Battle of the Bands

Thunder, lightning, very, very frightening!

BROCK’S POV

“You have got to be kidding me!” We heard Taylah’s voice coming from upstairs and a lot of bumps and bangs.

“What the hell is wrong with this place?” Georgia yelled, followed by a little squeal. We all jumped to our feet and ran upstairs to find them standing in their room with water pouring out of the roof around them.

“What the hell happened?” I asked, looking around.

“We got hot so we turned the sprinklers on,” Maeve replied sarcastically. “Are you going to just stand there or actually help?”

We managed to rescue their bags and belongings, dragging them out onto the landing, but the beds and mattresses were a lost cause.

“Where are we supposed to sleep,” Georgia asked, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

“Well if we share and you guys can squeeze into one bed, then I’m sure we can make it work,” I suggested.

The girls could indeed all fit into one bed together. They took the bottom bed of the bunk, Tyrone stayed on the top bunk, Mitchel and Christian shared one of the doubles, and Luke and I shared the other. Everyone was happy.

“Could they have rented a bigger shithole?” Taylah sighed when we were all lying in the dark in our new arrangement.

“It could be worse,” Mitchel’s voice came from across the room. “We could be sleeping outside.” Our joined laughter was the last sound in the room before we all eventually drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, the room was half empty. Only Mitchel and Tyrone were still asleep, the others having probably gone downstairs. I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs to find them cooking bacon and eggs on the electric frying pan.

“Morning Sleeping Beauty,” Georgia greeted me, handing me a plate.

“Nice to see the weather’s improved,” I said sarcastically, looking out at the rain and dismal grey sky. “Guess it’s a day in today.”

“Let’s watch movies,” Maeve suggested excitedly. “We brought our hardrive with like a bajillion on it.”

“No we’re not watching a chick flick!” Christian insisted that night after hours of watching movies.

“We just watched one you boys wanted,” Taylah pointed out. “Now, it’s our turn to pick.”

“Come on, you boys will love this one!” Georgia said, holding up one called ‘She’s the Man’. “It’s hilarious.”

It turned out to be one of the funniest movies I’d seen in a really long time, even if it was a chick flick. Plus Amanda Bynes is kind of hot. We were just getting to the dramatic big soccer scene at the end when the TV screen went black. Then so did the room. Power’s out. Fantastic.

“Shit guys!” Georgia squealed, followed by a thud. “Jesus freaking ow!”

“Hang on guys there’s a torch here – ah!” the room was lit by a beam of light sweeping over us all. “I think we should all stick to one room until the power comes back.”

“Can we make it the bedroom?” Taylah yawned. “Because if I’m going to be stuck somewhere, it’s going to be somewhere I can sleep.”

We then somehow managed to manoeuvre up the stairs by passing the torch and holding onto each other’s arms to not fall back down and break any bones. We managed it somehow though. I’d brought up some candles and matches that we placed them all around the room to light up the space as much as possible.

“I am so not sleeping next to the window,” Maeve said simply, standing in the middle of the room staring at their bed under the window with her arms crossed. We all looked at her, confused. “I have a weird thing with windows and storms and you cannot pay me enough to sleep there.”

“Dude, now I don’t want to either,” Georgia looked suspiciously at the window like it might jump out and bite her. “But I’m not sleeping near the door either.”

“Are you serious?” Maeve asked her like she was crazy. “I want a quick escape route!”

“Then just swap,” I suggested.

“Noooo,” Taylah pouted, pulling up her covers. “I like this bed.”

“Guuuuuuuuuys,” Maeve whined, stamping her foot. “

“Right, this is how it’s going to work,” Luke put their arguing to a stop. “Maeve, that bed there. Georgia that one there. Taylah stay there.” The girls did as he said.

“Tyrone and Brock, can you bring in one of the singles from next door,” we nodded and pulled it back through to the next room in time to hear him continue. “Brock can have a single because he’s oldest, and Tyrone can have a single because he kicks like a seizure patient. We’ll just share with the girls.”

“Damn girl, I love seeing you take charge like that,” Tyrone said flirtatiously, winking at him. Luke just laughed and sat on the edge of the bed he was sharing with Maeve.  She turned around so she was lying on her stomach with her legs up in the air, facing the middle of the room.

We all adopted similar positions so we were in as good of a circle as we were going to get. I was sitting up against the wall on my mattress on the floor.

“New game I just made up,” Christian announced. “One person says a fact about themselves, then the next person has to say a fact that relates somehow and we go around the circle.”

“I’ll start,” Mitchel announced. “Okay ummm… I live in Cairns.”

“Okay well,” Taylah said thoughtfully. “I once cut myself on a tomato soup can. It relates!” she said defensively.

“I have a horrible fear of papercuts,” Maeve said with a shudder. “Don’t laugh, it’s traumatic.” She pouted and Luke patted her shoulder with a chuckle.

“When I was ten I had a paper route,” Luke said, looking to me.

“I have ten toes,” I grinned and they rolled their eyes.

“Once I broke my toe,” Georgia said. “I stubbed it on a pot plant.”

“When I was six I broke my mum’s favourite vase and blamed it on my dog,” Christian said with a cheeky smile.

“I’ve had six girlfriends in my life,” Tyrone finished triumphantly. We were all about to say something to him when a bang of thunder hit, the window lit up with lightning and the girls squealed and dove under the covers.

“This is going to be a long night.”