A/N: After a request from a friend of mine I decided to write her original story that she dropped long ago instead of her, using her own characters and plot. Many laziness periods and lack of imagination later, I managed to time it right to release the first episode of the story on her birthday. Hope she's satisfied. :3
Episode 1
A young girl walked through the mall in her hometown, looking through music stores. She occasionally glanced at her watch as her face would then sadden. On a wall in the middle of the mall's escalators she noticed two posters. One was announcing that a popular rock band, Demon Storm, was performing two weeks from then at the city square. The other below it noted that a new member with guitar skills was wanted in a different rock band. The girl ripped the poster off the wall and inspected it, looking back at her watch then back at the poster again. She scrunched up the poster a bit as she nodded insecurely.
xxx
"Come on man, shoot him down already! God, you're too slow!" an energetic young man yelled at the two boys playing video games next to him.
"Shut up Evan, I got this." one of the boys playing the PlayStation2 game replied in a slightly annoyed tone, still completely drawn into the console.
The other boy playing the game simply chuckled calmly, a confident smirk on his face, aware that his adversary doesn't stand a chance in beating him.
"For crying out loud, you had like 10 chances to kill him already. You should've let me do it instead." the young man named Evan pouted, hastily sitting down on the edge of the couch while looking away from the screen.
The other boy laughed. "Come on, Evan, you know you guys are too weak to beat me. Might as well admit it since I'll never let you."
"Stop teasing us, Theo, and shut it. I know I can beat you, just…" at that moment, his character in the game died and Game Over flashed on the screen, leaving him to complain and growl.
Evan sighed annoyedly and shook his head, looking away.
Theo, the boy with the glasses, confidently laughed. "Admitting defeat, Rei?"
"Are you kidding me?!" shouted the boy with a dyed curl, named Rei, "Now you're definitely going down." he started another game when Evan grabbed the joystick and pushed Rei off the couch.
"Fat chance, failure. My turn." he turned to face Theo, "You're history!" he drove himself into the game.
Theo sighed and shook his head lightly, not saying a word and playing along, still fully confident in his skills and aware of the other two boys' futile efforts to beat him, just like always.
Rei, sitting on the floor beside the couch and growling at Evan, wiped his posterior from the abrupt fall as Theo and Evan played another game. At that moment the doorbell of Rei's spacey apartment rang and he jumped up from the floor to answer it.
"I'll get it!" he shouted as he ran to the door while the other boys paid no attention.
Rei opened the door. "Yes, can I he-…" he stood as his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly ajar.
A cute young girl, albeit apparently very shy, stood at the door, blushing a bit.
"Who's at the door?" Theo called out to Rei, obviously able to hold his own in the game while paying attention to his surroundings, which couldn't be said for Evan who was desperately struggling to beat Theo.
Rei still stood in the same position as the girl spoke quietly. "Umm… A-Are you the one w-who put up that poster at the mall…?" she stuttered a bit, looking away from Rei the whole time she spoke, hands crossed behind her back.
Rei still kept quiet until Theo noticed something was wrong and decided to stop teasing Evan and simply end the game to check up on Rei, leaving Evan infuriated.
Theo walked up to Rei and spotted the girl at the door, that blushed even harder.
"Uhh… Can we help you…?" Theo started talking to the girl while poking Rei to gather a response from him.
"Umm…" she started, passing a flyer to Theo, "I-I wanted to…try out f-for the member you're looking for… A-Am I in the…right place…?"
All of a sudden Rei started laughing, face flushed red, frightening the girl for a moment. "You're seriously here for that?! We were just joking when we put that flyer up, we never would've thought anyone would actually apply! Especially not a cute girl like this!" he still blushed madly.
Theo whacked Rei at the back of his head. "Come on you dope, quit scaring the poor girl. So what's your name?"
"Umm… Kai…" the girl quietly replied.
Evan stood up from the couch to see what all the commotion was about, then jumped a little in surprise after seeing Kai. She noticed him and looked away, shielding herself with her hands clenched under her chin.
"Wait…" Evan confusedly spoke, "This girl wants to try out for a member of the band?" he laughed sheepishly, "You gotta be kidding…"
Theo raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't see why we shouldn't give her a go through a test." he chuckled lightly, "She did go through the trouble of actually contacting us…"
Rei jumped. "Yes!" he exclaimed abruptly, face still flushed red, "By all means give her a go!"
"Whoa calm down Rei, you're scaring her again." he directed the boys' attention towards Kai who seemed like was apparently at the verge of tears.
"Pay no attention to this freak." Theo explained as Rei cracked a huge dopey grin across his face, and Kai nodded insecurely.
Evan looked away, pouting through a faint blush. "Whatever. Test her out. I guess."
Theo laughed, facing Kai again. "Well then, shall we begin the practice?" Kai nodded again, "This way to the rehearsal room. You can trust me." he smiled at her sweetly, politely gesturing her which way to walk.
