Chapter 2

7:45 a.m. Saturday

Today, today of all days we have rehearsals. It's not that I don't like practice with the guys (plus Rosalina) it's just that band rehearsals aren't as fun as they use to be, you know everyone goofing around, the occasional Nat and Rosalina teasing, but now those moments are just a thing of the past.

Now the band spends most of their time fighting about every little thing. Even Thomas and David who were always like brothers are almost completely rivals now. The only people who still seem to have common sense in the band now are our band manager, Cooper, Nat, and Rosalina. They try to keep order, but its getting harder and harder and I try to help but can't. Even through everyone is busy arguing I know I'm not the only one who sees it, I mean no one is blind and I know it hurts, but everyone knows it's gonna happen: the group is going to split.

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I went downstairs already knowing no one was up yet. Today band rehearsals started at 3:00 p.m. sharp and hopefully everyone was planning on going. Thursday was a nightmare when we got into an argument about nothing really at all. I can still remember Thomas's last words.

"'Everybody's Cried At Least Once' playback 4," said Cooper pushing the mic button. I looked up for the first time during practice today only to see Quasim staring at Rosalina apparently only to get at Nat (which was working alright). At every chance while he was singing, Nat would glance at him trying to signal to Quasim to knock it off, which he wasn't getting. Rosalina was fully aware of the situation, but was trying fool everyone into thinking she was completely oblivious to the complete drama in the band at that point and that everyone was about to snap.

"Qaasim, you wanna know what your problem is?" shouted Nat throwing everyone off tune, "Your problem is you just can't stand not being the center of attention." "You being the center of attention? Oh, Nat, Nat, Nat," said Quasim walking over to him, "You see, you've got it all wrong my brother, I know everyone loves me; it's a proven fact." Nat made a disgusted face at him then turned. "You're not always right, Qaasim. On the matter of fact on the scale of 1-10 you're right, once, maybe," said David standing up for Nat, "You see Qaasim, everyone does not love you. I can't even stand to be in the same room with you and I bet Casey can't earthier.

I've got a hand-it to David I liked that he always stood up for people, but this wasn't his one of his finest moment. Casey is this girl in Nat and Qaasim's science class and apparently Qaasim really liked her because they went out for about a month, but for some reason Qaasim cheated on her with this girl named Sara. "She probably thinks you're the worse guy in the world now," sneered David, "And you never even apologized to her; now do you think everyone would love you." Qaasim stared at David as he went on; cold burned in his eyes. "And you never listen to anyone..." "David, that's enough," Nat interrupted. "No Nat, he should here this before loud mouth Casey tells him in the hallway. Qaasim pushed David back hard enough to throw him off balance.

I made myself as small as possible, I didn't want to get involved especially now. When Qaasim pinned David to the floor I think I saw a single tear fall from his left eye. I had never seen Qaasim cry before he had always tried to be so tough and as I watched him wrestling around on the floor like this with David he seemed as vulnerable as I would ever see him.

"You guys stop it right now," Nat said trying to pull them apart. Cooper had rushed in trying to do the same, but it was clear things had already gotten way out of control. "Guys no, you guys stop it." I looked over to Rosalina. I could clearly see tears in her big brown eyes. For once Nat seemed not to be paying her any attention. I felt sorry for her having to witness the decline of our band, but what could we do?

Thomas on the other hand was another question; he was just watching his best friend since birth get beaten up by Qaasim. His eyes were big as if they were egging Qaasim on. The brown monsters within his eyes looked as through any minute if Qaasim didn't finish David off they would. And I couldn't take it any more. "Thomas, what is the matter with you?" I yelled over the mob on the floor. "Nothing," was Thomas's only answer. "That's right you're doing nothing, nothing to help your best friend!" I yelled walking over to Thomas. "You know what," he said pointing a finger at me; "I don't have to take this." He walked towards the door mumbling. When he began to walk out the door he paused, but only to say: "I'm sick of you guys always pestering me about this and about that, I guess what I'm trying to say is NBB I'm out!" There was suddenly silence, time stood still, no one spoke or fought. "I'll go talk to him," said David when he finally managed to squabble away from Qaasim's grip.

And I haven't seen Thomas since then. Nat says he didn't even show up for school on Friday.

I decided to go for a walk since my Dad and Nat usually got up around 9:00, well at least my Dad, (maybe).

I didn't really have anywhere to go so I just let my feet do the walking for me. Where I ended up was not the place I wanted to be right now.