Written for day 11 of fictober.
Arisa turned her piano on in a practiced motion, setting the volume low for warming up. Her bandmate, Kasumi, sat on the other side of the basement and was deeply involved in the process of tuning the strings on her guitar one by one. It took her a while since she was still learning, but she got better every day. The rest of their bandmates hadn't arrived yet. They probably got distracted by a cat or a chocolate coronet, Arisa thought as she started a scale. She could handle being alone with Kasumi until they arrived; she often was.
Kasumi strummed the strings of her guitar all together as Arisa finished the first scale.
"Hey Arisa!" Kasumi bounded towards her, almost smacking her guitar into the wall in the process. "Are you… wait…" She stopped mid step and mid word. "Never mind." Kasumi spun on her heel, almost touching the wall again, and retreated back to her original spot.
The whole interaction lasted only a few seconds and left Arisa feeling whiplashed. She was starting to rethink handling Kasumi alone.
"Hold up." Arisa raised one eyebrow as she called out to the other teen. "What do you want?"
Kasumi turned back towards Arisa sheepishly, hugging her guitar to her chest. "It's nothing." She chuckled, a forced sound to Arisa's ear. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to hang out after practice, but I remembered that you take care of the plants on Thursdays."
How surprisingly thoughtful of her and how unusual. "You remembered that?" Arisa asked, unable to keep the incredulousness out of her tone. Since when had Kasumi known her schedule?
"You may think I don't remember things," Kasumi puffed up her chest. "But I will never forget!" She lifted one hand in a fist, and was lucky that her guitar was strapped over her shoulder or it would've clattered to the ground.
Arisa's cheeks warmed, either in second hand embarrassment or something else. "Didn't that just happen?" She scoffed.
"It won't happen again!" Kasumi insisted with a grin.
The sound of footsteps came from above, signaling the arrival of at least one other band member. They brought a stray animal with them, turned out to be a dog and not a cat. Arisa made Tae take it back outside, ignoring the crocodile tears.
Soon rehearsal would begin, minus the dog and plus Kasumi having to retune her guitar. Afterward, just as Kasumi said, Arisa would groom her plants.