Chương 195: FINALLY THE CONCERT!

I felt really happy entering the assembly hall. We sat with our classes, and I realized that I had been here before, on the first day of school, when the principal gave her welcome address and the school student president (now known as Matt) had talked to us and introduced student affairs. That was like another lifetime ago now. Now the faceless students I sat with were classmates with names and faces. I even recognized one of our school event hosts — Jules.

Was he the senior event host who would be graduating next year? The other event host was a girl with an almost shoulder-length bob and a wide smile. Her eyes looked sparkly even from where I was seated in the second half of the hall.

"Hi, I know everyone is very excited, but please come in and take your seats. We will be starting soon," she announced on the stage before disappearing again behind the curtains. Oh, I knew the stage looked different. The podium had been moved right to the side. Next to it were two mic stands. I suppose they were for the event hosts. And the curtains were drawn. I was definitely excited about seeing what was behind the curtain. My lucky sense of direction was certain it was something I liked very much. Yay!

Krystal and Zara started bickering about whether drummers or guitarists made better boyfriends. I threw a glance over to see what Marcus had to say about it, but he was just tapping on his phone, as if he hadn't noticed. Henry smirked and gave me a wink. Wow. Looks like the Alpha was in a good mood. Haha. I threw him back a wide smile and turned to face front. I was feeling chill myself. I guess it's because I was done with homework for the day. I even finished going through the files on the train this morning.

And also, Wolfie was... content? At ease? Who knew the ways of a wolf? I was supposed to be one myself, and I can't even figure me out.

"Good evening, I mean, good afternoon, everyone." Jules took to the mic on the side of the stage. The girl with the sparkly eyes smiled widely at that.

"Are you using the wrong script?"

"Ah yes, sorry. Too many events lately." Jules returned with a practiced smile, then he looked up at the audience.

"I'm Julian."

"And I'm Romana," the girl with the sparkly eyes said. Together they announced, "And we'll be your hosts."

"As usual," Jules added.

"Yes," Romana answered.

"But please stick to the script, Julian." And I knew from that moment that I wanted to be a school event host one day.

"Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that taking videos or photos is not permitted during the performance," Romana said. She sounded so professional. Jules continued, "Well then, without further ado, it brings me great pleasure to introduce the reigning champion high school of Battle of the Bands, our friends from Green Leaf Academy!" Eh?

"Eh? Isn't that the school your prince goes to?" Zara asked me.

"Is he here?" Krystal asked.

"What prince?" Pearl asked, but no one answered because there was the loudest guitar riff as the stage curtains parted, and there at the center mic under the spotlight was Dean. (Now, tell me you didn't see that coming.) But Dean wasn't the one playing. His acoustic guitar was on the stand next to him. So the guitar we were hearing was coming from... I scanned the stage and found the source... Ben's green electric. Ben. I knew he played the guitar...

But the guitar I knew was the one at home, in his room, an old beat-up thing with strings, right? What was he doing here?

"Hello, Sam's school," Dean said into the mic. He smiled easily, picking up his guitar like he did this every day. At least I recognized this guitar, even though Dean looked kind of different on stage too. Jasmine gasped and grabbed my arm, but the rest of the school was unmoved.

"We're at Winderhill," a gorgeous girl with a mic stepped out from backstage. The audience got quieter suddenly. When I said gorgeous, I meant large loose curls on her shoulders, a short black dress — like someone who stepped out of an MTV video.

"Oh, sorry. Wrong school." Dean shrugged good-naturedly and smiled at us. He adjusted his guitar strap, completely unfazed by the crowd.

"Let's try that again."

"Hello, Winderhill! I'm Dean. The guy showing off on guitar right now is Ben." At this, Ben slammed down on his strings to stop the music. The school laughed a bit. Dean shrugged.

"He can be a bit moody." Dean continued smoothly, "The bassist there is Marlow." Marlow's fingers made some quick steps over the bass to create a baseline. The audience wooed at that and clapped a bit.

"What's up, my man?" Dean greeted his bassist. Marlow ended the bass line abruptly.

"I'm not 'your man,'" Marlow growled. A girl squealed. I don't know why. A few students snickered at her. But Dean only lifted his hands up in mock surrender and then turned back to us.

