Painting Flowers

Gripping the drumsticks in one hand, Soph readjusted the earplugs she had just put in and made sure that they were actually in right. Once she was sure, she took a deep breath, placed a stick in each hand and then counted off in her head before bringing her hands down and starting a beat. It was incredible what a small thing like being able to actually hear could do for a person. Usually all she could do was feel the vibrations. But now, she could actually hear what the beat sounded like and also feel it.

She had been itching to play for the last four days. The night before she had finally gotten a hold of Jack again to make sure he was ok and then earlier this morning she, Alex, and Zo had tried to break the news to the others about the switch. But as anyone could tell as they passed by while she was playing, or see how hard she was beating the drums, things didn’t go so well.

They had called everyone into Alex and Jack’s room and sat them down, explaining what had happened. And amongst the eight pairs of eyes staring back at the three of them where they sat side by side with Soph in the middle, none of them believed them. The expressions ranged from annoyance to amusement and everything in between. They all looked at the three of them like they were crazy and idiotic for trying to come up with another prank. And it really didn’t help any that her boyfriend like to prank people and make up stupid stories. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work.

She knew that it was a stupid idea from the start. But Alex had told her time and time again that it was a better idea to tell them now instead of going with Soph’s plan. And her plan had been to not tell them and let the rest of the guys figure everything out on their own. She had a feeling that they wouldn’t believe her since Jack always liked to be the comic relief in the band and crack jokes and do stupid things. To the rest of the guys this was just another one of his jokes that he might had put just a little bit more thought into than the others.

Jack had it easy. Soph knew that everyone would believe him in her band. Not because of the fact that she was more serious and believable in situations like this, but it was harder to hide for him. He couldn’t read lips. And didn’t even play the drums so as soon as they sound checked, they would know something was up. Soph on the other hand knew how to play guitar, even though she didn’t know any All Time Low songs, Alex had been teaching her the parts and helping her get everything right so that she didn’t look too foolish on stage. But that wasn’t the part she was worrying about most. No. She was more worried about the fact that she had to talk on stage.

Alex and Jack always went back and forth insulting one another and making weird stupid jokes. That was what was going to be harder to cover up. And she knew because she probably wasn’t going to do a good job at it that the rest of the band and crew was going to believe her sooner rather than later. And that they were also going to ask for another explanation as to what was going on and she really didn’t want to explain it twice and try and convince them again that she wasn’t Jack.

And that’s why she was now sitting in front of Rian’s drum set, banging the life out of the drums and trying to get out any built up frustration from the last couple days. It always helped her to calm down while she played. And it seemed to be working this time now too as she felt some of the frustration melting away as she forced herself to play harder and some of the more tricky combinations that she made up in her head.

She had been so focused in playing that she didn’t even realize someone else was in the room until she finished playing and heard someone give a low curse. Soph’s head instantly shot up and she stared wide eyes as she saw Rian standing there with an equally as shocked expression on his face and they just stood where they were for a few moments staring at each other.

“Oh, um, hey Rian,” Soph said, finally just deciding to break the awkward silence as she took the ear plugs out. “Sorry about that, I uh, just needed to work some stress out.”

Rian just stood there for a few more moments before he shook his head, “You’re really not Jack are you?”

“What?”

“You really are Soph, aren’t you?”

She nodded, “Well yeah. I tried to explain that to all of you this morning but you wouldn’t believe me. But why do you now?”

“Because I’ve seen the real Jack play the drums, and he can’t for the life of him. But you play like you’ve been since you were young, and there is no way anyone can pull that off in a day unless something crazy happened. And seemingly in this case, switching bodies with your boyfriend.”

“Yo Rian was that you playing?” Grieco asked as he suddenly walked into the room followed with Zack, Evan, Jeff, and Flyzik. When they all saw Soph behind the drumset they all stood there with weird looks trying to understand what was going on. “Jack? That was you?”

Rian shook his head, “No it wasn’t Jack, it was Soph.”

“Seriously Rian? Alex and Jack have sucked you into their little game now too? What did you play and then have Jack sit behind the set to pretend it was him all the time?” Flyzik asked.

“No Matt, it’s really Soph,” Rian said as their manager just rolled his eyes. “Soph, play something, it’s the only way to prove it.”

She bit her lip wondering if it was really a good idea. Maybe it was just better that they pretended that Jack hand her really hadn’t switched. But then they would still know something was wrong since Jack wouldn’t be acting like himself, that maybe he was sick or something. So maybe it was better to just prove it once and for all that she wasn’t her boyfriend and so she didn’t end up in a mental hospital because they didn’t know what else to do with ‘Jack’.

So she played. Putting the ear plugs back in and gripping the drumsticks tightly before raising her arms and bringing them down hard as she began playing one of her favorite songs. She closed her eyes so she didn’t have to see the shocked or annoyed faces as they watched her since she could feel all their eyes on her. But let her get lost in playing once again, getting rid of the stress that resurfaced once the room filled and started telling her how crazy she was once again.

Her whole life she had been called crazy or dumb because of being deaf. Just because she wasn’t like other people didn’t mean she was impaired or defective. She was just different. It wasn’t anything to be ashamed of but everyone made such a big deal out of it. But it wasn’t a big deal, it was just something that happened and she had to deal with when she was young. Though all the eyes she could feel on her as she played made her think back to when everyone always stared at her making her feel uncomfortable and that was something that made her play even harder. The nice thing was that even though she could hear, the ear plugs and the muffled sounds of the drums made it impossible for her to hear whatever it was they were now saying about her. And she knew without even opening her eyes that they were talking about her.

When she finished, she slowly opened her eyes, biting her lip as she faced the now ten pairs of eyes watching her. Alex and Zo had showed up somewhere while she had been playing and smiled slightly at the satisfied smirks they both wore as she also caught the astonished looks the others were giving her. Hopefully those looks meant that they finally believed her and that she really had been telling the truth earlier that day.

“Sophia?” Flyzik finally asked as she sat their awkwardly waiting for one of them to say something. She nodded slightly and he just laughed breathlessly. “You were telling the truth.”

She nodded again as she hopped off the platform and joined the rest of them in front of the stage where all the kids would be standing for their concert later that night. “We tried to tell you before but you didn’t believe us. I guess you do now though?”

They all nodded and mumbled their apologies when they all finally got their voices back. Then they all started to ask a billion questions about what happened and why it happened and if she had gotten into contact with the real Jack. Thankfully though Alex was there to help her since she was a little overwhelmed, though she was thankful that they finally believed her and stopped getting those weird stares. She was really tired of all the stares all the time. Though now she had to deal with all the questions she would be answering for the rest of the day…