I'm Amazed That I Got This Far

FF To Wednesday

John's P.O.V.

"John, time for dinner!" My mom called from the bottom of the stairs.

I set my guitar down on its stand after I got up off of my bed, and I walked out of my bedroom. I still had an hour until it was time for our band practice, and it gave me just enough time to eat and go pick up Kalen. I was stoked about the first band practice, and I was excited that I finally found some guys to play with.

Once I stepped off the last stair, I made my way into the kitchen, to see my mom and dad already sitting down. I pulled out chair and sat on it, before we started to grab some food. I watched the clock as I ate, and it seemed like time was going extremely slow. I quickly finished up my food, and stood up from the table, before setting my plate in the sink. I rushed out of the kitchen and started up the stairs, taking two at a time, and walked into my room.

I pulled out my journal that had most of my lyrics in it, and grabbed my folder that also had some in it. I tossed them on my bed and stuck my acoustic guitar in a case. I made sure I had everything and looked over at the clock, and I still had enough time to get to Kalen's and then to Kevin's house. I grabbed my guitar case and lyrics, before going down the stairs, and putting on my shoes.

"Where are you going?" My dad asked. "It's a school night!"

"I have band practice." I replied. "At Kevin's house."

"Who's Kevin?" My mom questioned.

"A guy Kalen and I met at the park. Him and his friends want me to be in their band. I'll be back later." I told them, before opening the front door.

I shut the door behind me and trotted down the porch stairs. I walked to my car and opened one of the back doors, before tossing my lyrics in and setting my guitar on the seat. I shut the door and started my car, once I slid behind the wheel. I pulled out of my driveway, threw my car in drive, and headed to Kalen's house.

Kalen's P.O.V.

"Where are you going, Kalen?" My mom asked, stopping at the stairs.

"I'm going to the park with a couple friends." I replied. "I'll be back in like, an hour."

"John isn't going, is he?" She sighed, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"No, he's...grounded." I lied.

"Serves him right." She said, before walking up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes and opened the front door, before stepping out. I sat down on the stoop and waited for John to come. I hoped this band is what he was really looking for, because I honestly didn't like them. The first impression is the most important, and theirs was...quite creepy. I felt that John was better than them, and he could do a lot better. Their band was called The Rolling Pebbles. Are they that stupid that they can't come up with a better name? I know John wasn't impressed with the name, but he's always thought band names were kind of stupid.

Once I saw John coming down my street, I got off the stoop, and walked towards the driveway. I got in the passenger's seat, once he brought his car to a stop, and he started back out of my driveway.

"Are you excited?" I asked John, as I looked out the window.

"Yes!" He said happily. "I hope this first practice goes well. Do you think it will?"

Not at all.

"Let's hope so." I said with a smile.

He smiled and nodded. "Are you doing anything on Friday?"

"I'm going with Kayla to her car wash." I sighed. "You should come, too."

"Car wash?" He said. "What's it for?"

"A fundraiser, I guess." I shrugged. "Her and her friends planned to have a car wash in some parking lot, and my mom's making me go with her."

"That sounds kinda fun." He nodded. "What time is it at?"

"I think it's from noon to 3:30." I replied.

"Okay, I'll go." He said. "As long as Kayla doesn't tell your parents I was there, because they'd probably come to my house and rip my face off."

"It's at a public place; you're allowed to go there, and if they don't like it, too bad." I said. "Kayla won't tell, though."

"How are you so sure? She hates me." He smiled.

"She just won't." I said. "Trust me."

"Okay, Kalen." He sang. "Can you read me the directions?"

"Yeah." I nodded, as I picked up the paper and started to read John the directions.

Once we got to Kevin's house, John pulled up in the driveway, and we got out.

"His house is like a cracker-jack box." I said.

"He lives on the shitty part of down, Kay." John smiled.

"I can see that." I sighed. "Let's just go inside."

He nodded and locked up his car, before the two of us walked towards the front door. John knocked on the old, worn down screen door, and we waited. I heard dogs barking and running towards the door and John looked at me and laughed.

"Why are you laughing!?" I asked. "Those dogs sound huge!"

"I don't know." He chuckled. "I just wouldn't have a big dog in this small of a house!"

"I think it's dogs." I replied.

"Hey!" Kevin said, as he opened the front door.

"Hi." John waved.

"My dogs might run out when I open the screen door." He smiled.

"Oh, no." I said.

"It's fine." John shrugged. "They can't be that big."