She walked past Rei, who still grinned at her dopily through a reddened face, following her movement with his eyes, then past Evan who glanced at her from the corner of an eye, still pouting and blushing slightly brighter now. Theo followed her, grabbing Rei along by his ear and pulling him towards the rehearsal room. Evan gulped and sweatdropped, following them as well.
xxx
"So…have you gained any experience with rock bands until now?" Theo asked Kai as Rei and Evan started preparing the instruments.
"No… I just…practice on my guitar at home…" as she said that her saddened gaze fell to the floor.
"Something wrong?"
She wiped her eye from a tear that poked through. "It's fine."
"…Alright then… Well, what kind of guitar do you play? Electric?"
Kai nodded.
"Ah, perfect. Just what we were looking for after the previous member left." he sat at the drums, pointing her towards the electric guitar she was supposed to play with.
Rei prepared his bass guitar and stood at the microphone while Evan finished tuning up his keyboard. Kai took a quick look at all of them, noticing how experienced they were at what they had to do as long-term members of a band, fearing she would sound terrible compared to them.
"Don't worry." Theo encouraged her, "Just give it a go and see how it turns out." he grabbed his drumming sticks.
Kai blushed again, nodding insecurely as she picked up the electric guitar and held it nervously in her hands, quickly reading through the note sheet in front of her.
"Ready?" Theo asked as the boys shouted in agreement and Kai nodded lightly, "One… Two… One two three and-…"
"Heeey!" a cheerful girl stormed into the room all of a sudden, grinning, making everyone jump in surprise.
"What the…?!" Rei jumped, "Becca, what are you doing here today?! I thought we agreed we don't have any special plans until Tuesday. It's Friday, you know."
"Oh yeah I know, I just figured I'd jump in on you guys, figured you'd be playing games at this time as usual." she pulled her tongue out towards Rei, "So, band practice? That's unexpected."
That's when she noticed Kai and seemed confused for a moment, but then quickly changed her expression to a shifty smirk. "Oooooh… I get what this is… Trying to show off your 'cool tricks' in front of a girl, huuuuuh?!" she laughed, approaching Kai who seemed frightened, "You have no idea what you got yourself into, these guys are dopes!" she grinned at her, chuckling lightly.
"Hey! Shut up Becca!" Rei and Evan exclaimed almost at the same time, and Theo simply sighed.
Kai blushed again, nearly looking like she's about to start crying. Becca's expression immediately changed to a slightly concerned one.
"Hey…what is it? Did I startle you? Sorry, I'm just weird like that." Kai shook her head, looking away, "So…did you start the rehearsal yet?"
"She's a potential new member. We're giving her a go to see if she can join as Damien's replacement." Theo explained.
"…Ohhhhh! Oh okay, I'll be totally as quiet as a bug." she gestured herself zipping her mouth and backed up a bit to sit at a chair, grinning dopily.
"…Can we start already?" Evan complained through a sigh.
They prepared their instruments again, as Theo counted down. "One… Two… One two three and…"
Kai closed her eyes and tried to relax herself as she started playing the melody on the guitar, and the boys followed with their instruments on one of their written songs. Rei sang the vocals and played his bass, Evan tuned the keyboard and Theo kept the beat through his drums. Kai started playing magnificently, much to the boys' surprise as they shared stunned looks. Becca widened her mouth slightly at her chair which quickly turned into a wide joyous smile. The boys nodded their heads in par with the beat as Kai mastered the guitar, eyes closed as if residing in another world. Everyone was shocked to see a girl who was apparently too shy to speak turn out to be a fierce musical demon. Their synchronization matched perfectly as they all got drawn into the moment and played their song expressively. Becca jumped up from her chair and gave them a standing ovation.
As they finished the song they all stared at Kai in surprise and joy, to which she glanced at all of them before blushing shyly again.
"Umm… Was I…good enough…?" she worriedly asked.
"That was brilliant!" Rei shouted in joy.
"Totally!" Becca agreed.
"You said it, she's wicked at that guitar!" Evan joined in the sharing of opinions.
Theo laughed. "So if I understood correctly…she's as good as accepted into the band, right?"
Kai smiled lightly, still blushing, as they all nodded in agreement while grinning.
"So it's settled… Welcome to Silver Flame, Kai." Theo confirmed.
She left out a faint chuckle as she wiped her tears of joy.
Becca gave her a friendly hug. "Congrats!"
Rei grinned dopily, face flushed red. "Yeah! A cute girl like you and so awesome at the guitar?! You're more than accepted!"
"Th-Thank you… I'll do my best…" she smiled faintly, blushing harder.
"Yeah, well… Just don't disappoint us or you'll be out in a heartbeat." Evan tried to be funny, slightly blushing.
"Shut up, idiot!" Rei pushed Evan directly into the keyboard behind him, as he grabbed himself by the backside and yelled out in pain. Everyone started laughing when Evan chased Rei across the room, knocking instruments down in the process. Kai laughed a bit as well, happy that she found a new place to belong in and take up as much free time away from her as possible.