A Band is Better Than a Soloist
i've got this old guitar
the strings are rusty but it's all i need
let's gather 'round and sing a song
Zander frowns as he tries to write his song. He's been struggling for the last few days, and he has to have a song written before the end of the day. Why, you ask? Well, this Zander Robbins is a new music sensation, a new teen idol. Sort of like the new Justin Bieber (except, no, not like that at all). Normally, he just writes a song and after it goes through song-labour, as he likes to call it (really, it's just a bunch of producers changing and remixing the song), there's just about 20 percent of the original song left. He doesn't like it all that much, but he knows that's the price of being famous.
But anyway, here he is, still trying to get his song written. So far, he's got nothing. Not a single word. So instead of being inside and struggling on writing a song, he decides to go outside and maybe find some inspiration there.
He walks outside, with sunglasses and a black beanie (it's really hot, but he just doesn't want to get recognised). He decides to go to the local park, where pretty much everyone goes to, so maybe he can find some inspiration there.
When he arrives there, he quickly searches for a bench to locate himself on. He realizes that all benches are taken, so he just sits down where he's standing, on the ground. When he's all set, writing utensils ready, he looks around. There's two little girls in pink skirts chasing eachother. There's a little group of elder people who are just talking on a normal Sunday afternoon. There's two guys on skateboards who run into a big group of tourists. All common things, but no luck in finding a subject to write a song about. He's just about to give up when suddenly, there's someone sitting next to him.
It's a girl about his age. The first thing he notices about her are her eyes, which are an intruging hazel color. Her brown curls bounce in a way he's never seen a girl's hair bounce before (if that's even possible).He quickly lets his eyes trail down her body (which looks very good). She's seen him, and rolls her eyes, when she decides to speak up.
"You know, the beanie's a very good idea. I should really wear one too, just in case it starts to snow."
Not trying to laugh at her funny sarcasm, he just grins and answers with the same sarcasm.
"The LA weather is very unpredictable, you know."
She laughs and extends her hand.
"Stevie."
He shakes it.
"Uhm... Zander."
He expects realization to hit her, but she smiles and looks over to the big buildings on the edge of the park.
Clearly, this girl isn't like any other teenage girl. Zander's fairly sure she's never even heard of the famous Zander Robbins (aka himself).
It is then that he realizes there's actually a billboard of him on one of the buildings Stevie's looking at. Stevie chuckles and points at it.
"You look a bit like that guy over there."
Zander shrugs. "You think so?"
"Well, maybe from a distance. I can't really see, you know, since you've got that very handy beanie on your head."
But Zander isn't really paying attention anymore because right at that moment, this girl walks by, and on her tanktop he sees te two words.
Zander Robbins
Not really thinking, he grabs Stevie's hand and pulls her away, to prevent her from seeing it and putting the pieces together. She demonstrates ("Zander- What are you doing- My bag!") but after that she follows him.
He takes her to this really quiet place. It's a very small park, right next to the apartment building he lives in.
She falls silent and looks around in awe, because it's beautiful.
"Why'd you take me here?"
He shrugs again, but inside he's still freaking out. "I don't know, I just felt like going to a quieter place."
She nods. Then, some of his sheet music flies out of his bag, due to a bit of wind. She catches it, and he tries to grab it, but she quickly moves out his reach and reads his song. It's one of his elder songs, and he's fairly sure there's about 5 percent of the original song used in the final cut. The final cut, however, turned out to be a big succes, so he just went with it.
She's finished reading, and she looks up to him. "It's a really good song. Did you write this?"
"It was in my bag, why else would I have it with me?"
"I don't know, I figured with the beanie you kind of look like a burglar."
He smiles. "You've got some reasonable thinking."
She chuckles. "I'm not kidding. The song's really good. Ever thought of doing something with it?"
He shivers. "Uhm... no, not really..."
"You should!"
"Oh, and you know stuff about music?"
She grins. "I'll have you know I'm in a band."
"Oh really?"
"Yep. We're called Gravity 4. I'm the bass player, and I also do backing vocals."
He smiles. Being in a band was always one of his dreams, before he went solo. "And you write your own songs as well, I suppose?"
Her face seems to light up even more. "Yes. I've written most of the songs, but the rest of the band writes some as well. Maybe you could join us sometime."
He has to admit: they're in pretty strange circumstances. They've just met eachother, less than an hour ago, and here they are, and she's just invited him to visit her band. That's pretty weird, but the weirdest thing is that she still hasn't realized who he is.
