SHE PLAYS BASS, hazel callahan

02. fuckin pros

As she got lost in her thoughts the cool breeze swept her bleached hair pieces in front of her face, getting stuck on her eyelashes. And Vidia frowned as she saw that she still had the long, terrifying walk across the dark pavement, and that it now felt like it could bury her six feet under.

The next week has gone by surprisingly fast. There had been truly nothing besides school and work for Vidia, and luckily the bruise on her face had faded to a muted, barely there yellow. If the band had had any gigs there would've been practice, but when the first few weeks of school came around they always slowed down, partially because Roy was a huge nerd. But, Vidia was glad because it opened up her schedule so that she could be in the self defense club.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't super nervous, it had started last week so who even knows if there was a guarantee that they would let her in. Luckily, she'd shown up around 3:10 o'clock, just five minutes before the club meeting actually started. She truly had no reason to be, but she felt timid as she entered the environment of the school gym. These were just girls who wanted what she wanted, girls she's known since they were all kids.

Her boots squeaked slightly against the shiny gymnasium floor as she approached the spot where most of the girls had gathered. Many of them were messing around the equipment that was scattered around, mostly just doing their own thing. Of course, Vidia didn't want to look like a loser, but there wasn't much she could do when she seemed so out of place.

Vidia didn't really care much to find a piece of equipment she wanted to use as they all waited, so she opted on just sitting down a stack of mats that had been piled on the floor. She didn't have to wait long when most girls had shown up and Mr. G came rushing in saying, "Hey, ladies. Let's get it popping in this motherfucker."

Nobody around her really seemed to be paying any attention, but Vidia had made a little bit of awkward eye contact with who she believed to be Josie as she tried to get the group's attention. She felt bad, but she couldn't help but begin doubting how well this group could do when the leader couldn't even grasp their attention. Though, a lot of her regret went right down the drain when Josie's counterpart, PJ, began slamming the end of a mop stick onto the ground. The noise shocked many of the other girls, but Vidia was used to loud and unexpected sounds by now, so all it did was fully captivate her and grab her attention even more.

"Everybody, shut the fuck up!" PJ gave everyone of the girls a thorough and judgmental look through, making sure they were serious, "This isn't a little hangout, okay? Oh it's not a sleepover, playtime. There are serious rules that we need to establish, okay?"

As PJ walked past Vidia, examining her with her crazy and wild eyes, Vidia couldn't help but examine the bruises surrounding her nose. It seemed to her that something interesting had definitely happened at the last meeting, and it made sense as to why the group had grown much larger since the last meeting.

"First, listen. Second, be on time."

Now that she was in the clear from PJ's antics, she took a quick look around the room. A lot of the girls were still scared or shocked, but then Vidia saw one girl standing and taking notes. It only took her a second to realize it was the same girl who had been shoved into her desk last week. Vidia took a mental note that it was sweet that she wanted to make sure we remembered what happened in the meeting.

PJ's voice slammed back into Vidia's ears, "Club starts at 3:15. Not 3:16." She scoffed, "Not 3:17, but the doors close at 3:15. No exceptions. I don't care if you're like, 'Oh, but I had to go to extra help for math because I need a full ride...'"