Taylor crumpled up his piece of paper and threw it into the trash, god, why couldn’t he write this stupid song? He had it so clear in his head, but every time he even attempted to try it on his keyboard or to sing it under his breath it came out all wrong.

Maybe I don’t have any songs left to sing, he realised. Maybe my well dried up and left me bare and barren.

He shook his head and tried on his keyboard again, singing the words to himself, frowning hard:

But you’re on my mind, no matter what I do

Somewhere in my heart I’m still holding you

You’re still inside, no matter what I do

I had a love to believe in

But we…we…

(***Authors Note: The above song is from "No Matter What I do" by Will Mellor. ***)

Taylor slammed his hands on the keys as he forgot the words, "damn it!" he hissed at himself, he switched the keyboard off stubbornly and he turned away from it, the tiredness was beginning to settle in, he checked the clock on the counter, it was almost four in the morning, he had four hours to get sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Lauren arrived at the Hanson residence at precisely four fifteen that Thursday afternoon, and she was told to go down to the Garage where Taylor was spending his short-lived free time alone practising on his keyboard.

Lauren nervously walked down the hall to where Diana Hanson urged her to go, and opened the door quietly, and peered in. She could already hear the music that flowed from Taylor’s fingertips onto the keyboard before him, he was standing hitting the keys as if he were trying to beat them like a conga.

She watched, bemused for a few moments, leaning against the banister of the short flight of stairs, soon he was singing along to the music he played, in a voice that was clear and strong.

"I never thought I’d change my opinion again

When the madness stops then you will be alone…"

He raised his eyes from the keyboard, feeling her presence there, hovering over him somehow, he instantly felt defensive, this was a girl who was convinced his keyboard playing was bad, he certainly didn’t feel like performing in front of her. "How long have you been standing there?" he questioned.

"Long enough," she answered, she walked down, holding onto the strap of her rucksack which was over one shoulder. "Did you write that song?"

"No, actually it’s by Savage Garden, I just picked up the tune by ear…" he explained quickly, he switched his keyboard off, his cheeks going red.

He blushes easily, Lauren realised, she walked over, she didn’t know what to say to him when she reached him, she just looked at him, his eyes had dropped down to his keyboard, she studied his eyes, as much as she could see, she’d never really noticed how beautiful his eyes were. A moment later, he raised his eyes to hers, "Did you go over the notes I gave you?" he asked, sensing it was time to get to business.

"A little, I haven’t had much time," Lauren confessed, "I had to study for a big Geography test…" she explained, "and me and my friend were writing a song until almost midnight last night," she added, sounding a little tired.

"What did you go over?"

"Um…the first two notes you wrote…"

Taylor was about to reprimand her for not studying the notes he’d gone to so much trouble writing for her, but then, he had to remind himself, there was a time he’d ignored his school work for songs and music, there had been so many times he’d done that, he understood it. He sighed, "fine," he said finally, "you’re gonna need to go over them before we begin, so…um…you can sit here and go over them," he motioned to the couch which was more comfortable than those chairs in the schoolroom. "I’m gonna go get a soda, do you want anything?" He asked, he lowered his voice softer, his patience with her today was a lot better than usual, he wasn’t sure why.

"Um…soda would be fine," she confessed, she moved over to the couch and she sat down stiffly.

He nodded, then left her alone.

Lauren looked around the garage nervously, she’d never been shown this room of the house, she’d seen the kitchen, the living room, the schoolroom and the hallway, but never this room. This was their studio, she realised, seeing the drums set up in the corner, two electric guitars were propped up against the wall, an acoustic guitar was sitting in a case near a keyboard which was on the floor, and Lauren counted at least five keyboards, difference sizes, different capabilities. The walls of the ‘studio’ were plastered in graffiti of cartoon spaceships, superheros, and other such things, some were impressive pieces of art, all coloured in wonderfully, others were left in black and white. The name ‘Hanson’ was plastered all over the place too, and there were a lot of the band logo banners and other logo items just about everywhere. The place was slightly untidy, lyric sheets were on a cluttered counter, along with pens, piles of cables, and a few empty soda cans.

Shaking her head at her tutor and his brothers messy studio, Lauren began pulling things out of her bag, when she heard the creek of the door, she turned, looked up, and saw Isaac making his way down.

"Ike," she smiled brightly.

"Hey," Isaac reached the bottom of the stairs and he walked over to get his acoustic guitar, "study time, huh?" he smirked.

"Yeah, your brother has gone to get me soda," Lauren stated.

"I hope he’s being a lot friendlier than usual," Isaac put down very firmly.

"Well, more less-of-an-asshole than usual," she stated, grinning.

"He’s not that bad, he just kinda puts up walls until he feels comfortable with people, he’ll ease up hopefully…" Isaac trailed off, he walked over, holding his guitar case.

"Kinda guitar ya got there?" Lauren changed the subject.

"It’s a Taylor," Isaac answered, "Kinda my favourite guitar…" he explained, he opened the guitar case to show her.

"My friend plays guitar…she has a Taylor too, I’m pretty sure of it," Lauren admitted, she reached over and plucked one of the strings…"

"Oh, yeah…" Isaac remembered. "About Zac teaching your friends cousin…he agreed."
"Cool!" Lauren grinned.

"Thing is Zac isn’t too mobile at the moment, so he’d have to teach her here…and if ya like ya can all practise here, it would be really interesting to work with another band, I think," Isaac admitted.

"Okay, well, how about tomorrow, I bring Ashley and Nicole with me after school? – I’m gonna have to be here anyway for studies, so I’ll just make them tag along." Lauren questioned.

"Sounds cool," Isaac smiled, he sat down beside her, holding his guitar, strumming it a little, picked out ‘Mmmbop’ effortlessly.

Taylor returned at that moment, with the Sodas, seeing Isaac was chatting to Lauren – and that Lauren wasn’t even going over the notes he’d written – he felt agitation begin to rise again, not understanding why he felt so angry. "Um…you’re not looking at the notes," he pointed out.

"Well, I was momentarily distracted," Lauren confessed.

"Yeah, well, Ike was just leaving," Taylor stated.

Isaac rolled his eyes and got up, "see you later," he said, he gave her a soft smile, brushed his fingers against her shoulder, and he took the guitar and left.

Lauren accepted the Diet Dr. Pepper Taylor handed her, "thanks," she said quietly.

"Okay, so where were we?" Taylor asked, he sat down, holding a few books, "Oh, yeah, I went over these, I’ve put post it notes on the pages where I think you’re gonna have to really study hard..." he explained.

Lauren watched as Taylor sifted through a book, his concentration evident in his eyes. What is it about this guy? She thought, she looked at the page he was just to seem like she was actually paying attention, truthfully she couldn’t find herself paying attention to anything he said. Today, she prayed for the will to pay attention.