Battle of the Band Classes

Chapter 9

The next day, Cam woke up not to the sound of his alarm, but to Leah shaking him awake.

"Dude," she said "You overslept. It's 7:00."

Cam looked completely panicked. "Shit!" He yelled as he literally jumped out of bed and grabbed his shower stuff. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuh, wait here." He said rushing out of his room and into the bathroom. He got in the shower and all he could do was wash his hair because he barely had time to do anything else. After his shower he pulled on a pair of clean underwear and practically ran back to his room, where he had forgotten Leah was waiting. He stopped in his tracks. "Ignore this." He said gesturing to the fact that he was in nothing but his boxers.

Leah laughed "No problem."

He walked over to his closet and pulled on a pair of black jeans, so he felt more comfortable around Leah. She laughed as he put his guitar back in the case while he was still shirtless and did everything else he normally would do with a shirt on, including putting on his shoes. He went to leave the room and Leah said:

"Uh, Cam. You're still shirtless."

Cam looked down at his bare chest. "Oh, duh." And he grabbed a maroon Vans t shirt and pulled it on as quickly as he could without hurting himself. He went to leave the room again, but Leah said "Don't forget your guitar, and your tags."

Cam glared at her and grabbed his tags and looped them around his neck, then slung his guitar over his shoulder.

"Are we good now?"

"Yep, let's go."

.   .    .

The two of them barely had time to eat their breakfasts before they had to go. The walk to the Sports Complex felt shorter than yesterday's. Leah and Cam were walking on their own because Kyle had walked Grace to improv and then walked with Andy the rest of the way.

The two of them were fooling around and belting random songs in really bad impressions. Leah's impression of Tyler Joseph during Trapdoor, was over exaggerated which made it hilarious to Cam. When they got inside room 118, Mr. C was still setting up. Cam put his guitar next to Leah's, and the two of them went over to Mr. C. "Is there anything we can do to help?" Cam asked.

Mr. C looked up. "Yeah, Cam do you know how to tune a drum kit?"

"Yeah."

"Will you do that for me?"

"Sure." Cam moved around behind the drum kit.

"Leah, will you help me check the amp levels, and the distortion petals?"

"Sure."

"Alright, go grab your guitar."

Leah ran over to the table where her guitar was placed and grabbed it. She brought it over to the first amp, and plugged it in. She turned the amp on and cranked the volume on her guitar up to 10. "Any specific song I should play? She said while checking the tuning.

"What ever you feel like right now."

She began to play the That's What You Get by Paramore* without the distortion petal on, then for the chorus she kicked it on. She checked all three petals before saying she was done.

"Cam is it okay if she checks the other amp with your guitar?"

Cam stopped hitting the floor tom. "Yeah, be careful though that's my child."

Leah laughed, and Mr. C rolled his eyes. Leah did the same thing with Cam's amp and guitar, just as TJ, and Peter walked in.

Leah and Cam stopped and got up. "Alright, everyone take a seat."

Everyone sat at the table closest to Mr. C. He counted all four of them, and then sat down across from them.

"So guys, I have the set list." He said, pulling a stack of folders out of his bag. "The list, in order, is taped to the front, please look it over." He passed one out to everyone at the table.

Leah looked at it immediately. The set list was this:
1. 119
2. Bored to Death
3. 119
4. Wheels
5. 119
6. Vagabonds
7. 119
8. Taxi Cab
9. 119
10. Brick by Boring Brick
11. 119
12. Loose Change
13. 119
14. Use Somebody
15. 119
16. Homesick at space camp
17. 119
18. Box Around The Sun
19. 119
20. Different Colors
21. 119
22. Bohemian Rhapsody

Cam spoke up very quickly. "Why does it say 119 every other song?"

Mr. C nodded. "To explain this the easiest way I can, the other teacher and I flipped a coin, and whoever got heads, got to pick whether they wanted to go first or not. This was the first year is didn't win, so 119 is going first, wherever it says 119 that's when they play their song."

"On their list does it say 118?" Peter asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright cool."

"So you guys ready to start with Bohemian Rhapsody?"

"Yep."

Everyone got up and went to their designated spots.

They started from "Mama just killed a man..." and Leah's anxiety rose with Cam's singing because she didn't want to sound bad. She put her fingers on the guitar for the cord she was gonna play and strummed it as hard as she could when the time came. To make herself feel better, she let out the first note with all the breath in her lungs. She pushed the words out with as much feeling as she could, and before she knew it they had ran through the whole song.

Mr. C looked super impressed. "Holy crap guys. That was amazing. I mean it still needs work, but props to you guys for learning it all without my help."

Leah smiled everything was going to be a lot easier from now on.