She's New to Danville | Lumbermaxes x [Shy, F.] Reader

Chapter 8 - Battle of the Bands

You weren't quite sure what to expect when you and the Lumbermax arrived at the Battle of the Bands. It was a lot more crowded than you had originally anticipated, causing fear to settle into your stomach.

"Hey," Melvin gently nudged you in the arm with his elbow, causing you to look up at him. He simply stared at you, finally shifting his gaze to the side, "It'll be okay," he quietly reassured.

You smiled, taking a deep breath and nodding your head in agreement. You were sure everything would be fine. Just that one percent in the back of your brain kept repeating itself—something would go wrong.

"Everyone ready?" Lyle turned to give everyone a once over, pulling out his clipboard, "(Y/N)?" he turned to you, just a hint of worry in his face.

"Yep, I'm ready," you replied, trying to sound more confident than you were feeling.

Lyle gave a small nod, turning on his heels, "Here we go," he hummed, starting his walk to the sign up table.

"It shouldn't be that hard too—" the girl working the sign up table paused her conversation on her phone, "Welcome to Battle of the Bands, what's your name?" she asked in a frantic pace.

"We're the Lumbermax," Max replied, shoving his hands in his pockets and offering a sly smile.

"Welcome to Battle of the Bands," the girl muttered, searching through various belongings on her desk, "Look, tell you what," she uncapped a marker with her teeth and scribbled down the band name on a sign, "Take this and set it up in your practice area," she handed the sign to Lyle, "I'll find you when I figure out where all the wrist bands went," she offered a quick, forced smile, silently moving her finger to count how many members there are.

"Alright," Lyle handed off the clipboard to you as he grabbed the sign, "Let's go set up our stuff!"

"Yeah!" Sean cheered, marching a head of the group with a skip in his step, moving through the maze of small stages and curtains that had been set up for the different groups that were showing up.

You laughed lightly at Sean's excitement, briefly glancing at the clipboard, "We don't really have any instruments to use, do we?" you asked, finding that the list written down was very short and simple.

"Nope, just our voices," Max hummed in reply, stretching out his arms and folding them behind his head, "Still sucks we couldn't get an original song out for this," he tagged on, voice holding a hint of disappointment.

"Sorry about that," Melvin muttered, rubbing his neck and shifting his gaze over to the various bands setting up their equipment.

"Don't worry about it, man," Max gave Melvin a small pat on the shoulder, "Without your help, we wouldn't have any original songs to sing in the first place!"

"Max is right," Lyle chimed in, offering Melvin a small smile, "I certainly can't write as well as you," he grimaced at the memory of several poems he attempted to write for a school project.

"Slowpokes!" Sean teased from in front of their the practice area, practically bouncing up and down on his toes.

"I should have just given him the sign," Lyle muttered to himself.

The four of you quickly approach Sean. Lyle set up the poster, grabbing the clipboard you hand back to him, briefly looking it over and checking off a few things, "So, the last thing we need to do is get those wristbands and practice at least two songs," he tapped his chin with the end of his pen, shooting the group a quick glance, "What song were you guys thinking?"

"How about I Need Your Love," Melvin suggested.

"The Pentatonix cover?" Lyle inquired.

Melvin gave a small nod in reply, "We've practiced that one a few times," he turned to look at you, "I remember you were struggling a bit, though," he noted, "If you wanted to, we could do a different song."