A/N: Of course I was evil and left you all hanging for weeks before I updated. The problem is that I had this story written out through like chapter 10 or so earlier this summer. And then I decided I needed to stick Chapter 2 in there to make it flow better. So now I was stuck on how to revise Chapter 3, which was Chapter 2 before. Confusing? Yes. Relevant? Not particularly. But here you are, my apologies for leaving you neglected for so long, gentle readers. Thank you your name here for your reviews and thanks to those who are still reading. Enjoy! *Spike cookies for all!*
Chapter 3: Setting the Stage
"Are you sure they'll be able to find us?" Daniel "Oz" Osborne asked nervously. He looked over at his bandmate Devon Winters, lead singer of the hottest local band in Sunnydale, the Dingoes Ate My Baby. It was Tuesday morning and the two were seated in what could also be called the hippest daytime establishment in Sunnydale -- the Espresso Pump coffeehouse.
Devon sat rather precariously with his chair tipped on its back 2 legs, "window-shopping" as he liked to call it, watching members of the female persuasion float by him. "Dude, you do realize we're sitting like 3 feet from the door?" Devon said, laughing at his overly anxious friend. The Dingoes had been doing local shows in California for the past few months, so chances for Oz to see his girlfriend Willow Rosenberg were few and far between.
Oz sat tapping his fingers impatiently, glancing at the door every few seconds. They'd gotten into town late last night and Oz could barely contain his excitement at seeing Willow. He'd called her and Buffy yesterday to ask if they could fill in for the Troika when the Dingoes played at what could be called the hippest nighttime establishment in Sunnydale, or perhaps the only nighttime establishment at all -- the Bronze.
"Do -- do you think she'll like it?" Oz asked for the fifth time that day, pointing to his hair. Notorious for dying his hair every color under the sun, it'd been quite a while since Oz was last seen with his natural red color. Last time Willow saw him he'd been sporting an electric blue dye job, but this time he'd opted for something a little more basic and gone with jet black. Oddly enough, it suited the fair skinned rocker and made him appear even edgier than before.
"It's hair. What's not to like?" Devon smiled, amused by Oz's anxiety.
"Well at least it looks better than yours," Oz shot back.
Devon sat straight up in his chair, running a hand through his own light brown locks. "What do you mean it looks better than mine? I look good. Didn't you see those girls over there checking me out?" he said, his vanity shining through.
Oz shrugged, dismissing his friend's comment with a simple, "Whatever." He grinned inwardly, loving the idea of making Devon squirm. Devon took off for the bathroom to find a mirror. Oz looked up to see Buffy and Willow entering the Espresso Pump. "They're here," he called after his friend as he got up to embrace his girlfriend.
"Hey," Buffy said, pulling up a chair. "Sorry about the lateness, I'm kind of getting the hang of this driving thing."
"She drove all by herself, and didn't hit any stop signs! But she almost ran over an old lady, oh and a puppy, and she almost hit a mailbox, and ... and I'm going to stop talking now, because hey there were no casualties! Nope, Buffy's like super-safety girl." Willow said, stopping in the middle of her ramble as Buffy shot her a look.
"Thanks for the encouragement, Wills." Buffy said with a wry smile tugging at her lips.
"So Buffy, driving, huh? Scary." Oz commented. He pulled up a chair for Willow next to his.
"Yup, I'm finally licensed and everything. Only took me like 4 years. Who knows, maybe I might even own a car one day, like when I'm 50." Buffy joked.
"Hey call me next time you're out driving, so I know to stay off the roads!" Devon said, joining the group.
"Hey! Very funny, Devon. It's good to see you, too." Buffy got up to give him a hug. She was glad to see some of her old friends again. It'd been a quite some time since she'd seen the Dingoes and since they'd jammed with the Scoobies. She and Devon reminisced as they walked off to get coffee, letting Oz and Willow have a few minutes to get reacquainted.
After moving to Sunnydale from the ultra chic Los Angeles at the beginning of her sophomore year of high school, Buffy found that most of the activities she'd enjoyed at her old school like cheerleading, math team, and student government just were not cutting it for her here at Sunnydale High. She realized that her passion was music and found her niche playing violin in the school orchestra. Feeling the steel strings beneath her fingers and the cool yet brisk movement of the bow helped her forget why she'd had to leave all her friends and the town where she grew up after her parent's messy divorce. She'd found a friend in a quiet cellist by the name of Willow and the two were inseparable from that day on. After playing violin in the orchestra for a year, she turned to something a little more modern and so began her love affair with the guitar.
