Chapter Text
*Twang* The guitar string waved as the black-haired kid in the beanbag chair strung it, the sound reverberating in the room. He frowned, unhappy with the sound it had made, for he knew it sounded off, very out of tune. He had not played this for a week due to his schoolwork piling up, but today he was free to play and hang out with his best friend.
“That was out of tune Sunny.” commented his friend, a blonde-haired kid, who sat on his bed, hugging a pillow. He always loved hanging out with Sunny, even if all Sunny wanted to do was play music.
“I know Basil,” Sunny replied. “It sounded loose, I think?”
“You describe it like that?” Basil giggled, smiling at his friend “What are you trying to do again? I’m always lost when you mess around with the strings for a good ten minutes.”
“I’m trying to get the guitar in tune,” Sunny replied, testing his cords again. “Hmm, better, but not perfect… Guitars can get out of tune just from moving them around or over time, so I have to tune mine before every practice.”
“Ah, gotcha.” Basil smiled, reaching for his camera, he always loved taking pictures at the moment and right now seemed like a good time.
*Snap!*
“Ah! What was that for?” Sunny asked, rubbing his eyes after being blinded by the flash of Basil’s camera.
“Just capturing the moment, you look so focused,” Basil said holding the camera, he takes one more to tease Sunny.
“Stop!” Sunny smiled, almost taking the camera from Basil's hands but failing in the process.
“It’ll be interesting to see how these develop.” Basil commented, “I think my finger slipped and took another picture just then, I can’t wait to tell this story to the others.
“Hmm… I kinda feel bad though.” Sunny continued, adjusting the tuning keys from his guitar “I’m always bringing my gear here, practicing, I never ask what you wanna do.”
“I’m fine just hanging out,” Basil replied. “It’s actually quite fun learning about the guitar from you.”
“You like the guitar?” Sunny asked.
“Yeah, it seems cool.” Basil smiled. “It sounds totally different depending on if you plug it into the amp or not, you can get two different feels from it. I find that cool, having a soft side when it’s needed, and having an awesome side.”
“Would you like to play with me?” Sunny asked. “You could play bass while I play lead.”
Basil sat there, stunned. He knew Sunny was serious about playing music, but to outright ask if he wanted to join, that was something else. He felt an overwhelming sense of joy from being asked to play music with Sunny.
“Um, YES!” Basil smiled. “I would love to have my own guitar and play music with you! Oh- but, you don’t have a bass guitar, do you?”
“No,” Sunny replied. “But unlike my old violin, guitars don’t cost an arm and a leg, it was just a suggestion, but I’d love to play music together.”
“Gosh Sunny, I’d love to play bass with you,” Basil replied. “It’ll be so much fun, I haven’t seen you open up to playing with someone else since-”
The guitar stopped, the room got silent as Sunny seemed to be staring into space, the tension in the room was formidable.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mention that” Basil looked down fidgeting. "I-it’s been years, have you-"
"No," Sunny replied, tightening his cord absentmindedly.
"Oh, um... sorry, I was just wondering how you’ve been holding up with-"
"I’m fine." Sunny cut him down, continuing to tighten his cord
"I'm Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
*Snap!* The guitar cord broke, cutting Sunny’s fingers and making Basil jump.
“Ah! Damn it!” Sunny yelped. He held his finger, blood streaming from his cut.
“Y-you’re bleeding!” Basil remarked. “Ah, this is my fault, I’m sorry, your guitar broke!”
“It’s not broken, just the string broke, it’s a cheap fix,” Sunny replied, putting his bloody finger in his mouth. “Got any band-aids?”
“Um, yeah, one sec, let me grab em’” Basil left, returning with some band-aids and disinfectant. He started cleaning and bandaging the cut.
“Thanks,” Sunny said. “Sorry about the blood and all.”
“It’s fine, it’s just… we haven’t talked about Mari since that day…”
“There’s nothing to talk about…” Sunny replied. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Go? Where?” Basil asked.
“To go get another cord at Hobbeez!” Sunny exclaimed. He disconnected his guitar from the amp. “I can’t practice with a broken cord.”
“Ah, okay! I can also get these photos developed at Othermart while we’re out!” Basil smiled. The boys grabbed their shoes and headed out the door.
The sun was shining high up in the clear skies. The clean spring air filled the boy’s lungs as opened the door. The sky was that orangish pink that begins when the sun sets. Sunny and Basil stretched as they walked out of the house into the fresh air of Faraway. Both were silent for a while as they made their way toward Hobbeez, it was Basil who broke the silence.
“So… bass guitar?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Sunny replied. “I’m thinking that could actually help form songs and all…”
“Form, as in making your own music?” Basil asked.
“Yeah… I think it would be cool, don’t you think?” Sunny asked.
