The Audition

When I entered the room all the other members of the band were waiting for me. I told myself thousands of times before this to not do it, but as soon as I entered the room my eyes searched out Mina, and could tell she was very surprised.

"Hi, my name is Nanaka, second year. You can call me Nana"

"Ok, hello Nana. We've already had a few people come and audition already and you are the last one. The school will close soon so please understand if we get straight to it"

"That suits me fine"

Then they handed over the music sheet.

"Can you sight read and play this?"

"To be honest, only chords strokes"

"Well, let's see. Please start whenever you are ready"

I put the guitar strap around my neck and let it hang comfortably. I took a deep breath and started to swing away. I couldn't believe I was doing this, and this was in front of Mina too.

When I finished the song, the four girls of the band gave me a short round of applause, and one of the girls said to me.

"That was really really good. I loved it!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, but-"

She looked around to the other members to seek their opinion, but they just shrugged their shoulders as if to say 'it's your call'.

"We need someone that can play the melodic part on the guitar in some passages… Do you think you can learn that in such a short time?"

Well, I knew it. I just wasn't good enough.

"I want to say I will do my best, but realistically I'll have to say no. I don't want to promise something which I might be able to do"

"That's a real pity… :sigh:.."

"Erm… Sara?", Mina spoke up.

"Yes?"

"For this song… I think we can play the melodic part on the piano and have the rhythm guitar play the chords"

Is she seriously speaking up for me?

"Hm, that could work. Shall we have a quick go, girls?"

One of the girls went over to the piano at the corner and this girl called Sara picked up a bass guitar. The remaining girl was a drummer but her body language said 'why are we even doing this'.

Mina was looking at me like she hasn't done before. The way she looked at me showed no emotion. She just looked like she was genuinely serious about treating this strictly as an audition.

We started to play after the drummer counted in. It was not a hard song to play but this was the first time I play with a full band and I realized it's not so easy either. I tried to pay as much attention as possible to what other girls were playing, and kept my eyes focused on the music sheet to not miss a chord.

As Mina suggested, I just stayed on the chord strokes like before and the piano girl took over some melodic parts. It actually did sound pretty good even to my ears.

When we finished, Sara looked around to see what the other girls were thinking. The drummer girl seemed to have changed her mind and given a thumbs up, while Mina and the piano girl just nodded their head. Sara nodded back and said,

"Welcome to the band!"