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I’m sitting on the floor with my friend Kash, just watching the Telly. My stomach rumbles as I smell Mrs. Bulsara’s food cooking away in the other room. My parents are so far away, so it’s been far too long since I’ve had a home cooked meal. I hear footsteps thumping from upstairs. That must be Kash’s brother, Freddie.“Supper’s ready!” Mrs. Bulsara announces, as she brings some of the food out on the dining table. Kash and I rise from our seats, and I turn the telly off.“Oh, I’m not hungry, mum.” Freddie answers back, walking past his mother.“Where are you going?” She responds, straightening up. Her tone is more inquisitive than commanding.“Out with friends.” He says, noncommittally.“Ooh, with a girl?” Kash quips, to which he shakes his head.“Give your mother a kiss!” Mrs. Bulsara says. They kiss quickly as Freddie shrugs on his blue denim jacket.As Kash and I sit down at the table, the door slams shut, and Mr. Bulsara steps in.“Evening, Mr. Bulsara!” I wave to him, and he gives a polite nod.“Hi papa, how was work?” Kash asks, but he doesn’t respond. Must not have been too good, then. He takes off his jacket, and Kash jumps up, to take it and hang it on the cloak stand.Father and son stare at each other for a moment, and I give an awkward grin to Mrs. Bulsara.“Farrokh.” He sighs.“It’s Freddie now, papa.” Freddie breaks their showdown, looking now down at the floor. Mr. Bulsara drags his son into another room, and they exchange a few words. Heated words, might I add.I hear Freddie exit through the front door, and Mr. Bulsara joins us at the dinner table. After the family saying a quick Zoroastrian prayer, we begin to eat.About an hour later, I’m helping Kash wash the dishes. As I’m drying my hands, I look at the clock planted on the wall. It reads 19:50. Oh, shit!I start fussing a bit, getting my things together. “Sorry Kash, I’ve gotta go. Just forgot we’ve got a gig tonight.” By we, I mean my mates Roger Taylor, Tim Staffell, and Brian May. Brian and Roger had created it about a year ago, and had held auditions for the other members. I joined as the keyboardist, Tim joined as the bassist, and we shared lead vocals. Tim’s a good chap, but lately we’ve been arguing more frequently, simply due to creative differences. He wants the band to remain more psychedelic and blues-y, whereas I am more interested in the rock and glamourous vibe.For instance, I wrote a song about a month ago by the name of “My Fairy King”. It’s not entirely complete, save for the piano, lyrics and some guitar (Brian decided to help me out a bit as I’m absolutely rubbish at figuring out guitar parts), and it’s been at an absolute creative standstill, due to us arguing nearly every five minutes about it. It’s too jovial, in his opinion.I’m sprinting out the door, pulling my hair up as I hail a cab to take me to the pub where we’re playing. I throw a few quid at the driver as I speed around the building to the small prep room for the bands.I lean against the wall, mentally cursing as I see we’re on in two minutes. I hear someone clear their throat and turn to see Tim, arms crossed and stamping his foot.“You’re late.” He says, as if I didn’t know.I grumble as I apply my eyeliner, making the wings slightly bigger in order to compensate for a lack of little other makeup. “Thank you for enlightening me with that fascinating little detail,” I gave a quick look around the room. “Where are Brian and Roger?”Tim pointed out the door to the stage. “They’re already out there setting up. I came early, so I’m all ready to go.”I straighten my posture, and begin to step out. “Well then, what’re we waiting for?” He follows me, and as we step onstage, a polite claps emerge, as the pub’s crowd turns their heads towards us. A few already tipsy girls whistle at the boys.I wink at Brian and Roger, and they give waning smiles back at me. Something’s clearly off between them, and they give a disappointed look towards Tim.I decide to break the ice, taking the mic from my piano and facing the audience.“Hello ladies and gents! Good to see you all… smiling this evening! You ready for a show?” The room is filled with cheers. I smirk at my own pun.I give a dramatic nod. “Well, let’s waste no time!” I plopped back into the piano seat, and Brian began the opening riff for “Step On Me”. The show had begun.Instantly, as I always do, I melted into the music. I let the sounds bleed from my fingertips, but not ignoring the audience. I played to them directly, trying to make them feel special.At one point, I think during “Doin’ All Right”, I noticed a familiar mop of black hair in the crowd. Freddie was hanging towards the bar, tapping his foot along and watching us. I threw a quick wink his way. And I saw his smile break a bit, showing some of his teeth. But he quickly became self-conscious and closed his lips back up.