In a high school full of cheerleaders, class presidents, jocks, and band geeks, there had been very few real rockers. Most people were listening to rap, pop, or even worse techno-pop. Willow had introduced her to Bronze and Buffy started to get involved with the local music scene. She'd met the Dingoes one day and immediately bonded with Oz. Buffy was lucky to have met him when she did since she was determined on buying an electric guitar that week. Oz gave her some well-needed advice and told her to start off with something far easier, the mellow acoustic guitar. He helped her along with her lessons and taught her everything she'd ever wanted to know about rock music. Buffy brought Willow along to a Dingoes concert one night, and Willow was immediately sold on learning to play bass when she saw Oz's fingers flying across the strings like magic, and so began Willow's silent love affair, or perhaps obsession, with Oz.
Buffy got to know Devon along with Owen Thurman and Charles Gunn through Oz. Gunn and Willow had been friends since the 8th grade, when he'd rescued Willow and her books from the wrath of a puddle -- a puddle Willow had been steered towards by a number of so-called popular kids during lunch one day. Willow had attended school with the other two members of the Dingoes ever since elementary school but finally got the chance to know them as well. The world of rock music enticed Buffy and Willow to try to form their own band, but they knew a lead guitar and a bass just wasn't enough. The girls met their friend and Scoobies' drummer Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins before senior year, and with help from the Dingoes, the girls' had a foundation for a band.
Oz, Buffy, Willow, and Anya decided to attend UC Sunnydale, while the other members of the Dingoes took off for other parts of California. Anya's love of all things concerning money led her to a combined Finance and MBA program, all the while trying to find the right man, the right job, and the most cost-effective set of drums for their band. Oz majored in Computer Science while minoring in Music Theory, because while his parents liked his music, his father was adamant that no child of his was going to escape college without a science degree. Willow found her place as an Electrical Engineering major, and became interested in the Wiccan religion through her roommate Tara Maclay and the two started a campus Wicca group. Buffy's extra-curricular interests actually coincided with her field of study -- Anthropology and History, with a focus on ancient civilizations and weaponry. She'd been a disciple of the martial arts since she was a child, and she felt that the human body was perhaps the greatest weapon of all. She found her way into a Kung Fu class and there she met Faith Giovanni.
Anya, Buffy, and Willow kept rehearsing and playing small local shows, but knew they weren't complete yet. The rest of the members of Buffy and Willow's band were right under their noses. Tara was a Music major, studying classical piano and Faith, well Faith was never quite sure what she was studying one semester to the next, but she played a wicked rendition of "Purple Haze" and "When I Come Around" on the guitar. Things fell into place quickly after that when Faith and Tara were invited to join the band. The girls adopted the name "the Scoobies" soon after, when Oz likened the camaraderie in the group to that of the Scooby Gang from the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons of the 1980s.
While things were starting to move with the band, Willow and Oz began to have some special chemistry of their own. The two had grown closer during college, and one night while studying, during one of those perfect movie moments set to U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me" they looked into each other eyes and something sparked. The world stopped or maybe it spun madly on it's axis, but it whatever it was, while Bono sang "hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me" the two leaned in for a kiss and the rest was history.
"Look, mocha-y goodness for all," Buffy said as she and Devon returned with coffee for the four of them.
"Yay! Coffee! She got coffee! I like coffee! I drink coffee!" she paused to take a breath and continued. "Ok, sorry for the bounciness, just kind of having a major happy right now," Willow beamed.
"It's ok, Wills. Bounciness is definitely allowed considering how long you've had to play Penelope. Oh but don't worry Oz, no suitors have come around!" Buffy laughed, handing her friend a cup.
"Never thought I'd hear the day when my love life was compared to the The Odyssey," Oz replied.
"That's Buffy, all smart with the literature references lately. She even decided to pick up some Steinbeck lately. And that's no party, mister," Willow said.
"I remember. I think I read the back cover of one of his book's for a book report in English," Oz reminisced.
"Academic miscreant! Wait, I think I like that. Almost as much as I love your hair! Did I mention I liked your hair before, because I really do," Willow replied, giving Oz a kiss on the cheek.
Buffy smiled, looking fondly at her friends. She turned to Devon and asked, "So what have you guys been up to for the past month? How's the tour been going?
"It's been so hectic, running around like crazy. We did a bunch of shows in Cali, couple in Nevada, oh, got to play in a club in Vegas once -- a small club, but still a gig in Vegas. And we did about 5 shows up in Canada," Devon began.
