Your Pride and Joy

Penny grinned at the pair and crouched down to inspect the boat they made together.

"I make music!" she declared proudly and whipped her phone out of her back pocket. The energetic kalon scrolled through some apps and eventually came to what she was looking for, pressing a button until it blasted loud music with even more powerful lyrics.

Penny allowed it to play for a few minutes and bobbed her head to the music, right on the beat. Her wavy mohawk bounced on her head and swayed in front of her eyes, but they were closed with happiness. "Do you wanna know how I made this song with my band? Yes, I'm in a band - it's awesome, right? It's a punk rock band! Anyway, I'll get on with the story. It's pretty funny, I think!"

"It all started with riffs. That's how it usually is - I come up with the riffs and I start messing around with a song. Most of the time, I'm just at home randomly playing my guitar and waiting for something to come up. It's always something awesome!" she announced enthusiastically and raised her hand in the "rock-and-roll" shape. Penny waited for the kits to do the same and beamed at them when they did.

"I called Iris and Zara, my bandmates. They always come over to my apartment to practice, since I have all of the equipment and I'm the one who starts the songs," she continued and pulled up a picture of her living room. It was stuffed with amps, speakers, a microphone, drums, and two computer screens connected to a mixing station all sitting on a large desk. "Zara is the drummer, and she's the next step. I don't know what she does, but she figures out a beat that will fit with the song and help keep me on tempo."

"Iris kinda sits around for a while on her lazy butt. I'm just kidding, she's not lazy. She sits in the corner and listens to us play, meanwhile she's writing lyrics on the spot!" Penny exclaimed, and her eyes glittered with excitement. She was reliving the story and having a lot of fun with it. The kits in front of her bounced. "It's crazy how she does that, but within 10 minutes she's got the lyrics down and she's singing along. Iris is a perfectionist, so it takes her a few tries to get the lyrics to fit. But eventually, they're perfect just like how she wants it. Guess how long it took to put this song altogether! It's pretty crazy," she enthused and urged the kids to guess how much time.

"It only took us five hours. FIVE HOURS!! Isn't that insane?" she asked and leaned back in mock surprise. "Just kidding. It took more like 18 hours because I stayed up all night mixing the song."

Penny inhaled a deep breath and grinned again. "Do you know what Spotify is? You should listen to us!"