I recently edited this fic so that it is set right before the boys open for MESS at the Cat's Cradle. This will help me sequence and write follow up fics.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I swear, if I have to mow one more fucking yard, I'm gonna …" Eric Ellwood trailed off and took a final drag on his cigarette before flicking it away into a flowerbed to his left. Tony Ridge, Eric's friend and band mate, scowled and went to retrieve the cigarette butt. Eric watched him with a look of amusement and then gave an innocent shrug of his shoulders when Tony returned.

"You can at least pretend to take this seriously." Tony said sullenly as he wiped sweat from his brow with his forearm. Eric scoffed and bent down to retrieve the weed-eater at his feet. He, Tony, and sometimes Wynn had taken to mowing lawns around town to generate a meager cash flow until things began to pick up with their band. The whole thing had started out as somewhat of a decoy, really, when Eric and Tony were "forced" to steal weed from a local loan shark. They (well, Eric) planned on re-selling the weed to get a jump start on the finances that would soon be needed once their band went on tour. As it happened, he hadn't gotten very far.

Eric and Tony began loading their lawnmower and other miscellaneous supplies (whose original owners were spread across the group with Charlie's mother being the primary donator) into the back of Eric's car. Once they had finished, they collected payment from their customer and headed back to Charlie Flagg's house, where their band was due to practice that afternoon. Charlie was the drummer in the band – called Circus Monkey after a sudden inspiration from Wynn, their lead guitarist. Tony was the lead singer and songwriter of the group and Eric brought the band full circle with his bass guitar. Each one of them had very distinct personalities, but they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Now you could hardly tear them apart.

When Eric and Tony arrived at Charlie's house and began to unload the car, they immediately heard shouting from inside the garage. The boys exchanged looks and braced themselves for the verbal war they were about to interrupt. Sure enough, when the two had put away all of the lawn equipment and hesitantly returned to the garage, they found Charlie Flagg and his sister, Helen, screaming at each other and Helen waving her hand in Charlie's face. She was also balancing her son on her hip and ignored the toddler as he wailed loudly on top of the yelling of his mother and uncle. Tony and Eric stood silently at the garage's entrance, trying to remain unseen. Their attempt was unsuccessful because as soon as Helen turned around she spotted Eric and narrowed her eyes in his direction.

"What is he doing here again?" She hissed, staring holes through the bassist's head.
Eric glared back challengingly but surprisingly remained silent.

"Helen, just leave already! God, go execute your mission of ruining people's lives somewhere else!" Charlie spat, waving his sister away. She threw one last hateful look at Eric and then stormed out of the garage.

"Bitch," Eric muttered bitterly while staring after her.

"Where's Wynn?" Tony asked after several tense moments of silence.

Charlie still looked angry when he replied, "I don't know. He was supposed to be here a half hour ago."

"He probably got blown and went fishing." Eric offered as he began setting up his equipment. Tony gave him an exasperated, but fearful look and Charlie rolled his eyes, muttering something underneath his breath as he took a seat on the stool behind his drums. The boys spent the next few minutes setting up for their practice before Wynn finally appeared. He didn't give an explanation for his tardiness and, while both Charlie and Tony gave him resentful looks, nobody asked for one.

The boys took their usual places around the garage; Charlie behind his drums, Wynn to his left, Eric to his right, and Tony in the closet. Tony stuck his head out of the doorway of the closet and made sure that everyone was ready.

"Alright, let's start with Ann It Goes. We need to really nail the second verse as we're going into the chorus. Wynn, you remember what we practiced last time?"

The guitarist rolled his eyes and nodded. Tony nodded in return and retreated behind his curtain. Charlie counted off and with a single riff on Wynn's guitar, their practice began. Things went smoothly the entire practice, with Tony only stopping once to tell Charlie off for adding a sudden drum solo into the middle of one of their songs. Afterwards, the boys stood around talking about their upcoming performance at the Cat's Cradle, a local bar and college hangout.

"Aren't these the same people that jumped us at our last gig?" Wynn asked with disdain.

"That shit at the frat house went down because that fat bastard had it in for me. You guys were just there." Eric dismissed, hitting his fist into the palm of his hand.

Tony was hanging his head and waiting impatiently for the conversation to come back around to their performance. When Charlie began to lecture Eric on keeping his personal life out of the band, Tony gritted his teeth and began waving his hand for silence.

"Look, guys, none of that shit matters, alright? The only thing we need to focus on is nailing our songs this time." He said, yelling slightly to be heard over Charlie and Eric, who had begun exchanging harsh words about the fight at the frat house at their first gig. Wynn appeared to have already tuned out of the conversation and was staring glassy-eyed at the opposite wall.

"What time do we have to be at the club, Charlie?" Tony asked, cutting Eric off as he opened his mouth to resume arguing.

Charlie sighed and turned his attention to Tony.

"We're supposed to play at 8:30. We probably need to get there around 7 or 7:30."

"Alright, let's try to be on time." Tony exaggerated his last few words and looked pointedly at Wynn. "We'll meet up and leave from here tomorrow. Wynn you're in Charlie's car and Eric, I'm with you. Get here around … 6:30?"

Everybody nodded in agreement.