Rocker's Rivalry

Prologue

It was Astrid's first year at college, and she was nervous. She had barely made it into her chosen college with a scholarship program for music and arts, so she was excited to be there. However, there was always a lingering feeling of doubt creeping on her shoulder. Did she truly deserve to be there? Would she be able to handle it?

Astrid had moved into her single accommodation on campus, the flat had only one bedroom and one bathroom and a small kitchen area with a living room, all of which were crammed into one room in a vague open-plan design. The loneliness of the flat didn't bother Astrid too much because she was never a very sociable person, opting to stay at home and watch social interactions rather than experience them. Astrid managed to acquire this small one-person apartment just on the edge of campus that was mainly accommodated for older third or fourth-year students who were no longer able to live in the widely used cheap student dorms on the main area of campus.

But Astrid liked the small, cosy apartment she was now making her home in. The door into her apartment immediately welcomed you into the kitchen/living room space that was divided by the door itself. To the left side of the door was the sparsely decorated living room, with a TV, a small, wooden coffee table, and a two-person sofa ordered from closest to farthest from the door. Due to Astrid's limited funds, these pieces of furniture had been left in the apartment by the college, as a necessity for living, but it didn't make Astrid feel any less like a beggar. However, the living room had a small upside in the shape of a floor-to-ceiling window which allowed the radiant beams of sunlight to stream in through the glass and heat up the carpet that covered the floor all the way up to the kitchen. The view out from the window, however, was less than expected with a marvellous perspective out onto a local construction site below.

On the right side of the door, sat a small, cramped kitchen with only a small stretch of counter space and two overhead cupboards. The sight of these wooden cupboards was somewhat of an eyesore due to their sunkissed, fluorescent yellow paint streaking across their skin, often leaving a dull ache in your head if you stared at them for too long. The fridge didn't fare much better, with an equally appalling yellow tint to its shiny exterior, but luckily its interior shone with a crisp, fresh white sheen bright enough to blind a toddler with an uncertain smell terminating from its shelves.

The room wasn't much to look at, and it had barely any redeeming qualities to it, but to Astrid, it was home. For now. There wasn't much to be done, and at least she wasn't having to live in some cramped dorm with the unwavering prospect of peer pressure lingering all around her in the beer-stained halls of an average student dorm Instead, she much preferred her quiet, sombre apartment far away from all the hillbilly laughter of rowdy teens eager to escape the clutches of their parents for the first time in their lives.

Despite all of this, there was something missing for Astrid, something that failed to spark that unknown wave of excitement that every college student feels along with their inescapable apprehension of the years to come.

Astrid was desperate to start a band. A real band. Not the type found in any kid's garage that needs vacating every time their father comes home from work and needs somewhere to park his car. Astrid wanted something more than that.

Before she had arrived at the college, she had sent in an application to start a college band, a band specifically created for use by the college. Her hopes had been that their band would appear in any college events that were being hosted as well as at any college bars in the area. This band would create a small income for the students involved, as well as increase the college's image and brand name.

But it was a risky move.

There wasn't much to be confident about when she had sent in the letter regarding her idea. Her only hope was to pray that the college would take the bait. All she could do was wait and see, occupying her time with packing and preparations for her college life to come.