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"So... when do you guys rehearse?" Carmen asked me, leaning against the piano to look passionately into my eyes. "Um... well... we rehearse whenever, really. I keep telling Goody and Lambchops that we should start sticking to a more strict schedule, but-" I spoke, before Carmen kissed me on the cheek, catching me off guard. "Cool, just text me whenever you want to rehearse." she said. "Yeah..." I said, before I paused, realising something. "Wait... so, you're joining the band?" I asked her, trying not to show how excited I was. "Seems like fun. And besides, you need a lead singer, don't you? Every band needs a lead singer." Carmen said, nodding her head, causing her dark curls to flip back behind her shoulders. "Yeah... yeah, we do. I don't know if Goody and Lambchops will be too pleased, though. They probably don't want some girl from Dance to come in and instantly secure a spot as the lead singer in the band." I said, nervously rubbing the back of my neck. "Screw them if they're gonna be little bitches about it. I'm in the band." Carmen remarked, and I smiled.
I was right. Goody and Lambchops were not happy. "Man, what are you doing, letting her join?! Like, I get it, she's one hot bitch, but like, can she even sing?" Lambchops snapped. "Exactly! And now we've got two girls in the band, and one of them can't play anything!" Goody added. "She sings, Goody. We need a singer. What's a band without a vocalist? And also, she's a really talented lyricist. She showed me some of the lyrics she's been writing, and oh my God, they were amazing." I explained. "Oooooo, sounds like someone's in ~looooooooove~!" Goody mocked me, making kissy faces. "Shut up! She's cool, ok? And we need her. She's the cherry on top of an already amazing cake." I retorted, barely restraining myself from slapping him. "We don't need some fuck-ass 'cherry on top', we're already kick-ass enough!" Lambchops yelled, before doing some weird karate move using her drumsticks like weapons. "As much as I hate to admit it, Lamb's right. We're fine without a singer, Schlomo. Like, I get it, you've got a little bit of a crush on Carmen, but like, we don't need her." Goody added. "I... it's not because I like her... I mean, yes, I do like her, but that's not why I asked her if she wanted to join." I said, giving him a look. "Yeah, sure." Lambchops said, a grin seeping into the corners of her mouth. "You keep telling yourself that, Schlomo." Goody interjected. "I am so close to slapping both of you right now..." I muttered to myself. "Well if you do, I WILL be hitting you with my sticks!" Lambchops said, prepping herself for another karate-sticks-move. "Who let her play the drums?" Goody asked sarcastically. "I don't know, but whoever it was, they weren't very smart." I remarked.
Our first band rehearsal with Carmen went relatively well. Or at least I think it did. Goody and Lambchops still weren't too pleased about our new addition, and I think Carmen could tell they didn't really want her there, but besides that, it went well. We went through the song me and Carmen wrote together, and we wrote parts for Goody and Lambchops to play, and then we rehearsed it. If I do say so myself, it's pretty good. I really think Carmen (and her lyrics) was exactly what we needed to finally be a good band. She has such a nice voice... I really love having her as part of the band.
But there is just one thing... she really loves being late to rehearsal.
One Tuesday, we were in Music class, and we were doing theory. Nobody really likes theory, but Lambchops hates it more than anyone I know. So instead, she spent the lesson tapping her pencils on the table until Mr Sheinkopf practically yelled her ears off, and passing notes to me and Goody. Most of the notes had weird little pictures drawn on them, or said something along the lines of "THEORY SUCKS!".Then there was this one that she gave to me. It read: 'psssst, pass this on to goody - rehearsal after school today? my house as usual? tell carmen too when u see her :)'. I handed the note to Goody, before giving Lambchops a little thumbs up (from under the table so Mr Sheinkopf wouldn't see). Goody did the thumbs up too after he'd read it. A grin crossed Lamb's face when we both gave her the thumbs up. "Wooo! We're gonna make some sick music today!" she whisper-yelled, and the whole class looked up at her. A scowl formed on Mr Sheinkopf's face as he walked over to us and said, "No talking, Miss Lamb. Focus on your theory.". Lambchops promptly shut up.
