high society !

biological warfare

d-ray finally had one of the music practice rooms to himself.
usually this meant something different. if it were a normal day, d-ray would probably be sharing his practice room with a girl, and they would probably not be wearing clothes.
actually, if it were a normal day, d-ray wouldn’t be there. it was 4:00 on a saturday. he shouldn’t be at school.
but it was the night of the M.I.LF— the music is life festival. it’s basically ballstown high’s miniature version of american idol. there were fifteen acts running against one another, all competing for the grand prize of 300 dollars. d-ray was competing with his band, the wastelanders, and they were closing the show.
performing in the M.I.L.F is already a big deal, but closing it makes you basically a legend. the closing act is the last one everyone sees, it’s the thing that gets the crowd pumped up and excited for awards…
so this had to be perfect.
d-ray’s callused fingers tickled the fretboard as he practiced his solo; it was probably the hardest fuckking solo he’d ever played. his pick hand flicked violently at the strings, hitting each one with such perfect accuracy. his bends were clean and loud, and he could hardly hear himself think over the wail of his gibson flying v— he called her ‘lady’, because he claimed, “he knew how to make her scream.”
just as he was about to finish up the last part of the showy and overly complicated solo, his phone rang from his back pocket. it was rex. d-ray snapped out of his groove and answered of course. rex was a man of few words; when he had something to say it was either something nice or someone had died tragically.
“hey d! you ready for the show?”
”hell yeah! it’s gonna be great, ol’ jax even said we have time for an encore now— there’s this real bad flu goin’ round, they had to cut a few acts. not us though! nothings gonna ruin this gig!”
“that’s rough mate, i had the flu when it went around a couple years back, sucked ass”
“for real.” d-ray responded, as mitch joined the call.
“yooo good luck tonight d-man! hope i’ll be able to come, my brother’s got this real bad flu that’s been goin’ round.”
the guitarist cringed. ”man, that sucks ass!”
“for real!” rex added.
“hey, someone text zee, tell him to get his ass in the call.” suggested mitch.
moments later, their phones buzzed as a fourth person entered the chat. the three boys greeted him with, hoots and hollers and various animalistic noises, expecting for zee to do the same.
they were instead met with violent coughing on the other end of the line.
“hey, guys.” zee spoke thickly, with a sniffle.
“i don’t think i’m coming to the show tonight, sorry d—“
“yeah, i don’t think so!” d-ray exclaimed. “you sound like shit!”
”gee, thanks. i got that real bad flu that’s been goin’’ round.”
”sounds to me like the flu’s got you—“
“be nice!” mitch scolded him.
“feel better though, man, for real. if you die on me, i am going to beat the living shit out of your corpse.”
all of the sudden, there was singing coming from outside the practice room; d-ray heard it. the rest of the boys heard it. it was BEAUTIFUL.
”who is THAT?” mitch gawked.
“oh! that’s olivia lowe, she’s amazing! she’s in the show! speaking of which, i’d better get back to practice. see ya after fellas, except you, zee. eat soup or something.” and with that he hung up.
“…yeah. he’s not winning. not with her in the lineup.”  rex sighed.
“that sucks guys. i already feel so bad about missing it and even worse if he doesn’t win!”
“we have to do something!”
rex shook his head. “like what? it’s not like we can just kick olivia out of the show!”
zee opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was another round of painful coughing that wracked his tiny form and made his head spin.
a lightbulb seemed to go off in mitch’s head.
“i think i have a plan.”
later that evening, two backstage crew members wheeled a large tuba case case into the boys dressing room.
except they weren’t actually crew members, but mitch and rex. they were dressed in all black, so anyone who saw them would just assume they were crew members. it was like a disguise.
they unlatched the tuba case, and zee tumbled out, bundled up  in a thick black sweatshirt to try to keep his chills at bay. rex gently helped him to his unsteady feet and ruffled his mess of sweaty hair.
“okay, now what?” zee asked.
“i don’t know, drink out of olivia’s water bottle or something. its right there on the counter.”
