Romance of a Rock Band

Felix

She’s an odd girl, I thought to myself as I climbed into the driver’s seat. Most people would be embarrassed to be seen in my van. We sat in silence for most a few minutes.

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked finally.

“Ren’s house. That’s where it always is,” I answered.

“Oh,” she said. “How often is practice?”

“Twice a week,” I said. “Ren usually decides the day.”

“I see,” she said.

“We’re here,” I stated as we pulled into the driveway.

“What a big house…” said Annie. It seemed like she was talking to herself, so I didn’t answer.

She was right, after all. Ren was the rich kid of the band and he had the house to
prove it. Three floors, huge yard – he even had a hot tub! But she would have to find these things out on her own because we had other things to worry about right now.

We walked around to the side of the van and I opened the door. She grabbed her guitar and I grabbed my drums. We walked up to the front door and I rang the doorbell. We had to wait a few minutes and just as I was about to ring it again Ren answered.

“Took you long enough,” I said. He glared at me. I laughed. “This is Annie. She plays the guitar. Annie, this is Ren. He plays bass.”

“Hi,” she said quietly. She had gotten kind of pale as we were walking to the door and I could tell she was nervous.

“Hello,” said Ren turning back inside. “Come on. Hawk and I already have our stuff set up in the basement.” We followed him inside.

“Why are you so nervous?” asked Ren as we were walking through his house.

“I don’t really know,” answered Annie with a half smile. Ren laughed.

“That’s a new one,” he said.

When we finally reached the basement we saw Hawk sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. He was staring at the door, waiting for us.

“Hey, Hawk,” I said. “This is Annie.”

“Hi,” she said quickly. Hawk got up from his chair.

“So, we hear you’re not human,” he said.

“That’s very forward,” Ren commented. That earned him a good glare from Hawk.

“I’m not,” she said. “Half dragon and half changeling.”

“I see,” said Hawk. This wasn’t like him. He was too quiet. Usually it was impossible to get
him to stop talking.

“Well, I’m a vampire,” he said flashing a fang.

“I’m a werewolf,” I said.

“And I’m a merman,” announced Ren.

“Really?” she asked him.

“Yeah, why?” he said, a little confused.

“You don’t have a tail…” she mumbled. He couldn’t keep from laughing.

“It’s the same as you being a dragon,” he explained. “You don’t have a tail all the time
either.”

“Oh… I guess you’re right,” she said, laughing a little herself. Laughing seemed to relax her a little.

“We should probably get started,” Hawk said, walking over to his microphone. I went and
sat down at my drums which were already set up and Ren plugged in his bass.

“You can plug in here, Annie,” he said, showing her the amplifier. She plugged in her guitar and went to stand on the other side of my drums. I noticed that this brought her closer to Hawk.

“What music do you listen to, Annie?” Hawk asked her.

“A lot of different things,” she said. This seemed to annoy him.

“Just name something off and if she knows it we’ll play it,” suggested Ren.

“Alright, how about My Chemical Romance?” Hawk asked Annie.

“They’re one of my favorites,” she answered.

“Alright, ‘Helena’ by My Chemical Romance,” he said into the microphone. “One, two, three,
four!” With that we started playing.

Annie was amazing. She was so comfortable with the guitar in her hands; everything just flowed together. The effect was something indescribable. Her skills on the guitar seemed to make us all sound a little better, including Hawk who doesn’t even play an instrument. As soon as the song was over she turned around and looked at me with a smile on her face. I knew that there was no way she could not be our guitarist.

“That was awesome,” said Hawk

“Agreed,” said Ren.

“I think you’re in the band, Annie,” I said.

“Really?” she said.

“Well, not just yet,” said Hawk.

“What?” Ren and I said.

“Yeah, see we need to make sure that you’re not going to skip out when it concert time
comes,” he said.

“I won’t,” she told him.

“Then come back, twice a week, for every practice,” he said.

“I’ll try,” she said.

“Good,” he said.