I saw Carmen at lunch. I first noticed her when she walked past me and said "Hey cutie.". I could feel my cheeks go bright red as I turned around to follow her. "Um... hey, Carmen. I have a question to ask you." I said. Carmen turned around, and looked at me expectantly. "Come on. You said you had a question for me?" she said, after I was quiet for a minute, just admiring how nice her hair looks today. "Yeah, right, sorry." I said, snapping out of it, before I asked, "I... um... are you free after school today?". Carmen smiled and pulled me closer to her. "You know I always have time for you, babe." she said, ruffling my hair. "Well... it's not for 'us time', we were thinking of having band rehearsal after school." I explained, still feeling the redness in my cheeks. "Cool. I'll be there. Lambchops's house, right?" she asked. "Yep." I replied with a nod. Carmen looked down at her watch, then back at me. "Well, I gotta go. Ms Bell's making us rehearse for the next dance showcase during lunch. I swear, that woman thinks we're robots or something, the way she works us." Carmen said, exasperated. "Well, good luck for your rehearsal. And see you after school!" I replied, then Carmen gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before she walked off.
Our band's rehearsal space is a little unused shed at the back of Lambchops's house. We decided on this space because my dad wasn't exactly happy with me making a contemporary band, so rehearsing at mine wasn't really reasonable, and Goody's house is too small. Lamb's drums are set up in there (this is also where she does her own personal practise), there's a little electric keyboard for me (not quite as nice as the grand piano I have at home, but it's good for what it is), and now we have one more piece of equipment: a microphone for Carmen. It was an old, dusty little mic that Goody found stashed away in the bottom of a cupboard in his house, but it was better than nothing. We didn't have the money to pay for better equipment. And besides, it fits right in with my keyboard and Lamb's "trusty old excuse to whack things", as she calls it, and even just the fact that we rehearse in a literal shed.
Goody and Lambchops were waiting for me when I arrived at rehearsal. Goody was tuning his trumpet, and Lambchops was just sitting on the floor, spinning her sticks. They both looked up when I entered. "Hey!" Lambchops said, getting up from the floor to give me a high five. I must've looked confused, because she laughed and said, "High fives are my new greeting!". "She did it to me too." Goody affirmed. "Wait, did you find Carmen? Me and Goody couldn't." Lamb asked. I nodded. "Well, I hope she's here soon, we've got five minutes until we're supposed to start." Goody remarked. "Hey, cut her some slack! She's probably just trying to figure out where we are." I retorted. "Aww, Mr Head-Over-Heels-For-Carmen is defending his 'sweet innocent girlfriend"!" Lambchops mocked me. "Shut up! I swear, it's like you two have a problem with Carmen or something." I snapped. "Well, yeah we do." Lamb stated. "Like, I get it, she's a decent singer, but we don't really need a singer." Goody interjected. "Have you ever seen a band make it big without a vocalist? No. If we want to keep this band and expand our audience, we need Carmen. End of story." I explained, honestly feeling really irritated. "Ok, then. If you say so." Lamb said bitterly, and I gave her a dirty look.
Five minutes passed, still no Carmen. Which meant she was officially late. "We can start without her." Goody said. "No, give her a couple more minutes. She'll be here soon, I know it." I replied. Those minutes also passed, still no sign of Carmen. About fifteen minutes past the time we were supposed to start, Carmen walked in. Lamb started playing her drums really loud and aggressively, causing me to flinch. Carmen gave her the middle finger, before putting her bag down. "Glad you could make it, Carmen." Goody remarked, way too passive-aggressively to be genuine. "Oh, yeah. Sorry I'm late, guys. I just... had a thing to do." Carmen replied, giving us an apologetic smile. "It's ok." I said, pausing before adding, "Are you warm? Vocally, I mean. I worded that weird.". "Yep. Warmed up in the car on my way here." she replied. "So... are we gonna start? Or what?" Goody asked. Lamb hit the cymbals on her drumkit in response. "I think that was a yes?" I said, and she nodded. "Bring On Tomorrow?" Carmen asked me as she dusted off the microphone. "Bring On Tomorrow." I replied. "What else would we be doing?!" Lamb remarked, pretending to hit Carmen in the head with her sticks.
We played for a bit, Lamb got distracted by a "cute" spider on the wall, Goody nearly had a panic attack because of said spider, Carmen laughed so hard she started coughing, we played some more, until the spider was on the floor and Goody could no longer deal with it slowly crawling towards him that he put his trumpet down and ran out of the shed to sit outside (he was going to step on it but Lamb told him it was "too cute" and that he wasn't allowed to kill it). All of this sort of frustrated me... rehearsals are not supposed to be spent goofing around. They're meant to be spent playing music to improve performance quality. I would know, I grew up sitting in the back of some of my dad's orchestra rehearsals, watching them play the same few pieces diligently (and repetitively) until they were ready to perform, with some short breaks in between, and no messing around. Something we clearly weren't doing in our band rehearsals. And that was something I guess I just had to put up with.
