By noon the next day, Ty, Rocky, Cece, and Deuce had gathered outside their apartment building. Flynn was inside with Henry and Marissa, who had accepted the job eagerly when Cece called her in the morning. She had arrived, dressed in a skirt that made the boys whistle in appreciation, and had proceeded to make herself well known to Flynn.
When Flynn had settled down with his video games, the group of teens left and started their mission to claim the music they had been cheated.
"So!" Cece proudly held up a map. "Where do we have to go?" Her eyes sparkled in anticipation.
"Um, first of all, the map is upside down," Rocky chided, turning the map right side up. "Secondly, we don't need the map, since we have the directions right here." She brandished the instructions, which had been folded into quarters.
Cece crumpled the map and threw it over her shoulder. "Okay, then!" she said. "We'll just follow you."
With a roll of her eyes, Rocky started walking towards the bus station. The other three kids hurried along behind her.
"Wait, why are we taking a bus?" Deuce asked.
"Because unless you want to walk four miles to this girl's house…apartment-complex…thing…we're taking a bus to the nearest stop and then walking," Rocky explained.
"Um…that wasn't a complete sentence," Ty pointed out.
"Yes, it was!" Rocky argued.
"No, it wasn't!"
"Yes, it was!"
"No, it wasn't!"
"Yes, it was!"
"The bus is here," Deuce interrupted. Rocky and Ty continued to bicker on the bus, only stopping when they reached their stop. There was an audible sigh as the four teens stepped off. Apparently the other riders were too polite to ask them to shut up.
As the bus pulled away, Rocky looked around the unfamiliar buildings and huffed. "Where are we?" she asked.
"I don't know. We were following you!" Cece said. "We're not lost, are we?"
"No, no, of course not! It's just—I mean—It's not exactly a familiar place—here—I mean—not like the mall," Rocky bluffed.
"We're loooooooost!" Deuce bawled suddenly, clutching his face in his hands.
Overhead, a window banged open, and a messy white-streaked brunette head poked out with an annoyed scowl on her face. "Oi! You brats better shut up, or I'll come down there and—oh, damn!" In sudden realization, Hayley pulled back and the window slammed shut once more.
"Well," Ty remarked. "That was easy."
"I know, right?" Cece was in one of her bubblier moods again. "And all it took was for Deuce to cry like a little girl!" She patted Deuce rather forcefully on the back.
Rocky rolled her eyes. "Yes, thank you, Deuce. Come on. We need to get that music!" She took off and was halfway to the apartment complex before the other three had even realized that Rocky was gone.
"He-Hey! Wait up!" Cece ran after her, followed by Deuce and Ty. Together, all four ran up to the concierge desk, where a thin, rakish man in a tatty suit sat, cleaning out the dirt from underneath his fingernails with a letter opener. His name tag said "Frank" and he smelled like old cigarettes with a hint of scotch.
Rocky cleared her throat, smoothed down her shirt (which was a ruffle-filled, flower-patterned baby-doll that she absolutely adored), and waited expectantly for the doorman to realize that she was standing right in front of him.
After a few minutes she cleared her throat again, a little louder, and adjusted the jangling bracelets on her wrist. Still, the doorman paid more attention to cleaning out his nails than to Rocky.
"How can his nails be more interesting than four sweet children such as us?" Cece wondered without whispering. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and it caught Deuce in the face.
Deuce made a discontented noise and spit her hair out of his mouth. "Because some people don't seem to realize that there are others standing behind them and they flip their hair every which way and…that doesn't work does it?" he asked, slightly deflated from his lack of pithy insults.
"Nope," Ty answered blithely. "Not at all. Rocky! Instead of clearing your throat every five seconds and then adjusting every bit of stupid clothing you have on that body, just ringing the freakin' bell!" he snapped.
"Uch, fine!" Rocky rolled her eyes again and tapped the little silver bell on the concierge desk. As if the bell had cast a magic spell on the concierge with its tiny silver voice, he looked up expectantly with droopy, blood-shot eyes and put the letter opener on the desk in front of him.
"How can I help you?" he asked with a rather nasal voice. He created a steeple with his bony fingers and leaned forward.
"Um, we here to see Hayley Conrad," Rocky said.
"Okay." He leaned back and tapped a few keys into his computer. "She's up in apartment 716, seven floors up. Would you like me to inform her of your arrival, or does she expect you?" He returned back to his forward position.
