My Heart CH. 3

When the final bell rung, Hayley went towards her locker. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Josh heading towards her locker, as well. Of course, she thought, our lockers are next to each other's. No big deal.

Hayley's P.O.V:
He smelled really good. And he was incredibly cute, too. Oh, the high school feelings you get when you are close to a guy. How could I dare like him though? He was out my league. Many others already like him, I know this for a fact. I've heard so many whispers all around the school, saying how incredibly cute he was, how he was handsome, the basic things you'd hear from lovesick teenagers who talked like morons when it came to that one special guy.
I couldn't say I disagreed.
At least we were friends. Somewhat.

I felt numb as he approached my locker. My knees buckled as that hint of his scent hit my nose, and it more or less increased the churn of nervousness in my stomach.

"Hey," he greeted me.
I cracked a smile and unlocked my locker. "Hey."
"Aren't you glad the first day is over?" he asked, a complete smile on his face that I feared if I looked at too long, I'd get too lost in it.
"Yeah, I'm pretty glad it's over," I answered with a shrug. "But I have to walk home today. It's not that big of a deal, though, I just don't like walking home...alone."
"Really?" he asked with curiosity, a slight glimmer in his eye. "I am too."

My not-so-good feeling changed at that very moment.

"Seriously?" I asked, still disbelieving.
"Yeah, yeah," he began, "I was going to walk with a couple of my friends, but I could walk with you if you'd like."
My face was a red, I was sure, because the heat struck up in my cheeks so fast I was sure I'd combust. But there was no way to hide my excitement. "Thank you, Josh," was all that I could muster.
Yes, thank you Josh for being my friend. The first of firsts.

We made our way up the dirt path on the track, and onto a sidewalk. My eyes couldn't seem to keep off of the concrete floor, never looking up. I walked forward only to be almost hit by a bike, it was a move much too fast for my still delayed senses.
Josh only laughed. "You're prone to accident, Hayley," he pointed out.
"I know," I agreed nervously, still in shock after the almost-accident. He laughed again. His laugh was musical, happy. So much so that I pictured myself listening to it like I listened to music--all day.

He offered to buy me Starbucks, and I remembered it was his favorite store, so I willingly agreed, just so we could spend more time with each other. Yes, that seemed selfish, but I wanted to get to know him more.
He bought himself a sugared blueberry muffin, and I just got the same. We took a seat on the wooden cafe chairs. He looked into his muffin, like he was studying it closely.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing. It's just...this muffin. How does it fluff like that?"
I laughed. That was completely random. "It's probably yeast. Bread, something. It's not like I cook much."
He smiled. "Yeah, me either."
So he bit into his muffin and so did I.
Our conversation went on with topics that definitely helped in getting to know each other better, topics that new friends would often talk of. Questions were asked back and forth, and soon it felt more like an interview than anything. But despite it all, I enjoyed everything, and how could I not? I was here with Josh Farro. Something that seemed so amazing that, for a moment, I was swayed to believe that I was the luckiest girl in the world.

After that, we crossed the sidewalk, and Josh stopped at a crosswalk intersection. He looked down toward me. "Yeah?" I asked, confused because of his abrupt stop.
"Well...I'm going left. You?"
My smile dropped. "Oh. I'm going right. My house is towards there. I guess we're walking separate now."
He seemed sad too, his face crumped into what I could only describe as a melancholy expression. I turned my head toward the other homes, looking at them with a newfound perspective--hating them for separating Josh and I.
"See you tomorrow, then?" I asked him meekly.
"Yeah. Nice getting to know you Hayley," he said in a suddenly formal, on-edge way. That eluded me. I asked, "Why did your voice change all of a sudden?"
He raised a brow and seemed...nervous? "What? No it didn't."
"Yes it did." I replied. "You sound, well, formal. I don't know--it doesn't sound like you."
He smiled like I was stupid. "Sorry Hayley," he apologized. "I didn't mean to. Please forgive me." The mock-drama in his voice sent a convulsion through me for a reason I couldn't explain. He sounded funny, and nice, and--
God, you sound like a lovesick puppy, my conscience said, hushing the rest of my thoughts.
"Of course I forgive you, Josh. Well...uh..." The awkwardness was a bit hard to recover from, therefore, it takes me multiple tries to press the stopwalk button sufficiently. My world was in a daze with Josh Farro around. Once the "walk" sign finally blinked on, I didn't hesitate to begin my stride. "See you tomorrow!" He called after me.
I turned my head backward to see him standing there, a cute, boyish friend that I knew stirred something inside of me--something more than just friendly feelings. I waved at him quickly. "See you."'

