Natural Disaster

Chapter 57

The group of them had taken the following day to throw together arrangements for covers, looking into new material instead of simply repeating Telephone. Launa listened intently, but remained at the edges of their circle, as they tossed ideas between them, eventually cementing twists into the songs and running through them until they were ironed into perfection.

There was one in particular that she found herself fascinated by, even though they seemed to be struggling with it. It started off with Kevin and Mitch, gradually adding in Kirstie, then Scott, and Avi last. She knew she’d heard the original, but she couldn’t quite place the title of it. “What do you think, Red?” Kirstie asked, turning around to flop over the back of the ugly couch, startling her.

"Uh," Launa started, glancing around for Esther, who was nowhere to be seen, "What do you mean?"

The other woman shrugged, ignoring the boys talking around her backside. “I just wanna know what you think,” she said with a grin.

She chewed her lip, replaying the song in her head. “I really like the layering effect you guys have in that,” she finally said, “It sounds really good!”

Satisified with that answer, Kirstie chirped her thanks before turning and plopping back into her seat between Scott and Mitch. They discussed it for awhile longer before finally deciding that, no, they’ll work on it later. “Let’s just take these four out and see how it goes,” Scott said, tapping his pen against the paper with their tiny list.

Later, Launa snuck a peek at the paper to catch the titles of the familiar songs. Telephone, E.T., Video, and We Are Young. ‘Video’? She wondered about it for a little while before shrugging and moving on. Eh. I’ll hear it, tomorrow, when they go out.

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The music had become a near constant since they’d started singing as a group, again. Since meeting them, Launa had quickly noticed that Mitch and Scott were almost always singing something, but since rejoining with Kirstie and Kevin, it had become so much worse. Not that it was a bad thing- until both Mitch and Kirstie began to demonstrate the whistle notes.

Esther stood beside her as they made dinner, that night, sighing quietly at the noises coming from the higher-pitched individuals. “You guys sound like baby dinosaurs,” she teased, sending them into a fit of giggles.

"Why, thank you, Cheeseball," Mitch gave her a flourishing bow.

"That wasn’t really a compliment."

"I’m taking it as a compliment, shush."

Relative quiet settled over the group, and Launa began to zone out as she stirred at the contents of the pot, waiting for it to heat to a healthy level until- dear Lord, what the fuck is that noise?! Some strange, buzzing multi-tone sound zapped through the kitchen, and she whipped her head around to find them grinning at Avi and how the hell is he making that noise and make him stop.

She turned back around, cringing hard as the sound rattled her brain, making it feel like it was about to dribble out of her ears. Oh, please make him stop. Turning to look over her shoulder as he stopped, Launa felt terrible for hearing it differently than they did, apparently, judging by the wide grins on their faces and the proud one on his. Just so long as he doesn’t do that again while so close to me, it shouldn’t be a problem.

We’re so not telling him that’s a bad noise. She couldn’t bring herself to kill his almost childlike smile. Nope, we’re keeping that locked away.

"You okay?" Esther murmured, elbowing her gently in the side, "You look constipated." Launa nodded, offering her a smile even though her skull felt like it was going to split open. There was a bit of a pause as the chatter continued. "I know- it’s a weird noise, isn’t it? Be glad you weren’t there when he first figured out how to do it." She couldn’t help but snort at the mental image, a little suprised to find the older woman laughing quietly with her.