A Love Like War

It was the first band practice today. As I walked with Kara--turned out she lived two houses away from me--to Jack’s house, my heart was beating in my throat. I didn’t know why I was so nervous. I’d already sung for the group as a sort of “audition,” and they’d loved my voice and said I’d be an awesome lead singer. But there was something about the first band practice that was making my palms sweat.

When we knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman who I assumed was Jack’s mother opened the door. She gave us a warm smile and welcomed us into her home.

She said to me once we were inside, “Now, I know Kara, but I don’t believe I’ve met you before. I’m Joyce Barakat, what’s your name, sweetie?”

“I’m Kristin,” I smiled at her. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Oh! Are you from England?” She asked.

I laughed shyly. “Yes. I moved here a couple of weeks ago.”

“Ah, fabulous. Well it’s nice to meet you as well, Kristin. Anyway girls, the boys are in the basement. Kara, you remember where it is, right?”

“Yeah. Thank you Mrs. Barakat,” Kara replied.

I followed Kara down a hallway and down an obscure flight of stairs into what must have been the basement of the Barakat household. When we got down there, Jack, Rian, and Matt were setting up their instruments. Jack was getting his guitar out of the case, Rian was adjusting a symbol on his huge drum kit, and Matt was sitting on the floor against a wall tuning his guitar--and looking quite cute as he did it, might I add.

“Kristin, Kara! You guys made it!” Jack exclaimed, a grin spreading from ear to ear the moment he noticed our presence. The other boys looked up and smiled, too.

“Hey Kristin,” Matt said.

“Hello,” I said, much more quietly and awkwardly than I usually would’ve. I was still ridiculously nervous about singing.

“Okay, so you love Green Day, so you probably know the words to ‘When I Come Around,’ right?” Jack asked me.

“Of course,” I laughed quietly.

“Okay, cool, cause we all know how to play it pretty well. Uh . . . I don’t know, wanna just try playing it?” Jack said.

I looked at the other guys, then shrugged along with them. “Sure, why not?”

I walked over to the microphone that had been set up in the center of the basement and glanced nervously at Kara, who was now sitting against the wall, replacing Matt. Everyone prepared to play the song, and then Rian said, “One, two, three, four,” and started drumming. The guitar riffs tore through the quiet atmosphere of the basement, and soon it was my cue to begin singing.

I sang the song to the best of my abilities--without sounding like a complete, twat, that is. When we finished the song, everyone looked astounded at the fact that we played it all the way through the first time.

“That was actually really good,” Kara said, grinning.

“Dude . . .” Jack began. “We’re AWESOME.”