A Burning Thing {Avi Kaplan fanfic}

-20-

A/N: I replaced the last author's note with Chapter 19, so don't miss it! :) I also inserted a new Chapter 7

From Korea we moved on to Singapore where we’d be doing one concert every night, so we took advantage of the bit of free time between media and other appearances to do some more writing and recording.

There was one song that we had been working on in Europe that we all really liked, but something had been missing and so we set it aside. On our second day in Singapore, I woke up with the realization that I knew exactly what I wanted it to say.

“Guys, I really want us to finish up this song and get it recorded for the album,” I said, bursting into the rehearsal room with our song notes in hand.

Scott groaned. “Avi, man, I know you like that song but we banged our heads against it for days and it just wasn’t working out.”

“I know, but I think I’ve figured out what it was missing. Also, if you don’t mind, I’d really like to sing the lead.”

“Hey, if Avi thinks he can make it work, I’m all ears.”

“Thanks Mitch. Have a listen.”

I pulled out my guitar and started plucking a single note. As I sang the melody, Kevin joined in with a steady, rhythmic beat, almost like a march, and one by one the others added layers of harmony.

“… and then we’ll know … we’re standing by.”

As the last notes died away, the room was silent for a moment, then suddenly Kirstie threw her arms around my neck.

“Avi, that was beautiful!”

Scott reached over for a fist-bump. “Sorry I doubted you bro … that was incredible.”

I convinced the other four not to say a word about the song to Ellie. I didn’t want her to hear it until we had it down perfectly, and even then I needed it to be at the right moment.

Just then we heard a soft knock. The door opened and Ellie stuck her head in. “Mind if I join you?”

Kevin grinned. “I was afraid you’d chickened out on me!” I smiled at the puzzled looks on the others’ faces, especially as Kevin reached behind a speaker to pick up his cello.

“So guys,” he said pointing towards the trio. “How well do you remember your parts for ‘Radioactive’?”

Kirstie squealed as Ellie brought out her violin. “No way, this is amazing! I can’t wait to do this song again. We've tried it live before but it's just not the same without the violin.”

“Now don’t get too excited,” Ellie cautioned. “If I suck, we never speak of it again. Agreed?”

After a round of solemn pinkie promises, Kevin started us off with the eerie wind effect. I had to admit that our first time through was pretty rough – most of us hadn’t sang the song in a few months – and Ellie was understandably a bit shaky at first, but after running through it a few more times it was more than passable.

“So when do we perform it?” Mitch asked, clapping his hands gleefully.

“Now hold on … Kevin and Avi promised me that we’d let Esther and Ben and everyone have a listen before we decided if it was good enough to do on stage,” Ellie said, looking slightly panicked.

“In that case, let’s give it a few more days of rehearsal, and we’ll play it for them before we leave for Japan. If they approve, maybe we can work it into our set for Australia,” Scott suggested.

“I have one more condition,” Ellie said, raising a finger.

I turned to see her looking at me with a little smirk on her face. “Um, what might that be?” I asked nervously.