"Alright, everybody shut up!"
Everybody shuts up and looks at Ms. Vaken.
"The band trip is next week. If you don't have your form in by now, you're not coming. I'm going to email you all a bunch of stuff that you do actually need to read." She throws a pack of sticky notes at a kid in the first row, closest to her. "Pass those around. Rooming assignments will be four people to a room, and no, you don't get to choose who you room with. If you're uncomfortable rooming with someone, tell me privately. If you have a medical thing that I need to know about, tell me privately. I do need a note from either your parents or a doctor as well, because I don't completely trust all of you not to make something up to get into a room with all of your friends. Does everybody have a sticky note?"
Naturally, half of the class does not yet have a sticky note, because the pack stopped travelling somewhere. Ms. Vaken sorts it out with minimal patience, then gets back to yelling at us.
"Write the names of two people who you would like to room with. Yes, they have to be the same sex as you. If you're not cisgender and do not feel comfortable being grouped as such, come see me after practice and we'll work it out. I promise I'll have coffee by then."
I always hate having to write two names. Cody isn't in band, which leaves me with one whole male friend. I glance around the room, trying to decide on someone who will undoubtedly not write my name, who I wouldn't absolutely despise being roomed with. I choose one of the quiet nerd kids who has a friend group of four, who I'm ninety-nine percent sure have some system figured out to make sure they all get in the same room.
I write down that name, then glance up at Axel, almost by accident. He's already looking at me, giving me a slight smile. I press my lips together and look down.
Ms. Vaken collects our sticky notes, then has us warm up while she goes to get her coffee.
After rehearsal, Axel finds me in the hallway on my way to my first class. "Hey."
I can't help but smile at him. "Hi."
"Who'd you put?"
"You and Lewis."
"Lewis?"
"I'm pretty sure his friend group has some system worked out to make sure they all get put together, so." I shrug.
"Ah, so you're making sure you get put with me."
I flush a little. "You're the only guy friend I have in band. Do you mind?"
"Not at all."
"Who'd you put?"
"You and Peyton."
"Is he that blond trumpet?"
He lets out a cute snicker. "That's a fun mental image. But yes."
I grin. "Alright. Does he know I exist?"
"Of course. I talk about you all the time."
I stop walking. "What?"
He looks kind of surprised, like he hadn't realized that I didn't know this. "Yeah. I've been impressed with your musical ability since grade nine. I keep track of songs by what instrument you play for them."
"Okay but- wait, really?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. Okay, but do they know we're friends?"
"Most of my friends kind of assume I'm friends with everyone. And I mean, they've seen me talk to you, so I'd guess they do. They probably don't know how close we really are, though."
"Okay."
"Is it? Okay, I mean."
"Yeah." I start walking again, Axel falling into step beside me. "I mean, my incredible musical talent obviously isn't a secret, so if you're just discussing common knowledge, then I can hardly fault you for that."
He snorts. "Okay, Mozart."
â â
The week passes surprisingly quickly. It's not long before the band is packed up and on a trip to some place in Vancouver (I don't really care where exactly we're going. I mostly just care about getting to room with Axel and play music).
Axel does sit beside me on the bus, which is nice (Keira's trying to get used to the girls she'll be rooming with). Of course, it means I have to deal with his posse of friends as well. Fortunately, it's not quite as extensively large as usual, due to there only being band kids here. Aside from Peyton, there's a guy named Daily who I'm pretty certain Peyton would have written down for his other person to room with, meaning that if I do share a room with Axel, I'll probably be with Peyton and Daily as well. They're sitting across the aisle from us. And then there are the girls- Jennifer, Emma, Audrey, and Caroline. I'm actually okay with remembering names, since I know their instruments and can just associate them with that. Jennifer and Emma play flute. Caroline is a clarinet, which is really easy to remember (because alliteration). And Audrey plays the violin. I like her the most.
"So, how many instruments do you play? It feels like you've been in every section of the band at least once," Jennifer asks.
"I play seven instruments. Clarinet, drums, flute, guitar, oboe, piano, and trumpet."
Audrey grins. "In alphabetical order, too."
Caroline's eyes widen. "I didn't even notice that!"
I grin, shrugging. "I needed some way to organize it so I could list them off easily. I get that question a lot."
"Makes sense. Music is your main thing," Peyton says, without looking up from his phone.
"Peyton," Emma scolds him, reaching behind her seat to smack his arm. "Be nice."
"I mean, it's true," I say, because it is, but I'm also kind of interested in mentally coupling up everyone in this friend group. Emma and Peyton act like a couple more often than not, but I haven't had the chance to ask Axel if they're actually together yet. Daily seems to have a thing for Jennifer, but I'm pretty sure she (along with Caroline) is too interested in Axel to look at any other guys. I smirk to myself, knowing that Axel is gay and not interested in any of them even a little bit.
"So, Nash," Audrey says, getting my attention. "If you play seven instruments, why do you play oboe for the band? Is that your favourite?"
I gasp in faux offence. "I could never choose a favourite instrument. Mostly I just play whatever Ms. Vaken needs me to play, and we don't have a lot of oboes in the band for some reason, so that's where I go."
"If you had to choose only one instrument to play for the rest of your life, which would you choose?"
I notice Axel listening in to the conversation and smile to myself. "I'd probably have to go with piano. Though, if I could only play one instrument for the rest of my life, I might die. Music is my life source."
Audrey grins. "Really? I couldn't tell."
