(AN: I do not own any of the characters of school of rock)
"Lawrence, are you finished with your homework? Dinner is ready?" shouted Lawrence's dad up the stairs.
"Yes, father, I'll be down in a minute," Lawrence poked his head out of his bedroom door. His father nodded and disappeared.
But Lawrence wasn't doing his homework. He wasn't practicing on his brand new keyboard that he had gotten for Christmas either. He had been standing in front of his mirror, practicing on asking Eleni to the Spring Fling dance. Yes, it was a long shot, but he had liked her as long as he could remember.
Lawrence wasn't the type of guy to show his feelings. He was shy and was far from being Mr. Cool, like his old teacher, Dewey, had assured him he would be. That had been two years ago, and the band was still going strong. At band practice and gigs, he was part of something, but when that was over, he was back to being shy, quiet, 'nobody talks to me' Lawrence.
Eleni was gorgeous and could usually be found hip and hip with Michelle, her best friend and other groupie of the band, School Of Rock. They came to practices, danced around to the music, and gave each of the boys kisses on the cheek before they performed. Whenever Eleni gave him a kiss on the cheek, it always seemed to linger as if she were still kissing that very spot.
It didn't help that she was always saying things like 'Lawrence, get a picture with me for the scrapbook', in which she'd smile at him and make him put his arm around her while they posed for a picture, or when she'd say 'nice solo, Mr. Cool', winking at him when the band would finish practicing a new song. And what got to him the most was when over all of the cheers and screams at a gig, he could hear her shouting 'Lawrence, I love you!'
Of course, she was a groupie, and well, they were supposed to worship the members of the band. She and Michelle also said things like this to Freddy and Zack, but Lawrence had some hope that she really meant these things when she said them to him.
"Lawrence! The food is getting cold!" he heard his father shout for him again.
He looked once again into the mirror, feeling less than confident. He hated his glasses, he hated how he was a little pudgy in the middle, and he hated how when he could never relax his posture. He always looked so polite, so stiff, nothing like someone in a awesome rock band.
He let out a sigh and went down stairs to eat. His mother had made his favorite food, which usually meant that his father wanted to talk about college with him. He hated this. He was only in the seventh grade. College wasn't for another few years. He wasn't sure if he would continue with music, but his father had told him a long time ago that he could be in the band if and only if he did it for fun and not for a profession. Lawrence had agreed. He didn't want to be another Dewey, but he'd never say that out loud.
The forks and knives clanked against the plates as he, his mother, his father, and his little sister ate dinner in a comfortable silence. Well, it would've been comfortable if Lawrence hadn't awaited for his father to start the college talk. Five minutes in, Lawrence's father seemed to pull a brochure from his ass, handing it to him.
"I want you to take a look at that, Lawrence," said his father, "They have an excellent engineering program, and it's never too early to take your SAT."
"Yes, father."
Lawrence pretended to read the front of the brochure as if interested, and then sat it down to finish his food.
Another comfortable silence passed, and Lawrence was surprised that his father wasn't pushing for him to talk about the college more. Instead, his mother was watching him from the corner of her eye.
"So, Lawrence, I heard about the Spring Fling dance at the PTA meeting yesterday. Are you going to go?" she asked.
Lawrence almost choked on a cooked carrot. "Huh?"
"The Spring Fling dance."
"Yes," Lawrence heard himself say quietly, "I was thinking of asking one of the girls in the band."
"There are no Chinese girls in the band," said Lawrence's Father, indignantly.
"It doesn't matter, Lin," his mother said. "I'm happy to see that you're finally making an attempt to interact with the opposite sex."
Lawrence watched his father shoot his mother a look to say 'not in front of Sarah', who was his little sister.
After dinner, Lawrence retreated to his room and lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He sheepishly smiled to himself just thinking about asking the prettiest girl to the Spring Fling dance. He jumped up and did a little awkward dance in the middle of his floor.
"Lawrence, go to bed! You have school tomorrow," he heard his father shout from the other bedroom across from his.
