“SUUUUCKEEEERSS!!!”
The audience roared as the lead-singer screamed into his mic. Behind him, the guitarist thrust his instrument upwards, electric sounds vibrating through the air as he shredded on the razor-sharp strings in a frenzy. The bassist and the drummer were treating their instruments just as violently, creating an aggressive melody fitting the rather hard lyrics. The night sky glowed bright from the lights on the stages, myriad of flashing colours shining over the stars. From horizon to horizon, the area around the stage was filled with shrieking, yelling, roaring rock fans. Raising their fists into the air they were dancing on the muddy ground, cheering their lungs out as if they were trying to shout over the music.
Suddenly, a girl emerged from the center of the crowd. Raised into the air by the rock fans around her she wore a wide smile, obviously enjoying herself as everyone around cheered at her. Hundreds of hands carried her all the way to the stage and pushed her right on it. A bomb seemed to explode as she turned towards the audience, the screams growing even louder. With a smirk the lead singer took a step to the side, gesturing the girl towards the microphone. Her grin grew even wider as she grabbed it, tilting it forward and screaming right into it.
“ARE YOU READY TO ROOOOOCK?!”
For a moment the music was muted by the roaring audience. In the midst of all the wild screams a name was being shouted over and over, the fans pumping their fists to the rhythm.
“LEMON! LEMON! LEMON! LEMON!”
The cheers of her fans and the music of the band in her ears, Lemon Zest felt like she was sinking into an adrenaline-induced trance. Closing her eyes she took in a deep breath, holding the mic to her lips. Just as she was about to scream into it however she paused. Among the countless voices calling out her name, one seemed to be standing out. It didn’t bear the euphoria and joy of the others, but instead sounded rather angry and annoyed. The voice was getting steadily louder, eventually drowning all others and the music as it bored itself right into Lemon’s ear...
“LEMON!” Sunny yelled, pulling the headphone off her ear and blaring right into it.
Shrieking Lemon tilted to the side. Her headphone snapped against her ear as it slipped from Sunny’s grip, Lemon sliding off her chair and falling ungracefully to the floor. As she lay there on her aching shoulder, the rock music streaming through her headphones she needed a moment to get back into reality. Around her wasn’t the stage of a concert, but the library of Crystal Prep Academy. Like most of the school the majority of the room as well as its the furniture seemed to be made out of crystal, the walls and ceiling reflecting the light streaming through the tall, narrow windows. On two floors shining shelves were spilling over with books, forming straight alleys only interrupted by the occasional table for students to learn at. And the underside of one of those tables was what Lemon currently looked at, being so clean she could see her dazzled reflection in it.
With a grunt she got up on her knees, throwing a dark glare towards the girl who had ripped her out of her daydream. “Dude, for someone so fancy you can be pretty rough!” she scoffed, rubbing the headphone that had snapped against her ear.
Scowling Sunny crossed her arms, looking from her chair down on Lemon’s wild green hair. “I’ve been trying to call out to you and even tapped your shoulder! But like so often, you didn’t hear me over your noise!” she lectured her with a nudge towards her headphones.
Sitting back down on her chair Lemon frowned. “Punk rock and heavy metal aren’t noise!” she snapped at her. “Just because it’s not lullabies doesn’t mean tis not music!”
Sitting straight Sunny raised her head, chuckling amused. “It says a lot about your musical education if you call classic music lullabies, sweetheart” she said, proudly holding a hand to her chest. More strictly she held out her arm towards the table, gesturing towards the many open math books lying scattered over it while sternly staring at Lemon. “But to get to the point, your music is too loud! Some of us are trying to learn here, if you remember!”
Following Sunny’s arm with her eyes Lemon cocked her head. “Um, and who would that be?” she asked.
Confused Sunny turned her head. On the other side of the table, Sour was balancing a pencil on her nose, Sugarcoat she played around on her smartphone and Indigo slept on top of an open math book, a thick drop of spit just about to fall from her mouth onto the page.
Sunny dropped her head on the table. “Oh who am I kidding?” she moaned, running both palms over her face. “One more math formula and my head will explode.”
