1. Lee And The Dudes Of Darkness
Description: The DoD are about to have their first major concert, finally a gig outside of school. The guys in the band head to the mall to get new equipment and clothes for their first professional concert and Cyrus invites Lee to come with and play with the band.
Detention gets out at 4:15, but that was a half hour ago so detention is way over and oh-so done with. Actually, this story really begins at about that time. Barrage had flung open the detention room door and shouted, in his customary military tone, "Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesmissed!" and Lee and Biffy had walked out the door and proceeded to exit the school. What was unusually was what happened next. Just as Lee stepped out the front doors of the school he heard a familiar voice call to him, "Hey, Ping!"
"Cyrus? What's up, man?" Lee asked, curious as to why the aspiring rock star would wait at school for an hour more that necessary.
The long haired brunette wore a huge smile as he said, "We did it, bro! We finally made it to the big time!"
"That's great, man! I'm happy for you." Lee congratulated his friend.
"Hey, we couldn't have done it without you, man."
At this Lee raised an eyebrow in confusion. He was pretty sure he had nothing to do with getting the Dudes of Darkness a real gig.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Cyrus smirked, "If it weren't for you getting the band back together there wouldn't be any Dudes of Darkness. Listen, man, I know you said it wasn't your thing, but how 'bout you play the gig with us? We never properly thanked you."
Lee smiled but put his hands up in front of him, "I couldn't. It's your big chance and I don't want to get in the-"
"No way, man! It's cool. Me and the Dudes talked about it and we want you there." Cyrus cut him off mid sentence.
Lee thought about it for a moment then decided, "Why not? I have a free weekend so I might as well."
"Awesoooooome!"Cyrus sang, playing a few cords on his guitar. Then the two got in Cyrus's van, which was used to haul around the band's equipment, and bolted down the road towards the mall.
That brings us back to the present. Lee followed Cyrus into the music store in the mall. The sign about the entrance declared the shop's name to be "Broken Strings", obviously referring to a common problem with Rock Star's guitars after a big show. The store was a good size. The walls were a dark blue with green neon decorating the edges of shelves, the check out counter, and around the doors. Guitars lined the walls and a few displays were set up of various drums, keyboards, and amps. It was rock star paradise.
The two approached the other members of the band: Goob, the guitarist who always had his hood up; Rud, the drummer whose hair covered his eyes; and Skeeter, the bassist in sunglasses.
"Cyrus, Lee, sup?" Skeeter asked as he saw them.
"We get the new equipment?" Cyrus asked the group.
Rub smirked and said, "Yeah, Cy. New guitars, drums, and threads."
"Hey guys. When do we go on tonight?" Lee asked.
Goob looked Lee up and down, scrutinizing him, and said, "You're gonna play looking like that?"
For a second the boy with two-toned hair didn't understand what the guitarist meant, then he almost face-palmed when it dawned on him. The extreme difference between him and the four band members was obvious, but he'd considered this fact already.
"It's all good, guys. I still have the disguise I wore at the Battle of The Bands." Lee quickly applied the rock star disguise.
"That's better, but you need an upgrade, dude. Need to make an awesome first impression on the new fans." the boy in the hoodie replied.
Taking a closer look at the band members he noticed their slight change in outfit. Cyrus was now wearing a leather jacket that matched his hat along with his usual attire. Goob's hoodie held the band's insignia and he now had a pair of leather pants with a few chains crossing from belt loop to belt loop. They were some serious changes, but they looked a lot more like a professional metal band now than just a high school rock band.
Lee shrugged, "Sure. What do you suggest?"
"Uh, we're in the mall, dude. It's a place full of stores. Pick one." Skeeter smirked.
"Alright, but fair warning, my mom buys all my clothes so I'm not very good at this." Lee admitted nonchalantly.
Cyrus slapped him on the back and said, "Well then it's a good thing you got us here."
Rud grabbed the band's new equipment and went to load it into the van in the parking lot while the other three walked out of the music shop to roam the mall.
They walked past stores that sold skateboards, stores, that specialized in summer attire, and store that sold movies. Eventually they stopped in front of a store that was decorated in black and red, which a sign above the entrance that read "Stitches" in a font that resembled barbed wire. Lee raised a questioning eyebrow at Goob, who was looking up at the store with a pleased smirk.
He turned to the band's newest member and said, "This place is a personal favorite of mine."
With a nod toward the building that signaled this was the first place they'd be looking the group crossed the threshold into the dark store. Goob immediately moved to the hoodies and started picking some off the racks. Most of them he threw at Lee, who caught them, but a few he held on to.
