9:45 PM, September 29th, 2023

Vexation is about to play their last song of the night. As they play, Reyna sees a man dressed in business attire walk into the venue. As the band plays the man watches, he sees potential in this band. Little after the band is done playing, the man waits for them backstage and they talk. “Do y’all have a minute?” the man says to the band. The band’s frontman (Reyna) replies with “Yo, what’s up?). The man says that the band has a lot of talent and potential. He then says that he has an opportunity that’s going to make the band famous. The man then gives Reyna a card with his name and number. “Contact me if you're interested,” the man says. The man then turns around and leaves. Reyna then puts the card in his pocket and gets ready to head home with the band.

 As they load everything in the trailer Josh starts talking about how the band is very underrated and that they need to get out there. Julian agrees with Josh and says that the band should take whatever opportunity that man will give the band. Reyna says he’ll think about it because we don't even know what we’re getting into. Julian then tells Reyna to call the number on the card to get more information about whatever opportunity they have. The band finishes loading up and gets in the car. Reyna’s dad is waiting in the driver's seat. “Ready to go?” asked Reyna’s dad. “Yeah, we’re good to go” responds Reyna. “So how was the show?” asks Reyna’s dad. Josh & Julian immediately respond by saying “It was very good, there were a bunch of people vibing with us” - Josh “And when we were done some fancy-looking guy was waiting for us backstage and told us about some opportunity for the band” - Julian. “That is crazy guys, y’all are doing great”. Reyna looks at the card that was given to him and just thinks. As they're driving, the radio starts playing “Come As You Are” By Nirvana. Reyna turns up the music a little louder and everyone in the car starts to vibe, eventually arriving at Reyna's house.

Once they arrive, they unload everything into the garage. The band then heads upstairs to Reyna’s room to get ready to sleep. Reyna starts a deep conversation with the band and asks “What if we don’t make it” in an overwhelmed tone. Julian then says “Don’t worry about that man, what matters most is the enjoyment in doing what we love most. We have an audience; it might not be a very big audience but they’re still people that enjoy hearing us. Right, Josh?”

Josh is asleep on the floor. Reyna then says in a braver tone, “You’re right, Music is our passion and it doesn't matter if we become famous or not. As long as I'm having fun and spending time with you guys, I'll be fine. “Tomorrow Morning I’ll call the number on the card!” says Reyna out loud. Josh wakes up surprised not knowing what was even going on. Josh asks what happened and Julian says that Reyna’s calling the number first thing tomorrow morning.

It’s now Saturday morning, and Reyna's alarm starts playing “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” By Nirvana in full volume. The three guys wake up all intense. Josh starts yelling and running around, Julian just pops his eyes wide open and Reyna grabs his guitar that's next to his bed and slams it on the alarm. Everything then stops and they realize it was just the alarm. “What a way to start the morning,” said Julian. Josh then runs towards the window screaming. He breaks the window and falls down both floors from outside landing on the grass. ”I’m okay!” said Josh from down there. As Reyna and Julian wait for Josh to come upstairs, Julian asks Reyna if he’s going to call the number. Reyna then says “Almost forgot about that”. Reyna grabs the card and his phone. He dials in the number and calls.

“Hello?” says Reyna when the phone answered. The man on the phone asks who is calling. Reyna responds with, “It’s vexation, the band you met backstage last night.” The man on the phone then says he remembers and asks if the band is interested in this massive opportunity. Josh runs into the room slamming the door open “YES, SAY YES, WE ARE INTERESTED” says Josh. Reyna then responds saying “Yes we are interested but what is this opportunity?” The man on the phone then says “It's a massive event where thousands of people go and watch all of these underground bands from all around the United States to compete and if y’all win, y’all get a record deal with sub-pop records.” Josh starts running around the room with excitement and high-fives Julian as Reyna is just standing there with a shocked face. “Reyna you, okay?” asks Julian. “Yeah, I’m fine”. Reyna then asks the man on the phone, “Wait did you say Seattle? We don't have the money to go over there. We also have school.” The man on the phone then responds with, “No worries, we’ll pay for your flights, and hotel. Y’all would stay in Seattle, Monday, October second through Friday, October 6th which is the day of the event. Then y’all would leave Saturday.” The three guys stare at each other in pure silence, they’re all thinking the same thing. “Are y’all still there?” asked the man on the phone. “Josh then snatches the phone from Reyna and says out loud, “HELL YEAH, WE’LL DO IT!” The man on the phone then responds with, “Great, I’ll see y'all Monday in Seattle. I’ll send you all the information you need.” Josh then says “Sounds great! Thank you, dude!”

