It'd been a bad day.
I was way behind on my social studies project, fell flat on my face in gym, had a headache, and felt like I was gonna puke.
Needless to say, it was not helping the breakup situation.
It was about 8 and I'd finished my homework, but I still felt bad.
I walked into my bathroom and knocked back a Tylenol.
I went back to my room, sat down on the wonderfully black comforter-ed bed, and picked up my now 10-year old guitar.
As if on cue, someone knocked.
I sighed, set my guitar back down, and opened the door. Honey was rocking on her heels, Whistle standing next to her.
"Bee!" Honey said the moment I looked out. "You're not having the greatest day, right?"
I nodded. I'd vented to her earlier.
"We have the perfect song for you!" Whistle piped up.
Please let it not be the song I'm thinking of…, I thought.
"It's not "Bad Day"," Honey assured me.
I raised an eyebrow. "So what is it?"
"You'll see-ee!" she said.
Whistle nodded, giggling.
"Oh, and bring your guitar!" Honey added.
I sighed, went back in, grabbed it, slipped out, locked the door, and followed them to the gym. Honey held the door open for us.
Longshot was already on the stage, though his drums were put away. He was leaning against the piece of border next to the staircase, looking both annoyed and exhausted.
He saw me, jumped up, and walked over, running his hand through his hair.
(They just spent the past two hours teaching me a song I've heard once in my life.)
I raised an eyebrow. He was usually a really fast learner. "But your drums are put away."
He paled a bit. (Um, yeah. They didn't teach it to me on the drums.)
I looked back at them, confused.
Whistle giggled and Honey looked… well, evil.
"We taught him to sing it!" a third voice yelled.
I looked back at the stage. Granyt and Jasliene were dragging out two stools.
My eyes widened and went back to Longshot.
"You sing?" I said, in shock.
"Not really," he muttered.
I smirked through my shock. He finally understood my pain with these girls.
"Cinnamon, come on!" another voice complained.
Lace and Jewels dragged her out from behind the curtain.
"I don't wanna have anything to do with this!" she said, too loud.
Lace stood on tiptoe and whispered something in her ear.
Her eyes lit up and she jumped off the stage. "How can I help?"
Jasliene rolled her eyes, her and Granyt being the only people still on the stage.
"Hey, swamp-heads, get out here!" she yelled backstage.
Miyuki and Abi stepped out, Miyuki half-dragging Abi.
"We're here, sheesh!" Miyuki said.
"Good." Jasliene's eyes sparkled.
The four of them climbed down and walked over. One, two, three, four… nine.
"Now go," Honey said, pushing me toward the stage.
Granyt ran back up, flailed for a small stack of sheet music, climbed up, and set it one of the stools.
I set my guitar on the edge, jumped on, leaned down, picked it back up, lifted up the sheet music, sat down, slung it over my shoulder, and looked down at it.
"Oh, Spirits, no," I deadpanned, not looking up.
Longshot sighed and sat down next to me. (Yeah. That was my reaction, too.)
I looked up at the group. "Taylor Swift? Are you kidding me?"
"Nope!" Honey said, ever so helpfully.
I sighed. I used to love this song.
Four years ago.
I looked closer and saw the Bs and Ls separating the parts. I'd completely memorized and obsessed over the song for two months, so it shouldn't be too hard.
And, of course, I had the first part.
I sighed and started strumming.
"It's just a sad picture
The final blow hits you
Somebody else gets
What you wanted again
You know
It's all the same
Another time and place
Repeating history
And your getting sick of it"
I saw the L and stopped singing, opening my ears. I'd never heard him sing.
"But I believe
In whatever you do"
He was really good. Maybe not incredible, but really good.
"And I'll do anything
To see it through"
I chimed in.
"Because these things
Will change
Can you feel it now
These walls
That they put up
To hold us back
Will fall down
It's a revolution
The time will come
for us to finally win
"We'll sing hallelujah
We'll sing hallelujah
Oh"
I dropped out again.
"So we've been
Out numbered
When we've been
Out cornered
It's time to fight
When the fight ain't fair"
He stopped, I took over.
"We're getting
Stronger now
From things
They never found
They might be bigger
But we're faster
And never scared
"You can walk away
Say we don't need this"He took it.
"But there's something in your eyes
Says we can beat this" I joined back in.
"'Cause these things
Will change
We can feel it now
These walls
That they put up
To hold us back
Will fall down.
It's a revolution
The time will come
For us to finally win
"We'll sing hallelujah
We'll sing hallelujah
Oh"
He dropped back out.
"Tonight we'll
Stand get off our knees
For what we worked
For all these years
And battle was long
It's the fight
Of our lives but
We'll stand up"He joined back in.
"Champions tonight
"And it's the night
Things changed
Can you see it now
These walls
That they put up
To hold us
Back fell down
It's a revolution
Throw your hands up
'Cause we never give in
"We'll sing hallelujah
We sang hallelujah
Hallelujah"
We stopped. I was beaming, even though I didn't know why.
Well, it'd been… fun.
The clapping drew me back to reality. I'd actually forgotten about our audience. My eyes snapped back to them.
Honey seemed to realize she'd broken up a moment. She scrambled to recover.
"So, was it fun?" I swear her eyes glowed red.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah."
Granyt leaned in next to Honey and whispered something. Honey's eyes lit up.
"I'm so drawing that later," she whispered just loud enough for me to hear.
"Uh, draw what?" I asked.
She looked up at me, alarmed. "Nothing!"
When I was in her room later, I found a very interesting picture of Longshot and I sitting on those same stools, kissing.