“All healed up,” I said, opening and closing my fist to show him.
“Great. Well, see you around,” he said, then smiled again and headed in the other direction. It was weird. He was handsome and cool, but I hadn’t forgotten that underneath it all he was an asshole. He could smile at me all he wanted. And believe me, I was glad that we were now friendly. It was good having someone else at school I could get along with. But I knew I would never like Craig, not in any genuine way. He’d been so shitty to me that first time in the hall. Sure, maybe I had proved myself to him. But he hadn’t proved himself to me.
xXx
Fern called after dinner that evening and asked me if I wanted to go get a cup of tea downtown. Since I had no homework, my parents agreed, so I met her at this nice little tea shop and we ordered a pot of green tea with sliced lemons. I didn’t know much about tea. My parents had always been coffee drinkers, except for chamomile, but Fern was all into different teas.
“So,” she said. “Do you really want to start a band?”
“Maybe. I mean, sure. I have a ton of lyrics written.”
“Have you tried singing?”
“Not really. I sing along to music in my room. I can kinda growl a bit.” I blushed.
“Well, I think we should really try.” Fern looked eager. “In class today this idea for a guitar part just struck me out of nowhere. Just this really cool, heavy part. I wrote it down, so when I got home, I tried playing it. It sounded awful without any effects of course, but it’s good.”
My mind started racing. “So, you’d play guitar. I guess I could try singing. But we’d need bass, drums . . .”
Fern nodded. “Edgar has a bass. His dad used to be in some jazz band or something a long time ago. I think he’d be interested. I have no idea about a drummer, though.”
We sat, thoughtful, for a few minutes, sipping our tea. A band! It would be fun. We could play shows. I tried to imagine myself onstage. With a microphone, screaming and growling. In front of a crowd. “I can’t think of any heavy metal bands with girl singers,” I said.
“I know there are a few, but they aren’t very big. Craig had a CD, I forget the band’s name. But they had a girl singer. She was okay. But I bet you could do way better.” Fern was definitely serious about this. “We’d be awesome. We’d just have to get together a few songs, and we could play shows and stuff.”
“What about gear? It’s expensive. You’d need an amp and some effects pedals.”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’ll have to work that stuff out. But what do you think? Do you want to really give it a try? I could talk to Edgar, see if he’s into it.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “Sure. Why not?”
FIFTEEN
The next weekend, Fern and I met up with Edgar at the same tea shop. Fern and I had talked on the phone every evening that week, fantasizing about going on tour and playing live shows. I’d written in my journal a ton, drafting new lyrics. I’d turned up my DED CD really loud and tried to emulate Balthazar Seizure’s singing voice. I sounded pretty decent. I could definitely rumble and roar and growl and gurgle like he could, but I felt silly doing it. I knew I’d need to practise more.
We sat at the table with Edgar and laid it out to him. “We want to start a band,” Fern said. “A metal band. We’d like you to be in it.”
“Really?” Edgar leaned forward, interested. “Doing what?”
“Can you play bass?” I asked.
“A little bit, I guess.” He frowned a little. “I mean, my dad has a bass and stuff. I’ve played around on it. But, I mean, to play metal music? That’s difficult.”
“We’re not saying we’re going to play a show next weekend,” Fern said. “We all need to practise. I’m going to do guitar, and I need a ton of work. It’s more just to see if you’re interested, if you want to be in the band. We’ll figure the rest out as it comes.”