Hey everyone! This is my first Beatle fic, so don't be so harsh with the criticism all right? And lemme warn ya: ITS NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE. I'm just havin' fun with my best friend and our favorite band! This is originally based on our whacked out dream to go back in time and take Paulie and Ringo for ourselves, but since that's HIGHLY unlikely right now I've decided writing it out would be more satisfying. Chapter 3 is on the way soon, btw, so I'll try to continue writing furiously and updating. PLEASE review! I don't even care if it's something like: "OMG GEORGE IS FRICKEN ADORABLE!" ('cause y'know he really is - or sadly was D:)
Happy reading!
- Lily
Ch 1:
A Hard Day's Night
Present, NYC
(Phoenix is 18, Kaila is 19)
"Ms. – um – Flowers?" the secretary at the front desk announces the girl's name like it was foreign with a puzzling look on her face, but Phoenix doesn't mind as she hastily scurries to where the woman resides. She's been waiting for almost two hours now for this interview.
"Can I go in?" Phoenix asks excitedly, trying to not be impatient. The woman looks at her with wide eyes and high brows as she takes in the sight of this definitely unordinary girl. She scrunches her nose with distaste when she notices the 70s styled dress, long flowing sweater and the rather large silver peace sign amulet that rests above her chest. Yep, the woman figures immediately, this girl has 'weirdo vegetarian hippy' all over. She nods at the oddly dressed girl, who looked the wrong generation to be wearing such attire the secretary notes, reluctantly to proceed forward to the office door of the company branch's manager: Henry Millard.
Yes! Phoenix rushes clumsily over to the door as if it was the only light source at the end of a rather long and dark tunnel. This is it! I'm gonna get the job! She suppresses a giggle that threatens to take over as she knocks hesitantly on the polished wood. The door opens immediately and Phoenix comes face-to-face with the manager himself.
"Can I help you?" He asks tiredly, looking over the girl's head at the clock on the opposite wall behind her. But when Phoenix tries to explain herself Mr. Millard waves her away. "God, it's my lunch break, okay? And what the hell do you think you're wearing at a place like this anyway? Do you really think I'd hire someone who'll scare away my clients? Run along!"
And he slams his office door right in her face. Just like that.
Phoenix feels absolutely horrified and completely pissed off. Who the hell does that guy think he is, anyway? And what does he mean by scaring away the damn clients? I'm perfectly fine the way I am, idiot! She was just thinking about egging the manager's house for revenge when she gets on the subway home. Yeah, she grumbles inside bitterly, he wouldn't even suspect who the heck did it…
Kaila hears the door slam shut as she was just about to start another song on her infamous orange upright piano. This can't be good, she thinks as she investigates the source of the disturbance. She knows that it's Phoenix straight away because this happens almost every other Saturday: Job rejections. The girl fills out an application, gets the interview and bam! One look at the way she dresses and Phoenix gets another hit from Discrimination. Gits, that's what they are, Kaila reasons irritably. "Oh, hey you!" she greets aloud as she spots her friend angrily ripping another denied application routinely. "And how are the wonderful streets of New York this morning?" her voice is bright and cheery, attempting to lighten the mood as she walks on over to the kitchen where Phoenix stands, continuing the ritual.
"Full of damn idiots, that's how they are! It's like an infestation growing every. Single. Effing. Day!" Phoenix spits back, busying herself now by abusing the faucet with the tea kettle.
"Oi! Careful with that, now!" Kaila comes to the tea kettle's aid, totally forgetting the plan to help her friend out for the sake of tea and snatches the kettle away into a protective embrace. "I still need that for me morning Breakfast, y'know!" she strokes the spout lovingly. "Can't live without me tea…"
"Oh, screw your damn obsession with hot beverages!" Phoenix yells murderously and she stomps off to her room with another slam following after.
Kaila looks at the tea kettle grudgingly and replaces it on the stove top to go after her broken hearted friend.
She taps on the door softly. "Hey, friend lemme in," she calls gently. "C'mon, gimme a chance, will ya?" Kaila suddenly feels terrible of her past actions.
"Screw off!" Phoenix shouts back angrily.
"You know what?" Kaila says fondly, thinking of a mischievous plan to set things in better moods.
"What?" Phoenix's voice is hesitant.
"You remind me of someone who had just as bad a temper as you do!" Kaila laughs.
"What the hell does that have to do with any of this!" she isn't pleased.
"C'mon, now! Listen! Do you want to know a secret?" the copper blonde starts jumping with excitement, giggling as the song starts.
"Not like you won't tell me if I say no…" Phoenix mutters indignantly.
"Do you promise not to tell?" Kaila can't help but finish.
"Jesus, just say it, all right?" the door opens and Phoenix marches out and goes into the living room, plopping on the sofa while her Broadway star friend follows.
"John Lennon, you grump!" Kaila mimics her friend's actions as she too takes a perch on the neon green sofa.
Phoenix dares to laugh. "John did not have! –"
"How would you know? Did you ever have the splendid opportunity to go back in time and ask him? You can't assume everyone you fancy from the Psychedelic Time was a saint, Phoe." Kaila interrupts abruptly.
"Paul certainly isn't one either, in case you've forgotten." Phoenix shoots back with a sly expression.
Kaila bristles. "Don't you start on him-"
"He beat his wife with her fake leg!"
"He LOVED Linda! YOU'RE just trying to make MY fictional husband look like some murdering lunatic shagger who kills off people with their prosthetic parts! Do you not know how ridiculous that sounds? What the hell did poor Paulie do to you!" Kaila roars defiantly, defending her favorite Beatle.
