At the Nouveau Academy of the Arts and Sciences, all students are required to take either a music or art class before graduating. When Kennedy Marx is denied of her request to switch out of Music Theory, vivid details from her past as a piano prodig...
For the first time in four years, Nouveau has a chance at making the playoffs for football. It looks like Griffin is the good luck charm we needed all along. The real question though is what is he hiding underneath all that charm?
yours truly, Queen B.
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"We're gonna be late, Kennedy," Alden groaned, his voice piercing the air with a particular sharpness that shattered the silence almost instantly.
My eyes found Alden's expressive brown ones as I stepped out of my bathroom. He met my gaze with equal intensity, wry amusement worming itself into his half smile. While I pulled a hairbrush through my damp hair, he stood with his back pressed against my closet door, arms folded sloppily over his chest. Two buttons of his light blue button down remained undone, a silver chain falling from his neck. On Fridays, he didn't even bother to pull out a tie.
"Since when did you care about being late, Alden?" I asked in return, the corners of my lips twisting with skepticism. "Wouldn't you prefer to miss first period anyway?"
"I would love to skip out on first period, but I'm not the only one waiting for you."
He tilted his head and motioned toward my bed where Becca sat with her legs crossed, eyes scanning my once barren walls. With three years of memories floating around in my head, I couldn't remember the last time I saw Becca with straightened hair. Today, her silky dark hair was pinned back neatly in two braids.
"When did you get here, Bex?" I asked, slipping a cardigan over my shoulders. "Weren't you supposed to meet us in the quad?"
"You guys were taking way too long. Remember when your room was practically empty?" She unpinned one of the polaroids from my bulletin board and examined the picture of us at a party a couple weeks before school started. Reminiscence coded itself into her words as she said, "That was a crazy night."
"How do you even remember? You were drunk after the first ten minutes." I laughed, shaking my head. "And I had to put something up on the walls. Parent-teacher conferences are next week."
"You were supposed to unpack almost two months ago, Ken," Alden pointed out as he followed us into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. "Can you believe we're almost done with first quarter?"
"Stop reminding me," Becca cried, feeling a wave of bittersweet emotions rush through her bloodstream.
"I've been thinking about something lately." I paused momentarily. Thoughts ran rampant through my mind, the picture I had been trying to make out sharpening by the second. "What would happen if I just failed out of music theory? It's the only way they'll let me out of it now."
"Kennedy," Becca reasoned, her voice dropping dangerously low. "You can't actually be serious right now. Isn't that supposed to be an easy class?"
"Yeah, who else is supposed to stand a chance against Becca for valedictorian?" Alden teased, knocking his arm against mine. "I don't think I can sit through graduation if she's giving a speech."
