Chapter 6

Andrea was out in the garage, practicing her bass guitar. Their band, Twilight had a practice today. Holly, walked into the garage and said, " 'Drea, what's up?"

"Not much," Andrea mumbled with a pencil in her mouth, which she took out, continuing, "I got some tabs from one of the guitar magazines for an Ozzy song and I am trying to learn it"

"Cool," Holly said as she plugged her guitar into the amp. "So do you want to practice Ozzy till everyone gets here? Or do you want to work on new stuff?"

"We can practice Ozzy," Andrea said as the two of them shared the same sheet music. About 15 minutes later Adri, who played rhythm guitar and keyboards, and Pam, Andrea and Karen's cousin, who played drums, showed up.

Holly said, "Glad you could make it."

Pam said, "I know we are late but traffic was bad," as she climbed behind her drum set.

They had been practicing for about an hour when they noticed Pam was having a hard time keeping a beat.

"Hold up! Hold up! Stop!" Andrea yelled, trying to get everyone's attention. All the instruments sounding funny as they stopped at different times.

"What!" Holly said.

"Pam," Andrea asked, "What's wrong? Your tempo was off there at the end?"

"Damned if I know. I keep hearing some kind of noise and I can't concentrate. I keep starting to play that beat," Pam said with frustration.

Adri said, "Hey! Quiet. Listen." Adri started to walk out of the garage and into the backyard.

Holly said, "I hear it now. It sounds like another band practicing."

The further they got to the end of the yard the louder the noise got. Andrea stood on some junk that was stacked along the back fence and looked over the fence. She looked back at the girls and said, "Man they sound good."

Pam climbed up, listening, and then said, "Wow. Whoever the drummer is, they're good."

"Hey, let's go around the block and see if we can meet whoever that is," said Holly.

So they went back to the garage so Andrea could lock it, so their stuff wouldn't get stolen, and they walked around the block. "Maybe it is the new neighbors. Some new people moved in about a month ago. I never really paid much attention," Andrea said. 

The four of them strode up the driveway of the house in question, the music getting louder. There, they saw four guys playing hard core in the garage. The girls stood there listening through a whole song before the guys saw them standing there. 

The guy on the drums saw them first and got up, walked past the others, slapping each on an arm to get their attention, the way guys do, and they walked towards us, like they were all that and a bag of chips. The drummer was real tall and skinny with tattoos and scraggily brown hair and he walked up to Pam (probably because she was the oldest and the tallest), eyeing her up and down, and said, "Hhheellloooo Ladies,"Skinny Guy said, "My name is Tommy Lee."

Pam replied. "Good for you," with some sarcasm, thinking he wasn't completely unfortunate, but wasn't going to play easy for him. He seemed a bit conceited at the moment.

"OOoooo, spunky! I like my women with some spunk," Tommy said, if possible moving closer just by shifting his feet.

Pam rolled her eyes and said, "I am not your woman." She started towards the garage and said over her shoulder, "Dude, let me see your drums."

Tommy, thinking, she may not be my woman yet, but followed her like a puppy as she made her way to his drums.

Pam saw he had a double bass pedal, which she didn't have, and she asked excitedly, "Tommy, let me try this out, please? Let me see your stix."

Tommy said, "Sure. Do you play drums?"

"Ya, I do," Pam said distractedly, over the noise, as she tested the double bass pedal. "Actually that's why we are here. We have a band and we were practicing and heard you guys and came to investigate." Pam then ripped into a drum solo, thinking this is so cool. I gotta get me one of these. Tommy thinking she's good. Not as good as me, but maybe this is a way to her heart.

Meanwhile.....

The rest of them kinda stared at each other in that awkward guy/girl silence. Holly and Adri struck up a conversation with the Blonde and Andrea started talking to the dark headed guy.

"My name is Andrea, but my friends call me 'Drea for short," I said, holding out my hand to shake his.

Which he did saying, "My name is Nikki. Nice to meet you. So why are you here? Where did you come from?"

"I live behind you. My band was practicing also. We heard you guys and walked around the block to see what all the noise was.

"So, you live behind me. Cool," Nikki said, thinking...girls close by.

"Ya. I haven't heard you guys before. Did you just move in? Or did you just start your band?"

"No. My family's been here. We used to play at Tommy's but his neighbors said the noise was too much and we had to find someplace else to play. Tommy can get pretty crazy on the drums." Nikki looked over at Tommy and Pam (aaahhh!!! OMG! I just realize what I did. LOL! No pun intended) and said, "Seems like your drummer is pretty good, too"

"Thanks, I think so too. That's my cousin Pam."

Nikki asked, "Who are the other girls? Vince seems to be macking on them. He loves girls. He is such a dog." He finished with a chuckle.

"The brunette with the feathered hair is Holly. She plays lead guitar. And the other girl with the straight brunette hair is Adri. She plays rhythm guitar and keyboards," "Drea said.

"And what do you play?" Nikki asked.

"I play bass.," Andrea replied.

"Wow. So do I, though I am not real good at it," Nikki said.

"Maybe you can come over to my house sometime and we can practice together," Andrea said, hopefully.

"That would be great," Nikki said.

The girls staid a little bit longer before saying goodbye to the guys. As they were walking down the sidewalk, Holly said, "That Vince guy asked Adri and I out."

"But I said no," Adri said, "They are all just a little too creepy."

"So what did you say Holly?" 'Drea asked.

"I said maybe. I am not sure my parents will let me go since he is older than me."

"Well, if you really want to go, maybe I can get that Nikki guy to go and we can all go together."

"Maybe. I'll have to ask my parents," Holly said.