CHAPTER THREE
The next morning Rose woke Gerard up early.
"Dad" she whispered, shaking him. "DAD!" she said, a little louder.
"Mmmm Rose, the fucking house had better be on fire for you to be waking me up this early." he mumbled, eyes still closed. Rose smiled
"Dad I need to ask you something. Come on wake up!" she shook him even harder. "Dad, a guy wants me to sing in his band. His name is Josh, the band is called "Demolition Lovers". Isn't that cool?" Gerard cracked one eye open to look at his daughter and smiled.
"You know I could sue their asses for copyright infringement if I wanted to." Rose laughed.
"So can I tell him yes?" she asked. Rose was a good kid, she wasn't about to go do anything music related without consulting Gerard first.
"Of course you can." said Gerard. "If someone thinks your talented enough that they want to come and ask you then of course you should. But check back with me on whose actually in that band okay?" he said. Rose smiled and stood up from where she knelt next to Gerard's bed.
"Thanks dad. I might be home a little late, they might want to meet after school, I don't really know."
"Alright well you've got your cell right?" he asked.
"Yep, don't worry about me. See you after school." she said walking out of his room. She ran up the stairs and out the front door, not bothering with breakfast or a jacket. She was too happy. She didn't even care about some of the kids she was going to have to face, she just knew that she was going to be in a band now. Singing in a band was going to be incredible, she knew that. She turned on her I-pod to an old Wakefield song and skipped and jumped the whole way to school.
Later that day Rose walked into her fifth period English class, surprised to see Josh there. Then she realized he had been there the whole year, she'd just never really noticed him before. He was still wearing that torn denim jacket, but now his pants were black and his shirt was plain white, no design. His hair was spiked in a million different directions with more product than Rose thought she had used in her entire life. She walked over to his desk and leaned across it. Josh smiled
"Have you considered my offer?" he asked.
"Yes Josh I have." Rose replied. Josh leaned eagerly closer to her, waiting for her response. "And I want to know when our first practice is." she said, smiling at his excited expression.
"YES!" he practically yelled. "Oh yeah, um." he pulled out his notebook and wrote down his address. He ripped out the paper and handed it to Rose. "We meet every other day at my place. When you get there, go through the gate into the backyard, the doors leading into the basement should be open, as long as you don't beat me to my own house. See you after school then?" he asked hopefully.
"Yeah!" said Rose, smiling and pocketing the now folded paper. She walked across the room and took an empty seat. About ten minutes into the lesson, she heard giggling outside. Apparently the teacher heard it too, because she went and opened the door. When she did, a boy with what looked like almost the same outfit as Josh, fell to the ground inside the classroom. Spaghetti girl fell on top of him. They must have been leaning on the classroom door making out. Classy. Thought Rose sarcastically. Making out right outside the English room. Great. The teacher addressed the pair as they rose from the ground.
"Alex, Violet. So nice of you to join us at last." she said, hands on her hips as Violet and Alex walked to separate sides of the room. Alex took a seat two desks behind Josh. Rose looked at Josh, because he had ripped out another piece of paper and had scribbled in sharpie marker Alex's in the band
Violet's in the band (don't call her violet. call her stix)
Rose smiled and nodded, but when she went back to her notebook she was nervous. Stix was in the band? And she had to be in the same room after the spaghetti incident? This would be hard to get used to, probably harder for her than Violet.
After school Rose walked over to the address that Josh had written down. It was really far from the school and her house, in a neighborhood she barely knew. She could only think of twice she'd been here, and it was only driving through. But she found the house without a problem and followed Josh's instructions, walking through the gate into the backyard. Rose found the doors that led into the ground, and heard a loud beat thumping up from below. Underoath. She thought to herself. They're playing "It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door. I'm home. She smiled and stood, listening to the sound. She heard Josh screaming, but they were silent for the actual singing parts. Rose realized that's what they needed her for. She walked down the stone stairs and into a dimly lit room. She blinked around and waited for her eyes to adjust to the light change. Rose heard someone walk behind her and close the doors into the backyard, it became even darker, but she heard more feet walk around and lights clicked on. Rose realized how big the room was. Next to her was a curtain and behind that she could see a washer/dryer area. On her other side was a curtained off area with a bed where Josh obviously slept. The rest of the room was devoted to electric cords, a T.V, a big stereo system, and lots of band equipment. Stix took her seat behind the drums and took up a random beat. It was fast paced and violent, she whacked the drumsticks against the drum, it looked like she was going to break the equipment. There were three guitars leaning on stands, two with a microphone in the front, and a third mic, father foreword, where Rose realized she was supposed to stand. She stayed where she was though, and waited for Josh to direct her. Josh stepped into her line of sight, and pointed to a boy tuning his guitar that Rose didn't know. Josh spoke
"Rose, this is Ben." he said, pointing to the boy tuning the guitar. "And you know Alex and-"
"You're Violet right?" Rose cut in, immediately realizing her mistake. Stix you moron! You're supposed to call her Stix! Rose bit her lip, afraid of what Stix would do to her. She looked like she could beat the crap out of Rose if she wanted to, but Rose relaxed a little as Violet smiled. Then in a voice that was barely audible just said
"The name is Stix. If you ever call me anything other than that." she held up a drumstick. "this will go right through your skull. Hear me?" Rose gulped and nodded fervently. She knew that Vi-Stix was totally serious. "Now as long as we can remember that, we'll get along fine." added Stix. She did a few more beats on the drum then shrugged, bored, and walked over to Alex. He was standing by a mini fridge in the corner with a soda, one leg bent, foot pressed against the wall. Stix pushed his shoulders against the wall and kissed him hard. He kissed back and grabbed her ass. Ben, who was about three feet away, dropped the guitar and walked quickly to where Josh and Rose stood and the three of them just stood there and watched. Five or six minutes went by and Ben finally said
"We've officially lost them. The brain dies after a few minutes without air, someone call 911." Stix let go of Alex and looked at Ben.
"You're just jealous because you don't have a girlfriend." Rose was surprised. Ben was pretty good looking. She just naturally assumed he had a girlfriend. Ben had dark brown hair that came just past his ears. It was a dark chestnut brown and he side parted it so it fell over his right eye. His hair was tame, he didn't use anything to make it stay, it just did. It wasn't highlighted at all. He had a thin line of blue eyeliner on his top lids and his bottom rims were also lined in dark blue. He wore baggy dark blue jeans with a lot of chains and pockets. They were torn at the knees. His shirt was hot pink and said "REAL MEN WEAR PINK". Rose had seen that shirt a million times before, but it still made her laugh. Ben's skin was perfect, not a pimple or scar or cut. His fingers were calloused from guitar playing and his nails were rough and half covered in scratched black nail polish. His Vans were grey with sky blue stripes. To be honest, Rose thought Ben was hot. But she wasn't about to admit that. Her inspection of Ben was interrupted by Josh's voice.
"Okay guys can we get back to work?" he asked impatiently, directing the question more toward Alex and Stix. Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed his guitar. Ben did the same and Josh grabbed his bass. Stix sat behind the drums and Rose got behind the mic at the front of the crew. "So, Homesick At Space Camp. Know it Rose?" asked Josh.
"Hell yeah its one of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs ever!" said Rose, a little too energetically. Josh laughed
"Good, its our specialty." He plucked a note and then Stix started playing, Ben and Alex joined in. When it came time, Rose started to sing and she couldn't remember a happier time.
