The Deal || Luke Hemmings

Favor

    Ok, let's get this straight.

I've always dreamed about being in a band. The idea of it always thrilled me.

But, I've always wanted to be in a band with members that I genuinely got along with.

Which, in my case, is impossible to find right now.

Gathering all my strength to remind myself that there was absolutely no choice, I went around looking for the other nine people who raised their hands...minus Luke, who returned the glare I gave him when he implied that he was going to beat me in this competition. Please, I wouldn't dare lose to that jerk who could only strum a few chords on his guitar, and then declare himself a rockstar.

Luckily, I was able to spot four other classmates who were busy tossing their hair and giggling loudly.

"Hey, can I join this group?" I asked, waving my hand in a friendly motion.

The girl in the middle seemed uninterested, and so the others beside her followed her with the same expression.

"As much as I'd want you to be in our group," the girl, who was filing her nails like any typical ditz, said without showing any concern. "We've already gotten someone else." she pouted, looking at me in fake pity. "I'm sorry. Why don't you join your brother's group instead?"

"Oh, that's all right. Thanks," I muttered in annoyance. I pretended not to hear the last part.

The group of girls left quietly. Unfortunately, their voices were quite the opposite of how they left: they spoke loudly, almost as if they wanted me to hear what they were going to say.

"We've got to reserve that other girl already." one hissed savagely and I almost laughed. That's how I imagined a cockroach would sound like if it could talk. "I don't want her in our group. She's not exactly...you know. We won't be able to get the vote of the people."

Gosh, those girls made it sound like the elections. Why were people suddenly voting? Maybe I missed a part of Mr. Stanley's talk or maybe they were hearing things?

I didn't mind what they said. Nobody really liked them anyway, they just pretended to. What bothered me now was that my only option was to go to Luke's group.

I looked for him, trying not to picture myself punching his nose. Admittedly, he was graced with a nose that looked better than most of classmates' noses that had been surgically done. I pinched my nose, annoyed with the idea of a guy having a nicer nose than me. But when I finally saw him with a couple of other boys, including my brother, my nostrils flared.

I shook my head in irritation.

Oh, the things I do to make my grades high.

I scoffed instead of saying any lame greeting, making the heads of the four boys turn.

"Hey, Cara. What are you doing here?" my brother, looking so startled to see me, asked.

"Don't you see this?" I said, showing him the paper that was so crumpled, one could hardly make out the word that was written on it.

"Are you telling us that you want to join the band?" Luke grinned.

Well thanks for stating the obvious.

"What do you mean I want to? I have to." I sneered.

"But you can't," Luke looked at me like how those other girls looked at me before when I asked to join their band.

"Why not?" I replied with the feeling of frustration and embarrassment.

"Because we already decided on getting the other girl to join our band," he shrugged.