QUARTZ EYES, per ohlin

good morning, Norway

It was July 1988, summer in Oslo, a short female figure calmly came out of the train with her suitcases, her blue hair caught the attention of some people, something that doesn't happen in England, she mentally complained.

She was grateful that Swedish and Norwegian were similar languages, as she had never been to the Norwegian capital and didn't even know where she was supposed to go. In the letter, Øystein said that he would be waiting for her at the entrance to the station, with the other band members and a paper with her name on it.

Meanwhile, at the entrance, the quartet was talking. The guitarist was impatient - as always - wondering where the guy had gone, they saw something unusual from afar, a blue figure, or rather, a woman with blue hair had just got off the train and seemed to be lost, reading the signposts with a confused expression.

"Uh, exotic isn't it?", Jan said, patting Per on the shoulder beside him. Jan was best known as Hellhammer, the band's drummer and Per, or Dead, was the vocalist.

Per was always fascinated by everything that seemed different, strange things that seemed out of this world, he always considered himself something mortal but not human, so he was always looking for his fellows, that's why his eyes landed on the exotic hair for longer than the others, until that figure began to walk towards them.

It wasn't hard to find them, it was a group of four men, all with long hair, black clothes and uneven heights and one of the shorter ones held a paper with her name written on it. She walked over to them, leaving behind the rubbery noise of her military style-boots on the concrete platform, then stopped in front of them, leaving her guitar case on the ground to shake hands with them. Øystein looked at her face and hand and asked, "Who the fuck are you?!".

The girl looked at his face and at the paper in her hand, then pointed at it. "Alex", she replied, hearing a mocking laugh from the man with the roots of his blond hair showing against the black paint.

"Alex? The guy who sent us that tape?", she nodded slowly. "But you have tits!", the other three started to snicker as she smiled out of the corner of her mouth.

"It's because the guy who sent you the tape is a woman", she lowered her hand, picking up the black guitar case from the floor, he started laughing again.

"You? Alex?!", she pursed her lips, looking at the men around her, almost like she was asking for help.

"Is there a problem?", she asked, not understanding the reason for the mockery. He laughed more. "Huf, I knew it was a waste of time", she said, turning to leave.

Per and Jørn looked at Øystein in disbelief. "What?", he asked.

"Dude, go after her!", Jørn said almost shouting.

"Why? This girl is a poser, probably not even this Alex guy".

"Stop being a fucking paranoid! She's referred to herself several times as a girl in her letters, not to mention she was the best among those trashy tapes".

"If you want her in the band that bad, go after her", Øystein added, like a spoiled brat.

Jørn looked at him and turned away, going after Alex. He found her sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette and watching the movement around her. "If yo came to mock me, go away," she said before he could say on anything.

"I came to apologize. Øystein is an asshole who wants to keep his pose but he loved your music, he even memorized the lyrics", Alex smiled in disbelief before releasing the smoke from his lungs.

"I've been expecting it to be rejected, but not right away. I even got in touch with a relative who lives in Oslo to find a place to stay", she shook her head.

"Calm down, you didn't get rejected. Øystein just needs to listen to you", Alex gave a laugh that was more like a growl. Having to prove herself to that garden gnome was humiliating, but she wasn't going to give up that easy to join the band.

"And how do I make him listen to me?".

Jørn just asked her to come back with him to the group, Øystein looked at the bassist bringing the girl back and helping her with her bags, not believing what he was doing.

"Shall we?", Jørn said, walking to the car with the bags. Øystein walked pissed off after them, but didn't open his mouth to say anything until the girl had gotten into the car after Dead and Hellhammer. He slammed the doors and started yelling at Necrobutcher outside the car, all you could hear inside were the muffled noises of an argument, they must have spent about ten minutes outside.

"I didn't introduce myself, I'm sorry", she said, looking at the other two members of her together in the car. "My name is Alex, I'm 19 years old and I come from Stockholm", she tried to break the silence between them.

"My name is Jan Axel Blomberg, I'm the drummer and he's Per Ohlin, the vocalist", for the first time, their eyes met. They had been in the car for ten minutes, in the summer, with the drummer between them and the sound of two men fighting outside, oh, how romantic.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard Deathcrush before, Mayhem is a great band", she said smiling, even though neither of the two who were there had participated in the recording of the EP.

Shortly thereafter, Jørn enters the driver's side and Øystein the passenger. "Are you hungry, Alex?", she wanted to say no and cause less trouble, but her stomach made a noise at the time.

"I'm so fucking hungry", Jørn chuckled, starting the car.

Øystein turned on the radio to play some tape, and right away her ears were invaded by a female voice. "Good morning, Norway!".

Fuck you, Norway.