When Jay got home it was already 5pm. He had been held up by Leah and Em, dragged to the nearest Starbucks and treated to a latte.
He greeted his mom – his dad still not having left work – and went to Lou's room.
"Hey baby, how was school?" he asked.
"Jay! You're back!" she exclaimed and dropped her dolls before running to him.
He swooped her up and kissed her face. "I'm going to be busy for a few days so I won't be able to play with you much, but I promise I'll make it up to you."
"You're leaving?" she anxiously asked.
"No, no, just busy with assignments and stuff." he lied.
"Hm, okay." she obediently nodded, not wanting to be a bother.
He kissed her temple and put her down, "Come get me when it's dinner time, alright?"
"Yes!" she nodded happily before going back to her dolls and Jay left.
He went to his room and put his bag near his desk before pressing the hidden room's button, entering and closing behind him.
He had asked his dad before if the room was soundproof and it was for a reason.
His Little Martin was small enough to fit in his suitcase so his parents hadn't noticed it, and he wanted it to remain that way. He had never been proficient with instruments before so they'd be suspicious if they found out that he could play the guitar like ringing the bells.
Especially his mom, he didn't want to give her a reason to doubt him. He wouldn't hide it forever of course, he was planning on surprising them when the right moment presented itself.
He had made three amazon purchases in the past two weeks; a secondhand Blue Yeticaster microphone Ensemble for 100$, a 40$ loop pedal and 10$ guitar stand.
It wasn't top of the line but he didn't have much left from Switzerland. Well now he also had the money his father had given him this morning, he thought.
He sat down on the couch and set up the microphone on the low table next to the MacBook Pro. He had borrowed his mom's HD camera and set that up as well. And voilà! He was good to go.
He turned on the laptop and waited for it to load before opening a web page. He went onto the YouTube website and started the procedure for creating a channel.
When it was time to input a channel name, all those he tried were already taken so he stopped for a second before inputting a more thought out one.
"Congratulations, JustAnOppa7's channel has been created."
... Yeah, so he wasn't very good at naming, sue him! He didn't want to use his own name yet, so he'd just make do with that for now. And the more he looked at it the more he felt like it sounded pretty good.
Anyways the channel was set up and was ready to accommodate any of his future videos.
He hadn't yet registered "Holding On And Letting Go" with the U.S Copyright Office, so he didn't want to straight up start with it. There was also the fact that it was an original and wouldn't garner as too much attention as covers unless he had enough subscribers.
He took a look at the current charts and rapidly went through them before pausing on one of them. Right, he had done a cover of this song in his past life, but it sounded better with a piano, so he shook his head, maybe later.
Jay thought for a while and started tapping his fingers in rhythm, then he smiled after doing a double take at the charts again. Well, that settled it. He started tuning his guitar and getting familiar with the required chords, it was simple enough so it didn't take him long.
He turned the camera and the mic on before starting, this song wouldn't require the loop pedal.
He put his capo on the 2nd fret and began:
Em, C, G, D
Em, C, G, E...
And repeat, until the end of the song. He put his guitar down when he was done and started listening to the video, but wasn't satisfied. So he did it again. And again until. And like so two hours passed.
Once he was finally satisfied, he cleaned the video up a little with iMovie but otherwise left it as is.
He went back to his YouTube channel and uploaded it. It would take some time so he thought of Carmen Cuba who had asked he send her his channel's link when he was done setting it up.
He went out of the hidden room making sure his parents weren't around before grabbing his wallet and going back inside, closing the door behind him.
He took out the woman's business card on which her email address was inscribed and proceeded to send her a link. He was barely done when he heard the sound of a notification on his computer, he took a look and the video's upload was over.
He clicked confirm but received a reminder that the video's title hadn't been inputted.
He smiled wryly and started typing; "Iyaz - Replay (Accoustic Cover)" before confirming one more time.
This time the platform processed it without a hitch and Jay smiled in contentement.
Finally, he had made his first concrete step. He put all his stuff away and, just in case, his guitar near the dim-lighted corner where the home stereo was when he heard a small knock on the door.
He felt the corner of his mouth rising in a smile and opened the door.
Lou stood there fidgeting with her plush in one hand, "Hm... Mommy said dinner is ready... You said I should tell you..."
Jay chuckled and picked her up, closing the hidden door's room.
"Thank you, let's go together?" he said while caressing her hair.
"Okay." she joyfully nodded.
When they arrived downstairs, they saw Lee sitting on the living room's couch, watching the news.
"Daddy!" Lou said and Jay put her down so she could properly greet him.
Lee kissed his daughter and nodded at his son. "How was school?" he asked.
Jay sat down next to him before propping Lou up on his lap.
"Intense. Lots of people. I'm glad Em and Leah were there to keep them at bay."
Lee chuckled at that, "Ah yes, their reputations precedes them." he said and Jay looked at him in wonder.
"What do you mean?"
"Emily is captain of the cheerleading team while Leah is probably going to be the valedictorian of her promo. Both of them are very popular." Lee said like it was a matter of fact.
"How do you know that?" Jay asked, a little taken aback.
Lee looked at his son and simply stated, "It's a small town."
And Jay found himself unwittingly nodding, indeed, it was.
"Jay baby, come help set the table will you?" he heard his mom say from the kitchen.
"Coming!" he said and smiled down at Lou, "Wanna help?"
The little girl nodded and so he brought her to the kitchen and settled her on one of the chairs.
"What are you making?" he asked approaching his mom from behind.
"Cordon bleu, assuming it's still your favorite?" Helen turned and smiled.
Jay stared at her then the pan next, then at her again, "Marry me?" he seriously stated.
"I heard that!" Lee yelled from the living room.
Helen laughed and slapped his shoulder, "Stop goofing around and set the table."
"Yes ma'am!" he started doing just that before noticing Lou was unblinkingly staring at him.
"What's up baby?" he asked after bending down to her chair's level.
"You... you can't marry mommy!" she said while shaking her head.
Jay chuckled, "I know, I was joking."
"Okay, that's good... 'cause I'm the one who's going to marry Jay." she cutely stated.
Helen was amused while Jay picked her up and kissed her cheek.
"It's my honor." he smiled and she giggled while Helen slapped his shoulder again.
"Don't tell your sister nonsense." she rolled her eyes at him before yelling for Lee to come eat.
They ate in gusto and Jay was proud to report that it was the best Cordon bleu he'd ever eaten, if you didn't take into account his recipe.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn't cooked since his coming back in time, he'd better do something about that. In his past life he'd always been the one cooking, especially after his mom had died. His father couldn't cook to save himself, he'd always managed to burn anything he touched, even pasta.
Jay chuckled softly at the memory.
"Jay what's funny?" Lou asked, chewing on her food.
"I was just thinking about how cute you look disguised as a squirrel." he teased.
"I'm not disguised!" she denied while shaking her head.
"Then how come you're storing food in your cheeks? Is it because winter is coming?" he laughed and pinched her face, "Don't talk with your mouth full, okay?"
She was about to respond but thought better of it and nodded her head.
"Good girl." Jay said and brought his attention back to his plate.
Nothing like sharing a good meal with your family, he wistfully thought.