He got back in bed and shut out the light to fall asleep.
The next day, Lawrence had butterflies in his stomach when his father dropped him off at school. He saw some of his band mates walk in together. He decided not to catch up with them. He'd just end up walking behind them anyway, not saying a word. He walked to class by himself and made it into class ten minutes before the morning bell rang. Summer was next to walk into class. She was talking on her cell phone, yelling at Dewey for scheduling a recording session during school hours. They were going to record their first CD next week.
Next was Zack, Freddy, Marco, and Katie. Freddy was air drumming with his drum sticks, Katie was bobbing her head to her CD player, and Zack and Marco were laughing at something. Then Marta, then Frankie, then Tomika, then a few others. Lawrence kept his eyes locked on the door. Finally, Eleni, Michelle, and Billy came walking in, giggling. They all sat together near the door, and Eleni didn't even look Lawrence's way.
Class had started, and Lawrence settled in his seat to pay attention. He was a smart kid, this he knew. He had no problem concentrating on his studies, but that didn't stop him from thinking about Eleni. Occasionally, he'd think about how she flipped her hair when she stood by her locker, or how when she laughed she snorted a little, or how she smelled like flowers and coconuts whenever she hugged him after practice.
His thoughts were interrupted when Alicia came into class late. The teacher, Mrs. Crosley, had stopped her lesson and crossed her arms, expectantly.
Alicia casually walked back to her seat as if she had done nothing wrong. Before she could sit down, Mrs. Crosley stopped her.
"Alicia, I'm going to have to give you detention for being late," she said.
Alicia dropped her bookbag and sat down, rolling her eyes. "I had an emergency."
Lawrence never talked to Alicia, even though they were in the band together. She, well, kind of scared him. Everyone was a bit afraid of her but Tomika. She talked back to teachers, she always sat in back of the class, and she even made a boy cry once. The only time Alicia seemed pleasant was when she was singing in the band. She had a strong tendency then too. She bullied the microphone from the other back up singers. Dewey referred to this as 'boggarting' the mic.
"What emergency was that?"
Alicia rolled her eyes again. "An emergency. The point is I'm here."
"Alicia, you don't have to give me an attitude. I was just asking what was so important for you to miss the first ten minutes of class."
"Well, if you really want to know, I started my period for the very first time," said Alicia bluntly.
Everyone in the class turned stone face, including Lawrence. A couple of the girls snickered, and Freddy made a gagging noise.
"Ok, that's so not something you admit out loud," Lawrence heard Eleni whisper to Billy.
Apparently Alicia heard this comment and asked her sourly, "Why? Are you jealous?"
Eleni didn't have time to retort or say anything back. Mrs. Crosley, clearly embarrassed by Alicia's personal statement, had cleared her throat and told everyone to return their attention back to the lesson.
Class was almost over with and Lawrence quickly memorized his new English terms that they were going to have a pop quiz on the following week. He knew that Mrs. Crosley always threw a pop quiz a week after learning new definitions. He and Summer were going to get together to study, but they were more of study partners other than friends. Other than that, they didn't talk.
Mrs. Crosley was going over a last minute section of their English book when to Lawrence's left, he saw Tomika pass something to Marta. Marta passed it to Frankie, who passed it to Gordon, who passed it to Katie, who passed it to Zack. Lawrence watched Zack open it and read it. He looked across the room at Tomika and then wrote down something on the piece of paper.
He then passed it back to Katie, who passed it to Gordon, who passed it to Frankie, who passed it to Marta, who gave it back to Tomika. She opened the note, and Lawrence heard a 'yes!' behind him.
The bell rang, and everyone packed up their stuff and left class.
"Hey, Larry, over here," Freddy shouted to Lawrence, who had just paid for his lunch.
Freddy and the guys never invited him to the table unless they were talking about something dealing with the band. He usually ate alone or with Summer, who usually only ate with him to run over notes.
