, Mason, the only flaws that you need to be addressing right now, are the ones in your mental stability. Now, leave. Me. Alone." With those parting words, I walked through my door and shut it rather forcefully. I knew I'd get questions from my parents in a couple of seconds about why I was slamming doors all of a sudden, but right then a slam of the door felt necessary.

"Rosetta," my dad said sternly as he walked into the hallway. I sighed internally, but turned around to face him with a smile on my face none the less. I was ready for a lecture on how slamming doors was 'not appropriate'. What I wasn't ready for was the question he asked next. "Why were you with Mason Goodman? I thought you knew that you weren't allowed to hang around with his sort anymore."

I could feel the blood drain from my face when he said Mason's name and my heart rate increased significantly. I'm so dead, I thought and mentally slapped myself. None of the rules my parents had set last summer had been broken by me at all. That was a big step for me considering that before I was very much a 'rules are optional' type of person. So playing by them for this long had to count for something, right? Not likely, I responded in my mind. My parents never saw things like that. They'd just see it as I should've been following the rules from the beginning.

"I wasn't hanging around with 'his sort' dad," I replied, putting on the perfectly innocent face that I had perfected over my sixteen years. "I was walking home from school and he just followed me, trying to talk to me. I kept brushing him off, but he just wouldn't take the hint and leave me alone." My dad frowned at me, not too sure whether to believe me or not. Admittedly, that was kind of my fault. I'd twisted the truth too many times before for them to believe first time around, not like they would've with Lizzie. "Seriously dad, I'm being totally honest right now. Do you really think I'd break the rules you set for me last summer … especially after what happened?" I added the last part in quieter because I knew that it was still an especially sore subject even though it had almost been a year now. But they wouldn't get over it anytime soon. No one would in our family. I was only just about dealing with it myself. I saw my dad tense up a little as I mentioned that summer before he sighed deeply and then reached out his hand and rested it on my shoulder.

"It's ok honey, I believe you…just go upstairs and get started on your homework, yeah?" he said quietly. I nodded and then sent a small smile his way before climbing the stairs and going straight into my room.

Tossing my bag onto the floor by my desk, I threw myself onto my bed and let out a heavy sigh. With that sigh, the statement I had thought of earlier came rushing back into my head. You're not you anymore. I felt my heart clench at that because somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew that the little part of me that thought that was exactly right. I wasn't me anymore. I hadn't been me since last summer. But I wasn't going to admit that to myself…not right then at least.

My gaze drifted over to my bag and my dad's words popped into my head. Homework was the thing that should've been running through my mind. Homework and revision was the priority and once that was finished I would have dinner and then practice some piano. That was the routine, the routine that this time last year I would've told my parents to shove up their arse…but not anymore. Now I played by their rules because I would do anything to stop them from being as broken as they were last summer. But whatever ounce of rebelliousness that I had managed to keep inside of me since my complete transformation decided to blossom at that moment. So, instead of going over to my desk and starting on my homework, I rolled off my bed and reached under it to pull out a shoebox. Turning around so I was now sitting with my back against my bed, I lifted the lid off of it and smiled at the contents. Inside were pictures, key rings and jewellery from last year. Basically, all of the stuff that described me (the old me, I guess) that I never really had the heart to throw away when my parents and I were removing any traces of last year from the house.

Carefully, I picked up the picture that sat on the top of the pile. It was of Mason and me, three years ago. We were both smiling brightly into the camera while he had his arm slung over my shoulder and mine around his waist. That was the summer before Mason and I went into year ten (so before GCSE's started and all the added pressure about picking if we wanted to go to sixth form or college). Being fourteen at the time, we both looked younger than we did now but what always got me the most about the picture was how happy we looked. Sure, my and parents me didn't really get along and maybe my grades weren't as exceptional as they are now, but I looked so happy right then…and so did Mason. He was actually smiling, not the half smile that you would be incredibly lucky to see these days or the sneer that would grace his face more days than most, but a proper smile. If there was one thing I hated the most about my decision, it was definitely how it affected Mason, but there was nothing I could do about that now. Sighing, I leaned my head back so that it was resting on the side of the mattress. Part of me wanted to jump into the photograph and go back to that day because that day was one of the best days that I could remember. Maybe it didn't start out amazing, but by the end of it, amazing was the only word I could use to describe it.

"No! I don't want to!" I shouted at my mum whilst running down the stairs, taking them two at a time but it still didn't seem like I was getting away from her fast enough.

"Rosetta! You get back here right now and play another piano piece! You are going to get nowhere with this if you carry on only practicing for twenty minutes every other day! It's got to be twenty minutes every day or forty minutes every other. It's up to you!" she shouted back, coming down after me. I resolutely ignored her and proceeded to put on my converse and grabbed my jacket before heading towards the front door. "I really don't understand why you're being like this! Your sister never kicks up as much of a fuss as this!"