Not Hayley's P.O.V:
She got home around 3:45, and slumped herself down on the couch. Her mother was home already, baking cookies by the looks of it. "Hayles!" she exclaimed, looking down at her exhausted daughter, "How was school?"
Hayley sighed, not in much of a mood to gush about her first day. "I made a new friend," she replied.
Her mother frowned. "That's all you are going to tell me?"
"Yep."
"Hayley, come on. It was the first day of school! Isn't that exciting? Isn't there some news?"
"Mom, I really don't want to eat burnt cookies, so you should probably go watch them in the oven instead of listening to me," she announced, blowing the conversation off.
"Hayley Nichole Williams! To think you were so full of that energy. Now that we moved here you are a pile of...of laziness. Of dirty socks."
Uh oh. Hayley thought. The whole dirty socks phrase is a bad thing. "Mom," she began, while her mom turned her back on her, "The friend I made was a boy. His name is Josh."
"Oh! A boyfriend!" her mother cooed.
"Mom!!" Hayley groaned.
"Sorry. I meant boy 'friend'...as in literally a friend, not that there is anything going on, it is the first day of school and--"
Hayley interrupted. "Mom, this is why I don't like sharing my stories with you. You go on like it's a huge news story about the world ending or something. Look, I'm heading upstairs. Tell me when the cookies are done."

She hauled herself and her backpack up the stairs. It seemed like an eternity when Hayley reached her bed and laid down. She closed her eyes, just escaping it all for a brief moment. Once she opened her eyes, the sudden clamor of daylight hit her senses with such a shocking impact that she winced.
She looked to the left toward her backpack that lay on the floor. Homework was the only pain left to be endured. And so without another thought, she zipped up the zipper of her backpack and pulled out a stray pencil from the bottom.

Days passed on with school, a now regular routine for Hayley Williams, and Josh was talking to her everyday now. The weekend slowly kicked in, and as usual, Hayley had nothing to do at home, and she really didn't feel like moving around the town, either. It was just going to be a sleepy day for her--or so she thought.

"Hey Hayley!" Josh yelled out that Friday, obviously going to ask something.
His voice was a happy one, an inviting one. Hayley automatically turned her head toward the sound of it.
"Oh, hey Josh." she said, unable to fight the smile on her lips.
"Are you doing anything this weekend?" his question popped a light bulb in her head. He is going to ask me to hang out with him. Yes! She thought quickly. Then, naturally, her mind shifted to pessimistic thoughts, Maybe he is going to introduce me to his new girlfriend, or maybe he will refuse to ever hang out with me again because I'm weird. No, no. That's stupid. Uh...
"Hayley?" he asked, confused why she had so abruptly stared into space, zoned out.
"Sorry Josh," she started, her voice only a breath, her heart thumping against her chest, "What is it?" her voice came out harsher, edgier than she had originally wanted.
"Oh, okay," he responded, "Well I wanted--no, I am wondering, maybe you'd...you know...want to hang out?" he paused, quickly adding, "There will be people. Like our classmates, you know. Jaelyn, Madison, Alexa, Mike and all of them. We are going up the hills to hike and start a bonfire. It's not going to burn the forest down, I swear. We've done this many times," he continued, trying to make it sound as safe as possible, "And we can easily evacuate because there are many rangers, and--"
Hayley stopped him with her smile. "Thanks Josh," she started, "for being so...persuasive. I'd love to come with you. It will be fun."
The only problem were Jaelyn, Madison and Alexa, the exact girls who annoyed her. She knew for a fact that they had whispered and gossiped about her behind her back more than a couple of times. It was irrational to hate such girls, Hayley knew, because it wasn't going to be worth it to pay any attention to people who were so self-absorbed. She figured as long as Josh was at the bonfire, all would be well.
"When is it?" Hayley asked, after the brief pause.
"This Saturday. I can pick you up if you want."
Hayley thought through this for a second. Her mom would probably be all embarrassing and ask too many questions if a pack of kids showed up at their house. "No, I'll walk to your house. You can email me directions," she announced, her mind made up. It would be too much of a risk if her mother was there.
"Sure, sure. I'll see you then," he said. Then they both began their walk home.

