Band Practice

'Didya see that girl? Didya see her, Lee? Man, if she doesn't show up tonight, I'll have wasted all this time making myself look cool for nothing.'

Crowley grinned at his bandmate and leaned back heavily against Rick's drum set, tossing his glossy blue locks out of his eyes.

'Shut up, Astron.' The impatient, guttural snap came from Stalgator, a rare dragon with parts of his skeleton exposed to the air and a face like an angry prehistoric fish. Stal took his music very seriously, and was hard on anyone who messed around while they were supposed to be practising. 'No-one cares about your lame attempts to pick up pretty girls. Gray, are you ready yet?'

The quiet dragon-man who was their bass player nodded, throwing down the empty soda can he had been sipping from and picking up his guitar instead. He plucked the lowermost string with a claw; the deep noise reverberated through the high-ceilinged rehearsal room.

Stalgator glowered around at them all as he adjusted the height of his microphone. It was Snare's last rehearsal before their planned performance tonight. As far as they knew, there were only two other bands in the school besides theirs, and he was determined to outshine both of them. Nothing less would satisfy him, and he'd worked tirelessly to improve himself and his fellow musicians in the past few weeks.

Their gig was to be held at eleven PM in a disused classroom, where there was no chance of any younger students disturbing them. The teachers might still be up and about, but they didn't give a damn what any illegal school bands did, so long as they weren't hurting anybody.

On the small raised platform they had turned into a stage, Rick settled himself behind his drums, Astron slung his electric guitar strap over his shoulder, and Crowley carelessly drew his violin bow over the strings of the instrument, producing a horrible screeching noise.

Stal glared daggers at him. Crowley just stared back innocently. Stal wasn't buying it for a moment; like the rest of the band, he knew full well that Crowley was the opposite of anything innocent. With his small, slim frame, long hair, and stupidly childish sense of humour, he gave a good impression of it, but in reality, he was one of the biggest bullies in the school.

'OK, everyone ready?' said Stal impatiently. 'Death Blow, now!'

In an expolsion of pure noise, the band started to play, Astron starting them off with a searing guitar riff before he was joined a few seconds later by Rick and Gray. A moment afterward, Stalgator's gravelly voice accompanied them. Crowley stood on the side of the stage, looking bored; his violin was only used in a few small parts of the song.

With nothing else to occupy his mind, it began to drift. He thought about some of the kids he'd bullied recently, and smiled as he remembered how terrified they had been. Especially that little dragon girl... He had left her crying alone in a deserted corridor after he was finished with her... Sobbing pathetically... Bleeding from the claw scratches he'd gouged into her face and neck... Bleeding from where he'd torn her wing open...

Suddenly, over the swell of the music, he heard Stalgator yelling for everyone to stop. The music died. Crowley watched with vague interest as the door to the rehearsal room burst open and a female dragon - one of their schoolteachers - came hurrying inside. He wondered if she was going to tell them off for playing so loudly, but her thin face showed only worry.

'Stalgator!' she called.

The frontman jumped down from the stage and walked over to her. He looked confused. 'Huh?'

'It's your sister, Stalgator,' said the teacher in a sympathetic voice. 'She's just been found in a disused corridor. Unconscious, I think. She's hurt quite badly - looks like she's been attacked by someone. I suggest that you run up to the hospital bay and see her.'

Stal's eyes went horrified. Everyone knew that, for all his toughness and apparent fearlessness, the rock singer had a huge soft spot for his younger sister and would do anything for her. Without so much as a backward glance at his bandmates, he accompanied the teacher out of the room.

'Wow,' said Rick softly, putting down his drumsticks. 'I hope everything's OK with her. I reckon he'd fall to pieces if his sister was, y'know, permanently hurt or anything...'

'Wonder which bastard attacked her this time?' mused Astron.

Crowley said nothing, leaning back against the drums with the faintest of evil smiles playing about his mouth. He wondered if Stal would kick him out of the band for this...