A Very Unusual Way To Ask You Out

The last day of guitar class arrived far too quickly for my taste. Over the course of the class, I had gotten a little bit better at playing the guitar, but more importantly, I had gotten to know Robin quite well. Abby was still convinced that Robin and I were going to get together, but both of us knew better than that. We were only friends, and at that point, I still thought that friendship would end once guitar class was over.

On the last day of class before finals, Robin and I sat next to each other one last time. "Hello Robin," I said as I took out my guitar and tuned it.

"Hi Bianca," Robin replied. "What's up?"

"Not much," I said. "I'm really going to miss this class."

"It was a little easy for me, but I think I'll miss it too," Robin said. He strummed a few chords on his guitar to warm up, and then said, "I still wish this school had an advanced guitar class. I would take that."

"I would too, but I think this class is repeatable," I said.

"What's the point of that?" Robin said. "Everyone says that I need some sort of plan for what to do after high school, but I just want to play in a band. I don't see why the school can't support that."

I was going to change the subject, but Mrs. Yates started class. She explained that we were going to play the Clash song that we were working on again, and then we would have some free time at the end of class to study for our guitar final. As usual, I missed over half of the chords in "Rock the Casbah," but I really just needed more practice. Robin, on the other hand, played the song flawlessly.

"How can you play that song so well?" I asked him.

"Practice," Robin said. "Also, I like this song."

"I thought you only listened to grunge," I said.

"I listen to other stuff too sometimes," Robin said. "By the way, I have something that I need to ask you."

"What is it?" I asked him.

"You're in choir, right?" he said.

"Yes," I said. "Why do you ask?"

"Would you like to be in a band with me?" Robin asked.

I had never thought about being in a band before, especially not with someone like Robin Stanley. I could play the bass and I could definitely sing, but I had no real desire to apply those talents outside of choir. However, I had no objections to the idea either. In fact, being in a band sounded like fun. "I guess so," I said to Robin. "I can't guarantee that I'll be any good though."

"You'll be great," Robin said. "You could sing and play bass, and I'll cover the guitar parts."

"I've never tried singing and playing the bass at the same time," I said.

"It's not too hard," Robin said. "I would sing, but I've never liked my voice all that much."

"I'll do it then," I said. "What would we call our band?"

"The Wallbangers, obviously," Robin said.

"I don't really like that name," I said. "It doesn't sound quite right."

"You're right," Robin said. "I'll call my next band the Wallbangers." He paused for a moment to think of other band names. "I don't know. Do you have any other ideas?"

"How about Madhouse?" I said.

"I suppose that works," Robin said.

"Do you have any other members yet?" I asked.

"No," Robin said. "It doesn't matter though. All we need is a drummer, and they're easy to find."

I decided not to bring up that I couldn't think of a single person that played the drums. I only hoped that Robin knew a few drummers. For the rest of class, Robin and I talked about our plans for the band. We scheduled a band practice for that weekend, and discussed our hopes and dreams for the newly formed band.

"I want everyone to like our music," Robin said. "We're going to be truly great, just like all of the great grunge bands."

"Do we have to play grunge?" I asked, lacking the nerve to admit that I didn't love grunge as much as Robin did. It was nice, but there were other types of music that I liked better.

"No, but it has to have guitars," Robin said. "I refuse to play any of the electronic garbage that passes for music these days."

"That's a deal," I said.

"Bianca, can you write songs?" Robin asked.

"I've never tried before," I said.

"You should try it," Robin said. "I'd like to see what you come up with."

"I'll try it then," I said.

"I want us to both be involved in the Madhouse's creative direction," Robin said. "It never ends well when just one person writes all of the songs."

"I've noticed that," I said.

"We're going to be better than that, Bianca," Robin said. "This band isn't going to implode immediately. We're going to stick together, and we're going to be great. By the time we're done with all of this, we're going to be legendary."

The bell rang, and I went to my next class. The rest of my classes were relatively uninteresting. For the most part, I just studied for my finals. After school, I met with Abby to continue studying. I always studied better when I had her to help me.

"What's up, Bianca?" Abby asked.

"Robin asked me to join his band," I explained. "We're going to call ourselves Madhouse, and I'm practicing at his house this weekend."

"Well, that's a very unusual way to ask you out," Abby said.

"He didn't ask me out," I said.

"Yes he did," Abby said.

"No he didn't," I argued. "He only asked me to be in his band."