The phone hangs up, and Josh turns around to look at Reyna just dead staring straight at him. “You good?” says Josh. “WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT!” said Reyna with a lot of frustration towards Josh. “We haven't even talked to all our parents about this yet. What about school? What are we supposed to do there?”

Julian then tells Reyna to relax. Reyna then says “Relax? Yeah man, let me just relax and tell my parents I’m just randomly going to Seattle Washington in an attempt to win a record deal and miss school for the next five days.” Josh then apologizes to Reyna and tells him, “It’s going to be fine; we just have to talk to our parents soon and let them know we won’t be here for five days.” Julian then agrees with Josh and says he has to go home. They say bye to Julian before leaving “See y’all Monday at the Airport, ha-ha!” says Julian as he goes home (he lives next door). Josh and Reyna then go back inside the house to get a glass of water. As Reyna fills the glasses, Josh receives a call from his mom saying she’s outside. “You got to go?” asked Reyna. Josh then said, “Yeah man sorry, I’ll see you Monday though.” “See you Monday, take care,” said Reyna. Josh walks out and closes the door.

           Later that evening Reyna is playing acoustic guitar in his room and gets an idea for a song. He tries to record a quick audio recording with his phone and right before he starts strumming, His parents arrive home calling his name from downstairs. Reyna then goes downstairs and sees his mom crying and his dad trying to comfort her. Reyna asked if everything was okay. Reyna’s Mom just looked at him and said crying, “She’s gone David, she’s gone.” Reyna is confused and worried about who his mom is talking about. Reyna then asked, “Who? Who’s gone?” She looks up to Reyna and says “Your Tia Ana.” As soon as Reyna heard that he immediately went upstairs to his room and started crying, smashing, and throwing things around his room. He grabs a black Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar. As he is about to slam it with all his anger, he remembers that that guitar was the last gift Tia Ana ever gave to him before her passing. Reyna then just lets go of the guitar and sets it on his bed. He throws himself onto his pillow with his face facing the pillow and just cries.

About two hours later Reyna goes downstairs quietly and calmly to talk about the event on Friday. He then hears his dad talking on the phone saying the funeral is on the following Friday. Reyna then goes rushing back upstairs worried and panicked. “What am I going to do, what am I going to do, what am I going to do, what am I going to do?” Reyna says to himself. “I have to attend the funeral, she was my aunt, she cared so much for me and she always supported my music. I can’t just let my best friends and these big companies down on this opportunity to make it big either.” Reyna just sits down and decides to just sleep it off.

The next day, Reyna wakes up at twelve forty-eight PM. His parents walk into his room telling him to get ready to go to grandma’s house. He gets up and changes into some baggy black denim cargo, a black t-shirt, a mustard yellow sweater, and black and white Converse. As he brushes his teeth, his phone rings. It’s a call from the man. Reyna answers. “Hello?” said Reyna. “Hey there. I got y’all three tickets for Tomorrow at seven thirty AM. I will meet y’all at the airport in Seattle, I got y’all a five-star hotel too I’ll be responsible for keeping my eyes on you three. Catch y’all later.” The phone hangs up and Reyna is done getting ready. As Reyna and his parents leave the house, Reyna starts to think about how to tell them about not being able to make the funeral.

As they’re driving, Reyna’s dad starts saying that everyone is going to wear white on the day of the funeral. Reyna is in nerve because doesn’t know how to tell that he’s going to miss a funeral for a show. “David, are you listening?” said Reyna’s dad. “I have something to say about Friday.” The car stays quiet and Reyna’s parents are waiting for him to say what he’s going to say.

