blinded by the light,,

[aurora macie stapleton]

ah, what the relief the theatre brought to aurora. she had majored in music and doing acting on the side. although she wasn't too sure about the acting. later on she had been pleasantly surprised by how naturally it came to her. two years later, here she was in the wings of the large auditorium. today she was practicing for auditions for the upcoming musical that was going to be showing in a few months. taking in a deep breath, rory's lips curled up into a smile as she took long strides across the stage towards the piano.

what most people didn't know about ali was that she wasn't only acting inclined, but musically inclined as well. during previous years she mainly just stayed in the musical department, not quite sure of her acting abilities. if she had known that she was a natural when for a long time, she would've tried out for musicals and such. now that it was behind her, she was ready to make her raw talent into something big. ali sat down on the leather-covered piano bench and put her sheet music on the stand.

rory let her fingers run over the keys as started to play the selected piece. for the audition, besides acting, she had to pick out a song from a musical and sing it. most of the students in her year selected ones from popular musicals. rory wasn't one of those students. she picked a beautiful song from a musical she had seen in new york city during the summer. it was called 'for the glory'. it was extremely beautiful and displayed her voice well. as she played the notes before she sung, she took in a deep breath before she started the song, her voice soft yet powerful.


as she continued to play, the auditorium was soon flooded with the beautiful music accompanied by rory's voice. she wasn't used to having this big of a space to practice in, but her director said she could practice. her slender fingers hit each ivory key gracefully. this was thanks to eight years of piano lessons. as she continued to sing, she focused her eyes on the music infront of her. rory straightened her posture as she played the instrumental during the song. the song was getting easier for her every time she sung it.

rory's eyes wondered away from music to the large auditorium. it was tremendously beautiful, the architecture resembling what one expected in a eighteenth-century theatre. ever since her first time hearing about darmon, rory had been extremely impressed. it truly was her type of school. she had lived in boston until she was 17 and attended private school. nothing less than the best was expected from rory. especially not from her parents. she loved them dearly but at times they could be so unpredictable at times. they let her do what she wanted but also kept a strict eye on her.

rory finished the song in the falsetto, her voice ringing. as she finished a smile reappeared on her lips. this was going to be a great audition. her confidence level was higher than earlier when she wasn't too sure about the high notes. letting out a sigh of relief, she took her phone out of her purse. she was expecting a few messages from her friends, but there were none. she blew it off. most of the students had class at the time, but she was lucky enough to have a free period. as she fixed her long, curly hair she noticed a figure standing in the doorway. she wondered who it was and how long they had been standing there.

tag;;open
word count;; 606
music;;jamie all over by mayday parade
anything else;; nothing!

[adam mark hixen.*]

we were running through the town,
all senses had been drowned.
no place we haven't been before.

Oh, what a joy it was to have a free period. When Adam had received his schedule this year he had almost died of extacy upon hearing the news. Last year he hadn't had one, he'd been taking so many classes, that even if he did have one, he would probably spend it doing homework he hadn't finished. This year, Adam had a plan - he was going to finish all of his homework for all the classes before his lunch the night before and the homework from the classes after during his lunch. But a free period, upon which he had no obligations, was certainly something that Adam enjoyed the idea of. It was a nice break. But Adam had one problem with it - he hadn't a clue how to spend it. There were so many things that he could do to pass the time, most of them outside school grounds, but Adam decided that he should stay here today.

First of all, he had hit the cafeteria for a snack. The special today was a bacon mozza burger - which Adam loved, but he wasn't hungry enough for it. He wasn't about to waste his five dollars on that if he wasn't even going to finish it. Instead, he opted for the cheaper but still delicious option of a chocolate bar. Luckily, his favorite chocolate bar was in stock - coffee crisp, so he grabbed a bar and payed the money quickly before heading out of the cafeteria, opening the yellow wrapper from the chocolate and taking a bite. Although it seemed to Adam that chocolate bars were getting smaller and smaller (you had to buy 'jumbo' or 'king' sized ones to get a decent one - but who wanted a chocolate bar that sounded like a condom size?) He had still coughed up the money and ate the chocolate bar quickly, within three bites. It was saddening, really.

