Storytime with Benjamin Haugen! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

"Okay guys, one more time from the top", yelled out band leader, Jake," a one, a two, a one two three four!"

Just as he finished speaking these words, Jake Karp, our singer, Rex Shannon, our bassist, Garrett Schubiner, our guitarist, and I, the drummer began to put together a compilation of notes, drum beats, and a voice, to create a symphony of sound that we wrote and called,"Fiction". When we arrived at the transition to the second verse, Jake's mom burst in and screamed over the song at us,"Will you knock off that noise! Some of us are trying to read and do things that require piece and quiet upstairs, so I suggest that you start looking for a new garage to practice, because you are no longer allowed to practice in this one!"

Jake replied pleadingly,"Mom, please give us on more chance, I promise we will turn it down!"

"Of course you are going to turn it down, just like you were the last seventeen times I came down here, stop practicing now, or else you lose all privileges for the rest of the week," Mrs. Karp retorted angrily.

After a bit of grumbling and apologies, the the band and I left Jake at his house getting a lecture from his mom on how to use a volume know on an amp. The next day, we quickly set out to find a new garage to practice in at school, most of our friends said there mom would not like it, until we met the nerdiest kid in school, Max Rauenbueler, who said we could use his garage as long as he could be in the band as the drummer. We were reluctant at first because hanging out with him would have our popularity level go from the top to the bottom, but we were desperate, and as I was better at guitar than drums, so we agreed to let him in to get me back on my first instrument as well as to get a new garage to practice in.

That afternoon, we started to play at his house with me as lead guitarist, Garrett as rhythm guitarist, Max as drummer, and everyone else at their regular positions. Soon after we taught him our main song, we found out that Max was actually a drummer with mad skills, who was quickly able to learn all our songs with ease, and over the next week or so, our band started to sound better than it ever had.

Then, the magic moment, happened, we saw the poster for the Teenager's Battle of the Bands, and we knew at that moment that we had to compete. To make ready for this competition, we soon started making time for extra band and by inviting friends to come see us play at this event.

The day before the event, we were all growing increasingly nervous for this event, and as we started the final practice before the event, Max gave us some tragic news; he was leaving the band. Jake quickly asked why and Max told him that he thought that the band was just using him as a tool for a place to practice, and not as a member of the band or a friend, despite the fact that that was how we began by feeling, but by now, had completely changed. Before we could say that the feeling had changed since the beginning, he left.

The next day at the performance, we, all confused and nervous because of Max's leaving, convinced ourselves that we didn't need him in the band to win. That was when we saw the other bands start to practice, and we realised, there was no longer anymore point in kidding ourselves, because without Max, they were the kings, and we were the servants.

We sent Rex, the most persuasive in the band, to go get Max to come back to the band. Max, who happened to be an easy forgiver, came back to the band fifteen minutes before curtain, where we explained the current situation of how good the bands are. Even with this news, he remained calm, for some reason known, yet unknown to us at the time. After we finished telling him this, we were told that we were on in one minute, and we started preparing.

Walking onto the stage with our hyperactive nerves, we stared out at the crowd; tons of our friends were there, and they were all staring at us strangely because of Max being in our band. But their expressions changed soon enough when we delivered a stunning performance, especially by Max, who had been made so happy when Rex persuaded him to come back, that he knew that he would do amazingly well.

After that, we all congratulated each other on doing such a good job, and waited for the winners to be announced. In the end, we did not get first place, but second, which many people would say is the best of all; and I personally think that first place is to braggy, but second place says to me, to quote Julius Caeser,"Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus, or in English, we came, we saw, we conquered."

When we went to school the next day, we were glad to see that instead of sitting by himself eating lunch, Max was sitting with tons of new-found friends. As a walked past him to sit with some of my other friends, Max gave me a quick, but very grateful smile, which told me that he would never be sad in this school again.