New chap featuring a song I wrote myself!
THE NEXT MORNING TRANSITION
Corey and Kon wasted no time running to school. The blue-haired guitarist had his guitar case and the lyrics for their song in his backpack and was eager to play it. He promised himself that he would tell Laney how he really felt once she woke up.
The boys arrived at the auditorium and were mildly surprised to see the stage completely set up for the play "Oh yeah, the play is tonight." He'd been so preoccupied with Laney's situation, he had forgotten about the play. "You memorized all your lines, right?" Kon asked. Corey gave him a 'sort of' shrug "Eh, I'll just wing it if I mess up." "What about the kiss?" the drummer reminded him. Corey couldn't really answer that.
Deflecting the subject away from his and Laney's relationship, a thought crossed the frontman's mind "By the way, how did you keep Laney's parents from finding out what happened to her?"
"Simple, I used a substitute."
Back in Laney's bedroom, her pet chinchilla Coco is wearing a tiny version of her clothes and a wig. Coco squeaks and tries to stand up, then flops over.
"They'll never know the difference!" Kon proudly exclaimed.
Coming into the dressing room, everyone was there except for Larry. Mina sat closest to Laney as she helped her little sister get the twigs out of her hair, with Konnie waiting for her turn to remove the bush's bounty in her locks. Kin and Kim sat awkwardly next to each other and avoided eye contact.
"Woah, what happened to you guys?" Corey asked. "Hex." Carrie muttered. Kon ran over to Konnie worriedly, "Konnie! Your hair! It's going to take forever to brush it out!" He cried with his counterpart, "I know... I know..."
"What about you two?" Corey looked at the keyboard players, who shared a glance with one another.
FLASHBACK
Still stuck in the storage room, the two sat on the floor and played checkers "Checkmate! I win!" Kin cheered. "You just flipped the board while I was looking at that thing over there!" Kim called him out. "I still won." He argued.
FLASHBACK OVER
"Nothing really." Kin shrugged while Kim took a quick headcount "Has anyone seen Larry?"
"GUYS!" Larry made his appropriate entrance, dragging a vacuum with him. He looked utterly exhausted and trudged into the room with dark circles under his eyes "Larrs? You look like death… or someone that listens to Grojband's music." Corey sent a glare in response to her dig at his band.
"I... I caught Hex..." he tiredly announced. Everyone jumped up and looked at him with utter shock and surprise "You did?!" they all shouted. A voice was heard from the vacuum. "Yeah, somehow the little weenie boy caught me." "I'm not a weenie!" Larry shot back "I have been up all night guarding that so he wouldn't get out. Did I mention he was very annoying and extremely rude and said a lot of things that should never be repeated?"
Carrie went over and gave him a pat on the head "You did good, Larrs, you did good." Larry blushed at the physical contact.
Corey faced the group "Ok, I got the lyrics for our song. Let me go get our instruments!" The others nodded in understanding. "You're gonna play a song?" Mina asked. "Yeah, Corey says it will wake Laney up!" Kon informed her. Some of the others looked away with doubt in their eyes. It just seemed too easy and convenient for them.
The remaining members of Grojband set up their instruments "Alright guys, let's rock Lanes awake and send our little demon 'friend' back where he belongs!" Corey took a longing look at Laney, pleading silently, 'Please Lanes, please let this work'
Mina and the Newman's sat back and listened as the song began. It was a softer rock with a Latin inspired sound. Not too fast and not too slow, the rhythm was one easy to dance to or to sit back and listen.
"You and me, it's just us together in the dark of the night
Side by side, I'll walk with you till the sun's morning light
But then you had to go and leave me here standing on my own
Oh my darling please, don't leave me hanging waiting all alone"
The music picked up as the song went into its chorus.
"Can you just, stay with me
Stay with me, for a little more time
I don't wanna let you go, I hold you close knowing you are all mine
So please babe, don't leave me
Don't leave me, waiting for your return
With you and me together, the flames of our souls will shimmer and burn
Stay with me, Oh-woah-oh stay with me
Stay with me, I just want you to stay with me
Stay with me!"
