...And Here Comes Another Boy Band

"The Jonas Brothers and now this?" I scoffed and turned the television off, dropping the remote next to me on the couch.

"Are they trying to kill music? Are they trying to torture our ears so we won't know what good music is anymore?" my friend, Ryann asked. She was seated at the piano that was set near the big window in the living room.

"This world just lets anyone get away with singing and acting now," my other friend, Joanna sighed. She was next to my on the couch with her bass guitar.

"But you guys have to admit...they're cute," my young sister, Chloe said.

Ryann, Joanna and I all turned her way and stared at her with raised eyebrows and wide eyes. Disgusted at what she just said. She looked at each of us and bit her lip. "Just kidding," she said softly, looking down at her drumsticks.

The many instruments in my living room aren't just coincidences. My mom and dad used to be a duet. My mom played piano and my dad, the guitar. He has a collection of guitars, from acoustic to electric to bass. The love of music was passed down to my brother and to my sister and me. My brother played guitar and sung and my sister and I formed a band. Not Just Cute. We weren't big, yet. We played a couple of shows at coffee shops and the occasional school events. Now, we were practicing for one of our small coffee shop shows this weekend.

"Maybe we should just stop hating this stupid new group and go practice," I suggested, standing up from the couch.

There was a murmur of agreement and everyone got up and we went out into my garage. My house was two-story and nice looking on the outside and in the inside. My mom loved to decorate and keep stuff tidy. My brother had no choice but to have a clean room. Well, along with my big fancy house we had a big fancy garage. Two big fancy garages. One for the two cars we had, and the other for our entertainment. For example, practicing with my band. There was a set of drums, a keyboard, and amps hooked up in the garage. A couple of my dad's guitars hung to the left and right of the door that lead into the laundry room and a display of skateboards on the far left-hand side of the garage.

I turned the lights on and Chloe and Ryann raised up the garage's door. Sometimes as we practiced kids would come and father around to watch. Sometimes even their parents and puppies would watch, too. That's not the reason for raising the garage door though. So people could come by and say, "Oh, your band rocks!" It just gets a little hot and sweaty sometimes when you're screaming into a microphone and jumping around. The cool autumn air helped a lot but the sun did not.

I picked up my guitar off of the guitar stand and plugged it in and stood in front of the microphone. Chloe got on the drums, Joanna was to my left and Ryann was standing at the keyboard to my right. I looked at the three girls and then down at my guitar.

"1. 2. 3!" I said and then guitar and piano melodies filled the garage and flowed out of the open door. Soon the sound of drums and bass added to the piano and guitar sounds and I was singing in the microphone.

This was an original song. We usually do covers, but Chloe and I wrote a song recently and I thought we should try it out. The song was called "Not Just Pies and Ice-Cream". I finished the first verse and closed my eyes as I started to strum the guitar. I opened my eyes as Joanna and I started to sing the chorus. By the second verse there were a couple of kids and two dogs watching us. The song ended with a bang on the drum and a guitar note and there was applause. I smiled at the small audience.

"Thank you guys!" I said in the microphone.

"We really appreciate you guys stopping by to watch a bunch of girls make music in their garage," Joanna said into her microphone. Everyone walked away after that and I started to play around on my guitar. "I think we're ready to play that," Joanna commented.

I looked up at her with a smile. "Yeah, me too."

"Let's practice another. We're playing three songs, right?" Chloe asked from the drums.

"Yeah, let's do Miss Murder by AFI and Read Between the Lines by KSM," I suggested.

We practiced those two songs and then we practiced our song again. After practice we put everything up, closed the garage door, turned out the light and headed back to my living room. Ryann and Chloe went to get snacks while Joanna and I took our spots back on the couch. I flipped through the channels until I found a show we all loved, Chowder. Chloe and Ryann brought four bottle of waters, four soy joys, and two bags of chips and a couple of apples. Joanna and Chloe were both vegans. I tried, but it was too hard so I stuck with the simple vegetarian. No meat for me.

After two episodes of Chowder my parents were home and my dad drove Ryann and Joanna home. We ate dinner without Matthew, our brother, because he was still out. God knows where 'out' is. After dinner Chloe and I played around on the drums and the guitar trying to think of another song. Nothing came to mind so we decided it was time for bed. Maybe something we dream of will give us inspiration for a new song.