Out of Tune

Chapter Nineteen

Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune—Thomas Fuller

"Have you seen this yet?" Taylor asked. She was partially out of breath, like she'd been sprinting through the school looking for Lennon.

"Seen what?" Lennon shoved her backpack into her locker and retrieved her textbook for Spanish class.

"You're famous."

Lennon rolled her eyes and slammed her locker shut. She turned in the direction towards class, not looking to see if Taylor was following because she knew that she would be. It was the only class that they shared together. "Hardly."

"I'm serious, Lennon," Taylor grabbed Lennon's arm and spun her around. "Look." She thrust her phone into Lennon's hand. "Look at the number of hits on this video. I uploaded it after the Valentine's Dance on Friday. It reached one million views in two days."

"For real?"

"Yes!"

Imagine Reality had performed at the Valentine's Day Dance the previous Friday. It had been their first event non-Quincy's gig and they'd all been thrilled to do it. They had switched up their normal setlist, adding in a few extra covers that would be sure to slow things down and bring out the romantic atmosphere that the school's events committee had been trying to achieve.

It had given them more creative freedom to explore their new sound. As they slowly began to integrate Lennon as a frontman into the group, they'd worked on developing what it meant for them to have two leads. For duets, they selected covers that complemented both her and Spencer's voices but didn't lose the pop-rock edge that the band had begun to develop.

In the original songs, Lennon and Spencer had begun to explore and play around with the music that they were creating. They were still working out the kinks – trying to determine their group's individuality – but what they had already created were songs capable of telling stories and bringing real emotion and experiences to life.

Lennon had been feeling good about the band. Before moving to California, she'd never much seen herself as an ensemble singer. She'd always thought that – if she ever decided to pursue music as a career – she would do it solo. But Lennon found that she loved the camaraderie. Loved feeling supported and backed up on stage.

Sure, it was challenging. They had to make sure that all five of them were in agreement before moving ahead with anything and creatively they sometimes differed but being able to experience moments like these together – when they were riding a high – was the most wondrous thing in the world.

"Haven't you noticed people talking about you in the halls?" Taylor asked. "Imagine Reality is literally all that everyone has been talking about this morning. I heard three freshmen girls discussing the 'dreamy colour of Spencer's eyes' when I walked in this morning and there was another group talking about Charlie and how he has this 'quiet and tortured musician soul and isn't that just the hottest thing ever' or something."

Lennon rolled her eyes. "On Friday morning, none of the people here even cared about who we were and now they want to date the guys. I bet the four of them are just rolling in the attention. Though, for the record, I haven't noticed anything."

"Two sophomore boys have been following us since we left your locker."

"What?"

Lennon glanced over her shoulder and, sure enough, two boys ducked behind a garbage can as if hoping that she wouldn't see them. She turned to face forward again, walking again towards her class as a surreal feeling began to pass over her.