Encore

7 First Show

"Our bassist is missing! It's our first fucking show and our bassist. Is. Missing!" Lexie shouts, throwing her sun hat on the floor. Dawn, Ash and Lance stand in silence, secretly freaking out. We're all backstage, waiting for Billie to show up.

Lance breaks the tension and suggests, "Well...obviously he's lost! And he won't show up until we actually go and find him."

The man who had came by earlier to notice us about the soundcheck, appears again. This time he has more lanyards around his neck. He says, "Do you mind letting the opening band to do their soundcheck first?" Lexie asks, "Who's the supporting act?" The man answers, "Some local band." And so Lexie gives the green light to him.

"I'll go look for him." Lance says, running away before anyone could agree to his suggestion. Lexie throws her hands up and groans, "And now we've lost the drummer, too."

5 fast minutes after he left, Lance shows up again, this time with Billie following him. Lexie sighs in relief and says, "There you are, you assholes."

Lance and Billie are both sharing the same expression; a mix of nervousness and fear. Lexie notices this and asks, "What's wrong? Don't tell me you lost your guitar or something. Can't handle anymore bad luck beyond this point, it's only our first show." She picks her hat up again and stands straight, waiting for the boys to respond.

"Uh..." Lance drags, looking at Billie, who's looking back at Lance. Lance takes out the drumsticks and exclaims, "I have to check my drums' condition!" He then leaves us and ignores Billie's scowl. Lexie looks at Lance and asks, "So...why were you missing?"

Billie takes a deep breath and speaks as calmly as he can, "Well, I hopped off the bus and had to go to the toilet real bad, yeah? And when I was on the way to the dressing room, I sort of bumped into a really old friend..." He continues really softly, "A really old friend of the band..."

I turn to see Lexie who's crunching her eyebrows, trying to guess who this 'old friend' is. It looks as though she knows who it is already, but is just finding confirmation. Billie drops another clue, "You may or may not hate this guy with a passion." 

And that is the first time I've seen Lexie look so scared and intimidated. It's as if her confident and independant demeanor just dropped into a sinking hole and disappeared into the unknown. That might have been an exaggerated description, but it looks like it to me. I should record this day as a historical day.

Dawn and Ash look at each other in unison, and then at Billie. Billie scratches his temple and looks at his shoes, trying to look as chill as he can. Lexie slowly takes off her sun hat once again and asks with a calm voice, "Freddie Quinn?" Billie nods and repeats, "Freddie Quinn."

"VIRGIN VENDETTA! You're up for soundcheck." Someone shouts from the stage through the mic. Lexie puts her hat back on and runs for the stage, leaving us behind. I look at Billie and ask, "Who's Freddie Quinn?" He looks at Dawn and Ash who are heading for the stage and replies, "Um...a really old friend."

We walk towards the stage and the band members take their places on stage with their instruments. Ash plugs his guitar in and strums the strings while testing out the volume. He's holding the same guitar as on the band shirt, the red and yellow one. Billie does the same with his black bass guitar while Dawn says to the mic, "First verse of Toxic Psycho?" Ash says, "What about Day Of The Lady? It's louder." Billie asks, "I thought Californian Sinner is louder?"

They quarrel for awhile until Lexie shouts, "Just go with any fucking song, please!" The band quickly nods at her and agrees on Californian Sinner. Lance taps his drumsticks together while shouting, "1, 2, 3, 4!"

Ash strums the guitar aggressively, immediately starting the song with a strong riff. The beat is almost groovy, but mostly loud. Ash seems like a very good guitarist. His strong strumming suddenly tunes down to a lower volume and Dawn grabs the mic to her lips. She sings the first verse;