Hello. I'm sorry it's taking a while. If you haven't checked out my profile lately I've been trying to force myself to prepare for soccer in 3.5 weeks. That probably sounds like a really lame excuse to you guys but oh well. So on with the story….


Chapter 7: Too Soon

I went to school the next day in a rather good mood. I think that I may have been too quick to dislike Tala. Sure, he's hot-headed and cocky, and yes, he's a bit too much of a control freak, but he's not really all that bad. Well, it's more like he's tolerable. Yeah, we had our arguments but they were mostly playful bickering.

Tala approached me right before history and shoved a CD and a piece of paper in my hands. "Practice on your own," he grunted. "Learn all of the words and we'll get back to you on band practice times." I blinked when he walked away without another word. I had thought we'd made a lot of progress on the 'hating each other' thing last night. Right, this is school. He has to keep up with his reputation and his reputation says he can't be so easy to forgive someone who insulted him. I sighed. High school could be a real pain in the butt.

I wasn't on quite as bad terms with Kai and Spencer though. Yeah… they actually nodded acknowledgement to me in the hallway. That's about as far as they'll go with anybody though.

Aya's car still wasn't back from the shop so after school I drove her home. It was fun actually. I figure we got a few strange looks while we were sitting in my truck bed in her driveway singing Dir En Grey. Ah well. It was really fun. Aya's mom came out and listened to us once, clapping when we were finished.

"That was great girls."

"Thanks Mrs. Yamaguchi." She smiled at me.

"Come on Aya. We're going to help your father entertain some of his superiors. Come on." Aya groaned but waved goodbye to me before following her mother into the house.

"See you tomorrow!"

The ride home was—as it always is—uneventful. I just sang the song over and over again, frowning when I forgot some of the words in the 3rd line of the second verse. I still hadn't learned the last verse but I think it was good enough that I had almost gotten the first 2 verses down. When I pulled in the driveway I found a big silver pickup in the way of my parking spot. Frowning, I pulled into the yard. Who's that?

I opened the door to see Allison locking lips with a tall brunette on the living room couch. I just raised an eyebrow, kicking off my shoes and waiting for them to notice me. The boy noticed first and pulled away from the kiss with a scowl. "Michael?" Allison turned around, shrieking when she saw me there. "Casey! Go away!"

"Yeah, yeah. Get a room." I made my way up the stairs with a small laugh. Allison glared at my back as I left, probably to return to her previous engagement when I was out of sight. Once within the 4 walls of my room I allowed myself a grin and dove onto my bed. I couldn't tell whether I was excited or nervous. I hated spotlights but being in a band was so cool. Mom always said I was good at singing, but to here it from a group of people who weren't obliged to love you and be nice to you. …That was so much better.

I immediately jumped up again and popped the CD into my stereo. There was a pause and I heard the song come on. It seemed kind of distant and fuzzy but I listened to it anyway. The second time around I sang along, quietly at first and then in increasing volume.

"CASEY!" I jumped as Allison barged into my room, not bothering to knock. She stormed over to my CD player and pressed—well more like slammed—the stop button. "Do you mind? You've been playing the same song for the last half hour! What's your problem?"

"I'm practicing," I growled at her. Honestly, we had gotten rid of the 'new roomy' kind of attitude after the first day of school and slipped immediately into the 'annoying sister/ sibling rivalry' stage. It was record time I think. I've never grown to dislike someone so much so fast. (Except Tala, but he's okay now.)

"Practicing? For what?"

"The talent show."

She blinked. "You know about the talent show already?" She ran over to stand in my personal bubble, face right next to mine. "When is it?"

"I don't know. Aya said it'd be in about 2 weeks because it's always around the end of the month."

She sighed. "I already know that. I thought you'd know the actual day, or maybe even the time. I think I might write a song and tell Tala, Kai, and Spencer to play it. They've got the most amazing band ever! …But good luck!" She gave a fake smile and practically skipped out of the room.

"Good luck? Yeah right. You really mean: I hope you screw up so bad that you convince your mom to get a divorce and move back to Iowa." I stuck my tongue out at the ceiling. "Yeah, well guess what? I'm part of that 'most amazing band ever' and they won't sing your stupid song."

Just then I heard a crash and the sound of breaking glass. Jumping horribly, I ran out my door and down the stairs. Takeshi stood just inside the door and it looked like he was trying to piece the vase he'd knocked over back together.

"Takeshi!" He looked up at his name and I growled angrily. "Your drunk again!"

He stood up taller but nearly keeled over so he spread his feet out and grabbed the couch for support, shaking the index finger of his free hand at me. "I am naw' drunk… I'm tispy. There's a dif'rence." He worked his way along the couch and into the bedroom, arms spread wide to catch himself against the wall.

A few seconds later a shriek echoed from the room. "Your drunk, Takeshi!" I grimaced. Mom had lungs.

"Not drunk, tispy—I mean tipsy."

"Takeshi, you promised me!"

He got a guilty look on his face and his voice took on a pleading tone. "Maddie…. I-I didn't mean to. I'm not drunk."

