Written by Katy
Seventeen year old Erin Essics sat in the tree in the front of her house looking up and down the deserted street. With a serious look on her face she squinted her eyes to see farther down the road.
“Man, where are they?” she whispered to herself.
As if in answer, a little blue truck came into view not five seconds after she said that. Four guys leaned around the side of the truck to look down the street. A fifth, more mature looking, guy sat in the front driving the truck.
When the vehicle started to slow down in front of the little blue house, one of the guys jumped out and landed on the grass. From where she was sitting in the tree, Erin could still see his bright blue tipped hair. She almost didn’t succeed in stifling a laugh when she saw him looking around wildly for the sunglasses that were perched on top of his head. By the time he realized this, the other guys were climbing out of the truck and heading for the front-porch.
“Geez AJ, starting to forget things in your old age?” the blonde joked.
“Aw, shuddup Nick,” AJ responded as he ran up and rang the doorbell. When no one came to the door, he rang again.
“Where is she? I thought she said to meet her at noon,” the older of the five stated.
“Right here!” Erin yelled as she jumped out of the tree and landed right behind the guys.
“AHHH!” Nick and a shorter, brown-haired, guy screamed as they turned around to face the 5’9” girl that jumped out of the tree.
“Erin!” AJ yelled as he ran to embrace his friend.
“Geez AJ! Lemme breath a little here!” she joked as she received a large bear hug from the 20-year-old.
“But that takes all the fun out of it!” he laughed as he let go of her and stepped back.
“My gosh, Erin!” Brian, the brown-haired guy that was shorter than Nick, yelled
as he took his first good look at her. “You’re taller than me now!” At this comment, everyone started to laugh, even Brian.
“Aw, don’t worry Bri Bri…I’m all done growing, so…you’re just gonna have to put up with it now!” After seeing the 24-year-old try to act hurt, she quickly rushed up to him and gave him a hug. Then, not wanting to forget the others, she did the same to the other three.
“Well…let’s get workin’!” she announced after a couple minutes of silence. “Into the studio!” Smiling, she led the way into her house, around a corner, down a hall, down a flight of stairs, and into a room with green carpet.
“Looks nice,” AJ commented as he looked around the room. In one corner stood an acoustic guitar and a set of keyboards. Next to them was a computer that sat on a large metal desk. In the next corner, a plexi-glass “room” was set up. In it there was a microphone, a black music stand with some sheet music on it, and a pair of large headphones draped over the stand. In the corner by the door, there was a bookcase filled with music books, awards, tapes, CD’s, and a few little trinkets. Finally, on the other side of the door, a small brown table sat. With papers, pencils, pens, notebooks, tapes, CD’s, and many other things scattered on it, it was not exactly the neatest thing in the room.
“That table is never clean,” Erin laughed as she stacked up the papers and notebooks.
“Oh well,” Nick smiled, “It’s not as bad as my room.”
“No kidding,” Kevin mumbled under his breath. Erin glanced his way, caught his eye, and grinned. They both laughed.
“OK, so, what exactly is the plan for today?” Howie inquired.
“That’s a good question, D!” Erin laughed as she sat down in on of the chairs by the table.
“Well, I want to know what all you’ve been up to the past year and a half,” Brian suggested as he took a seat in the chair next to her.
“No you don’t,” she argued.
“Yes we do!” Nick cornered.
“Yea. Why wouldn’t we? C’mon Erin, girl! We haven’t seen you in forever! What’s been goin’ on?” AJ smiled and pulled a chair over in-between Brian and Erin. Within the next couple of minutes, Nick sat down on the floor next to Erin’s chair, and Howie and Kevin pulled up two more chairs around the table.
“OK, well…where do you want me to start? Surely you don’t want to know my whole life story for the past year and six months…not that much has actually happened,” she smiled weakly.
“The beginning would be a good idea,” Kevin smiled. “How about the trophies and ribbons over there. You didn’t have those last time we saw you.”
“Well,” she started, pointing to each item, “that one’s from last year’s talent show at the high-school. I sang ‘Hero’ by Mariah Carey and got a first. That one’s from basketball. We went to state last year and got second. Those two are both from local talent competitions. Both of them are for second place. That one’s from track last year. We got first in sectionals. There’s more, but they’re just for little things; nothing important really.”
“Cool! So how’s it going with the recording and writing and stuff?” Nick asked, very interested.
“Pretty good I guess. I’m not doing that much with it yet, though. I’m just still kind of messing around with it and stuff.” She looked at the floor and fidgeted a little in her chair.
“Still messing with it Erin?” Kevin asked, looking a little concerned. “You’ve been ‘messing with it’ for the past three and a half years.”
