/36
March 21, 2014

Pete walked into the Acre behind Gary.
Shannon had invited them all there to help them "relax, and take their minds off of writing the album", but Pete knew what he really wanted, he wanted the guys to see what they'd be up against in the competition. He probably also wanted Gary to see how serious the situation was.
And Pete figured that if it was that obvious to him, then Gary definitely knew.

He and Gary walked up to the table where the others were seated.
"Hey, guys," Pete said with a smile. Everyone else returned the smile as they greeted him, except Connor, who gave him a mocking smile, and quickly looked away.

Pete sat down, confused by Connor's strange attitude, but decided to brush it off.

"I don't really see anyone to be worried about, here," Jaime said to Shannon.
"I mean, if we did this, we should make it, no problem."

"I knew there was something else you wanted me here for," Gary said bitterly, as he sat down.

"Just hear me out," Shannon said, holding up his hands.
"I've already talked to Parker, and he said it's not a problem, and the rest of us agree; it's a good idea."

"We're losing our audience, here," Nick added.

"And all we have to do," Shannon continued, "is remind people that they liked us first, and why they liked us first. This contest is the perfect way to do that."

"Or the perfect way for us to make giant assholes out of ourselves," Gary said.

"So we make assholes of ourselves," Shannon said, waving a hand dismissively, "then we release our album, go on our tour, and forget about it. But we can't start our career, by missing opportunities."

Gary sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"And you all think this is a good idea?" He asked, as he looked around the table. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Gary sighed and looked over at Shannon, who was holding his hand out to Gary across the table, and raising his eyebrows expectantly.
"Fuck it," he said with a light smile, as he clasped Shannon's hand in his own.
"I mean, what else do we have to do until the tour starts?"

"Awesome," Shannon said, grinning back at Gary. Pete understood why the others were so excited for this contest. It wasn't just that they wanted to reclaim their audience, they hadn't played any shows, since they got back from New York.
In fact, the only time they got to play, was when they were working on their album.
He wondered why Gary wasn't as anxious to play as the others.

"There's our biggest competition," Jaime said to no one in particular.

Gary turned his head just in time to see Adam walking through the crowd with his band.
They were headed toward the back room.

Pete couldn't help but notice the change in Gary's demeanor as soon as he had spotted Adam. While he didn't want to do anything to spur their rivalry, he did find it a little amusing that Gary had found himself at odds with another red head.

"So what's the plan?" Gary asked between clenched teeth.

"There's only ever one plan," Shannon replied.
"Practice like crazy. This needs to be our best show yet."

The competition was taking place on April fourth, which meant that the band had only a little less than two weeks to practice, and they used every moment they could.
Writing the album was put on temporary hold, since they planned to use several of their already written songs. However, they were including two brand new songs on their playlist for the competition.

Pete attended every practice session that he could, as much for moral suppourt as to hear the new songs.
There was no doubt that as a band, the guys were unstoppable. they worked perfectly together, and even though they hadn't played much recently, none of them were missing a beat. To Pete, watching them was like watching a finely choreographed dance; each one of them had their own part to take care of, and they all respected and complimented each other's abilities.
They really were unstoppable.

Adam and his band though, were perhaps equally unstoppable.
From what Pete had seen of them, they had slightly different methods from Caesar, and it was clear that Adam considered himself to carry most of the weight in the band, but they were just as passionate, just as dedicated.
They were almost an anti-Caesar.

Pete couldn't make it to every practice though, and he felt that it was just as well. Every time he did show up, Connor had a strange attitude toward him, and always had a snide remark to make whenever Gary wasn't in the room.
He couldn't make sense of Connor's recent change in demeanor. Pete felt that he was acting almost like a jealous ex-boyfriend would. But while they had spent a lot of time together over the years, Gary had never mentioned having any kind of romantic relationship with Connor.
Besides, he was straight.

Pete had no reason to think that Gary was lying to him, especially after a recent conversation. Gary had told Pete about the man he'd slept with the night of the gallery, after they'd fought and broken up.
Pete was initially upset, but he quickly realised that what Gary had done wasn't very different from what he had done with Adam. They had both been looking for someone to make them forget about each other. Judging by the way things turned out, Gary had been as unsuccessful as he had been.

The two of them had realised that there was nothing really to forgive, and had decided that it more important to move on, and focus on the future. This alleviated something of the odd mood Gary had been in lately, but Pete could still see that something was off.
Whatever that was, he knew he wasn't going to find out until Gary wanted him to.
Normally, he'd let something like that nag at his brain until he couldn't think of anything else, but with graduation coming up in June, and Caesar's tour starting shortly after, he had enough on his plate.

The end of his classes meant a final project, a project that could possibly already be finished. He and his other classmates were tasked with creating something that they would leave behind, to be displayed in the school. The intention was to show future students what they could achieve. Pete had seen various works of the sort from previous students, displayed all over the school, anywhere they had room, really. The idea that his work would join them was simultaneously exciting, and worrying.
He had toyed with the idea of starting a new piece, something fresh that no one had seen before. That would require most of his time, however, and he wanted to be free to suppourt Gary and the others when they needed it. He also wanted to be able to spend his last weeks in school relaxing and looking toward the future, rather than frantically painting.

He did have one painting that no one had seen.
No one but Julia.
He could touch that one up, and submit it. It would certainly save him some time, and free him up for other things, and it wasn't a bad painting.
In fact he liked it quite a lot.

It was a decision he'd have to think about.
But as the weeks passed by, and the band competition grew closer and closer, Pete knew that he'd already made his decision.