The song finished with a powerful guitar chord. Corey kept his sights on Laney for the entire song. Not wanting to miss the second she opened her eyes. But… she still slept. Even after the song had finished, she was still in her slumber.
"Lanes, you can wake up now!" Corey knelt down to her, his voice cracked with desperate denial "Come on, we-we found the gift of heart! You can open your eyes now!" his pleas became increasingly desperate. No, the song had to have worked. He couldn't have failed.
"Corey-" the frontman felt Kin's hand on his shoulder, he looked back at the surrounding faces, with mixed reactions of shock, disappointment, and sadness "I hate to tell you this, but we all realized it probably wouldn't work." Kin confessed.
Tears welled up in Corey's eyes, silently falling down his cheek as it sank in; he had failed her. "No...it was supposed to work...she was supposed to wake up and everything would be ok..." Corey held Laney's hand in his own, caressing it as his tears kept flowing "Lanes, I am so SO sorry! I thought this would work! I thought everything would be alright!"
The dressing room door slammed open and an excited Trina and an indifferent Nick came it "Do my ears deceive me?! Is that the sound of my little brother crying?" Trina's jubilation turned to confusion as she noticed the mood of the room "Uh, what's going on?"
Nick Mallory spotted the vacuum and reached over to grab it "Oh, there's the vacuum cleaner! The janitor was looking for it! He wanted Nick to clean it out." Before the others could warn him, Nick opened the vacuum up "NICK NO!" everyone but Trina gasped in horror.
A cloud of smoke emerged from the vacuum and Hex emerged with an eerie green light "HA HA! I'm free!"
"Nick Mallory was not expecting this to happen."
Hex turned to the ragtag group of teen's "Since you were so kind as to keep me locked up again, I'm going to give you all a little gift." Konnie jumped up and clapped happily, "Yay a gift! I hope it's a pony!" "Oh, did I say gift? I meant to say that I was going to do this!" Hex formed a hand out of smoke and raised it in the air.
A green glow surrounded Laney, and she levitated over to Hex. "Laney!" Corey shouted "Even if you discover the cure within the time limit, it won't do you any good if you can't get to her in time! Oh, and by the way, you only have about 5 hours left. Too bad you're gonna fail no matter what!" Hex informed them and disappeared with a flash of green.
Corey fell to his knees and hit his fist against the floor "He's got Laney... Now how do we save her!?"
Mina quickly brought Nick and Trina up to speed about the situation, while Kon and Kim ran over to Corey to see if he was alright. They helped him up from the ground, but he kept his saddened expression.
"It's all over." Larry said sadly, "There's no way we can find the gift of heart AND Laney within such a short time. Hex could have taken her anywhere." Larry's words reminded Carrie of something and she shot up "No, he can't! Me and Konnie discovered that he can't leave the school! It was like an invisible wall was around it and he couldn't pass through!" This was a surprise to everyone "So that means he's still somewhere in the school!" Kim realized. This was good. Now they had a chance.
"But we still don't know what the gift of heart is!" Corey sighed.
"Wow, you are the biggest idiot I've ever met." Trina scoffed. In his state, Corey didn't even bother glaring at her "Trina please-" "This is just like the play, loser! When the princess is in an eternal sleep, how does the prince wake her up?" his sister felt like smacking him in the head "He kissed her." Corey answered. It was an easy question.
A few seconds rolled by and one by one they all realized what Trina meant. "That's it! That's the cure!" Kin shouted. Kim finished his thoughts "It makes sense! The gift of heart, Love comes from the heart! True love's kiss is the cure! Man, how did none of us figure that out earlier?"
Kon realized something as well "And Corey is playing the prince in the play, so Corey has to kiss her!"
Corey let all of this sink in "Me?!" He asked. "Nick knows it has to be a kiss of true love, so tell Nick, do you love her, Corey Riffin?" Nick asked. Corey didn't hesitate with his answer "Yes. I love her!"