Chapter 1 - And It All Started So Normal (Peyton)

18 Years Later

The screeching of the alarm clock jolted me awake. I frantically patted around for the snooze button. I took a breath of relief when it stopped, I tossed the covers aside and shivered when the cold air hit me. Rummaging through my drawer for clothes I pulled out a pair of jeans and a white shirt. I went into my bathroom and changed. I applied a bit of makeup, the eyeliner making my gray eyes stand out, and tied up my red hair into a ponytail. The bottom of my hair tickled my neck since it was so short.

I put on a pair of dangly earrings and my necklace. It was the only thing my birth parents left me. A long rose quartz crystal pendant on a chain. It only added to the questions I had for them. Was it so they know it was me when they came back for me? Like in Annie?

"Peyton!"Mom called from the kitchen.

I smiled and made my way to the kitchen. I could smell the waffles before I saw them. It was my mom's tradition to make waffles on birthdays.

"Happy birthday! Look I drew you this! Its me and you!" Auggie - my seven-year-old little brother - held out a peice of paper if stick figures that somewhat looked like us.

"Thank you, Auggie. Morning Mom, "I grinned as I watched her stir waffle mix.

Even though I wasn't actually related to my mom, we had our similarities. Fair skin, sharp jawline. But she had brown eyes and mine were gray, she was slender and I was bony and delicate.

I didn't look anything like dad though, Auggie was a spitting image of him.

"Your Dad had to go into work, but he will be at dinner tonight," Mom admitted feverishly.

I nodded, I understood.

Dad was the one who took me home after a long night at work, eighteen years ago, I was left on the bank steps. My name was embroidered on my baby blanket.

Now it just sat tucked under my bed.

"What's your plans for the day? It's a nice summer day, you should go to the park or something," Mom said cutting up food for Auggie.

"I'm meeting Cooper and Lucy at the cafe. Then I have band practice." I explained drenching my waffles in syrup.

"Sounds good,"

I nodded and finished my food. Sliding my feet into some shoes and grabbing my purse, I gave Auggie a kiss goodbye and waved to my mom.

"Alright see you guys at dinner," I told her my hand on the doorknob.

"Be safe, love you!" She called as I shut the door.

I walked down the apartment steps and onto the street. It was a short walk to the cafe.

I smiled when I saw Cooper and Lucy in our booth.

I gave Lucy a hug and sat next to Cooper, greeting him with a kiss.

"Happy birthday!" Lucy squealed

"Thanks,"

She shoved a bag in front of me with tissue paper sticking out of it.

"You know I don't like gifts," I teased with a smile.

She gave me a doubtful look.

"Kidding, give me!"

"I've seen your closet you need this for tonight," She watched me with a devilish smile.

I quirked an eyebrow and started to remove the packing. I removed a thin piece of clothing. It was a short gray crop top.

"I need this for dinner with my family?" I asked hoping they were joking.

"No," Cooper drawled out. "It's for were going after dinner with your family,"

"And where's that?" I asked scrunching up my nose.

"It's a surprise,"

I leaned back and tried to think about where they were taking me that I needed less clothing.

"What time did Alex want us to meet?" I asked hoping to change the subject. Lucy took a sip from her drink and looked over at Copper, exchanging a secret message.

"In twenty minutes," he sighed and wrapped an arm around me.

"Sooo Cooper and I were talking and we want to kick Alex out of the band," Lucy said twirling the straw in her cup, avoiding eye contact with me.

I raised my eyebrows and looked at them both.

"You want to kick out our lead singer and band manager? Not to mention he provides our practice space?" I asked dumbfounded.

"We just don't want to spend six hours practicing while we stop on and off again so that he can suck faces with his girlfriend," Lucy explained with a smirk.

"Okay well unless you can find someone with a decent voice, good leadership skills and a place to practice we have to stay with him," I told them.

It wasn't that I liked Alex, I mean he's not a bad person. A bit of a slob and can't seem to go ten minutes without a make-out session but did have his parent's garage that we could use whenever.

"Well, it just so happens that we do know someone with some of those qualities," Cooper piped up from beside me.

"Great," I chirped," Who?"

I leaned back in the booth ready to hear their suggestions.

"You,"

I drawled back disappointed, rolling my eyes.

"Your joking," I asked

"Nope. Peyton you have a killer voice and your bossy attitude would get so much done," Lucy smiled.

"I'm not bossy!" I said defensively

"Yeah sure okay," she teased, playfully rolling her eyes.

I gave her a 'what the hell' face and she continued to speak.

