Abby’s P.O.V
“Right,” I said, as I slammed my textbooks down on the table, the papers on the top threatening to fly away. “New song.”
Rachel, who had jumped as I slammed the books down, pranced over, grinning. “Is it a good song?” she asked, picking up the sheet of paper with her name on the top and scanning the notes written down.
“I wrote it, if that’s what you mean?” I asked. “And if we practise enough, as in, this afternoon guys, every afternoon, we should be able to have it perfected by the weekend. Theona! Where’s our gig?”
“Lanstrow Station,” Theona called from her corner. She appeared to be painting something, and was unconsciously getting paint on her arms and face. At the name up the music hub there were noises of approval from each area of the room.
“Right! Lanstrow Station,” I said over the slight burble of noise. “And Theona, who are we playing against?”
“Because They Can,” she muttered.
“Exactly!” I yelled over the outcries. “That means we have to tighten up our act, pull together our set and make it something brilliant. Theona is making extra promo posters to put up around the Station to attract attention to ourselves.”
“Abby, we can’t possibly hope to pull the crowd from Because They Can,” Alex said. When she said ‘pull the crowd’ she meant it. Lanstrow Station had two rooms and that meant two bands played at once, in a sort of band play-off. And it just so happened that the week someone cancelled and we were slotted in was the same week that BTC had booked the Station for, for weeks in advance.
“Yeah Abby, they’re signed now,” Rose added. “They have more fans!”
“And a majority of our fans are their fans too. Who are they going to choose? A newly signed band, or… us?” Chyneese questioned.
“Do you guys have no confidence in us?” I asked, frowning. “As long as we advertise to our fans and tell them the deal, they’ll want to throw dust in BTC’s eyes. Besides, we have the front room, so people are more likely to stay in our room rather than find their way to the back room.”
“BTC booked when they weren’t signed, so they didn’t get the preferred room, plus they weren’t so well known when they booked. We booked around the same time, but missed this slot, so we got next weekend in the back room. However, when this weekends front room cancelled we got bumped up. We have two gigs at the Station, but we want this one to go perfectly,” Theona explained.
“If BTC was already booked in this weekend, why didn’t they get bumped to the front room?” Rose asked, tilting her head to one side. “That seems only logical.”
“They didn’t get bumped up because Theona and I spent a long time on the phone to the Station, reasoning it out and making sure we were bumped into the front room and not the back room,” I said.
As the others started to argue about the minor details Rachel spoke up, “Who cares why we got the front room! We got it, that’s all that matters! Now we have a big gig, we need to practise really hard and make this an awesome show, okay?” Everyone fell silent and then all grinned.
“Let’s do it,” Chyneese said, tying her school tie, and failing so Alex had to do it.
“We can make this show awesome,” Alex said with a grin, flattening Chyneese’s tie with the palm of her hand and turning to me.
“Yes. We can,” I told them. “So apart from my new song here,” I said, indicating the papers on the desk, “and #1Nite, Paradise, Na Na Na and Different Disco, I was thinking we could stick to a few classics. Something everyone will know. We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions obviously, seeing as we know them, but what else?”
“I know it’s not a classic like that, but what about Sex On Fire? Everyone knows the tune, and we know the song,” Rose suggested, looking around. Theona wrote it down on what I presumed to be the set-list.
“Yeah, good Rose, how about Livin’ On A Prayer? That really is a classic,” Rachel said, and I nodded.
“Good old Bon Jovi,” I laughed. “There’s a good solo in there for Alex too.” Alex fist pumped and shook her hair with a hand, messing it up.
“What if we chuck in Bruno Mars or something?” she asked, then held up her hands to staunch the flow of protests and questions. “Just to mix it up, we might want to bring them down near the end, then pick it straight back up with more songs like Na Na Na and Sex On Fire. And I don’t mean like a sad one, but like The Lazy Song or something.”
“Or Ed Sheeran, if we really want to bring the mood down,” Rachel added. She had a bit of a love affair with Ed Sheeran at the time. “I love Ed Sheeran.”
“We know,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Never Shout Never, if we’re thinking about slower songs?” Chyneese suggested.
