*Charlie's P.O.V*
"She is singing Creep," Noah says, coming to my side.
Puzzled, I frown, and he chuckles," The song is Creep. Classic Mia."
Judging from his response, either the song somehow suits her, or she is making a statement with it. Her voice is raspy in some parts of the song and sweet in others. I don't know anything about music, but it is pretty cool. I didn't realise her singing voice was so versatile till now. She sounds like an artist in the kind of genre Harry calls alternative indie.
Speaking of Harry, Noah asks me if I auditioned too, and I tell him I just came to support a friend.
"Oh, ok," Noah says, a little disappointed. "Well, thank you for asking of Mia and-" he cuts himself, laughing incredulously, " even going to find her yourself."
I shrug. It's nothing.
It's not like I had anything left to do once Harry finished performing. My friend got a call from his two pals, so he gave me a bike from his boot to go home with and then left. I realised I didn't see Mia around and put two and two together until I reckoned the African American guy from my first class must be her classmate. I didn't even struggle to ask him where she was. He said first, "Hey, your bike looks like mine!" The rest was history.
When she finally comes out through the curtains, she squeals frantically.
"AAAA!"
"You did it!!" Noah matches her energy. They jump as if the platform is not made of plywood. Then, she turns to me, composing herself.
"Thank you!" she pants.
I smile. "It's nothing. You're amazing."
*Mia's P.O.V *
It's the first school day since the music audition, yet there is no news. If this is an attempt to make students focus, it's not working in any of my classes. No one is paying attention to the teachers, and when the bell rings for closing, everyone is more than excited to ambush the music teacher.
"Miss Morrell!" I shuffle towards her hunched figure behind the school piano as the crowd clears. I must say, "Thank you."
"You're welcome, dear," she replies nonchalantly. Then, recognising me, she wipes out all signs of boredom with a pleasant grin. "Ah! It's you, incident girl."
"Urr ... ya?" I wince a little. Please, don't say it aloud.
"How was the audition?" She says instead, to my relief.
I tell her it's good because I have no clue what the judges were looking out for anyway; I just did my best.
She gives me her 'stop being modest' grin and almost says something when her call ringtone intrudes. I leave her to it.
Someone calls me as I enter the hallway. Turning, I see Anna's bouncy steps.
"Mia!" She halts upon catching up. I wait for her to recover her breath as she raps, "I know we barely talk to each other or do anything together, but I have an emergency. I have to do this project; it's so important to me, but Mr Stone won't give me extra time to do it well, so I need all the help I can get. Can you help?"
Before I know it, we are boarding the school bus. She plops onto the backseat and makes space for me beside her.
"I know what you're thinking," she says, "how's the mayor's daughter taking the school bus?"
No one cares; I see and think.
"Anyway, it's because my sweet ride got wrecked, and as punishment for letting that happen, my dad makes me work at Starbucks and take the bus home. It is what it is, though, right?"
"Ya," I mutter, to which she sighs.
A pause ensues. I conjure something to say so our aura doesn't turn weird. "Do your colleagues at work ... tease you?"
"Yes. Those wankers," she scoffs. Thus begins a discussion about the last thing I ever anticipated us to have in common, jobs - let's face it, I assumed she was a bit spoiled.
When the bus stops, it's as if the ride lasted a minute. We descend and continue by foot in comforting silence until she chuckles, "You behave like Sil."
"Who?"
"You love metal music like her." She doesn't hear my confusion. "And from my observation, no offence, but you're not a genius, and neither was Sil. She was only smart when it came to causing chaos. Lots of chaos. No wonder he likes you." Her voice drops to a barely audible crack at the end. She turns to me. I look away, weirded out by the sudden eye contact.
"Is Sil someone I should know? And who is 'he'?"
"How did you not know - " she cuts herself off, her eyes widening. "Oh wait, he hasn't told you?"
"Huh? Who are they?" This is getting frustrating.
I consider processing what she's saying to get my answers, but then she teeters, "Sorry! I forget who I am talking to sometimes. "
"Oh ... my bad." I apologise and think: You need serious help, not from me, though. Heck, I'm the last person you should relay your problems to. I can't help you. I already have to worry about my dad's pills and the music stuff ... but I'll listen. It's the best I can do.