Quietly Lemon looked at the slumped Sunny, then at her other bored friends. Her headphones were still filling her mind with loud music. The beat of the drums was in her ears, driving and aggravating. Several guitars lashed out, like hundreds of lightning striking simultaneously into her head, accompanied by a subtler, but still thriving line of bass. With the scream of the band-leader in her joining the mix a grin flashed upon her face. She placed her hands on her headphones, letting the music pound into her for a bit longer before turning off the volume. Putting her headphones around her shoulders she gazed upon her bored friends once more, before declaring in excitement: “Hey, let’s start a band!”
The pencil fell off Sour’s nose, rolling over the smooth floor. Sugarcoat looked in irritation up from her smartphone while Indigo woke up with a start and Sunny sat up straight. They all looked wide-eyed at Lemon, then exchanged a glance with each other, before staring incredulously back at Lemon. “Seriously?” it came out of their mouths in unison.
Blushing, Lemon turned up her mouth. “Hey, don’t look at me like I just said something totally random and dumb!” she yelled.
“Shh!” There was a chorus of students calling simultaneously from behind the shelves all around them, making Lemon blush even deeper.
Standing up Indigo turned her chair around. “Seriously Zest, where did that come from?” she asked, crossing her arms over the chair’s lean as she sat down the wrong way around. “There isn’t any band battle, talent show or something else we could compete in coming up!”
“Also, due to the theatre group’s cut in budget” Sunny added with a raised finger “There also won’t be any musical anytime soon to participate in.”
“Because that’s totally what we want” Sour cooed, then slumped her shoulders while leaning her head against her fist. “Getting back on stage.”
“Our last performance was very well received!” Sunny reminded her.
“Because people were laughing about our eccentric character traits” Suagrcoat said dryly. Feeling her cheeks getting warm Sunny fell silent.
Lemon angrily furrowed her brows. “Hey, I don’t want to start a band so we could compete or perform somewhere!” She then paused for a moment. “I mean sure it’d be nice to perform, with hundreds of fans screaming our names… but that’s not the reason. I just thought it would be… fun, you know?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Like, playing music together, chilling out – AND WAIL AWAY ON THE GUITAR!” Grinning widely she jumped up, kicking her chair over as she played on her imaginary instrument while making fake guitar sounds.
“Shh!” Again she was silenced by a chorus of voices from all around.
A little embarrassed she put her chair back on its legs. “’sides, those girls from CHS also have their own band” she told her friends as she sat back down. “Why shouldn’t we do that too?”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “If they were jumping off a cliff should we do that too?” she asked.
Tilting her head Indigo gave Sunny a curious look. “Why should they do that?”
“Well, some of them can grow wings” Sugarcoat said.
Sunny placed a hand on her forehead, slowly running it over her face. Too add to her annoyance she could feel Lemon’s elbow nudging her side. “Come on, guys!” the energetic girl insisted. “What’s so bad about spending some time together, havin’ fun with your friends – AND ROCK THE HECK OUT!!!” she suddenly yelled, the abrupt outburst nearly causing Sunny to fall out of her chair.
Sour raised a finger. “Wait for iiit…”
“SHHH!”
Smiling, Sour nodded. “Thank you. You geeks.”
Taking in a deep breath Sunny rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Okay, first off we all are into different music” she eventually explained after calming down a little. “I like classic music – like all of you should – Sour mostly listens to Pop, Sugarcoat prefers Techno, Indigo is a fan of watered down rock music, and you are into noise.”
Lemon frowned. “It’s called…”
“Right, right, punk metal, heavy rock – whatever” Sunny interrupted her, dismissively waving her hand.
“What do you mean watered down?” Indigo asked, sounding somewhat offended.
Falling back against the lean of her chair Sunny groaned. “Look, what I’m trying to say is: What kind of music would we play if we were to start a band?”
A finger on her chin Lemon pondered for a moment. “Well, maybe we could combine it all?” she suggested.
“Right!” Sour chirped, giving her a thumbs-up and a sarcastic smile. “A Pop-classic-punk-and-not-punk-rock band with techno remixes of their songs. Great idea♥”
After throwing a dark glance at Sour Lemon turned with a more hopeful look towards Indigo. “Come on, Gogo, I know you like to rock out too – tell me at least you’re with me!”
