Adopted (Book 1) *EDITING*

Chapter 26: Sassy Little Musician

  Here I stand in our door way pacing back and forth like an idiot occasionally checking my phone for the time. Brendon just sat on the couch staring at me, confused and slightly worried. After a while, he stood up and walked over to me and put him hands on both of my shoulders.

"What the hell are you doing?" He said with wide eyes. I sigh and look down. "Why are you walking back and forth?" I look up at him.

"Charlie." I said as if he knew what I was talking to him. He gives me a confused look, letting to of my shoulders. I walk over to the window and look out.

"What about him?" He says, walking over to me. I sigh and roll my eyes, then I remember. I forgot to tell Brendon.

"Oh shit!" I said, hitting my forehead with my hand. "I kinda forgot to tell you." I said nervously. "Charlie's moving it LA and I kinda told him to come to our house after his plane lands because he was the only person we could find to play guitar but he has to use one of your guitars because his is on the moving truck and-" he cut me off.

"Hey hey hey, slow down. So he's coming to our house," he said, I nod. "And he's going to use one of my guitars for the talent show." I nod. "Syd why didn't you tell me earlier." I sigh and look down.

"I'm sorry, when he said he was moving here, all I could think about was the talent show." I looked up at him. "Is it still okay if he comes over." I say with a hopeful smile. He looked at me for a while.

"Ok fine." I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him right.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" He giggles and hugs me back. I pull away and look out the window.

"Wait, don't you need Karen to practice too? I mean she's part of the act too." He said looking out with window with me. I hit my forehead again.

"How could I forget Karen." I said, pinching me eyes shut. He chuckles. I slip my phone out of my pocket and text her to 'get her ass over here'.

A couple minutes later a dark blue car pulled into our drive way. I look at Brendon who was motioning to the door. I speed walk to the door and silently wait for a knock.

Three knocks rang through the door way. I swing open the door to find Charlie and who I'm guessing are his parents. I ignore the and hug Charlie. "I missed you Syd." He said and we swayed back and forth with the hug.

"I missed you too." Our parents ignored us and greeted eachother. We pull away from the hug.

"Well, you must be Brendon." His mom said. "I'm Amy." The shook hands. Well this is going well, then his dad spoke up. His dad was tall, slim, and was wearing a disapproving face.

"I'm James." Said his dad, sticking out his hand. Brendon shook it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two. Would you like to come in?" He said, moving aside so they could walk in. "Why don't you kids go get something to eat from the kitchen." The two of us walked into the kitchen. We didn't get food, we just stood and tried to see what was happening without getting noticed.

"So Brendon, this is quite a house you have here." He said, walking around the living room. He walked over to mantle and looked at what was sitting on it. Brendon usually keeps his awards on the mantle. "If you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?" He asked. God, I already hate this guy. Read the goddamn awards you idiot.

"Well, I'm a musician." He said smiling. James picked up Brendon's MTV Best Music Video Award and examined it. He set it down and picked up Brendon's APMA's Best Vocalist award and turned to Brendon.

"I take that you are successful?" He said, putting the award back and looked at the many awards. Brendon nodded, Amy walked around the room and looked at the walls. She stopped at one section that had all the alternative press issues with panic! on the cover framed.

"Wow! Your even on the cover of magazines. That's pretty amazing." She said smiling. I like her. Suddenly the door bell rang again.

"Well me must get going. The moving trucks will be here in about 2 hours. It was nice to meet you, bye." Said James, pulling Amy along with him out the door leaving Brendon standing there with a confused look. Then Karen walked into the living room when Brendon was standing.

"You saw the crazy old guy too right?" She said, looking in the same direction he was looking. Charlie burst out in laughter. We both walked into the living room.

"Welcome to my world." He said. Karen looked at him. She then looked at me.

"This must be the famous Charlie I hear so much about. I'm Karen." He said, sticking her hand out. He shook it and then looked at me.

"Is this the Karen you were talking about before you guys played green gentleman?" He said. Karen's eyes got big.

"You what now?" Before I could say anything, Brendon chimed in.

"Long story, can we please go play music now?" He said like a whiny little kid. We all giggled  a little before following him. As we walked up the stairs, he talked. "Ok, Karen. How are you doing with the bass?" He asked.

"I memorized all of it." She said proudly.

"Perfect. Charlie, do you know any of the song on guitar?" He asked. We reached the top of the stairs and walked into the music room.

"I memories the chords on the plane." He replied. Brendon let out a chuckle and turned around to face him.

"Good boy." He said, ruffling Charlie's hair. "Ok Charlie, grab a guitar off the wall. Karen, grab a bass. Syd, pull the piano over. Let's play." He said, walking over to the drums, clipping mics onto the set.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pulling the piano to the playing area.

"I'm gonna record the drum parts so I can criticize you guys while you play." He said. After all of us had our stuff set up. We all sat down and watched Brendon. He grabbed a set of drumsticks and sat at the set and pushed a button on one of the mics. As he played, we chatted.

"Do you really think you can sing this?" He said over the drums.

"Karen, Dan, and I practiced it yesterday. I think I have the voice for it. We could pull this off." I said, leaning more against the wall. "Anyways, we asked literally all the guitarists in our school and none of them said they would be able to learn it in a day. Not even the best guitarist, how did you memorize the chords. I mean, you've only been playing for a few months. And you memorized the chords on a 4 hour plane ride. How?" I asked him. He shrugs.

"I don't know, I kinda just look at them and they stay in my head." Karen looks at him.

"I wish I had that gift. I can usually learn a song by ear on bass but I suck at guitar." She said. We all looked at Brendon who was just finishing. He stood up and wiped the sweat off his brow. 

"Ok now who's ready to play some music." He said. We all got up and went to our positions. "Ready and a 1, 2, 3." He pressed the button the play button on the computer. He went and sat down in the computer chair, notebook in hand.

•AFTER THE SONG•

Brendon started clapping, he stood up and held his notebook so he could read off of it. He glanced at all of us. "That was good," he said, we all looked at each other happily. "But it could be way better. Prepare yourself a for mass criticism. I know this is going to be harsh but that's what you get when you work this a Urie. You get the best." He said in all seriousness "First of all, Karen and Charlie. This song is build around harmonizing which when you guys performed, I did not hear. All I heard was Sydney singing. Use those pipes of yours. Second of all, you guys need to move around more. You have all seen panic perform Bohemian Rhapsody before right?" He asked us, mostly them. We all nodded. "You guys need stage presence. So I have some advice for when you perform live." He looked down at his notes.

"First, Karen. I want loosen up a little. Get loose." He said, shaking his shoulders. "Second, Charlie. When you do the guitar solo, jump up one an amp in front of you. Do what Kenny does when he does the solo." He said. He then looked to me. "And third. Sydney, I need to teach you vocal warm ups. You were straining and you know home much I hate voices not warmed up. And when the fast part comes, own the stage. Don't just stand there. Now can i please hear this from the top, with improvement please." He said sassy before sitting back in his chair. We all looked at eachother with nervous looks. Since when did he get this whole music producer sass?