“I like Never Shout Never,” I admitted. “Bigcitydreams then, for Never Shout Never? And do we still want to do Ed and Bruno or what guys?”
“Bigcitydreams will just be you, Alex and Rachel, hey?” Rose asked. “Chyneese and I can take a break?”
“Yeah, I mean, I can do the guitar for that if you want Alex, then you can take a break too?”
“If we put this at the end of our first set then we can vacate the stage and then you guys finish up and Theona chucks on the party disk and we go mingle for a while?” Chyneese asked.
“Yeah, we’ll do that.”
“I’ll take a break from it, I’ve never really played it before, so it’s best you play it,” Alex told me. I nodded and Theona continued making notes on her paper.
“What about Lego House for Ed Sheeran?” Alex suggested. “I can play it.”
“I know it too,” Rose said, “it has a fairly simple beat.”
“And I know the piano!” Rachel crowed, a grin plastered on her face.
“Chyneese can play the ukulele?” I asked, raising a brow in her direction.
“I actually know it,” she giggled. Theona laughed and wrote it down on her paper. “It’s pretty cool that we all learnt a song separately and now we’re bringing it together.”
“Yes, it is,” Rose smiled, picking up her sticks and tapping them in a gentle rhythm against the table. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and pulled it out.
“Silence!” I called, setting the phone down on the table and putting it on speaker. “Eddie, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Heard you scored the front room at the Station…”
“What of it?”
“How’d you manage that?” he asked, his voice hushed.
“Eddie… Are you in class?” I asked.
There was a short pause and then, “What of it?”
“Oh nothing, you rebel, you,” I teased. Rachel and Alex giggled.
“Oh, shut up!” Eddie snapped. There was a small pause and then, “So tell me, how did you swing it?”
“I’m not sharing my secrets with you,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Was it dirty?” he whispered.
“Oh yes.”
“How dirty?”
“Dirtier than you could ever hope to be.”
“Dirtier than you’d ever be with me?”
“Not quite,” I said without thinking. There was a pause on the other end of the line, while the girls tried to stifle their laughter with their hands. I looked pleadingly at Rachel and she burst out laughing.
“Abby, oh Abby baby, get those clothes off and come back to me!” she called, initiating our routine joke.
“But Rachel, what about Alex?” I asked.
“Who said I wouldn’t be there?” she grinned. Chyneese and Rose howled at us, while Theona giggled and picked up her paintbrush again.
“Oh wow, can I join?” Eddie asked, cheekily. “Sounds exciting.”
“Mr Kemp!” I yelled. “You chauvinist! We don’t need you to have fun!”
“Women are perfectly capable of making their own fun!”
“You and your chauvinistic attitude!” Rachel scoffed. On the line Eddie laughed, and then stopped abruptly.
“I have to go,” he whispered. “You guys- Jesus.” He was still laughing as the line disconnected. Rose and Alex laughed the loudest as the phone disconnected, Rachel and Chyneese coming close second. Theona was quietly laughing in her corner as I jumped and clapped my hands together.
“Right, that’s a good portion of the set done!” I called, demanding the attention of the girls. “Next class starts in a few minutes, so we’ll meet here after school, alright?” A chorus of agreement, as the girls began to leave the room. Rachel waited for me, picking up her brief-case-esque bag, and swinging her laptop case over a shoulder.
“Do you really think we can pull people from BTC?” she asked, biting her lower lip, her brow creasing. I swung my bag onto my back with a sigh and picked up my textbooks.
“I don’t know Rachel. I really don’t.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________
I am giving in to Anon. O>O
Kekeke, this is a show of how much I love you guys. Amazingly I was nearly finished this when I looked at it tonight, so BAM! next chapter, here it is.
As always I ask that you COMMENT. Let me know if you like it. Give me suggestions.
I remember ages ago I said something about this being a fan-fiction. Which means that you guys can have a say in what happens too!
So flick me a message anytime.
Even if you just want to have a chat about nothing in particular. I am alwayssss lurking somewhere. *creepystalkerface*
Heaps of love to you all.
Stay tuned.
xx.
(Source: keepingupthemystery-abtcfanfic)
