Normally, he wasn't very good at writing out chords and melodies, but there was something about the music in his head. Every time he played, there seemed to be a theme that Gil couldn't quite put his finger on. It was a lot harder to think about than to just play it, but he had a feeling that this music was something important. The caffeine helped a bit, but not enough. He wished his musical genius would manifest to get him through the boring part.

His boredom was soon gone when a certain blonde walked in. She was a bombshell with curves for days. Shorts up to there. Shirt down to there. Gil didn't quite know where to look. He looked at her indirectly, sort of off to the side a bit to keep her in his periphery. Fortunately or unfortunately, off to the side stood another blonde looking more sheepish than ever. Their eyes met.

Gil cursed under his breath and fidgeted uncomfortably. Panic raced in his mind. Had she seen him looking? Would she misinterpret his actions? He was a red-blooded male and when certain women present themselves in certain ways...

The bombshell dropped right in the seat in front of him. Gil could feel his face blaze.

"Is this him?" The woman pointed at Gil accusingly.

Gil looked helplessly at Maddie. She didn't look much better than he did. She nodded.

"What did I do?" Gil said and signed, distraught over what he must have done in recent history to deserve this particular form of torture.

"You stole my date!" The bombshell said, still visibly upset. She dragged Maddie down to the seat beside her.

Gil was a little more than confused. With the two women sitting side by side, he started to notice how similar they were starting to look. If Maddie had her hair cut about seven inches shorted, ditched the glasses, and got a makeover at a Daisy Duke convention, she'd be a dead ringer for the bombshell.

"Gil, this is my - sister," Maddie signed. Gil didn't recognize the sign.

The bombshell rolled her eyes. "She's my twin. I'm Amy."

Twins? Gil thought to himself. If the two of them were twins, did that mean, Maddie looked like that under all the layers of baggy clothes and innocence? He shook the thought out of his head or else he'd really be in trouble.

"And Maddie always takes me to the movie. No way I'm gonna let a poser like you take my place without a thorough background check."

Maddie tapped her sister on the shoulder. "Could you sign, please? It's hard to understand you when you're sitting beside me."

"He's a stranger. I'm your sister. You should have picked me," Amy said and signed.

Gil had studied enough sign language to recognize that her sentence structure shifted dramatically simpler to accommodate for the signs. He was getting the feeling that she wasn't quite proficient either. Odds were that she was still ahead of him though.

"If she picked me, I've already won this fight, then," Gil said.

That got Maddie to smile. He may have been thrown off by the sister's looks, he knew he had chosen the better twin.

"Musicians," Amy sneered. "You know they're only after one thing." No interpretation was needed for her next sign.

"A good, steady partner with conversation skills?" Gil filled in the blank, offended by her assumption. Though he wouldn't mind the other sign once a firm base had been established, both parties were comfortable, and consent enthusiastically given.

Maddie blushed prettily. "Gil's nice. I want to get to know him more. I actually think you two might get along."

Gil and Amy looked at each other quizzically, sizing the other up. Amy suddenly covered up her sister's eyes.

"If you take advantage of and hurt my sister, I will kill you," Amy said, easily preventing Maddie from removing her hands. "What are your intentions with her?"

"Look, I really like Maddie. She's like the sweetest, most adorable creature in the entire world. I wouldn't dream of hurting her. Plus, she's like the only girl who's given me a chance in like a decade," Gil said. "Let me at least try to prove I'm good enough for her."

He was a little more honest than he intended to be, but it appeared to have worked. Amy's expression softened and a smile pulled at the corner of her lips. She let go of her sister's face and slammed an elbow on the table.

"I challenge you to an arm wrestling match. Winner gets to go with Maddie to the movie," Amy declared.

"What's going on? Why did you cover my face?" Maddie signed frantically.

Gil smirked. He didn't get to brag about this often, but he was actually pretty strong. He was the undefeated arm wrestling champ in college and it won him a lot of free drinks. Girl or not, Amy was going down. He rolled up his sleeve and glanced to see if Maddie stole a glance at his muscles. He was pretty sure she did. He gripped the hand Amy she offered.

"1...2...3...Go!" Amy counted down.

Gil flexed and pushed to bring Amy's hand down. Neither one of them moved. They were at a standstill. Gil took a breath and pushed harder. Their grip swerved a bit and went right back to neutral.

He looked up at his opponent, bewildered that they were in this position. She stared him down as if to say, "See how strong I am? This is proof that I can and will hurt you if you try anything stupid with my sister."

After a while, she let that melt away and gave a hint about how much effort she was putting into the match. She looked impressed. She gave the smallest of nods of acknowledgment and stopped pushing.

