The Arts

7 - The Jam Session

ANDI

Robbie had reserved a practice room in the music wing for the jam session and shown up early. Andi's heart pounded as she walked into the room without the bass guitar Kiara had claimed she played and instead carried a tattered black notebook and bag of gel pens.

"Hey Andi," Robbie's face twisted into confusion as he addressed the obvious. "Where's your bass?"

"Oh. Um, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, it's not here. I actually forgot to pack it, so my parents are sending it in."

Robbie looked skeptical. "You...forgot to pack your primary musical instrument to a performing arts school? Are you even taking this seriously?"

Oh no. She was blowing it. "Crap. Look, I'm sorry. I just, packing to even go here was just such a mess. And I got in a fight with my family the morning I moved, and I don't actually have any classes with my bass this semester, so—"

As she mentioned the family fight in her rambling, Robbie's face softened. "Hey. It's cool. Fighting sucks. I'm just kind of on edge right now. With the band falling apart, and Matt bailed on the jam session, it's just...it's kind of a lot."

"The band is falling apart?" Andi nearly shouted.

"Looks that way."

"So does this mean Tyler's not coming back?" She winced as soon as the question left her mouth. Here was the founder of The Flaming Wolves, inviting Andi to a jam session, and she came unprepared and full of questions about their separated band member.

Robbie sighed. "No. He's not."

"What happened with you guys, anyway?"

"Tyler's a jerk is what happened. He screwed up our audition."

Hearing Tyler be insulted made Andi's heart drop into her stomach. Her instincts were to come to his defense. This was a big mistake. "Well, it can't have been that bad. You all got in."

Robbie frowned. "That doesn't mean it was okay. Did you come here to talk about Tyler or did you come here to play?"

Andi tentatively sat down beside Robbie, still clutching her notebook to her chest. She looked at him seriously. "I'm sorry. I just...I don't really know everything that happened and I was curious. And also it can't hurt for you to talk about it."

"The goal was to not have to talk about it. It sucks and I just want to move past it and be in a band."

"This is gonna sound super weird, but I was like, your guys' biggest fan back at Hillside," Andi felt her face get hot with embarrassment. "Which, I know, like, who does that? We're classmates. You guys are just really talented and I was hoping you'd make it."

"I was hoping we would too," was all Robbie said. There was an uncomfortable silence between them. Then his eyes traveled to the black notebook. "So what's in the notebook?"

Andi's eyes lit up. "Oh! Okay. So, I know you're wanting to do original songs. I've written a few before, but I haven't been able to put music to them. Maybe we could take a look at them?"