UltraViolet

Chapter 2

The whole 1 hour drive home from Heathrow airport I filled the car with stories from my summer. The summer that had been the best of my 16 years on earth. Of course, I skipped out the part where Aunt Susie let me try alcohol for the first time and my 21 year old cousin let me have a puff of a joint. I can't say I overly enjoyed it but I'd made myself a promise to have a summer of firsts and that, was a first.

Once we were off the motorway, following the street signs for Guildford, excitement bubbled in my stomach. Although being back meant the end of a glorious 6 weeks away, I really had missed home and for once the thought of school starting up again didn't make me feel like drowning myself in the lake by our house.

When we pulled into the driveway I was instantly met with the mad clattering and thumping of music coming from the room above the garage.

It had been taken over by my older brother and his best friends two years ago when they decided they wanted to form a band. Calling themselves The Electric Youth, it now served as their practise room and god did we know it.

It came after my dad finally relented and bought my brother Jacob a guitar for Christmas. Oh how he quickly realised his mistake...

On more than one occasion I screamed to Jacob, 'if you play those same three damn notes one more time I'll ram that guitar down your throat'. It really did bring out the brother sisterly love we have for each other.

Thankfully, for both my sanity and his wellbeing, after a bit more practise he actually got the hang of it.

I'll admit, the first year after the bands creation their "music" was like torture to listen to, but they actually sounded pretty good nowadays. I no longer walked around the house with earplugs in to drown out the noise, I actually enjoyed their music.

Since they started gigging they'd become quite well known in our town and they were practically gods at our school, much to my annoyance. I was invisible to most until they wanted help getting the boys to go to a party, tickets to one of their gigs or one of their phone numbers. Then I suddenly became Violet, not Jacob's little sister. I would probably resent them if I didn't love them so much. Jacob was not only my brother but my best friend and I'd class the rest of the boys as friends too, well two out of the three anyway.

'I've missed this.' I smiled when I eventually came back to present day.

'I haven't.' Dad grumbled as he turned off the car engine. 'They've been making a right racket the whole summer. I'm surprised you couldn't hear them in Nashville.'

I chuckled.
'I think I'll go up there and surprise them.'

'Ok sweetie. I'll take your bags in.'

I attempted to exit the car quietly although I don't know why I bothered, all sound was being drowned out by the clashing of drums and thumping bass. I thundered up the stairs in the garage two at a time and opened the sacred "practise room" door.

As the door was to the side and they were facing towards the window they didn't even notice my arrival. Instead of interrupting them I leant on the doorframe and watched on with a smile on my face.

They really were quite good and I loved the song, Times like this by The Foo Fighters, that they were currently playing. It must've been one that they'd learnt over the summer as I was sure I'd never heard them play it before. When the song was over and they started whooping and hollering at each other I decided my make my presence known.

'Why has it only just occurred to me to secretly record your practises? If I sold copies to your fan girls I'd make a killing.'

In unison all four boys turned around and I watched as grins broke out on their faces.