So I have written a short story about a girl, and she loves music. I hope you enjoy it! EEEEK! I really enjoyed writing it. The title is based on a line the song "American Pie" by Don McLean. If you spot any mistakes, just comment below. And tell me what you think in the comments!
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED By Meain Girl
The
traffic on the way home was terrible. I was so bored in the bus, I
actually got all my homework done. When I got off the bus, I ran
home, opened the door and went upstairs, taking the usual two steps
at a time. I ran into my room, grabbed my guitar and started to
practice the song me and Edmond wrote. Me and Edmond have been best
friend’s since I moved into the neighbourhood. He lives on the
street behind me, so it’s easy to keep in touch. While I was in the
middle of thinking what to put in the next verse, the doorbell rang.
I was hoping it was Mum or Dad so they could put on the dinner. But
who was at the door but Beth. Argh- Beth. She is my annoying next
door neighbour, a few years younger than me but treats me like dust.
I would have called her a ‘friend’ up until that day.
“Hey,
Beth! Come in! Do you want a tea?” I asked, trying to sound like I
liked her. Jess, my cat was circling around my feet as she hissed at
Beth. She didn’t have to pretend she liked Beth.
“ Yes.
Peppermint. And when you are done, can you play that song you were
working on with that friend of yours?”she said, with a raised
eyebrow when she said ‘friend’. I knew Beth thought I liked
Edmond, but I do. As a friend. You see, me and Edmond love music, but
she hates it and doesn’t understand it. I can’t believe we were
friends when we were young. When she was six, she was holding my
rabbit and it jumped out of her arms and out under a car. But
eventually I forgave her for that. You have to move on and as my Dad
says, ‘forgive and forget’. I walked into the kitchen and boiled
the kettle, got my guitar from my room and walked into the sitting
room, where she had made herself comfortable on my Dad’s armchair,
flicking through one of my magazine’s.
“Here’s
your tea. We only have rooibos.” I said.
“Oh.
I don’t really like rooibos, but whatever” she said with a sigh,
taking a sip from her tea.
As
I started to sing, all the words just came to me like I heard the
song on the radio a million times.
Follow
the stones
Follow
them closely
If
you do that
You’ll
know your destiny
Follow
the stones
I
got to the second verse before being interrupted.
“Stop!
Stop! I can’t listen.That is the worst song I’ve heard in my
entire life.” Beth said, with a snicker. I didn’t think anyone
could say that to someone’s face. Not even Beth.
“Get
out.” I muttered. She stared at me in disbelief.
“What?!”
she said.
“I
said get out! ” I repeated, shouting this time. I couldn’t even
pretend I liked her anymore. When she left and slammed the door
behind her, I sighed and slouched into the couch.
After
a few minutes of sitting there and staring into space, I got up and
walked into the kitchen to make a tea. As the kettle was boiling, the
doorbell rang. Mum or Dad. But when I got to the door, it was
Edmond.
“Edomnd!”
I said in relief. Giving him a hug.
“Melody!”
he said with a laugh.
We
walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table, in silence as the
kettle made it’s funny noise.
“Bad
day at school?” he asked.
“Nah,
just got an unexpected visit from Beth” I said.
“Oh.
No. What did she do this time?” he asked sitting up in his chair. I
explained the whole thing to him, and he totally understood. He told
me not to let her set foot in this house again and if she speaks to
me, pretend I can’t hear her.
“Want
a tea?” I asked.
“Yup,
why not.” he said.
“Hey,
do you know where my parents are?” I asked.
“They
told you they wouldn’t be back tonight. They have work party or
something like that” he answered.
“Oh,
yeah. I completely forgot,” I said “Who is going to cook dinner?
I can’t cook!” Edmond raised his eyebrow, flicked his blonde hair
and put his hand on his hip, before making a noise something like
“Ehem!” and smirking.
“Oh,
yes. If they are gone, you have to cook. And I almost forgot, you
always stay the night,” I said half sarcastically.
