Toby stood off to the right of the main stage trying to peek at the crowd. One glance to her guitar on its stand near center stage. A glare to the microphone set up next to it. She tried to ignore how heavy her limbs felt due to the post-lake extra workouts she had been putting in. Everything that was even slightly off seemed to scream for Toby's attention. She snapped her eyes shut. Three in, three hold, four out. Calm. With each repetition she felt a little more in control.
Someone clapped her shoulder with their hand, resting it there. Toby opened her eyes to a smiling Luke.
"Ready, kid?"
Toby flashed her most confident smile accompanied with a convincing nod.
"Just look back at me if you get nervous, okay? People love when you interact with the drummer." He winked with a smirk. "Will and Danny are going to be up there with you too. We've got you."
Danny chose to interrupt the nice moment in his signature way: by being an ass.
"You remember all the songs, right Toby? It'd be a shame if you were to, say, mess it all up for us in front of a crowd."
Toby rolled her eyes and threw the almost empty beer can in her hand at him.
"Hey!" He shouted as he stepped out of the way.
Luke and Will laughed. Then Will cleared his throat dramatically.
"So Tobin." The tall brunette almost-raised her eyebrow at the use of her full name. "We wanted to formally ask you to join Real Justice and The Hunk. We were going to wait until after the show to make a decision but you mesh so well with us and the past couple of weeks we've sounded really good. What do you think?"
"What about Jay?"
"They need to re-break one of his fingers. It didn't set right. He won't be able to play for a while longer and even after that probably not anything other than simple songs."
"Damn, dude." Toby breathed out. "That sucks. Is he alright with this? I mean, obviously he's not alright with it but what does he think?"
Luke laughed at the concern. "That's sweet of you, Toby, but Jay was going to quit after this year anyways. He's moving back home. Jay's upset but it's okay with him. You have his blessing."
"Alright, um, can I have until after the show to decide? Maybe longer? I just wanna be sure before I commit. Oh, and there's basketball. Did you guys think about that?"
"We did." Will began. "We can use the rest of summer and before your preseason to teach you our other songs then after that we can work practice around your schedule. We're not super serious about this so we can be pretty flexible."
Will flashed a smile as Luke was nodding his head like the question was directed at him. Danny was the only one that hadn't said anything yet. Toby turned her attention on him.
"Dude, I'm down. You know I like you. You're fun to play with and not crazy. And I like the variety you bring. We do country now." He shrugged. "I mean it's country lyrics made rock but still, it's another thing in the mixing pot."
She looked back to Luke. He was her real tie to the band, at least at the start.
"Okay, I'll let you guys know tonight or tomorrow then." Toby smiled at them.
Danny then handed out shots, which seemed to come from nowhere, and proposed a toast. Toby laughed at his preshow speech then threw back the shot. She shook her head to help the liquid burn its path down her throat.
"We'll do another of those before we go out." Luke suggested. "Let's go over the set list."
Toby nodded and listened as he went through the songs, mentally checked them off.
'Should I Stay Or Should I Go'
'Are You Gonna Be My Girl?'
'Hometown Hero' (original)
'Where It's At'
'Bad Habit'
-Break-
'Georgia'
'Polaroid'
'Last Nite'
'What Do I Say?' (original)
'Cop Car'
-Break-
'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'
'You Got Me' (original)
'Break Your Plans'
'Gimmie Three Steps'
'Left Hand Free'
Luke reminded the band to watch for the mistakes they chronically made then gave his own pep talk. His accent made everything seem so dramatic. Toby tried to stifle a few tipsy laughs at his weird, foreign slang then they threw back another shot.
