The past few weeks have been weird to say the least.
Corey hadn’t bugged her at all. At school, he simply nodded at her in acknowledgement if he saw her and at work he did what she asked him to, no complaints or arguments. She should call him out on his bull shit more often, Laney’s life involving Corey has never been more peaceful.
It’s made her job as the Newmans’ manager a lot easier and a lot less stressful. It made Laney feel pretty confident in the band’s ability to win the Battle Of The Bands, which was she herself insisted that she be the one to hand in the set list to the people who were running the competition. As a way to say “Get ready to lose Riffin.” without actually saying it.
Which is why Laney is currently standing in a ridiculously long line a few days before the competition, zoning out. Finally she gets to the front of the line, only to be met with a look of confusion when the lady looks over the set list.
“Aren’t you with Grojband?” The lady asks. Laney resists the urge to clench her jaw. “No, I used to be but not anymore.” She says, hoping this will appease the lady enough to stamp the okay onto the set list. “Oh, okay then. Set list looks good, take this.” The lady hands her a packet. “It’s your dressing room arrangements.” The lady says, when she sees how confused Laney looks. Laney nods and steps out of line to examine the packet.
All right, let's see. “Due to having more bands than dressing rooms for Peaceville’s First Ever Annual Battle Of The Bands, we will be having two bands per dressing room.” Okay makes sense. “Rules and regulations”, blah blah blah, I know how to act in a dressing room. Okay, we’re in dressing room #15 and we’re sharing with Next Gen, that’s cool, haven’t seen the girls outside of a business context in a while. Wait, why does it say Larry’s with…
“WE’RE SHARING A DRESSING ROOM WITH A NEWMAN?!” Corey shouts, his hands shaking as he rereads the packet in his hands. He had waited till school to fully look at it since the day he picked it up, Kin and Kon were spending the weekend with their grandparents. He really didn’t want to believe it so he hands over the packet to Kin to see if it’s true. It’s also to prevent any further outbursts because everyone is currently staring at him like he’s a mad man right now.
“That’s what it says.” Kin confirms. “It also says that we’re sharing with Shot In The Dark.” Kon oh so unhelpfully adds.“Which is great, it’s been a while since we’ve hung out with them, but the Newman. In. Our. Dressing. Room.” Corey says through clenched teeth. “We’ll survive. At least it’s not Carrie.” Kin points out.
Corey rolls his eyes. “That doesn’t matter. He’s gonna spy on us and steal our secrets.” He says. Kon scoffs. “If that were true, the same could be said about any band we have to share the room with.” He points out. Corey falters. Damn, Kon has a point. “Just try to think happy thoughts and we’ll be fine.” Kin says.
“Okay fine, it’s fine. You’re right, we’ll survive and I’ll hide any half written songs so that he won’t steal or read them and we’ll have a fun time hanging out backstage with Shot In The Dark. Then we’ll win so Laney rejoins the band and the Newmans lose.” Corey says, closing his eyes and imagining the event. “There, just think of- Oh my god the devil is at our table.” Kin says. Corey flicks his eyes open to be greeted with the sight of Kim and Carrie standing in front of him.
“Oh be quiet Kujira, this is strictly for business purposes.” Kim says as Carrie examines her nails. She turns to Corey. “Meet us behind the school at 4:00, today, after school. There’s something we need to talk about.” Carrie says. Corey wants to refuse but he knows she’s being serious by the lack of cursing towards him. He nods. “Fine but if you’re not there when we get there, the boys and I are leaving.” He tells her.
Carrie merely looks bored. “Alright. See you then.”
Laney hates to admit it but there’s times she misses her sister.
Mostly when she has to do chores that formerly belonged to her sister. But there were still times when she just missed Chloe rummaging around the kitchen and telling Laney about her day. So she takes their Monday phone calls very seriously and always declines anything that doesn’t involve her sister’s call.
So Laney is more than surprised when minutes after she gets home, Chloe practically kicks down the front door screaming, “YOU’RE REJOINING GROJBAND?!” Laney blinks owlishly. “One, why are you here? Two, who told you I was rejoining Grojband?” She asks, as Chloe all but drags her to the couch. “Katrina told me.” Chloe says simply, ignoring the other question.