"Alright." Kevin said, before opening the screen door.

Three huge dogs ran out the front door and over to me and John, and they started barking. I pulled John in front of me and one of the dogs jumped on him. He leaned back and we fell against the railing, as Kevin started laughing.

"John, you're kind of hurting me!" I smiled.

"Sorry, sorry!" He said, as he pushed the dog off of him.

"What kind of killer dogs are these?!" I exclaimed as I looked at Kevin.

"Two pitbulls and a rottweiler." Kevin shrugged.

"Don't let those dogs touch me." I said.

"She's not a fan of big dogs..." John said.

"I can see that. Come on in." Kevin said, opening the door more, so we could get inside.

John moved so I could go around him, and I walked into the house. He came in behind me and shut the door behind him. I looked around Kevin's family room and there was trash everywhere, and piles of junk stacked around the room. There was barely enough room to sit on the couch and their coffee table was a mess. John looked around as well and you could tell neither of us were used to this kind of mess.

"We practice in the basement, come on." Kevin sighed, leading us down the hall.

John looked as me and sent me a look like he was saying "Holy shit". I smiled and him and I followed Kevin down the hallway. Kevin opened a door, leading down a set of old wooden stairs and I instantly wished that John didn't ask me to come. This house was gross, they had huge dogs, and the guys that were in John's band were a bunch of creeps.

"You can go down first." I told John.

"Why?" He asked.

"Incase the stairs fucking break." I said.

He laughed to himself and started to go down the stairs, and I started down after him. When I got off the first step, I made sure the basement door was shut, so the dogs couldn't come down. Once the three of us reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a small carpeted area where there was a drum set, a guitar, a bass, and a few microphones. Jake and Brian were sitting on an old, brown beat-up couch, and Kevin walked over to them.

"You guys can sit down, while we take a look at John's stuff." Kevin said, as he plopped down next to Jake.

"I think I'll stand." I said, as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Do you want a chair?" He asked. "I can go get you one out of the back?"

"It's okay." I said.

"I'll go get one anyway." He sighed, before standing up and walking towards the back area of the basement.

A few minutes later, he came back with two chairs under his arms, and set them down. John sat down on one and I sat down next to him. John leaned his guitar case against his legs and the guys looked at him.

"Do you have lyrics with you?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, here." John said, as he handed Kevin a folder with some papers in it.

"Where's your journal?" I questioned. "You had it in the car, didn't you?"

"Shit, yeah." He sighed. "I left it. I can go get it."

"Do you want me to go with you?" I hoped, not wanting to stay down here with Jake, Brian, and Kevin.

"Nah, it's fine. I'll be right back!" He said, before dashing up the stairs.

I crossed my legs and folded my arms over my chest, as I looked over at Jake, Brian, and Kevin. They were all looking at me and Kevin smiled.

"What's wrong, Princess?" He asked.

"You have fucking killer dogs! That's what wrong." I said. "If they bite me, I'll sue you."

He started laughing and put his hands up. "You got it, babe."

"Why do you even need those kind of dogs when you have nothing to steal?" I asked. "And don't call me that."

"Better safe than sorry." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and let out a huff, before Jake looked at me. "Can we call you Annie?"

"Uhm, no?" I said slowly. "You can call me Kalen, because that's my name."

"But you have red hair, like Orphan Annie." He smirked.

"Thanks. I wasn't aware of that." I replied rudely.

"What's John doing being best friends with you? If we were best friends, I would've already fucked you." Kevin said.

"Excuse you!" I exclaimed. "You're disgusting!"

Brian and Jake started laughing, as I heard John coming back downstairs. He brought his journal over to Kevin and handed it to him, before sitting back down. I linked my arm with John's, just for protection, and sighed. John looked over at me and gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. Kevin and the guys started to look through all of John's lyrics, and they kept smiling here and there.

"Dude, are you gay?" Brian asked.

"What?!" John said.

"Your lyrics are so soft!" He chuckled. "Are you gay?"

"I'm not gay!" John replied.

"Then what the hell is this stuff?" Kevin smirked.

"He likes to write songs that express his feelings, you assholes." I stated.

"Okay, Annie." He nodded.

"Her name's Kalen...?" John said, with a confused look on his face.

"Do you have music to all of these?" Jake asked.

"Mostly. Yeah." John nodded.

"Alrighty, then." He sighed.

"We can work on one of our songs first." Kevin said, as he stood up. "I'll get you the lyrics."