"You're our best bet,"

"So will you do it?" Cooper asked curiously.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair like I always did when I was getting stressed.

"Even if I wanted to, we wouldn't have anywhere to practice,"

"We'll figure it out," Copper brushed off.

"I'll think about it, right now we need to get to practice,"

"Good enough," Lucy said with a huge smile and hopped to her feet.

I followed her with Cooper behind me.

-*-

After a rough band practice, I got home six hours later. My fingers were sore from pressing on my guitar strings for too long and my feet ached from standing. I went over to my dresser and pulled out a nice cold shoulder top and stuck with my jeans. I fixed my hair and makeup and switched into some ankle boots and left for the restaurant for dinner. Locking the door on my way out, I walked down the street to the nearby restaurant, that we always had dinner at.

It was darkly lit as always and I headed over to our normal table. I smiled as I saw them.

" There she is!" Mom chirped when she saw me.

"Happy Birthday sweetheart," Dad greeted with a smile, he stood up and gave me a hug.

"Thanks," I said sitting down and picking up my menu.

Auggie was blowing bubbles into his chocolate milk.

"How was practice?" Mom asked as she looked over the menu even though we all knew she was going to have the eggplant parmesan like always.

"Lucy and Cooper want me to be the lead singer," I admitted.

"Oh?" Dad commented as he glared at my brother toostop.

"What about Alex?" Mom asked with a small frown.

"They are tired of his crap," I shrugged.

"Where you are guys going to practice then?" She asked giving me a disapproving tone, one I was growing accustomed too lately.

"I don't know. I haven't given them an answer yet,"

"Why not? You have such an amazing voice." Dad offered.

I smiled and glared at the menu hoping that would be the end of the conversation.

They seemed to take the hint and the waitress came over and started to take our orders.

After dinner, we walked down the sidewalk, they led me into an old music shop. As soon as I stepped in I could smell the scent of old wooden instruments, and polish.

Dad gave me a big grin and tucked his thumb into his belt loops.

I cocked an eyebrow at him, giving him a side-eye.

"Anyone you want, it's yours," he stated.

My heart thrummed and my eyes bulged.

"Really?!" I gasped.

He nodded and I flung my arms around his neck, He rocked backward a bit before he fought his balance again.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I squealed.

"Your welcome, only the best for my girl,"

I drew back and let my eyes wander over all the new and old guitars, Slowly I stepped away from my family and walked down the sale of guitars. There were mostly newer models, tight brand new strings, shiny and polished. They were all pretty but none of them screamed at me.

I was nearing the end and was about to settle on a stained brown martian when I spotted something tucked in the back of the row.

It was an older model Martin, a tan body with an intricate swirling vine design on it in black. The strings were all but sturdy. I pulled it into my grip, you could feel the use.

An older man cleared his throat and made me jump.

"Very nice looking but I'm not sure how well she plays anymore," He commented looking over the instrument.

"It's a 1974, the strings probably haven't been changed since 1998, you'd be doing me a favor by taking it, id sell it to you for fifty," he shrugged his shoulders.

My heart jumped in my chest and I gave a surprised gasp.

"Really? That cheap?" I baffled.

The man shook his head.

"It's a piece of old junk,"

He walked over to the cash register and struck a conversation up with my dad.

I looked back down to the beauty in my hands and gripped the neck of it in my hands.

"Not to me,"

-*-

Sneaking out was easy. Mom and Dad always went to bed early - a side effect of having a seven-year-old that had boundless engery- which benefited me greatly.

It didn't help that I had the fire escape connected to my window. I climbed down the escape and Cooper was waiting for me.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hi," I smiled as he took my hand in his.

"Come on it's about to start," he said tugging me along.

"What's about to start?" I asked trying to keep his pace.

"What about surprise did you not get?" he teased, leading me down an alley.

"Where are we?" I asked, getting a bad feeling in my stomach.

"Shhh..were here," he hushed as we slowed down.

Cooper knocked on a rusted metal door.

I couldn't help but to feel paranoid, I kept looking around, trying to see if there was anyone else around.

The door gave a creak as it opened and a very large man came out.

"The blood rains heavy tonight," Cooper stated.

The man moved aside and let us in.

"Um, Cooper seriously where are we,"

The place made my skin crawl.

We were walking down a darkly lit stairwell that reminded me of the subway. I could hear yelling and cheering ahead.

We neared the end of the stairs, Cooper smiled.

"The first rule about fight club, don't talk about fight club," Cooper answered with a slight wink.

I gave him a confused look and he pulled back a plastic curtain revealing a very large room full of people. All clumped together around something.

"Come on it's about to start,"