Cara

       It was now Saturday and I nervously paced back and forth, waiting for the doorbell to ring.

"Expecting someone?" inquired my brother.

"Me? Of course not," I chuckled sardonically. "It's not like it's a Saturday and our band members are supposed to be coming here today for band practice."

He took another spoonful of cereal flakes from the bowl and nonchalantly carried on like he hadn't asked me anything.

Still walking around, I continued contemplating on Ashton's suggestion to sing 'Ignorance' or 'Playing god' for the performance, when the sudden sharp sound of the doorbell made me put all my thoughts aside.

I absentmindedly rushed towards the door, half expecting Ashton to greet me with a bone crushing hug that would land me in the Hospital. No joke, he was that buff.

"So I thought about it, and I decided to sing 'Ignorance'...but wait, 'Playing god' might be better and--oh!"

I stopped halfway, looking at the tall blonde boy who looked at me like I was out of my mind.

"Umm that's great?" the boy replied unsurely.

"Yeah...sorry. I thought you were Ashton,"' I replied drily, trying to avoid his gaze. "But come in I guess."

As he came in, he examined the interior of the house and said, "You know, I could have been some freaky psycopath in front of your door step and I would've been able to enter your house."

"Oh my! You're right, Lucas." I covered my mouth with my hand and faked a gasp. "Although, I think I may have just let one in right now."

He laughed softly, following it with no comment. I closed the door behind the two of us and walked away, signalling for him to come with me.

"I haven't heard you say Lucas in a long time." He raised his eyebrow. "People usually say Luke."

I rolled my eyes. "Like it makes any difference. Oh wait, it does. I added 'ass' to your name because that perfectly describes what you are."

"Really? I thought you added 'ass' to my name because that's something I got," he said. I turned to him, but no sign of cockiness was shown and I thought it to be suspicious.

"Keep dreaming."

When I led him to the garage, the first thing he did was carefully place his guitar case against the wall, trying to balance it for a good thirty seconds.

No one spoke and the sound of the case of the guitar sliding back and forth wasn't a pleasing sound to hear.

"Michael's still inside, eating," I informed him with this backup excuse to leave. "I should probably call him now."

I had already reached the end of the room when Luke spoke.

"Don't you want to talk?" he asked quietly.

"Isn't that what we've been doing for the past few minutes?" I responded with the same volume. The only reason he'd ever want to talk to me is because he needed something, a favor.

"I know, but let's get to know each other more. What do you think?" He bit his lower lip. "I mean, we're band mates, right?"

Where was he trying to get with this?

"I think we know one another well enough."

I was ready to leave him this time. He was wasting my time with talk that would lead to nowhere.

"Please," he insisted, almost like he was pleading for me to stay.

I didn't understand why he was doing this. All of a sudden he wanted me to be there? He wanted my company?

"I'll stay for a few minutes before I call my brother," I answered him in a more gentle way. I didn't want to be aggressive over this unusual wish of his.

I walked towards the chair, situated not too near where Luke was. The moment I sat down was when he stood up from where he was to get his guitar, deciding to abandon the idea of placing it against the wall.

"I had this thing in mind-

Luke's sentence was left unfinished when doorbell rang, giving me the perfect excuse to stand up and leave.

"Ashton?"

He flung the door upon coming in, and grinned widely. "Oh, I'm absolutely stoked about this! Michael let me in. Is he always seen eating?"

I laughed. "You'll get used to it."

I led him to the garage where we found Luke busily strumming a few chords on his guitar. He immediately stopped when he saw Ashton.

"You can sit down while I call my brother," I told him. "I shouldn't take long."

-

Luke

"So how are things going? Are you excited?" Ashton looked at me, full of energy and liveliness. "Oh, and hey! I saw you last Friday in some French restaurant."

"Oh well..I think I saw you too," I mumbled.

"I was going to say hi but you looked pretty busy with your date."

"You looked pretty occupied with your date as well." I glanced at him, to see his reaction.

"Date? Oh no, I didn't go on a date with Michael," he stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"No, I meant...with Cara." I looked at him bluntly.

"Cara?" he flushed, scratching his neck lightly. "Uh, she was with, uh, Michael and I-er decided to come over that's all."

I nodded, unsatisfied with the information.

None of us said anything for the time being, until Ashton tried to spark a new discussion. "You know, you should get to talk to Cara more." he said, not looking at me, but at my guitar. What? Was he too scared to look me in the eye while defending his girl?

I snorted. "Yeah, I talked to her a while ago and she was pretty fine."

"You guys are cool with each other?" Ashton looked at me with wide eyes.

"Can you stop asking so many questions? Can't you live a day without talking?" I frowned, not wanting to answer any of his questions.

He chuckled lightly. "I've been told that I talk a lot. Sorry, I'm just trying to be social."

I was about to retort, when the door opened after and Cara, Michael and even Cal stepped in.
"I didn't know you were here already, Calum." Ashton said to him.

"Well, I'm here and ready to practice." My friend responded, while proudly holding up his scrubby bass guitar for everyone to admire the scratches on it.

"Anyway, I have a song in mind that I might use for the fair," Cara intervened excitedly. How different she was when I last saw her a few minutes ago.

"Really? What is it?" I asked, hoping that she might look at me for once.

"Well," she said, making it a point to focus only on Ashton. "I might sing 'Ignorance' or 'Playing god'."

"Two wonderful choices," said Ashton, knowing that it was in fact, he who chose those songs for her. "But I think Ignorance might be a better choice. What do you think?"

Cara nodded, following whatever Ashton wanted. I bet if he asked her to marry him, she'd say yes. "I like that one better as well. Plus I practiced for that too." Great, they thought alike with their sudden "chemistry" they acquired.

Michael remained quiet the rest of the time. The only noise that came from him was the sound he made when he typed something on his laptop.

"Bingo." he murmured to himself.

Calum was now beside him and both of them had their eyes glued to something. Michael also brought out his guitar in the process, desperately trying to strum a few chords.

I took a peek at what they were looking at, and apparently they were watching a guitar tutorial on how to play Paramore's 'Ignorance'. There was so much progress in the little span of time when it came to Cara's performance because she had all the other boys to help her.

I started to grow impatient. I turned to Ashton and Cara who were busy joking around about something. All I knew was that Cara was holding her phone for Ashton to see, while Ashton tapped on his beatbox.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this song!" Ashton would play a typical beat that would fit any song on the drums, and Cara would think he was the most brilliant drummer.

"Wow! You were able to pick the beat up so quickly," she said in awe. "But how are you going to add the beat that you learned in the beatbox to the actual drum set?"

"That's nothing for me," Ashton grinned proudly. "Once you know the beat, it'll be easy for you to transfer what you know to the drum set."

"Sorry," Cara crossed her arms, "I'm not a drummer."

And with that, they both laughed again.

I slumped back in contempt and stomped my foot, impatiently waiting for Michael to finish whatever he was doing so that I wouldn't have to endure seeing the smiles plastered on both Ashton's and Cara's faces.

Finally, my troubles ended when Michael announced loudly to all of us, "All right, guys. I'm ready to practice."

-

-God Bless!-