“we’re in the GIRL’S dressing room?!”
“duh, it wasn’t gonna be in the boys one! now hurry zee, drink from her bottle before someone comes in and we get busted!”
“but that’s gross— the germs—“
“ZEE, you’re supposed to be getting her sick.”
“oh, right!” he uncapped the pink water bottle— the one that said ‘olivia’ in the side, took a swig, and capped it again. they left the dressing room just in time to watch olivia come around the corner, walk inside, and come back out, drinking from the water bottle that zee contaminated.
“nice!” the three of them shared a high five.
“now let’s get out of here—“
they turned around, but found themselves face to face with mr. jax, the director of the ballstown music program, and host of the M.I.L.F
“hey boys, do you think you could run the booth tonight? cam and winston called off last minute, they’ve got that bug that’s been goin’ around.”
they all just nodded in shock.
well luckily they hadn’t been caught, but now they were tasked with doing sound and lights for the festival.
thankfully, they weren’t too completely clueless; everything was labeled, and there was a list of what microphones needed to be on and when; plus rex and mitch both had a decent amount of technical knowledge. and the booth was dark enough to where zee was able shut his eyes for a moment and just rest.
there were about fifteen minutes until the curtain opened, and the audience had already started to fill up the seats, as did the judges, who sat at a black table in the center of the room. the paper said that they needed to play some background music before the show started, so mitch hooked his phone to the speaker. he typed something into google.
meanwhile, the performers were in the backstage area. the first two performers; a thin blonde girl playing the violin, who was to be followed by a bigger hispanic guy that was going to sing fly me to the moon stood in the wings.
the wastelanders were standing in the band room— since they were closing the show, they didn’t have to rush. d-ray was dressed like a rockstar, wearing torn up jeans, his doc martens, a flannel, a bandanna to keep his hair out of his eyes, and a shirt with “I <3 HOT MOMS” painted on his cutoff tank top, a homage to the festival’s name. he even had a little bit of eyeliner on.
“hey, mason.” he spoke as he turned to face the lead singer.
“do you hear clash of clans music?”
“hey, good luck, david!” olivia spoke gently as she touched d-ray’s shoulder. she was wearing a hot pink dress and she’d done her makeup beautifully.
“good luck to you too, darlin.” the guitarist said with a smile and a wink.
shortly after, the show began. zee had woken up from his nap by then, and mitch had shut off the clash music. they were surprisingly very good at working tech— you couldn’t even tell that they weren’t actually crew members.
the tail end of the show came along and it was running smoothly, for the most part. the performers were wonderful— but aside from olivia, no one was really quite good enough to top d-ray and his band.
when it was time for olivia’s performance, mitch made sure to tinker with the sound a little— not enough to where it seemed to be on purpose, from the audience it just looked like technical difficulties. he paused her backing track to throw her off, and occasionally messes with the microphones to make them cut out or cause feedback. he almost felt a little bad, olivia was so talented, and honestly he felt she deserved to win. but it was for a good cause.
rex, on the other hand, had his eye on zee, who was sitting on the floor. he looked like shit. his hair was a sweaty mess and his whole face just looked sunken.
“are you doing okay, zee?” rex asked. “you look pale.”
“ahh, yeah bro. i’m a’ chillin” a shudder ran through his tiny body.
“are you sure man? you’re really not looking too good. should i go get you some water or something?”
“nah dude i’ll be okay.”  
after olivia had finished up, it was time for the grand finale. rex dimmed the stage lights, so the room was pitch black. the room was dead silent as the backstage crew helped move the wastelanders’ equipment into place. by now rex had figured out the gist of the light controls; this was going to be a sick display.
he could hear johnny johnson count off the start of the song and hit his sticks together. with every smack, rex flicked the red lights on and off, before the rest of the band came in and he lit up the stage with blue and red, shrouding the band in a purple glow.