After that small adventure, Adam headed to his locker to grab his iPod. He unraveled the headphones from the music player, and popped them into his ears. He picked one of his favorite songs - 'Classified' by 'The Academy Is...' and turned the volume up loud. Putting the white iPod into his pocket, Adam noticed that the song matched the shirt he was wearing - a purple 'The Academy Is...' t-shirt, with the words at the bottom of the shirt and a complex design on the front. It wasn't surprising, though, Adam wore band t-shirts almost every day - most of his closet was dominated with them. That, and pairs of different shades of blue and black jeans, mostly skinny, some wide-legged but almost all of them ripped. Most of his clothes weren't new, he rarely shopped.

Walking past the auditorium, Adam's iPod skipped. Annoyed, he swore under his breath (a bad habit picked up from his two best friends, who could swear with the best of them) and paused the player. Something caught his attention though - his ear, if you will. He could hear someone playing from inside the auditorium, and his curiosity got the best of him and he headed inside, pulling out one of his white headphones even though his music was off, so there was nothing playing. Walking further inside, Adam recognized the girl - she was one that stood out in the crowds, one of his friends in fact. The piece that she was playing was even a little familiar, although Adam couldn't put a name to the piece.

Walking further into the auditorium, Adam decided not to speak until Rory was finished the piece - from what he had learned so far in his music course, interrupting was very, very, bad. It was very unrespectful, at least that was what his teacher liked to say whenever someone talked out of turn, which Adam didn't do very often. He had to admit that it was very irksome when someone was talking while you were playing. You wanted to go over and punch them. So when Rory was finished playing, Adam walked up on the stage and stood infront of the piano.

"Hey there."

[/size][/font]

[aurora macie stapleton]

rory smiled vividly as she finished. taking in a breath, she closed her music and heard a familiar voice. 'hey adam.' she said as she turned towards him. he was wearing his usual attire, skinny jeans and a band t-shirt. most people didn't think that two people like rory and adam would be close, but they actually were. their intense love for music was what they connected them. rory listened to all sorts of music, from country to so-called 'screamo'. her iPod, which was actually sitting dormant in her purse was almost all the way filled. it was the third one to be almost compeletly filled. most people were surprised to find this out, but she loved music so much that it was hard to keep all of her songs on one single iPod.

rory adjusted the boots that she was wearing over her jeans before looking back at him. 'enjoying your free period?' she asked, the smile still spread across her face. it was ironic that they both had gotten the same free period. it would help a lot if they ended up forming a band. the pair had a joke that they should form a band one day. rory would be up for it if they could members together, but so far nothing had happened. atleast she got one thing accomplished though. she had been working on her lyricst abilities.

rory had always been okay at writing, but she needed to improve in order to have popular songs. almost every where she went she had some form of a writing utensil and something to write on. this had helped her develop her ideas for songs better. as she looked back from when she first started writing songs till now, she had improved dramatically. she had actually learned it from her musical composition class. now that she was better, she was ready to face the world with her own feelings about things. in lyric form of course.

rory tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and reached for her bottle of water that was on the edge of the piano. she took a drink, instantlly refreshing her dry throat. this had been happening ever since she had returned back from south carolina. the air there had a difference on her performance, and she was finally adjusting back to maryland once more. every summer rory and her family would take a trip down to south carolina, where her extended family lived. she had actually been born there and had lived there till she was 14. that was probably why she couldn't stand being away during the summer. the beach was practically her best friend during the summer, well besides sunscreen. although maryland wasn't the sunniest places in the world, she still loved it here. there was really no place she'd rather be.

although south carolina was nice, rory would much rather to be able to enjoy her schooling here. it didn't have as much of as a temptation as myrtle beach did. of course she did miss it, but she did love her new life her in maryland. darmon was the perfect school for her too. she'd always been priviliged enough to get into the best schools and this was one on the top of her list. the music program was great. she had learned more here than she had in all of the music classes she had taken before. now this felt like home.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[adam mark hixen.*]

we learned to live and then,
all freedom came to an end.
we have to break down this wall.

