Chapter 11
I looked at the boy who had spoken. He had a dark complexion, piercings along his ears and on his eyebrow and a red bandana over his dark, curly hair. He was sneering at us and swinging what looked like a chain in his hand.
"Raoul." Liam greeted, his hand tensing around me, almost imperceptibly. "And what do we owe you for the pleasure of your fine company?"
The boys surrounding Raoul smirked, pleased to think of themselves as fine company. Perhaps their brains weren't evolved enough to understand sarcasm. Maybe that was a good thing. They looked like trouble.
"Luckily, nothing. I was just curious to come see the newest addition to our little family."
He knew about me? My heart started beating faster and I could feel a bead of sweat forming on my forehead. There was something about Raoul that scared me witless. And what did he mean by 'our little family'? I didn't want to be related to him in any way.
"Won't you introduce us? It's terribly rude to just stand there."
I turned to look at Liam's face and froze. He looked furious. But there was a fake smile plastered across his face and the effort to hold it there must have been tremendous.
"Her name's Lexa." Zach said, putting a hand on Liam, as if holding him in place.
"Nice to meet you." He grinned. I smiled back uneasily. His smile was the smile of a cat before it pounced on a mouse.
"Is that all?" Scarlett asked. I hadn't seen her pull out her knife, but she was spinning it circles, almost lazily. It must make her feel brave.
"No. I also wanted to remind you not to rock the boat. There will be only one successful band from around here. And it won't be yours." Then he turned to look at me one last time. "See you around."
With these mysterious words, he slipped away as quietly as he had come.
As soon as they were out of sight, Liam whirled around, let go of my shoulder and started snapping orders at everyone. He threw the keys of the car at Zach who ran away with Jasper to wherever the car was parked. He told me and Scarlett to go and wait in the shadows of a nearby building. I did as he said, but didn't feel as safe as I'd felt with his arm around me and the rest of the band behind me. Scarlett turned to look at me.
"Don't be afraid. Raoul's just a bully who likes to scare people. He won't hurt you." she promised.
The car pulled up and I was pushed into the front seat. Everyone else got in and we were driving away in a flash.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, my voice sounding a little too high-pitched for my liking.
Jasper gave Zach a look.
"Guys! I feel like I'm in a really bad action flick. Just tell me what's going on." I insisted.
"What do you want to know?" Liam sighed.
"Who is Raoul? And what does he have to do with you guys?"
"Raoul is.... A wannabe gang-leader. He likes to think he owns the place. The girl who he thinks he's in love with is a snobby, spoilt rich kid who thinks she can sing. She has a band. Everyone year, there's a sort of Battle of the Bands. This year, we can qualify. We become competition. And she doesn't like competition."
This was quite a lot to take in.
"So a GANG is threatening you not to take part?"
"Actually you have to get chosen. For that you have to do something to stand out. They want us to lay low."