My Heart CH.2

My Heart: A Joshayley Story
CHAPTER 2

So Hayley made her way toward the lockers, still being watched. This attention was not really the kind you wanted. She looked at the blue lockers against the walls...locker 110...111...112...

and finally, 113.
Hayley's locker.
She stared down at the yellow paper with her combination written on it, twirled the lock, and it opened. Inside, it was fairly clean, a small marking from a silver Sharpie pen was written on the bottom, and it read "Hi!" with a smiley face drawing beside it.
Hayley smiled. Even though she had no idea who wrote it, she liked the feeling of having it there. Something saying "hi" to her every day just made this no-good high school experience...better. Somehow.
Beside her, a brown haired, sweet smelling guy opened up his own locker. He was taller than her, (which made her feel even worse) and dressed plainly, in a black cashmere sweater and grey skinny jeans. He was, undeniably, very handsome.
"Hey," he said, not making an effort to create eye contact with her. "Awesome hair."
Hayley blushed. "Uh..thanks."
"I see you have my locker. Well, my locker from last year. Who would have known they'd get me locker 114 this year, just next to my old locker. Hope you don't mind the 'hi' written in there. The school annoyed us on not writing in the lockers, but hey, I couldn't resist. And I thought maybe it would be nice, you know?"
Hayley absently nodded, silent.
"You new here?" The boy asked.
"Yeah. I...I moved here," she muttered.
"Well at least you're quiet. Very hard to find those type of people here."
Nobody back home told Hayley she was "quiet". She was actually quite outgoing, she sang and performed, talked to everyone, and had loads of friends back in Mississippi. Why did she have to be so quiet here?
"Well I'll see you around..." the guy then paused with a confused look. "Uh..."
Then Hayley caught his drift--he wanted her to say her name.
"Hayley. My name's Hayley," she said shyly.
"Josh," he answered, returning that. They formally shook hands, and the guy walked away.
And it was simple, oh so simple. A greeting, an introduction, just a formality, really. But it stroke a chord in her. She didn't expect it--but she got it. She had actually introduced herself to someone in this school. Maybe things wouldn't go as bad as she presumed.

Once the bell that released all students to their classes had rung, the students of the school had no issues with finding their classes. Even the freshmen got through fine (those freshmen orientations were a perfect introduction to the school and its classroom locations), but this was not the case with Hayley.
She stood there in the now empty hallway, completely clueless. She had no idea where the science room was (room 23--to be exact), and was running late. She panicked, afraid of what her teacher would think.
Luck was definitely not in her favor today.

She spotted an adult in her frantic search for any human being in this place, and luckily for her it was a teacher.
"Miss! Ma'am!" Her attempts at calling the teacher ended in success--the teacher caught her glance and turned her head Hayley's way. The teacher smiled at her. "Miss, I'm running late. Do you think you could point me to room 23? I need to get to my class."
"Actually, I am the teacher for room 23. I'm running pretty late myself..." She quickly fixed the books that were close to slipping off her arms, "My name is Ms. Wells. And you are..."
"Hayley. Hayley Williams." Hayley smiled, glad to have her first period teacher here.
"Well let me lead you to room 23, Ms. Williams. I am the teacher anyways."
Hayley thanked her and followed behind her. She wished to help Ms. Wells with all the things she carried, but hesistated to do so.
When the teacher entered through the door, the students went silent. Hayley took the vacant seat in the back row, trying her hardest to ignore the penetrating stares that followed her every step. A few kids around her laughed.
"Sorry I'm late class!" Ms. Wells said, dumping down all her books at the front desk.
"Is she your mom?" Someone whispered to Hayley. "No! I was just..." Ms. Wells cut Hayley off, yelling out "Welcome!", and beginning to talk about herself. "Congratulations on making it to senior year here," she continued, "This is a very, very important year for most of you."
Hayley scanned the classroom crowd. She saw Josh in the front row. She was in such a hurry to find a seat earlier she didn't even notice him at all. She found herself staring at him, and when he stared toward the back Hayley pretended to stare out the window, or actually listen to Ms. Wells.

By second passing period, which was P.E., she found herself in a class with Josh yet again. Her P.E. teacher, Mr. Reed, seemed very fit indeed, and quite in love with physical education.

