Black Butterflies

Chapter 15: Bands

Benjie

Winter Battle is five days from now. HHS bands are preparing for the big day. Of course, everyone's confident to win — but they're more confident we will win in January Fest — the contest. There are five bands to be exact.

The six membered Black Butterflies. That's us. It consists of:

Me, Benjamin Barham for lead vocals.

Alexandria Michigan Montero or Andes for lead guitars and backing vocals.

Michael Weekes aka Mikai. The small bean is our bassist. Seriously, he's the smallest.

Ariston Beat. Ash is the chick magnet. This rapper is our rhythm guitarist.

There's the new recruits. The Damons — Nadine Kate and Alexander — for keytar and drums. They're the tallest in the bunch.

Next band we have The Grands. They're a three membered group which consists of:

Devon Grande - vocals and rhythm guitar.

Rodrigo Grande - bass and backing vocals.

Thorin Grande - drums.

Third band in our list is The Elites. They're the most popular in town and not be rude but they never win HHS contests. I always wondered why. The members are:

Lian James 'Li' Detroit - backing vocals vocals and piano.

Beans Lincoln - guitar

Liam Justine 'Jazzi' Detroit - bass and lead vocals

Alyson Pietro - drums

Next up is the rapping duo which are also the best friends of Ash and Andes. They're called Rap Dogs.

Kenneth Alfonso for lead rapping and bass. Kenny is the only one who gets the privilege of calling Andes, Andy.

McCoy Cervantes on the other hand, handles the turntable and sometimes the music pad.

The surprise team that always makes it to the finals, is the supergroup The Bandits. They're pretty cool in my opinion. Also, the members can speak in another language none of us here in Hills can understand. The members consist of:

Nico Mullins - lead vocals. She loves bands so much it made her a singer. She's also good at impersonations.

Kellin Mendoza - backing vocals and sometimes acoustic guitar. She rarely sings in the band but she sure hell will put the angels and sirens to shame.

Joshua Lancelot - lead guitars.

Lawrence Secth - bassist. He's the tallest in the band. Sadly he departed after four months to help his parents with their carriage business.

Ismael Razzy - rhythm guitar. He's always standing on a raised platform every time they perform cause let's face it, he's smaller than Mikai. Everyone calls him dwarf but he says he 'prefer Smurf'.

CJ O'Brien - rhythm guitar. He's not a substitute if ever Ismael can't perform. They really have two.

Alvin Albert - piano. His deep voice makes him a good impersonator of Andy Biersack but leaves the singing to Nico. He's stage shy and prefers to be at the edge.

Darth Liam - drums. Everyone calls him Darth Vader because of his name. He's also the spaghetti hair from the cafeteria.

*******************************

The five bands gather inside the Arts and Drama Room. Jamming, eating, roaming around, chatting and of course, judging each other. The only quiet band are The Bandits who are eyeing everyone as they adjusted their instruments and suits. The other bands including us are quite jealous of their suits.

They're all wearing black leather jackets with spikes at the shoulders and black ripped jeans. Their spiky motorcycle boots are so shiny I can see my reflection in it from where I'm sitting right now. At the back of their jackets is the logo of their band. A dark red bandana and the words 'The Bandits' printed above it in gray words in a font that looks like dripping blood. Two guns were printed under the bandana crossing each other's barrels.

Well, everyone has their own styles. Take it for The Elites, they're wearing  private's uniforms and their instruments are painted in camouflage form.

Mr Lewis is currently decorating the stage as we sit and chat in front of the said stage. A few volunteers were helping him decorate though. I can see Lawrence, Darth, CJ, McCoy, Alexander, Thorin and Devon. Some of the ladies are cutting out letters with the help of the Arts major, Joshua.

"Hey Benjie! What're you doing?" Nadine asked as she approached me.

"Uh. Shooting? Wait no. Filming," I chuckled nervously and turned off the GoPro. Yep, the whole shit above is me narrating stuff and filming everyone. The Elites were posing as the camera passed by them, The Grands stuck out their tongues, and The Bandits covered their faces. The Black Butterflies well, they're being hyper and scattered I can't keep up.

"You do that every time?" Nadine asked and sat beside me. Her cheerleader like dress turns head in this school. Like Nico, she also violates our 'always wear your uniform' rule.

"Yeah. I mean. Well. Not every time, every time. Only during Winter Battles," I replied. "Do you always wear dresses?" Its my turn to ask.

"Its kinda stuck with me. I don't jeans," she awkwardly answered. I glanced at her and notices she's turning a bright red.

"Oi! Love birds!" Mikai shouted. He have his hand over his mouth like a megaphone. Moose is snickering beside him. I turned to his direction and saw something unexpected.

"Hey Kash," Joshua teased, looking up from his painting.

"Hey, Benny!" CJ shouted over his laptop. He's probably playing games again. And Benny, well, that's me.

"Its Benjie!" I corrected.

"Whatever. Are you getting this? Are you getting this?" He asked. I shook my head but quickly turned on my GoPro and pointed it to the direction of where he's pointing at. "Oh my god. I hate couples." He covered his face with his hands but its clear that he's squealing on the inside.

Wanna know what we're seeing? Well, too bad. I'm not the kind of a guy who shares things immediately. But I will for your sake. Its Kash! Don't know who Kash is? Welp, go back to the previous chapters. Tsk. I pity you. Okay.

Its Ash and Kellin, they're probably flirting. Ash have his left arm up beside Kellin's head and and Kellin have her back pressed against the decorated wall. Her gaze is directly to the floor while Ash's is looking at her face. He leaned closer but was interrupted by Darth.

"Holy hell! They're gonna kiss! Everybody avert your eyes! We're too innocent for this shit!" He shouted, earning laughs and giggles from everyone. Even Mr Lewis turned his head.

"No kissing inside the room!" He glared at the two who are now looking at him. Kellin a bright shade of tomato and Ash is a hundred times redder than a beet.

They looked at each other then quickly pulled away, mumbling something incoherent. That's the day everyone knew Kash is happening.