Facing the Obstacles

School continued to go fine and boring as it was, I was getting good grades. Not to mention we were coming up with some really good ideas for more songs. It was now routine that we would go immediately to Nathan’s after school, get our homework done and spend as much time as we could writing songs. Zach had come up with a good song, entitled Here with You. The lyrics were good, our guitar playing was coming along well and Zach’s voice was awesome like usual, but we still needed drums and keyboard.

I was walking out of school with the guys one day when I saw Heidi by a tree, crying. My heart plummeted and I ran over to see my baby sister.
“Heidi?” I asked, sitting down beside her. I wrapped my arms around her shaking body as she continued to sob. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
The guys came and sat down as well as she responded, “I-I… was at my locker getting my things and this guy in my grade came over and broke all of my crayons and colored pencils that I got from Peru, pushed me down, and then ripped apart…” she paused, more tears coming back. “He ripped apart my paintings, including the ‘Waiting for the Train’ piece!”
“You don’t mean to tell me he ruined the piece you were going to show Ms. Peterson?! The one she was going to consider including in the LA paper?!”
“She might have had a painting in the LA paper?!” Zach questioned, amazed. “We have to do something!”
“We have to go tell the principal!” I said. I wanted to kill the person that did this; you can’t just mess with my little sister and get away with it.
I helped Heidi up and we started to walk back to school. As we walked, I noticed Heidi was limping.
“Heidi… are you limping?” I asked.
“N-no…” she said quickly, immediately trying to act normal.
I glared at her. “What happened?!”
“Well… he… he may also have fractured my leg…”
“Oh my god.”

“We’d like to report some bullying,” Nathan said, walking into the principal’s office. The principal watched Heidi as she sat down, wincing in pain.
As Heidi sat in the office, explaining what happened; the four of us went outside and sat on the school steps.
“People suck!” Cameron said, sitting down.
“Whoa… strong opinions much?” Zach questioned.
“No, it’s not! People are cruel, violent and only care about themselves! It’s disgusting what some people will do!”
“But there must be some explanation as to why this is bugging you so much!” Nathan insisted.
“Well… I used to get bullied in elementary school,” he said, truthfully. Zach nodded knowingly.
Wow, I thought. Who knew that Cameron of all people would be bullied? He’s such a nice guy, why would anyone want to?
We sat there in silence, until finally Heidi limped out and we walked home, not talking nearly as much as we were before.

Thump! Thump! What the heck is that?! I wondered, startled awake. It seemed to be coming from my window. Walking over, I opened it to find Zach and Cameron standing there while Nathan chucked sticks at my window.
“ARE YOU COMING?” they shouted. “WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE!”
I looked at my clock. Ohhhhh…… crrrrraaaap! I forgot to set my alarm! I put some decent clothes on, ran downstairs, shoved some food into my mouth and ran out the door, putting a baseball cap on as I went.
“Hurry up!” Zach yelled, as we sprinted to school.

Twenty minutes later we were in the principal’s office explaining why we were ten minutes late to school. He heard our story and let us go with a warning.
“I’m so sorry guys!” I apologized for the fiftieth time.
“And, again, it’s FINE. I SWEAR. No. Big. Deal.” Zach assured me.

“So where’s Heidi today?” Cameron asked me. We were sitting at our usual lunch table, practically inhaling our food we were so hungry.
“Well we told my mom what happened yesterday and she immediately took Heidi to the doctor’s so they could inspect her leg. It is fractured, but the doctor says if she doesn’t put weight on it for a couple of days she’ll be fine. She didn’t want to have to lug around crutches all day, especially with the staircases and such, so she stayed home. She’ll probably be back by Friday.”
They all breathed sighs of relief.
I could not ask for better friends. Period.
“So what up with the dude?” Nathan questioned.
“Well the principal decided that he would be suspended for the rest of the week. And as for the painting, Ms. Peterson said she’d move the deadline back so that Heidi can have another chance. After all, it’s not her fault she couldn’t turn it in.”

Screech!
“Okay, seriously Zach?!” Cameron said angrily.
“Sorry, it’s not working right!” Zach said, fumbling with the microphone. “Were amps really necessary anyway?”
Nathan rolled his eyes, “Come on, we have to figure out this song. How did you say it went?”
We were in Nathan’s backyard with all of our band gear. Zach had been writing a new song and he’d finally finished. Now we just had to figure out all the chords. It was slow and painful work, but we were managing. I lifted my baseball cap and wiped the sweat glistening on my forehead. Man, it’s so hot! Why can’t we take a swim break? I thought. I sighed and continued on with figuring out the chords.
“Okay, I’ll sing the beginning and you figure out what will make it work,” Zach ordered Nathan. “Deal?”
He nodded.
“I’d be livin’ the dream… if my life switched with the football team. And I’d be praised by my friends... if I was drivin a Mercedes Benz. Do I know? What do I kno-o-ow? I wanna be… a rock star, a superhero, livin’ the dream, doin’ the things that I always wanted. I wanna see my face on the TV, with my picture on the cover, for my friends to see a different side of me.”
Nathan started playing around with some notes until finally he settled on a tune with the notes going back and forth. It sure fit well. Cam and I added our own beats and soon the song started to come together. Some neighbors walking by stopped and listened from the front yard, and when we finished they clapped and cheered.
We smiled; our band was looking up.