better than me - minishaw

back in black

harry.

The first few days of school were a blur to Harry, they always were. It's always so strange to go back to school after weeks upon weeks of waking up at 5 pm and doing nothing. Classes were are boring as usual, he was getting through them by doing anything but pay attention.

He was now writing all of his notes in morse code because it's always fun to fuck with teacher's heads, right? The only reason he could read it fluently was that he had spent his entire summer playing with his siblings in his backyard when it was dark, using flashlights to send messages.

He was actually being more social now which was a great bonus. He had been only friends Vik and the Cals before but their friend group was expanding. Due to the band, Harry was getting to know Stephen (and by association, Will) who already were friends with the Cals.

Harry still didn't see much of James and Alex outside of practice because they were an entire year below him; therefore, they were little kids he would not mess with (although he was actually their age, he had just skipped a year). They were also apparently were friends of Will but he wasn't quite sure.

And that only left Simon Minter, someone who was a very confusing case.

Simon had his dumb jock friend group but he was friends with the Cals for some very confusing reason. He was in the same band as Harry yet he continued to ignore him, he didn't acknowledge his existence. Well, he didn't acknowledge anyone's existence when he was lost in his world playing the drums but that was beyond the point.

Every day Harry realised the more of an enigma that Simon Minter was, and he was determined to get answers.

.•*

On Thursday, Stephen and Harry were in the music room, talking about football when Alex barged into the room, yelling.

"Oi Phil, we caught one!" Alex said and pointed to the door, where James appeared, dragging a boy by the legs.

It was such a startling entrance that even Simon, who was being an antisocial fuck, looked up from his corner.

"Alex, what are you doing?" Phil asked, extremely confused by the turn of events.

"Well, you said you wanted more members, right? James has been teaching George how to play bass since June, which means he's perfect for the band! He might've refused at first but we got him now!"

"Oh, he's Alex's girlfriend if you were wondering," James added, which earned him a smack from Alex on the head and a kick from George who was trying to break free from his grasp. Phil shot James a look and he let go of the struggling boy.

"Uh, hey," George said, getting up from the floor and dusting himself off. Harry realised that he was wearing sunglasses indoors but it was nothing compared to all of the quirks Alex had. Alex was now sitting on the windowsill and Harry concluded that he was more like a cat than a human.

Phil quickly handed George a bass and told him to play anything. It turned out that he was quite good at it and Phil was absolutely ecstatic. "So, guys, we finally have a full band, this is perfect! Since we now have a bassist, James is now rhythm and vocals. Harry, you're lead now."

Phil then told them to start learning Back In Black by AC/DC and then went around helping everyone. Since the song didn't have any keyboard in it, Stephen joined Alex and they were just playing cards in a corner. Harry had no idea why Alex had stuck around if he wasn't going to play anything but it wasn't as if he was bothered by his presence, in fact, the kid made it better by always making everyone laugh.

Every once in a while, the two would get bored and would try to do their best at annoying the rest. The would play dumb games, like sticking as many post-its to James' back without him realising or throwing paper airplanes at Phil. At one point, after they had begun a contest of trying to stick as many thumbtacks in their fingers as possible, Phil got fed up and told Alex to run in circles around the classroom so he could lose all of the extra energy he had.

Harry plugged in headphones into the amp so he wouldn't annoy the rest and began practising. He didn't even manage to do it for ten minutes because he kept getting distracted by Simon. He was probably the most dedicated and talented out of them all and it made Harry crazy because he barely talked. Even though everyone was extremely nice and band practice was definitely a safe space, Simon didn't interact very much with the rest, he just stayed in his corner, an abstract wall built around him.

The only time anyone saw what how truly was, when he dropped his facade, was when he was playing. He disconnected himself from everything surrounding him, not caring about what anyone else thought only in those rare moments.

Every day Harry had more questions about Simon and the persona he presented. It was a near-impossible task but Harry was determined to get to know the actual Simon. Sure, Simon had been a bit rude to him a few times but Harry understood perfectly why. He was always an incredibly hyperactive and loud person and very few people could stand that for over a few minutes. Even the Cals and Vik got tired of his shit often and Harry could blame them for it, he was tired of himself too.

Phil coughed loudly next to him and Harry realised that it was late and everyone had already left. Well, fuck. He may have gotten too lost in his thoughts.

"You're doing a good job, Harry, you just need a little help with bending and a few other small things. You can stay for a little while on Monday afternoon and I'll help you with it," Phil offered and Harry nodded.