Chapter 8: Rock Festival

Minerva and Finn arrived home around two or three in the afternoon since Minerva had some unfinished business at work and she could not leave it aside, she knew that her son was more important than anything else but work is work. They went to the kitchen, Minerva sat the teenager in one of the chairs next to the small table they used for breakfast, she went out and went upstairs to the bathroom to get the first aid kit to treat his bruises, Finn just sat in the chair playing with the sleeves of his light blue t-shirt, he did his best to look like he would be okay with everything that had happened and with himself but it did not help much.

He was tired, he was just so but SO tired of being bullied and could not do anything to stop it, he felt useless and weak, he did not know what to do... at that he heard scratching at the door and decided to ignore it, he heard some footsteps on the stairs, his mother came back into the kitchen, this time with the first aid kit in one hand.

"Hey, Finn, do you know what that noise was?" the blonde woman asked placing the first aid kit on the table, she opened it and took out some cotton, alcohol and some adhesive strips.

"N-no, I don't know where that noise came from, Mom" Finn answered "I guess it must've been a rat trying to get into the house."

"That's strange, the door doesn't have a hole for a rat to get in through" Minerva said 'it must've been a stray cat, it's nothing serious then"

Without further interruptions, the woman began to treat the bruises and injuries her son had received that day at school. She was happy to be able to count on such a nice girl as Phoebe to help Finn with his problems, although she was still wondering if it was really true about what her son had told her when they left the school waiting for her, had he really fallen? She supposed he hadn't, her baby would not be so clumsy to hit himself that way when he fell, something had happened to him or better said, someone was bullying him but she was not sure who was the person who was doing that kind of thing to Finn. On the other hand, the teenager was deep in thought, considering asking his mother if she could change him to a better school but he knew that was impossible, Minerva was the only person who was in charge of bringing money to the house and she did not earn enough in her job as a doctor to pay for a better school for her son.

"I'm done. You'd better go rest, tomorrow you have another long day at school" Minerva advised as she put things away in the first aid kit.

"I don't want to rest, Mom, I have to study. In a few days I have a Chemistry exam" Finn replied getting up from his chair and leaving the kitchen "I'll be in my room studying, let me know when dinner is ready"

Minerva only nodded to her son, with this the teenager left the kitchen and went upstairs to his bedroom to study. Once inside he took out all his homework, notes and the Chemistry textbook and began to study, well... at least that is what he tried for half an hour but unfortunately he could not concentrate, it was almost impossible for him to understand the lectures explained by the professor, how could they not seem impossible to him if most of the time he was distracted or asleep in class?

I am lost, I cannot study Chemistry on my own. If only I wouldn't get distracted so often in class and pay more attention to the professor... but what can I do? That subject is so boring, the worst thing is that the exam is in a few days and if I don't pass I will have to take the exam again or even worse, repeat another year of class and I don't want that to happen and I don't want to disappoint my mom.

"Finn, are you still studying" Minerva asked from the other side of the door of his bedroom "come down, dinner is ready and it's going to get cold"

"I-I'm coming, Mom."

He closed his Chemistry textbook, left his bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen to have dinner with his mother. When he finished dinner he went back to his bedroom and lay down on the bed, he sat up so that he could have his elbows resting on the mattress, he looked at the Chemistry textbook open for a few minutes, should he go back to studying? what for? He could not understand anything and it was very likely that he would fail the exam but... What difference does it make? he just hoped that with the little knowledge he had in the subject he would do well in the exam and that it would be easy, he lay down on his bed with his hands under his head, his eyes began to close slowly due to tiredness but he reacted immediately when he heard a small tapping on the window, he quickly got up from the bed, he pulled back the curtain which was now pale blue due to the sun rays fading behind the curtain and saw Jake's face through the window, the yellow dog had his tongue out from exhaustion, apparently he had run a small lap around the house until he came upon his friend's window.

"Jake?! what are you doing here?" asked Finn looking at the dog on the other side of the window, he leaned his paw against the glass "no, don't touch the glass, mom could come in and see what's going on, go away" Jake did not obey, instead he started barking asking the boy to let him get into his bedroom tonight, the teenager sighed with frustration "ok! you can stay but don't make any noise"

Before opening the window for his dog friend to come in, Finn looked back to see if his mother was still downstairs or had gotten up to go to the bathroom but nothing happened, no light was on in the hallway which he took as a good sign, he quickly unlocked the lock on the window, lifted it and let Jake jump into his bedroom, as soon as he entered, the yellow dog jumped on his friend and began to lick his face without stopping wagging his tail for the excitement of seeing him again.

"Hahaha, enough, Jake. Y-you're tickling me hahaha" Finn said without stopping laughing, he immediately pushed the dog away from him "okay, enough. Let's go to sleep, I have a long day at school tomorrow."

Finn went to his bed and Jake followed him behind him, the first one to climb into bed was Jake who settled on the right side and Finn lay down next to him with his back to him and a few seconds later he closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

Never guessed it got this good, wondered if it ever would

Really didn't think it could, do it all the time?

I know that we should.

With that last verse the rehearsal ended for that day. Marceline took off her bass and put it away in her dark purple almost ashy colored case with blood red details, the other members of the band also took care of putting away their respective instruments and turning off the sound system where Marceline's bass, Fern's electric guitar and one of the microphones of the girls of the band, who was also part of the small female choir, were connected. At that moment, the garage door of Marceline's house opens and the girl with almost coppery red hair enters almost running.

"Finally you show up, FP! Do you know something? the rehearsal is over and no thanks to you" the boy in charge of the drums answered.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry but I've good news" she said excitedly with a light blue paper in her hands, when she saw the light blue paper, Fern thought of Finn and blushed slightly just remembering him, something that the girl noticed "hey, Fern, are you okay? you're blushing, aren't you warm? Or... oh, I know, or do you like me?" she teased.

"What the...?! of course not, that's not why... I-I just remembered something... never mind, forget what I said" Fern said annoyed, covering his face with the hood of his black and green sweatshirt, in spite of everything, the blush on his face increased even more.

"Forget about Fern, will you? there are guys who are more interesting than him" Marceline said causing the blond boy to let out a snort and a small pout at his friend's comment.

"Oh, right. Um, I wanted to tell you that... next weekend there's going to be a rock festival in the city and not only famous bands will be there, local bands will also play, besides there will be a contest, if we win, we can win some money and also record our first album guys" she announced excitedly, then she turned the paper so everyone could read its content.

"But... the festival is next week" the guy in charge of the drums commented "we are not registered for the contest, in fact we haven't even discussed which song we are going to play!"

"I thought it would be a good idea to participate, play all together, have a good time and... don't worry because we are not signed up" the girl said "we can sign up as soon as we get to the festival"

"I agree with you, it's not a bad idea to join in and we can all have fun together, it doesn't matter if we win or lose, what matters is that we will play like the band we are" Fern said still with the hood of his hoodie on wanting to encourage the band.

That wasn't true, I don't care if the band has fun performing in the contest, what I want is to win and I'm sure Marceline also wants the same, please, she is as eager to win this contest as I am, more than anything because since we started forming the band she has wanted to be recognized for her talent.

"Well, guys, then... it will be better that during these weeks we start rehearsing like never before to be able to stand out in the contest" Marceline said enthusiastically "now everyone go and rest a little bit and we will meet tomorrow in the warehouse at the same time to continue with the rehearsal"

All the members of the band agreed and once they finished putting things in order, each one said goodbye and went to their respective houses to rest in order to recharge energies for tomorrow's rehearsal... jeez! It was definitely going to be a long day...