Band Meeting
Al watched as Pierre counted the gold payment for her last harvest of Spring. In two days, it would be Summer, and there was no way any of her current crops would survive the coming heat. She could still remember how hot the valley got the summers that she spent with her grandpa.
“Alright, money’s all there,” Pierre said, passing the gold over.
“Thanks, Pierre. Do you know when your Summer seeds are coming in?” Usually she would pocket her gold and make a hasty retreat to avoid getting caught up in a conversation, but this day she was stalling.
“I’ll be selling them starting Summer 1st. You better stock up!”
“I think I’ll stick to a modest amount first. I don’t want to take on more than I can handle,” Al replied with a polite laugh.
“Al! You ready to go?” Enter Abigail, and not a moment too soon.
“Yep! Just finished my last transaction of the season,” Al replied.
“Wait, where are you off to Abigail?” Queue overbearing father.
“Abby and I are hanging out for the afternoon. Bye Pierre, have a nice day!”
The two girls practically dashed out of the store. Once they were a few paces outside Abigail let out the breath she’d been holding in. “Man, you have no idea how much of a pain that conversation would have been if you weren’t there.”
“And that is why I didn’t just wait for you outside. Better he talk my ear off for a hot minute than have him talk your ear off for an hour. Does he know you’re in a band?”
“You’re a life saver, Al. And hell no. Being in a band isn’t so bad on its own, but I just know my parents would be way too in my business about what kind of music we were playing.”
Al shrugged in fake humility. “I try. That does bring up a question, though. What music do you guys play?”
“That’s The Question, isn’t it?”
“Undecided then, my favorite genre.”
-
The band practices occurred in Sam’s bedroom. She had never been in his room before, so she had to take a moment to take it all in as she stepped inside. The floor was as green as a golf course, and the walls were half covered in posters. The room was larger than her whole cabin, and had more furniture too. She couldn’t help but feel jealous of his dresser. She missed having a dresser. Sam, as brightly colored as his room, sat at his desk in the far corner strumming some chords on his guitar. What first caught Al’s eye, however, was Sebastian; his all-black color scheme did little to camouflage into the yellow comforter he was laying on top of.
“Nice! We’re all here now!” Sam exclaimed, just a couple seconds after they entered the room.
Sebastian didn’t look up from his comic book as he said, “Hey.”
“Hey!” Al said to both boys at once. She looked around the room a second time and spotted her bass, which she had dropped off before her errands, on a stand next to the bed. She grabbed it and sat at Sebastian’s feet to tune.
“You couldn’t find somewhere else to sit?” he grumbled, still not putting his book down.
“I could have sat on you—you're taking up the whole bed!”
“Do it. That tall jerk needs to be taught a lesson,” Sam butted in. For a moment Al wondered whether the hair spikes were to make up for height. That moment, however, was interrupted by Abigail flopping onto Sebastian’s stomach.
“ABIGAIL WHAT THE FUCK?” he shouted between wheezes, or at least as close to shouting as you can get when all the air has been forced from your lungs.
“Put the book down, we’ve got company,” she answered.
“Fine! But get off me.”
Abigail got up and smoothed out her shirt. Sebastian sat up and rubbed his stomach.
What a baby, Al thought, amused.
“Good, now that we’ve got that settled, we can commence our first full band meeting,” Abigail said. “So, Al, you play bass, Sebastian plays keyboard,” she gestured to the keyboard next to the desk area, “I play drums,” she gestured to the drum set next to it, “and as you can see, Sam plays guitar.”
“Ok, that’s a pretty well-rounded band. Except, who sings?” Al asked.
Sam piped in, “I do, and Sebastian can he just won’t. Abigail says you can sing too! Do you want to sing some of the songs for the band? It would be great to also have a female voice.”
“I mean, sure, it’ll just depend on the lyrics, I guess. What do you usually play? Covers, original songs, Jii menu theme remixes?”
“Mostly covers. We haven’t really figured out our sound yet,” Sam replied.
“Or our name,” Abigail added.
“We try to keep our Jii menu theme remixes to a minimum, though,” Sebastian deadpanned.
“See that’s where you guys are going wrong; you’re not doing enough Jii—” Al tried to continue her sentence with “menu theme remixes,” but the words were barely distinguishable from her laughing.
--
Sebastian snuck a look at Al for the first time since their conversation after the Flower Dance. She was sliding off of the bed in a fit of laughter. She wasn’t alone in her laughter—they were all laughing—but she was the only one finding herself on the floor. She had so much life in her; what was she doing in a dull, small town like this? He couldn’t help but think that Pelican Town would drain the life out of her, as it had with him.
--
“Can you play something for us?” Sam asked Al.
“Yeah, but unless you wanna watch me do warm-ups for fifteen minutes, it’s gonna be a little rusty,”
“I’m sure you’re great with or without warm-ups, don’t worry,” he reassured her. Al wondered how he was so sweet, and why his best friend was all gloom and edge. She breathed in, and then out, to calm her nerves before playing and singing “Aries” by Gorillaz. It was an easier song to do because most of the bass parts happen between when there are no vocals, so there was less multitasking involved.
“I’m looking out at a volcano
Trying to read the world today and see where you're at
I'll never do that.”
-
The air had cooled just a tad by the time Al started her walk back to the farm. The sun had lowered in the sky, but Summer was approaching, and Summer shows no mercy. Still, she was grateful that it had cooled off at all.
There had not been any playing as a band during the meeting. Instead, they had discussed the songs they liked to play, the songs they would like to play, possible band names, etc. Eventually it devolved into showing each other progressively more off topic TheyTube videos. Nonetheless, they managed to leave with an agreement of a couple of songs to practice on their own to practice together during the next band practice.
As Al approached her field of crops, she couldn’t help but feel melancholic. She had nurtured those plants from seed to harvest, and some were still ready to provide more if it weren’t for the encroaching heat. In a couple of days, she would be clearing the field of its Spring crops and planting her first batch of Summer crops. A new season, a new adventure.