"Okay." John said.

Kevin walked over to a stack of papers and started to dig through it, before pulling out a piece of paper. He handed it to John and he started to read it. I leaned over and started to read it, too.

"This song is called Paint It Red." I stated. "What is up with you guys and copying The Rolling Stones?"

"We don't know what you're talking about." Kevin said. "Ready, John?"

"I guess." John nodded.

He stood up from the chair he was sitting on, and Jake and Brian got off the couch. Kevin went over to his bass and slipped it on, before going over to a microphone that was on the left side. Brian sat behind his drum kit, and Jake grabbed his guitar, and walked over to a microphone that was on the right side. John went to the microphone in the middle and looked down at the paper.

"We'll play the song for you really quick, so you can get an idea." Kevin said.

John nodded, as Brian clicked off on his drum sticks, before they started to play a song. There seemed to be no melody to the song; it was all noise, and it started to give me a headache. I looked over at John and he was looking down at the paper, figuring out what words went in what part of the song, and I sighed to myself.

I leaned back in my chair, as my headache got worse, and I just wished they would stop playing this trash. John's music was so much more mellow than this, and it was a lot better. It actually had a nice rhythm to it, and you could understand what part was the verse, what part was the chorus, and what part was the bridge. With them, you couldn't even figure out when the song ended, considering they all stopped playing at different times.

"Are you ready, John?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah." John said.

"If you mess up, it's cool. We'll just start over." He said.

Please don't mess up, John. I really don't want to hear this trash again.

John nodded and Brian clicked off on his drum sticks, once again, and they started to play. John started to sing quietly a few seconds later, and the guys all looked at each other, before stopping.

"Bro, we can't even hear you." Brian said.

"He's shy! Shut up." I said.

"Sorry." John apologized. "I'm a little nervous."

"Maybe if you turned down your amps, you could hear him." I suggested.

"Turn down your amps." Jake sighed, as he walked over to his amp. "Annie's right."

I rolled my eyes and John looked over at me. "Why do they keep calling you Annie?"

"We just gave her a little nickname, while you were outside." Kevin shrugged.

"It doesn't look like she likes it very much..." He trailed off.

"Ready to start again?" He asked, ignoring what John said.

Brian didn't wait for an answer and started to click his drum sticks together for the third time. When the guys started playing, I looked at John and his eyes were shut and he looked like he was mentally giving himself a pep talk. I smiled to myself and crossed my arms, as he started to sing. It was louder this time, and it was the only thing that actually made this music sound somewhat decent.

After a long, boring, and headache filled practice, they were finally done. They put everything away and John packed up his things, before bringing them over to me.

"You guys are off of school Friday, right?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah." John nodded.

"We'll have practice on Friday at noon." He said.

"Oh, I can't. I have to do something with Kalen and her sister." He said.

"No, John. You can skip out on it." I shrugged. "Come to practice."

"I already promised you, though." He said. "And I want you to come again."

"Then how about we do it at 10:30 to be done by 11:30?" Brian suggested.

"That's fine." John nodded, before looking at me. "Is that okay for you?"

"That's fine." I sighed.

"Okay, see you guys then." Jake waved.

"Let's go." I said, as I grabbed John's hand.

He nodded and I started up the stairs with him behind me. We walked down the hallway and to Kevin's front door, before I opened it. All of the dogs started to run towards me, before I screamed, and John quickly pulled the door shut. He started laughing and I looked over at him and glared.

"Sorry, sorry." He smiled. "I'll go out first."

"Okay." I said.

He slowly opened the door and stepped out, as the dogs ran towards him. I moved away from the front door, and John pushed them inside, before pulling me out. I slammed the door shut and the two of us went down to his car. Once we got in, I put on my seat belt, and sighed.

"I do not like his house."

"Me either." John smiled. "But we had a good practice."

"Yeah." I nodded.

He nodded and smiled slightly, and I could tell something is wrong. I know he had fun at practice, and I know that he did a good job, but something was bugging him.

"John, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Do I really sound gay?" He said, as he looked at me. "Like, do my songs sound gay?"

"No, John!" I frowned. "They don't at all. They just don't really write about their feelings like you, and there's nothing wrong with your lyrics."

"Would you tell me if there was something wrong with them?" He asked.

"Yes, John." I smiled.

"Okay." He said with a small smile. "Thanks for coming, Kay."

"No problem, John." I said with a grin. "Anything for my best friend."

Literally.