Lawrence juggled his green gelatin on the tip of tray all the way over to the guys' table and sat down on the end. He waited for them to tell him news about the band that they had just discovered, or to hear a new song Zack wrote, but instead, everyone just carried on eating and talking about girls.
"So, Lawrence, man, who are you asking to the Spring Fling Dance?" asked Marco, nudging him.
"Umm..."
"I can't believe Tomika asked you, man," Freddy interrupted, talking to Zack.
"Hey, shut up, dude. She's a kickass singer," Zack leaned over the table and punched him in his arm. "Besides, Tomika's better than Marta."
"Hey! I'm going with Marta," shouted Marco.
"I'm going solo," said Freddy, smugly. "More ladies for me."
Lawrence felt so out of place. They were talking about girls, and he had nothing to say. Would it really be able to live it down if he just suddenly confessed his feelings for Eleni? He was waiting to hear if any of the guys had claimed her. Many of the guys had found dates in other classes, or they weren't going to the dance at all.
"Katie's going with some boy from Forest Hill."
"Did anyone ask Summer?"
"She's going with some other brainiac boy from another class. They're in charge of the dance together. Jason, or something like that."
"Michelle and Eleni?"
"Well Michelle's going with Billy--"
"Billy? With a girl?"
"Shut up. Not cool. Billy's alright, and they're going just as friends."
"Eleni going with him too?"
"I don't know who she's going with. She hasn't said anything."
"So who all is left?"
Everyone looked at each other and chimed "Alicia".
Lawrence and the boys looked over at Alicia, who was with Tomika in the lunch line. Some boy accidentally bumped into her, and she pushed him with the front edge of her tray.
"Watch were you're going, stupid ass," she snapped at him, eyeing him with hate.
Tomika watched the boy walk away amusingly and continued to follow her friend, shaking her head.
"Girl, you're a trip," Tomika laughed, following close behind her friend.
"What? It's not my fault the dumb ass can't pay attention to what he's doing," replied Alicia.
She hated most of the kids at that stupid prep school. All of the boys were drooling idiots and all of the girls were so full of themselves. That was what she always felt. It wasn't the PMS talking.
That morning she had got up feeling a little ill. Something was wrong with her stomach, but she didn't pay it much attention. It wasn't until she was on her way to class that she felt that something wasn't quite right. She had went into the bathroom, only to discover that she had started her period.
It made a lot of sense, considering that she had been on edge for the entire week before. It was past her normal snappy self.
She had to wait for someone to come into the bathroom to give her something before she could leave. Walking into class late wasn't fun either. All of her classmates had stared her, and Mrs. Crosley annoyingly wouldn't get off of her back about it. She finally decided to shut her up by telling the truth. Mrs. Crosley never said anything after that.
And now it looked like the boys were going to start with her too.
"Hey, Alicia, make sure you're not late to practice tonight. Bring a tampon," said Freddy as she walked past.
"Gross, dude! We're eating," said Zack, making a face.
"Freddy, has anyone ever told you that my fist is going to make contact with your mouth one of these days?" Alicia stopped in front of their table, her tray nearly hitting Lawrence in the head.
A bunch of 'OOOooos' came from the table, and Alicia triumphantly smiled.
"Tomika, you gonna let your friend talk to me like that? I just might not let you go out with Zack," joked Freddy.
"I don't think it's your choice," Tomika retorted, smiling at Zack, who smiled back. "See you tonight, Zack."
"See ya."
The two girls left the boys table and went to sit down at the girls table. The first part of the table, nearest to the boys, was where Eleni, Michelle, and Billy sat. At this end, they usually talked about the latest trends, boys, and stuff that most air headed people would talk about. Alicia hated Eleni and Michelle. To her, they were pretty much useless to the world, but she never hesitated to make them bring her water during band practices. She wasn't too keen on Billy either, but she could tolerate him.
