Johnny Baby

❤️9❤️

Nico

    Before we knew it, we were two weeks into practice.
    Our practices took place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Luckily for us, the band teacher is a friend of Megan and her mom so, he didn’t mind letting us stick around after school to use the band room.
    Megan is more often than not an aid for the band teacher so she has a key to the doors and stuff anyways.
    I looked over to our drummer as she groans and lays down on the floor.
    “Megan, how did we decide roles and what song to sing but not our band name?” Danny asks, lightly rubbing her temples in annoyance.
    Ah, right. That’s what’s happening right now.
    For a bunch of kids who don’t know what we’re doing with our lives, we’re pretty put together! Or, we were up till now.
    Our roles as a band were decided the first day, so we were able to get into work really fast. It also only took a couple days to pick a song.
    We had a list filled with songs ranging from rock to pop to indie. Just whatever we could come up with.
    I remember just last Thursday I believe, was the day we finally decided on a song.

    “Okay, so this back-and-forth thing that’s happening isn’t gonna work.” Johnny finally said after probably half an hour of tossing around ideas.
    “We literally have a list and we completely disregarded that within the first like, five minutes of this conversation.” Johnny stated, aggressively picking up the notebook from the floor that contained said list before tossing it behind him.
    “Ugh, fine. You’re right. You’re right.” Megan groaned, bending their knee up and resting their arm on it. Their long black hair brushes over the carpeted floor as they rest their head on their arm in thought.
    We sat around the quiet band room for a couple minutes. We weren’t doing anything but just letting our stressed, frustrated minds rest. The only sound that interrupted us was Danny’s keyboard playing an awful chord when she laid her head down on the keys.
    The sound makes everyone jump, but also triggers a thought in Megan.
    With a snap of their fingers and a faint grin, she hopped up to her feet and spoke.
    “Idea!” She says.
    “Thank god.” I heard Danny quietly mutter as she lifted her head from the keys.
    “As the starter of this band I say that we,” she points a dramatic finger to Johnny who is currently sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor next to Danny’s keyboard. “Let our lead singer choose!”
    Johnny looks up from his spaced out daze and stares at them for a minute.
    “Uhmm...what?” He says, causing me to lightly chuckle.
    “Well, as our singer, it only makes sense that you choose a song that you can sing! Right? If we end up choosing a song that you can’t sing then what’s the point? Besides, I know you of all people would do a good job picking a song that all of us could work with.” She explains, pacing around in a little circle.
    “What makes you say that?” He asks curiously.
    “Well, I may not know every single thing about you, but I know you the most out of the rest and I know you are a very unselfish person who tends to be a bit of a people pleaser.” She says bluntly, lightly pulling back as if waiting for Johnny to blow.
    “Hey!” He says with offence for a minute, making me laugh. He sighs and thinks about it for a minute.
    “Honestly guys, I don’t think that I could be much help. I don’t kn-” He suddenly stops speaking and blinks a couple times.
    We all stare at him expectantly for a minute
    Finally, he grabs his phone from his pocket.
    “Well, I might have an idea.” He says as he opens up his music.
    “Yes! I knew you could do it, Johnny!” They cheered.
    “Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. You haven’t even heard it yet.” He chuckles.
    “Well, yeah, but it’s a start at least!” They exclaimed before plopping down on the floor next to him.
    I shift so I’m sitting more comfortably on the piano bench while Danny walks over from her keyboard and sits down next to Megan.
    He pulls up a song and plops his phone down on the floor between us before playing it.
    From where I’m seated, I can see the title.
    “Eddie, Baby?” I ask, leaning forward to look at him.
    “Yeah. It’s a sort of cheesy love song but it has a fun sound and it definitely will catch the audience’s attention I think since it’s not something I've heard on the radio or heard trending on Tiktok.” He says with a small chuckle, brushing his fingers through his fluffy hair to push it out of his face. “Hopefully, a majority of the people in our school haven’t heard it so it’ll grab their attention. I hope.” He hums, bending up his knee and resting his chin on it.
    The rest of us stay quiet as we listen to it.
    He was right about it being cheesy, but it definitely kept my attention.
    To me, it sounded like a love song that would be sung in a teen romance. It was very sappy and romantic but it had that upbeat sound you’d expect to hear in a teen show.
    I also know for a fact that I had never heard it before.
    When the song ends he looks up and examines everyone’s faces. He seems a little nervous with the way he picks at the hangnails on his skinny fingers
    “I love it!” Megan happily exclaims, her hair bouncing along with her as she sits up straight again. “And you can sing this song, yes?” They asked, raising a thick eyebrow at him.
    “Yes. I have the whole thing memorized.” He chuckles, seemingly embarrassed with that confession.
    “Perfect!” They exclaim once again as they hop up off the floor.  “I think we’ve got our song! What do you guys think?” They asked, lightly bouncing back and forth on their feet.
    “I like it.” Danny said with a small shrug and a smile.
    “Nico?” Megan asked, tilting their head at me.
    I looked down and saw the way Johnny anxiously waited for me to speak.
    “I’m in.” I said with little hesitation.
    Megan squeals in delight and Johnny lets out a sigh of relief.
    “Yes! Awesome! I’ll get to work on finding some sheet music online to make this easier.” Megan said as they jogged over to their backpack and dug out their phone to search.
    “Well, there we go. A song has been picked. And a pretty good one too. Go, Johnny.” I laughed, giving him a quick high-five.