We Are Written in the Stars - Kaylor

9. Your Mark On Me

Author's Note: All Vance Joy songs are Kaylor songs. I don't make the rules. 

Unsurprisingly, Taylor owned a lot of notebooks.

Some of them were fairly innocuous; saved for homework or important dates. Most, however, were filled with lyrics. And these were sequestered away in almost every corner of the house, a pen tied to each cover.

It wasn't rare for Taylor to interrupt dinner to scribble down a line she thought up, or wake up in the middle of the night to blearily write down a vague concept for a song.

But there was one notebook that never left Taylor's room; a small, unassuming green journal, where she documented as much about her dreams of Karlie as she could remember. And this book she cherished like gold, and kept hidden like treasure. Not even Andrea knew about it.

But the book that helped produce her next dream was one of her songwriting books.

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Balancing schoolwork and her budding music career proved challenging. Not impossible, but challenging. Home-schooling certainly wasn't any easier than public school. Sometimes Andrea would tear Taylor away from her desk and tuck her into bed by force.

One night, instead of dragging Taylor to bed, Andrea gently draped the bed covers over her daughter's shoulders.

Still focused on her copy of Romeo and Juliet, Taylor unconsciously snuggled into the makeshift cocoon, letting out a yawn.

"Wait a minute," Taylor glared at her mother. "I know what you're doing. You're trying to make me feel tired, aren't you?"

"Maybe," Andrea smiled innocently. "Is it working?"

"No," Taylor yawned.

"Oh very convincing," Andrea chuckled.

"I'm not tired." From her perch on the bed, Dee let out a loud drawn-out meow.

"Nobody asked you, muffinhead," Taylor grumbled at the cat.

"No, no I think Dee has a point," Andrea nodded in agreement. "You should go to bed."

"Shakespeare won't study himself. I'll can keep going," Taylor muttered.

"I don't think so," Andrea said, grabbing another blanket, this time draping it over Taylor's head.

"Okay, okay, fine! I'm going!"

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Taylor's most used songwriting book was kept beside her bed. She'd often write down a quick reminder before she fell asleep, or she would scribble something in the middle of the night.

As she did every morning, Taylor checked to see if she had written anything overnight. And that morning, she blinked in surprise at the note she had left herself.

"Yo Billy Shakes, your ending fucking sucks dude."

Taylor ran a hand down her face. She'd been studying way too hard. Who knew why she wrote that in her songwriting book of all things. Sure Romeo and Juliet was far from satisfactory, but it wasn't as though she could change the ending.

Wait.

Frantically turning to a fresh page, Taylor scrabbled for a pen and began to write.

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