“I won’t be able to make the funeral on Friday.” Said Reyna. His mom looks at him with an urge. “Why not? What’s more important than your Tia’s funeral?” Said Reyna’s mom. “I have a show this Friday in front of thousands of people in Seattle.” Replied Reyna. “Really David? How do you expect to even go to Seattle with no money? Your little band probably won’t be able to go either.” Said Reyna’s dad.

           Reyna then said, “I already asked them; they said that they were fine. Josh even went to buy new bass strings this morning.” “David Alejandro Reyna, I cannot believe you right now.” Said Reyna’s Mom. As they arrive at Grandma's driveway, Reyna’s dad says that they’ll talk about it later at home.

           Meanwhile, while Julian is packing his bags, Julian's mom tells him, “Julian, did you hear that David’s Tia passed? They are having the funeral this Friday.” He then walked out of his room to ask his mom what happened. “I didn’t even know that. David had said to start packing bags already.” Said Julian. “Is he not going to the funeral?” Asked Julian’s mom. “I guess not, not sure why but pretty sure we’re still playing the show.”

           After a couple of hours Reyna calls Julian. “Hey bro, I’m going to need a favor for tomorrow.” Julian then replies, “Yeah what’s up? I heard about your Tia.” Reyna then says, “Yeah stuff is going so bad right now, Do you think you could take me to the airport tomorrow morning? My parents aren’t allowing me to go because the funeral is this Friday but I also don’t want to ruin this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.” Julian then says “Yeah sure but I just don’t want any problems between your family and mine for taking you without their permission.” “Alright thanks so much, bro, and don’t worry about any issues you’ll be fine. Bye, I have to go.” The phone then hangs up.

Reyna goes back inside. The entire family is there. They’re all crying, hugging each other, and talking with so much sadness. However, Reyna’s cousin (Meli) walks up to him asking, “You going Friday?” Reyna then replies, “No, most likely not.” Meli then asked, “Oh, why not?” Reyna didn’t know if to tell her the truth or not. “I have a big event to go to in Seattle on Friday.” Meli then said “Oh cool. Then she walked away.

           After a couple of hours, Reyna and his parents head back home.  Pure silence in the car; Not a word to be said. Reyna randomly says “The plane leaves at seven thirty AM tomorrow and Julian’s mom is going to take me to the airport.” Reyna’s mom just turns around and says, “Do what you want at this point, it’s almost like all you care about is your music and nothing else.” Reyna’s dad tells everyone to calm down and to just be quiet.”

           Once they got home Reyna went straight to his room and started packing everything he needed for the next day. He opens a drawer with all his sunglasses. He picks up a pair of glasses and underneath is a picture of his Tia and Reyna. He grabs it and puts it in his guitar case. After about an hour of packing, he puts everything on his door for the morning.

           It is now seven in the morning. Reyna’s alarm rings with the song “Lithium” by Nirvana. He gets up and changes into some sweatpants and a sweatshirt. He brushes his teeth, puts on a beanie, and puts on some sunglasses. He grabs his stuff and leaves a note to his parents on the counter. Reyna walks out of the house and walks to Julian's house with his bags. “Yo what’s up bro, you ready?” Asked Julian. Reyna responded with, “Yep let’s do this, about to spend the next five days with my best friends.” Julian's mom then gets in the car and asks Reyna and Julian if they’re all set to go. Julian says that they’re ready to go. Reyna calls Josh to ask him if he is on the way to the airport, and Josh says that he was already there since like five AM for some reason but he’s ready. Reyna then says Bet and the phone hangs up. “Josh is already over there,” Reyna said to Julian.

           They arrive at the airport. Julian's mom tells Julian and Reyna to take care of each other. They walk in and see Josh. They hug with so much excitement. They get a quick snack from the lobby and head upstairs. Their flight is called through the intercom. The band looks at each other and breathes deeply as they give the lady their tickets. As they hop on the plane, they get seats together and wait for the plane to take off. The three boys are excited but Reyna is the most nervous due to what’s going to happen when he gets back home.