CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MOVING ALONG — 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
Is it bad that I'm hoping that you're broken?

LATER THAT WEEK, the members of Sunset Curve were strewn around the music room of Los Feliz High School. Alex was tapping his drumsticks against the rim of his snare drum, Reggie was laying across a few chairs lined up next to each other, Bobby was drawing on the chalkboard, Olivia was sitting at the piano, and Luke was standing beside the piano with his and Olivia's notebooks in front of him.

Luke leaned forward with both his elbows on the piano and a pen in one of his hands, his eyebrows furrowing from his deep concentration. "The set's only long enough for a few songs, so I was thinking we could open with something new?" He suggested, his eyes scanning over the list of songs he and Olivia had written. "Maybe Unpredictable?"

Olivia shook her head. "Nah, that one's more of a mid-set song," she said. "We need to open strong."

Bobby left the chalkboard and strolled up to the piano. He stood over Luke's shoulder for a moment before snatching the notebook that laid in front of him. Luke reached for it, but Bobby ducked out of his way and walked over to the other side of the piano. "What about Story of Another Us?" He asked after flipping to a random page. He was glad that he picked Olivia's notebook. If he had stolen Luke's, he wouldn't have been able to read a single thing. "This song looks pretty intense."

Olivia stood up and grabbed the book from him. "We're not singing that," she stated with narrow eyes. "And don't touch my book."

"You let Luke touch your book!" Bobby protested, pointing at the boy across from him.

"Only when I give him permission to," she countered, handing the book back to Luke, "you're just being nosy."

Bobby leaned forward and propped his elbow on the piano. His chin rested in the palm of his hand. "Why don't you wanna play it?"

"It's a personal song and I'm not ready to perform it yet." Olivia pulled the sleeves of her shirt over her hands. "Besides, it's not even finished yet."

"Looked finished to me."

She gave him a look. "But it's not perfect."

"Guys, can we focus?" Luke asked abruptly. By some miracle, he had gotten his parents to agree to watch their gig at Sonny's. He knew that this was his chance to show them that Sunset Curve wasn't a waste of time and he really wanted to figure out the setlist so they could actually start practicing. He needed them to be perfect. "What about Empty Wallets? We just need to tighten up the bridge and figure out the intro, but I think it'd be a good opener."

"Good or great?" Olivia asked with a raised brow.

Luke gave her a grin. "Great."

The door opened, but none of the teens looked up. Miss Taylor was supervising detention down the hall and had a habit of forgetting things in her desk, so they thought it was the woman coming back for something.

"Look who it is," a voice that definitely didn't belong to Miss Taylor said.

The members of Sunset Curve looked up and their guard immediately went up as well. Standing in the doorway was Harmony Lane.

"The school's newest pride and joy," Christa White continued, cocking her head to the side tauntingly. "Sunset Swerve, right?"

"Sunset Curve," the five teenagers responded indignantly.

Olivia crossed her arms over her chest and stood up straighter. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes scanned over the group of four, settling on Jason for a second longer than she intended.

"We just wanted to wish you good luck," Megan Hardy said in a sickly sweet tone. Her gaze landed on Olivia and she looked at her like she was nothing but the dirt under her shoe. "We heard you're playing at Sonny's tomorrow."

None of the Sunset Curve boys liked the way Megan was looking at Olivia and they certainly didn't like how Jason was looking at her either.

Luke walked around the piano and nodded. "Thanks for thinking of us," he said, his nose scrunching a bit, "but we don't need luck."

Christa smirked, her gaze landing on Olivia. "You might." She turned to leave and waved at them with a perfectly manicured hand. "See you around, sunset nerds."

Christa, Megan, and Josh left the room, leaving Jason alone with the five teenagers. He didn't say anything, but he looked like he was going to. His stare was piercing and he could tell Olivia was growing uncomfortable. He wasn't the only one to notice how Olivia avoided his presence because both Luke and Bobby stepped closer to her, staring at him threateningly. He turned and left without a word.

When the door shut, the members of Sunset Curve finally felt like they could breathe.

Reggie, who had sat up from his laying position, joined his bandmates by the piano. "What does she mean by 'you might'?" He questioned urgently. "Was that a threat? Because that sounded like a threat. I'm feeling kinda threatened!"

Bobby shook his head. "I swear if they try to sabotage us—"

"They're just trying to get under our skin," Olivia dismissed, walking around the piano to where the two songbooks were. She flipped them open and found their repertoire of songs written down on paper.

Alex nodded from his place behind the drums. If Olivia wasn't worried about her ex's band, then he wouldn't be either. After all, she knew them better than they did so if she said they were only trying to scare them, then he'd trust her.

"Ignore them, we have bigger things to worry about," Luke said, tearing his gaze from the place his ex-best friend once stood. He walked back to where he previously stood and planted himself beside Olivia. "Like our setlist, so if we could please go back to doing that."

Reggie and Bobby walked over to where their guitars were and sat down in the nearest chair.

Olivia picked up the forgotten pen and tapped it against her cheek in thought. "Okay," she started after a few moments of silence, "how about we open with Empty Wallets, then Long Weekend to keep the energy up, then mellow out a bit with Unpredictable since it's not as in your face as the first two, then bring it back up and end with Catch Fire?" She looked around the room with a questioning expression.

"You wanna play Catch Fire as our closing song?" Luke asked, the idea never crossing his mind.

"What about Get Lost?" Reggie suggested, tuning his bass.

Olivia moved her head like she was thinking about it before eventually shutting the idea down. "I don't know, that song ends pretty suddenly, I don't think it'll leave the audience with that 'wow' feeling, you know?" She clicked the end of the pen a few times.

Alex twirled his drumstick in his hand. "Yeah," he nodded, agreeing with what Olivia had said. "Catch Fire ends in a big theatrical rock 'n roll way, so I think it'll be good."

She raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him. "Good or great?"

"Great," he replied, shaking his head at her.

"Sonny's for sure gonna ask us to be his house band," Reggie said, plugging in his bass. "Then we can play there while we look for better gigs."

Olivia scribbled down the setlist in Luke's notebook. "So we're all good with this set?" She was met with a chorus of 'yes'.

"Alright, the boss lady has spoken," Bobby stated. He picked up his guitar and plugged it in. "Let's get this practice rolling, my dad wants the car back by five."

RAE SPEAKS !
sorry guys, this one was a shorter chapter :/