She rounded on him. "Don't lie to me!" And with that, she stormed out of the house. The sound of the garage door opening and a car starting could be heard soon after. Mom….

Takeshi looked like he was going to cry. I carefully made my way over to him, watching carefully for a repeat of last time. He looked at me for a long moment and then burst into tears. "It's all my fault Casey! Now I'm gonna loose Maddie like I lost Tara."

I frowned and let him lean down to hug me and sob over my shoulder. Tara? Who's Tara? I thought I remember someone saying that name. It might have been Allison. Then it hit me. " Tara was you're wife before my mom wasn't she?"

He continued to cry but spoke through it. "She said that she hated me, that she never wanted to see me again. I-I think I still love her."

That must be why he drinks. It's because of the way him ex-wife divorced him. He's still not over it yet. "It's okay Takeshi. It's okay," I crooned. Comforting people was always something I was willing to do, especially when they're like this. "Now you have to choose." He didn't understand what I was talking about. "Now you have to decide whether you love my mom or Tara more. Each one of them comes with sacrifice. Mom wants you to stop drinking and to chase after Tara you'll have to give up Mom."

"I don't know who to choose!"

"Don't choose right now. How about you take a nice long nap," …and sober up, "and decide in the morning, okay?" I led him into the bedroom and made sure he was comfortable before shutting off the light and quietly closing the door. I leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the hard wooden floors. Why now? I had just gotten all excited and then this. I sighed heavily. I just hope you make the right choice, I thought, watching the closed bedroom door as if it held all the answers. I wish it did.


The next day, when I picked up Aya she still looked giddy.

"I hate to burst your bubble and everything but Tala, Kai, and Spencer still haven't acknowledged our existence in school," I told her. I mean, she still had a crush on Tala so getting to be with him in this talent show was probably a dream come true for her. That was another thing. At my old school talent shows were… pretty much ignored. Here it was practically the highlight of the first month of school.

"I know that. Who cares? Getting to work with Tala is practically a dream come true!" Told you. "And not only that, he thinks I'm good at something!" Hey, quit reading my mind! I just smiled and let her talk. I think, since we met each other, we'd both opened up a bit more. Well, to one another.

It wasn't until 4th period right before lunch that anything else really happened. I was sitting in biology, packing my things back into my bag and not really listening to the afternoon announcements when suddenly half the room jumped up.

Everyone was screaming things like:

"No way!"

"I can't be ready by Saturday!"

"They can't do that!"

And so on…. I leaned over to a blue-eyed blonde in the chair to my right. I think his name was Max. "What's happening Saturday?"

He turned to me with a frown replacing his normal grin. "The Talent Show." My eyes widened. "Everyone thought they'd get more time to prepare than this. And since it's already Wednesday they only have 3 more days to prepare something."

The bell interrupted our conversation as everyone rushed to lunch. I sat to Aya's left at our usual table while Brooklyn sat to her right. They were in a heated—but whispered—conversation.

"Do you think we'll be ready by Saturday?" (Aya)

"Not ready enough to beat Ming-Ming. We'll have to pack a lot of practice into the next 3 days to really get it down. Tala still misses a note in the 3rd verse, Spencer adds another beat in the chorus, and Casey hasn't learned all of the lyrics yet." Brooklyn hissed back. Only he could notice these things.

"Who's Ming-Ming?" I interrupted. They jumped violently.

Aya recovered quickly. "She's a freshman that writes and performs her own music. Everyone really likes her for some reason." I frowned. This could be a problem.

"…Do you?"

She looked undecisive. "It's okay I guess. I've heard better though." I listened to their discussion and ate my lunch. Or I tried. I hadn't gotten more than a few bites when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Spencer behind me. He nodded in the direction of the hall.

"Hey Tyson," Said blunette looked up at his name. "Do you want the rest of my lunch?"

"Well, if you insist." He snatched it away with an inhuman speed and began to devour it like it was his last meal. Meanwhile: Aya, Brooklyn, and I followed Spencer to where Kai and Tala stood, leaning against the wall.

"So are we gonna do this or not?" Tala demanded.

Brooklyn shrugged. "I don't see why not. But if we do we'll need a lot more practice and we have to sign up by Friday."

Tala nodded then turned to me. "In the office is the sign-up sheet. Go put our names on the list." I nodded and headed to aforementioned room. A small girl about my height with long blue hair was writing her name on the list already so I waited patiently for her to be finished.

She turned to me smiling. She was really pretty but spoke in a voice that was an octave higher than any normal human. "Here you go." She handed me the pen and headed out of the office, practically glowing with innocence.

"Huh." I turned my attention to the list. Only one name had made it there yet. There in neat handwriting read: Ming-Ming talent: singing. I quickly wrote down the band and laid the pen next to the clipboard. So that's Ming-Ming. Well, this is going to be interesting at the least. When I finally made my way back to the group it looked like they had all just had an argument, one that had happened while I was gone. "What's up?"

"Practice at Kai's after school," Tala grunted. With that the group disbanded.

"Okay…."