“Come
on then, help me get my stuff out of the car!” said Edmond. Ooops,
I forgot he just learned to drive.
“Sure,
did you bring your guitar and your video recorder?” I asked.
“Nah,
I don’t need them,”he answered “Of course I brought them you
dumbo!”
Turned
out we didn’t get much more done with our song, we were mostly just
joking around. So at around seven, we gave up and headed to shopping
centre.
I
jumped into Edmond’s car, and we drove all the way there.
“What
shops will we go to?” He asked.
“I
don’t know, maybe the make-up store and then a trip to The Paris
Fashion Shop?” I replied. “No, the music shop of course, Edmond.”
“Get
out of the car. We must evacuate the space so we can make space for
our latest instruments!” he said, laughing. We have this weird
habit and whenever we go shopping, we come back with a new
instrument. Our parents don’t really like it.
Once
we arrived at the music shop, we noticed something wasn’t right.
There was no new display in the window and the lights weren’t on.
“That’s
funny, I told Maria I’d be coming today!” said Edmond. Maria is
the owner of the shop. I think she’s a bit older than my brother
John, he’s in college. She always has an amazing display including
instuments and everything that says “music”. We come literally
every time we leave the house.
“Yeah.
Let’s go inside, maybe there was a problem with the lights.” I
said. Thats’s what I hoped, anyway. We walked inside, and
immediately the lights turned on. Then a noise came from behind the
counter. The door with ‘PRIVATE’ written on it opened andout came
Maria.
“Hey
guys! Nice to see you! I was just testing the new lightbulbs, don’t
worry.” she said.
“Phew!
I was worried you’d closed down or something.” I said in relief.
I turned to see Edmond, but he was at the back of the shop.
“What’s
down there? I thought you kept the Asian musical instruments down
there?” I asked.
“Oh,
I moved them to the upstairs section. This week I’m actually
starting to sell vintage records! And I have a few record players
down there too if you guys are interested. Go ahead have a look!”
she said excitedly. I loved the sound of music on a record player,
the crackling noise is somehow soothing.
“What
ya’ got there?” I say, while jumping over to the box of records
next to Edmond.
“I
never knew Maria added all these! They are amazing!” he said,
grinning and staring at the record he was holding in his hands.
“I
know! She even said she has some record players down here! We should
save up for one!” I said happily. We were jumping around and trying
records with Maria for ages and when we looked at the clock, three
hours had passed.
“
Well, we’d better get going!”
said Edmond, red in the face after all the singing at the top of his
his voice.
“Come
on then, Ed.” I said with a sigh, “Thanks for the fun, Maria!
We’ll be back before you know it!”
When
we arrived back home, I was exhausted.
“Wait!
We didn’t even get anything after all that!” I said. It was a new
record. Three hours in the shop, and we didn’t even leave with a
guitar plectrum.
We
were exhausted. We got into our PJ’s and headed downstairs to eat.
“Fancy
beans on toast, Madam Melody?” asked Edmond in a posh accent.
“Only
if we can have extra mature grated cheddar cheese lightly sprinkled
on top,Sir Edmond!” I replied in an even posher one. We giggled and
started to make our tea.
After
tea, we watched a film called “Face the Music”. When it was over,
we headed upstairs.
“So,
which room should I sleep in?” Ed asked. I had just got a text from
my Mum saying there was a matress in the spare room which we could
put on the floor in my room.
“My
mum said there’s a matress down here” I said, “We can put it on
the floor in my room.”
“Sounds
fine to me.” Ed says with a shrug.
Once
we were both in bed, we turned off the light and pulled up our
duvets. Jess curled up at the end of my bed, and fell asleep in a
matter of seconds.
“You
know, I can’t wait to go to the concert tomorrow with you and
Julia. It’ll be epic” said Ed, dramatically. Tomorrow night we
were going to a concert with my friend Julia. The tickets were on
sale, and luckily Ed got backstage passes!
“It’ll
be awesome!” I said.
