Through Her Lives

Morgandy

Morgandy's life had started to resemble something of a normal teenagers. Normal being used loosely as she was wearing all black, a gym bag slung over her shoulder as she crouched and ran across the oval. Trying to blend into the darkness, she hadn't been caught yet and intended not to be.

Running through the forest that surrounded the school, she relied on the senses she had long since developed from running through dark places. She ran out and jumped into the car idling on the side of the road leading to London. It was her old Friday night ritual before she came to this school.

"Never late and never early, I don't know why that annoys me so much." Blonde haired, blue eyed Jack said looking at Morgandy with a smile. She hit him playfully in the head.

"Because you're always late. Now, shut up and drive old man." Morgandy taunted, laughing. The other three people in the car joined into the conversation, their laughs echo down the empty road and through the surrounding forest as they drove off. Morgandy had abandoned the band when she was sent to Asbury Brymore Grammar but recently they'd grouped back together and restarted playing gigs. 

Walking into the Steaming Rock Morgandy made a beeline to the women's toilets, eager to get out of her escape clothes. Pushing open the door, she looked at the girls hastily reapplying lipsticks, blushes and eyeliners. Smacking their lips together, rearranging their bras and pulling at their dresses in unison. Rolling her eyes, she walked into a cubical and started undressing. Having not had much time to get ready back at school she had decided to go with a simple outfit for tonight. A sequin black dress with long arms with a chain covered low back. It showed off the tattoo on her back, which was distinctly feminine clashing with Morgandy's bad girl appearance. It was delicate and detailed and caught the eye of most people. She shoved on spiked silver stilettoes and hung a long silver cross over her torso as she slung the sports bag back over her shoulder. Her smokey eyes highlighted with silver had managed to stay intact on the drive there.

She shoved past the gathering crowd near the stage, dumping her bag out of sight. Grabbing her red electric guitar she started tuning as the host introduced their band.

"Give it up for The Slave Riders!" A roar went through the pub as they took their positions on stage, Morgandy to the right of the lead singer, Jack. He looked across at her now and smiled. She smiled quickly back before facing forward waiting for the count in from their drummer.

The music scene in London was quite diverse. The crowds knew what they liked though and the crowd at the Steaming Rock was different to most pubs she'd played in with the boys. It had a mix of everyone, the upper class business men that payed no attention to the band up on the stage. There were the usual drunks moshing in front of the stage, trying to grab at any of the players if they could. It also included the romantic couples and middle ages people sitting down to have a counter meal. Then the only group of stereotypes left were the ones that sat at the counter, nursing their drinks. Morgandy didn't feel like dwelling on what any of the groups would think of their music. Instead she launched straight into it.

Careful not to overtake the other members, listening for the right queues and hitting the right notes. She didn't put any emotion into it, there was no need, the others did that for her. Bomber on the drums banging and clattering having the time of his life, Joe on keyboard, hands dancing so quickly they were almost invisible and then Jake on vocals, singing and screaming, dancing and swaying, pouring words into the world full of emotion and truth. Song after song they played with intensity.

Their set came to a finish and she watched as most of the stereotypical groups clapped, nodding their heads. That seemed to be their offical thumbs up.  Walking down the steps of the stage, she walked over to the counter, batting her eyes at the bartender as he gave her a free beer, no ID checked.

Joe, the quiet one of the group had followed her and was looking at her with a frown. She smiled at him and winked.

"Did well up there tonight Joe boy, they seemed to like the music." Joe stood there looking at her for a moment longer and then nodded, smiling slightly before shuffling away. Maybe he'd had a tough night, Morgandy thought. After all they had played the most difficult challenging set so far and it was difficult to get her in on band practices.

 Morgandy sighed. Knowing it was nearly time to head back to the school, she looked at her beer and decided to skull it. Putting the glass on the counter and stifling a burp, she smiled at the bartender to show her appreciation, he didn't smile back but instead watched her closely.

Turning around, her eyes searched the room for any sign of the group, any sign of Jack. She swayed slightly, vision blurring and started to feel like she was loosing sensation. The room warped as she desperately tried to find them, something was wrong. Growing fainter she had a feeling of surrealism wash over her as she fell heavily to the ground, her mind and thoughts a mush. She could hear far away voices of people yelling, felt hands pulling her up as she kept trying to catch glimpses of the boys, even Joe would do.

She didn't have the strength to fight as she was dragged upstairs and laid on a bed that smelt of washing powder.