I woke up early, as most kids do on their birthday, excited for what was coming. That's not why I woke up though. I woke up because my ass of a brother, Mark, was holding Kiba above my face as I was attacked with doggy kisses and slobber.
"Mel, guess what! Dad's coming today!" Mark whispered to me.
"No shit Sherlock!" I grumbled as I slowly got out of bed. My father was a musician and my mother couldn't stand him being gone all the time doing concerts and such, saying that she didn't want their children to grow up around the musician lifestyle.
Well that didn't end out so well. Here we are, I being14, now 15 years old, and my brother being 16, and I play multiple instruments, including the bass, the guitar, the drums, the piano, the accordion, and the flute. Mark plays the guitar, the bass, the harmonica, the accordion and the saxophone. We also sing with our band, The HeartHand Grenades. She didn't object so we went on with our music filled lives.
We don't know what he looks like, because we only get letters from him around Christmas and Fourth of July. We know his name is Mike because that's what he signs the letters we get. He seemed like a decent guy from what he wrote.
I looked around my room as I day dreamed about what he would be like. My mum said he was really handsome and nice, and funny. He sounded like a combination of my three most favorite guys in the world; as nice as Mike Dirnt, as beautiful as Billie Joe, and a god damn hilarious as Tre Cool. I got up from my bed and walked up to my American Idiot poster and kissed them each once as a morning ritual that I practiced ever since I got hooked on their music. Mark looked at me like a freak but I just ignored him.
I could still hear my mum snoring from across the hall in her room so I decided to wake her up. Mark was already a few steps ahead of me as I saw his guitar strapped around him and the wire leading out my door and into the hallway. I plugged in my Squire Fender Mike Dirnt P Bass, rolled my amp into mum's room next to my brothers, and ran for cover in my room. I scrambled to find my favorite guitar pick which was originally red but I drew on it with black sharpie to look like the trademark heart like a hand grenade.
I couldn't find it! 'Mel, where the fuck did you put it last you nimrod!' I tapped my foot trying to remember yesterday and where the hell I put it. 'I betcha you left it in the Dookie case again. Now why you would put that there in the first place, I don't know just go look there god damn it!' the little voice inside my head yelled at me.
Huh, whaddya know, the voice was right! I walked back over to my bass and was debating what to play.
"Hey Markie, what do you wanna play this morning?" I asked
"Minority, duh. Its loud and my favorite thing to hear in the morning."
We played about 5 chords before I heard any movement from the other room so I decided to play louder and harder. Before I knew it we were both yelling out the lyrics and jumping around as we got really into the song.
Suddenly, my guitar was muted so that you could barely hear it. The same happened to Marks guitar. Then Mum walked in with my amp in one hand and the cord in the other.
"Morning!" I said cheerfully as I ran up to her and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Guys, its 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning, what the hell are you doing up?"
"Celebrating Melanie's Birthday. What else would we be doing up at this hour, especially on July first?" Mark replied.
"Yes but you have a whole day to celebrate it Hun. Can't you wait another 2 or 4 more hours?" She asked me.
I took this as an opportunity to do my Paris Hilton imitation. I put on a face that could only say 'dumb blond thinking in process do not disturb'. I looked around acting unsure and biting my lip. "No, not really, plus you wanted us to wake you up so you could clean the house for Mike, and to make some of your world famous scrambled eggs for us."
"Well how can I say no, it is your birthday after all."
"C'mon I'll even help you make the home fries!"
We walked; well I jumped, down the stairs and around the corner to our small, homey kitchen. I walked over to the closet pantry and pulled out 5 potatoes for the Home fries then to the fridge to grab 3 eggs. I placed these on the counter and went to the many pots and pans hanging from the ceiling to grab two frying pans. I handed them to my mum and jokingly said "Hop to it girlie!"
"What happened to 'I'll help you with the home fries'?"
"Well I did help you already."
"Oh did you really?"
"Well yeah, I got out everything out for you." I smirked and she smiled back.
"Yeah I suppose you did then."
"Besides, I wanted to work on that bass line I was going to show Mike. I already have the Acoustic part down….mostly because it's not my song though," I laughed "I'm gonna play Time of Your Life for him. And I'll just let my fingers glide across the keyboard and let them do their thing."
"You're not playing the flute for him Mel?"
"No ma, no matter how cool you think playing the flute is, it really isn't." She opened her mouth to say something else but I cut her off "The accordion isn't cool either so you won't be hearing any of that today unless Mark decides to pull it out."
"Ok then go on, and don't forget to look somewhat presentable! I don't want you to look like a slob, and do that thing that you do with your hair that I love, it looks so cute!"
"You mean the one where I pull my bangs over to the side and make 'em all straight and nice looking then I pull the rest into a mini-side-pony with a slight curl?"
"Yeah that's the one"
"Ok, can do mum."
"The same goes for you too, Mark. Look at least presentable for Mike."
"Yeah, yeah, mum. Ill do my best to look my best" He replied
I had finally finished putting my make up on and perfecting my hair. I decided to make one thing clear to this guy and that was the fact I was in love with Green Day so I pulled on my American Idiot tank top and put a nice looking white vest over it leaving the top two buttons open to see the artwork. Then I put on my favorite pair of badly ripped jean shorts and black converse.
Mark had gone out to walk Kiba. That was at 11:00, I wonder what's taking so long. He better not be late for Mike 'cause he'll have hell to pay from mum.
The bass line I created was simple yet awesome. Well I thought it was awesome since it was the first one I ever wrote. Mike said he was coming over at 1:00 for an after lunch coffee and I wanted to show it to mum before he got there.
I glanced at the clock it read 12:38. I had a good 20 minutes to show her a simple bass line before he came here. I ran down the stairs and down the hall towards the living room where she was probably finishing her lunch.
"Hey mum! Want to hear the bass line I final—oof" I said as I ran into a person who was obviously not my mum because this person was taller than me and probably a man. It was also defiantly not Mark because he left the house and still hadn't returned. I figured it must me Mike.
"Oh I'm sorry you must be Mike…" I said as I put a small smile on my face and looked up to see his face to see stellar blue eyes and crazy half brown, half blond hair gelled up. Holy Shit Melanie do you know who that is!?!? The little voice screamed at me inside of my mind.
"You're Mike Dirnt!" I barely whispered. I began to feel the ground slip away, and I blacked out.