High School Years

Chapter Fourteen

Six months. Half a year. August. About to start tenth grade, my sophomore year. All different ways to explain this time of year. I'm sure that Winter and Jackson will be announcing their engagement any day now. It's been a year since the day with Alex at the spot in the woods. The last day of summer. So much changed this year. Him? He's a jerk that has fucked half the school. Me? I'm a simple girl in a band that plays local pizza places on Friday nights with a boyfriend of now six months, Brandon. After lunch the day he bumped into me in the hall we clicked. We are together for about a week until one day he asked me out on a date. I said yes and the rest is history.
"Hey," Brandon interrupted my thoughts with a kiss on the cheek.
"Good luck. You're gonna kill it as always," he said right before Lunchroom Story went on to play a small pizza shop. It's small but it's our favorite one. The customers here are regulars and look forward to us coming. Plus the owner always gives us free pizza after we play and this place has the best pizza.
"Thanks," I smiled at him, grabbed my bass and stood with Jackson, Winter, and Lex waiting to go on. Our band could only be described as pretty in rock, a term we coined as not only the title of our most popular song but how we describe our style. It's a rocker look with a soft edge, like pink, lace, and glitter all thrown in.
"Hey everybody!" I greeted the crowd. They cheered.
"Some of you may know us, but for those who don't we're Lunchroom Story!" Lex said. The crowd kept on cheering. Most of them here knew us.
"The first song we're gonna start off with is called Pretty In Rock. Sing along if you know it!" Winter shouted.
"5 6 5 6 7 8!" Jackson shouted banging his drumsticks together on each count.
We went through the whole song and the final chorus.
Pretty in rock pretty in rock ready to rock ready to rock. Turning it on pretty in rock. Pink and black ready to attack. Zero to one one to none. Pretty in rock pretty in rock
The song ended with a small drum solo and it was only then that I actually scanned the crowd for regulars. Something threw me off though and I looked twice at it. What was he doing here? Didn't Alex know this is where I was and therefore he should have avoided the place. I was briefly distracted by him but I realized that if we ever wanted to make it big the lead singer couldn't be so easily thrown. Instead in a daring act of braveness that I haven't got a clue where it came from, I smiled at him. I nearly thought he was about to smile back before he turned away quickly. We played our set list and finished our concert.
Afterwords I was hanging out backstage with my band when a man in a suit approached us.
"Hello, I'm Richard Richman. I've been to a few of your shows and I own the local record label, Lunar Sounds. Would you be interested in signing with us as our new artist?" The man who called himself Richard asked us. My mouth nearly hit the floor. I looked to my band mates who all eagerly nodded at me.
"Thank you so much, sir, that would be amazing and we would love to do it! When should we start?" I asked.
"Come by the studio tomorrow at nine thirty. See you then and I'm sure we'll have a great time." Richard said and walked away. We waited until he was well out of earshot before erupting into high pitched girly squeals. Even Jackson squealed, well, as close to a squeal as a guy can really get.