Zest for Life!

by AppleJTZ

Three's a band

Once she had rushed out of the store Lemon slowed down her pace, without losing any of her excitement. She flipped her headphones over her ears, turning the volume to its maximum as she happily skipped down the sidewalk. “Got my bandmate number one, she’s a lil’ prissy but awesome~♪” Her lyrics were not really fitting to the metal melody streaming from her headphones, but she didn’t care. Hopping down the street with her eyes closed she didn’t notice anything around her, neither the people that angrily glared at her as she almost bumped into them, nor the cars taking a sharp turn to the side when she got too close to the road.

After a while of dancing down the street however she slowed down, the bright smile on her face decreasing slightly. Bit by bit she dropped to a normal walk, the look on her face becoming somewhat thoughtful. She lowered the volume of her headphones, just so much she could faintly hear the noises around her. It also made it easier to listen to the voice inside of her head – and after the initial excitement had washed over, this voice wasn’t just saying pleasant things.

It was great she had found a second band-member, there was no doubt about it – after all, one girl didn’t really count as a band. However, as happy as she was about this, the nagging voice in the back of her mind told her two girls didn’t really make a band, either. And after she had been rejected by her friends, her mates from music class and every random Crystal Prep student that for some reason popped up in the contact list of her phone, she didn’t really know who else to ask. Maybe, she thought, one of those who had refused would change their mind after hearing the band already had another member, but she doubted it. Another problem was that even if she found someone else, there was still the lingering question what music they should play. Her favorite was of course hard rock, but she was also open to other forms of music. And Octavia had shown her classic could be kind of cool. Still, she wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect of standing on a stage while flutes, violins and pianos played around her. Similarly, Octavia didn’t seem too eager playing drums or E-guitars…

While she walked down the street with those thoughts in her mind, she noticed the sounds of her footsteps were surprisingly loud – they even seemed to have some sort of echo, as if after each step she made another one. As the echoes were getting steadily louder she realized someone was following her. Lemon turned down her volume slightly and listened for a moment. There was definitely someone behind her, and they were catching up fast. She took in a deep breath, before turning around on the spot with a confident look on her face.

Her confidence quickly dropped when there was the face of a girl an inch in front of her own.

“YIKES!” Lemon winced, jumped back while striking a pseudo-karate pose. The girl didn’t move a muscle, just staring at Lemon. Wearing a grey hoodie with the hood raised Lemon could barely see her face, but she was clearly frowning, the shades on her face making her look even more grim. With purple eyes, the girl stared straight at Lemon, hands in the pockets of her hoodie. As she didn’t do anything Lemon slowly dropped her fighting stance. She rubbed her shoulder, nervously looking left and right. The street was suddenly empty, with no other people on the sidewalk or cars on the road. Setting her eyes back on the stranger, Lemon forced herself to smile. “Um, can I help you?” she asked.

Taking the hands out of her pockets the girl threw back her hood, allowing Lemon a better look at her face. While she didn’t seem angry, the look she gave her screamed “I hate everyone and don’t care about anything” even more than Sugarcoat’s face. Also similar to her blunt friend the girl had tied her hair into a long pigtail on each side of her head, though she was missing Sugarcoat’s signature third ponytail. Looking at the girl’s giant strands of hair falling down to her hips Lemon wondered how she had ever managed to get them under her hood. Her hair was deep purple with blue-green strands, while her skin had a rosy tone somewhere between pink and purple.

“What’cha hearing?” the girl asked with a slightly raspy voice, fitting the sullen, life-hating look on her face.

Though a little confused, Lemon instantly brightened up. “Oh, you like my jam?” she asked, pulling off her headphones. “Here!” she said with a grin, holding them to the strange girl. “It’s the newest from Sup41!”

The girl leaned very, very slightly forward, as if to make sure she wasn’t really caring. After listening to the E-guitars, drums and screams for a moment she rolled her eyes. “Such a rebel, aren’t cha?” she remarked dryly.

Turning up her mouth Lemon pulled her phones back, putting them around her neck. “Well thanks for dissing me” she mumbled, about to turn away from her. “Anything else you want?”

The girl pointed behind her. “I was hanging around by the music store” she explained. Each word sounded like it didn’t want to leave her mouth, making everything she said feel like an annoyed moan. “You sang something about a band, didn’t you?”

Lemon shrugged. “So what?”

“I wanna join.”

Lemon nearly jumped, completely taken by surprise. “Y…you want wha- you serious?!” she stuttered, staring at the apathetic girl with eyes and mouth wide open.

She nodded. “So, when do we start?”

Lemon blankly stared into the girl’s bad-tempered face, before shaking her head. “Okay, I think now I know how the others felt when I asked them to start a band out of the blue” she murmured, scratching her head.