But then of course, right when he's thinking that, the wind acts up again, this time taking his beanie with it. And when he tries to catch it, his sunglasses silde off his nose as well. He looks up at Stevie, now all revealed, and waits for her mind to click all the pieces together.
He's forgotten that she isn't the average teenage girl and is caught by surprise when her answer isn't a scream, but just her voice.
"Oh, so your last name's probably Robbins."
She looks at him pretty seriously, and he's scared that he's dissapointed her for not telling him right away, but then he sees the corners of her mouth twist up into a smirk, and he smiles as well.
"It actually is. You got a problem with that?"
"I thought you were some kind of rich, super snobby teenage superstar, but you're actually pretty down to earth. So, no, I guess."
He smiles in relief, closing the distance between them and hugging her (yes it's been like an hour since they've known eachother - so what?). When he releases her, he whispers: "Thanks for not freaking out on me."
She nods in reply. "Care to meet the band now?"
"Well, actually, I have a song due tomorrow and so far, I've got nothing. And, since you said you write songs, I thought maybe you'd like to help."
She smiles. "Sure."
One week later
Zander opens up the curtain the tiniest bit, just to scan the audience. When he's done, he turns around, to face the four members of Gravity 4. Out of the four, Stevie's the only one who sees the hint of nervosity in his eyes, so she pulls him aside, as the other members of the band discuss some last-minute stuff.
"Hey, why are you nervous? It's not like you've never played for crowds this big."
He looks down at her. "Yeah, but... those songs didn't feel like it was truly mine, you know? And this is so real, I mean..." As he drifts off, they both go back to that day a few days ago.
Stevie and he wrote an amazing song, but he knew that if he'd hand it over to his manager, it would end up like all his songs: remixed and auto-tuned. So instead, he insisted on a song featuring Gravity 4, and the song being Stevie's and his song.
And that's where they are now. About to perform their song for the first time. Stevie looks up at him, hugs him and kisses him on the cheek. "You'll do great," she whispers, and she walks over to her ukelele she plays in the song.
Zander takes a deep breath as the curtain opens. He starts off, playing his guitar.
I've got this old guitar
The strings are rusty but it's all I need
Bring in a kickdrum, it can make a beat
He smiles as Kevin, Gravity 4's drummer starts the kickdrum.
Let's gather 'round and sing a song
Next, Gravity 4's lead singer Kacey starts singing.
I've got a shaker too
The kind of sound that wants to make you move
Next, Stevie jumps in.
Bring in a uke, it completes the groove
And they all grin as Nelson, the last member of the band, joins in on the keyboard.
Let's gather 'round and sing a song
'Cause no worry's on the Earth tonight
We're all walking off the world tonight
Come on now everyone, yeah
Come on now everyone
We're like a locomotive
Under the big hot sun
We'll chant to the Gang of Rythm
The song is never done
Come on now everyone, yeah
Come one now everyone!
They all grin like maniacs as the curtain closes and the crowd just keeps on cheering. And all Zander can think is that he likes this way better than his solo career.
So it's not a big surprise when Zander walks out of his (now ex-) manager's office, having given up his solo career.
When he gets to the park where he and Stevie wrote their song, knowing Stevie will be there, he gets a bit of a funny feeling. Lately, he's been feeling that whenever he's near her.
He gets to their bench, and sits next to Stevie, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and whispering "I did it" in her ear.
She jumps up, squeeling in happiness. Then, she realizes what sound just came out of her mouth and she sits down again, blushing, and she answers: "That's great. Can we finally become Gravity 5 now?"
He gives her a nod, to which she smiles excitedly. "It's gonna be so much fun having you around."
He nods again, giving her a smirk. "But you know what's the best part? No one can stop me from doing this."
Before she can question him, he leans in and kisses her.
When he pulls away, she blushes and he smiles.
"I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy Gravity 5," he whispers.
She looks up to him and kisses him again. After that, she grins and says: "Hell yeah, me too."
Okay. First of all, I don't even want to know where this came from, so my apologies if it's a little lame. Second, if you have never heard of Walk Off The Earth, there's something incredibly wrong with you. Walk Off The Earth are the people who covered Somebody That I Used To Know with one guitar and five people. Also, they've written the song used in this story, called Gang Of Rythm. It's amazing. I highly suggest you listen to Walk Off The Earth.
As for this fic, I didn't really like the ending, but whatever. Please let me know what you think by leaving a review, they absolutely make my day. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!