The Arts

18 - Falling Flat

ROBBIE

          The switch happened seemingly overnight, Robbie noticed. Not that there was anywhere for Andi to go except up, if her improv skills were any indication of the rest of her talent. Yes, she was turning out to be a fine bassist for the band. Robbie almost didn't feel guilty for lying to Matt about choosing her carefully. Or for lying to Andi about her song.

          Almost.

          It's not that her song was bad, per se. It just didn't fit the vibe of The Flaming Wolves. Robbie had rationalized it in his head hundreds of times. His very Catholic grandfather had always had a thing or two to say about choosing "the lesser of two evils" when faced with a tough decision. And it didn't take a genius to see that having complacent bandmates was the lesser of two evils. If they really cared about the band, they wouldn't make things so difficult for him.

          Right?

          Speaking of which. It was time to practice. And he had a very important announcement to make.

          Robbie tossed his backpack against the corner of his desk and methodically packed up his guitar and everything that went with it. For the first time probably ever, he was the last one in the rehearsal room. By the time he got there, Matt was already putting together his drum set and Andi was tuning her bass with an app on her phone. As they set up their instruments, they chatted about homecoming.

          "Are you gonna wear matching suits?" Andi asked Matt.

          "Not really. We'll color coordinate, but mostly we'll each have our own thing going on. I'm thinking of getting some fun suspenders or something," Matt said.

          Andi's face lit up. "You can totally borrow mine! They're checkerboard, though."

          Robbie jumped into the conversation at the first chance he got. "Speaking of homecoming. I have an announcement. You might want to sit down for this."

          Matt obediently sat down behind his drum set. Andi simply leaned against the grand piano. Once he was certain he had everyone's attention, he continued.

          "Okay. So, long story short, we might be playing at the dance. It's unlikely that any of the other bands would drop out this close to it, but we still need to work harder than ever. That means brushing up on all our old stuff."

          Robbie looked at his bandmates expectantly for reactions. Matt seemed altogether unfazed, if not a little tired, but he put on a small grin nonetheless. Andi had enough excitement for the three of them. Her mouth somehow both gaped open and smiled from ear to ear at the same time. Her hand shot up, like she was in class and needed permission to speak.

          Robbie pointed at her. "Yes, Andi?"

          "Okay. So. First of all, this is awesome. I've never gotten to do something like this, like, ever. But — and maybe I haven't earned the right to suggest things yet — maybe we should consider learning a couple of more...modern stuff? I mean, most of our covers are more like classic rock."

          It took all of Robbie's strength to not roll his eyes into the back of his head. "I totally get what you mean. But we're basically an understudy. A ton of other bands are gonna have the modern stuff already covered. If we go on, we're not gonna get more than five songs, so it doesn't matter if they're classic rock."