Forza Forte

Calm before the Storm

"Lucas. Lucas!" Shanice yells at him before he realizes she's calling out to him. "Oh my bad, I was thinking about stuff and-" Liam cuts him off. "You need to focus! We have the qualifiers tomorrow, and we need to figure out which songs we're doing," Liam says while sitting on an amp. "We could play some of our older music that fans recognize. That way, they can sing along with," Paora says, sitting behind his drum set. "Yeah, but will that excite the crowd more than dropping some of our unreleased songs?" Shanice says, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "What do you think, Lucas?" Lucas looks at his phone before sending a message to his mom:
[hey, why don't you ever talk to me about dad?]
He realizes his name is called and says, "oh yeah, um, whatever you guys think is best." Liam frowns at Lucas, "you figure out your drive?" They all look at Lucas. Lucas takes a deep breath, "Yeah, I did. I want to show the crowd how much of an amazing performer I am, and I hope our music can brighten their day." Paora and Shanice smile at him while Liam looks off. "Tsk. Good enough. I'm assuming you don't know how to scream on songs like When Lightning Strikes?" Liam asks Lucas. Lucas shakes his head no.
"That's fine. It's a great song, but not essential just yet. I heard we're only going up against Sleepless Nights in the qualifiers." Paora laughs, "seriously? That's that pop rock-type garbage with guyliner. We'll be fine!" Liam looks at him seriously, "I wouldn't knock them. We might not like them, but they can seriously shred, and the lead singer, Donnie Adkins, has a small cult following. I think we should stick to the 2-3 songs the crowd knows and save the better stuff for later." Lucas gets up, "sounds like a plan. I honestly think we can do this. You guys are phenomenal and only need a platform so the world can hear your sound." Shanice snickers, "If I'm being honest, I don't even know what our particular sound is." Lucas replies, "that's okay! I feel like Paora said it best that we're overthinking this stuff. If we stay true to ourselves and show we're an upcoming band that's a force to be reckoned with, people will respect and enjoy that. That's why I enjoyed watching you guys." They sit in silence for a moment. Liam speaks up, "Lucas is right. Let's go out there and let everyone feel the drive of Surge Electrik." Shanice looks at her phone and says, "hey, I forgot I got something to do, but I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?" Paora says, "I think I'm going to take off too. This gig is going to be like any other! No problem." The two leave, and Lucas follows behind before Liam grabs his shoulder. "Do not mess this up for us. We've been through a lot to get where we are, and I don't want you to just come through and change everything we worked hard for." Lucas smiles at Liam, "I hear you, and I promise I'm going to do whatever it takes to try to help this band be successful. I swear to you." Liam nods his head before Lucas leaves.

Lucas makes it home and sees that his mom has replied, [I can't.] Lucas appears to be angry before taking a deep breath. He starts to text her but decides to leave his phone on a dresser. He eventually falls asleep.

(Lucas finds himself in a similar scenario where he's sitting at a swing set and sees the white dove and the woman in blue sitting on the bench. He gets up and again starts to walk towards her until he notices a bright red scarf-like material fly across him. He stares at it flow in the wind and goes towards a small house with a woman sitting on the porch. Lucas can't determine how she looks but notices she is wearing an all-red outfit. He starts to walk towards her-)

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Lucas opens his eyes before taking a deep breath in and heavily breaths out. "Good morning Lucas! Are you excited about your big debut today?" Sunny says while making coffee. Lucas walks passed him and grabs a banana and water from the fridge. "Yeah, sort of. We'll see how it goes. Sunny, can I ask you something?" Lucas says as he walks to sit at the table. "You used to know my mom and worked closely with her. Does that mean you would know about my dad?" Sunny immediately freezes with his back toward Lucas. "Man, my boy, I don't know if I really remember-" Lucas slams his water on the table, "Sunny, please, don't lie to me. I need you to be honest with me. If you know anything about him-" Sunny turns and interrupts him, "I think that's something you might have to ask your mother about." Lucas takes a deep breath in and out, "yeah, I thought that's what you might say. I hope you have a good day today." Lucas walks out of the kitchen before heading towards the shop. He puts his earphones into his ears to play Mind over Matter on his phone while he puts records from a box onto shelves.