"Ugggghhhh," I groaned, frustratedly walking into the apartment a few days later. Zane and Finn were playing pool in the kitchen. Finn was bent over, concentrating all his attention on aiming the white ball towards a striped ball. His shoulder length hair fell in front of the left side of his face, but he ignored it and squinted his brown eyes at the ball.

     Zane was watching him, slouched over and leaning his cheek on the cue. He looked a little worried, almost like he was holding his breath.

     Bishop sat at the counter on his laptop, headphones in and motivation on. The leg closest to me bounced in his black jeans, and he chewed his bottom lip softly.

     Danny was on the couch, doing something that resembled math homework, though it looked like he was more focused on his phone than the trigonometry worksheet.

     Upon my outburst, Zane and Bishop glanced at me momentarily, before resuming their previous activities, and the other two didn't even look over. Not receiving the recognition that I was craving, I repeated the noise, this time longer and louder. Again, nothing.

     I rolled my eyes and flopped onto the couch on my back, throwing my arms over my head and stretching out my legs. I cleared my throat, preparing to exaggeratedly groan again, when Danny finally acknowledged me. "Will someone ask her what's wrong already? I'm trying to focus here." Okay, well, sort of acknowledged me. Acknowledged my noise, at least.

     Bishop sighed, took one headphone out, and looked over at me. "Is something the matter?" He asked, acting like it was painful to do so.

     "Glad you asked!" I said, instantly brightening up, leaping from the couch, and crossing the room to him. I sat in the bar stool next to him. "So, I spent the day looking for jobs. I applied to two places, and one of them had me do the interview right then and there!"

     Zane took in a sharp breath. "No!" He stretched out, throwing his head back in defeat.

     "I know right!" I said, turning to him, glad someone was agreeing with the outrageousness of the introduction to my story.

     "No, not your stupid story, Finn just beat me. Again! That's the third time in a row."

     "Oh, whatever." I shook my head, as if to shake him off, before launching back into my soliloquy. "Anyways, I was completely unprepared, and I bombed it! I know I did. It went so bad, I'm such an awkward person. Ugh, why am I like this?" I sighed, out of breath after rushing out that spew of words in one single intake, and spun around in a circle on the stool dramatically.

     I finished my rotation and faced the boy at the computer and not-so-patiently awaited a sympathetic response. Dizzily, I leaned towards him, placing my hands on his knees, which were pointed towards me. He watched me, with an amused smirk on his face. I raised an eyebrow and made a hand motion, as if to say 'out with it.'

     "You'll get 'em next time kid," he said, finally, before putting his headphone back in and returning to his screen, successfully zoning me out once more. He turned to face forwards again, making my hands drop from his legs, my body launching forwards.

     I sighed deeply and fell off of the bar stool to my feet, done with their underwhelming responses to my crisis. I went to my room and shut the door, before taking out my notebook.

     I had had the black composition notebook since fourth grade. My Aunt Talia got it for me for my birthday. There was a large, white musical note on the cover. I still remember my mother's face, when she saw me unwrap it.

     "It's for you to write your songs in," Aunt Talia had said, bumping her shoulder with mine, as we sat on the couch next to each other. The rest of my family was spread out around the living room, watching me open presents.

     My mother's disapproving glare bored into my forehead, but I refused to look up and instead imbibed the book voraciously. It seemed like the most beautiful thing in the world to my fourth grade brain. It was practically sublime.

     I proudly held it up for the room to behold and finally looked up. My mother made eye contact with me briefly, but that was all I needed.

     There was a fury in her eyes. I don't know if she was mad at me or my aunt, but the anger and the distaste were evident in those orbs. I only saw it for a moment, before she turned around and went into the kitchen. I could practically feel the rush of coldness, as she swept out of the room, with all of her callous elegance.

     Now, I sat on my unmade bed, with the comforter that Danny had just brought from home for me bunched up around me. My bed had been in Zane's room, where he was forcing girls to sleep in once he was done with them. A real sweetheart.

     I opened up the notebook to about the middle, where an unfinished song was waiting for its conclusion to come together.

     I tapped my pencil to the paper to the beat and started singing quietly.

     "Just trying to keep it all inside, locked up tight, locked up tight." I sang the rest of the chorus, hummed a bit, then got struck with an idea and added a few more lines to the second verse.

     I bent to scribble the lyrics down, when a voice sounded from the doorway. I hadn't even heard the door open.

     "Shit."

     I looked up with a start. Bishop leaned against the door frame, his arms crossed and a little smile on his face. One of his dimples deepened out, when I looked at him quizzically, and his smile grew.

     "What?" I asked, habitually covering the notebook with the blanket.

     "You know, you're really good." He crossed the room and sat beside me on the bed. "You wrote that?"

     I smiled and pulled the notebook out from its hiding spot. "Uh, yeah." I ran a hand through my long brown hair, a little shyly. "Yeah I did."