The middle part of the long table was where Marta and Summer sat. Their conversations usually consisted of Marta complaining about something or other, while Summer went on and on about her grades, and on occasion, shows that the band had coming up. Alicia didn't really talk to these two. She couldn't stand how Summer acted like she was better than everyone else, but she did give her credit for putting up with Dewey's laziness and handling all of the band drama. Alicia personally thought she was a better singer than Marta. Because of this, Alicia tended to boss her around, telling her what notes she should or shouldn't hit or correcting her on her dance moves. Their 'friendship' was nothing but professional.
Lastly, the end of the table by the window was where she, Tomika, and Katie sat. Katie usually listened to her CD player, and every once in awhile joined in on a conversation that she and Tomika were having. Alicia liked Katie, but wouldn't necessarily go out of her way to have a close friendship with her. Tomika did most of the talking, but a lot of the time, she would just stare at Zack, which really annoyed Alicia. Tomika and she had been friends since she had started at Horace Green. They were close, but distant at the same time. Tomika had come out of her shell since that crazy year that Dewey had pretended to be a substitute teacher at their school, causing them to start a band. Alicia, on the other hand, refused to become 'best friends' with a bunch of people who never talked to her in the first place.
"So, you and Zack? Is it a go?" Katie asked Tomika, slipping one ear piece off of her ear.
"Yep! Girl, I've already got my dress picked out. Who are you going with?"
"This really hot punk kid from Forest Hill who lives next door to me. His name's Tim," smiled Katie before she slipped her ear piece back on her ear and turned the sound up.
"You guys are so lame. Who wants to go to that lame ass dance?" Alicia smacked her teeth.
"Don't even pretend you don't want to go. I know you do," said Tomika, taking a bite of her turkey sub.
Ok, so it was true. Alicia did want to go to the dance. She had never been to one before, which none of them had, and it was something she didn't want to miss. However, she wasn't going to go alone. She hated how everyone else had a date, but she didn't. There was really no one left to go with. She also knew no one would ask her. They didn't like her, and they knew she didn't like them. She was considered a real witch. She couldn't help that she just naturally had an attitude.
She especially had an attitude when Dewey told her she was 'boggarting' the mic. She only did this because she hated how Marta sang and want her voice to cover over hers. Tomika could sing, but she usually had a solo to do so Alicia felt it as her duty to make it sound good. She saw it as helping out the band, not trying to make herself the star.
"So what? It ain't gonna happen."
"Why don't you ask--"
"No. Uh-uh," Alicia waved a dismissive hand at her friend. "We're not even going to go there."
"Ok, ok," Tomika chuckled a little, taking another bite of her turkey sub, and then wrapping it up and slipping it in her bookbag for later.
Dewey had band practice that night at 6:00. No one was there but the band and the groupies. They did their usual warm up, which usually meant a bunch of talking, flirting, and fooling around. Michelle clung herself on Freddy, and Alicia wanted to laugh when Katie stuck her finger part way in her mouth and pretended to gag. Eleni was talking to Lawrence, and he looked like he was about to wet himself. Alicia thought it was so obvious that he had a crush on her. It made her sick. No one should waste their precious time on Eleni.
Marta, Tomika, and Zack were chatting, as Zack played a few riffs on his guitar. Tomika was laughing and smiling at Zack like she was the most carefree person in the world. Alicia rolled her eyes. Since when did everyone become so obsessed with the opposite sex?
"Ok, everyone, enough chatty-chat-chat. Let's gooo," announced Dewey strapping on his guitar.
Alicia stepped over to the mic, followed by Marta and Tomika. As soon as Zack started off, everyone leaped into action. They played a song Dewey wrote first which was called 'When You're Down and Out'.
Then they played a song that Zack had written called 'Everything's Green'. During this one, they had to stop three times. The first time was because one of the groupies had tripped over Zack's cord leading to his amp while dancing. The second time was because Lawrence had messed up his playing after his solo. Alicia could've sworn it was because Eleni had shouted 'Lawrence, you're awesome!' The last time was because Alicia was 'boggarting' the mic.
"It's not my fault you can only hear me," said Alicia sourly to Dewey.
