Don't Stop The Music

- seven -

CHAPTER VII

- all our shows are secret shows –

[Liam]

Maths dragged a little, as it tended to do. Liam was starting to realise he only really liked the subject in theory: spending an hour doing basically the same calculations over and over again got boring quickly. 

In his Further classes, at least he had Anthea, and between the two of them they usually finished the worksheets in a fraction of the time set and spent the rest winding each other up. He didn't talk much to the people in his regular Maths lessons, because they drove him crazy. All they did was ask for answers to the worksheets.

Once the lesson let out, he fell behind the stream of students heading to their next class, pausing by the water fountain to get a drink. Midway through filling it up he felt a familiar figure brush past him.

He looked up and recognised her immediately.

It was Jen, just her, walking quickly and confidently down the corridor. Thrill jolted through him; he'd seen her around school a lot since the lecture, but she was always with Ally and Diana at the very least. This could be his chance to make a good impression, or at least a better impression than last time.

His water bottle was overflowing now, spilling over the rim and running down his hands. Hastily, Liam switched off the fountain scrambled to catch up with her, shaking his hands to dry them.

"Hey," he said, as casually as he could manage. "How's things?"

Jen looked slightly surprised to see him, chewing a couple of times on her gum before replying. "Can't complain," she said finally, still walking. Liam upped his pace slightly to keep up with her.

"You're not with Ally today?"

"I don't have to be with her all the time."

"I thought you two were friends?"

"We don't share the same lessons," she replied. "The others have Spanish right now."

"Oh, that makes sense. So, what lesson did you just have?"

"Physics."

"Cool. I do physics, too. What's it like in year thirteen?"

"Surely physics is physics."

"Yeah, but I mean the content and stuff. Like, should I bother taking it for A2?"

"You just started year twelve; isn't it too early to be thinking about these things?"

"I like to plan ahead, I guess."

She shrugged. "Well, the topics we're doing right now are basically just a mixture of GCSE Stars and Space and dumbed-down quantum theory," she explained. "So the content is interesting, it's just not really that hard right now."

"Okay," Liam said. "Nothing to worry about then. Although I regret ritually burning all of my GCSE notes now," he added, managing to make her smile.

"Sounds better than ritually filing them, I suppose," she replied. Before Liam could reply, his phone buzzed twice in his pocket and instinctively he checked the message.

From: Dom :)

> We got a show, guys! Get excited!

> Practise room 5 at 4:15 or EARLIER if you can.

Liam read them over again, slightly confused. A show? And then he remembered Jen and looked up quickly, but she'd already walked away, leaving him alone in the middle of the corridor.