Right Timing

Chapter 1

I walked into school on Wednesday morning dragging my bag behind me, absolutely dreading life, and walked to my first period class which was English.

“Urgh”, I grumbled.

I sat down in my assigned seat and threw my bag on the floor. There was a low chatter as my teacher took the attendance, I however had no friends as I was new here. Life here in Oakland California  just isn’t the same as it was in Germany. Here I have no friends, I don't know anyone, and everyone thinks I'm a freak because I'm 'different'. I sat slouched in my seat, looking down at my empty desk, lost in thought, with my green hair dangling in front of my eyes when I all of a sudden hear

“Frank! Pay attention! Just because you are new doesn’t mean you can slack off in here!” the teacher yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Um actually people call me Tre..” I said in rude tone.

~~~~~~~~

Well, long story short, she did NOT like being talked back to…. so I got thrown out of class. That’s right, in the first 10 minutes! I walked down the hallway, my hair still a mess in front of my face, and made my way towards the office where I was supposed to be doing my work since I didn’t want to “Participate in Class”, or whatever that meant.

I walked past the sign that said office and started to walk towards the door to open it, that was until I heard the sound of music coming from another room. I turned away from the door and followed the sound of the instruments down a long hallway until I got to a door. I listened to the music until the sound of the bass guitar brought back an old memory.

-The year was 1986, It was my bands first gig. I was playing my drum kit on a stage with my two best friends, a guitar player and a bass player. In front of us was a huge crowd of people jumping and singing along to us. It was just the three of us, The Lookouts, living our best life. We continued to book gigs for the next two years, but then I had to move.. -

I reached out to open the door until I heard that the music had been replaced with the sound of voices.

“Urgh it’s just not sounding right!!”

I heard someone yell and then the sound of, what I’m guessing to be, a music stand being thrown into the floor.

“Woah man, calm down!”

I heard another voice yell. After standing there and listening for a few minutes I figured out that the people in there were a band but they were looking for a drummer as their used-to-be drummer, John, had left the band for school reasons.

I slowly pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside, listening to it creak and slam shut. The two strangers looked in my direction, a frown on the shorter ones face, the taller one turned and nervously greeted me.

“Oh uh hi, I’m Mike”. He stuck his hand out and I shook it.

“I’m Frank, but everyone calls me Tre”. I said quietly and looked from Mike to the shorter boy in the back.

Mike looked back at the other boy and then back at me.

“That’s Billie, he would introduce himself but he’s in a bad mood”.

Without glancing back at Mike I continued to look at Billies features. He had black fluffy hair, emerald green eyes, and pale-ish skin. He wasn't looking at me anymore but at the floor. He pulled the guitar strap from over his head and set his guitar on the instrument stand. He looked up at me and I realized that I was staring so I looked away and quickly broke the silence.

“I um heard you guys play, you sound really good. Probably better than my old band” I said as I slowly looked back and forth between the two of them.

Billie looked me up and down. “What do you play?" He asked me, slight attitude in his voice.

“Oh, uh, I play the drums”.