Romance of a Rock Band

Annie

I woke up at about 6:30 the next morning. I had fallen asleep pretty early, so I couldn’t sleep late this morning. I grabbed a book from a box in my room before I went downstairs and into the kitchen. I wasn’t hungry yet, so I figured I would just have a glass of milk. I’ve been picked on for it, but I like milk. I sat in the kitchen at the table and read my book while I drank my milk. At 8:30 Monique came in. She was wearing her bathrobe and her hair was up in a towel.
“Annie!” she shouted.
“Hey,” I said. “Sorry I scared you.”
“I just wasn’t expecting anyone else to be up,” she said. I laughed.
“Tony’s not up yet?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “He likes to sleep in late most days.”
“Ah,” I said. “How late is late?”
“Anywhere from nine in the morning to two in the afternoon,” she said. “I was thinking that you and I and Jess could go to the mall today.”
“That sounds like fun,” I said. I liked the mall. It was really big and easy to get lost in.
“I thought so,” she said smiling. “I’ll call Jess before we go. Tony and Cosmo are going to the gym at the same time today, so we’ll probably meet them there.”
“Oh,” I said. “Do they go there together a lot?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “The two of them like to turn the whole thing into a big competition.”
“I see,” I said.
“Do you want pancakes for breakfast?” she asked me.
“Sure,” I answered just as Tony came down the stairs.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” he answered. “I heard pancakes.”
“If pancakes are talking to you, I think you might need some help,” said Monique. I laughed, but Tony did not seem pleased.
“Don’t tease me,” he whined. “I’m really hungry…”
Monique made the pancakes fairly quickly and we ate them in silence.
We didn’t have to leave for a while, so after breakfast I went upstairs to my room. As I made my way to my bed I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and decided to change my hair from long and blue to a short blue-black. As I stared at myself in the mirror I started to push my scales outward. I stripped down until I was standing in my underwear and inspected the scales covering my arms and legs. I turned around to inspect my back and found that it was nearly covered by scales. I admired the dry scales on my back in contrast to the soft, silky scales on my wings. Satisfied, I picked up my clothes and dressed myself.
Once my clothes were on I grabbed my guitar from its stand and proceeded to play until Monique called me down to leave.
The trip to the gym wasn’t long; fifteen minutes tops. I could see Jess and Cosmo waiting outside their car as we pulled into the parking lot.
***
We had decided to take Jess’s car because it was a little bigger and more would fit in it than Monique and Tony’s car. I hadn’t thought it would be that important, but now, sitting in the food court and looking at all the bags we had, it seemed we would need every inch of space we could get. I hadn’t bought that much (just a couple of t-shirts and a pair of boots) but between Monique and Jess there was probably one of just about every clothing item from every store we had been to.
We had talked about nothing for the whole trip over and talked about nothing besides clothes since we arrived. I was starting to get a little bored when I saw someone a few tables over.
“Hi!” I called. He turned to look at me. I waved.
“Hey,” he said walking toward me and I noticed that he was with a little girl who looked to be about nine or ten.
“This is Monique and Jess,” I said, gesturing to each of them.
“Hi, I’m Hawk,” he said. “This is my sister, Maria.” She hid behind Hawk. “She’s very shy.”
“How do you do?” Monique said shortly.
“Nice to meet you,” was Jess’s insincere greeting. Hawk didn't seem to notice either of them.
“Well, I'd better get going. My dad will be wanting his car back soon.” He told them.
“Alright. See you around Hawk. Next Tuesday, right?” I said.
“Yeah. Next Tuesday,” he answered. He turned and walked away with Maria tightly gripping his black t-shirt.
Maria and Jess waited silently until he was completely out of sight.
“You be careful, Annie,” said Monique.
“Yeah, Annie,” said Jess, “his kind aren’t the most trustworthy.”
“His kind?” I asked.
“Vampires,” they said in unison.