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The first time Ben Solo heard the Rumors album spawned from an argument he had with his father. Well, not an argument, it was more of a healthy debate that all children had with their parents over their growing love of pop music, and the parent’s hatred for said pop music, claiming instantly that the music of their generation was better.
In Han’s defense, Fleetwood Mac was indeed better than any of the top hits of 2008.
The debate came about when Ben tried claiming that the Usher song he’d heard on the radio the other day wasn’t that bad on their way out the door. He ought to have known better than to bring up music right before getting into the car with his father, but alas, the eight year old most certainly did not . And thus, his father was searching through the cassette tape collection he still kept in his car for the album he desperately needed to show Ben as he pulled out of the driveway, and drove them down the short street toward the Johnson’s house.
Oh, great. As usual, they were picking up his best friend, Rey, and since he’d just gotten into the music argument with his father, she’d be stuck with whatever the hell he decided to play for them, whether they liked it or not. Whenever they were driven to school, the two tended to sit in the backseat and talk each other’s ears off, ignoring whatever parent was driving them as if they were a taxi driver and the kids were busy city goers.
On days like this, though, they’d have tough luck trying to hear each other over the sound of his father’s rock and roll. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the genre — Ben had wailed along with Van Halen when his dad played that in the car last week — but he always felt weirdly embarrassed when his dad blasted his old people music around his friends… even if it was just Rey, who definitely didn’t care.
Still, as his dad pulled up to her house, Ben swallowed nervously as his father finally found the cassette he was looking for, then he cocked his head in the direction of the Johnson’s house with a wink. “Go get her, I’ll show you both what good music is,” he told his son, then Ben glared at him as he hopped out of the car, racing toward Rey’s house gleefully.
Ben was a tall kid for his age; just under four and a half feet, a little too skinny, and tended to run in a manner somewhere close to that of a clumsy giraffe, which meant that when Rey opened her front door before he reached it, she was already laughing at him hard enough that she nearly fell over. “What are you doing? ” she asked.
“Listen, I have to warn you,” he replied urgently, catching his breath as he stopped, and let her catch up to him before they began to walk back to his car. “My dad’s on the warpath today.”
“Music again?”
“Yeah… No idea what this time.”
“I liked the last one, but don’t tell him I said that,” Rey said, prodding his shoulder with her pointer finger as he smiled impishly. “Ben, I mean it. If you tell your dad, he’ll tell my dad… and I will never hear the end of it.”
Ben laughed as they approached the car, then he reached ahead of her, and pulled open the backseat door, holding it open while she tossed in her backpack, then crawled in in front of him. As she thanked him, he sat down in the seat beside her, shutting the door with a bit more force than necessary before he buckled himself into the seat, and his father looked back at him with a grin that — according to his mother — was shit eating. “You kids better pay attention,” he said as he pushed the tape into the player. “I’m about to change your damn lives.”
All he’d done in response initially was roll his eyes, but then he heard the opening chords of Second Hand News for the first time, and by the end of the first verse, Ben was already a fan of the album. As the song played on, he looked over at Rey, and instantly he knew that his father’s plan was about to backfire on him big time. His best friend was just as entranced by the song as he was. Something about the sound, the rhythm, the lyrics, and the vocals spoke to him despite his youth, and by the end of it, both him and the girl sitting by his side were bouncing along with the music.
Hearing it for the first time, he wagered it was about to rank up there in the list of the best songs his little eight year old brain had ever heard… and then Dreams started playing. Ben didn’t know what a player was — unless Stevie Nicks was talking about basketball, which he had a small feeling she wasn’t — but he knew they’d only love him when they were playin’ by the time the song ended, and he and Rey were belting it out right along with the band.
They only made it through a few more songs on the album before his dad pulled up in front of the school, and they were kicked out at the beginning of the car line, but that was just long enough for them to make it through to Go Your Own Way, and heck , that song absolutely changed Ben’s life. He wanted to hear it again, and as a matter of fact, the two children in the back seat both screamed, “Again! Again! Again! Again!” as soon as it ended, no longer caring that the adults had — for now — won the victory in the war on music. He’d get his father back for this later… He swore it.
“We can’t listen to it again, you kids need to get the hell out of my car,” Han protested, and Ben whined mockingly as he pushed open the door on his side.
“Can we listen to it again when you pick us up?”
A smile that was surprisingly not smug lit up his dad’s face. “Sure, kid,” he said, then he made a shooing motion with his hand. “Now get gone.”
“Bye dad,” he said as he shut the car door, then Rey followed suit, hurrying out of the car with a similar goodbye — of course, she didn’t call him dad, but the point still stood — before she shut the door, and Ben took hold of Rey’s hand as they ran the short distance from his dad’s car into the school.
