RJ scanned his hand as his two friends eyed him. They were sat in his garage, and between all three of them was a stack of pastel cards. His mouth formed a line as he thought deeply. Diosa rolled her eyes at his seriousness for a kids card game.

"UNO, and Plus four... and make it purple" He smirked as he played the card onto Elena.

"For the last time, it's dark blue." Diosa sighed into her hands.

"No it isn't!" RJ screamed. "It's nineties UNO. The color scheme is Teal, Pink, Pineapple and PURPLE!!!"

Diosa rolled her eyes as Elena played a two card. She went to play her card when she noticed something in her peripheral. There was something leaning up against the wall behind multiple boxes. "What is that? And UNO." She said as she played a teal two.

"I WIN!!!" RJ screamed as he put down a color card. He then turned to see what Diosa had pointed at. "The keyboard?" Diosa nodded. "It's Casey's. She's never played it besides the Christmas she got it... That was like, back in Seattle if I'm thinking correctly."

Elena groaned as she laid down her sad handful of six cards. "So why is it not in a moving box if she doesn't use it?" She scowled at her cards.

"Oh, well..." RJ looked at the floor and grew reddish. "I- I play it sometimes."

"Oh! That's cool, nothing to be embarrassed about dude." Diosa comforted as she started picking up the cards. "Another game?"

"In a minute! I wanna hear RJ play!" Elena exclaimed and ran over to the keyboard.

"I don't know, I'm not that good" RJ scratched his neck as Elena picked up the keyboard and stand.

"You don't have to be good. It's about having fun." Diosa said as she helped Elena with the stand. "Plus, we're band kids, we've probably heard worse."

Elena nodded at that as they brought over and set up the keyboard.

"Come on, I don't know" RJ looked at the deck of cards and went to grab them anxiously before his friend picked him up and carried him over to the keyboard.

"Come on, pleeeeease???????" Elena begged with puppy dog eyes.

"Fiiiine." RJ sighed and rolled his eyes. "Go sit down" He said as he turned it on and set everything to his preference. His two friends sat back down where they had previously been playing UNO.

The two girls waited excitedly as their friend began to play. As he got further into playing he stuck his tongue out of the right side of his mouth in concentration.

They were in awe as RJ started to end the song. "I know it wasn't that good. It's more of a hidden hobby." He chuckled awkwardly.

"That was great!" Elena said ecstatically as she smiled.

"This Is What Falling In Love Feels Like, good choice." Diosa said. "That was pretty good. You should try out for band, I bet they'd let you play the keyboard with you being that good."

"Oh no no no!" RJ said as he vigorously shook his head. "I don't do school groups. Practicing in front of peers. Doing things at times teachers choose. Oh no. If I'm gonna do something, it's gonna be when I want, where I want, and with who I want."

"If you want." Diosa shrugged, picking up the UNO cards to reshuffle the deck for another game. RJ sat back down at his spot, taking his seven cards from Diosa. "But you've got talent. Why haven't you ever told us that you play?"

RJ shrugged, placing down a card. "I dunno, I guess it never came up? Or I wasn't sure how you guys would react? I don't actually know." He was decisive of his own thoughts.

"How we would react?" Elena questioned. "We're literally in band, the worst we would have done is exactly what we did: ask you to be in the school band." She placed down a Draw Two card, making Diosa glare at her, as she picked up her cards.

"She's right." Diosa agrees. "We're literally band nerds, it would be hypocritical to make fun of you. But you are really good, and it would really be great if, by any chance, there was something we could do to change your mind about joining band-"

RJ cuts her off with a sharp shake of his head. "Never." he says passionately.

There was a silence.

Diosa places a draw four down, causing RJ to glare at her. Elena clears her throat. "I play piano, too." She announces boldly, making the other two face her.

"You do?" RJ says, pausing in the middle of picking up his cards, raising his right eyebrow questioningly.

"I thought you only played guitar." Diosa said, looking at her other friend with equal surprise and excitement.

Elena deflates slightly, muttering slightly quieter. "Well, I'm taking classes. I can play a little bit.." she confesses.

"That's still cool," RJ said as he organized his four new cards. "I remember taking music classes. Granted it was the flute, and years ago."

The two girls looked at him confused.

"You play two instruments and didn't tell us!?" Diosa just stared.

"Well three technically," RJ shrugged. "The tambourine as well, though it's not hard to learn or play. Plus I haven't touched a flute in years." He laid down his yellow six card.

Elena played a yellow reverse card. "So we all play instruments, that's fun, we could like... I dunno? Be a band?"

"I don't know, we're all kind of busy, aren't we? That would take up a lot of time." Diosa says slowly, looking between the two to gauge their reactions.

RJ nods and places down a teal six. "Yeah, I don't know. Time constraints, plus, I wouldn't want people to see me playing music, it's a vulnerable thing, that's why I do it in private. Plus we have nowhere to do it."

"We could do it at my house." Diosa suggests as she plays a teal skip card. "But the garage is full of old instruments that no one uses. I mean, I was the only one who actually stuck with band. But if we created a band, I guess the ton of instruments could help."

Her friends look at her in shock.

"What are you talking about? We're always over at your house." Elena says, breaking the silence.

"I dunno... I guess I've never taken you guys to my actual house. We're at the beach house usually, almost never at our actual house" Diosa says, thinking out loud.

Elena slowly grins, setting down her UNO cards for the last time. "So are we gonna actually do this?" she says excitedly, looking to her friends for a response.

Diosa looked at RJ. "So I presume we're gonna post us playing on Youtube?" Elena nodded her head ecstatically as RJ spoke. "Well we'd have to create the channel. Even after all that, I don't want my face on Youtube, especially doing something so vulnerable."

Elena thought for a moment. "We could wear masks? Or helmets, I know you have that astronaut helmet, and Diosa has her motorcycle helmet." Elena was referring to a past halloween costume and a helmet from a motorcycle Diosa didn't even own.

RJ sighed. "Fine, are we actually going to do this?" Elena smiled wide and nodded happily.

Diosa just rolled her eyes. "I mean, I guess."

|━━━━━━━━{Notes}━━━━━━━━|

Hello world! Welcome to my new story! Well, it's not just my story. This story is written and inspired by MyNameIsNowDiosa and strwbrriekitty!
This was inspired by the Multiplayer Benchtrio AU story on AO3. I found the story through the Shawshank animatic for the fic.
We hope you enjoy and remember to stay safe! (1299 Words)