A single room can bring back so many memories. The piano, with its black and white keys and its beautifully painted wood, its maroon wood is still shining as brightly as it did when Professor first taught me the scales. The tree in the corner, that he watered every day, was still there; it’s taller than before, but the bright red horns are just as loud and proud.

“Can I help you? This room is reserved.” Leah turns to find herself faced with a pair of violet eyes. Why the Hell is he here?

“Um, I’m supposed to meet some kid here. Shawn?” I turn around and try to look casual, like there weren’t a bazillion butterflies in my stomach and my heart wasn’t trying to burst out of my chest.

“You’re the guitarist?” He groans. Even annoyed, he looked irresistible. “Of course Shawn would pick up some random chick off the streets to play guitar in our group. I shouldn’t have trusted that twerp.”

Okay. Now he doesn’t seem that attractive anymore. I hate sexist pigs that think girls can’t do anything. “Excuse me? Who are you to judge that I can’t play guitar?”

He turns his eyes to me. “All the girls Shawn has ever bought can only play classical guitar and lullabies. They had no skill whatsoever. Are you saying you’re different?”
            “Y-yes!” I hate him. I hate his attitude. I hate his stupid, fashionable clothes. I hate that perfectly manicured finger that he has pointed at my face. I hate those beautiful, violet eyes. I hate the way his hair falls so nicely around his face like an anime character. I hate how his hair looks so soft that I want to run my hands through it. I hate how I don’t want to remove the finger he has hooked under my chin. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He smiled calmly, as if I didn’t just try to slap him. “Good, so you’re a fan girl.”

He looked like he was going to try to kiss me and now he’s all calm and happy again. What is that all about? “Heck yeah. At least, I’m not one of your fan girls.”

“Hey Nick! Are you picking up hot chicks without telling us about it?” A dark figure loomed towards us, judging by the darkly tanned color of his skin, he has to be part-dwarf. He knelt and pulled a Daisy out of nowhere. With a wink, “The name’s Phoenix. If you ever get tired of this jerk, look me up.”

Were all guys like this outside of class? I know that the guys from my classes don’t do anything like this to me. They’re too afraid that if they get too close, they’ll get their ass handed to them on a silver platter.

“Leah!” Shawn came bounding in the door, not unlike a small puppy. “I knew you were going to show up. Did you bring your guitar? You gonna show these guys how much you rock? They don’t believe me that I found the perfect gal to be our guitarist!”

“Actually, we didn’t believe you found the perfect person. You never told us you picked up another girl by using your ‘I’m-in-a-band’ line again,” Nick was pissed again. Man, is this guy bi-polar or something? He has got some major mood swing problems.

“Oh! A girl guitarist in our band? That is hot!” Phoenix started doing some weird… well, I assume they’re supposed to dance moves. I guess guys do do weird dance move. “Wait, Shawn. You said her name is Leah?”

“Yeah. Why?” Shawn stopped spinning around on the high stool.

“You don’t happen to be the Special Program applicant Leah, are you?”

“Well,” Why the hell would this random idiot know about me? And why does Nick look like he was just smacked in the face? “I haven’t started the application process, but Professor Zlarkeon recommended to me that I should. I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Oh-my-God-you-should-do-it!” Shawn’s personality is so much like a 5-year-old’s that I refuse to believe that he’s from Y7. Normal Y7 guys don’t randomly glomp people, right? “We’re Special Program students too. Phoenix is a fighter and has musical skills. Whenever he plays, people get completely mesmerized, and he can play a wide variety of instruments. He can play anything if you teach him. The only downside is that he can’t sing. Never ask him to sing, unless you want to inflict physical pain on someone. Nick’s a fighter too. The two of are the top fighters in the Academy. They even take on students from the Chun Academy! And the Chun Academy is known for producing great fighters, soldiers and assassins. Nick has only lost to Phoenix once. As for me, I’m a mechanic. I’m part-mechanic dwarf, so there is nothing I can’t fix or hack.”

“And there are no girls in our dorm. You should fix that,” I guess Phoenix is a flirt too. No wonder the two of them get along. At least Phoenix doesn’t go around declaring it. Then there’s the problematic Nick. Idiot. He is definitely not a flirt.

“I don’t know yet. I’m debating, but I am leaning towards accepting the offer,” it felt easy returning Phoenix’s smile. He sends out a nice, friendly vibe, like all he wants is to be friends with the entire world. It’s similar to Shawn’s vibe, which is friendly, but has more of childish vibe.

“Yeah,” I walked over the table where I had set down my guitar. The feeling of my fingers brushing across the strings calmed me.

“What are you going to play for us?” Well, at least it would have been calming if the guy I was playing for wasn’t being such an absolute bastard. “You have any influences?”

“I’ve always taken a liking to this ancient band that existed maybe 3 centuries ago, My Chemical Romance.” I could almost feel a tremor in my voice. I tried to calm myself down by doing a quick check to make sure the guitar was in tune, even though I knew it never goes out of tune. “I could sing a song by them. I’ve got most of them of them memorized.”

“Nice.” There a hint of surprise in Nick’s mixed vibes. Does he like the band too? “Just pick any song.”

“The only one that I’ve learned all the chords and vocals to is their song The Sharpest Lives, so I guess I’ll do that.”

“Wow,” I think Phoenix is drooling a little. Either that or he’s in shock.

“Does she pass? Does she pass? Does she pass?” The puppy excitedly looked to the alpha male for his opinion and approval.

“Not too bad. Toro was better,” I’m not sure if he’s joking or not, but his violet eyes showed no emotions. Really?

“Well, obviously, no one beats the original. Baka,” I rolled my eyes and let my guitar hang by the straps.

“You one of their fan girls?” Is he trying to analyze me or something? His vibes are way out of whack.

“Yeah. I’ve always taken a liking to Mikey. He’s one of the reason I dedicated myself to the guitar. I hate that he got eye surgery though. He was cuter with glasses. Then again my roomie always teases me for having a glasses fetish,” Why am I telling him all this? He makes me feel like I can just tell him stuff. If I’m not careful I might end up telling them my own sob story about Danielle.

“Hmm…” I hate it when I can’t read a person. Couldn’t I have gotten mind-reading powers instead of just vibe-reading powers?

“Come on, Nick. What do you think of the girl?” Even Phoenix was asking for his opinion. I guess Nick really is the leader of the band, unfortunately. Why is it always the lead singer that’s the leader of the band?

“I guess she could join for now, I guess, but on probation. You’ll have two weeks to learn the songs from our main set list. Phoenix will hook you up with the sheet music. We have practice here twice a week and we usually have gigs once a week, but those are on hold while we’re looking for a new back-up singer and guitarist. We’ll meet back here in two weeks for a practice run and we’ll start gigs again if you have those memorized.”

What a jerk. Who does he think he is running this band like some drill sergeant? I bit my tongue to keep me from spewing all kinds of bad words at him and just replied with, “Fine.”

Nick and I are about to murder each other. Shawn and Phoenix are ready to throw a party. This is so messed up.