Marching Band

Beneath the closed eyelids of his, he expected his own world to slide across in front of his shut eyes. Instead all he saw was the reality - darkness. He tightened his eyes, crinkles forming beside them and pursed his lips, forcing himself to open up his imagination. But everyone knew you could never force creativity. It just simply came.

After several minutes of waiting for the right pictures to flash in front of him, he flung the blanket off him. He thought that the new fresh cool air would help with his thinking. But of course it didn't to anything, only reminded him of his recent failures. That's all he had been doing lately, attempting without any progress.

The blue pools suddenly appeared. Zach's patience had been running out for the first five minutes but he forced himself to stay. He wanted to continue lying down on his mattress to wait for his imagination to run. Now he stood from the bed completely fed up with all of it.

Placing both hands on his hips, his eyes wandered around his own room. It was nothing like his old bedroom, in his parent's house but it was one of the sacrifices he had to make. For the sake of their fans, of course.

He paced back and forth, bare feet walking along the paper covered brown carpet. He bent down picking up one of the crumpled pieces of paper and folded it out. Ocean eyes scanned across the paper reading the lyrics over again. He remembered his struggle and scrunched up the paper, throwing it on the floor back to its original place.

Zach began his journey around his bedroom once more, swallowing in his surroundings, as if one single room could've given him the idea he craved for. The inspiration he so desperately needed. The reason he had started writing in the first place. It was hard to think of songs recently and it pained him. The words used to easily flow out the end of the pencil.

His eyes landed on the calendar hanging at the back of the door. It was usually freckled over with important dates, occasions and such. However, since it wasn't an entirely busy time for the band the calendar was for most part empty.

There were only four circled days out of the month and the writing inside one of the red circles was 'music event attend'. Zach's first reaction was to facepalm himself. He couldn't believe he had forgotten an important event of the month. He never missed a music festival, event, occasion, party or something in that matter. Ever.

Zach's mind whirred over as he slid open drawers, pulling out the first jeans he saw and the cleanest shirt he could find, putting the materials on. He spotted a blazer draped over the back of his computer seat and reached for it. After hurriedly dressing, he scrutinized himself in the bathroom mirror, wondering if he looked decent enough then slipped on his favourite pair of converse before running out of the house.

As he drove to the event, he remembered his best friends. They were meant to be attending too but they had seemed pretty occupied the last few days. They were both too busy with their own rushing lives to pay attention to a single event. He worried about both of them, specially Cameron since his usually bubbly self had slowly melted away. Maybe the others would come, Dillon and Brent.

It was a difficult task to find a good parking spot since most of the spaces were filled with other vehicles. He hadn't expected so many people to show up but it was a music event after all. Who didn't waste their time on things such as music?

Zach walked along the grounds, mind still pondering on. This must be the place he could get inspiration from. The event was for young artists attempting to get noticed with a few special guests here and there. But it was really meant for people who wanted to get their talents to be noticed. Maybe a young, aspiring artist might just be the inspiration he need. After all, that was how he started out.

As he neared the stage, several teenage girls walked up to him. They asked for autographs, pictures, kisses and hugs. He happily obliged into doing all those things as he loved interacting with fans. They were really the ones who made making music worth while. There wasn't anything that made him happier than seeing that he made someone else smile and that people actually idolized him.

Whilst taking a photograph with one of the fans, his ears perked up as he heard a sound. Zach's ripped his gaze away from the camera and he stared at the girl up on stage. "Oh that's Pamela Halton. She's an amazing singer," the fan whom he was meant to be taking a picture with informed him.

"Really now?" he replied with a question. The girl merely laughed at him before saying a final goodbye and skipping back to her group of friends.

Zach absentmindedly whispered the girl's name. Pamela. He stared intriguingly at the girl up on stage. She was dressed simply, wearing shorts and a light long sleeved top. He snickered as his eyes swept down her body, finding a pair of U.S.A flag vans adorning her feet.

She was standing up, strumming flawlessly on the brown acoustic guitar and leaning herself onto the microphone. The words of the song streamed effortlessly out of her mouth as she sung each lyric the right way. Zach, himself, couldn't help but stare on. He had never heard such a beautiful voice which didn't seem to be famous enough. That was highly absurd.

As soon as Pamela stepped off the stage, claps still echoing through the atmosphere, Zach decided to meet the girl who captivated him. When he reached the back of the stage there was a small group surrounding her. It was while before the crowd dispersed, leaving the two young adults alone.

"Hi," he eventually stuttered out.

Pamela laughed, shaking her head in disapproval. Her black hair fell in a curtain, framing her small face. "Can I help you at all? I'm really busy and-"

"You were amazing out there."

She raised one of the dark eyebrows. "Well it is what I'm good at." Zach was about to answer with a smart comment telling her that she was completely modest too but she was too quick. Pamela didn't give him another minute of her time as she turned around and headed the other way.