The next few days turned out to be completely hectic for all of us. Projects and exams headed our way so band practices had to be postponed or cancelled. Even if some of us were available, we would always be lacking one or two members. In the end, we all decided that it would be best to just practice on our own for a while. JD and Adrian were both working on business projects. Spence had to do a report on one of Picasso's paintings of Marie Therese while Warren had to interview his uncle for reference on a paper he was doing about the life of a politician. On my end, I had to prepare for exams and submit a book report for my English Literature class. Our professor, Ms. Borja, had given us a long list of book titles to choose from. Classic books written by some of the greatest literary authors of all time graced the list and no two titles were the same. She had written them all into several small pieces of paper and placed them in a bowl. Once a certain book was picked out, it was
Wednesday. It was finally time to submit my book report on Great Expectations. As I handed in my five-paged report to Ms. Borja, I breathed a sigh of relief. I went through a lot to finish my report, struggling with a roller coaster of emotions and several all too familiar parallelisms along the way, but I overcame everything and came up with a report that I was proud of. Though it was somehow bittersweet that it was over, I knew that I would always remember the life and love lessons from Great Expectations. Yeah, I know. I was sentimental like that. Anyway, since most of our school work was done, we could now focus on band practice and prepare for the upcoming battle of the bands. It was the second week of October, 2006 and only seven days were left before Band Clash. We would be competing against some of the best college bands in the metro so it was obviously nerve wracking for all of us. Understandably, band practice had gone into overdrive and we were meeting everyday. It wa
Seven days had gone by and sleep was constantly evading me. I've been stressing out these past days and it has really affected my performances during practice. I really needed my friend Leslie right now but unfortunately, she was on vacation with her parents. Ugh! Why did she have to be on vacation right now? But with or without Leslie, now I had to set my anxieties aside as the day for Band Clash 2006 has finally arrived. West Lane's own concert hall was the venue for this music extravaganza since our school had the equipment and the space to accommodate a huge crowd. It was about six pm when I peeked behind one of the stage's curtains. I held my breath when I saw that people had started arriving to the venue, filling the seats to a maximum capacity. It was a Friday so naturally the majority of those watching would be students. Relax, Maddie! You've played for crowds like this before. While the entire concert hall was filled with excitement, behind the curtains was no differen
"Madison...Maddie, they're calling for us." I was startled when somone called my name. When I looked up, I couldn't believe who that someone was...it was Adrian! His voice was now really hoarse so I didn't recognize it immediately. He was looking straight at me and holding out his hand. Didn't this happen already? Flashbacks from Orientation Day suddenly came to mind. Déjà vu? Adrian was now motioning for me to take his hand and after a long while...I finally gave in and took it. He helped me up but I did not let go just yet. His hand felt incredibly warm in mine and it felt right somehow. "Ahem!" He loudly cleared his throat and I immediately pulled away. "Ah...sorry about that," I apologized. "Don't worry about it. By the way, thanks for saving me earlier. I owe you one." He didn't even turn to look at me when he said that because he was already rushing to get back on stage. I hurriedly followed after him, smiling to myself all the while. When I got to the stage, our
I had been alternately sleeping and studying through most of the weekend. So when Monday came, I had fully regained my energy and had enough preparation time for finals week or "hell week" as we liked to call it. Leslie had come back from her vacation and I was dying to tell her all the details of the recently concluded battle of the bands and my recent closeness with Adrian. But I guess that it will have to wait until much later because right now, I had exams to worry about. For the first two days of hell week, I had minor subjects to go through and for the last three days, the major ones. When the first day ended, I was already pretty much spent from answering essays, fill in the blank questions, and multiple choice items. I had already asked Leslie to go with me on Saturday for the victory party so we decided to go on a little shopping spree and headed straight for our favorite mall after class to unwind and find the perfect outfits. And while we shopped, I started telling Les
I couldn't believe how much time has passed since I met Adrian and the rest of The Decadence of The Fallen. It's been more than a year now but somehow, it feels longer. We celebrated birthdays together. We supported each other through our failures. We cheered each other on with every difficulty we faced. We've been through so much already. The ups. The downs. The in-betweens. I mean I couldn't even imagine a life without them anymore... November 17, 2007. It was my eighteenth birthday and my parents were giving me a grand debutante ball slash black tie event to celebrate this important milestone in my life. My mom was very excited and, particularly, insistent on making me wear a ballgown and having a cotillion for my coming of age party. Well, if you ask me I think that the whole "debutante" idea was completely archaic. I mean, come on! A cotillion? Seriously? I wanted a simple party with just my family and a few close friends just like my 17th birthday last year. But of course,
A week after my debutante ball, something unexpected happened. It was a Monday and it began as ordinary as any other day would. I got up, got dressed, and went to school as usual. I sat through several hours of lectures and quizzes and spent several more of that listening to another one Leslie's stories during her days as the former head cheerleader of her old school. After our chat, we decided to call it a day because Les had errands to run and I had band practice. We said our goodbyes before I headed to the concert hall. The Decadence of The Fallen had another performance coming up so band practiced continued as usual. I arrived to find that the equipment had already been set up and everyone was already waiting for me. Well everyone except Adrian, that is. "Hey, guys. You're all here early. So, should we do a sound check first or should we wait for Adrian to come?" I said trying not to sound too disappointed that he wasn't there. Nobody answered. It was unusual but I tried a
I told Leslie about everything that happened the last time that we were supposed to have band practice. About Celine's comeback. About Adrian's reaction. Everything. Her advice? Just pretend like nothing happened and act like I wasn't affected at all. Well, easy for her to say. Out of options, I ended up saying that I was going to skip a few practices so that I could figure things out but she said that it would only worsen the situation. She even scolded me for trying to run away from my problems and not facing them head on. Sometimes I think that she acts more like my mother than my best friend. I decided to follow Leslie's advice but I was still really apprehensive when I walked through the concert hall's doors that Wednesday. I dragged my feet and held my drum sticks tightly in my hands as I made my way to the stage. I actually didn't know what to expect that day but my gut was telling me to just call in sick and get the hell out of there while I still can. But before I even ha