Laney groans. Never would she have expected for her sister and Trina Riffin of all people to become friends but here they are. According to Chloe, Trina had changed A LOT in the past few years since starting college. She was even going by her real name now and was dating Mina. And somehow had managed to befriend Chloe. But no matter how hard Laney tries to see Trina as a changed woman, she still thinks of her as Corey’s crazy sister.
“Corey told Trina that I’m rejoining Grojband? Didn’t know they mended their relationship. And for the record Clo, that’s only happening if the Newmans lose the Battle Of The Bands, which will not happen.” Laney grouses. “Nick actually told her.” Chloe says, causing Laney to roll her eyes. “Great, I forget that Nick and Corey still talk. And of course he thinks I’m coming back, I’m not. This whole thing has to do with the bet I told you about. ” Laney explains.
Chloe hums, pondering Laney’s words. “When‘s the first competition?” Chloe asks, she looks like she’s holding back what she really wants to ask. “This Saturday.” Laney says with a shrug. “Yeah, I’ll be able to see that. How are you feeling about this?” She says.
“I feel good. I don’t care that he thinks his stupid band that I came up with is going to win when the Newmans are obviously going to beat them.” Laney huffs. Chloe raises an eyebrow. “Something else happened.” She says, giving Laney a very pointed look. “He said I held the band back.” Laney says, after a few seconds of Chloe’s gaze piercing into her soul. She had left that detail out when she called her sister about the bet last month. Chloe’s eye twitches. “That idiot. You carried the entire band on your back!” She exclaims. “I know, I told him all of that already. It’s fine Chloe.” Laney assures her sister. This works somewhat. “Alright, fine. I can call Kat and tell her what happened if you want. She’ll talk to him about it.” Chloe offers.
Laney shudders. Trina telling Corey off on her behalf is the last thing she needs. “No, that's okay. At this point the only issue I have with Grojband right now is the fact that Larry has to share their dressing room for this competition.” Laney says. “Why?” Chloe asks, getting up and going to the kitchen. Laney trails after, a sense of nostalgia washing over her from her elementary and middle days, back when Chloe would get a snack for them to share while they talked about what was going on in their lives. She misses it. “Too many bands, not enough dressing rooms. Not that we’re sharing with Grojband, it’s just that Larry’s a boy so he can’t be in there with us. They put him in the room across the hall from ours which will have Grojband and Shot In The Dark in there.” Laney explains, sitting down at the kitchen table as Chloe begins to rummage around the cabinets.
“Mhm, that makes sense. Who are you girls sharing the room with?” She asks, handing her sister a bag of potato chips. It’s sour cream and onion flavored, even though she prefers ketchup chips, causing Laney to be suddenly hit with another wave of nostalgia in the form of missing Kon. “Next Gen.” Laney answers, opening the bag. “Is that the band that you met when you were trying to get a break from Grojband?” Chloe asks, cutting up some fruit. “The very one, it’ll be fun. The girls are great.” Laney confirms as a small bowl of sliced fruit is slid towards her. “Sounds like it’s gonna be something, alright. Just have fun and be safe.” Chloe says, joining Laney at the kitchen table.
Laney grins at her sister. “Don’t worry Clo, you know I always am.”
True to her word, when Corey, Kin, and Kon show up behind the school, the Newmans are already there.
“Wow, you’re actually on time.” Carrie says, sounding genuinely surprised. Corey shrugs. “Wanted to see if you guys would actually show up.” He says, shoving his hands in his pockets. “We’re the ones who set this up.” Carries points out. “Eh, you’ve lied to us in the past to make us look like idiots.” Corey says. “It’s surprisingly easy to do.” Kim pipes up. Kin rolls his eyes. “No one asked you.” He says tersely.
Konnie raises an eyebrow and steps in front of her twin. “No one asked you either.” She points out. This causes Kon to laugh for a split second before he quickly changes it to a cough. Konnie smiles at him, for some reason. Okay this is getting weird and confusing. “Look, why’d you even ask us to come?” Corey says, tearing his eyes away from the staring contest between Kon and Konnie while Kim and Kin make faces at each other. Larry nudges Carrie. “Break it up you two, we got business to take care of!” Carrie exclaims. She turns back to Corey.