"Oh, um, that's okay," Rocky said brightly. "She kind of already knows that we're already here, so we'll just…go right up to her. Thank you, though!"
Watched by the slightly amused and bleary eyed door man, Rocky flounced away, jean jacket flapping, followed by Cece, Ty and Deuce. They all piled into the elevator and Ty pushed the button labeled seven.
The door was just beginning to close before a rushed pattering of feet and a breathless "Hold the door please!" caused Ty to stick a hand in between the closing doors and force the elevator to open once more.
"Thank you," the same (and very familiar) breathless voice gasped as a boy with reddish hair stumbled into the elevator. "Seven please."
"That's where we're headed already," Deuce informed him.
"Oh really?" The boy stood up, and for the first time, Cece could see his face. "We just seem to keep running into each other, don't we?" he asked with a wide grin on his freckly face.
"Joseph!" she squealed. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to see a friend about a school project. She lives on the seventh floor, and I'm kinda late. You?"
"I'm—I mean, we," she corrected at Rocky's objection, "need to get something from a friend. She lives on the seventh floor, too. How crazy is that?"
"Really crazy," he laughed.
"Hey man," Deuce interrupted. "I like your eyebrows." He pointed at his as an example.
"Uh, thanks? I like yours, too."
Deuce blushed at the compliment. "Thanks. It's all Rocky's work, though." Rocky nodded smugly.
"He used to have one eyebrow before I started waxing them."
"Uh…okay, then."
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. They all stepped out and were replaced by a doddering old woman, who waved cheerfully at them as the doors closed. Uncertainly, they waved back.
"So, I guess this is where we part, huh?" Cece said rather regretfully.
"Well, I'm going to 716," Joseph admitted.
"Really? Me too!"
"You're going to see Hayley?" Rocky interrupted before they could get any farther.
"Yeah, we've got this huge Greek mythology project that we've gotta do," he explained.
"It's fine; we can all go together!" Cece said cheerfully. Ty shrugged and followed the two redheads, followed by Rocky and Deuce.
The five teens made their way down the poorly lit hallway and stopped at the door labeled with a brass 716. Joseph knocked and called out, "Hayley, hopefully you're dressed, 'cause I'm coming in whether you like it or not."
"Whatever, Joe," Hayley's muffled voice called.
Joseph opened the door to Hayley's apartment. Inside was a cluttered mess of wires and recording equipment. Empty mugs, books and papers were littered around on random surfaces and another pot of coffee was brewing from the smell of things. Somewhere, a laptop was on and it was quietly playing 'Two Birds' by Regina Spektor.
"So. Your parents are on what kind of vacation now?" Joseph rolled his eyes at the mess and began picking his way over the stuff.
"Honeymoon." Hayley poured herself another cup of coffee from the freshly brewed pot. "Find a seat. We'll start on Dionysus in a moment. What can I do for you guys?" She took a sip from her mug. Her black-lined eyes appraised the four teens still standing awkwardly at the door. "Close the door, will you? I don't want Mrs. Abernathy to see the mess I've made. She already thinks I'm enough of a mess." Rocky did as she asked and then they began to wend their way through the deer trails that Hayley had created.
Hayley nonchalantly sipped her coffee and waited until the Ty, Deuce, Cece and Rocky were all sitting, albeit a bit awkwardly on something. She looked much neater than when she had been yelling out of the window, which her hair tied back into a ponytail and her pajamas exchanged for a purple zombie panda shirt and grey skinny jeans.
Cece pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You sold us a bum disk!"
"No, I didn't. I don't cheat my customers," she calmly argued.
"Then how come we can't see the music files on the USB?" Rocky shot back.
"Well, what sort of music program do you have? Windows Media Player? QuickPlay? ITunes? MP3?"
"I dunno. Windows Media Player, I guess," Cece mumbled half to herself. Hayley sighed.
"Fine. Since you don't know for sure, I'll just—does anyone have, like, an iPod on them, or something?" she asked.
"I have an iPhone," Ty offered.
"Good. Give it to me." Hayley held out her hand expectantly.
"What? No way! Who knows what sort of crap you're going to put on there!" Ty cradled his iPhone protectively in his hand.
"Dude, just give it to her." Joseph looked up from his volume of Trigun. "She's not going to poison it."
"Thank you, Joseph," Hayley said empathetically. "Now give it." Ty reluctantly put his precious iPhone into Hayley's waiting hand.