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“Thank you everybody, and good night!” Brian yelled out with his mic, and we all waved to the audience as we walked off stage. I had my usual goofy grin, coming off from all the adrenaline.But it seemed as if morale was down for the rest of the group. As we started packing our things, I tried to break the clear tension.“You did a superb job on ‘Earth’ tonight, Roger. I know that drum bit has been frustrating you for a while, and I noticed you really kicked ass tonight.” I gave the blond a friendly clap on the back.“Thanks, Sabrina.” Roger responded half-heartedly.It wasn’t until we nearly finished loading the van that the ice was finally broken. Tim started off. “Nothing can last forever, eh?”“Well that’s one way of putting it…” Brian remarked under his breath.I put down my equipment and crossed my arms, “Okay, obviously I’ve missed something. What the hell is going on?” I mainly asked Tim. It was clear that he was the one behind this.Tim sighed, geuinely regretful. “Well-”Roger interrupted. “Tim’s leaving Smile. God knows why.”I scoffed. “Are you joking?”Tim simply shrugged. “I’m sorry guys, it’s just college gigs and pubs… you all know this isn’t really going anywhere.” He begins to put his bass in the case.“Not with that attitude it’s not. So you’re just going to give up music?”“Not exactly….” Tim begins, but Brian interrupts him. “He’s joining another band. Guess what the fuck it’s called?”I groan when he tells me it’s called… Humpy Bong??? Classy.“So this is goodbye then?” I say sarcastically.Clearly ashamed at his own actions, Tim leaves as soon as we’re done packing up. What a show of character.I’m leaning against the van with Brian and Roger, the silence enveloping us like a thick blanket. The only sound I hear is Roger’s breath out as he’s smoking.“What on earth are we gonna do now?” I say abysmally. I look up at the twinkling stars. Despite my Catholic upbringing, I’m not really one for religion. But at this moment, I’m somewhat wishing that there was a Power That Be to help us out.Roger simply shrugs. “I have better things to do on my Saturday nights… I can give you their names.” He gives a small smirk as he blows a bit of smoke into my face.I give him a light shove. Leave it to Roger to provide a bit of levity in a rough situation. The sound of footsteps catches me off guard slightly.But my expression lightens a bit when I see it’s Freddie. He walks up to us, with his usual introverted manner. I decide to help him out a tad.“Hey Freddie. Boys, this is my friend’s brother, Freddie Bulsara.” They give him small smiles.“Pleasure.” Brian says.Freddie gives another one of his closed-lip smiles. He seems like such a wallflower in this moment, poor thing. “I… uh… enjoyed the show. I’ve been following Smile around now, actually.”“Appreciate that, mate.” Roger replies politely. Although, I know they’re not really in the mood to be talking to an apparent fan. Who knows if we’ll even perform again?“Well, I write songs… just a hobby, really…” Freddie says, taking a few scraps of paper out of his pocket. I don’t have to look to guess that they’re scribblings of lyrics. I too have those strewn about my flat.“You’re five seconds too late…” Roger sighs at Freddie.“Tim just quit…” Brian explains.I give a small smirk. This might actually work. “You know, we’ll need someone new.”There’s a beat of silence, before Freddie realises what I’m getting at. “Well, what do you think about me doing it?” He puts his hand on his hips, in a little pose. I can’t help but giggle.Roger gives a scoff. “Not with those teeth, mate.” He shakes his head a little and takes another puff of his cigarette. I give him a slight elbow in the back as Freddie turns away, clearly hurt. We could have just blown that, what the hell Roger?But Freddie stops, and suddenly looks back, and opens his mouth wide. “I know what I’m doin’!”My eyes widen. That voice. It’s amazing. “Got a feeling, I should be doin’ all right!” He’s singing my own song better than I can.The three of us join and harmonise at the end. “Doin’ all right…” I give a wide grin, as Brian and Roger and I look at each other. Our voices were all beautiful together.And it seemed that Freddie knew it as well. He proudly turns and begins to walk away. “I’ll consider your offer.”I’m frozen, dumbfounded. “Do you play bass?” Brian calls after the man, to which he gives a resounding “nope!”.I lean back, giggling. I could tell this was the start of something special.
