Tidal Wave

Chapter 3: The First Day Of School

Alyssa’s Point Of View

Today is the first day of school and I am low key kinda scared and excited to go to school. This is my final year of middle school. I’m going into eighth grade this is both scary and exciting. I have my outfit ready and I am just waiting for Austin to bring me my coffee.

“Here is your coffee sweet girl,” Austin says with a warm smile.

“Thanks dad,” I say taking the coffee as I start packing my huge backpack to get ready to head to the school.

“You excited?” He asks.

“Yeah I am this is gonna be a great year,” I say.

Once my bag is packed and my coffee is in my hand we head to the car and I get in the passenger seat and buckle up. The drive is mostly silent as we make the short trip to the school. I am humming along to the song on the radio. It happens to be a Hinder song. The song on question is Without You.

Austin smiles at my humming of the song he wrote about his time in high school. I catch him staring at me and smirk.

“I just wanna be alone tonight I just wanna take a little breather Cause lately all we do is fight And every time it cuts me deeper,” I sing softly shocking him.

“That is amazing honestly where did you learn to sing like that?” He asks as we pull up to the front of the school.

“I just learned it when I was very little,” I say.

He nods as I look out the window seeing that everyone is staring at the car with shocked expressions cause its the front man from Hinder dropping his daughter off at school. On her first day. I chuckle at their shock and step out grabbing my bag and coffee from the car.

I walk to the up towards the door waving by to Austin and I lean against the wall. My brown hair curled. A girl around my age walks over to me.

“Hey was that your dad?” She asks sounding genuinely curious unlike a mean girl would.

“Yeah. Well my adoptive dad,” I say.

“So your adoptive father is Austin Winkler from Hinder,” She says.

“Yeah he is,” I say with a warm smile.

We hear footsteps approaching and they are heels signaling that it most likely either a teacher or the queen bee and her group of followers aka the mean girls.

“Oh joy look who it is the mean girls,” the girl next to me mutters.

I look up to see a group of girls all of them about 5’10. And I roll my eyes.

The blonde one which is clearly the leader looks me up and down clearly assessing me with a calculating gaze.

“Oh look we have the little daughter of the rockstar,” she says with thinly masked envy.

“And you are?” I ask clearly unimpressed with her attitude.

“I’m Brittany the queen of this school,” She says sounding irritated that I didnt recognize her right away.

“Cute that you think so cause last time I checked this is school not a kingdom sweetheart,” I say.

She scoffs indignantly. Her face red with anger at being called out.

“See you around Brittany,” I fire off and drag the girl that was talking with me inside the building and to my locker.

“Holy s**t that was insane,” the girl says.

“Thanks and in all that mess I never got your name,” I say.

“I am Ember,” she says with a smile.

“Nice to meet you Ember,” I say.

She goes to her locker that is right next to mine and I start decorating mine with the stuff Austin got for me. While the whole time Ember and I keep talking and getting to know each other. It turns out that we have the same music class, math class, English class, and lunch period.

She walks me to my first period which is PE before heading to her science class.

“I’ll come get you after first period,” she says waving as she walks towards her class.

I walk into my class looking excited that I have gym first thing in the morning cause I love sports and working out.

The teacher looks up as I enter.

“Oh you must be the new student,” she says with a warm smile.

“Yeah I am,” I say walking further into the gym.

“Okay well we are starting with laps do you think you can handle that?” She asks.

“Yea I can,” I say with a smirk.

She smiles and calls the class to session and everyone gathers around for the plan before the laps around the gym.

“Okay so today we will be running laps around the gym and remember no pushing or shoving each other,” She says.

She blows her whistle and we all start running and I am keeping a steady pace that ain’t super fast but ain’t slow either.

After eighty minutes of running she blows the whitsle signaling it is time to pack up and head to out next class. And as planned Ember is waiting outside the gym for me.

“Hey Alyssa you ready to head to Science and I have to head to art,” she says.

“Yeah I am ready,” I say.

We walk to my science class and part ways cause we have the rest of the day together.

“See you after class then we will will head to English together,” she says.

“Okay,” I say.

