Chapter 2–The days go by

Bella Swan woke from her sleep. She hadn't gotten much sleep: she'd been at a gig till late at night. One day, she thought, one day I'll leave this damn town and make a real name for myself. She got up, stretched her arms as much as she could in the cramped RV she now called home. She looked beside her, Jacob had clearly gotten up. She thought she heard him cooking something and hoped she was wrong. She never liked what he made, but felt she couldn't just turn her nose up.

She got a hairbrush and began getting to work on her hair, thinking It's always so tangled! I need some kind of conditioner… while she looked in the mirror. She was alright, she guessed, with long red hair, almond-shaped eyes and wide lips, but she showed signs of fatigue: bags under her eyes and and sagging shoulders chief among them. She corrected the latter and waved off the former. Well Bella, that'll happen. You gotta do your instruction in the day and do gigs at night, that's just how it works, she thought, and recalled last night.

It had been dark and the rain had been pouring. Not a good start by any measure. She'd managed to keep her sax from getting wet, but the sound equipment hadn't been so fortunate. They'd had to delay for 10 minutes while Al fixed it, and when they started they'd had no power. Al and Rick's trumpets' notes were dead on, Liz' french horn had been good, John's drumming was excellent, Jacob's keyboard and vocals were well-timed and well-intoned, she'd gotten her solo down perfectly, everything was technically correct but they lacked feeling. They had been more like a studio-recorded album than a live blues band.

But she had a good feeling about today. Tonight she'd perform at the Elysium café and they'd bring the house down, she knew it. Because tonight she'd perform her song. She'd been working on it for the last month and now it was finally ready. She and Jacob, they were the heart of the band, her sax, his piano and vocals, they started the band and now she was gonna be a songwriter, then they were gonna fly so high they'd leave this damn town behind them. She wondered if there'd be any talent agents there, but she didn't get her hopes up too high.

Jacob walked in as she finished combing her hair. "Hey," he began, "I made breakfast. Want some?" "Sure," she responded, wishing she didn't have to. He was so nice making breakfast all the time, so she couldn't just turn it down in his face, but his cooking just wasn't any good. Any time he made meat it was undercooked, his pancakes were often as not rough, tasteless discs and his eggs were half-burned.

As usual they ate in silence, Jacob wolfing it down while she pretended to like it. The pancakes were better than usual, but still dry and tasteless, the tiny bit of ham he left for her was barely cooked and she wondered if anyone but Jacob could eat all this and not gag. She ate mostly pancakes while he ate mostly ham, and by the time she was done Jacob had finished, cleaned his plate and started getting his things together.

They then went their separate ways, her going to Scott's lessons while Jacob went and… she honestly didn't know what Jacob was doing today, so she asked him. "I'm going to Rick's!" he responded, and with that they were off.

Her day was fairly normal; Scott providing her with more instruction on fingering and pitch and clarity. She had it all down, but she needed to keep her edge, especially for tonight. Tonight, she thought, Tonight's the night, I can feel it. My whole life, it's been leading up to this moment. Once I play my song, I just know things'll change and I can get out into the world, start touring. Meet new people, maybe even find a guy I like, and then fly, fly, fly!

That evening, she tuned her alto saxophone and rehearsed their songlist with the rest of the band, culminating in her song, "How sweet is the rain?", a soothing, slow love song with lovingly chosen lyrics and a beautiful saxophone solo at the end.

That night, the moon was out in the clear night sky as she and the band approached the Elysium café…