That Friday after school, I was heading through the back of the school to start walking towards the bus stop, when I saw two figures sitting behind a tree. It looked like they were... smoking something. Maybe weed? I couldn't really tell. I got a little bit closer, and then I could recognise the people there. I could see Lambchops there, and she was sitting with... Joe Vegas, of all people. Joe Vegas is one of the Acting students, and a massive pervert at that. He especially likes flirting with Carmen, and it honestly drives me insane. Like, does he even understand what boundaries are? Probably not, because he's too busy thinking with his dick. I really don't like him, and the fact that Lamb (who is one of my best friends) was seemingly doing weed with him made my blood boil. But I tried to ignore it and walked to the bus stop, although I made a mental note to ask her about it when we had our planned band rehearsal on Saturday.
I got to rehearsal early on Saturday, so I could ask Lamb about what was going on between her and Joe. I knocked on the door of her house, and she opened it. "Schlomo, you're early." she said, looking confused and dishevelled. She was definitely not expecting me yet. "How early am I?" I asked. She looked at her watch and said, "25 minutes. Why so early?". "I just... thought I'd get here early so I could start practising. You know I'm more used to playing an actual piano than the keyboard." I replied, as a cover-up. I really just wanted to get the chance to ask her about it before Goody and Carmen came. "Well, go in. I just need to put my shoes on and then I'll be there." Lambchops said. I hadn't even noticed that she was walking around barefoot. I had moreso noticed that she clearly hadn't brushed her hair at all, but that is honestly not off-brand for her.
I went into the shed and found the keyboard unplugged. This often happens. I don't know what Lambchops does in here when we're not rehearsing, but it seems that something is never how we left it when we come back. I went and plugged the thing back in, and then started practising 'Bring On Tomorrow'. I'm honestly really proud of this piece, it's one of my favourite pieces to play (and it's also special to me because Carmen wrote the lyrics). I just don't play it at home, because my dad hates it. Lambchops walked in on me playing. "You know, we don't give you enough credit for how kick-ass your piano skills are, boy." she said, pointing at me with one of her drumsticks (which she had whipped out of her pocket). "Oh... thanks. I'm really not that good..." I replied. "Take the compliment!" Lamb yelled, throwing the stick at me, hitting me squarely in the face. "I have to say, you've got surprisingly good aim." I said, picking up the stick and giving it back to her. "You know, I've always wanted to try axe-throwing." she replied, seemingly drifting off into her own thoughts. "NO! DO NOT DO THAT!" we suddenly heard Goody's voice scream from behind us. He had just entered. "Hey, Goody." I said, giving him a wave as he started to head up to us. "Dude, you nearly gave me a heart attack." Goody said to Lamb, before giving me a wave. This was when I remembered what I wanted to talk to Lamb about. "Hey, Lamb. I was wondering, do you do weed?" I asked. "What?! No!" Lambchops replied, looking guilty. "She does. I've seen it." Goody said. "You're not supposed to say that, King!" Lamb replied, giving him a look. "Well... I think I saw you smoking weed with Joe Vegas after school yesterday..." I continued. Lamb's face turned red, as if she'd been caught. "I only hang out with him to smoke weed though. He's only fun to be around when we're both high." she confessed, looking down at her feet. "Ok... just, please don't start hanging out with him in general. You know he's a piece of shit." I said. "I know. But he's way less shitty when he's high. More chaotic, and less horny. Although he did ask me once if there are some lesbians who are still attracted to men, that was a little... weird. I think I slapped him across the face after that though. Or did I? I can't remember." Lamb replied. "Please tell me he hasn't started perving on you too?" Goody asked. He looked concerned. "Not yet. And if he does, I will kill him. I can handle myself. And also, it's not like I actually like Joe. I only like hanging with him when he's high. When he's not, he pisses me off just as much as he pisses you guys off. And also, I do not condone him perving on Carmen. That's weird." Lamb said.
"Speaking of Carmen, where is she? Band rehearsal is supposed to start really soon." I asked, looking at the clock on the wall. "She's always late, Schlomo." Goody remarked. "I know." I replied. We waited for her. The time we were meant to start passed and she wasn't there. We kept waiting. Lamb got bored and started messing about with her drums. At about 20 minutes past the time we were supposed to start, Goody suggested we start without her. "Is she even coming?" he asked me. "She didn't tell me she wasn't." I replied. I called her. No reply. 30 minutes past, still no Carmen. This was way later than she'd ever been before, and I started to get concerned. "She's not coming, Schlomo. Just accept it." Lamb said. "We don't know that!" I snapped back. Two minutes later... and Carmen finally showed up. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and her eyes were red. She snuck in while we were talking, and I ran up to her. "Carmen! Where were you? I was starting to get really worried." I said, pulling her into a hug. "I... something happened. But it's ok, I'm here now." she replied, her voice nowhere near as strong or confident as usual. I looked at her. She looked terrible. "Carmen... are you ok?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm fine." she replied, forcing herself to smile. "C'mon, let's go have a chat." I said, grabbing her hand and walking out of the shed to sit on the grass with her, ignoring Goody when he asked where we were going.
