Stand Up And Fight

Chapter 1 - First Meet

Y/N peered nervously through the crowds of people gathered in the baggage claim area of the airport. The flight from Phoenix had been a short one, not giving her near enough time to calm herself. She could see a man dressed in a dark suit, holding a white card over his head that read 'Y/L/N' and Y/N thought she was going to be sick. She had never been picked up from the airport by a limo before.

She nodded to the driver, clutching the small leather overnight bag in her damp left hand. Moments later, she was sitting on a cool leather seat in the back of a Lincoln sedan. Spinning the labret piercing in her lip, she tried not to focus on her upset stomach. She already knew that the band liked her voice. 'Why was she still so unnerved? She just had to nail the interview and live audition, right?'

Clearing her throat, she wiped her sweaty palms on the dark cargo pants she wore before pulling out a worn leather bound journal. She began to rehearse the lyrics in her mind for lack of something better to do.

Eddie was sitting in the studio as he waited for one of the singers to arrive. They had been looking for a singer ever since Beth had decided to leave. They hadn't really found anyone to fit the band. He had really liked the vocals this girl had recorded and he had high hopes. He was hoping her personality was as good as her voice. He really did not want anyone else with a diva complex.

He was going over some stuff as he waited for this girl to arrive. If today's meeting went well, they would meet with the whole band the next day. He ran his hand over his hair and turned back to what he was reading as he continued to wait.

Y/N looked up from the ragged journal as she felt the car slow to a stop. 'We're here already?' her brain screeched as she closed the journal and tied the leather strings that held the book together with shaky fingers. 'I'm not ready' she continued feeling bile rising in her throat. Y/N couldn't remember a time when she had ever been this apprehensive about an audition. she had been on enough of them!

She had never wanted to be part of one as badly as she had Corroded Coffin of course. 'Their music was amazing.' The talent radiating from the speakers of her crappy stereo system back home had been mind blowing. She had had such a good feeling after talking with the guitarist Jeff yesterday. 'This is the one', she had thought. 'The one that would take me all the way.'

Y/N climbed out of the car as the driver opened her door. The burning LA sun was similar to Phoenix but the breeze felt cooler somehow. It didn't matter anyway though, because Y/N's thin, cotton, tank top clung to her perspiring torso like a second skin. She thanked the driver, not sure, if she should tip him, and not that she had more than a five spot in the pocket of her torn pants anyhow.

The frigid air conditioning hit her hot, sweaty skin causing goose bumps to break out on both arms as she entered the studio building. Number ten, she thought as she glanced around looking at the walls for direction. Up two flights of stairs, she headed toward studio ten feeling nausea so close to the surface. She pushed down her nerves again as she raised her hand to knock on the door. 'To hell with it' she hissed, 'here goes nothing.'

Eddie heard a knock on the door and he assumed it was Y/N.

"Come in," he called out but did not really look up from the piece of paper where he had been doodling for a while.

Hearing a deep voice answer her knock, Y/N placed her slippery fingers on the knob and turned, pushing the door ajar enough to stick her face in the opening.

"Hey, you Jeff?" she asked, her voice cracking and squeaking nervously, quietly cursing herself about it. 'idiot.'

Eddie looked up from his drawing and smiled at Y/N.

"I'm Eddie actually. Jeff was feeling a little under the weather," he said as he put his pen away and got up. "You must be Y/N," he said with another smile as he stretched his hand.