"I'm telling you, it just doesn't work!" Matt Indreve yelled in exasperation. "Either you have to change that music or I have to alter the lyrics and I'm not doing that!"

"Well, that doesn't really give me much choice then, does it?" muttered Marco Faunter, picking up a sheet of music and a pencil.

Matt and Marco were close friends and had formed a band together a few months ago. They were in the middle of one of their usually productive rehearsals when the argument had broken out. Each boy took his music very seriously and it was extremely rare for fights to occur, but, as the fact that they were now sitting on opposite sides of the room, Matt behind the piano and Marco amongst his collection of instruments, showed even the best partnerships could have their moments.

"I'm sorry Matt, it just can't be done," said Marco after about 10 minutes. "That's why I changed it in the first place. The lyrics will have to be changed to fit around the music." Marco's usually calm and gentle nature appeared very strained as he desperately tried to avoid a fight.

"I'm not changing the fucking lyrics!" yelled Matt, standing up and sending several pages of handwritten notes flying to the floor. All traces of his usual sweet, slightly camp voice had vanished. "I wrote them specifically with someone in mind and I won't change them!" As Marco stared in shock, Matt stormed across the room towards the door.

"Matt, you can't just walk out in the middle of practice!" Marco said, raising his voice slightly.

"Watch me," snapped Matt as he opened the door and slammed it behind him.

Matt walked down a flight of stairs and stopped next to a painting of an extremely ugly old witch, who turned to look at him as he slumped to the floor. "What are you staring at?" he muttered to it.

He thought back over his fight with Marco. He probably shouldn't have flown off the handle like that, but he couldn't help it, he was very tense.

For a start, he had his schoolwork, the amounts of which he was being given were increasing by the day. He had to work for several hours every night just to get everything done. But that wasn't the only thing that was nagging at him.

Vaila, his girlfriend, had seemed really cool with him recently, almost as if she didn't want him handing around. Ok, so she had her OWLs coming up, but surely she could still spare some time for him? He wasn't asking for the world surely, just the chance to spend some time with his girl.

Matt sighed and leaned his head back against the wall, rattling the picture whose subject began yelling at him. It wasn't his fault, all this fighting, was it? He turned this thought over and over in his mind. No, it wasn't. It was everyone else with the problem. His teachers were setting too much work, Marco was being unreasonable and Vaila…

Matt decided it was time to go and see Vaila, to talk things through. He was going to go mad if he didn't.