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It’s the following Wednesday, and I was putting up posters around my uni campus (Imperial). Despite Freddie’s succession of Tim, we still needed someone to play bass for us. So, we were holding auditions in one of the music rooms this Saturday morning. As I was pasting another one to a streetlamp, I saw a familiar figure approach me. I called out my friend’s name, and we headed over to where I stood. “Hello, Sabrina,” He gave a pleasant smile. “Whatcha putting up there?” I turned so he could be in full view of the poster. “Well, Smile’s just recently lost our bass player, and the boys and I figured that we’d hold auditions for a new one.” An idea quickly popped into my head. “Hey, wait a second! Don’t you know how to play?”His cheeks quickly turned rosy. “Um… yeah, I guess so. But I haven’t really performed in front of an audience in a long time… I was in a small band in Leicester a few years back, called The Opposition.”I patted his shoulder. “It won’t hurt to try out, though! I mean, worse comes to worse is you’re just not a proper fit. What’ve you got to lose?”He gave a small smirk. “My career as an electrical engineer.”I giggled. “Okay, don’t get cocky, we’re not that big yet. See you Saturday?”He gave a nod, with a slight hesitation. “Alright… why not?”I beamed at him, and give him a small hug. “Awesome! Well, I’ve got some more of these…” I gestured to the box of posters lying at my feet. “To hang up. Let’s meet for lunch later!”“Ta.”“Great. See you later, John!” We both then parted ways.***It was Saturday morning, and we had heard some of the biggest variety of bassists this side of England.Brian sighed. “At this rate, we’ll never find someone.”Freddie shook his head. “Now now, don’t have that kind of attitude.” his dark eyes narrowed as he checked the sign up sheet. “Let’s see, we have…”“Deacy!” I perked up as my dear friend shuffled in. I gave him a quick wave and he responded with a sheepish grin. Roger quirked an eyebrow. “You two know each other? He your boyfriend or something?” To which I replied by whacking the blond’s knee.Freddie giggled as Roger howled in pain, and he gave a warm smile to John. “Well,” he quickly squinted at the list once more. “...John Deacon, take your time setting up.” He gave a polite nod, and began assembling his equipment and such. After about ten minutes of assembling and tuning, he looked to us. “Is there anything in particular you’d like me to play?”I shrugged. “Just give us sixteen bars of whatever you wish.”Wordlessly, John launched into the bass part for “Bring it On Home”, by Led Zeppelin. I raised my eyebrows, I didn’t expect him to be this solid. But anyone and their mother could play that song on bass, so I hoped he would push himself a bit harder.We requested a few other songs, from bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Fleetwood Mac.After nearly an hour, Freddie hopped up. “Great, thank you very much! Our decision-”“Will be made this afternoon.” Brian cut in, casting a side glance at Freddie. “We’ve a lot to discuss.”“Thanks for coming round, though! We’ll call you tomorrow regardless.” Roger piped in, giving an encouraging smile to John. “Thank you,” he replied. “I appreciate this opportunity, it was a great time.” I could see little beads of sweat on the very top of his brow, likely because his bangs created more heat. He clearly wasn’t used to playing for such a long period of time. He swiftly packed up his stuff and left.*** That evening, the three boys and I were sat in a booth at a pub, discussing the results of this morning we had a few drinks in our bellies, so we weren’t afraid to speak our mind.“So, that went better than expected,” I started, my voice laced with a hint of sarcasm.Roger chuckled. “What’s there even to talk about, anyway? We clearly know that Deacon has the best skill of all of them. He’s a bit of an odd chap, though.”“He’s a little too quiet for my immediate liking,” Brian replied, “We need another creative force in the band.”