The Party Scene

Chapter 1
Hit The Lights

Tap...Tap...Tap...was all that was heard during seventh period.

"Psst, Alex stop tapping your pen...Mrs. Bennett's looking at you." Whispered Jack.

"Huh? Oh...sorry it's just that I can't think of anything." Alex whispered back.

"May we please continue boys?" Asked Mrs. Bennett appearing in the center of the aisle between the two rows of desk that Alex and Jack were sitting in. Both boys nodded. "Good, so as I was saying..." She trailed off, and walked back to the front of the room. Alex motioned that he'd finish his story later. Another forty-five minutes and the bell rang to release the students to be free from school for the weekend.

"Okay, spill what's going on?" Jack asked as the two walked through the crowded hallways of school.

"A song, I can't think of one..." Sighed Alex as he kicked the two double doors open with his foot reveling the bright rays of sunlight into his eyes.

"Like one that is stuck in your head? You were humming Dammit at lunch this morning." Said Jack.

"No not like that. Like I want to write one, Jack." Continued Alex.

"Write a song? For what? Is this an assignment that Mrs. Alberts assigned us to do in English, because I dozed off," Jack asked as his eyes bugged out. Alex shook his head left to right. "So, for no reason you just want to write a song?" He asked. Alex nodded up and down. Jack placed on a placid look on his face. "Okay..." He said confused.

"Hey Alex, Jack wait up!" Called a familiar voice that the boys knew.

"Hey Rian wassup brother?" Said the two simultaneously.

"Alex wants to write a song." Chimed Jack. Alex glared at Jack, and Jack just laughed expecting Alex to react that way.

"You do, for what?" Asked Rian.

"Don't you think it would be fun to start a band, I mean think about it. Rian, you play drums, Jack you play guitar, and you can sing decent, and I've been playing guitar for who knows how long, and I can also sing," said Alex contemplating what he'd just said.

"You know, you're right, we play guitar all the time with each other, why not start a band, I'm in!" Said Jack excitedly. Alex turned to face Rian waiting for an answer. Rian was silent for a few minutes, as they continued to walk through the parking lot.

"Come on Rian, it will be fun, plus you're one kick ass drummer." Alex said trying to convince Rian.

"Alright, I'll give it a shot, but where are we going to practice?" He asked,

"My garage, we never use it...junk is just piled up. We can clean it out this weekend." Said Alex.

"Okay, I'll meet you over at your house in a few hours. I promised I'd go over to Amanda's and see how she was feeling since she's sick." Sighed Rian. Alex and Jack both nodded, and clamored into the van where Jacks mom was waiting, while Rian got into his own mothers car. The van skidded out of the parking lot, while screeching Blink-182 out of the stereo system. Alex tapped his thumbs on the back of the passengers leather seat, while Jack jammed out on an invisible guitar in the passenger seat.

Twenty minutes later the two boys toppled out of the van still rocking to the non existing sounds of Blink-182.

“Have fun boys.” called Jacks mom.

"If this band thing does happen to work out, it should be based off of them." Said Alex suddenly. Jack nodded in concurrence. The two shuffled up the front lawn steps, and barged through the front door, to be greeted with an empty, dark house. Jack immediately straggled into the kitchen to raid the refrigerator. While Alex on the other hand tossed down his backpack on the hard wood floor, the fibers of his backpack began to crackle, the bag was so old, with band pins, and stickers splattered all over it. He quickly unzipped the bag, and dug around for a minute, before slapping a notebook and pen down onto the cherry wood coffee table, while he himself plopped onto the beige couch.
'I'm sitting here wishing for something that's missing...' muttered Alex, placing his pen to the paper and jotting that line down.
Just then Jack returned with two turkey sandwiches and a bag of chips. He too then sat on the couch, and handed Alex one of the sandwiches.

"Thanks." He mumbled as he drove the sandwich in his mouth.

"What's that?" Asked Jack with his mouth full, pointing to the paper with a single line written down on it.

"Ideas I guess you could call it?" Shrugged Alex.

"What about adding something in there about 'following through with this dream'?" Added Jack.

"'Because it's tearing me up inside...'" Said Alex quickly writing these words down.

"Yeah, Yeah! 'And we're never going to let go...'" Said Jack bouncing up.

"Hah, sit down Jack, this is just a rough outline, all we have is four lines," Laughed Alex.

