More Than a Band

If there was one thing that Isobel liked, it was her study leave. It was all very convenient for her, making it so that she had at least one study leave period per day and giving her pretty much the entire day off on Fridays, asides from the pesky third lesson slot that was nestled between break time and lunchtime. And of course she had to have History then, the one subject that she regretted continuing for A2, but the lie-in and the early day's end made it slightly more enjoyable than her other History lessons. Speaking of History, that was the subject she was currently in, watching the clock above the board slowly tick closer to three o'clock. Although the school day ended at quarter past, most teachers let the sixth formers out at three because a single lesson was hard enough to concentrate in at the end, but a double lesson was almost impossible to comprehend when it approached three.

At lunch, when that Ali girl had shown up unexpectedly, they had decided to just talk during that time - mostly about nothing, but some of it was band-related - and when it was close to the end of lunch, they decided to meet up after school in the normal place so that they could assess whether Ali was truly just a nerd or whether there was something vaguely interesting about her. Isobel thought she would end up being just a nerd but she'd been surprised before.

"Alright Year 13, write down the question on the board and then you can go. It's due for next week," the teacher said, bringing her eyes away from the clock and toward the board. Great, a thirty mark question. That was just what she needed.

The boy next to her called out, "How many pages?"

"I expect no less than four sides. Three sides might have been okay in Year 12 but this is Year 13 now, and three sides is just not enough." There was a groan in the room as he spoke, and Isobel felt the same. Four sides at the minimum? She could barely write two that were coherent! "Do you want to fail your exam in the summer? Because you can leave right now and not come back to class." No one moved and after a moment, they began writing down the question into their notepads.

Slowly chairs started to scrape across the floor and people were filing out the door, and just as the clock struck three, Isobel was out of her seat, packing her bag and leaving the room. She hurried out of the school grounds and down the road so that she could catch the quarter past three bus in order to get home earlier so that she could change out of the clothes she wore to school. Despite not having a uniform like the younger years did, they were still required to dress formally for appearance's sake.

The meeting time was four so she had enough time to lounge about in her bedroom after getting changed before having to start her journey to the local community centre. As the local council was keen to encourage its teenagers to do more productive things with their time rather than cause trouble, they had been allowed access to a small room in the centre twice a week. It was there that they would practice - as well as bicker - as none of them were willing to take the others back to their house each week. There was no way Isobel would ever invite Reed to her house, even if there was a disaster outside.

When she arrived the room was empty so she sat on one of the plastic chairs that were arranged against the wall and began playing one of the game apps on her phone while she waited for the others to arrive. Ali was the next to arrive and Isobel looked up when the door opened and she tentatively stepped in. "Am I late?"

"Not likely," she muttered, going back to her game. After completing two more levels she exited from the app, put her phone away and looked around the room to see Ali looking at the drums that occupied the corner. Luckily the centre had drums for the times when musicians would play for certain events otherwise Joey would have to bring his own each time and despite not playing drums herself, she knew it'd be hard work to always have to bring a set of drums for practice.

Before anything else could be said, the door opened and Reed came sauntering in. "Honey, I'm home," he called, looking at Isobel then at Ali. "Wow, you actually turned up. I thought you'd miss doing homework too much."

"Funny," Ali murmured, taking up one of the chairs a few down from Isobel. "I thought this was supposed to be a practice? I've been here for ten minutes and haven't done anything."

"Well, Babycakes, first we have to wait for Joey. Then you have to sing for us."

"So, like, an audition?"

He winked. "Exactly," he confirmed, settling next to her. "You get to sing your pretty little head off and we get to listen, judge you vocally and then decide whether you're in."

Isobel rolled her eyes. "Well, when you put it that way I wonder whether you actually have a vagina in your jeans," she said sardonically as Joey walked into the room. "Although I know he's fully male between the legs."

Joey stopped in the doorway and glanced quizzingly between Isobel and Reed. "You've never seen between my legs."

She winked. "One day, Joe."

Ali stood up abruptly and placed her hands on her hips. "Are we going to get on with this? I promised my mom I'd be back within half an hour."

"Practice takes longer than half an hour," Joey explained making Ali sigh.

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind for the future but today I really can't stay any longer. So can we get started?"

Reed saluted. "Sing, Babycakes," he instructed as Joey deliberately sat next to him instead of near Isobel. She loved toying with him.

For a moment Ali just stood there, not sure what to do. Isobel cleared her throat and looked at her pointedly making her fiddle with her hair. "What should I sing?" she asked.

Immediately Reed piped up. "You could sing 'Bad Touch'!"

Isobel snorted while Ali looked unsure. "I've never heard of that."

"It goes something like 'You and me baby, ain't nothin but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.'" Isobel laughed when Ali's face dropped in disgust.

"No!" she exclaimed, mortified. "If that's what you sing about then I will not be a part of this."

Joey hit Reed. "Cut it out," he ordered before looking back to Ali. "Sing whatever you want. All we need to hear is your voice."

She looked unsure about herself but took a deep breath and began to sing. Isobel didn't recognise the song but then again she normally identified a song by its chorus and Ali didn't sing long enough to make it to the chorus. "Well?" she said, after a minute's silence from everyone. "How did I do?"

Isobel shrugged. "I've heard better," she commented.

"It's not amazing but it is alright," Joey confirmed, nodding his head. "And you're the only person we have who can at least hold a tune. Isobel wouldn't even try."

"I'd much rather hear you sing."

"And that's not going to happen."

Ali cleared her throat and looked at them expectantly. Reed stood from his seat, walked over to her and slung an arm around her shoulder. "Welcome to the band, Babycakes!"