Not Your Typical Teenager

Chapter One: Meet the Band

"Hey, Jess, you ready for our show tonight?" Neal,  the male singer and my oldest "brother" asked me. We weren't really related, but we grew up with each other along with, Joel and Joel's twin Moni. They "adopted" me so now we are all one big family, I guess, we go everywhere together and act like typical  siblings. 

I rolled my eyes, "Of course I am ready," I lied. 

Lying to Neal was pointless, we're siblings he could always tell what I was really feeling. "Want to try that again, Jessie?" 

"Look I am a little bit nervous, okay? But I'll get over it, besides we have a show to put on tonight, so there is no turning back now. And please never call me Jessie, ever." 

 "Aw look at my little sister being all brave. Big brother is so proud of you," he said faking crying and wiping fake tears from his eyes. 

I gently gave his shoulder a soft push, "Would you shut up, you aren't helping me out here." 

Our band's helper a.k.a., Moni, came into our band's living room to tell us that we had five minutes left. 

"Alright everybody," I was trying to gather the attention from all 10 teenagers in our band and was failing. 

I looked over at Neal and he just shrugged. I gave him a slight nod towards the rest of our band and he took the hint. 

"Hey everybody," nothing. "Um hey everybody 5 minutes," as if they were deaf. "YO!"  4 of them looked at us then continued chatting. 

I walked across the room and grabbed one of our extra microphones, plugged it in, turned the volume to max, then glanced at Neal. He raised his hands to his ears then nodded, my sign to do it. I threw the mic to the ground making my band scream and jump. I got a few harsh glares from people, mainly the guys, but I didn't care. 

"Thank you," I mumbled. "Alright do your last minute touches and then lets go get this show on the road. We have," I glanced at my watch, "about 3 minutes 'til it's time."

Everybody stood up and scrambled around the room, doing make-up checks, voice checks, outfit checks, etc. Our electronic guy, Timothy, (who was in charge of the sound system, lighting, the screen behind us, stuff like that)walked over to me. 

"I checked the audience size tonight," he said nervously, "we've got a big bunch. But as Moni always says, 'practice like you've never won and preform like you've never lost'. You got this, Jess."

I smiled, "Thanks Tim. Don't you worry though either, you'll do fine. We've checked the mics, lights, amps, and your computer, way more than twice, there is nothing wrong."

"Thanks, Jessie."

"Don't call me that," I growled. 

Tim laughed and walked over to join the rest of the band at our large round table. Before every concert we pray, so that is what they were waiting for. 

I checked my watch, "About a minute left."

"Who cares," our keyboard player, Marie said. "We are praying, we can, and will take as long as we need. There is no stopping us."

I laughed then held out my hands, everyone got the message then joined hands. I closed my eyes and dipped my head then began the prayer. It went counter clockwise around the table until it got to Joel who closed the prayer that was followed by an "Amen" from the whole band. 

"Lets go kill that stage tonight!" Our bass player, Kayla, yelled. 

We ran out of our room just as Moni was opening the door. He smiled then held it open for us as we ran around him. 

"Stay here," Tim whispered as soon as we got out. 

He needed to get to his area before we got to our stage. And he knew that we loved a grand entrance, he was great at giving our band that. It seemed like the audience was his puppets, but I guess we all are when we are pumped to go see a band we love in concert. 

About 2 minutes later we hear Timothy on the sound system. "Ya'll are a weak audience, you traveled all this way just so you could give them a 'wooh'," Tim weakly mocked the audience making them laugh. "Nah, I don't think so. Lets here it one last time for Against The Flow!" 

The crowd was now screeching. I nodded at my band then ran to the stage with them hot on my trail. When I got out there I saw Tim giving the crowd a thumbs up while covering an ear. 

I turned on my mic that was wrapped around my ear. "Wow you actually got Tim to give you a thumbs up, usually it is another finger."

I was really just stalling so Tim could get back up into his sound booth, but they didn't know that so why not have a little fun with them? When Tim gave me the signal my band started their first song. 

We are a new beginning band so we didn't have more than 7 songs made, meaning we only had 7 songs to play at the concert. When we were finished we went to a table in the main entrance to sign autographs for the fans. That didn't take to long, there weren't that many people there, unlike how Tim made it seem. 

"Great job, Jessica," Logan, my bands acoustic guitar player, said after all the fans had cleared out. 

"Thanks, Logan, you did really good tonight too. We should give you some more solos in some of our songs," I smiled.

"Thanks, I would really like that."

"Well then the next piece that we write I will find a way to put you in it."

"Thanks again," then he walked off.

1 HOUR LATER:

It is now a little after 10:00 pm and I am getting ready for bed after a long day when I get a text from our band's group chat.

Neal: Hey  do you guys have any plans tomorrow? I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?

Marie: Um I can't I am leaving town tomorrow night to go meet up with some of my family.

Neal: Oh yeah I forgot. Who else can't go?

Jamie (Band's saxophone player): Nope sorry, can't tomorrow.

Kayla: Me neither. 

Allison (Plays keyboard, acoustic guitar, and sings sometimes, she does it all): Maybe next time.

Neal: Can Tim, Rachel (band's trumpet player and sometimes acoustic guitar), Joel, Moni, Logan, and Jessica make it? 

Tim: Sorry bro, maybe next time.

Logan: I'm in.

Rachel: Yas lets do this.

Joel: I'll go.

Moni: Sure why not? I'm in totally. Is our lil'  girl, Jessica gonna go? 

Me: Not sure that I can make it. What time?

Neal: I was thinking around maybe 11ish if that works with everyone. We could meet at  the river, maybe go to my house and watch some movies, stuff like that which we haven't done in a while.

Me:  I  can't go right away, because I have to babysit. But I will show up a little bit later, maybe around 12:30ish. I promise. 

Neal: Alright just as long as you show up, and are in one piece I don't care. :)

Me: I will no need to worry about me. I will show up before 1:00 and will be in one piece. 

If only I knew. I have never been so wrong in my lifetime.