"Don't touch my Lady Gaga," he said sulkily. Hayley snorted.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten-foot broomstick." She plugged the iPhone into her laptop and began to click and clack on the keyboard. The track playing changed to 'Dance Anthem of the 80's'.
"Ha!" Deuce couldn't resist a barb. "Who's the chick now, hombre?" He danced around in glee.
"You still are," Joseph retorted for Ty. He turned a page in his volume of Trigun. Deuce sat back down to sulk.
"Why does everybody say that?" he grumbled to himself. "Give me one really good reason."
Cece winced. "You mean one particular reason above the rest?"
"You mean there's more?" Deuce groaned. He curled up on the sofa and cried.
"I'm done!" Hayley announced. "Catch." She threw the iPhone at Rocky, who caught it and began scrolling through her brother's music.
"'I just had Sex' by Akon ft. The Lonely Island?" she asked Ty bemusedly.
"What?" Ty looked around defensively. "It's good."
"You have no taste." Rocky shook her head.
"Right. Like the mainstream pop you listen to is any better."
"Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are way better!"
"No they're not," Hayley and Joseph chorused.
"Dude, Breaking Benjamin and AC/DC all the way!" Joseph argued.
"No! LIGHTS and Imogen Heap are total knock-outs!" Hayley parried.
"Are you done arguing over music preferences? 'Cause we can't find our music," Rocky interrupted.
"You started it," Ty, Joseph and Hayley shot back.
"It's under my name," Hayley added.
"Oh. Here it is!" Rocky put an ear bud in her ear. "Ohh, it's even better than I remember it," she sighed contentedly.
"Ooh! Ooh! Let me see!" Cece snatched Ty's iPhone from Rocky and switched to her track. "Ohh, you're right," she sighed.
Hayley smiled a bit ironically at them. "Okay. When you have to play that track, just tell the sound guys to plug the iPhone in. That's all."
"Oh. Okay, cool."
Hayley waited expectantly. The track switched to 'Man of A Thousand Faces'.
"Uh…are you waiting for a cup of coffee, or something? You can leave now. Joseph and I sort of have a school project to work on."
"Huh—oh yeah! Thanks!" Cece and Rocky hopped up and ripped the ear buds from their ears. Rocky gave the iPhone back to Ty. "Keep it safe," Rocky warned.
"No problem, ma'am!" Ty gave his little sister a mock salute.
Deuce stood up and dusted himself off. "Let's go then."
"Yeah." The four teens picked their way back to the door.
On their way down, Ty turned to Deuce. "So, what music do you listen to?" he asked.
"Uh…stuff. Y'know. Like Katy Perry. And…Gloria Estefan."
"Who?"
"Sexy seventies Latina singer."
"Ah. Somehow I knew you'd say that."
Rocky looked sympathetically over at the two boys. "Somehow, I worry for you guys, a lot. You're like Gunther in a lot of ways."
"What?" Ty and Deuce looked at Rocky in disbelief. She just laughed at them. Cece snickered.
"You know, I can sort of see it. They're both pretty flamboyant in their own ways. No wonder they hate Gunther. Some people just don't get along with people who are just like them. Oh, and Rocky? You owe me a quarter." Cece grinned wickedly. "Vocab word!"
Rocky sighed and rooted around her purse for a quarter. "We're still doing this?"
Deuce wanted to curl up in a shadowy corner and die.
"You know, I could say the same about you two girls and Tinka," Ty commented.
"Yeah, but we're so much better at it," Cece said, flipping her hair. The elevator door dinged and opened and the teens made their way out onto the street, with the reedy call of the concierge man, Frank following them.
"Goodbye! Have a nice day!" he called.
Walking down the street, Rocky checked her watch. "Well, that certainly didn't take very long. It's only three-thirty."
"It'll be four-thirty by the time we get back home, so we might as well get something to eat when we get there," Ty supplied.
"That's a good idea!" Cece agreed. "I'm hungry."
A/N: Huh. Looks like I'm almost done. There're probably two chapters left. One for the rest of the day, one for the day of the show. Honestly, I had quite a bit of fun writing this. I'm glad I held on, even though my interest towards modern Disney has shriveled and has been shriveled for quite a while now. Um, I realize I should update more often, but I'm really bad about getting stuff done. I mean, it's August and I still haven't finished my summer homework...