Musical Angel

Pretending

It was the next day, after Corey and Nick had talked Nick left wondering what Corey was going to do. When Corey woke up that morning he felt a strange energy he'd never had before, he was genuinely excited. He smirked before getting out of bed and changing, he didn't change into his usual clothes though.

He now had a white short sleeve shirt on with a black denim jacket over it, some black jeans, converse shoes, and didn't wear a hat. Now he had to decide what to do about his hair, he just messed it up a little and smirked once again. His hair had grown longer and he hadn't cut it so it was a bit long but fit his slightly untamed look.

Then he grabbed his backpack and left the house, he walked to school but with this new energy he walked a bit quicker. He got to school sooner then usual and when he walked through the doors of the school his friends saw him. Laney, Kin, and Kon, stared at him in shock and Laney spoke, "Core, what happened to you?"

Corey shrugged, "Did some thinking, realized some stuff, the result is what you see before you."

Kon looked confused, "Dude, what happened to your voice?"

Kin spoke, "Yeah, it sounds deeper."

Corey smirked, "You have no idea how long I changed my voice to sound higher, I have to tell you it's nice not hiding it anymore."

Laney spoke, "Corey did you hit your head, this can't be you."

Corey looked mildly irritated, "I didn't hit my head, I just stopped pretending."

Laney looked like she was about to say something else but she was cut off, "Corey!"

All four of them turned in the direction the shout came from only to find Trina glaring at Corey with fire in her eyes. Kin spoke, "Corey, why is she so mad?"

"Probably something to do with Nick showing up at our house to talk to me."

His band mates were going to say more but Trina had already made her way over and was very close to Corey's face. "Why did Nick come over to talk to you?"

Corey gave her a knowing smile and shrugged, "Reasons, but why do you care?"

Trina's hands twitched like she wanted to strange him, "Like you don't know, and what's with the dorky new look?"

They then heard a voice behind them, "I think he looks cool."

Trina turned around and gasped, "Nick."

Nick walked up to Corey and smiled, "Nice new look."

Corey shrugged, "New to you, but thanks."

Corey smiled and Nick seemed to pause for a second, Trina put herself between Corey and Nick as she giggled at Nick. "You are so right, you must know a lot about fashion."

Nick moved away from Trina slightly before looking at Corey, "See you later Corey."

"Don't bet on it."

Nick walked away and as soon as he was out of earshot Trina glared at her younger sibling, "Stay away from Nick."

"Or what, you'll try to scare me, maybe torture me, you can't scare me Trina, you never have."

Trina looked completely shocked, Corey's band mates were also shocked by what they just heard. They'd never seen Corey this confident nor had he ever spoken to someone like that, let alone Trina. Corey then walked away and the small group was dumbfounded, the entire day seemed to blur together as Corey continued acting strangely.

Whenever someone talked to him he was calm, it gave the sense that he'd known them his entire life. By the end of the day no one knew what to think, theories about what caused this sudden change were already popping up. Theories that he was possessed, had been switched with a robot, or that he was planning something were the most popular theories.

Those were also the most logical, believe it or not, because the theories got wilder from there. Someone said he must be getting mind controlled by some sort of evil entity and it got weirder still. Now everyone in school was trying to figure out what was going on and no one could get a straight answer out of Corey.

Laney, Kin, and Kon had actually been avoiding Corey a bit because they were confused by what was going on. When it was time for band practice they all got there before Corey, they all hoped he'd at least be normal during practice. When Corey finally walked in there was no indication that he had some sort of crazy idea, nothing.

Laney spoke, "So, Core, got any new ideas?"

Corey raised an eyebrow, "I thought you hated my ideas."

"Well right now I'd love one of your crazy ideas."

Kon spoke, "Yeah man, you've been acting weird all day."

Corey looked mildly irritated, "I haven't been acting weird."

Kin spoke, "But you have, people don't just change like this overnight."

Corey glared at them, "Because I didn't change!" The three stared at him in silence and sighed, "You know, it's a lot easier to be what people think you are. They assume you're a happy-go-lucky screw up so that's who you pretend to be, they see an idiot so that's what you go with. If people see a monster that can only do bad things because someone told them that's who you are then you play the role, even if you hate it or it hurts."

At that Corey took a breath to calm down, "Ever since you met me, hell my whole life, I pretended to be someone I'm not. I might be acting weird to you but I just got tired of playing the cards I'm given, I reshuffled the deck and revealed my hand. If you think it's weird then fine, if you decide you hate me now then I won't try to change your minds."

The three were stunned into silence for a minute before Laney spoke, "Corey, we aren't going to hate you."

Kin spoke, "Yeah, it's just going to take a bit to get used to this."

Kon looked happy now, "Like a new video game console!"

Corey couldn't help but laugh at that, "Fair enough."

Laney spoke, "Then I guess we should practice."

"Sure, I just need to grab my guitar from my room." Corey left the garage and the three were a bit confused since he'd never left his guitar anywhere but the basement. In the end they all shrugged and waited for Corey to get back, while they did Corey headed to his room to get his guitar.

After he entered the room his phone went off and he checked to see what it was, someone he followed online had posted. He shrugged and opened it, when he did he was glad he had, he wrote a comment as quickly as he could and sent it. He grabbed his guitar and his phone went off again, he'd gotten a response to his comment so he opened it.

He couldn't help but feel a bit excited when he did and sent a quick reply, he'd wait to tell the band in case it didn't pan out. He quickly grabbed some papers from inside his desk drawer and went to the garage again while making sure to take off the signature. When he entered the garage again he gave each of them what they soon saw was sheet music, now this just got interesting.