"I think we're getting ready to hit up the East Coast soon and do some major promoting," Oz continued. The Dingoes had released their first album, Monsters Ate My High School, on an indie label, something that had been a long time coming.
"Oooh, pretty soon you could be on TRL or performing at the Grammy's. All those fans screaming, wouldn't that be neat? And you could get a cool place in New York. And I'd come visit you, and when people would ask where I was going I'd say on 'just into the City' and people would ask 'what city?' and I could say 'New York, to visit my rock star boyfriend,'" Willow said, dreamily. The coffee and sugar obviously had their desired effect on her.
"Or it could even be me traveling to New York, visiting my rock star girlfriend once you make it big," Oz said, putting an arm around Willow and giving her an affectionate kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, that's a big 'if' we're talking about, Oz. Why do you think Buffy's been reading so much? There's little else to do. I'm buried in paperwork with my master's thesis and Buffy's stuck in limbo at her job," Willow replied.
"Oh Wills, I forgot to mention, so last night my mom tried to convince me to take my GRE's and apply to grad school like you. Apparently she's got this thing about me getting a PhD and being a curator of a museum like she is. Like that'll ever happen! But no, wait, I'm not going to be all negative-Buffy here. I mean hey, we're playing with you guys on Saturday. So that's good news," Buffy said.
"I think the last show we did was at the Sunnydale Retirement Home and that was volunteer work for their Spring Carnival. All we've been doing in practicing and getting no where of course," Willow added.
"Come on guys, it can't be so bad. We're definitely grateful you'll be playing with us on Saturday! I think we'd better start ironing out the details," Oz said, pulling out some papers from his backpack.
"But wait, where are the rest of the girls. Are they joining us later?" Devon asked.
"Nope, not now. Tara wasn't feeling well so she had to stay home. Stomachache. Anya's at work counting out her money, and Faith's at the gym teaching an extra Kung Fu class since one of the trainers called in sick. So that means you're stuck with us," Buffy replied.
"What about Owen and Gunn? Why aren't they here?" Willow asked, referring to the two other members of the Dingoes Ate My Baby.
"They're driving down on their own. Last show we had was at 14 Below in LA so Owen met up with a few of his friends and decided to stay over for another day. Gunn is visiting Kendra and well," he paused to look at his watch, "right now I'm guessing she's making wedding plans. They ought to be down by tonight or tomorrow, so we'll be cool in time for the show," Oz informed them.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on a second!" Buffy said.
"Gunn and Kendra! When did this happen?!" Willow said, following Buffy.
"Well he's been planning it for like a month or so, I think." Devon said.
"Awww!" Buffy and Willow chorused. Kendra had been one of Buffy's and Willow's friends from college. Kendra had moved to LA to attend graduate school at UCLA after finishing up at UC Sunnydale. One semester in college, the Dingoes played on the UC Sunnydale campus and the girls naturally brought some of their friends along and Kendra and Gunn hit it off instantly.
"I can't wait for Gunn to get here so we can bug him for details!" Buffy said.
"But first, we've got to figure out the plans for Saturday," Willow reminded them. When Willow put on her resolve face, that was it. No one was allowed to get side-tracked until a project or meeting was done.
"Here's the plan, we're supposed to go on at 8:30 pm, so that means doors will open at 7:00 pm. You guys get the 7:30 to 8:15 slot as an opening set," Oz began.
"So that means something like 6 or 7 songs? That sounds manageable," Willow mused, jotting down some notes.
"I think we've got enough material for a good set at the Bronze. Do you think we could throw in that new song we were working on?" Buffy asked, turning to Willow.
"I think so, but we're going to have to do some minor tweaking and major practicing to get that one show-ready. We'll have to ask Faith and Tara since they're singing with you," Willow replied.
"How about set up time?" Buffy asked.
"Okay, so for this gig we're supposed to be here around 4:00 pm, to set up, run through a last minute rehearsal, and do a sound and lighting check. Since you guys are joining us, how about we move it up to 3:00 pm?" Devon suggested.
"That sounds good, but would it be possible for Old Man Snyder to let us into the Bronze on Friday so we can get a feel for what's going on? Last time we played at the Bronze was for that 'Battle of the Bands' concert last year. I still can't believe the record exec from RCA picked a high school band over us. We were so much better!" Buffy said.
"I know, those losers hadn't even hit puberty yet! But you guys know as well as we do how hard it is to make it into the business," Devon said.
"I know, I know," Buffy said. "But sometimes I just get so frustrated. I mean we've been practicing so long and it feels like --"
"Like we're going nowhere fast," Willow finished.
"Exactly," Buffy said in agreement.