“Well, yeah, is there a lot of music for bass and regular guitar duets?”
“Maybe?” Sunny replied, unsure. “I’ll come up with something…”
They were on the corner of the street, waiting for the perfect moment to cross the street, then they heard a familiar voice coming from the other side.
“Sunny! Basil!” waved a girl across the street sitting on a vending machine, drinking a soda, her most striking feature was her full head of pink hair.
“What’s up you two?” smiled a tall, tan boy sitting next to her on a second vending machine, also drinking a soda.
“Not much guys… why are you up there?” Basil asked, perplexed by the sight he saw.
“Cause it was fun!” smiled the boy, it was then that the girl noticed Sunny’s injured hand.
“Sunny! Your hand!” the girl cried, jumping off the vending machine. “What happened?”
“Eh, my guitar string broke on me,” Sunny replied, as they crossed the street. The girl instantly grabbed his hand when he reached her, making Sunny’s heart dance and his ears blush.
“That sucks…” stated the tall boy, jumping off his vending machine.
“He got hurt Kel! You’re so insensitive!” the girl retorted as she showed Sunny’s hand to him.
“Doesn’t look that bad Aubrey…” Kel replied, looking away and crossing his arms.
“Ugh… you have to be more careful with your instruments, Sunny!” Aubrey cried. Letting go of his hand, much to Sunny’s disappointment. “Think of how annoyed Mari would be! Especially since you got hurt!”
An awkward silence fell upon the group, Sunny sighed and he looked at the vending machine that they had left. He chose a grape soda and the vending machine dispensed his drink, he opened it having a sip of a cold and tasty grape-flavored soda. It was Basil who broke the silence.
“W-we’re- we’re making a band! And we want you in it!” Basil cried, surprising everyone there.
“W-what?” Sunny choked on his soda, coughing really hard for a few seconds and recovering his breath instantly.
Aubrey raised a brow and looked at Kel confused, “A band? Like in band class?”
“N-no, like… those rock bands, ya know?” Basil replied. Sunny was nearly as pale as a ghost, Kel was patting Sunny’s back to let all the drink out of his system.
“Oh! Those! I have a few favorite songs I hear on the radio” Aubrey replied.
“Yeah, Hero gave me a few CDs of what he listened to when he moved away,” Kel added.
“Yeah, well… I’m sorry, Sunny’s the one who wanted to start this, we were going to look at bass guitars for me…” Basil admitted.
“S-so are you guys up to it?” Sunny asked with difficulty, still having the sensation of carbonated heaven in his throat.
“What kind of instruments would we be playing?” Aubrey asked, crossing her arms, and listening carefully.
Sunny thought for a second before answering “Well, some bands have more than one regular guitar, I think that’s known as lead and rhythm guitars, and we need drums… I have to say, four of us would sound a lot better at making something cool happen than just Basil and I.”
“Oooh, drums!” Kel exclaimed, “I would love to learn how to be a drummer!”
“That leaves me with a guitar… hmm, I’m not sure…” Aubrey pondered.
“I think you would also look cool with one Aubrey…” Sunny said, looking at his own guitar.
“You do? Hmm, well okay, I’ll try it out, a guitar to rock out on sounds kick-ass!” Aubrey cheered.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news…” Kel began. “But uh, don’t instruments, like, cost money and stuff? I don’t have that kind of cash lying around…”
“Oh… yeah…” Aubrey added, looking crushed. “I’m not exactly from the most financially stable family… a guitar would be amazing, but I don’t have that money…”
“I was thinking about that too Sunny,” Basil added. “My folks wouldn’t just lend me that much money to buy a bass guitar…”
All of them were making valid points, money was a big issue.
“Those things aren't too expensive, are they?” Aubrey asked. “I’ve seen some instruments over at Hobbeez and they cost a lot…” she looked at Sunny and Basil with unease.
Sunny and Basil exchanged looks, they were thinking the same thing, instruments tend to be very pricey. Sunny forgot just how expensive instruments can be. He held a faint memory of a particular Christmas morning.
“It probably doesn’t look like much… but we all had to save up for it together,” he remembered Basil saying. His friends gifted him his violin when was just 12, they had worked all summer to buy it, and he was set to perform a recital with Mari in the fall of the next year. The recital and Mari were a memory Sunny didn’t like visiting. His guitar, on the other hand, he inherited from his dad a few months ago. Sunny recalled back to a particular August afternoon; his mom had ordered Sunny and his dad to help her clean out the garage when his dad found a guitar case under some suitcases. Sunny had just placed the suitcases outside when he turned back to see his dad opening the case and pulling out a beautiful black guitar; Sunny's widened, it was like his dad pulled out a solid gold bar.
