Battle of the Bands - Sanders Sides

Chapter One

He threw a shirt over his head, flattening it down onto his chest. Pushing his legs through his favorite pair of ripped black jeans and pounding his feet into his combat boot, Remus took one last look at himself in the mirror. He scratched his upper lips, making sure his slightly overgrown mustache looked okay. Poofing up his wavy curls, the boy walked over to his bed, throwing his backpack loosely over his shoulders.

"Remus, hurry up! Your toast is getting cold!" His mother called out. The boy did as told. With quickly timed steps, he ran down the stairs. He entered the kitchen, seeing his father at the dining room table reading through the local newspaper while his mother was cleaning up the kitchen. "Good morning, sweety!" His mother greeted.

Remus smiled, looking for his breakfast. On the bar area of the family's small kitchen were two plates of toast. Remus took his food, biting into it while he stared down the other plate. "Where's Roman?" He spat out through chewing.

"Did someone ask for a prince?" A high and mighty voice roared out from the stairs. Both of the boy's parents whipped around, bright smiles on their faces. Remus immediately grew discouraged. Roman was the star of the Prince family. Ever since diapers, Roman was the less fussy twin, he got better grades growing up, and now he practically runs their high school.

To say this fact made Remus upset was an understatement. All the twin wanted was to be admired by his parents as much as Roman was. But that was wishful thinking. He wasn't into performing like his brother. He was into music. He had a band and everything, but they had yet to have their big break. But one day they would, and maybe he would get noticed more by his family. Maybe then Roman would get left in the dust as Remus had for so many years.

"Hey, Roman, the mail came early! Three more invitations to colleges!" Their father cheered, giving him a supportive pat on the shoulder as he refilled his coffee.

"Really? Wow, that's so cool!" Roman gushed.

"Anything for me?" Remus mumbled, catching everyone's attention. The father turned red, getting a little embarrassed. The mother simply cleared her throat and turned away.

"It's okay, Remus! I'm sure when they send these invites, they want both Prince's at their school!" Roman assured. The other brother rolled his eyes, not believing his words for a second. "Anyway, do you want a ride to school? We'd have to pick up Patton on the way," Roman offered.

"No...it's fine. I promised I'd meet the others at Janus' house and we'd walk together," Remus said, shooing him away. With that, he put his phone in his pocket and walked to the front door.

"You're such a supportive brother, Roman!" Their mother gushed. "Have a good day, Remus!" She tried to call after him, but he already shut the door. As he walked down the porch, he took a deep breath, lifting up both his middle fingers to the house behind him before heading down the street.

To his luck, it was a fairly nice day. The sun was poking through the cool clouds. Continuing down the street, he ended up in the low down neighborhood of his town. Despite this area of his town being rather scary, it was home to the two nicest people Remus knew.

The high school student walked up to the porch, knocking a secret knock on the old, rotting, wooden railing. Remus backed up, watching the front window of the second floor slip open. A small head with black eye shadow poked through the window as he slithered out the window. He was followed by the actual boy who lived at this house, taking help from his boyfriend to get onto the roof.

These two boys were Virgil Livermore and Janus Viper. They had been Remus' friends for as long as he could remember. It had only been since the beginning of high school that his two friends finally hooked up.

Janus slid down the gutter drain of his unsteady house. He held his arms out while Virgil jumped, catching him in his arms. With his feet on the ground, Remus causally chuckled. "Having a morning make-out session before 8 hours of hell?" He joked. Virgil became flustered at the question while Janus snaked his hand in his.

"I may have snuck out a little earlier than usual to get here," Virgil admitted.

"What of it, anyway? Our parents already fuck, so what's the big deal if we do too?" Janus laughed. The boys continued down the street, cracking dumb jokes. At some point, they arrived at their school just as the bell rang.

They all walked inside, seeing the chaos of students running around to their lockers and classrooms. Janus pecked Virgil on the cheek, ignoring all of the glances over students gave them. "Remember, band room after school," Janus reminded them. The couple said their goodbyes as they walked him to his art class. Remus and Janus didn't mind. It was on the way to their first classes anyway.

Janus stopped at his woodworking class while Remus went to algebra. It wasn't his favorite class, not by a long shot. However, it was the perfect class for the student to lightly drum on his textbook and space out. Remus was constantly drumming on things, it was the part of the curse known as being a drummer.

He had gotten in trouble by tapping on his belongings too many times to count but that never stopped him. Not now, not ever.

Before the student even knew it, the clock was nearing 3:00 pm. All that mattered in the world was the ticking of the plastic clock on the wall. As soon as the bell rang, Remus threw his bag over his shoulder. Bursting out of the door with the rest of his classmates, he scurried down the hall.

Remus arrived at his locker, opening it and placing his entire backpack in it. He didn't want to have to worry about it his bag while playing music with his friends. At the top shelf at his locker, was his two dark green painted drumsticks. He grabbed them, lightly warming up his wrists by drumming against the locker door.

An excited smile fell onto his face. He had been looking forward to this all day. As the crowd cleared out of the hall, Remus hustled to the music room, beating his drumsticks on the sides of his legs, rattling with energy.