All songs used in this are already songs that have been made. We're going to pretend that they aren't in this story, okay? Good (:
Six months later
June 20th
"And to conclude our end of the year assembly please welcome For the Record performing their new hit single Should've Tried Harder!"
I ran onto the stage and immediately started singing and playing guitar while everyone sang along. I jumped in sync with Taylor and Haylee – something that took a long time to perfect because we'd always land at different times. The school that we've performed for too many times to count in the last six months were into it just like every other time and were dancing.
The song finished too soon as everyone settled down. They looked confused as to why we hadn't left the stage yet.
"So, this wasn't on the list of things we were going to do today, but I thought hey – I might as well make a speech while up here," I explained to the crowd, strumming my guitar lightly. "I've a got a question for you guys. Who's ready for summer?"
They all screamed loudly. Of course they were excited.
"Of course you guys are!" I smiled, "You guys get to sleep in and party every night for the next two months. Who wouldn't be excited? But while you guys are partying it up, the four of us will be travelling across the country in a tiny van."
More cheers came from the crowd.
"Who's going to miss us?" Kim asked from behind her drums, smiling as everyone screamed.
"Who's coming out to the show we're going to play here on August 23rd?" I asked, "And buy our album when it comes out, whenever that is?"
"God we're so needy," Kim joked and everyone laughed.
"Who are you touring with?" Someone yelled out.
"We have no clue," I answered, "all we know is that it's with All Time Low and some other band. We actually find out later today. Watch our tour updates to find out."
"I think we should play them another song before we have to go," Haylee said and everyone cheered again.
I strummed the intro to Mine by Taylor Swift. I may hate her and her music but it was the first song I thought of. We performed it and then left the stage. Alex, Jack, Rian and Zack greeted us.
I was instantly in Alex's arms. It's where I'd been for the past six months and planned to be for the rest of my life.
The past six months had been oddly smooth in all aspects of life. Alex and I were still going strong, even though we've had a few big fights, but that's normal right? I managed to find a way to balance school, gigs, practice and recording session by mid-February, I just had no time for a social life. But I guess when you live with your boyfriend and you're in a band with you best friends, that's all you really need.
Days after the we got news we were going on a cross country tour with a big name band and All Time Low we knew that was when we needed to take this seriously. We started recording an album the third week of January. Every other weekend was spent in the studio recording and writing. It was fun but it also was a lot of hard work trying to get the songs to sound how we wanted and picking the songs to go on the album.
We also had photo shoots to do for the inside booklet, titles and color schemes to plan and a set list to create. You'd think having six months to do all of that would be enough, but when you also have two hours of homework to do, it tends to take a while.
But nevertheless we got it done. We had decided to call the album Take Off since this was the takeoff of our careers, hopefully. The photo shoot was a lot of fun since we got to throw paint at each other in white clothes.
We had even released a music video to go with our single Should've Tried Harder. It was basically a montage of our performances and shit we did in the studio since someone always had a camera and it seemed like every band released a video like that. The video had actually gotten a good 20,000 views on YouTube which was really surprising to us. We had gathered a moderately sized fan base in a few other cities along with our own.
I was actually really excited for the tour and not knowing who we were going on tour with was making me so anxious. I was desperately hoping for it to be Paramore or Fall Out Boy. I knew the FOB one wouldn't happen but Paramore could. The next three months were going to be spent crammed into a van with three other people driving across the country. What could go wrong?
Actually, a lot could go wrong but let's not think about that.
We spent the next hour saying goodbye to all our "friends", if you will. I didn't consider a single one of them my actual friend. They only acknowledged us because of everything that had happened. If it wasn't for us winning, half these people wouldn't even talk to us.
After a lot of fake smiles and cheesy goodbyes we pushed our way out of the school and to our cars. Alex had got a new car in February since the other one was totalled. All of our injuries had healed perfectly and we were able to get back into being wild on stage –something I missed a lot. Just standing there was absolutely no fun.
"I'm so glad we don't have to see this goddamn place for two months," Kim said unlocking the van.
"Maybe longer if we're lucky and the tour is extended," Taylor added.
"Does anyone know when it even ends?" I asked.
Everyone shook their heads or shrugged.
"Who cares?" Alex said. "It ends when it ends. Let's enjoy this. This is going to be the best summer of our lives."
He put it in a way that you couldn't not believe. This was definitely going to be an amazing summer full of adventure. I was so excited I was shaking. I couldn't wait to hit the road.
"Do you think if we ask nicely we can upgrade to a huge bus?" Kim asked looking at the white van we were standing by. It looked like a pedo van – white and almost windowless.
"Be thankful," Haylee said, "It could be a lot worse."
"Yeah, we could have a lead singer who isn't rich," Taylor laughed.
"Ah, I see. That's the only reason you keep me around, isn't it?" I joked.
"Why else would we keep you around, you can't sing," She went along with me.
"I could be sick with laryngitis and still sound ten times better than you."
"OOHH," Everyone laughed.
"So everyone meets here at 7am?" Kim confirmed.
"Yup," I nodded, "We meet Richard and Mike so that they can tell us who we're going on tour with finally."
"Are Matt and Vinny meeting us here too?" Kim asked Alex.
