Ally sighs to herself as she heads out of class—her last class of the day—and gets ready at her locker before going to catch the bus. It was an ordinary day in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and it was raining outside. The weather was crisp and cool. Ally's mind wanders as she gets on the bus and pulls into the empty three-seater that she always occupied alone. The girl leans her head against the hard glass of the window by her seat in the bus and pulls out a notebook, scrawling some ideas for lyrics on the page:
If it rains this much when I think of you,
Then it must be soon that I find you
It's been lonely sitting here all alone...
And if it means I have to try again--
She crosses out the last line a few times, not content with the way the stanza was going. Stanzas were always tricky. They were basically like the verses of a poem but in a song. Parts of them flowed and other parts were different. The focus was to match the rhythm rather than the words. After all, even Ally knew that writing rhymes isn't everything when it comes to writing your own songs.
Ally overheard a song that one of the other students on the bus were playing—
Every time I think I've found her
I find that I'm without her
My hearts been searchin', searchin' all around…
It was the song Start My Heart from a live concert movie that Ally had never seen but everyone in her school listened to the soundtrack to... A Royal Evening. The girl took a few minutes to lean back, close her eyes, and just listen for a few minutes. Whoever this singer was—one of the royals that they got to volunteer to sing at the show, she guessed—he really did have a smooth, beautiful voice. She relished in the sound of it for a little bit longer, relaxing her body and enjoying the moment.
The bus soon comes to an abrupt stop in front of her house—the first stop in route for bus H6. She jolted up at the feeling of the quick brake and gathered her things, making her way off the bus in record time.
Her cousin was home. It was his day off from the FastChek and he was waiting for her on the front steps of the old, white colonial house with red shutters that she came to call home in the last couple of years. Ally moved in with her Aunt Jen, Uncle Tom, and her cousin Tanner because she had to. Her father was a research scientist and he was working on a big project. One so big that the company he worked for flew him out and relocated him to a remote part of the Arctic Tundra for five years. It was year three of the geological experiment and she occasionally kept in contact with him through video chat and by email.
The girl brightens up at the sight of Tanner and the older boy laughs as his cousin runs in his direction. She groans and spins around at the foot of the steps when she reached him and sat down on the steps next to him in a dramatic plop of a movement. "Ahhh, Tan! I had the most annoying week at school." She pouts, "...where in the world have you been?"
"You know me. Hustling butt so I can pay for your future mistakes." He jokes, his blue eyes so like her own twinkling in light amusement. "Just been busy. Had a shift every night since Monday. My Mom's making food. You hungry?" Ally smiles back at him, her own eyes mirroring his excitement, "For Homemade Fajitas Friday?! You bet!" She rushes inside the house with him, daring for a few short hours to forget about Kyle's party.
If only she knew how much would change for her that night... and about who she would wake up next to, the next morning... but she was totally oblivious to what the future held.
Ally smiles bright as she walks into the house through the main door in the closed porch which led directly into the kitchen. She could see her Uncle Tom standing close to the stove, leaning over the gas range with a focused expression on his face. The onions and chicken for the fajitas were sizzling underneath his loyal, unwavering watch. The girl had come to learn over the past three years that her Uncle was just as into food as he was exuberant, but since he was a chef that ran his own catering company he got a free pass for being so passionate about what he did for a living. He had to be or else nothing would get done. His business was run almost entirely out of the house and he didn't ever stop until he got too tired to stand up. One benefit of that was that he was always home for Tanner and Ally to talk to, but the downside was that the kitchen always smelt amazing... and that could be difficult to deal with when you're just coming home from school with an empty stomach.
"Please tell me that food is almost ready..." Ally begs in desperation as the smell of the fajita filings waft past her nose. Her Uncle glances up at her as he continues to cook the food.
"Almost, almost. Take a seat and don't worry about it. Let Uncle Tommy take care of ya." He laughs a bit, quickly moving the pan into the air and sliding the contents of the pan into a bowl he set out on the counter. The man moves quickly to get the plates to the table, even though there was no rush and this wasn't a restaurant. "How was your day, hm? Anything good happen?"
Tucker shrugs and Ally sighs. "Nothing super great. Just same old, same old. Mira is trying to get me to go out with her tonight." The girl reaches out to grab some chicken for her soft shells.
The man raises his eyebrows at her, sitting down with her and his son at the table. "Why not go? You haven't gone in a while. Be young. You only get one chance at these sorts of things."
Ally purses her lips. "I don't want to go... I'm still studying. I want to get into Virt—"
"—Virtuoso. Yes, how could we forget?" The air in the room seems to thicken as her Uncle responds to her. "You know, Ally, you've been talking about it everyday. You've been studying and working hard everyday. You need to live a little bit..." he sounded worried. "I'm a little concerned you're only spending time focusing on this and you're not getting the whole high school experience. Maybe you should go..." they continued to argue about this for the next half an hour before Ally finally gives in... with the condition that Tucker had to go too.