Music Camp { A Short Luke Hemmings Novel }

T h r e e

After waking up the next morning you immediately get dressed and have breakfast at the breakfast place. You decide to sit down with Jennifer again, since you don't really have any other friends here, whoops. You haven't even seen Valery anymore since the first day, and you honestly don't really mind. She leaves early in the morning and shows up past midnight in the cabin. You don't know who she hangs with, but they apparently have a lot of fun.

Your sandwich with Nutella is delicious, but you're not hungry at all. Luke keeps bothering you the whole time, not physically, he's not even here, but mentally. The fight you had yesterday made you wonder about him a lot. Why do Calum and Michael influence him so much? And what about Ashton? He seems even more fucked up about it all.

'What are you thinking about?'' Bethany asks you when she notices how absent-minded you are. ''Nothing, I was just wondering where our bandmates are,'' you say. It's partly true, so good enough, right?

''I don't know. Maybe we'll see them at the next class?'' She says, and you nod. ''What is our next class? What is our schedule for today?'' You ask, you might as well know the whole thing now.

''Well, at ten we have a class in which we learn how to act on stage. We have that class until the lunch break. After lunch break there's time to gather with your own band wherever you want to start on your song. Tonight after dinner, which is pizza, we have one of those improvisation nights at the smaller stage near the lake. You can do a little performance there if you like,'' she sums up.

''Ah, I see. It sounds like a lot of fun, will we go look there tonight?'' You ask her, and she nods. ''Sure, it sounds like a lot of fun to me as well,'' she says before she takes another bite of her croissant with cheese.

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''Hi class, my name is miss Jameson, but you can call me Andrea. Today I'm going to teach you how you should act on stage, while performing,'' she jumps onto the small platform that's supposed to be a stage. She starts head banging a bit, and grabs a guitar before walking and running around the platform with it.

''If you want to be a rock band,'' she says when she's done, ''you should be a little like that. If you want your voice to get through, you'll have to be confident. It doesn't matter if you're really confident on the inside, what really matters is that the crowd thinks you are. Shove all your worries away and act like you don't care about anything but your music, that's what counts,'' she explains.

''So... Rock band: the main points are to come across as confident, and show them that your music is your everything. Be wild, be free, don't give a damn,'' you actually like Andrea. She's careless, and from her attitude you can see that she's probably been, or still is, in a rock band.

''The next thing. If you're really into jazz...'' she continues her talk for Jazz, classical music and pop music before telling everyone to pair up into groups consisting of two persons. That is an quite easy task for you and Bethany .

''The next thing I want you all to do, is search for a place in the room, and try to act as confidential as possible. In the music world it doesn't matter if you are or not, performing is acting. For some of you it's going to be easy, if you're really confidential already. I know that some of you aren't that sure about themselves, for you I can only say one thing: enjoy what you're doing there. If making music is what makes you happy, you should enjoy it and live,'' she says before sitting down in her chair and watching you make groups and starting on the assignment.

''Act really confidential towards me,'' Bethany tells you, and a smirk appears on your face. Towards Bethany it isn't that hard. You've known each other for a very long time, and you don't feel insecure around her.