"It's the same thing," Abby said. "Rule Number One of Dating: If a boy asks you to be in his band, then he wants to go out with you."

"I think you just made that up," I said.

"So?" Abby said. "He's clearly in love with you."

"No, he's not," I said. "He just wants me to be in his rock band. That's all."

"I don't believe you," Abby said. "Anyways, let me know if the band ever needs any help. I'm happy to assist you in whatever you might need."

"I'll let you know," I said.

"Great," Abby said. "How's your studying coming along in English?"

"Not well," I admitted. "I think I'm going to fail this final."

"Bianca, I will not let you fail!" Abby exclaimed. "We're going to work on this until you get it. What do you need help on?"

"Can you quiz me on what happened in The Great Gatsby?" I asked. "I forgot most of it."

"Sure," Abby said. She took out her color coded binder and flipped to the English section. "Where is Gatsby's mansion located?"

"I don't know," I said. "It's in New York, right?"

"You need to be more specific than that," Abby said. "It's in West Egg."

"You weren't supposed to tell me the answers," I said.

"Sorry," Abby said, and she moved on to the next question.

Abby and I studied for the next several hours, and I slowly began to improve. However, English was not my best subject and even after all of that studying, I was still struggling.

When I returned home, I was tired of studying, so I tried to write a song. I took out the bass that Nana gave me for my fifteenth birthday, and I began to play. After an hour or so, I settled on a chord progression and some lyrics, and I could only hope that would be good enough for Robin.

The next day, I studied in the morning and went to Robin's house in the afternoon. As it turned out, Robin and I lived in the same neighborhood. His house was only a few streets away from mine, so I was quite surprised that I hadn't met him before that year. I took my bass, walked down the street, and arrived at his house, which looked similar to mine. When I knocked on the door, a middle aged woman opened the door, and she was carrying a crying toddler.

"Hello," I said. "Is Robin here?"

"Yes, he is. I'm his stepmother," the woman said.

"I'm Bianca," I said. "I'm Robin's friend, I guess."

"Nice to meet you Bianca," Mrs. Stanley said. "ROBIN! YOUR FRIEND IS HERE!"

Robin came running down the stairs. "Hi Bianca," he said. "Let's go downstairs. I have everything set up down there." I followed Robin into the basement, where he had a cheap red Stratocaster plugged into an amp, along with a second amp for my bass. "I'm sorry about Jenny," Robin said. "She's been cranky all day."

"Is Jenny your sister?" I asked.

"Yeah," Robin said. "She's two, and she can be a little bit of a handful. Her twin brother Jay is only slightly less cantankerous."

"Your mom seems nice," I said.

"She is," Robin said. "She got me my first guitar when I was eleven."

"That's neat," I said.

"What should we play first?" Robin asked.

"I wrote a song," I said. "Should we try that?"

"Can I see the chords?" Robin asked. I nodded him the chords sheet and he looked over it. "Yeah, this looks pretty easy." He started playing the chords, moving between them more smoothly than I could ever hope to.

I started playing the bass notes, and after a few bars, I began to sing. I screwed up several times, and Robin and I couldn't keep time to save our lives, but the guitar and bass blended so well together that it didn't matter. "Not bad," Robin said when the song was over. He paused for a moment, and then said, "You have a really nice voice."

"Thank you," I said.

"I could listen to you sing all day," Robin said. "You have to be Madhouse's lead singer."

"I suppose I can sing for the band," I said. "I'm not used to singing for rock bands, but I think I can do it."

"You certainly can," Robin said. "Let's try playing Heart Shaped Box. It's not that hard."

I had never played the song before, but Robin was right. Heart Shaped Box was rather easy to play, but my voice was nothing like Kurt Cobain's. "Are you sure doing a Nirvana cover is a good idea?" I asked him after we finished the song.

"Yes!" Robin exclaimed. "You sounded great, by the way."

"Thanks," I said. The two of us kept playing well into the night, playing original songs and songs by other artists, but one problem kept coming up over and over again.

Robin and I still could not keep time.

Robin assured me that this was not a real problem in punk music. However, as a classically trained vocalist, it annoyed me to no end. It was becoming increasingly clear that Madhouse needed a drummer, but I had no idea where we would find one. Robin and I decided this was a problem that we would solve later. We had a band and a few songs that we could play at live gigs, and that was enough to begin our career in rock 'n roll. 

A/N: Happy Heavy Irish Pepper Day!