The moment they were alone — well, there was a crowd of other students and teachers in the hallway, but they were away from his father, that was alone
enough
— Ben turned to Rey, and let go of her hand. “I have an idea,” he said, then he lowered his voice. “It’s probably stupid, but…”
“You said stupid.” Rey was grinning at the bad word as she nodded. “I’m in.”
“Great… I want to play those songs until my dad hates them.”
“Okay…”
“What do you think?”
“It’s stupid,” Rey replied, then she nudged him with her elbow. “But I’m still in.”
Ben gave her a wide grin, then the two of them made their way down the hall of their elementary school to the classroom they’d be stuck in together until recess with smiles plastered on their faces as they hatched a plot for sweet vengeance via excessive amounts of Fleetwood Mac.
That afternoon, he and Rey met his father in his old car once more, and before his dad could even get in a “hello,” the two were begging him to play the songs again, and Han shook his head, but pressed play, picking them up right where they left off, and as his headache begun… they heard Songbird for the first time.
Had he known then the impact the song would later have on his life, he would’ve made more note of it, but while the song like the others managed to enchant him and Rey, the two remained oblivious to the impact it would one day have on them. One day they’d hear it ten years later, and they’d be drifting through the countryside, with burgeoning feelings for each other as the song’s lyrics resonated deep within their souls, and their two friends sang it slightly off key.
That day, he’d understand it, but for now, he and Rey just mockingly sang the lyrics to one another as they learned them. “Do you think you’ll ever love someone like this?” she asked him quietly, her volume low enough he was certain his dad didn’t hear them.
Ben shrugged. “I don’t know… I don’t think I even know what love is ,” he admitted, then Rey practically guffawed.
“Me either, I think it’s supposed to be a grownup thing.”
“I guess we’ll find out when we’re grownups, then,” he said, then Songbird’s soft, almost melancholy, but hopeful tone gave way to The Chain, and thus began Ben’s new impetus to get his father to play the album every single day they drove to school for the next month.
“This one’s even better than the last one!” Rey whisper shouted to him, suddenly looking concerned. “Is it even going to be possible to annoy your dad with this?”
Ben shrugged. “We’re gonna try,” he said, holding out his hand to her again, then she shook it, and smiles grew wide on both their faces as their new favorite song played on. By the time they pulled up in front of her house on the ride back, Gold Dust Woman was playing its final chords, and as he watched Rey leave, making her way back into her house, he grinned up at his dad. “Hey, can we play it again tomorrow?”
Han smirked at him — the FOOL — and Ben barely fought back his wicked grin as his father replied, “Sure, kid,” followed shortly after by a highly premature, “I told you so,” as they began the short drive down the street toward their house.
For the next month after that, Ben and Rey requested the album be played every time Han either drove them to or from school. His father’s only reprieve were the occasions on which the Johnsons offered to drive them instead, for which occasions, they’d burned a CD to use in their slightly less dated mini-van, and they annoyed her parents those days instead. They never quite managed to irritate Rey’s parents the same way they irritated Ben’s father, but he could tell that both her mother and father were annoyed by how many times they’d heard the two friends screaming at them to go their own way.
Their suffering was nothing compared to Han’s, though, and by the time they’d successfully memorized all the lyrics on his cassette, he looked like he was going to lose his mind if he heard Don’t Stop , ever again.
They declared victory over his father on the Sixth of December, 2008, when the opening chords to Second Hand News sounded over the speakers for the last time, and Han finally threw his hands up. “Alright, that’s it, we’re listening to something else,” he told them, and Ben whooped his cheers as Rey reached over for a high-five. He smacked his palm against hers a little more forcefully than was necessary, but this was a hard fought victory. The eight year old wasn’t about to celebrate quietly.
Both of them were still screaming and laughing even as Han popped in an Aerosmith cassette, Mama Kin filling the car as they drove on down the road to school. The two kids in the backseat rolled their eyes at first, but then picked up their conversation, ignoring the new music for now. Han would undoubtedly play it again, and they couldn’t let him win this battle so soon after they’d claimed victory in the war.
Han could have his time later, but for now, the two children in his backseat would join their hands in victory, the legendary pair living on to create mischief some other time.
“What do you think we’ll do next?” Ben asked her as his dad pulled up to the school twenty minutes later, a grin still parting his lips as he looked at his best friend with curiosity in his eyes.
Rey giggled. “I don’t know, beating this is going to be hard ,” she replied, then she shrugged again. “But we can do it.”
“You think?”
“I know, ” she said, emphasizing the last word by pressing her pointer finger into his shoulder before she grinned at him again, then the two piled out of the car as Han pulled it to a stop, and waved his father goodbye before walking toward the school.
The moment his father’s car was gone, Ben turned to Rey, and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.” Then the two of them walked into school side by side, ready to bring the world — also known as Ben’s parents — to hell again another day.