"Don't drag me into this mum," Victoria said she picked up her ballet bag from the floor and stood in the doorway of the living room just staring at me as my hand reached out for the door knob. "What Rosetta chooses to do…or not do, doesn't have anything to do with me." I stared back at her when she finished speaking, neither of us smiling or having any emotion on our faces really. The only sounds that could be heard was the TV and mum's footsteps as she continued her decent of the stairs. But before mum's foot hit the last step, I gave my sister a curt nod before opening the door and walking out.

I could hear mum calling out to me as I carried on down the street. It was an early July evening, so school had just finished for the summer meaning that lots of students were still outside even though it was starting to get a fair bit colder. 'This time next year, I'll be finishing year ten. Maybe mum will lay off me then, because of GCSE's…ok that was stupid, of course she won't. I'm not Victoria. I'm the family disappointment.' I thought as I walked down the street, heading towards the nearest park. The sounds of children laughing echoed around me as if to emphasise the fact that laughing was something I never really did with my family, but eventually I made it to the park.

A familiar figure was sitting on one of the swings, slowing moving back and forth with his feet still firmly planted on the ground. His hair ruffled slightly as a breeze swept across the place and he pulled his leather jacket tighter around him.

"What are you doing here, Mase?" I asked him as I walked over and took a seat on the empty swing next to him.

"I could ask you the same thing, Rosie," he replied, smiling brightly at me.

"Mum's just being tyrant and making me double my practice time for piano. She knows I don't even want to play it," I replied, shrugging my shoulders whilst joining Mason's swinging pace.

"Oh how dreadful! How could she do such a thing? That's abominable!" he cried sarcastically, putting his hand to his heart in a dramatic fashion before smirking at me and moving his swing a bit closer so he could nudge his knee against mine.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg," I replied, laughing quietly. "Over dinner she proceeded to compare my test results to the ones Victoria got when she was in year nine and say I just don't quite make the cut…again. Oh, and did I tell you how I'm not allowed to have a birthday party this year because Victoria's ballet show is coming up and she needs 'all the sleep she can get in order to practice properly' because somehow me having a few friends over to celebrate my day of birth will stop that!" I stopped rambling then, only just realising that my breathing had gotten heavier. Mason didn't say anything; he just reached out his hand and squeezed my shoulder comfortingly. I looked up at him and saw him looking back at me with his eyes full of sympathy. This wasn't the first times I'd gone on a rant about my mum or my dad because that had said something along those lines.

"Sounds rough, Rosie," he whispered before getting up from his swing and kneeling down in front of me, stopping me from my small swinging motions. He put his hands on my knees and waited until I was looking directly at him before saying anything else. "I know you parents keep putting all this pressure on you to be like Victoria. They just haven't got it into their heads yet that you're not Victoria. You're not going to perfect ballet or play piano religiously. Just keep doing what you're doing and showing them that you're not your older sister and one day they'll get the message and back the hell off. And contrary to what your mum says, I think you make the cut. In fact, I think you define the cut and the fact that you're showing your mum where to stick it just emphasises that fact." I couldn't help but laugh at Mason's last comment, which made him smile a bit wider.

"You always know the right things to say, Mase," I replied, putting my hands on top of his and giving them a gentle squeeze. "How come we're not best friends? I see you all the time and we get along great."

"I have no idea, Rosie. But how about we change that right now?" Mason suggested, smiling deviously and shifting so that he was only kneeling down on one knee. "Rosetta Alice Wood, would you make me the happiest fourteen year old boy in the world and do me the honour of becoming my best friend?" he asked, putting the posh-est voice he could.

"Oh Mason! Of course I will!" I replied, dramatically swinging my arms open and then falling into Mason to give him a hug. We both laughed as we hugged and my laughter increased even more when Mason proceeded to grab my hands, pull me up and begin twirling me around the park as if it were a ballroom. "What are you doing, Mase?" I asked between giggles.

"It's our first dance!" he said, looking down at me like I was crazy.

"Unless I'm mistaken, I believe this is meant to be saved for the wedding," I replied, but letting him pull me back into him none the less.

"Well, I was under the impression that Rosie was a rules optional kind of girl that told people where they can stick it."

"Hey, just because I'm the rebel in a family full of perfect people, doesn't mean that I don't respect tradition," I laughed, making Mason laugh.

The conversation stopped after that, but we kept swaying along to the imaginary music and Mason kept twirling me around every now and then. I felt so warm and happy right then. It was as if everything that my mum had said and did never happened. It was like my whole had had been awesome to start with.

