Chapter 15 - Test

After parting ways with Chala, Tayaw went to his favorite mom-and-pop restaurant for brunch. After the warm hearty meal, he dropped by his dorm room to pick up his guitar and class schedule and walked to the Northwestern University campus.

The University is open to any visitors especially during this time when hundreds of incoming freshmen that are excited for college are roaming around the campus to familiarize themselves on how to navigate the school in their first day tomorrow.

Tayaw on the other hand is not here for the same purpose as those freshmen. After all, he spent four years in his past life here and is as familiar with the place as any senior student. He came here to look for a deserted park, or even better, a vacant classroom to practice his singing and guitar.

Despite his skills in his old life, his current undertrained, immature vocal chords and the inexperienced muscle memory in his hands and fingers cannot yet display fully what he can do. He also is planning on writing down as many song arrangements he can remember.

After finding an empty classroom, he locked himself in and closed all the windows. He then spent the next four hours by himself accompanied only by himself, his guitar, and his notebook. It was lucky for him that no school staff bothered him.

At 3:00 pm, around the time he expected, his cellphone rang. It was Chala, probably bringing news about his second manuscript. "Hello, Mr. Rotala, how is it going?" Tayaw answered his phone.

"Tayaw! It's going great! Oh, you have no idea. The look of relief on their faces! Hahaha! Anyway, the fellas here loved the a.d.u.l.t version even more than the children's one. They just printed out the contract for it. I had some little kinks here and there in convincing them, but they offered you pretty much the same as the one you signed this morning. Are you okay with that?" Chala happily informed him.

"I'm satisfied, Mr. Rotala. They were already generous enough with the first manuscript; I'm quite surprised they offered the same with the second one. You worked hard, Mr. Rotala." Tayaw said, satisfied with the news.

"Great! I know that school starts tomorrow at pretty much every college and uni tomorrow, so I don't know when you're free to sign these." Chala inquired.

"Well, the first thing tomorrow is the school orientation, so I can just skip that." Tayaw replied. "Oh! No, no, no. I know it's not mandatory to attend a school orientation, but you will miss a few important things that you might find useful in the future!"

In Chala's eyes, he's still a student entering an important time that is college. Tayaw, despite his actual situation, decided not to insist on skipping the orientation.

"I'm actually free tonight at around 5:30 or so. What time do you finish there? I will meet you at ROH Factory, a bar along Zolano Street. It's a just a block away from the corner from Guili road. You won't miss it, the place and their sign is pretty big." Tayaw offered an alternative plan.

"Why on all places, a bar? I know you don't act like it, but you're a minor!" Chala said in surprise.

"Oh. Don't worry about it. We won't be going there to drink. I have someone to see there later. We also need a table, don't we? I'm acquainted with some people in the bar, so we can use any of their tables." Tayaw reassured Chala.

"Alright then. It's only an hour drive from here. I also have plenty of time to make a contract for my cut on your second book." Chala replied, back to his casual voice.

Tayaw arrived at ROH factory at 4:30 just like he did two weeks ago. Just like before, he knocked on the back door, and it was also Rocky, the bouncer he met last time who opened the door.

"Oh, it's you kid. You're early. You haven't been back since last time, been busy?" Rocky said, surprised to see Tayaw.

"Yes sir. I start school tomorrow so I've been reading. May I talk to the boss again?" Tayaw asked Rocky, hoping to be let in again. Rocky made way, to Tayaw's relief. "You know where to find the boss."

Arriving in front of Rudy's office, Tayaw took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He really hopes that Rudy has not forgotten about him. "Enter." Rudy's voice was heard from the inside. Tayaw opened the door and entered.

"Good afternoon sir." Tayaw greeted. "Oh, you're back kid. I thought you would at least drop by a few times after your audition." Rudy said in jest as he leaned back in his chair.

"I start school tomorrow, so I've been busy with tutoring jobs and reading in advance." Tayaw explained, at the same time, relieved. Rudy also nodded in understanding. "That explains it. Anyway kid, the musicians I hired had perfect attendance since, so I didn't call you. I assume you're looking for a gig?"

"Yes sir. I hope there are vacant spots for me. I've also been practicing every night, so I think you can rest assured, I'm always ready." Tayaw pitched himself.

Rudy pulled out a day-planner from his drawer and turned to the page book-marked. "Well let's see here. You've met Amelia, yes? For the first half of September, she asked for gigs as an opener on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and wasn't willing to take any more. Aside from her, there's no one else is willing to be openers for Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. I can only get you those spots kid. There are still spots vacant for the succeeding hours, but I can't give them to you. I haven't seen you fill an entire hour yet, kid."

Tayaw understood this point. To Rudy, he is still a total rookie. An opener is the perfect spot for a rookie because there's much less consequences when they mess up.

"I'm willing to take the opening spots on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the whole September, sir." Tayaw said.

He had inkling that Rudy reserved those spots for him. ROH Factory has much fewer customers in Sunday nights compared to Friday and Saturday nights due to the patrons preparing for Monday. ROH Factory is closed in Mondays for the bar's maintenance and restocking of drinks.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays have decent number of customers but still fewer than customers present in the Thursday to Saturday nights. So Tayaw thinking Rudy reserved the nights with the fewest customers for him is not that great of a stretch.

"Good. But before I book you, I still have to see what you can do with a whole hour. It just so happens that the third performer tonight can't come. I intended to stretch the time all the performers' spots tonight to fill his absence, but with you here, I have another idea. I will move up the time of the performers before the supposed third performer. That means, I can move up Beyond Cape Town who are supposed to be performing second into the third spot. Amelie, who is supposed to be the opener tonight, will be moved up to the second performer. If they agree with the change in schedule, I will let you be the opener tonight. Is that fine with you?" Rudy explained his plan for Tayaw's try-out.

"Yes sir. I'll be ready." Tayaw said, satisfied with the arrangement.

Rudy then called Amelie and the Beyond Cape Town's leader, and after receiving their consent, proceeded to adjust the schedule. "It's almost 5. Tell the DJ to set up the mixer and speakers, and tell Rocky to open the door when the DJ's done. It doesn't matter if we're early to open. We were closed yesterday anyway." Rudy told Tayaw, implying to get out of his office and get ready.

Tayaw went to the backstage and headed to the back stage and told the DJ of Rudy's instructions. Tayaw looked at the mixer and smiled to himself. The first mixer of ROH Bar, he had a vague memory of it. In his old life, when he and the Percussive Corrections were in their earlier years performing here, they always saw the red mixer around in the back stage.

His phone buzzed. He picked it up and saw a text message from Chala. He went towards the bar room. He wants to finish his talk with Chala as soon as possible. He is, after all excited and wants to get ready for his first debut at the bar.