Still sitting the wrong way on her chair Indigo scratched her head. “It does sound cool, but I’m not sure if I’ve got the time” she said to her green-haired friend. “It’s pretty rough already managing school, sports clubs and free time as it is. Don’t know if I can fit two or three hours of rehearsal under the week into it.”
Growing increasingly frustrated Lemon turned to Sugarcoat. “Please, Sugarbabe!” she begged, sounding somewhat desperate. “I even let ya write the songs! That way you can tell the world whatever is going on in your mind!”
Sugarcoat shrugged. “I’m doing that anyway. And the others are right: We wouldn’t be able to decide on a genre of music, we can’t combine them and we all have too little free time to really make this work.”
Again Lemon looked at each of her friends. They did seem to be sorry, but it was clear they were set on their opinions. Defeated she slumped her shoulders, dropping her head slightly. “You guys are such party-poopers” she mumbled, her lips curling to a pout.
Seeing Lemon upset the other all shared some guilty glances. “Now come on, don’t give us that look!” Indigo told her.
“It really is a nice little idea” Sour praised at her, before adding more reserved: “We’re just not interested.”
Placing a hand on her shoulder Sunny warmly smiled at her. “I know you are disappointed, dearie, but it’s not the end of the world” she tried to comfort her. “Now come, I’m sure we can come up with something else that is fun!”
Lemon gave her a cold glare from the side. “Like what?”
There was a moment of silence. “Maybe you can find others to start a band?” Sugarcoat suddenly suggested.
Lemon sat up slightly. “You mean other students here at Crystal Prep?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“That’s a great idea!” Sunny exclaimed, happily clapping her hands. “Dean Cadence asked us to spread the spirit of friendship throughout the school, and what better way to do so but by making new friends?”
Lemon perked up slightly, but seemed a little doubtful. “You really okay with that?” she asked the others.
“Sure!” Indigo said, also seeming fond of the idea. “I mean we’re all in sports clubs, so why shouldn’t you start a band on your own?”
Thoughtfully Lemon stroke her chin. “You know what?” she finally said, smirking deviously. “I think I’m really diggin’ this idea.” She raised both arms into the air, index and little finger of each hand stretched out. “I’m gonna teach this boring school how to ROCK!!”
“SHHH!!” it cam from all around with more intent than before, but Lemon didn’t care.
Sour stood up, hands on her hips. “Great! Then that’s settled” she said sweetly, before taking a sour look down on the open math book in front of her. “I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t see math books anymore without feeling the urge to punch something.”
“Me too” Indigo moaned, slamming her book shut and stuffing it into her backpack.
“Should we take a walk around the schoolyard to ease the pressure on our minds?” Sugarcoat suggested as everybody packed their books.
“That’s a wonderful idea, darling” Sunny said while shouldering her backpack. Leaving the table, the group began to march towards the door of the library. Lemon seemed especially lively, more skipping than walking past the numerous book shelves. “Hey, can we go by the music room?” she asked, her voice barely able to control her excitement. “Then I can book it for practice!”
Sunny raised an eyebrow at her. “Don’t you want to form a band first before planning rehearsal?” she asked.
Lemon shook her head. “Nah, I’ll probably just forget it later.” As she put her headphones back over her ears she added with a smirk: “’sides, when everyone hears I’m getting a band together, I bet the Preps are gonna come swarming to play with me!”
While Lemon was starting to sink into her own world, the music blaring from her phones as they stepped out of the library Sour rolled her eyes. “Sure they will… in your dreams.”
As they stepped out of the library Sugarcoat stopped, noticing they were missing someone. “Are you coming, Indigo?” she asked, turning her head around.
Still sitting at the table Indigo looked over her shoulder. “Go on ahead, I’ll follow in a moment!” she replied, smiling with one hand in her backpack.
Sugarcoat lifted an eyebrow, but shrugged it off. Indigo waited until she had caught up with the others and all of them had gained some distance to the library. Once they were all out of range, she pulled out her music player from her backpack, alongside a pair of earplugs. After plugging them into her ears she fumbled around the player for a bit. Loud music began to emit from it. It was definitely rock, but a lot quieter than Lemon’s, still suitable for radio both in its tone and lyrics. Indigo listened to it for a while to the rhythmic, though not overly aggressive melody, and frowned.
“It’s not watered down!”