Wrong Number (Cake Hoodings)

62 *

{ s i x t y t w o }

Luke, Calum and Michael sat in chairs at the back of the practise hall. They'd pulled four chairs away from all the others that were lined up so they could sit in their own group before they performed. They were last to perform after five other groups. Lacey was yet to show up but they still had time yet so none of the boys were panicking.

The first band came on, one that was from Michael's class and they all recognized one person immediately. "Ashton's in your class?" Calum asked Michael with furrowed eyebrows.

"No? I didn't think he was." Michael replied, watching Ashton tie a bandanna around his head to keep his hair out of his face and pull drumsticks out of his back pocket. He would've known if Ashton was in his class, surely.

"Okay kids, this performance is your final grade." One of the teachers called out whilst setting up the microphone. There was uproar for a few minutes after that until he banged the microphone against his hand and a loud screech followed. "It was only fair we didn't tell you this was your final piece- you could've worked it out though, surely. There isn't long left in school now." The teacher gestured for a girl to take the mic and she timidly walked over after nodding at Ashton.

Two other people came onto the stage and a drum beat opened the start of a song Michael wished he could un-hear because damn that was bad.

"Drums were good, though." Calum seemed to read Michael's mind as he muttered that to Luke. It was quite surprising that Ashton could play an instrument, but why wasn't he in a music class then?

The second band came on, then the third, the fourth and they were all okay, not great but okay. The fifth one came on and Lacey finally showed up, pulling her chair away from Michael and planting herself down next to Luke.

"Late." Luke muttered with a small smile to show her that he wasn't really mad. She glanced at him before looking back at the band playing. They were actually quite good, real competition.

"When do we play?" Lacey asked just as the fifth band went off stage.

The people in it sat back in their seats in the crowd just as Michael and Calum stood up. Luke did too, telling Lacey, "right now."

They all walked to the stage, Lacey pulling out wrap to put around her fingers and palms. She seemed off but Luke didn't have time to question it. They were about to play for about twenty-five people; Luke was too nervous to worry about anything else. 

"Close your eyes and pretend everyone else isn't here, okay?" Calum whispered to him with a small smile before he went off to put on the bass guitar that everybody else had been using. There was only one other band that used two guitars and Luke thought that was a bit stupid because you need rhythm as well as lead.

Luke took deep breathes to try and calm his nerves. He picked up the electric guitar that Michael had left him with and put the strap over his body. Luke made sure it was in tune before plugging the cord into it that was connected to an amp. He was the last one of the four to walk into the stage area.

He sighed as he saw how low the mic was; why did he have to have the height of a giraffe? It took him a few minutes to readjust the stand and he was only getting more nervous as all the eyes in the room watched his every move. 

Luke started off the riff to rejects and hesitantly opened his mouth, closing his eyes and trying to hide behind the mic, "Back at school, they all thought I was an outcast, car crash. A hopeless fool, they said to me. My girlfriend, said I'm messed up, will I ever grow up? But in the end, I'm not gonna..." Luke wasn't watching for people's reactions, he was afraid to, but people were in awe.