CONNER
"How about Todd Wilkins?" Jeremy asked.
We were in the basement of my house trying to decide a backup guitarist and bass player.
"Too preppy?" I questioned.
"Na, he's on the football team with me, and I think Aaron Dallas can play guitar, I know he got one for his birthday this year." Jeremy said.
"You got their numbers?" I asked.
Jeremy grabbed his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and flipped through his numbers, he held out the phone to me and I jotted down the numbers.
I grabbed my phone and called Aaron first.
"Hello?" he answered his voice sounding muffled.
"It's Conner, can you play guitar?" I asked.
"Is that a question or an accusation?" Aaron asked.
"What do you think?"
"Yeah, I can read notes if that's what you're asking,"
"Yeah, that's what I'm asking,"
"Then yeah, why?" He asked.
"I need you to join our band.
"What band?"
I rolled my eyes, "Our band." I said.
"Sure, whatever, what's it called?"
"Unnamed, after we get the group we're going to name it, do you know anyone who can play bass?"
"Yeah, Todd is an awesome bass player," Aaron said.
"Call him up and you two come over to my place, you know where it is from when you dated Melissa right?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll call him and we'll be there in an hour with our gear, later," Aaron said and clicked off his phone.
"Jeremy, I think we have a band," I said with a smile.
"And a 1...2...1,2,3,4!" Jeremy counted off.
Our group all started hitting different notes and we sounding like a screaming cat getting ran over by a lawn mower, getting ran over by a car.
"Stop the music," I said.
No one listened.
"Stop the music," I said a little bit louder into the microphone.
Nobody listened.
I walked over to the amp and unplugged the cords, "YO STOP THE MUSIC!" I yelled.
"Dude, you should have just asked," Todd said.
I rolled my eyes.
"We need to write songs and then write the music and then we can play it and actually sound like a real band," I said.
Jeremy nodded in agreement.
"What can we write about?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm not sure, we'll be able to think of something, I'm sure," I said.
"What about a name?" Jeremy asked.
"Hmm, how about, no, or maybe...no," Aaron said.
"Something that reflects us and our sound," I said.
"How about Big Noise?" Todd asked.
Jeremy rolled his eyes and took a drumstick out of Todd's hand and whacked him on the back of the head with it.
"They're the reason we're doing this stupid band thing in the first place!" I exclaimed.
"How about Dismissed?" Aaron asked.
"That's a dating show on MTV," Jeremy said.
"How about Capital of Nowhere?" Todd suggested.
Jeremy shook his head.
"Ooh! Detention Anxiety?" Aaron asked.
I stared at him, "Okay out of the three of you, how many times have you guys ever been in detention?" I ask.
Nobody says anything.
"Well there was that one time when," Jeremy started, "when I was dropping off a paper,"
"Exactly." I said.
"Dude, that's why the word anxiety is in there," Aaron said.
"I got it!" Jeremy says.
"What?" The three of us ask in unison.
"Breakaway, face it, none of us really like Sweet Valley,"
Todd, Aaron, and -of course- I all nod.
"Then Breakaway it is," I said.