| OUR SENIOR YEAR KING |

❝you are the symphony to my orchestra,
without you, it's music without a tune.❞

"Mr Hayden, this is Ms Stones who will be the last member," the principal started, his eyes fixated on the students in front of him. "I hope that you and your bandmates would agree with me on my decision," Mr Foster declared as his eyes ended looking at an unfamiliar face and Julian's eyes followed his gaze.

He was greeted with deep blue eyes, like the depths of the ocean which looked back at him. She wore a blue checkered shirt and black tee beneath it, the first few buttons being unbuttoned. She was very lean and had a deep blue beanie on which covered her forehead.

"...and Ms Stones, meet Mr Julian Hayden, the lead singer and leader."

"Ms Stones?" He aimlessly questioned having completely tuned out of the introductions to which Jeremy wickedly snickered while the girl just rolled her eyes.

"I'm Lia. Cecelia Stones. Nice to meet you too," her voice was pretty strong and melodious yet it felt familiar to the guy.

Like I've talked to her before.

"Yes, Mr Hayden, Ms Stones is a transfer student from Solano High and currently is in her senior year too. So, you may navigate towards the harbour to let her meet her new teammates."

A transfer student from Solano High was all he could catch for it had taken all of his attention. Solano High, too, had a band named Sensational Saga. Sensational Saga was one of the best bands that had got qualified in the preliminaries held around the end of junior year for the music festival.

In the preliminaries, from over fifty high-school bands, only twenty bands from all across the country were selected based on pure talent and they had turned out to be among all of them.

Though their leader was an arrogant and boastful airhead, his band was extremely talented. Their band of five, with him being the lead singer, had rocked the stage. It was then that they knew that the stakes for winning the competition were extremely high.

But Julian's main concern was the leader's girlfriend and the other lead singer with whom he had spent most of my spare time over there. After all, there was something very intriguing and enigmatic about the raven-haired girl.

"Come on, show her to your team, Hayden," Jeremy's icy voice had an edge that made Julian wince, breaking him from his stance. He quickly bade the principal a good day and swiftly walked towards the harbour as soon as possible; Cecelia beside him and Jeremy right behind them.

Deep down, Julian didn't have a good feeling about their last and new member being on good terms with Jeremy, who couldn't be trusted with what he'd explain to Cecelia about them.

"I hope that you would like it here," he started, intending to start a casual conversation with Cecilia and trying to get to know her well.

"As long as she stays away from you, I'm sure that she'll be liking this place,'' Jeremy retorted even before she could answer for herself, not even glancing back at them as Julian scoffed in reply.

"I get it that you still hate me, but now it's been a year and you don't even know where she is and neither do I," Julian grunted, tired of repeating the same monologue for over a year. "I just want you to stop giving me a cold shoulder and believe me," he concluded, exasperated by the banter.

"Who even knows, Hayden," he shot back immediately, his thoughts about his so-called friend never flickering. "Maybe you told Sabrina not to talk to anyone of us and then sneak out behind our backs to meet her? And that, Julian," he pointed an accusing finger towards Julian, who looked pissed,

"is highly probable."

" I didn't Jeremy, trust me, I didn't do anything, that Everly was delusional and never liked you, and why on earth will I hide her? I have better work to do." Ju retorted, quite tired of repeating the argument. Cecelia, who had been quiet the whole time, looked perplexed, choose to keep her mouth shut.

Any sane person would notice the way her sea-blue eyes looked like she was in another place altogether. Yet, Julian chose to ignore her strange looks and walked straight towards the harbour without a single word from Jeremy or Cecelia; it was bound to create more arguments that might cause potential fallout even before the band even started.

So, all he did was sprint towards the harbour at the cost of saving a chance of losing the last member whatsoever. Finally, after two minutes of constant sprinting, he reached the doors. His legs were throbbing hard as his heart hammered within him with fatigue but adrenaline still coursing through his veins.