Rubbing her temples the girl sighed. “Look, I used to be in some sort of band once” she said, sounding like she had no interest at all to tell the story. “We had to stop because of certain ‘circumstances’, but I kind of miss being on the stage, so… I guess I wouldn’t mind playing in one again. So, might as well join yours.”

Lemon raised an eyebrow. “Now why do you think I would take some random stranger from the street into my band?” she asked, hands on her hips.

The girl shrugged her shoulders. “You seem desperate. So, am I in?”

For a moment, Lemon skeptically glared at her. A wide smirk suddenly spread over Lemon’s face. “Dude, you’re SO in!” she exclaimed, reaching out her hand. “I’m Lemon!”

The girl stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, then raised her gaze to Lemon’s grinning face. Rolling her eyes she took the hand. “Aria” she mumbled, shaking Lemon’s hand with little vigor.

The excitement was taking over Lemon again, making her rub her hands. “Okay, with you we’ve got gals three already – that’s good enough for a start, I think.”

“If you say so.”

“First practice is tomorrow at three pm. You free there?”

Aria pondered. “Can’t be there before half” she replied. “Gotta being someone to the dentist with someone.”

“Your little sister?” Lemon smiled. “That’s soooo cute!”

“Actually, she is around my age” Aria told her, sounding even more annoyed than before.

Lemon looked at her in surprise. “Can’t she go alone?”

“Happened once. It ended in tears and pain. LOTS of tears and pain.” She shuddered slightly upon the memory, but her face quickly returned to its grumpy look. “Where do I have to show up?”

“Crystal Prep Academy” Lemon said. “You know where that is?”

The mention of the school caused Aria to frown even harder. “That big shining building that looks like someone licked it clean?”

Lemon chuckled. “That’s the one!”

Letting out a sigh Aria nodded. “I’ll be there.” Her already gloomy face then took on a very serious look. “But I want to make one thing clear!” She raised a finger, pointing it straight at Lemon’s chest. “You may be the founder of the band, but you’re not my boss!” Pulling back her arm she mumbled under her breath: “I’m tired of being told what to do…”

While a little frightened at first, once she heard what she wanted Lemon breathed in relief. “Don’t worry, dude, we’re all equal there” she assured her. “No one’s gonna tell anyone what to do!”

Aria glanced at Lemon. For a brief second a devious grin flashed upon her face. “Not for long…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” With a motion that seemed physically impossible Aria pulled her hood back up over her hair, somehow concealing both her pigtails. “Gotta go now” she said, casting a short glance at Lemon’ clothes. “Don’t wanna be seen with someone in such a lame getup longer than necessary.” Putting her hands into her pockets again she turned around, slowly walking away from Lemon.

“Okay, bye!” Lemon chirped, seemingly ignoring the jab at her uniform as she waved after her. Turning around herself, she pulled her headphones over her ears, skipping down the sidewalk as she turned the music back on. “Got my bandmate number two, and she’s a radical dude~♪” she sang, happily bouncing over the pavement. Bopping her head, she began to hum the melody, occasionally playing the air guitar on her way through the city.

She had already gone pretty far and Aria had long disappeared when Lemon suddenly stopped. Should she have asked what kind of music she used to play in her old band?

Comments

[BenRG]

Bid The Dazzlings return?

Actually, it might work out. There's no-one at CPA better suited for helping Aria with her melancholy than Lemon Zest!

[Regreme]

Cute chapter.^^

Honestly, I like to view Aria as the type that actually likes being a supporting role, but having wanted to lead cause, simply put, she wanted respect, and leading is a way to gain such respect. And she sure as heck wasn't getting respect from Adagio and Sonata. No doubt why she's so bitter. No respect. No respect at all. I also like to think that Aria's got good ideas, BUT... she's impulsive, and doesn't consider the consequences or complications resulting from her actions, and thus why her ideas were always shot down by Adagio.

[kul]

Pls keep them evil, or atleast antagonistic towards other lowly humanoids

[Animation Crusader]

Aria?!

Huh... I expected Lemon to get band members outside of CPA, but I never guessed one of the Dazzlings would be a band member candidate.

Ooh... I bet Octavia's not going to like that Lemon invited one of the Dazzlings into the band since they brainwashed the school into fighting with each other. Hopefully Lemon can keep any tension at bay.

[SonicAKG]

This story is really good so far, and has me tightly hooked. Once again great job!

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Lemon, Octavia, and Aria
This can only end wonderfully.

[Tennis Match Fan]

the nagging voice in the back of her mind told her two girls didn’t really make a band, either.

Tell that to twenty one pilots. Sorry, I'm trash

[Csquared08]

Uh oh spaghettios