Third period was math, room 30, with Mr. Carter. He was quite a nerd, but a cool one, if that made any sense at all. He had a cheap plaid polo on and his classroom was adorned with math stuff, posters, cubes, everything you would expect in a crazy and over-obsessive math room. Josh was not with her in math, but the trio who passed by laughing, (who's names she soon figured out to be Jaelyn, Madison and Alexa) were in this class.

Fourth period and fifth period were combined classes, Language Arts and History. Luckily Josh was in this one with her, and they even talked during the meet and greet time (which the teacher, Mrs. Stokes, decided would be a good idea). They had a piece of paper with questions to ask someone in the class. Hayley built up the nerve to go ask Josh.

"So..." she began, casually, lacking the normal awkwardness that she seemed to possess while talking to everyone in this school, "Can we just get this over with?"

"You know, I find it very strange how you're in half of my classes. Most of them, actually. Anyhow, it's still great, and I'm not complaing. Fate clearly wants us to be together," he replied charmingly. "Ask away!"

"Favorite music genre?"

"Anything involving guitar."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. I have lots of musical influences." Hayley found herself smiling at this. She loved anything guitar, as well, loving the old school rock 'n roll bands that her father had introduced to her. She figured she might as well figure out how alike she and Josh were in the next few questions.

"Okay..favorite restaurant?"

"Starbucks."

"Why? It's not a restaurant."

"Yeah it is. You can eat there."

"Oh." Hayley smiled yet again. "Favorite class?"

"Probably this one. Writing is one of my highest points in school."

"Wow. I'd like to think I'm a good writer, although it's not completely true," she admitted sheepishly. He continued smiling, not leaving this conversation anytime soon.

"What's your favorite guitar brand?"

"Er--Gibsons, I guess? Although I don't have the money to afford one. God forbid, I might end up owning a Gibson soon. I don't know. It's still a long shot." He shrugged and smiled in a way Hayley considered to be completely adorable. She caught her breath. Shifted from foot to foot. Blinked. Josh was still there.

"Uh...favorite...uh..." Hayley paused, her eyes trailing toward the floor.

"What is it?" He prompted.

She was distracted by his voice, his features, the mere fact that he was even standing before her at the very moment in time. She had so much on the tip of her tongue, words that couldn't be strung together into the right sentence, into something satisfactory. She settled with a question asked in complete impulse. "Favorite word?"

"Is that even a real question?"

"Just answer it!"

"Alright then. Mischevous."

She laughed nervously. "Nice," was the only reply she managed to utter.

Mrs. Stokes stopped the students, and Hayley realized that it wasn't even that long of a conversation. "Move on to different students!" Josh moved on to some other student, and so did Hayley. At least she had one friend. Maybe this year wouldn't be as bad. It would be bad, but not as bad. She smiled at the thought, and began getting to know the others.

~Okay! Chapter 3 up very soon!~

Please give me your critisism! Thanks to all the readers so far. TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

My Heart CH.1

My Heart: A Joshayley Story
CHAPTER 1

The sunlight crept up through the satin curtains and worked it's way up the bed, hitting Hayley William's face. She turned away from it's brightness, pulling her blanket over her head, but before she knew it her mom was knocking hard against the door, telling her that it was the first day of senior year and yelling at her to get ready and wake up.
If that wasn't enough, the alarm clock began to beep, quiet at first, and louder and louder, until Hayley slammed against the snooze button only waking up 5 minutes later to the same aggravating sound.
This was how life was now. After moving to Franklin, Tennessee, nothing would ever be the same again. New school, a house still filled with boxes to be unpacked, and people who could be making fun of her bright orange hair (she knew it was a stupid decision to dye her hair the color). This is how life would be.
Hayley missed her home. Moving here to Franklin was unplanned, and quite frankly, she wasn't so happy upon hearing the news that they would be moving here. She expected nothing but a horrid little town and a high school with judging eyes and some crazy kids who got high every night. Was there any other way to put it but that?
She felt forever condemned to a life of non-eventfullness and lack of excitement while living here. She felt as if there would be absolutely nothing that would hold her interest or prosper here.
Hayley slipped on black skinny jeans and a yellow t-shirt. She ran her fingers through her messy hair and brushed it down, throwing a cursory glance toward the mirror before heading downstairs. She entered her house's plain, yet very welcoming kitchen, the smell of pancakes and butter filling the air.

