Royals

The Shell Of A Friendship

"Got one!" Ru says, smiling. He pulls out his phone and presses play. It plays Royals.
"If I'm honest I think its great, it fits our band name." Owen says, smiling to himself.
"I'm all for it." I say. April just nods. We stand from the Sofa and walk over into the bigger part of the studio. I plug in the two microphones for me and Owen and Plug in April's keyboard. Owen throws Ru his drum sticks and we start playing. After about 3 or 4 run throughs we know it's perfect.
"THE DARCIE SHACK IS OPEN!" Darcie yells from the other side of the basement. We all race to the bar and take a seat on the bar stools.
"Hello and welcome to the Darcie shack, may I take your order please sir?" He asks Ru.
"Yes you may. Can I please have a pint of strawberry shake and a blueberry muffin please?" Ru asks. Darcie nods and moves on.
"Miss April may I take your order?" April smiles.
"Orange juice please and some shortbread." She replies. Darcie writes her order along with Ru's on a slip of paper.
"Owen?"
"The usual please." Owen says with a smile.
"Lady Willow bean, may I take your order?" Darcie asks me. I giggle.
"Banana and strawberry smoothie. Annnnnnddd strawberry ice cream please." I say. Darcie frowns.
"Willow. You made me buy 27 packets of jelly beans yesterday and you aren't even going to eat them?" He asks. I shrug.
"Maybe later." I say. Darcie face palms and puts a bunch of ingredients into different blenders. We have about 4 or 5. He gets the shortbread and muffins from the cupboard, puts them on a plate and slides them down the counter to April and Ru. He grabs the ice cream boxes from the freezer, puts some strawberry in a bowl for me and some of everything for Owen. The blenders ping, signalling their finish. He pours them into glasses and slides them down the counter.
"How do you do that Darce?" I ask. He shrugs.
"I'm a natural." He says.
"Can I have a go?" I ask. He nods.
"I propose everyone lifts their glasses and bowls/plates before Willow causes an accident." Ru says. We all laugh.
"Me? Accident? I think not." I say. Darcie puts a plate at the end of the counter and I hop off my bar stool.
"Y'all better get ready, this is gonna be good." I say, giggling.
"My brain's saying otherwise. Don't make me regret this Willow." Darcie says. I shrug. I slide the plate across the counter and it stops at the end, half hanging off.
"See? Have a little faith big brother!" I say, smirking.

SMASH

WHOOPS! The plate fell from the counter.
"Whoopsy daisy." I say, biting my lip. Darcie sighs.
"That's the Willow I know. Always breaking things." Darcie says, shaking his head and getting the dustpan and brush.
"What can I say? I'm a natural." I say shrugging- everyone laughs at my comment. I jump back on my bar stool.
"D'ya want me to clean it up Darcie?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"Nah I got this. Thanks though Will." He says.
"You're welcome." I say. I drink my smoothie and eat my ice cream. When we're all finished I put the bowls and plates in the sink and start to wash them up. I wash, Owen dries, April double dries -as we all know Owen doesn't dry them properly- and Ru puts the dishes away. Once we've finished we go back to the studio part of the basement.
"I say one more run through and we should be good." April says. I nod. Then it occurs to me, if Royals is the song we want to win with, we still have to have other songs to get into the first and second stage of the battle, Royals would be for the third stage.
"Hey umm guys?" I say. They hum in response.
"You realise technically we need two more songs. I mean if we want to win the battle with Royals, we need a song to pass stage one, and a song for stage two. And the final one, Royals, is for stage three." I say. Owen nods.
"Will's right. I say we kick it off with a little Zayn, Then maybe a bit of James Arthur, then Royals. What do you think?" Owen says. Ru nods.
"So it's a plan then." April says.

We go upstairs onto the second floor and into my bedroom. I turn on the computer and search some songs. In the end we decide on Pillowtalk and Say you won't let go. Everyone already knows the notes and chords so we should be all good. I quickly scribble down some lyrics on a sheet of paper and give them to Owen. He nods and thanks me.
"Owen, April, Ru! Are you staying for dinner?" Darcie shouts from the kitchen. They all look at me. I shrug and nod my head.
"Yeah." Owen shouts back.
"Okay dokey! We're having Pasta!" Darcie shouts again.
"I'm starving." I say, leaning back into my desk chair. Owen just laughs.
"I don't think you're starving yet Willow." He says, still laughing. Our playful argument goes on for a few more minutes until Darcie calls us down.
"Last one downstairs is paying for ice cream after school tomorrow." Ru says, already running out of the door. Everyone else follows him. It's not fair since I was at the very back of the room. But I shrug and run after them anyway. As I get to the stairs Owen runs faster, so I do the first thing that comes to mind. I slide down the stair rail and run into the kitchen.
"Yes! I didn't lose!" I say, dancing around. Everyone laughs.
"Guess I'm paying for Ice cream tomorrow then." Owen says. I nod. I sit at the table and Owen sits next to me.
"Does anyone not want tomato sauce on their pasta?" Darcie asks.
"No thanks!" I say. Darcie nods and proceeds to put sauce on all the pasta bowls except mine. He hands out the bowls along with cutlery and drinks. I get up from the table.
"It's okay Darcie, I'll finish my pasta, you eat." I say. He nods and sits down. I put some grated cheese and mayonnaise on the pasta and mix it all in. I take my bowl back to my seat and start eating.
"Thanks Darcie." We all chorus. He nods.
"You're all welcome." He replies. After dinner, Darcie decides to wash up as he doesn't want me smashing anymore dishes. We go into the lounge and decide to watch a movie.
"So what movie does everyone want to watch?" Owen asks. Me and April look at each other and smirk.
"Frozen!" We both yell.
"No. No. No. No. Nope Nope Nope." Ru says, shaking his head and obviously disagreeing.
"I'm agreeing with Ru here girls." Owen says trying to be serious.
"But Oweeeeeeeennnn." I say, frowning.
"But Willlllllllooooooowww. How about we watch Tangled instead?" He asks. I nod and so does April. It takes a bit of time to convince Ru but we manage to in the end.