My Understandings

We were on the way to the concert and I was pretty nervous. Everyone was talking and laughing. They were all very nice and cool. I would love to be in this band. “Hey, what about your school?” Austin asked pulling me from my daydreams.
“Oh.” I hadn’t thought about my school yet. ”I don’t know. Can we pick up my work tomorrow?” I asked. Austin shrugged and smiled.
“Sure. Why not?” I smiled back.
“Thanks.” I said. “Oh and thank you all for letting me stay these few days. I really, really need it.” I said. They all smiled and nodded.
“No problem!” Tino said. “You seem pretty cool so far.” He said.
“Thanks.” I said and smiled.
“So what’d you do for a job?” Alan asked.
“Oh, I was a model.” I said.
“Have you ever been in a music video?” Austin asked. I nodded.
“Quite a few.” I laughed.
“Wow. So like you have a lot of money?”
“Oh no. I’m always broke. Probably because of the clothes I buy though.” I said and laughed again.
“Yeah, we can see. You don’t exactly look like the type to listen to heavy metal and rock.” Said Phil.
“That’s exactly what I said when I met her!” Yelled Austin. I smiled.
“Yeah, when I moved here I didn’t have any friends so I tried my hardest to fit in. It worked for a while but then I got in with the wrong crowd and stuff.” I said. I felt a little ashamed telling them so I hung my head. I felt a pat on the back.
“Hey, no problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Just follow your own crowd from now on.” Said Austin and he smiled a brilliant smile at me. I smiled back..
“Thanks. I’ll try.” I said. In a few minutes we were at the concert. It was actually pretty big. When we stepped out of the bus I found out it was actually huge. There were people littering the street and piling out from the doors. I could only imagine how many people were inside the old warehouse. I liked places like this to play concerts. It made you feel…rebellious. Instead of a nice stage outdoors in the open you were in an abandoned warehouse with thousands of teens and kids rocking out and banging their head to music. There were no rules and most of the time the Venue people didn’t care what you done here. It was like a safe haven for people with bad at home relationships or that just needed to get away. The strobe lights peaked through the cracks in the roof and shone through the huge and extremely tall windows. It was amazing. This was the first concert I’d ever been to and I was going to sing at it. With my favorite band. Pretty cool night if you ask me. There were Velcro lines holding back the crazy fans as we all passed by. Austin had his arm around my shoulder and I got a ton of dirty looks from the fan girls. I just shrugged every time I seen one that looked like she wanted to jump over the Velcro line and kill me. Austin leaned down to my ear. “Have you ever been to a concert before?” He asked. “You look kind of lost.” He said and laughed.
“Yeah, this my first time at a concert.” I whispered back to him. He laughed and stood up. He waved to some of the fans and touched some of them on the way to the backdoor. Soon we got to the backdoor. We walked down a long hall until we got to a door that had ‘Of Mice & Men’ on it. Austin pushed the door open and we all went in. There were their instruments in the corner of the room. I didn’t see the mic so I guessed they were already out on the stage. “Well, this is what it looks like in the Dressing Room.” Said Alan. I nodded.
“I thought it would look like the one I have.” I said a little in awe. This one was nothing like mine. It was much less…glamorous. Mine had booths with all sorts of make up and mirrors with lights on them. I had a hair dresser and even most of the time someone else was doing my make up for me. I looked around the room. They had some mirrors but no lights on the mirrors.
“Well, what does your look like?” Aaron asked. I shrugged.
“Bigger. Has make up and lights.” I said. I saw them on swinging their guitars on and Tino had his drum sticks in hand and practicing the air drums. Austin was doing vocal warm ups and so was Aaron.
“Oh wait.” Aaron said. “You’ll be doing my parts won’t you?” He asked.
“No!” Austin said. “Don’t make the poor girl do pretty much all the songs! She’ll get stage fright!” He said. I nodded in agreement.
“That, I agree with.” I said.
“Wanna do Second and Sebring?” Austin asked. I smiled.
“That’ll be cool.” I said. Austin nodded.
“Alright.” He said. He smiled at me and I swear I could’ve melted. “You sure you can do it?” He asked. I nodded.
“I’m pretty sure I can.” I said and smiled. Austin nodded and a man came in and told us it was time for them to play. “You can sit on the big case thing next to the stage okay?” Austin said.
“Okay.” I said and started walking. I got next to the case and sat down on it. That’s when all if the guys came in. I held out my hand and they all gave me a high five. I smiled at them and they all whispered ‘Good Luck’ to me. I nodded. Austin was the last one out. He leaned down really quick and said, “Don’t disappoint me.”, smiled and then walked out. The crowd cheered and I smiled. Austin immediately started singing O.G. Loko and everyone screamed. Some people were behind me talking and I realized they were talking about the band. They were making good comments, saying the band was good and all. It made me smile. I couldn’t agree more.

When it was time for Second And Sebring Austin said something into the mic first. I was super nervous. “Alright everyone. This has been an amazing show! This one last song is called Second And Sebring. A friend of mine is gonna come and help me sing this song. She’s really nervous so you guys will have to help her some alright?!” Austin said. There was a ton of screaming and then I saw Austin motion for me to come out on stage. There was a mic beside him and when I came out he gave me a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and then let go. The crowd was still screaming. “Everyone this is Callista!” Austin said and the band started playing. I started singing. I smiled the whole time I was singing. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined. The high notes scared me though, but I did good on them. I was scared that I would mess up or something would happen to my voice. But when Austin chimed in for his part it made me feel even better. When it his turn to scream I stopped singing and mouthed words along with him. I lifted up my hands signaling for the crowd to sing louder. Boy, did they sing too. I felt like my ear drums were gonna bust open. I tapped my foot in time to the beat and then picked up the dong again. The crowd sang along with me. I could barely hear myself but it was amazing. I was full of adrenaline and then the song slowed down. This was a time when it was gonna be just me singing. That’s when I got really nervous but Austin came and stood next to me. I felt better when he did that. The crowd sang along with me as I sang the very last part of the song. I swayed a little to the song and before I knew it, I was done. The crowd cheered. I smiled and waved. The crowd cheered louder and Austin said a good night and thank you to everyone. We all walked off the stage and as soon as we got back to the Dressing Room Austin picked me up and squeezed me. I laughed and when he put me down Austin hugging me turned into a group hug. I smiled. “You were awesome out there!” Austin yelled. “A part of me didn’t think you could do it but you did!” He said and hugged me again. I laughed.
“Thanks!” I said.
“Wow Callista. That really was amazing.” Aaron said. “I don’t think I could have done better myself.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. Oh yeah, I could get used to this.