A light on in Chicago

Chapter 4

After two days past, it was finally time for Mary to meet with Patrick and Pete to discuss the recording and music. 

It was precisely 11 am when Mary arrived at the agreed-upon spot. It was a moderate sized house on the outskirts of Chicago with two stories and a cute cottage-like garden. 

"I cannot imagine Pete Wentz living here at all," Mary muttered to her herself as she knocked on the door. 

Two minutes passed and no response, so she knocked again.

"Coming!" A stressed voice spoke which followed the stomp of footsteps. The door opened, "hi!" Greeted a frazzled Patrick. His hair was sticking up in odd places, and he was out of breath.

"Hi, Mr Stu-" Mary was cut off when a girlish giggle cut through the air. "Um, sorry, am I interrupting something?" 

Patrick tilted his heads sideways, trying to get at what Mary was implying. "Oh! No, you're not. My hair is everywhere because I was tickling Pete and, well, that girlish giggle was also Pete."

Mary laughed lightly and followed Patrick into the house.

The walls of the house were painted is an array of colours, the hallway was light cream, different bedrooms had coloured feature walls (some being green and purple), and as Mary walked into what she assumed was the lounge room she noticed one wall painted blue. 

In the centre of the room were two sofas and a coffee table. Next to the coffee table, on the floor was Pete Wentz, giggling his heart out. 

"Petey are you okay there? I'm not even tickling you anymore," asked Patrick, bending down to his friend's level.

Pete giggled again, "yes I am fine, more than fine. Look at these cute little birdies!" Pete tried to show Patrick his phone, but it immediately got pushed away.

"Pete for the last time, your bird memes are not even funny in the slightest!" Said Patrick, throwing his arms into the air in frustration. Patrick composed himself, "Pete,  Miss Plover is here from the school. We were meant to be running over the details today remember?" 

Pete sat up and looked at Mary, sticking out a hand, "good morning Miss Plover!" He greeted, shaking her hand.

"Oh please, call me Mary, only my students call me Miss Plover." She responded. Mary sat down on one of the sofas, opposite Pete and Patrick who occupied the love-seat. "What is your plan?"

"Our plan?" Asked Pete.

"For the song or songs, I mean." Clarified Mary, setting her hands in her lap.

"Oh! Right, that. Well, we have this one song that we have recorded as a demo, it's called Coffee's For Closer. We want to make it have more bang! So I thought of a string section, have the strings come through in certain parts in the song as background noise, then right at the end have a string thing... Like, a soloist and backing strings on their own." Responded Pete, internally kicking himself for sounding like he didn't know what he was talking about.

"So like a soli sort of aspect?" Confirmed Mary.

"Yeah, that thing," laughed Pete.

"Have you got any ideas for the string section?" 

"Um, do we, Patrick?" Hesitated Pete, knowing for a fact that they didn't.

"Nope," responded Patrick, digging Pete into a deep hole. 

"That's a shame." Muttered Mary, she thought they were wasting her time, "can I hear the song? I might have some ideas."

"Sure!" Said Patrick, leading Mary and Pete over to the recording room. 

It was colour coded much like the rest of the house; red. One of the walls were a dark red, contrasting with the various red ornaments around the room. What caught Mary's eye though, was the shelf. On the shelf were multiple little glass statues of instruments. There was a drum kit, two guitars (one Mary assumed to be a bass), a microphone, a couple of brass instruments and a violin. 

From where Mary was standing, the violin looked beautiful. The sunlight caught it perfectly, causing the glass sculpture to practically glow. As Mary was lost in her trance, she couldn't hear Patrick calling out to her that the track was ready, that was until Pete came up to her and yelled in her ear. 

Mary let out a screech, much similar to a velociraptor, and nearly fell over. She eyeballed Pete and gave him a death stare. "You nearly made me fall over." She stated, "and I'm wearing a skirt."

"I'm sure Patrick would not have minded," mumbled Pete, smirking at his furious friend. Sensing the glares from Mary and Patrick, Pete decided to leave. "Well, I have to... Um... go home to feed my dog! He doesn't like me going for that long."

"But Pete, isn't Ashlee home with him?" Asked Patrick, sensing a loophole in Pete's comment.

"Actually, no she isn't. She's with friends today. Boom deflected that comment." With that, Pete walked out of the studio and went presumably to his house. 

Mary walked over to Patrick, "the demo?" She asked.

"Here is it, just put these on," Patrick handed Mary a pair of headphones.

'These looks like the most expensive headphones to ever exist,' she thought to herself, chuckling lightly as she placed them on her head.

Immediately she was hit with a steady drum beat. She paused the song and turned to Patrick, "can I borrow a pencil and paper please?" She asked. 

"Err sure, here it is," Patrick handed Mary the pencil and paper, his hands noticeably shaking. 

Mary smiled softly and thanked him, rewinding and playing the recording again. 

She counted four bars of the drum beat and wrote on her paper, insert string (violin and possible viola) section here. 

Throughout the song, she added little side notes and rhythms, coming to a stop as the song finished. Mary smiled, "you mentioned something about a solo part and a soli?" She asked Patrick. 

"We are thinking of adding it at the end as the band stops playing."

"Interesting. Good idea," Mary glanced at the time 1 pm. "Oh good grief, I agreed to meet with my orchestra in half an hour. How long does it take to train back to my school?"She asked Patrick, standing up.

"It takes a while, let's say around 45 minutes?" 

"Oh gosh, I'll be a bit late by knowing some of  the students so will they, I better get going, bye!"

Kate ran out the door, leaving Patrick with his mouth half agape, about to ask Mary if she wanted a lift instead but she didn't give him a chance. 

A/N

Sorry for the filler chapter... RIP