Unlike most freshmen in high school, who may spend their days petitioning schools for scholarship money, Livvy Bennett is preparing to present the Westlake High School Music Department with a $1,025 check.

The bassist and back-up singer recently won SchoolJam USA’s battle of the bands competition sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants, with her band, After Math, raking in $5,000 for the school music programs of the four bandmates and scoring them a trip to Germany next month.

“I started playing piano when I was three years old, and music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” Bennett says.

She joined After Math three years ago, three years into the band’s existence, on a recommendation from her Austin School of Music teacher.

“He said, ‘Do you want to learn bass? Do you want to join this band?,’ I was like, sure,” she says of her initiation. “I just went in and kind of learned bass as I got there. We just kind of formed our own sound.”

All four members of the band go to different area high schools, so they didn’t know each other before the band, but have since become best friends. And while Bennett’s earliest musical paths took her to the piano and guitar, she says she has fallen in love with the bass.

“It’s kind of like the glue of the music and I guess that really appealed to me,” she says.

After Math was one of about 200 middle school and high school bands that initially entered the competition. The top 10 bands with the most votes via the internet won a trip to California to compete in the national competition with a panel of judges comprised of Michael Blakeslee from the National Association for Music Education, Steve Dobo from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Dominic Pohlman from SchoolJam Germany, Rob Davidson from VH1 Save The Music Foundation, and Louie Bandak, director of A&R at Interscope Records.

Bennett says landing in California was nerve-wracking, and a “not-so-great practice” the day before had the whole band jittery but the second they hit the stage, they just did what they loved to do. They not only came away with the grand prize, but three of the four band members got individual first place nods including Bennett on bass, Rachel Thompson for vocals and Dustin Belanger on guitar.

“In California, a German band called Heavy Ride kind of headlined, and now we get to headline over there so it’s kind of like this cool switch off thing,” she said.

While she has a hard time defining her band’s sound, she said the classic rock influences of the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and Led Zeppelin all shine through.

“My dad really is one of the people who just introduces me to new music all the time. He loves the oldies, of course,” Bennett says. “My mom loves music as well. I think all of our parents are into music. We are so lucky all of our parents gave us a fair chance to express ourselves musically and just raised us off of that.”

For more information on After Math visit www.myspace.com/aftermathrox and to book the band, e-mail aftermath_rox@yahoo.com.