Romance of a Rock Band

Annie

It was a long car ride to Cosmo’s. I was so nervous the whole time. Tony and Monique tried their best to help, but I just couldn’t relax at all. When we finally got there we knocked on the door and Jen answered.

“Everybody ready?” she said looking at me.

“I suppose so,” I said after a minute. She didn’t look too sure. I tried to smile.

“Alright,” she said and turned back inside to call Cosmo.

“I’m coming!” we heard him shout.

“He takes longer than I do to get ready in the morning,” said Jen, smiling to herself. “You look nervous.” She said, looking at me. I nodded.

“Why?” she asked.

“I don’t know really,” I lied, trying to smile.

“You do too,” said Monique.

“She’s nervous because she’s going to try out to be in the Unhumans,” Tony stated.

“Who?” Jess and Monique asked in unison. I was wondering the same thing.

“That’s the name of Felix’s band,” he answered.

“Ah,” Monique said as Cosmo came walking over.

“Ready to go?” he asked. They all looked at me. I nodded.

It didn’t take long to find the spot we needed and it took even less time to set up the trampoline. This was seeming like less of a good idea all the time, but I kept my mouth shut and hoped they couldn’t tell how scared to death I was. No such luck.

“Is something wrong?” asked Monique.

“No,” I answered. “Why?”

“Because you’ve been getting paler and paler for every minute we’ve been out here,” she said. “I know there’s something wrong, and you have to tell me.”

“I’m just realizing now that I’m really afraid of heights and that it is very possible for me to go right over the trampoline,” I said after a minute. They stared at me for a moment.

“If you start to go past, we’ll pick it up and follow you with it,” stated Tony. I smiled.

“That probably won’t work,” I said. “But I guess I have to try anyway.”

“You don’t if you don’t want to,” said Monique.

“I do want to though,” I said. Everyone smiled. I turned around and climbed up the tree.

When I thought I was high enough I stopped and looked down. That was my first mistake. I was so high and Tony and Jess and everyone looked so small. The trampoline, which was the size of a swimming pool, now looked to be the size of a cereal bowl. And then the dizziness set in. Just relax, I told myself. They won’t let you fall. It was very odd. I had never been afraid of heights before. Then again, I had never been asked to jump out of a tree before. Once the dizziness passed I looked down again. It wasn’t as bad the second time.

“You alright up there?” called Cosmo, who had been practically silent this whole time. I found that to be just a little bit odd.

“Yeah,” I called back. “Just needed a second.”

I climbed out onto the limb. I could feel it bounce under my weight as I got closer to the end. When I was close enough to the end of the branch, I pushed out my wings. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and jumped. I waited about three seconds before opening my wings.

It was an amazing feeling when my wings were fully out. Like everything in the world was right. I could have just stayed that way forever. But I felt myself falling very quickly so I gave my wings a hard shove down, propelling me up higher into the air. I opened my eyes to see them all waving and yelling. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, so I just waved back. I let myself sink a little way towards the ground. A thought struck me. How do I land? I pondered this for just a second too long and started plummeting head first toward the ground. I tried to pump my wings, to get back in the air, but nothing helped. I raised my hands over my head and crashed to the ground, missing the trampoline by a few feet.

“Annie!” a voice said.

“Are you all right?” shouted another.

“Yeah,” I answered sitting up. I saw everyone standing around me.

“Can you stand?” asked Monique.

“I think so,” I said starting to get up.

“Don’t! Just sit there a second,” said Jess. I nodded.

“Let me see your eyes,” Monique demanded squatting next to me. “I don’t think you have a concussion.”

“I think I’m alright except for my left elbow,” I said. Amazingly, it was the truth. I ached all over, but there weren’t any serious injuries. Just some bruises and scratches.

“I think that’s enough for today,” said Tony.

“I think so too,” I said. I didn’t really feel like getting back up there today, but I really wanted to when everything stopped hurting.

“Let’s go back to the house,” offered Jess. “We’ll clean you up there.”

“Okay,” I said smiling. I started to get up, but Tony grabbed my arm and put it around his
neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he lifted me onto his back.

