Chapter 5: “The Start of a Beautiful Friendship”

A Chapter by Kirisaki Maikeru

After that faithful night as I was getting ready to buy cd’s at the music store and checks their latest keyboards. I was wondering if I could invite Kate but I was hesitating to text her because of the feeling that she will be curious on why did I invite her to come with me in my shopping and yet there I was staring at my phone still undecided if I should text her or not, I have come to a decision that I should go on my own to avoid some misunderstanding. It’s too soon for that if I want to help her and protect her smile and remove her sadness in her heart, I should get close to her in a friendly way so that she don’t suspect that I’m into her but come to think of it why am I feeling this way about her, it’s as if all I want to do is to help her but come to think of it I’ve been always like this. I just want to help a friend and if I see a girl that is confused and unhappy I should be a man and cheer her up no matter what, I leave the house and I’m on my way to the music store and as I arrived there I saw a familiar face at the store and it’s Krishna listening to the new music that has arrived this morning and once she saw me she greeted me cheerfully. “Hey John, what a coincidence to see you here!” She said. “Hey Krishna, Yeah it was a surprise for me to see you here.” I replied. “What a small world we live in right? Hey since we are here let’s shop together.” She suggested. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” I said. “So what song genre do you prefer Jazz or Classic?” she asked. “Hmm? I’d like to play Jazz; it gives me the peace I’m looking for when I’m thinking.” I replied. “What an interesting choice, I’d prefer Classical music because it just takes you back in the past.” She replied. “Yeah, that’s true classical music is really beautiful.” I replied. “Hey John, after this do you want to eat?” She asked. “Yeah sure Krishna.” I replied cheerfully. After we finished buying the new released music we go to a café to eat something and once we arrived there she asked me about Kate at first I was shocked that she asked me about her but the looks on her face is saying that she is concerned about Kate because Kate is just quiet when we are having a band meeting and she never joins us to eat at the cafeteria. After we ordered what to eat we talked about Kate while waiting for our food to be served at our table. “About Kate, I know that you noticed this too but just to be sure I’ll ask you this. Something’s off with her she’s really quiet when we were having band meetings and she wouldn’t join us. What’s wrong with her?” asked by Krishna. “Yeah, I noticed that too but she called me last night and asked me if she would be any of help to our band and she sounded really upset and concerned but something’s off, it sounded that she is troubled, troubled with her past she said this to me last night, she have a dark past and she wouldn’t tell me until the time comes.” I replied. “I’m just concerned about her, I mean I want to be friends with her but I can’t do that if she’s being distant to us and whenever we are together she only talks to Trevor, I know he’s her childhood friend but we’re here too and we are band mates, I want us to be like a family, you know what I’m saying John?” she replied. “Yeah I get your point, but we can’t do anything if she’s not ready to talk about it and we can still be friends with her, we should just approach her and talk to her, eventually she’ll trust us, we have to earn her trust in order to help her right?” I replied. “Yeah you’re right John, you really know what to do John, and it’s like your analysing everything and finding the best possible solution to the problem. So let’s make this official we’ll help Kate with her troubles and make her feel that we are here for her.” Krishna said with a cheerful smile. “Yeah we’ll make it happen and we’ll protect her smile no matter what.” I said with a roaring motivation in my heart and a cheerful smile. “John I have to ask this, why did you want her to be your support vocalist?” Krishna asked seriously. “Cause when I first hear her voice, I was overwhelmed on how soft and calm her voice was, it made my heart at ease.” I replied. “So that’s why you want her to join us but you’re right she is very talented at performing and singing, she has potential to grow even better than us.” Krishna replied with a smile. “Right and we are the ones who will help her.” I said. Our conversation ended and our food has arrive on our table and we started eating, when we finished eating we take a short break then we started to go home already , Krishna took the bus and I just walk home because my home is just nearby as I was walking down the alley, I started thinking what can I do to help Kate with her problem and what would I do in order to get close to her, earning her trust cause when you see a girl looking troubled, I need to be a man and help her that’s been my motto since I was 7 years old. Well then I’ll start worrying about it when I get there on the contrary I need to prepare for the assembly tomorrow and it’s only 5 p.m. I still have time to practice and get ready. I arrive at my home and when I got to my room, I took a seat and grabbed my lyrics and started singing. When I was done at my practice, I relaxed since it’s been a long day. As I was taking a rest at my bed, I received a text message from Krishna saying that we should have a band meeting tomorrow and I replied her back with an okay. I’m really tired today and I didn’t notice that I fell asleep already.