they looked and sounded fantastic. mason’s vocals were better than ever, johnny kept them perfectly in time, jack was killing that bassline and d-ray, oh d-ray let every power chord rip. the students all rushed to the stage in a lively mosh pit, people were cheering and yelling, it was unlike any performance the ballstown community had ever seen.
the time for d-ray’s solo came up, and mason went over to him, holding his microphone up to the guitar as d-ray started to shred. the students cheered, d-ray was grinning that grin of his as he played. he was truly loving every second of it. there was sweat running down his face, and smearing his eyeliner, but he didn’t care. he’d never felt so good.
even the boys in the sound booth were in awe; they’d seen the wastelanders in person several times, but this was different.
the solo ended and the band went in to perform the final chorus. at around that time, zee started to rise to his feet. he wobbled a bit.
“hey man, what are you doin?” mitch asked. zee responded, words slurred a little, “i wanna be in the mosh pit!”
“um no. you’ll get trampled, and probably give everyone the flu.
“i’ll be fine-“ he began, but before he could finish, the world spun and he toppled over, hitting a few switches on the way down. the sound system shut off, and all of the lights came on. this shocked the band, and they began to fall apart.
rex rushed to fix the situation, while mitch knelt down next to zee, shaking him a little and feeling his forehead with his palm.
after the lights were off and the sound was on again, the band found their place and finished out the song strong, and began their encore after a brief apology for the technical difficulties.
“shit, shit rex, he’s burning up. we need to get him down from here after this song, this was a bad idea.”
“am i gonna die?” zee groaned deliriously.
“no but”
“if i die, tell d-ray—“ he started coughing again before he could finish his sentence, and mitch patted him on the back.
“jesus zee! you’re not gonna die, we’re going to get you out of here and get you home and you’re gonna be fine.”
“okay.” he looked up at him, a little teary eyed.
in a few minutes, the song ended, and mitch and rex haphazardly helped zee down the stepladder. they then went to sit in the auditorium.
winners were to be announced soon, and all of the performers had now come to visit their friends and families in the audience. d-ray came straight to see his friends.
“yoooo!! mitch, rex!” he punched them playfully. “and…zee. what the fuckk.”  
“he really wanted to come.” mitch lied.
“i don’t care, he looks like he’s about to keel over—“
d-ray was about to say something mean, but mr. jax had come onstage to announce the winners.
first there were some small honorary awards, like best costume and most musical, the recipients received certificates signed by the director. after those had been handed out, the winners of the show were announced.
“okay… for second runner up, we have… olivia low!” the crowd cheered.
“first runner up… none other than… the wastelanders!”
d-ray looked shocked. they beat olivia! but who’d managed to beat them? they were fantastic!
“and the grand prize… goes to… ELLIE RICKERSTEIN!”
the winners got up on the stage to claim there prizes.
mitch drove everyone home from the show, with zee and rex sitting in the back together and d-ray in the front seat.
”sucks that you didn’t win, man. ellie is a bitch anyways.” mitch sighed.
“it’s fine, man. her mom’s the president of the fundraising committee, we all knew she’d win. i’m just happy we had a good show.”
“it was really good!” rasped zee in agreement. “it was nice to see you play, even if my ears are so clogged that i couldn’t even really hear that well.”
“aw, zee. i appreciate it but if you pull something like that again i’ll kick your ass, you need to take care of yourself, you little shit.”
mitch laughed.
he dropped everyone off back home, and they all headed in to go to bed. it’d been a long day.
the next morning, d-ray woke up feeling sore and stiff all over. his throat burned and he was /roasting/ beneath his covers.
“god, damn it, zee.” he grumbled to himself, and reached for his phone to call the group chat.
“what’s up, man?” mitch moaned as he picked up. he didn’t sound very good either.
“you sound like shit, d.”
“yeah.” he coughed. “think zee mighta got me sick.”
rex answered next, but before he could say anything, his breath caught in his throat and he started to cough.
“think he mighta got rex, too.”
zee finally picked up his phone.
“hey guys. i don’t quite know how to put this— you might wanna get tested for covid.”