I get into my science class and can already tell that this is gonna be boring cause I suck at science. I take my seat after talking to the teacher. The eighty minutes start to drag on cause this is so boring but I still take notes anyway. To help pass the time that is this class.

After the class is over I meet up with Ember and we head to our shared English class. This one I am a little more excited about cause I’ll have Ember right next to me to help make this fun.

“So this class is gonna be fun cause we can just sit and write song lyrics all class cause we have a sub for today,” Ember says.

“That is gonna be amazing,” I say with a smile.

We walk into the classroom and Ember immediately pulls me to where she sits and we sit down right next to each other and pull out our separate notebooks that have our own song lyrics in them. We start writing and singing them softly to each other making the sub roll her eyes.

This class period passes very fast cause we are having fun and enjoying our time together. When the bell rings for Lunch we both stand up and head to the lunch room.

“Girl we should start a band I can play guitar and you can sing,” Ember says.

“Yes but who would be our drummer and bassist?” I ask.

“I know some people I can ask around,” she says.

“Okay and I’ll talk to my dad and see if he will let us use his studio,” I say

She squeals making me laugh as we go to dump our trays and head to our math class before the last class of the day which is music. Math flys by in a breeze as we work channeling our excitement for music and music class into making the work go by faster.

The eighty minute math class is over and we are both practically skipping to music class excited to play and to head home to plan and talk on the phone like normal thirteen old girls.

We take our seats in music class and wait for it to start. Those eighty minutes fly by and we are walking to my dads car where she hands me her number and we go our own way.

Austin looks overjoyed that I am so happy when I get in the car.

“So how was school pumpkin?” He asks.

“Amazing, I met this girl named Ember and we are starting a band, she plays guitar, and I sing so its like a match made in heaven, can we use the studio please,” I say excitedly.

“Whoa whoa slow down and breathe Alyssa,” he says.

I take a deep breath and calm down.

“Okay I am calm now what,” I say.

“Yes you can use the studio just be careful that is all I have to say,” he says.

We start the car and head home. The band is there waiting for Austin when I run inside excitedly and say a quick hi and bye to them before heading up to my room already pulling out my phone. The band is confused.

Austin’s Point Of View

“Dude what is with her?” Cody asks.

“She made a new friend and is starting a new band,” I say.

“Damn already,” Cole says.

“Yeah and she is super excited,” I say with a smile.

Alyssa’s Point Of View

Ember and I talk for hours on the phone planning and Austin brings me dinner and I mouth thanks to him and eat while talking to her we both laugh and giggle for most of the night and plan out every small detail.

By the end of the phone call it has been five hours and we also have a band name it is Rebel Rose. We both fell in love with name.

I take my plate downstairs and rinse it before putting it in the dishwasher and starting the dishwasher for Austin before I head up to my bathroom to shower and get ready for the night.

Once I am done in the shower I pick up my room and make it cleaner then before and get me LED lights set up to a purple color so I can sleep. Then I get a bottle of water and set it on my night stand before I shut the main light off.

Once the light is off I climb into bed and turn on the tv to a crime show and get comfortable. As I lay there I think about how much Austin has changed my life for the better. Sure I miss my real family and that will never change but I am happy that I am here.

I close my eyes and listen to the show letting sleep find me. As I fall asleep I start dreaming right away dreaming of being like my new father and his band someday and about how close Ember and I will get and be. This brings a smile to my face even in my sleep. I shift onto my left side and remain asleep and happy.

I spend the rest of my dream thinking about dying my hair blue for the band and just for a change. I mean this is a new chapter in my life and I have always wanted blue hair and I know it would make my family smile. Even if they aren’t here to see it in person.

Austin’s Point Of View

I get up off the couch to head to bed myself and I poke my head into Alyssa’s room and see her sleeping with a smile on her face. This makes me smile and close her door quietly. I head to my room and get ready for bed myself the day has taken a lot out of me and I have a meeting with the band tomorrow. So tomorrow is gonna be an even longer day then today. I am just glad that Alyssa is settling in nicely. She already means the world to me. I lay down and shut my light out to let sleep find me and take me into a dream world. I fall asleep with a smile that mirrors Alyssa’s. This is the best choice I could have made. I love her. She’s my daughter.