I was ten years old when my father decided to give me up for a music class. He'd always loved music and had a real talent for the art. He was curious to see if any of his children had inherited his passion and both my older sisters had already given up on his dream when they quit their piano lessons, so I was his last hope.

The music class was a little unconventional. Instead of having a class for every instrument, the teacher only gave classes one day a week on Friday and taught everyone with all the different instruments at the same time in her living room.

It was a mess.

But it did give me the opportunity to explore all the options in the music world. Unlike my sisters, I could choose the instrument I wanted to learn how to play after I'd tried it.

So, it wasn't all a negative experience. Even though the class was a mess, it was really fun. I got to know many people with different passions--though all related to music--and of course, I got to meet Melody.

Meeting Melody was worth all the sacrifice.

I remember the first day I went to music class very vividly. She immediately caught my attention and made all the other people in the room seem irrelevant.

Everyone was playing their instrument and warming up. There were about eight people in the room including the teacher, who came up to me and my dad as soon as she saw us. She shook my hand, greeted my father and said her name was Molly. "Hi Eli, how are you?" she asked me.

I smiled weakly. "I'm great, thanks." I didn't bother asking the same question, because I didn't care how she was feeling. And why would I? I was only ten years old. I wasn't good at small talk; I didn't understand the purpose of it.

"Do you know yet what instrument you want to play?"

My father looked at me with a curious expression. He'd asked me the same thing all week, but I hadn't answered him.

"I'm not sure," I said, shrugging my shoulders. I let my eyes wander throughout the room and saw all kinds of instruments, but instead of it making the decision easier, I only became overwhelmed by all the options I had. I didn't even know the name of many of them.

"I have some instruments for you to choose from," the teacher said. She guided my dad and me to a separate room where she stored all her prized possessions. "I've got string instruments, wind instruments, drums..."

My father couldn't hold himself back when he saw a guitar, so he picked it up and immediately began toying around with it.

"Do you play too?" Molly asked him as he produced some notes out of it.

"I used to," he said. "I hardly have the time anymore."

"Such a shame." She smiled in a way that I would describe as flirting if I'd known back then what flirting was. At that moment, I just thought she was being nice.

"I think it's a good idea for you, Eli, to try the guitar too," Molly said. "It's not too hard and you might have the talent your father has, which can only make it easier. If you don't like it, you can always choose another instrument."

My father handed the guitar to me with a proud look on his face. "I know you can do this, son."

This gesture wasn't much appreciated by me--to be honest, I'd rather just leave, but then I didn't know about the miracle that was awaiting me yet--but I took the guitar from him and at the same time decided I had to tell him to leave. "Thanks dad, bye dad."

For a second, he didn't know what to do, but when Molly laughed, so did he. "I'll pick you up in an hour."

Molly said goodbye to my dad too and then led me to the living room, which also happened to be the room everyone was in. They all handled their instruments as if they knew what they were doing, but my focus was directed to one girl: Melody.

She sat with another girl who was playing the piano. Melody sang the lyrics of a song and it was beautiful; I'd never heard anything like it before. The sound filled up the entire room and swallowed me whole. Her voice was soft, sweet and fragile--and being interrupted by Molly's voice.

"Everyone, gather around," she said. "I want to introduce you to Eli."

✏️

Molly'd made me tell something about myself in front of the group and then she divided the class into smaller groups combined of those who'd been playing music for a long time and those who just got into it to work together. I was told to sit with Sam, Arielle and Melody.

My heart skipped a beat. Melody.

It was then that I learned her name. It fitted her perfectly--not only because she loved music, but also because she reminded me of a perfect melody. The way her hair flowed on her back, her pretty face that seemed to have a peaceful expression at all times, the sound of her voice...

But I was too young to realise that what I was feeling could be love.

"Hi, Eli," she greeted me, and it sounded like a song of itself. "I'm Melody."

"Hi." I gave her a silly wave.

Sam and Arielle introduced themselves too but they both seemed disinterested in me and to be honest, the feeling was mutual. My focus was on Melody.

"Have you ever played the guitar before?" Melody asked me.

I answered truthfully. "I've never held one before today."

She laughed; it was a soft, sweet, warm laugh. "Never?"

A smile appeared on my face too when I shook my head. "No," I said. "What instrument do you play?" I didn't see her holding one.

"I sing."

Of course she did; I'd just seen her sing with that other girl playing the piano. "That's so cool!"

"I've tried many instruments, but I just love singing more than anything."

A silence fell again, but my mind was far from silent. A million thoughts raced through my head as the world seemed to stop spinning and only to revolve around us two. The most reoccurring thought was, She's so pretty.

And I was messing it up by not saying anything.

Come on, Eli, say something.

To end the awkward silence, I chose the first thing that came to mind. "I ate at McDonald's yesterday."

Melody looked up, smiling. "Really?"