"What's going on?" I asked as we sat down. "Nothing, Schlomo. Trust me, I'm fine." Carmen replied. She was clearly lying. "Carmen... be honest with me. I know you're not ok. What is going on, and is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked, looking her dead in the eyes. "I'm... life is shit. I'm not exactly doing well in terms of my grades at school, my mom barely gives a shit about me at all, I know Goody and Lamb don't want me in the band, I'm broke as hell because of... reasons, I had an audition this morning that I majorly fucked up, sleep is pretty much non-existent, I'm just... struggling, I guess." Carmen explained, before pulling me into another hug. "Hey... life sucks sometimes. And you know, you can always ask me for help. Whether it be monetary or emotional. I just have one question... why aren't you sleeping? That's probably affecting everything else." I said. "I dunno... just stress, I guess." Carmen replied, although I could tell there was something she wasn't telling me. "Carmen... are you still taking those diet pills? Those were really bad." I asked, concerned. "No! No, I couldn't. They were messing with me too much. Turns out you can't dance for long without actual food in your system." Carmen replied, laughing half-heartedly. "I'm glad... drugs are really dangerous..." I said, looking at her, still concerned. "Yeah. They are." she replied. "Also, if you want, I can talk to Goody and Lamb about them not liking you?" I asked. Carmen nodded. "Yeah. I feel like they're really breathing down my neck about it... I bet you they're shit talking me for being late in there." she said, pointing back to the shed. "I'm sure they're not, and if they are, I will actually slap them. You don't deserve that." I replied. She kissed me. "Thanks, Schlomo. Thanks for everything." she said, before getting up to go back in.
We walked back in, and Lamb was aggressively playing the drums, and Goody was sitting on the floor, looking frustrated. "Hey, guys. We gonna rehearse now?" I asked. "Nope. Because you two sat out there forever and now it feels like it's too late to rehearse." Goody snapped, pointing at me and Carmen. "Well, excuse me for being late because I had better things to do than be here with you!" Carmen retorted. "Carmen, relax." I said softly, trying to keep her calm. "What were you two even talking about? How fucking obsessed you are with eachother?!" Goody remarked. "Fuck off, you piece of shit!" Carmen yelled. Lamb just started screaming at the top of her lungs and playing the drums even harder. Carmen slapped her across the face because she was being annoying, and she responded by hitting her with her sticks. Carmen then tried to leave, saying that she "didn't need no stupid band anyway". Lamb looked just about ready to start climbing the walls, she was starting to get bored. Goody gave up on arguing, but decided to just sit on the floor, refusing to talk to us, or pick up his trumpet. All of this was really starting to piss me off. This was the least productive we'd ever been. Eventually, I lost it.
"Guys, how are we supposed to be a band if we can't even work together?! How many rehearsals have we had that haven't been spend mostly messing around and not being a team? Not a lot. Have you ever seen stuff like that happen in a professional rehearsal? No. Because they actually take their craft seriously! And it seems to me like you guys don't. If we're gonna take this band seriously we have to start actually rehearsing. And not messing around. Preferably not being late. Not having full blown arguments over someone being late. Not immediately treating someone new to the band like shit. Not disrupting the whole rehearsal because of some stupid spider. Not spending more time talking about the music than actually playing the music. Not being idiots. Not messing about with the equipment. If we actually want this band to go somewhere, we have to start putting some damn work in, which is something none of you currently are doing. I hope you guys can all learn some basic decency and start treating this like it actually matters, or honestly, I'm leaving. Because I don't want to be tied to a group of people who have no clue how to act professionally."
Goody and Lamb were both silent. "Schlomo..." Carmen said softly, reaching out for my hand. I didn't let her grab it, I was still pissed off. I took a few deep breaths to try and calm down, before I turned to them and said, "So... are we willing to actually be a team?". Carmen, Goody and Lamb all nodded. "Ok, then let's start rehearsing." I said.
And they stuck to that and our rehearsal went well, with no interruptions or messing about. We've finally become a team.