.・。.・゜✭・FIRST CHAPTER. BAND!AU.
—"Hey, Jess, which one do you choose: fight chicken—sized zombies or zombie-sized chickens?"
Jesse was sitting on the floor, trying to construct an Ender Dragon costume for Rueben from pieces of cloth and cardboard, and piercing the skin of his fingers with a needle with purple thread in the ear, he looked up at his friend, who was fixing a broken lamp. The brunette narrowed his emerald eyes, thinking for a moment over the answer, and decided which option to choose.
—"I don't know... Zombie-sized chickens? It sounds better than being in the same territory with the living dead," — Jesse replied, looking back down at the almost assembled wings.
Ruben jumped off the bed with the red coverlet, made a sound and walked towards the guy, looking curiously at the mess that was on the wooden floor. Jesse smiled as he grabbed the wings and carefully tried them on his little friend, who nevertheless appreciated the efforts positively.
Olivia chuckled, leaning her elbows forward on the table and watching the familiar painting. Rueben shook himself and began to wind circles around the room, looking around, watching as the two wings shook as they walked, hooves clicking.
—"I think after Axel arrives, we'll finally be able to practice a little more before we go",— the girl said, sorting the instruments back into the pencil case. "Unless he fixed his sticks and you lost your medic. Like every time."
— "And I always find it",— Jesse smiles, pulls a worn plastic that looks like a piece of obsidian out of his jeans pocket, and throws it into the air. "Look at this. Reserve."
Ruben grunted, butting the owner in the thigh for not being attentive. Jesse snorted briefly, putting the medic back in his pocket with the utmost care, looking at the piglet. Then he stretched out his palm, stroking his head.
—"Alright, alright, buddy. I got you. Now, let's take off your wings for a little, dragon."
With these words, Jesse moved to his knees for convenience and unbuckled the belt holding the two purple, scaly wings. Olivia, having sorted out the tools, moved away from the table, picking up a lamp. After passing by a couple of minutes, she put the lamp on the bedside table and plugged it into the socket, pressed the button and the device started working. After checking, she turned it off, turning to face her friend.
— "So have you decided which one you're going to choose this time? Guitar or microphone?"
Jesse chuckled with a slight smile and raised his head with Rueben on his lap.
—"There are too many multiple choice questions from you today, Olive."
—"Jesse",— she began cautiously. — "To perform at the Endercon, you need three things. Good songs, working sound and..."
—"And a lead guitarist who won't run away in the middle of a set. Yeah, yeah.." — Jesse finished. The green-eyed man looked to the side, looking at his "Gibson" guitar hanging on the wall by the bed, and an empty space next to it. There was always a black "Jackson" guitar hanging there. With a red zipper and a "Born to rage" sticker.
She wasn't there now.
And it won't be like a few rehearsals anymore.
—"Petra's coming",— Jesse said firmly. "She's simple... burned out. She's always like this before something important."
—"I don't think so," — Olivia exhaled, looking at the posters hanging on the walls. The silence was thick, and Jesse reluctantly waited for more and sat on the floor, stroking Ruben on the back. "I saw her recently. She was kind of with the blond guy from "Ocelots". With a guitar."
Jesse was about to reply and opened his mouth to object, but he was interrupted by a hissing, loud sound coming from outside the door.
— "What the..."
Olivia, also alarmed by the sound, took a hammer, which she had forgotten to remove from the table, just in case. She nodded for Jesse to open the door.
The brunette got up from the floor, before removing the piggy from his lap, who grunted in annoyance, and with quiet movements reached the white door and put his palm on the door handle. By the silent count of three, he opened the door, and Olivia, who was ready to nail the one who was making strange, frightening noises, did not do it when she saw who was behind the door.
— Boo—oo—oo!
— GUH! Axel!
Oh, yeah. Axel stood outside the door, laughing heartily and wiping the corners of his eyes.
—"Ha! You should see your faces, guys, huh!"
Olivia lowered the hammer and put her right hand on her side, looking at the black-haired man reproachfully, thinking about her speech about scarecrows.
Jesse, in turn, exhaled with relief, smiling at his friend's joke and folded his arms around his chest. Rueben ran off and headed towards Axel, butting him in the legs. The guy chuckled, bent down, patted the piglet on the head and straightened up after going inside.
— "You won't believe it!" — Axel blurted out, taking something out of the pocket of his long green hoodie. "I found it. Real."
— "A metronome?" — Jesse guessed.
— "No! The announcement!"— With a triumphant smile, Axel handed them a crumpled newspaper clipping.
"The Endercon. Festival of young bands. The main prize is the opportunity to perform with Gabriel "The Warrior". The qualifying round is in two weeks. Registration is until Friday"
—"Buddy, I'm sorry, but you're a little late with the surprise," Olivia giggled, exchanging glances with Jesse. The girl put the hammer down on the table by the door and crossed her arms, looking at the big guy with light amusement.
— "Well, then let's go to rehearse and prepare in that case?" — Jesse made his contribution, with a beaming look and ran to his bedside table, took out his notebook from the first drawer. "I think the three of us can handle it, okay?"
— "Really. We will not fall apart!" Axel announced, throwing one of his arms over each of his friends' shoulders in a hug, smiling optimistically with all thirty—two teeth. And Rueben grunted approvingly and nodded sitting next to him, causing the guys to laugh.
Jesse still didn't know how he would stand on stage alone in a few days, with a broken string, shouting into the microphone so that his voice would break, and the audience would whistle.
But he knew something else: even if Petra left, even if their band didn't get anything back for the eighth time, even if Olivia was right and they were just a garage band that wouldn't last five minutes at the festival.…
It has two chords. And one song that he will finish tonight, looking at an empty chair in the garage.
It will be called "Am I the Hero?".