Chapter Text
"3, 4!"
'One Armed Scissor by The Drive-In'
Camila strums her electric Black Sunburst Ibanez, wildly head-banging to the downbeats. Her black, messy hair goes in all different directions with beads of sweat dripping down her face and neck. It's the last song of the night that she and her band are playing, and she is certainly giving it her all.
Camila and Vic, the bassist, go up to their own individual mic-stand to start singing the first lyrics of the song.
"Yes, this is the campaign, slithered entrails in the cargo bay," Camila sings, and every time she strums a chord, she purposely jerks her body forward. She looks at the crowd in awe and estimates that there is at least 20,000 people in attendance.
If you told 15-year old Camila and her band that they would be playing in the 3rd largest festival in the U.S. with 20,000+ people, she would scoff and say "Yeah, like that will actually happen."
Vic goes up to the mic-stand, screaming, "CUT AWAY! CUT AWAY!"
"Send transmission to the one armed scissor...," Camila sings.
Derek, the rhythm guitarist, joins Vic and sings, "CUT AWAY! CUT AWAY!"
Vic roams the stage, interacting with the audience, particularly one female who is screaming the lyrics at the top of her lungs. She realizes that Vic is looking at her and almost immediately starts screaming even louder. Vic smiles and runs back to his spot on his stage, back to back with Camila, strumming their instruments.
Kristen, the drummer, has her eyes closed and hitting the crash cymbals with all her might and abusing her poor snare drum that is close to popping. Her in-ears are giving her and the rest of the band the tempo, and she is extremely locked in and in the pocket with everybody. Kristen looks up to Camila to see that she has stood in front of Kristen's drumset to play alongside her. They both smile to each other, and Camila steps forward to the mic stand.
"Dissect a trillion sighs away, will you get this letter? Jagged pulp sliced in my veins, I write to remember," Camila sings, closing her eyes to catch her breath and regain her composure. She is filled with so much energy, yet she is starting to feel the exhaustion of this hour and a half long concert they put up for their amazing fans. But, she wouldn't trade this moment for anything else.
Finally, the band comes to the end of the song, strumming and playing their last notes, and all jump in unison with the exception of Kristen. The ringing of the guitars and bass echo throughout the arena, creating harmonic feedback.
The audience goes wild and starts chanting, "CLARITY! CLARITY!" Camila walks up to the mic-stand with a heartfelt smile, and says her last words to the audience.
"Thank you all so much for coming out tonight! It means the world to us, and without you, we wouldn't be here playing our music for you," Camila says, letting her guitar down and looking from left to right of the audience. "We appreciate you, we love you, and we'll see you NEXT TIME!" The audience roars in cheers and yells, and they all start clapping.
Kristen gets up from her stool and starts to roll on the cymbals and one last kick from the kick drum. She runs to the front of the stage and throws her drumsticks to the crowd, which were all fighting to grab at least one stick or at least some chipped wood from it.
The band runs to the back of the stage and gives their instruments to the instrument techs. "Wow, you guys put up a killer show!" One of the techs say, Dinah, who is also Camila's childhood and bestfriend. "Thanks Dinah," Derek says as he's giving her his guitar.
"I think that was the best show we have ever fucking played." Kristen finally arrives to the back and walks up to Derek. "You know, for a long show like that, I thought my drumsticks would've gave out but they lasted. I fucking love those sticks," Kristen exclaims, putting her arm on top of Derek's shoulder.
"I'm glad, I knew they would be a perfect fit for you," Normani, the drum tech, smiles excitedly as she also walked up to help with the instruments.
Dinah walks up to Camila and says, "I'm so proud of you Mila," Dinah says, reaching her arms out for Camila. "I would hug you, but I am so sweaty and stink so bad... I want to save your nostrils from bleeding out, Dinah," Camila says, raising her hands instead to interlock hers with Dinah's.
"You know I don't care! Besides, you and the others played such a good show that I think you deserve a hug," Dinah says, moving their arms around in circles. Though Camila appreciates the gesture, her entire body is in pain, especially her arms.
Camila searches around for Vic, as he was the last one to exit the stage but realizes he is nowhere to be found. "Where is Vic?" Camila asks as she pulls away from Dinah and walks with the crew back to the tour bus. "I saw him run to the tour bus when we were all chatting, muttering something about how he needed to pee really bad," Kristen chuckles. "I wonder how long he's been holding it in."
"Ew, I actually don't want to think about that," Camila responds as they walk down the stairs and walk towards the tour bus, gravel crunching underneath her feet. Derek beats both Camila and Kristen to the door, swinging it open and immediately running to the shower. "Hey, that isn't even fair!" Camila exclaims, catching up to Derek as she gets ready to tell him off since she won an argument to shower first after the show.
"Okay, well I really need to shower Mila, you don't understand," Derek says, scurrying through his clothing drawers and picking out whatever he could find. "Are we going to forget the conversation or should I say, argument, we had this morning?" Camila pulls his arms away from his drawers, but he is too strong and stays glued to the drawer.
"Okay well, someone is here tonight, and I promised her that I would find her after the show...," Derek starts to faintly blush as he finally found his clothes and speed-walks to the shower.
"Derek gets girls?" Kristen sarcastically said, walking towards the lounge area to get a well-deserved snack: crackers and cheese. Camila rolls her eyes, "That's a first." Camila slumps down on one of the couches and turns on her phone to go to Instagram.
The first thing she sees is photos of the band taken by their long-time friend and photographer, Ally. Camila swears she's the best photographer for bands ever, especially her editing skills to make their photos look ethereal. Camila likes the post and shares it to her story and starts scrolling to wait for Derek to get out of the shower.
Derek rushes out of the shower with damp hair, and has his phone in his right hand, texting away. For some reason, he hasn't completely dried himself, and water drips down all on the floor. Kristen looks up from the table in disgust, "Dude, go dry yourself. You're getting man-water all on the floor." Derek looks up and flicks Kristen's cheek before running away to the shower to dry himself off, and Kristen runs after him, abandoning her snack.
"Idiots," Camila mumbled, rising from her seat as well to get her clothes to get ready to shower. As she sets her phone down on her bed, she gets a notification from their manager, Kelly, and she quickly unlocks her phone.
Kellz: 'CAMILA!!! YOU GUYS WERE AWESOME!!!'
Camila smiles and replies back to Kelly, and in the distance, she hears Kristen and Derek play-fighting and horsing around.
Camila: 'Kelly, THANK YOU! It has to be one of the best shows we've played thus far!!!!! So excited for the next one :)'
She sets her phone down, and suddenly Kristen opens the door to their bed compartment and runs for her life as Derek is chasing her, finally in his clothes. "YOU WON'T CATCH ME!" Kristen ducks and jukes Derek as he was so close to finally tagging her.
"You guys better not push me down, or else I will be running after you both too," Camila squints her eyes at them and grabs her clothes to shower. "Kristen... did you hear something?" Derek puts his hand on his chin to 'ponder'. "Actually, I hear this weird buzzing sound. It's quite annoying," Kristen agrees with him, putting her hands on her hips.
"Hey, you guys know what's more annoying?" Vic opens up the curtain to his bed. "That you won't shut the hell up," Vic retorts and throws a crumpled paper of sheet music the band were drafting earlier for their new record. "So that's where you've been this entire time!" Kristen climbs up and starts messing around with his curtain. Camila shakes her head while smiling and heads to the shower.