I remembered that we have so much time before our first concert, but it felt longer because we rehearse at most five hours a day. If you thought that was draining, you would be correct. I'm thankful for being in a band, but if you couldn't tell already, I'm a bit lazy. Sam never asked to join and would probably not mind leaving once she goes to her dream college. May seems like a floater to the band and school because of how under-the-radar she is; she never really messes up when we rehearse for someone that just calls music a hobby and I wonder how she gets away with doing practically nothing during class. She's very mysterious, a quality that interests me, but still intimidating at the same time. The only person in the band that actually seems passionate about rehearsals would be Rose; She's the one who calls us up to the living room where we keep our instruments so we can practice and normally cuts us off whenever we mess up unless someone else catches herself and accidentally stops everyone else, which is one of Rose's pet peeves. The concert at the end of this month could be flawless if we kept that routine up. One day during the last minute of break time from practice while Sam and May were minding their own business, Rose and I were on the sofa and I asked her about the plan for the concert, to which she gladly replied.
"It'll be amazing," she boasted. "The two songs we've been working on were only out of the twelve songs I wrote lyrics for. I just need to think of the music for those. And yes, I always write the lyrics before the music, don't judge me. For now, we'll just work on the two and once we get invited to perform for other events like parties or something, we can finish up the album I planned. Until further notice, you guys don't have to worry about your outfits for the concert. They're gonna love the bass lines I came up with, I hope."
"Wow," I added. "You seem to know what you're doing. It's as if you planned this your whole life."
"And you don't," she caught herself. "Come on, you're wasting time. I don't care if you sing like a broken record. Just as long as you don't embarrass me up there."
That brief moment of humanity from her lingered for a while. I know she's full of ideas and inspiration, but something holds her back. Who else does she have to open up about them to besides us? I feel sort of bad for assuming she was completely heartless. I mean, she is, but nobody is born that way. The four of us knew so little about each other at the time, or at least Rose and May don't know about Sam and I. My idea of a band is a group of close friends playing together effectively, giving constructive criticisms and having a good time offscreen and onscreen. I can only assume their ideal band, but I hope that they'd rather not play with whom they consider strangers. I decided after that practice that we could sit at the dinner table and get to know one another because we would find out eventually anyway, but I'd love to get it over with. Rose and May didn't seem to care that much and Sam looked nervous, so I decided to go first.
"Hi," I said cheerily. "I'm No-Eyes. My real name is Ellie, though. I don't have siblings, but I liked to tag along with my family whenever we travelled and stuff. We especially enjoyed going to America; it's so colourful there compared to here-"
I cut myself off when I noticed that only Sam appeared engaged. I awkwardly smiled at her because she already knew about me. I waited for a reaction from the other two until May finally stopped resting her eyes.
"You're 2-D's daughter, right?" she inquired.
"I thought you knew," I replied.
"What's it like having a drug addict for a dad?" she tested.
"Well, er, I mean it worried me sometimes, but he's not remotely as destructive as Murdoc is."
"You've got a real stable family there, hon."
"Don't do this, May. You don't know me. That's why I started this. I wouldn't think the worst of you if you told us about your parents." I was feeling patient that day, but I know May likes to get on everyone's bad side for her own sake.
"I bet you would."
"Tell me then. I've known you since primary school and I've never seen them."
"If you insist-"
"My turn!" Rose interrupted to save May; she must be the only one that knew her. "Hello, ladies, I'm Rosaline. I grew up with a single mum and no siblings, too, whaddya know? I haven't seen that hag for years. I wonder if the meds finally got to her? I feel like she shaped me into the fine specimen I am now, wouldn't ya agree? Would you guys believe me if I told you that I grew up Christian because of her?"
There was an uncomfortable silence among the table. Sam was mute the whole time and I forgot what I was about to tell May, so Rose's plan worked.
"I know," she continued. "I'm so interesting, huh? The boys can't resist me. It's why I give up free time for music and finding a match. My mum might've ruined singing for me, but she couldn't taint my passion for fashion as you can see. How about you, Samantha?"
"Oh, er," Sam replied. "I'm Sam... Er, I have a 30-year-old brother I call B. and a 25-year-old brother Michael; I didn't have much in common with them, but we still played video games and watched TV together back then. Then we went our separate ways. In case you guys were wondering why I'm a 19-year-old still in high school, it's because I dropped out one year for my sort-of-job as a volunteer for the cancer centre and to finally get a driving permit. I gave up graduating with my friends, but I happen to get along with the underclassmen a bit more anyway. For hobbies, er, I write songs, I guess-"
"Really?!" Rose burst, only after hearing the keywords 'write songs.' "Can I see?"
"I'm not sure you'll like it," Sam hesitated.