“Yea well, I still don’t know what I want to do for sure yet, Kev,” she sighed.
“Let’s hear something, Erin. Show us what you’ve got,” Brian encouraged as he nodded his head toward the mini-studio that was set up in the corner.
“Oh, alright. What do you guys want to hear?” she asked as she stood up and walked towards the recording area.
“Are you working on anything?” Nick questioned.
“Yea…something um…of my own.”
“Let’s hear it then,” Howie grinned.
“Well, it’s not all the way done yet,” she objected, looking at the floor.
“So? Go through what you’ve got,” AJ suggested.
“Alright. Let me get it set up,” she agreed as she walked toward the computer and turned it on. After pulling up a sound file and turning on the speakers, she stepped into the enclosure and shut the door.
From where he was sitting, Nick could see her rearranging the music on the stand. After that, she slipped the headphones on and pushed a series of buttons on a small switchboard that was set up in front of the music stand. A guitar riff started it off with drums and keyboards adding in gradually. Soon, Erin’s voice came through the speakers singing the lyrics to her song…
“Blind to you is all I am
Things running through my head
Blind to you is all I am
If you don’t mind leaving
“Wow…that was good,” Brian commented as the music faded and Erin turned off everything and returned the booth back to normal.
“Yea. That was really good,” Nick added as he looked her in the eye when she stepped out of the recording booth.
“Thanks. After that, it’s the chorus again and then a bridge and then the chorus again and it ends with an extended chorus part. I’ve got it all written out; I’ve just got to figure out the rest of the melody and the instrumental parts,” she explained as she finished shutting things down.
“Sounds pretty cool to me,” AJ offered.
“Thanks guys, that means a lot,” she blushed as she sat back down.
“Oh my gosh! Miss Professional over here is blushing!” Brian joked.
“Oh, shut up Brian!” she yelled as she playfully hit him on the shoulder.
“AH! Abuse!” he hollered as he clutched his shoulder.
“I’m with Erin,” Nick voiced, as he hit Brian’s other shoulder.
Brian mocked surprise and then hit the two teens back.
“Alright kids, break it up!” Howie, the peacemaker, Dorough announced.
“Aw, you’re no fun D!” Erin pouted, sticking her tongue out at her friend.
“Yeah, well, anyway, we need to get working. We actually have an interview later,” he reminded them.
“Bummer,” she sympathized. “Well, let’s get started then. We need to figure out what song, first,” she started as she rummaged through a stack of music. “Here. Look at these,” she said as she handed each one a couple songs.
As they passed them around, the room got quiet. Soon, all five of the guys had surveyed the songs.
“I say we do that Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men song – One Sweet Day. It’s already in duet form and we sing some Boyz II Men stuff already,” Kevin suggested.
“I’m with that,” Erin agreed quickly.
“Sounds cool to me,” AJ chimed in.
As the rest of the guys agreed, Erin went to her computer and started printing out copies of the sheet music. After five of them were made, she handed them out to each of the guys. She took her seat after words and looked over her original music.
“You guys want to take a stab at this now or start on it later?” she asked after a few minutes.
“We might as well try it now. We’ve still got time to waste,” AJ suggested.
“Alright then, let’s do it,” Brian agreed.
Minutes later, the six friends were harmonizing, laughing, and fixing parts. Before they knew it, an hour had passed. Erin glanced at the clock and then groaned.
“What was that for?” Nick joked. “Not having fun with your friends, anymore?” He made a puppy face and willed tears into his eyes.
She laughed. “Well, you know I can’t really stand any of your guys.” Smiling, she went on, “No, but really, I’m just hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Geez, girl! You’ve gone all this time on just breakfast?!? Why didn’t you tell us!” AJ demanded with a smile on his face.
“Well, I eat a big breakfast!” she defended herself. “Besides, we were having so much FUN.”
“Yea, well, it’s off to Mac Daddy’s now!” AJ ordered as he stood up. Not wanting to argue the other five stood up and followed him back upstairs and out the front door.
As soon as they were outside, they all rushed toward the truck as Erin stopped to lock the front door. They yelled at her to hurry up and she quickly turned around and dropped the key into her pocket. Just as fast, she ran over to the truck and jumped in the back with the rest of the group. Kevin started backing out and soon they were on the road.
*~~~~~~~~*
“You guys want to meet back up after your interview and do something tonight?” Erin asked as she hopped out of the back of the truck.
“Sure!” AJ answered, enthusiastically.
She laughed. “OK, I’ll probably be over at the high school courts somewhere. So just come around there sometime and find me.”
