Resonance: a phenomenon that occurs when an external force drives another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at a specific preferential frequency.

Matthias was cool in a geeky, book-smart, math genius sort of way – that is to say, he wasn't cool at all. He wasn't rebellious, he staunchly refused to break the rules, and he wasn't even particularly interesting by most people's standards. Of course, no one would assume differently of an eleventh grader taking AP calculus (along with an assortment of other advanced-placement classes), especially after seeing him in person. Going by the stereotypes, anyone who wore thick-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector was universally considered a nerd by those at the local high school.

And they would be absolutely correct. Matthias was the definition of nerdy.

But, that didn't necessarily mean that everything he did was nerdy.

He let his cooler side show within very strict parameters that followed the curfew set by his mother. Given those guidelines, he stayed after school every Thursday and Friday to participate in his personal favorite hobby. Sure, plenty of nerds stayed after school, but while most were at some sort of club, Matthias was in the music room. Said music room was occupied by various music groups for the first three days of the week, but the room was completely the remaining two, and Matthias took advantage of this opportunity to practice playing the drums.

Yes, drums. Not classical drums like the timpani or the triangle or whatever – he used a kit. It was probably the coolest hobby Matthias had, seeing as his other pastimes included playing fantasy video games, coding HTML, and trying to finally get the 8192 tile on 2048 (he'd gotten 4096 a few days after downloading the game, but the elusive 8192 was still frustratingly unachievable after months of relentless effort).

Anyhow, he would have played the drums at home, but he'd had to give away his own drum kit when his family had moved to the US from Denmark a week prior, so he was stuck with the run-down set purchased by the school, each drum head worn down and the snare permanently loose from student abuse – which sucked, but that was just the way it had to be until he saved up enough money to buy a new set of drums.

So, there he was one rainy Thursday afternoon, banging away as usual and just starting to get into the zone when Matthias heard the door swing open, slamming on the wall behind him. A resounding voice came cried out: "Oh my God, I love you!"

Well, that was a phrase Matthias had definitely never heard directed at him. It had been said so freely, too, with all the excitement of a teenage fangirl meeting a member of One Direction, or My Chemical Romance, or whoever the hell girls were into these days.

Matthias immediately ceased his playing and swiveled around on his seat to see the boy who had just professed his love for him, standing in the doorframe and staring at Matthias intently. He had a wiry frame that was accentuated by a pair of skinny jeans and a large tee-shirt. His eyes were rimmed with thick eyeliner, and each earlobe had a black, hollow gauge in it.

The boy seemed to take Matthias' silent observing as a signal that he was weirded out, and quickly backpedaled. "Oh! Uh, sorry, I didn't mean, like, I'm in love with you or anything, I mean, I've already got a boyfriend and I don't know if you're gay anyway. Not that I wanted to know if you were! I just, I heard you playing when I was walking down the hallway and I had to see! You see, I'm in this band and our drummer quit on us a few weeks ago and we need to find a new drummer and then I heard you play and I mean…." At this point, the boy seemed to realize he was rambling and spurted a quick, "you're awesome, okay?!" before he covered his mouth in embarrassment.

Matthias blinked. "Um, what?"

"Ugh, I'm such an idiot! Can I start over?"

Matthias nodded, and the boy took a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking again: "Hi, I'm Tino Väinämöinen, nice to meet you. I really like your drumming, and I'm sorry I interrupted"

"It's fine," Matthias replied. "I'm Matthias Andersen, but I'm really just an amateur."

Tino gaped, disbelieving. "Are you joking? You've gotta be about ten times better than the last guy we had, no offense to Alfred or anything."

"If you say so," Matthias relented with a short laugh, if only so the conversation could continue. "So, you said something about a band?"

At that, Tino's eyes lit up, and he began to smile. "Oh yeah! We really need a drummer, and you're really good (I've already said you're really good, that's super awkward I'm sorry)! Do you wanna join?"

"Well, I don't see why not. I've always sort of wanted to be in a band," Matthias mused. Having made his decision, he met Tino's intimidated – but not unhappy – gaze. "Alright, but only if you've got a decent kit. This one sucks."

"Oh, we've definitely got a drum kit!" Tino remarked before furrowing his brow at the set Matthias was seated at. "Wow, those do look bad. How do you make them sound so amazing?"

"I don't," Matthias scoffed with a flippant eyeroll. "My playing sounds like total shit on this. What time is this band of yours rehearsing?"

"Right now, if you'd like – not that I'm forcing you or anything. We agreed that we'd call each other and rehearse once we found a drummer."

"Well, whatcha waiting for then? Go call 'em. I'll do anything if it means I get to play on a snare that actually works."

"Oh, uh, okay!" Tino seemed a bit surprised that Matthias was so willing to join, but withdrew his phone from his backpack nonetheless and dialed a number. "Hey, Lukas?" he asked after a moment.

There was a pause.

"No, no, that's not it. No…. Lukas! Stop talking, please... Okay, well, I finally found a drummer! And he's really good, too…. No, seriously, he's even better than Alfred... Yeah, we can come over right away, should I call Berwald, or- oh, alright, I guess you can do that then. Okay, we'll see you in a few minutes! Bye, Lukas!"

And with that, he hung up and put his phone away again. "Alright, Matthias, let's see if you really do sound better on the Jensen's drums."

Matthias let out a cocky peal of laughter, undaunted. "Challenge accepted."

"There's a song I was listenin' to up all night

There's a voice I am hearin' sayin' it's alright"

~ "M!ssundaztood", M!ssundaztood, P!nk