"Rosetta!" called out an all too familiar voice from the edge of the park. Mason and I stopped dancing and I turned around to see my sister holding the strap of her ballet bag that was slung over her shoulder. "Mum's calmed down a bit, but I think you should get home soon. You don't want her getting even madder at you. Especially not after yesterday," Victoria said.

"Ah, the infamous window fail," Mason said, chuckling as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"It's not infamous and that was the only time I've been caught!" I replied indignantly. "I'll have you know that every other time I've climbed back into the house through the living room window I have not been caught!"

"Next time, don't knock over a vase when you're coming back two hours later than your curfew," Victoria said edging down the street, towards the dance studio.

"I'll be back when I want to be back," I called out to her. Victoria just looked at me for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and then carrying on at full pace down the street.

"You really should be getting back. I know I said that you should stand up to your parents, but I don't think it's worth you having to sit through another lecture with your mum just to dance around in a park with me," Mason said, smiling down at me. I sighed heavily and nodded. He was right. "But first, let's document the day that we officially became best friends!" I giggled as he reached into his jean pocket and pulled out his phone. He slung his arm around my shoulders as I leaned in closer to him and smiled at the camera.

"Awww, that's a cute photo!" I said when he showed me it.

"Yes, it's very cute. Now get your bum home, missy. I'll see you tomorrow," he replied, winking and then pulling me into a hug. I hugged him back tightly.

"Thanks for this," I whispered before I pulled away from the hug and began walking home. "See you tomorrow, best friend!" I shouted back to him when I was out of the park. I saw Mason chuckle as he waved to me and then resumed his seat on the swing, the same kind of way he was sitting when I walked up to him earlier.

As soon I walked in through the front door of my house, my mum was on me and dad just stood in the doorway watching her lay into me. Luckily for me, I had the art of ignoring my mother's ranting down to perfection so whatever she was saying was completely blanked out by me as I removed my shoes and jacket. However, as I ascended the stairs her last sentence managed to work its way into my ears.

"Honestly, Victoria was never like this when she was your age! I don't know what's wrong with you!"

"What do you mean 'what's wrong with me'?" I asked, feeling rather hurt.

"I mean that Victoria didn't go off hanging around with the likes of Mason Goodman. Oh yes, don't think me and you dad didn't know about that!"

"Look mother, I'm not Victoria! When are you going to get over yourself and realise that?" I called out to her before retreating to my room and slamming the door behind me in a typical teenage fashion.

Collapsing on my bed, I took several deep breaths to calm myself. I always let my temper get the best of me. It's probably not one of my best traits. But as I was calming myself down, something shot through my open window. Sitting straight up, I looked out of it and saw Mason's retreating figure walking in the opposite direction of my house. The corners of my mouth turned up as I turned around to grab the package that had flown into my bedroom. As I unwrapped it, I couldn't help but admire the precision of his throw. The smile on my face widened even more once I saw the printed version of the picture we had just taken sitting in my hand with a note saying 'I'll always have your back, best friend ;)'. Laughing, I moved over to my mirror and slotted the picture in the gap between the frame and the actual mirror so that it would be one of the first things I saw in the morning.

I didn't realise that I was crying until one of my tear drops fell onto the photograph in my hand. Slowly, I wiped my face and placed the picture back into the box and the box back under my bed. Standing up, I walked over to my desk and started my homework because the sooner I got that done, the sooner I could get on with revision and piano practice. After all, the Rosie that had received that photo from Mason after an evening of refusing to do piano practice wasn't here anymore. She was replaced by the good girl Rosie who would ask 'how high?' when her parents told her to jump. The Rosie who was in the picture was like a stranger. She was nothing more than a memory and that's exactly how I needed her to stay. Evidently, Mason had other plans.

Boom! Update of Playing Perfect! :P I know it's been a while, but this is more of my secondary story at the moment. Brush Pass is my priority and even that is taking a bit of a backseat for exams. But anyway, I've had this chapter saved on my computer for ages, it just needed finishing up and I had a bit of spare time today so I thought I'd just get it out there! I hope you guys like it. To be honest, I had no idea where I was going to leave Rosie at the end of this chapter until I was writing it. It kind of, like, wrote itself :P But now you know a little more about her and Mason :D And that she has a sister. Oh and before anyone asks, yes I am aware that she was not mentioned in the previous chapter or in the prologue. That is deliberate and you'll see why as this story goes on :)

Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely Easter (if you celebrate it) and are enjoying the warm weather that has been sprung upon us XD Unfortunately, I have no idea when the next update will be for this, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to keep an eye out (sorry about that). But yeah, thanks for reading! And I hope that this was up to scratch (it would be surprising if it is, because I had no idea where I was going with it, as previously mentioned). TTFN my lovelies! Stay awesome! :D xxx