Algid (#TronnorAU)

Chapter 48: Ease

If you ever go to Chicago, there's a high chance you'll hear of a place named Lincoln Hall.

The term "concert hall" probably brings up a huge audience to your head, at least thousands of seats and several floors from which anyone can stand and watch the band play on stage. Well, that is more or less what Lincoln Hall is. Only smaller. However, the term concert hall still applies to it, and being one of Chicago's most famous, it's no strange thing that the famous band Broods chose it to hold the band contest they were organizing on that Sunday night.

This was the first time Lilly was in Chicago. Sure, she had been Illinois before with her parents, but it had been mostly to visit relatives on the suburbs. She had lived in Canada most of her life, so it wasn't strange there was still a large lot of the United States she still hadn't visited, let alone know of. She still managed to ace almost every geography test that Mr. Graceffa gave them in class regardless, putting most of her classmates, who had lived in the States most of their lives, to shame. Especially to both Joe and Caspar, who no matter how hard they tried, still managed to fail every single one of those tests.

Still, Lilly was amazed by how big and noisy the city was. It wasn't as busy as New York or as chaotic as Los Angeles, but it still held its spot amongst the most populated cities in the entire country for a reason. Too bad she wasn't there for touring around.

-"... The drums! Who has the drums!? Oh, wait, they're in my van... WAIT WHY ARE THEY IN MY VAN!? SOMEBODY GO GET THEM! YES, SUGG, GO! WAIT, DON'T GO YET, YOU NEED MY KEYS! And where the hell is Caspar!? He needs to tune in his bass YESTERDAY...! AND WHERE THE HELL IS TROYE...!?"

-"Hey, hey, hey! Come on, Will, chill out!"—Lilly intervened, trying to calm down the exasperated band manager—"Everything is going to turn out fine! We still have a couple more hours to prepare! And look, nobody is even here yet! We're one of the first bands to get to the venue!"

Lilly was correct, of course. Right now, she and The Brits had made their arrival at Lincoln Hall, being the fourth band to get there for the contest. Some of the other bands were already backstage, and up front in the audience seats were those that had come with them, but not enough people to be called a proper public. Will was, of course, tearing off his own hair trying to get the band to pull it together, while Lilly helped him with some of the luggage. Both Caspar and Oli weren't anywhere to be seen, since Caspar said he needed to go to the bathroom because he had been holding it in all the way from Yule and Oli had simply up and vanished. Joe was currently walking away from them, waving his arms like a madman holding the car keys Will had just given him, yelling something along the lines of "Go get the drums! No, do not get the drums! But go and get them! Argh! Make up your bloody mind!", from what Lilly could hear, but whatever that was, it was completely irrelevant at the time.

Also, they hadn't heard of Troye or Connor for a couple of hours now, and that was starting to worry Lilly as well.

However, when she had decided to come along and help with the band, she had promised Arden, who wouldn't be able to come with them, that she'd do her best to help Will get it together whenever he was about to lose it, much like right now. So there wasn't any time for her to lose it as well.

-"Don't sweat it so much, alright? I promised Arden I wouldn't let you flip out... Besides we still have plenty of time! There isn't the need to freak out yet!"

Will took in a deep breath and exhaled, closing his eyes shut as he did so. He did this whenever he was overly stressed and he realized he needed to chill out a bit. Lilly shook her head and smirked at the sight.

-"You're right, Lilly, you're right..."—he said, shaking his head with his eyes still closed—"I'm calm! I'm calm, still calm... Just... gotta go check on the guys, and make sure we're signed in, and bring the rest of the instruments, and somehow manage to find Troye in the middle of this wretched city—"