The
next morning we got up and had breakfast before heading off to meet
Julia at the shopping centre, just to get our hair done while Ed went
to get some presents for his little twin sisters, Cassie and Clara.
They were turning eleven that weekend. When we arrived at the
shopping centre, Julia was waiting for us in “Uptown Cafe”
“Hey
guys! Are you as excited as I am for the concert?” asked Julia.
Julia is a really bubbly, funny and musical person.
“Totally!”
Me and Ed said in chorus. After a quick coffee in the cafe, we went
our seperate ways, to the hairdresser and the toy shop.
At
the hairdresser, I actually decided to get a trim and wash. Julia
got curls and a wash.
“So,
how did your music exam go?” I asked her. Julia’s parents are
really rich, so they sent her to a music school. Obviously they do
normal classes, but they focus on music more.
“Fine,
I suppose. I won’t know until I get the results, really” she
answered with a sigh. I wish I was in her school, with musical people
all around me.
“Forfet
about school and marks. Let’s just shop ‘til we drop'!” I said
as we walked off, smiling.
We
spent the rest of the morning doing some girly shopping, picking
outfits and make-up for the concert. At lunch we had definitely
dropped. We couldn’t move our legs, mostly because we both had like
six giant bags at each of our heels, but partly because we had ran
into every shop in the whole shopping centre.
“Let’s
head home now. Edmond said he had to drop off the presents at his and
he’d be back at mine in a while.” I said. We couldn’t wait for
him anyway. We had our bus tickets bought.
Once
we got home, we started playing some our favourite songs, me on the
guitar and Julia on the piano. Ed and I had yet to show Julia our new
song. We had nothing to worry about though, we were sure she’d like
it.
The
doorbell rang while I was upstairs getting a cool new guitar plectrum
I hadn’t shown Julia yet. I heard Ed whispering to Julia and then
Julia laughing. I hoped they weren’t going to do some prank on me
like they often do when it’s just the two of them in the room. I
walked downstairs, and saw Julia and Ed sitting on the sofas in the
sitting room. They looked suspicous with those sneaky smiles on their
faces. I sat down and put my favourite cushion on my lap and hugged
it.
“Guys,
what are you up to?” I asked.
“Oh,
nothing.” replied Ed. That obviously meant they were up to
something.
“Why
don’t you show me the new plectrum you were talking about?” asked
Julia, nodding towards the hand I was holding it in.
“I
got it in Maria’s about a week ago, it was cheap but I tried it and
the sound that comes out of it is amazing.” I answered.
“Cool.
Why don’t you try it on your guitar so I can hear it?” she asked.
Without answering, I took out my guitar. I stretched my hands. Took a
deep breathe, about to sing the first note when a noise from behind
me made me jump.
I
turned around to where Edmond was sitting in the corner and noticed
there was something behind him. Behind him was where the noise, actually it was a song, was coming from. I had seen the thing before. It had the
soothing sound. Crackling. I smiled. A really beautiful old song from
the 50s or 60s. My smile got even bigger when I looked at Edmond. He
must have got it when he went to get the presents! A tear rolled down
my cheek. I had the best friends in the world.
“Thank
you so much, Edmond!” I said “You really shouldn’t have.”
When
we arrived at the concert, it was packed. We got a seat at the front
row and we could practically have touched the singer’s feet. The
three of us were so excited to be there!
“I
can’t believe we are actually here!” cried Julia, beaming.
“I
know, right? We practically are-” I didn’t get to finish my
sentence. I had seen someone from the corner of my eye. I turned
around. Beth. Argh- Beth! She just knew how to annoy me!
“Hi
Melody! I didn’t know you liked Poppy Diamond, she’s like- way
better than any of your dumb songs.” she said nastily.
“Well,
Melody is way better than you at everything. The only thing you are
good at is being a bully” said Julia, putting her arm around my
shoulder.
“Well,
she threw me out of her house yesterday so I have the right to get my
revenge.” she snorted, crossing her arms.