I nodded, a bit too enthusiastically. "I took a Happy Meal."

"The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come with them now, right?"

"Yeah," I said, surprised she knew the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She didn't strike me as the girl who'd watch that. "I got Leonardo."

She nodded, said, "Cool," and then another silence fell.

Why couldn't I say something meaningful? I needed to find a way to end this silence, this wasn't how you impress a girl.

And sadly, my dad had never thought me how to properly impress a girl. But he should know; he got married to mom, after all.

I gave the conversation another hopeless attempt. "I forgot it yesterday."

"Forgot what?"

"To take Leonardo with me when I left McDonald's."

"You left Leonardo at McDonald's?" Her eyes twinkled and then she laughed the most beautiful laugh. I couldn't help but laugh along.

✏️

After that, we were more busy talking than playing music, but I made an attempt at playing guitar every once in a while, although I got frustrated quickly. Molly tried to help me, but I couldn't seem to get the chords right or remember what to do.

"This is hopeless," I said finally. Somehow, I couldn't manage to go quickly from one chord to another, and Molly wasn't around to help me anymore.

"Let me help you," Melody said. She took the guitar from me. "I've played the guitar for a while too," she explained.

She showed me how to place my fingers along the bridge of the guitar and also gave me a memory aid to better memorize the different chords. Then, she told me it was my turn again.

So, I tried again, and while I tried to produce some sounds, a smile appeared on her face. "You're doing great!"

I wasn't sure about that yet. "It doesn't sound good."

"It sounds better," she corrected me with a smile.

I couldn't object to that. "Maybe I think I need to practice a little more," I said then.

"If you want, I could help you," she said. "I can come by at any time with my guitar."

"To my house?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Could you? It'd help me a lot!"

The thought of Melody coming to my house... I melted on the inside.

✏️

Four days was an awfully long time to wait when all I wanted to do was see her again. I wanted to be reminded of her deep brown eyes and I needed to hear her voice again.

Oh, how I missed her voice, her small, beautiful and fragile voice.

But time passed and eventually, Tuesday arrived, which was the day she'd come over.

"Look what I got!" Melody said.

We were sitting in my room and I was holding her guitar since I didn't have my own yet and I was trying to produce some sounds that weren't terrible. At the same time, I admired her pink guitar that had stickers of all kinds of things on it: My Little Pony, Playmobil and Barbie.

She was sitting on my bed with a teddy bear on her lap and got something out of her pocket.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I went to McDonald's yesterday," she explained. She showed me a turtle action figure with a blue headband. "I got you Leonardo."

I chuckled as I remember the conversation we had when we met. I told her I'd forgotten the Leonardo I got in my Happy Meal and now she had gone to get one too.

"Really?"

"I got it for you."

"For me?" I was surprised. Did she actually go to McDonald's and eat a Happy Meal to give me Leonardo?

"Take it."

I shook my head. "I can't."

"Yes, you can. Besides, what am I going to do with it?"

"You're too nice."

"Take it," she said again.

So I did.

✏️

Melody seemed proud as she watched me play the guitar.

"Just like that!" Her smile grew wider and her enthusiasm was contagious. "Eli, you're doing amazing."

However, I wasn't that confident yet. "Are you sure? It's just two chords..."

"It starts with two chords--next time you'll be able to do three and after that four and before you know it, you're a pro."

"You really think I can do that?"

She folded her arms over each other and sat down on my bed. "I know you can."

Those words gave me a weird feeling in my stomach. Did she really believe in me? The whole time we spent together she was so supportive and actually made me believe I could do it. I didn't want to give up, because it felt like I was going to let her down.

So, I kept going. I learned chord after chord and tried combinations of multiple chords, all with her help.

"We could start a band," Melody said one day. It was the same scenario with her sitting on her bed while I sat in a chair holding the pink Barbie guitar.

At first, I didn't hear what she said because I was admiring the posters on the walls of her room. Most of them were of singers, like Demi Lovato and Kelly Clarkson.

"With the two of us?" I thought you needed more people to play in a band with.

"No, of course not: we can get Wren"--a drummer from our music class--"and Stacy"--a pianist--"to join us."

I raised my eyebrows, still unsure. I didn't know Wren and Stacy that well.

"Come on, it will be fun!" she said. "Our band name will be A Sweet Melody--"

"Named after you?" I interrupted her. "Why don't we use my name?"

"Can you make up a band name with 'Eli'?" she said daringly, one eyebrow raised.

I fell silent for a moment. I couldn't. "A Sweet Melody it is."

✏️

This is the first chapter of Wonderwall! I'll be working on and hopefully finishing this book during the summer of 2018.

I hope you like it so far and don't forget to let me know what you think! I'd been waiting all week to finally upload this chapter...

The cover above is made by goldenways!

P.S. I'm really excited for the next chapter. It's one of my favorites!