The Singer and the Bookworm | J.P.M

Chapter One

~ Liverpool, 1961 ~

Violet Wilson never had been, and never would be, a "people person".

As the Biology teacher, Mr Jameson, walked into the classroom and all of the students apart from a couple of the boys at the back stood out of respect, Violet sighed and closed her book. It was an extremely fascinating pre-1900's novel she had picked up from a second-hand store in the centre of Liverpool, and she was enjoying it.

"Good morning, class," Mr Jameson said, placing his briefcase beside his desk chair and sitting down. The students mumbled a response and the sound of chairs scraping on the wooden floor echoed through the room as everyone sat back down. Mr Jameson took registration and then progressed to the blackboard, where he began to sketch out a diagram of an animal cell.

Violet rested her head on her hands, itching to grab her book and become lost in the fictional universe yet again. She thought of the characters and their perfect lives that she envied so much, of the exciting adventures and occurrences printed upon each page...

"Lennon!" barked Mr Jameson's voice and Violet's head snapped upwards to look at him, despite the fact that it was not her name that had been called. John Lennon, a boy sitting at the back, grinned innocently up at the teacher.

"Yes, Mr Jameson?" he asked in a small voice. A couple of boys around him including Stu and George chuckled.

"Do you think it's acceptable to flick pencils around the classroom during a lesson?" Mr Jameson looked stern.

"No, Sir," John responded. "Why on earth would anyone do that?"

The Biology teacher lifted up the pencil between his fingers and strode over to John's desk. He placed the pencil on the sixteen year old boy's desk and began to fill out a detention form for him. John looked slightly disappointed but winked at one of the girls watching him anyway. She blushed and covered her face with a small giggle.

The disruption caused Violet to roll her eyes and lean back in her chair to refocus her attention on the blackboard.

"Now Mr Lennon has kindly finished, we will return to the lesson," Mr Jameson said, looking considerably more grouchy than before as he returned to the front of the class. "Ah... Miss Wilson, can you tell me the function of the ribosomes of a cell?"

Being asked a question caught her off guard. Violet self-consciously ran a hand through her dark hair and pushed her glasses further up her nose.

"They help to produce protein for protein synthesis in animal cells," she mumbled, feeling herself blush. Had she volunteered to answer the question, she would have been fine; now however she was feeling rather flustered.

"Thank you," Mr Jameson said. "I hope you all have your homework."

There was scrambling as everyone reached for their schoolbags. After multiple excuses from students who hadn't done theirs, the lesson was back underway, and after twenty minutes or so the lesson ended and everyone dived for the door.

AN

Hi, Beatlemaniacs! This was just a quick introduction chapter so you can get to know Violet and a couple of the characters a little bit. I hope you enjoyed and if you did please vote & comment, and maybe add the book to your library for when I update next! I will most likely be uploading lots of short chapters rather than less long ones.

Peace & love, Lauren x