“I don’t like you.” She says simply. “That’s it? You tell me that on a daily basis.” Corey says. Carrie glares at him. “Shut up, Riffin, I’m not done. I do not like you or your stupid band, none of us do. But your dumb band is the reason why Laney is our friend and honestly, we love Laney more than we care about the rivalry. Thanks to your dumb bet, Laney’s slightly paranoid we’re gonna leave her because she might have to be around you for a month, technically making her an enemy. Which, thank you for giving her that paranoia by the way, it’s been so fun promising her that we’re not going to leave her behind no matter who she hangs out with. So because of this, us Newmans have come up with a deal. In the highly unlikely event The Newmans lose The Battle Of The Bands, we have a temporary truce between us.” Carrie announces.
Corey raises an eyebrow as Kin starts calculating how beneficial this would be for the band while Kon just taps his chin in thought. “What do you mean temporary truce?” Corey says. Carrie groans. “Kim, explain it to him please. I really don’t want to talk to him any more than I have to.” She says, swapping places with Kim. The other girl adjusts her glasses and clears her throat. “If we lose, which is 100% not going to happen, Grojband and The Newmans will not fight nor compete with each other. Instead we will be civil and get along only for Laney’s sake. Once the month is over, so is the truce. If Laney chooses to stay with your band, our truce is still over but only with the three of you, Laney is exempt from it.” Kim says. Corey nods, this makes sense he supposes.
He turns to Kin and Kon. “What do we think?” He asks as Kin continues wildly scribbling down his calculations. “We need to do a group huddle.” Kon says, grabbing his brother and Corey’s arms and dragging them to a corner out of ear shot from the Newmans.
“Kin what do your calculations say? Does this work out in our favor?” Kon hurriedly whispers. Usually Corey would try and take back control but Kon seems to know what he’s doing so Corey’s gonna let him take over for a bit. “It would work out in our favor and in fact would make us better rivals. However there is an outlier that says a secret relationship will be revealed. It’s probably nothing though.” Kin says, triple checking his notes. Kon tugs on his shirt awkwardly. “Oh, well that’s probably nothing. Corey, your thoughts?” He says.
“If they truly think it’ll make Laney more comfortable then I say yes. Maybe if I show her that I’ve changed somewhat in the jealousy department, we’ll be on the track forward.” Corey says. “That last part made no sense but I agree with both of you. This could be good for us. For the band.” Kon says with a nod. They went back to the Newmans. “We accept your terms and agree to the truce.” Corey announces. The Newmans nod and Kim hands Carrie a piece of paper who gives it to Corey along with a pen. “This is just so we have it in writing.” She explains after it’s signed by everyone.
Corey and the twins are almost back on the sidewalk when Konnie stops him. Kin and Kon hover for a minute but Corey shoos them away. If Konnie is the one stopping him, it 100% has to do with Laney. “If you hurt her again, I will make your life a living hell.” She tells him. Corey blinks, resisting the urge to shudder. “I forget you were there that day.” He says quietly. Konnie scoffs. “I was there before that and trust me when I say I know how much you’ve hurt her over the years.” She says, shaking her head in disgust. He waits for her to add more of an explanation but she doesn’t. “Just go and remember, you have been warned.” Konnie says at last and all but shoves him towards the sidewalk.
What did Konnie mean that she knew how he hurt Laney? She only became friends with Laney after the incident. And yet she seemed so confident that she knew what she was talking about. The only conclusion that Corey could come to was that Laney had become friends with Konnie before the incident. But he would have known about that, right? Though even he has to admit that by the time the incident happened, Lanes had been drifting apart from him and the twins.
He just made it worse in the end.
****
I cut the texting part out cause I felt like it dragged on and was kinda repetitive. Next chapter I’m opening it on a flashback so you’ll know what Konnie meant when she said she knew how much Corey has hurt Laney. The plot is also about to start which will be very fun. Battle of the bands is starting! Yay! As always, I hope you enjoyed this, let me know what you thought and I’ll see you in the next chapter! Bye!
