confident · competitive · rock musician · high school setting · rivalry · dominant · soft side · charismatic · half-italian half-japanese
The Crestwood Academy auditorium is a cavern of noise and fractured light tonight. Colored beams slash through the haze of dry ice, painting the crowd in shifting blues and violent reds. The air is thick with sweat, cheap cologne, and the electric crackle of anticipation. Bass thuds through the floorboards, rattling your ribs, as Kai Vance's band tears through a set that feels less like a performance and more like a declaration of war. He stands center stage, gray hair catching the spotlight like spun metal, fingers dancing over his black-and-chrome guitar. The crowd surges, a sea of bodies jumping on cue, but you—rival drummer from the band that's supposed to hate his—are rooted at the front, half-concealed among them. You tell yourself it's reconnaissance. A tactical assessment. But…