“You
were rude and you complained and you were horrible to my face! I’m
the one who needs to get my revenge.” I shouted, “But I don’t
do revenge.” She stared at me in disbelief and then rolled her
eyes.
“Shutup.”
She muttered.
“You
really are annoying. Melody’s annoyers are mine.” said Ed.
Friends are great. Before Beth could say anything, the lights went
off and everyone went silent. After a few seconds, the lights shined
onto the stage and there was Poppy, surround by her dancers.
But
we didn’t get to hear her sing yet. There was a problem with the
sound, and the music couldn’t be heard. But after a few minutes
Poppy was able to use the microphone.
“Welcome
everybody! I am very sorry for the delays and thanks you everyone for
being so patient. We will be starting very shortly.” She said
apologetically.
“I
hope we didn’t get backstage passes for nothing!” said Ed.
“Well,
it seems like they are nearly ready to start. Oh look- the dancers
are getting back into place!” I said. “Thanks guys- for standing
up for me when Beth was being annoying. You guys are the best!”
“Awwww!”
they both said together and then sandwhiched into a hug me between
them.
We
looked back up at the stage where the spotlight was now on Poppy. She
closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then it happened. The
speakers did it. The noise you hate. The noise I hate. It was the
loudest thing I ever heard. It was painful. I had been sitting right
next to the broken speaker.
I
can’t quite remember what happened after that, except Ed and Julia
brought me home and I stayed in bed. It wasn’t serious, I just got
a fright. I took Monday off school. I just stayed in bed while my Mum
made a fuss over me.
The
next day I got up, and it was half past nine. I was late for school
because I didn’t hear my alarm ring. I was scolded badly by my
teachers, but it was very difficult to hear them speaking.
Later
in the week Mum and John brought me to the doctor to see what had
happened. I was in the waiting room for ages, humming the song me and
Ed wrote. Finally, I got into the doctors.
“Hello
Melody. Today I’m just going to do a simple checkup on your
hearing. I’ll ask you some simple questions.” the doctor said in
a loud, clear voice.
“When
d.d y.o.r ear. st.a.. becom..g pain..l?” I had no idea what she was
saying. After several visits to the doctor, it turned out I had
tinnitus, a way of slowly turning deaf.
I
started learning sign language a while later. I missed music, a lot,
and I missed hearing my friends and family. I started going to the
‘The School for the Deaf’ There is nice people in the school, but
it’s hard to communicate with them. I wasn’t fluent in sign
language, but most og them were. Most have them were born deaf. I
liked sign language,but I wanted to hear. I texted Julia even when we
were in the same room, but eventually that was frustrating. We texted
when we weren’t together, just like with Ed, but after a while they
both decided to learn.
I
never heard the record player again, but I had a way to connect with
music. I would put on the song Ed and Julia played the day of the
concert and I could feel the music, the crackling. It made me feel
soothing. They were still the best friends in the world, even though
we didn’t get to play music together anymore.
One
evening, last summer, I was sitting on the wall, looking up at the
stars. They were beautiful and amazing but they didn’t have a
voice. I wonder what they would sound like? It felt like I could
touch them, ride them to the moon and back. If wishes were real, I
would wish to hear. But that’s not how life works. Jess crept up
behind me and jumped up on my lap. All of a sudden a bright light
went over our heads.
“I
wish for joy, even if I can’t have music.” I whispered. I hoped
my wish would come true. I didn’t wish a fairytale wish, just a
small thing that would make the world for me.
That
day was the day the music died, but it still lives on in my heart.
The quotes of the day are:
Meain Girl- going back to real life xxx
You made me tear up :'(
ReplyDeletei still LOVED it though.. You're good at writing! i wish i could write like that.
Oh my God! Thanks so much! I really enjoyed writing it, even though it got me (crying) a few times as well. You know if you think of some characters, think of something you love (In my case, music) and find an unexpecting twist, I am sure you could write a story!
DeleteR xxx