She, however, says nothing more for the rest of our stroll. We arrive at what looks like an average suburban two-bedroom apartment. When she knocks on the front door, we hear, "Look who's here!"
"Kean?" I frown at Anna as it opens to reveal Noah's girlfriend.
She is the first to notice my confusion, dropping her grin to deadpan, "Mia, I and a couple of girls have been trapped here by this delusional princess."
"Nice narration," Anna snickers.
"Why?-" We file into the adjoining living hall before I am cut off.
There are three of them: a girl in a green hijab grimacing, the one and only melanin beauty of a school press head with her afro in a bun, and the other girl who was helping Autumn bully me - the Asian dark, long-haired one.
My breath hitches.
"This is Dalia-" Kean points them in the same order. "-Kat and Moon."
Moon has to remain focused on the television before I can breathe correctly.
Trying not to get flashbacks, I also stare at the telenovela playing. Kean raises a curious brow before I realise how weird it is to stand while everyone sits.
I try to relax on the couch. At least, she is not Autumn.
At least.
Relax, Mia.
"Hell NO!" Moon suddenly barks.
Is she worse? I am really worried now.
Kat snatches the remote from her, changing the telenovela. "Chill. I will change it back when they're done with the sex scene -"
"- Give it back." Moon cuts her off.
"No, you've got to learn to consider others around you when deciding what to watch, " Kat insists, turning to Dalia, "right, girl?"
Dalia doesn't reply, but her facial expression is in full support. Anna rolls her eyes and asks for the remote. She turns it off, to everyone's annoyance, then goes to the bedroom with the remote as if it's impossible to turn the television back on without it.
When she returns while we're watching The Last of Us on her Netflix account, her eyes roll.
"Guys," she speaks after remaining quiet for a while. "You're the band."
Every eye dilates except hers.
"Anna," I gasp, "do you know what you're saying now?"
"How would she know?" Kean retorts.
"What do you mean by how would I know?" Anna mimics her disbelief, snorting, " I volunteered for you guys to have your rehearsals here, so, of course, I found out."
"This is your place?" Dalia finally speaks. We all give her our nicest duh look.
"And how did you find out exactly?" Kat buds in condescendingly.
Anna facepalms, then rises, telling us to follow her. We enter a spacious garage where a piano, three base guitars, one acoustic, and a drum set stare at us like a red and grey-themed exhibition of instruments.
"Believe me," Anna says smugly, " I'm only trying to help you because if you don't already sound good together when the news comes out, you may as well forget about the band."
I gasp. "So... we are the band?"
*
*
"... I got in!"
"Pardon me?"
"I got in the band!"
"Really?!" Charlie shuts my textbook to shriek.
I can't contain myself; I burst into joyous laughter, covering my face instantly. An insatiable urge to hug him even strikes me, but I calm down when I look at him again. "Seriously, thank you so much!"
"It's nothing," he reiterates, then mummers in a ponderous demeanour, "do you know who else is in?"
"There are four girls."
"Girls?" He sounds disappointed, but as soon as his eyes meet mine, he masks the gloom in his eyes.
"I'm happy for you," he quirks, "you were amazing."
"Thanks," I say.
Three hours later, I inquire whether he auditioned, and Noah tells me that Charlie was just there for his friend. Maybe, his friend is a guy, hence his disappointment.
More hours fly by until it's time to take the bus with Anna. After her rant about sounding good together before the news comes out, we all agreed to believe her and start rehearsing today.
Kean's already waiting for us when we reach the peach apartment. First seated on the front steps, she starts to stand.
I wave to her as she wipes dust off her butt and says, "Don't enter the garage."
Anna halts in her tracks. "Why?"
"Moon is fighting with some girl in there."
My mouth opens. "Autumn?!"
Kean shrugs. Realising my fright, Anna pats my shoulder. I consent to her sympathetic hand pushing me inside. Dalia waves at me, and I join her on the couch. We resume The Last of Us and start fawning over a middle-aged character called Joe when we hear shouts from outside.