"The more songs we have, the merrier," Rose insisted. "I've caught you writing stuff lately and I assumed it was just homework."
Rose took the words out of my mouth. I finally get to see her songs, I thought. She pulled out her small pink backpack and dug for her song journal, which was a velvety red booklet with gold-rimmed pages. She briefly opened to the first page, which listed several music genres that she wanted to associate with her lyrics, such as alternative rock and hip hop, as well as writings that are possibly side notes. She then flipped to the next page and her first song ever written was revealed, according to the top of the page.
Everyone, even May, read her thoughts spilt unto the pages. Perhaps I was a bit too observant; I saw many erase marks that hinted that the few songs she had currently written were carefully edited lyrically and she didn't give up on the songs until they satisfied her needs. I even saw rap parts for Amy to sing; I didn't know she could! Sam was holding it out for them to see despite how flushed she was, but the catch was how she practically skimmed through the pages to avoid further embarrassment. From what we were able to see, I found out that she and Rose's style of lyrics were not too far off; Rose surprisingly has an openly romantic style to her songs while Sam turned out to be a natural at lyrical storytelling and could be making some political statements within her songs, but they are still secretly romantic. You'd think that Sam, a huge romantic, would write vampire love songs or something. This side of her really impressed me; For as long as I've known her, she didn't like to go in-depth about herself and she preferred to listen to others so I could only observe how she interacts to know anything about her, but now I could learn so much more about her from that velvet book- Not that I'm going to snoop into her stuff, of course! From Rose's reaction to the songs, I almost thought she would, though.
"You've got to be kidding me," Rose exclaimed. "You wrote this, Sam? You write like a middle-aged guy."
" ... Thank you?" Sam sort of took the sort-of-complement.
"I'm considering making these official, but I can't let these in my album; Our songs would clash."
"I agree. I didn't even think about releasing these."
"It looks like you have more songs at the moment, so we might have to drop your album first if I take too long on mine."
"You mean we can play her songs at the concert?" I eagerly asked Rose.
"Sam doesn't seem too confident in her work yet," she replied to me and then turned to Sam. "Don't feel like you have to rush. Once you think you're ready, we'll pick two of your songs to perform, but I don't think this generation will understand your style like they'll understand mine."
"Thanks for the consideration, I guess," Sam said bashfully.
I was pleased with the thought of her letting Rose put her songs aside because she was so genuinely impressed and that we could all rehearse the songs at the last minute, thus bringing something new to the table for the audience. In return for the sleep-over, I considered helping her out with her confidence unless that was what Rose was trying to accomplish. A sweet Rose would be ideal, but I can only imagine the outcome of her keeping that up; she must be the most unpredictable person I've ever met. I was about to ask Sam what she would like to do for another hang-out, thinking our self-introductions were over, but her face suddenly lifted as if she remembered something.
"May!" she inquired. "What were you going to say about yourself?"
We all stared at her waiting for a response, but Rose was the only one that gave off a notion for her to respond carefully, thinking I wouldn't notice.
"I play golf," May finally replied.
"Oh," I said, actually intrigued. "I never would have guessed. Are you a professional?"
"Sure," she hinted.
"What do you guys say about us playing mini-golf together sometime?" Sam asked us.
"That sounds like fun!" I answered.
"I don't see why not," May shrugged.
"Well, I'll see if I can make time for it," Rose added.
So we did go that weekend after looking over Sam's songs. She only had the lyrics, so she and I improvised with her drums and my keyboard to create random melodies and beats, with Rose and May improvising afterwards. We've never done that before, but we look forward to doing it more. We played mini-golf at a kids theme park with absolutely no shame. Every opportunity I have to talk to Rose I take, whether she feels like it or not, so I began to chat with her as we waited for our turns. I recalled Rose saying that her mother ruined singing for her, so I wanted her to clarify.
"I kinda went off, didn't I?" she admitted. "My mum told me how she used to be in an unknown band, which was a bit ironic. Then she said she gave up on music entirely, never being specific as to why, and would tell me to shut up whenever she caught me singing to myself. So, yeah, I'm out of practice. That's why you're in the band. Your parents were rather supportive of you compared to mine, huh?"
I didn't know how to respond to that. I never thought that my heart would ever sink for Rose. Sam isn't the only insecure one in the band. I still have a feeling that there's more to this if she is that traumatised to never sing again even after she moved out. I pondered for a little while, standing on the little bridge over the pond and forgetting that it was already my turn. (I love it when I accidentally make a bad pun. Really, I just noticed!) We took our sweet time finishing up and witnessed the inevitable victory of May, to which she casually brushed off and tried to hide that she enjoyed the experience. Having fun while playing mini-golf with the band and appreciating the detail of the London-themed golf course made me realise that my wish for the band becoming close and lax experiences with them may be coming true.
...