“I’m going to carry you,” he answered.

“Why? I don’t hurt that much,” I said.

“I know that’s not true. Don’t argue,” he ordered. I shut my mouth.

The trip back seemed to take less time than the trip there. Tony put me down when we got up the steps and onto the porch. As I walked into the house I noticed a few pains that weren’t there before. We walked into the kitchen and Jess pulled out a chair.

“Sit here,” she told me. “I’ll get the first aid kit from the bathroom.”

“First-aid kit?” I asked.

“Cosmo is always hurting himself on something,” she said. I laughed. I noticed Tony smile.

“What?” I asked him.

“You’re not so nervous now,” he said. “It’s not good to be stressed out all the time.” I was about to reply when Jess walked back into the room.

“You boys go in the other room,” Monique ordered. “We’ll fix her up in here.” She waited for them to leave.

“Now take off your shirt,” she said. “We need to make sure that you didn’t get any bad cuts under your clothes.”

“Alright,” I said and took it off. “I don’t think I have any on my legs. My pants are pretty thick.”

“Just pull up the legs,” she said. I did.

“Don’t have any there, or on your stomach, but you do on your back,” she said.

“This will sting for a second,” said Jess. I braced myself, but I still jumped when I felt it. I felt
it three times.

“Sorry, Annie,” said Jess.

“S’alright,” I said. Monique had started bandaging up my arm.

“I can get it now,” I said.

“No, these are pretty big and I don’t think you can wrap the gauze around it tight enough,”
she said.

“Can we get some—“ started Tony as he poked his head in the door. It occurred to me that I still had my shirt off and I felt my face grow red. I think his might have been redder.

“We told you to stay out!” Monique yelled.

“Sorry!” he said going back into the other room.

“Keep your fat head out!” she shouted.

“I didn’t know!” he said through the door.

“That was harsh,” I said to her.

“I don’t care,” she answered. I laughed.

When she was done I put my shirt back on and the three of us went into the other room with Tony and Cosmo. We found them wrestling on the floor for the TV remote. Tony, who was on top of Cosmo, looked up when we came into the room.

“Sorry again, Annie,” he said.

“S’alright,” I said walking over to the sofa. I took the end seat and Monique sat on the other end. Jess sat in the chair opposite and Cosmo pushed Tony off of him to go sit in the chair next to his wife. Tony took the chair on my side of the sofa. I leaned closer to him.

“Scared?” I asked.

“Extremely,” he answered with a little laugh.

“Are you talking about me?” asked Monique with false anger.

“No,” Tony and I said in unison and everyone laughed.

We sat and talked for a little while about all kinds of things. It was rather nice to just sit and relax for a little while. I got so comfortable that I almost forgot that I had to go with Felix today.

“I suppose we have to get back home now,” said Tony getting up from his chair. “Annie has to be home at three.”

“Alright,” said Monique. “You’ll have to come back soon so that Annie can use her wings again.”

“Yeah,” he said.

“See you later,” said Cosmo.

“Bye!” said Monique walking out the door.

We made it home with about a half an hour to spare, so I thought I would practice my guitar before I had to play for people. I went up to my room and picked up the guitar and started to play. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed until Monique came up to get me.

“Felix is here,” she said. “He’s waiting at the door.”

“Whoops. I guess I lost track of time,” I said getting up from the bed. “I’ll be down in a second.” She nodded and walked out the door.

I put the guitar in its case, grabbed my bag and left my room. I walked down stairs and into the front room where Tony and Monique were sitting and Felix was standing just inside the door.

“Hi, Felix,” I said walking towards him.

“Hey, Annie.” he answered. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” I said and we both walked out the door and onto the porch.

“That’s your car?” I asked in disbelief. It was a van; no actually it looked more like a bus. And it was orange.

“Yeah,” he said. He sounded almost embarrassed.

“It’s amazing,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen a van like this before,” I said. “Did you know orange was my favorite color?”

“Mine too,” he said, smiling. “We have to go though. We’re going to be late as it is.” So we got into the bus and started towards band practice.