“Wow,” I said as we pulled into the driveway of the infinitely large house. It was during sixth grade, and I was riding with my friend to watch him and his buddies have a band practice because I had always wanted to see one. This Mansion of a house was not at all what I was expecting. I looked over to my friend, Brett, and he just smiled and nodded at me. He was small for his age. He was short and very scrawny. He had brown hair and brown eyes with cheap glasses that covered them. He was the kind of kid that always had energy and was a little bit too nice.
“You boys have fun,” Brett’s Mom said as she unlocked the door releasing Brett and I to explore the enormous house that I had been so eager to enter as soon as we saw it. We both got out and walked towards the door. As we walked down the stone sidewalk towards the very large, open foyer, I began to shake and my face flushed. I had never even seen anything like this, and i was about to go inside. We reached the door and Brett reached out to ring the doorbell. I expected some large miraculous church bells to go off above the house, but instead i heard the normal two tone doorbell that everyone has. Another boy, a sixth grader along with Brett and I, walked to the door and let us in.

“Hey guys. Come on in. My parents just left to go shopping, so we have the place to ourselves for a while,” Sam said as he gestured towards the inside of the house welcoming us in. Brett and I walked through the door and my eyes widened as i attempted to take in all of the amazing things in view at once. Sam then began to lead us downstairs. He had long, Justin Bieber like Blonde hair and green eyes. From the looks of his house; I expected him to be a tall slender man dressed in a suit, however, he was wearing a Led Zeppelin t shirt and was around average height with a little bit of meat on his bones. He led us down the stairs at end of the seemingly mile long living room jumping over the last time in order to have some fun. The first thing I noticed, other than the size alone, was the smell of lavender with a slight Mountain Dew undertone. As soon we were all down the steps, Sam’s landline began to ring throughout the house. He ran over to the bar that was placed along the edge of the room and answered the phone.

“Are you kidding me, man? Whatever, see you later,” Sam questioned in a frustrated tone into the phone all but rolling his eyes.
“Hey Brett, our bassist can’t come today,” Sam yelled out to Brett with a with a deepened voice.
“Are you kidding me? Again?,” Brett replied in a defeated tone. “Wait a minute, Joe Do you want to fill in for today?,” He continued.
“S-sure, I’ll try,” I muttered as I began to shake and sweat slightly.

“Cool man. Follow me and I’ll show you what to do,  Sam insisted as he began to walk towards the far corner of the basement. “This is the music room. Those are my Dad’s Green Yamaha drums that Brett will be playing, This is my Gibson Les Paul that I’m going to play, and that is the Rickenbacker Jazz bass that you’ll be playing today,” Sam said gesturing to each instrument respectively. The bass was almost as long as I was tall and the body of it was about as big as my torso. It had the classic curves that any bass guitar did with a maple neck coming out of it. The body was mostly black, but had a white pickguard and golden knobs. I picked it up, and put the strap on running my hands effortlessly up and down the incredibly smooth neck trying to get a feel for it. At this point, I was shaking and smiling at the same time. It just felt right.

“We’re gonna play “School” by Nirvana. I’ll show you what to do,” Sam said as he walked up to me in order to show me how to play the song. I seemed to pick up on how to play properly fairly quick for a first timer. After five or so minutes of deep focus on my part and masterful teaching on Sam’s, we were ready to play. Sam and I turned on our amps unleashing an incredible amount of feedback that could only be compared to the dying scream of a cat. He adjusted his amp so there was no feedback coming out, and told me to hold the strings on the bass in order to prevent any from me. With all of our equipment ready to go, Sam gave Brett a nod to start us off.

“One, two, three, four!,” Brett screamed hitting his drumsticks together with each number. On that count, Brett began to smash the drums while Sam and I strummed our instruments. The sound of our instruments blended together into a symphony of inexperienced musicians doing their best just to stay in sync. Surprisingly, we played through the whole song without stopping. However, I made many mistakes and often and I lost my rhythm a few times. Despite how badly I played, My face lit up and I stopped shaking. Even though i did terrible, playing that bass seemed to relieve my stress. It was like I had been a heroin addict my whole life, and i finally got my fix.
“That wasn’t a bad first jam,” Sam said as Brett nodded his head in agreement. The three of us played the song five or six more times, and by the end of the last time we played, I had it down solid.

“You really slapped that Bass!,” exclaimed Sam as we put down our instruments and Brett walked out from behind the drumset.
“Thanks man! I can’t believe i learned it that quick,” I blurted out at Sam.
“Yea, but we have to get going,” Brett interrupted with a frown on his face.
“Alright, I’ll see you guys later,” Sam said to us in an inviting tone.

Brett and I then walked up the stairs and back into the enormous living room. I was so focused on playing the bass, that i had completely forgotten that I was in a Mansion. This time, however, my eyes didn’t widen. It all seemed very natural and comfortable to me now. This place was now my home. Brett and I walked out of the door closing it behind us and spotted his mom’s car in the driveway. We both got in and put on our seatbelts.

“How was it guys?,” Brett’s mom asked as she backed out of the driveway and began driving down the street.
Mellowed out from discovering my first addiction, I simply said, “Amazing,” with a calm and relaxed voice as the Castle of a home disappeared in the distance. A smile crept across my face as i thought of how much fun I had, and all of the fun that was yet to come in the future when I was slappin’ the bass.