"See the people I put up with for the sake of music..." Some of the audience chuckled. Dean continued the introductions, "Anyway, on the keys is Shannon." Shannon played something fancy, which surprised me because I've only ever heard him on guitar.

"And keeping the beat back there is Link." The drums sounded in response, ending with the cymbals splashing.

"And last but not least," Dean indicated to the gorgeous girl next to him, "our school songbird, Lola." Lola? That's Lola? Like my gamma, Lola? The guys in school started applauding and hooting. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Whoa... yeah, she didn't even sing yet and you're cheering." Dean pretended to complain.

"You guys are so unfair!" The audience chuckled.

"Okay, here's the deal. We're going to work hard today to play for you, and if we do a good job, you scream—" Someone screamed.

"Wait," Dean scolded.

"We haven't started yet." The school laughed.

"Shut up and play, Dean," Ben said into the mic.

"Ooooo..." said the audience.

"Okay, okay..." Dean started playing on the guitar. This was another guy I've heard play and sing, maybe even more so than Ben or Shannon, and on that very same guitar. But today, maybe it was the stage or the full band behind him. Today I felt like I was hearing Dean perform for the first time. And then when Lola joined him, it was like I forgot I was in school. Their duet was incredibly sensual. I would have thought they were mates, except I also knew they were not. They were performing for the audience.

They were singing to us, and we were mesmerized. THEN IT GOT LOUD We all clapped and applauded at the end of the opening act. Dean took a bow and then opened his hand to Lola, who took it with a smile and bowed too. They stepped away, and the three hyenas picked up the mics and stepped forward. I saw Kev pull on the bass Marlow had abandoned in the background. Nix smirked and drawled into the mic, "Yo." The audience, warmed up by now, readily clapped and cheered back.

"To tell you the truth, we don't sing much, so don't expect anything fancy," Nix said with a winsome smile.

"Yeah, we're just here so we can skip class," Ethan added with a laugh. The music started in the background, Ben obviously deciding not to wait for any more chitchat.

"This one is a classic," Marlow said before he started, but even before he did, the opening beat made it obvious that he didn't mean classical-music kind of classic. He meant Savy's kind of classic, which wasn't so much singing as yelling into the mic. I mean, they were rapping.

"Kick it!" And the guys were off, moving and rapping and pretty much riling the audience up. The whole school roared in response. I had no idea we had this much suppressed rebellion happening until today.

"You gotta fight..." And by the time the hyenas were through, the school was pretty much all on their feet shouting along.

"... PARTY!" All around, the kids were singing or screaming or stomping or waving. It was bad. And loud. And my ears were ringing. But it was also incredibly fun. Madam Principal, the vice principal, the discipline mistress, and Coach Williams were shouting at each other just offstage. I think they were discussing over the noise whether they should stop the madness. But they didn't have to worry because the hyenas were soon chased off by none other than Harvey himself. The band quieted.

Harvey walked out, holding his black electric by its neck. He picked up the fallen mic stand in the middle of the stage.

"Oi," he said to the guys behind him. The three hyenas stepped back into the shadows in a row and posed like three naughty kittens in front of their mother. Our school naturally laughed at the three hyenas' plight.

"I told you not to play that song," Harvey said into the mic. The guys bowed and left the stage.

"Sorry, they're not usually like this," he said with a wry smile into the mic as he leaned forward to wear his guitar.

"They're usually worse."

"Give it up for Nix, Marlow, and Ethan," Harvey said. The three bad boys came back out, made a quick bow to the laughing and clapping audience, and slipped backstage again. The school continued to whoop and cheer. I was starting to wonder if some of the audience was just letting out steam now. Harvey held up a hand, and then everyone quieted, waiting to see what Harvey would do. My Beta, in his usual leather jacket and calm smile, but with the addition of a jet-black electric guitar.

He started playing, picking out clear and quick notes on his guitar.

"This song is to someone important to me."

"Is your prince going to sing to you?" Zara asked. I highly doubted it, but I paid special attention to the lyrics to try to guess who the song was for. As far as I could tell, he was singing to a very enigmatic person who was probably dangerous to fall in love with. You know how they say when someone takes to the stage and becomes another person? Well, my calm and cool beta was doing that, turning up the heat so that you could barely hear him above the screaming girls. A lot of screaming.