"You go try those on... I'm gonna get these." the guitarist explained.
As Lee walked to the changing rooms in the back of the small store he wondered in maybe Goob was a bit obsessed with hoodies. After all, the guy just got in the store and he was already buying five or six of them. Whatever. What business did Lee have questioning Goob's fashion sense anyway?
He threw on the hoodies and looked in the cracked full-length mirror on the wall in the tiny changing room. Lee frowned and said aloud, "This isn't working..."
Collecting the hoodies he stuck them on the rack that stood just outside the closet sized room for clothes that have been tried on and headed back over to the guys. Goob looked at him expectantly and he shook his head.
"I'm just gonna look around if that's ok with you." he said.
"Sure, man." Cyrus said.
With that Lee searched through the racks and eventually found a pair of skinny jeans, black with a couple straps and a few spiked studs here and there, and some black combat boots. He bought the item and walked out wearing them, also taking note that Goob was now wearing one of the black and red hoodies he had just bought.
Cyrus threw and arm around Lees shoulders and said, "All we gotta do is hook you up with a leather jacket and you're set, dude."
"Ok. Where are we going next then?" Lee asked his friend.
The brunette smiled and said, "I got the perfect place in mind." then steered him toward another store.
When they entered the store they looked around for about ten minutes before Lee pulled a jacket off the wall and decided to buy it. It was pretty simple as far as leather jackets go, but it did have a few unique features like spiked studs and randomly placed zippers that held no real purpose.
Now the band looked at him and nodded their approval.
"You're still missing something, man." Skeeter stated. He thought for a second and tossed him a t shirt with the band's insignia on it, which Lee slid over his head then put on his jacket.
Skeeter smiled, "There. Now you look like a real Dude of Darkness."
At 10:30 PM Lee stood up on stage with Cyrus, Skeeter, Goob, and Rub as a crowd filtered into the venue. It was a pretty big place and he swore there were about a thousand people there, if not more. They were opening for a pretty well-known band. As he looked out at the people he smiled to himself. Despite the butterflies in his stomach Lee Ping was exciting to be playing with the DoD for such a huge crowd. The band members took their positions on the stage and started playing the first song. The crowd cheered and cheered while they played a second song, a third, and a fourth. Soon enough it was time for the main band to play and the Dudes of Darkness left the stage, the crowd still cheering for them and shouting their names.
Lee put away his violin and stepped out into the cool night air with the other members of the band. They packed up their equipment and drove back into town. The Ping household was first on the way so Lee got dropped off first.
He got out of the van then turned back to his friends and said, "That was amazing!"
"Tell us about it, dude!" Goob said, smiling.
Cyrus smiled too and said, "You've got a rad sound, man. We should do this again some time."
Lee nodded, smiling, and replied, "Yeah... Yeah, we should."
Then he turned to head inside saying, "'Night guys."
It was half past midnight as he walked through his front door. His parents were already asleep so Lee went up to his room. Just as he shut his door a window popped up on his computer monitor, showing Cam's smirking face.
"Hey, Esse. Where have you been? Up to some Lee Ping secret spy stuff?" the wannabe gangsta asked.
Lee smiled at his friend and responded with, "No, actually. For once I got to have a normal day."
"Oh really?" Cam asked.
Lee admitted, "Yeah. And you know what? It felt nice to have a break for once."
auth0r's n0te: s0 what'd y0u think?
this is g0ing t0 be a c0llecti0n 0f sh0rt Detenti0naire st0ries that i'll update as i'm inspired t0 write them. eventually i'm sure they'll all c0me t0gether as a real st0ry. The name 0f the st0ry hinted at that actually. There's this m0vie called 2:37 that tells the tales 0f six high sch00l student. apparently, in the m0vie a tragedy 0ccurs at precisely 2:37 that effects the student's lives. Being that this st0ry is g0ing the be several separate st0ries i th0ught i'd par0dy 2:37's title by using the time that detenti0n gets 0ut in Detenti0naire which is stated at the beginning 0f m0st epis0des.
These st0ries will pr0bably f0cus 0n Lee's time 0utside 0f sch00l. they'll pr0bably be s0me ab0ut sch00l t00 and maybe s0me ab0ut 0ther characters besides Lee t00. eventually they'll f0rm s0mething that makes sense. did y0u kn0w that this chapter's title, "Lee and The Dudes 0f Darkness", is a par0dy 0f the title 0f an 0ld cart00n, "Jem and the Holograms"?