Gil slammed her hand into the table, unable to control his strength after resisting for so long. Half of his coffee splashed out of his cup and onto his attempt at writing out the music. His celebration was cut short as he attempted to save his work. Maddie got up to help him.

"Ah well, I guess you win this time, Gil," Amy said, getting up from the table. "Remind me to challenge you to a rematch later."

She waved goodbye to the couple and left the little coffee shop.

"I'm really sorry about my sister," Maddie said after the coffee had soaked up. "She can be a bit overprotective at times."

"I get it. I'm kinda like that with my baby brother," Gil said. "He's really cute, so it makes me want to protect him even more. He's not so little anymore, but it's hard to think of him as anything else."

Maddie squirmed. "What did she say to you when she covered my eyes?"

Gil didn't know the sign for "threaten." "Nothing. Why?"

"A lot of the guys I like tend to go for my sister once they meet her. She's prettier than me and she can hear. Sometimes she flirts with guys to make them leave me earlier so it doesn't hurt so much later," she signed.

Gil started to sign but pulled out his phone instead. He wanted to make sure he got this right.

"First off, your sister is not prettier than you. In all honesty, she seems like kind of a jerk. You're much prettier both inside and out. Second, these past guys sound like assholes. You're better off without them. Third of all, it sounds like you like me, which, if true, makes you a million percent better. Pretty much perfect, hearing or not."

Maddie stared at her phone for a while, making Gil extremely nervous. He knew he blew it. He must have been coming off way too strong. It must have been all the music in his head, making this seem like some rose-colored world where honest words could actually change someone's feelings. If he was smart, he would have learned that it wouldn't work.

Maddie looked at him, her eyes wet and sparkling. "Thank you," she signed. She gathered her things.

Gil blinked. He had no idea what just happened. He was pretty sure he had proved his worth to go with Maddie on a date. Now, he wasn't quite sure where he stood. He rubbed his hand. Man, Amy had been a lot stronger than he expected. He really should be more careful when it came to challenges like that. A musicians hands were their most valuable possessions.

"Ooh! What a rare sight!"

"It looks like he's actually thinking!"

"Think he's writing out a love confession?"

"Fuck off, I'm writing a song," Gil snapped at his friends.

Francis and Toni looked at each other and simultaneously started cracking up.

"Dude, that's even worse!" Francis laughed out. "No wonder you look like you're having a brain aneurysm."

"Fuck you. It's awesome. And once it's finished, it's going to blow your puny minds," Gil said, finishing off the line with a flourish.

"Lemme see!" Toni said as he snatched up the scrap of paper. The two men played keep away from Gil as they shared the music between them. The romp didn't last long since Gil was taller and had a longer reach.

"Hey, you're missing a chord," Toni said.

"No, I'm not," Gil said defensively. He knew he was far from finished, but it was all part of the creative process. Besides, there was no way Toni could figure that out from just a couple of stolen glances.

"It's true. Your musical phrases would transition a lot better if you added this," Toni said. He picked up his guitar, plugged it in. He had memorized the chord progressions of Gil's song. Gil had been struggling to make the connections without sounding too discordant, but Toni just seemed to embrace it and transformed into something that actually made sense.

"Whoa..." Gil said.

"Toni, are you actually some sort of musical genius?" Francis asked accusingly.

"No. Gil has some really cool ideas. This is just my way of helping him interpret them," Toni said.

"So like this?" Gil played the sickest bass line that had been stuck in his head for days and factored in the new chord.

"Yeah, and then the guitar part could go like this." Toni added in an equally sick guitar part that still let the bass shine through. Once Francis added in the beat, they were really jamming, repeating the same chord progressions over and over again until Gil could feel the music vibrating in his bones.

They all seemed to know when to stop, letting the music resonate throughout the space. Gil could feel the smallest of awesome tears come to his awesome eyes.

"I think this might be the start of something really beautiful," Francis said only half sarcastically.

"There's nothing beautiful about betrayal," Arthur said, storming in. "You guys sound like crap."

Gil could believe that a bit. They were close. Very close, but there needed to be something deeper to the music.

"Just because you didn't write it, doesn't mean it's crap," Francis defended his friend.

"Look, I'll stick to the songwriting. You guys stick to playing it. The last thing we need is some sort of mutiny to throw off the dynamic."

For the entirety of practice, Gil kept on thinking about where he could improve. He also couldn't help but think of Maddie. What she thought of him. If there was any sort of way he could have played off the day's awkwardness better. He probably shouldn't have called her sister a jerk. Even if it was kinda true.

"Hey," Toni whispered as Gil was putting his instrument away.

"What?" Gil whispered back, wondering why they were whispering.

"Let me help you write the song." Toni gave a shit-eating grin. "I like the idea of mutiny."