My alarm rang at exactly 6 A.M., there I was getting ready for school and for the first assembly where I will show my skills as a performer, that I’m deserving to be at the elite 10 performers at the selections that I’m a force to be reckon with as I was walking the alley I saw someone familiar to me at the convenience store near the station and as I get closer to that someone, it’s Krishna waiting for me and as she saw me she greeted me “Good Morning John! Are you ready?” she greeted and asked me with a cheerful tone. “Good Morning Krishna! Yeah I’m ready” I replied back with a cheerful tone. “*Laughs*.. I’m excited for the assembly!” she said with a cheerful tone. “Yeah! This will be our moment we show our skills and make them realize that we are a threat at getting the 10 spots at the elite 10 performers.” I said with a serious tone. We chatted on our way to the school and when we arrived there, we are shock that there are so many students arrived at school early, I just remembered that there is a special guest the former #1 in the elite 10 last year is going to perform here at the assembly and I know all too well that she improved drastically this past 4 months especially she got accepted at the most exclusive school and a real powerhouse school that produces professional performers every year, Crystal River Music Academy. It’s a top tier school for those who want to be a professional performer and not all of the students that took their entrance exam passed, only a selected few passed last year and one of them is my former classmate. I look around and I didn’t saw her, well knowing her she loves to make a grand entrance. Krishna and I go to our classroom and we saw Zeke and Trevor there and said “Good Morning!” greeted us simultaneously. “Good Morning!” we replied back. “You two sure are early today.” I said. “Well yeah, I can’t sleep just thinking about the assembly today.” Zeke replied. “Zeke is so excited that you just want to compete right?” Krishna added. “Well yeah, I always get pumped up if there is competition.” Zeke replied. “But you must plan first before you attack.” Trevor said to Zeke. “Yeah, Trevor’s right this is a good chance to scout some competitions even though we are senior high school that doesn’t mean that our junior’s won’t put up a fight.” I said to them. “You’re right, so let’s do our best.” Zeke said full of motivation. “Okay!! Let’s fight!!” we said simultaneously. The school bell rang signalling the start of the assembly and our class lined up in the gym but Zeke, Krishna and I prepare at the back of the stage where other representatives of each level are there. This intense aura that I felt, all of us want to compete even Krishna who is always relaxed and composed is releasing such intense aura, such intense concentration while I feel nervous, but no matter what I’ll put my heart into my performance today and make sure that I will rise above all of this students before me. As the ceremony end and the principal started to call the representatives of each level to perform in the stage, the first one called is the 7^th graders they are all girls with a powerful and high pitch voice as each of their performance has ended the crowd just cheering them on then there comes the 8^th graders and their 1^st ranked performer goes first and he has an incredible mellow voice that brings the heart of the crowd at ease, after his performance the crowd gave him a standing ovation, his name was “Xavier” after his two companions are done performing, the principal called the 9^th graders they are all talented but they lack the spark that the other level before them brought and as all their representatives are done performing, the next level called was the 10^th graders and as I thought they’re ranking didn’t change from last year, their 1^st ranking is “Jade” she has a soft mellow voice when you hear her voice it as if you were in a meadow enjoying the cool breeze that it brings, 2^nd ranking is “Desmond” his voice is a powerful one like a rock star but his pitch is on spot it never misses, and lastly 3^rd ranking “Kristine” even though she’s 3^rd but she’s the strongest of them all she is given the title “The Queen of Pop” wherein she shines when the song she was performing a pop music genre, her level of performance is close to a professional. They are the levels that I’m worried about because they can match our skills in performing and as they are done performing all of them got a standing ovation from the crowd even our classmates gave them a standing ovation but even though they are very skilled we can’t lose, the principal called the Senior High and it’s our turn to spark things up in the crowd. The first to perform among us is Zeke as he takes the stage. Zeke’s performance is explicit as we say, when he sang the song “Best friend” a love song that is written for your best friend, when he sang the first verse everyone cheers him and you will feel that as he sings he is putting his heart into it after his performance the crowd gone wild and started clapping as he got a standing ovation both the crowd and the faculty members, when he arrive at the back of the stage he said while wearing a smile “Do your best Krishna and John!”. “You Bet!!” we said to Zeke wearing a smile. After that Krishna is going to take the stage and before she took the stage she said to me “John, I want you to make your performance better than mine got it?”, “Yeah I will not lose Krishna.” I said with full of confidence. She sang the song “My Love” a classic love song and as she sings it the crowd is silent and you will see that her audience is crying they can feel the message of the song that Krishna is singing, as I thought she is the very best at performing when her performance ends the crowd claps and chant the name Krishna! Krishna gave an outstanding performance and when she arrives at the back she said to me “Good Luck John, You’re up!” “Yeah, cheer me on!” I said. It’s finally my turn as I took the stage and stand in the spotlight, as my music plays the song I will sing is “Perfect” a love song that will bring the heart of my audience to something that they will never felt before. When I sing the song all I can think about is Kate, certainly I sing this song with my feelings and as I perform the crowd had gone wild while being in tears of my performance and when my performance is done the crowd chants my name as they claps and gave me a standing ovation it’s not just the crowd but the faculty members as well, when I look around the first thing I saw is Kate smiling at me like she was saying “That’s it, you’ve done an outstanding performance.” As I arrived at the back of the stage Krishna and Zeke confronts me with a smiling face but the principal said that there is a special performance from the former #1 Elite performer last year and a grand entrance has happened the stage is light up with pyrotechnics and as I thought it was “Rachel”. When she performed we felt an intense aura and that she is really a monster just her entrance makes the audience go wild while we have to make it to the first verse to make an impact but she made an impact just singing the intro of the song after her performance we felt a sudden weakness in our hearts and we realized that, that’s the talent and skill we will face at the “Battle Of The Bands”.

As we go back to the classroom, Zeke and Krishna was overwhelmed that they just put their head down on their tables and took a rest but me Kate approached me and said “That was some awesome performance you gave there John Congrats!” she said to me with a cheerful tone. “Thank you Kate.” I replied. “Why the long face John?” she asked. “You know the special performance today well that is what were up against at the Battle Of The Bands, I’m just worried that they’ve improve so much.” I said to Kate with doubt to myself. “You’re the one that said to me that no matter how hard the path is we must endure and persevere in every challenge we encounter, we must not give up and train more in order to win.” She said to me. That’s when I realised that we must not give up yet and we just have to rehearse soon in order to win. “You’re right Kate, Academy Of Rock! We will rehearse next week in the day of Wednesday, we will not lose to the former elite 10 performers, and we just have to become stronger than we are now.” I said to the band out loud in the classroom. “Yeah! Let’s win no matter what!” they said out loud. “Thank you Kate, for making me realise something important, Thank you very much.” I said with a cheerful smile to her. “That’s what Friends do.” She said. That’s when it hit me that I really want to protect her smile and I will do everything to remove the sadness in her heart after all she is my precious friend. This band will be the start of a “Beautiful friendship”.