Battle of the Bands - Sanders Sides

Chapter Seven

The last bell of the day rang out. From Remus' place in the locker room, he could hear the tidal wave of student footsteps scatter towards the exit. The clock on the wall confirmed his thoughts, as he rushed to get into the showers. PE was his favorite class, but he often lost track of time in it. Hopefully, Janus and Virgil would be kind enough to wait for him before walking home.

As Remus began to rinse off his hair, he heard the locker room door swing open, harshly banging against the wall. Almost silent whimpers followed by warm shushes filled the room while two sets of feet marched through the room.

"Remus?" A familiar voice called out.

"I'm in the showers!" He shouted back, slowing seeing two pairs of shoes from under the shower curtain. His face read shock as recognized the purple stitches on the black sneakers and the black boots with yellow laces. Janus and Virgil. They never meet him in the locker room. He knew something must've been wrong.

Remus turned off the water and pulled his boxers back on. Taking his stuff in his hands, he pulled back the curtain. His eyes widened as he saw his two friends. Virgil's eye shadow was gone, just faint black streaks running down his cheeks remained. He had purple foam in his hair and was shivering from head to toe.

Janus however, had a bright pink scar running down his face with messed up foundation around it. The rest of his face was bright red with anger. Remus could tell he was trying to hold it in for Virgil's sake but was losing his patience to do so.

"So...did you two have a good day?" Remus chuckled, trying to soften the stone-cold look on Janus' face.

"We want to do the battle of the bands!" Virgil blurted. The student's face looked taken back. Never did Remus think they would actually willingly want to join the battle! If anything, Remus thought he would sign them up in secret, but that plan was officially down the drain.

"W-What?! Really? That's great! What changed your minds?" Remus cheered, pulling on his worn Florida state shirt and blue jeans.

"Let's just say, Remy and his band don't deserve to be on top anymore! Not after the shit that they did today!" Janus seethed, clutching Virgil's hand tighter which made him whimper a little. Remus looked back and forth between his friend, obliviousness written all over his face.

"They did this to both of you?"

"P-Patton and Em-Emile made me add too many c-crystals into my Chemistry lab s-s-s-so it exploded all over me. A-A-And Remy punched Janus in the face and now ha-has a personal secret of his that h-he's not afraid to tell the whole school about!" Virgil bawled, collapsing onto the bench behind him.

The other two sat on either side of him, trying to ease his obviously anxious head. Remus cautiously looked over at his other friend. Janus had tears sparkling in his eyes. It pained him to see Virgil so upset. Especially when we didn't deserve it.

Remus sat back up, extending both of his hands to his friends. "Let's go kick their asses!" He confidently triumphed. Janus and Virgil gazed as his possibly diseased hands. The snake took it, followed by Virgil who had begun to stop crying.

"They don't get to mess with us and get away with it!" Janus muttered. With that, they walked out of the locker room, watching with confidence as people stared at them oddly. But the boys disregarded their stares. Maybe they were freaks. But that won't last much longer. Not when the entire school sees their music live in action.

Remus lead the two towards the office. Stapled to the wall was a bright yellow piece of paper with bold black lettering that read, Join the Battle!

A pen dangled hauntingly on a string next to it. It glistened in the white lights of the school hallway, just waiting for the boys to sign up with their band. Janus reached out for the pen, taking it in his hand. As he laid his wrist to the side of the paper to sign the trio's name into the battle, a hand smacked the pen out of the snake's grasp.

"The hell you three think you're doing?" Remy snarked with his hands on his hips. Patton and Emile stood right next to him while Logan quietly stood in the background. Remus blushed a little at his appearance but quickly focused back in on the small fight breaking out.

"Signing up for the competition, dumbass! What does it look like?" Janus hissed.

"Puh-lease, you three in a battle of the band's competition? Maybe if it was against a load of preschoolers. But even then, you'd still end up in last." Remy grabbed the pen and obnoxiously wrote the names of his band members on the paper.

"Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time? What did we ever do to you?" Virgil questioned.

"Don't you get it, kiddo? It's just a bit of friendly competition!" Patton chimed in.

"Oh ho, no! 'Friendly competition' doesn't mean making a fool of my boyfriend and me!" Janus yelled.

"Then maybe you should get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat!" Remy spat. Within seconds, everybody was screaming at each other. Remus and Logan stood back, unsure of how things escalated so quickly. Sure, Remus wanted to defend his friends, but not at the cost of one of their heads!

"Come on you guys, break it up!" Logan commanded suddenly, getting everyone's attention.

"Y-Yeah! You heard him! Let's just stop!" Remus added. Logan quickly stood in front of Remy, Patton, and Emile while Remus took a step in front of Janus and Virgil. Logan fished up a pen from his pocket, pointing it to Remus. He shyly took it, smiling a little as he wrote his friend's names down next to his on the sign-up sheet.

"Always gotta be a hardass, huh Logan?" Remy questioned as Remus returned the pen.

"No. But fair is fair. And right now, you three aren't being that." Turning back to Remus, they locked eyes for a second, the mustaches man's face heating up dramatically. "May the best band win," he said while reaching out for a handshake.

"Of course," Remus said, cherishing the seconds as they shook hands. Logan lead his band away from theirs. As he left, Janus and Virgil sighed, uniting their hands together.

"Come on, Remus. The last bus leaves in five. You coming?" Janus asked.

"I'm right behind you," He said with a blushing face.