"He grew that ugly beard and mullet back in the day, that's what. And what the hell does 'shagger' mean, anyway?" Phoenix asks then, rolling her dark eyes at the Brit's exaggeration. She only said that thing about the abuse just to spite her.
"Some bloke who goes after younger women or whatever. God, don't you pay attention to your U.K vocabulary in Across the Universe? You'd think you would by now after watching it just to see Jude every bloody week. Not that I mind, of course…" Kaila very much doesn't mind at all how many times her room mate puts on the film because she too adores Jim Sturgess' character.
Phoenix gets up from the sofa and heads for the kitchen to the front door as she says, "Yeah, you better appreciate me for doing that. And as for the 'shagger' thing, I wouldn't let Macca off for that either. I'm checking the mail." She grabs the keys off the hook near the mini mudroom and goes out into the chilling weather of New York before Kaila could show any sign of outrage.
Humming I Am the Walrus, she walks off the porch and goes off to the front gate of the house, where the block's residents' shared mailbox stood. Phoenix turns the key into her and Kaila's compartment and pulls out bills, advertisement papers and some postcards from travelling friends who actually have an exciting life.
Before going back up to the porch, Phoenix deposits the ads in the waste bin and proceeds. However, something catches her eye before she sets foot on the "WELCOME" mat: A ring.
It was huge, that being the reason why she spotted it. And it was ruby red too. In fact, it looks strangely familiar to Phoenix as she surveys it up close and she stops dead after a few seconds. This ring… looks exactly like-
"Oh my God," Phoenix breathes. "Oh. My. God!" she cackles madly and runs into the house screaming. "KAILA! OH MY SWEET JESUS, LOOK WHAT I FOUND!"
Kaila comes in the room immediately with a surprised expression on her face. "Where's the post?" she asks.
"Never mind about the damn mail, I've got something way better!" Phoenix argues, annoyed with the girl's unimportant question.
"Well, let's have it then." Kaila waves her on as she fixes the kettle with some water to make some English Breakfast tea.
Phoenix shuffles over excitedly to Kaila and proudly presents the newly found ruby ring right under Kaila's slightly turned up nose. "SEE!"
"It's a ring," Kaila points out, as if it weren't anything of meaning. She goes on with her business and sets the full kettle on the stove top, turning the knob. "What's special about it?" she asks.
"IT'S RINGO'S RING!" Phoenix's voice is shrill as she grows impatient and follows her around the kitchen with the ring still between her outstretched fingers. "LOOK! Doesn't it look exactly like it? Like the one he gets stuck with in Help!?" she persists.
"Just 'cause it looks the same, doesn't make it the original." Kaila says simply. "It could be someone pullin' your leg, y'know. How many people round here, besides me, know about your – or our – fancy of the Beatles?" she asks, trying to prove or disprove this logically.
"That's stupid! Here, I'll look up some pictures and we'll compare them, all right? God, ruin my fun all the time…" Phoenix trails off as she grumpily reaches over the dining room table to retrieve her laptop. Kaila brews her tea quietly and pulls out The Time Traveler's Wife to read while she waits.
"I don't see why you're still reading that trash by that bitch." Phoenix growls when she sees the novel's cover. "She pretty much bashed poor George and Ringo in that one chapter!" she accuses.
"And Paul, too," Kaila adds irritably. "Who the hell is daft enough to say that Ringo Starr is a sad person? And how's it Paul's fault that he's older now? Stupid git, that's what she is. Probably jealous of their talent that she lacks, I guess. She wrote that John was the 'cool Beatle,' though, but that had to be because she felt bad that he was assassinated. Poor dear. Still doesn't explain why she went off about George and his preference for the Indian culture. God," she clicks her tongue with annoyance as she reads on.
"Damn computer is slow." Phoenix says dryly.
"Or you're just impatient. Let it load up, now." Kaila explains casually.
"You don't think I'm crazy do you? About the ring and all?"
"Nah, just was surprised, that's all. If I thought you were mad, I would have packed up a long time ago." Kaila laughs lightheartedly. "Love you, darling!" she adds quickly.
"You wouldn't dare leave me! I'm all you've got, Miss Ortega!" Phoenix teases in a high, nasally voice.
"Please," Kaila rolls her eyes. "I'm a performer on Broadway, I've been in more than ten productions, I make money for the both of us and I can sing bloody brilliantly. The only reason why I haven't married yet is because I refuse to join myself with someone who isn't referred to as James Paul McCartney." She finishes her speech with pure confidence, as if it was the most obvious and logical of explanations.
"Yeah, too bad he's almost seventy now and you're only 19. What a drag." Sarcasm is a trademark of Phoenix's and she uses it well. "Heyy! The stupid thing is finally working, thank God!" she starts typing away for pictures of the famous ring on Google and compares the results to the speculation very closely. "Ha HA! This totally works! I told you it's the real thing!"
"Lemme see! I wanna try it on if it is!" Kaila hops on over with her cup of tea, abandoning the novel on the countertop. Surveying the pictures to the ring in question, she nods slowly in agreement. "Hm… It does look original. What the hell! We could always say it is even though we don't know for sure. What hurt could it do, right?" she snatches up the ring from the table and begins to put it on her right third finger to try it on.
"Wait, I wanna see it first!" Phoenix grabs for it as it slides onto Kaila's finger and at the same moment she touches it, they're gone as fast as you can do an impression of Paul McCartney's famous wink.
A/N: Soooo? How was it? Terrible? A drag? Rediculous? Fantastical? REVIEW and tell me, then! :D