     He read my words over for a moment or two, before looking back up at me. "Beautiful," he said, after a moment. I bit my lip and smiled. "The song, I mean." He coughed, looking slightly uncomfortable. "It's uh-it's really good, um, Vienna." He scooted back a little, distancing himself.

     "Uh, thank you. It's just words, I don't really know how to play instruments, well I mean, a little piano, but that's about it," I rambled. I knew I was rambling, but I continued rambling nonetheless.

     Something similar to realization appeared on his face. "Vienna," he said it slowly, almost seeming to look beyond me, as an idea took hold of his mind.

     "Bishop." I copied his tone, not yet catching on to his plan.

     "I play guitar and piano."

     "Good for you?" I furrowed my eyebrows and crossed my legs on the bed.

     "And Zane messes around on the drums."

     "Okay, and?"

     "And Finn also plays guitar too."

     "Great, glad you're all so talented. Why are you telling me this?"

     "Vienna!" He sounded exasperated, as he lightly smacked my arm and tilted his head towards the ceiling, as if he couldn't believe that I was this idiotic. "Let's start a band!"

     "You're joking, right?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows and leaning a little closer to him. My heart wanted to soar, because I had always wanted to be in a band singing on a brightly lit up stage somewhere, but I was trying to force myself to stay grounded for the time being.

     "No, I'm serious. You said you came to the city to follow your dreams, so let's all do it." His eyes were wide, and he was almost breathless with excitement, as the idea continued to take shape in his brain. "Zane, Finn, get in here!" He called, looking towards my still-open bedroom door.

     "The fuck does he want?" I heard Zane bellow, as the pair descended down the hallway.

     Soon, Zane's face was visible, as he rounded the corner and came into the room, with Finn not far behind him.

     "You called?" Finn asked, leaning against the wall beside the door and crossing his arms. Man, he really was too cool for school.

     "We're starting a band," Bishop said.

     "A band?" Zane repeated, plopping down on the bed on the other side of me. He looked me over and winked, offering me a 'wassup baby', before returning his attention to his friend.

     "Yep, you heard it here first, folks, the four of us are starting a band. Vienna can be lead singer, Finn and I can play guitar, I'll sing a little too, and Zane can be on the drums. See, it all works out. All you got to do is say yes. Come on, pleaasseeee." Bishop folded his hands together and stuck out his bottom lip rather cutely.

     "I'm in," I said, nodding and looking around at the two other boys. Bishop fist bumped me and cheered excitedly.

     "Yeah, okay," Zane said, as he leaned back onto his palms. "I got nothing better to do, other than fuck bitches, but that still leaves me with free time."

     The three of us turned to face Finn. His face remained impassive, as he ran a hand through his long, curly, brown hair.

     "Please, Finn," I said, quietly, willing him to say yes. I folded my hands under my chin, as I pleaded with the boy.

     "Come on, man," Zane said, now fully invested and behind this idea.

     "Pleaseeeeeeeee," The three of us whined in sync, getting louder and more annoying the longer the fourth party stayed silent.

     Finally, Finn threw his hands up in the air and crossed the room towards my bed. "Alright, alright, we can start a band." Zane, Bishop, and I jumped up and cheered. "Ifffff."

     "If what?" I asked, slowing down my happy dance.

     "If and only if."

     "If and only if what?" Bishop pressed, growing slightly impatient.

     "If we can name the band Hex, because I'm still not totally convinced that Vienna isn't a witch."

     "Hex. It's got a nice ring to it," I said.

     "Hex it is," Zane said, before we erupted into cheers once more and attacked Finn with a group hug.

     It was only my second night there, but all of these boys were already growing on me, including Finn, though it had seemed unlikely beforehand.

     Just then, Danny ran in and interrupted our celebration.

     "You guys are starting a band without me?" He cried, incredulously.

     "Dude, you have no musical talent," Zane argued.

     "Like none at all," Bishop said.

     "Yeah, not even a little bit," Finn added.

     Danny pressed a hand to his chest, looking offended. "What? I'm musically talented!"

     "Oh yeah?" His brother questioned.

     "Yeah. I'm a guitar hero pro."

     "Alright, sing me a song." Danny cleared his throat and went to open his mouth to begin singing, but Bishop cut him off before he could. "And not Sicko Mode."

     Danny rolled his eyes, before opening his mouth to sing once more.

     "And not Eminem," Zane added.

     "Ay, shut up and let the kid sing," Finn said, motioning for Danny to continue. For once, Finn actually looked kind of happy, as he waited for the high schooler to begin entertaining him.

     Danny cleared his throat, before being a very off-key and loud version of September by Earth, Wind, and Fire.

     We all cracked up, and Bishop threw a pillow at his brother's face to make him stop, before promising him that he could be the band's manager.

     And just like that, Hex was formed, and my dreams were just a fraction of a bit closer to becoming a reality.