Chapter 2 - The Best of What's Around

(The Best of What's Around - Dave Matthews Band)

Justin and Alex waited in the Sub Station, both of them extremely distracted. Justin kept looking towards the door while pretending to be reading the latest issue of Modern Robotics, while Alex simply kept on staring at the door, not even bothering to pretend to be reading her magazine, which was now lying face down on the table in front of her.

Suddenly, the door swung open and there she was.

It was strange…Alex had never met someone before that she'd first met online. But she plucked up her typical courage and walked over to Lisa, ignoring her brother's nervous sputtering.

"Hi. I'm Alex Russo, and this is my brother, Justin…"

She trailed off as she saw that Justin still hadn't put a single word together.

"…Or, also known as the boy who can't speak."

Lisa simply nodded her head and smiled. "It's alright…I used to be just like that. I never used to do well with meeting new people."

With that, she moved over to one of the booths and sat down. Alex grabbed the sheet of paper out of Justin's hand that held the list of questions, and moved over to the table as well and began the interview. After a minute, Justin finally regained some of his senses and walked over to join them.

Alex had only gone through the first six questions, but she was already feeling good about Lisa.

She seemed to be pretty upbeat, but not one of those overly peppy types, and she had a really strong background in music.

"Well," Alex said, folding the page of questions in her hand. "I think you're exactly what we're looking for. And, you already know about magic so we won't have to try and explain things when our brother Max flashes in from visiting Saturn, or wherever."

Lisa nodded, smiling as she stood up from her chair.

"Okay, great," said Justin, obviously having gained back his speech. "We found a place on Fifth Street that we can go to practice. The old tennis shoe factory?"

Lisa nodded again. "Yeah, I know the place. Used to go there to hang out when it was the portal to the Wizarding Shoe Heaven store."

Alex suddenly brightened at the name.

"Wait, you used to go there, too? Oh my God! Only one of the best shoe stores to ever exist, right?"

The other brunette grinned. "Hell, yeah!"

They both laughed at that, while Justin rolled his eyes, but at the same time he was happy to see Alex making friends with her. Alex honestly didn't have many friends because of her somewhat, uh, abrasive personality, but it seemed that she and Lisa were getting along just fine.

They met up the next day, and Alex was surprised when she walked in and she saw Lisa carrying at least three different instrument cases, only one of which that she could identify.

Alex glanced at Justin. "Uh…I didn't realize that we were starting a marching band."

Justin simply rolled his eyes and unloaded an amp from the back of the car that their Uncle Ernesto had let them borrow.

"Didn't you read her profile, Alex?"

Alex gave him a look that seemed to say that he was stupid. "Uh, no, don't you remember, dorkwad? You read it for me, so that I didn't have to!"

Justin held back the stinging retort that he wanted to let loose, realizing that if he was going to be working with his sister, he was going to have to learn to not take her comments so personally. He let her comment slide, and instead just explained.

"She plays several different instruments, Alex. Yesterday, before she left, I asked her if she could bring them with her so we could figure out what sounded best."

Her brother gave her a pointed look and Alex pulled back.

"Oh…"

He grinned. "Yeah, oh."

He finished unloading the rest of the supplies, briefly noticing that Alex hadn't helped him with a single bit of it, but decided that he would talk to her about it later. Right now, the two of them had to focus on working with Lisa to get their sound.

The green-eyed girl walked over to them, and Alex couldn't help but appreciate her outfit.

Plain black jeans, black leather motorcycle boots, a gold and blue dyed two-sizes-too-large peasant top, and several pieces of black leather jewelry with gold metal accents. Very stylish and possibly some colors that they could use for part of their band.

"So," said Lisa, obviously unsure of where to start. "Which instrument do you want me to try first?"

Justin nodded towards one of the cases.

"Let's just go for basic guitar and then work ourselves up from there…is that okay?"

She nodded, and then walked over to the instrument case and pulled out an acoustic guitar that looked like it was lovingly used on a regular basis.

Alex watched as Lisa threw the strap over her shoulder and then began to tune the instrument. She'd seen Justin do it enough times that she knew what it was. However, Lisa did it much more quickly than her brother, which made her skill quite apparent.

Justin glanced over at Alex, motioning his head towards her drums and she took the hint.

She slipped onto the stool behind her drum set and watched as the two of them got their separate guitars in tune…or more like watched Justin try to be as cool as Lisa as he tuned his guitar.

Alex held back the snort of laughter that wanted to escape, and instead waited patiently…even though it was killing her.

Finally, Justin was ready.

He looked to Alex, and she got the hint. "A-one, two, three…"

She started a basic rhythm and Justin followed with a basic tune that he'd created a while back when they'd first started practicing for their Alabaster Carnation gig at the substation.

After a few moments, Lisa came in and Alex was slightly impressed at the harmony she came up with…but at the same time, she could tell that Lisa wasn't entirely comfortable with accompanying on the acoustic instrument, and she saw the brunette keep on casting glances over towards another instrument case.

Alex suddenly stopped playing and Justin turned to face her, his eyes flashing, but Alex quickly spoke up.

"Hey, Lisa? Is it possible that you want to, I don't know…try another instrument?"

At this, Lisa's eyes perked up. "You don't mind?"

Alex shook her head and then looked over at Justin, realizing that he might want to continue, but he simply nodded.

As soon as the girl saw the approval from both siblings, she quickly returned the guitar to its case and walked over to another case, pulling out a much smaller instrument, which Alex immediately recognized as being a violin.

Wait…a violin? How would that work?

She gave Justin a look, but he just shrugged and motioned for Alex to get ready. Lisa quickly tuned the instrument and then turned to Alex and nodded her head.

Alex started again, with Justin coming in…and then Lisa came in.

Both brother and sister nearly stopped playing at the amazing sound that came from the small stringed instrument…and at how amazing it sounded with the other two.

Lisa didn't notice their hesitation and continued to play, and Justin and Alex managed to keep going. The three of them continued to play for several minutes straight, adding in some variations as they went and reading each other's' body language.

They finally drew to a conclusion and as the last note died out, the three of them shared a look.

"That was awesome!"

Alex was the first one to exclaim, and the corresponding grins from the other two seemed to echo her sentiments.

They had their sound.

Part 2/?