I had to cover my ears until I think the audience figured out they were missing the performance because of their own screaming and quieted. I suddenly felt embarrassed to feel his emotions through the song. It felt too private, so passionate. I had to remind myself that it was just a performance. It wasn't real. And then a lot of guitar... Beta can really play the guitar. And the screaming started again. Eventually, all good things must come to an end.

"You guys are probably the loudest audience we've ever played for," Harvey told us a little breathlessly when we came to the end. This pleased us greatly, and we obliged by making more noise. He held up his hands for quiet. We quieted so he would continue. Harvey smiled wryly at us.

"But here's the last one, an old favorite from Imagine Dragons." Harvey centered the mic in the spotlight as he spoke, and I noticed the stage being rearranged behind him as the earlier acts returned to the stage. But instead of singing, after adjusting the center mic, Harvey stepped out of the spotlight and started the guitar instead. Ben stepped forward, his guitar swung behind him. He leaned in very close to the mic. His voice was growly and cool. Then Shannon and Dean behind him joined in.

Did I tell you how, when Ben's wolf was on the surface, I always felt like something good was going to happen? By the chorus, Shannon and Dean had gotten the audience to join in. Marlow slunk forward, claiming his turn on the mic. For those who liked rap, they weren't disappointed. Nix and Ethan chimed in too. The three of them always had a chemistry, I've noticed since we trained together, but now hearing them rap and move together, it was really being played to the full.

And then Lola walked into the limelight, stepping up in front of the guys, her voice like an angel's. She sang one word: "Pain!" She pointed the mic to the audience and the guys behind her, as well as whoever knew the words, sang along:"Pain..." Personally, I had never heard this song before, or at least I had never noticed it. But it seemed a good proportion of the student population at Winderhill could follow. But why were we singing about pain? And then Harvey walked up without missing a beat.

The last verse was his. And then all too soon it was over. My heart was beating, my eyes were wide... wow. The hall was suddenly silent, and then somebody shouted, "Encore," and then some students started clapping, and then everyone else followed. It was a standing ovation... Well, we had all been on our feet since the second song. Everyone was clapping, and every now and then a whoop or wolf whistle would shoot out from the general applause.

"As expected from the Battle of the Bands reigning champion," Marcus remarked, more to himself than anyone else. Wow. I had no idea my gang was this talented. I mean, over the years, I'd heard them practicing... here and there. Quietly on the edge of their beds or randomly in various empty study rooms... sometimes with a lot of mistakes, sometimes with a lot of arguing... It definitely wasn't like this at all. I guess all the years of practice and watching DVDs (over and over again)...

I can't say how often I stepped into Beta Lucas' living room or Dean's home to see a random concert playing on TV on repeat. I cannot tell you how many conversations about upgrading instruments, strings, and the finer points of live performance, setups, or long debates over shared DVD content I had to endure over the weekends with the guys. They were always trying to master another riff or checking out a new song or investing in new equipment. I guess it paid off for them.

"Encore!" someone demanded.

"No encore," Ben said into the mic. He pulled up the hem of his T-shirt to wipe the perspiration from his face.

"You want more, buy the tickets." The girls started screaming, but not necessarily because they wanted tickets. I don't think they realized he was still in middle school. Nix smirked and stripped off his drenched T-shirt. He pretended to throw it at the audience. The girls screamed and actually reached out to catch it, making him laugh at them. The curtains closed on them, and Julian and Romana came back on stage.

"Wow," Romana spoke first.

"Is it just me, or is it hot in here?" Jules grinned.

"What? I can't hear you. I think your screaming broke my eardrums." Romana chose to ignore her co-host. Smiling at all of us, she used her professional voice to say, "Tickets are being sold in the student foyer this afternoon. They're selling at $80 a ticket online, but if you buy it today, it's only $60." That was expensive. Jules continued right on cue, a miracle for someone who claimed to have lost his hearing.

"You can also buy their concert DVD from last year, which includes their winning performance at Battle of the Bands." Madam Principal quickly got onto the stage soon after. I saw teachers being stationed at the exits.

"All of you, sit down now," she said sternly to us.

"The show is over. Settle down." There was growling and grumbling, and the scraping and squeaking of chairs. But we were quickly seated.

"I will be dismissing you class by class. Please take your things and leave in an orderly fashion," Madam Principal instructed. I guess it was really over and back to reality for us. I had no idea going to a concert would feel like that. I definitely needed a ticket to the show!