Suddenly, Moon's dark hair peers through the door frame. "Sorry guys," she pants, "I gotta go for cheerleading practice. Ok, see you later!"
"What?" Anna gets up.
Moon vanishes nonetheless. The rest of us pull back the floral curtains, huddling to eavesdrop from the window. Anna goes after her. She tries grabbing Moon's hand, but then an Audi R8 Spyder honks and our lead singer skips into it. I gasp, recognising the driver, Autumn. She's wearing the cute cheerleader uniform with our school's colours alright, but she's glowering as though she wants to commit murder.
The relief with which I sigh as soon as her wheels speed off is majestic. To add to my fortune, we find the musical instruments in the same condition as yesterday.
"Girls, let's start with solo performances," Kat proposes.
We all agree. From our minute interaction yesterday, I learned that Kat is a drummer, Dalia plays the piano, Kean plays the electric guitar, and Moon is a lead vocalist. I am surprised when Dalia suggests playing the same song, and everyone starts mentioning Korean pop songs.
After humiliating myself by saying I don't know any BTS songs, we stick to the safest bet, the school's chant song.
"It would have been nice if Moon was here," Anna sours, " who knows the first note?"
"Not me." Kean tilts to me, and I shrug too.
"Ok, ok, let's start with," Dalia fumbles, "the...the ... Kat, what's the Shakira World Cup song?"
"Girl, waka waka."
As expected, that goes so well that we get bored. We try the school's chant, and that goes terribly wrong; we don't harmonise at all. Whether it's the fact that some of us never heard the song until now or what, we sound like a bunch of scarecrows - although, to be fair, that might be the whole point of the chant song anyway.
"Your key is off," Anna laments to me," it should be E-flat, not -"
"Shut up." Kean cracks her knuckles.
Pretending not to be offended, Anna shakes her head, then hops off her foldable plastic chair to take more from the pile where old tires have been concealed.
" Ok," she muses, arranging the chairs in a circle, "you guys already know how bad my ears hurt from hearing ... whatever that was, but maybe it'll get better if we relax and, like, have an icebreaker."
"You mean we should get to know each other."
"Duh," Anna replies Kean. "And since you spoke first, why don't you start first? Then we'll go clockwise."
It doesn't seem like Kean is ecstatic about introducing herself, let alone, first, but she huffs to a seat anyway.
"Kean is the name."
" Duh," she clasps her hands and smugly smiles, "can you tell us two things people don't know about you?"
Everyone chuckles. It is funny how we all saw such interrogations coming yesterday. We thought Anna had let us off the hook.
" I didn't say tell me your darkest secrets; ya'll stop fretting," she groans at our reactions.
Kean chuckles, zipping up her leather boots, " My name is Keanezelee, and I can read lips."
"So dark." Kat feigns horror. I giggle, then quickly slap my mouth.
"Mia, want to go next," Anna stares at me.
I squeak. "Didn't you say clockwise?"
"She didn't say any rules," Dalia snaps nervously. She is too cute to be mad at, so I give my calmest 'you are lying because you are next,' look. Who asked you to sulk until the seat beside Kean was left?
Mentally noting that she owes me one, I clear my throat.
" Mia is my first name...urr... I like KISS. That's it." I run out of words.
"Skip to the two things."
"She just said the two things -"
"Shush, Kat!"
"Girl, who do you think you're shushing?" She glares at Anna.
Realising my classmate is not in their good graces, I blurt, " I hoard cafeteria food."
Good Mia, next one...
"Say something like...-" Kean leans in to my rescue, cooing, "Oh my mother's a Russian spy; I ate a lab frog, bla bla."
"She's not a spy." I frown, then, recalling a memory, my frown deepens.
My mom was the only Russian student in her time, so people called her a lot of names like beer-whore and carnivorous witch. I found this out freshman year. The librarian then was an old student who recognised me, so I asked her about my mother. Unfortunately, that was basically all the information I got.
"But I guess I am partly Russian and Brazilian."
"Was every Russian in America a spy then?" Dalia blurts, to which the only acclaimed leader in the building crosses her legs.
"Girl, comments like this are why y'all need to stop believing movies and listen to the news."