"Dude, what if this amounts to being more than a garage band?" Exclaimed Jack.

"Don't jinx it dumb ass," He shouted, playfully. "It won't be anything huge unless we get out and perform, but first we need to find a bassist. We're not off to such a great start, are we?" Sighed Alex.

"Don't get worked up about this, it's the first day. You can't expect to have everything prepared the first day." Said Jack.

"No, but you should be able to. It should be a freaking law. Know what needs to be done and magically happen." Laughed Alex. " Jack what's in this sandwich it's amazing!" He exclaimed.

"It's a secret, because, well I'll tell you but you can't tell anyone, promise?" He asked. Alex nodded his head, while continuing to eat. "Love bro, brotherly love in its best form." Said an extremely all too serious Jack.

"Aw, I would have never guessed Jack, you really do care about me." Alex smiled, and embraced Jack in a side clenching hug sarcastically. The two continued to laugh.

"Okay, we seriously need to work on this Jack, stop jacking around." snickered Alex, containing his laughter for maybe ten seconds. Jack stared at his best friend as though he was going to pounce on him.

"Oh, I get it jacking around because my name is Jack, very original Alex, ha I'm dying of laughter." He sighed, but immediately placed a grin on his face.

"I try, I try." Said Alex picking his pen back up, placing the end of it in his mouth to chew on.

An hour passed and Jack was laying on his back with his head in Alex's lap playing his PSP, whereas Alex sat still pondering, waiting for words to pop into his head. He knew what he wanted to write, but it was a matter of getting it on paper and for it to make sense. He was right where he wanted to be. He had everything going for him. How could he corporate that into...*ring* damn, lost train of thought. Alex hopped up, and Jack fell onto the couch unaware that he's just been pushed up and back down. At the door was Rian, we was the only one who ever actually rang the doorbell, everyone else always barged on in.

"What's up?" Asked Rian, Alex glared.

"I was thinking, then the doorbell rang, I went to get it, and now I'm pissed." Said a cynical Alex, shrugging it off. "Whatever, I remember what I was thinking about." He said mostly talking to himself that time.

"Dude, you're worse than girls, you've got some serious mood swings." said Rian.

"Can't you take a Joke Ri?" Asked Alex. Rian rolled his eyes and strolled into the living room where Jack was left alone...talking to himself.

"You're mine, I'm gonna get you, is that what you want?" He continued on.

"Dear lord, you left him alone." Said Rian glancing over at Alex.

"Yeah, that was a bad move on my part. Jack Jack! Look who's here." He said in baby talk. Jack looked up at the two boys standing in the entry way.

"Hey! It's Rian!" Said Jack turning off his PSP.

"Musta had some mean bastard to fight, right?" He laughed, and Jack nodded.

"So how's this planning going?" He asked.

"Alright, I have some stuff written, I don't know it it's any good or not." Said Alex picking the notebook up off the arm of the couch and thrust it into Rians hands. He read aloud. 'So don't you go, I've got you right where I want you/ I'm never letting go/' "That was my line, that last part!" Shouted Jack. 'Hit the lights we'll be alright/ Tonight our dreams come true.'

"It's not bad at all Alex, what's it about?" He asked looking back up from the notebook.

"Just like starting a band, it's a dream and just that moment when you hit the lights and everything goes dark, you feel like you can do anything when you dream. And I don't want that feeling to leave, it's the part of me that's been missing. I want that feeling to take me away." Finished Alex, coming out of deep thought.

"Bravo, bravo!" Clapped Jack. "Beautiful, thank you for that descriptive explanation, you're one deep man Alexander." Laughed Jack. Rian joined, soon Alex too was laughing, and then tackled Jack to the couch.

"Alright break it up you two." Shouted Rian. The two stopped and looked at each other, then quickly pinned Rian to the ground.

The boys weren't much but they had a strong bond with each other. And hell they're freshman, this is how all fifteen year old boys act. All three were extremely satisfied with what had been accomplished that day. Jack and Rian were appreciative of Alex's lyrics. As for Alex himself, he was sitting on top of the world with his head held up high. High on life is what he was. Maybe it wasn’t much, but this was his dream, and it was going on the right track. One song, two members, three including himself. His dream was finally coming true gradually. And it made him shiver with goose bumps to think about. But for the time being the three teens were just enjoying their time with each other.