AAOOOSC! #10

Chapter 23: "St. John's Is A Long Way From Here."

On the west coast of the country, it is the early evening with the sun beginning to set down. Our three misplaced heroes, Sidney, Jonathan, and Nathan, are following their new-found misplaced friends, Brandon, Nick, Joseph, Matt, and Ryan down a hallway. The hallway is located outside on the second level of a massive recreational building. It is shady due to the roofs of the two buildings it is made out of meeting each other from above. To the right is a window and to the left is a bulletin board with flyers showing drama information as they enter.

"Where're we going?" Jonathan asks with a confused look as they pass the bulletin board and go by another one.

"Well, if Crammer here didn't teleport us back to 2015, we wouldn't have to be here," Brandon starts off coldly, glaring at his teammate. "We would've gone to our house where our own instruments would've been at."

"I'll get you guys outta here...," Joseph grumbles, turning his eyes away from Brandon.

Nick turns to Jonathan with soft, sleepy eyes. "We're going to the music room, where we first started practicing for our band."

"Band?" Sidney and Nathan exclaim in unison.

"Oh yeah, band..." Nick turns to Matt and Ryan. "I said 'band,' right?"

"Yeah!" Matt tells him.

Sidney turns to the three with an inquiring look. "You guys have your own band?"

"Oh yeah, definitely!" Ryan exclaims excitedly with raised eyebrows.

The group finally stops in front of a glass door with a window to its right. The window is showing a dusky room on the other side.

Nathan asks them, "What's the band called?"

"The 'Red Wings,'" Brandon blurts out as he pulls out a set of keys.

"No, it's 'Cramarossa'!" Joseph snaps, snatching the keys from Brandon's hands. He begins to work on unlocking the door.

"Wh-wh-what...?" Nick gazes around everyone with a hint of confusion underneath his sleepy look. "I thought it was the 'Hamburgers.'"

"But it's 'Mr. Ernie's Band,'" Matt pipes in, holding Mr. Ernie, the hamster, in his cupped hands.

"And I thought it was called 'The Metalheads...,'" Ryan mumbles, rubbing his stubble-covered chin. With a sigh, he looks back at the NHLers. "Well, we never agreed on a band name."

"It's 'Cramarossa' whether you like it or not!" Joseph yanks the door open, then storms inside; Brandon and Nick follow after him.

Ryan nods toward the open room. "Come on, let's go in."

The NHLers follow the AHLers into the room warily.

Inside the room, the lights are already turned on. It is a fairly empty, small room with amplifiers lining the walls, all the musical instruments on the other side, and the microphones on stands near the entrance. A grand piano and a keyboard is to the right, some guitars and basses are lined up in their stands to the left, a drum set is in the middle, blocking the whiteboard, and a box is stuffed in the left corner. Down the room to the right side is another door, which is showing the continued walkway.

Sidney gazes around the room with awe. "Oh wow! You guys can play all of these instruments?"

Ryan is already on the other side of the room, leaning over the rack of guitars and basses with Brandon. "Well, I can only play the bass." He swipes a slap bass from a stand and slips the strap over him like a necklace. "Monty here knows how to play the guitar."

Brandon strums a few notes on his warm electric guitar with a closed smile.

Ryan continues informing the three NHLers: "Matt here does the keyboard--"