"Look, no need to get hostile," Dewey walked over to her and patted her on the back. "I just want be able to hear the other girls."
"Then tell them to step it up."
"Alicia..." Dewey started off, but Freddy took it as his cue to make an announcement.
"She's being a witch because she started her period today," he teased her.
"Freddy, that's enough," Dewey pointed a stern finger at him. "Alicia, congratulations. I'll take you out for a margarita or something later, but right now, I want to get on with practice. We record in a week."
Alicia wanted to go over there and smack the living daylights out of Freddy. She hated when he always tried to embarrass her. However, she listened to Dewey and allowed practice to continue.
Practice ended around 9:00. Alicia would've been the first one out of the door, but instead, Dewey had pulled her aside, wanting to have a serious conversation.
"Alicia, we need to talk about your attitude. It's giving the band a negative vibe," he told her, hands clasped in front of his mouth. "What's been going on, girl?"
Alicia looked away from him. "Nothing. I didn't mean to get smart at practice today, but Freddy--"
"Just ignore him. You know how he is sometimes. When we practice, it's about all of us, not just one person. That's important for you to know Alicia. That's the only way you can be part of this band."
"So are you trying to say that I'm kicked out of the band?" she snapped.
"No, no, nooo," Dewey exaggerated his voice. "I would never kick a great singer like you out of the band, but I want a little band unity. It starts with you, girl. Hang out with some other members of the band, get a little more friendly."
After awhile, Alicia nodded, and Dewey gave her the rockin' hand shake and went into the kitchen to help himself to another pizza pocket. She walked back into the living room to take down her microphone and gather her things and leave. Lawrence was in there, standing in front of Eleni. She pitied him.
"I was wondering," Lawrence shifted to his other foot, "if..."
"Yeesss?" Eleni pressed on, as Michelle giggled behind her.
"The Spring Fling Dance. I wanted to know if... if... you'd go with me?" he mumbled.
He waited for his heart to stop so he could drop dead. Eleni and Michelle started to giggle wildly. Was this bad? Was this good? He didn't know what to think.
Finally she said, "Can I tell you my answer tomorrow?"
Lawrence could feel the sweat on his brow. He gripped his hands so tightly behind his back, hoping she didn't notice how nervous he was. "Ok. That would be fine. See you tomorrow."
The girls walked away giggling more. Lawrence decided it was good for them to be giggling. Girls did that when they liked someone, right? He loved Eleni's giggle. It made him feel all bubbly inside, as if he had drank too much soda and the fizz had taken over his brain. A smile crept across his face as Dewey swore loudly in the background. He must've caught something on fire.
"She's going to say no," someone spoke from behind him.
The fizz disappeared and he spun around and saw Alicia. She was stashing her microphone in the corner. She stopped and looked at him dully.
Alicia was actually talking to him. "Huh?"
She smacked her teeth. "I said she's going to say no to you. Do you really think she'd go with someone like you?"
Lawrence was a little insulted and confused. "But she giggled."
Alicia, picked up her purse, rolling her eyes. "She giggled because they're making fun of you. Just 'cause she gives you attention when you're with the band doesn't mean she likes you."
Dewey walked into the living room where they were, holding a burnt pizza pocket. "Hey, guys, no offense but you're gonna have to get out of here. My favorite show is coming on in, like, three seconds. Scramble, scat, scoot."
Lawrence picked up his jacket, and Alicia pushed past him. She turned around and looked at him once before she walked out of the door. "Lawrence, don't be such a stupid ass. Eleni's isn't worth the wet dreams."
Lawrence watched her go, feeling pretty angry. Why did she always have to make everyone feel like crap because she wasn't having a good day. She was wrong about Eleni, and if he had enough guts to do it, he would rub it in her face when she said yes after all.
(AN: This is the first chapter and there's 4 more to go. Can the ice queen melt the ice around her heart? Can Mr. Uncool finally get what he wants? You'll have to keep reading to find out. Review please! Positive, and if not positive, then helpful. Thanks for reading)