“I think it’s a good thing, if you ask me.” Freddie chimed in. “I mean, we already have four extreme personalities, it would be good to have someone who won’t put up much of a fuss.”“I dunno,” Brian replied, pulling out his notes. Roger and I shared a look of of COURSE he would be taking notes. “He’s just a bass without a body to go along with it.”I sighed. “He’s just shy, Bri, don’t be such an old geezer. I’ve known him for a while now, and he’ll open up once he gets to know you lot. He’ll work with us, not against us, unlike his predecessor.”Freddie gave the poodle-man a friendly smack in the arm. “So, what do you say, Brian?”Brian gave a small chuckle. “I say, get me another drink and I’ll consider it.”The three of us laughed, and Roger got up to get us all another round.
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It was the next Friday night, and our first gig after Tim had left. We had spent the past week practising as much as we could, as to get used to Freddie and John being in the band. It had gone surprisingly smoothly.I was applying a bit of golden glitter to my eyelids, when I saw Freddie watching me in the reflection of the mirror.I smirked. “See something you like?” Once he noticed I was addressing him, he blushed a little and became self-conscious.“Oh, well, um…” He stammered for words, looking off to the side. “I just like how you’re doing your makeup.”I beamed at him. “Aw, that’s really sweet of you Fred!” I put down the brush I was using and turned to face him. “I’ve always felt like wearing makeup gives me a boost of confidence. Like Dumbo holding a feather, if you will.”He gave a small grin. “Do you think I might borrow that feather for myself tonight?”I raised my eyebrows, caught a little off guard. But I soon saw that it probably is taking a good deal of courage to ask this of me, so I handed him my makeup pouch. “Why not? Just know that you and I have vastly different colouring, so maybe don’t use stuff for the skin.”He flashed his teeth at me for the first time. “Thanks, darling.” I stepped aside so he could use the mirror.I shrugged. “It’s good to take risks now and again, right?” To which he hummed in affirmation.Brian soon came up to us. “Sabrina, let’s head out there. Freddie and John, I’m gonna introduce you to the crowd, so just wait for my queue, alright?” The two boys nodded in agreement.I exhaled, and jumped up and down a few times. I let the adrenaline from doing a gig propel me forward onto the stage.“Good evening everybody!” Brian called out on the mic as Roger and I took our seats at the drumset and piano respectively.“We’ve got a few new faces tonight, but let’s start off with the old crowd,” the guitarist began, “You all know Sabrina on piano,” a few cheers erupted and I flashed a big grin. “And Roger on drums.” of course, a bunch of women started whooping, and Roger winked at them. No doubt he’ll shag one of them tonight after the show.“But for the newbies, we have John Deacon, our new bass player,” John stepped out, and I gave a polite clap for him, as well as a couple people in the audience. The poor sod clearly seemed nervous, but he gave a small wave and stared down at his bass.“And for our second lead singer, we have Freddie B- Bulsara” Brian finished a little awkwardly. I saw Freddie slowly walk onto the stage, and instantly murmurs broke out in the crowd. The man had this stalk on stage that almost reminded me of a sort of bantam. I was intrigued.Freddie takes the microphone, and begins to speak. “Hello, all you beautiful people.” There’s a hesitancy in his voice.All of a few shouts are heard from the crowd. “Where’s Tim?”“Who’s the paki?” The audience now dissolves into giggles. “Ready, guys?” Roger says, trying to ignore the hecklers. Brian and I nod, and John and Freddie give a more nervous one. I give a slow exhale. Let’s do this.Brian begins the opening riffs for “Keep Yourself Alive”, and Freddie begins to adjust the microphone for his height. Feedback erupts from the speakers as he’s having a hard time.The audience begins to laugh once more as he gives the mic stand a big pull, and it flies up, nearly knocking John over, as he quickly ducks.Freddie’s too busy grabbing the tambourine to start the song, so I decide to sing the first two lyrics, as there’s no piano part for this one. “I was told a million times of all the trouble in my way, mind you grow a little wiser little better ev’ry day..”Freddie soon begins to thump the tambourine against his leg, and we exchange a look as I pass the vocals over to him.