July 10th

The days of summer were going by really fast now that I was occupied. Mom however did not know how productive Trent and I were, and so she had been constantly nagging me about finding a job or to volunteer somewhere. Surprisingly, Trent of all people helped set me up with employment.

That day when he asked me to go to Axl's Piercing Parlor with him, I was a mess. I thought for sure he was taking me to try and get my belly button pierced again; or worse, that tattoo he mentioned when he found out my hole closed up.

Thankfully however no needles touched me that day. Axl was apparently looking for some help around the shop, and he basically hired me as soon as Trent told him that I don't fall asleep at the drop of a hat and that I have too many morals to steal. It was easy work too. I made appointments for the tattooists and piercers and made sure that they knew about them, checked everyone's ID, made sure that the spelling was right in the tattoos, and kept track of the inventory. It was a bonus that most of my duties easily only took up about one full hour of my time, so Trent hung out at the shop with me and we kept up working on Spiral songs most of the day.

It was also a bonus because I surprisingly fell into a job where I get to watch people pay to be tortured all day; that and this job absolutely freaks out both of my parents. Especially after they met Axl. That was a fun day …

Jane and Trent's contractors finished, so they moved back to their place and I got to move back into my room a few days ago. I made sure to write Quinn a note letting her know that I had not taken the opportunity to snoop around her room and as payment was considering her absence my bribe. I also threw in there that I wouldn't be perturbed when she came back and spent some time with me. I would probably regret that move.

Before they left Jane and Trent surprised us by giving us thank-you gifts. Jane painted a huge canvas for my parents, and Trent had found some more old records from the 60's at Jesse's house that Mom and Dad went all nostalgic-nuts for when they saw them. Jane let me know that she considered her presence my gift.

"Where can I get that refunded?"

"I'd suggest trying my parents, but considering that you are a dead-beat who never paid anyway I don't recommend traipsing the globe trying to find them," Jane deadpanned.

My gift from Trent really shocked me; both because I wasn't expecting one and also with its thoughtfulness. He got me a small, blood red wrap around leather-covered journal with amazingly textured paper that could be refilled with new packs over time. It was simple but elegant, and I loved it.

"I made sure that is was small enough to fit in your jacket pocket so you can carry it all the time. I thought you might want something that you don't have to leave where someone might happen across it; plus you never know when you might have something you want out of your head," he smiled warmly at me. Jane gave me an odd look, so that night on our way over to Pizza King I explained to her what had been going on.

Glad I waited till we were alone, because the jabs came non-stop so at least no one was around to hear them. It took me a while, but I think after she watched our process the other day I finally convinced her that what is going on between us right now is nothing but work between friends.

Yet it wasn't really feeling like work to write these songs. I would spend most of my time tweaking some of the band's classic songs like "Every Dog Has His Day" and "Ow, My Face" while I sat nervously by as Trent read through more of my personal ramblings in my composition books. I had gone through my stacks of them and pulled out the ones I was fairly sure had nothing about him in them, but it still made me a wreck seeing him flip the pages of my mental activity over the past 5 years and scribble notes and phrases down. He would often point to some cluster of lines and ask what I had been thinking about when I wrote that or what emotions I was going through to further his own inspiration and connection. When he had enough raw materials for a song, he would sit with me and we would hammer out the kinks until it flowed as he strummed his guitar. Trent had been taking our stuff to band practice, and today he came up to me and told me it was time.

"Time for what?" I asked.

"Time for you to come to practice with me and collaborate with the whole band. I told you the first day I came back after practice that the guys loved what I showed them, but you still didn't want them to know about you. Well, I told them last night. They were kinda figuring it out for themselves anyway since none of the songs I've brought them are like my past writing."

"Thanks for the heads up," I rolled my eyes at him. I guess it wasn't a big deal, but I wasn't really prepared to go talk about this stuff yet with other people.

"They told me to make sure you were coming today, so be ready to go at …"

I cut him off.

"Trent, let's just assume that we are already late and go to Jesse's for practice. You drive; I'll order pizza for delivery."

A short ride, later, I found myself following Trent through Jesse's house and into his garage where the guys were loudly playing a song I hadn't heard before.

"Hey guys, look who I managed to make an appointment with," Trent exclaimed as we walked through the doorway into the hot and dusty space.

