The story.

So. There once was a band called 2 LAIT. No one bothered to inform them that the odd spelling made them actually be "2 milk" in French, but when the band found out, they didn't really care. They were all very busy, and just wanted to make some music because that's what they loved. Never really did any gigs other than a few street concerts, and no one knew who they were. They would plan stuff and then practice the week before every night, and come out alright by the end of show.

Then one day, the guitar player decided to leave. He announced he was getting married and wouldn't have time to play anymore. The singers of 2 LAIT were hacked off about this and talked to the backsliding guitar player. He admitted to having said those things while in an altered state of mind and proclaimed that he would love to keep playing for us.

So the band kept on going for another couple months. Didn't get together that often, but when they did...Well...Nothing got done anyway. After it was known that the guitar player had thought about (and proclaimed he would) leave us, the spirit of the band was very tense and the music that came out was below amateur.

One fateful practice, the singers of 2 LAIT decided it was high time the band stopped singing cover songs and started singing our own stuff. So they brought out some lyrics and convinced the band to try and write something to them. It was a devastating experience. It was later suspected that the guitar player hated the lyrics, and he saw a completely different style for the song than everyone else did. He also refused to change his bloody chords and so the singers were forced to sing the same 3 notes over and over.

Practice ended on a very sour note, and everyone went home a little depressed about the whole 'band' thing. Then next week, the guitar player announced that he was leaving them for good and the wedding date had been changed to March. His fiancee didn't seem to like the singers in the band anyway, so it was suspected that she had something to do with it. Guitar boy was always in a better mood and more open to ideas when his girl didn't come to practice.

So for a time, the band disbanded. Until one day, a friend introduced one of the singers to a roaming guitar player. She asked him to play, he agreed to "give it a go", and they planned to have practice as soon as they could. Unfortunately, some events beyond the control of the lives they wreaked havoc on happened, and band practice didn't happen. Then one day, this same singer saw a poster for a battle of the bands at the local college. She grinned and thought this would be a good opportunity for the band to get together, play with the new guitar boy, and see how it went. Sadly, she couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone for some time, and was unable to contact the new guitar boy.

At last, the day before the deadline for entering the battle, she was able to get a "Yes." from the entire band including the wandering guitarust, and the next morning, she went in a signed them up.

There had been some talk of changing the name of the band from 2 LAIT too...Something else. No one was quite sure what, but the name just wasn't them without the original guitar player. It held memories of a distant, happier and filled with dreams past. Since no one would decide on a name, the singer simply put down "Unread" when asked what the band name was. It didn't really mean anything at all. It was simply a word that they would label themselves with and she hoped no one in the band would think was too lame. That afternoon, the singer received a call from the drummer saying that he and the bass player would not be able to make it to the show.

This was a harsh blow, but the singer determined to get through it. She called the guitar player of another band and asked him if he wanted to do a gig, as a bass player, in a week. He agreed. She called the drummer of that same band, asked him to drum, and he agreed as well. Everyone decided to a practice Sunday afternoon.

Unread met Sunday afternoon, 4 days before the battle of the bands. They were able to sit down and put music to two original songs. They met the next evening, tried to fix a few things and come up with at least one more song. The task was not completed and they ended up deciding to go with a cover song. Which was a little depressing, but everyone could live with. The bass player announced that he could not make the mandatory sound check on Wednesday, but the band agreed they would be alright without him.
After meeting on Wednesday, breaking into the church to get the drums, and loading all of their equipment up, they drove off to the college for sound check.

When the band arrived (short one bass player and one singer), they realized that they were the only ones who brought their stuff, and there was no "Sound check", just a few people who wanted their lyrics and to know how many mics they would need. Unread was informed they would perform first, an hour before they thought the actual battle began. This was disconcerting, since the band had told everyone that the battle started at 6:00. There was a lot of gripping about it after they all left that cold and un-organized auditorium, but they realized that there was nothing they could do except re-inform people that they would be playing at 5:00 instead.

They met for another practice without the bass player, figured out another original song to replace the cover song, and disbanded until the following afternoon when they would meet for the last time before they came on stage.

And the rest of the story is in the future.

-Shell