Being Brad's Sister

8. Arguments and explanations

Emma's pov

It is my performance soon and truth be told even though loads of people have said that we sound good together and everything, I am starting to panic. This is not good. If I panic I mess up, if I mess up I loose grade, if I lose grades then my grades won't be as high. Basically I am freaking out too much.

Brad is busy today running errands for mum, he has to give some cook books back to my Aunt and get something else off her which means he can't help me so I have called Connor to come and help me. I rang him around half an hour ago so he should be here soon. He kept telling me he will be quicker but he has to do something for his brother or something I don't know but he should be here soon so I can have someone help me with this stupid piece of music and having to perform it. 

I have told mum that Connor is coming over to practice and to help me so she told me she will send him down to the basement when he arrives. I have been trying to practice for the past hour but I am panicking so much I am messing out then I am stressing so I am not sitting anywhere near my guitar at the moment so I can calm down and pull myself together before I die of a panic attack or something or my guitar dies by getting thrown to the ground. Which I would never do because I adore my guitar but you never know when times are tough and a girl is stressed.

"Hey Miss Stress what is up with you now?" Connor jokes as he comes down the stairs. I get up and run into his arms tucking my head as far into my chest as I can get it. "Hey, it is okay I was only joking. Come on calm down. You'll be fine Emma seriously stop stressing. Let's quickly run through it, I'll see where you're messing up and I can help you to get it right. Just calm down, take a deep breath and stop stressing because that isn't helping."

"I know but if I mess this up then."

"Then we will re-record it until you are happy with the performance, you know miss will let you so stop stressing. Come one let's see where you are going wrong." I lift my head and nod it slightly as I come out of his warm embrace. I grab my guitar and sit down. Connor counts me in and I start to strum the guitar. I take a deep breath and start to sing. I focus one hundred and ten percent on playing and sing; I block out the world around me as the music takes me over. I suddenly strum a wrong chord and stop as I groan again. 

"SEE!" I say with a slightly raised tonne of voice. I look at Connor's face and instantly feel bad. "Sorry."

"It is literally a case of worries. Without singing just strum the chords." I do as he says but this time I strum a wrong chord straight away instead of nearly at the end of the song like I have been doing previously. I groan and look at Connor. He gets up and grabs a normal guitar instead of his bass. "We'll play it together okay?" I nod and we start to play through the chords together, no singing just simply playing the chords. "Again." Connor says as we play the last chord. We continue playing the chords from the top without stopping. I don't mess up at all, it must be me. Maybe I can't play on my own. "Again." Connor instructs as we play the last chord. He says the one more time before is stop. 

"I don't think I can play on my own, when you played with me I got it." 

"I stopped playing after the second time Emma. It was all you. It was in your head that's all it is. I do it sometimes; this is what I was taught to do. Now try on your own." I do and play all the chords perfectly. 

"Thank you so much Connor!" I cheer hugging him over my guitar. 

"No problem." He swaps his guitar for the bass guitar he usually plays and sits back down opposite me. "Let's play with me on bass and see if you are healed." He laughs. I nod and we play together, we don't need the book anymore because we have practiced so much that we know it all off by heart. We finish and stop. "Get now let’s add the lyrics into it and you see if you are alright." I nod and we play again. We sing our own lyrics and Connor sings some of Brad's lyrics when he isn't singing his own lyrics. We finish and I smile widely at the boy sitting opposite me.