Chapter 1: Hello World, I'm Your Wild Girl
Vanessa Enoteca, lead vocalist, lead guitarist and main composer and song-writer of the Punk-Rock, all-female band Arresting Dark Weave, held back a yawn as she sipped her dangerous mixture of coffee, an energy drink and a dash of rum. She was sitting in a fancy flowery café with her dear friends Yami Sukehiro and Charlotte Roselei.
Normally, Vanessa wouldn't dare be seen in a place that had been decorated like someone vomited pastels everywhere. Her friend Yami, the lead guitarist of the Punk-Rock band The Black Bulls was also out of a place here—big, burly and mean-looking.
But it was Charlotte's favorite café and Yam was besotted with his fiancée.
"So, we asked you here because we want you to create the music for our wedding," said Charlotte. She was a blonde, blue-eyed prim and proper rich woman from the Roselei Family and the Second Chair Cello in the Clover Kingdom Classical Orchestra.
Originally, Vanessa hadn't liked Charlotte for two reasons—one that Vanessa had feelings for Yami a few years ago and second that Charlotte was way too pretty (was Vanessa a bi-disaster? Yes, yes she was). But Charlotte hadn't been the type to want to "change" Yami like many of Yami's past flings and Charlotte made the effort to get to know Yami's friends. Vanessa and Charlotte became friends after one memorable night of bar-hopping that bonded them for life.
Vanessa grinned, despite her tiredness at being awake until 4am and only getting four hours of sleep and suffering through her hangover. "I'd love to! We need some bangers for the reception."
"Agreed," said Yami.
"We asked my friend Nozel to help," said Charlotte. "He can guide you through the more classical parts."
"You want remixes of the classic wedding things? The Wedding March and stuff," asked Vanessa. She didn't know much about Charlotte's friends, except the cutie Noelle and Lady Finesse, the love of Vanessa's friend Finral's life. (Finral was the lead vocalist of The Black Bulls). Vanessa didn't fail to see Yami's face darkened at the mention of this Nozel guy. Interesting.
"Yes. I needn't give my parents more of a heart-attack," said Charlotte, a rare grin on her face. Charlotte's Resting Bitch Face was amazing in Vanessa's opinion. "But the rest of the music, please do anything."
"Great. I'm in. Send me this Nozel guy's contact info. We only got six months until the wedding," said Vanessa.
"Thank you! I told you that Vanessa would be cool about it," said Charlotte. That last part directed at Yami. Yami scowled.
"Yeah, yeah," said Yami. "She'll do good work. She always does."
It was rare to get praise from Yami, so Vanessa laughed. "I love you two."
This caused Charlotte and Yami to both sputter in embarrassment at Vanessa's pronouncement. Vanessa kept laughing, ignoring the looks from the other café patrons.
When she returned to her apartment, she didn't immediately collapse on the couch. Instead, she grabbed the apartment shared laptop. Vanessa lived with her bandmates and best friends, and while they did well with the multiple gigs every night, they weren't that well off. Charmy's stomach alone made a sizable dent in their monthly budget, as well as Grey's therapy for her anxiety, Mariella's fines from her arrests, Vanessa's clothing habit and Secre's rare book habit.
She did a search for Nozel Silva. Vanessa wanted to know a bit about the person she was going to be working on the "YamiChar Wedding Soundtrack" (title TBD) with, so it made sense to check out the guy's social media presence.
What she found was sparse, except for articles on the orchestra's website and some news sites. Nozel Silva was the heir to the Silva Family Fortune, an old money family. He was the First Chair Cello, which explained why Charlotte was friends with him since they played the same instrument. But it seemed that Nozel also played other instruments and that he was the cutie Noelle's older brother.
"Hmm, interesting," said Vanessa. Nozel seemed like a boring guy, but as Vanessa's friendship with Charlotte proved, first impressions weren't always accurate. Vanessa was brash and loud and dressed the way she wanted, so she hoped that she didn't scare Nozel off. After all, creating the original music for Yami and Charlotte's wedding was a great honor.
Her sleepiness was setting in so she wrote an email to Nozel Silva asking about when they can meet to start brainstorming, before she passed out on the couch (not the first time, and certainly not the last time).
Email sent and Vanessa laid down and fell asleep immediately.
~to be continued