He pushed open the wooden doors wide for Cecelia to enter while he followed her inside. For a moment, he believed that Jerry was about to enter but then, like an egoistic jerk he was being then, he gripped the doorknob and slammed the door closed, the harsh click of the door reverberating through her room.

Inside the brightly lit room was what one would like to call a pin-dead silence. Six pairs of eyes were at him and Cecelia.

Until he opened his mouth.

"Julian, why do you look like you just woke up? Did you even take a shower?" It was Ethan who has asked Ju, a neatness freak and a weird Junior year student. He can even be called a wannabe playboy, trying to flirt with almost anyone. As usual, his pointy face was perfectly crisp as his lips twitch upwards. His fingers tried to straighten his already jelled brown hair, a broad grin making its way to his face.

"And who is this? Your new buddy?" Asked Sam, throwing his best decent smile at Cecelia, who shifted uncomfortably on her feet. His blue eyes twinkled warmly at the sight of someone new.

"Dude, I'm Cecelia. Cecelia Stones. And yeah, I'm new." She slightly sassed, folding her hands in front of her chest. It was then when all the other boys fell silent as they realized how she was no timid new girl about who one would read in various cliche books.

Life ain't a cliche love story, after all.

"Say something. How is this a band if the people can't speak? Last time I heard y'all-" Cecelia stopped midway speaking, realizing she had uttered something more than what she was supposed to.

"You heard us?" Ju asked sceptically.

"Well- I was there, you know," she started, as she stuttered clearly, "I was a Substitute for them. I was a substitute in Sensational Saga," she looked around at everyone except him, looking for. Out of instinct, he did what every sane person would do in Julian's place. He pinched himself hard until it hurt like hell.

"The heck- I mean wait, you are- oh scratch that- was a member of Sensationals and then you transferred here and joined us?" Alex managed to say, breaking the hardcore silence. His brown eyes squinted with confusion but stood fixed on his trustworthy best friend, Julian.

"Well, yeah, the Sensationals are currently a mess owing to something which happens a few months ago. I'm not supposed to tell you all considering it was because of one of you," She looked at her feet dejectedly, apparently guilty of letting them know about her previous band.

Because of one of us?

"Did that lead pair break up?" Sam asked her, while Eth and Alex were very invested in the current discussion.

Fredrick Abbott, who sat in the corner of the room, yawned in boredom at where the conversation was to and turned his back to them after giving them a welcoming nod after turning back towards the piano which was kept at one corner of the room.

Julian, however, had the story engraved on his heart. The lead pair had been dating for the past three years before Ju had met her. She was a beautiful little secret and he regretted hiding about her from Alex but he had made a promise; a promise to keep everything about her a secret.

"Well, yeah they did and his girlfriend left all of a sudden and no one knows where she is now. Unfortunately,  even I had to leave that place due to family beliefs. So, here I'm standing in front of you, officially fueling gossips about my ex-band," her eyes narrowed towards the end, looking straight at Ethan and Sam, who were constantly whispering about the fallout of the Sensationals.

"Are you all done gossiping?" Martin asked Ethan, Sam and Alex, interrupting them from passionately discussing the possible reason for their break up.

Martin Ebony's black eyes looked weary and tired of the constant gossips which the three had been discussing persistently. He shook his chocolate brown hair, muttering something under his breath but the phrases "gossip hunters" was pretty audible to them all.

"Yeah, but none of us ever talked to them. But maybe that day when their leader decided to be a jerk to us might count," Fred hummed, though his fingers still hovered over the piano keys.

"Oh right, when she saved us from her crackhead boyfriend. Damn, she was certainly very nice and sweet to us compared to that jerkface, " Ethan started with a sense of nostalgia, as Sam and Alex nodded in affirmative.

"He was like "go away losers" but then she went "shut the fuck up". That was pretty interesting to see," Sam commented while others around him nodded. Cecelia silently listened to all the boys who were busy gossiping and talking about her old band. However, she looked lost in her trail of thoughts.