“Well if I rode a million rivers, and I crossed a million miles, then I’d still be where I started, same as where I started…”I hear Brian mumble that he got the lyric wrong. The chorus comes up a few lines too soon, so the rest of us begin to just chime in accordingly.“Keep yourself alive, keep yourself alive, ooo it’ll take you all your time and-a money, but honey you’ll survive!”As the next verse starts, the audience is slowly getting into the music. A few cheers break out once they relax and realise that Freddie is actually, ya know, competent?As the show continues I notice that Freddie is consistently focusing on this one blonde girl in the front. She looks up at him with stars present in her crystal blue eyes. I feel a small tugging at my heartstrings, but I can’t understand why.I slowly get more and more sucked into the music, as I always do. By the time the show’s done I’m a sweaty mess, but I’m filled with glee.***“Thank you everyone, and good night!” I yell out to the crowd as we bow at the end of the show. They erupt into clapping and cheering. The second we get backstage everyone starts hugging each other. I feel that Freddie is shaking slightly, but out of pure joy.“We did it, guys! Smile 2.0!” I cried out. The others started laughing.“Humpy Bong my arse!” Roger called out, as we broke apart.As we started to pack up our things, that blonde from the show comes backstage. She and Freddie kiss, and I quirk an eyebrow. Huh, didn’t know that they actually knew each other. Usually when a girl is staring like that at us, it’s because she wants to have a one-night stand with Roger. This was a nice change of pace.“Everyone, this is Mary Austin, my girlfriend. Mary, this is, well… everyone!” Freddie announced with grandiose. I shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Mary!” Everything about her was sharp and well-crafted, but filled with warmth. Her blonde hair was the same colour as the sun that I seldom see because it’s England, and I see flying pigs more frequently. Her makeup only accentuated her round face and rosy cheeks.I quickly let go once I realised I was still shaking her hand. I gave an awkward giggle. “Great performance tonight…” her accent was light and airy and she trailed off, asking for my name.“Sabrina, Sabrina Stratton.” I placed my hands in my pockets, and rocked back and forth. “And thanks! We try our best, and I’d say Freddie and John really blend well as new members, once we got into the groove of things.” As Roger was passing by, I elbowed him in the side. “And this one wasn’t too shabby, either.”The drummer was startled by my swift move and smirked, clutching his side. “Stuff it, you.” “Oi!” Brian called out to us all. “Let’s head down the road to get some drinks to celebrate!”There was a beat of silence, and I gave a small yawn. I was pretty tired. “I’m paying!” Brian added.I perked up at the same time as Roger, and we laughed for a moment. That was certainly a motivator. “Alright, let’s just finish getting packed up and then we’ll go!” I called out, grabbing a few amps.***As we enter the pub down the road, my nose is assaulted with smells of cigarettes, sweat, and cheap beer. I exhaled. This was what reality smells like.The six of us quickly grab a booth, and I draw the short straw to grab the first round, so I skulk off to the bar and order the drinks. Not even a minute passes and a large ginger man sits on the stool next to me and gives a smirk. “What’s a pretty little bird like you doing here?”I instantly feel a stone start to form in the pit of my stomach. But I decide to play it cool. “Oh, just out with some friends,” I point towards the booth, where the rest of the group is laughing… probably at some stupid shit Roger’s doing. I smile when I see Mary’s eyes light up like diamonds.But the man’s gruff Yorkshire accent pulls me back in. “Eh, screw ‘em. Why don’t you and I get to be a little friendlier?” He places a meaty hand on my tiny arm. The stone becomes more like a full-fledged rock. By now, the bartender thankfully has all the drinks ready. Thank god… I wiggle my way out of his grasp, grab the foaming glasses and squeal “no thanks!” as I nearly sprint back to my seat, squeezed between Roger and John. “Here you are, lads and lady.” I muster up a smile as I pass the drinks out, despite feeling quite shaken. The group accepts them gladly.The rest of the evening proceeds fairly normally, but I can’t help but notice Roger giving me a few concerned glances. I shrug them off, though.