"How're you doing?" Adam asked, genuinely curious. He hadn't spoken to Aurora in a few days and was wondering what she had been up to. The two were good friends, for sure, but with all the work of school, everything was too crazy to pick up his cellphone or head to the girls dorm to go and talk to her. He had too much work to do - not only did he have an essay in english that he was working on, he had some algebra work to do (he hated algebra, and he sucked at it) and also some work in music to finish up. He was supposed to compose his own piece of music on his instrument of choice.

Now that task had been a bit difficult for Adam - there were so many different things that he could write about. His lyrics were, usually, a good representation of how he was feeling at the time that he wrote the song. But when he was writing for school, and would have to perform it infront of so many people... Adam wanted to make his songs a little less personal. Still personal enough to be a great song, but not so much that he would get ridiculed for it or anything.

Adam had chosen a topic that he was familiar with, something fun. He'd just written a song about letting loose and having fun, and he had entitled it 'Whoa Oh'. Although it wasn't finished yet, Adam had a good feeling about the song. Sure, it would be better with a drummer, a bassist and perhaps someone else to sing alongside him, but Adam was a solo-artist at the moment. He had been wondering about the possibility of forming a band, though...

Pulling his thoughts back in, Adam turned his attention back to Aurora. She looked thirsty, and after taking some water she looked fine again. That was good - Adam knew how hard it was when you lost your voice. During puberty Adam's voice was cracking and he couldn't sing - well, technically he could, but it didn't sound very good. His voice was at a point where he just needed to relax and let it change, but Adam feared that he would lose his voice forever.

Luckily however, when Adam's voice finally settled into the right tone, he was very, very pleased with it. His voice sounded better than ever - deeper than his child-like singing voice he previously owned. In his opinion, his voice had never sounded better. It gave him an opportunity to sing different types of songs - deeper ones with notes he couldn't hit before. Now he could write and sing all kinds of songs, usually accompanied with his guitar.

[/font][/blockquote]

[aurora macie stapleton]

"I'm good." Aurora said, her smile returning back to her face. Now that her throat had been relieved of the dryness, her voice was back to its original state. To her, her voice was like gold. Truly it was. She had majored in music, and the majority of the things she did were based around her voice. For the entire span of her life, she had been in love with music. Even at an early age she had been always singing some sort of tune. Now that she was older and she had taken voice lessons, her voice was better than ever. When her voice changed she changed from a high soprano to an alto. Thanks to voice lessons, she had expanded her range once more to include the high notes that were required for some songs.

Taking in another sip of water, Aurora found her fingers trailing over the piece of music that was still open. "I finally was able to get this mastered."she said laughing softly. It had taken her a while to get up where she needed to be for the song, as far as pitches went. "Now I'm less worried about the audition." she admitted nodding softly. Earlier she had mentioned how worried she was about the piece. At first she didn't think she'd be able to reach the high-notes but with practice they came easily. Now she could focus on the finer details for the audition.

"How about you,punk? I haven't seen you in a few days."Aurora said chuckling softly, running a hand through her blonde hair. It wasn't easy for them to see each other a lot, especially with all of the crazy tests and such going on. Today alone she had taken three tests and was reviewing for two more. She was extremely relieved when she was able to come in and enjoy her free period. Next she had music composition. That was probably her favorite class. Not only was the professor really easy going, she could just relax and unwind from all of the hectic classes she was taking. Her least favorite had to be Physics. She just didn't understand everything. At least she was passing it though.