"Morning Hayles!" her mother cheerfully greeted, her perky attitude doing nothing for Hayley's already mixed emotions, half of which consisted of fear and anxiety. Even pancakes were unable to lighten her up.
She slumped against the dining table. "Morning," she said plainly.
"Why so glum?" her mother asked, placing a pancake on a plate. "Wait--I know. First day jitters."
"Not exactly," Hayley replied, "More like, I don't want to go to school jitters. If that even makes any sense."
Her mother handed her the food. "Not really."
She shrugged it off. "I tried."
"Look, I don't want you to be late, Hayley. Eat up."
She obliged by stuffing a piece of the pancake into her mouth.
Her mother joined her on the table. "Your father is coming by to drop you off."

Her father had the night shift at work and barely any more time to keep up with family matters; she felt as if she barely knew the man anymore.
After a silent mulling about what the possible day's events would be, she simply placed the pancake plate into the sink and grabbed for her cell phone, slipping it into an unoccupied pocket of her backpack.
She resolved to go watch outside the window, waiting for a glimpse of her dad's car. It wasn't like it was back then, when her father had time for them. I'm probably going to be walking to and from school sometime soon, she figured, unable to contradict the fact. Her dad was always working 24/7, staying up all night and day. She worried for him sometimes, because he was stressed, but she had no idea what to do.
She finally saw the car, and rushed outside, running down the porch steps and throwing a quick "See you later mom!" behind her shoulder. She pushed her backpack into the car and shoved herself in.
"Have fun!" her mother yelled out towards her, her voice only vaguely heard as the car sped away.
"Morning rush, Hayles?" her father said, eyeing his more-than-annoyed-looking daughter.
"Nah. Just a bit of that I don't want to go to school teenage feeling you parents won't understand."
"Hey! I will understand. I'm hip," her father replied. Hayley laughed.
Snapping back into serious mode, her father said, "You'll have to walk yourself back home today Hayles. I've got work."
"Sure," was Hayley's immediate response, although the revelation shocked her a bit. She did not expect to have to walk home this soon.

The school's parking lot was draped with expensiveness. From the Cadillacs, Lexuses, Jaguars, and BMWs, not to mention lots more, all parked primly and neatly by the fresh painted white lines. Her crappy green Honda didn't stand a chance compared to this. But her father didn't seem to mind. The only thing his gaze seemed to be trailed on were the school buildings. "Good we got you into a nice school, right Hayley?"

This school was a private high school, except you could dress how you wanted to and didn't have to wear those itchy uniforms. Hayley's parents worked hard for this, and even though she's always wanted to just leave school, the love of her parents and the thought of not letting them down was what kept her going. She eyed the building. It definitely was renovated, from the stone walkways to the fresh blue and white painted buildings, and the large gymnasium. Everything seemed to reasemble fine art in a way. Her father parked against the sidewalk, and Hayley opened the door quickly, walking away unnoticed. She didn't want every eye to pass by and see how she wasn't as rich as they were--it was pressure, and the feeling of caring about what others thought dawned upon her and made her feel ugly.
She never used to care about that stuff.

Before even entering through the entrance fence, a trio of girls passed by her laughing...most likely at her car, or clothes, or hair. She ignored, but as she walked down the halls, all the made-up eyes seemed to look straight at her. She was different, but she never thought she was this much different from everyone else until now. Hayley had used to blend in with every crowd, in fact, she was used to no attention--but today was different. Everyone was staring at the "new girl".
She was right. Judging, teenage eyes, staring at how she looked. And it was extremely weird.
Nothing could be worse than this.


~WATCH FOR Chapter 2 COMING SOON~
Okay, that's that for the first chapter!
Thanks for reading, readers!
And I also wanted to say that yes, I got the facts wrong. I know Hayley went to Franklin at the age of 13 and that we don't even know how her high school looked like exactly, but I just changed up the facts for fictional and creative purposes. I didn't mean to get it all wrong, I just wanted it to be creative and different. Hopefully you guys see that. THIS IS COMPLETELY fictional. Please DO NOT TAKE away from me. I've worked my butt off on this. Leave your comments and tell me what you think! Thanks!

Also I'd just like to think the amazing hopefulxlies from buzznet for making the great banner you see above! (: