Chapter 7
Chapter 7
September was a distant memory and October was rapidly ending. Tobin had somehow survived Mid-Terms and was fully accustomed to college life. What was even better was that the band was going full steam ahead. If she was honest with herself, that was becoming more important to her than school. And she knew that her band mates were starting to feel the same. They were starting to practice more often and for longer periods of time. They now had one of the band rooms booked for two hours at a time three nights a week.
Her studies weren’t really being hurt yet, but she knew this was because she was taking a bunch of generals. After two months of school she realized that they were basically high level high school courses that needed just a little extra work.
She really had one goal for the month of November. She wanted to write a song and add it to their setlist. So far they had just played a variety of covers. Songs that they all already knew, or songs that maybe one of them knew and taught the others. Their repertoire was up to almost forty songs at this point. When they weren’t practicing, they were all hanging out anyway. They had been to a few parties in the last two months and had gotten to know each other well. Tobin had also been doing things with Meghan and Morgan, who had successfully integrated themselves into the group. It wasn’t odd to see them doing their homework alongside Ali during band practices.
Tobin leaned back in her chair at her desk and smiled to herself. She was having a blast so far.
********
Kelley was once again in Christen’s room watching a movie. Over the last two months they had spent a lot of time together. They had gone on a few more dates but still hadn’t made anything official. Kelley knew that they would eventually get to that discussion but for now she was content laying beside Christen on her bed and watching movies. She thought they were doing a pretty good job of keeping it from the other girls, but she definitely did more with Christen than with the others. She was pretty sure that Tobin thought she had a romantic interest with someone, which was why she was hardly ever in their dorm room except to sleep and shower. Tobin didn’t know how close she was to the truth.
The movie ended and Kelley suppressed a yawn. She looked at the clock and realized it was almost three in the morning.
“I hate to leave all of a sudden but my first class is at eight.”
Christen put her hand over her mouth as she bit back a yawn. “You could just sleep here tonight. I promise no more movies and I don’t hog all of the blankets.”
Kelley was slightly taken aback. They had never done a sleep over before, but she embraced the idea. “Ok, cool! I’ll set my alarm for the morning!”
********
Ashlyn looked at the clock on Ali’s bedside table. It read 2:49am. She rolled over on the bed and looked at her girlfriend. Ali’s hair was half covering her face. Ashlyn smiled to herself and once again she realized how lucky she was to have Ali. Ali’s chest rose and fell with her breathing. For some reason Ashlyn couldn’t fall asleep and if she did she only slept for about fifteen minutes at a time. Tomorrow, or today rather, was Monday. She had classes in the morning and she needed to sleep.
She knew the reason why she couldn’t sleep. It was the band, it was always the band. Even though everyone had taken huge strides and was way more serious about it than they were in the beginning, Ashlyn wanted to take it further. She wanted to start playing shows and getting gigs. She lived for music and it was the one thing that kept her sane 100% of the time. Finally sleep overtook her and the last thing she remembered before drifting off was gently putting her arm around Ali.
*******
Tobin grabbed her jacket and ran out of her dorm. She had woken up a little late and was going to barely get to her class on time. She ran across the green and into the music building. She slid into her seat a minute before the class was scheduled to start. Kelley looked at her and laughed as she almost fell out of her seat from momentum.
“Hey were you at the dorm last night?” Tobin asked.
“No I was at a friends watching movies and kinda fell asleep.” Kelley blushed as she spoke. Tobin however was looking the other way and Kelley was relieved that she didn’t notice.
Their conversation was cut short as the professor entered the room and immediately began his lesson. Tobin immediately got bored with the lesson, because so far she had learned nothing new about the guitar. Apparently she was more skilled than the 100 level guitar course in this curriculum.
Tobin felt a punch on her arm. She jerked awake and looked at the clock.
“Dude you fell asleep for the majority of class,” Kelley laughed. “I’m surprised that the prof didn’t notice.”
“Crap, did we learn anything useful today?”
“Not really, we just reviewed the stuff that we learned on Friday. Just went over the pentatonic scale again.”
“Nice.”
They walked out of the music building and headed toward the student center, where breakfast awaited them. They each had a couple of hours before their next class so they always ate breakfast together on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. After a short walk they entered the building and went downstairs to get in line for food. The line moved slowly and Tobin got a little fidgety.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ashlyn’s roommate Alex sitting with some of the soccer girls. Tobin had tried her best to be nice to Alex and to try and get to know her. Alex however had made it clear she wasn’t interested, so Tobin gave up. She didn’t even really think about her romantically anymore.
Finally it was their turn to pay. They used part of the schools meal plan and went inside the dining area. Tobin stocked up on eggs and bacon, which was a Monday ritual for her. She grabbed some orange juice and a bagel and went to find Kelley. She found her at one of the booths back in the corner on her phone typing furiously. She sat down on the opposite side of the table and began to eat. Kelley didn’t even notice that she had sat down.
“Who are you texting?”
Kelley jumped and immediately flushed. “Geez Tobin, scare me like that. Oh I’m just texting my sister.”
Tobin knew she was probably lying about who she was texting but let it go. They ate in relative silence. After they were done eating they went their separate ways. Tobin made her way to the library to catch up on homework before her next class.
******
Ashlyn was finally done with classes for the day. She had a long day that was filled with quizzes in each of her classes. She made her way back to her dorm room, was thankful that Alex wasn’t around and dove onto her bed. She grabbed her computer and started watching Netflix. As scenes from Friends appeared on her screen she slowly drifted off.
She awoke to the sound of her phone buzzing. She wiped her eyes and reached for her phone. She saw that she had a text message from Tobin about getting food in an hour or so. She looked at her phone and realized that she had slept for like 3 hours. It was just after 5pm. She fired a quick text back to Tobin saying that she would meet them at Tony’s Pizza at 6. She jumped in the shower and got ready. She texted Ali to see if she wanted to join them.
Ali texted her back reminding her that it was her night on duty in the dorm so she couldn’t leave. Ashlyn mentally smacked herself for not remembering that Monday’s were Ali’s night she had to work.
As it was nearing 6 she ran down to her car and drove the short distance to the pizza parlor. She was of course late, which surprised no one and she quickly spotted her friends at the booth by the pinball machine. Kelley was currently at the machine and was practically banging on the buttons.
“Son of a!,” Kelley yelled as she missed the ball and that brought the end to her game. Ashlyn stifled a laugh and sat down next to Tobin at the booth. Once Kelley sat back down with a glare at the others, the waiter appeared to take their order. They decided to split a meat lovers pizza and a hawaiian pizza.
Once the pizzas got there, they all dug in. They talked about how Thanksgiving break was coming up in a few weeks, and wondered if there would be any more good parties. They also talked about classes and which professors were push overs and which ones were hard asses.
Finally after sitting there for a couple of hours they left. Ashlyn returned to her dorm room and went into her bedroom. She opened her computer and checked her campus email. It was the normal same old crap that she got periodically from clubs she had signed up for at the beginning of the semester, but hardly ever attended now. She had a couple of emails from classmates that she was working on group projects with. She responded to those and was just about to close out of her email, when one particular email caught her eye.
The heading read “Do you have any talents you want to show off?” She opened the email and a smile appeared on her face. The university was apparently holding a talent show for students on the Monday before Thanksgiving break. It would be held in the student center and everyone was invited to participate or attend. You didn’t have to audition so all acts were automatically accepted.
She knew that this would be the perfect time to finally play in front of an audience. It was a talent show, so it wasn't like anyone would expect them to be that great. Also they would only have to play for 10 minutes, which translated to about three songs. This was perfect and she couldn’t wait to tell the other girls.
******
It was finally Sunday and Tobin was excited to jam for a couple of hours. She was walking to the music building with her guitar in hand, when someone fell in step beside her.
“You guys having practice?” Meghan asked as she fist bumped Tobin.
“Yep, it’s been a stressful week so I need this.” Tobin laughed.
They chatted the rest of the way to the music building. When they got there Tobin found that Christen and Kelley were already there jamming. Ashlyn arrived soon after Tobin. After they had everything set up, they ran through a couple of songs that becoming second nature to them.
“Hey guys, hold up a second.” Ashlyn suddenly said.
They all stopped playing and looked at Ashlyn.
“So I don’t know if you guys got this email or have even checked your emails, but the university is having a talent show the Monday before Thanksgiving. I think that we should sign up.”
Without hesitation Tobin said, “I’m down.”
Kelley and Christen looked at each other before nodding their heads in agreement.
“Cool, it’s just that it’s fun to jam and practice, but I want to play in front of a crowd. We’ve gotten pretty good over the last few months and I think that it’s time to take this next step.” Ashlyn explained.
“Definitely, this is something that we need to do. Plus it will make it all seem like it is worth it. Not that it isn’t fun to just jam with you guys.” Christen added.
They all agreed that it would be a fun time. They sat down to argue over what three songs they thought they should perform. All of them had a sense that this was the first step towards something that was greater than what they already had.