Trophy Eyes.

Alex turns up to school the next day anyway, and he has a note with his address on it to give to Joe.

Andrew’s rummaging through his locker for something - Aled wasn’t paying attention when he said what - and Daniel’s drumming up and down Zack’s vacated locker.

“Andrew!” Alex appears from nowhere and nearly walks right into the junior. Andrew looks suitably unimpressed as he looks Alex up and down.

“What?” He asks, returning to his locker.

“What’s Jack’s favorite song?”

Andrew pulls back from his locker and raises an eyebrow at Alex around the wide open door.

“Where are you going with this, Gaskarth?”

“Well, he’s not answering my calls or returning my texts, so I thought I’d sing something for him…” Alex trails off and plays with his hair nervously.

“Neat idea.” Andrew says, smiling “It’s Into The Airwaves by Jack’s Mannequin. If you need a hand, me, Al and Dan will help.”

“Okay, that’d be cool.” Alex smiles back “Wait, we’d need a pianist, and none of us play.” He frowns.

“Well, I do, but you’d probably need another guitarist if I played. Hang on.” Andrew turns around to Aled and Daniel.

“Okay, ew.” He shudders, seeing them kissing. Aled giggles and pulls back.

“What?” Aled replies, amused by Andrew’s disgusted expression.

“Do you play piano or guitar?”

“No to piano, but I’m alright at guitar I guess…” Aled trails off.

“Excellent!” Andrew turns back to Alex “So if you sing and play one guitar, Aled can do the other. I’ll do piano and Daniel can drum, we just need bass.”

“Does Rian play bass?” Alex asks, clearly searching the confines of his brain for anyone who plays.

“Unlikely, but I guess I could check.” Andrew says, glancing around the corridor for the football player. He’s nowhere to be seen.

“Isn’t he at practice now?” Alex asks, following Andrew’s gaze as it trails the corridor.

“Probably. I’ll ask him in English class.” Andrew replies, his blue-gray eyes falling back on Alex.

“So, meet during lunch hour at the music room?” Alex suggests. When Andrew nods in response, he dashes away in the direction he came.

*

At 12.30, there’s a line of people standing outside the rehearsal room with varying degrees of equipment. Daniel’s spinning drumsticks between his fingers and occasionally swatting Aled with them, only to receive a slap around the face.

Aled himself has one of Andrew’s guitars swinging aimlessly around his waist, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Victoria stands next to him, one hand closed around Rian’s and the other clutching a video camera. Rian has a bass in his other hand, and he looks marginally concerned by the fact he has to play.

Alex and Andrew show up together, with about twenty sheets of printing and a guitar between them. They shepherd everyone in and they attempt to fit everyone into the tiny space.

It finishes up with Daniel and his drum kit in the far left corner, beside Andrew and his keyboard in the far right. Aled and Rian are just in front of them, perched on stools with music stands before them. Alex is in front of them, and Victoria stands by the doorway with the camera.

Andrew starts playing out his part on the keyboard and Aled starts attempting to remember what he’s supposed to do for each chord. Rian seems pretty relaxed as he rehearses his bassline.

“Hey Andrew, do I have to do anything different with my voice?” Alex asks, spinning on his stool to look at the younger boy. Andrew looks briefly up from his keys and shakes his head.

“Don’t think so. But then, the last time I heard this song it was probably Jack forcing me to listen to it about two years ago.”

Alex frowns at him.

“That’s for that, Andrew. Really appreciate those words.” He says sarcastically, turning back around.

“Can we just play already?” Rian sighs, resting his head on his bass and frowning.

“Sorry Rian, but this has to be good.” Alex sighs into his microphone, not even turning to the junior.

“He’s right.” Andrew interjects “If we do this wrong, Jack will kill us. And that’s a promise.”

Aled and Rian exchange alarmed and somewhat scared glances before turning back to face the front.

“Everyone ready?” Alex asks, this time sparing a glance backwards. When he receives a mumbled yes from everyone, he turns back to Victoria.

“Count us in?”

*

Jack’s startled when Andrew and Aled throw a disc at him from the doorway.

“What’s this for, exactly?” He asks, picking it up and glancing over at the two boys.

“Watch it.” Aled replies, nodding towards the laptop on Jack’s knee. Jack raises an eyebrow at him, but takes the disc out of the wallet and pushes it into the disc drive.

The menu screen loads, and it somewhat resembles a police line up. Daniel’s there, with drumsticks crossed across his chest, Aled next to him, a guitar around his waist and an annoyed expression on his face. Rian’s beside him, clearly trying not to laugh as his mouth curves into a smile, a bass guitar in his hands. Andrew’s standing next to him, holding a white sheet of paper with the words ‘I played piano’ written on it, with his lips pursed and eyebrows raised. Alex is next to him, slightly on his side, with a guitar on his back and a microphone twisting between his fingers. He’s laughing.

Jack looks from the screen to the two lurking in his doorway. They both have a look of realization on their faces.

“So that’s what Victoria took those for!” Andrew exclaims, and Jack’s eyes narrow.

“Just watch the damn DVD.” Aled sighs, leaning over Jack and clicking play.

“Which version did she use?” Andrew asks as Aled pulls back. The Welsh boy shrugs.

“So, um… This is to say sorry. For being a dick.”

Jack raises an eyebrow as Alex onscreen apologizes. He doesn’t notice Andrew and Aled slink away from the door.

“And when I told these guys what I was going to do, they wanted to help out. Just so you know, you’ve got awesome friends.”

This draws a laugh from everyone in the room and Jack swears he sees Daniel and Andrew high-five in the background.

“I made sure to warn everyone what will happen if we do this wrong, by the way. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.”

This time it’s Andrew who speaks, and he too gets a laugh.

“Ready?”

It’s Victoria, and her voice seems to come from behind the camera. When everyone has nodded or mumbled their agreement, Andrew starts playing.

And he’s playing a song Jack would know anywhere.

As soon as Alex starts singing, Jack’s eyes widen as he fully realizes what they’re doing.

“From an empty room on the first floor, as the cars pass by the liquor store, I deconstruct my thoughts at this piano.”

Now he understands what Andrew meant when he said he’d warned everyone.

Jack will single-handedly kill everyone involved if they cover this badly.