“Oh, honey! Come here! Look what I found!” His dad called over to his mom. She came over and gasped.
“Oh, dear! Is that?” she began.
“It sure is! Let’s see if it still works!” his dad smiled, as he started to play. The dry sound of the strings filled the garage as Sunny looked on, impressed at both his father and the guitar. His father looked at him and smiled.
“I captured your mom’s heart with this guitar, you know…” his dad smiled, glancing over to his smiling mother. “I remember, I was just about your age in high school, my dad told me rock n’ roll was a waste of time, well that waste of time got me the woman of my dreams and a loving family… she would listen to me play for hours…”
“Oh stop! Not in front of Sunny, dear!” she smiled, her ears burning red. His father smiled, putting the guitar back in its case, he then looked at it for a second, turned to Sunny, smiled, and handed him the guitar.
“Here, son, why don’t you have this?” his father smiled. Sunny couldn’t believe it, he just sat there hugging the case, his father chuckled and continued. “I was your age when I won the woman of my dreams, and Mari was around your age when she won that gentleman, Henry next door, with her piano skills. I think you could use this to find your own happiness. Don’t you like that blonde girl Aubergine?” his father asked, Sunny could feel his ears burn like his mother's. He looked up at her, and she smiled down at him.
“Sunny?” his mom called. “Sunny? Earth to Sunny? Sunny?”
Sunny blinked, his mom had vanished, replaced by his best friend Aubrey, her hair no longer bleached blonde, but dyed pink. They were in front of Othermart, he must have absentmindedly followed his friends here.
“You kinda just stopped talking… you had this blank stare buddy” Kel said, looking at him with concern.
“Sorry, I was thinking about the money issue when I guess I got lost in my own thoughts,” Sunny replied, smiling. “Anyways, I’m sure we’ll figure something out, we’ll do more research on the cost of guitars. For now, I gotta buy a replacement string.”
They entered Hobbeez, as always, it was full of energy from people playing video games, reading comics, and also playing cards. For years, Sunny had visited to read the latest Capt. Spaceboy comic, play the Capt. Spaceboy arcade machine, and other non-Capt. Spaceboy activities, but today, they wanted a simple replacement for Sunny’s E String. The four walked to the counter with Sunny leading the group, the shopkeeper was reading a book called PAPA CHIP'S CHIP-OFF-THE-OLD-BLOCK COOKBOOK (in all caps? yeesh.) When the shopkeeper saw the group at the counter, he closed the book and turned to them.
“What can I get ya?” he asked.
“Guitar strings, I broke mine…” Sunny replied
“Guitar strings huh? One moment, I’ve got a pack here…” said shopkeep, looking for something behind the counter.
While the shopkeeper was looking for some replacement strings, Basil and Aubrey noticed some instruments hanging on the wall, a trumpet, a keyboard, a bass, and an aqua guitar. Aubrey told Kel about the aqua guitar, pointing at it.
“Hey Pedro, how much for this light blue guitar?” Kel asked as he got closer to the wall and tried to pull down the guitar. Pedro, ran over and slapped Kel’s hand away from the guitar.
“Keep your dirty hands off that guitar! This is a 20XX Yamaha Pacifica 112M that was made in and imported from Taiwan! This particular model is customized with a beautiful Aqua finish! It’s one of the best guitars in my shop right now! I’ll be damned if you dirty it up with your sweaty hands!” The shopkeeper boasted, pushing his glasses with his middle finger.
“Okay, okay… sheesh… I just wanted to know the price for it…” Kel replied, rubbing his hand.
“500 dollars,” he said, Basil and Kel looked at each other surprised by the price, it was truly expensive.
“What about that bass guitar?” Basil asks, nervously, pointing at the green guitar.
“The 20XX Burns Steer bass guitar? That one is from the United Kingdom, it has a unique design on the end to give it that extra flair, coupled with the emerald green finish. That is gonna run you about 480 clams, as it’s a beginner’s bass and isn’t vintage… still, keep your mitts off the merchandise. unless you plan on buying!” the shopkeeper said, even though Basil wasn’t anywhere near the guitar.
“Pedrito, what about this drum set?” Kel said as he just sat on the drum seat and he was already imagining himself playing.
The shopkeeper jumped out from behind the counter to kick Kel off the drums.
“If I have to tell you one more time to keep off the merchandise, you’re out!” The shopkeeper saw Kel and envisioned him playing the drums “Maybe that drum set fits you better, that’s a Yamaha Stage Custom Birch 5-piece drum kit, Cranberry Finish.”
“How much?”
“700 bucks”
Kel stood up from the seat and placed an arm on Pedro’s shoulder, smiling.