"Wait Cecelia, even you should join us, Ju is pretty much hopeless in this talking department. So you have to join and give us some deets," Ethan said with a sense of authority. After all, he was the king of all gossips.

"Oh, no. I'm pretty much good here," She retaliated quickly, raising her hands defensively, then folding her arms in front of her.

"Come on, wait, why were you even here? I mean, not to sound rude at all, but why are you here in the first place? Well, except for letting us know about your past band," Sam asked finally, looking up at her in the proper light for the first time.

"She is supposed to be the last member. That's what Principal Foster has ordered," I explained as Cecelia suppressed a laugh. It took them around ten minutes to realize that she was there and no one had asked her why.

"And you couldn't make your stinky ass move and message us about it? Like man, is this how we are supposed to work?" Ethan grunted, exasperated.

"Our King does not care about us-" Alex joined Eth, as he kept his hand on his shoulder, faking a gloomy face, miserably pouting.

"Our Senior Year King, who has no respect for us yet wants us, peasants, to work for him." Sam chimed into the conversation too; his face twisted into a sickeningly devastating attempt of betrayal.

"Guys, guys, guys, I'm here trying to make the best impression over here while your horrific role play is boring my eyes," Ethan harshly countered both of them, pulling both Sam and Alex down by their arms.

"But peasants must explain their problems to His Majesty elaborately," Martin joined too, hiding his grin at the sheer stupidity of his friend circle. Though amusing, it would always be lighthearted to be around the gang of foolish seventeen-year-old loons.

"But not when the peasants around like they are out of their fucking minds," Fred calmly retorted, turning back to us. His green eyes skimmed over all of them before he sighed and shook his face, tired of dealing with all of them. It would be daunting to know about what goes inside that blonde head of his, but that would always be a mystery to them.

"Oh yeah? Listen up melodramatic assholes, I couldn't message you as Jeremy kept on arguing with me." Ju grunted, finally finding his voice out of his pure vanity of his friends, realizing that they were being way too dramatic in front of Cecelia and they was no way they'd change her views about them.

"Jerry?" All of them questioned simultaneously, eyeing each other carefully before looking back at Ju.

"He was supposed to show me around the school and help me settle here.." Cecelia tried to explain before she trailed away, realizing how quiet everyone suddenly was.

"So...is he outside?" Martin whispered after a few silent minutes, looking apprehensively at Julian and Cecelia.

"I pretty much am, " Jeremy suddenly pushed open the door, waltzing into the room," Now all of you are supposed to be there in the assembly hall, right now. All the senior students are called there," he informed us, eyeing Ethan at the end for he was the only junior present in the room then.

Ju realized that they were supposed to be repairing the door lock which was broken as the key was misplaced. In the end, the key was found inside Alicia Consurn's pant pockets. It somehow had ended up there by Ethan, who had slipped it into her pockets as a joke but he forgot about it later. It was after that they had broken the lock that Ethan recalled about the keys

"Okay guys, get up," Miley walked in right behind her elder brother, "And Jerry, please be polite. As a graduate, set an example rather than a senior with a face like he has tasted lemons early in the morning. " she retorted, her blonde hair bouncing behind her back as her green eyes skimmed over everyone's face, resting a bit longer on Sam.

"Get going, and Cecelia, I will show you around. Just wait up for me," she stated, as she whispered something to Jeremy under her breath, who just scoffed in return, eyeing Julian with hatred.

Is it too bad that I feel that this year would be unforgettable for all of us?

Yay! Another update! Hooray!

So, Julian meets the new girl, Cecelia who is not stereotypical.

(Cecelia is a simple character with ulterior motives.)

All the characters might seem too foolish, but they are just seventeen years old, so don't expect to be rocket scientists.

(I was 17 too a year ago and all I ever gossiped about was hairstyles and Instagram posts.)

Julian and his gang of friends are total lunatics who find ways to cheer themselves once and a while. Love and friendship are stupid at times, isn't it?

I don't have much to say except for Do vote and comment and lemme know how it was!

Ciao,
Sasha