Aurora flipped the pages closed and set the piece in her lap. She had been practicing it non-stop during her free periods for around 3 weeks now. Now she could take it easy with practicing. The audition was a week and a half away, so obviously she still had to practice but not as much. Theatre was also one of her favorite classes. At first she wasn't so sure on how she'd like the class. She never was one for the dramatic sides of the arts until she actually started doing minor things in her Speech class. Then it really started to grow on her. Now, three years later she could proudly say that she loved acting almost as much as she loved singing.

Although Rory loved the theatre, nothing could ever compare to singing a song you wrote for people. She wasn't the best at writing lyrics, but she had become a lot better since she had started. At least now she wasn't embarrassed to share her writings. Before she usually hid or threw away her lyrics. Now she kept them for an example on what to improve on. Of course she always asked Adam for help too. In her mind, he was one of the best lyricists she knew. At times she felt embarrassed when she had him look at her lyrics compared to his. She knew now though that she was only a beginner and it'd take a while to get as good at it.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[adam mark hixen.*]

{ adam mark hixen !

At hearing that she was good, Adam smiled. He was always worried about his friends - whether he had reason to be or not. It was just in his nature, so when it was confirmed that they were alive and well it gave Adam a little bit of inner peace. At least for a while, until they left his side of gave him a reason to worry. "That's good." Sure, it was a simple response, but he had asked a simple question, and she had given him a simple answer. It wasn't rocket science or anything complicated like that. Adam smiled as he took a seat on the bench on the stage, not feeling like standing anymore. See? Simple.

"Ahh, I knew that you would get it down. You have an amazing vocal range." Adam smirked, taking the music composition in his hand and glancing over it. It seemed to be a rather hard one to play - the pitches in the song went from high to low in just a few different notes. But Adam had all the confidence in the world in Aurora; he knew that she was a very talented vocalist. He was impressed by the variety of notes that she could hit; while he was rather talented himself, he didn't have as wide of a range as she did. "You didn't have anything to worry about in the first place, Ror."

Laughing, Adam thought: what had he been doing in the last few days? There was a lot of ground to cover with that question. Lately, so many things had been swirling around in his head that he could barely even think straight. It wasn't his fault, though.. his life wasn't that interesting. It was mainly because he was a confidant to many. Lately, more and more people were involved in drama - including himself. Firstly, Adam had to keep his secret with Lucy. It was getting harder, because he seemed to be seeing more and more of her everyday. Why was it that when you couldn't talk to someone, you seemed to see them everywhere you went? It didn't help that Adam thought about her non-stop.

Second, he had been having issues with his friends lately. Riley was having problems with his love-life, and that was a new thing to deal with for Adam. Never before had Riley even mentioned the words 'love' to Adam, when not reffering to Adam's own love life or as the punch-line of a joke. It was hard for Adam to come up with advice for his friend when he had never had to deal with this situation. At least not with Riley's harshness. It was a complicated situation that involved a lot of thought, and it was even harder when all of Adam's spare thoughts were already being occupied.

Whenever Adam tried to escape to the peace and quiet of his dorm, it was never peaceful and certainly never quiet. WWIII was happening between his roommates, so he pretty much avoided his dorm like the plague when he knew that Connor and Riley would both be there. They clashed more than anyone that Adam had ever met -- or, at least anyone that he had ever seen. He wasn't used to seeing fights, and he hated being dragged into them. It happened often, though, because Riley usually tried to get someone to agree on the situation, and who better than his best friend that pretty much had to agree by definition?

"I've been alright, I guess. Lots has been going on so it's a little hard to keep track of everything in my life." Adam smirked, tapping his foot lightly against the ground. He decided that since she would probably ask for a bit more information, it would be nice for him to provide it. To skip the middleman. "It's pretty much a warzone in my dorm, and I can't talk to my girlfriend in public... my friends are crazy and my homework probably killed entire rainforest. But, I'm pretty good, all things considered." Adam smiled, his white teeth showing between his two pink lips. Although most people would think with all of this stress that Adam would be ready to explode, but he was optimistic about everything. It came with being Adam.

[/blockquote]