"All right, so 3:00 pm at the Bronze on Saturday. Sounds good. I'll talk to Snyder and twist his arm a little to get you guys in there for a few hours on Friday," Oz said.
"Thanks, Oz! Isn't he the bestest boyfriend ever?" Willow said, giving Oz a hug.
"No competition here," Buffy said, pointing to Devon.
"Hey! That's not funny Buffy. We went out for like 2 days, remember?"
"Yeah I remember, 2 of the longest days of my entire life. What can I say, you're just too much of a player for me, Dev," Buffy giggled.
Devon rolled his eyes and smiled at his friend. "Anyways, so set up is out of the way. What else?" Devon said.
"Is there anything special we're going to need besides our instruments and our amps?" Buffy asked.
"Hold on, Anya needs to bring her kit," Willow commented. "If we end at 8:15 and you guys start at 8:30, is that enough time to get her drum set off stage?"
"That won't be a big deal. We worked it out with the Troika so that in small venues we set the kits up on platforms with wheels, all by ourselves of course seeing as we have a lack of roadies. We keep Gunn's set backstage while the Troika plays, and then just wheel their kit back and ours forward when we're ready for our set," Oz supplied.
"Just make sure to lock the wheels, runaways drums sets are not fun to chase!" Devon laughed.
"And Tara's piano? Oh wait, the Bronze has a piano right? So we're set. We've just got to run it by Tara to make sure she won't mind, and that the piano there is in tune," Buffy finished.
"Faith, you, and I need to bring our amps and guitars of course. Anya needs her kit. Tara probably is going to use the piano at the Bronze or a keyboard if worst comes to worst. Lighting is taken care of, sound is done, looks like most of the logistics are done," Willow said as she scribbled a few more notes on her list.
"Almost, there's still a little paperwork to do so you guys will actually get paid by our promoters," Oz said handing some papers across the table to Buffy.
"Ok, what you guys need to do is go ahead and read that over, and all of you have to sign it. Plus you've got to get your manager to sign it as well. Is your mom still taking care of some of that stuff?" Devon asked.
"Yeah, she does what she can," Buffy answered. "But one of her assistants at the museum, Robin, has been a really big help. He's been taking care of a lot of the management type issues lately."
"And the fee itself?" Willow said.
"Snyder and our promoters set the Troika's billing at $500 a show, so I'm assuming that's what you'll get," Devon said.
"Wow, pretty nice. I just wanted to make sure I had a ballpark idea in case I have to haggle with that little man later. He's such a pain in the ass, especially when he's drunk and wants to 'hang' with us 'young kids!'" Buffy said, giggling at thoughts of the owner of the Bronze.
Willow clapped her hands with glee. "Oh this is totally gonna rock! Way better than my cousin's bat mitzvah!"
"Willow! I thought we all agreed never to mention that again." Buffy joked, blushing slightly at the very embarrassing memory of that gig.
"Oh!" Willow clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes growing wide. "I didn't just jinx us, did I?"
"No, no! Don't worry, hon. You guys are fine. I have my good luck charm, well my other good luck charm besides you Wills," Oz said. He put a hand in his pocket and took out his lucky pick from a Ghost of the Robot show they had attended while in high school. "You're totally jinx free," he said as he hugged her again.
"It's getting late. Do you guys want some lunch? The Espresso Pump has some pretty good subs and pizza," Willow said, handing everyone a menu.
"Sounds good," Devon said.
Buffy sat back to think for a moment while Oz, Devon, and Willow tried to decide what to get for lunch. She and the girls had been through so much, they'd even finished college and gotten real degrees, but most bands would have and should have made it by now. Their friends were getting married or getting jobs or just doing something. She was a 23-year-old going nowhere fast. The Scoobies couldn't put their lives on hold forever, hoping that someday they'd get recognized. She and Willow had talked about it the night before; either something happen soon or the Scoobies were going to have to hang up their instruments. Of course they could play on the side, while working, while having families, while doing other things, but it just wouldn't be the same. They'd worked so hard, but they knew the struggles of the music industry. Yet, if just one person -- just one -- thought they were good enough to make it, that's all it would take.
A/N: I'm back. So what'd ya think? Go review if you'd like. So did you see who I put Willow with? I think it worked okay. But I wasn't a big "Buffy" watcher (haha get it I said "watcher") until S5 so I didn't see the whole Willow/Oz dynamic while it was fresh, but in reruns instead. Oh and one other thing, where does everyone go for their music news and info? I'm getting kind of tired referring to TRL all the time. Thanks!