Axel snorts, and I turn to smile at him. Maybe making nice with Axel's posse of friends won't be so hard after all.
â â
As expected, when the room assignments are handed out, I'm put with Axel, Peyton, and Daily. Shockingly enough, the girls are also grouped together.
"This is pretty good," Peyton says as we enter our room. "Usually some random wannabe popular kid gets stuck in with Peyton, Axel and I. You seem pretty chill."
I glance at Axel, not entirely sure if that's a compliment. He's grinning. "Thanks?"
"I want a top bunk," Daily declares, slinging his wheeled suitcase across the room and koala hugging one of the bunk ladders so no one else can climb up it. "This is mine now."
"Nobody else cares," Peyton tells him, hauling his suitcase onto the bunk underneath the one Daily has apparently claimed.
"Good," Daily retorts. I glance at Axel, then at the remaining bunk bed.
"Which do you want?"
"I'm fine with either." He's already starting towards the ladder, correctly guessing that I want the bottom bunk due to his insane psychological observation abilities.
"Great." I flop onto the bed, grinning at him through the ladder rungs. I can tell he's trying not to smile too much with his other friends in the room, but it's really not working.
"So, how well do you guys know each other?" Peyton asks, watching our interaction. "You seem like pretty good friends."
"We are," Axel tells him. "He helped me improve my trumpeting."
Daily snorts from where he's taken up a modelling position on his top bunk. "Is that an actual word? 'Trumpeting'?"
"Yep."
Daily stares at me with wide eyes. "Really?"
"Yep."
"Wait, so you guys, like, hang out?" Peyton asks, looking a little surprised.
"Yep."
Axel laughs. "If only you guys asked this many questions in class."
Peyton rolls his eyes. Daily grins. "Class is unimportant and boring. Nash is interesting. Leave us alone, Axe."
I look at Axel, smirking. "Yeah, I'm interesting, Axe."
He holds up his hands in surrender, grinning widely at me. "Alright, alright, forget I said anything. You're all impossible anyways."
Daily gasps in mock offence. Peyton sighs deeply, looking up. "I can't believe I put up with you on a daily basis."
Daily snickers. I suppress a smile.
"Hilarious," Peyton deadpans. "Your mother should have named you 'Yearly' instead, because once a year is just about as much as people can tolerate you while still staying sane."
Daily pouts for a second, then grins and hangs his head off the top bunk so he can see Peyton. "You just called yourself insane."
Peyton puts a hand over Daily's face and pushes him away. "You're an idiot."
I look at Axel. "Is it always like this?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"You should hang out with us more, Nash," Daily tells me.
"He does have his own friends, you know," Axel informs him.
"Who?" Daily demands.
"You know Keira?" I ask. Daily considers that for a moment.
"The one who you called cute when Axel talked to her that one time, and he told you that she was way too smart for you," Peyton tells Daily.
"Oh yeah. Well, she should hang out with us, too."
"That wasn't the point," Peyton tells him, and Axel sighs and looks at me as they start bickering again.
"Wanna go downstairs?"
I grin, hopping off my bed. "Sure."
We head downstairs, finding Keira in the lobby. She looks up and I have to suppress a laugh.
"Are your roommates that bad already?"
She groans, expression pained. "They keep saying 'like', pretty much every second word. And objectifying male celebrities. And they've possessed the bathroom. And I'm trying not to nag them because they'd probably hate me if I start lecturing them about everything, but it's so hard." She sighs. "How are yours?"
"Pretty terrible," I say jokingly, knowing Axel is literally right beside me. "There's this one guy named Axel who wouldn't let me have the top bunk."
Keira rolls her eyes, knowing I don't care much about bed arrangements and that I prefer the bottom bunk anyways. Axel laughs.
"I mean, if you want it that bad..."
"No," I say quickly, and he laughs again.
"Okay, that's what I thought."
Keira's eyeing us suspiciously, but she doesn't get the chance to say anything else because Daily and Peyton appear next to us and interrupt.
"Axel, I'm hungry. Do you have any food? Oh, hi, you're probably Keira, right?"
Keira blinks at Daily, nods. Then she looks at Axel. "Can I lecture him?"
"Absolutely."
"Thank goodness."
"I'm confused," Daily informs us. "Also, if none of you have any food, then you're useless and I'm going to go hit on Jennifer."
"You know girls prefer to be treated as human beings and equals, and you'd probably have a much better chance with Jennifer if you did that and genuinely complimented her instead of 'hitting on her', right?"
Daily looks at Keira for a second, then looks at Peyton with big eyes. "She is smarter than me. I'm scared."
Peyton snorts. "Neither of those things are hard to achieve." Then, to Keira. "Don't worry, Daily is incapable of actually hitting on anyone. He always chickens out. He'll keep your advice in mind in case he ever does try and talk to a girl without immediately friend zoning himself."
Keira appraises Peyton. I can tell that she's deemed him tolerable at this point. "Alright. I'm glad to hear that."
I look at Axel, already smiling. It makes me really happy to know our friends get along with each other- well, to some extent. Axel grins back, and there's something about the vacation-y feeling of freedom and the carefree look of that smile that makes me have to actively resist the urge to lean in and kiss him.
Getting through this trip without Axel discovering my crush on him is going to be difficult.
What are your thoughts on the chapter? Nash meeting Axel's 'popular' friends? What do you think of Audrey, Peyton and Daily? Any predictions for the rest of the band trip?
If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider giving it a vote or a comment to let me know! Thank you so much for reading!