“Pedro, my friend, you know I'm your best customer when it comes to buying video games, comics, and figures…”
“He means we’re his best customer for lending Kel money all the time…” Aubrey whispered to Basil, who smiled.
“Why don’t we leave these drums at 350,” he says as he tried to convince the shopkeep
“700” Pedro replied
“370?” Kel haggled.
“700”
“390?”
“750”
“40-wait, you said 700 before!” Kel said in protest, poking Pedro’s chest.
“You’re annoying me, so now it’s 750!” Pedro replied disgustedly.
“What my eccentric friend is trying to say, is that we’re starting a band, sir.” Aubrey cut in, pushing Kel away. “So what we were wondering is if there’s a discount or credit for buying these all at once in the future?”
“Sorry lady, we don't do credit or discounts for high-end items, you'll have to come back when you're a bit, er... richer!"
Sunny knew it would be expensive, but now, the numbers were truly adding up. He felt a lot closer to his dad now that he understood just how valuable his own guitar was… To just give it to him. He gave the others a look, they all had the same expression, the very same he had months ago in his garage, the very same that his dad saw, that his dad gave up his only guitar that made his mom fall in love with him, the unmistakable expression of love at first sight.
“We’d like to reserve these instruments to buy near the beginning of fall, right before school starts up again!” Sunny blurted out.
“What?” everyone, including Pedro asked, making sure they all heard Sunny right.
“I know you can’t give us a discount or credit, you see how they’re looking at them.” Sunny pointed to his friends, who looked shocked. “We want those instruments. We’ll work on raising the money to get them, can you at least put our names down as planned buyers for those instruments?”
Pedro looked between Sunny, his friends, and the instruments, he scratched his head for a moment, then, after what seemed like an eternity to the others, he finally replied.
“Hmm, alright, names and phone numbers, I’ll mark them down, I do this cause you four have been customers since you were little, and it’s amazing to see how you’ve grown close to each other, reminds me of myself and my friends from Nearby City when I was your age, just remember, if you make it big, let em' know you got your gear at Hobbeez in Faraway…”
Aubrey and Basil didn’t have phones, and Kel didn’t want to use the only phone in the house for this, so they all put Sunny’s home phone down, along with their names for each instrument. It was almost like they were signing an agreement to make this band!
“What about you… ah, you have a guitar, that’s right, um, 7 bucks by the way on that string, may I ask what make and model you have?” Pedro asked with curiosity.
“It’s a 198X Des Lauriers Matsumoku, black, from what my dad told me, he had it when he was a kid…” Sunny replied.
“Ah! a Japanese model!” Pedro gasped. “Those are quite uncommon here, it’ll stand out… I’ve never seen one actually, take good care of it, if you guys make it big, I’ll see you and those wonderful instruments on stage!”
Othermart was a small store compared to the Nearby city market, but despite the size, it had everything the town needed, even a photo printer. While Basil was messing with his own business, Aubrey, Kel, and Sunny were leaning against the wall next to the photo printer.
“Dude, that aqua guitar was awesome, I bet it’ll look good on me,” Aubrey said with a far-off expression and her hands in her pockets.
“Aubrey, let's be honest here, the color doesn’t fit you and I doubt your small hands can reach the strings,” said Kel with his arms behind his neck, enjoying the peace of the pharmacy.
Aubrey poked Kel’s ribs, he lost his position and rubbed the place Aubrey just hit on.
“What was that for?” Kel said, rubbing his ribs
“For being a prick! I bet those drums don't fit you because you’re too long!” Aubrey pouted.
Sunny was trying to listen to Aubrey and Kel discuss their statures, but his mind was drifting away from reality. His memories were invading his mind, he really wanted to play with someone else again, it had been years since his practices with Mari. He was scarcely aware of the song that was playing in the store, it was One More Time by Daft Punk. He moving his head and hitting his leg with his finger following the rhythm of the music. He took a deep breath.
Sunny saw his friends having fun and sharing the same feeling, connecting their emotions together with the music. he could see himself smiling, pouring his creativity into their music, he saw Aubrey smiling, rocking with her aqua guitar. Kel was filled with joy, drumming on his cherry drums set. Basil bopping his head with the beat, as the backbone of the song with the emerald bass guitar.
He saw himself smiling, rocking with his pure black guitar, showing to the world what he has to offer, proving to Mari- no, to himself, that he can do this! That once more, he can pick up an instrument and be himself. That he can do it, he can do it again, not being attached again to the rules or the stress of being perfect. He just had to do it…
He saw the whole picture, he saw himself with his friends, everyone rocking, everyone smiling, everyone dancing and having fun. He was filled with resolve unlike any he’s ever felt before… he would make this happen, he would get those instruments, help the others learn music, and rock out on stage with his best friends! He would try, one more time!