“Sounds cool,” Nick agreed.
“Ok, see you guys later tonight then!” she yelled over her shoulder as she jogged up to her front porch. She watched her five friends pull out of the driveway shouting their good-byes and then unlocked and opened her front door. Quickly, she went to her recreation room and grabbed her black Nike sports bag that held her basketball, tennis racquet, tennis balls, three bottles of water, spare change, extra clothes, and a few other items. She hoisted it onto her shoulder and then grabbed her rollerblades, sunglasses, and Kentucky Wildcats hat. Then, after going back out into the living room, she strapped on her rollerblades, stuffed her shoes into her bag, put her hat on backwards, and stuck her sunglasses on top of her head. After making sure she had everything she needed, she headed back out the door, locked it behind her, put her sunglasses down, adjusted the bag, and rollerbladed down the driveway.
*~~~~~~~*
“There she is!” AJ yelled as he pointed toward a tennis court where Erin and a boy were playing. Kevin steered the vehicle as close as he dared and then everyone piled out and ran toward the court. After waiting for them to pause the game, they hurried in through the metal link door and sat down on a set of small bleachers that were set up on one side. On the bottom row, below them, another girl and boy pair sat watching the game intently.
When the game stopped briefly, the boy turned around. “Are you guys Erin’s friends?” he asked.
“Yea. You know her?” Brian answered.
“Who doesn’t?!? She’s the most athletic girl in the school AND she can sing and dance! Not to mention that she’s got the meanest backhand on the tennis team,” he laughed. “So, what’re your names?”
“I’m AJ.”
“Kevin.”
“Howie.”
“Brian.”
“And I’m Nick, and you?”
“I’m Blake,” the boy answered. “This,” he pointed to the girl next to him, “is Sam. And that,” he pointed to the boy on the court, “is Penn. Top tennis player for the boys’ team.”
“Cool. Nice to meet you,” Howie offered. “So who’s winning?”
“This game or the set?” he shot back quickly, not wanted to miss the next serve.
“Both.”
“The set’s tied. They’ve both won one game. Erin’s winning this game by two points. It’s five to seven right now.” He explained and then turned around fast enough to see Penn serve the ball over the net.
*~~~~~~~*
“Once again, the mighty Erin beats her trusty opponent Penn,” Erin smiled and bowed to Penn and then the small audience sitting on the bleachers.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to beat you in front of your friends there,” he defended himself quickly.
“Excuses, excuses, Penn, you should really learn how to deal properly with defeat,” Sam came to her friend’s aide.
“I try,” he smiled.
“Since when did you take up tennis?” Nick asked as he bounded down the bleachers toward his friend.
“About three years ago, Nick. I just never mentioned it that much to you guys because you were always off somewhere doing something.”
Nick’s slight cringe was unnoticeable to everyone except Erin. She caught his eye and smiled to let him know that she hadn’t meant to hurt him.
“Hey, Erin, you up for doubles?” Blake called from the other side of the court.
She threw a questioning look at the guys before answering. They all shrugged. She laughed and turned back to her friend.
“Sure. Why not? Who’s playing with who this time?”
“How about me and you versus Sam and Penn?” Blake suggested.
“Sounds good to me. Sam?”
“Sure!” she quickly ran over to the other side of the court and joined Penn as Blake jogged over to Erin’s side.
*~~~~~~~*
“Ok, I’m tired, hungry, and sweaty now,” Erin complained as she sat down on the bleachers once the game was over.
“Do I hear the call of the great yellow arches?” AJ joked.
Erin gave him a disgusted look. “What is your obsession with that place, AJ?” Everyone laughed.
“We could meet you over at Pizza Hut, Erin,” Penn suggested. “They should have the corner table ready by now. After all, it’s tradition anymore these days to eat there after we play."
“I’m in,” she agreed. “Guys?”
After a chorus of “yea’s,” she turned back to Penn. “Meet you guys there in fifteen minutes.”
*~~~~~~~*
~*~WORK IN PROGRESS~*~
I don’t even wanna think about
The things I’m missing
You in the distance is all I know
What you’re doing
Where you’ll go
Keep coming back to this, baby
Slowly forgetting, that’s what I’m doing
Don’t want to remember all the pain
Don’t want to remember all the sorrow
I’m keeping you out of my mind
Forever and ever baby
I don’t even wanna think about
The things I’m missing
You in the distance is all I know
What you’re doing
Where you’ll go
I will show you the door
Out of my mind forever more
That’s where you’ll stay
That’s where you are
Keeping me in a world of fears
Making me cry a thousand tears
Not letting me go”