He nodded. "They should be, but I'll text Matt to make sure."
Kim nodded too and then got into the van with Taylor and Haylee after kissing Jack. I followed Alex to his car and got in the passenger's side. I bounced my knees up and down while he pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.
"Excited?" He chuckled.
"Only slightly," I smiled. I turned up his sound system that pumped out Blink 182.
Once we got back to his house we started packing since we hadn't bothered to. I grabbed my suite cases and started tossing clothes in them. Shorts, tank tops, t-shirts, skinnies, underwear, socks, and hoodies. Basically everything that I had at Alex's went into the bag. Another bag was filled with shoes. The third was makeup, hair shit, and anything odds and ends that I would end up needing.
Alex and I both finished packing at the same time. He laughed at me for having three bags opposed to his one.
"In my defense, you could fit three dead people in that bag," I said.
"It's not that big," He argued.
"Mhmm," I smiled and leaned over and kissed him. He shifted us so I was straddling him and we continued to kiss.
"Kayleigh, Alex! Dinner!" Isobel yelled up the stairs.
"I swear she has cameras in my room." Alex said as I crawled off him. I adjusted my jean short shorts I had changed into and fixed my hair. We went downstairs to find a meal of homemade hamburgers. I pushed past Alex and got to the kitchen first. You do not understand how much I love homemade burgers. I put the condiments on my bun and skipped over to the BBQ outside where Peter gave me the patty. I took a seat at the patio table and took a giant bite out of the burger.
"Mmmmmmmm," I moaned.
"I think you love that burger more than you love me," Alex laughed, taking a seat next to me.
"At the moment, I do," I said.
"Well then," He sniffed.
"Don't worry, I'll love you again once there's no more burger to love," I laughed and then started to choke which caused me to laugh harder. I had no idea why I was laughing so hard but I just couldn't stop. Finally the lump of food went down my throat and I could breathe properly again. This time I took a smaller bite of the burger. I really didn't want to die the day before going on tour for the first time.
After dinner Alex and I decided to watch a movie with his parents since we were going to be gone for so long. It wasn't much of a gesture but it's the thought that counted. When the movie was over Alex and I went to bed, but not until after some extracurricular activities.
The sound of my alarm going off at 6 in the morning on the first day of summer was the most unpleasant thing ever. Waking up next to Alex naked, however, wasn't. It took a while for us to get out of bed but when we realized that it was 6:30 and we only had half an hour we jumped up and got ready.
I didn't bother with makeup since the first show wasn't until tomorrow and everyone already knows what I look like without makeup anyways. I threw on a pair of Alex's sweats and a tank top. We said goodbye to his parents and walked to the school instead of taking his car.
We got there at 7:10 and everyone else was already there.
"Always fucking late," Kim shook her head. She had picked up the trailer last night that was now attached to the back of the van with all our equipment. An almost identical van was parked right next to ours. The door was wide open, showing that the inside was already a mess of bags.
I dropped my bags on the ground and opened one, pulling out a giant sticker of our logo that was on our album cover. I peeled off the back and with Taylor's help stuck it on the side of the van.
"Bam, we now have style," I laughed.
"Oh my God, you know what we should do?" Kim said, coming over with another sticker. "Every city that we're in we should find a sticker and stick it to the van."
She slapped on the other sticker with the name of our hometown on it.
"Yes!" I agreed, "Write that down or we're only going to get half of the cities because we'll never remember."
She pulled out her phone and walked away from us.
"Alex, what do you want done with these?" Someone asked. We both turned to see a kid not much older than us holding a bunch of wires. I started at him in his Mickey Mouse hoodie and skinnies. He had his lip pierced and dark hair. In one word he was hot.
"Oh, just throw them in the trailer somewhere," Alex answered. I watched as the kid nodded and then walked over to All Time Low's van. There was just something about him.
"Kayleigh!" Taylor yelled at me.
"Yeah?" I blinked, turning my attention to her. "Who's that?"
"Matt Flyzing? Flykat? Fly something," She answered. "The tour manager, remember?"
"Uh, no." I shook my head. I remembered that we had made an agreement to share a tour manager and merch guy since we only had so much room, but I don't remember the tour manager being so hot.
Whoa, Kayleigh. You have a boyfriend that you're 150% in love with –s top ogling the TM.
"Oh, well, yeah that's him, and that one," She point over to the other side of the van, "Is Vinny."
"Awesome," I nodded and then went back over to Alex as a distraction. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me.
"I'm so excited," He grinned.
"Me too," I forced a believable smile.
"They're here," Kim announced coming back over to us. By them I assumed she meant Mike and Richard.
"What were you doing?" I asked.
"I have every show date on my phone so I made a reminder to get a sticker in each city," She answered.
Mike and Richard came over to talk to us.
"Are you guys ready for this?" Mike asked. We all nodded excitedly.
"Can you tell us who we're going on tour with now?" Kim asked.
"You guys still don't know?" Richard asked. "I would've thought you guys would've googled it or something by now."
"None of us thought of that," I mumbled and they laughed.
"Oh, well then. You're opening for Fall Out Boy's reunion tour with Marianas Trench." Mike said.
So chapter one of the sequel. Do you like it? Should I keep going?