In sync again.

I had signed up and picked the song I’d play, one that I was confident I could play well. All that was left was to figure out how the hell I was going to do this.

“What do you mean?” Isabelle asked me. We were both in my room after school. I was sitting on my bed with my new guitar on my lap while Isabelle sat across from me on my desk chair and Cake laid next to me, licking the back of her paw. “You just play it, right?”

“The thing is… I took Thomas’ advice and picked one of my favorite songs. I picked one without lyrics so I wouldn’t have to sing. It’s also one in which the guitar plays a very noticeable role, but… There are like three guitars in the song and they each have a part in which they stand out. I could play parts of the lead guitar and parts of the rhythm guitars, but I’m worried it would sound strange with the backup track. And then, if I only play the lead guitar, there are parts where I’d be sitting there waiting, and if I play the rhythm guitar, it wouldn’t be as exciting as a performance.”

“So… you have to pick which guitar to play for the song and let the backup track play the rest?”

“Basically, yeah.”

Isabelle pursed her lips. “Okay, maybe this is harder than I thought it would be.”

“See?”

“Why not just play something popular? You’d get more votes like that.”

Oh yeah. The winner of the show would be determined by vote. Other students would pick the act they liked best. First place would get a $100 gift card for a clothing store, second place would get a $50 gift card for the same store and third place would get a $25 gift card to a local pizza place. Well, that and medals. Alice considered it an accomplishment that she convinced our principal to even have prizes beyond glory and pride.

“I considered it, but… I’m not looking for votes. I want to do this to prove to myself that I can do it. I… might not get people as excited as the guy who’s gonna dance like Michel Jackson, but… I’ve always played guitar for myself. It might be selfish, but I want to keep it that way.”

Isabelle chuckled. “I think that’s just how art is. I approve, brother. Do whatever you want to do. I’ll whistle and clap even if no one else does.”

“...Please don’t. I think that’d hurt me even more.”

Isabelle began to laugh, but then stopped all too suddenly. Her eyes went wide and a huge grin appeared on her face. “That’s it!”

“What is?”

“I’ll help you!”

I narrowed my eyes. “I know I have more instruments now, but there’s no way you’ll learn to play this in a month, not even the bass.”

“No, not like that! I just had a brilliant idea! Why don’t you just play lead and rhythm guitars at the same time? Even throw the bass in there!”

I looked down at my hands and counted them. One, two. Even Cake stopped grooming herself to stare at Isabelle like she’d just gone crazy. She was probably just curious about why Isabelle was shouting and flailing, but I wanted to believe.

“I’m afraid I’m missing a few arms, sis,” I told her flatly.

“You lack imagination, dear brother. Let’s record you playing, both on the audio interface and on camera. Then I’ll edit the footage and mix the audio and we’ll show it on the projector in the background while you also play live!”

That… didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. Actually, it was a genius idea. However… “It would be a lot of work for you. Do you even know how to mix audio? Because I still don’t.”

“We’ll figure it out. Worst case scenario you play lead guitar with a background track. But if we manage to do this, you’ll show yourself playing three different guitar tracks plus the bass!”

I’d… have to actually learn the bass track, but since I already knew how to play everything else, I could totally learn it in a month. I swallowed.

“And… you’d help me with this?”

“Hell yeah!” Isabelle smirked and clenched her fists over her knees. “Oliver, let’s show them. Let’s show the music club what they missed out on. Not with ****, but with poetic justice. One-up them so hard the whole school will be wondering why you’re not the lead guitarist.”

Fuck. It had been so long since Isabelle and I were on such good terms that I’d forgotten that she understood me perfectly. Much as I hated to admit it, I still held that grudge. I wanted to forget it, move on, be the bigger man. I didn’t want to know who had cut the strings of my guitar. I was afraid that maybe everyone in the club wanted me out. It was better to just forget about it, but… What Isabelle proposed sounded way too perfect.

I smirked. “I’ll have to re-submit the registration form if you’re helping me out. I’ll have to add that I’ll need the projector, too.”

Isabelle brought out her phone and started typing. “I’ll ask Alice if we can do that, but I doubt there’ll be a problem with all this time before the event.”

“We need to figure out how to use audio mixing software soon. You’re already good at editing video, so that’s our biggest hurdle.”

“I’ll still need to watch some other videos to get some ideas. Should we show all the instruments being played together or switch as they become relevant?”

“Should we decide that after we have the footage?”

“Mmm. No, let’s get some inspiration first. It’ll be easier to work if we have a clear picture in mind. But… Should we film you here in your room or somewhere else?”

“I… don’t know how I’d feel about most of the school seeing my room.”

“Oh, come on. They’d see the bed and the wall at most, and your bedroom is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s on the plain side, actually.”

“Fine. But let’s see if we can make the garage work somehow.”

It felt amazing. Isabelle and I were in sync like we hadn’t been in years. We were excitedly bouncing ideas off each other and planning how we’d get it all done. The more we talked, the more we realized all the work we had ahead of us. Suddenly a month was feeling like a lot less time.

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