Ben McLemore, last on board the team plane, scanned his eyes down the aisle, looking for a seat. He wanted to sit next to fellow rookie Ray, but that seat was taken up by Craig, the video coordinator. In fact, there was only one seat left, and it was next to the person he least wanted to sit next to.
Plopping himself down, he greeted, “Hey Derrick.”
Derrick Williams looked up from his laptop, were some sort of music production software was running, and cast him an annoyed glance. “I told you man, my name’s not Derrick anymore, It’s Professor Dubbenstein.”
“My bad, Derrick” Ben responded. This was going to be a long flight, and it would get a lot longer if Derrick wanted to talk about his dubstep projects the entire time. He put in his headphones and started listening to real music, hoping that this would prevent Derrick from being too talkative.
It didn’t work. Soon after they took off, Derrick started chattering one-sidedly about his sick new drops as Ben tried to ignore him. Even turning his iPod up to maximum volume couldn’t drown out the incessant flow of words.
“…So then I thought, why not make the crescendo even louder and more chaotic, so that the listener is overcome by apocalyptic noise, fearing for their sanity? Then, when I start the drop and the wubs take command, they’re so relieved that they start dancing that much harder. Here, let me show you what I mean.” Derrick pressed ‘play’ on his laptop, eager to have his teammate listen to his brilliant new track.
Ben ripped out his earbuds in frustration, unable to concentrate on his own music with the infernal bleep-bloop of Derrick’s composition filling up his aural spectrum. He looked around and saw the people around him cringing. He had to take matters into his own hands.
“Whoa, that sounds sick, man. I’ve been thinking about getting into the dubstep game myself, can I see what modules you’re using?”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Derrick responded, handing over the laptop. “But be careful.”
Ben quickly slammed the laptop shut and banged it against the plane’s window. The first effort didn’t work, but the second time, the glass broke and the laptop was unceremoniously thrown out of the plane, where it disappeared silently into the clouds.
“It looks like we’re experiencing a loss of cabin pressure,” the pilot said over the intercom. “Please affix an oxygen mask to your face and we’ll make an emergency landing at the next possible opportunity.”
Ben reached up and pulled an oxygen mask towards him as Derrick sat stunned. “Hey, what are you so sad about?” Ben asked. “That was the sickest drop yet.”