Boring Girls(42)

Vox? I had to prevent myself from shuddering noticeably. I didn’t want to offend him. He did seem like a nice guy.

“Yeah,” Edgar said, grinning. “Fern’s guitar, and Rachel does vox.”

I smiled, probably showing too much tooth as I tried to make it as genuine as possible. “That’s right.”

“Can you wail?” Socks said to me, very seriously.

I hesitated as Fern and Edgar both covered their smiles and awaited my answer. “Uh, yeah, sure I can. I can wail.”

“Well, that’s good then.” Socks sat back. “A band’s only as good as their singer, you know. And a girl singer in metal, well, that’ll be somethin’ else. Don’t come across that too often.”

We asked him some questions about himself. He was a few years older than we were, having just graduated from high school. He was working for his father’s construction company and had been playing drums for years.

“Why do they call you ‘Socks’?” Fern asked.

“’Cause I always wear nice white ones,” he said, lifting his foot and pointing at the socks we had all noticed when he walked in. “Guess it’s kinda my trademark.”

Socks invited us to his house to hear him play. He lived a short drive from downtown and had a minivan parked outside the tea shop. “You can’t have a drummer without a vehicle,” he said as we walked to the van. “Gotta have some way to carry your stuff. It’s not easy like a guitar case!”

As we drove to his house, he chatted about how he’d been in a few bands while he was in school. “Nothing serious, of course,” he said. “Just jamming out on the weekends. Played a few gigs, really small stuff, did a battle of the bands, that kind of thing. I’m definitely looking for some serious players this time around.”

“We haven’t rehearsed yet, we’re still writing,” Fern told him. “We have maybe five or six songs, and Rachel’s working on lyrics for them. We wanted to get a full band together before we started going through them, even though Edgar and I have been playing together.”

“Sounds good,” Socks said, turning off the main road onto a tree-lined side street. “I’m pretty intuitive. I’ll be able to come up with some beats once we start jamming.”

No one was home at Socks’s house, and we filed through the side door down into his basement. The ceiling was low, and we walked through the rec room to a smaller darker area. He flipped on the light switch in this smaller room, illuminating a giant drum kit.

“Wow, double kick!” Fern said, gesturing at his two kick drums. “You can play that?”

“I consider it to be a necessity when you’re playing metal,” he said, smiling. “So you want me to just rock out for a bit? Give you guys a show?”

“Sure,” Edgar said.

Socks sat down behind the kit and began to play.

And it was pretty much decided immediately that we wanted him in the band. Any hesitations I had about him being a bit dorky went out the window. He was really, really good. Exactly what we needed. The band was finally coming together. He played complicated fills, pulled back and played steady rhythms, sped up to the point where his hands were a blur across the kit, and all without missing a beat.

After he quit, we hung out on the couches in the rec room and chatted some more. “My parents won’t care if we want to rehearse down here on the weekends,” Socks said. “I got my van, so we can pick up your stuff and move it all in down here.”

“Sounds good.” Fern nodded.

“Oh, by the way, the band got a name?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Colostomy Hag.”

Socks threw back his head and laughed. “That’s good.”

xXx

The sun was setting when we left Socks’s place, and since Edgar and Fern lived farther out than I did, I was the last one to be dropped off and ended up by myself with Socks in the van.

“I’m super stoked to hear you sing, I gotta say,” he said. “I’m glad you guys gave me a call. You’re all real nice people.”

“Yeah, hopefully this works out,” I replied. “You’re a great drummer. I’m excited to rehearse.”

“It’ll work out. Of course it will. We just gotta jam a bit and see. Get some songs going, play some gigs.” Socks turned onto my street, and I saw Mom kneeling in the front yard wearing her floppy brimmed straw hat. I pointed at the house. “That’s my place.”