I heard all three guys greet me, but I was more interested in their faces. As I said hi to each of them I noticed that they all looked at me a little differently. Actually, that was exactly what was different. They were really looking at me. Before it had always seemed like I was invisible to them; even when they talked to me in the past it had always felt like they were talking in my general direction I just happened to receive their sound waves. I was not comfortable with this sudden visual contact even if I had known these guys now for years.

"I need to go back outside for a sec, I left my guitar out in the car," Trent told us before turning towards me and whispering in my ear, "don't worry Daria, they all want you here. No one thinks of you as a Yoko."

I don't know if it was the heat of the room or if I was just nervous under these new scrutinizing looks from the guys, but I was going way past comfortably warm. Too warm, in fact, to keep my usual jacket on so I stripped it off to reveal my plain black long-sleeved shirt that I had worn with a pair of loose, military green twill pants and my boots.

"So … I ordered a pizza. My treat. I figured Jesse's parents would love to not have to feed you guys for a day. What's up?" I tried to clear what had become an uncomfortable silence in the room.

"Pizza? Cool. I'm starving; we've just been working on one of your songs," Jesse told me.

Nick chimed in by telling me "We've been working on all of them, but like I guess Trent told you we are stuck on a few parts; some of them just don't flow that well with the music so we are glad you're here to help fix them."

"Yeah, 'cause I think we all know that Trent wouldn't be able fix these songs by himself." Max said as he rolled his eyes.

Wow, I always wondered if the other guys in the band realized how bad their songs were. The fact that they let Trent keep writing them is amazing, unless of course he was the best they had … whoa. If that's the case my eyes might bleed if I ever get a chance to read any songs the others might have written.

"You guys liked everything? Even though a large portion of all of that is from someone outside of the band?"

"Come on Daria you've been, like, the sixth member of the band for years now," Max stated as he pointed a drumstick at me.

"The sixth?" I queried.

Nick decided to explain that one for me. "Yeah, Jane's always been the fifth since she's been our sorta manager/roadie since she was 12 years old. Then you came along and you chipped in for gas, showed up for nearly every show, helped lug around equipment at gigs, went on tour with us, survived the Tank, hell you even drove out of state to bail us out of jail! Now you're bringing pizza to our practice, which of course will make all of us fall in love with you forever and ever, and helping to write us better songs. All of that made you our second silent band mate."

"Yeah," said Jesse as he smiled at me and clapped a hand on my back, which he removed with surprising speed after Trent came back in the garage with his guitar case. Trent glared at Jesse a little, and to my surprise Max and Nick exchanged a look and a laugh.

Wonder what the hell that was about. Whatever, probably just my mind going nuts and reading too much into things again. I had no idea these guys even knew I was using the same air as them half the time. Jesse was always a little out of it and Nick and Max were always too busy arguing between themselves to notice me. Or so I thought. Guess I haven't been giving any of these boys enough credit.

"Alright guys, let's play Daria the songs we have finished so she can hear what we've done. Daria, if you have any comments jot them down and tell us about them at the end. Remember," Trent emphasized as he leveled his gaze on me that I tried to avoid for some unknown reason, "you promised me you'd be honest."

"You sure you guys can collectively handle my honesty? I've been known to be a bit overwhelming and I've REALLY held back a lot of my opinions about Mystik Spiral in the past."

Max, the one who I always pegged as the most emotionally sensitive of the group spoke up quickly.

"We're grown men, little girl. You can't scare us."

"Max, I promise you; if I want to not only can I scare you, I can make you cry," I teased with an evil half-smile, "I have a track record. Then we'll see who the little girl is."

Jesse and Nick started chuckling. Max looked at me first with trepidation, but it eased up into a smile and he laughed too.

Poor fool; he must think I'm joking. May the gods have pity on him if he ever pisses me off because he's the one that threw down the challenge.

Finally, I stopped looking at everything else and turned my head to look at Trent. He, apparently, had not stopped looking at me. Normally, prolonged eye contact with anyone makes me really uncomfortable, but I didn't shy away from it this time.

"What about you Trent?" I guess I was feeling brave all of a sudden, but I felt that I needed to lay down a verbal challenge to all of the guys in a way. Let them know I couldn't be walked all over.

Trent squinted at me for a second, before snickering and shaking his head at me. Not once did he break eye contact though as he met my challenge.

"Daria, I can handle anything you throw at me."