Ryan Armstrong

I'll never admit it to her face, but Andromeda was a great musician.

If you walked in her room, you'd find an opened violin case on the floor near a stereo, an electric guitar/amp in one corner, and an acoustic guitar in the other. She was good, but our friend Naomi was better. She and Andromeda were part of a band called, "The Oddysseys." It w was seriously spelled "Odd" instead of "Od." Andromeda sang, Naomi played lead guitar, Jacob Wright played bass, Taylor Heath on violin, Mia Sanders on drums, Andrew Henderson on piano/keyboard, and Skyler Reagans on cello.

Andromeda formed the band, so they gave the band a name from Greek Mythology. I've tried to tell them that the first Andromeda was in the Iliad, but they don't exactly care. "The Oddysseys" sounded way better than "The Iliads."

Sometimes, I put my iPod in my ears, but didn't turn it on, and put on the invisibility cap my mom gave me for my birthday. (It's completely fair to Andromeda. She got a knife, and she can already sneak up on any unsuspecting person who won't know she's there until she jumps them.)

That's what I did that day.

I stood outside Andromeda's bedroom door, listening to her practicing what she was going to play with her band for the end-of-school talent show. I loved the song. It was called This is War, by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

A warning to the people the good and the evil

This is war

To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim

This is war

It's the moment of truth

And the moment to lie

The moment to live

And the moment to die

The moment to fight

The moment to fight

To fight, to fight, to fight

To the right, to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

From the last to the first

To the right, to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

It's a brave new world

Ohh

Ohh

A warning to the prophet, the liar, the honest

This is war

To the leader, the pariah, the victor, the messiah

This is war

It's the moment of truth

And the moment to lie

The moment to live

And the moment to die

The moment to fight

The moment to fight

To fight, to fight, to fight

To the right, to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

From the last to the first

To the right, to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

It's a brave new world

It's a brave new world

I do believe in the light

Raise your hands towards the sky

The fight is done

The war is won

Lift your hands towards the sun

Towards the sun

Towards the sun

To the right, to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

From the last to the first

To the right to the left

We will fight to the death

To the edge of the earth

It's a brave new world

It's a brave new world

It's a brave new world

A brave new world

The war is won

The war is won

A brave new world

I couldn't wait to hear that song, all plugged up to amps and whatnot. I was hoping she would practice again. But then, she started to practice her acoustic version of Two is Better than One. I sighed and went to my room.

Okay, forget acoustic. Whatever the opposite of acoustic was, that's what she was playing.

Do what you, what you want

If you have a dream for better...

Hello, hello

Remember me?

I'm everything you can't control...

I smiled. That totally described Andromeda. Suddenly, the phone rang, and I ran to beat Andromeda to it. I got there first, and I heard Naomi's voice say, "Hey, Andromeda. What happened to you?"

"Okay, a-I'm Ryan. B-You know exactly what happened. C-" Andromeda grabbed the phone out of my hand.

"Hey, Naomi. What do you mean? It's June, for crying out loud! Wait-you know that song? Can you teach me? Do I have to pay? Okay, see you tomorrow." Andromeda hung up with a sigh. "Andrew, Jacob, Taylor, Skyler, and Mia are sick. We'll be playing Safe and Sound. Can you record it?" I shrugged. I wanted to be a film director, and I was thinking that, if The Oddysseys got a good start, I could direct a music video for them. This would make good footage for a music video.

I was daydreaming about the Grammies it would make when Andromeda snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"I'm bored, and I want to put another video on YouTube. Hint, hint, Mr. Wannabe-Academy-Award-Winner." I snapped out of it, and ran to my room to grab a couple of cameras. (Yes, I said, "A couple of cameras." I had figured out how to wirelessly control them with Andromeda's laptop, and a big part of directing was camera angles. Can't do cool camera angles with one camera.

"What song, little miss diva?" I asked resentfully, carrying a camera into her room.

"Can I be in it?" Natalie asked. She'd been so quiet, I'd almost forgotten she was there

"Nope. But you can watch! Oh, and I want to do... um..." Andromeda chewed on her lip, looking at the ceiling. "Count on me!"

I began adjusting the cameras to a good angle while Andromeda ran to grab the sheet music for "Count on Me." She set the music on the stand and grabbed her guitar. I turned on the cameras.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Andromeda Jackson!" I said in as low of a voice as I could. Andromeda began playing a slow song on her guitar.

If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea

I'll sail the world to find you

If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see

I'll be the light to guide you

Find out what we're made of

When we are called to help are friends in need

You can count on me like 1, 2, 3

I'll be there

And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4, 3, 2

And you'll be there

'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah

Woooh, woooh

Yeah, yeah

If you toss and you turn and you just can't fall asleep

I'll sing a song beside you

And if you ever forget how much you really mean to me

Everyday I will remind you

Ohh

Find out what we're made of

When we are called to help are friends in need

You can count on me like 1, 2, 3

I'll be there

And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4, 3, 2

You'll be there

'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah

Woooh, woooh

Yeah, yeah

You'll always have my shoulder when you cry

I'll never let go

Never say goodbye

You can count on me like 1, 2, 3

I'll be there

And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4, 3, 2 and

You'll be there

'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah

Woooh, woooh

You can count on me 'cause I can count on you.

Through the entire time, I was pretending to be focused on the camera angles. But, really, I was listening to Andromeda sing. She had a great voice, and was what you could call a small-time hit on YouTube. People loved her covers, and guys were jokingly asking her out in the comments. She'd even been in a featured video at one time. I shut off the video cameras.

"Here, Ryan." Andromeda gave me $20. I nodded. As if that was the reason I did this for her.

I ended up making an awesome video for her in Movie Maker. I logged into YouTube and started to upload it.

I had an hour to wait for it to finally show up, so I searched through the other videos Andromeda had made. Safe and Sound, What You Want, My Immortal, and even some that her band had done: This is War, Bring Me to Life, and Talking to the Moon. I clicked on Andromeda's My Immortal video and cut it to where it was only the chorus. I uploaded it to Movie Maker. The Oddysseys Montage was in the works.

When I'd finally done all that I could to make it awesome, I saved it, and sat back in my chair, waiting for the next day.

Because, with just Naomi playing... well, I could zoom in on her and not get in trouble with the other bandmates.