Before Tragedy

Five

"Wait you went on a date!? With Luke!?! And you didn't even tell me till now!!" Tara said as we walked to our first class. She finally came back from vacation yesterday, thank god. The day before was my track meet. I was s wore out from that, that I didn't go to the guys practice and I didn't go see Tara when she came back. So today, I picked her up and rode to school. I didn't see the guys all morning till lunch.

"I mean yeah. Sorry I didn't go see you yesterday. I was so tired and sore from track." We walked into our English class and took our normal seats in the back. She gave me a look like she was going to murder me. She always wants to know the juicy details of me and Luke when in fact she doesn't pay attention to her own crush Reggie. She's liked Reggie since the 11th grade like midway through the year. Just one day she started to have feelings for him. Tara and I have been friends since the 6th grade. 

"I'll let you off the hook this time." She says, looking at me like I'm a criminal in disguise. Before I can say anything the bell rings and the teacher walks in. 

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After fourth period, me and Tara make our way to the cafeteria, me limping the whole time because my hip was killing me. Tara took my arm around her shoulder and helped me get food before sitting me down to get her food. As soon as the guys saw me in bad shape they were worried. Mostly Luke.

"What happened?" Alex asked as Tara walked away. Luke scooted closer to me and comfort me. 

"I don't know. My hip is killing me. Probably from the track meet." I rubbed my side in hopes it will feel better but it didn't. 

"I'll go get you an ice pack from the nurse and we can stop by the doctors after school." Luke said in almost a question. Before I can protest he was already up on his feet to the nurses office. 

"Wow. He's so nice. Wish he did nice things like that for me." Reggie said, watching him leave before looking at me. Alex just gave him a look, almost asking him if he was ok. "Anyway. I see Tara was back. Is that why you didn't pick us up this morning?" I started to panic. I thought they had their car back. They didn't tell me they need a ride. 

"Oh leave her alone will you." Tara said, coming back with her food, sitting next to Reggie. Reggie stole one of her tator tots and Alex just laughed. Tara smacked him in the arm after he stuffed it in his mouth. "She probably just pulled a muscle." She pointed a tator tot at me before eating it. Maybe she was right. Just a pulled muscle. 

Luke came back and put the ice bag on my hip before sitting down to finish his food. The guys went off to talk about their next gig and letting Bobby in the band. 

"They're letting piggy back Bobby in the band?" Tara turns to me and quietly whispers to me. In elementary and middle school, Bobby was Tara's best friend and brother figure. They called him piggy back Bobby cause he would always cheat off other peoples work and never have anything of his own. 

"Yeah. They said he played great with them on Friday." She rolled her eyes. The reason she isn't friends with him anymore is because she worked on a great master piece for her at class in 8th grade and he stole it from her. He ended up getting an A+ and Tara failed. He's such a pig. 

"Ugh. remind me not to go to their practices anymore." She stuffed another tator tot in her mouth. Before we knew it, it was time to go back to class. Reggie and Alex helped me walk to our class as Luke and Tara walk to theirs. As soon as we entered class we were getting a lot of weird stares but I guess that's normal for anyone with crutches. Except my crutches are the boys. As we were walking by two cheer leaders I couldn't help but listen in on their conversation. 

 "Aren't those the boys from that new band Sunset Swerve or something." One girl said, casually glancing at us. I wanted to speak up and say Sunset Curve but I didn't want to intrude. 

"Yeah. Thats Luke's sister that helps out with the band." I wanted to intrude but the guys sat me down at my desk. Luckily I could still hear them. I shushed the guys as they started talking.

"Which mean's Luke is still free. Why don't you ask him to the dance next week." The first girl said, slapping the other one in the arm. I was getting madder by the second. Not because Luke is my boyfriend but because they don't know anything about us or the band. I couldn't listen to anymore. I turned to the guys, who seemed to be very confused on my sudden mood change and how I told them to shut it.

"They were talking about the band. I had to listen in." I pulled out my notebook and so did the boys as the teacher walked in.

"What did they say?" Alex asked, really wanting to know why their band name was going around all of a sudden.

"First off they got the name wrong. Second off, they thing im Luke's sister and one of them was gonna ask Luke to the school dance next week." I looked at them and gave them a nasty look behind their back.

"I can't believe them. Luke's sister. Who gave them that idea?" Reggie said, earning a look from both Alex and I. He just cowered down. Reggie mentioned Luke having a sister in 9th grade. I guess people assume both I'm his sister and that he even has a sister. 

"Well what should we do about it? Its not like we can go up and say we we're listening to your conversation about us." Alex said almost to loudly. We shushed him. I sat there thinking until I came up with a good idea. 

"A meet and greet." The boys just looked at me like I was crazy. They never wanted to stick around to meet the fans or anyone from random shows. Simply cause that was the first time people would hear us play. "Just hear me out. We dont really need to meet the fans, but put together posters or information about you guys. About the band. Make band posters to get you guys out there." They nodded, almost on bored with the plan. They just needed Luke's ideas and thoughts. "I'll talk to Luke next period." And that was the last of our band related talk. The rest of class we talked about math problems and all that jazz. 

They helped me to my next class till they saw Luke and he helped me the rest of the way. I kinda feel bad for relying on the boys to get me to class but that's all I can do right now.

"You feeling any better?" He says, placing fresh ice on my hip. Where he got it from I have no clue. He was such a sweet boy that I couldn't think of a way to thank him.

"A little bit. But I got something for you to hear." I smiled and pitched the idea of posters. He seemed pretty down with the idea but he said we should record our introductions and put them onto our demo. I thought that was a great idea. The whole class we exchanged ideas for the band. We didnt even pay attention to the teacher explaining the ten amendments . Before we knew it it was time for study hall, where we spent the whole class talking about the band posters and designing them. We were so engaged in the conversation that we didn't even realize that the bell rang. 

We scheduled pictures for the band with a professional photographer with the help of Bobby before Tara came in cussing up a storm. "What the fuck guys. Its like an hour after the bell. I thought you assholes left me again." We looked up at the time before we realized the time. 

"Oh Shit. Sorry Tara. We were discussing something with for the band. We lost track of time." Luke said, looking down at our scribbles all over the notebook we made just for band ideas. Tara looked at it as well and just rolled her eyes.

"Can you guys be normal for once? Like go out and eat pizza?" She crossed her arms. Tara always has been a little jealous that we discuss things without her even though she's my right hand man. 

"Pizza does sound nice actually." Reggie pointed out. We all gave him a look. "Ok that was sarcasm." We all laughed and got up after deciding on pizza. The boys got in their car while Tara and I got in the van and we headed to Pistol Pete's. 

A/N I think I did good on this chapter. I wanted this story to last on not cut straight to the tragedy. But let me know. Give me feedback.